IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COATING OR DRESSING WAGON AND OTHER SHEETS and Canvas
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Mowbray, of Kingston-upon-
Hull, in the County of York, Waterproof Cover Manufacturer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COATING OR
DRESSING WAGON AND OTHER SHEETS and Canvas.”
Sealed the 28th January 1876, and dated the 3rd August 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert
Mowbray at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition on the 3rd August 1875.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT MOWBRAY, of Kingston-upon-Hull, in the
County of York, Waterproof Cover Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COATING OR DRESSING WAGON AND OTHER SHEETS AND CANVAS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus for coating or
dressing wagon and other sheets and canvas, and consists mainly of a
combination of appliances to facilitate the coating by tar, paint, or other

page_text: convenient substance or body in a liquid or a semi-liquid state, railway
and other wagon covers or sheets used for a similar purpose.
According to the first combination I mount rollers and drums within
a suitable framing and actuate them by any known power, so that a
brushing or spreading operation on one side of a wagon cover or other
sheet as it passes through the machine can take place instead of
brushing the coating, or by hand, as is now commonly done.
The cover or sheet as it passes wholly through the machine is kept
flat by a pressure between rollers, one of which causes it to be impinged
against it by brushes or spreaders revolving partly in a tank or cistern of
liquid; another pair of rollers acting as distributors or levellers of the
coating as well as the drawing in rollers. I employ cone drums to
regulate the speed of the brush or brushes, and also worm gearing as
intermediates for the proper working of one part with another for
effecting the coating operation on a railway or other sheet its full width
at once. By a slight change in the arrangement of the parts I can
cause a machine or apparatus to move over a spread out sheet and coat
or paint the surface thereof either all over the full width at once or in
stages, as found convenient. This is effected by arranging the gearing
within a suitable frame upon broad rollers or upon tram rails or bearers,
so that it can be moved along, the gearing being driven by an attendant
riding upon the machine. The gearing also actuates rollers and revolving
brushes as well as a ductor for taking the paint or other body out of the
cistern and feeding the brush or spreader.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 5
filed by the said William Robert Mowbray in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 3rd February 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT MOWBRAY, of Kingston-upon-Hull, in the County of York,
Waterproof Cover Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-

page_text: cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Robert Mowbray,
Her special license that I, the said William Robert Mowbray, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Robert Mowbray, 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 APPARATUS FOR COATING OR
DRESSING WAGON AND OTHER SHEETS AND CANVAS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Robert Mowbray, my exc-
cutors, 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
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 Robert Mowbray, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus for coating or
dressing wagon and other sheets and canvas, and consists mainly of a
combination of appliances to facilitate the coating by tar, paint, or other
convenient substance or body in a liquid or semi-liquid state railway
and other wagon covers or sheets used for a similar purpose.
According to the first combination I mount rollers and drums within
a suitable framing and actuate them by any known power, so that a
brushing or spreading operation on one side of a wagon cover or other
sheet as it passes through the machine can take place instead of brushing
the coating on by hand as is now commonly done.
The cover or sheet as it passes wholly through the machine is kept flat by
a pressure between rollers, one of which causes it to be impinged against
by brushes or spreaders supplied by a ductor revolving partly in a tank
or cistern of liquid, another pair of rollers acting as distributors or
levellers of the coating as well as the drawing-in rollers. I employ cone
drums to regulate the speed of the feed rollers and also worm gearing

page_text: intermediates for the proper working of one part with another for
effecting the coating operation on a railway or other sheet its full width
at once. By a slight change in the arrangement of the parts I can
cause a machine or apparatus to move over a spread out sheet, and coat
or paint the surface thereof either all over the full width at once or in
stages, as found convenient. This is effected by arranging the gearing
within a suitable frame upon broad rollers or upon tram rails or bearers
so that it can be moved along the gearing, being driven by an attendant
riding upon the machine. The gearing also actuates rollers and
revolving brushes as well as a ductor for taking the paint or other body
out of the cistern and feeding the brush or spreader.
My Invention is clearly represented in the annexed Drawings, in
which Figure 1 is a side or end view; and Figure 2, a partial front view
of a machine or apparatus in or by which a railway or wagon sheet can
be coated or dressed with a waterproofing or other liquid or semi-liquid
body as first referred to.
A, A, is the main frame supporting between the two end walls a
drum B, over which the sheet previously laid in folds at the foot and
caught hold of by grippers or pins upon the drum is passed. This
drum B has teeth C, C, on each end which gear into the teeth of a
roller D above, which press upon and maintain the flatness of the sheet
or cover (tarpaulin) and effects the nip upon the sheet for the roller to
draw it in between itself and the drum B. The end of the shect, after
first passing through between the drum and the top roller and a second
brush as a leveller of the tar which has been laid on by the first brush, is
detached and hooked on to a frame by which it i.e., the sheet can be
hung up for drying purposes. The sheet as it passes up the front of the
drum A is impinged upon by a rotating brush D₁ supplied with the
liquid by a ductor E which revolves partly in the tank F containing the
liquid, say tar, by which the sheet has to be coated. The shaft or
spindle of the drum B on one end thereof has a toothed wheel G for
gearing into the teeth of a pinion H on the end of the revolving
brush D'. The extreme end of the brush spindle carries a bevil wheel I
gearing into a corresponding wheel J fitted on the top of a worm
shaft K, the worm of which takes into the teeth of a worm wheel L; this
being upon the outer end of the shaft M of the drum B. The worm
wheel has a spur pinion N attached, and this gears into an idle wheel P
whose shaft has another spur wheel Q taking into the teeth R on the

page_text: larger periphery of a lower cone S, the upper cone T being driven by a
belt U which is adjustable along the cones to regulate the feed of the
liquid by the fork V of a traversing block on the screw W, a band
wheel X being upon the end for the purpose of turning the screw.
Y is a second brush for levelling or distributing the tar or other
waterproofing or coating agent upon the sheet before it leaves the drum;
this second brush Y is actuated by the pinion Z, which gears into the
teeth of the wheel G.
The machine may be of any width, and I prefer it wide enough to
take in the widest sheet made, so that the whole surface can be coated
at one operation, and to enable it to be moved from one place to another
I mount it upon rollers a, a, but these can be dispensed with, and the
machine be fixed to the floor if desired. Change wheels can also be
substituted for the cones, and the feed regulated thereby.
Figures 3 and 4 are a partial front and an end view respectively of
another machine constructed according to my Invention.
A, A, is the main frame, between which the drum B, the brushes D¹
and Y, and the liquid tank F and ductor E are arranged in a manner
slightly varied from those before referred to, but acting in a similar
manner. In the machine shown in Figures 3 and 4 I use an additional
piece of frame b, and arrange the worm gearing and brush driving
mechanism between it and one of the end frames A. Outside the addi-
tional frame piece I arrange the gear by which the worm shaft / is
rotated, worm wheel, 1, being driven direct from the spur gearing
a, b, by the crank handle m. In this arrangement I effect a change of
speed of the ductor E by removing the pinion c', and substituting
another in its place upon the shaft d¹, the difference in the sizes being
compensated for by the shift of the idle wheel P, which I fit in a quad-
rant P for the purpose.
It often happens from the imperfections of weaving the fabric, or
from sewing a number of widths of fabric together, that a slight draw
up or puckering on one side is produced, tending to cause the sheet or
cover to pass over the drum in an irregular manner, and ultimately to
stop the machine, besides causing an imperfection of the spreading. To
obviate these inconveniences I fit a double-ended lever c on a rock pin d,
as shown in Figure 5, and I cause by a rock motion of the lever by the

page_text: attendant a depression of one or either end thereof to bring rollers e, e,
down upon other rollers f,f, these being set at an angle and project
through apertures in the platform g, so that a nip of the fabric on the
puckered side may take place, and thus maintain the regular and even
travel of the sheet. The rollers ff, alone or in combination with other
rollers h, h, being set at an angle are pressed upon by the fabric in the
direction of their length, and tend to draw the sides of the sheet out-
wards and in contact with lips at the outer ends of the platform, or close
thereto, and thereby keep the sheet flat, so that it is presented to the
brushes and drum in a flat state.
The tank may have a ball arrangement j fitted to regulate the supply
of liquid from the reservoir by the pipes e¹, e', the reservoir j' having a
slide valve for maintaining the level of liquid. Some other piece of
mechanism may be employed for this purpose; or the valve may be
actuated by hand.
A bollard or surging head can be fitted on the drum shaft to actuate
the lift mechanism for drying the sheet, the diameter of the one corre-
sponding to the other, so that the sheet is lifted at a proportionate speed
to the coating progress.
Figure 6 represents a side view of a machine or apparatus for effecting
the coating or spreading of tar or other liquid upon a sheet lying upon a
floor, the machine being mounted upon wheels k¹, k¹, for the purpose.
In working this apparatus an attendant stands upon the platform "
attached to it, and by rotating the crank handle m he communicates
motion through the pinion n, chain p, and wheel q, the necessary
movement to the travelling wheel ¹ through the pinion r, the travelling
wheel ¹ or its shaft having a set of extra teeths for gearing into an
idle wheel t, and therefrom rotating the ductor E within the tank u, the
brush taking its supply of tar or other liquid for spreading upon the
sheet while the machine moves over it. I cause the brush v, or there
may be brushes v, w, to revolve by the chain p taking into the teeth of
the wheels on the brush spindles, as shown.
When the machine has to be moved from one sheet to another or for
going over a sheet the second time, either in the same, the reverse, or
the cross direction I lift the brushes off the ground by the winch
handle a actuating the screw shafts y on either side of the frame A by
the intermediate gearing. The idle wheel i in this case is fitted on a

page_text: quadrant, so that it can be removed and a different sized one fitted in its
place, as explained for the machine shown in Figure 4.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, -
The apparatus, all herein-before described and shown in the accom-
panying Drawings, and any mere modification thereof, or combination of
such apparatus or parts thereof, for the purpose set forth.
Secondly. I claim the apparatus shown at Figures 1 and 2 of the
Drawings annexed, as and for the purpose described.
Thirdly. I claim the apparatus shown at Figures 3 and 4 of the
annexed Drawings, as and for the purpose described.
Fourthly. I claim the apparatus shown at Figure 5, by which a
spreading flatness or evenness of a sheet to be coated or dressed with a
liquid can be effected, as described.
Fifthly. I claim the construction and employment of the machine or
apparatus shown at Figure 6 of the annexed Drawings, as and for the
purposes described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Mowbray, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of February,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.