IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PRINTED WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Nimmo, of Manchester, Cotton Spinner and
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF PRINTED WOVEN FABRICS."
Sealed the 25th June 1858, and dated the 7th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Nimmo at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
April 1858.
I, WILLIAM NIMмO, of Manchester, Cotton Spinner and Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-.
FACTURE OF PRINTED WOVEN FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
printed woven fabrics, and consists in weaving figured fabrics of a peculiar,
description, and printing such fabrics on one or both sides, by which better
zebra and other printed fabrics are produced than heretofore. For these pur-
poses the fabrics are woven with an all over or nearly all over raised figure on,
one side, and with comparatively only a small part of the surface covered with
the raised figure on the other side; the printing of such fabrics, whether on one
i

page_text: or both sides, is to be performed in like manner to printing other woven fabrics;
but it is preferred that, when printing one side only, the side on which the
raised pattern occupies the least extent of the surface should be printed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Nimmo in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th October 1858....
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NIMMO, of Manchester, Cotton Spinner and Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Nimmo, Her special licence that I, the said William Nimmo, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Nimmo, 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 PRINTED WOVEN FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Nimmo, my executors or administrators, by
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:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Nimmo, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
printed woven fabrics, and consists in weaving figured fabrics of a peculiar
description, and printing such fabrics on one or both sides, by which better
żebra and other printed fabrics are produced than heretofore.. For these pur-
poses the fabrics are woven with an all over or nearly all over raised figure

page_text: on one side, and with comparatively only a small part of the surface covered
with the raised figure on the other side. The printing of such fabrics,
whether on one or both sides, is to be performed in like manner to printing
other woven fabrics, but it is preferred that when printing one side only the
side on which the raised pattern occupies the least extent of the surface should
be printed.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same. In doing so I may
state that printed cotton fabrics, as heretofore manufactured, have consisted of
plain as well as of twilled weavings generally printed only on one side, some
of which descriptions of fabrics have of late years had back surfaces produced
thereto by the flushing of the weft threads, according to an Invention described
in the Specification of a Patent granted to James Macnee. In addition to
the above-mentioned fabrics, figured, also striped, and also check weavings have
for many years been extensively used in the production of printed fabrics.
Now my Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
printed woven fabrics where figured weavings are used, and my improvements
are applicable whether the figured fabrics are woven with stripes or with checks,
and my improvements consist in the weaving and printing fabrics woven with
all over patterns of figures on both sides or surfaces of each fabric, the figures
of the one side occupying a less extent than the figures on the other side, and
the raised portions of the figures on each side are produced by the weft or
warp threads. In the production of a fabric for carrying out my Invention,
one warp and one weft are used, but the fabric when woven has very much
the appearance of quilting, that is to say, there is on each side of the fabric
a design, or figure, which is obtained in the process of weaving, and the
appearance of the fabrics with two figured sides is much the same as if two
fabrics woven in the ordinary manner with raised figures on one side only were
fastened together so as to show a figured surface on each side of the fabric.
The pattern and the form of the figures may be somewhat varied without
departing from my Invention, so long as the fabric is figured on both sides, and
the raised parts produced by the weft or warp on both sides. The figure and
pattern which I prefer is that which is shewn by the Diagram or Drawing
annexed, by which an angular or lozenge-shaped figure is produced all over
each side of the woven fabric by the weft, or which may be done by the warp.
The figure on the one side, it will be seen, is larger than on the other side,
and such figure may be woven without or with stripes or checks of closer or
thicker cloth at intervals in the fabric. Fabrics thus woven with all over or

page_text: nearly all over patterns on each side may be bleached and dyed, or they may
be printed on one or both sides, and they may be printed with stripes, or with
any other device or patterns, in like manner to what other fabrics have here
tofore been printed, and the printing may as heretofore be on one or both
sides; when printed on only one side, it is preferred to be on the side which
is at least covered with the woven fabric.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Nimmo, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
WILLIAM NIMMO. (L.B.)