CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING CALICOES, MUSLINS, AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
CAPPLE MILLER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
nine, in the third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Capple Miller, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Capple Miller,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
James Capple Miller, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should agree
with, and no other, 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, my Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING CALICOES, MUSLINS, AND OTHER FABRICS;"
in which Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said James Capple
Miller, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
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
James Capple Miller, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof; that is to say :-
My Improvements in Printing Calicoes, Muslins, and other Fabrics, consist
in a novel arrangement and construction of mechanism or apparatus, whereby
the pattern or design may be printed upon the goods or fabrics by the agency
of machinery worked by steam or other adequate power. The peculiar
department of printing calicoes, muslins, &c., to which these improvements
are more particularly applicable is that process usually denominated block
printing, which is ordinarily performed by manual labour, the design or pattern
to be printed being first traced out or put on the surface of the blocks, and
small portions of a single colour impressed upon the cloth by the hands of the
workman, the intervening and finishing colours being separately printed at
successive intervals.
Now the principal object of these improvements is,―
Firstly, the capability of printing two, three, four, or more colours at one
operation.
And, secondly, completing the printed pattern upon the whole width of the
piece of goods, or upon two or more pieces side by side in the same machine;
and by having another table and set of impression boxes and colour boxes,
the same movements may be applied, so that the carriage, in retiring, may
print two or more pieces, and in advancing print also two more, making one
machine capable of doing four pieces at one and the same time of narrow
widths, and two pieces of wide..
But in order that my improvements may be more definitely explained, and
their application rendered more evident to the practical printer, I have
attached to these Presents two Sheets of Drawings representing several views
of my improved machine, calculated to print two pieces or two different
patterns on the same block of calico, muslin, or other fabrics, side by side (or
four pieces, the carriage printing both ways), the intended pattern or device
to be printed consisting of four colours to be printed from blocks.
In Sheet 1, Figure 1 represents a side elevation, and Figure 2 a front or
end view of my improved printing machine; and in Sheet 2 Figure 3 repre-
sents a transverse section, taken through about the middle of the machine,
Figure 4 being another end view of the same. Similar letters of reference
indicaté corresponding parts in all the Figures.
The side or main framing of the printing machine is shewn at a, a, sup-
porting the colour boxes b, b, b, b, with their "doctors;" the furnishing tables
or beds c, c, c, c (which substitute the sieve in ordinary block printing); the

page_text: printing table d, d, and the feeding, drying, and delivering rollers f.f. 9, g, h, h.
The machine is also provided with a carriage i, i, i, i, for the printing blocks
jjjj, which travels in and out at suitable intervals upon the rails k, k,
attached to the main framing. The operation of the machine is effected by
passing a driving strap I, connected by shafting to the steam engine or any
other adequate power round the driving pulley m, fixed at the extremity of
the main driving shaft n, n. At the other end of the shaft n is keyed the
bevil pinion o, gearing at suitable intervals (hereafter explained) with a bevil
wheel p, which is mounted upon one end of the cross shaft q, at about the
middle of which the mitre wheels r, r, driving the upright shaft s, s, and mitre
wheels t, t, above, actuate by means of the spur pinions u, u, the feeding
rollers ff, and thus draw the pieces of goods
into the machine, the
passage and situation of which is indicated by the red line representing the
cloth to be printed. Simultaneously with the progress of the cloth the mitre
wheels v, v, at the other end of the cross shaft q, drive the furnishing rollers
w, w, w, w, by means of the spur gearing x, x, x, x; the furnishing rollers
revolving in their respective colour boxes spread or supply the colours upon the
,travelling endless blankets or sieve cloth y, y, y, y, which pass around the top roller
and the furnishing tables or beds c, c, c, c, in order to supply the colours to the
surfaces of the printing blocks j.j.j.j. It may be here remarked, that either
the beds c or the backs of the printing blocks may be made slightly elastic, to
insure the perfect taking up of the colour by the blocks. Supposing now the
carriage i, i, to be run out upon its railways at the farthest point from the
beds c, c, it is driven or drawn inwards towards the furnishing beds c, c, by
means of the spur wheel z upon the driving shaft n driving a small pinion 1
(shewn by the red line in Figure 1) upon the shaft 2, upon the end which
shaft is also keyed the mangle pinion 3, gearing in the mangle wheel 4. The
mangle wheel 4 is keyed upon the end of the shaft 5, which drives the spur
wheel 6, gearing in the pinion 7, fast upon the shaft 8 (see Figure 3), upon
either end of which shaft there is a rack pinion 9, taking into the horizontal
rack 10, fast upon the carriage frame i, i, and thus the blocks j,j,j,j, are
presented to the furnishing blankets or sieve cloths y, y, y, y, and take a supply
of colours ready for printing. The travelling carriage and blocks now retire
by the agency of the mangle wheel and pinion 3 and 4, the pinion being fast
upon the end of the shaft 2, and the wheel being fast upon the other shaft 5
in a line with the shaft 2. At this time another operation of the machine
takes place; upon the reverse end of the shaft 5 there is a pinion 11, gearing
with the spur wheel 12, and also by means of the spur gearing 6 and 13,
counter shaft 14, and pinion 15, drives the corresponding spur wheel 16, one

page_text: being upon each side of the machine. To one of the arms of these spur
wheels are attached by bolts the two quadrant levers 17, 17, and as these
wheels revolve by means of the gearing just described the levers 17, 17,
draw down the chains 18, 18, actuate the levers 19 and 20, and
thus elevate the whole series of printing blocks in the parallel grooves
21, 21, at the same time pressing or closing them into one mass or
block by expanding the springs 22, 22, and at the next advance of the
carriage, caused at the proper interval by the agency of the mangle wheel,
the blocks are made to impress the pattern upon the surface of the goods at
once in four or more different colours, and in one, two, or more widths of
cloth at one operation. The cloth is now drawn forward for the space of the
exact width of one of the blocks or sketch of the design by means of the spur
wheels and pinions 23, 23, and passed around heated cylinders g, g, if neces-
sary, and between the delivering rollers out of the machine. These operations
are to be repeated by the continuous rotation of the main driving shaft until
the printing is completed, the colours making a single advance upon the
pattern at every presentation of the blocks, until the whole number of blocks
have been presented to the same space or portion of the goods successively.
It will be observed that steam pipes 24 are to be in connection with the
printing table and drying cylinders in order to supply a degree of steam heat
during the operation, which may of course by regulated at pleasure; and also
that the suitable intervals of rest and motion must be imparted to the various
parts of the driving gear in any convenient manner, the contrivance shewn in
the Drawing Figure 1, being, by means of an ordinary clutch box 25, throw-
ing the wheel p in and out of gear with the pinion o, and regulated by suitable
stops fixed to the travelling carriage. This is to prevent cloth or. colours from
being dragged upon the blocks or cloth.
Having now particularly described the object of my improvements, and the
manner of carrying the same into practical operation, I desire it to be parti-
cularly understood that I claim as my Invention the novel arrangement and
construction of mechanism or apparatus for printing calicoes, muslins, and
other fabrics, as exhibited in the two Sheets of Drawings hereto attached, and
herein particularly set forth, without being confined to the precise form or
dimensions thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Capple Miller, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.
.
JAMES CAPPLE (L.s.) MILLER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of February, in
the third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said James
Capple Miller came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument afore-
said was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of February, One thousand eight hundred
and forty.