IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR STRETCHING," DRYING, AND FINISHING FABRICS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Colin Mather at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th August 1859.
I, COLIN MATHER, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR STRETCHING," DRYING, AND FINISHING FABRICS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for stretching,
drying, and finishing fabrics:. For this purpose in place of employing
pins to hold the edges of the fabric, I employ clips, the jaws of which are
forced together by a spring, each clip is carried by an upright, the upper
and lower ends of which slide between guides and frames, one of which
frames is on each side of the fabric; the ends of each frame are semi-
circular, and the clips pass round these semicircular ends and return back
on the other side of the frames. The backs of the uprights carrying the
clips are of such a form that when the uprights are arranged side by side
their backs. form a toothed rack, and they are made to slide along the

page_text: frames by a toothed wheel at one of the semicircular ends of each frame
taking into the toothed rack formed by the backs of the uprights. The two
frames are placed at an angle to each other, and the fabric is first laid hold of
by the clips at the end where the frames are closest together, and as the clips
are moved onwards along the frames the fabric is stretched at the same time
that it is dried by a blast of air forced against it by a fan. When the clips
arrive at the ends of the frames they open and release the fabric and pass
back on the other sides of the frame to again take hold of another portion of
the fabric. The fixed jaw of each clip projects from the front of the upright;
the moveable jaw is formed by one arm of a lever hinged to the upright;
the other arm of this lever is constantly pressed outwards from the upright
by a spring so that the moveable jaw is constantly pressed by the spring
against the fixed jaw. The clips as they arrive at the ends of the frames are
caused to open, to permit them to take hold of or to release the fabric by the
arms of the lever which are pressed outwards by the springs coming against
projections on the framing, which presses them inwards, and so moves away
the moveable jaws of the clips from the fixed jaws, but the clips are again
closed by the springs when they pass theso projections. The finishing of the
fabrics is effected by giving an irregular motion to the toothed wheels which
give motion to the clips. This is accomplished by transmitting motion to the
axes of these wheels through oval eccentric toothed wheels, so that the fabric
is first caused to move quickly and then slowly, and as each of the two wheels
which moves the clips is moved by a separate set of wheels, one side of the
fabric may
be made to move quickly, while the other is moving slowly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Colin Mather in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
February 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, COLIN
MATHER, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing late the Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her 'reign
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Colin Mather, Her special licence that I, the said Colin Mather, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Colin Mather;

page_text: my 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 MACHINERY
POR STRETCHING, DRYING, AND FINISHING FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Colin Mather, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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 months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Colin Mather, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention bas for its object improvements in machinery for stretching,
drying, and finishing fabrics. For this purpose in place of employing pins to
hold the edges of the fabric I employ clips, the jaws of which are forced
together by a spring, each clip is carried by an upright, the upper and lower
ends of which slide between guides in frames, one of which frames is on each
side of the fabric; the ends of each frame are semicircular, and the clips pass
round these semicircular ends and return back on the other side of the frames.
The backs of the uprights carrying the clips are of such a form that when the
uprights are arranged side by side their backs form a toothed rack, and they
are made to slide along the frames by a toothed wheel at one of the semi-
circular ends of each frame taking into the toothed rack formed by the backs
of the uprights. The two frames are placed at an angle to each other, and
the fabric is first laid hold of by the clips at the end where the frames are
closest together, and as the clips are moved onwards along the frames, the
fabric is stretched at the same time that it is dried by a blast of air forced
against it by a fan. When the clips arrive at the ends of the frames they
open and release the fabric and pass back on the other sides of the frame to
again take hold of another portion of the fabric. The fixed jaw of each clip
projects from the front ofthe upright; the moveable jaw is formed by one arm
of a lever hinged to the upright; the other arm of this lever is constantly
pressed outwards from the upright by a spring, so that the moveable jaw is
constantly pressed by the spring against the fixed jaw. The clips as they
arrive at the ends of the frames are caused to open to permit them to take

page_text: constantly pressed away from the upright by a spring f, by which the moveable
jaw is constantly pressed against the fixed jaw. The top and bottom of the
uprights & are suitably formed for sliding between the guides on the frames b.
The central portion of the back of each upright is of such a shape as to form
one tooth of a toothed rack, and projections are formed between the central
and the top and bottom parts, so that when placed side by side a space is left
between each tooth. The uprights are ranged touching each other all round
the edges of each of the frames b, and they are caused to travel round the
frames by means of the toothed wheels g, g, at one of the semicircular ends
of each frame, taking into the toothed rack formed by the back of the
uprights. As the uprights come round to the end of the machine at which
the fabric enters, the clips are caused to open (to receive the edges of the
fabric) by the arm of the lever e¹, which is pressed outwards by the spring f
coming against a projection h on each of the frames b, but when the uprights
pass these projections the clips are again closed by the springs f, and hold the
edges of the fabric. When the uprights arrive at the other ends of the frames,
the arms of the levers e³, pressed outwards by the springs f, come against
other projections k, and the clips again open, and release the fabric. The
fabric as it is carried forward by the clips is stretched by reason of the frames
being inclined to each other, and is at the same time dried by a blast of
heated air forced against it by a fan. The air is heated by being forced
through a number of tubes heated externally by steam; the air then passes
into the wooden case l, and escapes through the openings l¹ in the cover of
the case, and impinges against the cloth. The finishing of the fabrics is
effected by giving an irregular motion to the toothed wheels g, g, one of the
wheels being caused to move quickly when the other is moving slowly. This
motion is given to the wheels g, g, from the driving axis m, on which are two
excentric toothed wheels n, n, gearing with the excentric wheels o, o, on the
axes p, p. On each of these axes there are other toothed wheels 9, 7, which
give motion to the toothed wheels r, r, on the axes s, s; on these axes there
are bevil wheels t, t, gearing with the bevil wheels u, u, on the axes v, which
axes carry the toothed wheels g, g, which give motion to the clips. The bevil
wheels t, t, are carried by hollow axes t¹, which are capable of sliding along
the axes s, but cannot rotate around them. On the exterior of the hollow
axes are collars t", within which the axes are capable of rotating, and in
these collars there are holes within which the ends of the axes v turn; by
this means the bevil wheels t and 2 will always be in gear with each other,
whether the frames b, b, are moved to or from each other. The excentric
wheels n, n, are so fixed on the driving axis m, that when one of the

page_text: wheels g, g, is being driven quickly, the other is being driven slowly, and the
clips in one of the frames 6 will thus alternately be driven quickly whilst
the clips in the other frame are being driven slowly, and be driven slowly
whilst the others are being driven quickly.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is,
the combination of apparatus herein described for stretching, drying, and
finishing fabrics.
In witness whereof, I, the said Colin Mather, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord 1
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
JA". BROWN,
Salford.
COLIN MATHER. (L.S.)