IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY FOR PREPARING THE PILE OR FACE OP WOOLLEN OR OTHER CLOTHS RE- QUIRING SUCH A PROCESS
Year: 1830

page_text: FERRABEE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FERRABEE, of the Thrupp Mill and Foundry, in the Parish of Stroud, in the
County of Gloucester, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
December, in the first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, tho said
John Ferrabee, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, solo
privilege, full power and authority, that I, the said John Ferrabee, my exors,
admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING THE PILE OR FACE OP WOOLLEN OR OTHER CLOTHS RE-
QUIRING SUCH A PROCESS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, that if I, the said John Ferrabee, should not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and
by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Ferrabee, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
'

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
Figure 1 is a vertical front elevation; Figure 2 is an elevation of the right
end, at right angles to Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a horizontal plan of a part of
the machine at the left end. A is the cast-iron frame; B is the driving
rigger; C is a toothed wheel, fixed on the axis of B, driving the wheel D, fixed
on the axis E. Two bevilled wheels F and G are fixed on E to drive the cor-
responding bevilled wheels H and I, H being fixed on the horizontal axis K,
and I on the horizontal axis L, L, carrying the drum M, and K carrying tho
similar drum O. N is a similar drum, driven from M by an endless chain or
strap, and P is a similar drum, driven from O in like manner, in the direction
of the arrows. Q, Q, are those endless bands carrying the teazel boards R, R;
S, S, are parallel iron bars at one end, moveable on L, having vertical adjust-
ing screws through their other extremities to rest on T, and having also
bearings for the axis of the drum N; the drum P is furnished with similar
bars moveablo on K; T is a horizontal bent bar fixed accross the frame A for
supporting the said screws of the bars S, S; U and V are horizontal wooden
rollers, parallel to each other, for receiving the cloth m; W, W, W, aro
three parallel wooden rollers for supporting m as it passes from U to V, or
from V to U, having their bearings adjustable vertically by the screws n; X
is a conical rigger, fixed on the axis of B to drive the conical rigger Y by an
endless band; is a horizontal axis, having Y fixed on one end and the
pinion Z on the other. This pinion Z drives alternately the toothed wheels
b, c, to wind the cloth through the machine on U or V. The bearing of the
extremity & is in a vertical hammer lever c, having its centre of motion at f;
a handle d, jointed with e, allows the workman to regulate the place of Z, and
consequently the direction of m; g,g, are two rods, jointed to the bottom of
the hammer lever e, and passing through the ends of the brake levers h, h, and
there fixed by nuts. These levers h, h, having their centres of motion at i,
and weights hanging at the notches, press on the wheels k, l, which are fixed
on the same axes respectively as the rollers U, V, for the purpose of giving
sufficient tension to the cloth m. By drawing d forwards, Z drives b, and h is
raised from k, the cloth m descends, as shown in Figure 1, and is wound on V.
By pushing & inwards, Z drives c, h is raised from 7, and m is wound upon U.
Instead of teazels in the boards R, suitable wire cards or other pointed
substances may be employed wholly or in part according to the nature of the
cloth m, and the intentions of the operator; and instead of the rollers W, fixed
aljustable beds may be used to support the cloth m against the traversing

page_text: points fixed in R. A large or small gig barrel may be applied at either side
of the machine to lay the pile in the usual direction, or it may be done at a
separate gig mill. The faint lines on the cloth m in Figure 1 represent the
tracks of the traversing points, and are the results of the forward motion of m
and the traversing motion of R at the same time from the middle of the cloth
m towards each list. When m is moved back towards U, the angle formed by
these tracks will be inverted, thus obtaining the advantage of raising the pilo
equally from the opposite sides of the threads of the shoot; and this angle may
be varied according to circumstances by shifting the endless strap on X, Y, to
vary the relative velocities.
My improvement in raising the pile consists in the described method of
moving the points in R, when acting continually from the middle of the cloth
m towards the lists, and combining this traversing motion with the alternate
forward and backward motion of the cloth through the machine; a piece of
canvass, as wide as the cloth m, is fixed to each end of the said cloth, and by
this it is hooked to the rollers U, V, the length of each piece of canvass being
sufficient to reach from its respective roller to the most distant of the
rollers W.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Ferrabec, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-one.