6 
warps, were moved by suitable machinery so as to conduct 
the threads from side to side to form the lace. The limits 
of this abstract do not allow any detailed description of Mr. 
Heathcoat’s beautiful invention ; its effect, however, in super- 
seding the hand work appears to have led to the Nottingham 
riots and the lace frame breaking, which took place about 
fifty years ago, when Mr. Heathcoat removed to Tiverton in 
Devonshire, where the patent lace making was re-established, 
and has been since carried on upon a large scale, and has 
thus proved an eminently successful invention. 
The new principle of action conceived by Mr. Heathcoat 
was that of passing the threads of the weft through those of 
the warp and delivering them into conductors on the other 
side, to be repassed and delivered into the former conductors 
under mechanical control in place of hand working. He suc- 
ceeded in working out this principle with marvellous perse- 
verance and success, and this original conception of Mr. 
Heathcoat opened a new vista to other eminent mechanics, 
which led to the invention of many other valuable machines 
for widely different purposes, among which may be named 
that for passing back and forth the threads through fabrics 
for embroidering, as now exhibited in the beautiful machines 
for embroidering or ornamenting fabrics in the works of 
Messrs. Houldsworth. On the same principle is also based 
the cotton combing process now employed for separating 
the short and coarse from the long staples in fine cotton 
carding. 
2nd . — Wire Card Making Machine. 
About the beginning of this century Mr. Amos Whitimore, 
of Boston, commenced his experiments for making cards by 
machinery. His first step was to examine the movements 
required to form and set card teeth for hand carding. He 
w'as for a long time engaged with trial machines, and 
ultimately succeeded in performing the operations for making 
