IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR BEETLING OR FINISHING
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Crum, of Thornliebank, in the County of
Renfrew, Bleacher and Calico Printer, and Peter Stewart, residing at
Thornliebank aforesaid, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR BEETLING OR FINISHING
Scaled the 1st August 1854, and dated the 5th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Crum and Peter
Stewart at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 5th June 1854.
We, WALTER CRUM, of Thornliebank, in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher
and Calico Printer, and PETER STEWART, residing at Thornliebank, aforesaid,
Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR BEETLING OR FINISHING WOVEN
FABRICS" to be as follows:-
By one of the usual modes of beetling linen and cotton goods, pieces of wood
called beetles, of about four inches square and six feet long, (or more or less in
dimension, as circumstances may require,) are placed upright in a frame, so as
to form a line of beetles of somewhat more than the breadth of the piece or
pieces of cloth on which they are to operate. The pieces of cloth to be operated
on are wound upon a circular beam, which is placed on a horizontal position

page_text: immediately under the beetles, and the beetling operation is performed by
means of a shaft called a wyper shaft, driven by steam or other motive power,
which shaft, while it revolves, raises the beetles one after the other, and lets
them fall in continuous succession with a blow upon the cloth. By means of
a well-known apparatus, the beam on which the cloth is wound is made to
shift while revolving, so that every part of its surface is equally acted upon
before the end of the operation. The goods so operated upon thereby acquire
a surface more or less glossy and wiry, which is commonly called the beetle or
linen finish. A similar result is sometimes attained by different modifications
or arrangements of the beetles, and of the goods respectively while under
operation; but any notice of such variations is unnecessary for the purpose of
explaining the nature of our proposed improvements.
Having thus described an existing mode of beetling, we now proceed to state
that our improvements consist in the use and application of the direct action
of a small engine, moved by steam (or it may be by water or air), in the manner
following, that is to say:-We use a small horizontal steam engine, whose piston
rod is prolonged at both sides of the piston, and passes through a stuffing box
at both ends of the cylinder. To each projecting end of the piston rod is
attached a cross piece of cast or malleable iron, so formed as to represent the
ends of a set of ordinary beetles, but forming one compound beetle, calculated
to produce by one blow an effect similar to that produced by the successive
blows of a number of ordinary beetles. Within a certain distance (propor-
tioned to the size of the engine and length of the projecting ends of the piston
rod) from each compound beetle is placed a circular beam with the cloth wound
upon it, so that one of the beetles strikes the beam opposite thereto at every
advancing and returning stroke of the engine, thereby securing a blow both
ways in continuous succession by the direct action of the engine. The
usual circular and lateral motions are imparted to the beams on which the
cloth is wound by the ordinary mechanical means during the progress of the
operation.
According to the existing mode, described at the outset, the beetling operation
has to be suspended after one piece has been finished until that piece has been
taken off the beam and another wound on in its place. In order to obviate the
delay thus occasioned, and in order to facilitate the changing of one cloth
beam for another, our improvements embrace the employment of spare beams.
The centres of the beam, the cloth upon which is being beetled, and those of
the spare beam, are placed in plummer blocks, at the opposite ends of two
levers. While the operation of beetling is taking place upon the one beam,
the workman can be employed in changing the beetled for unbeetled cloth

page_text: upon the other or spare beam; and as a shaft is made to pass through the
centres of these levers, the beam of cloth which has just been prepared for
beetling is made to change places with that upon which the beetling operation
has just been completed by the simple operation of turning round that shaft.
This applies alike to the beams at both ends of the piston rod.
In thus describing our improvements we have necessarily had occasion to
refer to steam engines generally, and to certain parts of steam engines, such
as cylinders, pistons, and piston rods, as well as to other parts of beetling
machinery or apparatus, all of which are well known, and to none of which in
themselves do we lay claim as forming any portion of our improvements; but,
under reference to the foregoing description, what we do claim as constituting
or embraced by our improvements are,-
1. The use or application of the direct action of an engine moved by steam
(or by water or air, as the case may be,) to the beetling of goods, whether of
cotton, woollen, silk, linen, or flax.
2. The use or employment in connection with such direct action of beetles
united together so as to form what we call compound beetles, & that either
in one or more pieces, according as the breadth of the cloth to be operated
upon may render expedient.
And,
3. The use or employment of spare cloth beams to be used in the manner
above described, so as to save time and labour in the operation of shifting one
piece of cloth for another.
In conclusion, it is proper to explain, that while we prefer and have described
the engine as placed in a horizontal position, the same or similar results may
be obtained from an engine set in a vertical or any other position, a corre-
sponding change being at same time made as regards the other & relative
parts of the machinery and apparatus. The cloth to be operated on, in place
of being wound round a beam, may be folded up and laid upon a flat resisting
surface, against which the strokes of the compound beetle could be directed.
In place of using a beetle at both ends of the piston rod, a beetle may be placed
at one end only, with a corresponding alteration, as regards the cloth beams;
and again, in place of attaching the compound beetles to the ends of the piston
rod, as herein-before described, the cylinder of the engine might be made to
travel and carry with it a beetle thereto attached while the piston rod remained
stationary. These and such like variations or modifications could be easily
made, and are such as would fall within the scope of our said Invention.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Walter Crum and Peter Stewart in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 4th December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, WALTER
CRUM, of Thornliebank, in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher and Calico
Printer, and PETER STEWART, residing at Thornliebank, aforesaid, Mechanical
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord
Eighteen hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Walter Crum and Peter Stewart, Her special licence that we, the said
Walter Crum and Peter Stewart, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Walter Crum and Peter Stewart,
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, in such manner as to us and our foresaids should,
in our and their discretion, seem meet, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR BEETLING OR FINISHING WOVEN FABRICS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Walter Crum and Peter
Stewart, by an instrument in writing under our hands and scals, or under
the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said Walter Crum and Peter Stewart, 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:-
By one of the usual modes of beetling linen and cotton goods, pieces of wood
called beetles, of about four inches square and six feet long (or more or less in
dimension, as circumstances may require), are placed upright in a frame, so
as to form a line of beetles, of somewhat more than the breadth of the piece
or pieces of cloth on which they are to operate. The pieces of cloth to be
operated on are wound upon a cylinder of wood or other material, called a

page_text: beam, which is placed in a horizontal position immediately under the beetles';
and the beetling operation is performed by means of a shaft, called a wyper
shaft, driven by steam or other motive power, which shaft while it revolves
raises the beetles one after the other, and lets them fall in continuous succession
with a blow upon the cloth. By means of a well-known apparatus, the beam
on which the cloth is wound is made to shift or traverse endways while
revolving, so that overy part of its surface is equally acted upon before the end
of the operation; the goods so operated upon thereby acquire a surface more
or less glossy and wirey, which is commonly called the beetle or linen finish.
A similar result is sometimes attained by different modifications or arrange-
ments of the beetles and of the goods respectively while under operation; but
any notice of such variations is unnecessary for the purpose of explaining the
nature of our proposed improvements.
Having thus described an existing mode of beetling, we now proceed to
state that our improvements consist in the use and application of the direct
action of a small engine, moved by steam (or it may be by water, or air, or
any other clastic substance,) in the manner following, that is to say-We use
a small horizontal steam engine, whose piston rod is prolonged at both sides
of the piston, and passes through stuffing boxes at both ends of the cylinder.
To cach projecting end of the piston rod is attached a cross picce (or pieces
combined) of cast or malleable iron, or other material or combination of
materials, so formed as to represent the ends of a set of ordinary beetles,
but forming one compound beetle, calculated to produce by one blow an effect
similar to that produced by the successive blows of a number of ordinary
beetles. Opposite cach compound beetle is placed a cylindrical beam with the
cloth wound upon it, so that one of the beetles strikes the beam opposite
thereto at every advancing and returning stroke of the engine, thereby
securing a blow both ways in continuous succession by the direct action of the
engine. The usual circular and lateral motions are imparted to the beams on
which the cloth is wound by the ordinary mechanical means during the
progress of the operation.
According to the existing mode described at the outset, the beetling opera-
tion has to be suspended after one piece (or sometimes two or more picces,
according to the quantity wound upon the beam at once,) has been finished,
until that piece or quantity of cloth has been taken off the beam and another
wound on in its place. In order to obviate the delay thus occasioned, and in
order to facilitate the changing of one cloth beam for another, our improve-
ments embrace the employment of spare beams in a peculiar manner. The
centres of each beam upon which the cloth is being beetled, and those of the

page_text: corresponding spare beam or beams, are placed in plummer blocks, mounted in
the ends of levers, or in plates answering the purpose of levers, fixed on a shaft.
While the operation of beetling is taking place upon the one beam, the work-
man can be employed in changing the beetled for unbeetled cloth upon the
spare beam or beams; and as a shaft is made to pass through the centres of
the pair of levers or plates, one of the beams of cloth which has just been pre-
pared for beetling is made to change places with that upon which the beetling
operation has just been completed, by the simple operation of turning that
shaft with its levers or plates partially round. This applies alike to the beams
at both ends of the piston rod.
Our improved beetling machinery may be arranged in different ways. The
annexed Drawing, of which the following is a description, represents an
arrangement which answers well in practice. Figure 1 is an elevation;
Figure 2, a plan. The plan, Figure 2, shews all the parts referred to by
letters in the following description. In the elevation, Figure 1, some of those
parts are concealed by others.
A is the horizontal steam cylinder of a small high-pressure steam engine,
with a cover and stuffing box at each end. a is the induction pipe, with a cock
to admit and cut off the steam; b, the valve box; c, the eduction pipe; d, a
lever to work the valve, driven by two pins or studs e, e.
B, B, is a piston rod, passing through the piston and projecting from each
end of the cylinder.
C, C, are beaters or compound beetles, attached to the ends of the piston
rods, the face of cach being ridged, so as to resemble the ends of ordinary
beetles when placed together.
D, D, are rods connecting the ends of the two beaters or compound beetles;
in the elevation, one of these rods conceals the piston rod.
E, E, E', E', are cylinders, of wood or other material, called cloth beams,
upon which the cloth to be beetled is wound, having strong wrought-iron
centres.
F, F, F, F, are cast-iron circular plates, acting as levers, to contain the
centres of the cloth beams. They are fixed upon shafts G, G, which revolve at
pleasure in their plummer blocks H, H, H, H.
K, K, K, K, are catches for fixing the plates F, F, F, F, in the required
positions.
L, L, L, L, toothed wheels on the axes of the cloth beams, capable of
being thrown into and out of gearing with the pinions, to be presently men-
tioned.
M, M, are pinions upon shafts N, N, driven by any prime mover, from

page_text: which a slow motion, both circular and transverse, is communicated to the
beams exposed to the beaters.
P, P, pinions upon shafts Q, Q, driven by the same prime mover, whereby
the spare beams, when required, can be made to revolve, for the purpose of
winding on cloth. The pinions P, P, can be set in motion and stopped in the
ordinary way by being thrown into or out of gearing with the prime mover.
R, R, R, R, are rests or guides to support the ends of the beetles.
The steam is admitted into each end of the cylinder alternately, in the
manner well-known to engineers, so as to cause the piston to move alternately
from one end of the cylinder to the other, and drive the beaters or compound
beetles alternately against the cloth beams which are exposed to their action.
The beams in the position of those marked E, E, in the Drawing are so
exposed, and during the operation of beetling they are made to revolve slowly
upon their axes, and to move also slowly from side to side, as is usual in
beetling engines, for the purpose of exposing equally all parts of the cloth upon
the beam to the strokes of the beater.
As soon as the cloth upon the beams E, E, has been sufficiently beetled, the
steam is shut off from the cylinder, the catches K, K, K, K, unfastened, and
those beams are made to change places with the beams E', E', which the work-
man had been covering or filling with cloth during the beetling of the beams
E, E. The catches K, K, K, K, are then fastened again.
The steam being now re-admitted, the beetling goes on upon the cloth
beanis E, E; at the same time the workman removes the beetled cloth from
the beams E, E, and prepares them with a fresh supply of cloth, ready to be
replaced in their previous position so soon as the cloth upon the opposite
beams has been in its turn sufficiently beetled, and so on, alternately, no time
being lost but such as is necessary to cause the two sets of beams E, E, and
E', E', to change places. The operation of shifting one set of beams for
another is effected in an instant by turning the circular plates F, F, half round
upon their axis.
It is proper to explain, that while we prefer and have described and shewn
in the Drawing the engine as placed in a horizontal position, the same or
similar results may be obtained from an engine set in a vertical or any other
position, a corresponding change being at the same time made as regards the
other and relative parts of the machinery and apparatus. The cloth to be
operated on, in place of being wound round a beam, may be folded up and
laid upon a flat resisting surface, against which the strokes of the compound
beetle could be directed. In place of using cloth beams in pairs, as shewn in
the Drawing, so as to have only one spare beam for each beam exposed to the

page_text: beetles, they might be used in sets of three or more, having their centres
mounted in the plates before mentioned, so as to have two or more spare
beams in each set. In place of using a beetle at each end of the piston rod,"
a beetle may be placed at one end only, with a corresponding alteration as
regards the cloth beams; and again, in place of attaching the compound
beetles to the ends of the piston rod, as herein-before described, the cylinder
of the engine might be made to travel and carry with it a beetle thereto
attached, while the piston rod remained stationary, or the compound beetles
might be moved by indirect action. These and other variations or modifi-
cations in the details and arrangement of the machinery could be easily made,
and are such as would fall within the scope of our said Invention.
In thus describing our improvements, we have necessarily had occasion to
refer to steam engines generally, and to certain parts of steam engines, such
as cylinders, pistons, and piston rods, as well as to other parts of beetling
machinery or apparatus, all of which are well known, and to none of which
in themselves do we lay claim as forming any portion of our improvements;
but, under reference to the foregoing description, what we do claim as con-
stituting or embraced by our improvements are,-
1. The use or application of the direct action of an engine moved by steam
(or other substance, as the case may be,) to the beetling of goods, whether of
cotton, woollen, silk, linen, or flax, or other material.
2. The use or employment of beetles in one or more pieces united together,
so as to form a compound beetle. And,
3. The use or employment of spare cloth beams to be made to exchange
places with the beams exposed to the beetles, in the manner above described,
so as to save time and labour in the operation of shifting one piece of cloth
for another.
In witness whereof, we, the said Walter Crum and Peter Stewart, have
hereto set our respective hands and seals, this Thirtieth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-four.
WALTER CRUM. (L.S.)
PETER STEWART. (L.S.)