A NEW MACHINE TO DYE MECHANICALLY ALL KINDS OF TEXTILE OR FILACEOUS MATTERS PREPARED IN SKEIN
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Antoine Ray, of Castle School, Guildford, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "A NEW MACHINE TO DYE
MECHANICALLY ALL KINDS OF TEXTILE OR FILACEOUS MATTERS PREPARED IN
SKEIN."--A communication from abroad by Cæsar Corron, a Dyer,
at St.-Etienne. Department of Loiro, in France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Antoine Ray at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th September 1871.
ANTOINE RAY, of Castle School, Guildford, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW MACHINE
TO DYE MECHANICALLY ALL KINDS OF TEXTILE OR FILACEOUS MATTERS PREPARED
IN SKEIN," a communication to me from abroad by Cæsar Corron, a Dyer,
at St.-Etienne, Department of Loire, in France, to be as follows:-
This demand has for its aim to claim according to the law to the
profit of the requiring the exclusive privilege of the use of a new

page_text: machine which must succeed the numerous operations actually done by
strength of arms in the various operations of dycing the textile material
in skein.
The elements upon which my Invention is grounded are the
following:-
1°. The taking of the colouring liquid by the textile material is
obtained the most advantageously by the vertical and regular immersion
of the skein in the dye bath. In fact it is easy to understand that in
plunging thus vertically the skein in the colouring liquid these threads
suffer neither torsion nor friction; their fibres remain constantly
parallel and become regularly impregnated with the colouring matter,
thus the very numerous manipulations always deteriorating more or
less the physical constitution of the filaments are avoided. Another
advantage is that the skein, when it is taken from the bath, the liquid
with which it is charged redescends, and on account of its extreme
divisibility laps up vertically all the threads with perfect regularity.
At length this very same liquid running to the inferior part of the
hank holds by its weight the threads in a vertical direction, and
increases sufficiently their tension in order that they may be able to
displace them like a leather string on a pulley in making turn the
support which sustains them.
2º. It is indeed the second principle of my machine to effect the
displacement of the hank on its support, out off the dye bath, contrary
to all that has been made till now. There is in it a new idea, the
priority of which I claim, and which has an extreme importance,
principally for textile materials less dense than the colouring liquids,
as silk for example.
Let us see what takes place when they want to turn the hank on its
support without taking it out of the dye bath? The hank floats in the
liquid, its threads are entangled, and instead of acting as a leather string
on the support it swells by the action of the resistance of the liquid; it
is displaced little or not, in every case in a very irregular manner, its
threads loose their relative positions and are entangled to such a degree
that they are obliged to have recourse afterwards to the operation of
sbaking. In operating out of the dye bath all these inconveniences arc
avoided and every part of the threads is exposed by turns to the action

page_text: of the colouring liquid without suffering any deterioration of texture, a
quality which is very much sought after to obtain rapid and regular
weaving.
At every corner of a vessel or ordinary quadrangular vat full of the
liquid used for the dye is a pillar about three feet high above this vessel.
These four pillars are joined at the top and to every side by a cross
piece. They serve to guide the ascent of a movable frame in which they
are set, ascent which is helped by a little rotative friction roller placed to
all four jointings. That frame shorter and narrower than the vessel
itself bears a series of small rollers placed in the side of its width and
supported in their extremities upon the borders of its two longest sides.
Those rollers bear the hanks or skeins of textile material to be dyed,
which are hung upon them. The motion of that movablo frame is then
effected from the superior extremity of the vessel to the extremity of the
pillars, about three feet, so that this frame being let down, the hanks of
material to be dyed dip in the colouring liquid of which this vessel is
full, and upon being lifted up thoso hanks are suspended out, off, and
above the dye bath. This ascensional and descensional motion of the
frame is from the rotation of an excentric placed on each longer side
of the vessel. These excentrics (which may be augmented morcover
according to the relative size of the vessel and frame) are put in motion
by any motive force. The curve of cach of these excentrics which
support the frame having attained its highest ascent rests before
redescending during some seconds, during this time they cause to turn
the little rollers supporting the material to be dyed, of which the rotary
motion necessarilly determines the displacement of the hank on its
support, and which permits to be dyed equally with the other parts,
to the part of the material which immediately surrounds the roller
which does not plunge more than the frame in the bath; that framo
being at its lowest place, just clear off the colouring liquid. They
obtain that result of the displacement of the banks on cach of their
support roller by the help of a big fixed roller for two support rollers,
which constantly in motion meet with it as soon as the frame has
reached its extreme ascent. Then there are a series of big rollers moved
by catches and by any motive force which exists for that purpose to the
superior part of the machine, and above the limit of the ascending
motion of the frame.

page_text: Such are the mechanical elements which I employ for the construction
and the function of the machine, the advantages of which I have men-
tioned at the head of this article.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Antoine Ray in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTOINE
RAY, of Castle School, Guildford, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the 5th day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Antoine Ray, Her special licence
that I, the said Antoine Ray, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Antoine Ray, my 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 "A NEW MACHINE TO DYE MECHANICALLY
ALL KINDS OF TEXTILE OR FILACEOUS MATTERS PREPARED IN SKEIN,” a
communication to me from abroad by Cæsar Corron, a Dyer, at
Saint-Etienne, Department of Loire, in France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Antoine Ray, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of 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 I, the said Antoine Ray, do hereby declare

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
This application has for its object to claim according to the law for
the profit of the applicant the exclusive privilege of the use of a new
machine which must supersede the numerous operations actually done
by strength of arms in the various operations of dyeing textile materials
in skein.
The peculiarities upon which my Invention is grounded are the
following:-
1°. The impregnation of the textile material by the colouring liquid is
obtained the most advantageously by the vertical and regular immersion
of the skein in the dye bath. In fact it is easy to understand that in
plunging thus vertically the skein in the colouring liquid the threads
suffer neither torsion nor friction. Their fibres remain constantly
parallel and become regularly impregnated with the colouring matter,
thus the very numerous manipulations always deteriorating more or
less the physical constitution of the filaments are avoided. Another
advantage is that the liquid with which the skein is charged when
it is taken from the bath redescends, and on account of its extreme
divisibility saturates all the threads with perfect regularity. In fact
this same liquid running to the lower part of the hank holds the threads
in a vertical direction by its weight, and thus increases sufficiently their
tension, so that the wheel on which they are suspended may turn, and
then the upper part of the skein hitherto untouched by the liquid dips
in its turn in the bath.
The second principle of my machine is to effect the displacement of
the bank on its support, out off the dye bath; this has never yet been
effected by any other machine. There is in it a new idea, the priority of
which I claim, and which has an extreme importance, principally
for textilo materials less dense than the colouring liquid, as silk for
example.
Let us see what takes place when they want to turn the hank on its
support without taking it out of the dye bath? The hank floats on the
liquid, its threads are entangled, and instead of acting as a leather strap
on the support, it swells by the action of the resistance of the liquid; it
is displaced little or much, in every case in a very irregular manner, its
threads lose their relative positions and are entangled to such a degree

page_text: that they are obliged to have recourse afterwards to the operation of
shaking. By causing the hank to revolve out of the dye bath all these
inconveniences are avoided, and every part of the threads is exposed
in turn to the action of the colouring liquid without suffering any
deterioration of texture, a result which is very much sought after in 5
order to obtain rapid and regular weaving.
Those principles being demonstrated, this is how the dyeing machine
is constructed :-
A vessel or vat full of the liquid used for the dye. B frame or move-
ablo sash bearing the rollers O, C, C, upon which the skeins to be dyed 1
are hung. This frame has a vertical rectilinear alternate motion; it
ascends and descends from Y to Z, so that being lifted up the
rollers C, C, C, which it bears come in contact with the rollers I, I, I,
which I call essoreurs, and thus a rotatory motion is set up in C, C, C,
and the top part of the skeins will descend into the bath A.
1
This motion of the moveable frame B is caused by the following
mechanism: The motion is given by the pulley F (sce particularly
Fig. 2 in the plan), which brings the rotation of the endless screw G,
putting in motion the toothed wheel H, which by the angular
wheels J, K, L, brings to the right and to the left with the help of 2
the other angular wheels M, N, M', N', the rotation of the two
axletrees O ct O', each of them bearing at their extremities the two
toothed wheels P, Q, P', Q', each of them acting upon its correspondent
of the four cogs R, R, R³, R³, placed at the four corners of that
moveable frame. These cogs are placed at the upper extremity of the 2
shafts S, S¹, S³, S³, supporting the moveable frame B, and then ascending
and descending with it (sce Fig. 1) by gliding into the guides T, T',
next to the pillars U of the machine. Then it is easy to understand
the motion of ascent of the frame, which can be by the means of its four
grooves V³ fixed upon its four shafts or supporting in a variable manner 3
in height by the help of the nuts V pressing more or less upon the
resistance of the springs V'. The rollers C, C, C, bearing the skeins are
invariably fixed upon the sides of the frame, but as it is necessary that
their contact with the essoreurs rollers I, I, I, & should be soft, whatever
may be the thickness of the skeins which are pressed between those 3
rollers C, O, C, & I, I, I, I havo supplied in a the grooves V³ of the frame
with india-rubber washer that reduce the harshness of the contact of
the rollers C, C, with the essorcurs rollers I; I, I.
In consequence

page_text: the skeins turn with the rollers 0, 0, 0, which bear them by their
contact with the essoreurs rollers I, I, I, that are constantly in motion,
every one of them being directed by an endless screw a¹ working with
a toothed wheel 6 placed upon their axe. The pulley d guides this
motion.
.
To make the moveable frame B go down so that the skeins be dipped
in the colouring liquid it is sufficient to change the motion of the
axletree e by putting in motion the pulley f, the strap of which goes in
a contrary manner of the first F. As the ascent and descent of the
frame B must be exactly limited, the wheel H is not entirely toothed,
it has but a certain number of teeth, and in reality it acts like a
toothed sector.
I could obtain the motion of the frame with excentrics, but the
mechanism which I have just described offers a greater security.
Such are the mechanical elements which I employ for the con-
struction and the function of the machine, the advantages of which
I have mentioned at the head of this article.
ANTOINE RAY Gol