IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR STIFFENING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Bryan Baker, of Sherwood Street, Not-
tingham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR STIFFENING
LACE AND OTHER FABRICS."
Sealed the 4th April 1862, and dated the 16th October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Bryan Baker
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th October 1861.
I, FRANCIS BRYAN BAKER, of Sherwood Street, Nottingham, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR
STIFFENING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object "Improvements in Dressing or Stiffening
Lace and other Fabrics." In dressing or stiffening some description of
fabrics, as, for example, lace, with pattern threads of floss silk, it is desirable to
apply the dressing or stiffening material to the back only of the fabric, without
wetting the face. This is sometimes done with more or less success by hand,
but it cannot be done by the dressing apparatus now sometimes employed
where the fabric is passed and squeezed between two rollers, the lower one of
which dips into a trough containing the dressing.
According to my Invention I cause the fabric to be dressed or stiffened to
pass in contact only with a roller, which is kept coated with a film of dressing
material. This dressing roller revolves constantly, and receives its film of
dressing from another roller against which it rests by its own weight, and
which latter roller dips into a trough containing the stiffening material. It is
the back of the fabric which comes in contact with the dressing roller, and it
bears but lightly upon it, so that the dressing is not pressed through to the
face of the fabric, and the quantity of dressing on the dressing roller is so

page_text: adjusted as not to be sufficient to soak through it without pressure. After
the fabric leaves the dressing roller it passes over another roller covered with
soft material, which removes from the interstices of the fabric any dressing
which may have entered and filled them; but the filling of the interstices of
the fabric is for the most part avoided by the proper regulation of the quantity
of dressing on the dressing roller. In many cases a single passage over the
dressing roller will not apply sufficient stiffening material; when this is so I
pass the fabric several times over the roller, or I pass it over several dressing
rollers, and by preference I dry or partially dry the fabric after each appli-
-cation of dressing before it receives another quantity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Bryan Baker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th April 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
BRYAN BAKER, of Sherwood Street, Nottingham, send-greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Francis Bryan Baker, Her special licence that I, the said Francis Bryan
Baker, my executors, administrators, and-assigns,-or-such-others-as-I,-the-
said Francis Bryan Baker, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR STIFFENING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Francis Bryan Baker, 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 mouths next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francis Bryan Baker, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: 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 dressing or stiffening lace
and other fabrics. In dressing or stiffening some descriptions of fabrics, as, for
example, lace with pattern threads of floss. silk, it is desirable to apply the
dressing or stiffening material to the back only of the fabric without wetting
the face. This is sometimes done with more or less success by hand, but it.
cannot be done by the dressing apparatus now sometimes employed, where the..
fabric is passed and squeezed between two rollers, the lower one of which dips
into a trough containing the dressing.
According to my Invention I cause the fabric to be dressed or stiffened to
pass in contact only with a roller, which is kept coated with a film of dressing
material. This dressing roller revolves constantly, and receives its film of
dressing from another roller against which it rests by its own weight, and
which latter roller dips into a trough containing the stiffening material. It is
the back of the fabric which comes in contact with the dressing roller, and it
bears but lightly upon it,,so that the dressing is not pressed through to the face
of the fabric, and the quantity of dressing on the dressing roller is so adjusted
as not to be sufficient to soak through it. without pressure. After the fabric leaves.
the dressing roller it passes over another roller covered with soft material,
which removes from the interstices of the fabric any dressing which may have
entered and filled them; but the filling of the interstices of. the fabric is for.
the most part avoided by the proper regulation of the quantity of dressing, on
the dressing roller. In many cases a single passage over the dressing, roller.
will not apply sufficient stiffening material; when this is so I pass the fabric
several times over the roller, or I pass it over several dressing rollers, and by
preference I dry or partially dry the fabric after each application of dressing
before it receives another quantity.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
In carrying out my Invention the arrangement of the machinery employed
may be varied, but the one I prefer is combined as follows:-The lace or
other fabric which is about to be dressed is placed, when wound on a reel, into
the front end of a machine; at the other end of the machine there is another
reel towards which the fabric is drawn as it is progressively dressed. The:
lace or fabric in passing from the reel at the front end of the machine is
passed in succession under and over three or more rods in order that the fabric
may be opened out and kept extended, as is well understood. The end of the
fabric is attached to several hooks which are on a band or strap which is

page_text: transversely across the machine. This band or strap at its ends is attached to
two other bands or straps which pass in a direction from front to back of the
machine, and in doing so such bands are kept parallel to each other, and at
the proper distance apart by parallel rails fixed one on each side of the machine,
which rails are arranged in such manner as to guide two slides or carriages
fixed at the two ends of the transverse strap or band which is hooked to the
end of the fabric. The other ends of the longitudinal straps or bands are
fastened to the reel at the back end of the machine. More than two longi-
tudinal bands or straps may be attached to the transverse band or strap when
the width of the machine requires it. It is preferred to employ a friction
break, or a pulley fixed on the axis of the reel on which the fabric is wound,
in order that the reel may not turn too readily. Under the fabric is applied a
trough transversely of the machine, into which the fluid used for dressing the
fabric is placed. In this trough there is a roller, the lower parts of which dips
into the fluid. On the upper part of this roller a second roller rests, and it is
the upper surface of this roller which applies the dressing to the fabric as the
fabric is drawn through the machine. The upper roller receives motion by its
surface contact with the lower roller, to which rotatory motion is applied in any
convenient manner. The upper roller constantly receives a supply of the
dressing fluid from the lower roller, which it carries up to and applics to the
back or under surface of the passing fabric. The rollers are covered with a
soft woollen or other suitable fabric.
In some cases more than one of these pairs of rollers, with their troughs,
are used to act on the fabric in succession. Or, the machine may be arranged
in such manner that the fabric having been passed from end to end over the
upper roller of the pair of rollers above mentioned, may then be caused to
pass back again and be again dressed. As the parts of the fabric pass the
pair of rollers above described, they come in contact with the upper surface of
a roller which is covered in like manner to the others, but does not have
dressing fluid supplied to it from the trough. This roller is caused to revolve
quickly, and by its quick revolution against the under surface of the fabric
removes any excess of the dressing or stiffening fluid from the under surface
of the fabric. When more than one pair of rollers are used to apply the
dressing or stiffening fluid to the back or under surface of the fabric, there is
also one of these rapidly revolving rollers after each pair. It is preferred that
means should be employed for drying or partially drying the fabric before
another coat of the dressing is applied. Near the back end of the machine is
a reel, which consists of three bars on suitable spokes or projections from the
central shaft or axis of the reel. Each of these bars consists of two parallel

page_text: plates, with a space between them. In this space a bar is received in such
manner as to slide or move freely between them; on the outer edge of each
of these bars are fixed numerous fine teeth or points which enter through the
fabric when the bar is above the shaft or axis of the machine, and the fabric
is moved forward through the machine by this reel after the end of the fabric
has arrived at and has been received on to the points of this reel. The hooks
of the band before mentioned are detached from the fabric when the recl just
described has taken it by its points. The moveable bars, which have the
points or teeth at their outer edges, are actuated by levers, one end of each
of which levers of a bar rests against and are connected to the inner edge of
that bar. The other end of each of these levers is weighted, so that when a
sliding bar is above the axis of the reel which carries it, such sliding bar will
bo moved out as far as it is permitted to go by the gravity of the weighted
ends of the levers, by which the points or teeth will be caused to protrude
beyond the outer edges of the two plates between which each sliding bar
moves; hence when a bar is by the rotation of the axle of the reel brought
vertically above that axle the points or teeth will penetrate the fabric, and
such fabric will be moved by such teeth so long as they protrude beyond the
two plates between which their bar works; but such bar and its points will
be withdrawn from the fabric and between the two plates as soon as the plates
come below the axis of the reel by reason of the weighted ends of the levers.
In order to insure the fabric separating from the outer edges of the two plates
of each bar when the points are withdrawn, a revolving brush or other
instrument is applied to act against the fabric as it comes below the axis of
the reel.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to
the mechanism herein described; but what I claim is the application of
dressing or stiffening fluid to the backs of fabrics by rollers in the manner
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Bryan Baker, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
FRANCIS BRYAN BAKER. (L.S.)