IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SHEARING AND SINGEING FABRICS."
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Colin Mather, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
SHEARING AND SINGEING FABRICS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Colin Mather at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
October 1860.
I, COLIN MATHER, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR SHEARING AND SINGEING FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for shearing
and singeing fabrics.
And the improvements consist in so combining machinery for shearing
and singeing fabrics, that a fabric requiring to undergo these two processes
may pass from the shearing machinery to and through the singeing machinery
by the action of the combined mechanism, thus avoiding the carrying of the
fabric by hand from one machine to the other, by which much time and
labour will be saved, and the two processes will be otherwise more conveniently
performed on a fabric.
The details of the apparatus applied for combining the two processes may
be varied, but the arrangement preferred consists in the fabric being caused
as it comes from the cutters of the shearing machinery (which is of the ordi-
nary construction), to pass over two carrying rollers into the singeing machines
where it passes under a copper roller, then up and out of the singeing machine,
over one and around another of two batching rollers. The gas is burned with
as much atmospheric air as may be and is well understood. The copper

page_text: roller is arranged to be moved up and down within the enclosed gassing or
singeing chamber in order to bring the fabric more or less near to the gas
and air burner. The products of combustion are carried off by a chimney
near the upper part of the enclosed chamber. There is a door on one side
of the enclosed chamber.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Colin Mather in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd April 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, COLIN
MATHER, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
I
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Colin Mather, Her special licence that I, the said Colin
Mather, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Colin Mather my executors, administrators, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SHEARING AND SINGEING FABRICS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Colin Mather, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
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 I, the said Colin Mather, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for shearing
and singeing fabrics.
And the improvements consist in so combining machinery for shearing
and singeing fabrics, that a fabric requiring to undergo these two processes

page_text: may pass from the shearing machinery to and through the singeing machinery
by the action of the combined mechanism, thus avoiding the carrying of the
fabric by hand from one machine to the other, by which much time and labour
will be saved, and the two processes will be otherwise more conveniently
performed on a fabric.
The details of the apparatus applied for combining the two processes may
be varied, but the arrangement preferred consists in the fabric being caused
as it comes from the cutters of the shearing machinery (which is of the
ordinary construction) to pass over two carrying rollers into the singeing
machines, where it passes under a copper roller, then up and out of the singeing
machine, over one and around another of two batching rollers. The gas is
burned with as much atmospheric air as may be, and as is well understood.
The copper roller is arranged to be moved up and down within the enclosed
gassing or singeing chamber in order to bring the fabric more or less near to
the gas and air burner. The products of combustion are carried off by a
chimney near the upper part of the enclosed chamber. There is a door on
one side of the enclosed chamber.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, shews a side elevation, and Figure 2, a longitudinal section of
machinery combined according to my Invention. Heretofore, when fabrics
have required to undergo the two processes of shearing and singeing such processes
have been performed in succession in two distinct machines so that the fabrics
which have been first subjected to the action of a shearing machine have then
been removed by hand and conveyed to and entered in a singeing machine, by
which much time and labour have been expended.
According to the present Invention by combining shearing machinery
with singeing machinery the fabrics having been entered into the shearing
machinery are by the working of the combined machinery conducted to and
through the singeing machinery without requiring to be moved or hand-
led by the workmen intermediate of the two processes of shearing and singeing,
by which means time and labour will be saved and the work more ad-
vantageously performed.
The arrangement of shearing machine, shewn in the Drawing, is of an ordinary
construction, and separately forms no part of my Invention, and the details
thereof may be varied.
The singeing machinery which I prefer is that which is shewn in the

page_text: Drawing, and is similar to what is described in the Specification of Letters
Patent formerly granted to me dated the Twenty-seventh day of August 1860,
No. 2070, and separately is not claimed under the present Letters Patent. The
construction of the singeing machinery used when carrying out my present
Invention may be varied, I would here state that the Invention secured under
Letters Patent consists in combining shearing machinery with singeing machi-
nery in such manner that fabrics having been properly entered into and passed
through shearing machinery shall by the working of the machinery be conducted
through singeing machinery suitably combined with the shearing machinery.
In the Drawings the same letters of reference are used to indicate the same
parts in both Figures. The fabric a, a, is by preference first passed around a
cylinder 6, heated by steam by which it becomes dried, it is then conducted
over rails or bars c, c, down between the bars d, d, thence under the roller
e, which is covered with wire cards or other points, and is subjected to the
friction of a weighted band e¹, from the e roller the fabric ascends and is brushed
by a rotatory brush f, and it receives its first shearing or cropping at g, in
the ordinary manner; the fabric then receives a second shearing at h, in the
ordinary manner; but it is not essential that the fabrics should be twice sheared,
in which cases only one shearing cylinder will be used. The fabric a, having
passed through the shearing process now passes over a roller i, thence through
the singeing machine which in the arrangement shewn is such as is described
in the Specification of my former Patent, thence after being brushed by the
rotatory brush j, the fabric passes over the roller k, and under or around
the roller 1, when it is wound on the roller m, by the friction of the
roller n.
The Drawings clearly shew how motion is communicated from the
main or driving shaft to the various parts of the machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said Colin Mather, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
SAMUEL PORTER,
Salford.
COLIN MATHER. (L.S.)