CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETING, AND TO ADDARATHS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell, both
of Stacksteads, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETING, AND
TO ADDARATHS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 28th August 1868, and dated the 4th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Mitchell and
Thomas Mitchell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 4th March 1868.
We, WILLIAM MITCHELL and THOMAS MITCHELL, both of Stacksteads,
in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT
CARPETING, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
Our Invention is designed to produce or manufacture felt carpeting
in such a manner that each felt carpet shall consist of one entire
seamless piece of any width and length required in contradistinction
to making such carpeting of narrow widths and seaming or otherwise
attaching them together as hitherto.
The improvements consist in manufacturing felt carpeting in such
a manner that the width and length are composed of continuous felt

page_text: and without seam, each carpet consisting of one piece only, and the
apparatus to be employed may be varied according to circumstances, a
such seamless wide felt may be produced in several ways.
The second part of the Invention relates to a novel construction of
carding engine to be applied for such purpose, by which means a
fleece of wool or other fibrous material is delivered of the full width
required for subsequently forming into carpeting; and this part of the
improvements consists in constructing the carding cylinders and rollers
contained in the engine of large diameter and extended widths, and o
metal or lags of wood, which are internally stayed with transverse and
diagonal ribs in such a manner that the surface or periphery of the
cylinders will have proportionate strength, durability, and equality of
surface. These surfaces when truly cylindrical are to be covered in
the usual manner with ordinary "cards;" or in order to obviate the
tendency of the fleece when being stripped thickening towards the
centre and leaving the selveges thin and bare, the cards covering the
cylinders may be graduated in pitch, that is, the cards covering
the centre of the cylinder are of a coarse pitch, and become gradually
finer as they extend towards the outer edges; or the same result may
be obtained by the introduction of an intermediate roller supported
between the two large cylinders, the said intermediate roller being
regulated in pitch, so as to transfer on to the front centre of the
finished cylinder a slight excess of fleece, which will when being
stripped from the doffer leave the engine in an even layer or fleece.
This wide fleece is caused in the ordinary manner by the rollers now
employed for the same purpose when manufacturing narrow widths,
which in this case are necessarily extended or elongated so as to
correspond to the width of the fleece delivered from the carding engine.
This fleece is transmitted in the ordinary manner by these carrier rollers,
which place fleece upon fleece until the required thickness is attained,
at which time the accumulated layers of fleece are transferred to the
batting" and "hardening' processes, which machines are also
extended in width to meet the requirements of the full width of felt
carpeting under manufacture.
"
Thirdly. The Invention relates to an apparatus whereby a carding
engine of narrow ordinary width may be employed for the manufacture
of wide seamless felt carpeting; and the improvements consist of an
endless apron or cloth extended between two revolving rollers, and

page_text: A.
receiving the fleece from the doffing cylinder, one roller being near the
doffing cylinder of the engine, and the other regularly traversing to and
fro by ordinary mechanical means above a "batting frame" table, cloth,
or other receiver for the layers of fleece, which has an intermittent
motion beneath and at right angles to the said traverse of the apron.
series of alternately rising and falling rollers are also situated between
the carding engine and the "batting frame," under and over which the
apron and fleece pass. As the roller and apron traverses from the engine
it conveys the fleece away, and in returning deposits it on the apron;
and in order to compensate for the "slack" in returning (the fleece
being constantly delivered) the alternate rollers descend in grooves and
so take up the extra fleece delivered and the apron, which rollers rise
and return to their level as the apron and roller move outwards again.
As each layer of fleece is laid the table or frame beneath advances a
short distance at right angles to the direction of the length of the layer,
so that the layers do not fall exactly over each other, but overlap each
other at the selvedges. When sufficient layers are deposited the table
or frame and fleece is removed, and the fleece is submitted to the
subsequent processes as usual.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
MITCHELL and THOMAS MITCHELL, both of Stacksteads, in the County
of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell,
Her special license that we, the said William Mitchell and Thomas
Mitchell, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell, 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

page_text: 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETING, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE
EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
William Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or one of our or their, ar
one of 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 I, the said William Mitchell, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) :-
Our Invention is designed to produce or manufacture felt carpeting,
printed or otherwise, in such a manner that each felt carpet shall
consist of one entire seamless piece of any width and length required
in contradistinction to making such carpeting of narrow widths and
seaming or otherwise attaching them together as hitherto.
The improvements consist in manufacturing printed felt carpeting
in such a manner that the width and length are composed of con-
tinuous felt and without seam, each carpet consisting of one piece
only, and the apparatus to be employed may be varied according to
circumstances, as such seamless wide felt carpet may be produced in
several ways.
The second part of the Invention relates to a novel construction
of carding engine to be applied for such purpose, by which means a
fleece of wool or other fibrous material is delivered of the full width
required for subsequently forming into carpeting; and this part of the
improvement consists in constructing the carding cylinders and rollers
contained in the engine of large diameter and extended widths, and
of metal or lags of wood, which are internally stayed with transverse
and diagonal ribs in such a manner that the surface or periphery of
the cylinders will have proportionate strength, durability, and equality
of surface. These surfaces when truly cylindrical are to be covered in
the usual manner with ordinary "cards;" or in order to obviate the

page_text: tendency of the fleece during the process of carding from thickening
towards the centre and leaving the selvages thin and bare the cards
covering the cylinders may be graduated in pitch, that is, the cards
covering the centre of the cylinder are of a coarse pitch, and become
gradually finer as they extend towards the outer edges; or the same
result may be obtained by the introduction of an intermediate roller
supported between the two large cylinders, the said intermediate roller
being regulated in pitch so as to transfer on to the front or finishing
cylinder a slight excess of fleece, which will when being stripped
from the doffer leave the engine in an even layer or fleece. This
wide fleece is carried in the ordinary manner by the rollers now
employed for the same purpose when manufacturing narrow widths,
which in this case are necessarily extended or elongated so as to
correspond to the width of the fleece delivered from the previously
described improved engine. This fleece is transmitted in the ordinary
manner by these carrier rollers, which place fleece upon fleece until
the required thickness is attained, at which time the accumulated
layers of fleece are transferred to the "hardening" process, which
machine is also extended in width to meet the requirement of the
full width of felt carpeting under manufacture.
A series
Thirdly. The Invention relates to an apparatus whereby a carding
engine or engines of narrow or ordinary width may be employed for
the manufacture of wide seamless felt carpeting, printed or otherwise;
and the apparatus consists of an endless apron or cloth extended
between two revolving rollers and receiving the fleece from the doffing
cylinder, one roller being near the doffing cylinder of the engine, and
the other regularly traversing to and fro by ordinary mechanical means
above a batt table, on which is placed an endless cloth or other
receiver for the layers of fleece, which cloth has regular motion beneath
and at right angles to the said traverse of the sliver cloth.
of alternately rising and falling rollers are also situated between the
carding engine and the "batt table,'
"under and over which the
sliver cloth and fleece pass. As the roller and sliver cloth traverse
from the engine they convey the fleece away, and in returning deposit
it on the "batt cloth ;" and in order to compensate for the "slack"
of the sliver cloth in returning (the fleece being constantly delivered)
the alternate rollers ascend and descend in grooves, and so take up
the extra fleece delivered and the "slack," which rollers rise and fall
to their level as the sliver cloth and carriage roller move outward

page_text: again. As each layer of fleece is laid on the batt table, the endless
batt cloth slowly and regularly advances at right angles in the
direction of the length of the layer, so that the layers do not fall
exactly over each other, but overlap each other at the selvages.
When sufficient layers are deposited on the "batt table" they are
either carried forward to the process of "hardening" direct by a
connection of the "batt table" and "hardener" by an extension of
the "batt cloth," or they may be folded on to a roller, which may
be afterwards carried to or placed on the "hardener."
The second portion of our Invention relating to an extended width
of carding engine (the cards upon the cylinders of which are graduated
so that the doffing comb may deliver a fleece of wool that will be
suitable for a seamless printed felt carpet of wide width, will be
fully understood by the foregoing description without any further
explanation or reference to Drawings; but in order that the third
portion of our Invention may be better understood and explained in
detail we have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings illustrative of
the same, in which the fleece of wool is continuously carried from
the "doffer" of an ordinary carding engine by means of an endless
travelling cloth called the "sliver cloth," and laid fleece upon fleece
on the transverse endless travelling cloth called the "batt cloth,"
which slowly carries forward the manifold fleeces as they accumulate,
and afterwards submits them to action of the hardening rollers.
Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of the endless sliver cloth receiving
and carrying the fleece from the carding engine to the transverse
travelling batt cloth of the "batt table;" in this view is shewn
the arrangement of compensating rollers that enable the to-and-fro
action of the carriage laying the fleece upon the endless "batt cloth"
to distribute such fleece in even layers continuously from end to end
of such cloth across its width, the dimensions of such "batt" corre-
sponding to the width of felt carpet under the process of manufacture;
and Fig. 2 represents a detached view with the carriage shewn in it.
In Figs. 1 and 2 a, a, is the doffing cylinder and comb of an
ordinary carding engine; b and c are rollers fixed to the frame of
the engine, around which and the traversing carriage roller i the
endless sliver cloth d is extended. The said rollers b and i are driven
at one uniform speed, which is governed by the speed of the doffing
cylinder, and as the supply and discharge of the fleece or sliver is

page_text: regulated by the motion of the sliver cloth it is obvious that the
progress of the cloth at these points 6 and i must be uniform, there-
fore as a certain length of cloth must be consumed in the progress
of the carriage across the "batt table" in addition to the cloth
consumed by the discharge of the sliver, the cloth thus consumed by
the forward and revolving motion of the carriage roller will be as
much in excess of the cloth supplied by the doffer roller 6 as the
distance traversed by the carriage i. In the return of the carriage
the opposite result is obtained. In order therefore to provide for this
irregularity of consumption of the sliver cloth an arrangement of rising
and falling compensating rollers are provided, which are situated
between the carding engine and "batt table," the action of which
will be fully explained on reference to the Drawings and following
description:The sliver cloth after leaving the roller 6 receives
the continuous fleece before passing under the guide roller c, from
whence it is carried over the top roller e and then under the com-
pensating rising and falling roller f and over the second top roller g,
after which it passes under the roller hand around the traversing
carriage roller i secured and carried by the carriage i, at which point
the fleece leaves the cloth and is laid layer upon layer on the traversing
batt cloth k, carrying the accumulating folds to the hardening frame;
the cloth from the point of delivering its fleece returns to the rollers b
underneath the doffing comb of the carding engine by way of the
guide rollers and second rising and falling compensating roller m,
the driving of the endless cloth d and change giving motion to the
traverse of the carriage b' being effected by the following arrangement
of gearing:-The wheel n of the doffing cylinder which receives its
motion through the ordinary train of gearing from the driving shaft
of the carding engine gives motion through the wheel n¹ to the
roller b, through and by which a constant traverse is given to the
endless cloth d receiving the fleece from the doffer a; upon the shaft
of this roller b is secured the mitre wheels o', which transmit motion
through the wheels and shaft p to the bevil change wheels q and
drums q' actuating the to-and-fro traverse of the carriage through the
medium of the ropes r, the change to such traverse being given by
means of the clutch r¹, the reverse action of which is obtained by
means of the cam s driven by the wheels 8¹. The bottom guide
roller when first the carriage a commences to run out and lay the
fleece from the endless cloth d across and on to the transverse travelling

page_text: "batt cloth" k is prevented revolving by reason of the catch t
(actuated by the reverse motion) falling into and preventing the
revolution of the ratchet t¹ secured on the end of the roller ; thus
during the run out of the carriage, the speed of which is proportioned
to the delivery of fleece from the carding engine, the under portion of
the sliver cloth d remains stationary, the continuous feed and traverse
of the cloth at the roller b being compensated for by the descent
or lowering of the compensating roller m, simultaneously with the
outward progress of the carriage is compensated for by the ascent or
rising of the roller f, the carriage laying the fleece from the cloth d
as it advances onward toward the end of its race; but so soon as the
outward traverse of the carriage is completed the cams effects through
the clutch an immediate change in the gearing q¹, the effect of
which is to reverse the carriage ¹, by which means and during
such return motion the fleece is laid on in a reverse direction over
the fleece previously laid on the "batt table;" simultaneously with this
reverse motion the top carrier pulley 9 provided with a ratchet and
catch similar to the bottom guide roller is caught and prevented
revolving during the return of the carriage, at which time the bottom
roller is released, thereby allowing the reverse action of the com-
pensating roller f and m to take up the surplus cloth, maintaining by
this means the continuous feed during the backward traverse of the
carriage . The repeated to-and-fro traverse of the carriage lays
fleece upon fleece on the upper surface of the "batt table" of the
transverse traversing batt cloth k, the number of such layers being
regulated according to the requirements, quality, or thickness of printed
felt carpet under manufacture. The layers of fleece as they accumulate
by reason of the slow traverse of the transvers endless batt cloth k do
not fall exactly over each other, but overlap each other at the outer
selvages, thereby maintaining an even thickness as the accumulated
layers are delivered or carried on by the cloth k under the action of the
"hardening" or felting rollers, from whence the fleeces are delivered
in a continuous felt, the width of which is equal to the traverse of
the carriage across the cloth k.
In order to expedite the process of manufacture two or more carding
engines may be employed, which will simultaneously through the
arrangement of mechanism before described lay their fleeces side by side
upon the transverse travelling "batt cloth "k, the effect of which will
produce a more rapid accumulation of the fleeces, the traverse of the

page_text: "batt cloth" being accelerated in proportion; the manufacture of the
carpetting will thereby be considerably expedited. The fleece may if
desired be also laid in narrower widths, and stretched or attenuated to
the full width of carpet desired.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with
the method of carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to
be distinctly understood that we claim as our improvements,―
First. The novel and peculiar manufacture of seamless wide felt
carpet, printed or otherwise, suitable for covering the whole or part of
the area of a room, without seam out of one piece in contradistinction
to making or producing such carpets in separate and narrow widths
and seaming or otherwise attaching them together as hitherto.
Secondly. We claim the novel arrangement, construction, and
adaptation of a wide carding engine to be employed for the purpose
of delivering a fleece or sliver of wool equal to the whole width of
carpet desired, as herein-before described.
And, lastly. We claim the arrangement, construction, and adaptation
and rising and falling compensating rollers (having an intermediate
position between an ordinary carding engine or engines and a batt
table) that are employed as compensating rollers for the endless "sliver"
cloth distended between a stationary doffing roller and a traversing
carriage roller, the arrangement of which enables the to-and-fro traverse
of the carriage to deposit from the sliver cloth even layers of fleece or
sliver fleece upon fleece on the cloth of a "batt table," as herein-before
described, set forth, and fully illustrated in the Drawings attached.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mitchell, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
WILLIAM MITCHELL. (L.S.)
Witnessed by
JOHN HUGHES,
Clerk to John Davies & Son,
Office for Patents,
Manchester.