IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEETLING WOVEN FABRICS AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Parrott, of Salford, in the County of
Lancaster, Millwright and Engineer, and Wright Jones, of the
same Place, Millwright, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Sealed the 27th April 1869, and dated the 6th November 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Parrott and
Wright Jones at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 6th November 1868.
We, JAMES PARROTT, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Millwright
and Engineer, and WRIGHT JONES, of the same Place, Millwright, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR BEETLING WOVEN FABRICS AND OTHER MATERIALS," to be as
follows:-
The operation of beetling has been hitherto performed by a revolving
shaft provided with projections or tappets, brought in contact with
suitable projections on a succession of vertical timbers or fallers, by
which means these timbers are raised so as to fall by their own gravity
on the cloth or other material to be operated upon, the cloth or other.
material having been previously wrapped or folded on a roller, which

page_text: also revolves and has an endwise reciprocating motion given to it, so
as to bring all the parts of the fabric or other material into contact
with the timbers or fallers.
Our improvements consist, firstly, in dispensing with the vertical
timbers or fallers, and substituting in lieu thereof a succession of
hammers faced with wood or metal, and attached by an elastic web or
other suitable connection to a shaft or roller revolving at such a velocity
as to throw out by centrifugal force the hamumers which are brought in
contact with the cloth or other material to be operated upon, the said
cloth or other material having been previously wrapped or folded on
rollers provided for that purpose; or the hammers may be made to act
on the fabric or other material laid upon a horizontal table or other
stationary surface. The hammer shaft is caused to move endwise to and
fro by a cam or other equivalent; or the to-and-fro motion may be given
as usual to the rollers on which the fabric or other material is wound;
or the end motion may be given to both.
Another part of our Invention consists in making a beetling machine
that will act continuously on the fabric. The fabric to be operated upon
is brought from any convenient number of batch rollers and passed over
a roller placed under the usual fallers or under the hammers acting by
centrifugal force, as above described. When the folds of fabric have
passed over this roller they are wound continuously on a batch roller, or
they are taken over guide rollers and brought a second time under the
fallers or hammers,
By means of these improvements a great saving is effected in the
power required to drive the machine, and a greater quantity of work may
be performed in a given time.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Parrott and Wright Jones in the Great
. Seal Patent Office on the 4th May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
PARROTT, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Millwright and
Engineer, and WRIGHT JONES, of the same Place, Millwright, send
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Parrott and Wright Jones, Her
special license that we, the said James Parrott and Wright Jones; our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we; the said
James Parrott and Wright Jones, 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 MACHINERY FOR BEETLING
WOVEN FABRICS AND OTHER MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said James Parrott and Wright Jones, our exc-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their,
or one of our or their hands and seals, 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 Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Parrott and Wright Jones,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-.
The operation of beetling has been hitherto generally performed by a
revolving shaft provided with projections or tappets brought in contact
with suitable projections on a succession of vertical timbers or fallers, by
which means these timbers are raised, and they fall by their own gravity
on the cloth or other material to be operated upon, the cloth or other
material having been previously wound on a roller, which also revolves
and has an endwise reciprocating motion given to it, so as to bring all
the parts of the fabric or other material under the timbers or fallers.
Our improvements consist, firstly, in dispensing with the vertical
timbers or fallers and substituting in lieu thereof a succession of metal
or other hammers, attached by an elastic web or other suitable con-
nection to a shaft or roller revolving at such a velocity as to throw out
by centrifugal force the hammers, which are brought in contact with the

page_text: cloth or other material to be operated upon, the said cloth or other
material having been previously wound on rollers provided for that
purpose, or laid upon a horizontal table or other stationary surface. The
hammer shaft is caused to move endwise to and fro by a cam or other
equivalent, or the to-and-fro motion may be given as usual to the roller
on which the fabric or other material is wound; or the to-and-fro motion
may be given to both.
Another part of our Invention consists in making a beetling machine
that will act continuously on the fabric, which is brought from any
convenient number of batch rollers and passed over a roller placed under
the usual fallers or under the hammers acting by centrifugal force, as
above described. When the folds of fabric have passed over this roller
they are wound continuously on a batch.roller, or they are taken over
guide rollers and brought a second time under the fallers or hammers, or
they are otherwise disposed of.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and
readily carried into operation, we will proceed to describe the two
accompanying Sheets of Drawings, reference being had to the figures
and letters marked thereon.
On Sheet 1, Figures 1 and 2, are end elevations of our improved
macliinery for beetling woven fabrics or other materials, and on Sheet 2,
Figure 3, is a side elevation, and Figure 4 a plan of the same.
a, a, are the end frames of the machine, and b is a shaft or roller, the
axle of which revolves in bearings fixed to the end frames; to the roller b
are attached by elastic webs, made by preference of several thicknesses
of strong leather or other suitable material, the series of hammers c, c, c,
which are made of cast iron or other suitable metal or material; these
hammers are placed near to each other along the whole length of the
roller b, and they are arranged spirally on its circumference, so that they
may act in succession on the fabric, which is wound on the roller d;
this roller and the extra roller d' are supported in the cross arms e, the
spokes of which are provided with antifriction bowls running in circular
openings in the.end frames à; these cross arins are turned round for half
a revolution, when it is desired to change the position of the rollers d, d',
by the spokes f and f gearing into the wheel e¹ on the axle of the cross
arms e. The roller must be made to revolve at such a velocity that the
hammers c will be thrown out by centrifugal action, and that they will

page_text: strike the fabric on the roller d with the force required to produce the
desired beetling effect; and we have found that a speed of about eighty-
two revolutions per minute effects the object, but this speed may be
varied according to the weight of the hammers, the diameter of the
roller b, the length of the web connecting the hammers to the roller, and
the quality of the fabric or other material to be beetled. The roller bis
or may be driven direct from the driving shaft by a strap passing over
the pulley. 6' keyed on one end of the axle of the roller b, and to the
other end of this axle is keyed the bevel pinion gearing into thic
wheel g' on the upright shaft g, near the lower end of which is keyed
the worm gearing into the worm wheel keyed on the short
horizontal shaft h, to which is also keyed the flanged spur wheel h
gearing into the wheel d on the axle of the cloth roller d, the wheel
is moved endwise to and fro on its shaft, so as to give a corresponding
motion to the cloth roller d, in order that every portion of the fabric may
be brought under the hammers c by means of the crank pin ³, the
connecting link i and elbow lever, one arm of which is forked and is
provided with studs taking into a groove in the boss of the wheel h³, or
any other convenient arrangement of mechanism may be employed to
give the end motion to the roller d; or the end motion may be given to
the roller shaft b. To the lower end of the vertical shaft g is keyed the
bevel wheel g³ gearing into the wheel on the horizontal shaft j; to this
shaft is connected by a key and groove the friction disc, by which
rotary motion is given to the extra cloth roller d' for winding up or
unwinding the fabric upon it. The face of the wheel d² is pressed against
the disc by the lever k, the screwed shaft k', and the hand wheels k*,
the lever being provided with a steel or other saddle, shewn best in
Figure 3, which acts against the end of the axle of the roller d'. The
position of the disc on the shaft j is governed by the handle 1, the
screwed shaft l, and the forked lever 1, which is provided with studs
taking into a grooved recess in the boss of the disc. By moving the
disc nearer to or further from the centre of the roller & the speed
thereof is varied, and by moving the disc to one side of the centre or the
other the direction of rotation is reversed; by this means the fabric can
be either wound on the roller d' or unwound from it and at any required
speed. The hand wheel m on the cross shaft m' is for moving the driving
strap from the fast pulley 6' to the loose pulley, and vice versa; this is
effected by means of the lever m² on the shaft m', the lever m² being
connected to the starting rod m', to which the strap fork m³ is attached.

page_text: When the machine is to be set in operation the fabric after it has been
taken over and under the stretching bars n is wound on the extra
roller d'; when the fabric is brought to the machine if it be wound on
batch rollers the batches are supported in the brackets n¹; but if the
fabric comes from a plaiting down machine the plaits are laid on the
floor, and then taken to the roller d'. As soon as the requisite quantity
of fabric has been wound on the roller d the attendant by moving the
spokes fmoves the cross arms e to bring the roller d in the place now
occupied by the roller d; the driving strap is then moved on to the
driving pulley b¹ to start the roller b and hammers c, and the hammers
continue to act on the fabric so long as may be required for giving the
requisite bectling finish; during this time the roller containing the
fabric that has been beetled is turned in the contrary direction to that
in which it had been revolving for winding on, and the beetled fabric is
wound on to rollers or plaited down on to the floor.
By means of these improvements a great saving is effected in the
power required to drive the machine, and a greater quantity of work may
be performed in a given time.
On Sheet 1 Figure 5 represents a section of our improved beetling
machine for acting continuously on the fabric; in this instance o, o, o,
are three or other convenient number of batch rollers, containing the
fabric to be beetled; or the fabric may be supplied to this machine from
the plaiting down apparatus. b is the roller, to which the hammers c are
connected, as above described; but we wish to remark here that ordinary
fallers or other hammers may be used instead of our improved hammers
acting by centrifugal force. dis the roller over which the fabric passes
and against which the hammers or fallers act. The fabrics after, passing
over the roller d are taken around the guide rollers p', and then wound
on the batch roller p. It is evident that any convenient number of
folds of fabric may be operated upon at the same time by increasing or
reducing the number of pieces supplied to the machine, and of the guide
rollers p', and that the fabric will by passing through this machine be
continuously beetled and wound upon a batch.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described the
manner of performing the same, we declare that we claim,-
First. The use of hammers acting by centrifugal force for beetling
woven fabrics or other materials.

page_text: And, secondly. The improved machinery as shewn and as described
or performing the operation of beetling continuously.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Parrott and Wright Jones,
have hereto set our hands and seals, this First day of May, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.