Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Jan., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 18th Oct., 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 23rd Nov., 1888
I, ALLAN STRUTHERS, Engineer, South Arthurlie Print Works, Barrhead, Renfrew-
shire, do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be as follows:-
This Invention has reference to and comprises certain improvements in printed
cloth steaming machines in which the cloth is fed in at one end at the top of a high
building and hung in vertical close loops of thirty or forty feet long undulating up
and down over round bars carried forward in grooves in the upper links of long
endless horizontal chains, throughout the machine, all within a close hot steaming
deep chamber covered in on all sides. A great difficulty at present with these
machines is the proper introduction of the round bars at the feeding-in end of the
machine parallelly at the proper instant at each side to take into the grooves of the
corresponding parallel links of the chains on opposite sides at the part where the cloth
is fed in and looped over each bar as led forward; and when one bar goes in wrong
or angularly it puts the hanging loops of cloth all wrong, and leads to accidents and
injury of the cloth and stoppage of the machine for a very considerable amount of
time to get the whole put to right, the fault being carried some distance through the
machine before it is discovered.
The special improvements of this invention consist in arrangements of mechanism
for automatically stopping the action of the machine whenever one of these bars for
forming and carrying the loops of the cloth is led in angularly on the wrong links at
either side; and also in arrangements of devices for instantly actuating by electric
contact an alarm bell or other audible signal even before the machine can be stopped
whenever the loop-carrying bars are so misplaced.
The improved mechanism for stopping the action of the machine consists all as
follows: At the inner feeding-in end of the machine on each side a long light lever
is mounted fulcrumed at its back end and having its front end jointed by a short link
or connecting-rod to a lever secured on a light cross shaft, all considerably above the
travelling chains and ends of the loop-carrying bars, just where these are fed on
to the hollows on the chains for receiving them as they are fed and led forward to the
part of the chains where the cloth is perpendicularly fed in between the chains.
Another light loose hanging pushing lever is fulcrumed on the forward end of each of

page_text: the said two long levers and rests and is retained up by the ends of the looped bars
curved on its under front end for that purpose just over the part where each fresh
bar is fed in on to the hollows of the chain to form another loop, and fitted so that the
point of this loose lover falls down into the recess in the chain where and when the
bar is absent by being led or fed forward in the wrong hollow of the chain. In this
way the chain in its forward action catches the free hanging end of the lever and
pushes it forward and upwards, and raises the long lever, which by its connecting rod
and upper lever turns the cross shaft, which has one of its ends passed out through a
close bearing in the side of the close steam chamber. This shaft by its said oscillation
through an arrangement of levers and rods outside releases two holding catches,
the one being that of the spindle of a spring or weight loaded stop steam valve on
the engine steam pipe, which shuts off the steam from the engine, and so stops it;
while the other releasing catch releases the rod of a loaded brake lever or strap acting
on the fly wheel, so as to stop the momentum of the engine at the same time as the
steam is shut off. But when belts or pulleys are used for driving this machine
(instead of a special small engine as described) then the lever mechanism outside,
actuated by the osciliation of the cross spindle inside the steam chamber as stated, is
made to disengage a catch and shift the belt from the fast to the loose pulley, or
disengage a friction clutch when that is used on the pulley; either the belt fork
arrangement or the clutch being actuated by a loaded spring or weight lever for
disengaging them. Instead of making the oscillating motion of the said shaft and its
outside connecting levers stop the engine or the actuating motion of the machine, it
may be made to bring a positive acting pushing or pulling motion and lever into
action, which would put the end of the bar that it found out of place, into its
proper place, that is, lift it forward and at the same time raise the said falling push
lever.
Referring to the electric alarm mechanism, this consists in mounting on a wood or
other insulating part of the frame within the steam chamber on each side of the
machine, a light copper or other metal swivelling contact lever having a wire connected
to its fulcrum or bearing, and leading to one wire of an electric bell and battery.
This contact lever is always kept up by the bars when they are fed-in in proper
sequence and position, but falls down whenever a bar is not brought forward in proper
place, and makes contact with the fixed terminal of the other wire of the bell, mounted
on an insulated support below this contact lever, and thus complete the circuit
through the battery and bell, and give the alarm or audible signal as soon as a bar
gets out of position.
A further improvement in this alarm mechanism consists in mounting a horizontal
board or sheet of copper or copper tray or other equivalent on an oscillating cross
spindle with counterbalanced weighted lever spindle at the lower feeding-in end of the
steam chamber under the lower loops of the cloth as they are formed. This arrangement
of tray lever is so balanced that it would rest in its normal horizontal position on a stop
or other equivalent, under one lever, and have on this lever or oscillating arm a make
and break contact spring or other equivalent, which would come up when the tray
was weighted by the loops of fabric getting too long and resting on the tray, and
cause the contact to complete a circuit between two terminals placed convenient to it
for that purpose, the wires from the terminals leading to the wires of the battery and
alarm bell, so as to ring the latter and draw the attention of the attendant, who would
shorten the loops of the cloth and keep them from falling so low as to prevent their
motion through the steam chamber.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Cloth Steaming Machines.
I, ALLAN STRUTHERS. Engineer, South Arthurlie Print Works, Barrhead, Renfrew-
shire, do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in what manner the saine
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying two Sheets
of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon; that is to say :-
My Invention has reference to and comprises certain improvements in printed cloth
steaming machines, in which the cloth is fed in at one end at the top of a high
building and hung in vertical close loops of thirty or forty feet long undulating up
and down over round bars carried forward in grooves in the upper links of long end-
less horizontal chains throughout the machine, all within a close hot steaming deep
chamber covered in on all sides. A great difficulty at present with these machines is
the proper introduction of the round bars at the feeding-in end of the machine
parallelly at the proper instant at each side to take into the grooves of the corre-
sponding parallel links of the chains on opposite sides at the part where the cloth is
fed in and looped over each bar as led forward; and when one bar goes in wrong or
angularly it puts the hanging loops of cloth all wrong, and leads to accidents and
injury of the cloth and stoppage of the machine for a very considerable amount of
time to get the whole put to right, the fault being carried some distance through
the machine before it is discovered.
The special improvements of this invention consist in arrangements of mechanism
for automatically stopping the action of the machine whenever one of these bars for
forming and carrying the loops of the cloth is led in angularly on the wrong links at
either side or fails to drop in at all; and also in arrangements of devices for instantly
actuating by electric contact an alarm bell or other audible signal even before the
machine can be stopped whenever the loop-carrying bars are so misplaced.
And in order that my said invention, and the manner of performing or carrying the
same into effect or practice may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended
two explanatory Sheets of Drawings, in which the same reference letters are used to
indicate corresponding parts in all the figures where shown. Figure 1 on Sheet 1 is
a side sectional elevation, broken away, of the feeding-in end of a cloth steaming
machine and its brick chamber A A', as fitted with my new or improved arrangements
of mechanism for stopping the action of same. And Figure 2 is a transverse sectional
elevation as taken on the irregular line 11 of Figure 1. Figure
on Sheet 2 is
an elevation broken away showing the transverse cloth loop carrying bars or tubes C,
and one of their traversing chains B, and part of the improved automatic stopping
lever mechanism, to a larger scale than shown in Figures 1 and 2; and Figure 4

page_text: is a plan corresponding to Figure 3 of the same parts and improvements of the
machine.
Referring to these Drawings:-The machine consists of a deep long steaming
chamber A, with close closing-in brick side and end walls A' all round, surmounted on the
top with iron frames A" for carrying and supporting the journal bearings of the main
shafts A2 at and of the feeding-in end chain wheels A³, carrying and actuating the end-
less chains B running along each side of the upper part of the steaming chamber A, A¹.
These endless chains B have their links made hollow on the upper or outer edges to
carry forward the ends of the rods or tubes C, fed in to them at the angular table C¹,
at the front end of the machine, on to a curved plate or bracket C, C, so as to be
picked up by the star wheels C2 bolted to the chain wheels A³, one for each link of the
chain passed over these, and delivered off the bracket C on to each opposite pair of
links at as they come forward.
The new or improved mechanism for stopping the action of the machine consists all
as follows: At the inner feeding-in end of the machine, on each side over and close
to the traversing chains B, a long light curved-up lever a, a¹, is mounted, fulcrumed
at its back end at a*, to a fixed part of the machine over the chains B at the part (4
where the tubes or rods C are regularly fed in over the plate and bracket C, O, by
the star wheel C2 on to the chaius B at C. The front end of this lever a¹ is jointed
by a short link or connecting-rod a¹¹ to a lever a secured on a light cross shaft a³, all
"considerably above the travelling chains B and ends of the loop-carrying bars or
tubes C, just where these are fed on to the hollows on the chains B, for receiving
them as they are fed and led forward to the part C4 of the chains B, where the cloth
is perpendicularly fed in between the chains in long loops over the tubes C, C, the
length of the loops being controlled as usual by the feeding-in curved plate and
levers d, hung to the levers d' on the transverse spindle d", with a regulating lever
on it outside, with pinching screw at d², d³, for regulating the resting of the lower
edge of the curved plate d on the cloth z, of the last tube Cx, placed in position.
Another light loose hanging pushing or raising lever b is fulcrumed at b² near the
forward end of each of the said two long levers a, a, and rest and is retained up in a
horizontal position, as shown dotted in in Figure 3, by the ends of the looped bars C,
curved on its under front end for that purpose, just over the part where each fresh
bar is fed forward in the hollows of each link of the chain B to form another loop
at Cx and fitted so that the point of this loose lever 6 falls down into the recess left
in the chain B, where and when the bar C is absent in either chain B on opposite sides
of the chamber A, by being led or fed forward in the wrong hollow of the chain B,
as indicated in this position in sharp lines in Figure 3. In this way the raised
or joint part of the links of the chain B in its forward action catches the free
hanging end of the lever b as it falls into the vacant link, and pushes it forward
and upwards, and raises the long lever a, a', which by its connecting rod all
also raises the upper lever a² and oscillates the cross shaft a³, which has one
of its ends passed out through a close bearing at a in the sides A" of
the close steam chamber A. This shaft a³ by its said oscillation through the short
lever c secured on it outside, and connecting rod c¹, actuates the lever e" on a
transverse spindle 2, which by the arrangement of levers c³, to co, and rods c, to c³,
outside, releases two holding catches e, e', the one being that of the rod or spindle c
of a spring or weight loaded stop steam valve e² on the engine steam pipe e³ which
shuts off the steam from the engine D, and so automatically stops it; while the other
releasing catch e¹ releases the weighted brake lever E, of a brake strap E', acting on
the fly wheel D¹, of the engine, so as to instantly stop the momentum of the engine at
the same time as the steam is shut off. This would instantly stop the delivery of the
last loop of cloth z being fed in through the feed rollers F, actuated through the
counter shaft and gearing F1, F2, from the engine D, by the belt F³, and pulleys F4, F³,
and which also actuate the main shaft A² of the chain wheels A³, A³, through the spur
wheels G, and screws and screw wheels G1, G2, at a very slow speed, all substantially
in an ordinary manner. Instead of using the brake lever E and E¹ on the fly wheel
for quickly stopping the momentum of the engine D, in the improved manner,

page_text: described, when the bars or tubes C are misplaced in being fed in, the catch lever e¹
may be made to disengage a belt forked lever, which would shift the belt from the
fast to the loose pulley, or otherwise disengage a friction clutch when that is used on
the driving pulley instead of fast and loose pulleys. In either case the belt fork or
the clutch would be automatically actuated by a loaded spring or weight lever as E²,
for disengaging them when the catch was disengaged. As soon as the driving engine
and mechanism have been so automatically stopped, as described, by the improper
feeding-in and misplacement of the bars or tubes C, carrying the long loops of the
cloth, being fed in at C, C, Figures 3 and 4, the attendants then go and put the
rods a right, or remove the obstructing rods out through below the levers bent
upwards for that purpose, through the windows Ax in the side frames A", and replace
the automatically acting levers a, to a², and b, over the ends of the rollers C, by the
hand lever a, on the outer end of the shaft a³, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 3,
also replacing the catch levers e and e¹ by their rods c and c', opening the steam
valve to the engine and taking off the brake lever and straps E, E¹, so as to start
the engine and machine again.
a,
A further improvement consists in an arrangement of electric alarm mechanism
for giving an audible alarm, when the last loops 2, of the cloth being fed in, are by
any accident of the absence of a tube or roller c, or other obstruction, allowed to fall
below the lowest normal proper length of the other loops 2¹.
This improved mechanism consists in mounting under the loop of cloth being fed
in near the bottom of the chamber A, a light copper or other equivalent oscillating
tray or platform f¹ on a swivelling spindle f carried on centres or journals in brackets
at 1 secured to the walls A¹ of the chamber A, and having on its outer end a counter-
balance weighted lever with stop regulating screw pins carried in the bracket f³,
and which maintains the platform f¹, at its normal level, as shown in Figures 1 and 2,
under the lower loops of the cloth as they are formed. This arrangement of tray
lever ff, f,is so balanced that it will rest in its normal horizontal position on the stop
stud for other equivalent, under the said counterweighted lever f, and has on this
lever or oscillating arm f, an insulated make and break contact spring g, gl, or other
equivalent, which will come up when the tray f¹ was weighted by the loops of fabric
getting too long and resting on the tray, and cause the contact spring g, g¹ to complete
the circuit through the two terminals 92, 93, placed convenient to it for that purpose,
the wires g+, -, from the terminals leading to the wires of the battery and alarm
bell, so as to ring the latter and draw the attention of the attendant, who would then
shorten the loops, of the cloth and keep them from falling so low as to prevent
their motion through the steam chamber. Instead of the oscillating lever arrange-
ment fff, being made as described to actuate an electric alarm bell, it may be
made to give other audible signals, such as to actuate a steam whistle, or set on a
spring clock alarm.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. In cloth steaming machines, the stopping of the engine and machine auto-
matically by the intervention of lever mechanism, operated by and where the bars or
tubes for forming and carrying the cloth loops get misplaced or go wrong at their
entrance to the machine, all substantially as herein described, in reference to and shown
in the accompanying Drawings.
Second. In cloth steaming machines, the herein described modes and means or
arrangement and combination of mechanism for automatically stopping the engine
and machine, by the absence and misplacement of the bars or tubes for forming and
carrying the cloth loops at the entrance to the machine, substantially as and for
the purposes herein described, in reference to and shown in the accompanying
Drawings.
Third. In cloth steaming machines, the herein described mode and means or
arrangement and combination of mechanism for giving an electric hell or other

page_text: audible signal alarm automatically by and when the loop or loops of cloth get too long
or fall too low at the entrance end of the machine, consisting in the use of a counter-
weighted tray or lever arrangement under the lower loops of the cloth at the feeding
in end of the machine, and having make and break electric spring contact connections
or other equivalent actuating alarm mechanism, substantially as and operated in
the manner herein described, in reference to and shown in the accompanying
Drawings.
"