IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR UNITING LACE TO BLOND AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Wheatcroft at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th November
1858.
I, SAMUEL WHEATCROFT, of Brudenell Place, New North Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR UNITING LACE TO BLOND AND OTHER
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improved apparatus for connecting, by means of
gummy or glutinous matters, lace, blond, or other materials together, mainly
for the purpose of making ladies' cap fronts. In order to connect two fabrics
together, say, lace and blond, so that the edge of one fabric shall lap over the
edge of the other, I pass these fabrics over a narrow roller which is supplied
with water by dipping into a trough containing the same, or revolving in
contact with a feed roller or band similarly situated.
The fabrics in passing over this roller become wet on their edges, and the
The
stiffening material with which they are dressed is thereby dissolved.
fabrics then pass between metal guides, which have a lateral adjustment to
suit different widths of fabric, and after passing out from these guides they are
led between one or more pairs of pressing rollers, which press the fabrics
together, causing them to join with a width of lap that is determined by the
adjustment of the guides. Beneath these pressing rollers a heating box
is provided, fitted with gas jets or otherwise, so that at the moment of
pressing the fabrics together, the rollers will also act as drying rollers, and

page_text: deliver the joined fabric in a state fit for use. The rollers are geared
together, so that by turning a winch handle the fabrics may be passed through
the machine and moistened at their edges, joined, and dried at one operation.
In order to insert lace or other fabric into bands, the lace after being
goffered, is placed in given lengths in a machine, which will cause the creased
band that has been previously moistened to close upon it, and adhere firmly
thereto. For this purpose I provide an octagonal or other suitably shaped
drum, which I mount in bearings, and I introduce a gas jet within the drum
for the purpose of heating it. On each face of the drum, and extending
nearly from end to end thereof, I mount a fixed and a sliding bar, both being
parallel to the drum's axis.
The sliding bar I connect to a pair of coiled springs, which will retain it in
its normal position, and on the drum face I also mount a cam or excentric,
which on being turned will press up the sliding bar towards the fixed bar, and
cause the two to nip any fabric that may be placed between them.
The cap band folded in the ordinary way, and moistened on its inner side
with water, is placed between the bars on the uppermost face of the drum, and
the lace to be inserted therein is brought in a book or clamp of well-known
construction, with its joining edge projecting therefrom and applied to the
band; the cam is then caused to press up the sliding bar, which will cause the
band to close on the inserted fabric and adhere thereto. The drum is then
turned to bring up another face, and the like operation is repeated, and so on
until all the faces are charged, by which time the moistened dressing of the
bands first joined will have had time to set, and all the bands may, in succes-
sion, be released from the grip of the pressing bars.