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 February
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:-
My Invention of improvements in the manufacture of elastic fabrics relates
to the employment (in the manufacture of 'such fabrics) of threads or yarns
composed of wool in combination with some other fibrous material such as
cotton, silk, flax, &c.
The object I have principally in view is the production of a fabric with a
surface resembling that of woollen cloth, to do which a woollen yarn must of
course be employed, but a yarn composed wholly of fine wool will not be of
sufficient strength to admit of being used as a warp thread in the usual way,
but 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
will be produced on the elastic fabric.
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 that the tension on the compound thread will be taken principally by the

page_text: cotton, silk, or worsted yarn, while the woollen yarn forms the principal part
of the surface. The compound threads or yarns, thus produced, are chiefly
intended to be used as warp threads, but they may sometimes be advan-
tageously 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. Elastic fabrics of any convenient widths may be made
with these compound threads in combination with strands of india-rubber.
For some purposes it may be convenient to cut up the wide fabric
iuito 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 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.