IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOL AND HAIR FELTING
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Bernoulli Barlow, of the City of Manchester,
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOL AND HAIR FELTING."-A com-
munication from abroad by Jesse Albert Locke, of Boston, in the State
of Massachusetts, in the United States of America.
Sealed the 19th April 1864, and dated the 31st October 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st October 1863.
I, HENRY BERNOULLI BARLOW, of the City of Manchester, Patent Agent,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOL AND HAIR FELTING," a
communication to me from abroad by Jesse Albert Locke, of Boston, in the
State of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the combination of a machine called a picker
with a felting machine. The loose flocks of wool and hairs of various
descriptions having been operated upon in the usual manner by the picker,

page_text: consisting of a feeding apron, a feed roller revolving over a bar or trough,
and a large toothed cylinder which delivers the wool and hair on to the surface
of a wire or perforated cage on which it collects, and from whence after being
moistened by jets of steam it is taken forward by the felting apparatus,
consisting of two endless aprons between which the fibres to be felted pass.
The lower apron passes over one or more stationary platens, heated by steam
or otherwise, above which are corresponding platens to which lateral or
vibrating motion is given by eccentrics and vibrating arms or other equi-
valents. After the fibres have been felted together in passing between the
platens the felt is wound on a roller, and if desirable a sheet of endless paper
may be glued or cemented to and wound up with the felt. In order to
increase the strength of or to ornament the felt, bobbins containing threads or
rovings are placed between the picker and the felting apparatus; these threads
or rovings are carried forward and embodied in the felt; transverse threads
or rovings can also be thrown across the fleece of fibres when collected on
the wire or perforated cage by a shuttle or other equivalent. Two or more
thicknesses of felt may be felted at the same time by combining a series of
endless aprons in the same machine, each pair of aprons being provided with
a bat or roll of fibre.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th April 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BERNOULLI BARLOW, of the City of Manchester, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow, Her special license that I, the said
Henry Bernoulli Barlow, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or.
such others as J, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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,

page_text: an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF WOOL AND HAIR FELTING," a communication to me from abroad by Jesse
Albert Locke, of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, in the United States
of America," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry
Bernoulli Barlow, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow, 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:-
This Invention consists in the combination of a machine called a picker
with a felting machine. The loose flocks of wool and hairs of various
descriptions having been operated upon in the usual manner by the picker;
consisting of a feeding apron, a feed roller revolving over a bar or-trough,
and a large toothed cylinder which delivers the wool and hair on to the surface
of a wire or perforated cage on which it collects, and from whence after being
moistened by jets of steam it is taken forward by the felting apparatus,
consisting of two endless aprons between which the fibres to be felted pass.
The lower apron passes over one or more stationary plattens, heated by steam
or otherwise, above which are corresponding plattens to which lateral or
vibrating motions are given by eccentrics and vibrating arms or other
equivalents. After the fibres have been felted together in passing between
the plattens the felt is wound on a roller, and if desirable a sheet of endless.
paper may be glued or cemented to and wound up with the felt. In order to
increase the strength of or to ornament the felt bobbins containing threads or
rovings are placed between the picker and the. felting apparatus; these
threads or rovings are carried forward and embodied in the felt; transverse
threads or rovings can also be thrown across the fleece of fibres when collected
on the wire or perforated cage by a shuttle or other equivalent. Two or
more thicknesses of felt may be felted at the same time by combining a series
of endless aprons in the same machine, each pair of aprons being provided
with a bat or roll of fibre.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation of a machine combined according to this
Invention; Figure 2 is a plan of the same.
a, a, is an ordinary picking apparatus or machinery, the wool or felting
materials being fed thereto by an endless apron 6 in the ordinary manner.
The large toothed or spiked roller which revolves in a trough delivers the
fibres on to the perforated cylinder or cage c, and the fibrous felting
materials are moistened with steam by jets from the perforated pipe d.
The felting apparatus or machinery with which the picker apparatus is
combined consists as shewn of two pairs of plattens, though more or less
numbers of pairs may be employed depending on the extent of felting desired
to be effected thereby. The fibres are conducted to and between the plattens
e, e, by endless aprons f and 9, and the lower or fixed plàttens are hollow to
admit of being heated by steam, and additional heat may be applied by
hot boxes heated by steam or otherwise applied below the felting fibres.
I prefer that the upper moveable platten should be of wood though other
material may be employed; the lower or fixed plattens are of iron, though
other material may be employed. h is a trough to receive glue or cement,
and paper is conducted between the rollers j, k, the lower one of which
revolves in the trough and applies the glue or cement to the paper which
comes under the sheet of felting fibres and proceeds with the fibres between
the two endless aprons. When desired I introduce yarns, threads, or
rovings, by preference of felting fibres of the same color as or a different
color to the sheet of felting fibres; these yarns, threads, or rovings are wound
on bobbins l, l, which are mounted on axes placed intermediate of the picker
and the felting apparatus, so that the yarus, threads, or rovings, may enter
with the sheet of felting fibres between the endless aprons. When desired
transverse threads, yarns, or rovings may also be laid across the felting fibres
by a shuttle or otherwise. I would however state that it is not new to
introduce yarns, threads, or rovings into fabrics made by felting when such
manufacture has been carried out by other arrangements of machinery.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to
any of the mechanical parts separately, but I claim the combination of a
picker with apparatus for felting by plattens aided by endless aprons
substantially as herein described. I also claim the combination therewith of
a perforated cylinder or cage, and also apparatus for supplying paper to be

page_text: cemented to felted fabric as it is made, and also the application of heated
plattens in combination with the endless aprons and apparatus substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of April, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.
H. B. BARLOW. (L.S.)