A CERTAIN INVENTION OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON, LINEN, SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES INTO A FABRIC OR FABRICS APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS WALMSLEY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the Thirteenth day
of December, in the first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Walmsley, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, and sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Walmsley,
my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term
of fourteen years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, "A CERTAIN INVENTION
OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON, LINEN, SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES INTO A FABRIC OR FABRICS APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
Thomas Walmsley, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
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
then next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, then

page_text: the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
same, reference boing thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Walmsley, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
is particularly described and ascertained in and by the following description
thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in producing a fabric or fabrics of cotton, linen, silk,
or any similar fabrous substance, separately or mixed, by combining the fibres
when arranged in layers or fleeces with starch, flour paste, glue, gum, or other
glutinous substance. This combination or method of producing a fabric may
be effected in various ways, one of which is as follows, and is the method I
have practised-Tho cotton, linen, silk, or other fibrous substance is opened or
teazed and prepared for carding by the usual process employed in the manu-
facture of the respective substances. It is then passed through a carding
engine, such as is employed in the carding of cotton, and delivered from the
dofler in a thin fleece or flake on to an endless cloth, the surface of which
moves at about the samo speed as the periphery of the doffer cylinder. This
endless cloth is as wide as the doffer cylinder, and as long as can be conveniently
used, say, eight or ten yards, and has three or four smooth rollers applied
to its surface at different parts for the purpose of slightly compressing tho
successive layers of fibrous substance which are laid on to the cloth as it
revolves. When by the accumulation of layers tho lap or fleece is of sufficient
thickness, it is broko or cut across and carefully removed from the cloth, and
in this state is passed through a machino or apparatus for compressing and
impregnating it with starch, flour paste, or other glutinous substance, and
subsequently drying it. This machine consists of a pair of smooth revolving
cylinders or rollers, which I generally use of about six inches in diameter,
covered with woollen cloth or other suitable material, the one placed over and
resting upon the other, and pressed down by weighted levers or other means,
and the under roller partly immersed in a trough containing a solution of
starch or other glutinous substance, with which the fibrous lap or fleece is to
be impregnated. This trough is provided with a straightedge or doctor, for the
purpose of regulating the quantity of glutinous matter taken up by the under
roller. Connected with these rollers, and geered with them, are a series of drying
cylinders, about twelve inches diameter, which revolve at a speed to give the
same surface motion as that of the surface of the starching rollers. Tho action
of this machine is as follows:-The fibrous fleece or lap, as produced by tho
carding engine being spread out lengthwise upon an endless feeding cloth,

page_text: which revolves upon rollers placed in front of the starching cylinders, is slowly
passed through between the said starching cylinders, by which the glutinous
matter brought up by the under cylinder, as it revolves in the trough is forced
through the fibrous texture of the fleece or lap so as to combine effectually
the glutinous with the fibrous matter. The impregnated fleece or lap in its
further progress is conducted alternately over and under the drying cylinders,
until it is at length delivered in a dry state fit for use, or to be calendered,
printed, stained, imbossed, or otherwise ornamented. The construction and
arrangement of the starching rollers are similar to those employed in the
dressing of cotton yarn for power-loom warps; and the construction and
arrangement of the drying cylinders are similar to those employed by bleachers
and dyers in drying cotton goods.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and fully explained how
any fabric or fabrics of cotton, linen, silk, or other fibrous substances, either
separately or mixed, may be produced, I declare that the same effect of
forming a lap or fleece of fibrous substances may be produced by receiving the
fibrous substance from the doffing cylinder of a carding engine on to the
periphery of a revolving drum, or on to the surface of a cloth having a
reciprocating motion endwise. And that the same effect of compressing the
fleece or lap, and forcing the glutinous substance into the fibrous texture, may
be produced by means of flat blocks and presses, or by any of the ordinary
means of effecting great pressure, and that the drying of the saturated fleece
or lap may be effected, though not so advantageously without the use of drying
cylinders, by any of the ordinary means employed in drying fabrics of cloth;
but I do not claim as of my Invention the separate parts of the apparatus by
which the before-mentioned operations are or may be performed.
But I declare that I do claim the application thereof for the purposes
herein-before described, in order to effect by means of an adequate pressure an
entire combination of the fibrous substance used with the glutinous matter
employed.
And I also claim as of my Invention any fabric or fabrics produced by the
means herein-described, or by any method or process producing the same
results, though effected by any of the means now in common use.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Walmsley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-one.
THOMAS WALMSLEY. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of June, in tho
year of our Lord 1831, the aforesaid Thomas Walmsley came beforo our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.