IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED NET AND OTHER LIKE OPEN FABRICS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED NET AND OTHER LIKE OPEN FABRICS."-A
Sealed the 26th November 1855, and dated the 5th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th July 1855.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED NET AND OTHER LIKE OPEN
FABRICS," (communicated to me by a foreigner residing abroad,) to be as
follows:-
A fabric with regular and uniform meshes is known in the trade as figured
tulle or figured blonde. Up to the present time the ground or net of these
fabrics has been formed with some regular open figure, such as round or
square; that is, these figures are of the same size and form upon the same line
of meshes.
The object of this Invention is to produce the net or ground with openings
or meshes of different size and shape on the same line of meshes upon a
bobbin-net frame with a jacquard applied thereto.
To produce a ground or net with meshes or openings of different size and
shape upon the same line of meshes, the two heddle hook bars always work
upon the same needle, that is to say, each of them carries the thread with
which it is provided, the one from right to left and the other from left to right
without change always upon the same needle, so that instead of forming a

page_text: tied fabric, as in the old method of weaving, separate twists running parallel
only are formed; then comes the figuring thread, moved by the jacquard to
tic these twists at different distances, according to the fancy of the designer
and the arrangement of the cards. The designer not only settles the figure
upon the fabric, but also the shape and size of the mesh or open space in the
net. The figuring thread, in addition to forming the figure, as is the case in
similar figured fabrics as now manufactured, unites all the threads and makes
the fabric. By the difference in size and pattern of the meshes, and by the
figure given by the figuring thread, a double pattern is produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED
NET AND OTHER LIKE OPEN FABRICS," (communicated to me by a foreigner
residing abroad,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is to produce the ground or net of figured
tulle, figured lace, or figured blonde with openings or meshes of different size
and shape on the same line of meshes, such as is made upon a bobbin-net
frame with a jacquard applied thereto.
The frame is what is known as a warp frame, and is provided with needles,
on which work the two warp threads which pass through two heddle hook or
guide bars; there is an arrangement of heddle hooks or guides for all the
figuring weft threads which are moved by the jacquard.
According to the plan hitherto in use, and by which the ground or net of
figured tulle or blonde has been produced with openings or meshes of uniform
shape and size on the same line, the two weft thread heddle hook bars pro-
duced the net or ground of the desired pattern by carrying the threads, say,
from right to left, (after a certain number of loops,) as often as required by
the pattern, the threads being then carried to the next adjoining needle, so as
to be brought from left to right, and produce the proper number of loops, and
so on alternately. This is done by the lateral movement of an entire heddle
hook bar or guide bar, the motions of which are produced by the pressure of
one excentric keyed on a wheel moved by the action of the frame, the heddle
hook bar pressing on the excentric by a spring. To vary the size of the mesh,
the excentric is formed of a row of screws projecting different distances from
the periphery of the wheel. In rotary frames the wheel is generally provided
with twenty-four screws, so as to obtain a greater number of combinations in
a single turn of the wheel. In reciprocating or treadle frames the number of
screws should be greater than twice that of the loops required to form the
ground. The ground thus produced and settled by the manner in which the
excentrics which work the heddle hook bars are mounted, is, of course, uniform
and regular. The figuring threads pass through the guide heddle or recd hooks
of the same bar, to which the excentrics belonging to the two others impart a
lateral movement, so at every two wefts all the figuring threads which have not
been before used are now worked into the ground so as not to project behind
the fabric, and have to be cut off.
Now, to carry my Invention into effect, that is to say, to produce a ground
or net with openings or meshes of different sizes and shapes on the same line.
of meshes, the two threads of the similar heddle hook bars always work on
the same needle (chain-stitch fashion), so as to produce a continuous twist or
braid, which extends to the required length parallel to the other twists, but

page_text: only connected to them by the figuring threads worked by the jacquard, which
tie them at the proper distances by the full play of the jacquard, by which
means the shape and size of the meshes or openings may be varied as much
as the figured part itself.
The arrangement and patterns of the cards must be settled so as to shew
the action of the figuring threads in tying the twists to produce the ground
or net, as well as in producing the figured work. The action of the heddle
hook bars is more simple than in the old plan, as they constantly work from
right to left and from left to right. The heddle or reed hook does not quit its
corresponding needle, and this alternating action of the heddle hook bars only
requires two screws for the treddle frame, and any number of alternately
projecting and receding screws for a rotary frame.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed represents the new fabric produced
according to my Invention, in which the twists a, produced by the alternating
movement of the heddle hook bars, are tied by the figuring threads b.
Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5 are respectively side view, plau, vertical, and hori-
zontal sections of the needle or needle lead c, in which the twist is produced.
Figures 6 and 7 (side view and plan respectively) shew the guides or guide
leads d, the threads passing into the openings e to come to the needles c.
The peculiar features of my Invention, and which distinguish it from the
plan heretofore in use, consist,-
Firstly, in effecting the movement of the heddle hooks constantly on the
same needle instead of to and fro along a row of needles, as in the old plan.
Secondly, in the exclusive employment of the figuring threads to tie the
twists at any point required, so as to produce openings of different sizes and
shapes on the same line of meshes; all the loops of the fabric so produced are
formed of parallel twists tied together transversely by figuring threads.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the manufacture
of figured net and other like open fabrics by the means and in manner
herein-before described, and represented in the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.