AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING OR SETTING UP OF HATS OR HAT BODIES
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
BORRADAILE, of Barge Yard, Bucklersbury, in the City of London, Merchant
and Furrier, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of November, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Borradaile, Merchant and Furrier, His especial licence that I,
the said George Borradaile, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said George Borradaile, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, an Invention communicated to me by a person residing in foreign
parts, of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING OR SETTING UP OF HATS OR HAT
BODIES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me,
the said George Borradaile, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature, of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Borradaile, do hereby declare the nature of my improvements in
the method of making or setting up of hats or hat bodies to consist in the
employment of a machine having several cones or fustrums of cones revolving
upon their axes, and also traversing or vibrating to-and-fro in horizontal
directions, by the operations of which machine slivers of wool are taken from
a carding engine and wound in different directions upon the periphery of a
double cone or frustrums of two cones, their basis meeting together in
the middle of the machine; and by the winding process so performed the
filiaments of wool are crossed for the purpose of taking hold of each other so
as to produce a matted or laid substance; and the substance thus made is to bo
cut round the larger periphery or middle of the double cone, and when slidden
off at both ends produces two woollen cups or conical bags which are to be
afterwards wetted and shrunk and felted together in the usual manner, and
are then ready to be employed as the bodies or foundations of hats. In the
annexed Drawing, Fig. 1 is a front view of the machine; Fig. 2, an end view
of the same; Fig. 3 is a view looking down upon the top of the machine;
and Fig. 4 is a section, taken through the middle of the machine crosswise;
the similar letters referring to the same parts of the machine in the several
views. a, a, are two frustrums of cones rounded toward the apex, their basis
being placed together; these bear upon other frustrums of cones b, b, and
c, c, which turn on pivots in bearings, their axles being placed in oblique
positions, and inclining considerably from the horizontal. The two front cones
b, b, have bevelled toothed rims affixed to their bases, which gear into each
other at the point where they meet (see Fig. 1). One of the cones b is made
to revolve by means of a bevelled pinion d (Fig. 4), which takes into the
teeth of its rim, and the other cone 6 is driven round also by its rim gearing into
the former. The larger cones or frustrums a, a, bearing upon the cones b, b,
are carried round by the friction of the surfaces in contact, and the cones
c, c, which turn freely upon their axles, are made to revolve also by the
same means. A band from a rigger connected with the carding engine
(or any other convenient rotatory agent) is passed round the pullies e, c, in
front of the machine for the purpose of giving rotation to the spindle f, upon
which spindle there is another smaller pulley g, from whence a band proceeds
to a pulley h, in order to give rotatory motion to the pinion d, and drives the

page_text: cone b. Let the sliver of wool i, i, be now conducted from the dofter of the
carding engine, placed at any convenient distance: behind the machine, to the
upper side of the frustrums a, a, and the cones, being made to revolve in
the manner before described, will cause the sliver of wool to be wound round
the periphery of the frustrums a, a; in a uniform layer. In order, however,
to obtain a crossing or diagonal laying of the sliver upon the frustrums a, a,
the machine is made to turn round horizontally upon a foot pivot k in front,
and upon a swivel joint l at top, to which the back part of the machine is
suspended by a bent rod m, m. The regular vibratory motion of the machine
is effected by an adjustable lever or barn attached at one end to the brace o
and at the other to the crank wheel p. This wheel p is put in motion by
means of a band passed from a rotatory part of the carding engine or other
moving agent round the pulley 9, and there being a pinion r upon the shaft
of the pulley, which take into the teeth of the crank wheel p, that wheel is
thereby made to revolve. It will now be seen that the rotation of the crank
wheel p draws the lever or connecting bar n, and that the machine is by those
means moved to-and-fro horizontally into the positions shewn by dots in
Fig. 3; and that when the machine is brought into the situation represented by
dots at ,,,, the sliver of wool will pass diagonally over the frustrums a, a,
in the manner represented by the green lines; and that when the machine is
removed into the other position represented by dots at y, y, y, y, then the
sliver will be wound upon the frustrums in the opposite diagonal direction
shewn by the yellow lines. Thus a cross laying of the sliver of wool upon
the frustrums a, a, is effected, which produces a matted woollen material that
after felting is rendered fit for the bodies or foundations of beaver and other
hats.
P
In conclusion, I wish to observe that though I have described the particular
construction and action of the machine employed by me for setting up hats or
hat bodies, and which construction and action I prefer to any other that I
am at present acquainted with, yet I do not mean to confine myself to tho
precise forms and dispositions of all its parts, as my principle of causing the
loublo cone or frustrums of cones to revolve by the friction of their surfaces
against other rotative cones for the purposes above recited may be effected
by other arrangements slightly varied from the mode shewn in the Drawing;
and which, if upon the same principle, (viz.), causing the upper frustrums of
cones to revolve by the friction of their surfaces against other rotary frustrums
placed below or on the sides of the operating frustrums, so as to enable the
winding frustrums to receive and lay the sliver of wool in different directions

page_text: over its surface in the manner above described; I shall consider to be an
imitation of my machine and coming within the meaning of my above recited
Patent..
In witness whereof, I, the said George Borradaile, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in tho
year of our Lord 1826, the aforesaid George Borradaile came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.