IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTED FABRICS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Cornelius Turner, of Airedale Felt Mills, Hunslet,
in the Parish of Leeds, in the County of York, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTED FABRICS."
Sealed the 25th September 1863, and dated the 17th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Cornelius Turner at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th April 1863.
I, CORNELIUS TURNEB, of Airedale Felt Mills, Hunslet, in the Parish of
Leeds, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTED FABRICS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of felted
fabrics. Heretofore in the manufacture of felted fabrics, in order to strengthen
the fabric and prevent its stretching, threads. have been laid.in transversely from
side to side of the batt.
My Invention consists in an improved method of laying in these threads.
The threads to be laid in are drawn from a frame of bobbins placed at one
side of an endless apron, on which the batt is carried; the threads pass down
from their bobbins through a reed placed parallel with the endless apron; this
reed keeps the threads equally spaced. After passing through the reed the
threads enter a holder, which retains their ends; the holder I employ is a comb

page_text: with teeth set closely together; it is fixed close up to the edge of the endless
apron; the threads are taken across the batt by means of a carrier; the carrier
I employ is a moving comb similar to the holder or fixed comb. The carrier
rises up in the space between the reed and the holder comb, and it thus takes
the threads; as it rises it lifts the ends of the threads out of the holding comb,
and then moving away from the reed and across the endless apron, it carries
the threads over the batt; the carrier comb then again descends and leaves
the threads. On each side of the endless apron there is a row of points, which
retains the threads in the positions in which they are laid. Between the endless
apron and the holder comb there is a knife; it may be an endless band of steel'
sharpened on the edge, or a rotatory knife, and this cuts off the threads which
have been laid across the batt from the bobbins. The operation is continued
by the carrier comb returning under the endless apron and again taking the
threads as before; by the time it makes another traverse over the batt, the
endless apron, with the batt upon it, will have travelled a distance equal to the
width of the carrier comb, so that the threads will be laid on.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Cornelius Turner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CORNELIUS
TURNER, of Airedale Felt Mills, Hunslet, in the Parish of Leeds, in the County
of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Cornelius Turner, Ier special licenco that I, the said Cornelius
Turner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Cornelius Turner, 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTED FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Cornelius Turner, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Cornelius Turner, do hereby declaro
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
felted fabrics. Heretofore in the manufacture of felted fabrics, in order to
strengthen the fabric, and prevent it stretching, threads have been laid in
transversely from side to side of the batt.
My Invention consists in an improved method of laying in these threads.
The threads to be laid in are drawn from a frame of bobbins placed at one
side of an endless apron, on which the batt is carried; the threads pass down
from their bobbins through a reed placed parallel with the endless apron; this
reed keeps the threads 'equally spaced. After passing through the reed tho
threads enter a holder; which retains their ends; the holder I employ is a comb
with teeth set closely together; it is fixed close up to the edge of the endless
apron; the threads are taken across the batt by means of a carrier; the
carrier I employ is a moving comb similar to the holder or fixed comb. The
carrier rises up in the space between the reed and the holder comb, and it
thus takes the threads; as it rises it lifts the ends of the threads out of
the holding comb, and then moving away from the reed and across the
endless apron, it carries the threads over the batt; the carrier comb then
again descends and leaves the threads. On each side of the endless apron
there is a row of points, which retains the threads in the positions in
which they are laid. Between the endless apron and the holder comb there
is a knife; it may be an endless band of steel sharpened on the edge or a
rotatory knife, and this cuts off the threads which have been laid across the
batt from the bobbins. The operation is continued by the carrier comb
returning under the endless apron, and again taking the threads as before;
by the time it makes another traverse over the batt the endless apron, with
the batt upon it, will have travelled a distance equal to the width of the carrier
comb, so that the threads will be laid on a portion of the batt immediately
succeeding that which received the yarns at the previous traverse.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describo the Drawings hereunto
annexed.

page_text: Figure 1 is a plan of the machinery I employ; Figure 2 is an end view
partly in section of the same, and Figures 3 and 4 aro side views; in Figures
3 and 4 the frame for the bobbins or spools from which the yarn is drawn are
removed.
a, a', a, is the framing; b, b, are brackets fixed on the framing a³ for
supporting the axes of the bobbins or spools c, c; these bobbins or spools each
have a number of yarns regularly wound upon them in a similar manner to
that in which warp beams are wound for weaving, and when they are in their
places, as they are shewn in the Drawing, they rest against rollers d, d, which
are geared together and all driven at the same surface speed, so that the bobbins
or spools which rest against them may all be caused to deliver at the same
speed even should they differ greatly in diameter, one bobbin or spool being
full and another nearly empty. The yarns coming from the bobbins or spools
are passed through a reed e, to divide them regularly, and then around the
rollers f, f, mounted on the frame a¹; the lower roller is geared by bevilled
pinions with the horizontal shaft g, and this drives in a similar manner a
vertical shaft h, which also by bevilled gears gives motion to the rollers d, d;
in this manner the delivery of the yarns uniformly and all at the same tension
is ensured. The sheet of threads from the rollers f, f, now passes to the
part of the machinery where it is to be laid into the batt. The frame of this
portion of the apparatus is marked a; it carries an endless apron i, which
passes around drums ', . The upper part of the apron is supported by
guides on each side of the frame, so as to keep it flat and prevent it sagging
down in the middle between the drums i, 2, on the under side; the apron is
supported in the middle by a guide roller ; 3, 3, are fine heckle points fixed
at the edges of the endless apron. I find it convenient to employ five rows of
teeth on each side of the apron, and to have in each row twenty teeth to the
inch. As the apron i travels forward it receives upon its surface from the
roller a batt which has been previously wound on this roller. The roller
lays on the apron, its axis being retained by horns on the frame, and as the
apron moves on it unwinds the batt. Immediately in front of the roller k is the
apparatus for laying on the yarns transversely across the batt. The yarns from
the rollers f,f, after passing over the friction bars 1, 1, are threaded through the
second reed m, by which they are laid exactly at regular distances apart, and
threads of all the yarns are retained in stationary heckles n, n, fixed on the
frame a close up to the travelling heckles, on the edge of the endless apron i;
these heckles I make with twelve rows of teeth and twenty teeth to the inch;

page_text: o, o, are guides forming part of the frame of the machine, and between them
P
works the yarn carrier p, shewn separately at Figures 5; it consists of a
The
bar with heckle points upon it.
carrier
yarn
is connected at its
ends with endless chains q, q, each passing over four chain wheels q¹, q'. The
two lower wheels q¹ of each set are driven as herein-after described, so as to
keep the endless chains in continuous and regular motion. The yarn carrier
is able to turn in its supports, and it is made square at the ends which enter
the guide grooves in the frame, these keep the teeth constantly vertical,
there being springs at the corners to ensure the carrier entering the guide
grooves in a proper position.
In this manner the yarn carrier p is carried from side to side of the endless
apron i, first over and then under it. The yarn carrier in rising comes up
between the reed m and the row of stationary heckles n, and the points on the
yarn carrier take the yarns (which are pressed into the teeth by the brush r)
lifting their ends out of the heckles n, then the yarn carrier, actuated by the
chains carries the yarns over the endless apron i. When the yarn carrier
9,
commences to descend on the other side of the apron; the two brushes r and 11
descend and press the yarns into the heckle teeth on each side of the apron,
and also into the stationary teeth n. The yarn carrier should have, .say,
18 rows of teeth and thirty teeth to the inch in each row.
in which the brushes r and r¹ are actuated is herein-after described. The
brush r is made so that it may revolve when the yarn carrier comes against
it, it thus presses the yarns into the teeth without checking the progress of the
yarn carrier. As the yarn carrier p descends it leaves the yarns and returns
under the table empty to repeat the operation. In the small interval between
on the side of the apron i a
The manner
the stationary heckles n and the heckle teeth
knifes works, consisting of an endless band of steel sharpened on the upper
edge; it passes around the pulleys s', s, and is kept in constant motion by means
herein-after described. The knife s, directly the yarns are patted down on to
it by the brush r, severs them, leaving the lengths cut off in the heckle teeth 1³
on the apron i and the ends in the stationary teeth n. In place of an endless
band knife a reciprocating knife may be employed if preferred. Before the
yarn carrier repeats its traverse the apron i will have travelled a distance equal
to the width of the sheet of yarns, so that the yarns will be laid on regularly
from end to end of the batt. As the apron still travels on the first batt with the
yarns upon it is carried up the roller t; this roller lays upon the small roll t¹,
which is driven continuously and at a uniform speed, and the roller is
retained in its place by horns on the frame, which receives its axis; it has
another batt wound round upon it, and this as the apron advances is drawn

page_text: off and laid over the yarns on the first batt, which are thus enclosed between
two batts; the compound batt thus produced is wound up upon a roller u,
supported on two small rollers u¹, u, which are driven uniformly at a suitable
speed as herein-after described. The axes of the roller u are lodged between
horns formed to receive them. On the frame of the machine v, v, are circular
knives caused to revolve at a high speed; they cut off the yarns on each side of
the batt just inside the heckles 3, ; w is a roller which presses the com-
pound batt together where the knives work, so as to prevent its being
disturbed by their action; x, x, are wires stretched from end to end of the
machine just within the lines of heckles 1, 2, they serve to ensure the
clearance of the compound batt from the apron as this passes over the end
drum ; y, y, (see also Figure 6), are inclined blades of metal to raise up
the short ends of yarn left in the teeth 3, 3, so that they may be brushed
out by the rotating brushes z, z.
The following is the manner in which the several parts of the machine are
actuated :-
A is the main axis, which is driven by a belt passing round a pulley upon it
as is shown. On the axis A is the first of a train of spur and bevilled wheels B,
through which motion is given to the axes C, C. These axes each carry two of
the chain wheels 9', q', and these in revolving give motion to the chains q, q, and
the
yarn carrier
P, as already described; D is a vertical axis driven by spur and
bevilled pinions, as is shown, from one of the axes C, and it drives by
bevilled pinions a horizontal shaft E, which by worms upon it gives motion
to worm wheels on the axes of the cams F, these cams actuate the brushes r
and; the brushes are carried by arms G¹, G¹, from the axes G, and G³, G²;
are other arms on the same axes, having friction pulleys at their ends,
which rest on the cams F, F. From the axis A also the inclined shaft H
is driven by bevilled pinions, and another bevilled pinion on the shaft H
gears with and drives a bevilled wheel on the axis of one of the rollers u¹,
on which the take-up roller u rests. The axes of the two rollers u, u
on the other side of the machine both gear with an intermediate wheel so
that they may revolve at the same speed and in the same direction. On
the further sido of the machine also motion is given through an inter-
Imediate wheel from one of the rollers u¹ to the axis of one of the drums
of the endless apron i, which is thus driven. The same roller i¹, by means of s
a band passing around a pulley at its end, gives motion to the small drum t¹,
on which the roller t.of the upper batt rests. I is an axis which is caused to
revolve rapidly by means of a belt put in motion from the shafting of the
factory or in any convenient manner. From the axis I the upright shaft

page_text: K is driven by a belt, and on the upper end of this shaft is one of the pulleys s¹
of the knife s. The axis I, also by bands, as is shown, actuates the revolving
knives v, v, The rotating brush, on one side of the machine, is driven by
causing a bevilled pinion on its axis to gear with a similar pinion on the
axis D on the other side of the machine; the brush is driven by a band from
the axis A; this band actuates the intermediate axis L, which is geared. by
bevilled pinions with the axis of the brush.
By this arrangement it will be seen that the motion of all the parts of the
machine is made continuous in place of intermittent, as it was in the machine
described in the Specification of a former Patent granted to me and dated the
23rd January in this year, No. 213. This continuous motion is in many respects
more advantageous than the intermittent motion. Another peculiarity in this
machine is also that the yarns are always taken across the endless apron in
the same direction in place of from side to side as before, and the yarn carrier
takes hold of the yarns to carry them across, and then returns empty in place
of retaining the yarns constantly as before.
In witness whereof, I, the said Cornelius Turner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
CORNELIUS TURNER. (L.S.)