IMPROVE MEETS IN MACHINES FOR DRYING AND STRETCHING WOOLLEN AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough
Park, Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MEETS IN MACHINES FOR DRYING AND STRETCHING WOOLLEN AND OTHER
TEXTILE FABRICS."A communication from abroad by Joseph Sprague
Winsor, residing in the City and County of Providence, in the State of.
Rhode Island, United States of America.
Sealed the 18th July 1865, and dated the 3rd May 1865.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 3rd May 1865, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BE IT
KNOWN, that I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, atri in possession of an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR DRYING AND STRETCHING WOOLLEN AND OTHER
TEXTILE FABRICS," (communicated to me from abroad by Joseph Sprague
Winsor, of the City and County of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island,
United States of America), and I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 :-
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a "fourfold" machine; Figure 2 is a
frunt view of a similar but sixfold-machine, with the hot air shaft removed.;

page_text: Figure 3 is a side view showing the arrangement of the gearing; Figure 4 is
a side view showing the direction in which the cloth is made to travel during
the process; Figure 5 is a plan. The other Figures are detailed parts to be
referred to hereafter.
The Invention which is the subject of. this Patent has reference to that
class of machines which have been introduced for the purpose of superseding
the well-known tenter bars so long in use for stretching and drying textile
fabrics, and it consists in a mode of operation which is embodied in a com-
bination of two agencies, one of which is an apparatus by which the cloth is
made to travel through a more or less circuitous path by means of tenter
hooks attached to an endless chain so arranged that during the first portion of
its travel only the cloth shall be subjected to a gradually increasing strain, and
the other of which consists of a hollow shaft of sufficient size to enclose the
cloth in its passage while on the tenter hooks, through which shaft is made to
flow a continuous stream of heated air.
In the accompanying Drawings, A, Figure 1, is a hollow shaft of brickwork
or other non-conducting material, the economy being increased in proportion
as the radiation of the heat is prevented. At the lower extremity of this shaft
is a furnace B of sufficient capacity to supply the amount of heat required,
fresh air being admitted to the air chamber by means of the apertures C and D,
which may be regulated by a register. The length of the shaft A may be
varied according to circumstances, so as to be adapted to the height of the
different stories of the mill. It has been found that from twenty to twenty-
five feet is a length which perhaps affords more satisfactory results than could
be obtained from a shaft materially longer or shorter. At the upper extremity
of the hollow shaft is placed the machine by which the cloth is stretched, and
which in the particular instance shown in the Drawings is constructed as
follows: A suitable framework of iron E, E, supports and furnishes bearings
for the various shafts and pinions herein-after mentioned. F, F, are two
shafts, having their bearings in the frame E, E, and provided with chain gears
or wheels at each side, as shown at Figure 4, which work into the links of the
chain, and which can be adjusted on their respective shafts at such distances
apart as will accommodate the cloth to be stretched. L, L, L, Figure 4,
are channel ways within which the chain travels. The chain gears on the
upper shafts F, F, Figure 2, are placed, say, three inches nearer together
than the corresponding rollers on the lower shaft, and the channel ways are
accommodated to this arrangement by being made for a distance, say, of five
feet from the top of the machine, to converge toward each other to the same
extent. At convenient distances apart on each chain are arranged hooks.or

page_text: wire points a, a, a, for the purpose of piercing the cloth near the selvage
and carrying it along with the chain to the point where it is to be taken off
the machine. Suppose now motion to be communicated to the main shaft
provided with the driving pulley M, Figure 8, a toothed pinion on the main
shaft communicates motion to the intermediate toothed wheels N and N³, the
teeth of which engage with the teeth of the wheels on the shafts F, F.. The
small gear wheels N, N, also give motion to the gear wheels O, O', O", the
arrangenient of the gears being immaterial so long as F, F, and O, 01, 0",
revolve in the same times. The course of the chuins will necessarily be as
follows (see Figure 4):-First across the top of the machine over F, F,.
descending on each side of the machine to near the bottom of the shaft,
and passing around the friction rollers G, G, thence up to the top, and over the
chain wheels H, H, thence down and around the rollers I, I, thence up and
over the chain wheels J, J, thence down and around the rollers K, K, thence
up and over again the chain wheels K¹, K, thence down and around the
rollers K, K, thence up and over the chain wheels on the shafts F, F, in an
endless path.
The cloth to be stretched and dried is presented, as shown in Figure 1, at the
top of the machine, and as at this point the sets of channel ways on the front
and back sides of the machine are converging towards each other as already'
stated, the tenter hooks readily pierce the selvages of the cloth, the machine
being adjusted to the width of the fabric. The cloth is carried across the top
of the machine, and commences to descend into the interior of the shaft,
being attached to the hooks on the chains, it must necessarily be stretched to
the extent which the channel ways are separated from each other, and with
the chains is carried up and down within the shaft as many times as there are
sets of chain gears and rollers. In ascending the last pair of channel ways
after passing the point where the ways begin to approach each other the cloth
will be relieved of the strain, and it can be easily beemoved from the hooks,
and delivered to the box arranged to receive it. In order to remove the
cloth from the hooks by the action of the machine a shaft P is arranged,
which is driven by a train of intermediate toothed wheels connected with the
main shaft. On this shaft are two wipers Q, Q, Figure 2, which revolving
with the shaft force the cloth from the hooks. The shaft P is so arranged
that it can be thrown out of gear at pleasure, and when the wipers are not in
action the cloth will repeat its path of travel through the machine. The
degree of convergence of the descending channel ways of the first frame and
of the ascending channel ways of the last frame can be regulated by the
screw rod T, which has a thread cut upon the end of it, and works in the

page_text: screw socket U, while the entire side of each channel way can be brought at
the same distance nearer to or further from its opposite side by means of a
similar arrangement worked by the chain gear S, shown in red, Figure 6.
What I claim as the Invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,
a machine for tentering textile fabrics, constructed substantially as described,
combined with and. travelling in a hollow vertical shaft, through which a
continuous current of heated air is passing, substantially as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this First day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.