IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEATING CARPETS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sydney Simmons, of 86, St. Augustine Road, Camden
Square, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR BEATING CARPETS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sydney Simmons at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th January 1880.
SYDNEY SIMMONS, of 86, St. Augustine Road, Camden Square, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEATING CARPETS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for beating carpets.
For this purpose I employ a roller contained within a casing and driven at a high
velocity. The roller has attached to it, in a line parallel to the axis and at distances
apart, a number of short chains or ropes, and these are all connected at their ends
to other chains or ropes passing along the roller from end to end; the roller may
conveniently carry three or more such sets of chains, and as it rotates the chains
are thrown outwards by centrifugal action. The carpet which is to be beaten is
supported in front of the roller upon a horse, and the chains, especially the longi-
tudinal chains, as they come round strike upon the carpet and beat out the dust.
The horse consists of a wooden frame which is open at the part on which the chains
strike, and the carpet is here supported only by leather straps stretched across the
frame; the dust is thus able to fall freely away. The action of the beaters suffices
to draw the carpet forward into the machine, and to cause it to pass beneath the
beaters, and when the whole has been thus once beaten the carpet may be pulled
or wound gradually back, and so caused to pass a second time beneath the beating
chains.
The case of the machine is connected with a fan which by maintaining a current
of air withdraws the dust and prevents it from escaping at the opening or slit in
the casing by which the carpet is passed in. A flexible flap closes this mouth or
aperture as nearly as may be.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Sydney Simmons in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th July
1880.
SYDNEY SIMMONS, of 86, St. Augustine Road, Camden Square, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEATING CARPETS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for beating carpets.
For this purpose I employ a roller contained within a casing and driven at a high
velocity. The roller has attached to it, in a line parallel to the axis and at distances
apart, a number of short chains or ropes, and these are all connected at their ends to
other chains or ropes passing along the roller from end to end. The roller may 1
conveniently carry three or more such sets of chains, and as it rotates the chains
are thrown outwards by centrifugal action. The carpet which is to be beaten is
supported in front of the roller upon a horse, and the chains, especially the longitu-
dinal chains, as they come round strike upon the carpet and beat out the dust. The
horse consists of a wooden frame which is open at the part on which the chains 1
strike, and the carpet is here supported only by leather straps stretched across the
frame; the dust is thus able to fall freely away. The action of the beaters suffices
to draw the carpet forward into the machine and to cause it to pass beneath the
beaters, and when the whole has been thus once beaten the carpet may be pulled
or wound gradually back, and so caused to pass a second time beneath the beating
chains.
The case of the machine is connected with a fan which by maintaining a current
of air withdraws the dust and prevents it from escaping at the opening or slit in
the casing by which the carpet is passed in. A flexible flap closes this mouth or
aperture as nearly as may be.
The Drawing hereunto annexed shows a machine constructed as above described.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the machine; Figure 2 shews a front view of a
portion of the roller and some of the chains dependent from it.
A is the outer casing of the machine; B is a tubular metallic roller passing from
one end of the casing to the other and driven at one end by a belt pulley fixed to:
its axis on the outside of the casing. The roller and casing may be of any desired
length, according to the width of carpet which it is desired that the machine should
be capable of acting on. C, C, are short chains secured, as shewn at Figure 2, to
eyes D which stand out from the roller and are ranged in lines parallel with its
axis. In Figure 1 three such sets of chains are attached to the roller, but other
number of sets of chains might be used. To the outer end of the chains C are
coupled other chains E, as shown, which serve as beaters. The chains I use are of
steel; ropes might be used, but not nearly so advantageously, as they soon wear
out. I prefer to drive the roller at a speed of about 30 or 40 revolutions a minute.
F, F, are straps of leather secured at their ends to two fixed parallel bars, forming
part of a frame G which extends from one end to the other of the casing A; the
straps are preferably about 3 or 4 inches in width, and about 1 or 1 inches apart
from one another. H is a horizontal opening in the casing partly closed by a
hanging flap I, as shown; K is a roller over which the carpet to be beaten is passed
as it goes forward into the interior of the machine. The carpet is passed in through
the opening H and over the horse formed by the straps F; as it passes over the
horse it gets beaten by the chains E, as above explained. The action of the chains
also suffices to draw the carpet inwards; the speed at which it is allowed to be
drawn in can be regulated by the attendants more or less holding the carpet back.
After the carpet has been drawn in it is again drawn back slowly by the attendants,
and so again subjected to the action of the beaters. L is an opening from which a
passage leads to a fan by which air can be withdrawn continually from the interior

page_text: of the casing; there will thus always be an indraught of air into the casing through
the opening H, and escape of dust through this opening is thereby prevented.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I would have it understood that I claim, the construction of machinery for
beating carpets, substantially in the manner herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sydney Simmons, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty.
SYDNEY SIMMONS. (L.S.)