A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING FABRICS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Wilkes, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, and Thomas Wilkes, of Birmingham, aforesaid,
Manufacturer, and Gilbert Wilkes, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manu-
facturer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF
ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING FABRICS."
Sealed the 18th July 1856, and dated the 19th May 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Wilkes, Thomas
Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 19th May 1856.
We, JOHN WILKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, and THOMAS WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, and
GILBERT WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, do hereby declare.
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF
ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING FABRICS," to be as follows:-
In making the said rollers or cylinders according to our Invention, we take
an old roller or cylinder, that is to say, a roller or cylinder which has already.
been used or prepared for printing fabrics. We remove the pattern from the
said old roller by turning or otherwise. We next expand the hollow copper,
cylinder produced from the old roller by passing a bur through its interior.,
We afterwards elongate and reduce the diameter of the hollow copper

page_text: cylinder by a drawing process, by which the substance or thickness of the
metal is also reduced. We place the cylinder so made upon a hollow
cylinder of wrought or malleable iron, and subject the compound hollow
cylinder to a drawing process, whereby the copper becomes firmly fixed
on the iron. The roller may be fixed upon its axis in the ordinary way.
Rollers are made, according to our Invention more economically than by the
ordinary method. By malleable iron, we mean that kind of cast iron which is
capable of being annealed, and which has been annealed or rendered malleable
by being heated in contact with hæmatite or other oxide of iron.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed by
the said John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 17th November 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOHN
WILKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
THOMAS WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, and GILBERT
WILKES, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and. Gilbert Wilkes, Her special licence that
we, the said John Wilkes, Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Wilkes,
Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, 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, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS FOR PRINTING
FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Wilkes,
Thomas Wilkes, and Gilbert Wilkes, onr executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, 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 Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said Thomas Wilkes, 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
thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in manufacturing rollers or cylinders for printing
fabrics from old rollers or cylinders, that is to say, rollers or cylinders made
according to the ordinary method of manufacture, and which have already
been used or prepared for printing fabrics.
In carrying our Invention into effect, we take an. old roller or cylinder,
Figure 1, and remove the pattern or design from the said old roller by turning
or otherwise. We next expand the hollow copper cylinder produced from the
old roller by passing a burr through its interior, as is well understood. The
expanded hollow cylinder is represented in Figure 2. We afterwards elongate
and reduce the diameter of the hollow copper cylinder, Figure 2, by drawing
the same as metallic tubes are drawn; the said drawing process not only
elongates and reduces the diameter of the hollow copper cylinder, but also
reduces the substances or thickness of the metal. We place the hollow copper
cylinder upon a hollow cylinder of wrought or malleable iron, represented in
sile elevation in Figure 3, and in end view in Figure 4. We subject the
compound hollow cylinder to a drawing process, as in the manufacture of
tubes. By the said drawing process the hollow cylinder of copper becomes
firmly fixed on the hollow cylinder of iron, as represented in longitudinal
section in Figure 5, and in end elevation in Figure 6. The hollow cylinder of
iron, Figures 3 and 4, is marked a in Figures 5 and 6. The said hollow
cylinder of iron is grooved longitudinally on its surface, as represented in
Figure 3, or may have a number of projections raised thereon, similar to
those on a rasp, and raised by the same means. The object of the said grooves
or projections is to effect a firmer hold of the copper upon the iron; the
outer copper cylinder during the drawing process being forced into the grooves,
or the projection on the surface of the iron made to imbed themselves in the
said copper. The nib b, running the whole length of the iron cylinder a,
engages in a groove in the axis, which is inserted in the roller preparatory to
to the said roller being used. The said nib b may be attached to the cylinder
a by brazing or otherwise, but we prefer to make the cylinder a of iron of such
thickness that by cutting away the interior the nib b may be left. Rollers or
cylinders are made, according to our Invention, more economically than by the
ordinary method. By malleable iron, we mean either the wrought iron of
commerce, or that kind of cast iron which is capable of being annealed and
which has been annealed or rendered malleable by being heated in contact

page_text: with hæmatite or other oxide of iron. The cylinder a may be made of steel
instead of iron, but we find iron to answer very well in practise.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not limit
ourselves to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of our said Invention; but we claim as
our Invention the new or improved manufacture of rollers or cylinders for
printing fabrics, herein-before described, and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing; that is to say, manufacturing rollers or cylinders by removing the
pattern from and expanding an old roller made according to the ordinary method
of manufacture, the said expanded roller or tube being afterwards drawn
upon and permanently fixed to a hollow cylinder of wrought or malleable iron
or steel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wilkes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS WILKES. (L.S.)