IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING PILE FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO BE USED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE'
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Worrall, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Dyer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING
PILE FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO BE USED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Worrall at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th November 1879.
JAMES WORRALL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING PILE FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO
BE USED IN SUCH MANUFACTure.”
This Invention relates to a novel mode of raising the pile or nap of unions (silk
and cotton), sateens, uncut cotton velvets, velveteens, and uncut cords, cotton
waste twills, moles, and similar fabrics requiring a plush, shaggy, downy, or nap
finish suitable for hats, cloaks, costumes, and trimmings.
Hitherto the mode of effecting this object has been to subject the woven cloth to
the action of cards, card rollers, or teasles, in the direction of the length of the
fabric, or across the line of the weft.
This plan of operating impoverishes the cloth by cutting or breaking the fibre
and opening or shifting the weft threads upon the warp threads, such effects being
known as "fraying" and slipping the weft.
I now propose to subject the cloth to a carding action in the direction of the
weft threads, and thereby instead of cutting or breaking the threads acting upon
them in the direction in which the fibres are spun into the yarn or thread.
In carrying out this operation I propose to act upon two or more widths of fabric
simultaneously, securing their adjacent selvages together by cement, or if need be,
with the aid of overlying tapes or strips of paper to remove all tendency which the
selvages might have to curl while under the carding operation.
The machinery which I propose to employ for raising the pile or nap will be a
modification of that for which I obtained Letters Patent bearing date respectively
December 3rd, 1873, No. 3969, and April 5th, 1875, No. 1294, in which endless
chains of brushes are used for acting transversely upon the length of cloth.
The fabrics prepared as just explained I lead over and under guide rollers up to a
pair of tension rollers, then down to and under other guide rollers up to a second
pair of tension rollers, and so on out of the machine.

page_text: The fabric as it passes over the tension rollers is brought face upwards under
travelling endless chains of carding or teazing instruments, which acting transversely
on the fabric will raise the pile or nap in the manner above indicated.
To ensure the proper action of these carding or teazing surfaces upon the fabric I
provide suitable means for guiding them in their course and so adjusting them as
to limit their amount of action to the requirements of the case; thus I provide for
each endless chain of cards two L shaped guide bars placed one on each side of the
chain and capable of vertical adjustment. The flanges of these bars underlie the
projecting ends of the cards and serve to support them while acting on the fabric.
As a modification of this arrangement the chain is formed with links in which are
inserted the shanks for connecting the cards thereto. Transverse pins which attach
the card shank to the chain enter grooves formed in a pair of guide bars, and thus
constitute guide pins for the card chains; and to prevent the cards from tilting, the
heads of the shanks are caused to run under a ledge formed on the guide bars.
These bars, like those in the first arrangement, are intended to receive vertical
adjustment in order to increase or diminish at pleasure the action of the cards upon
the fabric, and to suit the thickness of cloth under treatment.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Worrall in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th May 1880.
JAMES WORRALL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer. "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING PILE FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO
BE USED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE."
This Invention relates to a novel mode of raising the pile or nap of unions (silk
and cotton), sateens, uncut cotton velvets, velveteens, and uncut cords, cotton waste
twills, moles, and similar fabrics requiring a plush, shaggy, downy, or nap finish
suitable for hats, cloaks, costumes, and trimmings.
Hitherto the only practicable mode of effecting this object has been to submit the
woven cloth to cards, card rollers, or teazles, acting in the direction of the length of
the fabric or across the line of the weft.
This plan of operating impoverishes the cloth by cutting or breaking the weft
threads, and opening or shifting those threads upon the warp threads, such effects
being known as "fraying" and slipping the weft, and hence attempts have been
made to raise the pile in the direction of the weft, but these, so far as I am aware,
have proved ineffectual, owing to the defective manner in which the carding
operation has been carried out.
I now propose to avoid the use of carding or teazling surfaces acting in the
direction of the warp, and in lieu thereof to subject the cloth to an efficient carding
action from selvage to selvage, and thereby instead of cutting or breaking the weft
threads as heretofore, to act upon them in the direction in which the fibres are spun
into the yarn or thread, and to submit the whole face of the fabric to a uniform
carding action.
In carrying out this operation I propose to act upon two or more widths of fabric
simultaneously, securing their adjacent selvages together by cement, or if need be,
with the aid of overlying tapes or strips of paper, to remove all tendency which the
selvages might have to curl while under the carding operation.
The machinery which I propose to employ for raising the pile or nap will be a
modification of that for which I obtained Letters Patent bearing date respectively
December Third, One thousand eight hundred and seventy three, No. 3969, and
April Fifth, One thousand eight hundred and seventy five, No. 1294, in which
endless chains of brushes are used for acting transversely upon the length of cloth.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1, Sheet I., shews in side elevation a pile or
nap raising machine constructed according to my Invention, and contracted in
length without diminishing its efficiency by virtually doubling the machine back
upon itself in order to economize floor space.
The machine consists essentially of a series of guiding, tensiou, and travelling
rollers, by means of which the fabric is presented to a series of transverse endless
bands of cards which pass across the fabric from selvage to selvage, and thus act
upon the weft in the direction in which the fibres of the weft thread lie.
In contracting the length of the machine by placing, say, one half the number of
the guide and tension rollers above the others, I incidentally gain the advantage of
making the bands of cards double acting, and thus of reducing the number of endless
bands to one half.
Fig. 2, Sheet II., is a plan view of the machine, the overhead gearing being
removed; and Fig. 3, Sheet III., is a front elevation, partly in section, of the
complete machine.
The machine which I will now describe is intended for operating upon a class of
goods such as velveteens, which demand a perfect control over the action of the
cards to prevent injury to the fabric.
A, A, Figures 1, 2, and 3, is the main framing of the machine. At the opposite
ends of this framing are standards A', which assist in supporting through the rods
a, a, an overhead framing B, which at its right hand end is further supported by
rods b pendent from the upper flooring of the workshop.

page_text: Standing out from the front of the machine is a pair of brackets A², upon which
is mounted a cloth tension frame C, and in rear of this frame, carried by the brackets
A², are two guide rollers D, D¹.
The fabric to be operated upon, say, two widths secured together at their
adjacent selvages, as above described, is threaded through the tension frame, as
shewn in Fig. 1, and led thence under the roller D and up over the roller D', thence
it passes under a small guide roller D² having its bearings in a pair of longitudinal
bars E.
These bars extend from end to end of the framing A, and carry a series of guide
rollers D³ and of tension rollers F, F.
The bars E are so attached to the framing A as to be capable of delicate vertical
adjustment for the purpose to be presently explained.
A convenient mode of effecting this is shewn in the detached sectional view,
Fig. 4, Sheet III., where a¹ is a bracket guide piece attached to the framing A, and
receiving a bracket slide e bolted to the bar E. The upper end of this slide is
tapped to receive a screw e¹, which passes down through a lug projecting from the
slotted guide a', and is held in place by a collar.
As the opposite ends of the two bars are similarly connected to the frame A it
will be understood that by turning the screws e¹ the bars E will be adjusted
vertically. The amount of this adjustment may be readily determined by a
graduated disc attached to each screw, and working against a fixed pointer.
The rollers carried by these bars E are mounted in brackets attached to the
horizontal flange of the bars, as shown best at Fig. 3; they therefore all rise or fall
together as the bars are adjusted.
The importance of this will be presently understood.
The tension rollers F, it will be seen, are arranged in pairs, so as to support the
fabric horizontally as it passes over them.
Immediately over the space between these tension rollers, and parallel with such
rollers, the endless bands of cards G, G, are mounted, such bands extending across
from one side of the machine to the other.
These bands are carried by pairs of pulleys G', Gs, of which G¹ are the driving
pulleys keyed to longitudinal shafts G³ which are mounted in bearings in the
standards A', A', and in a central standard A³. The tension pulleys G² are
mounted on short independent shafts carried by adjustable headstocks G*.
headstocks slide in brackets G³ bolted to and standing out from the side
frames A.
These
To provide for the alternate bands of cards being driven in opposite directions
the driving pulleys of those which move to the right are situate at one side of the
machine, and the driving pulleys of those which move to the left are situate at the
other side of the machine, and their respective shafts G³ are provided with mitre
wheels which gear into similar wheels keyed on a cross shaft Go mounted in brackets
projecting from the rear end of the framing. Keyed to one end of this cross shaft
G is a band pulley G7, which receives motion through a cross belt from a belt
pulley H¹ on the main driving shaft H, which has its bearings in the lower part of
the main framing A. This main driving shaft receives its motion through a belt
from suitable overhead gearing.
I, Figures 1 and 2, is a drawing roller mounted in bracket bearings extending
rearwards from the framing A. This roller is covered with wire cloth to give it a
friction surface, and it is driven in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 1, through
gearing from a transverse shaft 1' carried by the same brackets as the roller I, and
receiving rotary motion through a band and pulleys from the driving shaft H.
Reverting now to the cloth which I have said is led into the machine through
the tension frame C, and then passed under and around the rollers D, D³, on its
course to the first pair of tension rollers F, F, it is brought face upwards onto those
rollers. While passing slowly over these rollers (under the drag of the drawing
roller I) the cloth is subjected to the action of the first endless band of cards.
it leaves the first pair of rollers F the cloth is led under the adjacent guide roller D³,
As

page_text: thence upwards and over the second pair of tension rollers F, where it undergoes a
carding action from a band of travelling cards G moving in the opposite direction
to the first band.
The cloth then passes under a second guide roller D³, over a third pair of tension
rollers F, and so on until it reaches the drawing roller I.
The cloth will thus have passed under the action of eight bands of cards, four of
which travel from right to left, and the other four in the opposite direction.
Referring now to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the cloth in leaving the drawing
roller I passes under a guide roller D' mounted in the same brackets which carry
the roller I and the shaft I¹.
From this roller D the cloth is led up to a guide roller D³ mounted in the over-
head framing B before mentioned. From this roller the cloth descends and passes
to and through a second series of guide and tension rollers D*, F*, mounted in
bracket bearings carried by a pair of longitudinal bars E*, which are attached.
adjustably to the end standards A¹ in a similar manner to that by which the bars E
are attached to the main framing A. These rollers D*, F*, are situate immediately
over their corresponding rollers D' and F, F, and the cloth which is led down from
the guide roller D5 is passed over and under these rollers in a manner the counter-
part of that above described for the first series of rollers.
By this means the face of the cloth is presented to the upper side of the bands of
cards G, and it thus receives from each band a double carding action.
On leaving this second set of rollers the cloth is led up to a second drawing roller
1 similar to the roller I. The action of this roller I* is to draw the cloth through
the second series of rollers D*, F*, and it then delivers it to a guide roller DⓇ situate
immediately above it, whence the cloth passes to a guide roller D' situate imme-
diately over the folding apparatus K.
The guide rollers D and D7, and also the drawing roller I*, turn in bearings in
the overhead framing B, and the roller I* receives motion from the driving shaft H
through spur gearing actuated from a shaft I¹*, which shaft is connected by a band
and pulleys with the main driving shaft H.
The axle of the roller I is provided at its opposite ends with band pulleys for the
purpose of transmitting motion to the guide rollers D³, D7, by cross bands working
over pulleys carried by the axles of those rollers.
From the roller D' motion is derived for actuating the reciprocating folder K,
which lays the finished cloth in laps upon a receiving table.
Having explained the course taken by the cloth through the machine, and the
mode of actuating the endless bands of cards by which the pile is raised on the face
of the cloth, will proceed to describe the means provided for controlling the
carding action, and thus rendering it possible to raise the pile or nap of the highest
class of goods by means of transverse bands of cards.
I have already stated that the position of the tension rollers F with regard to
the bands of cards G is adjustable; this is to provide for various thicknesses of
cloth admitted to the machine; but in addition to this adjustment it is absolutely
necessary when dealing with light goods to ensure that the cards shall float or skim,
so to speak, over the surface of the cloth.
This result can only be obtained by travelling the cards over fixed guides, and
such a contrivance I will now proceed to describe.
In Sheet IV. Fig. 5 is a partial side view of a band of cards drawn on an enlarged
scale, and mounted according to my Invention; and Fig. 6 is a cross section of the
same.
In these Figures g are the card blocks or backs made fast to an endless band g';
these blocks are rebated at their edges to fit against pairs of guide bars g², g³.
The lower pair of bars g³ is carried by brackets a' made fast to the main
framing A, and the upper bars g³ are supported from the lower bars by strap
pieces g*.
It will now be understood that when a traverse motion is given to the cards they
will by reason of their contact with the guide bars g³, g³, be caused to move in a

page_text: perfectly straight course, no "swagging" of the band either at top or bottom being
possible, and consequently when the work is properly adjusted to the cards by
means of the arrangement described with reference to Fig. 4 a light and uniform
action of the travelling cards will be ensured.
Figures 7, 8, and 9, Sheet IV., shew a modified arrangement for securing this
guiding of the cards over the surface of the cloth, and thereby obtaining the
floating or skimming motion desired in contradistinction to the dragging action
which is permissible when a simple brushing action only is needed. In these Figures
the cards are represented as carried by a chain in place of a band.
This chain is formed with links h, in which are inserted shanks h¹ projecting
from the back of the cards g, and transverse pins serve to connect the shanks and
links together.
h³ are two transverse pins, which serve to connect together the links of the chain
and form also guide pins for the chain.
"
i, i, are the guide bars, in grooves in the inner sides of which the guide pins
run.
The upper edges of these guide bars underlie collars on the shanks h¹, which
collars, together with the guide pins, serve to prevent the card blocks from
tilting.
In the foregoing description it is implied that the guide rollers D³, D*,
like the tension rollers F, F*, by friction of contact with the cloth.
rotate
It may however be desirable in some cases to give them an independent motion.
This may be readily effected by means of gearing, as indicated by dots in Fig. 1.
In order to maintain the efficiency of the cards it may desirable to apply emery
wheels to the machine, and to drive them in contact with the cards while the cards
are at work.
L, L, shew a series of emery wheels mounted upon longitudinal shafts L', which
turn in bearings carried by the standards A¹ and A³,
These shafts are driven from one of the shafts G', a belt pulley on that shaft
transmitting motion through a cross belt to a belt pulley on the shaft L' at the
opposite side of the machine,
This shaft L in return transmits motion through a second cross belt and pulley
to the other emery wheel shaft L';.as therefore the action of the machine proceeds
the cards will be sharpened by the contact therewith of the rapidly rotating emery
wheels, which rotate in the direction of the traverse of the card surfaces respectively
in contact therewith.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of " Improvements in the
Mode of Manufacturing Pile Fabrics, and in the Machinery to be used in such
Manufacture," and having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I
claim,―
First. Raising the pile or nap of uncut velveteens and goods of the like class by
means of carding surfaces travelling across the fabric from selvage to selvage, and
controlled in their action in the manner and for the purpose above described.
Secondly. The arrangement of machinery above described with reference to the
Drawings, or any mere modification thereof, whereby uncut velveteens and goods
of the like class may be subjected to a controlled carding or teazling action from
selvage to selvage, as and for the purpose above explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Worrall, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty.