IMPROVE- MENTS IN ORNAMENTING WARP LACE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Dawson, of Park Valley, in the County
of Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ORNAMENTING WARP LACE."
Scaled the 9th June 1874, and dated the 16th April 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Dawson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th April 1874.
I, ALFRED DAWSON, of Park Valley, in the County of Nottingham,
5 Lace Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING WARP LACE," to be as follows:-
t
I make the net known in the trade as a lap and press new net with
net threads and straight threads, cither with two full sets or one full set
and two half sets of thread guide bars operated upon by wheels or a
jacquard in the usual way, but when I require ornaments or figures on
the net I traverso the straight threads three or more needles to the
right or left, each such straight thread being supplied from a separate
spool.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Dawson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th October 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
DAWSON, of Park Valley, in the County of Nottingham, Lace Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alfred Dawson, Her special licence
that I, the said Alfred Dawson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Dawson, 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 ORNAMENTING WARP LACE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Alfred Dawson, my executors or administrators, by 1
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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..

page_text: separate spool.
-
When the thread guide bars are operated by wheels and two full sets
are used, or one full set for the ground or net and two half sets for the
pattern, gimp, or straight threads, they are operated in the following
manner In commencing the first course the net bar guides risc
through the needles and when at the top of the motion traverse over one
needle to the right, and then descending lay a lap upon the needles and
the course is finished by pressing in the ordinary manner.
In com-
mencing the second course the net bar guides rise through the needles
in precisely the same manner and place as in the first course, but
traverse over one needle to the left and descend, finishing the course in
the ordinary manner. Thus rising over one needle to the right then
over one needle to the left, alternately making the net or ground work
upon which to weave a straight thread or produce a pattern in the
following manner:-The straight thread bar guides traverse three or
more needles to the right or left as I wish the pattern to be more or less
opaque.
In the ordinary way of working the guide bar carrying the straight
threads is placed above the net bar and traverses to the right and to the
left each alternate course under two needles previous to the net bar
lapping, thus producing a plain net known to the trade as two course
lap and press new net, but instead of simply traversing only two needles
I cause the guide bar carrying the straight threads to traverse three or
more needles to the right, and by a suitable jacquard apparatus select
pickers or other instruments which retain as many of the threads as I
wish to form the pattern with such selected threads being secured. I
cause such guide bar to traverse one or more needles to the left, thereby
causing the rest of the threads that have not been acted upon by the
jacquard to traverse only under two needles, thus forming a simple
straight thread, as before described, and the first course is finished by
pressing in the ordinary manner. In the second course the straight
thread guide bar traverses three or more needles to the left, and as in
the previous course threads are selected and retained to form the pattern,
the guide bar then traverses one or more needles to the right, causing
the rest of the threads that have not been selected to form a straight
thread in the net as in the first course. Thus by operating the threads
as above described and employing an independent spool for each straight

page_text: thread I cause such threads to act as ordinary straight threads, or to
ornament or figure the net.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Dawson, have hereunto set
my band and seal, this Eighth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
H. W. GOUGH, C. E.,
Nottingham.
ALFRED DAWSON.' (L.S.)