CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS, AND IN THE MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Blair, of Ducie Bridge Mill, Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME."
Sealed the 30th March 1853, and dated the 7th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Blair at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th October 1852.
I, JOHN BLAIR, of Ducie Bridge Mill, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
I shall first state that wadding is generally made from cotton, but it
can also be made from wool, silk, or other fibrous material, and has
been made heretofore and still is made in short lengths of one and a
half and two yards' each sheet; but since 1846, waddings have been
made in the more useful lengths of six and twelve yards, by means of a
combination of the ordinary carding engines for carding cotton for
spinning purposes, which combination, together with other improve-
ments in the machinery, are the Invention of Peter Armand Le Comte

page_text: de Fontaine Moreau, and for which a Patent was granted to him
bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of February 1846.
In the manufacture of waddings by his Invention, twenty carding
engines are requisite to produce a lap or wadding of twenty slivers
thickness or substance of cotton as it leaves the carding engines, each
engine being capable of depositing only a single sliver towards the
formation of the lap or wadding. Now, by my Invention a lap or
wadding of the same lengths and of the same substance, and even of
greater substance, can be produced from the use of only one carding
engine and a drum or large cylinder which will supply the place of
nineteen carding engines out of the twenty. This drum or large
cylinder will be about seventy-two inches in diameter, in order to
produce a lap or wadding of six yards in length, and of double that
diameter in order to produce a lap or wadding of twelve yards in length;
but in order to make the lap or wadding adhere with tenacity to the
drum while making its usual revolutions, the drum is covered with
woollen felt. Thus, to produce a wadding of twenty slivers thickness
from one engine only, this drum or large cylinder will be permitted to
revolve twenty times, and the lap is produced. By this mode much
trouble, expense, and inconvenience are saved, from the fact of only one
leading engine being requisite to produce a lap of any required substance
and of the useful lengths.
Another mode of producing this wadding will be by means of two
creepers in place or stead of the drum or large cylinder. These creepers
are in make similar to the creepers now in use to supply an ordinary
blowing machine with cotton, and, being endless, and placed one over
the other upon rollers, will keep revolving by means of steam power.
The cotton, as it leaves the leading engine in slivers, will pass around
the top creeper, and in order to protect it from breaking as it passes
round and gets heavier, the under creeper keeps revolving at the same
speed, and prevents the lap from hanging down and breaking. The lap
or wadding being taken off the creeper in the same manner as off the
drum, by means of rollers, and being sized or glazed, either in the
ordinary manner by hand or otherwise, it is then hung longitudinally
upon rods and dried, and thus the wadding is complete. My improve-

page_text: ment in the wadding itself, to be produced from the machinery invented
by me, consists of the introduction of silk noils or raw silk waste either
into the body of the wadding or upon the front or back, or upon both
front and back thereof, for the purpose of strengthening the wadding";
this can easily be done by any practical maker of waddings. Waddings
also of pure silk can be made in the same manner as from cotton, and
at the same expense, and will be an article of exquisite softness, com-
bined with strength and durability, owing to the length of the silk
staple.
I wish to state that heretofore for the manufacture of the short
waddings of one and a half and two yards, a small drum or cylinder
was in use, but it was never considered that the cotton slivers would
adhere to drums or cylinders of greater circumference than 2 yards. I
therefore claim as my sole Invention, all drums or cylinders greater in
circumference than two yards, to be made for the manufacture of
waddings; also the covering with felt the creepers, and the drying longi-
tudinally. I also claim as my sole Invention waddings from silk, or
from a union of cotton and silk. I wish it to be distinctly understood
that this is only a Provisional Specification, and that it contains only
the nature of my Invention, the practical part of which I shall describe
in my Complete Specification to be hereafter lodged.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Blair in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 7th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN BLAIR, of Ducie Bridge Mill, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Blair, Her special license that I, the
said John Blair, my executors, adininistrators, and assigns, or such

page_text: others as I, the said John Blair, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS, AND IN THE MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Blair, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 John Blair, do hereby declare
the nature of my said. Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:
In order to make my Invention better understood, I shall first state
what wadding is made from. I shall secondly describe the nature and
construction of an ordinary wadding. I shall thirdly describe a wadding
which is made by machinery invented by Peter Armand Lecompte de
Fontainmoreau, and for which a Patent was granted to him, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-six. Fourthly, I shall describe a wadding
invented by Edward Westhead, for which a Patent was granted to him.
bearing date the Third of September, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-nine. And lastly, I shall describe my own Invention.
Wadding is and has been generally manufactured from cotton, but
it can also be made from wool, silk, or other fibrous material. In the
common or what is termed "sheet wadding," the cotton undergoes, as
in all other waddings, the process of carding in an engine or machine
made expressly for the purpose of carding cotton; and as the material
comes from that engine or machine in layers or slivers similar to a
very thin web, a number thereof laid upon each other by means of a
small revolving drum will constitute a lap; when this lap is taken off

page_text: the drum, and glazed or sized on one side by means of a brush and
size, made from a solution of alum and buffalo hide boiled down, and
then dried, the wadding is complete. The common wadding is very
limited in length, scarcely ever exceeding one and a half yards, but
never exceeding two yards.
From the limited length and peculiar unevenness of its edges, this
class of wadding was subject to great waste in its use, and hence it
was to obviate this waste that Peter Armand Lecompte de Fontain-
moreau conceived his Invention for making wadding in more useful
lengths. The machinery invented by the said Peter Armand Le-
compte de Fontainmoreau is capable of making waddings of unlimited
length, but this capability is considered of no practical use beyond the
limits of six and twelve yards; these lengths being considered more
convenient for both sale and use, inasmuch as consumers usually
purchase waddings by the dozen yards; and the practice, therefore, of
cutting the wadding in lengths of six and twelve yards, and making them
up in packages of twelve yards each, has been and still is invariably
followed by all manufacturers of wadding by machinery upon Peter
Armand Lecompte de Fontainmoreau's principe. To effect the
manufacture of unlimited length, or of the lengths of six and twelve
yards, by Peter Armand Lecompte de Fontainmoreau's Invention, the
maker is obliged to have a number of carding engines working together,
and connected with each other, the precise number of which depends
entirely on the substance or thickness of which the wadding to be
produced is required, each engine being capable of adding only a single
sliver or thin web to the formation of the lap. Thus, if wadding of
twenty layers or slivers in thickness be required, twenty carding engines
will be necessary to make the same, and all of which carding engines
must be connected and work together, and each deposit a sliver towards
the formation of the lap. Now, the manufacture of this article by the
use of Peter Armand Lecompte de Fontainmoreau's Invention is not
only very expensive and complicated, from the fact of so many carding
engines being requisite to the formation of a single lap, but is also
subject to inconveniences, such as the following: for instance, should
any one of the twenty carding engines require new clothing or

page_text: covering, or that any slight accident should arise to any one thereof,
while the manufacturer is in process of making laps of twenty slivers
in thickness for some urgent occasion, and having at hand no other
engine save the twenty in use, the whole must cease working until
the carding engine is covered or the slight accident repaired. Thus,
nineteen out of the twenty carding engines are left idle by the mere
fact of one getting the least out of order. It is to remedy this evil
that part of my Invention is appropriated.
Edward Westhead's Invention, for which a Patent was granted to
him, consists altogether of improvements in the wadding itself, which
improvement is effected by the introduction of a series of threads or
thin fabric, either into or upon the back or foundation of the wadding,
with a view of strengthening it. His Invention also extends to an
improvement arising from the use of a thin solution of gutta percha,
instead of the size or ordinary glazing material; also with a view of
strengthening the wadding.
Having fully described the common or sheet wadding, the machinery
invented by Peter Armand Lecompte de Fontainmoreau for the pur-
pose of making waddings in the more useful lengths of six and twelve
yards, and Edward Westhead's Invention, I shall now proceed to explain
the nature of my Invention, which consists, first, of improvements in the
machinery for making waddings in those useful lengths whereby much
trouble, expence, and inconvenience are saved, from the fact of only
one carding engine being used instead of twenty; and, secondly, of im-
provements in waddings. These latter improvements are of two sorts:-
First, an improvement effected by the introduction of silk into the body
of the wadding, or upon the front or back, or upon both front and back
thereof. This improvement will render the waddings peculiarly strong
and lasting, owing to the length of the silk staple. Second, the water-
proofing of waddings intended for padding exterior garments. My
improvements in the machinery are also of two sorts, by either of which
I can produce the desired lengths of six and twelve yards, or even
greater lengths, if requisite. By my Invention, a lap or wadding of
twenty slivers thickness, and even of greater substance, and of six or
twelve yards in length, can be produced by the aid of a large drum or

page_text: cylinder, which will supply the place of nineteen out of the twenty
carding engines requisite to produce a lap upon Peter Armand
Lecompte de Fontainınoreau's principle. This drum or large cylinder
is staked upon a shaft which revolves in brass steps or sockets, and is
placed in front of the carding engine close to the doffer thereof, leaving
only space for a roller of about three inches in diameter to revolve
between. The cotton, as it leaves the doffer of the engine, will pass
either over or under the roller aforesaid, and thence around the drum,
which is to be about seventy-two inches in diameter in order to produce
a lap of six yards in length, and of double that diameter in order to
produce a lap or wadding of twelve yards in length. The drum is
allowed to make revolutions sufficient to make a lap of the required
thickness. Thus, if a lap of twenty layers or slivers thickness be
required, the drum or large cylinder is allowed to revolve twenty times,
and the lap is produced; that is, the drum is allowed to make one
revolution for each layer of thickness of which the lap is required to
consist. The drum being covered with woollen felt, the cotton as it
leaves the carding engine will adhere with such tenacity, that a lap of
almost unlimited thickness can be produced. The lap, when complete,
is taken off the drum while making its ordinary revolution's upon a rod
revolving in the hand, and is then opened out and spread upon a table
to be sized. This table is also of my Invention. There is along its
centre a slit or opening of size sufficient to receive a long rod which
will fill up the slit or opening, and consequently make the surface of the
table even; upon this rod (of which there are many) the wadding is
removed after being sized by hand on the table to the drying. stove,
where it is hung longitudinally as it is taken off the table. The
longitudinal drying is of decided advantage to the wadding, as its own
weight, combined with that of the size, causes it to expand and become
broader, which is of great utility for cloak making and many other
purposes. Another mode of drying and sizing the wadding, and
quicker method, is by removing the lap off the drum upon a roller,
which is constructed to revolve in sockets in a franie similar in
make to that used for waterproofing cloths. The lap will be carried
from this roller upon a short creeper, so as to meet two large smooth
.
a

page_text: rollers, between which the lap will pass; the size is put on by hand as
the lap meets those two rollers, which are so close together as not to
perniit any unnecessary quantity of the size to adhere to the wadding.
As the lap passes between the two rollers aforesaid, it is met by an
endless creeper, which is moving at a very slow pace, and carries the
wet sized lap into an opening or small space between two steam chests
placed one over the other, and leaving the space between only sufficient
for the lap to pass without the back or top thereof touching the upper
steam chest. My object in having the two steam chests placed over
each other, is because one steam chest would not have the desired effect
of drying; the wadding face being of fibrous material, the heat it would
receive in its passage over one steam chest would not be sufficient to
dry the back which is sized; but the two steam chests being placed
over each other will afford quite sufficient heat to dry the wadding in
its passage between them. After the wadding has been dried in its
passage between the steam chests it is carried by the creeper to the
other end of the frame, where it is received by another roller in precisely
the same manner as cloth is received after it has been waterproofed. I
may observe that two steam chests have never been used by any person
whatever for drying wadding, nor have they been placed in the positions
stated for any purpose.
Another mode of making wadding in the useful lengths is by the aid
of two creepers in place or stead of the large drum or cylinder. These
creepers are in make similar to the creeper now in use for feeding an
ordinary blowing machine with cotton, and being endless, and placed
one over the other upon rollers, will keep revolving by means of steam
power. The cotton, as it leaves the carding engine in slivers, will pass
around the top creeper, and in order to protect it from breaking as it
passes around and gets heavier by the additional slivers meeting it, the
under creeper keeps also revolving at the same speed, and prevents
the lap from hanging down and breaking. The lap being taken off
the creeper in the same way as off the drum, it is sized in either of the
ways herein-before mentioned.
These Inventions of mine completely do away with the necessity
of employing nineteen out of the twenty carding engines requisite to

page_text: produce a lap of that substance by Fontainmorceau's Invention, and con-
sequently does away with all inconveniences arising from those engines
being worked in connexion with each other. It may be as well here to
mention, that for the manufacture of an ordinary or common sheet
wadding a small drum or cylinder was requisite, but it was never
considered that the web or slivers as they came from the carding
engine would adhere to a drum of greater diameter than about two
feet, and those drums were usually covered with leather, but never
with felt. I therefore claim as part of my Invention all drums from
two feet in diameter, constructed for the purpose of manufacturing
waddings. I also claim the sole invention of the application of the
felt to the drum, as also the creepers.
The second part of my Invention consists of the introduction of silk
noils or raw silk waste into the wadding with the view of strengthening
it. This can be accomplished in various ways. Thus, if it should be
desirable to introduce a body of silk into the centre of the wadding, it
will be only necessary for the carder, after a sufficient number of layers
of cotton have been sent around the drum to supply the carding engine
with silk instead of cotton, and when two or three layers of silk have
gone around the druin supply the engine again with cotton. If it should
be desirable to back or front the wadding, or both back and front the
wadding with silk, this can be done by first supplying the engine withi
silk and then with cotton; and for both front and back, supply engine
first with silk, then with cotton, and then with silk. This latter mode
will make a beautiful article, and one which will be greatly in demand
for ladies garments, owing to its peculiar softness and strength (arising
from the length of the silk staple). Another mode of backing or fronting
the wadding is by having one carding engine exclusively devoted to
making thin silk laps, which can by any practical maker of wadding be
attached to the cotton lap before the sizing process has been done.
Wadding also from pure silk can be manufactured in the same manner
as from cotton, and will be an article of exquisite softness, combined
with strength and durability, and being manufactured from the waste of
silk can be made at the same expense of cotton waddings. Waddings,
I may observe, have never been made from silk, nor have they ever
been made by any person before me of a union of cotton and silk. I

page_text: therefore claim the improvement in waddings as my exclusive and sole
Invention, as well as all waddings, whether cotton, wool, or silk, or other
fibrous material, made upon drums or large cylinders greater in circum-
ference than those heretofore in use for the manufacture of waddings
of the ordinary or common lengths of one and a half and two yards.
Part of my improvements in waddings is the waterproofing thereof
for padding exterior garments, for boiler felting, and for other pur-
poses. This is effected by the cotton lap being taken off the drum
or creeper upon a roller made to fit in the sockets of a waterproofing
frame or sizing frame. The lap passes over a creeper between two smooth
rollers, and from thence is carried by another creeper between two
steam chests, where it is dried in. the same manner as I have herein-
before described in my second mode of sizing and drying; the only
difference being, that to waterproof the lap a thin solution of india-
rubber and turpentine or naptha is used instead of the ordinary size.
This concludes my Invention; I therefore claim the improvements
stated, in the machinery for manufacturing waddings, namely, the drum
of extended size and its covering with felt, as herein-before mentioned,
the creepers, the removal of the lap off the drum and creeper by rods,
the table with the slit or opening in the centre, and the longitudinal
drying, as my sole Invention. In my improvements in the wadding
itself I claim the introduction of silk into waddings in any manner,
either made entirely from silk, or from a union of silk with any other
material. I claim the drying of waddings between steam chests, and
the application of india-rubber for the purpose of waterproofing the
waddings, as my sole Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Blair, have heretofore set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
JOHN BLAIR. (L.S.)