AN IMPROVED SUBSTITUTE FOR TEASELS TO BE USED IN THE DRESS- ING OF WOOLEN CLOTH, OR ANY OTHER CLOTH OR FABRIC WHICH REQUIRES DRESSING
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
PRICE, of Stroud, in the County of Gloucester, send grecting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, did, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Fifth day of
December now last past, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Stephen Price, His especial licence that I, the said
Stephen Price, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I
or they should at any time agree with, and no others, 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 SUBSTITUTE FOR TEASELS TO BE USED IN THE DRESS-
ING OF WOOLEN CLOTH, OR ANY OTHER CLOTH OR FABRIC WHICH REQUIRES
DRESSING;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said Stephen Price, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully and at
large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW 1, that in compnance with the said proviso, J., the said
Stephen Price, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascer-
tained by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof, that is to say:--
My improved substitute for teasels to be used in the dressing of woolen
cloths, or fabrics which may require dressing, is pointed wires or metal teeth
fashioned as herein-after described, which wires may be fixed in rows upon the
circumference of a cylinder or barrel similar to the cylinder or barrel nsed in the
machine known by the name of a gig mill. The said cylinder is rapidly turned
round by some mechanical force, and the cloth which is to be dressed is drawn
over the surface of the cylinder, and thereby subjected to the action of the rows
of wire teeth with which the cylinder is furnished; or otherwise the said wire
teeth may be applied to a piece of machinery which will cause them to operate
crosswise of the breadth of the piece of cloth. The particular points of my
present Invention in which it differs from the machines heretofore used,-and
which differences constitute it an improved substitute for teasels, are,-
First, the particular form or fashion of metallic teeth made of wire which
are used to operate upon the cloth, and the manner of fastening and combining
them together in rows.
Secondly, in a particular manner of applying the said teeth in certain
machinery, so that they shall be qualified to operate upon the cloth across the
breadth thereof, as an effectual substitute for teasels heretoforo used in the hand.
The wire teeth are fashioned as shewn by 1 in Figure A of the Drawings
hereunto annexed; the lower part or stem of the wire is round, or of the
original figure of the wire; above this part the wire is flattened by hammering
or otherwise, so as to render the wire broader, as shewn in Figure B, and
thinner, by which means the elasticity of the wire is increased; the other end
of cach wire is sharp pointed, and bent, as shown by the side view. These
wires are fastened by solder to a slip of tinned iron or copper plate 2, so as to
form a row, as shewn at. Figure B, about twenty-two in an inch, more or less;
according to the work they are to be used for.. A row of teeth thus fashioned
is to be placed on each side of a piece of wood marked 3, of which the section
is shewn at Figure C, and the tinned plates 2 are firmly fastened to the flat
sides of the said pieces of wood by small screws, pins, or rivets passing through
the same. The points of the said teeth on the opposite sides of the piece of
wood 3 are turned rather towards each other, and the middle part of the piece
of wood 3, between the two rows, of teeth, is made convex or rounding. 4 is
a piece of metal which is screwed to the under side of the wood 3; the edges of

page_text: 4, being dovetailed, serve to fasten the piece of wood which carry the teeth in
whatever machine they are to be applied to; several of these picces of wood,
cach furnished with two rows of teeth, as shewn transversely at Figure C, may
be applied upon the circumference of a cylinder like that of a gig mill,
instead of the teasels now in use, the particular manner of doing which is
exhibited in Figure D, wherein I, I, is the end of the cylinder or barrel of.a
gig mill; 3, 3, are the pieces of wood before described, each furnished with two
rows of teeth 1, 1; the dovetailed pieces of metal 4 serve to attach the pieces
of wood 3 to rails 5, which are made of wood or metal, and extend all the length
of the cylinder. They are connected with the cylinder by joints 6, upon which
joints, as centers of motion, the said pieces are moveable and are capable of assum-
ing the position represented in Figure E, or they may be set in any other inter-
mediate position. In the said pieces are holes N, to receive a rod for the pur-
pose of mutual support, the number of joints in one length being proportioned
to the length of the gig cylinder. When the pieces of wood and teeth are set
as is represented in Figure D, the machine is adapted for what is called quick
work, and the convex parts of the pieces of wood 3 serve to bear up the cloth
so as to prevent the teeth from going too deep into the cloth; but it must bo
observed that the dressing or raising the nap of the cloth is chiefly effected by
that row of teeth which moves with the points forwards; the other set of teeth
do also touch the cloth, but the points moving backwards do not meet the
cloth, and therefore produce less effect. On the other hand, for what is called
dead work, the machine is set as in Figure E, in which only that row of teeth
which moves with the points backwards is in contact with the cloth. Although
the pieces 3 have a row of teeth on each side, the quick work is performed, as
before noticed, by that row which moves with the points forwards, but when
this row gets filled with wool, so as to act imperfectly, the pieces 3 are drawn
out of the dovetails 4, which attach them to the pieces 5, and are put in again
in an opposite direction or changed end for end, and then the other row. of
points performs the quick work, and the row (or rows) formerly filled with
wool gets partly cleared, and from time to time the teeth are completely cleared
out by combs or otherwise. Each of the rails 5, which move upon the centers 6,
has an arm J upon the end of it, and the extremities of all the arms J, J, are
received in notches in the edge of a ring Z, which is moveable about a circle
fixed to the end of the cylinder. Y, Y, are teeth formed withinside the ring Z,
and pinions act in these tecth to turn the ring round. A cog wheel P is
attached to each pinion, and both these cog wheels are turned at once by the
endless screws W, W, which are upon one common axis, and the same has a
square at each end, whereto a key can be applied to move the wheels and

page_text: pinions, and thereby the ring Z, with a very gradual motion, which will cause
all the pieces 3, 4, 5, to turn upon the centre 6 at the same time, and set the
points either for dead or quick work; as is required; but I have to remark here
that I do not claim this application of the ring Z, and the cog wheels P, P,
and the screws W, W, as being new, these having been applied in a somewhat
similar manner in an Invention for which a Patent was granted to me and
Isaac Sandford; on the Twentieth day of February, One thousand eight hun-
dred and seven. Sometimes, however, instead of using the apparatus just
described for bringing the pieces 3 from quick to dead work, I employ an
inclined plane or wedge passing through the ends I of the cylinder, and
operating on the ring Z, so as to move it in the degree required to set the
teeth; but neither do I claim this as new, indeed the same thing may be
effected by various mechanical means well known to good workmen. The
manner in which my improved substitute for teasels may be made to operate
across the breadth of the cloth is shown by the section, Figure F, and by the
front view, Figure G. In these 8 and 9 are two sliders of wood or metal, which
are received side by side in a kind of box or fixed trough 10, 10, and are fitted
therein as to be capable of moving backwards and forwards for a certain dis
tance: The-sliders 8-and-9..arc. to be put in motion by means of two cranks
formed on one axis, but in opposite directions, so that the motion of the two
slides will always be contrary to each other. To each of the sliders are fastened
several short lengths of the pieces of wood 3, Figure C, with two rows of
teeth attached to each of them, as before described. The said pieces 3 are
fixed across the breadth of the slides 8 and 9, and at such distances asunder
as shall equal the motion given to the sliders by the cranks. The trough 10,
containing the two sliders, is fixed in such a position that the web of the cloth,
after it has passed over the cylinder of the gig mill, as shown in Figure D,
shall also pass over the different rows of teeth 3, which are affixed to the two
sliders, as shewn in Figure F, and the axis of the crank is connected by wheel-
work with the cylinder of the gig, so as to keep the sliders in continual motion
backward and forward. By this means, after the cloth has been subjected to
the action of the teeth upon the cylinder or gig barrel in the direction of the
length of the piece of cloth, it passes over the sliders 8 and 9, and by the teeth
thereof is rowed or dressed across the breadth of the piece, so as more efice
tually to raise the wool or nap of the cloth. The cloth is kept extended in
breadth by two rollers 11, applied in front of the piece of cloth, or by any
other suitable means, and the ends of the same are provided with points o
teeth, which take hold of each edge of the cloth to keep the same to the
breadth. The trough that supports the sliders and also the rollers are

page_text: adjustable in their position, so that the cloth may be made to press with more
or less force against the sliders.
N.B. Though in describing this part of my Invention, I have only
mentioned one pair of these sliders, a greater number may be employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Price, have hercunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.