IMPROVEMENTS IN BLANKETS USED IN MACHINES FOR PRINTING TEXTILE FABRICS, AND IN THE MODE OF JOINING TOGETHER THE ENDS OF DOUBLE-WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Joseph Hughes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th June 1867.-A communication from abroad by Seth William
Baker, of Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
I, EDWARD JOSEPH HUGHES, of the City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLANKETS USED IN MACHINES FOR PRINTING TEXTILE
FABRICS, AND IN THE MODE OF JOINING TOGETHER THE ENDS OF DOUBLE-WOVEN
FABRICS," being a communication to me from abroad by Seth William Baker,
of Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America, to be as follows:-
Instead of the ordinary felted woollen blankets I employ blankets made of
woven materials, and the first part of this Invention relates to the textile
qualities of the fabric used for the blanket and to the finish of the same. The
fabric consists of a single web of woven material composed of a number of sets
of stout but fine warps, generally of cotton, and a corresponding number of
overlaying shoots of filling threads of about the same fineness, and so closely
interwoven as to produce about the same texture upon the surface as that of
the generality of printing cloths or printing goods, and about the same thick-
ness as the ordinary woollen blanket. After the blanket is woven it is
subjected to a thorough calendering process between heated rollers to remove
all elasticity in the direction of its length, and sufficiently in regard to its
thickness as to reduce the interwoven mass of threads to a merely compressible
body that is not dependent upon the displacement of the threads of which it is

page_text: composed, but upon the compressibility of the material thus fabricated, the
material itself being intimately wrought together in one homogeneous mass or
fabric. The material which I prefer to use for my blanket is cotton, although
woollen or linen may be used. The cotton blanket is made of yarn spun from
the best cotton with great care to have it even and twisted three and four ply, its
average number being about twenty-two, three ply getting from this number the
best results in obtaining even smooth surfaces for printing purposes. I use in
fabricating the blanket of 'this yarn six sets of warps, and consequently twelve
harnesses to a loom, and interweave with the warps a corresponding amount
of filling yarn. Any practical weaver will understand how the harnesses are
operated, and the mode of tying and interweaving the entire mass of warps
together by means of successive overlaying shoots of filling from one surface
to the other to produce one fabric of considerable thickness, of great strength,
and fineness of texture upon the surface, and of peculiar elasticity.
The second part of my Invention relates to the mode of joining the two
ends of a length of the aforesaid fabric so as to make an endless web or band
in such a manner as to avoid the appearance and effect of any seam or break
of the surface, and to make it equally stout and resistent of separation as any
other part of the fabric; and this part of my Invention consists in cutting
away and removing one-half of the thickness of the warp and filling threads
'to 'about'two inches of the two ends to be united, and from opposite sides of
the 'two'ends relatively one with the other, so that an equal thickness with the
main part of the fabric will be produced by lapping the two half thicknesses
of both ends one upon the other; the half thicknesses so produced present a
ribbed or corrugated surface across the web, and when the ribs of one surface
are closely fitted into and interlocked with the depressions or spaces between
the ribs of the opposite surface, and then permanently fixed closely together a
means is afforded for resisting the strain lengthwise of the blanket that would
tend to separate the two parts. The mode of fixing together the two ends
consists in temporarily cementing the two surfaces together with any adhesive
material, and while thus kept in place uniting the two parts firmly and
securely by sewing the same through and through with successive crosses of
'machine stitching extending across the web from side to side with stout
saddler's silk. The removal of one half the thickness of the fabric from opposite
sides of the two ends for the space of about two inches is accomplished in the
following mauner:-1 raise at one edge of the blanket a filling thread by
cutting the top warp threads and then by this thread, keeping it at the proper
tension with one hand, I follow it with a 'kuife to the opposite side of the
blanket, thus cutting the warp across the entire web, and so I continue cutting.

page_text: And in
the first tier section or ply of the warps, thus allowing the filling threads to
ravel or become detached from the main body of the fabric until I have
removed the top section or ply of the cloth for the entire two inches. I repeat
this operation upon each succeeding section until one half of the number of
sections, and consequently one half of the thicknesses of the cloth is removed.
The opposite end of the reverse side is treated in the same manner.
order to prevent any displacement or injury to the two parts or lapped ends
of the seam by the great pressure of the rollers against it, or upon the two
extreme ends as they are placed together, and to make the lap joint as perfect
as possible in its construction, I remove from the extreme ends of the cloth on
the part that has been reduced in thickness as described enough of the filling
to leave about a quarter of an inch in length of the naked warp threads. I
then remove an equal amount of filling threads immediately back from the
point where the plies or sections of the cloth were first removed, this enables
me in matching the two reduced ends to break joints by lapping the warp
threads exposed as just explained together, thus precluding the possibility of
the joining being affected by any pressure of the printing rolls to which it
may be subjected. These ends may be fastened or secured together by a
rubber or other vulcanizable gum cement, and then placing the joined parts
between heated plates prepared for the purpose and pressing all tightly
together; but I have found by experience that the most reliable and easy
method of fastening these lap joints to be that of first gumming them suf-
ficiently to hold the two parts in their places and then to sew the two parts
together through and through with successive courses of machine stitching
over the entire lapped part.