CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON A MACHINE FOR SHEARING AND CROPPING WOOLLEN CLOTH
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
ROBINSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Cloth-dresser, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, in the third year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Robinson, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, said Samuel Robinson, my exors, admňors, and assigns, during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON A MACHINE FOR SHEARING
AND CROPPING WOOLLEN CLOTH;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso, that if I, the said Samuel Robinson, shall not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
(relation being thereunto had,) will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Samuel
Robinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description. thereof (that is to say):-
My improvement on a machine for dressing and cropping woollen cloth
consist of a frame supporting a travelling carriage with cutters, moved by
bands and wheels, connected to a steam engine, or from any first mover:
Fig. 1 is the improved machine, shewn in perspective in complete action.
Fig. 2 is a frame and shafts divested of the carriage and board, taken on the
opposite side to the view shewn in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is the underside of the
carriage, shewing the situation of the leger blades and of the cutters. In
Fig. 1, W is a drum wheel turned by the moving power, from which
drum a band passes to a pulley X upon the shaft S, which gives motion
to the machine; E is a large pulley upon the same shaft S, from which
an endless cord passes to the small pulley Fat the reverse end of the
machine, which embraces the carriage pulleys Y, Y, and by the revolution of
the shaft S, gives motion to the cutter rollers, C, C. In Fig. 1 one of the
covers J is raised for the purpose of shewing the roller cutter, and B shews a
contrivance by a screw c slot, which is the manner in which the frame is
jointed together, so as to be capable of adjustment to the various breadth of
cloth. A is a board paded with a pair of blankets, (this number however
may be varied and covered with brown holland cloth. This board rests upon
the frame a in Fig. 2, shewn also in Fig. 1, and is fixed by 8 screws passing
through loops Z, Z. On the edge of the frame B is a cast-iron carriage,
sliding over the board with the ledger blades and rollers c, C, around which
the cutters are coiled. These cutters and ledger blades when in operation
rest upon the board A, over which the cloth is stretched from list, to list for
shearing. The carriage in returning is raised from the board A upon the
sliders H, which are lifted up by the inclined plane of the sliders p, p, Fig. 2,
pressing under the shafts o, when the carriage returns upon four pullies
V, V, V, V, as seen in Fig. 3. D are the hooks with hinged ribs, by which
the cloth is distended, and fastened by the list on one side to the frame, and on
the other side by the list to the lever shaft Q, with straps and screws, to
accommodate the breadth of the various sorts of cloth. On the shaft S a worm
is placed, into which worm a toothed wheel 6 works.
This wheel is upon a
transverse shaft M, the pivots of which shaft rest in the frame a at the one
A pulley is placed against the
over which a cord K from the
end, and in the board A at the other end.
side of the frame I in an inclined position,

page_text: carriage passes. This cord is attached to the shaft M, and as the shaft
revolves coils the cord round it, and hence draws the carriage forward over the
cloth by a slow movement. I is a lever fixed to the shaft Q, Fig. 2, which is
shewn detached at Fig. 4. L, L, are two slides fixed to the slides H and the
frame a for throwing the strap on to the loose pulley. Qis a shaft with four
levers, seen detached at Fig. 4; the large one I, it is to be worked by; the
two smaller ones are to fasten the hooks D, Fig. 1, and the slips p, in Fig. 2;
the smallest is to throw the shaft M in and out of geer. R is a long roller to
draw the cloth over the board. T, T, are the ledger blades, fastened by an
adjusting screw at each end, as described in Fig. 6. U are the steel plates or
cutters, coiled round the copper rollers, with a plate at each end, screwed to
the roller.
Fig. 5 is one of the rollers detached, with the cutters coiled round it, and
pulley at its end. Fig. 6 are the ledger blades, and Fig. 7 the plate of steel
to form the cutter before it is coiled round the roller.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Robinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two..