IMPROVE- MENTS RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ORNAMENTAL FABRICS.
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Millar, Manager, and John Laing, Engineer,
both in the employment of Messieurs Brown and Company, of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ORNAMENTAL FABRICS.'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Millar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th March 1865.
We, JAMES MILLAR, Manager, and JOHN LAING, Engineer, both in the
employment of Messieurs Muir, Brown, and Company, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ORNAMENTAL
FABRICS," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the printing of ornamental fabrics by two or more
continuous pattern rollers, but in such a way as to leave blank spaces to be
subsequently filled up by borders or other different patterns. Such blank
spaces have hitherto been obtained according to one plan by fixing pieces of
paper on the respective parts of the fabric before beaming it for the printing
machine, a process involving considerable labor, besides the waste of the paper

page_text: which keeps the fabric blank by receiving the printed colors. By the present
Invention pieces of sheet zinc or other suitable metal or material are used,
being introduced as the printing goes on, and being set to marks previously
put on the fabric. This process presents no difficulty in printing with a single
roller, and in that application there is no novelty, but in printing with two or
more rollers the plate or sheet tends to bend away from the fabric immediately
on leaving the first roller, and to fall away entirely if it is not wider than the
space between the nips of the two rollers. By the present Invention this is
prevented by applying guides between every two printing rollers, such guides
keeping the plates or sheets, however narrow they may be, in contact with the
fabric on the large central cylinder during its passage from one printing roller
to the other. The guides are by preference adjusted upon a spindle fixed by
brackets to the frames of the machine, and they consist by preference of
narrow brass bars shaped concavely to suit the convexity of the central
cylinder. In addition, two or more rollers may be set loosely on the spindle
between the guide bars to permit of the plates or sheets passing over the
guides with less friction.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Millar in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
MILLAR, Manager, and JOHN LAING, Engineer, both in the employment of
Messieurs Muir, Brown, and Company, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said James Millar and John Laing, Her special licence that we, the said James
Millar and John Laing, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said James Millar and John Laing, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR PRINTING

page_text: ORNAMENTAL FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
James Millar and John Laing, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 we, the said James Millar and John Laing, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say:-
Our said Invention relates to the printing of ornamental fabrics by two or
more continuous pattern rollers, but in such a way as to leave blank spaces to
be subsequently filled up by borders or other different patterns.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing the
same may be properly understood, we have hereunto appended a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing the
application of our improvements to a six-color printing machine.
Blank spaces, such as are herein-before referred to, have hitherto been
obtained, according to one plan, by fixing pieces of paper on the respective
parts of the fabric before beaming it for the printing machine, a process
involving considerable labor, besides the waste of the paper which keeps the
fabric blank by receiving the printed colors. By our present Invention pieces
of sheet zinc or other suitable metal or material are used, being introduced as
the printing goes on, and being set to marks previously put on the fabric.
This process presents no difficulty in printing with a single roller, and in that
application there is no novelty, but in printing with two or more rollers the
plate or sheet tends to bend away from the fabric immediately on leaving the
first roller, and to fall away entirely if it is not wider than the space between
the nips of the two rollers. By our Invention this is prevented by applying
guides between every two printing rollers, such guides keeping the plates or
sheets, however narrow they may be, in contact with the fabric on the large
central cylinder during its passage from one printing roller to the other.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a vertical section of a six-color
calico printing machine, showing the guides and manner of applying them;
Figures 2 and 3 are an elevation and cross section, showing one of the sets of
guides on an enlarged scale. It will be understood that various well-known
details appertaining to the printing machine are omitted in the Drawing, not

page_text: being required in the present explanation. The six printing rollers 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, are arranged in the usual way round the large central counter-pressure
cylinder 7, being carried in blocks (not shown) which slide and are adjusted
in slots formed in the framing 8. The fabric is represented by a blue line 9,
and the plates are shown by red lines 10, and as applied at intervals, one just
entering under the first roller 1, a second between rollers 3, 4, and a third
just leaving the last roller 6. There is a set of guides 11 between each pair
of rollers, and each set is adjusted upon a spindle 12, fixed by brackets 13 at
its ends to the framing 8. The guides 11 are by preference narrow brass bars
shaped concavely on their inner faces to suit the convexity of the central
cylinder 7, and with bosses at the back for fixing them on their spindle 12.
The ends of the spindle are squared, and are fixed each in a block 14, which
can be adjusted by a screw in its holding bracket 13. The number of the
guides 11 on each spindle may be varied, but four are found to answer well
in ordinary cases. Two or more rollers 15 may in some cases be set loosely
on the spindles 12, near or between the guides 11, to permit of the plates or
sheets 10 passing over the guides with less friction. The brackets 13, which
carry the guide spindles 12, may be fixed to the framing 8, or to the sliding
blocks which carry the printing rollers.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be performed, we have to state that we do not
restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that
what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured
to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the applying of
guides to calico-printing machines with two or more printing rollers, sub-
stantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Millar and John Laing, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAMES MILLAR. (L.S.)
JOHN LAING.
(L.S.)