AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR METHOD FOR RAISING OR BRUSHING WOOLLEN CLOTHS AND OTHER GOODS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ATKINSON, of Huddersfield, in the County of York, Woollen Cloth Manufac-
turer and Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Sixteenth day of February, in the second year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard
Atkinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Atkinson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also within all'
His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, "AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR
METHOD FOR RAISING OR BRUSHING WOOLLEN CLOTHS AND OTHER GOODS;" in.
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Richard Atkinson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled

page_text: in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said 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
Richard Atkinson, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and the letters by which the same are described
and explained (that is to say) :-
In my improved machine for raising or brushing woollen cloths (which is 1
of the class of machinery called a gig mill on the ordinary Yorkshire construc-
tion), I attach or affix the teazle boards, or frames or boards of cards or of
brushes, to the gig barrel by a peculiar mode or method of fastening, which
enables me to introduce springs between the teazle frames or boards of cards
or brushes and the working barrel, and thereby to allow a degree of elasticity 1
to their operation when acting upon the surface of the cloth in raising the pile
or brushing the nap. And this machine, when so improved, affords the means
of dressing woollen cloths and other goods by a much more effective method
(that is to say), by an elastic raiser or brush, than can be obtained by any of
the gig mills or dressing machines in which the teazles, cards, or brushes are
firmly fixed to the revolving barrel.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed Figure 1 exhibits a front elevation, and
Figure 2 a section taken transversely, of a gig mill with my improvements
adapted thereto, but in which several of the teazle boards, card boards, or
brushes are removed for the purpose of shewing the springs that are to act
beneath them.
Figure 3 represents one of the boards attached to the barrel, upon an enlarged
scale; Figures 4 and 5, upper and under views of the same board; and Figure
6, an end view of part of the barrel with only one of the boards attached thereto,
the same letters referring to the corresponding parts in all the Figures.
a, a, a, is the ordinary barrel or cylinder of the gig; b, b, b, thin pieces of steel
or other fit material, which are affixed by screws or other means to the barrel,
and are bent upwards to constitute springs that shall support the teazle boards,
card boards, or brushes when mounted on the barrel. c, c, are pillars or pins
of iron set into the barrel near each end, standing radially, and fastened by
d is
screw nuts at the under part, or secured by any other suitable means.
the teazle board, card board, or brush, which is mounted on the barrel by
passing the pins or pillars c, c, through the holes near the ends of the board,

page_text: such holes being lined with brass or brass bushes, and securing it to the pillar
by screwed nuts e, e. The pillars are made something smaller than the holes
in the ends of the boards, and thereby the board is enabled to move up and
down readily, but being supported on the under side by the springs b, b, it is
held up close to the nuts, as shewn in Figures 2 and 3, unless pressed upon
by any force on the upper side, as the general construction of a gig mill; and
the manner in which the teazles, cards, or brushes act upon the face of the
cloth in raising or dressing the pile is so well understood, it is scarcely neces-
sary to say that the cloth as it passes through the machine presses by its
tension with considerable force against the teazles, cards, or brushes placed
round the barrel, and by rapidity of action the cloth frequently becomes injured.
It will, however, be perceived, that in my improved machine the boards which
carry the teazles, cards, or brushes being raised up some distance from the
periphery of the barrel, and supported on springs, that pressure which is
caused by the tension of the cloth as the gig barrel goes round is relieved by
the elasticity of the bearings on which the boards are mounted, and that
any injury which the cloth might be liable to receive is thereby prevented.
And further, that by this method of dressing the cloth by elastic boards of
teazles, cards, or brushes, a more perfect raising of the pile is effected, and a
much softer nap produced.
Lastly, I wish it to be understood, that although I have represented in the
accompanying Drawings springs for supporting the boards bent into a
particular form, and placed in a particular way upon the barrel of the gig, yet
I do not intend to confine myself precisely thereto, as helical springs placed
round the pillars under the ends of the boards, or springs of various forms
placed between the barrel and the teazle boards, might answer the purpose
equally well.
I therefore declare that my Invention consists in the introduction
of the springs under the boards or frames of teazles, cards, or brushes attached
to a gig machine for raising and dressing woollen cloths and other goods. And
I do not intend to confine myself to any particular form or construction of
dressing machines to which the same may be adapted, as the contrivance is
equally applicable both to the first process of raising the pile of the cloth by
teazles or cards, and to the last process of dressing or laying the nap by
rotary brushes.
'
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Atkinson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
RICHARD ATKINSON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of August, in the
third year of the reign of His present Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said Richard Atkinson came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and