IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STARCH OR OTHER SEMIFLUID MATTER BY MACHINERY TO WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Gilroy, of Auldhousefield, near Pollockshaws,
in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
TTVO WOVEN
Sealed the 21st April 1857, and dated the 6th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Gilroy at the
Office of the Commissioners of .Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th February 1857.
I, JAMES GILROY, of Auldhousefield, near Pollockshaws, in the County of
Renfrew, Bleacher, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STARCH OR OTHER SEMIFLUID MATTER BY MACHINERY
TO WOVEN FABRICS," to be as follows:-
In the following description my Invention is described as relating to the
application of starch to woven fabrics, but I wish it to be understood that my
Invention is also capable of being used for the application of any semifluid
matter to woven fabrics.
The woven fabric is carried forward continuously by means of rollers or
otherwise, and in contact with one of the surfaces of that fabric there is a
starching roller, whose surface is supplied & covered with starch in any con-
venient manner, and which moves in the direction contrary to that in which
the fabric moves.

page_text: The advantage of this contrary motion of the fabric and of the starching
roller is, that it gives a greater amount of rubbing motion between the fabric
& the roller, and consequently a more even distribution of the starch, and a
more thorough forcing of the starch into the fibres of the material, than is
attainable by any process in which the starching roller and the fabric move in
the same direction, whether with equal-or unequal speeds..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Gilroy in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
31st July 1857.
1
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
GILROY, of Auldhousefield, near Pollokshaws, in the County of Renfrew,
Bleacher, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing datè the Sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her. heirs and successors, give and grant unto me;
the said James Gilroy, Her special license that I, the said James Gilroy,
my executors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as I, the said
James Gilroy, 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 APPLYING STARCH OR OTHER SEMIFLUID MATTER BY MACHINERY TO WOVEN
FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Gilroy,
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.
1
:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Gilroy, 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,
that is to say:
My Invention relates to the application of starch or other semifluid matter
to woven fabrics. The woven fabric is carried forward continuously by means

page_text: of rollers or otherwise, and in contact with one of the surfaces of the fabric
there is a starching roller, whose surface is supplied and covered with starch in
any convenient manner, and made to move in the direction contrary to that in
which the fabric moves. The advantage of this motion of the surfaces of the
fabric and of the starching roller in contrary or opposite directions is the
greater amount of rubbing motion between the fabric and the roller, and con-
sequently a more even distribution of the starch, and a more thorough forcing
of the starch into the fibres of the material, than is attainable by any process
in which the starching roller and the fabric move in the same direction,
whether with equal or unequal speeds. I have found the following speeds to
answer well:-Thirty yards per minute for the woven fabric, & fifty yards
per minute for the surface of the starching roller; but the speeds or relative
motions of the surfaces may be varied at the discretion of the manufacturer,
to suit the peculiar requirements of each particular case. The carrying
forward of woven fabrics by rollers is an ordinary and well-known process, and
the rollers for performing that process are ordinary and well-known pieces of
mechanism. The applying of starch or other semifluid matter to the surface
of a woven fabric by means of a rotatory cylinder, called a starching roller, is
also an ordinary and well-known process, and the starching roller & apparatus
for supplying to it and distributing over its surface starch or other semifluid
matter are ordinary and well-known pieces of mechanism; and various forms
and arrangements, as well as various modes of producing and regulating the
motion of the fabrics and the rollers, are well known to engineers, and do not
constitute any part of my Invention, except when adapted and employed for
the application of starch or other semifluid matter to woven fabrics by the
motion of the surface of a starching roller in the direction contrary or opposite-
to the motion of the surface of the fabrics, as above described..
In witness whereof, I, the said James Gilroy, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred & fifty-seven.
JAMES GILROY. (L.S.)