AN IMPROVED APPA- RATUS OR MACHINERY FOR SHEARING OR CROPPING OF WOOLLEN CLOTH WITH SHEARS, KNIVES, AND CUTTERS, PUT IN OPERATION BY VARIOUS POWERS NOW IN PRACTICE
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DOUGLASS, of the Parish of Christ Church, in the County of Surry, Machinist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirtieth of March, in the thirty-eighth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said James Douglass, His especial licence that
I, the said James Douglass, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPA-
RATUS OR MACHINERY FOR SHEARING OR CROPPING OF WOOLLEN CLOTH WITH SHEARS,
KNIVES, AND CUTTERS, PUT IN OPERATION BY VARIOUS POWERS NOW IN PRACTICE;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
James Douglass, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause
a. particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Douglass, do hereby declare that my said Invention for shearing or
cropping of cloth is fully described in the above Drawings and the description

page_text: thereof hereunder written, and consists of the following principles; that is to
say:
The blades of my shears are straight, and one of them is fixed so as to rise
and fall on the surface of the cloth, and of such a length as to reach across a
narrow piece of cloth, and will move from the center to each side of the
frame to effect the shearing or cropping of broad cloth; the working blades
are of the same length with those that are fixed; they are moved by means
of machinery, and contrived so as to be fixed into the bow by means of nutt
and screw, and may be taken out for grinding and refixed at pleasure; or I
shear or crop the cloth by means of knives or cutters fixed on the arms of
wheels, and at right or other angles with their axles, and working against
or over fixed knives or cutters, either in horizontal, vertical, or other positions.
Or I shear cloth by means of having one knife or cutter working against or
over the fixed cutter in the manner of sheárs, but in a direction parallel to
the fixed one, and this either in a horizontal, vertical, or other position; and
the whole of the above shears, knives, or cutters are worked by means of
improved machinery, which has not hitherto been in practice, and which is
fully described in the above Drawings, and as follows:-
Fig. 1st is a perspective view of an apparatus or machinery for shearing
or cropping woollen cloth, or any other sort of cloth where the staple or sur-
face is required to be cut. A, A, A, A, A, A, represent the upright posts;
B, B, B, B, B, B, the side rails; C, C, C, C, C, the five cross rails for holding
the frame together; D, D, D, D, fixtures for supporting the shears; E, E, the
bed whereon the cutting part of the shears is placed; F, the axle that
supports the levers and crank which gives motion to the shears; G, the wheel
and handle of the first power given to the machine fixed on the axle H,
whereon the center is fixed the pulley I, that gives motion to the crank K, as
seen in Fig, 2; L, the worm and wheel turning round the conducting rollers
M, M, which carries away the cloth from the shears N, N; 0, 0, are springs
for increasing the friction of the conducting rollers and the cloth roller P;
Q, Q, two brush rollers for raising the nap or staple of the cloth before the
shears; R, R, the two chains or lines from the lever S to the shears N, N;
T is a wheel fixed on the end of one of the conducting rollers, representing a
strap going round two small sheaves fixed on the end of the brush rollers
Q, Q; U is an iron rod screwed fast to a spring at W on the bottom cross rail,
and the top axle F, which produces the effect of the balance of the crank K,
as seen in the ground plan.
Fig. 2 is the ground plan of Fig. 1, and refers to the same letters for the
explanation, only mentioning the improvement on the shears N, N, where the

page_text: working blade can be taken from the bow by screw and nutt, and turning
round as required. And be it further considered as an improvement, that the
shear's blades may be straight on the edge and flatt.
Fig. 3 is a side view of an apparatus or machinery for shearing or cropping,
and is performed by the vertical wheel A, whereon a convenient number of
knives being fixed on the radie of the said wheel, and which knives will cut in
proportion to the number of revolutions of the wheel; the axle B whereon the
vertical wheel is fixed, working on the outside of the frame with the worm C,
which gives motion to the wheels D, D, D, D, fixed on the conducting rollers
E, E, E, E, as is seen in Fig. 4. F is a small wheel on the end of the brush
roller, constructed for raising the staple of the wool on the surface of the cloth;
G, the handle for putting the machine in operation; H, H, H, represents the
frame which supports the works above.
Fig. 4 is a ground plan of Fig. 3, and refers to the same letters, including,
the cloth I, I, moving through the conducting rollers from right to left. K, K,
the end of the frame, where a knife is placed as a fixture on the cloth for the
knives of the vertical wheel to operate upon. L represents a piece of cloth
moving the reverse way to the other, on a double frame, constructed so as the
vertical wheel shall cut two pieces in the same space of time as is required
for the one piece only.
Fig. 5 is a ground plan representing the horizontal wheel M, whereon fifteen
cutters, being placed on the radies of the said wheel, operates fifteen times on
each fixed cutter, N, N, every revolution of the said wheel. 0, 0, two pieces
of cloth on the frames P, P, P, P, the one piece moving from right to left,
the other the reverse, which produces the effect of the wheel cutting two
pieces in place of one; Q, the handle and axle that put the wheel in
operation; R, R, R, R, the conducting rollers for carrying away the cloth;
S, S, the two brush rollers for raising the nap before the cutters.
Fig. 6 is a Plan for cropping or shearing with a fixed cutter A, and the
moving cutter B, worked up and down by the double crank C, C, working
into the axle and wheel D, D; E, the handle; F, F, two springs for steadying
the working cutter B; G, the brush roller; H, H, two conducting rollers;
I, I, the two cross rails; K, K, the two side frames, &c.
Fig. 7 is an apparatus for shearing with shears worked by the single crank
L, connected with a rope to the point of the shears M, and then to the spring
N; O, O, the two conducting rollers; P, P, two brush rollers; Q, Q, the two
cross rails; R, R, the two side frames supporting the shears and rollers.
And be it further considered, that such apparatus or machinery, consisting of