IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR REMOVING KNOTS FROM WOOLLEN AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS AND FOR DRESSING AND FINISHING THE SAME."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Adrien Enoult at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 16th May 1877.
ADRIEN ENOULT, of Elbeuf-sur-Seine, in the Republic of France. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR REMOVING KNOTS FROM WOOLLEN
AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS AND FOR DRESSING AND FINISHING THE SAME."
According to my Invention I construct a machine for removing knots from cloths
and other fabrics, and for dressing and finishing the same as follows:-On one end
of a framing are mounted two uprights carrying two horizontal round bars, the.
ends of which are fixed in platos that have pins passing through the said uprights,
and secured by thumbscrews, so that the two bars may be adjusted to any desired
position.
The cloth to be treated is passed over the one bar, and then between both, so
that they offer a certain resistance to the travel of tho cloth through them, which
travel may be regulated by adjusting their position on the uprights. From these
bars the cloth is passed beneath the stretching roller mounted in sliding bearings in
guides, and regulated by screw spindles, and from this roller the cloth passes over a
cylinder the surface of which is coated with glass powder, pounce, emery, metal
filings, or other suitable sharp granular material, which in revolving over the
surface of the cloth, as this is made to travel at a considerably slower speed,
effectually disintegrates and removes the knots of the cloth and raises a nap or pile
thereon.
The glass powder or emery may be cemented to a piece of fabric (such as
ordinary emery cloth), which is stretched over the cylinder and secured to the bars
fixed in longitudinal grooves on the surface of the latter. From the dressing
cylinder the cloth first passes under a second stretching roller arranged in the same
manner as that above described, and it is then led over a revolving brush which
removes all dust and loose fibres from its surface, and lastly, the cloth passes with
its back surface partly round a roller covered with emery cloth, and then between
this roller and a second one resting upon it, so as to press the cloth against the
emery roller, this second roller being for this purpose carried in slotted inclined
guides on the framing, so that it can adjust its position according to the thickness of
the cloth operated upon.

page_text: The emery roller having rotary motion imparted to it constitutes the means
whereby the cloth is drawn through the machine while it is being operated upon
by the dressing cylinder, the first mentioned bars between which the cloth enters
the machine being made to offer sufficient resistance to its motion to keep the cloth
in a tightly stretched condition as it passes through the machine. After passing
over the last described pressing roller the cloth is led between two bars carried by
arms suspended from the framing of the machine, and having a reciprocating motion
imparted to them by a crank and connecting rod, whereby the fabric is laid in folds
as it issues from the machine.
Motion is imparted to the several parts of the machine as follows:-The shaft of
tlie dressing cylinder carries fast and loose pullies, by which it receives motion from
any convenient motor engine, it also carries a grooved pulley at one end which
imparts motion by a strap to the rotary brush, while at the other end it has a
pinion imparting motion through an intermediate wheel to a spur wheel, on the
axis, of which is a small pitch wheel. An endless pitch chain passes over this
pitch wheel, and over a considerably larger one on the shaft of the emery roller, so
that by this micans the shaft of the dressing cylinder is made to impart a greatly
reduced rotary motion to the emery roller. The shaft of the latter also carries a
pitch wheel imparting notion by a pitch chain to a pitch wheel on the crank shaft
that actuates the before-mentioned reciprocating arm.
The machine may if desired be provided with two or more dressing cylinders
instead of only one as described.