IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING TEXTILE FABRICS, PART OR PARTS OF WHICH SAID APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER MACHINES WHEREIN FARRING ARE REQUIRED TO BE DISTENDED
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Worrall, of Ordsall, in the County of
Lancaster, Dyer and Finisher, and Thomas Hughes, of Manchester, in
the same County, Mechanic, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING TEXTILE FABRICS,
PART OR PARTS OF WHICH SAID APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER
MACHINES WHEREIN FARRING ARE REQUIRED TO BE DISTENDED"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Worrall and Thomas
Hughes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 16th May 1865.
We, JAMES WORRALL, of Ordsall, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer and
Finisher, and THOMAS HUGHES, of Manchester, in the same County, Mechanic,.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING TEXTILE FABRICS, PART-
OR PARTS OF WHICH SAID APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER MACHINES
WHEREIN FABRICS ARE REQUIRED TO BE DISTENDED," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to various improvements upon that description of
machinery or apparatus well known as Morand's stretching and drying
machine, and consists, first, in improvements in the construction of the chain,
and in affixing or securing the pins or points to the chain.
In carrying out this part of our Invention, the pins or points are secured
in leads by casting, instead of in brass plates, which are fastened by screws to

page_text: the links of the chain. These leads are made of a dovetail form in section,
so that they may be slidden into corresponding grooves made in moveable
blocks which are secured to the chain. Instead of these blocks being con-
nected to the chain by steel pins, as is now the case, we are enabled to secure
them thereto permanently by rivets, as there will be no necessity to remove
the blocks from the chains when the pins require repair, as any of the leads
can easily be slidden out of the grooves, and fresh lead put in its place.
Heretofore the chains were expanded by being made to work along inclined
guides in the horse head of the machine. This causes a great friction, and
considerable wear and tear, and the machine is frequently deranged by
breakages, and the goods under operation are considerably damaged before
the machine can be stopped.
According to the next part of our Invention we obviate these inconveniences
by dispensing with the inclined grooves in the horse head, and in place thereof
we adapt inclines to the first set of rails beyond the horse head, so that the
inclines are made more gradual than heretofore, and the fabric is submitted to
a more gradual tension than in the old machines.
The last part of our Invention relates to a novel arrangement for "doffing"
or removing the fabric from the holding pins or points, and also for closing
the holes made in the edges of the fabric by such pins or points during the
process of stretching and drying. To this end we adapt to the, travelling
chain at the doffing place a roller or cylinder, the surface speed of which is
the same as the surface speed of the travelling chain. The fabric is passed
partly round this roller, which may be called the doffing or taking-off roller.
'From this roller the fabric passes over or partly round another roller, above
which is mounted an axle or shaft provided with two pressing edges, made of
pair of discs, between which a circular sheet of india-rubber is tightly com-
pressed, so as to force out between the discs a projecting, edge of, rubber,
which is kept by the pressure of a spring or weight against the selvages of the
fabric where the holes made by the pins occur. These elastic, pressing edges
are made to rotate at a somewhat greater speed than that at which the fabric
travels, so that a rubbing action is produced, the effect of which will be that
the pin holes will be closed up. Instead of india-rubber discs narrow brushes
may be employed, and these may either be of circular form, and rotated like
the rubber discs, or they may be made to beat the selvages of the fabric by
communicating a rapid vibrating motion to them.
a

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed'
by the said James Worrall and Thomas Hughes in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th November 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES,
WORRALL, of Ordsell, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer and Finisher, and.
THOMAS HUGHES, of Manchester, in the same County, Mechanic, send.
greeting.
:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of,
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto.
us, the said James Worrall and Thomas Hughes, Her special licence that,
we, the said James Worrall and Thomas Hughes, our executors, adminis-.
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Worrall and
Thomas Hughes, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND DRYING TEXTILE
FABRICS, PART OR PARTS OF WHICH SAID APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER
MACHINES WHEREIN FABRICS ARE REQUIRED TO BE DISTENDED," upon the condition.
(amongst others) that we, the said James Worrall and Thomas Hughes, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their,
or one of 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Worrall, on behalf of myself
and of the said Thomas Hughes, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
-
Our Invention relates to various improvements upon that description of:
machinery or apparatus well known as Moraud's stretching and drying

page_text: machine, and consists, first, in improvements in the construction of the chain,
and in affixing or securing the pins or points to the chain.
This part of our Invention is shewn at Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 in
the accompanying Drawing. The pins or points are secured in leads by
casting, as shewn at Figures 1 and 2, of which Fig. 1 is a plan view, and Fig. 2
a side view of a lead with the pins secured therein by casting, instead of being
fixed in brass plates, which are fastened by screws to the links of the chain;
as is usually the case. These leads a are made of a dovetail form in section,
as seen at Fig. 4, so that they may be slidden into corresponding grooves:
made in moveable blocks b, which are secured to the chain by means of cross
pins or rivets passed through a hole in a projecting tang b'. Instead of these
blocks being connected to the chain by steel pins, as is now the case, we are
enabled to secure them thereto permanently by rivets c, Fig. 6, and shewn by
dots in Fig. 5. We are enabled to rivet the blocks 6 to the chain, as there
will be no necessity to remove them from the chains when the pins require
repair, as any of the leads a can easily be slidden out of the grooves in the
block b, and a fresh lead put in its place. Fig. 3 is a side view of one of the
blocks with the lead a therein; Fig. 4 is an end view, Fig. 5 a plan view,
and Fig. 6 a side view of part of a chain consisting of a number of links
connected together by transverse pins d, and to which liuks the blocks bare
rivetted, as already explained.
82
Fig. 7 is a plan view, Fig. 8 a side view, and Fig. 9 an end view of a
modification of the above, in which the leads are let into dovetailed grooves
made in the upper part of the links, so that the blocks b may be dispensed
with. Heretofore the chains were expanded by being made to work along.
inclined guides in the horse head of the machine. This arrangement causes
a great friction, and considerable wear and tear of the working parts. The
machine is also frequently deranged by breakages, and the goods under
operation are considerably damaged before the machine can be stopped.
According to the next part of our Invention we obviate these inconveniences
by dispensing with the inclined grooves in the horse head, and in place thereof
we adapt inclines to the first set of rails beyond the horse head, so that the
inclines are made more gradual than heretofore, and the fabric is submitted
to a more gradual tension than in the old machines.
This part of our Invention will be understood by the Diagram, Fig. 10.
The space
between the lines 1, 2, represents the position of the ordinary horse
head in which the whole of the stretching operation usually takes place, as
indicated by the inclined dotted lines 3, 3, between the lines 1, 2. By com-
mencing the stretching operation at the line 2 at the first set of rails beyond

page_text: the horse head, we are enabled to make the stretching operation more gradual.
than heretofore. This will be evident by referring to the lines 4, 4, which
represent the gradual widening of the rails from the horse head to the end of
the machine.
The last part of our Invention relates to a novel arrangement for "doffing"
or removing the fabric from the holding pins or points, and also for closing.
the holes made in the edges of the fabric by such pins or points during the
process of stretching and drying. An arrangement for effecting this object as,
shewn at Figures 11 and 12; Fig. 11 being a side elevation, and Fig. 12 an
end elevation, shewing the mode of adapting our improvements. Immediately
above the travelling chain d at the doffing place is placed a roller or cylinder e,
the surface speed of which is the same as the surface speed of the travelling:
chain d. The fabric f, represented by the red line is passed partly round this
roller e, which may be called the doffing or taking-off roller. From this.
roller the fabric passes over or partly round another roller g, above which is
mounted an axle or shaft provided with two pressing edges h, h, Fig. 12,
made of a pair of discs, between which a circular sheet of india-rubber is
tightly compressed, so as to force out between the discs a projecting edge
rubber, which is kept by the pressure of a spring or weight against the
selvages of the fabric f, where the holes made by the pins occur. These
elastic pressing eges h are made to rotate at a somewhat greater speed than
that at which the fabric travels, so that a rubbing action is produced, the
effect of which will be that the pin holes will be closed up. We sometimes
adapt another set of india-rubber pressing edges, as at h', h', Figures 11 and 12,
which are constructed in precisely the same manner as the edges h, h, and are
made to press upon the edges of the other side of the fabric. Instead of
india-rubber discs, such as those shewn at h and h¹, narrow brushes may
be employed, as in the partial end view, Fig. 13. These brushes may either
be of a circular form, as shewn at i, and rotated like the rubber discs h, or
they may be made to beat the selvages of the fabric, as at j, Fig. 13, by com-
municating a rapid vibrating motion to them. If this latter motion be
preferred, a brush j may be adapted to one end of a vibrating lever k, which
is actuated by means of an excentric and rod m.
Fig. 14 represents a modification of Fig. 11. Instead of the doffing roller e
an inclined stationary doffer n is used, under which passes the travelling
chain d with the row of pins. The fabric comes in contact with the upper
surface of the doffer n, and is thereby lifted off the pins, and is conducted
An india-rubber disc h is made to bear
away by the carrying rollers o, o.
against the back of the stationary doffer n, and also against one of the rollers o,

page_text: and rub the punctured edges of the fabric, and thereby close the holes made
therein by the pins. :
Having now described our Invention of improvements in machinery or
apparatus for stretching and drying textile fabrics, and having explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, we would observe that parts of the
said apparatus or Invention may also be applied to other machines wherein'
fabrics are required to be distended. We would further remark that what we
claim as our Invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,
First, the mode or modes herein set forth for securing or attaching the pins
to the travelling chains of stretching machines.
Second, we claim giving to the chains a more gradual inclination, as herein
set forth..
Third, we claim the modes herein set forth of doffing the fabric and closing
up the holes that have been made by the stretching pins.
In witness whereof, 1, the said James Worrall, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-five.
JAMES WORRALL. (L.S.)