AN IMPROVED FRAKE OR MACHINE FOR SHEARING OF WOOLLEN CLOTH
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONAH
DYER, of Wotton Underedge, in the County of Gloucester, Machine Maker
and Engincer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-first day of February now last past, did give and grant unto me,
the said Jonah Dyer, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Jonah Dyer, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Jonah Dyer, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any timo agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter 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 "AN IMPROVED
FRAKE OR MACHINE FOR SHEARING OF WOOLLEN CLOTH;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Jonah Dyer, 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 said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the said recited
Letters Patent, reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Jonah
Dyer, do hereby declare that my said Invention is performed and carried into

page_text: effect in the manner described by the Drawings hereunto annexed, in which
Figure 1 is an elevation of my improved frame or machine for shearing cloth,
taken from the front side; Figure 2 is a plan looking down upon the same;
and Figure 3 is a section crossways. In all these Figures the same letters of
reference are used. A, A, is the shear board, across which the cloth is spread 5
when it is to be cropped by the shears. These are not represented in the
said Drawings, because they form no part of my Invention, and as they
may be applied in different ways, which are well known to those who
have used shearing machines; the following description of their action will
be sufficient:-
:
The shears are fixed with screws or otherwise to a frame or carriage running
upon four wheels which traverse upon the rails B, B, and D, D, of the frame,
so that the shears may be conveyed across the breadth of the cloth,. with the
horizontal blade lying flat thereupon, and the line of its edge perpendicularly
across the board (or in direction of the length of the piece of cloth); the handle,
bob, or lever of the shears may be applied in the usual manner of shears to be
worked by hand, and to the end of it a line or cord is attached, which, descending
to the crank E, is connected thereto by a thimble; therefore the rotary motion
which is given to the spindle F of the crank E causes the shears to crop the
cloth upon which they lie. Two pair of shcars are used, each having similar frames s
and wheels to run upon the rails, B and D; they are worked by seperate cranks
E, G, though formed on the same axis, and each pair crops one-half of the
breadth of the picce from list to list, being gradually moved across the cloth
as they work, by means of cords wound upon a small roller which is situated
at one end of the frame, and having a toothed wheel fixed upon it, receives
a slow motion by means of an endless screw or worm, upon the axis of which
is a wheel turned by means of a band or strap from another smaller wheel
carried by the axle F of the crank. By this means, when the axle F is
turned by the power of the mill, the cranks draw the levers of the shears and
cause them to cut, and at the same time, by the barrel or roller aforesaid
drawing the cords, the shears will traverse across the breadth of the cloth
and never cut twice in one place. Tho piece of cloth is wound, in the first
instance, upon the roller H, situated beneath the shear board, and for this
purpose the roller has a wheel or pulley a, upon the end of it, which receives
a band from another wheel K, mounted upon a spindle and turned by the
handle d; therefore one end of the piece of cloth being attached to the roller,
and the handled being turned, the whole piece is quickly wound upon the
roller. The other end of the piece is then conducted under the roller L, and
up to the shear board A, at each side of which is a small roller or perch e, e,
I

page_text: which tend to facilitate the motion of the cloth when it is to be drawn forward
to dress a new part, and also to keep the cloth extended flat across the shear
board during the operation of cropping. After crossing the board the cloth
descends and is wound upon a roller M, which at its extreme ends carries
a face or bevelled cog wheel f, and is turned by a similar wheel g, fixed at the
end of a short spindle h, which comes out of the front of the frame, and has the
ratchet wheel i upon the end of it; the click or stop k falling into the teeth of
this, prevents the cloth being drawn off the roller M. The roller L is made of
such a size that its girt or circumference will be equal to the width of the
shear board (or length of cloth which is to be cropped at one time), and it has
fixed at one end of it a snail or wheel m, with one tooth. A small catch Z
(Figures 3 and 5) intercepts this tooth, and prevents the roller making more
than one turn until the catch is lifted up by means of the lever n, o, Figure 3,
which extends across the machine beneath the shear board. The handle o of this
lever being depressed, raises the opposite end and the catch l; then by turning
the ratchet wheel i with a pin which projects out for a handle, the roller M is
turned also and winds the cloth, drawing it over the shear board until the
roller L has made one turn; the tooth of the snail then comes to the catch 1,
and prevents its further motion; by this means the cloth is known to be drawn
forwards as much as the breadth of the board, and is ready to begin cropping
again. Before the cloth is moved, as I have described, the shears must be
raised up that they do not press the cloth down upon the board (or what has
the same effect, the board is let down to be clear of the shears); for this
purpose the board is supported upon the upper end of four legs N, N, which at
the lower ends are joined to short levers p, p, attached to. two axles or
spindles g, which extend across the machine, and are supported upon pivots at
their ends. Two long levers O, P, are also affixed to the same axles and united
at their extremities by a shackle or link, which obliges the two to move
together; the rod r is likewise attached to the lever p, and this being pressed
down moves the levers O, P, both at once, and the short one p, p, raise up the
four legs N of the board altogether, and the cloth is brought in contact with
the lower blades of the shears; in this situation r is retained by pin-holes to
the frame, but on releasing the rod the board descends as much as is necessary
to clear the cloth in order that it may be drawn forwards to crop a new part.
The small rollers or perches e, e, at the edges of the board are supported at
their ends by pieces of iron affixed to the frame, and do not therefore partake of
the descent of the board; by this means the rollers stand rather above the
surface of the board when it is let down, and thus bearing the cloth up from
it leave it more at liberty to be drawn forwards by the rollers, as aforesaid.

page_text: The edges or lists of the cloth are scized by hooks for straining the cloth
breadthways whilst it is cropped; these hooks Q are formed of a piece of
steel plate cut as shewn in Figure 2, (also shewn separately in perspective i
Figure 4) and bent down at the points; they are fastened to short crooked
levers, which are attached by center pins a to the ends of bands or straps of
tron R, which lie across the board, and the ends being turned under the board
they slide freely along the same. The lower ends t of the crooked levers have
rods v jointed to them, and these are jointed to levers T affixed upon axles-V;
extended across the frames are other lovers fixed to the same axles, and com-
municating with the lever W by means of the rods w, (see the separate view,
Figure 6,) but at one end another lever X is introduced to chango the
direction of the motion. The effect is, that when the handle of the lever W
is moved to the right hand, it causes both sets of hooks to recede equally, and
thus stretch the cloth on both edges at the same time. On the contrary, when
the handle of W is moved to the left, the hooks approach each other, and may
be disengaged from the list of the cloth until the cloth is drawn forwards by
the rollers, as aforesaid, and then they are to be replaced to strain the cloth in
its breadth.
The reason of drawing the hooks from the lower ends of the crooked
levers to which they are affixed is, that this mode of attachment gives the
points of the hooks a tendency downwards, at the same time that the whole is
drawn backwards, and thus the hooks are more certainly. pressed into the
cloth; for the same reason, when the hooks are made to approach, the points
thereof raise up and disengage themselves.
Having now described all parts of my improved frame or machine for
shearing cloth, in which description I have necessarily been obliged to include
some parts of the original machine, I, the said Jonah Dyer, do therefore
declare that the parts thereof in which my Invention consists, are,
First, the addition of the rollers II, L, M, on which the cloth is wound by the
wheel K, also the roller M, and wheels f, g, the roller L, with the catch l, m,
by which the proper quantity for the cloth to be drawn forwards is indicated.
Secondly, the rollers or perches e, e, at the edge of the shear board, which,
as above described, do not descend with the shear board.
Thirdly, the hooks for straining the cloth in its breadth, which are applied,
as I have described, with cranks s, t, that they may hold more certainly.
In witness whereof, I, tho said Jonah Dyer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
TAN ATT 2
חות
TVED
MERTA

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventh day of March, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Jonah Dyer came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And
5 also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of April, in the year above written.