IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham, and Jabez Topham,
all of St. Pierre les Calais, in the Empire of France, Lace Manufacturers,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Topham, Joseph
Topham, and Jabez Topham, at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 15th July 1861.
We, ALFRED TOPHAM, JOSEPH TOPHAM, and JABEZ TOPHAM, all of St.
Pierre les Calais, in the Empire of France, Lace Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF LACE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of lace.
For these purposes, in order that holes of any desired length may be produced
in lace which is being made in a lace machine, and that such holes may be
caused to be inclined to or be at angles to the back edge or the line of selvage
of a breadth or piece of lace, an extra thread or threads properly weighted is
or are used, which are caused to be linked in or attached to the lace which
is being made in the machine, and at a distance from the threads which for
the time being are producing the parts of the lace which bound or are next to
the part where a hole is being produced, and such extra thread or threads are

page_text: caused to link in with a bobbin or bobbin threads working or forming the sides
where the hole is being produced, by which a bias or drag is induced towards
the point where the extra thread, or the points where the extra threads
are attached, so that in place of the hole being made straight down in the lace,
the lace or fabric where the hole is being produced will be progressively dragged
by the extra thread or threads towards the point or points where it or they are
attached.
And in order that the hole should not be dragged open or expanded, and
to obtain at the sides of the hole an appearance of an internal purl by such
extra thread or threads, another extra thread is used as a lacing thread,
by which the two sides of the hole are drawn towards each other and produce
the appearance of an internal purl.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham, and Jabez Topham, in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th January 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALFRED
TOPHAM, JOSEPH TOPHAM, and JABEZ TOPHAM, all of St. Pierre les Calais, in
the Empire of France, Lace Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham, and Jabez Topham, Her special licence
that we, the said Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham, and Jabez Topham, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alfred
Topham, Joseph Topham, and Jabez Topham, our 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham,
and Jabez Topham, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and

page_text: 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 we, the said Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham, and
Jabez Topham, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say.:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of lace.
For these purposes, in order that holes of any desired length may be pro-
duced in lace which is being made in a lace machine, and that such holes may
be caused to be inclined to or be at angles to the back edge or the line of
selvage of a breadth or piece of lace, an extra thread or threads properly
weighted is or are used, which are caused to be linked in or attached to the
lace which is being made in the machine, and at a distance from the threads
which for the time being are producing the parts of the lace which bound or
are next to the part where a hole is being produced, and such extra thread or
threads are caused to link in with a bobbin or bobbin threads working or
forming the sides where the hole is being produced, by which a bias or drag is
induced towards the point where the extra thread or the points where the
extra threads are attached, so that in place of the hole being made straight
down in the lace, the lace or fabric where the hole is being produced will be
progressively dragged by the extra thread or threads towards the point or
points where it or they are attached.
And in order that the hole should not be dragged open or expanded, and to
obtain at the sides of the hole an appearance of an internal purl by such extra
thread or threads, another extra thread is used as a lacing thread, by which
the two sides of the hole are drawn towards each other and produce the appear-
ance of an internal purl.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same. The extra threads employed for
causing holes or sides of holes to be inclined or be at angles with the line of
selvage, or back edge of a breadth or piece of lace, as the same is being
produced on a twist lace machine, and which extra threads we call drag threads,
are carried by suitable extra guide bars, and these drag threads are weighted
in a suitable manner, so that upon their becoming attached to the lace-making
threads or tissue which bound or are next to a liole, to cause such side or part
of a hole to yield, or be dragged towards another point or part of the fabric
where these drag threads have previously been or are to be afterwards attached,
and which point or part of the fabric we call a point of resistance. These

page_text: points of resistance must be relatively opposite to and at a distance from and
in the direction towards which such parts or sides of the hole or holes may be
required to be dragged or inclined; thus a drag thread, after having been
attached or linked to a point of resistance at the time such is being produced
in the machine, is made to pass from thence and be attached to the part or side
of a hole required to be dragged or inclined, and which hole or part of a hole
is at the time being produced by the machine, and from thence the drag thread
is made to pass to another point of resistance, unto which it has in due time to
be also attached. These attachments or linkings being made to the bobbin
threads which at the time conjointly with their warps are producing the
meshes which form such point of resistance, or part of a hole at which such
linkings are effected. The drag threads thus becoming attached to and made
to pass alternately from a point of resistance to the part of a hole to be dragged
as the same is being progressively produced by the machine.
We would here observe that these drag threads may be used in a direction
so as to either compress or enlarge the parts of the tissue upon which they
may be made to act, and like lacing threads have to be drawn out or removed
from the lace or tissue when the same has been completed. In some instances
by reason of the character of a pattern to be produced, parts or sides of two
holes may be required to be dragged or inclined towards each other, although
these holes be not necessarily in the same breadth of lace, but may be in a
neighbouring breadth, in which case the drag thread or threads used for this
purpose, instead of passing from a point of resistance to a part of the hole to
be dragged, as heretofore described, may be attached to the part or side of one
of the holes required to be so dragged, and from thence made to pass and
become attached to the part or side of the other hole required to be dragged,
thus being attached to and alternately passing from the part or side of one hole
to the part or side of the other hole, and thereby causing such parts so
attached to yield or be inclined towards each other.
In some instances, in order to prevent the two sides of a hole being made
too far apart by reason of the drag thread or threads acting upon them, or with
a view to produce on the sides of such hole the appearance of an internal purl,
we use an additional thread as a lacing thread, which we cause to link in with
the bobbin threads alternately on each side of such hole at the parts desired to
be retained towards each other, or at the parts on the sides of such hole where
it may be desired to obtain the appearance of an internal purl, the bobbin
threads to which such lacing is effected being at the time conjointly with their
warps producing the meshes which form the sides of such hole. We would
however state that it is not new to employ a lacing thread for lacing together

page_text: the two sides of a hole when separately considered, but we use such extra
lacing thread to lace or retain together the two sides of a hole in conjunction
with a drag thread or threads used to divert the direction of such hole or side
of a hole as the same is being made by the machine, such lacing thread or
threads having to be removed from the lace or tissue after the same has been
completed.
In some instances a drag thread may also be used as a lacing thread, in
which case such drag thread having been attached to and made to pass from a
point of resistance to a part of the hole to be dragged, and having thus, as
heretofore described, performed the work of dragging on such part of the hole,
such drag thread may be then used to lace or retain together the two sides of
such hole in the manner we have heretofore described; and after having so
laced or retained together the two sides of such hole as the same is being
progressively made, such drag thread is made to pass from thence and become
attached to another point of resistance, thus performing the work of a drag
thread and lacing thread.
We would here remark that care must be taken in selecting suitable points
or parts in the tissues as points of resistance to which the drag threads have to
be linked to or attached, in order as little as may be injuriously to distort
important parts of the pattern or fabric by reason of such linkings or
attachments being made. With this object the part of the breadth near the
purl edge and betwixt the scollop will generally be found convenient, being
near the edges of two neighbouring breadths of lace, so that the same point of
resistance at this part may serve on to which to attach the drag threads used
to incline the holes or sides of holes in either breadth of lace that may be
required to be dragged or inclined towards this point, and by reason of the
drag threads used for so diverting such holes or sides of holes in the one
breadth passing to and from the same point of resistance, but in an opposite
direction to the drag threads used to incline to such point of resistance such
holes or parts of holes in the other breadth, the drag threads pull in two
opposite directions on the same part of the tissue, thereby neutralizing the
strain upon the tissue at this part. But however patterns may be required
to be made wherein the part we have described may not be available as a
point of resistance, such being the case, a workman will, however, readily
determine where, without injury to the fabric, the drag threads may be linked or
attached at a distance from. where the holes or sides of holes which they are used
to deflect are being made, and he will readily select, according to the pattern
of lace which is to be made, and the direction in which the holes are to be
diverted, the best point or points, either in the same breadth or in the neigh-

page_text: bouring breadth, on to which the drag thread may without injury to the fabric
be linked or attached.
By the means which we have described, holes which would otherwise be
made straight down the lace may be made to incline to the right hand or the
left hand, or parts or sides of such holes only may be made to so incline and
have a form imparted to them different to what they otherwise would have
if made in the ordinary manner without the use of these extra threads,
which we have called drag threads, used separately or in conjunction with
lacing threads.
In witness whereof, we, the said Alfred Topham, Joseph Topham, and
Jabez Topham, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Second
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-two.
ALFRED TOPHAM. (L.S.)
JOSEPH TOPHAM.
(L.S.)
JABEZ TOPHAM.
(L.S.)
ALFRED TOPHAM. (L.S.)
JOSEPH TOPHAM. (L.S.)
JABEZ TOPHAM.
(L.S.)