IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL LEATHER CLOTH AND SIMILAR FABRICS, AND IN MACHINERY OR ARRANGEMENTS TO BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Hunston and
John Thorpe at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 24th March 1875.
We, WILLIAM HENRY HUNSTONE, of Springfield Iron Works, Salford,
in the County of Lancaster, and JOHN THORPE, of Farnworth, near
Bolton, in the same County, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL LEATHER
CLOTH AND SIMILAR FABRICS, AND IN MACHINERY OR ARRANGEMENTS TO BE USED FOR
THE PURPOSE," to be as follows :-
In making ordinary American leather cloth, the composition is spread
and pressed upon the cloth by rollers or other means, and then after
going through several other processes of treatment the cloth is passed
between embossing rollers, which impress the required pattern upon the
composition. This process is not applicable when certain compositions
are used, such as that for which Letters Patent were granted to the
petitioners, No. 3429, and dated the 7th October, A.D. 1874, and our
present Invention relates to a method of manufacturing artificial leather

page_text: and similar cloths by rolling and spreading our said Patent composition
or other compositions upon cloth, so that the required pattern will be
impressed upon the material, and the cloth will be delivered from the
machine finished, and, with the exception of drying or seasoning for a
few hours, ready for use.
Our Invention consists in manufacturing leather cloth and like articles
in the manner above described by passing the cloth to be coated from a
roll between rollers and under and over the surfaces of a series of cooling
cylinders, the coated and finished cloth being delivered at the end of the
machine by any well known folding arrangement, and by passing
between the rollers and along with the cloth to be coated a web of
tinfoil, paper, cloth, or other suitable substance which has had its
surface previously embossed with the required pattern or design; that
side of this web having the design or pattern upon it being made to face
the cloth which is to have the plastic material rolled upon it, and by
placing such plastic composition or material upon a plate which may be
hollow and kept hot by steam or other means in front of the spreading
rollers, and by causing the heated plastic composition to pass between
the cloth which is to receive it and the web which is to mould the design
or pattern, and by causing the two webs with the composition between
them to pass through the spreading rollers and over and under the
peripheries of the hollow cylinders (kept cool by cold water passed.
through them, or by other means) until they leave the last cooling cylinder,
when the pattern web is arranged to separate from the face of the
composition, and go upwards to be wound upon a roller so as to be used
over again as often as required; or it may be made endless, so as to pass
again to the front of the machine and through it, and so on continually;
the finished leather cloth being folded as before explained.
In place of or in addition to the cooling cylinders, blasts of cold air
may be employed if desired, the receiving cloth or cloth to be coated,
and the moulding web with the composition between, being kept close
together until the composition sets and hardens sufficiently to retain the
impression.