IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND WARPING YARNS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Peabody, of Warnford Court, in
the City of London, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND WARPING YARNS." -A communi-
cation.
Sealed the 18th November 1853, and dated the 21st September 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Peabody at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 21st September 1853.
I, GEORGE PEABODY, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND WARPING YARNS"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a mechanical process of dressing and
warping yarns.
The first improvement consists principally in the apparatus for drying
The
the yarns after they have passed through the sizing troughs.
yarns first pass through proper saddles, then between the sizing rolls
(about which the sizing vats are placed), and next to the brushes,
which remove the superfluous size, and dress the yarns in the usual
After passing through proper guides, &c. the yarns are con-

page_text: veyed around a drying cylinder, the periphery of which is constructed
of slats or laths arranged with spaces or apertures. Enclosed in the
cylinder is a fan or blower, which is mounted concentric with the
cylinder. The slatted cylinder has its bearings upon friction rolls, and
is revolved slowly by the draft of the yarns upon it, but the fan
is revolved at a very rapid rate. By this mode of constructing the
drying cylinder the air is forced with a uniform pressure to all parts of
the yarn on the slats, instead of being directed, as in the manner here-
tofore practised, in a single current against the threads, which when
broken would be blown so far away as to prevent their being readily
united. The force of the air is broken by the slats, and a gentle
current acts upon all portions of the yarn about the cylinder. The
yarns are afterwards conducted over and under heated cylinders, and
thence to a second fan cylinder, in passing from which they are
gathered up by reeds, and wound upon what may be termed a spool
beam.
Another essential improvement consequent upon the use of this
Invention consists in warping directly from the spools through the
dressing and sizing apparatus to the spool beams. In warping from
section beams, as heretofore practised, the varying degrees of velocity
with which the bobbins revolved, when full and when nearly un-
wound, necessarily occasioned a varying tension in the threads. In the
improved machine, by warping directly from the spools to the spool
beams, as before stated, a much more uniform tension is kept upon
the
yarns. The spool beams are so arranged on their shaft as to be
readily taken off the same when full by means of a hinged drop standard
which supports one end of the shaft. They can then be placed in the
loom side by side, forming a loom beam in perfect condition.
It will be understood that hot air may be forced on to the yarns
by connecting pipes which are heated to the draught hole of the fan
box.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Peabody in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st March 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE PEABODY, of Warnford Court, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said George Peabody, Her special
license that I, the said George Peabody, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Peabody, my execu-
tors, 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 Chaunel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED
MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND WARPING YARNS," being a communication
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
George Peabody, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 George Peabody, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):
In
The Figures of the accompanying Drawings represent the improved
machinery constituting the subject of the present Invention.
Sheet I. Fig. 1, is a plan or top view of the improved machinery for dress-

page_text: ing and warping yarns. Fig. 2, is an enlarged central vertical section of
the sectional loom beam. Fig. 3, is a plan of the entire loom beam.
In Sheet II. Fig. 4, is a side elevation of the machine, and Fig. 5, is an
enlarged vertical section of one of the fan cylinders..
The ordinary method of warping and dressing cotton yarns is by the
agency of two distinct machines: First, a machine called a warper, in
which two hundred or three hundred small spools or bobbins of yarn
are placed that deliver the yarns to a beam four or five feet long, with
heads of about fifteen inches diameter, technically called a "section
beam." As the yarns are wound upon these beams they frequently
increase in diameter faster at one end than at the other, and as some of
the yarns are taken on to the beam faster than others a general uneven-
ness is produced upon the surface of the beam. Secondly, eight of the
said section beams are placed in a machine (four at each end) called a
dresser. To each beam a friction strap, lever, and adjustable weight is
applied. In the centre of the said dresser is placed a loom beam
driven by the necessary gearing. The yarns from the several section
beams are passed through proper guides or raddles; thence through
four or eight sets (as the operator may decide) of size rolls; thence
through other raddles, brushes, &c. to the centre of the machine, where
they are attached to the loom beam. Motion is then given to the loom
beam, causing all the size rolls and the eight section beams to revolve
by the tension or draft of the yarns.
The purpose of the strap, lever, and adjustable weight is to prevent
the section beam from revolving too easily, and to produce sufficient re-
sistance to take the elasticity from the shorter threads, or cause them to
stretch sufficiently to keep the longest ones straight. The weights are
adjusted by the attendant as the section beams decrease in diameter in
order to equalize the tension of the yarns. The uniformity of tension,
which is very important, is thus dependent upon the care and judgment
of the attendant.
Now according to the plan followed in working out the present In-
vention the yarns are warped and dressed as they pass from small spools
or bobbins to sectional loom beams, which, as fast as completed, are
arranged side by side on a shaft, and are then ready to be placed in the

page_text: loom. By this method of warping and dressing the varying tension of.
the yarns is avoided, as the spools or bobbins which supply the yarns
are light and of small diameter, and being independent of each other,
and readily inserted or removed, they offer great facilities for arranging
colored yarns, and for making an unlimited variety of stripes in the
woven fabric.
The amount of tension on the yarns running from the small bobbins
is not sufficient to take any of the elasticity from the yarns, being only
enough to keep them straight, so that one thread shall not twist around
another previous to their entering between the size rolls. After passing
between the size rolls there is no variation in the tension, but each indi-
vidual thread will bear its equal proportion of the strain, whereby the
elasticity will be taken alike from each of the threads, which will be
delivered upon the loom beam in like manner. The amount of strain
or tension given to the threads previous to their entering between the
size rolls is not more than five per cent. of the amount given them
when they are delivered upon the loom beam.
The amount of varying tension the threads receive in turning the
small bobbins by the variation of their diameters while the yarn is being
unwound is so slight that it is not perceivable in the work. It will
readily be seen that yarn sized and dressed and delivered upon a loom
beam ready for weaving, with the stretch or elasticity taken from each
of the threads alike, will weave with very much less breakage than
those yarns which (as by the old process) have been dressed and de-
livered to the loom beam with nearly all the elasticity taken from
them, while some of the threads have not been stretched at all.
In the machine, by warping and dressing directly from small bobbins
or spools containing each but one thread, they are so readily inserted or
removed that great facilities for the arrangement of colors are afforded,
while the width of the loom beam and the number of threads to the
inch can be varied at pleasure.
The stripes in the fabric can also be varied at will without changing
the spools or bobbins which supply the yarns. This is done by so
placing the sectional loom beams with regard to each other in the loom
as to bring the end stripe of one immediately adjacent to a similar
.

page_text: stripe of the next, it being only necessary, in thus arranging the
sectional loom beams, to alternate their direction of revolution while
being filled, as will herein-after be more fully described.
In applying a current of air for drying yarns after they have passed
through the sizing trough the fans have hitherto but imperfectly per-
formed their office, as they blow air against the yarns in a single current
or jet, and therefore but a small portion of the yarns lies in the current
of air at a time, while the force of the current thus impinged against
the yarns blows them so far away when broken as to prevent their being
readily reunited. In the improved machine the yarns pass around an
open slatted cylinder, within which the fans are revolved at a rapid
rate. By this arrangement the current produced by the revolution of
the fans is directed in a gentle breeze to a large portion or surface of
the yarns which extend around the cylinder, the force of the current
being broken by the slats of the same.
. a, a, a, in the Drawings represent the supporting framework of the
machine; the spools or bobbins upon which the yarns are wound are of
small diameter, and are arranged at one end of the machine. The
yarns, represented by colored lines in the Drawings, pass from these
spools through proper guides or raddles c, c, between the sizing
rolls d, d, and from thence through raddles e, e, and over the roll f, as
shewn in Fig. 1, Sheet I., and in Fig. 4, Sheet II., to the slatted fan
cylinder g, g, the construction and operation of which will now be de-
scribed. h, h, Fig. 5, Sheet II., are the fans, connected by proper
arms i, i, to a revolving shaft k. These fans revolve in and are encased
by a cylinder composed of slats g, g, arranged with spaces or openings
between them. The journals of this cylinder rest upon friction rolls 1, 1,
shown by dotted lines in Fig. 4, so as to be easily revolved by the draw-
ing of the yarns, which are guided by the roll f, before referred to, and
the first heating cylinder m, around a large portion of the periphery of
the slatted fan cylinder g, g. By this arrangement the yarns, instead of
being exposed to a strong single current or jet of air upon a small por-
tion of their length only, as occurs in the use of the ordinary fan, the
construction of which is well known, are kept as it were in a gentle
circulation or current of air, the force of the current produced by the

page_text: revolution of the fans being broken by the slats g, g, between which the
air has to pass before reaching the yarns. As the yarns are made to
pass around a large portion of the periphery of the slatted cylinder g, g,
they are exposed through a large portion of their length to the current
of air produced by the fans, thus facilitating the process of drying,
while in case of the breaking of a yarn it can readily be reunited, be-
cause the loose ends are not blown off, which often happens in the use
of the common fans for drying yarns. After passing around the first
slatted cylinder g, g, and over the first heated metallic cylinder m, the
yarns pass under the heated cylinder n, and over the heated cylinder o,
to the second slatted fan cylinder p, p, constructed in a precisely similar
manner to the slatted cylinder g, g, and from thence over the roll q, q.
From this roll q, q, they converge to the last raddles s, s, through which
they pass, and are wound upon a sectional loom beam t, as shown in the
Drawings. This sectional loom beam or spool t, is fastened by a key u,
Fig. 2, Sheet I., to a square shaft v, (which is revolved by the gear w,
and pinions a, a, a,) so as to be readily slipped from the same. The
shaft u, has its bearings in the standards y, y, of the framework a, a,
and by lifting out the moveable pieces z, z, the said shaft, with the
spool or sectional loom beam t, and gear w, can be removed from the
framework a, a, so that the sectional loom beam t, when finished, can
be taken off the shaft v, and a new spool inserted in its place, which
when finished will in its turn be removed to give place to another.
When the requisite number of sectional loom beams is formed the
beams are placed side by side upon a shaft, as shown at b¹, a, a, in
Fig. 3, Sheet I., to form an entire loom beam ready for insertion in
the loom. The sectional loom beam a', may be so placed with regard
to the sectional loom beam b', as to bring the stripes formed by the
colored yarns in the same consecutive order as those on the sectional
loom beam b', or the sectional loom beam a', may be so placed by
reversing its position or turning it end for end as to form a stripe of
double width in the fabric, as clearly shown in Fig. 3. It is neces-
sary in this case to reverse the direction of revolution of the sectional
loom beam a', while forming it, in order that it may deliver the yarn to

page_text: the loom in the same direction as the beam 6', and this may be effected
by using one intermediate gear a, instead of two.
The above-described method for making up a loom beam is an essen-
tial feature in these improvements, as by it the width of the loom beam
can be increased at pleasure, while a great variety of stripes in the
fabric can be produced without changing the spools which supply the
yarns. By the method heretofore practised of warping and dressing
yarns a variety of stripe in the fabric could only be produced by making
up an entire new section or supplying beam, while in this machine this
desideratum is effected by the different collocation of the several sec-
tional loom beams in the loom, as well as by changing the small spools
or bobbins that supply the yarns.
+
It will readily be seen that in order to facilitate the drying process
the slatted fan cylinders may be supplied with hot air, so as to keep the
yarns in a heated current while passing around them; and the yarns
after passing through the sizing apparatus may be dressed in the usual
manner by brushes.
Having thus described the Invention of "Improved Machinery for
Dressing and Warping Yarns," communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent I claim,―
First, the arrangement of machinery above described, whereby I
am enabled to warp and dress yarns directly from spools or bobbins,
instead of from large section beams heretofore used, and secure a uni-
form tension to the yarns as they are wound upon the sectional loom
beams, while at the same time increased facilities for readily producing
a variety in the stripe of the fabric are afforded.
Secondly, forming the loom beam of sectional parts or beams, which
when arranged side by side form the entire loom beam, ready for in-
sertion in the loom, by which arrangement the length of the loom beam
can be varied, and a variety in the stripes in the fabric can be produced
by simply varying the relative positions of the sectional loom beams in
the loom, as herein above set forth.
Thirdly, I claim the construction and application of fan cylinder, as

page_text: described, which cylinder is composed of slats arranged with spaces be-
tween them, and around which slats the yarns are made to pass, revolving
fan blades being placed within the said cylinder, and revolving inde-
pendently of and at a more rapid rate than the said slatted cylinder,
whereby a large portion of the yarn surface is kept in a gentle current
of air, and the drying operation is rapidly effected.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Peabody, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
FRED. WALKDEN,
66, Chancery Lane.
GEORGE PEABODY. (L.S.)