IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PLAITING, FOLDING, OR LAPPING TEXTILE FABRICS, PAPER PATTERN CARDS, OR MATERIALS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Peter Tassie and Isaac Patchett
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 22nd July 1868,
We, PETER TASSIE and ISAAC PATOHETT, of the City of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PLAITING,
FOLDING, OR LAPPING TEXTILE FABRICS, PAPER PATTERN CARDS, OR
MATERIALS, to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to plait, fold, or lap textile fabrics,
pattern cards, paper, or other materials in a more perfect and expeditious
manner than has hitherto been accomplished.
In two side frames held apart by cross bars or frames we place two
slides carrying two knives or folders, and to the side frames are adjusted
and fixed two clamps or clips which can be opened and closed as
required, and one knife corresponds with one clamp and the other
knife with the other clamp, and the clamps are placed apart the required
length of the folds. The slides and knives have a traversing motion
of the same length as the fold, the motion being given by a lever
acted upon by an adjustable crank on a shaft driven by a strap or

page_text: gearing from the driving shaft of the machine. The clamps are opened
as required by projections on the slides acting upon levers and ratchets
or cams, and closed by springs or cams when the projections have left
the levers, and the knives are turned up alternately out of the way of
each other by means of inclines for enabling each knife to agree with its
corresponding clamp, and when velvets or other delicate materials have
to be folded we place india-rubber, leather, or other soft material in the
jaws of the clamps. The material to be folded is passed over rollers
between the knives and entered between one of the clamps, and when
the machine is set to work the knife corresponding with the other clamp
carries the material forward and places it in the clamp. As the slide is
traversing in the other direction the first clamp is opened to release the
material and allow the second knife to bring forward the material and
enter it into the corresponding clamp, and so on, continuously placing the
material in the clamps and releasing it from them as the knives move
to and fro, thereby plaiting, folding, or lapping the material. The
clamps are moved to their required positions by right and left handed
screws at each end worked simultaneously by bevil wheels.
Or the clamps are adjusted to their positions by the following
method:-The crank pin for working the lever and slides is first
adjusted by an index to the proper distance from the centre to give
the required traverse of the slides and then the clamps are placed against
stops on the slides when the slides are at the two ends of the stroke.
As the material is folded it drops on a table, which at the first fold is
nearly close to the knives, but which at each fold is gradually depressed
according to the thickness of the material, the depressing motion being
given by screws, levers, racks, or other mechanical means.
At one side of the machine we place an ordinary registering apparatus,
worked by the to-and fro movement of one of the slides for the purpose
of registering the number of folds and denoting the number of yards of
the folded material.