IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING THE THREADS OF Tulle, Lace, VALANCIENNES, EMBROIDERY, AND TARLATANS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Octave Léon Deschamps, of St. Pierre-les-Calais, in the
Department of Pas-de-Calais, in the Republic of France, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING THE THREADS OF Tulle, Lace,
VALANCIENNES, EMBROIDERY, AND TARLATANS."
Sealed the 18th July 1876, and dated the 29th January 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Octave Léon Deschamps at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th January 1876.
OCTAVE LÉON DESCHAMPS, of St. Pierre-les-Calais, in the Department of Pas-de-
Calais, in the Republic of France. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING
THE THREADS OF TULLE, LACE, VALANCIENNES, EMBROIDERY, AND TARLATANS."
.
The object of this Invention is to cut the festoon or other edgings of lace and
similar materials by machinery instead of by hand.
The apparatus consists of a frame composed of two parts, the head, which is
movable, and the base or support, and within this frame. are mounted six rollers,
two external and four intermediate ones. One of the external ones is the regulating
roller, the other the exit roller, and all alike are provided with pointed projections
for drawing the material along, the regulating roller having spurs at its extremities,
consisting of thin rings having points, and by aid of forks a more or less eccentric
movement is communicated thereto for regulating the tissue lengthwise. The
irregularities of the design longitudinally are compensated by imparting an inclined
position to the regulating roller by displacing one of its supports by aid of a fly
wheel.
In front of the regulator and a little below it is a knob bar bearing two rows of
small wooden rollers alternating from one row to another, which are made to
advance or recede by lifting the knobs or buttons, and by drawing or pushing the
toothed shafts of the roller mountings the tissue can be held or stretched in a
circular or other manner.
The knob bar receives the material to be cut, which is borne by a small triangle,
and which reaches it from the supporting bar. On leaving the regulating roller the
stuff passes under a stretcher, thence to the feed roller, which distributes it between
regulators to the cutting tools. The cutting being completed the stuff is taken by
the drawing roller passing under a second stretcher, and thence over the exit roller,
and then remains submitted to the action of a counterpoise.

page_text: The supply roller has its supports fixed, the spurs on which cause the eccentricity
of the forks. The regulators are fixed one to the base of the frame and the other
to the head of the machine.
The drawing roller is mounted on the same axis as a small pinion which governs
an endless chain of a pinion. This latter receives the movement of the driving
shaft by means of gearing, on which shaft flys and pullies are mounted. The head
of the machine receives the shafts of the eccentrics, and by a pulley receives the
movement of one of the flys and transmits it to the eccentrics. This movement is
transformed on their shafts into a vertical backward and forward movement, which
is communicated to the shafts of the cutters. This motion serves to cut the threads.
The guides of these shafts are capable of moving so as to follow all the sinuosities
and forms of the design, whether embroidery edging or otherwise.
On putting the stuff on the rollers the head of the machine is raised by a screw
guided by shafts in its ascent; this is effected by beveled wheels actuated by a fly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Octave Léon Deschamps in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd
July 1876.
2°
OCTAVE LEON DESCHAMPS, of St. Pierre-les-Calais, in the Department of Pas-le-
Calais, in the Republic of France. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR "CUTTING
THE THREADS OF TULLE, LACE, VALENCIENNES, EMBROIDERY, AND TARLATANS"
Al
The object of this Invention is to cut the threads separating the bands or strips
of manufactured tissue, such as lace, tulle, valenciennes, embroidery, tarlatan, and
similar materials, or for cutting the festoon or other edgings of such fabrics.
Hitherto this operation has been performed by hand by aid of scissors; this mode
of operation necessitated manipulations which inevitably detracted from the fresh-
ness and spoilt the appearance of the stuff. notably so if the material is much
ornamented and the designs complicated and rich.
In order to obviate this depreciation and at the same time diminish the expense
of labour, I have constructed a machine whose characteristic features are specially
intended to accommodate themselves to the various configurations of the material
to be operated on, whether such forms be regular or irregular, so that tulle, lace,
embroidery, tarlatans, and so forth, no matter what their designs, are quickly cut in
the manner described, at a single operation, the machine being simple, devoid of
complicated mechanism, and inexpensive, and working with a uniform regular action
without danger or fatigue.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents the machine by a side view,
Fig. 2 being a front view of the same, a transverse section of it being shown by
Fig. 3. The Figures 4 are details of the cutting tool and its principal organs; the
other Figs. 5 and 6 are details of the mechanism, which will be referred to hereafter.
The machine is capable of separation in two parts for the insertion of the
material, and which parts are then' reunited to perform the requisite operation. I
shall bere explain each of these parts so as to make the disposition of the different
organs as intelligible as possible."
1st Part. This portion of the machine refers to the base or foot. Between the
two sides of the frame a, well intertied above and below, I establish a series of
rollers b, c, d, e, f, and g, the supports of which are borne on an internal projection
of the two sides of the frame, and specially arranged for each of them: The
rollers of copper or other suitable matter have their external circumferences furnished
with points forming projections of about one millimetre, and conveniently separated
to suit the purposes required of them. The roller b is the regulator; it receives
the tissue to be cut after its passage round the three shafts (below this roller)
arranged triangularly. The contact of the material with these shafts is more or
less increased according to the amount of opposition to the drawing of the fabric.

page_text: (see Fig. 2) to be arrested
receives the stuff from
possible by the action of
desired, therefore the shafts h can turn in the supports
in the required position by screw pressure. The triangle
the piece placed below without crease and as regularly as
a supporting traverse i extending the whole width of the material, which is charged
here and there according to where the design requires redressing. The traverse i
consists of two guides bars, the posterior and highest one supplied with points, and
the other or anterior one fixing to the first by the movement of two screws leaving
a space for the points. The stuff passes between these two guides (this stuff is
shown in dotted lines). Finally, this traverse follows the stuff in its delivery, and
should be brought down again before reaching the triangle h.
Between the roller band the triangle in front of the machine, and along its
entire breadth a bar j is placed, whose object is to redress the designs, which,
although manufactured quite straight, become irregular from various causes, such as
finishing on the frame, the unequal elasticity of the threads, and so on.
This bar j
bears two rows of rollers in wood, the upper ones j¹, the lower ones. These
rollers and alternate one with the other (see Fig. 5), and are held in position by
a click of a spring fixed to a click bar, which lodges in the teeth with which tho
shaft of each of the rollers is provided. Each spring is supplied with a button,
which presents itself above or below according to whether the upper or lower rollers
act. This admits of more or less advancing the rollers in accordance with the irre-
gularities of the stuff, and so increases the tension of the stuff on any desired point.
By reason of the function and disposition of the buttons or knobs I call this bar j
the finger or key bar.
The regulator b is composed of several pieces supported on the same axis, which
turns at its extremities in two bearings or blocks b₁, b At each end of the roller,
and between each part forming it (if necessary) I place spurs 63, or kinds of discs
furnished with projections (Fig. 6), and of a rather diameter than the roller
capable of taking an inclination to the right or left on the axis under the direction
of a small fork b', Fig. 3, fixed inside. The different positions that can be given to
this fork impart to the spurs 6 a more or less eccentric motion, with the object of
stretching the stuff more or less in its width in its passage to the regulator b.
The left cushion or block b¹ is mounted on a pivot; the other or sliding one be is
submitted to the action of a fly wheel 65, which causes its advance and withdrawal
so as to distribute the designs perfectly straight to the succeeding rollers.
The roller c is a stretching roller between the cylinders band d. Its axis is
maintained by forked guides c', which readily admit of its lifting.
The roller d is the supply roller of a smaller diameter than the first b. It is con-
structed like the roller j in several pieces for the play of the spurs d' with forks d²,
Fig. 3. The cushions or blocks are fixed to the frame.
After the feed roller & the tissue passes between the guides K, which act as a
fulcrum to the traverse. The tissue leaves these rests when the cutting is effected
and passes to the Drawing roller c, then passing the stretcher f, it reaches the exit
cylinder g, which it leaves under the traction of the weights p hooked to the stuff.
To these drawing weights I can substitute a traverse similar to that of i, which
would be charged from right or left according to the delivery of the machine.
The drawing roller e is solid with the pinion e³, on which a small endless chain c
circulates in drawing, and comes from another pinion e mounted on the axis of the
intermediate gear work o³.
The stretcherf has its supports similar to those of c. The cushions of the
wheel g are fixed, and this wheel, which is of the same diameter as the regulator is
in one single piece.
Finally, the forks 6' and d², Fig. 3, are fixed to a plate reaching from one side of
the frame to the other, and which serves as base, to the material to facilitate the
operation of cutting.
Motion may be communicated to the apparatus by hydraulic means, steam, or by
hand. On an axis o, supported by the frane a at one end and by a chair at the
other, are two pulleys o'; one is fixed, the other loose, and within the frame is a

page_text: pinion o³, gearing with the intermediary wheel o³. A fly wheel o* or large grooved
pulley communicates motion to the cutters.
2nd Part. The head of the machine a¹ is formed of two cast-iron sides forming
the continuation of the frame a to which it is connected. These sides a¹ are cross
barred above by two traverses or beams and below by the bars supporting the
separators. The two sides a¹ are solid with the shaft l, Fig. 1, which correspond,
and which fit closely in sockets of the sides a. The frame a is raised or opened
from that a by means of a small fly wheel m, keyed to the axis of two bevel
pinions m. These gear with the pinions m², which terminate the screws m³,
which thread with the nuts m bolted to the frame a¹.
It will be understood that in
turning the fly wheel m in the direction required
the head of the machine is either raised or lowered as required.
The separators shown in detail, Fig. 4, consist of a very thin blade n, presenting
a good cutting edge, which is adjusted in a slit in the porte separator n¹ of rounded
proportions to avoid cutting the flowers or the loop of the design. The porte
separator terminates above in a cylindrical part, which lodges in the end of the
shaft n²; this shaft is cast rather conically and is screw cut; a nut fixes the end n¹,
and makes a perfect connection. The shaft n², which is cylindrical, passes
in the guide n on two small shafts p, reaching from one side to the other of the
frame. At the exit of this shaft it continues in a square form to penetrate the
piece q supporting the.grooved handle q, thence it retakes its cylindrical section, to
finally fix itself to a small cap piece terminating the eccentric shaft 1.
The porte separator n¹ cast to receive the separator bears the countersink perpen-
dicularly to the square part of the shaft n, so that all the separators can be at
once placed in a similar position without trouble.
The eccentrics are all mounted on the same axis, and receive motion from the
great fly wheel o* by the pulley. Their action on the separators is to impart to
them a continuous up-and-down motion, which is employed in cutting the threads.
But in order to allow these tools to follow the windings of the designs I have
arranged the following simple mechanism -The piece q¹ of the handle q is con-
tinued above its handle by a two-branched cap piece, in which are two pointed
screws. A similar but inverted cap piece s presents itself at right angles, and is
united with that q¹ by a ring 8 supplied with four centres where the four points
of the four screws lodge. In this manner there is a connection of the two pieces q¹
and s like a knee cap, with the difference of the ring necessary for the passage of
the separator shaft.
The cap & continues in a round portion, which serves to support it in a support s²
fixed on the traverse s³. Towards the middle of this support s the piece 8 is sup-
plied with teeth gearing with those of a rack t, which runs the length of the
imachine. This rack is lodged below the traverse t¹, which supports it whilst
allowing it to slide one way or the other. If on taking one of the handles
hand and imparting to the separator connected to it rotary motion, these move-
ments are repeated by the rack to all the other tools.
in
The guides n³ of the separator shafts n are mounted on the rods p, which are
capable of displacement lengthwise. For this purpose one of them is prolonged
beyond the frame, and it terminates in a button or handle, so that in taking the
handle q, as described, in one hand and the knob p¹ in the other, there is imparted
to the separators first with the hand the turning motion for presenting the cutting
edge of the blades to the threads to cut; secondly, with the shafts the inclined
motions for following the form and sinuosities of the design.
On account of the highly characteristic functions of the shafts p and their
guides n³ I denominate this ensemble the carriage of the separators.
As only one band of designs can be cut by these movements as long as is
contained in the piece, I arrange in rear other separators, receiving motion from the
same eccentric shaft of a different carriage, and a rack placed back to back with
that of t. Thus by a single passage of the stuff I produce two cuttings or
separations.

page_text: I have explained and shown in the Drawings an arrangement of the separators
with their racks and carriages, allowing the workman to follow the simplest and the
most complicated designs. It may readily be conceived that the movements of the
carriages and racks can be produced mechanically instead of by hand; for this
purpose it suffices to combine differential movements in relation with the drawing
of the material and with the profile of the design or edging. Thus, for simple
designs or figures, trefoil for instance, a differential motion actuated by a cam will
give the requisite motion to the separators. This automatic mechanical action of
the separators does not alter the principle of construction of the latter; I therefore
reserve to msyelf any combination of organs conducing to effect this simply and
economically.
Action of the Machine.-If, for example, tulle is to be operated on, the head of
the machine is raised and the stuff is placed in contact with the points of the
rollers, then being well arranged and regulated by the mechanism described the
head of the frame is let down, and a separator is guided to each band to cut; the
front ones are for similar bands, and those in rear for other intermediate bands
and of the same outline.
The supports of the work, which, as mentioned, consist of two regulators, are in
two parts, one lower, solid with the foot of the machine, and the other upper one,
which follows the movements of ascent and descent of the lead. Thus arranged the
stuff is actively operated on in starting the machine. One workman attends to the
separators in front, and another those in rear, unless the manual action gives place
to a mechanical one. The operator rests his hands on the rest bars running the
whole length in front and rear of the machine. A disconnecting rod is mounted at
the head of the machine for starting or stopping the machine.
Finally, without limiting myself to the forms, matters of construction, or dimen-
sions of the organs forming the machine, I claim the ensemble and details of con-
struction of the apparatus herein described, the combination and functions of the
rollers, the separators, carriages, racks, and so forth, all of which tend to effect a new
industrial result, that is to say, the mechanical cutting and separation of the threads
of tulle, lace, embroidery, valenciennes, tarlatans, and similar fabrics.
In witness whereof, I, the said Octave Léon Deschamps, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.