IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MEANS 93 EMPLOYED IN THE PRINTING OF YARNS FOR CARPETS AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bright, of Rochdale, in the County of
Lancaster, Carpet Manufacturer, and Robert Mills, of the same Place.
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MEANS
93
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bright and
Robert Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 25th September 1861.
We, THOMAS BRIGHT, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Carpet
Manufacturer, and ROBERT MILLS, of the same Place, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
OR MEANS EMPLOYED IN THE PRINTING OF YARNS FOR CARPETS AND OTHER FABRICS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of printing yarns for carpets
and other fabrics, and it has reference to a Patent granted to Richard
Whytock, bearing date the Eighth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, No. 6307.
It has been found in practice that under the system of printing carpet yarns
at present in use, and to which reference has been made, a ridge of colour is

page_text: left after each passage of the colour pulley across the yarn wound on the drum
or cylinder, and it has been found necessary for the persons in attendance on
the machines to scrape or rub in the excess of colour thus left, so as to
dispense equally the colour over the yarn. This has always been attended
with unsatisfactory results, as it has been found that the attendants on the
machines will not perform this work in a satisfactory manner; sometimes one
colour will be scraped into another, thus breaking the straight line which is
indispensable to a faithful production of the pattern to be printed..
Now, in this our present Invention, we dispense with the hand labour as
heretofore employed, and use an arrangement of apparatus by which the
colour is spread during the process of printing, thus greatly facilitating the
operation.
We employ what may be termed a self-acting scraper, and which we shall
now proceed to describe:-We mount upon a suitably constructed colour
trough and carriage two pulleys fluted across their peripheries and fixed in
bearings, one on each side of the colour pulley, so as to follow the colour
pulley across the drum or cylinder during the process of printing. These
fluted pulleys may be a little broader in the peripliery than the colour pulley,
so as the more easily to cover and dispense the ridge of colour left by the colour
pulley in its passage across the yarn; and still further to insure the colour
being spread in an equal manner, we employ a brush fixed at each end of the
colour trough, and travelling immediately after the fluted pulley. Both the
fluted pulleys and brushes work in and are enclosed by doctors made of brass
or other suitable material, and they are so constructed and arranged that
when under the drum or cylinder the colour cannot spread beyond the doctors,
thus leaving a correct line of colour. Both the fluted pulleys, the brushes, and
doctors are acted on by the springs which regulate the colour pulleys, and are
elevated and depressed accordingly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Bright and Robert Mills in the Great Seal Patent 30
Office on the 21st March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BRIGHT, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Carpet Manufacturer,
and ROBERT MILLS, of the same Place, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 35
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our

page_text: 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
us, the said Thomas Bright and Robert Mills, Her special licence that
we, the said Thomas Bright and Robert Mills, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Bright and Robert
Mills, our 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
APPARATUS OR MEANS EMPLOYED IN THE PRINTING OF YARNS FOR CARPETS AND
OTHER FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Thomas Bright and Robert Mills, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our or 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
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Bright and Robert Mills,.
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained.
in and by the following statement (that is to say):
:-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of printing yarns for carpets:
and other fabrics, and it has reference to a Patent granted to Richard
Whytock, bearing date the Eighth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, No. 6307; which plan of printing has long been mod-
ified in practice by the substitution of a colour pulley for the colour stick or
ruler described in that Specification.
It has been found that under the system of printing carpet yarns at present
in use, and to which reference has been made, that a ridge of colour is left
after each passage of the colour pulley across the yarn wound on the drum or
cylinder, and it has been found necessary for the persons in attendance on the
machines to scrape or rub in the excess of colour thus left, so as to disperse or
distribute equally the colour over the yarn. This has always been attended.
with unsatisfactory results, as it has been found that the attendants do not
perform this work efficiently, and sometimes one colour is scraped into
another, thus breaking the straight line which is indispensable to a faithful
production of the pattern to be printed.
Now, in this our present Invention, we dispense with the hand labour

page_text: ordinarily employed for distributing the colour, and use an improved appa-
ratus by which the colour is spread during the process of printing, thus greatly
facilitating the operation.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the means pursued by us,
reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings and to the
figures and letters marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is an end elevation of a machine of the usual construction for
printing yarns to which our improvements are applied; Fig. 2 is a side view
of the same; Fig. 3 is a detached view of the colour carriage, with its appa-
ratus, drawn to an enlarged scale; Fig. 4 is a plan of the same; and Fig. 5 is
a side view partly in section.
a is the drum or cylinder, with a portion of its circumference moveable in
the ordinary manner, (although not so shewn on the Drawing, on which the
yarn to be printed is wound as usual; b, b, are two rails supported by the
framing of the machine on which the usual carriage c, with its colour trough d
travels to and fro. In the trough d is the colour pulley e, which puts, as is
How customary, the colour on to the yarn wound on the drum a.
Our improved apparatus for dispersing or distributing the excess of colour
over the yarn consists of the following parts:-At the right-hand and at the
left-hand sides of the colour pulley e are mounted the fluted pulleys ff; these
pulleys are made by preference rather broader than the edge of the colour
pulley e, so as to cover and distribute the ridge of colour left by the colour
pulley on the yarn. The flutes around the edge of the pulleys may be inclined
either in one direction or in two to the axis, instead of being parallel to it,
as shewu; and in order still further to ensure the colour being spread in an
even manner, we apply the bristles or brush g, as shewn in Figs. 2, 3, 4, and
6, or the revolving brush g', as shewn in Fig. 5, near each of the fluted
pulleys f; both the fluted pulleys f revolve in stands h, and they work in or
between the plates or "doctors" i, i, fixed to the said stands. The brushes
y or g', as the case may be, are also placed between the said plates or
"doctors," which are to be so arranged in point of height that when they and
the carriage are under the drum or cylinder a, the colour cannot spread
beyond the "doctors," thereby ensuring a correct line of colour. The bearings
for the axle of the colour pulley e are cast with or attached to the plate k,
which is acted upon as usual by the springs l, and to the plate k are fixed the
stands h; consequently the fluted pulleys f, the brushes g or g¹, and the
"doctors" i, are all acted upon by the springs l, which also regulate the level
of the colour pulley e, and allow it to yield to the inequalities of the yarn ou

page_text: the drum or cylinder a. A convenient way of turning the colour pulley round
when the carriage is moving beyond the circumference of the drum or
cylinder a, is by the band m passing around pulleys d', d', attached to the
carriage wheels and around the pulley e', which revolves as usual in bearings
in the plate k, and the axle of the colour pulley e fits in a box on the end
of the axle of the pulley e as now customary. When the machine is at
work it is evident that the excess of colour is distributed alternately by the
pulley f, brush g or g', being regulated by by the "doctor" i at the right-hand
end of the carriage, or by the similar parts at the left-hand end of the carriage,
according to the direction in which the carriage is travelling.
In Fig. 6 we have shewn a modification of our Invention. In this view,
which represents a plan of the colour trough, the brushes and the end of the
doctors are set a little out of the line of the fluted pulleys f in order to insure
a better distribution of the ridge of colour left by the colour pulley e in passing
across the yarn. It will be seen that when it is required to change the colour
the lifting of the colour trough d will bring with it the fluted pulleys f, the
"doctors" i, and the brushes g or g'.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described the manner
of carrying the same into practical operation, we wish to remark that we are
aware that it has been proposed in the Specification of Letters Patent granted
to Crossley, Collier, and Hudson, on the Twenty-eighth day of September, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty, to equalize the colour by having plain rollers
or scrapers attached to a carriage separate from that of the colour roller, and
running on special rails actuated so as to bring the rollers or scrapers into
operation only when several consecutive lines of the same colour were being
printed side by side; but there being no "doctor" or side plates to such
rollers or scrapers, the same were of no utility. We are also aware that it
has been proposed in the Specification of a Patent granted to Henry
Henderson, on the Twenty-fourth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, to make a groove round about the circumference of
the colour roller (called by the Patentee a flute groove or channel), in the
hope of laying the colour so uniformly on to the yarn, when that yarn itself
is bedded on a highly elastic substance such as india-rubber, as to dispense
with any further operation to equalize it.
We, therefore, wish it to be understood that we do not claim generally the
making of colour carriages with extra pulleys placed at the right-hand and
left-hand sides of the colour pulley to distribute the colour laid on to the
yarn; nor the attaching of scrapers generally to the colour carriage; nor do
we claim colour pulleys having circumferential grooves in their peripheries.

page_text: We claim the combining with a colour carriage and colour roller for the
printing of yarns, distributing rollers fluted across their peripheries, and side-
plates or "doctors" to confine the colour laterally, and distributing brushes
between such plates as doctors."
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mills, have hereunto set my 5
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ROBERT MILLS. (L.S.)