IMPROVEMENTS IN CHENILLE FABRICS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Greenshields, of Edinburgh, in the County of
Mid Lothian, North Britain, Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN CHENILLE FABRICS."
Sealed the 29th August 1854, and dated the 3rd July 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Greenshields at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
July 1854.
J, WALTER GREENSHIELDS, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, Manager, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHENILLE FABRICS "to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of ornamental fringes for various
purposes as already generally applied in different branches of textile works,
such fringes having ornamental patterns or figures upon them. The fringes
are woven or manufactured in the ordinary manner, with the exception that
yarns of various colors are woven or worked into them, according to the
usual system of manufacturing figured or parti-colored fabrics in the loom.
By the adoption of this system of manufacture, the fringes produced by
weaving are capable of presenting in themselves any desired ornamental
figures, just as if they were a portion of an ornamental body fabric, instead of
being merely of a single tint or a graduated shade, as heretofore.
It is obvious that the same system of producing figured fringes is applicable
where figured or parti-colored chenille is worked up by a sewing process.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
the said Walter Greenshields in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
GREENSIIIELDS, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
Manager, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Iler reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Walter Greenshields, Her special license that I, the said Walter Greenshields,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Walter
Greenshields, my executors, administrators, or 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 CHENILLE
FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Walter
Greenshields, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Walter Greenshields, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what mamer the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:
. My said Invention relates to the manufacture or working up of parti-
coloured" chenille" into fringes or trimming details, in such manner that the
fringes will present symmetrical coloured patterns or regular ornamental designs
or levices upon their faces. And in order that my said Invention may be
properly understood, I shall now proceed to describe the routine or process of
manufacture which I prefer to adopt in practice.
My improved chenille fabric or fringe, which I have designated the orne
chenille fringe, is produced according to my process by using parti-coloured
chenille either as warp or weft. This fringe, as is usual in this special
branch of manufacture, is woven in a loom, with an amount of warp material
sufficient for the production of two selvages, at a distance apart equal to the

page_text: width of two pieces of fringe. The weft, when thrown across, and woven in
with such warp, produces two woven selvages or beads for two pieces of fringe,
and the fabric so manufactured forms, when cut up the centre, two widths or
breadths of fringe.
Now, by using parti-coloured chenille in this manner as weft I produce two
breadths of fringe; or a greater number of breadths may be manufactured
simultaneously by using a corresponding number of warps, these warps being
disposed at such distances apart as will allow for the breadths of fringe to be
made. The fringes are subsequently separated or severed from each other by
cutting the lower ends of each fringe from the upper edges of the next con-
tiguous heading, and the breadths of fringe may then be severally finished by
sewing on an ornamental gimp or heading.
When the parti-coloured or figured chenille is used or worked up as warp
material, it is wound upon bobbins disposed in a sitting frame, of the kind
adopted in manufacturing what is known in the trade as Whytock's printed
yarn, so that the intended pattern may be duly adjusted. The warp material
is then wrought in the loom from the setting frame. By this system of
procedure, the chenille threads are retained in their proper place until they
are manufactured into fringe, which manufacture may be effected by means of
a cotton or other suitable warp, bound with the chenille by a shuttle, a narrow
band or heading being thus made. As each band is produced the chenille is
drawn over to the warp for the succeeding heading, when another band or
heading is made, and so on throughout the series; the fringe is then cut, and
the detached lengths are joined to each other to auy required length, when a
finished heading may be sewn ou as the final ornament. Should the fringe
have any tendency to curl up, the application of steam to it before it is cut
will remedy the difficulty.
By the adoption of this system of manufacture, the finished fringes are
capable of presenting in themselves any desired ornamental figures; hence
such fringes present an appearance similar or corresponding to that of a por-
tion of an ornamental body fabric, carrying a regular and syminetrical device,
instead of possessing merely a single tint or a graduated shade, after the
fashion hitherto practised. In adopting this system of ornamentation, the
manufacturer and furniture decorator are enabled to heighten the effect of
their productions very materially; as, instead of having a mere dull fringe or
border material, bearing no direct relation to the body, device, or ornament
of the goods, the fringe is itself made to further and carry out the decorator's
ideas. In this way all fringed articles will possess a much more harmonious
colouring effect than has hitherto been the case.

page_text: Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself
to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe
or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of my Invention; but what I consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the system or mode of manufacturing or producing chenille fabrics or
fringes as herein-before described.
Second, the manufacture or production of chenille fabrics or fringes with
coloured patterns or ornamental devices thereon.
Third, the application and use of parti-coloured chenille in the manufacture
of fringes with symmetrical coloured patterns or regular ornamental designs
thereon.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Greenshields, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
WALIEK GREENSHIELDS. (L.8.)