IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR. REMOVING KNOTS, BURLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS SUBSTANCES FROM WOOLLEN. CLOTH, FLANNEL, AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Cooper, of Frome, in the County of
Somerset, Clothier, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR.
REMOVING KNOTS, BURLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS SUBSTANCES FROM WOOLLEN.
CLOTH, FLANNEL, AND OTHER FABRICS."
Sealed the 24th April 1868, and dated the 25th October 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Cooper at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th October 1867.
I, BENJAMIN COOPER, of Frome, in the County of Somerset, Clothier, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR
REMOVING KNOTS, BURLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS SUBSTANCES FROM WOOLLEN
CLOTH, FLANNEL, AND OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to remove burls, knots, and other extraneous
matters from the surface of woollen and other cloths.
The mode of operating is as follows: The cloth is led off from a work
beam over a stationary table and wound upon another beam after it has been
operated upon. Above the table and pressing on the surface of the cloth is a
thin steel plate mounted in journals on rocking levers and pressed down by
means of a strong spring; the thin edge of this plate is brought from time to
time against the edge of a series of narrow iron plates supported loosely at
the opposite end on studs carried by a rocking shaft; these narrow plates are.

page_text: kept down in their place by means of springs, by the elasticity of which they
are allowed to adjust themselves to the size of the burls. On motion being
communicated to the rocking shaft and rocking lever by means of an excentric
the two spring plates are caused to approach and recede from each other
simultaneously, and the burls, knots, or other substances on the surface of
the woollen cloth which may be brought within the grip of the two plates will
be laid tight hold of and be torn out by the forward motion of the griping
plates. The fabric is fed or moved forwards from time to time the required
distance by means of a ratchet wheel operated from the rocking lever by
means of a pawl. A rotating brush mounted on a shaft immediately above
the junction of the plates is provided to sweep off the burls when they are
torn off by the action of the plates.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Benjamin Cooper in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
25th April 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
COOPER, of Frome, in the County of Somerset, Clothier, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Benjamin Cooper, Her special licence that I, the said Benjamin
Cooper, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Benjamin Cooper, 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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR REMOVING KNOTS, BURLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS SUBSTANCES FROM WOOLLEN
CLOTH; FLANNEL, AND OTHER FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
1, the said Benjamin Cooper, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Cooper, do hereby declare tho
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is. to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to remove burls, knots, and other extraneous
matters from the surface of woollen and other cloths.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1, Sheet I., is a side elevation of a
machine whereby I propose to effect the above-mentioned object; Fig. 2,
Sheet II., is a sectional elevation of a portion of the machine showing the
working parts; Fig. 3 is a partial plan of the nipping plates; and Fig. 4 is a
front elevation of this part of the machine shewing the mechanism for shogging
the nipping plates.
The cloth to be operated upon is led off from a work beam a under and
over two stretching or spreading bars b, b, and under a card roller c to a sta-
tionary table d, where it is operated upon by a set of nippers, as hereafter
explained; it is then wound upon another beam or passed on to a second and
third set of uippers. Above the table and pressing on the surface of the cloth
is a thin steel plate secured to the lower end of vibrating levers, shown by
dots at e, Fig. 2, Sheet II.; these rocking levers are mounted on a rocking
shaft above. The plate e is pressed down by means of a strong spring fat
each end of the machine; the thin edge of this plate e is brought from time
to time against the edge of a series of narrow iron plates g, g, supported loosely
at the opposite end on a plate carried by a rocking shaft g'; these narrow
plates g are kept down in the place by means of springs h, h. Another series
of springs h¹ bear against the butt ends of the nippers g, and by their elasticity.
allow the nippers to adjust themselves to the size of the knots and burls that
aré found in the cloth. On motion being communicated to the rocking shaft e*
and vibrating levers e¹ by means of the excentric i the spring plate e is caused
to approach and recede from the narrow plates or nippers 9, and the burls,
knots, or other substances on the surface of the woollen cloth which may be
brought within the grip of the two plates e and g will be laid tight hold of
and be torn out by the forward motion of the gripping plates. The fabric is
fed or moved forwards from time to time the required distance by means of a
ratchet wheel operated from the vibrating lever e¹ by means of a pawl, as will
he hereafter more fully explained. A rotating brush j or other analogous
device is mounted on the shaft of the excentric i immediately above the
junction of the nipping plates and serves to clean the nipping edges of the
plates e and g and sweep off the knots or burls into a metal disc or trough !

page_text: when they are torn out of the cloth by the action of the plates e and g. The
above are the general features and comprise the principal working parts of
the machine.
In carrying out the Invention I find it convenient to arrange in one frame,
and thus combine in one machine, three sets of nippers with their appendages
or accessories constructed and operated as shewn in Fig. 2, Sheet II. The
.elevation shewn in Sheet I. represents a machine in which three sets of
nippers are combined in the manner just referred to, the top and bottom set
being made to act on the face of the cloth and the middle set on the back of
the cloth. When the cloth has passed under the first set of nippers e and g it
descends from the table d, as indicated by the red lines and arrows in Fig. 1,
:Sheet I., and passes under a card roller a*, and from thence to a second
table d*, shown by dots in Sheet I., where the back of the cloth will be
coperated upon by a second set of nippers e and g of precisely the same character
as those shown in Fig. 2, Sheet II.; from this second table the cloth descends,
as indicated by the arrows and red line in Sheet I., to a third card roller a**,
'from whence it passes to a third table d**, the face of the cloth being upper-
most, and will there be operated upon by the third set of nippers e and 9,
which will take out any knots or burls that the first or topmost set of nippers.
may have missed. The cloth passes from this bottom table to a card roller k,
to which motion is communicated by a chain of gearing connected (as here-
after described) with the main driving shaft of the machine on which is
mounted a band wheel m which may be driven by any suitable motor. On the
end of the main driving shaft is mounted a toothed wheel n which
gears into
two similar toothed wheels n' and n³, on the excentric shafts ¹ of the upper
and lower set of nippers. By the rotation of the excentrics i, i, the vibrating
leverse which carry the plates e are made to vibrate or advance and recede
and carry the plates e towards the other plates or nippers 9, 9. The advancing
motion of these latter to meet the plate e is effected by means of a rod o,
(shown by red lines in Fig. 2, Sheet II.,) which actuates the vibrating lever 9',
on the axle of which is a longitudinal bar whereby the nippers 9 are worked.
The progress of the cluth through the machine is effected by means of the card
roller k, as already mentioned, and which is actuated in the following manner:―
On the shaft of this roller is mounted a toothed wheel which gears into and
is driven by a pinion p on the axle of a chain wheel 9 which by means of a
chain q' is driven by another chain wheel 9, on the axle of which is mounted
a ratchet wheel r; this latter is driven by an adjustable click or pawl on the
rods which is jointed to the lower end of the vibrating lever e³ of the lower-
most set of nippers. By this arrangement the cloth is drawn through the

page_text: machine and is kept stretched or extended on the tables d, d*, d**; and when
the cloth has thus been operated upon on both sides it is wound on to the
beam t, for which purpose the latter is driven by means of a friction band t¹
which passes from a band pulley on the axle of the chain pulley q³ to a similar
band pulley on the axle of the beam t. In order that the nippers g may be
made to act on every part of the surface of the cloth the frame in which they
are secured has a short lateral motion communicated to it; this is effected by
means of the mechanical device shewn at Fig. 4, in which u, u, is the frame
which carries the shaft and bar which supports the nippers g, g. On the
bosses u, u of this frame u there is a stud pin which works in the cam
groove of a wheel v¹ mounted on a stud fixed in the framing of the machine.
On the same shaft as this wheel is keyed a chain wheel and a ratchet
wheel (seen also in Fig. 2) which is driven by an adjustable click or
pawl on the rod which is jointed at one end to the vibrating lever e¹,
Fig. 2, which actuates the nipping plate e, so that by the rotation of the
wheel with its cam groove the pin or stud v of the nipper frame u will be
moved in a lateral direction, and will consequently be continually shifting the
position of the nippers g. This shogging arrangement is adapted to all the
sets of nippers. I would here remark that after the nippers have torn out the
burls from the cloth they recede from each so as to leave a sufficient space
between them to allow the rotating brush to act on the cloth and clean the
nippers from any knots or burls that may adhere to them. It will be seen on
referring to the Drawings that all these parts, and also the devices for feeding
forward the cloth, are adjustable so that the length of the feed and the extent
of motion of the nippers may be regulated to a nicety, according to the con-
dition and quality of the cloth. For the convenience of introducing the cloth
into the machine, and also for throwing the nippers out of work, the frame u
which carries the nippers 9 is capable of being turned back on the shaft was
its centre of motion; but when at work the nipper frane u is held securely in
its place by a blocking plate which is capable of being turned up into the
position shown by dots in Fig. 2 when the frame u is required to be drawn
back. The machine may be made of any convenient width, but it will be
found convenient to be able to throw some of the vippers 9, 9, out of gear
when operating upon narrower fabrics than the widest which the machine is
capable of operating upon; this is effected by simply lifting up and drawing
back such of the nippers 9 as are to be thrown out of gear and placing their
studs 1 behind the fixed bar y, as shewn in Fig. 2.
Having now described my Invention of "Improved Machinery for Removing
Knots, Burls, and other Extraneous Substances from Woollen Cloth, Flannel,

page_text: and other Fabrics," and having explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, -
I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid the
use of reciprocating nippers or nipping plates constructed, arranged, and
operated as herein set forth, for taking hold of and drawing out from woollen
or other cloths or fabrics knots, burls, and other extraneous substances.
I further claim combining in one machine two or more sets of nippers or
nipping plates with their accessories, so that both sides of the cloth may be
simultaneously and continuously operated upon, as herein set forth.
I also claim combining with the reciprocating nippers and plates a rotating
brush or brushes or other analogous devices whereby the nipping edges may
be kept clean and all knots, burls, and other extraneous substances that
may have been drawn out of the cloth may be removed therefrom, as herein
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Cooper, have hereunto set my
band and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.