IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEETLING, CALENDERING, OR FINISHING WOVEN FABRICS, FELT, PAPER, AND YARNS."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Duncan Stewart, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR BEETLING, CALENDERING, OR FINISHING WOVEN FABRICS, FELT, PAPER,
AND YARNS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Duncan Stewart at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th August 1881.
DUNCAN STEWART, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEETLING, CALENDERING, OR
FINISHING WOVEN FABRICS, FELT, PAPER, AND YARN."
This Invention has for its object the beetling, calendering or finishing of woven
fabrics, felt, paper, and yarn in a novel, simple, and superior manner by means of
improved machinery; and it consists partly in the employment of a rotating
spring beetler to act on the goods, and partly in an arrangement of apparatus
for subjecting piece goods to the action of the beetler.
The beetler is a shaft having on it a number of bands made of steel or other
suitable elastic metal or material, bended into spiral (volute-shaped) coils, which
are fixed to the shaft by their inner ends, but with their outer ends free and
formed into small loops or otherwise rounded. The bands are by preference
placed so that their several ends are at different parts of the circle; and the shaft
being made to rotate at a considerable speed in the direction, which would coil up
up the bands if their ends were held, those ends tend to fly out by centrifugal action,
and in passing round strike the goods which are subjected to them. The goods
pass round a roller placed parallel to the beetler shaft, and in the case of yarn a
single roller is used; the yarn being strung on the roller in hanks. The beetler
bands or springs may in general be from two to four inches broad, but in some
cases they may be broader, and even a single band of the full width of the goods
may be employed. The action of the beetler is capable of being varied through a
considerable range by varying the speed of rotation and the distance between the
beetler shaft and the roller on which the goods are supported whilst being
operated on.

page_text: For the purpose of subjecting piece goods to the beetler, at least three rollers
are provided, these rollers being at the angles of a triangle, so that the fabric when
passing round their outer sides encloses a space. This space is for the finished
fabric to be received and folded in; as the fabric after first being drawn through
smoothing or breadthener bars is passed twice or oftener round the outer sides of
the rollers in order that two or more plies of it may be simultaneously subjected
to the beetler, and consequently the end which first goes on the rollers is enclosed
by the second convolution or ply and has to be led away from the inner side
thereof. In this way the same number of plies or thicknesses of fabric is after the
first constantly subjected to the beetler, and the operation can go on continuously to
any extent, successive pieces of fabric being attached by their ends to the pieces
preceding them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Duncan Stewart in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th February 1882.
"
DUNCAN STEWART, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. 'IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BEETLING, CALENDERING, OR
FINISHING WOVEN FABRICS, FELT, PAPER, AND YARN."
My said Invention has for its object the beetling, calendering, or finishing of
woven fabrics, felt, paper, and yarn, in a novel, simple, and superior manner by
means of improved machinery; and it consists partly in the employment of a
rotating spring beetler to act on the goods, and partly in an arrangement of
apparatus for subjecting piece goods to the action of the beetler.
For the purpose of subjecting piece goods to the beetler at least three rollers are
provided, these rollers being at the angles of a triangle, so that the fabric when
passing round their outer sides encloses a space. This space is, according to one
modification, for the finished fabric to be received and folded in, as the fabric after
first being drawn through smoothing or breadthener bars is passed twice or oftener
round the outer sides of the rollers, in order that two or more plies of it may be
simultaneously subjected to the beetler, and consequently the end which first goes
on the rollers is enclosed by the second convolution or ply, and has to be led
away from the inner side thereof. If preferred, the direction of the fabric may
be the reverse of what has just been described, the fabric being entered at the
inside and delivered at the outside of the series of convolutions. With either mode
of working the same number of plies or thicknesses of fabric is, after the first,
constantly subjected to the beetler, and the operation can go on continuously to
any extent, successive pieces of fabric being attached by their ends to the pieces
preceding them.
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

page_text: to de nereinafter referred to, and representing a modification of my improved
machinery.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a plan of the machinery,
and Figure 2 is a corresponding sectional elevation; Figures 3 and 4 are enlarged
sectional views of two modifications of the spring beetler. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever
-they are repeated.
My improved beetler is a shaft 5, having on it a number of bands 6 made of
steel or other suitable elastic metal or material, bended each, as shown in Figure 3,
into a spiral (volute-shaped) coil or in an analogous manner, as shown in Figure 4.
The bands or coils 6 are fixed to the shaft 5 by means of their inner ends, on
which ends dovetail pieces are formed or welded to be fastened by keys in dove-
tail sockets formed for them on a boss 7 keyed on the shaft. The outer ends of
the bands or coils 6 are free to move to a certain extent, and have rounded
striking pieces 8 formed or welded or otherwise fixed on them; and they are
prevented from flying out too far through centrifugal action when rotating by
stop pins 9 fixed in disks or projecting plates formed or fixed on the boss 7, these
pins 9 acting on the extreme ends of the bands, as shown in Figure 3, or on loops,
as shown in Figure 4. The bands 6 are, by preference, placed on the shaft 5, 80
that their several ends are at different parts of the circle, and the shaft being made
to rotate at a considerable speed in the direction of the arrows the ends of the
bands tends to fly out by centrifugal action, and in passing round strike the goods
which are subjected to them. The goods pass round a roller 10 placed parallel to
the beetler shaft 5, and in the case of yarn a single roller is used, the yarn being
strung on the roller in hanks. The beetler bands or springs 6 may in general
be from two to four inches broad, but in some cases they may be broader, and
even a single band of the full width of the goods may be employed. The action
of the beetler is capable of being varied through a considerable range by varying
the speed of rotation and the distance between the beetler shaft 5 and the roller 10
on which the goods are supported whilst being operated on.
The beetler shaft 5 and the roller 10 may be mounted and driven in any
suitable manner, the arrangement shown in the Drawings being convenient, and
the one I prefer to adopt. The parts are carried on a framing consisting of a
pair of parallel side frames 11, bolted down to a suitable foundation and connected
by tie rods. The beetler shaft 5 is held in bearing blocks 12, which are adjustable
horizontally on the tops of the frames 11, and are fixed when adjusted by bolts
passing through elongated holes. The adjustment of both bearing blocks 12 is
effected simultaneously by means of a handwheel 13, on a small horizontal shaft 14,
having on it worms in gear with worm wheels on screw spindles 15, which act on
the bearing blocks. A guard 16 (not shown in Figure 1) is placed over the beetler
bands 6, to prevent anything from getting improperly into contact with them.
The beetler shaft 5 has on one end of it fast and loose pulleys 17 for a driving belt
from an overhead shaft, and on the other end of it there is a pulley 18 for a belt
for driving a shaft 19 below. A worm on the low shaft 19 gears with a worm-
wheel 20 on a vertical shaft 21, which by means of bevil wheels 22 drives the
roller 10, round which the fabrics. pass whilst being acted on by the beetler. The
low shaft 19 has also on it a small pulley for a belt 23 which drives a grooved
roller 24, used for breadthening or smoothing out the fabric as it is going upon the
roller 10.
The fabric to be operated on passes round two other rollers 25, 26, besides the
one 10, which presents it to the action of the beetler, the three rollers being at the
angles of a triangle arranged so that the fabric encloses a space 27, descending
from the roller 10 to a roller 25 beneath the flooring, thence proceeding vertically
upwards to the third roller 26, and returning downwards again to the roller 10.
In the arrangement shown in the Drawings the fabric is first entered from the
enclosed space 27 and passing between breadthener bars 28, and in contact with
the breadthener roller 24 hereinbefore referred to, proceeds round the outer side

page_text: of the roller 10. The fabric is led round the three rollers 10, 25, and 26, two, three,
or more times, so as to form as many plies or thicknesses on the roller 10, each part.
being in this way operated on several times, each time with fewer thicknesses
outside of it, and receiving the final action of the beetler directly on it whilst
having other thicknesses acting as a cushion under it. The fabric finally passes
round a guide roller 29, to swinging folding mechanism 30 of a well known kind,
which deposits it in a folded pile 31.
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 rotating spring beetler or apparatus for beetling, calendering, or finishing
woven fabrics, felt, paper, and yarn, and consisting of a rotating shaft carrying
bands or coils of elastic metal or material, the parts being arranged and operating,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The arrangement of three or more rollers, and the passing of a woven fabric
or web round them in two or more successive plies the fabric being entered
continuously from the enclosed space and being delivered continuously from the
outside or vice versa, and so that two or more plies may be subjected continuously
to the action of any suitable beetling, calendering, or finishing mechanism, whilst
passing round one of the rollers, substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Duncan Stewart, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Third day of February in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty one.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
DUNCAN STEWART. (L.S.)