US90198A - Improvement in felted hats - Google Patents

Description

'UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

EDWARD SEALY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN FELTED HATS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 90,198, dated May 18, 1869.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD SEALY, of Newark,in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improved Hat, which I denominate an inlaid hat and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description and specification of my said invention, and of the manner of making the same.

My inlaid hat is a hat presenting a variegated surface or pattern, produced by inlaying a hat-body of one color with threads or yarns of one or more different colors, which yarns are combined with the hat-body by a felting operation. I i

As the pattern-yarns are inlaid in the body, they cannot be removed by the finishing-operations to which the hat-body is subjected after felting; consequently the pattern is permanent.

The mode which I have devised of manufacturin g my inlaid hats is to wind the patternyarns into the hat-bat as it is formed by winding a fleece'from a carding-engine upon the former or block.

In order to carry out this process with economy, and to produce regularity in the design of the pattern, I have improved the forming machine usually employed in forming wool hat-bodies, by combining with it a spool-stand,

, which supports a number of spools or bobbins holding the pattern-yarn.

In forming the hat-bodies the fleece of wool from the doii'er of the machine and the pattern-yarns are both applied to the hat-former, so that as it revolves the pattern-yarns are wound upon the hat-former in the layers of l the fleece, and are thus inlaid in the hat. The

Vibration of the former causes the patternyarns to cross each other in the hat, so as to produce a cross-barred or plaid pattern, which may be greatly varied by varying the number and color of the pattern-yarns and the direction in which they are guided in passing to the former.

When the hat-bats are formed they are hardened, sized, and finished in the usual manner, and when finished their surfaces present a pattern formed by the pattern-threads upon a ground-work of the color of the woolfleece of which the hat-body has been formed. Having thus described my improved hat, I declare that I do not claim in this patent the process of making it by winding the patternyarns into the bat, nor the improvement which I have made in the forming-machine for the purpose of manufacturing by that process;

neither do I limit the invention set forth in this patent to an inlaid hat produced by such process or machine, as the process of inlaying the pattern-yarn may be varied, and diflerent machinery may be used. Thus, for example, instead of drawing each pattern-yarn from a separate spool or bobbin, the yarns may be formed by weaving or otherwise into net-work, and the sheet of net-work may be wound into the layers of the fleece; or the hat-bat may be formed in the usual way, and the pattern thread or yarn may be inserted in the body after it is formed by means of a needle or otherwise.

What therefore l claim as my invention in this patent is- The inlaid hat, substantially as hereinbefore described, having a body variegated by patternthreads inserted in such body and combined with it by felting, the same being a new article of manufacture.

In testimony whereof I have hereto set my hand this 31st day of July, A. D. 1567;

EDWARD SEALY.

Witnesses:

W. T. SEALY, R. W. WILDE.