CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO FACILITATE OR IMPROVE THE OPERATION OF CUTTING OR GRINDING WOOL OR COTTON FROM OFF THE SURFACES OF WOOLLEN CLOTHS, KERSEYMERES, COTTON CLOTHS, OR MIXTURES OF THE SAID SUBSTANCES, AND FOR TAKING OR REMOVING HAIR OR FUR FROM SKINS."
Year: 1823

page_text: atent granted
OHN DLATER, OF
the County of York, Clothier, "FOR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO FACILITATE OR IMPROVE THE OPERATION OF
CUTTING OR GRINDING WOOL OR COTTON FROM OFF THE SURFACES OF WOOLLEN
CLOTHS, KERSEYMERES, COTTON CLOTHS, OR MIXTURES OF THE SAID SUBSTANCES,
AND FOR TAKING OR REMOVING HAIR OR FUR FROM SKINS."
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SLATER, of Saddleworth, in the County of York, Clothier, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of November, in the fourth year of
the reign of His said present Majesty, hath given and granted unto me, the
said John Slater, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, my exors, admors, and assigns,
and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, my exors, adñors, or assigns,
shall at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times hereafter, during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend my "INVENTION AND IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO FACILITATE OR IMPROVE THE OPERATION OF
CUTTING OR GRINDING WOOL OR COTTON FROM OFF THE SURFACES OF WOOLLEZ

page_text: CLOTHS, KERSEYMERES, COTTON CLOTHS, OR MIXTURES OF THE SAID SUBSTANCES, AND
FOR TAKING OR REMOVING HAIR OR FUR FROM SKINS," and that I, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, should have and enjoy the full benefit and the sole use
and exercise of the said Invention for and during and unto the full end and
term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, according to
the Statute in such case made and provided. And whereas, in the said
Letters Patent there is a proviso, that if I, the said John Slater, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in' and by the same Letters Patent,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Slater, do hereby declare that my Invention consists in a machine which
I describe as follows, (that is to say) :-
=
The machinery is fixed in a frame consisting of two parts, as described in the
plan hereunto annexed marked with the Figures 7, 7, 7, 7, and 8, 8, 8, 8, which
may be separated as occasion requires and as is hereafter described. A is a
roller two inches in diameter, on which sand, emery, or other proper material
is cemented or glued for the purpose of cutting or grinding the wool,
cotton, &c. from the surface of the substance to be operated upon; B is a
steeled plate or straight-edge four inches wide, firmly fixed to the stock C,
and having a set of adjusting screws T for the purpose of keeping the plate
or straight-edge true. The stock C is firmly fixed to the frame; D is a small
roller one inch in diameter, covered with cloth or other elastic substance,
which presses the substance operated upon upon the edge of the plate or
straight-edge B, and presents it also to the roller A, which grinds or cuts the
surface of the material exposed to it, as before described. By means of its
weighty frame moving by a joint at E it sufficiently keeps the cloth, &c. down
upon the plate or straight-edge B before alluded to. The frame can bo
adjusted at pleasure by means of screws V fixed at both ends of the frame.
F is a handle to a screw rod which shifts the roller D and that part of the
frame immediately connected with it so as to accommodate any width of
cloth, &c. G is a small roller to conduct the cloth, &c. from the steel plate
or straight-edge B to the carded drawing roller H below it, as shewn by a red
line. I is a flat piece of wood called a flapper moving on a centre which is

page_text: turned by the two small wheels R, R, on the opposite side of the frame to
prevent the cloth, &c. from adhereing to or twisting round the carded roller H;
as soon as the cloth, &c. touches the flapper it falls off [see dotted red line].
The carded roller H is turned by the worm W, which by the connecting rod K
communicates with the bevil gear X by placing a larger or a smaller wheel on the
connecting rod K so as to diminish or increase the speed of the motion at pleasure.
Lis a lever which throws the whole of the apparatus for drawing cloth, &c.
out of gear. M is a lever which falls into a notch made in the horizontal bar
running over the frame at the joint Y, which is connected with the rod N; the
rod N communicates with a coupling box on the shaft of the wheel O for the
purpose of throwing the machine out of gear when worked by power. P is a
wheel, twenty inches in diameter, connecting with a strap the wheel O, which
may be worked by a handle Z on the opposite side, and sets the whole
machinery in motion; this, however, can be dispensed with when the machine
is worked by power. The small wheel O turns the wheel Q on the opposite
side of the frame on the same shaft, on which shaft is fixed the bevil gear X
that turns the carded roller EI before described. The wheel Q also turns the
roller A by a strap acting upon the pulley, No. 2. On the same shaft of the
wheel Q is fixed one of the wheels R, R, on the opposite side of the wheel O,
and of the same diameter as the wheel O; this wheel R, by means of a strap,
turns the other wheel R, which sets in motion the flapper board I, as before
described. S is a pulley affixed to a carded roller; on this pulley is suspended
an iron weight to keep the cloth, &c. to a proper tightness or tension while it
passes over the iron frame at the top of the machine to the roller D when
operating on the substance from list to list. When operating on the substance
or cloth, &c. from end to end, the carded roller and pulley S, with the iron
weight suspended to it, may be removed, and a rail substituted in the stead of
the carded roller. The cloth, &c. is then (instead of passing over the carded
roller) to pass over the outer rail 6, and under the parallel inner rail 6, and
brought over the substituted rail down to the straight-edge, whereby the
cloth, &c. will be kept of a proper tension, over which substituted rail may be
placed a circular brush, of three inches diameter, to raise the wool, &c. from
the surface of the cloth, &c. in its passage to the straight-edge. This brush
may be set in work by a wheel on the opposite side of the frame, to com-
municate by a strap with a wheel of the same diameter, to be fixed on the
shaft of the flapper I. 3 is a tin case fixed to the apparatus to contain the
wool, cotton, &c., that is cut or ground by the roller A to prevent its falling to
the ground. 4 represents a piece of cloth rolled up and ready to be cut.
Note. When the machine is used for working pieces from end to end only,