IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN, UNION, AND WORSTED PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION CLOTH IN COMBINATION WITH A FELTED BACK
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nicholas Walker and Benjamin Walker, both
of Armley, near Leeds, in the County of York, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN, UNION, AND WORSTED
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nicholas Walker and
Benjamin Walker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th October 1872.
We, NICHOLAS WALKER and BENJAMIN WALKER, both of Armley,
near Leeds, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN,
UNION, AND WORSTED CLOTH IN COMBINATION WITH A FELTED BACK," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the adaptation and manu-
facture of woollen and mixed woollen felted fabrics either of wool alone

page_text: or of wool mixed with cotton or other fibrous materials known in the
trade as union, woollen, or worsted fabrics, and our Invention consists in
the combination of such fabrics with a strong and warm felted back
which is applied thereto by the process of felting, after the thin face has
been woven and made. The thin woven fabric which makes the face is
raised on the back so as to draw out a quantity of fibre, so that the
back can more easily amalgamate with it, this process is done before the
back is put on.
In carrying out our Invention we prepare a "bat” or continuous
sheet of fibres suitable for felting, (or a continuous sheet of fibres
partially felted), which is passed in contact with the surface or back to
back with the woven or other texile woollen fabric with which it is to
be combined through a series of rollers, part of which are hollow and
heated by steam, the action of the rollers being on the same principle as
those in general use in the felting trade, in order to cause the two
surfaces of the fabrics to felt together, and thus form a back of felt to
the woven or other textile fabric.
After having been passed through the series of rollers the combined
fabrics are then put into stocks and milled according to the width and
length desired.
The two fabrics of felt and woven or other textile woollen fabric thus
combined may be finished in the ordinary manner, as is well understood,
whereby a woollen fabric is produced with a face of woven fabric, and a
strong felted back at less cost than by the means heretofore employed in
the production of woven fabrics similar in annearance thereto.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Nicholas Walker and Benjamin Walker in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th April 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, NICHOLAS
WALKER and BENJAMIN WALKER, both of Armley, near Leeds, in the a
County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Nicholas Walker and Benjamin
Walker, Her special license that we, the said Nicholas Walker and
Benjamin Walker, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Nicholas Walker and Benjamin Walker, our
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 THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN, UNION, AND WORSTED CLOTH
IN COMBINATION WITH A FELTED BACK," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Nicholas Walker' and Benjamin Walker, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our
or their
hands and scals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, 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
"6

page_text: i
In carrying out our Invention we prepare a "bat" or continuous
sheet of fibres suitable for felting, as is well understood. The material
of which we make the " bat" for the back first passes through a
"scribbler" which thoroughly takes and opens all the fibrous material,
after which we take as much as is required to make a sheet or bat to
put on the thin woven face, which sheet or bat we pass through a
suitable "carder " or carding machine, which delivers the fibrous
material in the form of a sliver on to a machine called a bat frame,
which consists of an endless sheet mounted on rollers upon which the
fibrous material is delivered until the weight and thickness desired is
obtained. After which the bat or back which has been made on the
bat frame is delivered from the same on to a roller together, or in
contact with the raised surface of the thin woven fabric which is to form
the face of the fabric, the bat being thus put on to the back of the
woven fabric which has been previously raised, as before stated.
"
The bat or back and the thin woven fabric thus combined are then
passed together through a machine called a hardener," consisting of a
series of corrugated or other suitable rollers, part of which are hollow
· and heated by steam, the rubbing motion or action of the rollers being
the same or similar in arrangement and construction to those in general
use in the felting trade, in order to cause the two surfaces of the fabrics
to felt together and thus form a back of felt to the woven or other textile

page_text: cloth having a thin woven face in combination with a felted back,
substantially in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Nicholas Walker and Benjamin
Walker, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-
fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-three.
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