CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING CLOTHS
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HADEN, of Trowbridge, in the County of Wilts, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Second day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-nine, in the tenth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said George Haden, His especial
license, that I, the said George Haden, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such other as I, the said George Haden, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and'
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR DRESSING CLOTHS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said George Haden, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being'
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW. KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Haden, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):
My improvements in machinery for dressing cloths have for their objects the
performance of two distinct operations in the finishing of woollen cloths, both of
which are carried on in one machine simultaneously.. These operations are,
laying the pile or nap on the face of the cloth by means of a series of brushes,
or cards and brushes, or any other suitable 'material, moved by a comparative
slow motion, and at the same time polishing and fixing the nap so laid, by the
rapid rotation of heated calendering cylanders, the effect of which conjoined
operations is to give the cloth a smooth face and a permanent lustre. The
improved machine exhibited in the accompanying' Drawings bears some resem-
blance to a gig mill. It is, therefore, to be understood that I do not intend
to claim all the parts of the said machinery as of my Invention, but shall
particularize those features of novelty which I do claim, after I have described
the construction and arrangement of the whole.
Figure 1 is a front view of the machine complete; Figure 2 is the right-
hand end of the same.;, Figure 3 is the left-hand end; and Figure 4 is the
appearance of the back of the machine; Figure 5 is a vertical section taken
transversely through the machine at the red dotted line A, B, in Figures 1
and 4.; similar letters referring to corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Rotatory motion is communicated to the machine from a steam engine, or any
other first mover, by means of a band and rigger, or. toothed gear, attached to
the main axle-a, which axle carries the operating parts of the machine.
b, b, are two drums.or open cylinders formed of rails of wood, and mounted on
axles supported in plummer boxes attached to the frame of the machine. On
one of these drums.b, the piece of cloth intended to be dressed is first wound;
its end is then carried over the. tension rollers. c,. c, and made fast (by canvas
sewn on to the forel) to the other drum; near t the end of the shaft of each of
these drums a-toothed wheel d, d, is mounted, and which slide round loosely
upon the shafts as their axles. Both of these wheels d take into the inter-
mediate-wheele, which is mounted loosely upon a stud fixed to the side of the
frame, and is driven by a smaller toothed. wheel f, on the main axle a. The
moveable parts of the coupling boxes 9, 9, having ratched teeth, slide on square,
parts of the shafts of the drums; and by a movement of the perpendicular stand-
ard rod h, with its tappets i, i,.taking into grooves in the said coupling boxes,
those parts of the boxes are slidden to, and fro, which cause the shafts with the

page_text: drums to be alternately thrown in and out of gear with their respective wheels
d, the other parts of those boxes being fixed to such wheels d. This is effected.
by shifting the lever or handle K to the right hand or left, which produces a
lateral movement of the horizontal rod l, connected to the standard h, and
causes the tappets to slide the respective coupling boxes in or out of gear.
Let it now be supposed that the piece of cloth has been wound upon the lower.
drum, and its end conducted over the tension rollers c, c, and made fast to the
upper drum, as before described, the upper shaft must now be thrown into
gear for the purpose of drawing the cloth progressively from the lower drum;
the axle of which being out of gear will run round freely as the cloth is drawn
off, the tension of the cloth being maintained by the friction of weighted
levers m bearing upon the periphery of the friction wheels n, as shewn
particularly in Figure 3.
The manner of conducting the cloth through the machine being shewn, I.
now proceed to describe the operative parts by which the improvement in the
dressing and finishing of the cloth is to be effected. On the main axle a, I
mount the carrier wheels o, o, the arms of which support the brushes or cards;
or other suitable material at p, p, and which are attached thereto by screw,
bolts, or by any other convenient means, and extend across the machine;
between the brushes, cards, or other suitable material the calenderers 9", 1", 9";
are placed, which are hollow cylinders of copper, or any other metal, revolving.
on axles or pivots, supported in plummer boxes on the peripheries of the
carrier wheels o, o; these cylinders are intended to be heated by steam, intro-
duced from a boiler through the pipe and axle a into the steam box s, a
part of the axle a being part hollow for that purpose; from the box's the
steam passes through small pipes t, t, t, t, t, t, with stop-cocks, the ends of
which pipes are inserted into the hollow axles of the respective cylinders q;
and the steam thus conducted is allowed to blow through small apertures in
the hollow axles so as to fill the cylinders and heat their surfaces, the condensed
steam being allowed to discharge itself through any convenient opening at the
end or elsewhere; at one end of the axle of each cylinder a pinion ",",
is fixed, which pinions take into a stationary toothed wheel v, firmly fixed to
the frame of the machine by screw bolts, as shewn in Figure 3. It will now
be perceived that rotatory motion being given to the main axle a, by a rigger
or otherwise, as before described, the carrier wheels 0, 0, which may be con-
sidered as a gig barrel, will revolve, and the brushes or cards, or other suitable
material at p, p, will by that means be made to act against the face of the
cloth distended between the tension rollers c, c, and consequently-to brush and
smoothen the pile; at the same time the calendering cylinders 9, also carried

page_text: round by the gig barrel, will, in consequence of their pinions u taking into the
teeth of the fixed wheel v, be made to revolve rapidly on their axles, and by
the friction of their heated surfaces upon the face of the cloth, the pile which
has been smoothly laid will become polished and acquire a permanent lustre.
I recommend that the brushes, cards, or other suitable material upon the arms
of the carrier wheel o, should be placed in a curve, the radius of which is
about equal to the whole diameter of the gig barrel, as by that means the
points of the brushes or wires, or other suitable material, will come progres-
sively into contract with the face of the cloth at an acute angle, and thereby
act more delicately upon the pile or nap than if they formed radii equal to the
semi-diameter of the gig barrel. The breasting of the cloth upon the polishing
surface may be increased or diminished by shifting the situation of the lower
tension roller c; this may be done by turning the pinions w, w, by means of
the winch and endless screw a, the pinions taking into racks y, y, which slide
in segment grooves, and carry the pivots of the lower tension roller c, as shewn
in Figure 3. When the whole length of the cloth has been drawn off the
lower drum on to the upper one by the means above described, the handle s
of the friction lever is to be raised so as to release the lower drum and bring
the friction break against the wheel of the upper one; the handle k is then to
be shifted so as to throw off the upper coupling box g, and lock the lower one
to the wheel d, by which means the rotation of the wheel will cause the cloth
to be drawn back and wound upon the lower drum, the friction of the upper
break retarding the rotation of the upper drum, and causing the cloth to be
drawn tightly while winding for a repetition of the dressing process. I perform
the above-described operation while the cloth is in a wet state, and find the
effect improved by occasionally introducing a jet of cold water, which may be
conveniently, done by the employment of a pipe j, j, extending across the
machine, having many small perforations and a stop-cock, to be opened or
closed as occasion may require.
Having described the particular construction of my improved machinery for
dressing cloth, I now wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to
the precise arrangement of the parts as exhibited in the Drawings, knowing
that many variations might be made without materially altering the general
plan of the machine or its effects when put into operation; neither do I intend
to limit the number of brushes or of calendering cylinders to be combined in a
machine for dressing cloth; but I do claim as my Invention the adaptation of
heated calendering cylinders, which revolve upon their axles and work upon
the main cylinder, to a gig mill or brushing machine, or to any similar
appar atus for dressing. woollen cloths, and such calendering cylinders are also

page_text: carried round with and constitute a part of the surface of the main cylinder, as
shewn in the Drawing hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Haden, have hereunto set mý
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-nine.
GEORGE HADEN. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of August, in
the tenth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the
said. George Haden came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the First day of September, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-nine.