IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING OR FINISHING GARMENTS AND FABRICS AFTER CLEANING OR DYEING
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Ker at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th June 1867.
I, GEORGE KER, of 42, Gabriel's Hill, Maidstone, in the County of Kent,
to hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR DRYING OR FINISHING GARMENTS AND FABRICS AFTER CLEANING OR
DYEING," to be as follows:-
Heretofore it has been usual to dry garments or parts of garments or fabrics
after cleaning or dyeing by stitching or tacking their edges to the edges of
strips of canvas by which they are afterwards stretched out in fixed stationary
frames. In place of thus holding the garments or fabrics in fixed frames I
employ moveable frames that can be run upon rails into and out of a drying
chamber; each frame is for this purpose provided with rollers to run upon
rails into and out of a drying chamber heated (by preference with steam) by
a coil or coils of pipes; I prefer that the coil of pipes should for this purpose
be placed at the bottom of the chamber, and that the frames holding the
garments or fabrics to be dried should be placed horizontally one above the
other above the coil of pipes in the drying chamber; each side of the drying
chamber is for this purpose provided with as many rails or supports one above
the other as there are frames to be placed in the drying chamber; the frames
are provided at their ends with rollers to run upon the rails or supports at the
sides of the chamber, and these rails or supports are placed at a sufficient height
one above the other to allow any one of the frames to be drawn out from the
drying chamber independently of the other frames. In front of the drying

page_text: chamber, and at a distance from it somewhat greater than the length of a
frame, are fixed two standards carrying an axis, to which are affixed two rails
which extend to the front of the drying chamber; these rails are at the same
distance apart as the rails in the drying chamber, and their ends can be brought
to and fixed on a level with the ends of any one or other of the rails or sup-
ports in the drying chamber; by this means any one of the frames may be
drawn out of the drying chamber on to these rails to have the fabrics upon it,
which have already been dried, removed, and when other fabrics have been
placed upon it the frame is again run into the drying chamber; afterwards the
rails may be turned on the axis that carries them and be fixed opposite the
ends of the rails supporting any other frame in the chamber, and this frame
may then be similarly run out to have the fabrics upon it removed and fresh
pieces of fabric placed thereon.
Another part of my Invention consists in holding the edges of the fabrics to
be dried by means of small pins or points in place of stitching them to the
edges of strips of canvas as is now usual. For this purpose I form the frames
as heretofore of two bars, which can be moved to or from each other; along
the edge of each bar is placed a row of small points, on to which two opposite
edges of the fabric to be dried are pressed by a brush or otherwise, the other
sides of the fabrics are similarly pressed on to small points carried by strips of
fabric which are to be stretched between the bars of the frame. By this
arrangement the fabrics to be dried may be placed on to or removed from the
frames much more quickly than heretofore.