IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS FOR AND IN THE MANNER OF EMBOSSING AND FINISHING THE SURFACES OF WOVEN FABRICS TO PRODUCE THEREON CERTAIN APPEAR- ANCES, DESIGNS, OR PATTERNS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Appleby, of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Calico Printer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ARRANGEMENTS FOR AND IN THE MANNER OF EMBOSSING AND FINISHING
THE SURFACES OF WOVEN FABRICS TO PRODUCE THEREON CERTAIN APPEAR-
ANCES, DESIGNS, OR PATTERNS."
Sealed the 24th July 1860, and dated the 24th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Appleby at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
January 1860.
I, JOHN APPLEBY, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Calico Printer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS FOR AND IN THE MANNER OF EMBOSSING AND
FINISHING THE SURFACES OF WOVEN FABRICS TO PRODUCE THEREON CERTAIN
APPEARANCES, DESIGNS, OR PATTERNS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the embossing and finishing of woven fabrics, and
though advantageous to some extent for such fabrics as are formed of silk or
partly of silk, it refers more particularly to such (though not of silk) as are
intended when finished to imitate the appearance of silk either "watered,"
"moire antique" or "shaded designs," or patterns.
My Invention consists of two operations, the first in passing the fabric to be
finished in the usual way through an ordinary hot friction calendering machine,
having a roller acting on the face side of the cloth, which is engraved with
ordinary "Bengal lines," that is, lines or grooves passing round the roller at
right angles to its axis, which lines or grooves must be as nearly as prac-
ticable the same distance apart as the warp threads on the face side of the

page_text: fabric to be operated upon, the said lines or grooves also approximating in
size and shape as near as practicable to the upper convex surface of the warp
'threads. This first operation polishes or brightens the threads, and gives to
fabrics which are not formed of silk a silky appearance. The amount of
friction to be given to the fabric by the engraved roller when passing through
the machine will depend upon the degree of polish or finish required and the
nature of the fabric operated upon. After the cloth has been subjected to
the first operation, it then undergoes the second and finishing operation by
being passed through an ordinary embossing machine with one or more rollers
engraved with the required design or pattern in alto or bas relief as may be
most convenient for producing the moire effect, or those patterns or designs
termed shaded.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Appleby in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
APPLEBY, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Calico
Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Appleby, Her special license that I, the said John Appleby,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such-others_as_I,_the_said_
John Appleby, my 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
ARRANGEMENTS FOR AND IN THE MANNER OF EMBOSSING AND FINISHING THE
SURFACES OF WOVEN FABRICS, TO PRODUCE THEREON CERTAIN APPEARANCES, DESIGNS,
OR PATTERNS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Appleby, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Appleby, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-
My Invention relates to the embossing or finishing of woven fabrics, and
though advantageous to some extent for such fabrics as are formed of silk, or
partly of silk, it refers more particularly to such (though not of silk) as are
intended when finished to imitate the appearance of silk either "watered,"
moire antique," or "shaded designs" or patterns."
My Invention consists of two operations, the first, in passing the fabric to
be finished in the usual way through an ordinary hot friction calendering
machine having a roller acting on the face side of the cloth, which is engraved
with ordinary "Bengal lines," that is, lines or grooves passing round the
roller at right angles to its axis, which lines or grooves must be as nearly as
practicable the same distance apart as the warp threads on the face side of
the fabric to be operated upon, the said lines or grooves also approximating in
size and shape as near as practicable to the upper convex surface of the warp
threads. This first operation polishes or brightens the threads, and gives to
fabrics which are not formed of silk a silky appearance. The amount of
friction to be given to the fabric by the engraved roller when passing through.
the machine will depend upon the degree of polish or finish required, and the
nature of the fabric operated upon. After the fabric has been subjected to
the first operation, it then undergoes the second and finishing operation by
being passed through an ordinary embossing machine with one or more rollers
engraved with the required design or pattern in "alto" or "bass relief" as!
may be most convenient for producing the moire effect, or those patterns or
designs termed shaded.
With regard to the first of the two operations in which my Invention.
consists, I find heat is essential, and that no marketable article can be,
produced without it, and also that it is equally essential that the grooves in the
roller shall be of the character above described, as the object of the first part
of my Invention is to calendar each individual warp thread and those portions
of weft threads crossing each warp thread, and not to crush them flat, but to
polish and maintain them as near as practicable in the same form and direction
as when woven.
From what has been stated, it will be obvious, as the peculiar feature of my
Invention consists in polishing the threads of the fabric without flattening
them, and subsequently embossing the fabric so prepared, that instead of
operating upon the fabric in the direction of the warp threads, the fabric may

page_text: be treated in the direction of the weft threads by those machines which have
rollers engraved with longitudinal grooves or flutes, that is, grooves or flutes
in the length way of the roller and parallel to its axis, and corresponding or
thereabouts to the weft threads in shape and distance apart, such roller rotating
at the same surface speed as the bowl, and instead of having a frictional action
in the direction of rotation, it has such action at right angles thereto by
reciprocating motion imparted to the roller in the direction of its length, and
thus polishing the weft threads and those portions of warp threads which cross
over them, the fluted roller having heat applied to give effect to the frictional
action. Fabrics prepared as last described may be finished and embossed by
the second of the two operations in which my Invention consists.
The operations constituting my improvements may be carried on in separate
and distinct machines; but I am aware that compound machines may be
arranged by which the two effects may be produced by two rollers at one
passage of the fabric through the compound machine. I am also aware that
my Invention may be carried out by a compound machine formed by an
engraved roller like that herein-before described as used in the first operation,
and another like those described as used for the second or embossing operation
with one bowl, the first-mentioned roller acting with heat and friction, and
the second with heat, so that the fabric to be operated upon may be completed
by one passage through the machine.
I have now particularly described the nature of my Invention, and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, and wish it to be understood that I
do not claim the machinery or method of producing the polish or brightness
upon the fabrics or the embossing of fabrics in themselves or separately, as
both are old and well known modes of action;-but-what-Ido-claim-is-the-
polishing or preparing of threads or portions of threads-of-a-fabric,-which-is-
subsequently embossed and finished by the means, in the manner, and for the
purpose herein-before described..
In witness whereof, I, the said John Appleby, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
JOHN APPLEBY. (L.8.)