IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANING, AND PREPARING FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, AND FOR MANUFACTURING FELTED FABRICS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PARKER, of Leeds, in the County of York, Broker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fourteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Parker, my exors, adiiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Parker, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Parker, my exors, adñiors,
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 expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
OPENING, CLEANING, AND PREPARING FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, AND FOR MANUFACTURING
FELTED FABRICS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I,
the said Thomas Parker, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Parker, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner of performing the same, are fully described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is
to say):
The first of these improvements relates to a certain machine, or parts of a
machine, for opening, cleansing, or partially dressing tangled, confused, and
dirty fibrous materials, as tow, or the waste of tow, from flax, hemp, &c., and
the refuse of wool, silk, or other similar materials.
This machine consists of a travelling sheet or apron for carrying forward the
material to be operated upon, while it is exposed either to the teasing or
shaking produced by the rapid oscillation or vibration of certain rods or pins
suspended above the said travelling sheet, or to the smoothing and straighten-
ing effect of certain moving brushes or combs. This travelling sheet can
sometimes be simply composed of bars of wood or iron, having or not upon
their upper surfaces projecting sharp or obtusely pointed pins or needles, so as
partially to hold the material under operation of the teasers, but at others
where more rétention is required, is so contrived as to carry certain clamps
(hereafter described, removable from the moving bed), so as to admit of being.
conveniently emptied or filled, and capable of retaining the longer and
straighter fibres when the shorter are swept or carried away by the moving
brushes or combs.
The second relates to a new machine, or part of a machine for felting. wool,
hair, &c. by causing the bat of wool, &c. to pass forward during the operation
of felting between two flat surfaces.
This machine, or part of a machine, also consists of two travelling sheets,.
constructed with chains or straps and bars of wood, or other suitable material,
which bars should be either flat or square, so placed .as to accurately touch
each other, side by side. The two sheets being of equal lengths are supported
parallel to one another when in a horizontal position, the one being above the
other; the lower one having its bars fixed to the carrying chains or straps,
but in the upper the bars are to be so arranged as to be moveable in the
direction of their lengths or transversely to the progressive movement of the
combined sheet, for the felting is to be effected by these bars, having a rapid
alternating motion. The material to be felted having been carded and doffed
therefrom in the usual manner, is wound upon a roller simultaneously with a
sheet of linen or other material convenient therefor.
The speed of this roller and sheet being so regulated in regard to the doffer

page_text: of the card or batting machine, as to make the bat at once to the desired
thickness. The winding-up sheet being of the required length of the bat to be
felted, is carried with the roller and bat to the above-mentioned felting
machine, and is passed with the said bat through water, or any other required
liquor or vapour medium to the said travelling sheets, exposing the bat upon
its upper surface to be operated upon by the alternating bars on the lower
side of the said upper sheet.
The third relates to certain improvements or additions to the ordinary paper.
machinery, in order to adapt them to the making of a species of felt, by the
mixture or assimilation of bituminous or glutinous substances with those of a
fibrous or pulverizable nature, so that the said mixture may either be formed
into sheets suitable for covering buildings, or bottoms of ships, or preserving
goods in packing cases, for which latter purposes fibrous materials will be the
most suitable such as burring machine waste, or other woollen, as well as
tow or cotton waste of the lowest description. But where articles are required.
of a harder nature for agricultural or building purposes, such as the ridge
stones, or gutters,, or mouldings of any description, a mixture of pulverizable.
substances may be desirable, such as sawdust, linseed dust, or foundry sand.
These additions or improvements consist (first, in applying heat either exter-
nally or internally to the ordinary rag engine in the first case by the use of an ex-
ternal recipient for steam, hot air, or water; in the other, by the use of a coil of
pipes for the circulation of the heating fluid, or by blowing in steam directly into
the mixture in the engine, so as to maintain the bituminous or glutinous mate-
rial in a sufficient state of fluidity during the process of amalgamation, so as to
facilitate the perfect incorporation of the materials). Second, in an additional
or upper sheet of wire woven fabric placed in a somewhat inclined position
above the ordinary pulp receiving sheet, which said upper sheet, by having a
reciprocating motion, will have a tendency to more equally felt the pulp if used
in paper making, or to spread and equalize the mass when used for the bitu-
minous or glutinous felt. Third, in a roller covered with rings of cloth or
other spongy material to run inside of this additional sheet, or in an outer
cylinder made of a similar material as this said sheet, so that in cases where
water shall be used, the water pressed out of the pulp or felt by the pressure of.
the said sheet or said cylinder, shall by it be sponged or sucked up, and again
discharged therefrom by its periphery being pressed and running against a
guttered scraper or doctor slightly inclined. Fourth, in a roller of cork to:
carry the higher or oscillating end of the said additional sheet.

page_text: DESCRIPTION
OF DRAWINGS.
Sheet 1, Figures 1 and 2, relate to the shaking or teasing machine; Figure
1, side section; Figure 2, end view; the same letters and figures relate to
the same parts of each.
A, driving pullies; B, a brush or fan on the shaft of driving pulley; C, C,
bars across the machine, and supported at each of their ends by pivots; D, an
excentric; E, E, framing of the machine; F, F, carriers of the bands or
chains of the creeping sheet G, to which are fixed the transverse bars a, a, a,
&c. together forming an endless moving table in the directions of the arrows;
at one end of each bar C, C, is fixed a crank arm b, b, and connected to the
excentric D by the rod d, and underneath the said bars C, C, C, is fixed a line
of small rods or pins c, c, c; H, H, pullies and strap, by which motion is con-
veyed from the driving pulley A to the excentric D, a slower motion is conveyed
from pulley A to carriers F by toothed wheels.
It will be seen by these arrangements that any material thrown on to the
creeping sheet G at or about E' will be carried forward against and violently
shook or teased by the rapid oscillations of the teasing rods or pins c, c, c,
caused by the reciprocating motion produced by the revolution of the excentric
D, and that the matted or entangled fibres would thereby be somewhat opened
and in a better state for carding, &c., and that those too short as well as any
dusty or ponderous parts would fall through the spaces between the bars a, a, a,
and thus a cleansing and preparation of the material would be effected; as this
is an effect frequently desired, in combination with a batting machine or cards,
I propose to adapt this apparatus to that purpose. In that case the sheet G
would be doffed or cleared by the ordinary feeding rollers of those machines,
instead of, as here shown, in an isolated machine by the doffer brush or fan B;
the bars a, a, may have pins on their surfaces, as some are shown, or not, in
order partially to retain the material under operation. Where more effectual
cleansing and straightening of the fibres is required, I propose to employ a
clamp, as shewn at Figures 3 and 7, in conjunction with a machine similar to
that at Figures 4, 5, and 6. This clamp, Figure 3 and 7, consists of divers
pieces of wood or other suitable material united and held together by one or
more bolts d, d', d, d, passing through them (or in frames serving the same
purpose); these pieces should either be square, or other shape forming rect-
angular parellclograms in their transverse sections, of such dimensions as may
be suitable for the sort of fibrous material on which they are to be employed.
Figure 3, flat view or plan; Figure 7, edge view of the double or pair of clamps
employed to facilitate the change of hold when one end of the fibrous materil

page_text: is dressed or cleaned, as will be hereafter seen. A, B, the two extremo jaws,
longer than the others in order to rest upon the slides of the cleaning or
brushing machine; d, d, two bolts, with nuts at one end, and heads with pro-
jecting ends 'd, 'd, driven tight and immoveable into the jaw piece B, while A
and all the others c, c, c, should be capable of being easily withdrawn; the two
or pair of clamps should then be held with their bolts upright by the projecting
ends 'd, 'd, being in their sockets in a table or stand, their pieces or jaws B, B,
being side by side and touching each other, and all the other pieces or jaws
being withdrawn, the fibrous material should be laid in a thin stratum across
the two, then the two jaws are to be placed upon it, and then more of the
fibrous material, and then the other two jaws, till the length of the bolts is
filled up by alternate layers, when, by tightening the nuts, the whole will be
firmly held together, as seen at Figure 7, in which state it is ready to be
carried to the brushing or cleansing machine, of which Figure 4 is a longitu-
dinal section, Figure 5 an end view, and Figure 6 the plan. A, A, the brushes
or combs, fixed upon endless straps or sheets, carried in the direction of the
arrows by the carriers or pullies B, B; C, C, driving pullies; D, D, D, D,
slides for supporting the clamps in passing from one end to the other of the
machine; E, E, E, E, two pairs of dragging straps or chains, cach pair work-
ing in an opposite direction to the other, and carrying similar clutches, as
a, a, a; F, F, F, the carriers or pullies for carrying the dragging straps, or
chains; G, a pair of clamps in their place; H, H, II, H, general framing. It
will now be seen, that the pair of clamps being filled, as before described, the
one holding the end of the material to be first heckled being placed on the top
of the slide, and the other on the under side thereof, as seen at G, Figure 5,
taking to place one of the projecting jaws A or B in the clutch of the carrying
or dragging chains or straps E, E, it will thereby be carried under the said,
sheet of ordinary combs, or of brushes of bristles, or obtusely pointed wires A 1,
where one side of the said materials will be brushed or comb'd, from thence
passing under A 2, the other side will be equally dressed, then arriving beyond
the sheets A 1 and 2. The nuts of the upper clamp must be slacken'd, when
the lower one must be caused to descend to take with it the mass of material
till the undressed part in the jaws of the upper clamp is drawn out, and the
dressed part within, when being re-tightened; the nuts of the lower clamp must
now be slackened; then by turning the under side of the upper clamp upper-
most, and placing it on the clutches of the return dragging straps E, E, the
dressed ends of the material will now be downward, and the undressed exposed
to the action of the sheets A 3 and 4, and arrive, dressed at both sides, at the
same end of the machine where they were at first put in. It should be

page_text: observed, that on turning up the top clam the fibrous material was wholly
withdrawn from the under one, which, having then served its purpose, might
be taken to be refilled with another. The fibrous material thus cleared and
straightened, may be taken from its retaining clamp either separately in each
layer by hand, or in a sliver by a roller and creeping sheet.
Sheet 2, Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, relate to felting machine and the preparation,
therefore same letters and figures refer to same parts. A, doffer of a card or
batting machine; B, doffing comb or blade; C, roller containing the winding
sheet, being somewhat wider and longer than the intended bat; D, roller on
which is wound the sheet and bat in alternate layers, being carried round by
pressure against the roller E at such a speed in proportion to the doffer, as to
make the bat the desired thickness; F, a perforated steam pipe for slightly
damping the bat on its way to be wound up.
Figure 2, E, E, trough of soap and water or other medium; G; guide roller
to conduct the sheet and bat through the required medium; H, H, lower flat,
carrying surfaces driven by the pullies I, I, of the width of the desired bat;
K, K, upper travelling and felting surfaces, carried by the pullies L, L; M,
oscillating plate for each alternate bar a, a, a; N, the same for the other
alternate bars b, b; O, connecting rod to plate M; P, same to plate N; Q,
excentric to cause oscillation to plate M; R, same to plate N; S, shaft for
carrying the two opposed excentrics Q and R. These felting and oscillating
bars are supposed to be made of wood screwed to the plates of iron, and are
dragged by the chains over slides that hold them rigidly in the positions of
Figure 2. The bat is carried on its sheet upon the flat and carry surface H,
and exposed to the rubbing effect of the bars a, b, a, b, of the upper surface K,
which cross each other alternately, as shewn by the dotted line x, y, Figure 9,
and this motion is produced by the lips c, c, engaging the edges of the respectivo
plates M and N. These carrying sheets, can be made of any length, one, two,
or more pairs employed.
_ Figures-5-and-6-relate to the additions to the paper machinery. A, roller of
cork; B, wooden or other carrying roller, for the additional wire gauze
sheet C; D, D, portion of the ordinary-pulp-receiving sheet; E, cylinder of
wire gauze; Figure 7, end view of the same;. F, collar of brass or iron for
supporting the wire-gauze and forming the necks or supports for its running;
G; the spongy roller; II, the guttered scraper or doctor. In some cases it
may be desirable to give an oscillating motion to the cork roller A, in order to -
equalize and felt together the mass of pulp or felt passing between it and the
ordinary sheet D, D; in others the cylindric form may be preferred, as at
Figure 7 in both cases the moisture pressed between the wire gauze will be
:.

page_text: absorbed and carried off by the roller of spongy material G, which in its turn
will be wiped and partially exhausted of its imbibed moisture by pressing
against the gutter II, II.
I claim, first, the use of the oscillating pins or teasers, used in consecutivo
ranks while the material is fed and passed off in endless supply. The use and
construction of the clamps for holding the material and the combination of the
two clamps by which the change is effected of the part by which the material
is held. The application of these vibrating pins or teasers to the feeding sheets
of batting machines or cards, and finally the use of brushes of obtusely pointed
wires or pins.
Second, the use of travelling flat surfaces which shall at the same time
advance and felt the bat. The use and application of a sheet to support and
guide the bat through water or other required medium to aid the felting
quality without requiring the said bat to be first partially felted. The manner
of effecting the oscillation of the flat or square felting bars, and the method
above described of arriving at and equalizing the desired thickness of the bat.
Third, the use and application of heat to the rag engine, as here described;
of the additional inclined sheet of the spongy roller, even if used without the
additional sheet or wire cylinder and of the cork roller.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Parker, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth. day of November,
5 in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Thomas, Parker came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
0
Enrolled the Third day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.