IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Petric, junior, of Rochdale, in the County
of Lancaster, Ironmonger, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING WOVEN FABRICS."
Sealed the 11th February 1859, and dated the 13th August 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Petrie at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th August
1858.
I, the said JonN PETRIE, junior, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster,
Ironmonger, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING WOVEN
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates particularly to an improvement upon an arrangement
of apparatus for which Provisional Protection has been granted to me, bearing
date A.D. 1858, June 30th, No. 1474, and consists in combining with the drying
machinery there described suitable apparatus for simultaneously stretching
woven fabrics. To accomplish this I cause a band or bands, armed with hooks
or teeth, to travel over rollers with the cloth. These bands I guide in their
course by means of projections or recesses on the rollers, and furnish them
with screws, by which different widths of cloth may be passed through the
machine. I also connect the belts between the rollers to apparatus which may

page_text: be drawn outward by weights or other means. The stretching apparatus
above described I also use separately from the arrangement claimed for
drying.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Petrie, junior, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th February 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JoпN
PETRIE, junior, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Ironmonger, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Petrie, Her special license that I, the said John Petrie, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Petrie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING WOVEN FABRICS," upon
the condition, amongst others, that I, the said John Petrie, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Petric, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) :-
My Invention relates particularly to an improvement upon an arrangement
of apparatus for which Letters Patent were granted to me, bearing date the
Thirtieth day of June 1858, and consists in combining with the drying machi-
nery there described suitable apparatus for simultaneously stretching woven
fabrics. To accomplish this I cause a band or bands armed with hooks or

page_text: teeth to travel over the rollers with the cloth, which bands are guided in their
motion, and are drawn outward by weights or by other means.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of the
machine, and Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, are detached views of certain of the parts.
The framework and casing are shewn at a, the fans at c, and the steam pipes
at d, of which there are several, forming an arrangement answering to similar
parts in the Specification of my former Patent, above referred to. The rollers
over which the goods to be dried pass are shewn at e, and around them at
either end is a strap f, denoted by the dotted line in Fig. 1. These straps
are armed with series of teeth g, and between the top and bottom rollers e;
they run in recesses formed in wooden guides h, as shewn particularly in the
detached sectional and face views Figs. 2 and 3. To these guides are adapted
studs passing through the framework as shown in the partial and elevation,
Fig. 4, and they are also furnished with links k, to each of which is connected
one end of a bell crank lever 1, turning upon a fixed centre at m, and carrying
at its other end a weight n, the tendency of which therefore is to draw out-
ward the guides h and straps f therein, so as to stretch the goods to the
necessary tension. To the link k is connected a bell crank lever o, turning upon
a fixed centre at p, and by which the guides h may be moved inward or outward
a certain distance according to the width of cloth to be stretched and dried.
The rollers c are made with clutch-box parts as at q, so that they may be
lengthened or shortened for the same purpose, which arrangement is in ordi-
nary use for stretching machines. The course of the cloth is shewn by red
color, and it will be perceived that the spikes of the bands f which accompany
it, point inwards towards the bottom rollers e, in order to admit of which they
are formed with annular recesses as at r, in Fig. 4. Previously to the goods
entering the machine, it is necessary to bring them to the width at which they
are to be dried, and this is effected in the following manner:-The lap of
cloth is shewn at s, from which the end is conducted to travelling straps t,
armed with teeth, and moving in guides u, similar to those shewn at Fig. 2.
These guides are placed at an angle to each other so as gradually to stretch
the cloth to the required width, as shewn at Fig. 5, and their distance apart
for different widths of goods may be regulated by right and left handed screws.
The cloth having thus arrived at the roller v, the end is conducted by the
attendant on to the spiked straps which are running upward from the roller
e, and the piece is conveyed by them through the machine over the series of
rollers e. In order to effect the placing of the cloth securely on to the spikes
on entering the machine, there is a pressing roller at w, which force it down-
ward on to the straps; this roller is of such a width as to lie within the two

page_text: rows of spikes, as shewn in the detached view on an enlarged scale, Fig. 6.
The goods having been dried by passing so many times through the machine
as may be necessary, are conducted on to the lapping roller A. The gearing
for driving the several rollers is not shewn in the Drawings, but it may be
similarly arranged to that described in my former Patent aforesaid, a line
shaft giving motion to the bottom rollers, but in this instance the top rollers e
may if found, necessary be driven. In the present machine I have shewn a
series of coiled steam pipes a, which may be in communication with the main
pipe at any convenient situation. It will now be perceived that as the cloth
travels onward, it becomes exposed to a current of air driven upward by the
fans c, and heated by the steam pipes d, and that the machine is, as in my
former Patents, complete in itself. I have particularly alluded to the above
described arrangement as used in combination with my former Patent afore-
said, but the apparatus for stretching or keeping the goods at tension may be
employed with other arrangements for drying.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that I claim, as secured to me under the above in part recited Letters
Patent,―
Firstly, the use of the fans heating medium, and apparatus for conveying
and stretching the goods so combined as to form a machine complete in itself.
Secondly, the use of the stretching apparatus above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Petric, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
JOHN PETKIE, JR.
(L.S.)