IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR FOR FELTING OR PLANKING HAT BODIES OR OTHER › ARTICLES MADE OF FELT
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Bowden, of Marple, in the County of
Chester, Merchant, and Robert Shaw, of the same Place, Mechanic,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Joseph Bowden and
Robert Shaw at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition and Declaration, on the 27th May 1871, pursuant to
the 9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPH
BOWDEN, of Marple, in the County of Chester, Merchant, and ROBERT
SHAW, of the same Place, Mechanic, send greeting.
WHEREAS we are in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR FELTING OR PLANKING HAT BODIES OR OTHER
› ARTICLES MADE OF FELT," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto
us, our executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent

page_text: for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that we are the true
and first Inventors thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Joseph Bowden and Robert Shaw,
do hereby declare that the following Complete Specification, under our
hands and seals, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and
by the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to
say:
Our Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for felting or planking
the bodies of hats or coverings for the head, or for felting other articles
made or formed in a similar manner.
In such apparatus according to the first part of our Invention we
employ revolving rollers which are of an excentric, elliptical, or oval
shape in cross section. Three or more of the said rollers are combined
in one apparatus, and the hat body or bodies, or article or articles to be
felted is or are introduced into the space between the said rollers, and
the felting is effected by the combined action of the said rollers. We
prefer to form the said rollers of earthenware, but they may be made of
wood or other suitable material if preferred. This part of our Invention,
namely, the employment of earthenware for the said purpose is also 2
applicable to some other descriptions of planking machines.
According to a second part of our Invention we employ compound
rollers or revolving clusters of rollers in lieu of the said excentric,
elliptical, or oval rollers, or in combination therewith. Each compound
roller is formed of a number of smaller rollers arranged in a circle 2
around the axis of revolution of the said compound roller, and each of
the said smaller rollers is caused to revolve on its own axis, and at the
same time to move in a circular orbit around the axis of the said
compound roller.
A further portion of our Invention consists in causing one or more of 3
the said excentric, elliptical, or oval rollers, or of the said compound
rollers, or of other felting rollers to be raised or withdrawn at intervals
from the remaining roller or rollers of a set acting in concert by means
of apparatus actuated by the same motive power as the said rollers.
A remaining portion of our Invention relates to means for regulating 3
the pressure of the rollers upon the hat body or bodies, or article or
articles, during the process of felting, and consists in mounting the

page_text: weight which determines the amount of the said pressure upon a lever,
and in fitting the said lever with a screw working in a nut fixed to or
formed in the said weight, so that the said weight may be shifted on the
said lever by turning the said screw.
In order that our Invention may be well understood and be more readily
explained in detail, we have attached hereunto a Sheet of Drawings
marked with letters of reference to which we will in this place refer.
Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of a planking machine constructed
in manner according with our Invention; Fig. 2 is a plan thereof;
Fig. 3 is a side view of the same; and Fig. 4 is a front view of a
portion of the machine, the same being more particularly another view
of most of the parts represented in Fig. 3. The said views are drawn to
a scale of about one and a quarter inches to the foot. In this example
five elliptical or oval rollers are employed, and the said rollers are
arranged to work in two sets, the roller a being common to both sets.
The said roller a is mounted on a shaft a¹ which is fitted to revolve in
bearings fixed to the framing of the machine, and is provided with the
fast and loose pulleys through which the machine is set in motion.
bevil or mitre wheel c fixed on the said shaft gears with a corresponding
wheel on the shaft d, a rotatory motion being thereby communicated to
the said shaft. Bevil or mitre wheels e, c, gear with corresponding
wheels fixed to the journals of the two rollers f, f', whereby a rotatory
motion is communicated to the said rollers.
A
As the parts for giving motion to and controlling the action of each
of the upper rollers g, g¹, are alike, to avoid repitition we will in our
description of the said parts refer to those parts which are in connection
with the roller g. A spur wheel h, shewn most clearly in Fig. 3, is
fixed on the shaft a¹ and gears with the intermediate wheels h¹, and on
each of the last-named wheels is mounted a bevil or mitre wheel which
gears with a corresponding wheel fixed on the upright shaft i, which
shaft is fitted to revolve in the brackets ², ¹, fixed to the framing.. A
mitre or bevil wheel j is fitted to slide on the said shaft, and is provided
with a fast key which enters a groove in the said shaft, and the
said wheel gears with a corresponding wheel fixed on the journal of
the roller g, the arrangement permitting an upward and downward
movement of the said roller without effecting its rotation, the wheel j
being maintained in gear with its fellow wheel by means of the bracket j¹,
which is fixed to the plummer block or bearing k, the said bearing

page_text: being one of two in which the journals of the said roller revolve and which
are fitted to slide up and down in the framing of the machine. To
each of the said bearings is fixed a forked rod which is attached
by its lower end to a rack ľ¹ working in a toothed quadrant m. A
rocking shaft n is mounted in bearings formed in or fixed to the framing
of the machine, and on each end of the said shaft is fixed a toothed
quadrant, so that by causing the said shaft to rock in its bearings
the roller g may be raised or lowered as may be required. A shaft o is
arranged to revolve in bearings and receives motion through the shaft
and gearing p, and on each end of the shaft o is fixed a worm o¹, and
each worm gears with a worm wheel o² fixed on a shaft q which is fitted
to revolve in bearings formed in the brackets r fixed to the framing.
On the said shaft is fixed a cam or tappet q', which at each revolution
of the said shaft depresses the lever n¹ fixed to the shaft n and thereby
causes the said shaft to rock in its bearings and the toothed quadrants
to act upon the racks A and thereby upon the rods / so as to raise the
roller g, as represented in the Drawing. The continued rotation of the
cam q¹ by permitting the lever n¹ to rise to its previous position allows
the said roller to be lowered, the form of the said cam and the relative
speed of the shaft 9 being so suitably arranged as that the said roller
shall be permitted to act upon a charge, that is to say, upon a hat body
or article, or upon a roll of hat bodies or articles for a suitable time
before being raised therefrom, and that during the raising and the
lowering of the said roller there shall be sufficient time to permit the
said charge to be withdrawn and a fresh charge to be substituted in its
place. In order that the said roller may be raised at any time indepen-
dantly of the action of the aforesaid cam, a hand lever 8 is connected
by a link s¹ with a lever 82 fixed to the shaft n. On one end of the
shaft na lever t is fixed, and in or on the said lever is mounted a screw t¹,
which works in a nut u that is fitted to slide upon the said lever, and
on the said nut is fixed a weight u; the arrangement is such as that
the said weight may be moved on the said lever by turning the handle t³,
so that when the said weight is at about the centre of the lever, the
said weight will not effect the action of the roller g, but on moving the
said weight in one direction from the said central position, the said
weight acting through the said lever upon the rocking shaft n, and
thereby upon the bearings of the roller g, will partly sustain the weight
of the said roller, but on moving the weight in the contrary direction,
the said weight will act to draw down the said roller, and will thereby

page_text: increase the pressure thereof upon the charge. The pressure of the said
roller upon the charge may thus be readily and quickly adjusted at any
time during the working of the machine. In the positions of the
weights in Fig. 3, the weight to the left hand would add to the gravi-
tating tendency of the roller g¹, and the weight to the right hand would
lessen the said tendency, the pressure of the roller upon the charge being
greater in the former case than in the latter.
The machine is fitted
with a cistern v to contain the usual heated acidulated water, and is
provided with two planks or working tables w, w, one at each side
or front of the machine, so that two operators may use the machine at
the same time, the machine being capable of operating upon two charges
simultaneously as will be understood.
In Fig. 1 the roller g is represented as when elevated, and when
in this position a charge may be readily placed beneath the said
roller. The roller g¹ is represented in position as when operating on a
charge w¹, in co-operation with the rollers a and f¹. We have found
the peculiar action of such rollers arising principally from the relative
variations in their surface speeds to be very effective for the purposes
of our Invention.
The method of making up the charges and of otherwise manipulating
the same may be such as has been found suitable in other machines
of a like nature. In place of oval or elliptical rollers excentric rollers
may be used, but we prefer the first named.
The diagram Fig. 5 illustrates the formation of the said eccentric
rollers. It will be seen that each of the said rollers is of a cylindrical
form, but the axis of revolution does not coincide with the central axis
of the cylinder. Although the machine illustrated is fitted with five
rollers we may employ any suitable number of rollers other than five, as
for example, when constructing a single machine we should prefer to
provide the said machine with three rollers only. A single machine
may however have four rollers and a double machine six rollers if
desired.
Fig. 6 illustrates an alternative method of actuating the upper rollers.
In this example the connecting shaft is fitted to revolve in the arm *³
which is mounted on a journal of one of the lower rollers, say for example,
the roller in Fig. 1, and the said shaft is fitted to slide in the bevil
wheel, which is carried by and fitted to revolve in the arm ** which
is mounted, say, on a journal of the roller g, each arm being free to

page_text: swivel on the journal upon which it is mounted, so as to accomodate
itself to the movements of the shaft, caused by the rise and fall of
the roller g.
A bevil wheel fixed on the lower end of the shaft gears
with a corresponding wheel fixed on the journal of the roller fand the
bevil wheel gears with a corresponding wheel fixed on the journal
of the roller g, rotatory motion being thus communicated from the lower
to the upper roller.
Fig. 7 represents a vertical section shewing the principal parts of a
machine fitted with six of the herein-before named compound rollers;
and Fig. 8 is a cross section of one of the said rollers. In this example
six comparatively small rollers x are formed with journals, which are
fitted to revolve in bearings formed in two discs, one of which is shewn
at y, and the said discs are fixed on the central shaft Z, which revolves
in bearings fixed to or sliding in the framing of the machine, as the case
may be. On one or on each journal of each of the said small rollers is
fixed a spur pinion as represented in dotted lines at x¹, and the six pinions
gear or each set of six pinions gears with a central wheel represented in
dotted lines, which wheel is fixed to the bearing in which the shaft Z
revolves.
In consequence of this arrangement each one of the said rollers will
revolve around its own axis at the same time that the six rollers revolve
around the central axis Z. In Fig. 7 the rollers Z', Z', revolve in
stationary bearings and the rollers Z and Z in sliding bearings. The
rollers Z being raised and the rollers Z' being lowered for the introduction
of charges. The said rollers are or may be actuated by means of vertical
shafts and fixed and sliding bevil wheels, all the said rollers revolving in
the same direction, and having a combined rolling, pressing, and rubbing
action on the charge. Compound rollers may be combined with oval,
elliptical, or excentric rollers, but we may remark that we have not found
the use of these compound rollers to be so advantageous as the employ-
ment of the said oval, elliptical, or excentric rollers. Six of the oval,
elliptical, or excentric rollers may be arranged in a machine in a similar
manner as in the case of the compound rollers in Fig. 7.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention and methods of
carrying the same into practical effect, we would have it to be under- ;
stood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details so described
and as illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, but that what what
we desire to claim as our Invention is,-

page_text: First. The employment for the purpose or purposes herein-before set
forth of rollers which are oval, elliptical, or excentric, substantially as
indicated herein and by the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly. The employment for the said purpose or purposes of com-
pound rollers formed and acting, substantially as set forth and illustrated
herein and by the accompanying Drawings.
Thirdly. The employment of "self-acting apparatus" for causing the
separation of the rollers or for raising or lowering one more of the
said rollers for the purpose herein-before set forth and indicated.
66
Fourthly. The method of adjusting the pressure of the rollers upon the
charge," substantially as hercin-before described and as illustrated in
Figs. 1 and 2, and more particularly in Fig. 3.
Fifthly. Forming the rollers of planking or felting machines of
earthenware.
And lastly, the construction and combination of parts forming a
complete planking or felting machine as herein-before described and as
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Joseph Bowden and Robert
Shaw, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Twenty-sixth
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-one.
Signed and sealed, by the said
Joseph Bowden and Robert Shaw,
in the presence of
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
Agent to the Patentees,
3, Smithy Door,
Manchester.
JOSEPH BOWDEN.
ROBERT SHAW.
(L.S.)
(L.S.)