A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING FABRICS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Wilkes, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, and Thomas Wilkes, of Birmingham, aforesaid,
Manufacturer, and Gilbert Wilkes, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manu-
facturer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF
ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING FABRICS."
Sealed the 7th July 1857, and dated the 18th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Wilkes, Thomas
Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 18th March 1857.
We, JOHN WILKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, and THOMAS WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, and
GILBERT WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF
ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING FABRICS," to be as follows:-
In manufacturing the said rollers or cylinders according to our Invention,
we take a hollow cylinder of cast iron, and we place upon the said cast-iron
cylinder a hollow cylinder of copper, made by any convenient process. We
subject the said copper cylinder, with its inner cylinder of cast-iron, to a
drawing process similar to that by which metallic tubes are drawn. By the
said drawing process we elongate and reduce the diameter of the said copper

page_text: cylinder, and also fix the said copper cylinder firmly upon the said cast-iron
cylinder. The roller or cylinder may be fixed upon its axis in the ordinary
way. Rollers or cylinders are made according to our Invention more
economically than by the ordinary method.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JoпN
WILKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
THOMAS WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, and GILBERT
WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, 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 us,
the said John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, Her special
licence, that we, the said John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thercafter 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS
FOR PRINTING FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Thomas Wilkes, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: Our Invention consists in manufacturing rollers or cylinders for printing
fabrics by drawing a hollow cylinder or tube of copper, or such other metal or
alloy as may be suitable for the manufacture of the said rollers or cylinders,
upon a hollow cylinder or tube of cast iron.
In carrying our Invention into effect, we take a hollow cylinder of cast-iron,
and we place upon the said cast-iron cylinder a hollow cylinder or tube of copper.
We subject the said copper cylinder, with its inner cylinder of cast iron, to
a drawing process similar to that by which metallic tubes are drawn. By the
said drawing process we elongate and reduce the diameter of the said copper
cylinder, and fix the said copper cylinder firmly upon the said cast-iron
cylinder.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents, in elevation and end
view, the cast-iron hollow cylinder; and Figure 2 represents, in elevation and
end view, the hollow copper cylinder or tube; Figure 3 represents, in longi-
tudinal and transverse sections, the said cast-iron and copper cylinders when
the latter has been drawn upon the former according to our Invention.
The cast-iron cylinder is marked a in the several Figures, and the copper
cylinder is marked in the several Figures. We prefer to make a series of
longitudinal grooves on the cast-iron cylinder, or to make projections on the
same, so that when the copper cylinder is drawn upon the cast-iron cylinder
the copper may be firmly attached to the cast-iron cylinder, the said copper
being forced into the grooves in the cast-iron cylinder, or the projections on
the cast-iron cylinder being made to embed themselves in the copper cylinder.
Instead of longitudinal grooves, we sometimes make transverse grooves on the
cast-iron cylinder. After the drawing process, the copper tube or cylinder is
firmly fixed upon the cast-iron cylinder. A nib c runs the whole length of the
interior of the cast-iron cylinder. We prefer to make the nib c of one piece
with the cast-iron tube a, for which purpose we take a cast-iron tube of
suflicient thickness, and by cutting away the interior leave the nib c, the
thickness of the metal being reduced in every part. Or, the said nib c may be
formed in the casting process. We sometimes, however, make the cast-iron
cylinder a without the nib c. By cast iron we wish it to be understood that
we mean unannealed cast iron, or cast iron which has not been annealed or
softened after casting.
Rollers or cylinders are made according to our Invention more economically
than by the ordinary method.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner
of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not
limit ourselves to the precise details herein described and represented, as the

page_text: same may be varied without departing from the nature of our said Invention;
but we claim as our Invention the new or improved manufacture of rollers
or cylinders for printing fabrics herein-before described, and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing, that is to say, drawing a tube of copper, or such other
metal or alloy as may be used for rollers or cylinders for printing fabrics, upon
a tube or cylinder of cast iron, so as to firmly fix the said copper or outer
cylinder upon the cast-iron or inner cylinder, as herein described, and illus-
trated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wilkes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw.
THOMAS WILKES. (L.S.)