Improved Means for Extracting Foreign Substances from Fabrics Fed to Cloth Finishing Machines.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Sept., 1896-Accepted, 5th Dec., 1896
Improved Means for Extracting Foreign Substances from Fabrics
Fed to Cloth Finishing Machines.
We, ALPHEUS CARPENTER SHUTTLEWORTH, Electrician, aud FREDERICK
C. BAUMILLER, Jeweler, both of Frankford, Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania,
United States of America-Post Office Address, 1514 Orthodox Street, Frankford,
Pennsylvania-do hereby declare the nature of our invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
It is well known to those engaged in finishing woven fabrics, that small particles
and short pieces of iron or steel in the form of short pins coming from the burr of
the loom-temple during the weaving, operation, and from the tentering and other
kinds of cloth finishing machines, and from other causes, in the manufacture, find
lodgment permanently in or near the selvages of the woven fabric, and which
must of necessity be removed in order that the fabric can be treated in the further
operations of pressing and finishing it for the market can be accomplished, and
without any detriment to the cloth and ruinous results to a hot press or any other
form of finishing machines.
At present the usual form or plan adopted is to carefully feel along the selvages
or edges of the fabric with the fingers and remove the pins, an extremely slow,
expensive in labor, and thoroughly unsatisfactory, inasmuch and principally
because the pins or pieces of metal are so exceedingly small that the fingers, no
matter how sensitive they become by practice, cannot with certainty detect and
locate them, and the pieces of metal are also many times found imbedded in the body
of the fabric in such a manner as to utterly defy all means of determining their
existence or presence except by means of such an invention as I will hereinafter
fully describe and claim.
Should any pins be left the very smallest one of them would work inestimable
damage if allowed to enter the finishing machine, both as to the machine and the
fabric, it very often occurring that many yards of cloth may be materially damaged
and even positively ruined before their presence is discovered, besides seriously
damaging the machine.
By this invention however all the dangers arising from their presence from
whatever cause, in the fabric is guarded against in the working of any damage
whatever either to the machine, or the cloth in the further preparation of it for
the market, and entirely and completely avoiding all danger from the pins or
metallic fragments, in a very inexpensive, thorough and rapid manner. Having
referred briefly to the likelihood and troubles arising from the presence of the pins
or small metallic pieces in the edges of the fabric coming to a finishing press, and
to the danger and expense should they enter the finishing machine, both as to
expensive damages to it, and the great liability of ruining large quantities of cloth,
and having pointed out the needs, intent, and value of this invention, I will state,
that it broadly consists in the use of magnets, preferably electro-magnets, arranged
in such a manner in relation to the feeding of the cloth to any kind of finishing
machine, each of the selvages or edges of the fabric when being finished is compelled
to pass to a sufficient depth between and around overlapping edges or jaws of the
said electro-magnets, thereby making it utterly impossible for any particle or any
shaped piece of metal sensitive to magnetic attraction, to pass beyond and into the

page_text: machine but on the other hand it will be instantly extracted, and if needs be torn
bodily from the fabric and compelled to cling to either member or core-jaw of
each magnet to its respective side of the machine, and from which it can be readily
removed.
"
The practical construction I have found to be up to this time the most efficient,
is illustrated in detail and application in the drawing herewith.
Referring to said drawing
Fig. 1 is a front elevation, showing the application of the electro-magnets both
mounted on a suitable framework, which might otherwise represent the frame of a
finishing machine, and it shows the cloth to be finished passing between and around
the jaws or overlapping faces of the peculiarly shaped cores of the electro-magnets,
and before entering the finishing machine, together with the magnets connection
with the electric generator.
Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of one of the electro-magnets as I prefer its practical
construction.
Fig. 3 is a view of the end face thereof, showing the overlapping jaws or faces
of the poles of the magnet.
In the drawings, the magnets shown are of the usual commercial pattern.
a representing the winding, and representing the cores or poles yoked together
in the usual manner, the special difference in the invention being in the form and
construction of the cores or poles, as I will now fully describe.
Each core or pole 6 of the electro-magnet has its axial line in the same plane,
and each has an extension part or wing 6, of a lateral width sufficient to overlap
the cloth about two and one-half inches, sufficiently far however to pass the danger
line of location of any metal fragments.
The extended jaw or wing portion 6, of the cores or poles 6 taper and overlap,
and are separated from each other sufficiently to allow for the passage of the cloth,
and at the same time producing angles that deflect it from its normal line, for the
purpose of causing the jaws to bear firmly upon the surfaces of the cloth, and thus
cause the pins or metal fragments to loosen sufficiently their hold in the cloth and
to be attracted and removed by magnetic influence.
I prefer to use electro-magnets instead of permanent magnets as they can be
made more powerful, and are more reliable, and when using electro-magnets they
are connected to the electric generator h, by means of the wires n, in the usual
manner.
Of course it would be practical to extend the jaws of the cores of the electro-
magnets so as to embrace the whole of each face of the cloth, but I have found
that this practically is not necessary or desirable.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:
In a device for removing magnetically affected particles from cloth the
combination, a supporting framework, an electro-magnet having extending poles
relatively associated and constructed to overlap each other, for the purpose
set forth.
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicants.