IMPROVEMENTS IN GIG MILLS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ernst Gessner, of Aue, near Schneeberg, Saxony,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GIG MILLS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ernst Gessner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
February 1854.
I, ERNST GESSNER, of Aue, near Schneeberg, Saxony, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GIG MILLS" to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists of a peculiar combination of mechanical parts into a
machine. For this purpose two raising cylinders are employed, the axes of
which are geared together by cog wheels. The cloth to be napped or raised
passes partly over a roller and partly under a second roller, these rollers being
pressed towards each other so as to nip the cloth more or less between them,
and to offer suitable resistance to the movement of the cloth. The cloth then
passes over one guide roller, under a second guide roller, and then over a third
guide roller, by which the cloth is held in position below the first raising cylin-
der to be acted on thereby. The cloth is kept out to its proper width by means
of bars carrying numerous discs, with points or teeth at their peripheries. Each
disc is on its own axis, and the discs are at an inclination to the bar which
carries them. One half of the discs incline in one direction, and the other half
of the discs incline in the other direction. There are two such bars with discs
to the first of the raising cylinders, one to keep the cloth distended as it goes to

page_text: the raising cylinder, and the other for keeping the cloth distended when it
leaves the raising cylinder. The cloth having been acted on by the first raising
cylinder passés under the second raising cylinder and is acted on thereby, the
cloth being guided by another guide roller (under the second raising cylinder);
it then passes over a roller, by which it is moved through the machine, the
cloth being nipped between this roller and a nipping. roller pressed up by
weighted levers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ernst Gessner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ERNST
GESSNER, of Aue, near Schneeberg, Saxony, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent bearing date the Twenty-first day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Ernst Gessner, Her special licence, that I, the said Ernst
Gessner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Ernst Gessner, my 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
GIG MILLS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Ernst
Gessner, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly 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 Ernst Gessner, 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):-
This Invention consists of a peculiar combination of mechanical parts into a
machine. For this purpose two raising cylinders are employed, the axes of
which are geared together by cog wheels. The cloth to be napped or raised

page_text: passes partly over a roller and partly under a second roller, these rollers being
pressed towards each other so as to nip the cloth more or less between them,
and to offer suitable resistance to the movement of the cloth. The cloth then
passes over one guide roller, under a second guide roller, and then over a third
guide roller, by which the cloth is held in position below the first raising cylin-
der to be acted on thereby. The cloth is kept out to its proper width by means
of bars carrying numerous discs with points or teeth at their peripheries. Each
disc is on its own axis, and the discs are at an inclination to the bar which
carries them. One half of the discs incline in one direction, and the other half
of the discs incline in the other direction. There are two such bars with discs
to the first of the raising cylinders, one to keep the cloth distended as it goes to
the raising cylinder, and the other for keeping the cloth distended when it
leaves the raising cylinder. The cloth having been acted on by the first raising
cylinder, passes under the second raising cylinder and is acted on thereby, the
cloth being guided by another guide roller (under the second raising cylinder);
it then passes over a roller which it is moved through the machine, the
cloth being nipped between this roller and a nipping roller pressed up by
weighted levers.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an end elevation; Figure 2 is a plan; Figure 3 shows one of
the bars which carry the discs, by which the cloth is kept distended in its
width; and Figure 4 shows an end view of one of these bars and a disc.
The first motion is given to the machine by the driving pulley A, on the
axis of the drum B'; and by the spur wheels C, D, motion is communicated
from the axis of the drum B' to the drum B in an opposite direction. The
drums B', B2, may be made to turn in the same direction by interposing an
intermediate wheel between the wheels C, D, in which case the wheels C and
D will be made not to gear into each other. The teasel bars are fixed to the
drums B1, B2, in the ordinary manner. On the shaft of drum B' a pinion E,
which gives motion to the roller G¹ by gearing into the cog wheel F. A roller
G is acted on by the brake H. The two rollers J press the cloth against the
rollers G, G", by means of the levers K. The cloth is guided by the rollers
L, and the touching at the teasels is regulated by the adjustment of the rollers
L, by rising or lowering them at each end by the means shown in the Drawing.
M, M, M, are the tension bars carrying series of discs with steel needle points
on their circumferences, one half of the discs of each bar inclining in one direc-

page_text: tion, the other inclining in the other direction. Figure 3 is the series of discs
of one of the tension bars; and Figure 4 is the end view of that bar. The
points of the discs pierce into the cloth, and the inclination of the dises stretch
it and keep it at its original width during its way through the machine. The
rollers J and G', G", keep the cloth at the same time stretched lengthwise.
The tension bars keep the cloth well and correctly stretched, so that one man
is sufficient to superintend two of my machines.
The tension bars also tend to restore the proper width to the cloth which it
has lost during the process of fulling, hence the gig mill may accomplish a far
better raising of the nap than those of the old system, where the proper width
of the cloth could only be obtained on the stretching and drying frame, by which
the nap has been rendered thin and open, whereas by the self-acting stretching
above described in the gig mill, the raising or napping and stretching processes
in the wet, a full and thick nap is obtained. By the process of giving the grain
to the nap on this machine, which can easily be managed by changing a few
wheels, as before explained, to cause the two drunis B', B", to revolve in the
same direction, the nap is brought in a by far shorter time to its proper bearing
or laying, and the napping throughout from beginning to the end is accomplished
in the most perfect and quick manner. By the action of this machine the
ends of the cloth are finished just as well as the middle part of the piece.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to the
parts separately, nor do I confine myself to the details, but what I claim is,
the combination herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ernst Gessner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.