A CERTAIN METHOD OR METHODS OF TENTERING, STRETCHING, OR KEEPING OUT CLOTH TO ITS WIDTH (MADE EITHER OF COTTON, SILK, WOOL, OR ANY OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES) BY MACHINERY
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BURNS SMITH, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Spinner, and JOHN
SMITH, of Halifax, in the County of York, Dyer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Tenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-six, in the seventh year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Burns Smith and John
Smith, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we,
the said John Burns Smith and John Smith, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as we, the said John Burns Smith and John
Smith, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no other, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
our Invention of "A CERTAIN METHOD OR METHODS OF TENTERING, STRETCHING,
OR KEEPING OUT CLOTH TO ITS WIDTH (MADE EITHER OF COTTON, SILK, WOOL, OR
ANY OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES) BY MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that we, the said John Burns Smith and John Smith, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Burns Smith and John Smith do hereby declare that the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is parti-
cularly described and ascertained in and by Drawings hereto annexed, and by
the following explanation thereof, that is to say:-
Our improved Method of Tentering, Stretching, or Keeping out Cloth to
its Width (made either of Cotton, Silk, Wool, or any other Fabrous
Substance) by Machinery consists,―
Firstly, in a peculiar construction and arrangement of those parts or pieces
of the apparatus which are to be brought immediately into connexion with
the selvages of the cloth, and which are intended to carry the system of fine
points or tenters for holding out the cloth. And,
Secondly, in the novel manner of guiding or conducting such series of
points or needles, in order that they may be made to enter the cloth with
ease and allow the same to be stretched by the agency of other parts of the
machinery particularly intended for that purpose.
It will be remembered that most cloths or other woven fabrics are subject
to shrinking or contraction in the width of the piece, when submitted to the
necessary operations of bleaching, dyeing, stiffening, or other wetting process,
and that, consequently, in order to regain the original or any desired width
of the piece of goods that has become so shrunk or contracted, it is necessary
to submit it to the process of stretching or tentering, and then drying it in the
stretched or extended state. To effect this stretching operation of the fabric
while drying our improved machinery is designed, and is capable of facilitat-
ing and accomplishing the same in a more perfect manner than by any of the
methods which are usually adopted.
In order that this our improvement may be more perfectly explained and
better understood, as well as for the convenience of shewing such parts or pieces
in connection in their operating situations with respect to the other parts of
the machinery, we have thought it advisable to exhibit in the accompanying
Drawings representations of our improved stretching machinery complete, as
well as in the several detached views of our improved parts in detail, which
last are drawn at Figures 3, 4, and 5, upon a scale equal to the real size, and
those views which comprise the whole of the machinery in complete working
order, as Figures 1, 2, 9, and 10, are drawn upon the scale of the proportion
of three quarters of an inch to a foot.
(Sheet 1.-Figure 1 represents a horizontal view of the machine as seen
from above, and in which a piece of cloth is shewn passing through the machine
and under the operation of tentering or being stretched. In this view the

page_text: top plates or upper casing of the machinery have been removed in order to
exhibit the interior. Figure 2 represents a sectional elevation taken longi-
tudinally through the middle of the machine, and underneath this Figure the
furnace is shewn with the necessary flues for heating the air chamber with
which the machinery is connected, for the purpose of drying the goods while
under operation.
In Sheet 2 of the Drawings Figure 9 represents that side of the machine
in elevation which is at the right hand of the operator as he stands at the
front or feeding end, and that side upon which the gearing is mounted for
working the screwed or worm shafts b, b; and Figure 10 is an elevation of
the opposite or left-hand side, and upon which the gearing for working the
continuous rack of teeth and tentering needles is mounted. It will be perceived
that the principal framing of the machine is composed of iron plates which
are rivetted or otherwise fastened together in such suitable pieces as shall
form the bottom and sides of the machine, and it is then to be covered with
a series of plates to constitute the top, and to render the whole a moderately
air-tight chamber capable of retaining the greater portion of the heat with
which it is intended to be charged by means of the furnace, as shewn in the
Drawings, or by a continuous supply of hot water or steam conducted through
it in pipes or by any other manner that may be preferred. This chamber or
casing of the machinery is shewn at a, a, a, a, and there are four rotary
shafts b, b, b, b, placed across the machine at suitable distances apart, having
right and left handed screws cut upon them. Both ends of those shafts bear
upon suitable pedestals bolted to the outside of the framing of the machine,
and the boxes or nuts in which these screws act are let in and securely
fastened to the two grooved rails or cheeks c, c, c, c. These threaded shafts are
rows or series of pins or
for the purpose of adjusting the distances of the
points sliding in the rails c, c, c, upon which the piece of cloth or other fabric
under operation is to be held, as will be hereafter more particularly described.
There are also six transverse rails a*, a*, a*, having V or upper angular edges
formed upon them for the purpose of bearing or supporting the grooved rails
c, c, c. These grooved rails are formed in the upper edges of frames, as shewn
in Figure 2, applied in parallel ranges in one part, but slightly inclined at the
other part, as shewn in the plan view, Figure 1. The groove in each is for
conducting and supporting the tenter pieces d, d, d, d, which carry the pins or
points e, e, e, e.
Figure 3 is a horizontal or top view of one of the tenter pieces d; Figure 4
a front elevation of the same, having also a transverse section of one of the
grooved rails on the top edge of the frame c, c; and Figure 5 is a side view

page_text: of one of the tenter pieces. These tenter pieces are blocks of cast iron which
having two teeth or cogs 1, 1, formed in their under side as ordinary straight
rack teeth, and also two gudgeons or studs 2, 2, cylindrically formed, extend-
ing from their sides. A series of steel pins, straight tenters, or points 3, 3, 3,
are fixed, about the eighth of an inch apart, upon brass ribs or narrow plates,
which are to be firmly screwed upon the cast-iron piece, as shewn in these
Figures. The gudgeons or projecting studs 2, 2, are intended to run freely in
grooves accurately planed in the two cast-iron cheeks of the rail or frames c, c,
for the purpose of guiding the sliding tenter pieces. Now a system or
complete series of these tenter pieces so furnished with points or pins placed
end to end, or in immediate contact with each other, and kept in consceutive
connection in the groove of the rail, or between the cheeks of the framing c, c,
will evidently form a continuous tentering frame with fine points or needles upon
the upper edge, and a continuous rack of spur teeth in the under part, which
may be acted upon by an ordinary toothed wheel or pinion for the purpose of
setting the whole series of tenter pieces or separated parts of the tenter frame
in progressive sliding motion as a common straight rack, for although formed
of separate loose portions merely lying end to end, or in consecutive connection
with each other, and this will be perfectly seen by reference to the detached
Figure 6, which is one end of the framing c, c, as Figure 2, but drawn upon
a larger scale, the side plate being removed. Upon the transverse shaft f, f,
placed at each end of the machine, there are mounted two wheels g, g, the
outer side rims of which are poligonally shaped, that is, have flattened sur-
faces in order to afford a partial support for the tenter pieces as they are
passing round them, in order that the points may enter the cloth or leave the
same as may be required, and round the peripheries of these wheels are also
formed teeth (as an ordinary spur wheel), for the purpose of taking into the
racks, and thereby giving a continuous progressive motion to the systems of
tenter pieces or points carrying the cloth through the machine. The bosses
of these wheels must be peculiarly constructed, in order to accommodate
themselves to the angle at which they will be required to be placed upon the
carrying shaft, and this will be seen by reference to Figure 7, which is a
horizontal section of the wheel with its boss attached to the shaft. There is
also another pair of auxiliary toothed wheels or pinions 9, 9, placed about the
centre of the machine, taking into the racks in order to assist in pushing
forward the consecutive series of tentering pieces.
Having described the general and leading features of the improved ma-
chinery, we will now proceed to shew the mode of putting the same in
operation; and by reference to the horizontal view, Figure 1, a piece of blue

page_text: -cloth will be seen passing through the machine in order to be stretched, and
in the sectional view, Figure 2, a piece of red cloth is shewn in the same
situation. It is to be understood that the cloth is first brought in a wet and
consequently shrunken state to the system of hollow copper cylinders h, h, h,
which are heated by the admission of steam to their interiors through their
hollow axes or otherwise, as may be found convenient, for the purpose of
submitting the fabric under operation to a slight or gentle heat previously to
introducing it into the stretching machine. The fabric is passed from thence
under the two wooden guide rollers i, i, which are suspended beneath tho
flooring immediately under the feet of the workman attending the front or
feeding end of the machine, it is thence passed over and under the tension
bars or rails j, j, j, which bars have a slight lateral motion imparted to them
by the feet of the operator working the treadles K, K, (see the detached Figure
8) which is a front view of the feeding end of the machine. These lateral
movements of the tension rail are for the purpose of slightly shifting or
drawing the cloth sideways that its edges or selvages may be accurately
brought over the teeth or points of the tenter pieces by the hands of the
workman. It will be perceived that the groove of the rails or checks c, c,
are placed upon a slightly inclined plane at the feeding end of the machine,
by which means the teeth will very gradually rise into the selvages of the
fabric until they have taken firm hold, their points or ends will then appear
through the upper surface of the cloth. Power being applied to the driving
pulley. by means of a strap in connection with a pulley upon the ordinary
line shafting in the building wherein the machine is constructed, that power
is communicated through the pair of mitre wheels n, n, to the longitudinal
shaft m, m, and then by means of the three pairs of bevils o, o, o, to the
transverse shafts. f, f. f. These shafts ff, f, impart the rotary motion to the
toothed pinions g, g, g, which being in gear with the rack formed upon the
under side of the tenter pieces d, causes them to proceed in their course
through the machine. As the cloth or piece of goods is placed upon the
points of the tenters at the feeding end of the machine while in its shrunken
or narrow state, the front or entering ends of the cheeks or bars c, c, c, c, are
required to be slightly brought toward each other. This is effected by con-
structing the frames of the bars with joints at the parts marked p, p. By
these means the progressive motion of the tentering points, with the cloth
securely held upon them, moving along the expanding rail, causes the fabric
to be gradually stretched until it has arrived to the part p, whence it proceeds
in parallel lines throughout the remaining length of the machine, the required
distance apart of these parallel bars, frames, or cheeks c, c, having first been

page_text: adjusted by means of the screwed sharts 0, 0, 0, 0, in the folowing manner
There is a longitudinal shaft q, q, q, mounted upon suitable pedestals or
bearings on the opposite side of the machine to the driving shaft, upon which
shaft are keyed the bevilled pinions r, r, r, taking into corresponding wheels
8, 8, s, fixed upon the ends of the screwed shafts b, b, b, b, and by means of the
winch t, which is placed upon the square of the shaft q, q, at the feeding end
of the machine, the workman in attendance is enabled to set the cheeks or
frames c, c, to the required distance apart, that is, to the width which the
cloth is intended to be when finished. And he is also enabled to set the
frames c, c, at the entrance or feeding end of the machine to the width of
the piece, whatever that may be, which is entering the machine in its
shrunken and contracted state. This is done by turning the hand wheels
v, v, keyed upon the first screwed shaft 6*, having first put the pinion on the
longitudinal shaft q, q, out of gear with the wheel on the end of the screwed
shaft b. It will now be perceived that if the interior of the chamber formed
by the plates a, a, has been previously heated by the furnace below, or by hot
air passing up the opening or flue u, u, the cloth in passing will become dried
while in the extended or stretched state, being all the time held upon the
parallel row of points or tenters, and that in so drying it will consequently
retain the width it has acquired or been stretched out to in passing through
the machine. Now, when the cloth has arrived at the further or delivering
end of the machine, the tenter pieces with the points will descend by passing
under the wheel 9, and the points will leave the selvages of the cloth. The
cloth having become dried as above, proceeds over the wedge-shaped pieces or
inclined planes w, w, which are placed immediately under the lists, and as the
piece of cloth advances these inclined planes assist the rise of the cloth, and
effectually release it from the tentering points or pins, and it thence proceeds
under the guide roller x up to the pair of delivering rollers y, y, mounted in a
cast-iron framing above this end of the machine. The cloth is now delivered
upon rolls or upon the ordinary frame or table placed ready to receive it by
passing through openings or between rails in the vibratory delivering frame
2,2, which is governed and made to reciprocate by the crank wheel and
connecting rod, as shewn in the Drawings.
Having above described the particular features of our improved machinery
for stretching cloth or other woven fabrics, and shewn the manner in which
we should prefer to put the same in operation, we wish it to be understood
that we do not confine ourselves to the precise plan of working the said con-
tinuous or endless tenter pieces and racks, as shewn in the Drawings, as it
will be very evident that they may be worked with similar effect in cylindrical,

page_text: eliptical, or even ecentric races or grooves, instead of the longitudural manner,
as shewn in the Drawings. And their ranges may be expanded or contracted
by right and left handed screwed shafts, or by any other convenient means, or
levers may be introduced for the same purpose, which mode of adjustment we
do not claim. And it will also be evident that should a machine be required
to operate upon a certain quality of cloths, which shall be invariable in their
finished width, the grooved rims or races (if constructed upon a cylindrical
machine) for governing the travelling of the tenter pieces with the points,
may be made without the means of adjustment, that is, these grooved rails or
races may be formed as excentric curves round the periphery of a cylinder,
should such a machine be preferred; but we have shewn the plan we prefer
and have found to be the most practicable and advantageous.
And although
we have shewn all the Figures in the Drawings upon a scale, as before
mentioned, we do not mean to confine ourselves to the precise form or dimensions
therein laid down, nor to the materials of which any of the parts shall be made;
but we claim as our Invention the parts or pieces carrying the tentering points
or pins for the purpose above described, and the continuous or endless rack
formed by their immediate or consecutive contact, and also the mode of work-
ing them in grooved plates, cheeks, or frames, by which the said tenter pieces
are governed and conducted through a stretching machine.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Burns Smith and John Smith, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, the Eighth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.