IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ABBOTT, junior, of Wyndham Place, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the First day of August, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Abbott, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Abbott, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Abbott, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FELT;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said William Abbott, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Abbott, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say):-
According to the ordinary mode now pursued for making felt, the hair or
other materials employed is obtained in the form of what is called a bat, by
the process of bowing or otherwise, as is well understood, which bat is slightly
pressed on by the workman by a surface of open_basket work, and the bat is
then placed in a cloth in such manner as to enclose the bat on all sides and
surfaces. The bat so prepared then undergoes the process of felting by the
hands of the workman, he from time to time damping the fibres with water;
and the process of felting consists in pressing on the surfaces with the hand,
and from part to part of such surfaces, by which motion is communicated
to the fibres, which is the cause of a creeping action taking place of the
fibres amongst themselves, which causes them to interlock and intermat; such
process being carried on by the workman on a heated slab or bench of iron,
(kept hot by steam or other convenient means) the workman occasionally
examining the progress of his work, and by holding the sheet under operation,
when taken out of the cloth before the light, he ascertains whether there are
any thin places, and if there should be any he places a quantity of hair or
other fibre which he judges sufficient to make good such thin places; he then
again places the partially prepared sheet of felt in the cloth, and proceeds by
pressing with his hands progressively over the whole surface which is upwards,
occasionally turning the sheets over to bring up the other surface, and this
process is pursued till the required degree of felting is obtained.
Now, the principal object of this Invention is to make sheets of felt from
hair, such as are now, made by hand, and are used in ship building and also in
railways, and for other purposes, but the Invention is not confined to hair.
I would remark that I have been thus particular in calling attention to the
process now pursued in making sheets of felt by hand, by enveloping the bat
under operation in a cloth, and working by hand pressure, as is well under-
stood, because my Invention consists in the application of a system of rollers,
to press and work the bats of fibres within or between such cloths, in substi-
tution of the hand pressure and working above spoken of, and which is well
understood. And it should be stated, that according to my Invention the
process is to be carried on according to the well-known means now pursued,

page_text: up to the time that the bat of hair or other fibres is enveloped in a cloth, when
it is to undergo a process of rolling and pressure by rollers, on a similarly
heated surface to that now employed, and during such process of pressure and
rolling, the workman will from time to time moisten the cloths, and will turn
the bat over from side to side, and will examine the sheet of felt as it pro-
ceeds, in order to ascertain whether there are any inequalities, and in fact, he
will in all things, except in using roller pressure in place of hand pressure,
pursue like means to those now resorted to in making felt by hand.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a plan of a series of grooved rollers a, a, of wood, the axes of
which turn in the quadrangular frame b, and c, c, are the handles by which the
workman moves the frame of rollers to and fro on the upper surface of the
cloth containing the bat of fibres; Figure 2 is a side view of Figure 1, and
Figure 3 an end view of Figure 1. In using this apparatus the workman
places the cloth containing the bat of fibres on to a table or bench, similar to
that now employed, properly heated, and he stretches a cotton or other surface
of cloth over the cloth containing the fibres, and the object of such second
cloth so stretched over is to prevent the bat and its cloth being irregularly acted
on at its edges, which are apt to turn and move up unless a cloth is stretched
over, and for this purpose I have pins or other means of fixing the covering
cloth at the sides, so as not to give way when rolling with the rollers. The
workman from time to time turns the bat under operation, and examines the
progress of felting, in order to make good any thin places, and he applies water
or other fluid, as usually employed, from time to time as the felting proceeds,
and as is usually done in performing the process of felting by hand. The
workman simply moves the frame b to and fro in place of the hand pressure
formerly applied; in other respects the process of felting hair or other fibres
is to be pursued as heretofore.
Figure 4 shows an elevation in section, Figure 5 an end view, and Figure
6 a plan, of a similar system of rollers, to be worked by machinery. The
frame of rollers a, a, b, b, are similar to what are shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3,
excepting that in this case I prefer them to be of iron; c, c; is the framing of
the machine; d is the heated surface, on which the enveloped bat of hair
or other fibre is to be placed; and e is the steam pipe, for heating the
surface d. At the two sides there are guide plates f, f, for the frame of
rollers, there being friction rollers or wheels 9 carried
which work against the guide surfaces f, f. On the
by the frame a
upper surface of

page_text: the frame a is affixed a toothed rack h, having bandles i, by which the
workman can move it along off the bat under operation when required. Into
the rack ha cog wheel j works; such wheel being affixed on the shaft or axis k
turns in suitable bearings at top and bottom. The wheel j receives motion
from a steam engine or other power, by a connecting rod 7, which takes hold
of a crank pin m, and by such means when motion is communicated to the
connecting rod it communicates motion to the wheel j, giving it a motion on
its axis first in one direction then in the other, but I would remark that the
frame a, b, may have a to-and-fro motion communicated thereto by any other
convenient means.
In using this machine, the same description as given above in respect to the
hand rollers applies here, but I have found it desirable to have filling pieces of
felt or other material placed on the table or heated surface at each end of the
bat, in order to prevent the outer rollers descending when they pass beyond
the edges of the bat; and, further, I prefer to have a cloth stretched from end
to end of the table over the enveloped bat, which prevents the edges or ends
of the bat turning up after the rollers.
.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would remark that I do not confine myself to the
precise arrangement shewn and described for giving motion to the frame of
rollers when actuated by mechanical power. And it should be stated that I
am aware that it is not new to employ rollers to press fibres together with the
aid of adhesive mixtures, and thus produce a substitute for felt. In such case,
however, the fibres are not caused to move amongst themselves, in order to
produce actual felting. And further I am aware that a system of rollers
has been before used, and called planking machines, for completing the
process of felting; and it has been proposed to felt suitable fibres together
simply by acting on a bat thereof by means of rollers, but in such cases the
bat has not been enveloped in cloth. I do not, therefore, claim the appli
cation of the pressure and rolling action of rollers generally; nor do I claim
the placing of a bat of felting fibres between cloths, when such bat is felted
by the simple operation of the hands of the workman. But what I claim
is, the mode of felting by means of rollers on a surface when the bat of
fibres is enveloped in a cloth, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Abbott, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and forty.
.
WILLIAM (L.s.) ABBOTT, JUN'.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid William Abbott came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the First day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.