CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gerald Potter, Carpet Manufacturer,
and Robert Mills, Designer, both of Darwen, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS."
Sealed the 13th January 1854, and dated the 19th November 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gerald Potter
and Robert Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th November 1853.
We, JOHN GERALD POTTER and ROBERT MILLS, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS" to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to a mode of economizing the worsted used in
the manufacture of terry carpets from printed warps, and at the same
time rendering the pattern with increased fidelity. According to the
ordinary plan of working, a pattern is prepared upon ruled paper, the
divisions of which are numbered from No. 1, upwards, and the cylinder
which is to receive the warps to be printed is graduated and numbered

page_text: in a manner corresponding thereto. In order to color the warps according
to the pattern, the attendant sees what color is expressed on, say, No. 1
division of the paper pattern, and passes a coloring pulley corresponding
thereto under the warps to print the required color thereon. The
cylinder is then turned to the extent of one graduation, and a color
pulley corresponding to the tint expressed on No. 2 division of the
pattern is next passed under the warps, and by a repetition of this
operation the whole series of warps is prepared. These warps have
hitherto been indiscriminately used in the manufacture of cut pile and
terry carpets, but inasmuch as in the production of a given length of
cut pile carpet a greater length of warp is required than is necessary
for the manufacture of the same length of terry carpet, the pattern must
be distorted to make the terry fabric approach the length which such an
amount of warp should yield, or the material must be unnecessarily
expended. To avoid these inconveniences we calculate the exact
amount of warp which the terry fabric is required to take up in the
formation of. one loop, and multiplying this measurement by the
number of divisions composing the length of the pattern, we ascer-
tain the amount of warp surface required to be exposed to the printing
operation to complete one pattern; we then prepare a warp cylinder
with a circumference corresponding to the warp surface to be
printed, and graduate the cylinder agreeably to the divisions on the
paper pattern, and number it in like manner. The operator is then
enabled to produce the pattern on the warps in such a manner
that when woven into a terry fabric the pattern will be faithfully
rendered, without the undue expenditure of wool which is at présent
required to produce a similar result..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Gerald Potter and Robert Mills in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
JOHN GERALD. POTTER, Carpet Manufacturer, and ROBERT MILLS,
Designer, both of Darwen, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Gerald Potter and
Robert Mills, Her special licence that we, the said John Gerald Potter
and Robert Mills, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Gerald Potter and Robert Mills, our
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
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said John Gerald Potter and
Robert Mills, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said John Gerald Potter and Robert
Mills, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):
Our Invention relates to a mode of economizing the worsted used in
the manufacture of terry carpets from printed warps, and at the same
time rendering the pattern with increased fidelity. According to the
ordinary plan of working, a pattern is prepared upon ruled paper, the
divisions of which are numbered from No. 1, upwards, and the cylinder
which is to receive the warps to be printed is graduated and numbered
in a manner corresponding to the numbers at the side of the pattern.
In order to colour the warps according to the pattern, the warp threads
are first severally wound upon a graduated cylinder; the attendant then
6 reads off the color which is expressed on, say, No. 1 division of the paper

page_text: pattern, and having selected a coloring pulley corresponding to the color
expressed on that division, he passes the pulley under the warp, and
thereby prints the required color thereon. The cylinder is then turned
to the extent of one division, and a color pulley corresponding to the
tint expressed on No. 2 division of the pattern is next passed under the
warp, and by a repetition of this operation the whole series of warps is
prepared. Hitherto the warp threads wound round a cylinder of a
given circumference have been indiscriminately used for the manufacture
of cut pile or of terry carpets, but inasmuch as in the production of a
given length of cut pile carpet a greater length of warp is required than
is necessary for the manufacture of the same length of terry carpet, the
pattern must be distorted to make the terry fabric approach the length
which such an aniount of warp should yield, or the material must be
unnecessarily expended to prevent the distortion of the pattern. To
avoid these inconveniences we calculate the exact amount of warp
which the terry fabric is required to take up in the formation of a given
length of tapestry carpet, and having thus ascertained the amount of
warp surface required to be exposed to the printing operation to
complete one pattern, we then prepare a warp cylinder with a circum-
erence corresponding to the warp surface to be printed, and graduate
the cylinder agreeably to the divisions on the side of the paper pattern,
and number the cylinder in like manner. The operator is then enabled
to produce the pattern on the warps in such a manner that when woven
into a terry fabric the pattern will be faithfully rendered, without the
undue expenditure of wool which is at present required to produce a
similar result.
As the process of warp printing on cylinders or drums for the
manufacture of tapestry or uncut carpets (or, as it is commonly called,
"tapestry printing,") and the machinery required therein, is well known,
it will suffice for a proper understanding of our Invention if we point
out the essential departures which we have made from the usual routine
of that process in order to attain the objects above set forth. The follow-
ing illustration may serve to explain more clearily the peculiarity of our
Invention, and the advantages derivable therefrom. Let it be supposed
that a velvet or cut pile carpet is required to be made, and that accord-

page_text: ing to the usual practice in tapestry printing we employ a drum nine
yards in circumference for containing the warp to be printed; this drum
will be divided into six hundred and forty-eight divisions, which corre-
spond in number with the divisions on the ruled paper on to which the
design has been copied, and a unit of six hundred and forty-eight
parts of nine yards being half an inch, the coloring surface of the
printing pulley is half an inch wide, and six hundred and forty-eight
markings or imprintings by such printing pulleys will mark or color the
whole design on to the yarn, and will occupy nine yards of yarn. It is
usual in practice to weave up this nine yards of yarn into a velvet or
cut pile carpet, on which one repeat of the pattern shall be somewhere
about seventy inches long. When, however, a tapestry or uncut terry
carpet is to be manufactured, a shorter length of worsted will suffice,
and in order to prevent the useless employment of the surplus amount
of this material, weavers have introduced the practice of elongating
the pattern in the weaving in of the worsted warp threads, and hence
the distortion in the pattern above referred to.
Now, in manufacturing tapestry or uncut terry carpets according to
this our Invention, we take a six yard drum and divide it into as many
divisions as the nine yard drum was divided into when printing for the
manufacture of velvet or cut pile carpet, as above describe, viz, six
hundred and forty-eight; and whereas in printing for velvet or cut pile
carpet each of the six hundred and forty-eight squares or divisions on
the ruled paper on to which the design was copied represented half an
inch, it will now represent one third of an inch, because a unit of six
hundred and forty-eight parts of six yards is one-third of an inch, and con-
sequently if pulleys whose coloring surface is one-third of an inch wido
are used to mark or imprint the design on to the yarn, it is clear that
six hundred and forty-eight markings or imprintings by these pulleys
will mark or color the whole circumference of the six yard drum and
the six yards of warp threads wound thereon, and it is obvious the
same design will have been impressed on to the six yards of worsted yarn
as was impressed on to the nine yards of worsted yarn when printing for
the manufacture of velvet or cut pile carpet.
Now, we find in practice that if the six yards of worsted threads be

page_text: woven in into a tapestry or uncut terry carpet, so that each repeat of
the pattern shall be seventy inches long or thereabouts, the quality is
sufficiently good, and the same economy of worsted yarn having been
thus made as if the pattern had been elongated and distorted as has
heretofore been done, it is clear that whilst effecting that economy we
have also produced a pattern in tapestry or uncut terry carpet not at
all distorted, but of the same length or thereabouts as that on the velvet
or cut pile carpet manufactured from nine yards, of worsted threads
printed on a drum nine yards in circumference.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Certain Im-
provements in the Manufacture of Carpets," and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent we claim the mode herein
described of economizing wool or worsted in the manufacture of terry
carpets from printed warps, and at the same time rendering the pattern
in its due proportions.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Gerald Potter and Robert
Mills, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Sixteenth day
of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-four.
Witness to the above signatures of
J. G. Potter & Robert Mills,
GEORGE BIGGS,
Bookkeeper,
J. GERALD POTTER. (L.8.)
ROBERT MILLS.
Over Darwen, Lancashire.
(L.S.)