IMPROVEMENTS IN BEATING, STRETCHING, AND DRYING FABRICS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,. PART OF WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE. FOR THRASHING LINSEED
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Lee Norton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th October
-
1861. Partly a communication from abroad by William Aldon, of
28, Boulevart Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, in the Empire of France.
"
I, JAMES LEE NORTON, of Belle Sauvage, Yard, Ludgate Hill, in the City
of London, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for, "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BEATING, STRETCHING, AND DRYING FABRICS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN,. PART OF WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE. FOR THRASHING LINSEED,"
to be as follows:-
::
This Invention has for its object improvements in beating, stretching, and
drying fabrics, and in the apparatus employed therein, part of which apparatus
is also applicable for thrashing linseed. In the manufacture of some
descriptions of pile fabrics the pile is brought up by beating the fabric on the
face with sticks; this operation is now performed by hand. According to this
Invention the operation is effected by machinery, the fabric being caused to
pass between two rows of sticks, which are fitted into metal sockets, and in
connection with these sockets are short arms or projections, which being acted
on by tappets on shafts suitably arranged and driven, give the requisite motion
to the sticks to cause them to strike the fabric. The beating the fabric has to
be done generally whilst the fabric is damp, and it is very desirable that after it
has been beaten it should be at once dried, so that the pile when properly raised
may not be again deranged. For this purpose a beating machine is combined
with a tentering, stretching, and drying machine, so that the former machine
may feed the latter the fabric passing direct from the beaters on to the

page_text: tentering points, and being kept extended from the time the beating com-
mences until it is delivered dried at the end of the tentering, stretching, and
drying machine.
In tentering, stretching, and drying some descriptions of fabrics, it is
necessary to finish each piece to a given length; in order that this may be
done the fabric as it passes into the machine is caused to pass over a roller
with card teeth upon it, over- which it cannot slip; and from this roller the
fabric passes on to the tentering points. The speed at which the card roller
can be adjusted by means of change wheels, so that its surface speed may be
as much less than the speed of the tentering points as is requisite to give the
amount of elongation required, and which is ascertained by measuring the
piece before it is brought to the machine.
In the Specification of a former Patent granted to me, and dated the 2nd
day of October, 1860, No. 2386, a tentering, stretching, and drying machine.
is described, which is heated by means of steam plates, placed in proximity to
the fabric to be dried; these steam plates were only cases into which steam
was admitted. According to the present Invention the plates are constructed
so that the steam entering at one end of the plate traverses it in a zig-zag
direction until it escapes at the other end. In order to produce such a plate a
wrought-iron steam pipe, bent to the required zig-zag form, is laid in a mould,
and iron is cast on to it to produce the plate required. The portion of the
apparatus described, which is applicable to the thrashing of linseed, is the
beating machine first described; this material requires to be very carefully
thrashed not to injure the straw, which is more valuable than the seed. The
machine when it is required for thrashing is fitted with an endless apron
travelling between the beaters, and the straw is fed on to this apron. The
apron is supported by a table forming a solid, bed for the beaters to strike.
.