IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR FELTING HAT BODIES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Bradbury and John Bradbury, of Denton,
in the County of Lancaster, Fur Clearers, and John Roberts, of
Hyde, in the County of Chester, Hat Manufacturer, for the Inven-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Bradbury, John
Bradbury, and John Roberts at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd March 1870.
We, JAMES BRADBURY and JOHN BRADBURY, of Denton, in the
County of Lancaster, Fur Clearers, and JoHN ROBERTS, of Hyde, in the
County of Chester, Hat Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR FELTING HAT
BODIES," to be as follows:-
Our improvements consist in the arrangement and combination of
machinery for felting hat bodies. We mount a cylinder so that it can
be rotated in suitable bearings, and make the surface of this cylinder

page_text: either plain or with flutes or grooves parallel to the axis of the cylinder.
The grooves in the cylinder may also have cross grooves placed obliquely
to the axis of the cylinder. We arrange a casing to surround the
cylinder, leaving a space of one or more inches between the casing and
cylinder, and this casing is formed of lags or ribs with or without spaces
between them arranged parallel to the axis of the cylinder. The inside
face of the casing may be fluted longitudinally, and these flutes may
have formed in them diagonal channels or other grooves inclining from
the sides to the centre. The casing is divided into an upper and lower
half, and both halves are hinged at one side so as to work to and from
the cylinder. There is also an hinged door in front forming one part of
the casing, which is opened when the hat body is to be placed in or
removed from the machine. Below the lower half of the casing there is
a small cisteren in which water is placed, which may be kept hot by
steam or other means, the level of the water extending to about the
under side of the cylinder. The two halves of the casing are pressed
towards the cylinder by weights, springs, or other means.
The casing
instead of being made in two halves with a door in front may be made
in a series of sections arranged to move to and from the cylinder radially,
being pressed thereto by weights or springs.
In place of "lags" for the casing, small rollers may be used, or the
casing may be made partly of "lags" and partly of rollers. The action
of the cylinder is to roll the hat bodies round the casing under
varying pressure and friction, causing them to pass through the hot
water at each revolution.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Bradbury, John Bradbury, and John Roberts
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th September 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JAMES
BRADBURY and John BradbuRY, of Denton, in the County of Lancaster, 3
Fur Clearers, and JOHN ROBERTS, of Hyde, in the County of Chester,
Hat Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third 3

page_text: year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said James Bradbury, John Bradbury, and John
Roberts, Her speical license that we, the said James Bradbury, John
Bradbury, and John Roberts, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said James Bradbury, John Bradbury, and
John Roberts, our 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 MACHINERY FOR FELTING HAT BODIES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Brad-
bury, John Bradbury, and John Roberts, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and scals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
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 we, the said James Bradbury, John Bradbury,
and John Roberts, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement and the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
Our improvements consist in an arrangement and combination of
mechanism for felting hat bodies having a peculiar mode of action. The
hat body when rolled up is placed between two surfaces, one pressed
towards the other, and a rotating and progressive or rolling motion is
imparted to it by giving motion to one or both surfaces, which causes
the hat body after being subjected for a time to the rotating motion
under varying pressure and friction to be discharged or delivered from
between the acting surfaces, to be again and again passed through the
machine if required.
We prefer to carry out our Invention by employing two surfaces to
operate upon the hat bodies, one surface moving in an opposite direction
to the other surface, but at slower speed, so that while the hat body
rotates it will progress in the direction of rotation at the same time. We
also prefer to form the acting surfaces by ribs diagonally grooved on

page_text: their faces secured to endless belts or jointed chains which pass round
suitable rollers or pulleys.
The accompanying Drawings fully illustrate the arrangement and
combination of machinery which we prefer to employ for carrying our
Invention into effect.
Fig. 1 is a front or side elevation, and Fig. 2 a cross sectional
elevation.
A are the side frames of the machine connected together by the cross
stays A'; a is the driving belt working on the fast and loose driving
pulleys a¹, which are secured upon the end of the lower roller shaft a³
that has bearings in brackets secured to the fixed frame A; a³ is the
upper roller shaft, and it has bearings in brackets also secured to the
fixed frame A, but so as to be adjustable by the screws a* to tighten
the belts (a³), to which the operating ribs (aº) are secured by screws or
any other suitable means; 63, b³, b, b³, and 6º, are parts corresponding
respectively to the parts a, a, a, a³, and a but the former are mounted on
a moveable frame formed by the side frames C, which are keyed upon a
cross shaft c'; consequently when this shaft is partly rotated the surfaces
of the ribs will be brought nearer to or further from the surfaces of
the ribs a according to the direction of the movement. The moveable
brattice may be pressed towards the fixed brattice a by india-rubber
or other springs (d) passing round projections from the parts carrying
the adjusting screws (a and b). Or this pressure may be given by a
weight (d) shewn in dotted line in Fig. 2, which is placed upon lever
handles (c) secured upon the ends of the shaft; these lever handles (c²)
are for the purpose of withdrawing the moveable brattice (6) from the
fixed brattice (a) when the hat body is to be placed between the acting
surfaces, as shown at fin Fig. 2, or remove therefrom. Instead of or in
addition to the lever handles (63) treadles may be employed formed by a
shaft having two arms 7' secured upon it carrying a board g between
them, extending the width of the machine for the foot. The end of
the shaft has an arm secured upon it, to which one end of a
link is jointed, the other end being jointed to a lever arm c² on the
shaft c¹.
To make the machine so that it can be actuated on both sides two
treadles are used, the two shafts 7 and g* being connected by two
armis (g), one fixed on each shaft, and one of the arms has a pin fixed
in it which fits a slot formed in the other arm. The lower roller only of

page_text: cach brattice is driven positively, the upper roller of each brattice being
driven by the friction of the belts. Rotating motion is conveyed from
the shaft a to the shaft be by means of toothed wheels, the pitch lines
of which are only shewn in peculiar dotted line in Fig. 2, the large
intermediate wheel rotating loose upon the frame shaft c', consequently
the wheel on the shaft & remains in equal gear in every position of the
moveable frame. One set of driving wheels may be placed at each sido
of the machinery, as shewn in Fig. 1, if required. Each brattice moves
in the direction pointed by the arrows on Fig. 2, the brattice (a) being
geared to move a little faster than the brattice 6. The faces of the ribs
forming each brattice are grooved diagonally, as shown in Fig. 1, the
direction of the inclination of the grooves in one brattice being the
reverse of the inclination of the grooves of the other brattice. When
the hat body has passed between and is delivered by the acting surfaces
it falls upon the grid h, from which it is removed by the workman to
be dipped in the felting liquid, again rolled up, and placed in the
machine if required. K arc tables on cach side of the machine for the
workman to roll up the hat bodies upon, and is a trough lined with
lead to hold the acid felting liquid. When the hat body has been
discharged the two brattice surfaces are prevented from coming in
close contact by a stop fixed in the framing, against which the lever
handle will come before the two surfaces are close to each other.
We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention
and the mode of carrying it into effect, and claim as our Invention, the
combination and arrangement of mechanism and its peculiar mode of
action for felting hat bodies, substantially as herein-before described and
illustrated by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bradbury, on my own
behalf and on behalf of the said James Bradbury and John
Roberts, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth
day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy.