IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING LACE, OR OTHER FABRICS MADE OF SILK, COTTON, OR OTHER MATERIAL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Cowen, the younger, of the Town and County
of the Town of Nottingham, Mechanical Draughtsman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING LACE, OR OTHER FABRICS MADE OF SILK,
COTTON, OR OTHER MATERIAL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 8th April 1859, and dated the 11th October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Cowen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
October 1858.
I, ROBERT COWEN, the younger, of the Town and County of the Town of
Nottingham, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING LACE OR OTHER FABRICS MADE
OP SILK, COTTON, OR OTHER MATERIAL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in dressing lace or other fabrics made of silk, cotton,.
or other material, and is as follows:-In dressing lace or other fabrics, I wind,
if convenient to do so, the lace or other fabric upon a roller, so as to conduct
the same on to an apparatus, which is so adapted as to stretch it any required
width, when it receives the dressing; from thence I conduct it through a hot
chamber at such speed that from the time the lace or other fabric entered
in a wet or glutinous state, it shall, without frictional pressure being applied,

page_text: come out perfectly dry, and in such or similar state as lace, silks, or other
fabrics do, when they are dressed or got up in the ordinary way.
I propose to make my hot-air chamber as follows:-Immediately under the
lace or other goods intended to be dressed, I have a steam chamber con-
structed of iron box, or tubing, with circular cap or partial covering to confine
the hot air, so as to preclude the elaborate use of steam piping, whether as
applied immediately under the lace or other fabrics being dressed, or in course
of dressing, or as used in ordinary circumstances to render the room of an
equal heat. When the lace or other fabrics come from this chamber in a
state of what is understood in the trade as finished dressing by ordinary
machinery, I conduct it when in a perfectly dry state through a pair of rollers
heated by steam, or otherwise, for the purpose of flattening the same, and
from these on to a revolving stretcher, when it can be taken off as finished.
I propose to make an outlet in my hot-air chamber to carry off any superfluous
air or steam..
In using steam piping in the hot chamber, I may require a similar bottom
to the top, that is to say, a cap placed the same under the pipes as that above
them, so as to a certain extent to confine the air within them; but under any
circumstances the caps would be placed so far apart as to allow the lace or
other fabric to pass through.
There is also in this my Invention an apparatus for steaming the lace or
other goods previously to entering the hot-air chamber, so as to clear the
fabric, if necessary. This I use or not, as occasion may require. My apparatus
is constructed thus:-I place two or more tubes together, having holes on the
under side of one, with holes on the top side of the other; these are placed at
such distance apart as to allow the lace or other fabric to pass through while
being steamed, as the same may require; the whole I propose to encase, with
the exception of the openings for goods to pass through, so that the steam
could not in any great quantity get into the room.
An advantage possessed by my Invention is, that it dresses lace or other
fabrics with more economy than the means heretofore used, and effects much
saving both of labor and space.