IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING OR SCOURING AND DRYING WOOL
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Petrie, junior, of Rochdale, in the County
of Lancaster, Machine Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING OR SCOURING AND DRYING WOOL
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Petrie at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th February 1870.
I, JOHN PETRIE, junior, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster,
Machine Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING OR SCOURING AND
DRYING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS AND YARNS OR THREADS," to be as
follows:
―:
My Invention relates, firstly, to the squeezing rollers of machines for
washing or scouring wool or other fibrous materials, the object being to
prevent injury to the said rollers when an excessive thickness of material.

page_text: passes between them. For this purpose I weight them through the
medium of an elastic apparatus which will yield to undue pressure.
An arrangement I propose is to use a box containing a piston acting
against an india-rubber or other spring, and to cause these parts to
constitute a portion of a rod through which the pressure is imparted by
a weight.
In drying wool or other fibrous materials, or yarns or threads of the
said fibrous materials, I employ a chamber provided with a series of
shelves formed by perforated plates or by bars, and upon which the
materials to be dried are placed. This chamber communicates with
another into which air either heated or at ordinary temperature is
allowed to pass, & the said interior chamber is exhausted by a fan or
by similar means. The air rushes through suitable openings formed in
the casing and passes in separate currents through the material to be
dried. In order to obtain access to the lower shelves I mount those
above them on hinges so that they may be turned up.
In drying warp yarns of fibrous materials I modify the apparatus and
cause them to be drawn forward by rollers situate in chambers which
are provided with an outer casing. To the lower part of this casing air,
Icated if desired, is admitted, and is drawn through an aperture or
apertures by a fan or by similar means, and it is thus caused to pass
through the yarns, and subsequently to pass upward within the chambers
in which they are placed.
In order to prevent dust from passing to the fibrous materials or
yarus I employ a filter consisting of cotton wool or other suitable
substance, and this may also be applied to drying machines of other
constructions.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Petric in the Great Scal Patent Office on
the 9th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
PETRIE, junior, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Machine
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of February, in the year.

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Petrie, Her special license
that I, the said John Petrie, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Petrie, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR WASHING OR SCOURING AND DRYING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS AND YARNS OR THREADS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Petrie, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Petrie, do hereby declaro
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say :—
My Invention relates, firstly, to the squeezing rollers of machines for
washing or scouring wool and other fibrous materials, the object being
to prevent injury to the said rollers when an excessive thickness of
material passes between them, for which purpose I weight them through
the medium of an elastic apparatus which will yield to undue pressure.
This part of my Invention is shown in two forms at Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
In Figs. 1, 2, a portion of the trough of a wool washing machine is
shewn at a, and at 6 is the "brat" or travelling surface which delivers
the material to the squeezing rollers c, d. The ordinary lever by which
the top roller is caused to press upon the lower is shewn at e, and the
rod which usually carries the weight at f; but in this instance it is
provided at its lower end with a piston g situato within a cylinder h
which contains a ring or rings of india-rubber i against which the piston g
abuts. At the upper end of the said piston are adapted bolts %, which
at their lower ends are connected to a rod / looped around a lever m
which turns upon a centre n carried by the framework, and is provided

page_text: at its other end with a weight o. It will be seen by the foregoing
description that the roller c is weighted by the weight o, but through
the medium of the india-rubber i; when therefore the said roller is
'caused to rise it does not jerk suddenly at the weight o, but acts more
gradually by compressing the elastie medium o.
Fig. 3 shews a modification of this part of my Invention. The
squeezing rollers are shewn as in the former instance at e, d, and their
lever at i, but in this instance the rod f connected to the said lever is
looped at its lower end over a plate spring i which is capable of turning
upon a centre n and carries at its other end a weight o. The action in
this case is the same as that of the former, the rising of the roller c
lifting the weight o through the elastic medium i.
At P in each of the arrangements above described is a shaft provided
with a cam, which upon being turned by means of a treadle or otherwise
lifts the lever m or spring i so that the rollers may be relieved from
pressure when it is so desired. I have above described this part of my
Invention as applied to the treatment of wool or other fibrous material,
but I also adapt it to machinery or apparatus used for washing yarns or
threads when it is desired to pass them through squeezing rollers.
The next part of my Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for
drying wool and other fibrous materials and yarns or threads. Figs. 4 and
5 represent the arrangement I employ for fibrous materials and for yarns
or threads when in the hank, the two views being in section. At q is a
casing forming a chamber which is supported by a hollow platform »
which constitutes another chamber, separated from that first mentioned
by a partition 8, excepting at one part, that is, from t to u in Fig. 4.
The casing 9 is provided with hinged doors at its top, and its interior
is furnished with two series of shelves w, x, capable of turning upward
upon hinges y, z, and formed of wire gauze, perforated metal, or other
such substance as will allow air in a divided condition to pass through;
and for the purpose of turning these shelves upward when desired their
axes are furnished with handles i; the shelves w, x, do not extend the
whole length of the casing 9, but are bounded by two partitions 2, 3, by
which means two other chambers 4, 5, are formed, between which,
however, and the spaces between the shelves communications arc
established by openings 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. At one end of the apparatus or
in any other convenient situation) is placed a fan 11 which exhausts air
from the chamber 5, and at 12 are openings which admit air to the

page_text: hollow platform “. On commencing operations the doors are opened
and the shelves w, x, or one series of them turned upward on their
hinges y, z, excepting those at the bottom. The wool or other fibrous
material or yarn in the hank is then placed on these bottom shelves,
then those immediately above them are turned down and in like manner
supplied, and so on through the series, and finally the doors u, v, are
closed. The fan 11 being now caused to rotate so as to exhaust the
chamber 5 air will be caused to pass through the openings 12 along
the hollow platform i, but it cannot pass upward until it arrives at the
opening u, t, which opening extends across the apparatus, as seen, from
14 to 15 in Fig. 5. The air from thence passes into the chamber 4, and
a portion of it enters the space 16 beneath the bottom shelves w, x,
and being drawn through the perforations thereof passes through the
material to be dried and out through the aperture q. Another portion
of the air which enters the chamber 4 passes through the aperature 7 into
the space 17, and from thence to the shelves w, x, and material thereon,
being drawn through the aperature 9 and through the aperature 10, while
a third portion of air passes through the aperature 8 and downward
through material and shelf w, x, to be drawn through the aperature 10,
all of which currents are denoted by arrows in Fig. 4.
In drying warps I use the arrangement shewn at Fix. 6, in which 20
represents a casing placed upon a box 21 which is furnished at its top
with apertures or with wire gauze for the passage of air into the chamber
formed by the casing 20, and at 22 is an opening which is in connexion
with a fan or other exhausting apperatus; within the chamber 20 are
rollers 23, 24, and at 25, 26, are two pairs of rollers projecting through
openings formed in the casing 20 above the rollers 23, and carried by
the casing 20 are bonnets 27 extending along their whole width. The
warps to be dried pass through the rollers 25, and from thence over and
under the rollers 23, 24, and from thence through the rollers 26, as
shewn by the dotted line, which course they are caused to take by being
drawn forward in any ordinary manner. The fan by exhausting the
space 28 draws air through perforations in the top of the box 21, from
whence it passes into the spaces 29, 30, 31; but as it is prevented from
escaping directly upward by the bonnets 27 it is caused to pass through
the warps as they travel onward, as shewn by the arrows, and after that
through the spaces 32 between the bonnets 27.
T Love in the Drawing shown 3 sizing and washing annaratue

page_text: connected to the machine, but this forms no part of my Invention, and
the warps may pass to the rollers 25 from any desired situation.
In reference to Fig. 4 I have shewn valves 33 which are provided with
handles on the outside by means of which they may be caused to close
either of the openings 9, 10, so as to prevent the air from passing
through certain of the shelves when sufficient material is not at hand to
fill them.
In both of the arrangements above described for drying I have shown
a series of steam pipes 34 situate in the chamber through which the air
passes, and by flowing in contact with these it becomes heated, but
these may be dispensed with if desired, and the air allowed to pass
through the materials at ordinary temperature, or it may be previously
heated by any usual method separate from the drying machine.
Another part of my Invention consists in a method of preventing dust
from passing to the fibrous materials or yarns while they are being dried.
For this purpose I apply a filter to the openings through which the air
passes before it reaches the interior of the machine. Fig. 7 represents in
a detached view a method of constructing this part of my Invention.
The opening 12 of Fig. 4 is shewn by the same letter of reference
covered by a strip of wire gauze or other such substance 40, and on
the outside of this is a box 41 filled with cotton wool or other fibrous
material and covered with a second strip of wire gauze 42; the air,
therefore, has to pass through the fibrous material, and thus the dust is
kept back. This part of my Invention may be applied to any drying
machines in which air is caused to act upon the material.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
desire it to be understood that I claim as secured to me under the
above in part recited Letters Patent, and for the purposes above set
forth,-
Firstly. The use of an elastic apparatus between the weight and
the lever or other part which acts upon the squeezing roller for
weighting it.
Secondly. Drying wool or other fibrous materials and yarns or threads
by placing them upon shelves through which air is caused to pass in
separate currents, substantially as described.

page_text: Also, Drying warps or other such yarns or threads by causing air to
pass through them in separate currents as they travel onward, substan-
tially as described.
Lastly. The use of a dust filter, as illustrated at Fig. 7.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Petrie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JOHN PETRIE, J. (L.s.)