IMPROVEMENTS IN BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE MACHINES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederic Rainford Ensor, of the Park, Nottingham,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE
MACHINES."
Sealed the 11th March 1856, and dated the 25th September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederic Rainford Ensor
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th September 1855.
I, FREDERIC RAINFORD ENSOR, of the Park, Nottingham, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE
MACHINES" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in bobbin net or twist lace
machines, by which the front and back combs may be placed a greater distance
apart, and thus admit of the use of a greater number of warp threads with
convenience than can be done at present. For this purpose, the front and
back combs of bobbin net or twist lace machines are such as have been
heretofore used, but are placed at a considerable distance apart, and a third
comb is introduced between them, of small dimensions compared with the
other combs, and simply suitable for aiding to support and guide the carriages
in their passage from and to the front and back combs, and unsuitable to act

page_text: as an independent comb to receive and alone support the carriages. In the
space between the back and middle comb and between the front and middle
comb the warp threads pass, the extent of such space for receiving the warp
threads being considerably greater than could be obtained between the front
and back combs if no intermediate comb were employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederic Rainford Ensor in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 14th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERIC
RAINFORD ENSOR, of the Park, Nottingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, 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 Frederic Rainford Ensor, Her special licence that I, the said
Frederic Rainford Ensor, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Frederic Rainford Ensor, 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 BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE MACHINES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederic Rainford Ensor, 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 per-
formed, 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 Frederic Rainford Ensor, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, 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 bobbin net or twist lace
machines, by which the front and back combs may be placed at a greater

page_text: distance apart, and thus admit of the use of a greater number of warp threads
with convenience than can be done at present. For this purpose, the front
and back combs of bobbin net or twist lace machines are such as have been
heretofore used, but are placed at a considerable distance apart, and a third
comb is introduced between them, of small dimensions compared with the
other combs, and simply suitable for aiding to support and guide the carriages
in their passage from and to the front and back combs, and unsuitable to act
as an independent comb to receive and alone support the carriages. In the
space between the back and middle comb and between the front and middle
comb the warp threads pass, the extent of such space for receiving the warp
threads being considerably greater than could be obtained between the front
and back combs if no intermediate comb were employed.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING,
Which represents so much of a section of a bobbin net or twist lace machine
as will enable me fully to describe my improvements, the object of which is
to get greater width or space between the back and front combs in order with
more convenience to introduce a greater number of warp guide instruments
and their threads than can be done when there is no intermediate comb
employed. I would here state that bobbin net and twist lace machines have
before been made with an additional comb between the front and back combs,
but not in a similar manner to that herein described, nor to accomplish a like
object to that herein explained. a, a, are the back and front combs, which
are placed at such a distance apart that the carriages would not pass with
safety and speed from one comb to the other but for the interposed narrow
comb b, which is capable of guiding, yet not of upholding, the carriages,
excepting with the aid of one or other of the combs a, a. By thus introducing
a comb as at b, and having the back and front combs at a greater distance apart,
a wider space is obtained across, and so that a larger number of warp threads
with their various guiding instruments can be introduced into the machine
than heretofore. I have shown the comb bar b to be fixed, but, if desired,
it may be arranged to move down, in order more readily to get at all the
threads from the front of the machine; but I prefer that the bar b should be
fixed, and that the threads which are at the back of the bar b should be got
at by the workman when at the back of the machine.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of

page_text: performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
combination of combs a, b, a, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Rainford Ensor, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
CHARLES BECK, Lace Manufacturer,
Nottingham.
F. R. ENSOR. (L.S.)