IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BEATING, SCOURING AND OTHER- WISE PURIFYING CARPETS, RUGS AND OTHER SIMILAR FABRICS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Lea at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 14th August 1880.
JOHN LEA, of No. 44, Lark Lane, in the Parish of Toxteth, in the County of
Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BEATING, SCOURING AND OTHER-
WISE PURIFYING CARPETS, RUGS AND OTHER SIMILAR FABRICS."
The basis of its construction is a frame of wood or metal of arbitrary height,
depth, and width, but necessarily high and deep enough to accomodate the
mechanical accessories hereinafter described, and wide enough to admit any
outspread carpet or other fabric required to be operated upon. Across the front of
the said frame at an elevation of about three feet I extend a series of wooden
batons or levers pivoted on one and the same axis, to act as beaters on the carpets,
which are made to traverse accordingly behind the said series of batons, levers, or
beaters. Each baton, lever, or beater is about thirty inches in total length, and is
pivoted at a point about six inches from its intended upper end or shorter arm.
The oscillation of each baton, lever, or beater is limited, and is regulated first by a
spring either affixed opposite the front of the same on the plane of the shorter
arın of the baton, lever, or beater, and extending below its axial position to press
it home to a rigid bar immediately in front of the said shorter arm, or by a similar
spring affixed behind each baton, lever, or boater on the plane of its longer arm, and
thence extending to above its axial position to achieve the same object of pressing
the baton, lever, or beater to a normal position. The range of each baton, lever, or
beater in the opposite direction is produced by the rotation of an eccentric of
arbitrary maximum radius fixed above the baton, lever, or beater on a line vertical
to and parallel with the axis of the baton, lever, or beater, and at such an elevation
as will cause the maximum radius of the eccentric to traverse the shorter arm of
the baton, lever, or beater to an extent of about four inches, at which point the
maximum radius of the eccentric is provided with an acute point and passes beyond
the range of the baton, lever, or beater, which is thus rotated, and by the action of
the spring above described is made to recoil forcibly to its norinal position and act
emphatically on the carpet or other fabric traversing beneath it. To ensure
uniformity in the line by which the carpet or other fabric approaches the machine,
and thus secure perfect uniforinity in the action of the beaters on the carpet or
other fabric, I establish at an interval of about one foot in the front of the machine,
and elevated about six inches from the floor, an automatic roller of any arbitrary
diameter, and pass the carpet or other fabric underneath this automatic roller
to the top of a similar automatic roller fixed in the front of the machine
at a convenient elevation to guide the carpet or other fabric diagonally within
he range of the series of batons, levers, or beaters, which are angulated in the
ower and longer arm so as to be parallel with the established diagonal of the

page_text: traversing fabrics and act upon them quite evenly. At the back of the upper
automatic roller I fix two rotary brushes so that one of them shall act upon the
- upper surface and the other upon the lower surface of the traversing carpet or other
fabric, and immediately behind them in an upright of the wooden or iion frame I
fix a pair of rollers, of arbitrary but similar diameter, one upon the other, in the
manner of the popularly well known" wringing machine," the upper roller being
automatic with a moveable bearing, and the lower one being the source of its
actuation, whilst the combined pair constitute by their rotation the force by which
the carpets and other fabrics are drawn through the machine, and from a leading
pulley attached to the axis of the lower of the combined pair of rollers motion is
imparted by driving bands to the eccentrics and the rotary brushes. The machine up
to and including this point comprises all essentials for beating and dry purification of
the various fabrics, and although the scouring and other wet processes are provided for
in the same construction they may be detached for application. For scouring and
more effectually cleansing carpets and other fabrics I provide three tanks to supply
in one an effectual liquid lye or other cleansing fluid, in the second pure water for
rinsing the gods, and in the third water impregnated with chemical elements
adapted to refresh the colours in carpets or other coloured fabrics. Each tank may
be of any arbitrary width or height, but must necessarily be of a length equal to
the width of the frame to which it is attached, that the traversing outspread carpet
or other fabric may pass through it without impediment. In the centre of each
end of each tank I erect within it a metal upright slotted throughout its length to
within a few inches of each of its ends for the purpose of guiding a metal bar, to
the lower end of which is pivoted one end of a wood roller of arbitrary diameter
provided for the purpose of being immersed in the fluid of the tank when required
to automatically guide the carpet or other fabric through the said fluid for
immersion and saturation. These tanks are placed on the ground parallel to and
within a short distance of each other, and at a short elevation above the level of
each tank, at that side of it by which the carpet or other fabric emerges from the
fluid, 1 establish an automatic roller of arbitrary diameter to guide the carpet in
the progress of the operation, and between the upper margin of the tank and the
said roller I establish two rotary brushes, one of which acts by its rotation on the
under surface of the carpet or fabric and the other one on the upper surface of the
same. Beyond the range of this system of tanks and rotary brushes I establish
another pair of rollers of arbitrary diameter in similar combination to that of the
associated pair of rollers in the beating and dry brushing portion of my Invention.
These combined rollers serve the double purpose of wringing the wet carpets or
other fabrics passing through them and of drawing the same towards their
destination. Immediately beyond the position of these lust mentioned combined
rollers I provide a closet of arbitrary dimensions for the direct reception of the
carpets or other fabrics and for the purpose of drying the same by hot-air, steam,
gas, or other heat, to be supplied to the said closet. In cach section of the invented
machine motion is imparted to all the acting apparatus by the rotation, by manual
or other agency, of the lower of each of the combined pairs of rollers, to the axis
of which is attached a leading pulley through which to distribute motion by
driving bands to all the subservient moving parts of the machine. As an alternative
agent for drying scoured carpets or other fabrics I adopt a metal drum of arbitrary
diameter and pivoted on a gas pipe of suitable diameter, round which it revolves
automatically by the traversing carpet or other fabric passing over its surface, and
I provide for heating the said drum by perforations in the axial gas pipe, through
which perforations the gas passes to be consumed for the generation of heat.