IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO MACHINES FOR TEARING OR REDUCING RAGS AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Nightingale, of Wardour Street, Soho, in
the County of Middlesex, Bedding Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO MACHINES FOR TEARING OR REDUCING
RAGS AND OTHER FABRICS."
Sealed the 16th February 1858, and dated the 18th August 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Nightingale
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 18th August 1857.
I, CHARLES NIGHTINGALE, of Wardour Street, Soho, in the County of
Middlesex, Bedding Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO MACHINES FOR TEARING OR
REDUCING RAGS AND OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in adapting and applying to machines for tearing or
reducing rags and other fabrics a wire gauze cylinder in combination, with a
fan or exhauster, for the purpose of withdrawing the light dust from the
machine when in operation, and conveying and discharging it as may be
required.
The wire gauze cylinder is mounted over the cloth on which the torn
or reduced fabric or material is delivered from the machine, and turns on a
hollow axle communicating with the pipe in which the fan or exhauster works,

page_text: so that a partial vacuum may be produced within the cylinder by the operation
of the fan or exhauster. The mode of working the fan or exhauster and the
means of conveying and discharging the dust may be varied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Nightingale in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th February 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
NIGHTINGALE, of Wardour Street, in the County of Middlesex, Bedding
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Nightingale, Her special license that I, the said Charles
Nightingale, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles Nightingale, 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 AND APPLICABLE TO MACHINES FOR TEARING
OR REDUCING RAGS AND OTHER FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Nightingale, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, 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 Charles Nightingale, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention of "Improvements in and applicable to Machines for Tearing
or Reducing Rags and other Fabrics," consists in adapting and applying to
such machines a wire gauze cylinder in combination with a fan or exhauster,

page_text: for the purpose of withdrawing the light dust from the machine when in
operation, and conveying and discharging it as may be required.
The wire gauze cylinder is mounted over the cloth on which the torn
or reduced fabric or material is delivered from the machine, and turns
on a hollow axle communicating with the pipe in which the fan or exhauster
works, so that a partial vacuum may be produced within the cylinder by the
operation of the fan or exhauster. The mode of working the fan or exhauster
and the means of conveying and discharging the dust may be varied.
In order, however, that my Invention may be fully understood, I will
describe it more particularly by the aid of the accompanying Drawings, which
represent it as applied to an ordinary rag tearing machine.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
:
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 a horizontal section of the
machine. A, A, is the framework; B, the endless feed cloth; C, the ordinary
tearing cylinder with points or tearers fixed round its circumference; D, the
wire gauze segment covering the receptacle E for heavy dust or matter
separated from the fabric by the tearers; F is the endless cloth on which the
torn or reduced fabric is delivered from the machine to any convenient
receptacle; G is the wire gauze exhaust cylinder, mounted as shewn over the
delivery cloth F; it is formed with two discs, one at each end, to which are
connected longitudinal metallic stretchers, over which the wire gauze is.
stretched; but it may be otherwise constructed. This cylinder is enclosed or
covered at the top and in front by a wooden and heavy cloth covering or
shield H, so as to prevent the light dust from passing out at the front part of
the machine. I is a communication between each end of the cylinder G and
the exhaust pipe K, within which a fan L is made to revolve, and produce a
current of air sufficient to draw in the light dust at the aperture M, as
it I passes from the cylinder G, and expel it through the pipe K to any con-
venient receptacle; but the connection between the cylinder and the exhaust
may be otherwise formed.
By this means it will be seen that as the fabric passes through the machine,
and is operated upon in the ordinary manner by the tearing cylinder C, the
heavy dust will fall as usual through the wire gauze segment D into the
receptacle E, while the light dust, instead of escaping as usual at the front of
the machine, will be made to pass into the wire gauze cylinder G, as soon as
the torn or reduced fabric arrives at the delivery cloth F, such light dust
being withdrawn from this cylinder by the action of the fan L, and expelled
through the pipe K as required. The torn or reduced fabric thus freed from

page_text: its light dust will then pass under the cylinder G and along the delivery cloth
Fin the ordinary manner.
The gearing for actuating the feed and delivery rollers and the wire
exhaust cylinder is represented by dotted lines in Fig. 1.
gauze
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not claim
as of my Invention any of the parts of rag tearing machines represented
and described; but I do claim the application thereto, or the combination
therewith, of a wire gauze cylinder revolving over a delivery cloth combined
with an exhaust for withdrawing and conveying away the light dust, and
preventing its escape in the usual manner from the machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Nightingale, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
WILLIAM SPENCE,
50, Chancery Lane,
Patent Agent.
CHAS NIGHTINGALE. (L.S.)