CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF CLEARING FURS AND WOOLS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OP HATS FROM KEMPS AND HAIRS
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BARKER, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, and JOHN RAWLINSON
HARRIS, of Winchester Place, Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Hat
Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the second year of His reign, give
and grant unto us, the said Thomas Barker and John Rawlinson Harris, our
exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power; sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said Thomas Barker and John Rawlinson Harris, our
exors, aduiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should'
and lawfully might make, use, exercisè, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
OF CLEARING FURS AND WOOLS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OP HATS FROM KEMPS
AND HAIRS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that
if we, the said Thomas Barker and John Rawlinson Harris, shall not particu-"
larly describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our
hand and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 "

page_text: then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Thomas Barker and John Rawlinson Harris, do hereby describe and ascertain
the nature of our said Invention, and two several manners in which the same
may be performed, by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
That our Invention doth consist in certain improvements in the machines
used for clearing kemps and hairs from furs and wools required in the
manufacture of hats.
The first of our said improvements doth consist in a regulator, placed at the
end of the wind passage, and is formed by a check-board immediately at and
opposed to the extremity of the wind passage, which causes the wind to rise
through an opening made by a sliding board which constitutes the top of the
wind passage, as is herein-after more particularly described, reference being
had to the Drawings annexed.
The second of our said improvements doth consist in extending the wind
passage to a much greater length than has hitherto been done by means
herein-after described, and by placing the receiving chamber, or place where
the cleared fur or wool collects, in a situation above or over and behind the
said opening at the end of the wind passage, as is herein-after more particularly
described, reference being had to the Drawings annexed.
The third of our said improvements doth consist in substituting for the fan.
and beaters now in use a reel with catgut cords, or what is usually termed
hatters' bowstring, stretched across it, which, striking against a peg or knob in
their passage round, are vibrated sufficient to cause the wind necessary for the
purposes of the machine, at the same time that they seperate in a more effec-..
tual manner the materials, whatever they may be, which are to be cleared, as
is herein-after more particularly described, reference being had to the Drawings
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a section of a machine such as is now in use, with the addition of
part of our said improvements; and we shall confine ourselves to the improve-
ments in the following references:-A, A, is a slight false bottom resting upon
a beading 9, g, which serves to extend the wind passage P, at the same time that
it supports the cleared fur that settles in the receiving chamber R; B, C, is a
sliding board, which we call the regulating board, it is elevated at an angle of
about forty-five degrees at C, and slides on the beads ff, backwards and forwards,
Fig. 1 is a section of a machine such as is now in use, with the addition of
part of our said improvements; and we shall confine ourselves to the improve-
ments in the following references:-A, A, is a slight false bottom resting upon
a beading 9,g, which serves to extend the wind passage P, at the same time that
it supports the cleared fur that settles in the receiving chamber R; B, C, is a
sliding board, which we call the regulating board, it is elevated at an angle of
about forty-five degrees at C, and slides on the beads ff, backwards and forwards,

page_text: It
over more or less of the false bottom A, A, by means of which the opening O
is increased or diminished at pleasure, according to the distance it is removed
from that part of the end of the receiving chamber marked D, and which in
the machine here represented answers for the purpose of the check-board
herein-before mentioned and herein-after more particularly described.
should be here observed, that the coarser the material to be cleared the wider
this said opening O should be made. E represents the bottom of the wind
passage, and Z, the aperture at the end of the circumference of the fan or
beater, which admits air for the purpose of the machine; and in order to com-
plete the regulator, we use a small sliding board by which this aperture Z may
be contracted at pleasure, but as anything that will cover a portion of this
aperture will answer the purpose, we do not think it necessary to describe any
more particular manner of doing so; this small sliding board we call a
damper.
Fig. 2 represents the wind passage and check-board, where the receiving
chamber is placed in any other position than the one herein-before described,
and in which cases the end of the receiving chamber cannot be made to answer
the purpose and give the effect of a check-board. R. is the receiving chamber;
P, P, the wind passage; D, the check-board; and B, C, the regulating or
sliding board; by this arrangement the length of the wind passage is so great
that most of the hair and kemps and heary matter contained in the materials
to be cleared have an opportunity of settling on the bottom of the wind
passage, and those which are carried to the end of it, meeting with the check-
board, are stopped there, while the light and clear fur or wool is carried up
through the opening O by the current of wind, which is turned upwards by
meeting with the resistance of the check-board; by this means the material in
its cleared state is carried into the receiving chamber. The check-board
should be a little higher than the sliding board, but the better plan is to make
the end of the receiving chamber answer the purpose of a check-board, as is
herein-before described.
Fig. 3 represents a section of a machine containing all our said improve-
ments, with the wind passage extended by means of a double regulator, such
regulator being exactly on the same principle as the one herein-before
described, though somewhat differing in form and application. R is the
receiving chamber; C, the upper regulator, moving on a hinge at K, and
upheld by a string L, by which the opening O is increased or diminished;
B, the under regulator, and fixed in one position; H, the check-board to the
under regulator; D, part of the end of the receiving chamber, serving the
purpose of a clieck-board to the upper regulator. The increased length of the

page_text: wind passage is here obtained by a back draught in the following manner :-
The material to be cleared being taken off the feeding clotch or endless web,W
in the ordinary manner, is blown to the end of that part.of the wind passage P,
whence the wind meeting with the check-board H returns all. that which is
not sufficiently cleared and light to ascend into the receiving chamber over. the
under regulator by that part of the. wind passage S, whence it is carried back
to P through the opening Q, and is again forced forward, by which time it is
sufficiently light and cleared to rise into the receiving chamber, where it
collects behind, over, and upon the upper regulator, and whence it is removed
by the door M.
Having now described the extended wind passage and double regulator of
this machine, we will explain the reel with catgut: cords, herein-before
mentioned as part of our Invention. a, a, a, a, a, a, represent the section of
a hollow cylinder; e, e, e, e, e, e, a flaunch at one of its extremities. From the
rim of this flanch arc, extended cords of catgut, or what is usually termed
hatters' bowstring, to a corresponding flanch at the other end of the cylinder;
these cords are represented by the small circles; the number of these cords
may vary, but perhaps 72 on a reel of the dimensions here described will be
the best arrangements. At X is a peg or pin so placed that the cords of the
reel as they pass round strike against it and cause their rapid vibration, and
the cords while vibrating take the material to be cleared from the feeding cloth,
shake it open, and, as we have generally found, cause sufficient wind in their
rotation to force it into the wind passage, as before described; but if. this
should not be the case, we add small fans, as at r, r; r, r, r, r, r, r; on. the
circumference of the cylinder. T is a front view of the reel, shewing the
cylinder without any fans, and the cords stretched from flanch to flanch. The
blue line under the reel on the bottom of the wind passage denotes a lining.of
tin. The reel is turned in the same manner as the fan; but as our aforesaid
improvements do not require any different arrangement of the wheelwork.to
that now in use, we do not think it necessary to describe it further. than as will
be seen by the Drawings annexed.
Now, the. materials of which our. said. several improvements are made
may be varied at the pleasure of the mechanic employed. in their manu-
facture, and the size admits of no rule, provided always that the proportions
represented in the Figures and Drawings annexed are observed. But
an extended wind passage and regulator, in manner and such as that herein-
before described, and a machine with a divided wind passage, double
regulator, and reel, such as that herein-before described at Fig. 3, together
with a receiving chamber, so situated above, or. over, and behind the extre-

page_text: mity of the wind passage, as aforesaid, being to the best of our knowledge
and belief entirely new and never before used in these kingdoms, we are
desirous to maintain this our exclusive right and privilege to the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Rawlinson Harris, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two..