IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRESSING OR STRETCHING AND FINISHING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Leonard Lindley, of the Firm of Francis Bryan
Baker and Company, of the Town and County of the Town of
Nottingham, Lace Dyers and Dressers, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRESSING OR STRETCHING
AND FINISHING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS."
Sealed the 17th September 1872, and dated the 17th June 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Leonard Lindley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th June 1872.
I, LEONARD LINDLEY, of the Firm of Francis Bryan Baker and
Company, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Lace
Dyers and Dressers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRESSING OR STRETCHING
AND FINISHING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows :-
The Invention has for its object improvements in machinery or
apparatus for dressing or stretching and finishing lace and other fabrics.
Heretofore in dressing lace it has been customary to place the fabric on
pins or tentering hooks carried by frames with parallel sides, or in some
cases the lace has been placed upon machines provided with two endless
chains or belts carrying pins or tentering hooks, and in each case by
means of a rack and pinion or screw the tentering hooks or pins at each

page_text: selvage of the fabric have been separated from each other in order to
stretch the fabric as required. After the dressing material has been
applied to the lace or other fabric on these machines it is necessary to
allow the fabric to remain upon the tentering hooks until it is dry, and
the time required for drying is dependent upon the temperature and
comparative dryness of the atmosphere in the dressing room, steam pipes
or chambers being employed to heat such atmosphere, or the fabric on
the tentering hooks or pins has been passed through heated chambers
to dry it.
The aforesaid machines are inconvenient in use, being necessarily of
considerable size, whilst by their use the operation of dressing, stretching,
and drying the lace or other fabric occupies considerable time.
Now my Invention consists in a novel arrangement and combination
of parts forming a stretching and finishing machine, whereby I am
enabled to employ a comparatively small machine for this purpose, and
whereby the time occupied in drying the fabric is considerably less than
heretofore, whilst a better appearance is also given to the fabric dressed
thereon. For the above purpose I use two endless bands or chains of
pins or tentering hooks passing through suitable divergent guides and
over rollers, as is well understood, and I cause the fabric to be carried by
such bands or chains into contact with one or more heated cylinders. I
by preference employ two rotating cylinders, one of which acts as a
guide or conductor to the endless chains or bands to conduct them with
the fabric thereon to the second cylinder, which is heated by steam or
otherwise, by which means the fabric is passed in contact with such
heated cylinder to be dried and finished whilst still held by the tentering
hooks or pins. Guide rollers are employed to conduct the endless bands
or chains partly around and away from the heated cylinder, and flanges
upon such guide rollers (or separate rollers) act to strip the fabric off the
tentering hooks or pins, after which it is allowed to travel a short
distance further around and in contact with the heated cylinder, whence
it passes to a suitable work beam or roller.
If desired more than one heated cylinder may be employed, and the
lace or other fabric after it leaves the heated cylinder may pass partly
around a roller to which a slightly increased speed is given in order to
stretch the fabric slightly in its length.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Leonard Lindley in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEONARD
LINDLEY, of the Firm of Francis Bryan Baker and Company, of the
Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Lace Dyers and Dressers,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two; in the thirty-fifth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Leonard Lindley, Her special license that I, the
said Leonard Lindley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Leonard Lindley, 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 MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR DRESSING OR STRETCHING AND FINISHING LACE AND OTHER
FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Leonard
Lindley, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Leonard Lindley, 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:-
The Invention has for its object improvements in machinery or
apparatus for dressing or stretching and finishing lace and other fabrics.
Heretofore in dressing lace it has been customary to place the fabric on
pins or tentering hooks carried by frames with parallel sides, or in some
cases the lace has been placed upon machines provided with two endless

page_text: chains or belts carrying pins or tentering books, and in each case by
means of a rack and pinion or screw the tentering hooks or pins at each
selvage of the fabric have been separated from each other in order to
stretch the fabric as required. After the dressing material has been
applied to the lace or other fabric on these machines it is necessary to
allow the fabric to remain upon the tentering hooks until it is dry, and
the time required for drying is dependent upon the temperature and
comparative dryness of the atmosphere in the dressing room, steam pipes
or chambers being employed to heat such atmosphere, or the fabric on
the tentering hooks or pins has been passed through heated chambers.
to dry it.
The aforesaid machines are inconvenient in use, being necessarily of
considerable size, whilst by their use the operation of dressing, stretching,
and drying the lace or other fabric occupies considerable time.
Now my Invention consists in anovel arrangement and combination
of parts forming a stretching and finishing machine, whereby I am
enabled to employ a comparatively small machine for this purpose, and
whereby the time occupied in drying the fabric is considerably less than
heretofore, whilst a better appearance is also given to the fabric dressed
thereon. For the above purpose I use two endless bands or chains of
pins or tentering hooks passing through suitable divergent guides and
over rollers as is well understood, and I cause the fabric to be carried by
such bands or chains into contact with one or more heated cylinders. I
by preference employ two rotating cylinders, one of which acts as a
guide or conductor to the endless chains or bands to conduct them with
the fabric thercon to the second cylinder, which is heated by steam or
otherwise, by which means the fabric is passed in contact with such
heated cylinder to be dried and finished whilst still held by the tentering
hooks or pins. Guide rollers are employed to conduct the endless bands
or chains partly around and away from the heated cylinder, and flanges
upon such guide rollers (or separate rollers) act to strip the fabric off the
tentering hooks or pius, after which it is allowed to travel a short
distance further around and in contact with a heated cylinder, whence it
passes to a suitable work beam or roller.
If desired more than one heated cylinder may be employed, and the
lace or other fabric after it leaves the heated cylinder may pass partly
around a roller to which a slightly increased speed is given, in order to
stretch the fabric slightly in its length.

page_text: and reauny carried into encet, I win proceed, aided by the accompanying
Drawings, more fully to describe the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an end view; and Figure 2 is a plan of parts of machinery
or apparatus for dressing, or stretching, and finishing lace and other
fabrics, constructed according to my Invention; and Figure 3 is a
section of parts to a larger scale.
a is an endless band or chain provided with pins or tentering hooks a¹,
a similar band being employed at each end of the machine. These bands
are made up, as shown, with an extra thickness at a² to fit within
guides b, as shown more clearly at Figure 3, and to prevent the points of
the pins or tentering hooks a' from coming in contact with the roller j
on its return from the first heating cylinder e. These guides bare
carried by frames c, which are mounted on wheels or rollers c¹ to enable
them to be readily adjusted to different widths of fabrics and to different
angles according to the amount of stretching required to be given to the
fabric in the direction of its width. For the purpose of readily adjusting
these frames c I connect to each of them by pin joints two racks, d, d',
and I operate these racks in pairs opposite to each other by means of
suitable gearing, as will be well understood, the racks of each pair d
or being simultaneously operated, but independently of the other
pair. The endless bands or chains of points a are passed through the
guides b, partly around the heated cylinder e, and back to and partly
around guide rollers f, each of which is fixed to a slide g which is
capable of being traversed to and fro in guides o² fixed on the frames c
by means of a screw h and band wheel h³, as shown, or by other equiva-
lent means, thereby enabling a suitable tension to be maintained on the
endless bands a.
The fabric, which is shown by the red lines, is passed over guide
rollers i, , then under a guide roller ², to the endless bands a, on which
it is held by the pins or tentering hooks a¹; it then travels with such
bands towards the heated cylinder e, and on its passage thereto is
stretched the required amount in the direction of its width. The fabric
still on the pins or tentering hooks a' travels partly around the heated
cylinder e, and is stripped off the pins or tentering hooks a' by being
passed around a roller j, whence it is passed around another heated

page_text: cylinder k, over a guide roller 1, and thence away to a suitable folder or
otherwise, as desired.
It will thus be seen that the fabric to be stretched and finished is
after being stretched carried by the tentering hooks or pins around and
in contact with the heated cylinder e on which in its passage it is dried.
It is then stripped off the tentering hooks or pins, and is then conveyed
around another heated cylinder &c to which, if desired, a slightly increased
speed may be given by suitable gearing, as will be well understood, to
stretch the fabric slightly in the direction of its length. The heated
cylinders e and k are covered with cloth, and the roller j is covered
either with cloth or with vulcanised india-rubber, whilst the guide
roller has no covering thereto, and acts as a polishing or calendering
roller.
If desired, more than two heated cylinders, and more than one guide
or polishing roller may be employed.
At Figure 4 I have shown a diagram of a slightly modified form of
apparatus, in which similar parts are marked with similar letters of
reference to those employed in the previous Figures. In this diagram
I have not shown the guides or frames c; but the only difference in
these will be that the guides will be placed in a horizontal position.
In this case I cause the endless bands or chains of tentering hooks a
before passing to the heated cylinder e to pass under a guide roller m,
and I dispense with the guide roller j, and place the guide or polishing
roller on the opposite side of the licated cylinder k. By those means
the fabric is caused to travel a greater distance around the heated
cylinder e, and is delivered at the back of the machine, whilst greater
facility is afforded for passing the fabric to be stretched and finished
through the machine.
It is evident that instead of the endless bands a being caused to pass
around the cylinder e they may be caused to pass around an extra
roller, and to deliver the fabric to be finished to endless bands of points
capable of adjustment on the cylinder e; but this arrangement I should
consider to be an infringement of my Invention, although not so efficient
as that shown in the Drawings.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the mode
in which I carry the same into effect, I would have it understood that
I do not confine myself to the precise details herein shown and described,

page_text: as such may be varied without departing from the peculiar character of
my Invention; but what I do claim is, the peculiar combination and
arrangement of machinery for dressing or stretching and finishing lace
and other fabrics in which the fabric is stretched, as heretofore, by means
of suitable endless bands or chains of tentering hooks or pins, and is
then dried and finished by being passed around and in contact with a
heated cylinder whilst still held on tentering hooks or pins, in manner
substantially as herein shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Leonard Lindley, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
LEONARD LINDLEY. (L.S.)