CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS ON SHEARING MACHINES FOR SHEARING OR CROPPING WOOLLEN AND OTHER CLOTHS THAT MAY REQUIRE SUCH A PROCESS, THE SAME BEING FURTHER IMPROVE- MENTS ON A PATENT OBTAINED BY JOHN LEWIS FOR AN IMPROVED SHEARING MACHINE, DATED ON OR ABOUT THE 27TH OF JULY, 1815
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JoпN
LEWIS, Clothier, WILLIAM LEWIS, Dyer, and WILLIAM DAVIS, Engineer, all of
Brimscomb, in the County of Gloucester, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of
January, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the
said John Lewis, William Lewis, and William Davis, our exors, adiñiors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
we, the said John Lewis, William Lewis, and William Davis, our exors,
adiñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS ON SHEARING MACHINES FOR SHEARING OR CROPPING WOOLLEN AND OTHER
CLOTHS THAT MAY REQUIRE SUCH A PROCESS, THE SAME BEING FURTHER IMPROVE-
MENTS ON A PATENT OBTAINED BY JOHN LEWIS FOR AN IMPROVED SHEARING
MACHINE, DATED ON OR ABOUT THE 27TH OF JULY, 1815;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if wc, the said John Lewis, William
Lewis, and William Davis, or one of us, should not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under
the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the saine to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that 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, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Lewis, William Lewis, and William Davis, do hereby declare that the
nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and following description thereof (that is to say):-
A is a true cylinder of metal, on which is fixed a triangular steel wire.
This wire is previously bent round the cylinder A in the form of a screw, as
represented at B in Figure 1, and is hardened. In every Figure of the
annexed Drawing the same letters marks the same part of the machinery.
The two extremitics of the wire B are passed through oblique holes in the
ends of the cylinder A, and fastened by nuts screwed on the ends of the said
wire, one face of the wire being in contact with the cylinder A. The axis of
A turns in sliding pieces. C, adjustable in the piece D by the screw E. Dis
screwed to the pieces F, which are adjustable in H by the screw G, and made
fast by the screw I. H turns ou fixed centre pins K, which are adjustable in
rectangular holes in T, and fixed by nuts. T is adjustable-on-the-carriage
V by ineans of nuts on each side of the pieces U, which are fixed in V, and T
is fixed to V by the nut X. V is made fast to S by the screw W. J is a
steel blade, hardened and screwed to the metal bar t, which is 'fixed by screws
to H. N and O are a number of thin flat springs of metal fixed to the bars
P, Q, which bars P, Q, are made fast by screws to the picce S. The said
springs, Figure 4, require to be covered with a thin piece of leather or other
suitable substance, to prevent them from catching in any holes or inequalities
in the cloth which intended to be shorn. The springs,N, may be made
in the form represented in Figure or Figure 5, drawn in a plane at right
angles to that of Figure 3. L is a part of D, ormed into à handle for the
purpose of raising J from N by turning the piece H on its centre pins K.
The distance of J from N is adjustable by the screw R, which bears on P. A
spring M is screwed to for supporting the handle L by a shoulder when
the handle is raised to the place of the dotted lines crossing M. The
carriage V is moveable backwards and forwards on the frame Y by the line Z
being wound alternately on the rollers or drums a.
V is drawn towards ƒ by
the worm c working in the teeth of the wheel b, which wheel has a handle r
on its axis for the purpose of bringing V back from f to d, the worm c being
first disengaged from 6 by depressing the handle . The worm c is fixed on the
I

page_text: of hooks for
The rollers o
p, k, arc two
axis of the rigger or pulley d, which is turned round by an endless line e
passing round the riggers g, f. b. The axis of bis moveable in a vertical
groove in the frame Y, and is drawn downwards by a weight i to give sufficient
tension to the endless line e. The axis of the rigger f carries the rigger j, to
which the moving power is applied. j turns the axis off by means of a
clutch, and is disengaged when the carriage V arrives sufficiently near to the
end of the machine at f, j, by means of a projecting bar fixed and adjustable
on V. The rigger 9 is fixed on the axis of the cylinder A. o is a roller at
each end of the machine. A piece of cloth is fastened by the one end to o,
and the other end of the said cloth is furnished with a number
holding, as in the common way, the cloth intended to be shorn.
are adjustable by the handles a, and fixed by ratchet work.
parallel cylinders on which the cloth to be shorn is rolled. They are turned
round by the handles m, and fixed as required by the ratchet work l. Two
parallel bars of wood n are fixed by screws at their extremities to the frame Y
of the machine. The cloth to be shorn is wound on one of the rollers k, passed
over one of the bars n, then between O, N, and N, J, and next made fast to a
piece of cloth which is fixed to the other roller or cylinder k, and brought over
the other bar n. The lists or edges of the cloth to be shorn are to be fastened
to the hooks before described, moved by the rollers o. A narrow strip of plush
is fixed on the surface of A, parallel with the wire B, to answer the purpose of
a brush for raising up the wool which is to be shorn off the cloth, or instead of
the plush bristles may be inserted in the cylinder A with similar effect.
The form of the machine now described is for shearing cloth across from list
to list. Figures 6 and 7 represent the form of the machine when it is
intended to shear cloth lengthwise, or from end to end. The width of the
frame V, Figure 7, must exceed the width of the widest cloth intended to be.
shorn. On one end of the axis 1 of the cylinder A is a worm turning the
wheel 2, and the axis 3, and the worm 4. The worm 4 turns the wheel 5
and the roller 6, which is covered with wire cards. On the axis of the roller 6
is a rigger 7, which turns the rigger 9 by means of an endless line 8 crossed.
A roller 10 is fixed on the axis of the rigger 9 to receive the cloth 11
from the card roller 6 after it has been drawn out of the trough 13, and shorn
in passing between O and N and between N and J. When a considerable part
of the cloth 11 is wound upon the roller 10 the line 8 will slip so as to avoid
injuring the cloth by too great a degree of tension. The bar o in Figure 6 is
designed to guide the cloth 11 near to the fixed part of the spring bed, in order
that the tension of the cloth shall be as much as possible in the direction of the
length of the spring or springs, and consequently that the cloth shall have no

page_text: power to remove the spring bed from the cutting edges. In order to protect the
lists of the cloth 11 from being shorn, two thin pieces or bent plates of metal
12 in Figure 6 are placed by hand on the moveable end of the spring or
springs N, exactly over each list, the lists being between N and the plates 12.
In the machinery which we have now described we claim as our
Invention,―
First, the application of the flat springs N, O, Figure 8, and of the spring
or springs N and the bar O in Figures 6 and 7 for directing and pressing the
cloth to be shorn against the cutting edges, so that the strain of the said cloth
shall be as much as possible in the direction of the length of the spring or
springs N, in order that it may have no power to remove the spring bed from
the cutting edges.
Second, the application of the triangular steel wire B on the cylinder A.
Third, the application of a proper substance fixed on or in the cylinder A
to brush the surface of the cloth to be shorn; and,
Fourth, the described method of shearing cloth across from list to list by a
rotatory cutter.
Observe, it is advisable to shear fine cloths from list to list, but as for coarse
cloths and for wrong sides in general it will be advantageous to shear them