IM- PROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND PREPARING THREADS, CORDS, TWISTS, YARNS, STRANDS, PLAITS, STRINGS, OR OTHER MATERIALS, AND IN CONNECTING THEM WITH CERTAIN APPARATUSES FOR USE IN SEWING, STITCHING, AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE WINDERS OR REELS-ON WHICH THEY MAY BE PLACED, AND IN THE MODE OF PLACING THEM THEREON; ALSO IN TREATING AND PREPARING, AND PLACING, CON- NECTING, AND FASTENING TOGETHER TEXTILE AND OTHER FABRICS OR MATERIALS SO AS TO BE SEWN OR STITCHED OR OTHERWISE CONNECTED AND FASTENED TOGETHER ; ALSO IN THE MODE OF DOING SO, AND IN THE TEXTILE AND OTHER FABRICS THUS MANUFACTURED; ALSO IN THE MACHINERY OR OR APPARATUS CONNECTED OR, USED THEREWITH
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Pidding at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th October
1866.
I, WILLIAM PIDDING, of Cancel Street, Walworth, in the County of Surrey,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND PREPARING THREADS, CORDS, TWISTS, YARNS,
STRANDS, PLAITS, STRINGS, OR OTHER MATERIALS, AND IN CONNECTING THEM WITH
CERTAIN APPARATUSES FOR USE IN SEWING, STITCHING, AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND
IN THE WINDERS OR REELS-ON WHICH THEY MAY BE PLACED, AND IN THE MODE OF
PLACING THEM THEREON; ALSO IN TREATING AND PREPARING, AND PLACING, CON-
NECTING, AND FASTENING TOGETHER TEXTILE AND OTHER FABRICS OR MATERIALS SO
AS TO BE SEWN OR STITCHED OR OTHERWISE CONNECTED AND FASTENED TOGETHER ;
ALSO IN THE MODE OF DOING SO, AND IN THE TEXTILE AND OTHER FABRICS THUS
MANUFACTURED; ALSO IN THE MACHINERY OR OR APPARATUS CONNECTED OR, USED
THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
I knot, point, treat, and prepare, as will be herein-after described, convenient
lengths of threads, cords, twists, yarns, strands, plaits, strings, or other like
materials or fabrics, and wind them on reels or winders of any convenient
form, such having holes or indentations in them slightly larger than the
prepared points of thread or other materials or fabric, the needles and the
substitutes for needles and knots (to be herein-after described) which are to be
placed in them; these points I form by preparing one end of a thread in the
usual way by removal of a portion of the fibres composing it, such being bitten

page_text: or otherwise taken off, and after dipping it in starch, gelatine, gum, or com-
pound thereof, or other stiffening material, I twist, distend, and point it as is
usually done and allow it thus to dry; if necessary a coating of shellac or
resinous substance in solution can then be applied to the pointed thread or other
like material or fabric to increase its stiffness, and to render it less subject to
the effects of moisture in the atmosphere. When the solvent has evaporated
these pointed threads or other like material or fabric are either to be used to
facilitate and expedite the process of placing them through the eyes of needles,
or are to be used without needles by passing them through the holes in the
prepared fabrics, as will be herein-after described; or when the fabric is of
loose texture they are to be used by passing them through it in an unprepared
state. The stiffened ends can be rendered stronger and stiffer by means of any
appropriate material, a bristle, for instance, being passed longitudinally
through their centres; an apparatus like a needle, minus its eye, or even a
needle, can also be passed longitudinally through the centre of a thread or
other material whilst the stiffening material, as herein-before described, is in
an undried state. The points of needles or the substitutes for them named are
to extend beyond the fibrous material surrounding them, and I prefer that
such metallic apparatus shall be of less diameter where surrounded by the
fibres of the thread, strand, or other material, and that their points shall be
sometimes rounded or blunted, and such surrounding fibres can be further
secured to the apparatus by being wound or tied round it with a fine thread
or strand; this latter may be stiffened also with the materials herein-before
described. Pointed substitutes for needles can be made by dividing longitu-
dinally from their unpointed ends towards their points for a portion of their
lengths metallic (or other material) needle-like looking yet eyeless apparatuses,
such to be grooved or not in their centres so as to hold and retain therein
the points or ends of threads, strands, cords, strings, or like materials; such
metallic pointed threads or other materials are to be used for all the purposes
to which needles are now applied, and also in connection with the electro-
magnetic battery and apparatuses or common magnet, as herein-after described
or alluded to. I also thread ordinary needles, and after knotting such threads
or other materials I wind them on the winders or reels described, or on
cushions formed of two cards or other like flat material placed with their flat
surfaces nearly close together, and between whose surfaces I place any soft
or moveable, yielding, or loose material, such as fine sand-or metal filings,
dust, wool, or other fibres, or I wind such knotted thread with its attendant
needle or substitute therefor round any other form of cushion similarly stuffed,
and insert the needle or substitutes described for retention therein. until with-

page_text: drawn for use; such cushions in like manner and for like purposes I also use
for the metallic and other pointed and knotted threads herein-before described.
I sometimes divide the metallic or other substitutes for needles described into
two longitudinal halves, and after placing the ends of threads into their
centres I fasten them together by means of cement. After placing in any
convenient way oliaginous, resinous, or cementing substances, where required
for any purpose, on any textile or other fabric or material, I saturate it with
a stiffening material, and then perforate it where threads, yarns, or other
material is to pass through to hold, stitch, or to sew two or more pieces
together placed on each other or edge to edge, and sometimes on one or both
sides of another (each saturated as described) textile or other fabric or
material. I prefer the perforating apparatus being greased or coated with
wax, and I allow it to remain in the textile or other fabric or material until
it is dry. I prefer in cases where the threads are to hold the fabrics tight
together that that portion of the perforating apparatus which is to remain in
the prepared fabric until it is dry shall be angular, and that the point of an
angle thereof shall be placed nearest to the border of the fabric to be stitched
or sewn, so that when the stiffening material shall be removed by washing or
soaking it in water or other liquid, the thread or other material herein-before
described shall by the then unequal contraction of the textile or other fabric
or material, occasioned by the removal of the stiffening material, be rendered
the more binding. Sometimes I require the textile or other fabric or material
to be perforated in the manner and by the apparatus herein-before described
or alluded to through its entire breadth, such perforations commencing and
ending at its edges, such requirement being for the purpose of connecting
together by means of threads, strands, and other like materials passing through
and remaining in such perforations in numerous pieces of textile. or other
fabric or material placed edge to edge or side by side one or more cords of the
thread or other material; or the entire thread I prefer to be formed of caout-
chouc, balata, gutta percha, or compound, so that by means of heat and
-pressure such threads may adhere to the sides of the perforations, and thus
fasten together the angular, longitudinal, or other formed pieces of textile or other
fabric or material be such, even strings, threads, strands, cords, or like-formed
fabric or material placed longitudinally side by side whether perforated as
herein-before described, or not perforated.
+
I form apparatuses to guide threaded needles, their substitutes, and prepared
pointed threads, herein-before described, into and through the holes in the
prepared textile or other fabric or material, or through any unprepared and
unperforated material; some of such apparatuses will be similar in form to

page_text: numerous funnels (excepting openings therein to allow threads to pass through)
with. .very short necks placed or connected: together side by side; or, by pre-
ference, .I use but one funnel; and which I cause to move by machinery with
the hole in its neck exactly over the place. where the needle or its substitutes
described is to pass through or over each hole in the prepared, as described,
textile or other fabric or material; or I cause the fabric required. to be stitched
or sewn to be moved so that each succeeding hole in it shall be placed under
the neck of the funnel as stitched or sewn. I prefer to place and use the
apparatus described (as also other guiding apparatuses) on both sides of the
fabric to be operated on, so that operators or workers can either use both
hands in working, or that two or more can be engaged together in stitching
and sewing the same fabrics.
Another apparatus I shall use is an electro-magnetic battery in conjunction
(yet unconnected) with a perforated guard or guards, such being non-electric
or non-conductors of electricity; connected with the perforations are to be
divisions, but closed up, expect where the threaded needle, thread, or other.
material is required to pass through it; or perforations can be formed by
means of the guards described being formed with flat edges to fit each other,
and forming half perforations in each, so that when the two halves come together,
whether rotating or otherwise, I attract or repel by means of the electric
battery the threaded needles or the substitutes described, so as to cause them
to pass through the perforated and prepared or any other fabrics, and which
can be either drawn to their extreme unsewn or unstitched lengths by hand
or by machinery, the two guards described being caused to seperate when
necessary. I sometimes use the common magnet to attract the threaded
needles or their substitutes described, such being placed by hand or by
machinery on one side of any perforated, as described, textile or other fabric
or material, and the threaded needles or their substitutes described being
placed on the other side close to the perforations, and then drawn through by
machinery or by hand to the extreme length of the thread used. The pre-
pared pointed threads, strands, yarns, and other materials can chiefly be used
without needles or any metallic substitutes by passing them through the
perforations in the herein-before described textile or other fabrics or materials.
When wood, cane, or or other material is to be perforated for any thread, string,
cord, or other like formed fabric or material to pass through and connect and
fasten together, as described, I prefer to drill such perforations therein, and
in manufacturing glass fabrics I prefer that the divisional portions thereof,
with perforations therein, and with grooves at their sides or edges, (to have
placed therein threads, strings, or other like formed material to prevent two

page_text: or more pieces of glass grating together,) shall be cast in moulds, and I do the
like with any material capable of being melted or solidified. When fabrics
thus manufactured are to be walked on it will be desirable or necessary to
place under them some elastic or yielding material.
In my Complete Specification I shall shew Diagrams exemplifying the
machinery or apparatus herein described, written of, or alluded to.