IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING: YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, PAPER, AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Knowles, of Tottington, near Bury, in
the County of Lancaster, Bleacher and Calico Printer, and James
Kay, of Bury aforesaid, Engincer; for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING: YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, PAPER, AND OTHER
MATERIALS:"
Sealed the 6th April 1875, and dated the 22nd October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Knowles and
James Kay at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 22nd October 1874.
We, SAMUEL KNOWLES, of Tottington, near Bury; in the County of
Lancaster, Bleacher and Calico Printer, and JAMES KAY, of Bury afore-
said, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, PAPER, AND
OTHER MATERIALS," to be as follows:

page_text: chamber. The air is forced or drawn into this chamber by a fan or
other equivalent, and the fabric or other material to be dried is carried
over the fluc, which is covered with perforated metal or wire gauze or
provided with slots for the escape of the heated air.
The fabric or other material is acted upon by the air escaping from 5
the perforations or slots, and is dried when it arrives at the end of the .
apparatus; it is then wound on a roller or otherwise disposed of. Or
the apparatus may be applied to heat a stove in which yarns, fabrics, or
other materials are suspended; in this case it is desirable to draw off the
vapours that are evaporated by a fan placed in the upper part of the 1
stove, or by vacuum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 21st April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, SAMUEL 1
KNOWLES, of Tottington, near Bury, in the County of Lancaster,
Bleacher and Calico Printer, and JAMES KAY, of Bury aforesaid,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of 2
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay,
Her special licence that we, the said Samuel Knowles and James
Kay, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay, our executors, admini-
strators, 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 DRYING YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, PAPER, AND OTHER MATERIALS,” upon the
condition (amongst others).that we, the said Samuel Knowles and James
Kay, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: our, or their, or one of our or 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 we, the said Samuel Knowles and James
Kay, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
Our improved apparatus consists of a chamber with partitions heated
by steam or otherwise, and of a fluc in communication with tho said
chamber. The air is forced or drawn into this chamber by a fan or
other equivalent, and the fabric or other material to be dried is carried
over rollers in the fluc.
The fabric or other material is acted upon by the heated air, and is
dried when it arrives at the end of the apparatus; it is then wound on
a roller or otherwise disposed of. Or the apparatus may be applied to
heat a stove in which yarns, woven fabrics, paper, or other materials are
suspended; or it may be applied to the drying of materials placed upon
or passing over flat surfaces perforated or otherwise constructed so as to
allow the heated air to act upon them in such a manner as may be
most efficient or convenient. In these cases it may be desirable to draw
off the vapours that are evaporated by a fan placed in the upper part of
the stove or by vacuum.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, we will proceed to describe the accompanying
Drawing, which represents a sectional clevation of our improved
apparatus for drying yarns, woven fabrics, paper, and other similar
materials.
Our improved apparatus consists of the lower chamber a, which is
heated by means of the steam chests b, b, all of which are connected and
heated by the steam pipo ċ, which passes along one side of the apparatus
and is connected to each steam chest by a side branch. At the bottom of
the apparatus is the pipe d for carrying off the water of condensation ;
this pipe is connected to all the steam chests by vertical branches. The
chamber a is provided with a cover e, and the air to be heated is forced
into the chamber at the opening, in front of which is the baffle plate g

page_text: to guide the current of air downwards; it then passes under the first
steam chest and over the next, and so on as shewn by the arrows until
it arrives at the exit pipe h, which conveys the heated air into the
chamber or flue i, in which are two sets of rollers j and k. The larger
rollers of the upper set jare driven round by bevel wheels on the side
shaft, gearing into other wheels on the axles of the rollers. There is a
damper or valve ¹ in the connecting pipe h, to regulate the supply of
heated air into the upper chamber or flue i. There is a guide plate /*
reaching beyond the pipe to guide the air along the under side of the
rollers k. The top of the chamber or flue i is provided with a cover i¹.
The woven fabrics or other materials to be dried are carried in the
direction of the arrows under and over the rollers j and k, and the heated
air which enters at the bottom of the chamber or flue i in ascending
acts upon and penetrates through the woven fabrics or other materials
to be dried, and is only allowed to escape at the openings in the ends of
the chamber or flue, through which the materials to be dried enter and
are discharged.
The cold air is forced into the lower chamber a by a fan or other
equivalent, and the temperature to which it is heated will depend upon
the pressure of steam admitted to the chests b, and the extent of the
heating surfaces. The speed at which the fabric or other material is
carried through the apparatus must depend upon the nature thereof and
the degree of temperature of the heated air employed.
As it is sometimes desirable to cool the fabric or other material
issuing from the apparatus, we connect the vertical nozzle m to the
opening to allow a portion of the cold air to impinge against the
fabric or other material that has been dried, and we make a projection m¹
in the pipe to guide a portion of the cold air into the said nozzle m.
When the apparatus is required for drying starched goods instead of
the rollers skeleton rollers may be substituted so as not to take the
starch from the surface of the cloth.
The machine can be made to suit any width of cloth or other
material.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described a
convenient mode of performing the same, we declare that we claim, the
improved drying apparatus shown and described, consisting of a lower
chamber in which the air is heated, and of an upper chamber or flue in

page_text: which the hot air is confined, in such a manner as to act efficiently
upon the material to be dried; also the mode of cooling the cloth or other
materials as they Icave the apparatus.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Knowles and James Kay,
have hereto set our hands and seals, this Seventeenth day
April, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.