AN IMPROVED METHOD OR COMBINATION OF MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURING HATS OR CAPS
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WILLIAM CHANNING MOORE, of the City of New York, in the United States of
North America, now residing at Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of December, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-eight, in the ninth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas William Channing Moore,
His especial licence that I, the said Thomas William Channing Moore, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
William Channing Moore, my executors, administrators, and 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 England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, an Invention, communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing
abroad, of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OR COMBINATION OF MACHINERY FOR THE
MANUFACTURING HATS OR CAPS;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas William Channing Moore,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's

page_text: 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
Thomas William Channing Moore, do hereby declare that the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is
described and ascertained as follows, reference being made to the Drawings
hereto annexed, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in the construction and employment of a certain
arrangement of machinery by which a succession of filaments of wool, or any
other fit material, are taken from a carding engine and wound upon a block or
mould, for the purpose of forming the shells, foundations, or bodies of two
hats or caps at one operation; the successive filaments of wool or other
material being, by the movements of the machine, made to cross each other.
The shape of the block or mould is cylindrical, about fifteen inches long, and
twelve inches diameter, with conical ends extending about ten inches from each
extremity of the cylinder, and rounded at their apexes, this mould or block is
mounted upon a carriage which traverses to and fro in front of the doffer
cylinder of the carding engine, and at the same time is made to turn upon its
axis, the object of which is that the wool or other material may be uniformly
wound upon the surface of the block, and over its conical ends, and when the
block has been so covered with the filaments or web of wool or other material,
and brought to a sufficient thickness, the matted material is to be cut round
the middle of the cylinder, and slipped off' each end, by that means producing
two caps or shells, which, when felted in the ordinary way, are to be worked
into suitable shapes for the foundations or bodies of hats or caps by the usual
means. The block or mould should be as light as possible, that it may easily
turn and not press too heavily on the wool, and for this purpose had better be
made of light wood, and hollow.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents part of a carding engine
as seen sideways: a being the principle carding cylinder; b, the doffer
cylinder, from whence the filaments of wool are conducted to the block or
mould c, mounted on what I call the forming machine. Fig. 2 is an
end view of part of the carding engine b; the doffer cylinder; c, the block
or mould upon its carriage in connection with the forming machinery;
d, d, d, is a frame placed at the end of the carding engine, upon the upper
part of which there are fixed two iron bars e, e, standing edgewisc. Upon
these bars as a railway, the carriage which supports the block or mould

page_text: is to be moved to and fro. Fig. 3 is a plan or horizontal representation
of the frame, with the carriage and the block constituting the forming
machine. Rotatory motion is given to the large carding cylinder a by a band
and rigger as usual, and to the doffer cylinder 6 by any convenient train of
wheels, or other contrivance, leading from the axle of the great wheel, and
the doffer comb f, f, is made to vibrate by a crank shaft g, connected to the
train, which causes the guide rods h, h, with the doffer comb f, to perform a
rapid up-and-down movement, and by that means to comb off the web of wool
in a thin filamentous sheet, which is received on to the block or mould.
Another train of toothed gear, connected to the large carding cylinder,
drives a bevel wheel i, under the carding engine, from whence a shaft k
proceeds, having a mitre wheel at its extremity, for the purpose of driving a
horizontal bevel wheel 7, mounted in the lower part of the frame d, d, of the
forming machinery; the wheel has a perpendicular shaft supported in
bearings, and at the top carries a crank m, the length or throw of which
crank may be extended or contracted at pleasure by means of a long slot with
the sliding adjusting piece and nut n. At the extremity of this crank the
rod o is attached by a joint, and the reverse end of this rod is, by another joint
and a perpendicular bar j, connecting to the traversing carriago p, which
carriage is supported upon four wheels q, q, running on the fixed railway e, e;
within the frame of the carriage two cylindrical rollers r and s are mounted
parallel to each other, which turn on their axes; the axle of is a plain rod
supported by end plates or staples fixed to the ends of the carriage; that of s
is a long cylindrical shaft t, t, the ends of which are mounted in standards
u, u, fixed on the stationary frame d, d. Upon these cylindrical rollers and s,
the block or mould c is placed, which is intended to receive the web of wool
for forming the hat or cap bodies. In the lower part of the stationary frame d
there is a small horizontal shaft, having a mitre wheel at each end; the one
wheel working into the horizontal wheel 1, (which is its driver,) the other into
a mitre wheel at the bottom of the perpendicular shaft w; at the upper end of
the shaft w there is a mitre wheel, taking into a similar wheel on the shaft t,
which is the axle of the roller s, as above stated. The construction of the
various parts of the apparatus having been described, I proceed to explain in
what manner the forming machinery operates. It has been shewn, that by
means of gear from the large carding cylinder, the horizontal wheel is driven,
and that through the intervention of the shafts v and w, and the bevel gear
connected thereto, the wheel 7 caused the long horizontal shaft t to revolve. The
rollers is made hollow, for the shaft t to pass through it, and the shaft t has a

page_text: long groove extending its whole length, in which a tooth or nib, affixed to each
end of the roller s, acts, for the purpose of causing the rollers to turn as the
shaft revolves. The roller s being thus made to revolve upon its axis, the
block or mould c, bearing upon it, is necessarily turned also by the friction of
contact, and likewise the roller r, and in this way, by the continued revolution,
the block or mould is made to take up or wind on to the surface the web of
wool as fast as it is delivered from the doffer cylinder. In order that the web
of wool may be wound over the ends of the block or mould as well as the
middle parts, the carriage, with the block, is made to traverse to and fro upon
the framed by the rotation of the wheel 1, which causes the crank m as it
revolves to move the rod o, and hence to draw the carriage to and fro, the
roller & sliding along the shaft as it revolves. Whenever it is wished to cross
the web of wool or other material more or less, so as to suit different kinds of
wool or other material, or to vary the shape of the hat or cap, the revolutions
of the block or mould are to be quickened or retarded, in proportion to the
motion of the carriage. If the revolving motion of the block or mould is
quick in proportion to the motion of the carriage, the wool is crossed less than
when it is slow in proportion to such motion. These motions may be varied
by altering the size of the mitre wheels.
Now, whereas, I am aware that machinery of different kinds have been
introduced before the present time for making the bodies or foundations of hats
and caps, by means of winding a web of wool or other material upon a block
in connection with a carding engine.
I therefore wish it to be understood that I do not claim an exclusive right
to all the parts of the apparatus which I have exhibited in the Drawing, but
only to such parts as are now, (viz.), the construction and employment of the
forming machinery, as shown, the other parts of the Drawing being introduced
for the purpose of illustrating the general operation.
I therefore wish it to be understood that I claim the following particulars,
when adapted and employed in connection with a carding engine, for winding
wool or other material into the forms or shapes calculated for the bodies or
foundations of hats and caps:-1st, the cylindrical block or mould having
conical or any other shaped ends suited to the intended form of the hat or cap
proposed to be made. 2nd, the two cylindrical rollers by which the block or
mould is supported, and made to revolve. 3rd, the shaft and bevel gear by
which the roller s is driven. 4th, the adjustable crank attached to the
horizontal wheel Z, and the connecting rod by which the carriage bearing the
block or mould is moved to and fro in front of the carding engine, for the pur-