IMPROVEMENTS IN FULLING MACHINES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bates and Frederick Bates, of Sowerby
Bridge, in the County of York, Millwrights, Fulling Machine, and
General Machine Makers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FULLING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bates and
Fredorick Bates at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 16th March 1866.
We, WILLIAM BATES and FREDERICK BATES, of Sowerby Bridge, in the
County of York, Millwrights, Fulling Machine, and General Machine
Makers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FULLING MACHINES," to be as follows:-.
This Invention relates to machines employed in fulling or milling woollen
fabrics, and our improvements consist in the application and use of an
additional pair of nipping or squeezing rollers, placed at or near the delivery
end of the trougb, which conduct the fabrics from the ordinary rollers. Also

page_text: in constructing or providing a curved back or curved surface of the lining
of the machine behind or opposite to the delivery side of the additional
rollers. These rollers are driven at a suitable speed to receive the fabrics
from the trough without producing a draught or pull, but exerting a
pressure on and forcing them against the curved back, by which means the
creases previously produced aro removed, and a further fulling effect is
produced on the fabrics.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Bates and Frederick Bates in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BATES and FREDERICK BATES, of Sowerby Bridge, in the County of York,
Millwrights, Fulling Machine, and General Machine Makers, send greeting.
the
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William Bates and Frederick Bates, Her special licence that
we,
said William Bates and Frederick Bates, our executors, 'administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said William Bates and Frederick Bates,
our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN FULLING
MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Bates and Frederick Bates, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under 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 William Bates and Frederick Bates,
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

page_text: by the following statement and accompanying Sheet of Drawings (that is to
say) :-
'This Invention relates to machines employed in fulling or milling woollen
fabrics, and our improvements consist in the application and use of a pair of
nipping or squeezing rollers at or near.the delivery end of the trough which
conducts the fabrics from the ordinary rollers. Also in constructing or
providing a,curved back or curved surface of the lining of the machine behind
or opposite to the delivery side of the additional rollers. These rollers are
driven at a suitable speed to receive the fabrics from the trough without
producing any draught or pull, but exerting a pressure and force them
against the curved back by which the creases previously-produced are removed,
and a further fulling effect is produced on the fabrics.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawings represent a longitudinal and vertical section of a fulling
machine with our-improvements applied thereto; A, B, C, and D are the
ordinary rollers, and E is the trough or fulling box with its weighted flap or
lid for pressing and retarding the fabrics as they are forced into the trough by
the rollers. These parts and the framework are constructed and arranged as
heretofore. G and H are the additional pair of nipping or squeezing rollers,
which (by preference) are fluted. They are applied near the delivery end of
the trough and are driven or receive motion by belt and pullies from the
ordinary rollers C, D, and at the same surface speed. These rollers receive
the fabrics from the trough at the same speed as they enter, consequently the
trough is always kept full, and they force or push them forward against a
curved back or curved surface of the lining I and betwixt another weighted
flap J hinged to the frame at K, by which the fabrics are again pressed and
retarded in their passage in a similar manner as when they are passing through
the trough. By means of these improvements a further fulling effect or an
increased action on the fabrics is produced at each passage through the
machine, thereby greatly facilitating the process of fulling or milling woollen
fabrics. Also the fulling effects produced thereon are much better than
heretofore, as by the action of the ordinary rollers C and D the fabrics are
very much creased in their longitudinal direction, and which creases are not
afterwards sufficiently removed, and the fulling is effected more in the breadth
than in the length of the fabric.
Now by our improvements the creases formed by the first rollers are
removed by the second, and the extra or further fulling effects are produced
I

page_text: more in the length than in the breadth of the fabrics, which are desirable
attainments.
In witness whereof, I, the said: William. Bates, for and on behalf of
myself and the said Frederick Bates, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Thirteenth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-six.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named William Bates, in
:the presence of
WM. TASKER,
Patent Agent,
Halifax.
WILLIAM BATES. (L.s.)