IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTS, AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Kobert Ferguson, of cшast,
Antrim, in Ireland, and George Lord, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, in England, Merchants, Executors of the Will of
James Anderson, late of Ballymacarrett, in the County of Down, in
Ireland, Felt Manufacturer, deceased, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTS, AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED
THEREWITH."
Scaled the 23rd April 1869, and dated the 24th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Anderson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th October 1868.
I, JAMES ANDERSON, of Ballymacarrett, in the County of Down, in
Ireland, Felt Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTS, AND IN
MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of felted materials for
sheathing, sheeting, or covering ships' walls, floors, roofs, and the like,

page_text: and consists in combining or cohering the ordinary fibrous or hairy
substances used in the manufacture of such materials by means of the
native mineral pitch, known as asphaltum mixed and rarefied with
vegetable or mineral tar, or animal, vegetable, or mineral oil in licu
of the other bituminous substances now and heretofore commonly used
for the purpose of combining or cohering the said fibrous or hairy
substances, and also in coating the surface or surfaces of the material thus
manufactured, and of felts however manufactured with a thin layer of
such asphaltum mixed and rarefied or softened as described, and with or
without the addition of chalk or whiting. I employ in this manufacture
the machine ordinarily used in the production of such materials, and
for the purpose of coating the surface or surfaces of the material as
aforesaid I attach to or connect with the said machine a cylinder or
cylinders, over or under which the said material is made to pass, and a
box or pan, or boxes or pans from which the substance used for such
coating percolates or flows through a long narrow slot, or is lifted by
the cylinder or cylinders or otherwise conveyed to and spread over the
manufactured material. The surface or surfaces of the materials coated
as above described may be covered or dusted with shoves or sand to
give the materials a light color, and to prevent the coating from adhering
to anything with which it may be brought into contact.
التا
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Ferguson and George Lord in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 23rd April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ROBERT
FERGUSON, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, in Ireland, and GEORGE
LORD, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, in England, Merchants,
Executors named in and appointed by the last Will and Testament of
James Anderson, late of Ballymacarrett, in the County of Down, in
Ireland, Felt Manufacturer, deceased, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Robert Ferguson and George Lord, Her

page_text: special licence that we, the, said Robert Ferguson. and George Lord, our
executors, administrators,, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Robert Ferguson and George Lord, 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 therein. expressed,
should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and yend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and.
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTS,:
AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Robert Ferguson and George Lord, our exc-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or.
their, or 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;
Scal Patent Oflice within six calendar months next and immediately;
after the date of the said Letters Patcut.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Robert Ferguson and George Lord,
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, that is to say :-
The said Invention relates to the manufacture of felted materials for:
sheathing, sheeting, or covering ship's walls, floors, roofs, and the like..
The ordinary fibrous or capillary substances used in the manufacture
of the felted materials aforesaid are employed, but instead of combining
the said substances or causing them to colere by means of some or one
of the bituminous substances heretofore commonly employed for said
purpose the same are according to the said Invention saturated and
combined or caused to cohere by means of the native mineral pitch,
known as asphaltum, specially prepared by purifying it and mixing it
as herein-after described with suitable tars or oils, which have the effect.
of softening and tempering it. The substances which are applicable for
softening and tempering the said native mineral pitch, known as
asphaltum are shale tar, paraffin still bottoms, called also paraffin
sludge or boghead tar, paraffin. tar, Archangel tar, and asphalte oil,
and analogous tars and oils. The asphaltum is first purified by boiling,
by means of which the impuritics are driven off or out by evaporation
or otherwise. The combining or cohering mixture is then prepared by
melting the asphaltum thus purified immediately before it is required

page_text: for use in the manufacturing process, and the softening or tempering
substance is added as soon as the asphaltum has acquired a fluid or
semi-fluid state. The two substances are then stirred up together until
the mixture becomes a thin fluid and an intimate combination of the
two substances has been effected. The quantity of the softening or
tempering substance required to be used will bear a proportion of about
twenty per cent. or twenty-five per cent. in weight to that of the
asphaltum. If too small a quantity of the softening or tempering
substance be used the mixture will be brittle when cooled, and if
too large a quantity be used it will be stickey and viscous. In the
former case more of the softening or tempering substance should be
added; in the latter case more of the asphaltum is necessary or the
mixture should be boiled until the proper consistency has been arrived
at. The mixture so prepared may be mixed with the fibrous or other
materials ordinarily used in the manufacture of the felts by the ordinary
felting machinery in the usual way, and a material of improved quality and
better suited for sheathing or roofing purposes than any heretofore made
is thereby produced. The mixture prepared as herein-before described, is
also used by us as an improved coating mixture for coating the surface of
felted materials, whether the same be manufactured as heretofore by the
use of the bituminous materials heretofore employed or as will be found
preferable by using the prepared mixture herein-before particularly
described. We apply to the surface or surfaces of the manufactured
felted material a thin layer or skin of the prepared mixture with or
without the addition of some chalk or whiting, and we employ in our
process of application the machinery and appliances or attachments
herein after more particularly described. The surface of the felted
materials herein-before mentioned when coated with such thin layer or
skin as aforesaid may be covered or dusted with shoves or sand, which
gives to said materials a light color, and prevents the coating from
adhering to anything that may come or be brought into contact with
it, but we do not claim the use of such dusting materials. The covering
or dusting of the said materials is effected by us by means of the specially
constructed machinery and appliances or attachments which we will
proceed particularly to describe, reference being made to the Drawings
annexed hereto, the same letters of reference indicating the same or
corresponding parts throughout all the Figures.

page_text: ordinary felting machine; and the coating mixture, box, or pau, and
coating cylinder, and the pressing and finishing rollers; Figure II. is
the ground plan of the machinery shewn in Figure I.; Figure III. is a
sectional elevation on the line C, D, on Figure II., and Figure IV. is a
sectional elevation of the coating mixture box, cylinder, and working
parts on the line A, B, on Figure II.
a is a spur wliecl on the lower finishing roller; 6 is a spurred pinion
on the driving shaft and driven by a belt on the sheave '; c is the
top or pressing roller; d is a weighted lever bearing on c, all of which
constitute parts of the ordinary machine by which the felted materials
are manufactured.
The following are the parts of the new coating machinery, viz., e is
the slotted coating mixture box or pan supported on the framework F;
f is a steam pipe from the boiler communicating with a steam pipe g
in the pan e by which the coating mixture is kept hot; is an exhaust
pipe, as shown by the arrow; i is a cylinder; jis a speed spur wheel
on the axle of i; is a spur wheel driven by a pinion on the shaft of
a driving sheave m; n is a scraper for cleaning the cylinder against
which it is made to bear by the weights w; o is a screw with a collar
and on a snug attached to the frame F, having its lower end threaded
to work in a corresponding thread in a snug attached to the box or
pane for adjusting the position of the box or pan e in its relation to
the cylinder i.so as to regulate the delivery of the coating mixture upon
the surface of the felted material; p is a lever having its fulcrum g
attached to the side of the box or pan e; is a fixed arm on the lever p,
carrying a bar & which works free in the snugs t, t, attached to a slot
plate u, the slot plate u slides in the grooves v, t, formed in the pro-
jecting ends of the box or pan e so as to contract or close the slot
the box or pan e; x is a stop fixed on the side of the box or pane to
prevent the lever p moving so far as to draw the plate a completely
from.under the slot y. c, is a pair of wooden rollers supported on the
frame F and driven by the spur wheel through the intermediate spur
wheel, which runs free on a snug attached to the frame; d, is a
weighted lever acting on the upper roller c; the spur wheel j. driven
by the train of gearing and jis placed on the axle of the lower
rollers c; c, is a sand box supported on a frame and having a slot at the
bottom for discharging the sand on a slanting board, which conveys
it to the coated surface of the felted material; s, is a grooved cylinder
7. in

page_text: fitting to the edges of the slot at the bottom of e, and regulating the
uniform discharge of the sand; e, is a removeable framing or slove
box maintained in position by stops and snugs at each end. Along the
under edge of the side adjoining the cylinder is a slot to admit the felt, and
on the opposite side is another slot to let the felt pass out. On the last-
mentioned slot there is an adjustable fillet secured in any desired position
by screws,, at the back of the framing or shove box, which regulate
the extent of opening above the felt passing out; m, is a driving sheave
on the axle of 8₁. T is a sloping table between the cylinder i and the
rollers c, for supporting the felted material after being coated and during
the process of covering or dusting it with sand or shoves. T is a table
supported on a wooden frame G between the rollers c, and two finishing
rollers c₁; a, is a spur wheel on the lower finishing roller; b, is a spurred
pinion on the driving shaft and driven by a belt on the sheave b',; C₁, C₁,
are the two finishing rollers; d₁ is a weighted lever bearing on the
upper finishing roller c₁, the frames supporting the preparing and finishing
rollers are lettered E. The felted material after being manufactured in
a slicet form by the ordinary machinery heretofore used is conveyed over
and on suitable rollers to the preparing rollers c from which it is received
by the cylinder i, and is coated while passing under the slot y to the
table T, where it is covered or dusted with sand or shoves; thence it is
drawn through the pressing rollers c, and along the table T to be
finished by the rollers c₁, c₁, from which it passes under a brushing
cylinder for the removal of any superfluous sand or shoves.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we would have it understood that
we do not claim the use of native mineral pitch except when the same
is to be prepared specially and made into a mixture as herein described,
nor do we claim the use of a cylinder or cylinders, or a box or pan for
holding the coating mixture, nor the separate mechanical parts which
form the coating machine used by us; but we claim,—
1st. The manufacture of an improved quality of felted material in
the form of a continuous sheet by using as a combining mixture
asphaltum prepared and mixed as herein-before described.
2ndly. The coating of felting materials however manufactured with
asphaltum prepared and mixed as herein-before described.
3rdly. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the self-
acting coating machine arranged as herein described for the purpose of

page_text: coating, dusting, and finishing the felted materials aforesaid in the
manner hercin-before mentioned and set forth.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Ferguson and George
Lord, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-nine.
Witness to the signature of
Gco. Lord.
C. J. BENSON,
Manchester.
ROBERT FERGUSON. (L.s.)
GEO. LORD.
(L.S.)