A MACHINE FOR SHEARING WOOLLEN CLOTHS
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
COLLIER, of Winsor Terrace, New Road, in the County of Middlesex,.
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal, of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
First day of May, in the fifty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto
me, the said John Collier, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Collier, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend
"A MACHINE FOR SHEARING WOOLLEN CLOTHS," within that part of the said
United Kingdom called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to ine, the said John Collier, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should in our discretion seem meet; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said John
Collier, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by a instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
should utterly cease, determine, and become. void, as in and by the said
recited Letters Patent, relation being thereunto. had, may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Collier, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described in
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof and
references thereto (that is to say):-
I construct or cause to be constructed a machine, of which Fig. 1 represents
the side view and the elevation; Fig. 2, a bird's-eye view or plan. The same
letters refer to both Figures. The pulley A receives its action from the sliafts
of a steam engine, or any other moving power, by means of a strap, belt,
chain, or cord. It is free upon its axis, and, by means of the lever B, works
the great pully C with or without its axis, or both or one of them at the
same time. This movement is explained by numbers 1, 2, and 3, in the
margin of Fig. 2. No. 1, the free pully; No. 2, the pully and axis; No. 3,
the great pully C alone; No. 4, the axis and great pully. The great pully C,
in moving the belt or strap C¹, drives the grinding cylinder or cylinders D,
which should be covered with soft leather, with or without a little oil and fine
emery to the knife roller, described hereafter, and produces the effect of the
fingers of the workman that frequently rubs them upon the edge of the
common shears. The cylinder D', like the last, turns a little faster by means
of the belt C. Its use is to take out the marks that may be left from the
knife upon the cylinder D. The same belt, chain, or strap C, turns the
cylinder E that is armed with its knives, and which, for distinction, I call
male, works against the fixed knife e, and which, for distinction, I call female;
and at the point of contact they form shears. A small groove or nick, turned
upon the great pully C, works the cord F, which, by changing pullies, commu-
nicates to the brush G by another pully fixed upon the crank, and at the other
end with a fly wheel, to regulate the transverse movement of the brush. The
axis of the pullies A and C cross the machine, and at the other extremity.g is
placed the pinion K and wheel L. N.B. The better to understand the Drawings,
the pinions K and O, and the wheels N and M, are supposed to have teeth,
and also the chain wheels L and P. The pinion K moves the wheel M by
means of the wheel N and the pinion O. The wheel M turns freely upon its
axis h, but moves if when the catch forks i, i; are in geer, and works the great
drum l, placed in the centre of the machine, and which drum draws the cloth.in

page_text: winding it upon it, and I call it the attracting drum. The chain wheel L and
chain B" work the chain wheel P, which turns freely upon the axis m, and
which it moves when in contact by the forks o, o, and which I call the feeding
drum. P. P. P. p, p, p, the grip of the feeding drum n, when the cloth comes
upon the attracting drum l, lets it go with resistance, which stretches it in its
length. The lever Q puts in and out of geer the attracting drum and the
feeding druni n, which is constructed in such a manner that one cannot be in
geer without the other being put out, and vice versa, though they can be both
at the same time. This lever Q also acts upon the grips p, p, p, p, so that the
putting out of geer the feeding drum n, and opposing to it the grips p, p, p, p,
and putting into geer the attracting drum l, is done by one and the same
movement of the lever Q, in one direction, and vice versa; but to put both
drums out of geer the lever must be put in the middle position. The chain
wheel P carries with it a pully, with a cord q, to communicate the movement
to the round bench R by the pully r. s, a roller that the cloth turns, and
upon which the crank brush acts. At each end of this roller is an iron ring,
with points round it, and screws to fasten the ring at any distance upon the
roller; the points take the list of the cloth, and the workman frequently
guides the cloth in stretching in its breadth. C, the elastic table, over which
the cloth must be drawn, and is cropped by the male and female; but at that
part of the lists is put a thin piece of iron, tin, copper, or other metal, and presses
it upon the elastic table, so as to prevent the action of the male knives. The
dust and croppings run down the inclined plane t, and, from the rapid move-
ment of the male cylinder, are driven into the box u. The knives, male and
female, can be regulated either in a vertical or horizontal direction. The
elastic table C can slide backwards and forwards upon the bolt that fastens it
to the frame. The cylinder s can be brought nearer to the brush by the same
means; and the brush roller R, and grinding rollers D, D', can also be regu-
lated at will. In place of hair brushes may be substituted teazles or cards,
and the cylinder male may be covered with knives placed in a diagonal
direction, or with ring knives, as shewn at x, or in any other form adapted to
cut the pile or fibre of the cloth in any direction.
Operation of the Machine to crop or shear the Cloth.-The cloth must be
fastened to a piece fixed upon the feeding drum n; it is called the feeding.
cloth. The other end passes through the brushes R and G, and over the
point rollers, and upon the elastic table C, under the female e, and is fastened
to the drum attractor in the same manner. The cloth is then stretched by
the action of the grips p, p, p, p; it receives the effect of the brush R that
raises the pile or fibres of the wool. It then goes upon the cylinder J, and by

page_text: its points is stretched in its breadth. The brush G then lays the fibres in the
direction of the breadth of the piece, and they present themselves to the length
of the knives, by passing over the elastic table; which knives, in cropping, cut
in a diagonal direction. When the piece has gone through the machine, and
is taken upon the attracting drum 7, and you wish it to pass it again through
the machine, the cord of the brush R must be uncrossed, so as to brush
the pile in its length; then, by putting out the grips p, p, p, p, and putting
into geer the feeding drum n, and putting out the attractor 1, which can be
done by the same movement of the lever Q, the cloth will return to its first
position. The movement of the knives male, and that of the cloth, is calcu-
lated to procure what I call a close cropping, or 2 in 2; that is to say, the
pully C, being 24. inches diameter, gives turns to the male E of 8 knives, the.
pully of which is 3 inches in diameter, 7 x 8 = 56 male knives. While
the pully C turns once, as before mentioned, the pinion K, suppose 11 teeth,"
fixed upon the same axis, will give of a turn to the attracting drum / by
means of the wheel N, supposed to contain 130 teeth; the pinion O, suppose
16 teeth, and the corresponding whcel M, supposed to contain 130 teeth.
This turn of the attracting drum 1 (of 28 inches diameter, say 12.672 cir-
cumference) =132 points of movement of its circumference; thus 132 points
of cloth pass under the female, and are cropped by the action of 56 male
knives each time the great pully C makes one revolution. In this manner
the action of the knives are 2 in 2, as before mentioned; but the better to
understand this, each of an inch of cloth receives the action of 8 knives.
It is easy to make any change in the machine, so as to obtain a closer cut or
a wider, by increasing or diminishing the pully of the male; but several are
made of different diameters, and upon which are marked the number of cuts
upon a given surface of the cloth. In like manner the movement of the
machine can be varied by changing the pullies of the brushes of the grinding
rollers D; in short, any combination can be made upon the machine by
varying 5 pullies, that of the knives male, the grinding cylinders, and the
brushes.
The improvements of this machine, of which I claim the sole benefit under
my Patent, consist in the elastic table C, which is made of goldbeaters' skin,
parchment, or any other elastic air-tight material. It is then filled with air,
and secured at each end, and afterwards covered with cloth, leather, or any
other suitable substance. The eccentric brush G, and the round brush R, I
also claim as parts of my Invention, and also the introduction of the two
rollers D, D', and the ring knives a. The other component parts of the
machine, such as wheels, pullies, &c., have been before in use; but the com-

page_text: bination and general construction of the machine I consider as different from
any hitherto used, and consequently protected by my Patent.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Collier, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.