IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Macleod, of Renton, in the County of Dumbarton,
North Britain, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE
LETTERS PATENT to John Macleod, of Renton, in the County of Dumbarton,
North Britain, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE
USED IN ORNAMENTAL PRINTING WITH BLOCKS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Macleod at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th November 1880.
JOHN MACLEOD, of Renton, in the County of Dumbarton, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN ORNAMENTAL PRINTING
WITH BLOCKS."
This Invention has for its object to enable a calico printer or other ornamental
printer when printing with blocks to dispense with the services of a worker
commonly called the "tearer," hitherto employed for the operations of spreading
color on the sieve or blanket, and of winding the fabric forward in proportion as it
is printed. With the improved apparatus the printer has simply to move a lever
or treadle with his foot whenever he requires the tearing to be performed and the
fabric to be advanced, and by these means a saving of labor is effected, and more
uniform results are obtained.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification, motive power for
working the improved apparatus is derived from any convenient rotating shaft,
and the effect of the printer's moving of the foot lever or treadle is to put the
proper parts into gear. From the rotating shaft an open and a crossed belt
transmit reverse motions to pulleys loose on a transverse shaft, which may be
beneath the trestle or table carrying the sieve, or in some other convenient place,
and friction clutches are fitted in connection with the two pulleys. The tearing
motion has to be alternately in opposite directions, and there are two treadles,
which are inserted in openings in the board on which the printer stands, so that
he can very conveniently move whichever is required. Each treadle acts on one of
the clutches, and by putting it into gear causes the transverse shaft to be turned
in one direction or the other. The transverse shaft has fixed on it at or near its
ends two grooved pulleys, chains, or cords, from which pass over guide pulleys to
'

page_text: the color spreader or tearer. This color spreader moves from end to end of the
frame, within which is the sieve or blanket, and is guided by the sides of the frame.
The spreader may be of any suitable known kind, being arranged to operate with
one or more brushes, scrapers, or rollers, or combinations thereof. Each of the
pulleys on the transverse shaft has on it a stud or pin or antifriction roller, which,
as the spreader approaches either end of its traverse, moves a bell-crank lever,
which puts out of gear the clutch then acting, and thereby stops the motion. The
transverse shaft has also fast on it a disc, plate, or crank from a pin on which a
connecting rod extends to a pawl lever, and this lever acts on a ratchet wheel on a
shaft which transmits the requisite movements to the roller or rollers by which
the fabric is advanced.
The details of the apparatus are susceptible of considerable variation. Any
suitable known gearing or mechanism whereby alternate motions are obtainable
from a rotating shaft may be substituted for the arrangement of pulleys and
clutches herein before described; or where hydraulic power is conveniently
available an hydraulic cylinder may be used, the piston-rod of which is fitted or
formed with a toothed rack to act on a pinion on the transverse shaft, or geared
thereto, and in this case the treadles moved by the printer will simply move a
valve or valves, by means of which the water is led alternately to opposite ends of
the cylinder.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Macleod in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th May
1881.
JOHN MACLEOD, of Renton, in the County of Dumbarton, North_Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN ORNAMENTAL PRINTING
WITH BLOCKS."
My said Invention has for its object to enable a calico printer or other ornamental
printer when printing with blocks to dispense with the services of a worker com-
monly called the "tearer," hitherto employed for the operations of spreading color
on the sieve or blanket, and of winding the fabric forward in proportion as it is
printed. With my improved apparatus the printer has simply to move a lever or
treadle with his foot whenever he requires the tearing to be performed and the
fabric to be advanced, and by these means a saving of labor is effected, and more
uniform results are obtained.
In carrying out my Invention, according to one modification, motive power for
working the improved apparatus is derived from any convenient rotating shaft,
and the effect of the printer's moving of the foot lever or treadle is to put the
proper parts into gear, the parts being automatically thrown out of gear at the
completion of each tearing operation. The details of the apparatus are susceptible
of considerable modification, any suitable known gearing or mechanism whereby
alternate motions are obtainable from a rotating shaft being available; or where
hydraulic power can be conveniently obtained an hydraulic cylinder may be used,
the piston-rod of which is fitted or formed with a toothed rack to act on a pinion,
and in this case the treadles moved by the printer will simply move a valve or
valves, by means of which the water is led alternately to opposite ends of the
cylinder.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings
to be hereinafter referred to, and representing one modification of my improved
apparatus.
Figures 1 and 2 on the Sheet of Drawings are vertical sections as at right angles
to each other. The same reference numerals are used in these Figures to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
The trestle and table 3 carrying the sieve case 4 is represented as of a usual
construction, the sieve case 4 being a rectangular frame having an impermeable
fabric stretched over and fixed to the bottom of it and covered with the usual
blanket or sieve cloth, upon which the colour is spread. The sieve case is floated
in the usual way upon a liquid or semi-liquid bath 5 to facilitate the equal appli-
cation of the color when the printer presses his block upon the blanket. The color
is contained in a narrow open-bottomed trough 6 placed crosswise and guided and
held down by a pair of wheels fitted to each end and running under rails 7 fixed
along the sides of the sieve case 4. The color trough or spreader 6 is drawn
alternately from end to end of the sieve case by two chains or cords 8 attached to
it and passing over guide pulleys 9 at the ends of the table 3. Scraper plates or
boards 10 are hinged to each side of the color through 6 in such a way that the one
on the advancing side opens inwards to allow the color to be amply applied to the
blanket, whilst that on the following side is closed so as to equalise and regulate
the color left on the blanket. The color trough or spreader 6 may be of any suitable
known known kind, and may be arranged to operate with one or more scrapers,
brushes, or rollers, or combinations thereof.
What may be termed the tearer gearing is represented as arranged beneath the
table 3, but it may be put in any other convenient space, and by simply connecting
and extending the chains or cords 8 one set of the gearing may be arranged to

page_text: move the color spreaders of two or more tables or sieves. From a pulley 11 on the
first-motion shaft an open and a cross belt 12, 13, transmit reverse motions to
pulleys 14, 15, loose on a transverse shaft 16, which with other parts of the gearing
is carried upon a castiron bed frame 17. Friction clutches 18, 19, are fitted on the
shaft 16 in connection with the two pulleys 14, 15, and the shaft has fixed on it
two pulleys 20, to which the chains or cords 8 from the color spreader 6 are
attached. One clutch 18 is acted on by a pin on a lever 21 centered at 22, and
made with one arm extending to a treadle 23, and the other clutch 19 is acted on
by a pin on a lever 24 centered at 25, and connected by a pin and slot to a treadle
lever 26 centred at 27. The treadles 23, 26, are inserted in openings in the
board 28, on which the printer stands, so that he can very conveniently move
whichever is required, the treadle acted on putting the corresponding clutch 18 or
19 into gear, and causing the shaft 16 to rotate in one direction or the other
accordingly. Each of the pullies 20 has fixed to it in one or other of a number
of holes 29 provided for different lengths of travel a pin 30 which, as the
color spreader approaches either end of its traverse, moves a bellcrank lever 31,
which acts on the clutch lever 21 or 24 then acting, and thereby stops the
motion.
In some cases the transverse shaft 16 may have fixed on it a disc plate or crank
from a pin, on which a connecting rod extends to a pawl lever, and this pawl lever
may act on a ratchet wheel on a shaft which transmits the requisite movements to
the roller or rollers by which the fabric is advanced. In other cases however it is
found more convenient to provide separate mechanism for advancing the fabric
with a handled lever or rod or cord conveniently situated for the hand of the
printer, so that he can by it move the clutch into gear just when he requires it.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The arranging or combining together of apparatus for effecting the "tearing "
operation in ornamental printing with blocks, substantially in the improved manner
hereinbefore described.
2. The combination of motive-power apparatus with clutches or equivalent parts
to be acted upon through levers by the printer for starting the "tearing " motions,
and with automatic devices or arrangements for stopping the motions as herein-
before described.
3. The effecting of the " tearing motions by means of a cylinder worked by
water or other fluid under pressure, and the stroke of which corresponds to the
traverse of the color spreader, the valve or valves of such cylinder being acted upon
through a lever or levers by the printer, as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Macleod, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty one.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN MACLEOD. (L.S.)