IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AND THE METHOD OF PRODUCING THE DRAFTS OF DESIGNS FOR LACE, WOVEN, LOOPED, AND OTHER FABRICS."
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Richardson, of the Town and County of the Town
of Nottingham, and John Slack, of Radford, in the County of Nottingham,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AND THE METHOD
OF PRODUCING THE DRAFTS OF DESIGNS FOR LACE, WOVEN, LOOPED, AND
OTHER FABRICS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Richardson and
John Slack at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th December
1877.
26
WILLIAM RICHARDSON, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
and JOHN SLACK, of Radford, in the County of Nottinghain. IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR AND THE METHOD OF PRODUCING THE DRAFTS OF DESIGNS FOR
LACE, WOVEN, LOOPED, AND OTHER FABRICS."
The apparatus we employ consists,-
Firstly. Of a pair of frames, the sides of each of which are capable of adjustment
at any angle; the vertical sides of one frame carry the ends of wires or threads
capable of being placed at the same or at various distances apart; these wires or
threads by means of the rocking sides of the frame may be kept in an horizontal
position, or they may be placed at any angle required; the horizontal sides of the
other frame carry the the ends of wires or threads capable of adjustment to the same,
or at various distances vertically, or at any angle required.
Instead of the frames above described other equivalent means may be employed
to stretch both sets of wires or threads, and adjust them horizontally, vertically,
or at any required angle and distance from each other.
Secondly. We employ the apparatus, chemicals, and methods used by photo-
graphers to obtain reduced or enlarged copies of designs.
Thirdly. We employ one or more series of stencil plates capable of producing the
Panon Bd77

page_text: draft required to represent a portion of a net, mesh, ground, or ornament of the
required point, guage, number, pillar, weft, wale, or course.
Suppose we wish to make an enlarged draft of a lace curtain design, we proceed
as follows: We place the design in front of the photographic apparatus so as to
obtain an enlargement the size required, and in front of the design we place the
frame carrying vertical wires or threads to represent the threads forming the
pillars, and close to such wires or threads we place the horizontal wires or threads
carried by their frame to represent the threads which tie the pillars together or
the threads forming the tops and bottoms of the holes of the net ground, a photo-
graph being then taken will represent the pattern upon a draft paper of the required
size and proper guage. We then take such photograph and employ one or other
of the stencil plates above described to produce where required one or more other
drafts of nets or grounds, differing from the main ground, and when requisite tick
-in with colour by hand such parts as cannot conveniently be covered by the stencil
plates. By such means we are enabled to obtain a design upon a paper drafted to
any guage or size required.
When other than lace designs are required to be drafted on a design for a woven
fabric the vertical wires or threads employed in front of such design will when
photographed represent the warp, and the horizontal lines the weft threads; and
on a design for a looped fabric the vertical wires or threads will represent the
wales, and the horizontal wires or threads the courses of the fabric. By such means
we are enabled to 'produce at once a design accurately diafted upon a net, mesh,
or ground of any guage or size required, thus saving a considerable time and
expense in producing the draft of the design.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Richardson and John Slack in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th May 1878.
WILLIAM RICHARDSON, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
and JOHN SLACK, of Radford, in the County of Nottingham. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR AND THE METHOD OF PRODUCING THE DRAFTS OF DESIGNS FOR
LACE, WOVEN, LOOPED, AND OTHER FABRICS."
The apparatus we employ consists,―
Firstly Of a pair of frames, the sides of each of which are capable of adjustment
at any angle, the vertical sides of one frame carry the ends of wires or threads
capable of being placed at the same or at various distances apart; these wires or
threads by means of the rocking sides of the frame may be kept in an horizontal
position, or they may be placed at any angle required; the horizontal sides of the
other frame carry the ends of wires or threads capable of adjustment to the same,
or at various distances vertically, or at any angle required.
Instead of the frames above described other equivalent means may be employed
to stretch both sets of wires or threads, and adjust them horizontally, vertically, or
at any required angle and distance from each other.
Secondly. We employ the apparatus, chemicals, and methods used by photo-
graphers to obtain reduced or enlarged copies of designs.
Thirdly. We employ one or more series of stencil plates capable of producing the
draft required to represent a portion of a net, mesh, ground, or ornament of the
required point, gauge, number, pillar, weft, wale, or course.
Suppose we wish to make an enlarged draft of a lace curtain design, we proceed
as follows:-We place the design in front of the photographic apparatus so as to
obtain an enlargement the size required, and in front of the design we place the
frame carrying vertical wires or threads to represent the threads forming the
pillars, and close to such wires or threads we place the horizontal wires or threads
carried by their frame, to represent the threads which tie the pillars together or
the threads forming the tops and bottoms of the holes of the net ground, a photo-
graph being then taken will represent the pattern upon a draft paper of the
required size and proper gauge. We then take such photograph and employ one
or other of the stencil plates above described to produce where required one or
more other drafts of nets or grounds differing from the main grounds, and when
requisite craze or tick in with colour by hand such parts as cannot conveniently be
covered by the stencil plates. By such means we are enabled to obtain a design
upon a paper drafted to any gauge or size required.
When other than lace designs are required to be drafted on a design for a woven
fabric the vertical wires or threads employed in front of such design will, when
photographed, represent the warp and the horizontal lines the weft threads. And
on a design for a looped fabric the vertical wires or threads will represent the wales
and the horizontal wires or threads the courses of the fabric By such means we
are enabled to produce at once a design accurately drafted upon a net, mesh, or
ground of any gauge or size required, thus saving a considerable time and expense
in producing the draft of the design.
In carrying out our improvements we employ frames of various sizes according
to the design to be copied and drafted; each frame is made of strong well-seasoned
timber to prevent warping, a corner B of one such frame is shown in Figure 4; the
upper and lower sides of each frame has a perforated bar O secured to it by screws
or their equivalent, and the vertical sides of each frame have other perforated bars
D secured to them, each bar being nearly the length of the side of the frame
employed. The bars are what are known in the lace trade as perforated steel bars,
the perforations in which will vary in gauge according to the gauge of the equi-
valent to the draft paper required to be produced. The vertical sides of the frame

page_text: carry the ends of wires or threads D¹, secured in the perforation of the bars D; the
horizontal sides of the frame carry the ends of other wires or threads C', secured in
the perforations of the bars C. The wires or threads, shewn at Figure 4, have
every twelfth vertical, and every tenth horizontal wire or thread, somewhat thicker
than the intermediate wires or threads; such lines, if on draft paper, would form
what is called a 12 by 10 draft paper. So that by employing suitably perforated
steel bars, and providing the perforations with wires or threads, a representation of
any gauge may be readily made. In addition to the perforated steel bars above
named we employ other series of vertical wires or narrow bars E, F, E, shewn
separately in side view at Figure 6; each of the bars F are perforated near one]
edge to any gauge required, and narrower bars E, E, not perforated, are rivetted or
soldered one upon each side of the perforated bars; when so joined the three bars
appear as shewn at Figure 7, which is an edge view. Two or more of these com-
bined bars have their upper and lower ends placed in slots in the horizontal sides of
a frame B, and are secured therein at the back of the thickest of the wires or 1
threads O; when in position the outer narrow bars E form supports for the edges
of one or more thin metallic stencil plates, each of which has a lip formed on two
of its edges from which there are several projections, one such projection being
shewn in plan on each lip at Figure 54, a front view of one stencil plate being
shewn at Figure 5; one or more of the projections on each lip engage in one or
other of the perforations in the bars F, thus serving to keep the stencil plates in
position. Such stencil plates we employ to produce, where required, one or more
other drafts of nets or grounds, differing from the main ground, and when requisite
either erase portions or tick in with colour by hand such parts as cannot be con-
veniently covered by the stencil plates after the draft is developed.
The stencil plates vary in length and width, each series of any number being of
the pattern required according to the spot, sprig, net, ground, or mesh desired to be
represented on the draft.
Having provided ourselves with the above-described apparatus, suppose we wish
to make an enlarged draft of a lace curtain design, and the centre or other part
thereof is represented at Figure 1, we proceed as follows:-We take the design as
a whole or in parts, and produce a photographic negative reduced, of which Figure 2
is a representation reversed, that is to say, the dark portions are transparent and
the light portions are opaque We then place such negative in apparatus specially
adapted to produce the enlargement required, consisting of a powerful double lense,
such as is employed in an ordinary magic lantern, or its equivalent, and throw the
image of the negative upon a sheet of chemically prepared paper by means of a
powerful natural or artificial light, having previously placed a frame B, provided
with wires or threads arranged to the required gauge and the stencil plates imme-
diately in front of the chemically prepared paper, the light from the lense passing 4
through which places the image of the design, the wires or threads, and stencil
plates upon such paper, which is left submitted to the action of the light the requisite
time, and is then developed in the usual way well known to photographers, thus
producing at once the design enlarged to the size required accurately drafted upon
a net, mesh, or ground of any gauge or size required, as represented at Figure 3,
the opaque portions of the design at A, A, being distinguished by horizontal lines
intermediately of the representation of the lines of the draft paper, the light
portions of the draft being of a lighter shade, the lines in Figure 3 being reversed,
remaining nearly white.
Should we wish to reverse the pattern we employ what is known by photo-
graphers as a transparent plate for a negative, the reflection from which will
produce Figure 3 with the opaque parts white and the white parts opaque.
When other than lace designs are required to be drafted. On a design for a woven
fabric, the vertical wires or threads employed will when photographed represent
the warp, and the horizontal wires or threads the weft threads. And on a design
for a looped fabric the vertical wires or threads will represent the wales and the
horizontal wires or threads the courses of the fabric. By such means we are enabled

page_text: to produce at once a design reduced or enlarged and accurately drafted upon a net,
mesh, or ground of any gauge or size required, thus saving a considerable timo
and expense in producing the draft of the design.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same may be performed, we declare that we claim,-
First. For the apparatus for and the method of producing a representation of
any draft paper either with or without a pattern or design thereon.
Second For the employment of perforited steel bars to carry wires or threads,
for the purpose of representing the lines upon draft paper.
Third. For the combination and employment of one or more perforated bars, enchi
with two plain bars, to form a support for one or more stencil plates, the whole
substantially as hetein-before described, and illustrated by the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Richardson and John Slack, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-soventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-oight.
Witness,
H. W. GOUGH, C.E.,
Nottingham.
WILLIAM RICHARDSON. (L.S.)
JOHN SLACK.
(L.S.)