Im- PROVEMENTS IN SIZING OR DRESSING MACHINES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Briggs, Robert Willan,
and Doctor Lewis, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 11th February 1873.
We, JAMES BRIGGS, Cotton Manufacturer, and ROBERT WILLAN and
DOCTOR LEWIS, Machinists, all of Blackburn, in the County of
Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN SIZING OR DRESSING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improvements in that part of the machine
which drys the warp after it is sized, and consists of a number of
large steam chests, say 3 feet by 4 inches, and the breadth of the
machine or nearly so, placed upright or at an angle transversely across the
machine at short distances apart, so that the warp may pass in most
cases up and down in the spaces between them; we also cause the
yarn to pass over the top and under the bottom of the said chests, and
thus surround each one or nearly so with warp in the process of drying,
and carry the same with carrier rollers conveniently placed for the
purpose.

page_text: machine, and extending across it or nearly so, being large, and receiving
their motion from the machine itself, and radiating air in all
directions.
We effect an improvement by dispensing with the above fan or fans
and substituting a much smaller and covered fan, or two fans if required,
such as is used for blowing smiths' fires, &c., and guide the air in tubes
to the particular place or places required, where it is dispensed in jets,
simply to carry away the steam from the warp being dried; the fan we
can either connect to the machine or not, as for instance, it may be
placed inside the framing, alongside the machine, or in a separate
room, and can be either driven from the machine or independently;
but if independently we use a valve placed conveniently in the tubing,
and which is made to close at each stoppage of the machine. The
tubes for dispensing the jets of air are grooved or perforated and carried
along each of the drying spaces between the steam chests.
In order to prevent the air that issues from the fan exerting a
chilling or cooling influence on the yarn and the steam chests we cause
the air before it reaches the fan to traverse along a tube in which is
placed a steam pipe in order that the air may become slightly warmed
in its passage to the fan, by which means we obtain the same advantage
that is obtained in old machines by surrounding the fan with steam
chests.
We may here remark that we do not desire to dry by means of heated
air, but simply wish the air that is used not to be detrimental, as at
might be if quite cold; indeed, where the yarn will admit of it we prefer
to dispense with the fan altogether, the heat between the steam chests,
placed as we place them, causing a sufficient current of air to carry
away the steam formed by some kinds of yarn. The use of the steam
chests is that the yarn may be dried by the heat radiating from their
surfaces, for which purpose we have a great amount of surface, and the
yarn is placed very near to it.
In order that the edges of the warp, which are sometimes made of
coarser yarn than the remainder, may be thoroughly dried we place a
steam pipe under each edge where the yarn passes longitudinally over
and under the steam chests; these pipes we prefer to make movable
so as to be adjustable to various widths of warp,

page_text: The radiating surfaces of the chests we prefer to make of tinned iron
and the ends of cast iron, the said ends being stayed one to the other
by one or more long stays or bolts, the tinned portion being stayed by
one or more angle or T iron stays with a bolt running through and
securing the tinned portion and stay together. Each steam chest is
furnished with an inlet for steam and an outlet for the water resulting
from the condensed steam, and the whole is coupled up with the
necessary pipes for conveying the steam to and the water from
tham