IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Ellis Green, of Church, near Accrington, in
the County of Lancaster, and William Laycock, of the same Place, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TEXTILE FABRICS."
Sealed the 2nd August 1867, and dated the 7th February 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Ellis Green and
William Laycock at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on, the 27th February 1867.
We, ROBERT ELLIS GREEN, of Church; near Accrington, in the County of
Lancaster, and WILLIAM LAYCOCK, of the same Place, do. hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TEXTILE
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
Our improvements in printing on textile fabrics have for their object to
enable us to print and fit or register by machinery the parts of a pattern which
require two or more operations or printings.
Our method is as follows:-We run the piece of cloth or fabric to. be
printed upon a stretcher, similar to the one used in the finishing of muslins,.
which carries a line or lines of pins down each side; the object of this stretching

page_text: is to keep the cloth or fabric at a regular tension, both longitudinally and
transversely, so that when two or more colors or patterns have to be printed,
the respective colors or patterns shall be always placed in the proper positions.
We accomplish this desirable object by fixing the cloth or fabric to be printed
on a frame with pins or projections catching the selvage of the fabric to secure
the necessary tension; then to prevent the frame or stretcher passing through
the printing rollers we place a liberator at a short distance from the front of
the printing machine to liberate the fabric from the stretcher and allow it
to pass between the rollers and receive the printed impression; or instead
of the said stretcher we use chains or some flexible material to form the
extreme sides of the stretcher, on which we fix the pins or some equivalent to
catch the cloth or fabric and keep it at a proper tension; but in this case to
allow the fabric to come in contact with the printing rollers we make a groove
or grooves in the roller or rollers sufficiently deep to bury the chains or flexible
material, and thus allow the fabric to pass through and come in immediate
contact with the printing rollers to receive the design or pattern.
It is evident that either of the above processes must be repeated according
to the number of printings or colors required by the design to be produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Ellis Green and William Laycock in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 7th August 1867.
TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
ELLIS GREEN, of Church, near Accrington, in the County of Lancaster, and
WILLIAM LAYCOCK, of the same Place, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Iler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Robert Ellis Green and William Laycock, Her special license that
we, the said Robert Ellis Green and William Laycock, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert Ellis Green
and William Laycock, our 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

page_text: Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TEXTILE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Robert Ellis Green and William Laycock, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 per-
formed, 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 we, the said Robert Ellis Green, and William
Laycock, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to keep the cloth or fabric at a regular
tension, both longitudinally and transversely, so that when two or more printings
are required on the fabric the respective colors or patterns shall be always
placed in their proper positions. We make use of any of the ordinary printing
machines such as are generally used for printing textile fabrics, and adapt to
the machine two endless bands carrying pins or hooks, the bands being placed
apart at a distance of about half an inch less than the width of the piece
intended to be printed; the said bands are connected to a screw for enabling
them to be placed closer together or separated further apart, and the distance
between the bands is made to encrease by means of the screw as the bands
convey the piece forward to the printing machine at the option of the printer,
as he may find the cloth to require widening. In addition to the bands with
their pins or hooks we employ an eccentric roller formed of five eccentric parts,
movement being given to the roller at the will of the printer by a rod passing
to the front of the printing machine, and provided with a handle.
We now describe our manner of working :-The printing of the first color
is performed in the usual manner, with the exception that we are exceedingly
careful that the piece or fabric shall run through the machine with all its
threads as regular and square as possible, and the piece after passing through
the machine is wound on a roller. When it is required to print the second color
or colors the roller with the piece is placed in its usual position and the piece
passed over a suspended roller, and under another roller in line with the pins
or books on the endless bands, and also under the eccentric, the piece being
taken up by the pins or hooks on the two bands and conducted to the printing
machine. The object of the eccentric roller is to control the length of any

page_text: particular part of the piece,- by causing any one of its eccentric parts to press
on any particular part when the printer thinks it desirable to alter the position
of the piece at that part. ::
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Ellis Green, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named Robert Ellis Green,
in the presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.
ROB. E. GREEN. (L.S.)