IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF ELASTIC FABRICS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Archibald Turner at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th March
1859.
I, ARCHIBALD TURNER, of Leicester, Elastic Web Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF ELASTIC FABRICS," to be as follows:-
The object I have principally in view in my Invention of improvements in
the manufacture of elastic fabrics, is the production of a fabric with a surface
resembling that of woollen cloth, to do which woollen yarns are usually
employed, but yarns composed wholly of fine wool will not be of sufficient
strength to admit of being used as warp threads in the usual way. I have
discovered that by doubling or twisting together a fine yarn of cotton, silk,
flax, worsted, or other suitable fibrous material with another yarn of fine wool
I can obtain the requisite strength to admit of the yarn being used with
facility as a warp, and at the same time owing to the fineness of the wool
employed in making the compound yarns a good woollen surface may be
produced on the elastic fabric.
The first part of my Invention therefore consists in the employment of
threads or yarns composed of wool in combination with some other fibrous
material, such as silk, cotton, flax, &c.
In doubling or twisting the materials. together to produce the compound
yarn I prefer that the fine woollen yarn should be laid on slack while the fine
yarn of cotton, silk, worsted, flax, or other fibrous material is kept tighter, so

page_text: that the tension on the compound thread will be taken principally by the
cotton, silk, or worsted yarn, while the woollen yarn will form the principal
part of the surfaco. The compound threads or yarns thus produced are
chiefly intended to be used as warp threads, but they may be sometimes
advantageously employed as weft. Instead of producing the compound thread
by doubling or twisting the two yarns together, a compound thread may be
produced by covering silk, cotton, flax, or other thread with a fine woollen
yarn by whipping the latter round the former, which would. form the centre of
the compound thread, and thereby would take all the strain.
Another mode of producing a thread or yarn composed partly of cotton and
partly of wool, consists in mixing the two materials or fibrous substances together
in such proportions as may be found suitable, and working these materials up in
combination in some of the preparatory processes previous to spinning the fibres
into a yarn, such as carding or combing the two fibrous substances together
so as to intimately blend or intermingle the fibres, a yarn or thread is then
spun in the ordinary manner from the combined materials, and this yarn may
be used either as warp or weft, and be worked up into a fabric. Elastic
fabrics of any convenient widths may be made with these or either of these
compound threads in combination with strands of india-rubber.
Another mode of making an elastic fabric with a woollen face or surface
consists in employing an ordinary woollen weft in combination with cotton or
other warp threads and india-rubber strands. The pile or surface of the
cloth is produced from the woollen weft, but I do not consider this mode of
making the fabric is so useful as when the pile or surface is obtained from the
warp threads.
The next part of my Invention consists in dressing and finishing elastic
fabrics made of woollen, or partly of woollen yarns, in combination with india-
rubber strands, either by the plans herein set forth or by any other process
whereby an elastic fabric may be made.
By the carding, brushing, dressing, cutting, and other processes well-known
to woollen cloth manufacturers the elastic fabrics may be so dressed and
finished as to have a face pile or surface resembling that of woollen cloth,
while the fabric will possess an amount of elasticity considerably greater than
that of woollen cloth made in the ordinary way. For some purposes it may
be convenient to cut up the wide fabric into narrow strips of such width as may
be required for use. When this is the case the edges of the narrow widths or
strips should be. bound so as to prevent the fabric from ravelling out. My
next improvement, therefore, consists in binding the edges of these narrow
widths or strips with ribbon or tape which must be sewed on by means of a

page_text: sewing machine, while the elastic fabric is kept extended or stretched. The
fabric to be produced from the compound threads, which form the first part of
my Invention, is intended to be employed more particularly for the fronts
of ladies' and gentlemen's boots, and I therefore propose to cut from the piece
of fabric pieces of the required form or shape, and then bind with ribbon or
tape (sewed on by a sewing machine) such of the edges of these pieces as may
require such protection.