Levers2
(ˈliːvəz)
Also erron. Leavers.
The name of John Levers (1786–1848), who effected improvements in lace-making machines in the early 19th c., used attrib., absol., or in the possessive in the names of the lace-making machinery he developed, and of the lace thus produced.
| 1828 J. Levers Brit. Pat. 5741 18 Dec., My improvements in machinery for making lace consist in a certain combination and arrangement of mechanism to be adapted to lace machines constructed upon the principle commonly called or known by the name of Levers' principle. Ibid., The movements of all the working parts of an ordinary Levers' machine are well understood by practical mechanics. 1865 F. B. Palliser Hist. Lace xxxvi. 425 The machines now in use are the Circular, Leaver, Transverse Warp and Pusher. 1867 W. Felkin Hist. Machine-Wrought Hosiery xviii. 281 In February, 1835, T. Allcock..took out a patent..for a new kind of Levers’. Ibid. xix. 294 Goods made upon Levers' Jacquard machines. Ibid. xxii. 329 Velvet patterns on circular Levers' bobbin net. 1890 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 474/2 The lace-making machine now principally used is known as the Levers machine. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 44/2 The Leavers lace machine does not make either a buttonhole stitch or a plait. 1959 D. E. Varley Hist. Midland Counties Lace Manufacturers' Assoc. i. 4 John Brown, John Leavers, and Clark and Mart, inventors of the traverse warp, the leavers and the pusher bobbin-net machines respectively, were all Nottingham artisans. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 235 Leavers lace, any lace made on the machine invented by John Leavers, an Englishman, in 1813. This was the first really satisfactory lace-making machine. |