US1075206A - Method of preserving textile articles. - Google Patents

Description

A. FOWLER.

METHOD OF PRESERVING TEXTILE ARTICLES.

' APPLICATION FILED FEB. 1, 1913.

Patented 0013.7, 1913.

l/V/T/VESSES COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH cu 'ASHINGTON, n. c.

more s AMELIA FOVTLER, or BOSTON,

IMASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF PRESERVING TEXTILE ARTICLES.

Application filed February 1, 1913.

1 b all whom it may concern Be it known that I, AMELIA FOWLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, county of Suffolk, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Preserving Textile Articles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the preservation of textile articles and particularly to such articles as flags, standards, emblems, and the like, of which the historical value makes their preservation a patriotic necessity as well as a sacred duty.

This country was a pioneer in the adoption of a flag of strictly national character and any invention regarding such preservation must be considered as a matter of the greatest importance, even though, as in the present case, the invention be capable of application to matters less important from the highest consideration. In discussing my invention, I shall therefore devote the most particularly to the art of flag preservation.

As there are none today who can be described as skilled in the art, save the few assistants trained in my own work, I shall endeavor herein to make my disclosure so full and complete as to require for the practice of my invention, only that mechanical skill which the needle worker may have acquired in other lines, although, of course, there may be advantageously added to such skill whatever artistic ability the worker may possess.

Battle flags and like articles, being of textile fabric, and usually of silk or silk and mixtures, are particularly liable to damage. Aside from the destructive experience of campaigns, the flag is liable to even more serious damage by the ravages of time. The draping of a flag, which permits it to hang with one part drawing upon another, brings a very considerable strain on the fabric. This causes a disintegration of the fabric, and a pulling apart of the threads, which sooner or later, must snap those upon which the greatest strain comes.

In those flags, which I have already been called upon to restore or preserve by my invention, I have found many flags of one hundred years of age and some of very much less age, which have practically shredded themselves asunder, and have been re duced to a literal state of rags. To pre- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented (Pet. '7, 1913.

Serial No. 745,588.

serve such rags, so that there may be some certainty of their transmission to pos terity, it is necessary that all. of these tatters of fabric be brought into their proper position and relation and there retained. It is obvious that such a relic as a battle flag must be retained in its condition even though that condition be one of great injury and disfigurement. Frequently, the very disfigurement is, in itself, a matter of historic value. It has, therefore, been one of my problems in the preservation of flags, to prepare and preserve them in as nearly exactly their true historic condition at the time I receive them as is possible.

Another difficulty which has to be anticipated, is that of the medium by which the flag itself is to be protected. In all flags, and particularly in large flags, there is a certain amountof play or movement in the parts when in any except a tightly packed state. The swaying, even, of a flag produces movement of all its fibers and if the ancient fibers, in their weakened and damaged condition, be in the presence of fibers of greater strength or hardness, the softer fiber is bound to wear away. It has thus frequently happen that where the preservation of flags has been attempeted the strengthening fibers used have actually destroyed that which they were intended to preserve.

My method consists in brief of incorpo-' rating the flag or other fabric to be preserved together with a strengthening memher into a mesh of thread composed of stitches which penetrate both the flag and the strengthening piece at frequent regular intervals.

While my invention is from its nature rather difficult of illustration, I have, nevertheless, attempted to set forth the elements, which are involved, in a somewhat diagrammatic, illustrative embodiment. In this I have employed reference numerals to inclicate corresponding parts for identification in connection with the specification.

In these drawings: Figure 1 indicates the mesh of stitches which forms the enveloping container within which the flag and backing are embodied. Fig. 2 is a View of a pennant with its strengthening member, and with the enveloping mesh indicated. Fig. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic section showing the relation of the strengthening member, fabric, and the enveloping mesh. Fig.

-dition as is possible while making it available as a display. It will be understood that many flags, particularly ancient flags, as those of the American Revolution or of the War of 1812, as well as the CivilVVar, have been reduced by service and by decay and moth to a condition where they are in a state of absolute rags and tatters. I, therefore, first provide a strengthening piece 2 of substantially the size of the entire flag. This piece is preferably of the best Irish or Belgian linen. This material I use in its unbleached condition, in which condition it possesses the greatest strength and durability. Upon this linen piece I arrange all the parts of the flag in their proper relative position, pressing out the small pieces and ar ranging them. In this I find a small electric fiat-iron of great convenience and assistance in making the parts of the flag to lie flat and in restoring them to their natural shape. When the flag has been entirely spread out and arranged I begin, preferably, at one corner and form a mesh of thread 3 stitched through the flag and strengthening piece or, in the case of missing areas, through the strengthening piece alone. The thread used is preferably varied as to color so as to match locally the parts of the flag which it envelops. This leaves the characters of the flag in complete prominence without obscuring any of the parts thereof or designs thereon. The mesh being open, leaves both the characters of the flag and even its condition, clearly visible, but itclosely and firmly confines the flag fabric with the strengthening piece. These two elements are therefore held in intimate relation by the penetration of the stitches which form the mesh and which occur at regular intervals.

For a flag of ordinary size, and in fact of most sizes, I employ a mesh stitched of about one-fourth of an inch square. This confines a corresponding flag area which is held against motion in all four directions. By pursuing my method a display is secured which consists of the article to be preserved which is embodied together with a suitable strengthening member within the protective and retaining mesh. Thus I convert a relic which may only be held with the utmost care and which has heretofore, of necessity been kept in air tight cases, into a display which may be embodied in mural decoration as has been done with the flags at the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, or may be hung within cases as they have been exhibited elsewhere.

WVhile my invention is capable of some slight modification, both as to the materials used, and as to the form of stitch employed in forming the mesh, T advocate a rigid be:

servance of 'the form and method herein specified as having been vproved most satisfactory by exhaustive demonstration with materials too sacred to admit of experimentation. I, therefore,'consider my invention as of suflicient breadth to cover all such modifications as above suggested if within the limits of the appended claims.

What I therefore claim and desire to se cure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of preserving textile articles consisting in disposing the article to be preserved in its natural arrangement on a strengthening member, in incorporating the article and the strengthening member in an enveloping mesh of thread, said mesh being formed of open stitches passing through said article and strengthening material at frequent intervals to define regular comparatively small areas of said article and strengthening member.

2. The method of preserving multi-colored textile articles consisting in disposing the article to be preserved in its natural arrangement on a strengthening member of neutral color, in incorporating the article and the strengthening member in an enveloping mesh of thread of colors locally matching the color of said article, said mesh being formed of open stitches passing through said article and strengthening member at frequent intervals to define regular comparaively small areas of said article and strengthening member.

3. The method of preservin multi-colored textile articles consisting in disposing the article to be preserved in its natural arrangement on a suitable strengthening member, in incorporating the article and the strengthening member in an enveloping mesh of thread of colors locally matching the color of said article, said mesh being formed of open stitches passing through said article and strengthening member at frequent intervals to define regular comparatively small areas of said article and strengthening member. I

In testimony whereof I my signature in presence of two witnesses.

AMELIA FOWLER.

Witnesses JOHN E. MoCUsKER, SAMUEL DAVIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I G.

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