IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAMING YARNS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN. PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR REGULATING THE PRESSURE OF STEAM AND OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis John Crossley, Carpet Manufacturer, and
Richard Hanson, Engineer, both of Halifax, in the County of
York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAMING YARNS, AND
IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN. PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE FOR REGULATING THE PRESSURE OF STEAM AND OTHER
FLUIDS."
Sealed the 27th July, 1869, and dated the 22nd May, 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by, the said Louis John Crossley,
and Richard Hanson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 22nd May 1869.
We, LOUIS JOHN CROSSLEY, Carpet Manufacturer, and RICHARD
HANSON, Engineer, both of Halifax, in the County of York, do hereby,
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAMING
YARNS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS
ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR REGULATING THE PRESSURE OF STEAM AND OTHER
FLUIDS," to be as follows:-

page_text: When yarns for the manufacture of carpets have been printed with
coloring matters, it is necessary in order to set such colors to steam
the yarns. In this operation it is requisite that the temperature or steam
pressure to which the yarns are exposed should be accurately regulated,
and also that the contact of the yarns water resulting from the con-
densation of the steam should be carefully guarded against.
According to this Invention in order to prevent the various colors
applied to the yarns from spreading or running into each other by
reason of the water or moisture arising from the condensed steam
settling upon the yarns the latter are placed in a chamber to which
steam is admitted, and which is surrounded by a jacket containing steam
of a somewhat higher pressure, and consequently hotter.
33
Another important advantage of the jacketed chamber is, that the
steam used in the "setting process is greatly economised, as we are
able to reduce the size of the chamber by dispensing with the sloping
or angular roofs heretofore used in steam chambers, and which were
designed to prevent the condensed steam which gathered within on
the under side of the roofs from dropping on to the yarns. The steam
is admitted to our improved chamber and to the jacket surrounding it
by valves from a steam pipe or supply passage, in which it is contained
at a higher pressure than is requisite in either the chamber or the
jacket. These valves are so arranged that they supply to the chamber
and to the jacket steam of a constant pressure, whatever may be the
variations of the pressure in the supply pipe or passage.
The valves
we prefer to use in combination with the jacketted steam chamber are
constructed as follows, and are applicable for other purposes generally
as regulating valves for discharging steam, air, or other elastic fluids:-
To an ordinary equilibrium valve we apply, by preference, a cylindrical,
but it may be other formed chamber, through which the valve rod
passes; this chamber is constructed to form an annular reservoir to
contain a column of mercury of suitable height according to the amount
of reduction required to be made in the pressure of the fluid to be
discharged. A cylindrical or other suitably formed cap or inverted cup,
which floats in the mercury is attached to the valve rod. The valve is
capable of being weighted either within the chamber or outside, or both,
according to requirement. The pressure of the steam or other clastic
fluid on the delivery side of the valve acts against the float, which

page_text: thereby rises or lowers in the mercury and operates upon the valve to
close or open it accordingly, and thus regulates the pressure thereof
as required,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Louis John Crossley and Richard Hanson in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd November 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, LOUIS
JOHN CROSSLEY, Carpet Manufacturer, and RICHARD HANSON, Engineer,
both of Halifax, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Louis John Crossley and Richard
Hanson, Her special licence that we, the said Louis John Crossley
and Richard Hanson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Louis John Crossley and Richard Hanson, 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
STEAMING YARNS. AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR REGULATING THE PRESSURE OF STEAM
AND OTHER FLUIDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Louis John Crossley and Richard Hanson, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands
and scals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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
Palent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Louis John Crossley and
Richard Hanson, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,

page_text: 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 has for its object improvements in steaming yarns,
and in apparatus employed therein.
When yarns for the manufacture of carpets have been printed with
coloring matters it is necessary in order to set such colors to steam
the yarns.
In this operation it is requisite that the temperature or
steam pressure to which the yarns are exposed should be accurately
regulated, and also that the contact of the yarns with water resulting
from the condensation of the steam should be carefully guarded
against.
According to this Invention, in order to prevent the various colors
applied to the yarns from spreading or running into each other by
reason of the water or moisture arising from the condensed steam settling
upon the yarns, the latter are placed in a chamber to which steam is
admitted, and which is surrounded by a jacket containing steam of a
somewhat higher pressure and consequently hotter.
Another important advantage of the jacketted chamber is that the steam
used in the " setting process is greatly economised, as we are able to
reduce the size of the chamber by dispensing with the sloping or angular
roofs heretofore used in steam chambers, and which were designed to
prevent the condensed steam which gathered within on the under side of
the roofs from dropping on to the yarns. The steam is admitted to our
improved chamber and to the jacket surrounding it by valves from a
steam pipe or supply passage, in which it is contained at a higher pressure
than is requisite in either the chamber or the jacket. These valves
are so arranged that they supply to the chamber and to the jacket steam
of a constant pressure, whatever may be the variations of the pressure
in the supply pipe or passage. The valves we prefer to use in com-
bination with the jacketted steam chamber are constructed as follows,
and are applicable for other purposes generally, as regulating valves
for discharging steam, air, or other clastic fluids:-To an ordinary
equilibrium valve we apply by preference a cylindrical but it may be
other formed chamber, through which the valve rod passes. This
chamber is constructed to form an annular reservoir to contain a column
of mercury of suitable height according to the amount of reduction
required to be made in the pressure of the fluid to be discharged. Α΄

page_text: thereby rises or lowers in the mercury and operates upon the valve
to close or open it accordingly, and thus regulates the pressure thereof
as required.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a plan, Figure 2 a longitudinal section, Figure 3 a
transverse section, and Figure 4 a front elevation of a yarn steaming
chamber constructed according to our Invention. In Figures 1 and 2
the central portion of the chamber is removed to shorten the Drawing.
b
a, a, is a double casing of iron rivetted together and forming a
jacketted chamber; b and c are two pipes supplying it with steam.
The pipe 6 passes into the space between the two shells and the pipe c
into the interior chamber, which at the front is capable of being closed
steam-tight by a door d. This door is a strong cast-iron plate suspended
from a chain by which it can be raised and lowered in guides, it has
lugs upon it, which when the door is lowered into its place catch over
studs e fixed to the face of the chamber, and nuts f with handles upon
them are then screwed up on the studs and so the door is held closely
to its face.. Rails g, g, are laid within the chamber, and on these the
carriages h, h, are run into and out of the chamber, temporary lengths
of rail being at such times laid to connect the rails within the chamber
to the rails i outside. The carriages h, h, carry the yarns to be steamed,
which may be laid on openwork of cords stretched across the carriage.
The steam pipes b and c are connected to the steam boiler through valves
so arranged as to pass the steam always at a constant or nearly constant
pressure, whatever variations of pressure may take place in the boiler.
The valve on the pipe b is so adjusted as to pass the steam at a higher
pressure. than that on the pipe c, so that the steam in the jacket may
be always somewhat hotter than the steam within the chamber con-
taining the yarns to ensure that no condensation shall take place therein.

page_text: The time for which the yarns are exposed to the steam heat and the
temperature applied are regulated by the same rules as when steaming
in chambers such as have heretofore been employed.
The construction of the reducing valves employed in connection withi
the steaming chamber may be varied, but that which we prefer is
shown in section at Figure 5. a is the steam passage by which steam
of high but variable pressure enters from the boiler; b is the passage
by which the steam of the lower and regulated pressure is led to the
steam jacket or to the interior of the chamber as the case may be; c
is a double or equilibrium valve so constructed that the pressure of
the steam in the inlet a has little or no tendency to open it; dis
a rod from the valve rising up through the tube c, and having fixed
upon it the cap or inverted cup f which is contained in the annular
reservoir g. This reservoir is filled with mercury to such a depth that
the steam in the outlet b which can pass up into the cup by the pipe
e may not be able to force its way past the mercury. The rod d passes
out at the top of the annular reservoir g through a guide and its exposed
end can be weighted by moveable weights h. The bottom of the
cap or cup embraces the tube c to guide itself in rising and falling.
The action of this apparatus is as follows:-The valve c having little
or no tendency to move of itself is acted on by the weight of the rod d,
the weight h, and cap or cup f, so far as this latter is unbalanced by
its flotation in thic mercury. The valve is in this way opened and
steam passes; it rises up the pipe e into the cap or cup f, where its
pressure tends to lift the the cap or cup, and it does so as the required
pressure in the delivery passage is approached. If for an instant this
pressure were slightly exceeded the valve would close tightly until
the pressure was again reduced to the standard amount. On the other
hand should the pressure commence to fall below the standard amount
the valve is immediately opened wider and the pressure is at once
brought back to the standard amount.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that
what we claim is,-
The construction and use in steaming yarns of jacketted steam
chambers or steam chambers with double sides or walls provided with
reducing valves to admit steam of regulated pressure and temperature

page_text: both into the interior of the chamber and into the jacket or space
between its double sides or walls.
We also claim the construction of reducing valves, substantially as
herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Louis John Crossley and Richard
Hanson, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-nine.