IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Josiah Firth and James Crabtree
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on
the 18th June 1859.
We, JOSIAH FIRTH, of Heckmondwike, near Leeds, in the County of York,
Manufacturer, and JAMES CRABTREE, of Mill Bridge, Leeds, in the County of
York, Overlooker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in the introduction of an extra color or quantity
of colors in the manufacture of the carpets known under the following desig-
nations, viz., "two-ply," "super," "Scotch," or "Kidderminster" carpets (being
all of one class or description of carpet, but known under the above-mentioned
different names). In this class of carpet, as at present manufactured, only
two colors or threads of weft can be woven in the same space across the piece,
forming a double or two-ply cloth. By our improvements we introduce three
colors or threads of weft in the same space as two are used in the present
process of manufacturing this class or description of carpet, thereby giving the
cloth or carpet in effect three covers or plies, as in the carpet known as the
three-ply super imperial carpet," and that with a saving of about one-third
of the number of threads of warp used for a three-ply super imperial carpet.
The two-ply, super, Scotch, or Kidderminster carpet, and the three-ply super
imperial carpets, as at present manufactured, are of two thicknesses of cloth in
the former instance, and of three thicknesses in the latter, and these are only
bound or joined together at the crossing or extreme edge of the pattern on the

page_text: cloth, that is to say, the color or threads forming the pattern on the one
side of the piece of carpet form the ground on the other side, and vice versa ;
and these two plies or cloths throughout the piece are not otherwise joined
but at the edge of the pattern or the crossing of the threads forming the pattern
and those of the ground of the piece. We so bind or knit these separate plies
or covers of the carpet together as to make them in effect one cloth throughout
the whole piece, and that without being perceptible, or in the least damaging
the appearance of the fabric, and we thereby produce a much thicker, firmer,
and more durable carpet than either the carpets known as the two-ply, super,
Scotch, or Kidderminster carpet, or the three-ply super imperial carpets above
named. The warp used is either to be dyed in the usual way or printed.
A jacquard machine of either one, two, or three lifts is attached to the loom
for weaving carpets according to this Invention, and the cards for the jacquard
machine are stamped in such a way as to cause the machine so to lift or
depress the threads of the warp, in order to form the pattern to be woven
upon the carpet, and also to raise and depress certain of the threads of the
said warp, so that by throwing in the three threads of weft with the shuttles in
place of two threads, as at present in use for two-ply, super, Scotch, or Kidder-
minster carpets, the proper pattern is obtained with the addition of the extra
thread or color; and the ply or plies of cloth that would be separate, as
previously explained in the old method, would be so bound together as in
effect to form one solid cloth throughout the whole piece.