IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SINGEING OR FIRING COTTON AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Crabtree, Thomas Crabtree, and James
Crabtree, all of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Bleachers,
Dyers, Stiffeners, and Finishers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR SINGEING OR FIRING COTTON AND OTHER FABRICS."
Sealed the 25th October 1872, and dated the 9th May 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Crabtree,
Thomas Crabtree, and James Crabtree at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 9th May 1872.
We, SAMUEL CRABTREE, THOMAS CRABTREE, and JAMES CRABTREE,
all of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Bleachers, Dyers,
Stiffeners, and Finishers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SINGEING OR FIRING COTTON
AND OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows:―
The apparatus now in use for singeing or firing fabrics consists of an
arched cast-iron plate, which is heated to a red heat by a furnace placed
between the walls supporting the firing plate.

page_text: Now our Invention consists in admitting air to the furnace through
passages in the side walls, whereby the fire is kept bright and the firing
plate is retained at the proper temperature for singeing the fabrics as
they are rapidly drawn over it. The air passages are made by preferenco
in cast-iron plates fixed to the side walls, and sliding doors are applied
to cover or uncover the passages, in order to be able to regulate the
quantity of air admitted according to the requirements of the fire. By
means of these improvements not only is the firing plate kept to a
bright red heat, thereby improving the quality of the work, but the
quantity of fuel is reduced, and the cheapest small coal may be con-
sumed, whereas in the furnaces hitherto employed it is necessary to
burn good coal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Crabtree, Thomas Crabtree, and James
Crabtree in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th November 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wė, SAMUEL
CRABTREE, THOMAS CRABTREE, and JAMES CRABTREE, all of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Bleachers, Dyers, Stiffeners, and Finishers,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-fifth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Samuel Crabtree, Thomas Crabtree, and James
Crabtree, Her special licence, that we, the said Samuel Crabtrec,
Thomas Crabtree, and James Crabtree, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel Crabtree, Thomas
Crabtree, and James Crabtree, 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 APPARATUS FOR SINGEING OR
FIRING COTTON AND OTHER FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Samuel Crabtree, Thomas Crabtree, and James

page_text: Crabtree, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of our or their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Samuel Crabtree, Thomas Crabtree,
and James Crabtree, 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 by the following statement (that is
to say):—
.
The apparatus now in use for singeing or firing fabrics consists of
an arched cast-iron plate which is heated to a red heat by a furnace
placed between the walls supporting the firing plate..
Now our Invention consists in admitting air to the furnace through
passages in the side walls, whereby the fire is kept bright and the
firing plate is retained at the proper temperature for singeing the
fabrics as they are rapidly drawn over it. The air passages are made
by preference in cast-iron plates fixed to the side walls, and sliding
doors are applied to cover or uncover the passages in order to be able
to regulate the quantity of air admitted according to the requirements
of the fire. By means of these improvements not only is the firing
plate kept to a bright red heat, thereby improving the quality of the
work, but the quantity of fuel is reduced and the cheapest small coal
may be consumed, whereas in the furnaces hitherto employed it is
necessary to burn good coal.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, wo will proceed to describe the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, reference being had to the figures and letters marked.
thereon..
Fig. 1 is a front elevation' of a singcing or firing stove of the ordinary
construction to which our improvements are applied; Fig. 2 is a side
view of the same. a, a, are the side walls of the stove; 6, the grate bars,
and the ordinary singeing or firing plate. On each side of the stove
is a cast-iron plate d with six or any other convenient number of
perforations through it, and corresponding openings are made in the
side walls a, a. The lowest row of perforations is placed a little above

page_text: 1
d
the level of the grate bars 6 to convey the air to the under part of the
fire. The perforations in the plates & may be entirely or partially closed
by the sliding doors e, e, but when the operation of firing is going on
it is desirable to keep the perforations open; as shewn in the Drawing.
When the fire has been made up the front of the stove is closed by
fire-bricks or otherwise, and the air for supporting combustion is then
supplied through the perforations in the plates d, d, and between the
grate bars from below; the air so supplied keeps the fire bright and
clear, and consequently the firing plate is maintained at a bright red
heat, whereby the fabric passing over the firing plate is singed uniformly
and rapidly. This improved mode of supplying air to the fires of
singeing stoves not only economises time in performing the operation
of singeing, but it effects a great saving in fuel, for in ordinary singeing
stoves it was necessary to consume good coal, whereas the cheapest
small coal may be used in our improved stoves.
.'
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described a
convenient manner of performing the same, we wish to observe that
we do not intend to limit ourselves to the details given, as the number
and size of the perforations through which the air is admitted to the
fire may be considerably varied, and we claim as our Invention admitting
air to the fires of singeing stoves through perforations in the side walls,
as shewn and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Crabtree, for myself and
on behalf of the said Thomas Crabtree and James Crabtree, have.
hereto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of November One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.