IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPA- RATUS FOR PLEATING AND MAKING-UP MILLINERY AND OTHER TRIMMINGS."
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Davis, of the Firm of Thomas Adams and Company,
Limited, and Edwin Whitehall, both of the Town and County of the Town of
Nottingham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPA-
RATUS FOR PLEATING AND MAKING-UP MILLINERY AND OTHER TRIMMINGS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Davis and Edwin
Whitehall at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th November
1877.
ROBERT DAVIS, of the Firm of Thomas Adams and Company, Limited, and
EDWIN WHITEHALL, both of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR PLEATING AND MAKING-UP
MILLINERY AND OTHER TRIMMINGS."
Our improvements consist of a machine constructed of the following parts:-A
pair of standards connected by tie bars; these standards form bearings for, or
bearings are secured to them to support various portions of the machine. The
standards support a bearing surface upon which the fabric to be operated upon is
placed; above this surface is a bar, which has a rising-and-falling motion given to
it by rocking levers and springs, the levers being operated by cams carried by a
shaft provided with a toothed wheel which gears into a similar wheel on a driving
shaft provided with a fast and a loose pulley or other equivalent.
The driving shaft carries two cams which operate rocking levers, each carrying a
spring attached to a plate which is formed in sectional lengths to allow of any.
inequality of the fabric to be operated upon, the plate being held to the bearing
surface by the springs.
There is a second sectional plate which is operated by excentrics secured on a
tube capable of adjustment upon the driving shaft; the second plate is acted upon
by rocking levers and springs operated by cams on the driving shaft.

page_text: The bearings of the driving shaft are excentrics, adjustable by means of levers
connected to links which rock upon one of the tie bars of the machine; a guiding
apparatus is attached to the machine. With machinery and apparatus constructed
as above described, we are enabled to produce pleatings of divers sizes at will.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Davis and Edwin Whitehall in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 11th May 1878.
ROBERT DAVIS, of the Firm of Thomas Adams and Company, Limited, and
EDWIN WHITEHALL, both of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR PLEATING AND MAKING-UP
MILLINERY AND OTHER TRIMMINGS."
Our improvements consist of a machine constructed of the following parts:-A
pair of standards connected by tie-bars; these standards form bearings for or
bearings are secured to them to support various portions of the machine. The
standards support a bearing surface, upon which the fabric to be operated upon is
placed; above this surface is a bar which has a rising-and-falling motion given to it
by rocking levers and springs, the levers being operated by cains carried by a shaft
provided with a toothed wheel which gears into a similar wheel on a driving shaft
provided with a fast and loose pulley or their equivalent.
The driving shaft carries two cams which operate rocking levers, each carrying a
spring attached to a plate which is formed in sectional lengths to allow of any
inequality of the fabric to be operated upon, the plate being held to the bearing
surface by the springs.
There is a second sectional plate which is operated by excentrics secured on a
tube capable of adjustment upon the driving shaft; the second plate is acted upon
by rocking levers and springs operated by cams on the driving shaft.
The bearings of the driving shaft are excentrics adjustable by means of levers
connected to links which rock upon one of the tie bars of the machine; a guiding
apparatus is attached to the machine. With machinery and apparatus constructed
as above described, we are enabled to produce pleatings of divers sizes at will.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a front view of our improved machine; Figure 2, a view at
the left end of the machine; and Figures 4 to 6, separate views of portions of the
apparatus referred to hereafter.
The corresponding parts in each Figure are indicated by the same letters where
necessary.
Our improvements consist of a machine constructed of the following parts:-A
pair of standards A, A, connected by three tie-bars A', A¹, A¹; the slots of the
standards are fitted with bearings which support a bearing surface B, upon which
the fabric to be operated upon is placed; this bearing surface is adjusted as required

page_text: by means of a set screw in an arm B2 secured to the left end standard, and is
heated by means of jets of flame of a mixture of gas and air supplied through the
pipes B¹, B¹; above the bearing surface is a bar C, held down by a spring at each
end; the bar has a rising movement given to it by a lifting lever C¹ at each end
of the machine; these levers are operated by cams C³, one of which is secured on
each end of a shaft C3 which is provided with a toothed wheel C' which gears into
a similar toothed wheel on a driving shaft D; the teeth of these wheels, which are
of considerable depth, are only shewn in the upper part of the wheel Cat Figure 2,
the depth of the teeth enabling the wheels to continue in gear with each other
when the adjustment of an excentric, hereafter referred to, places their shafts further.
asunder.
The driving shaft carries two cams D¹, D', which operate rocking levers D³, D2,
secured to an oscillating shaft Ds; the levers D2 each carry a spring which has its
upper end attached to a plate E, and its lower end hooked on a screw adjustable in
the lower end of the lever; by such means the plate E is alternately pressed
towards the bearing surface while being projected towards the back of the machine,
and slightly raised from the surface upon its withdrawal for another stroke.
The plate E carries a spring knife blade E', shewn in plan at Figure 3, formed in
sectional lengths to allow of any inequality of the fabric to be operated upon; each
end of this plate rests upon a truck carried by an axle in the lower end of an arın
which is capable of adjustment vertically upon a stud on the inside of the standard
by means of a set screw and a lock nut, shewn at Figures 1 and 2;.the.trucks on
the backward throw of the plate E ensure the sectional spring knife blade clearing
the fabric being operated upon, thereby preventing the newly formed pleat from
being drawn back.
The spring knife blades have saw gates on their under side which form teeth on
their lower edge; the to-and-fro movements of the blades are effected by excentrics
E2 carried by the driving shaft D which is provided near its right end with a
grooved clutch pulley, round.which a cord or belt from any prime mover may be
passed to drive the machine; it may be operated by means of the handle secured
on the right end of the shaft; between the handle and the clutch pulley is a clutch
driving box sliding on a key on the driving shaft, by which the machine may be
started or stopped by the hand lever Dº.
The bearings of the driving shaft are eccentrics D', adjustable in the end standards
by means of levers DS secured to them, and having their outer ends attached to a
rod connected to a slotted link Do, which may be secured to a link rocking upon
the lower front tie bar A', or it may be adjusted upon one of the arms of the
standard which carry the oscillating shaft D³.
Between the standards the driving shaft is enlarged in diameter and forms a
central excentric, through which are a series of holes, shewn in plan at Figure 5;
upon this excentric is placed a tube Es, in which five series of holes are drilled
through both sides; the relative position of each series of holes in the tube are
shewn at Figure 4, which represents the surface of the tube spread out flat; the
tube is somewhat longer that is shewn at Figure 4, in order that one of the ex-
centrics E may be shrunk upon each end, the screwed end of a pin being passed
through two of the holes in the tube and one of the holes in the excentric D; it is
secured therein by a wing nut E*; by such means we are enabled to adjust the
throw of the excentrics E to make any depth of pleat, from the smallest to a pleat
of an inch or more in depth; and the fixed but adjustable excentrics D7 enables us
to regulate the space between one pleat and the next.
Above the sectional spring knife blades E¹ are a series of rocking spring knife
blades F, carried by an axle F' supported at each end by a bearing secured to the
standards; the axle is provided with a lever F, near each end to which springs are
attached, which cause the spring knife blades to press upon the bearing surface.
When pleatings of great depth and length are required to be produced upon
materials varying in thickness, we employ a bar G to hold down the material in
addition to the bar C, the bar G lying behind the bar C and bearing against one

page_text: side of the slotted standards, the bar C being raised by a cam on each end of the
driving shaft D, forcing down the outer ends of lifting levers G' rocking, upon the
same axles as the lifting levers C" before named; such apparatus is shewn in side
view at Figure 6, both bars being held down by a spring on each end.
There is a guiding apparatus H of the usual construction attached to each
machine.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention and the manner of per-
forming the same, we mould have it understood that we do not claim for the lower
reciprocating spring knife blades, but what we do claim is,-
First. For the upper rocking spring knife blades working in conjunction with
the lower reciprocating spring knife blades.
Secondly. For the combination of excentrics for adjusting the throw of the lower
spring knife blades, as herein-before described, and illustrated in the Drawings
annexed.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Davis and Edwin Whitehall, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
ROBERT DAVIS.
(L.S.)
Witness to the said Signatures,
H. W. GOUGH, C.E.,
Nottingham.
EDWIN WHITEHALL. (L.S.)