IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SINGEING PIECE GOODS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Worrall, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Dyer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR SINGEING PIECE GOODS."
Sealed the 21st February 1871, and dated the 15th December 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Worrall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th December 1870.
I, JAMES WORRALL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR SINGEING PIECE GOODS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improved apparatus for singeing piece goods,
the object being to facilitate the operation. To this end, instead of
using fixed singeing plates as heretofore, the effective heat from which
is quickly absorbed, thereby retarding the singeing operation, I now
propose to employ rotary heated surfaces, which will continuously pre-
sent a well heated surface to the goods, and thus allow of an equable

page_text: .
action on the goods being produced. The rotating heating surface may
consist of a cylinder of glazed carthenware, forming a fluo which
establishes a connection between a furnace and a chimney. Or the
cylinder may be composed of segments with radial heat conductors, say
of metal set at equal distances apart, and presenting a smooth surface
for the fabric to be singed to be drawn over. The cylinder, however
formed, is carried by supporting rollers, to which rotary motion is
imparted by gearing for the purpose of driving the cylinder. These
supporting rollers are mounted in suitable framing, which carries also
the guide rollers employed for passing the goods to and from the singeing
cylinder and the other apparatus necessary to the singeing operation.
The singeing cylinder may be fitted with V pulleys to run in contact
with driven supporting pulleys of corresponding shape, or they may be
fitted with gear wheels to take into gear wheels on the axle of the main
supporting rollers. Two cylinders or more may also be fitted to the
same machine, and connected with the same or different furnaces. The
fabric to be singed I intend shall come in contact twice during one
traverse through the machine with the cylinder (or each cylinder if two
or more be used), and to this end I lead it first, say under the cylinder,
then to a guido roll at the end of the machine, and over that roller and
back over the top of the cylinder. To prevent the radiation of heat
laterally I so far enclose the cylinder in brickwork as to expose only
the upper and the lower portions of the periphery of the cylinder; and
to provide for the lifting of the goods from the heated surfaces and their
depression upon the heated surfaces as desired, I fit rock levers with
transverse rods, which I cause to bear on the goods while held at tension
in and travelling through the machine, and thus lift them from or
press them upon the heated surface. These rock levers may be arranged
'on the lazy-tongs principle, and actuated by right and left-handed screws
or otherwise as desired; and I provide the machine with a cooling
roller (through which a curront of cold water passes) for receiving the
fabric as it leaves the singeing cylinder, and a spark brush for brushing
the face of the fabric as it leaves the heating cylinder; and it may be
also beneficial to provide a steam-heated guide roller for warming the
fabric before it comes into contact with the singeing surface.

page_text: .
SPECIFICATION- in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Worrall in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th June 1871..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WORRALL, of, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer, send
greeting:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters. Patent,, bearing data the Fifteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Worrall, Her special licence
that I, the said James. Worrall, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Worrall, 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 SINGEING PIECE GOODS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said James Worrall, my executors 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 James Worrall, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
'say):-
This Invention relates to improvements on the singeing apparatus
for which I obtained Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second
5 October. One thousand eight hundred and seventy. Instead of the fixed

page_text: singeing plates described in the Specification of that Patent, the effective
heat from which is quickly absorbed by the passage over the plates of
the fabric under treatment, I now propose to substitute heating surfaces
which will continuously present efficient singeing surfaces to the goods,
and thus allow of the singeing operation being equably maintained. In
carrying out this object I constantly vary the points of contact of the
singeing surfaces with the goods throughout the singeing operation, and
by this means so soon as the effective heat of one portion of the singeing
surface begins to fail a fresh portion of the singeing surface is brought
into action. Thus without retarding the operation the parts of the
singeing surfaces which have been partially exhausted of heat may have
their heat renewed, and an efficient singeing surface will be constantly
presented to the passing fabrics. The plan which I have adopted and
found successful for ensuring a constant change of singeing surface is a
combination of cylindrical heated copper flues, to which a continuous
slow rotary motion is imparted, and over and under and in contact with
which the goods to be singed are caused to travel.
In carrying on the singeing operation I provide, as described under
my former Patent, an endless band of fabric, which I cause to travel in
contact with the heating surfaces until the singeing operation is com-
pleted, and for the purpose of giving the fabric a continuous forward
traverse, and of retaining it at tension while undergoing the operation
of singeing I use the arrangement of guide tension and take-up rollers
described and illustrated in the Specification of my before-mentioned
Patent.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 is a transverse vertical section
of my improved singeing machine fitted with two singeing cylinders set
abreast of each other; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same
taken through the axis of one of the singeing cylinders, shewing the
machinery adapted to operate upon two endless bands of fabric simul-
taneously, the several acting parts of the machino being duplicated for
that purpose; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the same..
. Referring to Fig. 2, A is a fire-place, the flue of which is formed by
cylinders of copper B, B, to which are secured friction wheels B' that
bear upon and are supported by V grooved pulleys C, C. These
pulleys are keyed upon horizontal shafts C, C, C³, Fig. 1, having
their bearings on the standards D, D. These shafts are severally fitted

page_text: with a worm wheel c, which wheels take into worms e on a transverse
shaft E; this shaft E at its outer end carries a band pulley which
receives a band from a pulley on the overhead driving shaft F. As
rotary motion is communicated to the shaft B it will through the worms
and worm wheels e, c, give rotary motion to the V grooved pulleys O,
and as the peripheries of the friction wheels B' are made to fit the
grooves of the pulleys O the friction set up between these wheels and
pulleys will cause the cylinders B to rotate slowly on their axes. By
reference to Fig. 3 it will be seen that there are two cylindrical flues B, B,
> in connection with the fire-place A, and that these flues at their opposite
ends terminate in a common flue. B³, which flue leads directly to the
chimney. These flues B are represented in Fig. 2 as composed of copper
cylinders, the ends of which fit into fire-clay sockets built into the brick-
work of the fire-place and chimney flue. The passage of the gases of
5 combustion from the fire place to the chimney serves to heat these
copper cylinders so as to raise them to a high heat, and it is by the
rotation of these cylinders that I am enabled continuously to present to
the pile surface of the goods to be singed a singeing surface, the effective
heat of which is well 'sustained. As the fabric leaves the take up and
O tension rollers to pass to the singeing cylinders it is led over a steam
heated cylinder G, which is used to heat the fabric before it passes to the
singeing surfaces. From this roller G it passes under the two copper
cylinders B, B, and thence over a guide roller H, which returns it back
to the cylinders. The fabric on its return passing over the cylinders B
5 and thence under a hollow roller I, through which a current of cold
water flows for the purpose of cooling the fabric prior to its coming into
contact with the spark brush K. The cloth is then led upwards and
over a series of guide rollers L, I, I, I, from the latter of which it
descends to be delivered out of the machine if finished, or to be returned
O to the singeing cylinders for the repetition of the singeing operation
through the agency of the take-up and tension rollers before referred to.
The rollers G, H, I, and the spark brush K are mounted in bearings
carried by the standards D, and the spark brush receives a rapid rotary
motion from a strap on a pulley on the shafting F.
5
To provide for the lifting or depression of the goods out of contact

page_text: levers shewn at M, M, Fig. 1. These rock levers are mounted on a
fulcrum rod M' and at such a distance apart as to leave room between
them for the traverse of the fabric. At their extremities they carry two
pairs of transverse bars m, m, between which the fabric is passed in
leading it under and over the singeing rollers. The rear or shorter limbs &
of these rock levers carry tapped nuts n, through which passes a vertical
screw shaft N provided with a right and left-handed screw.
This screw
shaft is mounted in bracket bearings projecting from the standards D,
and it is fitted at its lower end with a bevilled pinion, into which gears a
bevilled pinion that is worked by a hand wheel o. By turning this hand 1
wheel to the right or the left rotary motion will be given to the screw
shaft N, which will, through the nuts n, draw together or thrust asunder
the shorter limbs of the rock lovers M and thereby move inwards or
outwards the transverse bars m, and cause them cither to press the
fabric against the singing surfaces or withdraw them clear of the same. 1
This latter action of the transverse bars is required so soon as the
attendant shall consider the singeing operation completed, and the
former when he judges it is desirable to put more strain or pressure on
the fabric while passing over the singeing surfaces.
Instead of using cylinders of copper, as shewn at Figures 1 and 2, for 2
my rotating singeing surfaces, I propose also to form the cylinders of
segments of fire-clay with radial heat conductors of copper interposed
between them, the whole being bound together by metal bands to form
a cylinder. This modification is shown in cross section at Fig. 4, where
a, a, are the segments of fire-clay, and b, b, are the radial heat conductors a
which are set at equal distances apart, and severally present a smooth
rounded surface for the fabric under treatment to be drawn over. This
cylinder will be mounted in the same manner as the cylinder B of
Fig. 2, and the metallic heat conductors by projecting slightly beyond
the inner periphery of the cylinder will readily take up the heat from
the flame and gases of combustion passing through the cylindrical
fluc.

page_text: of singeing apparatus with the goods under operation, in the manner and
for the purpose above described.
Secondly. The construction of singeing cylinder shewn at Fig. 4 of
the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Worrall, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Secondly. The construction of singeing cylinder shewn at Fig. 4 of
the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Worrall, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.