AN IMPROVED TEASLING
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Gedge, of the Firm of John Gedge
and Son, of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED TEASLING
Sealed the 24th June 1864, and dated the 30th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Gedge
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th December 1863.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of
No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
TEASLING MACHINE," (a communication to me from abroad by Paul Joseph
Vasset, senior, of No. 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, France, Cloth
Dresser,) to be as follows:-
This improved teasling machine is a cylinder machine having several
touches, and is composed of a frame, a cylinder, or drum keyed on a horizontal
shaft furnished with pulleys, and each end resting on bearings, rollers taking

page_text: off and winding on the cloth provided with rim or flat pullies worked by cords
or leather bands, which rollers are thrown in and out of gear by means of
clutches and shaft with crank, and are provided with wooden brakes lined
with iron, tightening at pleasure by thumbscrews, finally working or touch
rollers carrying frames furnished with teasles. Assuming the cylinder to be
about 3ft. 7 inches in diameter, it will be covered with 22 frames furnished
with teasles of any description, and should make about 55 revolutions a
minute. The fabric, cloth for instance, which is to be operated upon is rolled
on the front roller (a stick, say, two inches broad by half an inch thick, being
previously sewn at each end of the piece), and is first passed on to the working
or touch roller furnished with teasles, then on a second roller, and it is between
these two rollers that the fabric touching the teasle for the first time receives
the first napping, from thence it is conducted on to a third roller; between this
second and third roller the fabric also touches the teasle and receives a second
napping, and so on successively to a fifth roller, which forms the fifth and last
touch, and the fabric is then conducted to the back roller on which it winds.
The working rollers being furnished with nuts and screws, the fabric may be
pressed more or less against the cylinder, furnished with teasles as the operator
may think fit. Between the two rollers on which the fabric winds is placed
a cylinder covered with dog or couch grass, which, set in motion by the
machine itself, serves to brush and clean the the teasles, the woollen waste and
impurities falling into a box beneath. It will be evident that the use of five
successive touches, instead of one as in the machines in general use, gives to
this improved machine amongst other advantages that of doing much more
work in the same time.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Gedge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 11, Wellington
Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Edward Gedge, Her special licence that I, the said William

page_text: Edward Gedge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Gedge, 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 "AN IMPROVED TEASLING MACHINE," a communication to me from abroad
by Paul Joseph Vasset (senior), of No. 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries,
Paris, France, Cloth Dresser, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Edward Gedge, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Gedge, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 Sheet of Drawing hereunto
annexed, and forming part of this Specification, and to the numerals placed
thereon:-
(1), framing of the machine; (1*), bars, serving to strengthen the framing
and keep the uprights at a proper distance apart; (2), bearings of the cylinder
or drum of the machine; (3), cylinder or drum; (3*), cylinder, shaft, and
working pulleys; (4), rollers for taking off and winding on the cloth or fabric;
(4*), crotchets or hooks of the cords attached to the stick at the end of the
piece of cloth or fabric; (5), grooved or flat pulleys to work the winding
rollers; (5), leather cords or bands to work these rollers; (6), supports and
bearings of said rollers; (7), tackle and catches for throwing these rollers in
and out of gear; (8), shafts and handles for throwing in and out of gear;
(9), plates serving to divide the rollers in case it should be desired to teasle or
nap two narrow pieces (say thirty-one inches each) at once; (10), breaks of
the winding rollers (they are of wood covered with iron); (11), part of the
cover plate of the breaks; (12), support of breaks and cover plates; (13), break
screws and nuts with grip for tightening; (14), rollers by which the frames
furnished with teasles are made to touch and work, on the cloth or fabric
being operated upon; (15), position of the teasle frames on the cylinder;
(15), crotchets serving to support the frames by their middle; (16), supports
and bearings of the touch rollers; (17), segments in which are attached the

page_text: supports of the touch rollers; this teasling machine or gig mill (the plan of
which on the annexed Drawing is drawn to a scale of 1) will nap every sort
of fabric long or narrow. For narrow the rollers No. 4 are cut by the
crotchets 4*, and the teasling machine works as well as with the full breadth.
The cylinder of this teasling machine, which is about three feet seven inches
in diameter, and which makes fifty-five revolutions per minute, is covered with
twenty-four frames carrying teasles of any description. The fabric to be
operated upon is first wound on the front roller No. 4 (a stick or rod about,
say, two inches broad by less than half an inch thick, being first sewn to each
end of the piece), and is then passed first on to the roller No. 14 (1), (see
plan,) and then on to roller No. 14 (2). It is between these two rollers that
the fabric touching the teasle for the first time receives the first napping.
From roller No. 14 (2) the fabric is conducted to roller No. 15 (3). Between
these two rollers the fabric also touches the teasle and receives a second
napping, and so on successively up to roller No. 14 (5), which forms the fifth
and last touch with the roller No. 14 (6). The fabric is then conducted to
the back roller No. 4, where it enrolls. The supports of this working roller
being provided with screws and nuts (No. 16), it is easy by this means to
give more or less pressure to the stuff against the cylinder furnished with
teasles, this will be at the will of the operator, and as the strength of the
fabric will permit; they are fixed to the framing in slots or grooves in which
they may slide to facilitate the working of the teasle frames. The journey of
the fabric or stuff on the cylinder is a continuous come-and-go, which is obtained
by means of the gearing tackle and catches (No. 7). This tackle furnished
with three points is movable on the shaft of the winding rollers in a horizontal
direction, but fixed in a vertical one. The catches are so placed on the
gearing shaft No. 8, that on gearing into the back roller, this latter turns in
the same direction as the driving band or cord No. 5*, and consequently draws
the cloth towards it and rolls it up, whereas the one in front on which the
fabric has been first enrolled becomes movable on the axle by the tackle throwing
out of gear and follows the direction of the stuff which is enrolling. There is
further adapted to the machine (between the two rollers on which the cloth
is wound) a cylinder covered with dog or couch grass, which, set in motion
by the machine itself, serves to brush and clean the teasles from the dust
and waste wool which attach to them, the action of this brush causing them
to fall through a trap into a box placed beneath. This roller which is a very
useful accessory is not shewn on the Drawing in order not to render this latter
too complicated. The bearings which carry its axle each move in a vertical
slide made in the framing, so that the dog or couch grass may at will be

page_text: brought closer to or further from the teasle to clean it when deemed necessary
or desirable. This operation is not so injurious to health, and is more
economical than dusting or brushing by hand.
From the foregoing explanations it is easy to judge how much advantage
this machine with five touches presents over those bitherto in use.
No more
space is required for these machines with five touches than for the old ones
with one touch only, and they require no more power, inasmuch that the stuff
requires very careful treatment in order to touch lightly only the ends of the
teeth or crook of the teasle, which produces a better effect on the teasle and
the fabric than the hard and rough attack of the old machines, and the judicious
sparing of the teasle gives a considerable profit, in that the crook or tooth, no
longer working to the extent which it does in the old machines, is less
crushed, and is not so liable to retain the inclination given to it by the pressure
of the stuff. A single workman also suffices for this teasling machine. A piece
of stuff which rolled by one workman on an old teasling machine remains
usually about ninety hours on the dressing machine, whereas from this improved
machine it is removed, entirely finished, after twenty hours' working. There-
fore this improved machine offers advantage in motive power, inasmuch as it
does the work of five old machines, and demands no more power than one of
them; advantage in the teasle, inasmuch as it lasts longer than that used in the
machines with one touch; great advantage in the rapidity of working, which
permits this machine (taking into consideration the time lost in the taking
off and putting on of the pieces to be tensled) to finish 4 pieces to one
finished by the old machine; advantage in the cleaning of the teasles; to sum
up, the principle of this machine consists in that it is composed of a certain
number of rollers instead of the two hitherto employed round the teasle-
carrying cylinder with the object of increasing the number of times the cloth
or fabric comes in contact with the teasles during each revolution. This
number of touches or contacts, which is five in the machine illustrated on the
annexed Drawing, may be more or less according to the nature of the stuff
without departing in any way from the principle of this Invention.
The Invention also consists in replacing the toothed gearing (frequent
cause of serious accidents) for setting the cylinders at work by cords or bands,
of leather, which may slide when the break is too much tightened, which pre-
vents too much stretching of the stuff or damaging it as sometimes happens
where toothed gearing is used. In the use of a cylindrical brush of dog or
couch grass forming part of the teasling machine to clean the teasles by
machinery. Lastly, in the details of construction above described as shewn on the

page_text: Drawing for the pieces for throwing in and out of gear, and for those which
support the rollers which draw or stretch the cloth against the cylinder.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Gedge, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
W. E. GEDGE. (L.S.)