134 MR. J. C. DYER ON THE ORIGIN OF 



VII. Notes on the Origin of several Mechanical Inventions, 

 and their subsequent application to different purposes. — 

 Part I. By J. C. Dyer, Esq., V.P. 



Bead October 17th, 1865. 



I . On Lace-making by Machinery. 



The manufacture of lace, or '^bobbin-net," at and near 

 Nottingham was conducted by hand-working on cushions 

 or '^ lace-frames " by women or young persons, and a large 

 lace-trade had been established in that place when, about 

 the beginning of this century, this method of forming the 

 lace by hand-work was superseded by machines driven by 

 power. The change was brought about by the inventions 

 of the late Mr. John Heathcoat, who afterwards became, 

 and for many years was one of the Members of Parliament 

 for Tiverton. 



In his early life, Mr. Heathcoat had been engaged in 

 making the frames used in the stocking- weaving and by 

 the bobbin-net makers, in which employment he had care- 

 fully observed the process of forming the meshes of the 

 lace by the workers on the cushions, and he conceived it 

 possible to perform the like movements for guiding the 

 threads to form the lace-meshes by means of mechanical 

 instruments to be driven by rotative power. His first ex- 

 periments were made as follows, viz., he procured some 

 common twine, or packing-threads, and stretched them in 

 a plane across his room, at the proper distances apart, to 

 form the warp of the fabric to be wrought ; then, by means 

 of common pliers, he passed the bobbins charged with 

 thread between the cords, and delivered them into the 

 jaws of other pliers on the opposite side of the warp, and 

 then, giving a slight sideways motion to the pliers, the 



