AN IMPROVED MODE OR METHOD OF WEAVING, MAKING, AND MANUFACTURING OF LIVERY LACE AND COACH LACE
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
MERSCY, the younger, of Long Acre, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Laceman, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the. Third, by
His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Seventh day of August, in the fifty-seventh year of
His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Merscy, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Samuel Merscy, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, and
every of them, by myself and themselves, or my and their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Samuel Mersey, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my said Invention
of "AN IMPROVED MODE OR METHOD OF WEAVING, MAKING, AND MANUFACTURING
OF LIVERY LACE AND COACH LACE," within that part of His United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Samuel Merscy,
my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should in my or their discretion seem meet,
and that I, the said Samuel Merscy, my exors, admors, and assigns, should
and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and
advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising, by reason
of my said Invention, for and during the term of years therein mentioned;

page_text: in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said
Samuel Merscy, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Mersey, the younger, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be carried into effect and
produced, is herein-after described and set forth; but that the same may more
fully and clearly appear, I shall, in the first place, describe the fabrics which
have heretofore been made, woven, or manufactured, and the making, weaving,
and manufacturing of which have been improved by my said Invention.
Livery lace and coach lace are the names applied to all those borders or
edgings which are used for the purpose of furnishing, equiping, and orna-
menting servants' liveries and carriages, and they each consist of a stiff body
or groundwrok composed of certain threads of flax, silk, cotton, or other
materials, which, when woven together with the other parts of the article, when
finished, gives a due consistency, strength and duribility to tlie fabric, and also
of a certain set of yarns, threads, or twists of worsted, silk, cotton, or other
materials, which are not so much connected with the strength or durability
of the fabric as with its ornamental appearance, in consequence of which this
last set of materials are made to appear on the upper surface or face of the
work in regularly disposed patterns or figures, representing flowers, armorial
bearings, or other devices or patterns. Immediately beneath this last above-
mentioned set of materials is another surface between them and the stiff ground,
which is generally called the lay, and which is usually composed of silk,
worsted, flax, cotton, or other materials. Now, in the old or ordinary process of
weaving these materials, all the various yarns, threads, or twists above mentioned
are warp threads in the loom, extended longitudinally from the bobbins in
the racks to the breast roll, and from thence down to the knee roll, upon which
the work as finished is wound. The warps, therefore, consist not only of the
stiff body of the work, but likewise of the lay with its slack ground, and
the tuft or figure branches, if any tuft or figure be used, which, by the
operation of the loom, and by means of tags or wires, are raised on the lay

page_text: face of the work. Everything therefore thus far in this, the whole, con-
struction of livery lace and coach lace (lay and all), is warp, and the intro-
duction of body shoot is all that is necessary to complete. the lace. This
shoot is thrown by a shuttle alternately through the body of the work to
unite it, and then through every alternate check of the lay or otherwise
as the pattern requires to be made in such lay face work; and this, as well as
the bringing up of the slack pile or tuft branches to form the pattern, figure,
or device, is all brought about by leases, treddles, and harness to the loom,
as must be evident to any one acquainted with. the weaving of those laces
heretofore known by the name of tuft or lay laces, or those laces wholly
composed of lay without any tuft, or with sido tufts on one or both of their
sides. Experience has shewn that by this usual and accustomed mode of
weaving the above-mentioned laces, in consequence of the lay silk working
through the leases, it becomes so much rubbed and fretted by the friction
it undergoes, that it loses a great part of its lustre, and injures the appearance
of lace so manufactured, which cannot be made so fine as by my new mode
of manufacture without very extraordinary labour on the part of the workmen,
and then, in point of appearance, it is far inferior to lace made according to
my new method; and it is with a view to reniedy these inconveniences that
I have, after considerable trouble, labor, consideration, and expence, invented
and found out my Improved Mode or Method of Weaving, . Making, and
Manufacturing of Livery Lace and Coach Lace, for which His Majesty has been
pleased to grant me His above-recited Letters Patent, and which I accomplish
and produce in manner following (that is to say):-
!
The characteristic and essential difference between the old and accustomed
mode of weaving livery lace and coach lace and that which I now make
use of, and is the subject of the present Patent, is, that I bring on a face of
tissue wrought with silk, cotton, worsted, or other materials, above or upon
the main groundwork, and upon which tissue face: the tuft or figure is raised
or made to appear in the same manner as it formerly was raised or made to
appear upon the lay. This tissue face is woven or produced by tissue shoot
being thrown into what I denominate binder threads, which are to be worked
in separate series, and each series by separate leases, connected to treadles
in the loom in such number and in such manner. as the figure of the tissue
to appear on the face of my ground niay require, as herein-after will be
described, and by which means I get rid of that: friction which was: so
detrimental to the appearance of the .lay in. the old process, and I. am enabled
to substitute for it a texture of a much finer and more.. beautiful appearance,
and which may be infinitely varied, in figure or pattern, a property. which

page_text: does not belong to the lay; and it is this substitution of tissue for lay, and my
mode of working to produce it, as hereafter described, which I claim as my
particular Invention, to be secured to me by the Patent above recited... In.
order to weave or manufacture livery lace and coach lace according to my
improved mode or method of weaving, making, and manufacturing of such
lace, I make use of a common livery and coach lace loom, which I proceed to
mount in the same manner as if 1 were about to produce a tuft on lay lace by
the old process, except that I leave out all those warp threads of silk or other
material which would be used to produce the lay, and in lieu thereof I run in
a number of the binder threads before mentioned. The binder threads above
alluded to. are fine threads of silk or other sufficiently strong material,
which are passed through a comb in the same manner as I should have
done a lay in the old process of weaving, and I also drop my mails in the
same places as for a lay, only that I take the mails alternately from each
of the two binder pieces to pass my binder threads through when I wish to
produce a plain tabby tissue, and I sley these binder threads one or more in a
dent, and so dispose them that not only any particular series or division of
them may be raised by a separate treadle, but likewise the whole of them
may be raised at once by either of those body treadles which operate upon
and bring up the slack as well as the stiff-body warp. I have already
mentioned that a slack and a stiff body, and two series of binder threads, are
necessary to produce my lace; consequently, four--right-foot- treadles-will be
necessary to weave it, in addition to any number of left-foot or figure treadles,
which are to manage the tuft or figure in the same manner as has been
formerly practised where figures are introduced. This is one right-foot
treadle more than is ordinarily applied to livery and coach lace loonis, which
generally contain but three, and must be added, as well as a greater number
of leases, when more complicated figures of tissue are required; but four
treadles, namely, two for the tissue and two for the body, is the least. number
with which my lace can be produced with a tabby tissue face. When these
binder threads are woven with the tissue shoots in a manner to be herein-
after described, so as to form a regular face of tissue upon the body ground
of the work, it is evident this tissue must be upon the face of such work,
and detached from it, except at the edges of such tissue, because the
binder threads are not only raised up separately by their own particular
treadles, but are always brought up both with the stiff and slack warp
threads, and thus by being constantly raised, in respect to the general mass
of the work, they weave separately with their own particular shoot, and
thus remain constantly on the face of the work, and they are elevated aud

page_text: depressed among themselves for the purpose of forming shades to receive their
own shoot, without regard to the rest of the work, by means of their own
separate and particular leases and treadles, so that the several series of binder
threads may be worked separately and independently. The binder threads must
run over the whole width of the tissue face to be produced upon the lace, but.
their number is quite arbitrary, and depends upon the width and fineness of the
tissue figure to be produced, while their disposition into leases or series must
depend upon the figure or pattern of the tissue to be made, which may be
infinitely varied. It will be sufficient therefore to say, that in a plain tabby
tissue the binder threads need only be divided into two leases or series of
alternate threads; but to form a tweeled tissue, although I proceed in the same
manner as before mentioned by passing the binder threads through the comb,
yet, instead of two I use three or more leases or series of binder threads,
which I drop in regular succession, namely, first, second, and third, or more,
as the case may require, in the same places as before described, and I sley
them as before mentioned. A tweel of any number of leases or series may
be managed in the same way by merely varying the number of leases as the
case may require; and in the more complicated figures of tissue the leases must
be so mounted as to answer to such figures by the common and ordinary rules
for mounting for patterns, which are well known to weavers who execute
figured work. It is scarcely necessary to mention in this place that the story
leases through which such binder threads are run may be worked by high
leases only, with or without levers, or they may be worked by levers only, or in
bunches, provided there are a sufficient number of treadles to give the seperate
and collective motions which have been before mentioned to such binder
threads. In addition to these binder threads just described I run in two strong
threads, which I call catch bars, for my tissue shoots to turn upon, which catch.
bars move with opposite leases or series of binder threads, so that when one is
depressed the other may be raised; and as the tissue face is generally made of
silk or other expensive materials, in all cases where my lace has a side tuft on
one or both of its sides which would hide all that part of the silk. shoot or
tissue face which would then weave underneath it, I do not run in my catch
bars on the outsides or next the edges or selvages of the lace, but I place
them very near the internal edges of such side tuft or tufts, so that the tissue
shoot is not woven into the same, by which means a considerable saving of
silk is produced.
I mention the introduction of two catch bars, namely, one on each side of
my lace, although one catch bar only may be used if it is placed on the right-
hand side of the loom, while the shuttles to be hereafter mentioned are held

page_text: as they usually are by the left hand, and commence their shoots from thence
and return again to that situation; yet, it is possible that lace so woven
may be less perfect, but if the side tuft or tufts do not hide all the tissue no
catch bars will be necessary. The treadles on the right-hand side of the loom
are used for working or weaving the body of my lace, with its tissue facing,
and are for this purpose connected with the leases which carry the stiff and
slack grounds and binder threads, and those treadles on the left-hand side are,
as usual, connected to the leases for raising only those warps or branches
which are necessary to form the tuft or figure when one is made, and of
course their number must vary according to the figure to be produced, which
is worked precisely as in the former process of weaving, livery lace and coach
lace. My loom being thus mounted as before described, with the. stiff and
slack warp, as for a tuft on lay lace, but with the binder threads and catch bar
or bars above described in liew of the lay warp formerly used, is prepared for
work, and now the introduction of shoot by..means of the shuttle is all that is
necessary to complete my lace by my improved mode or method of weaving,
making, and manufacturing of livery lace and coach lace. The shoot is
thrown-into the warp-by-one-or-more shuttle or-shuttles,-as-the-case-may
require, in the usual way, but in an order or arrangement different from any
which has yet been put in practice to produce this description. of. goods, and
which I shall now proceed to describe:If the lace is to be woven-with-shoot
which is all alike in colour and quality, one shuttle will be sufficient, throwing
two body and two tissue shoots to each tag, wire; or tuft: by such shuttle;
and in weaving lace. of cotton, worsted, or other cheap materials, I should use.
but one shuttle; or if the tissue to be brought upon the face of my work is to
be barred with different colours.or qualities across the Jace, I should use one
shuttle only for each colour. But as all those shoots which pass into the body
of the work become compleatly hid and not visible on the tissue face, and are
only to give strength to the body of the work, while those shoots which pass
through the face of the work are visible and assist in forming that tissue facé ;
so, when the tissue face is of silk or other. expensive materials, on account of
that expence I make use of two shuttles, one containing silk or other mate-
rials for the tissue face work; and one containing linen, cotton, or other yarns,
of a cheaper kind for the body work, though the tissue face and body. work may
both be made of silk or any one, material by one shuttle for each colour or
quality, as before mentioned.
Having so far described the mounting of my. loom and other requisites for
the production of livery lace and coach lace by my improved mode or method
of weaving, making, and manufacturing the same, I shall now explain more

page_text: particularly my manner of procceding therein. The description of the work-
ing of a single course in the loom will comprize the whole process, since all
subsequent courses are but repetitions of the first; and for simplicity's sake I
will suppose that I am about to work a plain tabby tissue face of two silk
tissue shoots to each tag, wire, or tuft, while the body of the lace is to be
woven with linen yarn, cotton, or other materials,-I shall call the first the
tissue shuttle, the latter the body one, since I must use two in this case, and
they must both be on the same side of the work, say the left-hand side, for
example. This operation will require two right-foot body and two binder
treadles, as before mentioned, which may be connected to the work as follows:
The first or extreme treadle to the right raises up all the slack body and binder
warps, except the two catch bars (when two are used), and nothing remains as
the under side of the shade but the stiff body threads with the catch bar or
bars upon which the tissue shoots are to turn, placed as near to the edge or
edges as circumstances will allow. If but one is used it will of course be the
right-hand bar. The second treadle from the right raises one lease or series
of binder threads, being every alternate one in this example of work, together
with the right-hand catch bar if two are used, and all the slack and stiff body
threads which are exterior to or beyond the situation of the catch bars, though
it is not essential that the right-hand exterior threads should be raised except
to keep the work level. The third treadle from the right raises the other
alternate lease or series of binder threads and the opposite side catch bar
when two are used, and also the exterior threads or those next the edges as the
last; and the fourth treadle from the right raises up all the stiff ground threads
and all the binders. Things being so disposed, I commence shooting a plain
with the body shuttle; I then bring on my silk tissue as plain for a certain
number of shoots, and whenever I think proper I commence making my figure
by pressing on and continuing to bear down the first left-foot or figure treadle,
and placing my tag or wire (when one is used), the whole of which treadles, as
I have before observed, are for the sole purpose of raising and keeping up the
figure tufts or branches, and are to be used as in the old and accustomed
The right-foot or body treadles above mentioned are now to be used
in regular succession from the right to the left, and although it is not material
whether the tissue shuttle or the body shuttle be thrown first after the tag or
wire is placed in the figure shade (when a tag or wire is made use of), yet I
would recommend, as the most regular mode, that the body shuttle be thrown
through the shade, produced by treading on the first or slack body treadle,
which, as above described, raises every thing except the stiff body threads and
the catch bar or bars before mentioned, immediately after the tag or wire is
inanner.

page_text: placed in the shade. I then release the first or slack body treadle, and imme-
diately after press on the first binder treadle, which is the second treadle from
the right, and which raises the first lease or series of binder threads and one
catch bar thread; keeping the left or figure shade still up, I then bring or throw on
my tissue by passing my silk or tissue shuttle through the shade so produced; I
then release the first binder treadle and press on the second binder treadle,
which raises the second lease or series of binder threads and the other catch bar,
when two are used; I then return the silk or tissue shutle, which, being done
while the left-foot treadle keeps the figure branches up, it is evident that the
two silk shoots which I have thus thrown will be underneath the tuft or
figure branches which were kept raised, and above the body threads which
are lying under them. I now release the second binder treadle, which is the
third from the outside (counting from the right), as well as the left-foot figure
treadle, and press down the fourth right-foot treadle, which raises the whole of
the stiff body threads and all the binders; and I now return the body shuttle
to the left side again through the shade so produced, which operation com-
pleats the fourth shoot to one tag, wire, or tuft, above spoken of, and effectually
ties or binds down such tuft or figure branches to the body of the work; and
as each tuft, whether raised by tag or without, forms a loop over the two silk
tissue shoots which have thus been thrown; the tissue face becomes in this way
held or sufficiently tied down to the body of the work, although otherwise it is
completely detached from it, except at the edges of the tissue. It cannot,
however, be separated without cutting away the tops of the figure tufts where
they occur, and likewise seperating it at the edges, at one of which it will be
held by a catch bar, and on the opposite side by the body shoot and other
catch bar if two are used. To continue the formation of my lace, nothing
more is necessary than to repeat the above operations, beginning by pressing
down the second left-foot trendle to raise the second shade of tuft or figure, as
in the old process, and at the same time to press down the first right-foot
treadle, and proceed regularly through with the right-foot treadles to the fourth,
observing to place the tag or wire when required, and to throw the shuttle or
shuttles at proper intervals, as before directed, and to change a left-foot treadle
after the tying down or compleating each tuft or tag as the figure may require;
and it is hardly necessary to state that the batten of the loom must be rised as
often as necessary to drive home the shoots, as in other processes of weaving.
The tissue face being thus produced by shoot from the shuttle instead of by
using warp, as for the lay, is protected from all that friction and wear to which
the lay warp was exposed in the former process of weaving livery lace and
conch lace, in consequence of which its appearance and brilliancy become much

page_text: improved; it can be made much finer, the figure can be shewn much more
distinctly, and better defined that on a lay, and the pattern and richness of
the tissue face can be varied at pleasure; on which last account, although the
above contains a true and faithful description of my improved mode or method
of weaving, making, and manufacturing livery lace and coach lace, it may be
necessary to introduce a few observations on the manner of varying the afore-
said tissue face, which I shall now do by way of conclusion.
The process above described will produce a plain face of tabby tissue upon
the body of my work, which will be wholly detached from it, except by the
tufts of tho figure and at the two edges of such tissue. If, however, I
am desirous of producing a four-treadle tweeled tissue face, also detached
from the body, instead of a plain tabby, as before described, I must then
employ four leases or series of binder threads instead of two, as in the former
process, and this will require two additional right-foot treadles to the loom
to work them, making a total of six treadles. These could not, however, bo
applied on account of the succession of operations necessary in the work
without obliging the workman to jump (as it is technically called) from one
treadle to another instead of taking them in that rotation which is essentially
necessary to the expedition of the work; and for avoiding errors in it I
should therefore in this case employ eight right-foot treadles instead of six,
by which the regular rotation will be again restored. Thus the first or extreme
right-foot treadle would perform the same office as above assigned to it, but
the next right-foot treadle, instead of raising every alternate binder thread,
would raise the first lease or series of binder threads and one catch bar thread;
the next or third right-foot treadle would raise the second lease or series of
binder threads, and the opposite catch bar when two are used. The next or
fourth treadle on the right, as before, would raise the stiff body warp and binder
threads; the fifth treadle would operate the same as the first; the sixth treadle
would raise the third lease or series of binder threads and the first catch bar
thread; the seventh treadle would raise the remaining part of the binder
threads, being the fourth lease or series, and the other catch bar thread when
two are used; and the eighth treadle would operate like the fourth, raising only
the stiff body warp and binder threads to compleat each tag, wire, or tuft, so
that the number of right-foot treadles must vary with the nature of the work,
their succession only changing as far as respects their operation upon the
binder thread, leases or series, in order to produce tweels, tabbies, or other
patterns or figures on the tissue face, which may be varied almost without
eud.

page_text: From the above description it is evident that the tissue face which I pro-
duce upon the livery lace and coach lace, made by my improved mode or
method, will appear almost wholly composed of shoot, since the binder threads
which form the tissue with the tissue shoot are very fine, and scarcely appear
except to give a plain tweel diamond tabby, wave, or other appearance to the
tissue face. It may be desireable, however, in some cases, to connect or tye
the tissue face above described either wholly or in part to the body or ground-
work of the lace, particularly where the figure or pattern is detached and
occasionally leaves off, or where no figure or pattern is made use of, by which
the tissue face might be held down as before described; and this I do by
so disposing my binder threads in the loom that the whole of them or any
one of them, or such part of them as I may think proper to select, may not
only be brought up, but also be left down with either the slack or stiff body;
and by thus disposing of them with such slack or stiff leases or extra binders
in a separate lease or leases, or in a bunch or bunches, as weavers term them;
with proper treadles attached to work them, I can tye or connect the tissue.
work by its binders, or such extra binders to the bodywork, in as many or as
few places as I may think proper or find necessary so to do.
In the above Specification I have described those processes which from
experience I conceive to be the best and most simple, and those which I
adopt and use. But a figure may also be raised' on a tissue face where two
or more tissue shoots are thrown by one or more shuttle or shuttles-under-cach
tuft of the figure branches, while the tissue face may be wholly or in any
part attached to the body of the work by the process of connecting the
binder threads or some of them with such body; and although two or more
tissue shoots are mentioned to pass under each tuft, yet I occasionally use
and employ one tissue shoot only under, and anotlier tissue shoot between,
each tag or tuft, which last tissue shoot I throw immediately after the stiff
ground body shoot, which binds down each tag or tuft, since I find very nearly
the same effect as to appearance may be produced by throwing the tissue
shoots in the manner last mentioned as when the two tissue shoots are made
to pass under each tag or tuft; and this mode of working does not require
any catch bar, and can be effected by three right-foot treadles as the least
number instead of four, as before mentioned, and with one lease or series of
binder threads, provided they are all attached to the body of the work,
though any figure can be produced in this particular kind of tissue by
additional leases of binder threads and treadles, and may be wholly or partially
attached by the means before described for producing other tissue figures.

page_text: But one tissue shoot only will not answer when the binders are wholly
attached to or interwoven with the body of the lace, on account of the coarse-
ness of its appearance; consequently I only use this mode when the binders
of the tissue are wholly detached or partially attached to it. And in all
the varieties of tissue figure which I bring upon the livery lace and coach
lace which I make and claim under my aforesaid Patent, the tissue shoot
or shoots pass under and assist in supporting the pile or tuft, and do not pass
entirely between or by the sides of the tufts, which injures the beauty of the
figures and the appearance of livery lace and coach lace so made. The chief
and characteristic quality, therefore of my Invention is my improved mode
or method of weaving, making and manufacturing of livery lace and coach
lace, by throwing or bringing on a tissue face of two or more shoots to a
tag or tuft with its binder threads wholly or in part attached to the body of
the work, or one or more shoot or shoots to a tag or tuft with the binder
threads wholly or partially detached from the body of the work, in such
manner as I may find most conducive to the perfection of the manufacture.
And although I have stated in the above discription of my improved mode or
method of weaving, making, and manufacturing of livery lace and coach lace
that all those threads which were formerly used to produce the lay in the old
process are to be left out, and the binders or binder threads only substituted
in their stead, yet I think it necessary to observe that my process of
producing a tissue instead of a lay face may be carried on with the old and
accustomed method of weaving a lay or ground in stripes or other figures of
lay or side lays with or without tufts, or tufts upon lay, in any part or parts
of the lace, as this can if desired be shewn and produced with and at the
same time as the tissue, and all that will be necessary will be for the weaver
to take care that the tissue work pass underneath such lay work, and docs not
appear upon the face except in the case of side lays, when the catch bar or
bars will intercept the tissue face as before described; and of course, when
lay work is to be so introduced, a sufficient number of lay warps must be run
into the loom in addition to the binder threads above described, and in such
place or places as the nature of the pattern of the lace may require.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Merscy, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
SAMUEL (L.S.) MERSCY, Jr.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of October, in the
year of our Lord 1817, the aforesaid Samuel Merscy came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventeen.