AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CRIMPLING, FLUTING, AND QUILLING MUSLIN AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HESKETH
HUGHES, of Chiswell Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of May, in the seventh year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Hesketh
Hughes, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Hesketh Hughes, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Hesketh Hughes, my exors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CRIMPLING, FLUTING, AND QUILLING MUSLIN AND
OTHER FABRICS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that I, the said Hesketh Hughes, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
under my hand and scal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Hesketh Hughes, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described in and

page_text: by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Figure 1 of the said Drawings is an end view of the said crimpling, fluting,
and quilling machine, and Figure 2 a side view of the same. The whole of
the machine is made of metal. A, A, is the framework, which consists of
two sides, each cast in one piece, connected together by cross bolts B, B, made
fast by screw nuts b, b. C¹, C, C, C, are two pairs of axes which have
their bearings in the four pillars a¹, a¹, and a², a², of the framework, the one
fixed at a little distance above and exactly parallel to the other. The whole
of these axes are free to move in their bearings when acted on in the manner
to be presently herein-after explained. The axis C¹ and C³ carry each two
pinions D, D, inside of their respective bearings, and each has at one end
(prolonged for the purpose), on the outside of the framework, a cog wheel E
keyed to it. The two wheels E are of the same number of cogs, and work
the one into the other. F', F, are two endless chains of rods, the former
of which is carried round the axes C1 and C2, and the latter round the axes
C and C. The rods of these endless chains are connected at the ends by
double rows of links of the peculiar form shewn in Figure 1, and more par-
ticularly in the detached view of one of these chains given in Figure 3, the
rods being connected to the inner and outer rows alternately, as is also clearly
shewn in the separate plan of a portion of one chain given in Figure 4. The
rods of the upper chain F' are made shorter than those of the lower chain F,
in order that when the two chains are made to revolve the rods of the upper
may link into the open spaces between the rods of the lower. G, G, are a
series of projecting catches which are rivetted to the outer rows of links, and
take into the teeth of the pinions D, D. H is a crank handle, by means of
which the axis C is turned round, which imparts a rotary motion through the
medium of the cog wheels E, E, the catches G, G, and the pinions D, D, to
the axes of the pinions C3, C³, and the endless chains of rods F', F. The
piece of muslin or other fabric to be operated upon (represented by the red
line in the Drawings) is introduced at one side between the revolving chains
of rods in the direction indicated by the arrows, and comes out at the other
in a figured state. If the rods are of a plain circular form, such as those
shown in the Drawings, the work will be of a plain fluted description, but the
rods may be made of various other forms; as, for example, the waving form
represented in Figures 5 and 6, or of any other form or forms which will
admit of the projecting parts of the one set of rods taking into the receding
parts of the others. And the distance between the flutes or waves or other
raised portions of each pattern may also be varied by increasing or lessening

page_text: the width of the links by which the rods are connected. If the muslin or
other fabric be passed through the machine in a direction exactly parallel to
the two sides, the flutes, waves, or other figures will run straight across the
piece; but by giving the piece of goods (when the length of the piece or width
of the machine will admit of it) an inclination to the one side, or an incli-
nation to the one side and the other alternately, they may be all inclined in
one way or alternately inclined in opposite directions. To keep the endless
chains tight, and to accomodate that tightness to the quality of the fabrics
passed between them, there are two spring regulators K, K, slipped over the
ends of the axes C, C+, outside of their respective bearings, and made fast to
the back pillars a², a³, of the framework by the screws c, c, the ends of these
axes resting in slots s, s, which admit of their being moved forwards or back-
wards to the extent of these slots, as shewn in Figure 1. M, M, are two
metallic cases, one placed above the upper chain of bars F, and the other
below the under chain F, for the reception of heating irons, by which the rods,
as they pass over and under them, are sufficiently heated to give a proper set
to the muslin or other fabric.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is, the
machine before described whereby the crimping, fluting, and quilling of muslin
and other fabrics is effected by means of endless chains of rods, to which any
form may be given that will admit of the projecting parts of one chain taking
into the receding parts of the other.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Four-
teenth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
HUSKETIL