OR IMPROVED MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY. MEASURING AND WINDING OR ROLLING UP LENGTHS OF CLOTH OR OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Brookes at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 21st April 1877. A communication from
abroad by Eloi Herlin, of Lobbes, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Merchant.
WILLIAM BROOKES, of 62, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
and Registration Agent. "NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
SIMULTANEOUSLY. MEASURING AND WINDING OR ROLLING UP LENGTHS OF CLOTH
OR OTHER FABRICS." A communication from abroad by Eloi Herlin, of Lobbes, in
the Kingdom of Belgium, Merchant.
This Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for simultaneously measuring
and winding or rolling up lengths of cloth or other fabric; and it consists in the
arrangement and combination of parts, herein-after described, by which the opera-
tions of measuring and winding or rolling up the cloth or fabric are effected with
facility, efficiency, and rapidity.
The said machine or apparatus consists of a suitable frame, in which are mounted,
so as to be capable of rotatory motion, the axes of two horizontal cylinders or rollers,
one above the other. The axis of the lower horizontal roller is mounted in fixed
bearings carried by the frame, and the axis of the upper horizontal roller is capable
of vertical motion, so as to cause the said upper roller to bear upon the lower roller
or upon the fabric passing between the said rollers. Upon the axis of the lower
roller is a toothed wheel, which through suitable gearing causes the hands of a
graduated dial to indicate the number of yards, metres, or other unit of measure
used, and the fractional parts of the same, through which the periphery of the said
roller has travelled in its rotatory motion. In front of the said pair of rollers, and
at a little distance from them, is a flat rotatory board or metal plate, provided at
each end with an axis or centre, supported by the frame. The said board or plate,
which is made in two parts, joined together in a diagonal direction, may be caused
to rotate upon its axis by means of a crank handle upon its axis, or by a treadle
acting on a crank, the motion of the said treadle being communicated to the axis of
the said board or plate through suitable pulleys, a fly wheel mounted, by preference,
on the axis of the said board or plate regulating the motion of the parts. Suitable
guide rollers supported by the frame give the required direction to the fabric.
The action of the machine or apparatus is as follows:-The end of the cloth or
fabric to be measured and wound or rolled up is passed through between the hori-

page_text: zontal rollers, and is connected to the rotatory board or plate, herein-before described.
When rotatory motion is then communicated to the said board or plate the cloth or
fabric is drawn on between the said rollers, and wound upon the rotatory board or
plate, and in passing between the said rollers the cloth or fabric imparts rotatory
motion to the said rollers, and the surface motion of the said rollers being equal to
that of the cloth or fabric, and its measure being indicated by the hands of the dinl
before mentioned. The exact measure of the cloth or fabric wound upon the
When the whole length of the
rotatory board or plate may be readily ascertained.
cloth or fabric has been wound on to the said rotatory board or plate the said board
or plate, with the fabric upon it, is removed from the machine or apparatus. The
two parts of the said board or plate are then separated by drawing one from the
other, and they are thus readily withdrawn from the fabric. The two parts of the
said board or plate are then joined together again, and the said board or plate is
replaced in the machine or apparatus, and the operation may be renewed with
another length of cloth or fabric.
In some cases for the rotatory board or plate herein-before described may be
substituted a roller or other winder of any suitable kind.
The dial, herein-before referred to, may be arranged so as to indicate simul-
taneously the number of yards, metres, and fractional parts of the same, even the
centimetres, contained in the length of fabric, and in a few minutes a hundred
yards of fabric, of any thickness, may be simultaneously measured and wound or
rolled up.