IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FABRICS BY BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE MACHINERY
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Crofts, of Lenton Terrace, Park Side,
Nottingham, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FABRICS BY BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE MACHINERY."
Sealed the 5th April 1859, and dated the 9th October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Crofts at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
October 1858.
I, WILLIAM CROFTS, of Lenton Terrace, Park Side, Nottingham, Manufac-
turer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FABRICS BY BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE MACHINERY," to
be as follows:-
The improvements relate, firstly, to so combining transverso weft threads,
working from selvage to selvage, with longitudinal bobbin and warp threads,
that strips or stripes of lace or other weavings may be made side by side
longitudinally of the piece or fabric; by the omission of some of those bobbin
or warp threads at intervals, the stripes, strips, or breadths being simply held
together by the transverse or horizontal weft threads, such fabrics may be
used as piece goods, or may be divided or cut into ribbons, strips, or wide
breadths or stripes, having fringed or serrated edges, by dividing or cutting
through or across the transverse weft threads.

page_text: Secondly, to producing the said stripes or strips at equal or unequal distances
apart across the width of the fabrics, and the pillars or meshes composing
such fabrics may be at equal or unequal distances likewise, and may be joined
together to make net or close figures or plaited fabrics when connected with
horizontal weft threads working from selvage to selvage.
Thirdly, the making of different meshes or open work longitudinally side by
side at equal or different distances, whether in piece goods, plain work, strips
or stripes or breadths, or to form checks in combination with transverse
weaving threads, working from selvage to selvage of the fabrics.
Fourthly, the making of zig-zag, angular, bent, or serpentine pillars or
meshes by the bobbins and warp threads being caused to travel or traverse
Such bent pillars, meshes, or
out of their ordinary straight lines or courses.
lace may work in opposite directions and from meshes, or may cross over each
other in any desired manner, working in conjunction with transverse or
horizontal weaving threads laid in from selvage to selvage of the fabric or
fabrics.
Fifthly, the employing different colored bobbin and warp threads working
longitudinally in any of the aforesaid fabrics when desired. Also to employing
different colors of weft threads, working horizontally from selvage to selvage
in the fabrics, when bobbin threads and warp threads are omitted, or places
left vacant; such weft threads may be omitted or changed at intervals when
desired to produce various ornamental or other weavings of the kind.
Sixthly, in manufacturing fabrics as before described, I cause some of the
parts of the weaving to be printed in various colored patterns, and in some
cases when employing additional warp threads passing over several carriage
and bobbin threads, as described in the Specification of Patent granted to
me on or about the 10th day of September 1857, I cause these additional
warp threads to be printed so as to form colored patterns when worked into
fabrics.
Seventhly, I produce veils, falls, or such like articles in what is commonly
called four-barred net, by causing threads to work transversely across such lace
or net at any desired distances, and also in that kind of lace or net called
traverse bobbin net lace.
In making these weavings the sheds are opened by the bobbin threads from
front to back and back to front of the warp threads, and open work may be
produced between stripes of net or weaving at intervals, whether in wide
fabric stripes, strips, or breadths.
In manufacturing any of these fabrics, various thicknesses of bobbin or
warp or transverse threads may be employed, and also thick threads for

page_text: ornamenting such fabrics; or otherwise, the weft threads may form the tops
and bottoms of the meshes occasionally, and the pillars may be composed of
any suitable number of threads, and may cross each other in any suitable
direction to form pillow net or close fabric. In some cases I employ
additional threads to hold or tie the pillars or strips together, to prevent them
from slipping, and in some cases I employ odd numbers of threads to form
pillars, as three bobbins to two warp threads, and the reverse or any suitable
number, and they may be twisted, plaited, or crossed in any suitable order, so
that at one time they may be making pillars, and at another plain or close
fabrics, as is well understood in the lace trade. And when using feelers or
instruments to control the stopping of the machine when using several
transverse weft threads across the fabric, as described in the Specification of
Patent granted to me on or about the 14th day of May 1856, I prefer to
employ one feeler to each weft thread, and of the character of what I call
droppers or fallers.
The threads that I employ may be of silk, cotton, wool, hair, linen, or any
other suitable material, and the fabrics may be used for antimacassars, window-
curtains, blinds, table-covers, shawls, scarfs, neck-ties, parasols, bed-curtains,
toilet-covers, or other trimmings, or for any other suitable purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Crofts in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th
April 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CROFTS, of Lenton Terrace, Park Side, Nottingham, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing- date the Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Crofts, Her special licence that I, the said William Crofts, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Crofts, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE

page_text: OF FABRICS BY BOBBIN NET OR TWIST LACE MACHINERY," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Crofts, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under 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
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Crofts, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
The improvements relate, firstly, to so combining transverse weft threads,,
working from selvage to selvage with longitudinal bobbin and warp threads
in bobbin net or twist lace machinery, that strips or stripes of lace or other
weavings may be made side by side longitudinally of the fabric. This I effect
by the omission of some of the bobbin and warp threads in series, at intervals
leaving series of the bobbin and warp threads to form stripes, strips, or
breadths, which are simply held together in the weaving by the transverse or
horizontal weft threads. Such fabrics may be used as piece goods, or may be
divided, or cut into ribbons, strips, or other breadths, or strips or breadths
having fringed or serrated edges may be obtained by dividing or cutting
through or across the transverse weft threads between the longitudinal strips
or stripes. These longitudinal stripes or strips may be produced at equal or
unequal distances apart across the width of the fabric, and the pillars or
meshes of such fabrics may also be at equal or unequal distances, according to
the varied effects desired to be produced; or the pillars may, when connected
with horizontal weft threads working from selvage to selvage, be caused to
diverge, and be joined together to make net or close figures or plaited fabrics.
I also form such fabric with the meshes or open work longitudinally thereof,
and side by side, of different form or character, at equal or different distances
apart, capable of forming checks in combination with transverse weaving
threads working from selvage to selvage of the fabric.
Also the improvements relate to forming fabric of the kind referred to with
the pattern or figure of a zig-zag or angular character, the pillars or meshes
being bent serpentine, zig-zag, or angular, by the bobbin and warp threads
forming such pillars or fabric whilst twisting with each other, being caused to
travel or traverse out of their ordinary straight lines or courses, and being held
together, when desired, by passing through other warp threads. Such pillars

page_text: or fabric so bent may, when in double tier, work in opposite directions, and
form meshes, or may cross over each other and twist or weave together, in any
desired manner, working, when desired, in conjunction with the transverse or
horizontal weaving threads laid in from selvage to selvage of the fabric or
fabrics. Such variations in the forms of the meshes by the pillars or fabric
will be produced by suitable traverses in a direction from end to end of the
machine, given at the times desired to the bobbin or warp threads, or both of
them, in addition to the motions required for obtaining simply the twisting or
weaving of the pillars, and when such bobbin or warp threads in series are so
arranged in two sets or tiers, one set may be arranged to form the zig-zag.
or bent meshes or fabric referred to, whilst the other set is in weaving with
them, simply working straight down. When forming such fabric in breadths,
it may be formed with purl. The double-tier machinery I prefer to employ
is that called fluted bar or roller locker. When other double-tier is used,
suitable turn-agains will be adapted.
The bobbin and warp threads working longitudinally in any of the aforesaid
fabrics, may, when desired, be of different colors. The weft threads working
horizontally from selvage to selvage in the fabrics in conjunction with bobbin
and warp threads of different colors, may also be of different colors. When
bobbin and warp threads are omitted, or places are left vacant, such weft
threads may be omitted or changed at intervals when desired to produce
various ornamental or other weavings.
In manufacturing fabrics of the character described, I sometimes cause
some of the parts of the weaving to be printed in various colored patterns.
And, in some cases, when employing additional warp threads passing over
several carriage and bobbin threads, as described in the Specification of Patent
granted to me on or about the 10th day September 1857, I cause these
additional warp threads to be printed, so as to form colored patterns when
worked into fabrics. Veils, falls, or other articles may be produced in what
are commonly called four-barred net by the introduction of weft threads, such
as referred to, and omitting the ordinary crossing, and substituting tabby or
twisted weavings, They may also be produced in that kind of lace or net
called traverse bobbin net lace by the introduction of such weft, and omitting
traversing of the carriages, so as to produce tabby or twisted weaving, or other
devices during the omission of the traversing of the carriages.
In producing these weavings, the sheds for the weft threads are opened by
the bobbin threads from front to back, and back to front of the warp threads.
Open work may be produced between stripes of net or weaving at intervals,
whether in wide fabric, stripes, strips, or breadths.

page_text: In manufacturing these fabrics, various thicknesses of bobbin or warp or
transverse threads may be employed, as may also thick threads for ornamenting
purposes, or otherwise; the weft threads may form the tops and bottoms of
the meshes occasionally, and the pillars may be composed of any suitable
number of threads, and may cross each other in any suitable direction to form
pillars, net, or close fabric.
In working according to these improvements, I find it desirable to arrange
the motions of the machine, so that they may work at two different speeds, or
that one part thereof may for a time be suspended, in order to employ slow
motions or pauses during the laying in of weft. And this I effect by
preference by arrangements of jacquard or transposable pattern surface, such
as are well understood in what are called "spotting machines."
In some cases I employ additional threads, to hold or tie the pillars or strips
together, to prevent them from slipping, and in some cases I employ odd
numbers of threads to form pillars, as three bobbins to two warp threads, and
the reverse, or any suitable number, and they may be twisted, plaited, or
crossed, in any suitable order, so that at one time they may be making pillars,
and at another plain or close fabrics, as is well understood in the lace trade.
When using feelers or instruments to control the stopping of the machine, and
using several transverse weft threads across the fabric, as described in the
Specification of Patent granted to me on or about the 14th day of May 1856,
I prefer to employ one feeler to each weft thread, and of the character of what
I call droppers or fallers. The threads that I employ may be of silk, cotton,
wool, hair, linen, or other suitable material. And the fabrics made may be used
for antimacassars, window-curtains, blinds, table-covers, shawls, scarfs, neck-
ties, parasol-covers, bed-curtains, toilet-covers, or other trimmings, or for any
other suitable purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Crofts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
WILLIAM BROOKES,
73, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agent.
WM. CROFTS. (L.S.)