A NEW OR IMPROVED PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN FIBROUS AND OTHER MATE- RIALS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF A FABRIC SUITED, AMONG OTHERS, TO THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH HORSEHAIR SEATING AND HORSEHAIR CLOTHS ARE USUALLY EMPLOYED
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROBINSON WILLIAMS, of Love Lane, Aldermanbury, in the City of London,
Gentleman, send greeting."
WHEREAS. Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of April, in the eighth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Robinson Williams, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, my executors, adñññors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, my
executors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW OR
IMPROVED PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN FIBROUS AND OTHER MATE-
RIALS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF A FABRIC SUITED, AMONG OTHERS, TO THE PURPOSES
FOR WHICH HORSEHAIR SEATING AND HORSEHAIR CLOTHS ARE USUALLY EMPLOYED;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas..
Robinson Williams, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and. in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months

page_text: 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,
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Robinson Williams, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say):
My Improved Preparation and Manufacture of certain Fibrous and other
Materials for the Production of a Fabric suited, among others, to the Purposes
for which Horsehair Seating and Horsehair Cloths are usually employed, consist
in a mode of preparing fibrous materials by saturating and coating them with
certain peculiar kinds of composition or varnish, in order that when so treated
they may resemble horsehair, and be applicable to some of the purposes for
which horsehair is commonly used, such as the manufacture of an artificial
horsehair cloth and what is technically called seating. My process of satu-
rating and coating fibrous materials with the said composition or varnish may
be performed, when the materials are in the state of.spun yarn dyed. of the
required color, or it may be applied after the materials have been woven into
cloth, or in both. states of the manufacture if found. necessary. The fibrous
materials may be linen, cotton, silk, or other suitable filamentous substances
which are to, be spun.into yarns or threads in the ordinary way, and then treated
with the composition or varnish either by immersion or otherwise as may be
found most convenient. The composition or varnish which I prefer to use for
this. purpose. is made by dissolving in oil the waste or refuse parts of horsehair
obtained from the ordinary modes of drawing, curling, and 'otherwise manu-
facturing it, or of pig's hair, or the hairs of other animals which, in the propor-
tion of from ten to forty per cent. by weight of the hair to the oil, are to be
simmered at a comparatively low temperature in linseed oil or other oils (pre-
viously rendered drying by the usual admixtures and methods of preparing
boiled. oils). In making this composition or varnish the temperature of the
oil is to be gradually raised to a sufficient degree only for dissolving the hair,
which should be kept as much under the boiling point of linseed oil as may be
found practicable and capable of effecting the dissolution of the animal matters.
When this has been done I add to and. mix with the composition or varnish
about one tenth part by weight of good vegetable lamp black, ivory black, or
bone black, to produce a jet.black' colour; or other colouring materials may be
employed if any other tint instead of black is desired.. .In, saturating or coat-

page_text: ing with this varnish the yarns or threads of which the woof or weft of the
artificial horsehair is to be constituted (having first dyed them black or of the
required color), I find it convenient to immerse them by passing the yarns or
threads through a trough containing the varnish in the act of winding them
from one reel on to another reel, and then to set the yarns so saturated in a
japanner's stove or other apartment moderately heated for the purpose of
drying the composition or varnish before weaving. The process of applying
the composition or varnish to the threads or yarns may, however, be performed
by any of the well-known methods of dressing yarns by machinery. I some-
times employ a composition or varnish made by dissolving shellac in spirits of
wine or wood naptha, which, when colored in the way above described, makes
a very good dressing for the fibrous materials; or I use the composition or
varnishes commonly employed by japanners for coating leather, iron, and other
works; but I prefer the composition or varnish made with animal hair as 'first
described, which produce upon the fibrous material a nearer resemblance to
real horsehair. In weaving the artificial horsehair for seating 'and similar kinds
of cloths I use the ordinary constructions of looms, the shuttle being worked
either by hand or by power; and for the warps I generally employ threads or
yarns of linen, which warps are dressed and fitted for the loom precisely in the
way adopted in weaving common horsehair seating; but for artificial horsehair
cloths to be employed for other purposes the warp thread may be made of cotton
or silk, or they may be of other fibrous materials best suited to the uses for which
the fabrics are designed, and which need not 'be prepared with the varnish.
For the weft, shoot, or filling, I use either linen, silk, cotton, or other threads,
according to the quality of fabric required, which is to be saturated or coated with
the composition or varnish as described above. These weft-threads of artificial
horsehair may be wound upon bobbins and woven with a common shuttle by hand
or power, instead of the tedious modes of drawing horsehairs one by one into the
work as usually practised. I would here obsérve, that I sometimes in weaving
employ for the woof or weft, as well as for the warps, threads or yarns which have.
not been prepared with the composition or varnish, but merely dyed. This,
however, I do not prefer. The cloth so made must then be saturated or
coated with the composition or varnish after it is woven in the way I am about
to describe, in reference to the top dressing and the machinery for effecting
that process. I sometimes find it desirable to give to the face of the fabric
formed by the prepared or varnished weft-yarns, after it is woven, a'top'
dressing of the composition or varnish, by which the durability of the fabric!is
greatly increased. This additional, coating or top dressing of composition or
varnish I prefer to lay on by means of machinery containing reciprocating

page_text: brushes, which lay the fibres and distribute. the varnish or composition over
the face of the fabric upon which it has been deposited by a ductor roller;
something in the way of the inking apparatus of a printing machine. For this
purpose I have constructed the machinery represented in the accompanying
Drawing, but I do not intend to limit myself. to its use only, as many other
modifications of machinery might be devised well suited to the operation.
This cloth is
tension rod or
Fig. 1 is. an end elevation of the machine; Fig. 2, a horizontal top view of
the same; Fig. 3 is a front elevation; and Fig. 4, a transverse section, taken
through the machine in the direction of Fig. 1. A, A, A, is the framing of
the machine, upon which is mounted the main driving shaft B, having the fast
and loose pullies C and D attached thereto; whereby rotary power is commu-
nicated to the operating parts of the machine; E is the cloth beam. or roller
upon which the fabric intended to be operated upon is wound.
conducted upwards, as, shewn by the arrows in Fig. 4, over a
rollera, and then passed round an iron or hard bed roller F. The cloth is
thence conducted under a second tension rod or roller b, and over another
bed roller G, and proceeds in the direction of the arrows to the lapping roller II,
where it is wound up by the friction of its contact with the two rollers I and J.
A trough K, containing the varnish or dressing composition, is placed longi
tudinally along the front of the machine, supported upon the framework, as
shewn in Fig. 4, and in this trough is partially immersed the roller L, which
may be compared to, the ductór roller. of a printer's inking apparatus. The
roller L turns upon its pivots, bearing in the ends of the frame, and is made
adjustable by screws c, in order that the surface of the roller L may be
brought to press the cloth against the surface of the roller F when the cloth
is passing between them. A pinion d is fixed upon the end of the main
driving shaft B, which takes into a large toothed wheel M, seen in Fig. 1,
and hence, as the main shaft goes round, a quick rotary motion is given to the
wheel M. A pulley e upon the shaft of the wheel M carries an endless band
ff, which drives the large band wheel N fixed on the axle of the bed roller F,
and thereby causes the bed roller to revolve with a suitable speed for carrying
the cloth forward through the machine. A lesser band wheel P is also fixed
upon the axle of F, and round this an endless band g, g, passes to a band
wheel Q upon the axle of the friction roller I, by which means the lapping
roller H is made to revolve and to wind up the cloth as it is conducted forward
by the rotation of the bed roller F. A pinion h on the axle of the roller F
takes into a similar pinion i, on the end of the ductor roller L, and gives it a
rotary movement, by which the varnish or dressing composition in the trough
is carried up and deposited in uniform quantities upon the face of the cloth as

page_text: it passes onward. In order to distribute the varnish or dressing composition
equally over the surface of the cloth, two or more reciprocating brushes R
and S are employed. These brushes are attached to or mounted upon the
cranks of two shafts T, T, placed transversely upon the end frames of the
machine, seen best in Fig. 2. At the end of each of these crank shafts a
bevil pinion k, k, is affixed, which take into corresponding bevil pinions I, 1,
upon the main driving shaft B; hence, as the main shaft goes round, the
crank shafts are made to revolve also, and by so doing to bring the brushes at
intervals down upon the face of the cloth, bearing upon the bed rollers F. and G,
and by longitudinal movements given to the brushes by the cranks, the varnish
or dressing is uniformly distributed over the face of the cloth. This top
dressing and distributing of the varnish or composition by means of recipro-
cating brushes should be crossways of the cloth, that is, in the direction of the
woof or weft, in order to lay the fibres in one direction and as smooth as
possible; and this is best done whilst the cloth is passing over the surface of
the bed rollers, because then the fabric is slightly opened by stretching over
the convex bed, when the varnish will more readily penetrate and saturate the
the fabric. The drying of the varnish or composition after it has been spread
upon the fabric may be accelerated by a current of warın air, which may be
obtained by placing in any convenient situation under the machine steam.or
hot water pipes, or other contrivances, and a fan or ventilator above may be
employed to increase the draft. But such and other hot-air apparatus equally
suited to the purpose, being well known, I have not thought it necessary to
represent in the Drawings.
Having now described my improved preparation and manufacture of artificial
horsehair cloths, I desire it to be understood that I claim,―
Firstly, the preparation of yarns or woven fabrics, by saturating or coating.
them with varnish or composition to make them resemble horsehair.
Secondly, dissolving horsehair, or the hairs of other animals, for the purpose
of producing a composition or varnish to be employed for saturating or coating
yarns and fabrics for the purpose of giving to them a resemblance to horsehair.
Thirdly, the peculiar construction of machinery shewn in the accompanying
Drawings, and described above, for giving the top coating of varnish or
composition, and dressing the fabric in a transverse direction during the
operation of drying.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
THO. R. (L.S.) WILLIAMS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventh day of October,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Robinson Williams came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing. therein contained; in form above
written. And also the Specification; aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided...
Inrolled the same Seventh day of October, in the year above written.