CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- PACTURE OF BLEACHED, COLORED, OR PARTY-COLORED THREADS OR YARNS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
CHEETHAM, junior, of Chadderton, near Oldham, in the County of Lancaster,
Cotton Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Cheetham, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said James Cheetham, my exors, admors, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said James Cheetham, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, and Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
PACTURE OF BLEACHED, COLORED, OR PARTY-COLORED THREADS OR YARNS;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said James Cheetham,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in IIer Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Cheetham, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following explanation thereof, that is to say:-
My improvements consist in the production of bleached, colored, or party-
colored cotton yarns by submitting the material to the action of bleaching or
coloring when in a preparation state, subsequent to the operation of carding.
In order to avoid the imperfection incidental upon bleaching or coloring spun
yarns, and also to dispense with certain operations in the course of manufacture,
attempts have been made to bleach and color cotton in its raw state or before
the completion of the carding process. It has, however, been found, that such
a course was productive of much waste, without effecting a perfect diffusion
of the bleaching or coloring matter. By my improvements the material is
submitted to the bleaching, dyeing, or printing process when in the form of a
regular sliver, which prevents a liability to waste, and by its spongy nature and
regular disposition of fibre, affords a condition favorable to the permeation of
the chemical matters employed. By this Invention, therefore, I am enabled
to produce yarns more perfectly bleached or colored, and at the same time to
dispense with certain usual operations. In the manufacture of party-colored
yarns I am also enabled, in addition to gaining a superiority of color, to dispense
with the ordinary operation of doubling, for by combining any desired number
of slivers or slubbings of various colors party-colored yarn may be produced
therefrom at one operation of spinning; and in order that the nature of my
improvements may be fully understood I will proceed to describe the method
which I prefer of carrying the same into practical operation. The cotton is to be
prepared precisely in the usual manner until it has passed the drawing operation.
It is then carried to a slubbing framing of ordinary construction, but so modified
in its relative speeds as to effect rather more twist than is required for the usual
subsequent operations; the design being to gain a sufficient firmness to admit
of the bleaching, dyeing, or printing process, without the risk of stretching or
breaking the continuity of fibre. The slubbings, thus prepared, are reeled after
the manner usually adopted for dyeing, printing, or bleaching spun yarns. It
will generally be found advisable, however, to reel the slubbings two or more
together, but without twisting, for by this arrangement there. will be less
liability to breakage, the end will be more easily found when broken, and the
winding altogether facilitated. The material may then be subjected to any of the
ordinary operations whereby spun yarns are bleached, dyed, printed, or other-
wise colored. The wringing-out, as ordinarily practised in the souring or
washing of spun yarns, would, however be likely to break the continuity of

page_text: sliver or slubbing, and therefore, unless great care be taken in performing that
process, I prefer the use of the "hydro-extractor" for dispelling the moisture.
The slivers thus bleached, dyed, or printed, having been previously consolidated
by more than an ordinary amount of twist, are at present unfit by reason of
their solidity for the usual drawing operation of the roving machine; they are
therefore submitted to a process by which the superabundant twisting is removed
and their former softness restored. This I effect (when using ordinary cotton
machinery) by winding them into cans or on to bobbins, and conducting them
between the front rollers only of a slubbing frame, the flyers thereof being
caused to revolve in a direction the reverse of that which previously effected"
the twist, by which treatment it may be removed to any amount, regulated by
the number of revolutions, or the velocity may be such as to remove it entirely
and effect the desired amount of torsion in the other direction. If machinery
be used which is designed for my improved manufacture only, it will be
obvious that as no drawing is at this stage required, one pair of rollers only
are necessary. The amount of twist to be left in the slubbings may be
advantageously varied to suit some instances in order to facilitate a subsequent
drawing, for I have found that certain colors withstand that process in a
greater degree than others. The bleached, dyed, or printed slubbings having
been thus produced may be worked into rovings and spun into yarn after the.
usual manner in ordináry machines. In producing party-colored yarns I
proceed in the manner above described; until the material has been bleached,
dyed, or printed, and passed through a slubbing machine without drawing, in
order to remove the superabundant twist. I then take a number of the
slubbings, according to the combination of colors required, and by repeating the
operations of drawing and doubling, bring them into one roving suitable for
being spun into yarn which will be of the required party-color. Suppose, for
instance, eight slubbings of different colors or shades were run through a third
slubbing frame, four at a time, with a draft of four; they would be resolved
into two slubbings, which worked into a roving, and subsequently spun, would
constitute a yarn composed of eight colors or shades, a less or greater variety
being in like manner effected. As another example, if a thread of any count
be wanted, composed of one-fifth green and four-fifths purple, with a draft of
five, four prepared slubbings of purple and one of green run together would
produce slubbings of the required bue, which being worked together in the
roving frame, and finally spun, would make the desired yarn, the ordinary
operation of doubling being dispensed with. I have in the foregoing descrip-
tion explained my Invention as applied to the material after it has passed
through a slubbing process; it may, however, be carried into effect previously

page_text: to that stage of the manufacture, that is to say, at any time after the last
carding has been effected. I have also mentioned certain machinery which
I employ for effecting the various operations. I do not intend, however, to
confine myself thereto, as various mechanical arrangements may be found to
answer the purpose. I would also remark that, if desired, slubbings or rovings
of cotton in the ordinary grey state, and also wool, silk, or other fibrous
materials, may be combined with other slubbings, bleached, dyed, or printed,
according to my improvements, and be incorporated therewith, so as to be
suited for the final operation of spinning; that which I claim as secured to me
under the above in part recited Letters Patent being the bleaching, and also
dyeing, printing, or otherwise coloring cotton between the process of carding
and that of spinning.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Cheetham, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
JAMES (L.s.) CHEETHAM JUNE.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid James Cheetham came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
written.
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
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