IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING OR SCOURING AND WRINGING TEXTILE FABRICS AND THREADS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
January 1866. A communication from abroad by Jules Degrelle, of
Paris, France.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING OR SCOURING AND WRINGING
TEXTILE FABRICS AND THREADS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of an apparatus for washing or scouring and for
wringing, in which the fabrics and threads operated on travel in a helical or
spiral direction; first, horizontally in a bath in which the washing or scouring
is performed, and, second, obliquely and vertically during the wringing of the
fabrics or threads.
The apparatus is constructed as follows:-In a trough I fit a front pair
and a back pair of uprights or standards. Each pair of uprights carries a
grooved roller, round the grooves of which the fabric or thread under treat-
ment is passed in a spiral direction alternately from a groove in the front
roller to a groove in the back roller, and vice versa. The shaft of the back
roller extends through the sides of the trough, and has fitted thereto driving
pulleys, a crank handle, or other appliance for communicating rotary motion.
A pressure cylinder, the axis of which is free to move in a guide, is fitted

page_text: above the back roller; it is furnished with rings or projections of any suitable
material, corresponding in number to the grooves of the roller. After having
circulated in the trough to an extent dependent upon the number of grooves
in the rollers the fabric is led up a shoot to a second pair of grooved rollers
similar to those before mentioned, but fitted one above the other in the front
uprights, so that the fabric in passing from one to the other in a spiral
direction, as before explained, is carried in a vertical direction or nearly so.
These rollers are not in contact with the water in the trough. A pressure
cylinder free to rotate in grooves formed in the front uprights is fitted above
the upper of these rollers; it is furnished with rings or projections of any
A
suitable material corresponding in number to the grooves of its roller.
perforated plate is fitted between each pair of grooved rollers to guide the
fabrics or threads in their passage from one roller to the other. A belt
transmits the motion from the driving pulleys before mentioned to pulleys
on the shaft of the upper of the last pair of rollers. The trough is fed with
water discharged by a pipe into the shoot.
The operation is as follows:-At the commencement there is a cord or
string passed through the machine round the grooves of the rollers in the
direction and course the fabric has to follow, the two ends of the cord
indicating the position of the fabric before and after the washing or scouring
and wringing. This cord is only for the purpose of guiding the fabric; one
end of the fabric is connected to the lower end of the cord, the machine is put
in motion, the fabric follows the cord in its course through the machine, and
before the other end of the fabric enters the machine another length of fabric
is connected thereto, and so on. To the end of the last length of fabric a
cord is attached which takes the place of the fabric and is allowed to remain
in the machine until the machine is again required for use.
It will be understood that the pair of grooved rollers in the trough with
their pressure roller perform the washing or scouring, while the pair of
grooved rollers fitted one above the other out of contact with the water
with their pressure roller perform the wringing of the fabrics or threads.