A NEW OR IMPROVED PRIN- CIPLE OF ERECTING RACKS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RACKING WOOLLEN CLOTHS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LEWIS, of Brimscomb, in the County of Gloucester, Dyer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of July,
in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William
Lewis, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and anthority, that I, the said William Lewis, my exors, admňors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, aud vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED PRIN-
CIPLE OF ERECTING RACKS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RACKING WOOLLEN CLOTHS
AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso that if I, the said William Lewis, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my 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 enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: William Lewis, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in the Drawings and references hereunto annexed.
EXPLANATION..
A, the side walls of the stove, vertical section. B, strong bars crossing the
stove, and having their ends fixed in A; they support C. C, bars having a
grove on the upper side to receive D, and placed parallel to A. D, wheels to
travel in the grooves of C, carrying the cloth racks. E, racks for straining
cloth in the direction of the width of the cloth, by turning F. F, a handle at
one end of each cloth rack, turning the bar G, and also I fixed on G. G, a
long bar supported by H for turning I by the handle F. H, supports or
bearings for bar G, bearing on or fastened to M. I, worms or endless screws
fixed on G, placed so as to be right and left, alternately turning K. K, wheels
turned by I, having a small wheel or pinion fixed on each side of them acting
in the teeth of E, E. L, pinions turning with K for lowering or raising the
horizontal piece M by acting in E, E. M, horizontal piece supporting H, &c.
N, bottom of the rack frame parallel to M, supported by E, which bears on
the axis of D. O, top of the rack frame carrying horizontal friction wheels P,
which run within Q. P, friction wheels to keep the rack frame vertical and
parallel to A. Q, guides for P, srewed to R. R, a bar similar to B, inverted,
bearing in A, and supporting the guides Q. S, a roller or vertical cylinder,
whose axis turns in one end of N and of O. T, a plate attached to one end of
M, M, and bent round S. The racks are wheeled out of the stove in the
direction T, V, pulling them at V. V, the head or handle end of the rack
frame. The piece of cloth is passed from V round S, T, and back towards V,
on the other side of the rack frame, and is stretched by lowering M by
turning F. The axis of K, L, bears on M. M is outside of E, and so are
K and D. In each cloth rack there are about 11 of the wheels D, 11 of the
upright posts E, wheels K, and worms I, 12 of C, 18 of B, 12 of Q, 13 of R,
10 of N, 10 of M, 10 of P, 1 of V, 1 of O 1, 1 of O 2, 1 of N 1, 1 of N 2,
1 of S, 1 of T, 1 of F, 1 of G. At one end of the stove there are as many
narrow vertical doors as the stove will contain of racks, each door being
opposite F or V. At the same end of the stove a shed is built, into which the
racks are to be wheeled out of the stove, when necessary, along C, and guided
by Q, continued the length of the shed. The shed should be about seven feet
longer internally than the stove, and about six feet wider: 3 on each side C,
and 2 in the shed, may be supported by wood. The dots on V, O, M, T,

page_text: represent the hooks on which the edges of the cloth (or lists) are fixed. The
cloth is previously suspended upon the round rods W, put into the holes X
(in E), when is in the shed aforesaid. A stove to hold but one cloth rack on
the common plan must be seven feet wide, and the workpeople are exposed
to the heat; but in the new plan they are not so exposed, and eight racks
require a stove of only 85 inches width externally. The shed is made wider
to give room for racking the outside cloths.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lewis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
WILLIAM (L.S.) LEWIS.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifth day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid William Lewis came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, 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 September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.