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Malhere Lace Loom MachineMANUFACTURE OF REAL LACE BY MACHINERY.
Scientific American May 7, 1881
Considerable attention has lately been paid in Europe to the manufacture of lace by machinery. A company has been organized in Paris with a capital of 2,500,000 francs to develop M. Malhére's lace loom.

This loom is a marvel of mechanism, having from 1,800 to 2,000 spindles, which are put in motion at the same time that 200 to 300 pins are placed or displaced. But the inevitable complication of the members of which it is composed, though a just object of admiration, is a legitimate cause of apprehension as to the regular working of the apparatus. In order to work economically the lace machine must move with great rapidity, and without very frequent interruptions; but whether these conditions can be realized is a matter that can be proved only by experiment.
This loom makes real lace, imitating hand work. We give a photographic reproduction of a sample of Valenciennes lace made with this machine, also a study of the rounded mesh of Valenciennes from Bruges. The pattern is not the work of a regular designer of lace, but was com¬posed spontaneously by M. Malhére, who invented the loom: this explains its lack of elegance.
It is claimed that this loom can produce all kinds of lace,, and that competent judges, and even lace-makers, confound the lace which it produces with that made by hand. The microscope demonstrates to the incredulous that the weaving is the same as hand-made lace, without the least resemblance to the imitation.
For the principal facts we are indebted to the report written on this subject by M. Jousselin, engineer. The report begins by explaining how the inventor was led to construct the machine.
Lace weave pattern
M. Malhere, in studying with a magnifying glass the inter-twining of the thread of the lace made by hand, ascertained that in all kinds of lace, in the network and in the flowers, the thread is subjected to the same operation. This was the first conception of the possibility of producing these operations mechanically. Indeed, if one considers a twist forming the mesh of the Valenciennes and the knot of the figure constituting the flower, it is ascertained that the thread No. 1 (Fig. 1) crosses successively over thread No. 2, over thread No. 4 (which was crossed over No. 3), and under No. 3, in order to return, passing over and under the threads until it resumes its original direction, forming thus, with the three other threads, a twist of four threads. In Fig. 2, the adjacent threads, 1 and 2, pass suddenly in a transverse direction, twisting with a half revolution, and passing in alternation over and under threads 3, 4, 5, 6.
This problem, then, is reduced to making a twist of two contiguous threads from right to left or from left to right, according to the requirements of the design, and making it in such a manner that this twisting will be effected at
will from right to left or from left t o right in order to reverse the thread below or above.
In consequence of this it is necessary to accomplish mechanically the transposition of the threads in order to put in proper relation those threads which are destined to be worked together, and M. Malhere conceived the fundamental idea of making a ma-chine employing rotative disks, which contain two threads capable of being twisted together by a half revolution or a complete revolution. These disks are tangent and in pairs, capable of transferring the thread from disk to disk, and are arranged in the segment of a cylinder, in order that the threads between the disks and their converging point may be as nearly as possible of a uniform length. The lace is produced in the geometrical center of the segmental frame. Several bands of lace are produced simultaneously by the superposition of the thread carriers. M. Malhere has also invented a comb with independent teeth which re-places the pins of the hand lace worker. The movements of the several independent members of this machine are controlled by the Jacquard arrangement of perforated cards. Such is the succession of ideas which led to the invention of the lace loom.
The lace from the spindles of the hand lace-worker is not made like net or imitation lace, by two distinct groups of threads, warp and woof, but by veritable twisting, in the interlacing of which all the threads may concur, following the fancy of the designer.
The interlacing threads are collected and fixed in the central part of the machine (cor-responding to the pillow of the hand lace-maker by means of pins. This hand method of making lace suggested to M. Malhere the peculiar form which he has adopted for the frame of his automatic loom. It consists of two concentric cylinder segments supported at a convenient height upon a cast iron table. As all parts of the segmental frame are nearly equidistant from the converging point of the threads, the tension of the thread is uniform, and this arrangement allows each one of the bobbins to circulate in the interior of the cylindrical surface without any displacements of the threads. In the work by hand the lace-maker chooses among the suspended spindles around the drum those that she needs successively; she rolls them between her fingers, either to the right or to the left, in order to twist the threads and interlace them; then she sets the pin which fastens this portion of the mesh, until by another interlacing another mesh is formed, when she with-draws the pins from the portion of the work already finished.
Then three kinds of movements are required: A conveying or removal of the selected spindles; rotation of the spindles to the right or to the left; the fixation and displacement of the pins from what has been said, it will be, seen that each thread must work in a manner absolutely independent, and this independence of the different elements constitutes the great difficulty of the mechanical problem.
If one places himself in the center of the Malhere loom, having in front of him the lower segment, it will be seen that this segment, is perforated over all its circumference, and that each one of the holes is filled by a metallic cylinder which manipulates the thread, and is operated and controlled by the Jacquard mechanism. According to the piercing of the pasteboard of the Jacquard band, the carriages carrying the bobbins are pushed from the groove of one pin to the groove of another, by little pushers, and may occupy successively all the disks.Valenciennes Lace made by Lace Loom: Scientific American May 7, 1881
In order that the threads leading from the bobbins to the rollers, which occupy the center of the loom, may be interlaced or twisted, the transposition of the bobbins must be by circular motion.
An arrangement of rack work and pinions worked by a double chain is controlled by another set of perforated cards, giving an intermittent traction to the chains. This latter Jacquard arrangement is capable of imparting to the cylinders a quarter or half revolution as is needed. We have said that the heads of the pins are tangent in a vertical direction and in a horizontal direction. This construction is not only designed to increase the height of the segments and the number of rows of pins, but to allow the transport of the bobbins from a determined horizontal row into the row situated immediately below or above it. When a bobbin is to be transferred from one row to another, the pins in the Jacquard mechanism corresponding to the motion required cause the pin in the segmental frame to turn a quarter of a revolution only, the sliding groove assuming a vertical position, then the bobbins are moved forward in a vertical direction, and a second quarter revolution of the pin places the bobbin in a horizontal position in such a way as to renew the interlacing of the threads.

The heads of the pins may be compared to the turntable of a railroad. The aim is to remove or add threads, as cars are added or removed in the composition of trains.
The insertion of the retaining pins may be from above or below. The inventor has preferred the latter method, as it furnishes a solid base for the pins and facilitates the removal of the finished fabric. These pins have a lateral and vertical motion.
At the moment that the interlacing of the threads is effected, the retaining pins placed behind and at a little distance from the roller must remain pressed down in order not to interfere with the play of the thread. When the inter-lacing is accomplished the pin rises in the angle formed by the threads, and the threads are separated by the horizontal movement of the carriages which carry them.
Arriving at a height a little above the upper net of threads, the pin is maintained laterally by a metallic plat-form, which is traversed over all its surface by radial slots , equal in number to the pins, and the lower end of each pin is attached to a slider, moving in a vertical guide, which is capable of moving towards the roller, bringing the pin against the twist previously formed, where it is arrested by a stop, and the pin continues stationary as long as it is necessary to maintain the mesh. In order to release itself and before returning to the point of departure, it falls below the net of threads, in such a way as not to touch them in its retrograde movement. These quadrangular displacements of the pins are effected independently, being controlled by Jacquard mechanism.
Such, in general terms, is the lace loom of M. Malhere which has been recently exhibited in Paris. The apparatus is certainly a masterpiece of mechanism, and is an ingenious conception. The accompanying engraving indicates in some measure the intricacy of the machinery.—La Nature.