IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mitchell, of the Albert Carpet Works,
Waterford, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Mitchell at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th May 1872.
I, WILLIAM MITCHELL, of the Albert Carpet Works, Waterford, ncar
3 Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETS,"
to be as follows:
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of

page_text: In the manufacture of felt carpets it is now usual to employ waste
flax together with wool. The carded flax is laid between two layers
or batts of carded wool and the whole is felted together. The wool
in the back by interlocking and felting with the wool in the front binds
the flax into the fabric.
The object of my Invention is to combine and bind in the waste flax
without the uso of wool at the back of the fabric so that the whole of
the wool is brought to the face. This object has never heretofore been
practically attained. For this purpose I spin the waste flax and weave
it into an open fabric which I lay upon the woollen batt. The fibres
of the batt which protrude to some extent through the fabric I cause
to interlock and felt together over the warps and wefts of the fabric by
a friction on the surface of the wovon fabric. The woven fabric passes
together with the woollen batt between felting rollers and the roller in
contact with the woollen fabric has a rapid longitudinal vibratory motion
communicated to it.
4444
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Mitchell in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st October 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MITCHELL, of the Albert Carpet Works, Waterfoot, near Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 1
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-fifth
year of er reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Mitchell, Her special license that I,
the said William Mitchell, my excentors, administrators, and assigns, or

page_text: COLLEC
vibratory motion communicated to it.
DAV
When the folting is complete the combined fabric is milled and
tentered and afterwards printed and finished in the usual way.
In carrying out my Invention I proceed as follows:-A very coarse
canvas having first been woven and being sufficiently open in texture
to admit of the wool being pressed through the space between the
threads, I wind the canvas on to a roller, taking care that the selvages
are kept straight, so that when it is unrolled the edges will be regular
and uniform. After winding into a roll sufficient canvas to make
one piece, say, of 56 yards, I take the roll of canvas to a hardening
machine similar to that heretofore employed when felting together batts
of fibre. The roll of canvas is placed into the machine in front of
the roll of woollen batt to which it is to be felted. Both rolls rest
upon the endless carrying cloth, called the hardening cloth, which
conveys the materials to be felted together through the machine. As
the hardening or endless carrying cloth moves forward the roll of
woollen batt resting upon it unrolls, and the cloth passes onwards with
the wool batt upon it, this next passes under the canvas roll, which
similarly unrolls, and the wool batt is thus covered with the canvas,
and the two together are carried forward by the carrying cloth in
between the several sets of felting rollers. The upper or jigging rollers,
which as usual have an endway to-and-fro movement imparted to them,
are thus brought directly into contact with the canvas, the weight of
these rollers presses the canvas into the wool batt, and this latter being
composed of a series of layers of carded wool is sufficiently soft or
springey to penetrate the open spaces between the warp and weft of
the canvas. The jigging rollers then rub together the fibres which
have been pressed through the canvas, so that the fibres, which have
been pressed through one interstice become united to others which
have been pressed through another interstice, and the canvas is thus
completely locked in amongst the felted fibres. When the felting
process is completed the combined fabric as before stated is to be milled,
tentered, printed, and finished in the ordinary way.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of nerforming the same, I would have it understood that what I claim

page_text: as my improvements in the manufacture of felt carpets is, the combi-
nation by felting of an open woven fabric with a batt of wool by passing
the two through a felting or hardening machine, as above described, the
canvas being in direct contact with the jigging rollers.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mitchell, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.
WILL". MITCHELL. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
above-named William Mitchell, in
the presence of
J. W. KERGROVER,
A Commissioner to Administer Oaths
in Chancery in England.