IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHRINKING CLOTH
Year: 1867

page_text: Sealed the 4th February 1868, and dated the 7th August 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Stokes Cressey
and John Webb at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 7th August 1867.
We, THOMAS STOKES CRESSEY and JOHN WEBB, of Burton-on-Trent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR SHRINKING CLOTH," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for shrinking
The
cloth so that garments made from it may not afterwards contract.
apparatus consists of a rectangular trough of tinned iron or other metal, and
of a wooden box of the same length and breadth, and having a grated bottom
and a close fitting lid. The bottoin of the box is fitted into the top of the
metal trough, and they are fixed together. The cloth to be shrunk is wound
tightly on a roller; it is laid upon the grate bottom of the box, and the cover
is put on; the water is then boiled by means of a gas burner or a small fire-
grate erected under the trough, and the process is continued until the moisture

page_text: has saturated the roll; or steam from a separate steam boiler may be led
into the trough. The cloth being tightly rolled up is compelled to contract
uniformly as it shrinks under the influence of the moisture and heat.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Stokes Cressey and John Webb in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 7th February 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
STOKES CRESSEY and JOHN WEBB, of Burton-on-Trent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Thomas Stokes Cressey and John Webb, Her special licence that we, the
said Thomas Stokes Cressey and, John Webb, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey and John
Webb, 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 APPA-
RATUS FOR SHRINKING CLOTH," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Thomas Stokes Cressey and John Webb, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Stokes Cressey and John
Webb, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described aud ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for shrinking
cloth so that garments made from it may not afterwards contract.
The apparatus consists of a rectangular trough of tinned iron or other
metal, and of a wooden box of the same length and breadth, and having a

page_text: grated bottom and a close fitting lid. The bottom of the box is fitted into
the top of the metal trough, and they are fixed together. The cloth to be
shrunk is wound tightly on a roller; it is laid upon the grated bottom of the
box, and the cover is put on; the water is then boiled by means of a gas
burner or a small fire-grate erected under the trough, and the process is con-
tinued until the moisture has saturated the roll; or steam from a separate
steam boiler may be led into the trough. The cloth being tightly rolled up is
compelled to contract uniformly as it shrinks under the influence of the
moisture and heat.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed we have shown an apparatus constructed
as above described. Figure 1 is a longitudinal section and Figure 2 a transverse
section of the apparatus. a, a, is the rectangular trough of metal supported
on legs a¹, a¹; b, b, is the wooden box fitted on to the top thereof; b¹ is the
perforated bottom of the box on to which the rolls of cloth to be, shrunk are
placed; 63 is a binged lid at the top of the box; c, c, are gas burners placed
below the bottom of the trough a; and d, d, are sheet iron guards or shields to
prevent currents of air from carrying off the heat away from the bottom of
the trough; b is a cock for drawing off water from the trough b. The cloth to
be shrunk is wound tightly on a roller, and is laid upon the grated bottom of
the box, and the lid is closed; the water in the trough 6 is then, boiled by
means of the gas burners c, c, so that steam may arise therefrom and pass
through the perforated bottom 6¹ into the interior of the box b, and this is
continued until the moisture has saturated the roll; for a roll of cloth of the
ordinary length this will generally take about twenty minutes; the roll is then
taken out of the box, unwound and exposed to the air; the cloth will then
at once dry by reason of the steam evaporating from it; the cloth may then
be again formed into a roll, or it may be at once cut up for use.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey and John Webb,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifth day of February, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.