IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR PLAITING TEXTILE FABRICS, WOVEN HAIR CLOTH, FELT, PAPER, OR LEATHER
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Tucker, of 3, Tunbridge Street, Euston Road,
London, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR
PLAITING TEXTILE FABRICS, WOVEN HAIR CLOTH, FELT, PAPER, OR LEATHER."
A communication from abroad by Orange McConnell Chamberlain, of 13, Rue
Gaillou. Paris.
Scaled the 22nd August 1876, and dated the 28th February 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Tucker at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th February 1876.
WILLIAM TUCKER, of 3, Tunbridge Street, Euston Road, London, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR PLAITING TEXTILE FABRICS, WOVEN HAIR
CLOTH, FELT, PAPER, OR LEATHER."
This Invention of improvements in machines for plaiting textile fabrics, woven
hair, cloth, felt, paper, or leather consists in a machine for plaiting various fabrics,
chiefly for ornamenting ladies' clothing, though also applicable to paper, leather, or
hair cloth.
The machine is composed of two rollers of the width required of the stuff to be
operated upon; one or both of the rollers are made hollow, and heated by gas,
steam, or other suitable means. The rollers take the material when plaited by the
plaiting knives and press it together and deliver it in a compressed state sufficiently
firm to be handled for sewing on dresses or to be packed up for sale. Between the
rollers lying parallel are two knives, to the backs of which axles are fitted, and
with which the knives work by a rocking and reciprocating motion. by which the
material lying or fed in between the knives is tucked or plaited, or pushed forward
into the rollers. If single plaiting only is required, one knife is stationary and
forms the support upon which the other knife falling on the stuff thrusts it
forward to form the plait; if double plaiting or box plaiting is required, both knives
are worked, cach alternately forming the support and the plaiter. The fabric is
fed in long strips between the two knives.
The action of the machine is thus:-To a driving shaft is fixed at each end a
double crank of variable throw, giving to the knives a rocking motion on the
axle, and also a reciprocating motion to the axle to which the backs of the knives
arc fastened; this axle is in a bearing sliding in ways at each end as the knife
edges rock against the periphery of the rollers, the curve of the roller also acting
[Price RI

page_text: like an inclined plane on the edge assists in carrying back the axle in the ways.
Wheels in connection with the driving axle by means of a ratchet and pall give
to the rollers an intermittent motion, so that when the knives are feeding the
rollers with the plaits the rollers are at rest, and as soon as the knives have tucked
in the plait between the rollers and retired, the rollers move round and carry the
plaited stuff to the delivery side of the rolls. The edges of the knives are inade
either continuous or like the teeth of a comb for the purpose of giving them
elasticity, and the object of heating the roller or rollers is to set the stuff, press,
and glaze it. In woven hair fabrics or paper it is especially important.
In single plaiting the edge of one knife, upper or lower, descends by its rocking
motion on to the stuff, and pressing it against the other knife it then receives the
rectilinear motion, and forming a plait carries it into the rollers, then retires, and
so on.
In box plaiting each knife acts alternately, and both knives work, forming the
stuff into plaits on both sides, and both alike, not as in the single plaiting all the
folds in one direction; in box plaiting one side may have a small plait and the
other a large one.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Willian Tucker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th August
1876.
WILLIAM TUCKER, of 3, Tunbridge Street, Euston Road, London, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR PLAITING TEXTILE FABRICS, WOVEN HAIR
CLOTH, FELT, PAPER, OR LEATHER." A communication from abroad by Orange
McConnell Chamberlain, of 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris.
Figure 1 is a plan; Figure 2, front elevation; Figure 3, side elevation in section
on the line A, A, Figure 1; and Figure 4, outward side elevation.
The machine is calculated to plait the tissues, textile fabrics, or other matters,
such as paper, leather, felt, or hair cloth, automatically, either in single plaits or
double plaits, and either square with the warp of the tissues or obliquely to it, and
with adjustment to vary as required the size of the plaits.
In the Drawings 1 represents the base of the machine; 2, 2, the two frames
united by a cross bar 3. 4, the driving axle and fly wheel 5, with handle 6;
7 and 8, two steel blades, by which the plaiting is effected, and attached to the
arms 9 and 10, which slide in holes 18, 18, made in the frame 2, 2, as well as
in the pressure plates 11, 11, adapted to the frame; these levers receive their
movement from shafts or rods 13, 14, driven by the axle 4, the first in eccen-
tricising the slides 15 in the discs 16, the last eccentricising their pins in the
plates 17, which are of iron, cast with the axle pin of the stem or connecting
rods 13 and the before-mentioned slides 15 and plates 17.
It will be easy to see that the course or stroke of each of these rods may be
regulated at will by the displacement of the slides 15, and that of the heads of the
rods in the plates 17.
As the plaits are formed, or during their formation, the plaits are inserted or
tucked in between the cylinders 19, 20, turning inversely. The rotation, which
is intermittent, is transmitted to the upper cylinder 20 by the aid of an arın 21
articulated on a small wheel gearing into the wheel 23, see Figure 3; the wheel 23
has a little more than the double of the diameter of 22. The form of the teeth is
shewn in the same Figure, and the other extremity is articulated to a lever 24,
itself articulated to the axle of the upper cylinder and carrying a pawl which
engages in the teeth of the ratchet 26. This intermittent rotation of the
upper cylinder is transmitted to the lower cylinder by the pair of wheels 27, 27.

page_text: ACTION OF THE MACHINE.
The tissue to be plaited, represented in red at Figure 3, is gathered from below
the table 32 in the direction of the arrow by the blades 7 and 8, which deliver it
in double plaits, as indicated; during their formation these plaits are held between
the cylinders 19 and 20, which are brought together by aid of the springs 28, the
pressure of which may be regulated by the screws 29, and their rotation has the
effect of drawing the plaits in and disengaging them regularly as they are formed.
The lower cylinder 19, which is hollow, is traversed by a little pipe 30, pierced in
different places on all its length, from which project, see Figure 3, small gas jets
heating the said cylinder for the working of the machine; 31, 31, are two metal
guides traversing the machine from frame to frame and serving to prevent the
blades in working from leaving their normal direction. The machine, such as it is
indicated in the Drawing, produces a double plait; to produce a single plait one of
the blades is taken away. Thus then, the work, either double or single, is produced
very rapidly and very simply by the two movements above described, that is to
say, the reciprocating movement of the blades and the intermittent rotation of the
cylinders.
Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the Invention,
and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that
I claim,―
First. The arrangement and the employment of the pieces 15, 17, 13, 14, 9,
and 10, to give the reciprocating movement to the blades 7 and 8, as well as
the movement of the slides 15 in the discs 16, and the pins of the connecting rods
in the plates 17, with the object of determining the size of the plaits.
Second. The arrangement and the use of pressing rollers 19 and 20 worked
by the intermitting movement of rotation, serving the double purpose of forming
and expelling the plaits.
Third. The means shewn to regulate the approach together of the rollers
19 and 20, by means of the springs 28 and the screws 29.
Fourth. The heating of one or the other or of both cylinders 19 and 20 by
means of the pipe 28 placed in the axis of one or both cylinders, and the small gas
jets from small holes in the pipe.
And, fifth. The arrangement and use of the fixed guides 31 and 31.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Tucker, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
WILLIAM TUCKER. (L.S.)