IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODES OF MANUFACTURING OF FABRICS FROM LINEN, WOOLLEN, SILK, AND OTHER FLBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHRISTOPHER
NICKELS, of York Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of March, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Christopher Nickels, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Christopher Nickels, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Christopher Nickels, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODES OF
MANUFACTURING OF FABRICS FROM LINEN, WOOLLEN, SILK, AND OTHER FLBROUS
MATERIALS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the
said Christopher Nickels, shall 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 Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Christopher Nickels, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
:-
There have been various modes of making fabrics from fibrous materials,
some of them by processes producing what are called felts, sometimes with
and sometimes without adhesive materials; in other cases, the fibres being
spun into yarn or thread, is interwoven in various ways and by different
descriptions of machines working by warp and weft, and in some cases by
knitting and interlooping threads or yarns and other machinery works by
twisting threads into what is called lace. Now, according to my Invention
threads or yarns spun from linen, woollen, silk, or other fibrous materials are
formed into fabrics by combining them together side by side on the same
plane by means of suitable adhesive materials, and by using india-rubber or
other waterproofing materials as the adhesive means of combining such
threads or yarns side by side in the same plane, waterproofing fabrics may be
made. There may be various arrangements of machinery for obtaining a
number of threads or yarns side by side on the same plane, in order by
suitable materials to combine them into a fabric by adhesive materials; I
do not therefore confine myself to the use of any particular arrangement
for carrying out my Invention, which does not relate to the means of obtaining
a number of threads or yarns side by side, but consists in the mode of making
fabrics therefrom by means of adhesive materials.
And in order to give the best information in my power I will proceed to
describe the machine which I have used for laying the threads or yarns side
by side in a suitable manner to be combined into fabrics by adhesive materials,
such machine being also addapted for applying india-rubber as the means of
combining the series of threads or yarns.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING,
which represents a machine suitable for carrying out my Invention. a is
a drum working in bearings B, twelve feet diameter, thirty-six feet long more
or less, according to the size of the fabric to be produced; c is the framing;
d is a screw shaft in front, reaching from end to end of the drum; e is a
pinion at one end of the screw shaft, gearing into a wheel f, which is moved
by a pinion g on the end of the drum shaft, as is indicated at Figure 2. The
axis of the wheel f is made to move nearer or further from the screw shaft,
in order that the pinion e may be changed for a larger or smaller one, as is
well understood, according to the desired revolutions of the screw shaft; II is

page_text: a travelling nut to carry the read or slay i from end to end of the drum;
j is a guide rod for the nut h; and k is a stand to hold a number of bobbins
on wires fixed on the sliding top L. The Drawing shews eight threads or
strands; the shaft d must revolve at the proper speed to lay each and every
revolution of strands or threads correctly side by side, so as to fairly and:
evenly clothe the drum with threads or yarns; the screw shaft d is then
thrown out of gear by the wheel of being removed from it, and the guage or
striker m, which is a straight piece of wood about eight inches wide and two
inches thick, with one edge fitting exactly with the back edge of the drum,
and may be set at any required distance from the same by the adjusting.
screws n, n, and kept in its place by the rods o; the bracket or stop p is to
keep the cement from flowing wider than the texture on the drum. The
drum being clothed with threads or yarns and the guage set at a proper
distance from the drum, I lay a sufficient quantity of india-rubber dissolved.
in turpentine or any of the solutions of caoutchouc that are well known and
may be easy purchased of the india-rubber dealers, or any other flexible
cement suitable for the purpose, and then turn the drum round once, which
will cause the clothing of the drum to take a coat of the cement equal to the
thickness of the width from the drum to the guage; if there should not be
enough cement the first turn I give it a second or a third, as the fabric may
require, or the cementing material may be laid on by any other suitable
The combined strands are then left till nearly dry or in a fit.
state to adhere to another similarly made fabric, which may be made at the
same time upon another drum of the like construction, or may have been
previously made on the same drum. I remove the gauge and combine the
two fabrics so made together, that the threads or yarns of the two shall run in
a transverse direction, and consequently cross each other at an angle, but for
some purpose they may be doubled in the same line, or nearly so. I would
remark, that in addition to combining two or more surfaces of threads in the
manner above explained, a very important part of my Invention relates to the
producing of fabrics by the foregoing means in combination with other fabrics
produced by any of the means now practised, and which have been already
referred to. Thus, supposing I am desirous of making a waterproof fabric with
woollen cloth on one side, and a lining of silk or other fibrous material on the
other side, I take a piece of woollen cloth and coat the back side thereof
with india-rubber as a cement, according to any of the ordinary means, and
then having prepared a surface of fabric by combining a number of threads or
strands of silk, I place the prepared surface of woollen cloth in contact with
the prepared or coated surface of silk fabric, and by pressure cause them to
means.

page_text: .
combine together and thus produce a waterproof fabric, the one side con-
sisting of woollen cloth, and the other a lining or surface of silk. It
will be evident that by this mode of making fabrics, they will be inuch
lighter than when two fabrics produced with warp and weft interwoven
are combined together by similar means, as is well understood. I would
remark, that it will be further evident, that in like manner other waterproof
fabrics may be made with one surface, produced by any of the ordinary means
of fabricating, and the other surface produced by means of strands, threads, or
yarns of woollen, linen, cotton, silk, or other fibrous materials, and in such
cases where one surface is only to be seen, an elegant and fine surface of silk
or other strands or yarns may be obtained, and the other surface may be of
strong strands, or of ordinary fabrics of less valuable material. It may be
desirable, in conclusion, to remark that in using shellac,-resinous or gelatinous
cements, they may be laid on to the surface of a series of strands by the aid of
brushes, and where a guage similar to that above described is used, I prefer
that it should be made with metal, and hollow, in order to be heated with
steam or otherwise when laying the cementing material; but such beating is
not required when using india-rubber in a state of solution, as above described.
I would remark, that although I have mentioned only strands, yarns, or
threads in their simple state, I would have it understood that braided or
covered threads similar to gymp may be employed in in carrying out my
Invention.
In witness whereof I the said Christopher Nickels, have hereunto set
CHRISTOPHER (L.s.) NICKELS.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid Christopher Nickels came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.