IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR GOFFERING, AND FULLING, OR WRINKLING TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin John Grabham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th August 1870.
I, EDWIN JOHN GRABHAM, of 107, Shepherdess Walk, City Road, in
the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR GOFFERING, AND FULLING, OR WRINKLING TEXTILE FABRICS," to be
as follows:-
According to this Invention I employ two or more endless chains
running parallel to each other on spindles set at such a distance apart
that the tops of the chains gear into each other.
In carrying out my Invention with two chains I can make them of
any width, but for illustration I will say 6 inches wide, I cut out as much
of the middle of them down to the rib on which the joints are brazed,
5 corresponding to the width of material required to be fulled or wrinkled,

page_text: say two inches. Or I take four or more narrow chains from one to three
inches wide, and gear two, three, or four of them on each pair of spindles,
that when all are in their places there is an opening or space between
each series of chains on each pair of spindles corresponding to the
width of material required to be fulled or wrinkled.. In front of the
machine is fixed and adjustable guide by which the material is goffered
longitudinally before it enters the chains. This guide consists of two
spindles working in holes in the frame of the machine and across and
in front of the chains, the top spindle about ¾ inch above the centre
of the chains and the bottom one about 3 inch below the centre. The
ends of the spindles stand through one side of the frames, and on them
are fixed short levers and through the ends of the levers are set screws to
fix them in any position that may be required, the extreme ends of the
levers are formed like clock hands, which point to a graduated index
shewing the exact quantity of material taken up transversely in manu-
facturing the trimming. This can be altered at will according as rich
or poor work is required to be executed. Into these spindles are fixed.
wires about one and a half inches long, somewhat resembling a cone, and in
such position that when the spindles are made to revolve on their centres
the wires in the top spindle pass in between those in the bottom one.
There are enough of these wires to fill a space nearly equal to the spaces
between the series of chains, and are placed opposite the said spaces.
This adjustible guide may be used in conjunction with the ordinary
gridiron or other suitable guide. When the machine is in use the
material to be goffered and fulled is interlaced in the gridiron guide,
the adjustable guide is opened, and the end of the material is placed
between the chains and there held firm by slightly turning the handle
of the machine. The levers of the adjustible guide are now turnęd
back as far as may be desired and fixed by the set screws. The wires of
the adjustible guide now in part a waive-like form to that portion of the
material that is opposite the opening in the chains. The handle of the
machine is now turned, and the material after passing through the
gridiron guide is goffered longitudinally by the adjustible guide in that
part opposite the spaces in the chains and before it enters the chains.
Those parts of the material that are not goffered longitudinally are now
by the action of the chains goffered transversely. This fulls up the
material longitudinally, and the adjustible guide fulls up the material
transversely. The result is than an irregularly fulled or.wrinkled centre

page_text: is given to the material with the outer edges regularly goffered. The
material can afterwards be treated in an ordinary gofferers' creasing
machine and sewing machine to secure it in the form given to it by my
Invention.