CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE BETTER DRESSING AND FINISHING WOOLLEN AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HIRST, of Leeds, in the County of York, Clothier, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first
day of March, in the fourth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Hirst, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or whomsoever I may agree with, and no others,
His especial licence, sole privilege and authority, to make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE BETTER DRESSING
AND FINISHING WOOLLEN AND OTHER FABRICS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Hirst, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to inrol or cause to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, a particular description
of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Hirst, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, that is to say:
My Improvements in Machinery for the better Dressing and Finishing of
Woollen and other Fabrics consist in the construction of a machine or
machinery possessing certain novel features, by means of which I am enabled to

page_text: raise the pile, that is, draw out the ends of the fibres of the wool or other
material upon the face of the cloth with a superior effect to that of any other
machine which has been heretofore employed for the purpose of raising and
dressing the pile or face of woollen or other cloths or fabrics by means of wire
cards. The general form of the machine and the position of its several parts
may be considerably varied, and yet the essential novel features retained.
The accompanying Drawings therefore exhibit merely such an arrangement of
the operative parts as I have found fully to answer the desired object; and after
describing the machine I shall point out the peculiar novel features in which
my present improvement consists, however the positions of the parts may be
changed, or the general arrangements of the whole machine varied.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improved machine; Figure 2 is a
horizontal view of the same; Figure 3 is an end elevation, and Figure 4 a
vertical section, taken transversely through the middle, in which several Figures
the respective letters of reference point out the same parts of the machine.
The end frames or standards a, a, a, upon which the bearings or axles of the
several rollers and other parts of the machine are supported, are bound
together by longitudinal bars or rails b, b, secured by bolts and nuts, or by any
other convenient means. An inclined seray c is placed below the machinery
at the back part. for the purpose of conducting the cloth under operation in
a perpetual or endless length on to the floor or board d, in order that it may
be readily taken up and passed between the rollers in front. The cloth shewn
at c, c. e. in the section Figure 4, is conducted lengthwise through the
machine, first between the tension or retaining rollers f. f, then over the
breast beam or guide rail g, and under the cylindrical roller h, which is coated
with wire cards, and guarded by the longitudinal rails i, i, mounted upon
adjustable arms or bearings j, j, supported by the screw shafts h, k, connected
to the end frames of the machine. After passing under the card roller or
cylinder hand its guards i, i, the cloth is conducted over the carrying roller 1,
and from thence it is passed partly round the drawing roller m, and over the
pressing roller, from whence the cloth as it proceeds falls down on to the
seray c. Rotary motion is given to the drawing roller m by a wheel o fixed
upon its axle, the teeth of which take into an intermediate wheel P driven by
a
pinion at the end of the main shaft r, the rotation of which causes the
cloth to be drawn through the machine. To the reverse end of this shaft r
the riggers is affixed, by which, through the agency of a band from a steam
engine, or any other first mover, the machine is driven. Upon the same
shaft there is also a wheel 4, taking into the teeth of a pinion
axle of the card cylinder h, by means of which, as the shaft r
upon the
gnes
round and

page_text: the cloth is drawn progressively through the machine, the card cylinder his
made to revolve with considerable rapidity. As the cloth in its progress passes
under the guard rails i, i, the points of the cards of the rapidly revolving
card cylinder h act upon a small extent only of the surface or face of the
cloth limited by the guard rails or projections i, i, and in so acting draw out
the pile or fibres of the wool, or whatever materials the cloth is made of,
and produce the nap or fibrous surface ready to be cropped or shorn.
In order to shew more particularly the construction of that part of tho
machine in which the improvement principally consists, I have represented upon
an enlarged scale at Figure 5, an end view, and at Figure 6 a section of the
card cylinder h, with the guard rails or protectors i, i, and the arms or bearings
jj, by which they are supported, and the mode of adjusting them by the
screw shafts h, k, and a, that is, shifting the situation of the guard rails or
protectors for the purpose of allowing a greater or less extent of the surface
of the cloth to be brought under the operation of the card cylinder as it
revolves, and also to cause the cloth to bear with more or less pressure
against the points of the wire cards. The axle of the card cylinder being
mounted in plummer blocks v, v, fixed upon the end frames of the machine,
that cylinder will revolve and not shift its situation; but the arms j,j, on
which the guard rails or protectors i, i, are mounted, being confined between
vertical ribs w, w, they are enabled to rise or fall by turning the screw
shafts, k, mounted in the end frames of the machine, which it will be
perceived cause the guard rails or protectors i, i, to approach nearer to or recede
further from the card cylinder h, in order to determine the extent of the
surface of the cloth which the rotary cards shall be allowed to act upon, and
also to regulate the pressure of the cloth against the cards. There is likewise
a horizontal screw shaft a for the purpose of effecting a small degree of lateral
adjustment.
Having described my improvements, I wish to be understood that I do not
intend to confine myself to the particular arrangement set out in the Drawing
of the several parts of the machine for raising the pile of woollen and other
fabrics, nor to their comparative dimensions; but I find that a card cylinder
from two inches to six inches diameter answers the purpose best, and which I
prefer to be made of metal turned perfectly true, and covered with sheet cards
or fillets of cards coiled round the cylinder. And I do not confine myself to
the employment of any particular sort of cards, as that must depend upon the
quality and condition of the cloths to be put under operation, and will readily
suggest itself to any competent workman; but the points of the cards should
be rendered sharp by grinding. That which I particularly claim as my Inven-

page_text: tion, and forming the essential feature of my improvement, is, the adaptation
of guard rails or protectors in the way shewn, which should be made of metal,
and formed perfectly straight and true, and placed parallel to the cylinder, for
the purpose of limiting the extent of action and pressure of the cards upon
the face of the cloth as it passes under, and which I prefer to do by making
those guards or protectors adjustable, so as to allow the points of the cards to
penetrate into the face of the cloth only to such depths as circumstances may
require without injury to the fabric.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Iirst, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord
LI ARGREAVES, Xtra.
W (L.s.) HIRST.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of September, in
the fifth year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said William Hirst came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Thirtieth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-four.