IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR FELTING BODIES OF HATS AND BONNETS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wilson, of Newcastle upon Tyne, Hat
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
FELTING BODIES OF HATS AND BONNETS."-A communication from
J. S. Taylor, of Danbury, Connecticut, United States of America.
.PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th
January 1859.
I, WILLIAM WILSON, of Newcastle upon Tyne, Hat Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR FELTING BODIES OF HATS AND BONNETS," to be as follows:-
The machine is composed of a hollow iron cylinder (lined 'with lead) about
18 inches diameter, and four feet long, attached to, and supported by an iron
frame at each end; through the length of this cylinder, four grooved wooden
rollers are placed so as to cross each other, the ends passing through the iron
frame; at one end the two upper ones enter into a moveable bracket attached
to the frame, the lower ones into bearings having a small hollow cylinder
underneath, in each of which is placed an india-rubber buffer spring with set
screws below to regulate them. Above the iron cylinder, a shaft runs, near
one end of which the sheave is placed, that gives motion to the machine'; at
this end an endless chain is placed, which, passing over the ends of the rollers,
gives the motion needful to carry through the hats to be felted. Near

page_text: the other end of the shaft a sheave is fixed, communicating by a belt
with one on a small crank shaft attached to the side of the machine; by this
crank shaft the bracket containing the two ends of the grooved rollers
receives an oscillating movement needful in the process of felting the bodies
passing through between the rollers.
These machines may be best worked in pairs; two men with an ordinary
hatter's planking kettle and bench, or plank between them, have each one of
these cylinders, placed so as to receive the bodies to be felted from his right
hand. After dipping them in the kettle, rolling several up in a cloth; they are put
into the cylinder, and carried through by the movements already mentioned to
the opposite workman, who, unrolling, wetting, and then rolling them up,
passes them in like manner through the machine to his fellow, and this is
repeated until the work is done.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WILSON, of Newcastle upon Tyne, Hat Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Wilson, Her special licence that I, the said William Wilson,
my.executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Wilson, my 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 Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR FELTING BODIES OF HATS AND BONNETS," (a communication.
from abroad by J. S. Taylor, of Danbury, Connecticut, United States of
America,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Wilson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, 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 performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great

page_text: 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 Wilson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
The machine is composed of a hollow iron cylinder (lined with lead) about
eighteen inches diameter, and four feet long, attached to, and supported by an
iron frame at each end. Through the length of this cylinder, four grooved
wooden rollers are placed so as to cross each other, the ends passing through
the iron frame; at one end the two upper ones enter into a moveable bracket
attached to the frame, the lower ones into bearings having a small hollow
cylinder underneath, in each of which is placed an india-rubber buffer spring;
with set screws below to regulate them. Above the iron cylinder a shaft
runs, near one end of which the sheave is placed, that gives motion to the
machine; at this end' an endless chain is placed; which, passing over the ends
of the rollers, gives the motion needful to carry through the hats to be felted.
Near the other end of the shaft a sheave is fixed, communicating by a belt
with one on a small crank shaft attached to the side of the machine; by this.
crank shaft the bracket containing the two ends of the grooved rollers receives.
an oscillating movement needful in the process of felting the bodies passing.
through between the rollers.
These machines may be best worked in pairs; two men with an ordinary
hatter's planking kettle and bench or plank between them, have each one of
these cylinders placed so as to receive the bodies to be felted from his right
hand. After dipping them in the kettle, rolling several up in a cloth, they are
put into the cylinder and carried through by the movements already mentioned
to the opposite workman, who unrolling, wetting, and then rolling them up,
passes them in like manner through the machine to his fellow, and this is
repeated until the work is done.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed..
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

page_text: the entrance or exit of the rolls of hat or bonnet bodies to be felted. The
cylinder contains four wooden rollers c, d, e, and f, one of these rollers is
shewn in Figure 2, and they are all of the. same form. The manner in which
the rollers cross each other in passing from one end of the cylinder to the
other is clearly shewn by the letters placed on the ends of the axes of the
rollers in Figures 3 and 4. At the end of the machine shewn at Figure 3,
the axes of the rollers pass through circular holes formed on the cover of the
cylinder and which they fit loosely; at the other end of the machine the axes
of the rollers are brought more closely together, or nearer to the centre of the
cylinder, and they pass through slotted holes in the cover. The two axes,
which at this end of the machine are at the upper part of the cylinder, are
carried by bearings in a rocking frame g, and the axes of the two other rollers:
are carried by bearings which are capable of sliding lengthways in the
boxes h, h, and they are pressed up to the ends of the boxes nearest to the
centre of the cylinder by springs of vulcanized india-rubber or other material.
The boxes h, h, are also themselves capable of sliding in guides on the cover
of the cylinder, and are set up by screws i, i, to adjust the pressure of the
springs is an axis carried by standards over the top of the cylinder, this
axis is driven at a speed of about eighty revolutions per minute by a belt
passing round the pulley . There is a chain wheel at the end of the axis j
and a chain passes round this wheel, and also round chain wheels on the
extremities of the axes of the rollers c, d, e, and f, and thus the rollers are
caused to revolve by means of the pulleys 1, 1, connected together by a right
and left handed screw; the tension of the driving chain may be adjusted.
The pulleys being drawn nearer together, or separated further apart by means
of the scrow. The pulley m, on the axis j, has a band round it which also
passes round a pulley on the axis n; at the end of this axis is a crank which,
by a connecting rod o, gives motion to the frame g, which carries one end of
the axes of the rollers d and e; this frame turns on a centre p, and is held
against the cover of the cylinder by guides q, q.
The hat or bonnet bodies being prepared in the ordinary manner, several of
them are made up into a roll with a linnen cloth, the roll by preference being
so made as to prevent any two of the surfaces to be felted from coming in
contact the one with the other, but this is not essential. The roll should be
of such a size as to enter freely between the rollers at the end of the machine
shewn at Figure 3, where the rollers are plain; from this point the roll passes
on to the grooved portions of the rollers, and is nipped, rolled, and rubbed by
them; as the roll continues to travel, it becomes more and more strongly
compressed, until it is discharged at the other end of the machine. The

page_text: passage of the roll through the machine is the result of the motions given to
the rollers, and of their form and arrangement. As the rolls escape from the
machine they are received by a workman on the further side.
Before each passage through the machine the bodies are dipped in vitriol
and water, which facilitates the felting. Any of this liquid which is pressed
from the roll by the rollers escapes from the cylinder by the hole r; s is a
door in the side of the cylinder, by which access may be had to the interior
thereof when required.
It is convenient, as before mentioned, to work these machines in pairs, so
that the workman who receives the roll from one machine, when he has dipped
the bodies in vitriol and water, and again made up the roll, may return the
same through the second machine to the first workman. The felting operation
is thus continued until the bodies are sufficiently felted.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
WILLIAM WILSON.
(L.S.)