IMPROVEMENTS IM STRETCHING OR BREADTHENING WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Laing, of Denny, in the County of Stirling,
North Britain, Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IM
STRETCHING OR BREADTHENING WOVEN FABRICS"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Laing at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
July 1856.
I, WILLIAM LAING, of Denny, in the County of Stirling, North Britain,
Manager, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STRETCHING OR BREADTHENING WOVEN FABRICS," to be as follows, that
is to say :-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in apparatus for breadthening
increasing the width of woven fabrics, whereby the required result is effected
in a superior manner, and with a diminished risk of injuring the goods under
treatment. "In the said breadthening apparatus the fabric is passed between
two rollers, which are grooved circularly, in such a manner as to present a
series of raised rings and sunken spaces alternately, the raised rings of one
roller working in the sunken spaces or between the rings of the other roller,
and vice versa.
Hitherto it has been usual to pass the fabric by itself between these two
rollers; but according to the present Invention, a web of caoutchouc or other
sufficiently elastic material is passed between the two rollers along with the
fabric to be stretched, and by its elastic yielding action saves the fabric,
causing it to be stretched in an equable and superior manner, and admitting

page_text: of the stretching action being carried to an increased extent without liability to
damage the fabric. It will be obvious to the practical man that the elastic
web may be used in various other kinds of breadthening apparatus besides that
especially referred to herein, but the essential feature of the Invention is the
use in breadthening apparatus of an elastic web to be passed through along
with the fabric to be stretched.
+
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Laing in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th
January 1857.
'
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LAING, of Denny, in the County of Stirling, North Britain, Manager, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Laing, Her special license that I, the said William Laing, my
exécutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Laing, my executors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN STRETCHING OR
BREADTHENING WOVEN FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Laing, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Laing, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to certain improvements in apparatus for
breadthening or increasing the width of woven fabrics, whereby the required

page_text: "
result is effected in a superior manner, and with a diminished risk of injuring
the goods under treatment. In the said breadthening apparatus the fabricis
passed between the two rollers, which are grooved circularly, in such a manner
as to present a series of raised rings and sunken spaces alternately, the raised
rings of one roller working in the sunken spaces or between the rings of the
other ŕoller, and vice versa.
Hitherto it has been usual to pass the fabric by itself between these two
rollers; but according to the present Invention, a web of caoutchouc or other
sufficiently elastic material is passed between the two rollers along with the
fabric to be stretched, and by its elastic yielding action saves the fabric,
causing it to be stretched in an equable and superior manner, and admitting of
the stretching action being carried to an increased extent without the same
liability to damage the fabric. It will be obvious to the practial man that the
elastic web may be used in various other kinds of breadthening apparatus
besides that especially referred to herein, but the essential feature of the Inven-
tion is the use in breadthening apparatus of an elastic web to be passed through
along with the fabric to be stretched.
:
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood, I have
hereunto appended, and shall now proceed to describe, a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings, showing a mode of practically working out the same.
Figure 1, on the Sheet of. Drawings, is an end elevation, and Figure 2 iş.a
side elevation, of a breadthening machine as arranged and constructed
according to one modification of my improved system. The framing of the
machine consists in this instance of two cast-iron or wood end standards A,
connected by various tie rods B, and fitted with bearings for two breadthening
rollers C, D, arranged one above the other. These two rollers are grooved
circularly, and present on their surfaces a series of rounded rings or ridges,
alternated with rounded sunken spaces, the raised rings or ridges of one roller
being opposite to or working in the sunken spaces of the other roller, and vice
versâ. The upper roller C is passed down upon the lower roller D by means
of weighted levers E acting upon its bearings, which are made capable of.
sliding vertically. In ordinary machines of this class the fabric to be stretched
is passed between the two rollers C, D, without any intervening substance
or material, and as the pressure forces the ridges of one roller into the hollows
of the other roller the fabric is compelled whilst passing between the rollers
to become undulated, and as the nipping action of the rollers prevents the
sides of the fabric from drawing in to adapt itself to the increased length of
the transverse undulated line, the fabric is necessarily stretched transversely, or
breadthened..

page_text: Now, the present Invention consists essentially in causing a web of
caoutchouc or other sufficiently elastic material to pass along with the fabric
to be stretched between the rollers C, D, and this web may conveniently take
the form of the loose endless cloth F, represented in the Drawings, as passed
round the lower roller D, and round a small guide roller G below. This
elastic web F considerably softens the stretching action upon the fabric and
renders it more equable, so that the stretching 'action may be carried to an
increased extent without damaging the fabric subjected to the operation.
The fabric being operated upon is represented in the Drawings by the red line
H. It first..passes over a rod I, then under a second rod J, from which it
passes up to and over a grooved bar K, which smooths it out, the grooves
being directed outwardly from each side of the centre. The fabric then passes
between the .stretching rollers C, D, the elastic web F being between it and
the lower roller D, and on leaving these rollers C, D, it is passed over a
roller Land conveyed away in any convenient manner. The spindle of the
is fitted, with fast and loose pulleys M, to receive a driving
belt N from a shaft O overhead, and the belt N is made to pass in contact with
a pulley on a spindle of the rollér L, so as also to drive this roller, which exerts
a slight drawing action on the fabric, and frees it from the elastic web F.
lower. roller
:
Having now. described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself to
the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe or
refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of my Invention; but what I consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention' secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the application and use in
machinery or apparatus for breadthening or transversely stretching woven
fabrics by means of revolving. rollers or drums of a web of caoutchouc or other
sufficiently elastic material, which is passed in between the fabric and the
drum or roller surface.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Laing, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of January, One thousand eight hundred
WILLIAM LAING. (L.S.)