X. Kenworthy's Improvements in Looms; Sellers' ditto;

Perry and Daft's Elastic Bands; and Smith's Machinery for Shaping Hats.

XI. Wallerand's Machinery for Dyeing; and Woodin's Improvements in Horse-shoes.

XII. Middleton's Machinery for Moulding Fuel, Bricks, &c.; Nickels' Improvements in Manufacturing Elastic Webs; and Dixon's Improvements in Blast Furnaces.

XIII. Schnebly's Improved Printing Machinery; Russell and Peter's Improvements in Spinning; and Williames' Furnace for Making Artificial Stone.

XIV. Champion's Apparatus for Revivifying Animal Charcoal; Shepherd's Improvements in Calico Printing; Hick's Machine for Cleaning Grain; Ivers' Improved Flyer; and Woodcroft's Improvements in Propelling.

XV. Faulkner's Improved Carding Engine; and Mc Intosh's Improvements in Calico Printing.

XVI. Haworth's Steam-engines; Newton's Improved Forge Hammer; Murdoch's Apparatus for Making Gas; and Loach's Improvements in Cork-screws and Taps. XVII. Jordan's Improved Machinery for Cutting and Carving. XVIII. Diggle's Improvements in Looms; Simpson and Seddon's Ovens for Burning China and Earthenware; and Naylor's Improved Clod Crusher.

THE

LONDON JOURNAL,

AND

REPERTORY

OF

Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures.

CONJOINED SERIES.

No. CLXIV.

RECENT PATENTS.

To THOMAS UNSWORTH, of Derby, silk weaver, for his invention of an improved manufacture of elastic fabric.— [Sealed 2nd November, 1844.]

THIS improved manufacture of elastic fabric is designed to produce ornamental elastic articles of silk (and other fibrous materials, if required), having velvet surfaces, or portions of velvet or plush; that is, a pile on one or both faces of the fabric; the ground being of any of the ordinary kinds of wovenwork, twist-work, or gauze-work, and the velvet or pile wrought in or upon the ground, in stripes, or various devices or patterns. It is proposed, also, to introduce occasionally into the ground work, and also into the velvet, embroidered figures or devices of gold, silver, or colors; and into the fabric are worked either elastic cords or wire springs, or strands of India-rubber, either covered or uncovered with any filamentous materials the India-rubber, after the fabric is finished, may be rendered elastic by heat, in the ordinary way.

This fabric may have open edges of net-work, of any kind or form of meshes or interstices, with fancy work wrought in the net. The goods, when finished, are intended for frills or plaited bands, collars, flounces, fringes, and other ornamental trimmings, principally for ladies' dresses; the fabric being puckered, plaited, or drawn up into flutes, by the intro

VOL. XXVII.

A

duction of elastic cords, inserted in loops, or by strands woven into the material, as above stated.

This fabric is produced in an ordinary loom, furnished with the several kinds of warps suited to the work to be made, of silk or other materials, and suitable kinds of weft are to be shot in during the weaving, consisting of threads or cords of gold, silver, and colored silks, according to the desired pattern. For making the velvet or pile parts, wire may be introduced into the work, as usual; or any of the other known modes of raising loops and pile may be had recourse to.

A draw-boy is to act upon the figuring harness of the loom, or some of the modifications of the Jacquard may be employed. The warp for the net-work, tatting, gauze, or other fringe, on the edges, is to be of double or single threads and cords; and those parts of the warp intended to make these edgings must be crossed, in order to get the tie of each mesh.

In order to describe the operations requisite for carrying out the invention, several views are shewn, of an ordinary loom, with an arrangement of parts capable of producing the improved fabrics.

In Plate I., fig. 1, is an elevation of the front of a loom so arranged; fig. 2, is a side elevation of the same; and fig. 3, a horizontal section, shewing the warp-beams. A, A, are the standards of the loom; B, the lathe or batten; c, the headles or harness; D, the beam on which the yarns to constitute the main portions of the warp or ground of the fabric are wound; E, is the beam containing the threads for producing the warps of the gauze or net; F, is the beam which carries the India-rubber (where that is employed to form the elastic strands); G, G, are beams for carrying the threads or yarns which produce the pile; H, is the beam for carrying the fancy yarns to be acted upon by a Jacquard; 1, is the rackwheel, fixed on the end of the breast-beam, gearing into a train of wheels, communicating, by rods, with the treadle K, by which the work, as it is woven, becomes gradually wound upon the beam. The several headles of the harness are connected to their respective warps in the ordinary way, according to the kind of work intended to be made.

The three headles a, b, and m, (see fig. 2,) are intended to operate upon the gauze or net-yarns of the beam E; the headle c, works the India-rubber yarn from the beam F; the headles d, e, act upon the pile-yarns, from the beams G, G; and the headles f, g, h, i, work the ground-warps from the beam D. The headle k, acts counter to a, and m, and the headle l, to b, in operating the gauze-warps. All of which headles are connected to, and actuated by, the several treadles at bottom. The fancy warps, from the beam н, are intended to be worked by hand, by a draw-boy, or by a mounture (not shewn), in connection with the Jacquard.

The work is made by the use of two shuttles, or three, in the event of introducing satin figures with the velvet figures. These shuttles are placed in the moveable boxes L, L, which are raised and depressed, when so required, by the ordinary means known to weavers.

In producing work having a double pile, the headles a, and m, are first depressed, and the headle b, raised, for opening the shed of the gauze-threads; the India-rubber warp is also depressed, by sinking the headle c; and at the same time the two headles d, e, are depressed, in order to throw the pile-yarns below; half of the ground-warps are likewise, at this time, thrown below, and the other half above, by depressing the headles g, i, and raising f, h. The weft-thread is then thrown across by the binding-shuttle, and the batten beats up the work. In the second operation, the actions of all the above-mentioned headles are reversed, except that of the India-rubber c, which again opens the shed of the warps; the weft is then thrown across and back again by the same shuttle, and beaten up as before. At the third opening of the sheds, the headles a, m, are raised, and the headle b, depressed, as in the first operation; the India-rubber is brought up, by raising the headle c; and the pile-headles d, e, are depressed. Of the ground-headles, f, g, h, are raised, and i, sunk, and then the weft is to be thrown across by the same shuttle, which will bind the India-rubber strands to the back of the work.

At the fourth operation, the headles of the pile-warps d, e, are raised, and all the other warps depressed; the wires

for forming the loops of the pile, are then introduced. The fifth operation is effected by sinking the headles a, and m, and raising b, and depressing the India-rubber warp, and also the pile-warps, by sinking the headles c, d, e; the ground-warps are divided, as in the first opening; and the weft is thrown across by the same shuttle, and then beaten up. In the sixth operation, the headles a, and m, are to be raised, and b, and c, depressed, and the pile-headles d, e, raised; the ground-warps are also to be divided, raising g, i, and sinking f, h; the weft is then thrown by the same shuttle, and beaten up. At the seventh opening of the sheds, the headles a, m, are to be raised, and b, and c, depressed; the headles d, e, are also depressed, and f, h, raised, and g, i, are likewise depressed; the weft is thrown from the same shuttle, and beaten up as before. In the eighth opening of the sheds, the whole of the headles are raised, except d, e, which are depressed; the shuttle-box L, is then raised, and the shuttle that carries a coarser temporary thread, as a substitute for a wire, is brought into operation. This thread is then thrown across as a weft, but is to be ultimately drawn out, or cut out, according to whether terry or pile are required—the work is then beaten up. At the ninth opening of the sheds, the headles d, e, are raised, and all the others depressed; then a wire is introduced between the open sheds, to make the loops of the pile, as before; which is then beaten up, and the course is completed. At the tenth opening of the sheds, the wire is bound in by raising and depressing the headles, as stated in the first operation, and the weaving proceeds in the order described.

In conclusion, the patentee states, that "this is a series of operations of the loom, as arranged in the drawings, which, if carried out as stated, will produce the work I call my improved fabric; but it must be understood, that I do not confine myself to this precise series of movements, as different weavers may think proper to arrange the warps, and connect them to the several headles in another order, to effect the same work. It is therefore to be understood, that I have only pointed out one mode of arrangement by which my object may be effected; intending to avail myself of any