IMPROVEMENTS IN FINISHING OR SHEARING TEXTILE FABRICS, AND MACHINERY FOR CARRYING THE SAME INTO EFFECT
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN FINISHING OR SHEARING TEXTILE FABRICS, AND MACHINERY FOR CARRYING
THE SAME INTO EFFECT." A communication from abroad by Dwight Clinton
Sumner, of Millbury, Worcester County, State of Massachusetts, and Selig
Samuel Fisher, of New York, in the County and State of New York, both in
the United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th February 1880.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN FINISHING OR SHEARING TEXTILE FABRICS, AND
MACHINERY FOR CARRYING THE SAME INTO EFFECT." A communication from
abroad by Dwight Clinton Sumner, of Millbury, Worcester County, State of
Massachusetts, and Selig Samuel Fisher, of New York, in the County and State of
New York, both in the United States of America.
This Invention relates to certain improvements appertaining to the art of
finishing textile fabrics whereby peculiar surface effects or figured patterns are
produced by the action of shearing mechanism. Previous to this Invention it has
been the custom to cut the pile or nap of the fabrics to a uniform smooth surface by
a suitable apparatus constructed for the purpose, and a further step in the art was
to provide machinery that would cut or shear the pile or nap in grooves or furrows
of a zigzag, curved, or circular form. These grooves or furrows are invariably
parallel and are duplicates or counterparts of each other, having the same curve or
general appearance throughout the entire surface of the fabric, and their direction
was entirely dependent upon the motion of the fabric through the machine.
The object of this Invention is to produce new effects in the surface or ornamen-
tation of piled fabrics, and the Invention consists, first, in a process for producing or
forming by shearing action two distinct and dissimilar series of line ornamentations
simultaneously in the pile or face fibres of cloth or other piled fabrics; secondly,
the Invention consists of improvements in the construction and operation of cloth
finishing and cloth shearing machines, to adapt them to carry out the above pro-
cesses; thirdly, of a new fabric produced by the said process and machine, and of
other details of Invention that will be fully described further on in the Specifi-
cation and pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the improved
machine for surface shearing and ornamenting the surface of piled fabrics; Figure 2.

page_text: is a vertical cross section of the same taken on line x, x, of Figure 1; Figure 3
represents a portion of one of the revolving blades of the machine; Figure 4 repre-
sents a portion of one of the ledger blades of the machine; Figure 5 represents a
sample of the fabric produced by the machine; Figure 6 represents a front view of
a cloth shearing machine for producing a different style of ornamentation of piled
fabrics; Figure 7 is a cross section of Figure 6 taken on line 3, 3, of Figure 6;
Figure 8 is a cutter faco diagram, showing the manner in which the cutter sides of
the blades follow each other; Figures 9, 10, and 11 are representations of the
surface ornamentation of the fabrics produced by the machine illustrated in
Figure 6; Figures 12 and 13 are modified constructions of the machine for pro-
ducing different styles of surface ornamentation, and Figure 14 represents a sample
of the fabric produced by the machine. A machine for forming two dissimilar
series of line ornamentations is illustrated in the first two Figures of the Drawing,
referring to which, A represents the cloth support or rest over which the fabric a is
passed by suitable feeding mechanism in the direction indicated by the arrow in
Figure 2; B represents a ledger blade firmly supported by the frame D with its
edge in position to receive the face fibres of the fabric as it passes over the edge of
rest A; C indicates the revolver or shear blade cylinders mounted to revolve in
bearings b on the frame D, and arranged to have a longitudinal reciprocating
movement independent of the ledger blade B or its supporting frame D, being
actuated by means of the cam lever E or other suitable mechanism, and working
against the blade B for shearing the fibres, the relative positions of the revolver C,
ledger blade B, and rest A being the same as in ordinary shearing machines. The
main supporting frame, the devices for feeding forward the fabric, and the operating
belts and gearing may be like the ordinary shearing mechanism, or of any suitable
construction and arrangement, and need not therefore be herein more fully
described.
The blades of the revolver C are provided with a series of cutting sections d,
between which are recesses or depressed spaces e, the recesses in the several blados
being formed so as to follow each other or to revolve in the sauno plane. The
ledger blade B is also provided with a series of recesses and cutting edges e¹
along its working edge. The action of the recessed blades is to form ridges and
furrows in the pile or raised face fibres of the fabric. In the present instance the
blades are provided with long or blank sections and short or notched sections, the
long or blank sections on the revolver and ledger blade alternating, as shown.
The long full sections on the ledger B acting with the shorter sections and recesses
of the revolver C imparts to the face of the fabric lines of ornamentation C corres-
ponding to the recessed portions of the revolver blades, while the long full sections
of the revolver C acting with the short sections and recesses of the ledger blade B
imparts to the fabric lines of ornamentation B2 (Figure 5) corresponding with the
recesses of the ledger blade, thus giving two distinct sets or series of lines simul-
taneously produced, but independently of each other in their formation. The
ledger blade being fixed in its position on the frame D produces a series of parallel
lines running in the direction in which the fabric is fed or moved which with the
rest A stationary would be straight forward. The revolver C being reciprocated
longitudinally in its bearings b by means of the cam lever E or other suitable
mechanism produces a series of undulating or zigzag lines, thus imparting to tho
surface of the fabric a figure or pattern of the peculiar nature indicated in Figure 5
consisting of two distinct series of cut lines, viz., the parallel lines B and the
undulating or zigzag lines Cs, the two series of lines showing as stripes longi-
tudinally of the piece, and forming a neat and complete finish over the face of the
fabric. In this instance the vibratory movement of the revolver equals the width
of one of the narrow sections or recesses e.
For the above pattern the cloth support A is retained in a fixed position, but
said support or rest A may have an independent reciprocating movement by a cam
lever For other suitable device, and a spur roll or rolls or other ordinary device
may be employed to make the fabric join the lateral notion of the rest while it is

page_text: fed forward over the rest. By thus reciprocating the rest A, the stationary recessed
ledger blade B is caused to shear undulating or zigzag lines, while the lines produced
by the reciprocating movement of the revolver blades have an independent and
different degree of undulation or zigzag form, thereby producing a variation of
pattern on the fabric. The pattern produced may be. variously modified by the
variation of the vibrating movement by vibrating the parts intermittently or at
different rates of speed; also by changing the relative sizes and arrangement of the
cutting sections d, e¹, and recesses c, b', on the ledger and revolving blades.
All of the patterns produced by the above modifications are of the same nature
or class, consisting of two independent series of longitudinal stripes perfectly com-
bined and simultaneously produced by the peculiar double action of the stationary
ledger blade and longitudinally reciprocating revolver. In a working machine the
several parts of the mechanism should be provided with adjusting devices, so that
the blades can be adjusted or set up to each other as they wear, and to accommodate
the rest A to different thicknesses in the fabric. Such adjusting devices may be of
any suitable construction. It is however not essential that the revolver be recipro-
cated. Thus a machine for forming diagonal and zigzag lines of ornamentation is
illustrated in Figure 6, and modifications of the said machine for producing
different patterns of the same style of ornamentation are shown in Figures 12
and 13.
:
In Figure 6, H represents the adjustable top frame of a shearing machine; I is
the stationary ledger blade; J is the revolver or blade cylinder provided with
radiating blades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, fixed to its periphery at regular intervals, and of
a length the same as the length of the cylinder. The edges of the said blades
1, 2, &c., have raised cutting sections f and recesses or depressions 7 between said
cutting sections. The cutting sections of the several blades 1, 2, &c., are to be
arranged in different vertical planes so that the said sections will follow each other
in succession around the cylinder in a regular spiral order or series, as in Figure 6,
or other regular or irregular zigzag order or series, as shown in Figure 13, that may
be required for the purpose of producing different patterns of surface ornamentation.
In other words each cutting section is followed by one which is not altogether in
the same vertical plane but only partly so. By this arrangement of the cutting
sections the shearing action against the ledger blade I effects the production of
diagonal lines in the pile or face fibres of the fabric K as it is fod forward over the
straight cloth rest L, the inclination of the diagonal depending on the relative
speed of the shearing and feeding mechanism and the horizontal displacement of
the sections that follow one another.
Right or left hand diagonal lines may be produced accordingly as the cutting
sections are set towards the right or left hand end of the blade cylinder.
The cutting sections of may be formed in a continuous spiral throughout the entire
length of the cylinder, as in Figure 6, to produce a fabric like Figure 11, or reversed
on certain definite portions of its length as desired for producing alternating
diagonal lines on the surface of the cloth, as in Figure 10. By arranging the
cutting sections in alternate spirals with blank spaces between, the effect shown
in Figure 9 will be produced. If the cutting sections fare arranged in half spirals
or zigzag order, as in Figure 13, they will produce the zigzag effect shown at N in
Figure 14. By joining in one cylinder zigzag sections f, as in Figure 13, with
alternately reversed spirally arranged sections such as are shown in Figure 6, the
effect of Figure 14 will be produced.
In Figure 12 is shown a machino baving its cloth rest L longitudinally recipro-
cating or laterally movable in the manner described heretoforo in connection with
the description of Figure 1, and the revolving cylinder J, provided with spirally
arranged or with zigzag narrow cutting sections f alternating with the plain
cutting sections h, the ledger blade I being likewise provided with alternate narrow
and broad cutting sections in the same order as the sections on the revolving
cylinder J. In this machine there is therefore a combination of the machine
provided with the laterally moving cloth rest, as shown and described in connection

page_text: with Figure 1, and of a revolving cylinder provided with cutting sections arranged
in different vertical planes, a spiral arrangement being shown (but other arrange-
ments may be substituted). By this machine a fabric ornamented in any kind of
irregular or regular design may be produced.
Having described the nature of the Invention and the manner of performing the
same, I declare that what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent
is,―
1st. The process of surface ornamenting piled fabrics, consisting in subjecting
the surface of the fabric to the action of cutting sections revolving against a ledger
blade provided with cutting sections similar to but alternating with those on the
revolver, substantially as described.
2nd. In a machine for shearing cloth, a ledger blade and a longitudinally recipro-
cating revolver or blade cylinder, both of which have a series of cutting edges or
sections arranged in relation to each other, substantially as described, whereby their
combined action will impart to the fabric or face thereof in a direction with its
length distinct and dissimilar series of stripes alternating with each other, substan-
tially as described.
3rd. In a machine for shearing cloth, a ledger blade and a longitudinally recipro-
cating revolver or blado cylinder, each of which has long and short cutting sections
alternating with each other, the long sections of one blado being disposed on a line
opposite the short sections of the other, whereby independent dissimilar series of
line ornamentation are simultaneously formed in longitudinal direction on the face
of the fabric, substantially as described.
4th. In a machine for shearing cloth, the combination with a revolver or blade
cylinder provided with cutting sections and a recessed ledger blade of a cloth
supporting rest, substantially as described.
5th. The combination of a ledger blade having recesses and cutting sections
with a revolver having cutting sections and recesses alternating, substantially as
described.
6th. A revolver or blade cylinder for cloth shearing machines having serrated or
sectional cutting blades, the cutting sections thereof being arranged around the
cylinder in overlapping but yet different vertical planes, substantially as described.
7th. In a cloth shearing machine, the combination with the ledger blade and
cloth rest of a cylinder, the blades of which are notched or recessed as described,
whereby a series of cutting points or surfaces are arranged in overlapping, but
different vertical planes around the said cylinder, substantially as described.
8th. A cylinder for cloth shearing machines, the blades of which are notched as
described, whereby a series of cutting points or surfaces are developed around said
cylinder in different vertical planes, substantially as described.
9th. In a machine for shearing cloth, the combination with a longitudinally
reciprocating revolver or blade cylinder provided with cutting sections and a
recessed ledger blade of a longitudinally reciprocating cloth supporting rest,
substantially as described.
10th. A cylinder for shearing machines, the blades of which are notched as
described, and have cutting sections developed around the cylinder in helical order,
substantially as described.
11th. A fabric, having its surface ornamented with two or more series of furrows
or, stripes of different form or configuration, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.

page_text: 5.