IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING THE PILE OF VELVETS, VELVETEENS, AND OTHER PILED FABRICS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Taylor at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th August
1870.
I, JOHN TAYLOR, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING THE PILE OF VELVETS, VELVETEENS, AND OTHER PILED
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is designed chiefly for the purpose of facilitating the
cutting of the pile of silk or cotton velvets, velveteens, and other similar
piled fabrics by steam or other power.
The improved machinery to be used in this process consists principally
of a frame somewhat similar to the present hand cutting frame containing
two strong iron (or other metal or wood) rollers, placed horizontally with
their axes parallel to each other, or the machine may be mounted
vertically if preferred. Upon the axis or shaft of one of these rollers are
mounted two driving pulleys, one fast and the other loose, and upon the
said axis or shaft either at the same or at the other end of the roller is
keyed or otherwise fixed a ratchet wheel having a catch so connected
:

page_text: with the stop rod, which acts on the driving strap, that when the latter
is moved from the fast to the loose pulley the catch falls on to the teeth
of the ratchet wheel and stops the machine at once. The knives
employed are similar to the ordinary cutting knives, and are to be placed
side by side as near together as the width and size thereof will permit,
that is, if in a twenty-two and a half inches common cotton velvet there
be thirty-eight dents to an inch, then thirty-eight knives are to be placed.
in the inch, if this can be done with ease, but if their size will not admit
of this then either nineteen knives to the inch or nine and a half knives
(that is nineteen in two inches) must be used, in which case either every
alternate dent or every fourth dent will be cut, as the case may be. The
knife bar with its knives is then moved laterally by means of a screw
or otherwise against a graduated scale to bring them opposite to a fresh
set of dents, so that in twice or four times according to the size of the
knives the pile of the whole piece of cloth will be cut. The knives are
fixed by screws into a bar of iron running across from one side of the
frame to the other above the fabric, the said knives when set being quite
stationary, and the cloth moved against them so as to cut the pile by
turning the rollers by steam, or other power, or by hand.
To prevent the cloth from being cut through by the knives, owing to
defects in the weaving, the knives are so arranged that instantly upon
cutting through the warp they come into contact with a small lever or
catch in connection with a spring fixed beneath the cloth, the said spring
being attached to the stop rod, so as on the knife coming into contact
with the lever or catch it will release the spring and allow it to move the
strap on to the loose pulley, and so stop the machine. The work being
so fine a series of lenses magnifying at least five or six times must be
mounted together in a wire or other frame just above the point where
the knives enter the cloth to enable the workman to inspect the progress
of the work with greater facility.