IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1858

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescriveu
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st.
May 1858. A communication.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE AND
OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved method or improved methods of
arranging and working the printing and inking or color rollers of machinery
employed for producing patterns upon textile and other fabrics, whereby great
simplicity and economy in the construction and working of such machinery is
effected. For this purpose, instead of mounting the printing roller and the
inking or color roller in direct contact, and thereby causing this latter to
impart to the printing roller the amount of color necessary for producing the
impression upon the fabric, as is usually the case, the fabric is caused to pass
between the printing cylinder and the color roller, sufficient pressure being
put upon the former to cause it to press the fabric upon the color roller in
such manner, that, owing to the elasticity of the fabric, only such portions of it
will be presented to the action of the color roller as correspond to the raised
portions of the pattern cylinder. A blanket or cloth, of any suitable material,
is caused to run between the fabric to be printed and the printing or pattern
cylinder, in order to ensure uniformity of action by preventing unequal or

page_text: excessive strain upon the fabric, and another fabric is interposed between the
fabric to be printed and the color roller.
This latter fabric may either consist of a length of open or pervious fabric,
which may be wound off the fabric to be printed, or an endless apron of a
similar suitable material may be passed over the color roller, its object being
to prevent the textile fabric from coming into direct contact with the color
roller, thereby ensuring a better impression; it must therefore consist of a
thin fabric (such as muslin) of such a nature as to readily transmit the color
without absorbing too much of it itself. It will be evident that several
printing cylinders containing various portions of a pattern or design, and com-
municating with color rollers carrying different colors, may be employed in
combination in the same machine, and that thus a perfect design may be
obtained at one operation. It will also be obvious that the fabric may be
printed with mordants instead of colors, if desired, and then passed through
suitable chemical baths, as is well understood.
Instead of supplying the color by causing the color roller to dip into the
color trough, this may be effected by means of an endless band passing over the
impression cylinder and under a tension roller, dipping into the color bath;
a pair of doctor rollers may be applied to this endless band, for squeezing out
the superfluous color as it ascends. Another endless band, made of some
impervious material, is interposed between the color carrying band and the
impression cylinder, which is mounted near, and acted upon by a pressing
cylinder.
Instead of printing the pattern upon the fabric, as above described, it may
be produced by first passing the fabric through a dye bath, and then passing
it under pressure while wet between two rollers, one bearing a raised pattern,
and the other being plain. By this means the color will be squeezed out of
those parts of the fabric which come under the raised parts of the pattern
cylinder, and a pattern of a lighter tint than the ground will be produced, the
shade thereof depending upon the degree of pressure put upon the rollers.
:
It will be obvious that by interposing another fabric between the fabric to
be printed and the plain cylinder, it will take up the color expressed from the
dyed fabric, and thus a second print may be obtained by the same operation,
both of them bearing the same pattern, but the light parts of the one corre-
sponding to the dark parts in the other, and vice versa.