AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF RUGS, QUILTS, COVERLETS OR COVERS FOR A ADDADE
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Job Hamer, of Longsight, in the Parish of Man-
chester, and County of Lancaster, Mercantile Clerk, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF RUGS, QUILTS, COVERLETS OR COVERS FOR
A ADDADE"
Sealed the 4th October 1860, and dated the 9th April 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Job Hamer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th April 1860.
I, JOB HAMER, of Longsight, in the Parish of Manchester, and County
of Lancaster, Mercantile Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention of "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF RUGS, QUILTS, COVERLETS OR COVERS
FOR BEDS, AND OF CERTAIN ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL," to be as follows:-
The said Invention consists, firstly, in combining silk waste, waste silk, silk
noils, or other refuse silk or silk fibre obtained by the disintegration of frag-
ments or shreds of silken tissue with other materials, by enclosing a layer or
layers of one of the first-mentioned substances between outer coverings of any
suitable woven fabric or fabrics, and uniting the whole into sheets or pieces by
stitching or sewing in the manner known as " quilting." A new compound

page_text: fabric is thus cheaply produced, which possesses the united qualities of light-
ness and warmth in an eminent degree, and which is manufactured into rugs,
quilts, wrappers, ladies' underclothing, and other articles of bed furniture or
wearing apparel of like character.
The said Invention consists, secondly, in applying silk waste or waste silk in
combination with some other suitable fabric or material to the manufacture of
socks or inner soles or linings to be worn within boots or shoes. For this pur-
pose, the silk or waste is rove, spun, and interwoven with some suitable binding
material. The tissue thus produced may be waterproofed or not at discretion,
or it may be attached to a back or foundation of some suitable substance, such
as oiled or varnished cloth or felt, and then formed into pieces of the required
shape and dimensions.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Job Hamer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th October 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOB HAMER,
of Longsight, in the Parish of Manchester, and County of Lancaster, Mer-
cantile Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Job Hamer, Her special licence that I, the said Job Hamer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Job Hamer, 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 of
"AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF RUGS, QUILTS, COVERLETS OR COVERS FOR BEDS,
AND OF CERTAIN ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL," upon the condition (amongst
others), that I, the said Job Hamer, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing unler 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 performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six

page_text: Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Job Hamer, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My said Invention has reference, firstly, to the manufacture of rugs, quilts,
coverlets or covers for beds, wrappers, skirts, petticoats, linings or stiffening
for men's clothing, dressing gowns, ladies' jackets, mantles, muff's or the linings
thereof, children's hoods and cloaks, and other similar articles of bed furniture
or wearing apparel; and so far as relates to such articles as aforesaid, consists
in making them of a new and peculiar compound fabric produced by combin-
ing waste silk or silk waste with covers or envelopes of any suitable textile
fabric and uniting the whole by sewing or stitching the same together at inter-
vals, in the manner known as "quilting."
Of waste silk or silk waste (the most important of the component materials
mentioned), many of the less valuable kinds are applicable for the purposes of
this Invention, and their relative eligibility will probably depend more upon
price than any other consideration. The kinds most generally available are,
firstly, the noils, combings, and other refuse unfit for the purposes of the
spinner, from all kinds of raw silk, waste husks and knubs, perished or damaged
cocoons, and other similar descriptions, whether in the gum, discharged, or
dyed (these kinds being generally of short staple); and secondly, winders' and
weavers' waste fibre obtained by the disintegration of silken tissue.and other
wastes of thrown, spun, manufactured, or dyed silk (which are generally long
in staple). For the purpose now under notice, the silk waste selected, if not
obtained in the form of fleeces, layers, or sheets of wadding, will require to be
reduced to that form before use.
The methods of bringing it into that state form no part of my present Inven-
tion. I shall therefore merely observe that the process adopted will have to be
varied according as the staple of the waste used is long or short. Short-stapled
waste may be treated by the ordinary process of carding, the carded material
being received from the doffing cylinder upon a lap drum and allowed to accu-
mulate thereon until the thickness of the lap or layer is considered sufficient, a
coat of gum being applied to the outer side before removing it from the drum.
Long-stapled waste and the fibre of silken tissue may be converted into the
required form by being subjected to the process formerly invented by Mr. George
Bridge and myself, and for which Letters Patent were granted to us, bearing
date the Twenty-second day of December, One thousand eight hundred and

page_text: fifty-seven (No. 3145), and which process and the machinery to be used
therein were respectively described in the Specification filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office, in pursuance of the conditions of the said Letters Patent.
In reducing waste by this process, it is, however, to be understood, that
instead of the material being finally passed through calender rollers and doffed
in the form of a sliver, it is to be received from the doffing cylinder upon a lap
drum, so as to form a fleece or sheet by accumulation thereon, as in the case
of the short-stapled waste before mentioned. Weavers' and winders' waste
and other similar long-stapled wastes may also be brought into the form of
fleeces or sheets by being cut into short lengths and carded according to the
method in which such waste is most commonly treated in preparing it to be
spun, it being as in the other instances before mentioned doffed upon a lap
drum and allowed to accumulate into a thick lap.
The cloth or fabric selected as the material of the envelopes, casings, or
outer coverings and linings may be of any kind consistent with the ultimate
purpose and quality of the compound fabric, quilt, garment, or other article to
be manufactured. Whether such envelopes or casings and other inaterials be
cut out or reduced to their final shape before being united or be put together
in the form of continuous sheets of any convenient dimensions, from which
sheets the articles to be manufactured are afterwards to be cut out, may be
determined by convenience and attendant circumstances, the course pursued
in that respect being matter of indifference so far as the principle or essence of
this part of the Invention, that is to say, the manner of producing the peculiar
compound fabric is concerned.
The materials being duly selected and prepared, a layer of the silken wad-
ding or fleece, or a series of so many layers as will suffice to produce the
required thickness or fulness in the fabric, is to be spread upon one of the
pieces of the intended outer casing, covering, or envelope. Over the silken
wadding or fleece is thin to be laid the other covering piece or envelope, so
that the wadding or fleece is enclosed between the two outer casings. The
whole is then sewn together by rows or courses of stitches, or by stitches at
isolated or separate points, passing through the entire fabric at suitable inter-
vals or distances, and securing the enclosure of the wadding or fleece between
the covering materials, and thus producing a corrugated compound fabric of
the kind commonly known as "quilted" and the structure of which differs
from that of other quilted fabrics only in the nature of some of the materials
employed in its production. The advantages of this new fabric are lightness,
warmth, and comparative cheapness; and so far as regards its application
to under garments designed to impart a graceful contour to ladies' dresses,

page_text: a certain elasticity and tendency to resume its shape after temporary com-
pression.
My said Invention has reference in the second place to the manufacture of
socks or inner soles or linings to be worn within boots or shoes, and this part
of it consists in the application to the formation of the said articles of silk
waste or waste silk combined with some other suitable material into a fleecy
fabric or tissue. Several kinds of waste are applicable to this use, but winders'
or weavers' wastes, or other twisted and dyed wastes are those which I consider
most eligible. The best mode of treating them is to reduce them into fibrous
slivers by the process and machinery described in the Specification herein-
before mentioned, filed under or in pursuance of the Letters Patent granted to
Mr. George Bridge and myself, and bearing date the Twenty-second day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven (No. 3145). The
slivers thus obtained are to be made into rovings by machinery adapted to the
roving of long-stapled fibre such as flax, worsted, or long silk waste. Machinery
of this kind well adapted to the purpose is in ordinary use and easily obtain-
able. In roving the waste the relative speeds of the rollers and flyers of the
frame are to be modified, so as to put in an extra amount of. twist and to give
the roving the consistence of a. soft cord, as is commonly done in making
candle wick and some kinds of carpet yarn. The cord thus formed is inter-
woven with a warp of cotton twist or other suitable yarn into a fleecy or downy
tissue. The fabric thus produced is to be attached by stitching or otherwise
to some suitable back or foundation, such as oiled or varnished cloth, felt, or
haircloth, being cut into pieces of the required shape and dimensions, and water-
proofed if so preferred.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and explained the
manner of performing the same in each of its applications, I have only further
to observe, that I do not by anything herein contained or mentioned claim, nor
intend to claim as part or parts thereof the application of waste silk or silk
waste to any article of dress merely and simply as a lining material, or other-
wise, howsoever save and except in the particular and especial manners and
combinations with other materials herein-before pointed out; neither do I
intend to include or claim as part of such my Invention any process or pro-
cesses, machine or machines herein-before mentioned, as applicable to the pre-
paration of the silk waste or waste silk, for the purposes of my said Invention;
neither do I restrict myself to the particular modes or means herein-before
pointed out for preparing the silk waste or waste silk, and otherwise carrying
into effect the details of the manufactures herein-before described, so long as
the result aimed at or attained is the manufacture of any of the articles men-
-

page_text: tioned from, in, or out of fabrics compounded substantially and in effect of
such materials put together or united in such manners as have been respec-
tively herein-before specified; and that what I do claim as constituting my
aforesaid Invention is,-
Firstly, the art or method of manufacturing rugs, quilts, coverlets, wrappers,
ladies' underclothing, skirts, petticoats, and other like garments and articles,
such as herein-before firstly mentioned, of, from, in, or out of a compound
fabric formed by combining silk waste, waste silk noils, or other refuse silk or
silken fibre obtained by the disintegration of fragments or shreds of silken
tissue with other materials, by enclosing a layer or layers of some or one of the
aforesaid substances between envelopes or outer coverings of any suitable
woven fabric or fabrics, and uniting the same into sheets, pieces, or garments,
by stitching or sewing, in the manner herein-before pointed out.
And, secondly, the art or method of manufacturing socks or inner soles or
linings for boots and shoes by the combination in a tissue or fabric of silk
waste or waste silk of any of the kinds mentioned with any other suitable
textile material, and the application of such tissue or fabric, in manner herein-
before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Job Hamer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.