IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING, STRETCHING, STEAMING, AND AGEING WOVEN FABRICS, AND FOR DRYING FIBROUS MATERIALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Knowles, of Tottington, near Bury, in the
County of Lancaster, Calico Printer, and James Kay, of Bury
aforesaid, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR DRYING, STRETCHING, STEAMING, AND AGEING WOVEN FABRICS, AND FOR
DRYING FIBROUS MATERIALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 17th March 1876, and dated the 23rd September 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Knowles and
James Kay at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 23rd September 1875.
We, SAMUEL KNOWLES, of Tottington, near Bury, in the County of
Lancaster, Calico Printer, and JAMES KAY, of Bury aforesaid, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS POR DRYING, STRETCHING, STEAMING, AND AGEING WOVEN FABRICS,
AND FOR DRYING FIBROUS MATERIALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be as
follows:-
-

page_text: certain additions to the apparatus for which Letters Patent were granted
to us on the 22nd day of October 1874, No. 3636.
Instead of the driven rollers described in the Specification of the said
Patent for carrying the fabric through the drying chamber, we now
employ rollers with expanding ribs which increase the width of tho
fabric as it passes over them, and we apply a small roller near each
expanding roller to prevent the fabric shrinking back again. We also
cause the heated air to escape into the drying chamber through narrow
slots pointing towards the fabric as it passes over the rollers; these slots
are made in funnels placed between each pair of rollers.
In drying fibrous materials we convey the sheet of fibres as it is
delivered from the squeezer bowls over a perforated plate forming the
roof of the hot air chamber; by this means the fibres are dried con-
tinuously; the progressive motion is given to the fleece of fibres by an
endless band or by forks actuated by cranks or otherwise.
When drying substances that are not fibrous they may be placed on a
stationary or revolving screen or other equivalent.
When our improvements are applied to steaming or to ageing woven
fabrics we apply a steam box with partitions under the chamber con-
taining the steam chests described in the Specification above referred to.
The steam from the steam box escapes into the said chamber through
perforations in the bottom thereof. The air combined with steam is
forced or drawn by means of a fan under and over the steam chests and
then enters the chamber through which the fibres to be steamed or aged
are made to pass. The air and steam pass through a perforated plate or
through slots and funnels, as described in reference to the drying
apparatus. The fabric when steamed or aged is cooled on leaving the
apparatus by a current of air from the supply pipe.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd March 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
KNOWLES, of Tottington, near Bury, in the County of Lancaster, Calico
Printer, and JAMES KAY, of Bury aforesaid, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Samuel Knowles and James
Kay, Her special licence that we, the said Samuel Knowles and James
Kay, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay, our 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 APPARATUS FOR
DRYING, STRETCHING, STEAMING, AND AGEING WOVEN FABRICS, AND FOR DRYING
FIBROUS MATERIALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their,
or one of our or 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay,
do hereby declare the nature of our 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). :—
Our improvements in apparatus for drying and stretching consist in
certain additions to the apparatus for which former Letters Patent were
granted to us on the 22nd day of October 1874, Number 3636, and it

page_text: consists in applying rollers with expanding ribs to increase the width of
the fabric passing through the drying chamber.
Our improvements in steaming and ageing woven fabrics consist in
applying a steam box with partitions under the hot air chamber con-
taining steam chests, described in the Specification of the Patent above
referred to, and conveying the hot air and steam to the chamber con-
taining the fabrics.
Our improvements in drying fibrous materials and other substances
consist in causing them to traverse over a perforated plate forming the
roof of the hot air chamber, or over a screw or other equivalent.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, we will proceed to describe the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is an elevation partly in section of
our improved apparatus for steaming and ageing woven fabrics.
a is the lower chamber which is heated by the steam chests b, b, all of :
which are connected and heated by the steam pipe c which passes along
one side of the apparatus, and is connected to each, steam chest by a
side branch. At the bottom of the apparatus is the pipe d for carrying
off the water of condensation; this pipe is connected to all the steam
chests by vertical branches. The chamber a is provided with a cover e,
and the air to be heated is forced into the chamber a at the openingƒ,
in front of which is a baffle plate to guide the current of air downwards,
it then passes under the first steam chest d and over the next, and so on,
as shewn by the arrows, until it arrives at the exit passage h which
conveys the heated air into the passage » under the chamber or fluo i, ;
in which are two sets of rollers j and k. The top of the passage n is or
may be provided with perforated funnels . The larger rollers of the
upper set are turned round by bevel wheels on the side shaft ? gearing
into other wheels on the axles of the rollers. The top of the chamber
or flue i is provided with a cover . The woven fabrics or other
materials are carried in the direction of the arrows under and over the
rollers j and k.
m.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described the
manner of performing the same, we declare that we claim,-
First. Steaming and ageing printed fabrics by the action of steam
and air combined, and the apparatus for performing the same, as shewn
and described.
.
Secondly. The application of rollers with expanding ribs to the drying
apparatus described in the Patent above referred to, whereby the fabrics
are dried and stretched simultaneously, as shewn and described.
Thirdly. The improved mode of drying fibrous materials and other
substances, as described.
•
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Knowles and James
Kay, have hereto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-first day
of March One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
J