IMPROVE- MENTS IN BEATING, STRETCHING, AND DRYING FABRICS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PART OF WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR THRASHING LINSEED
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Lee Norton, of No. 38, Belle Sauvage Yard,
Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BEATING, STRETCHING, AND DRYING FABRICS, AND IN THE APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN, PART OF WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR
THRASHING LINSEED."-Partly a communication from abroad by William
Aldon, of 28, Boulevart Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, in the Empire of:
France.
Sealed the 29th July 1862, and dated the 4th February 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Lee Norton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,, with his Petition, on
the 4th February 1862.
I, JAMES LEE NORTON, of No. 38, Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill,
in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BEATING, STRETCHING, AND DRYING FABRICS, AND IN THE
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PART OF WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR
THRASHING LINSEED," to be as follows:-
In the manufacture of some descriptions of piled fabrics the pile is brought
up by beating the fabric on the face with sticks, this operation is now performed.
by hand.
According to this Invention the operation is effected by machinery, the
fabric being caused to pass between two rows of sticks which are fitted into

page_text: metal sockets, and in connection with these sockets are short arms or projections
which being acted on by tappets or shafts suitably arranged and driven give
the requisite motion to the sticks to cause them to strike the fabric. The
beating the fabric has to be done generally whilst the fabric is damp, and it is
very desirable that after it has been beaten it should be at once dried, so that
the pile when properly raised may not be again deranged. For this purpose a
beating machine is combined with a tentering, stretching, and drying machine,
so that the former machine may feed the latter, the fabric passing direct from
the beaters on to the tentering points, and being kept extended from the
time the beating commences until it is delivered dried at the end of the
tentering, stretching, and drying machine.
In finishing and drying fabrics it is often required that the pieces should be
finished to a determined length though varying in length when they come from
the looms. For these purposes the fabric in a moist state is passed between
nipping rollers, in connection with the axis of one of which there is counting
apparatus which records the surface motion of the roller as it is caused to
rotate by the passage of the fabric over its surface. From this roller the
fabric passes over one bar and under another bar, the surfaces of which are cylin-
drical. These bars are fixed parallel to each other in a frame, or are combined
at their ends in such manner that the frame of bars may be mounted on necks
or axes at the end so that the position of the frame of bars may be varied by
mean of a worm and worm wheel applied at one end of the axis of the frame of
bars. From these bars the fabric passes over a bar or table, the edge of
which is rounded, and thence it passes to the endless tentering chains, on to
the tenter points of which the selvages of the fabric are passed by a suitable
roller. To the axis of the pullies or rollers of the tentering chains there is a
counting apparatus applied, by which the surface speed of the fabric is
indicated, so that by observing the speed of the roller first mentioned and the
speed of the fabric on the tentering chains, the workman will at once perceive
whether the fabric is being stretched to the correct extent, and if not, he can
adjust the stretch to the proper extent by causing the frame of bars to assume
a more horizontal or more vertical position according as the stretch indicated
at the tentering chains is too little or too much. When finishing and drying.
some fabrics it is desirable that the fabric when it has been stretched should
pass with the tentering chains over expanding or telescopic rollers, so that the
fabric may, whatever its width, be supported from selvage to selvage, and so
that the rollers may be set to the width of fabric which for the time being
is on the tenter chains, and is by them being carried through the drying
process.

page_text: In the Specification of a former Patent granted to me, and dated the 2nd
day of October 1860 (No. 2386) a tentering, stretching, and drying machine is
described, which is heated by means of steam plates placed in proximity to
the fabric to be dried, these steam plates were only cases into which steam
was admitted. According to the present Invention the plates are constructed
so that the steam entering at one end of the plate traverses it in a zig-zag.
direction until it escapes at the other end. In order to produce such a plate a
wrought-iron steam pipe bent to the required zig-zag form is laid in a mould,
and iron is cast on to it to produce the plate required.
The portion of the apparatus described which is applicable to the thrashing
of linseed is the beating machine first described. This material requires to be
very carefully thrashed not to injure the straw which is more valuable than
the seed. The machine, when it is required for thrashing, is fitted with an
endless apron travelling between the beaters, and the straw is fed on to this
apron. The apron
The apron is supported by a table forming a solid bed for the beaters
to strike.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Lee Norton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th August 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LEE NORTON, of No. 38, Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Lee Norton, Her special licence that I, the said James
Lee Norton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said James Lee Norton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BEATING, STRETCHING, AND DRYING FABRICS, AND IN THE
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PART OF WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR
THRASHING LINSEED," the result partly of a communication from abroad made

page_text: to me by William Aldon, of 28, Boulevart Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, in the
Empire of France, and partly of Invention and discovery made by myself,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Lee Norton,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause. the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Lee Norton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in beating, stretching, and
drying fabrics, and in the apparatus employed therein, part of which apparatus
is also applicable for thrashing linseed. In the manufacture of some de-
scriptions of pile fabrics, the pile is brought up by beating the fabric on the
face with sticks. This operation is now performed by hand. According to this
Invention the operation is effected by machinery, the fabric being caused to
pass between two rows of sticks which are fitted into metal sockets, and in
connection with these sockets are short arms or projections which being acted
on by tappets on shafts suitably arranged and driven, give the requisite
motion to the sticks to cause them to strike the fabric. The beating the
fabric has to be done generally whilst the fabric is damp, and it is. very
desirable that after it has been beaten it should be at once dried, so that the
pile when properly raised may not be again deranged. For this purpose a
beating machine is combined with a tentering, stretching, and drying machine,
so that the former machine may feed the latter, the fabric passing direct from
the beaters on to the tentering points, and being kept extended from the time
the beating commences until it is delivered dried at the end of the tentering,
stretching, and drying machine.
Figure 1 is a plan, Figure 2 part of a transverse section, and Figure 3
a side elevation, partly in section, of a machine constructed as above described.
A, A, are frames of the beating machine, B; B, those of the tentering machine
to which it is preferred to attach the beating machine; C is a wheel driving
the first roller of the beating machine; D is an intermediate wheel gearing
with the driving wheel E on a shaft, having fixed upon it the first roller of
the tentering machine, where the fabric is placed on the hooks. F is a roller
on the axis of the wheel C; G is a similar roller having a brake applied to its

page_text: periphery at the ends; both these rollers are covered with card to hold the
cloth by the back side, and the face side so presented to the beaters. The
position of the cloth, and the direction in which the cloth travels, is shewn by the
blue line and arrows; H, H, are the beaters, eight (or it may be other number)
on each side; I, I, are cams working on shafts to lift beaters, these cams work
against wheels fixed on projections from the beater sockets to prevent friction;
J, J, are two shafts working the cams, and K is a cross shaft with driving
pulleys.
Figure 4 is an enlarged view of one of the beater sockets, shewing the spring
to bring down the beater, there will be a separate spring for each beater. In
finishing and drying fabrics it is often required that the pieces should be
finished to a determined length, though varying in length when they come
from the looms. For these purposes the fabric in a moist state is passed
between nipping rollers, in connection with the axis of one of which there is
counting apparatus which records the surface motion of the roller as it is
caused to rotate by the passage of the fabric over its surface. From this
roller the fabric passes over one bar and under another bar, the surfaces of
which are cylindical, these bars are fixed parallel in a frame or are combined
at their ends in such manner, that the frame of bars may be mounted on
necks or axes at the end so that the position of the frame of bars may be
varied by means of a worm and worm wheel applied at one end of the axis
of the frame of bars. From these bars the fabric passes over a bar or table,
the edge of which is rounded, and thence it passes to the endless tentering
chains, on to the tenter points of which the selvages of the fabric are pressed
by a suitable roller. To the axis of the pulleys or rollers of the tentering
chains there is a counting apparatus applied, by which the surface speed of
the fabric is indicated, so that by observing the speed of the roller, first
mentioned, and the speed of the fabric on the tentering chains, the workman
will at once perceive whether the fabric is being stretched to the correct extent,
and if not be can adjust the stretch to the proper extent by causing the frame
of bars to assume a more horizontal or more vertical position according as the
stretch indicated at the tentering chains is too little or too much.
Figure 5 is a transverse section of so much of a tentering stretching, and
drying machine as is necessary to illustrate the improvement above described. '.
A is a wood roller over which the cloth passes; B is also a wood roller, the
weight of which pressing upon the roller A prevents the cloth from slipping.
Both these rollers are loose, and are caused to revolve by the cloth passing.
through or between them. A worm and wheel attached to the end of roller
A, registers the length of unstretched cloth which has entered the machine:

page_text: The cloth after passing through the rollers A, B, passes through the stretching
bars C, C, which do not revolve, these bars instead of being kept in position
by a wheel and catch at one end, as has heretofore in some cases been done
where similar bars have been employed, and which arrangement only allows an
alteration of one tooth or a catch at a time, are held in position and adjusted
by a worm with a hand wheel on its axis, and a worm wheel by which they
can be moved the smallest fraction of a tooth, thus giving great facility of
adjustment. D is the first roller in the tentering machine, where the cloth is
hooked on to the endless chain. At the end of this roller also a worm and
wheel is fixed (similar to the one attached to the roller A) this registers the
length of stretched cloth passing over it, a workman in employing the machine
first measures his cloth, which we will suppose is 36 yards long and must be
stretched in length to 40 yards. The pointers of both the indicators being
placed at zero, when the end of the piece of cloth is at D by the time the
indicator at D registers 5 yards, the indicator A should only register 4,
and when D registers 10 yards, A should only shew 9 yards, and so on every
yard, as the cloth passes slowly into the tentering machine, the difference
between the two indicators shews the difference in lengths and enables the
workman to give the amount of stretch necessary to produce the length re-
quired. The arrows shew the way the cloth travels; E, E, are the ordinary
stripping rollers, where the cloth comes out dry from the tentering machine.
I would here remark that where a tentering and a beating machine are
used in combination, the required stretching of the fabric may be obtained
between the two machines, thus in reference to Figures 1, 2, and 3, supposing
the rollers driven by the wheels C and E are both the same diameter, and
both the wheels have the same number of teeth, the piece of cloth will not be
stretched in passing from one roller to another, but by using change wheels
for E any given amount of stretching may be got between the two rollers;
thus, suppose instead of the wheels being equal, E has 194 teeth, and C 200,
Ievery 200 yards of cloth passing over the rollers will be stretched 6 yards.
When finishing and drying some fabrics it is desirable that the fabric when
it has been stretched should be supported from selvage to selvage. For this
purpose I make the rollers of the tentering machine over which the tentering
chains with the fabric pass telescopic rollers, so that the fabric may, whatever
its width, be supported from selvage to selvage, and so that the rollers may be
set to the width of fabric, which for the time being is on the tenter chains,
and is by them being carried through the drying process.
Figure 6 is a cross section on line A, B, and Figure 7 a longitudinal section
of a roller constructed as above described, and each roller of the tentering

page_text: machine is so formed; Figure 7 shows the roller as it appears when closed,
and the section, Figure 6, is taken at the line A, B, Figure 7. Figure 8 is a
longitudinal section of the roller as it appears when expanded. The roller
shewn in the Drawing is, when closed, or at its shortest length, say, 24 inches
long, and when expanded to its full length it is, say, 64 inches long, but this
may be varied. C is the middle portion of the expansion roller with an iron
centre or supporting ring D in the middle; both ends of this portion of the
roller are open. The outer shell may be of zinc, or any other suitable
material. E, E, are short portions of the rollers sliding into C, one on each
side; these portions each have one iron centre or supporting ring F, F; there
are two grooves in these portions of the roller, as shewn in Figure 6, and in
each of these grooves is a stop fastened to the centre portion C, to prevent
the pieces E, E, from drawing out when expanded to the full length; these
stops are marked G, G; H, H, are the two end portions of the roller; these
also slide into the portions E, E, and have each two iron centres I, I, and
there are stops marked K, K, fastened to each end of E, E; L is the shaft
upon which the roller is placed. The short pieces sliding into each other are
made of the same material as the centre piece.
I would remark that it is not new to use expanding rollers in tentering
machines, but heretofore such rollers have not been made telescopic, that is to
say, they have not been formed of tubes capable of sliding the one within the
other. When made on the telescopic principle, the rollers may be made to
expand to any desired extent, whereas as heretofore arranged, they can only
be extended to something less than double their length when contracted. The
apparatus employed for adjusting the width of the machine is such as has
heretofore been employed.
In the Specification of a former Patent granted to me, and dated the
2nd day of October 1860, No, 2386, a tentering, stretching, and drying
machine is described, which is heated by means of steam plates placed in
proximity to the fabric to be dried; these steam plates were only cases into
which steam was admitted. According to the present Invention the plates
are constructed so that the steam entering at one end of the plate traverses
it in a zig-zag direction until it escapes at the other end. In order to
produce such a plate, a wrought-iron steam pipe bent to the required zig-zag
form is laid in a mould, and iron is cast on to it to produce the plate
required.
Figure 9 is a side view, and Figure 10 is a transverse section of a steam
plate constructed as above described. a is a zig-zag, formed by bending
wrought-iron steam pipe. This is laid in a mould, and the cast iron cast upon

page_text: it to form a plate, with suitable flanges for connecting it to the other parts of
the machine, as is shown. The wrought-iron pipe a has at its ends suitable
junctions for connecting it with the steam mains. The zig-zag wrought-iron
pipe a may if desired be employed as a steam plate without having the cast
iron run upon it, as above described. I do not however recommend this plan,
as it is desirable as much as convenient to increase the extent of heating
surface.
The portion of the apparatus described which is applicable to the thrashing
of linseed is the beating machine first described, this material requires to be
very carefully thrashed not to injure the straw, which is more valuable than
the seed. The machine when it is required for thrashing is fitted with an
endless apron travelling between the beaters, and the straw is fed on to this
apron ; the apron is supported by a table forming a solid bed for the beaters
to strike.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Lee Norton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two..
T