Improvements in Method of and Apparatus for Coloring Yarns.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd June, 1898-Accepted 30th July, 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Method of and Apparatus for Coloring Yarns.
I, WILLIAM SHAW, Machinist, of 593, Vanderbilt Avenue, City of New York,
Borough of Brooklyn, Kings County, State of New York, United States of
America, do hereby declare 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:-
My invention refers to improvements in methods of and apparatus for printing
yarns, and more particularly yarns used in the manufacture of tapestry and velvet
carpets.
The objects of my invention are to provide improved methods for partially
equalizing color printed upon yarn in streaks and to guard against the spreading
of color from one streak into an adjoining streak of different shade or color and
to provide suitable means for carrying out such methods, including a
suitable form of automatic spreading device adapted to thoroughly rub
the color deposited by a color wheel or corresponding device into the yarn, and
to equalize the same sufficiently so that the subsequent steaming process commonly
employed may produce approximately uniform appearances of the different shades
of yarns, also to prevent over-saturation with color of the threads of the yarn
nearest to the end of the drum, to provide for free up and down movement of the
spreader, so that the same may best accommodate itself to the surface of the yarn
on the drum and to provide simple means for alternately attaching spreaders of
different widths together with proper supporting springs to the main supports
for the spreaders.
In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a
side elevation, of a color carriage and part of the yarn drum fitted up according
to my invention, while Fig. 2 is a ground plan of Fig. 1, the drum however not
being shown therein. Fig. 3 is a ground plan, Fig 4 a side elevation and Fig. 5
an end elevation of one of the spreading devices all drawn to an enlarged scale.
Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating relative positions of streaks of color printed by
the color wheel and a spreader employed in partly equalizing the same.
12 is the color carriage, mounted on wheels 8, 8 and 10, 10, on which color box 1
and color wheel 23 are supported, and which is drawn by means of a cord attached
to hooks 30 forward and backward along rails 32, placed underneath and parallel
with drum 33, carrying the yarn Y.
28, 28 are brackets attached to the main body of the carriage which form a
bearing within which a post 29, made of rectangular cross-section, is made to
slide.
48, 48 are pivots passing through the lower extremities of posts 29, to which
are hinged levers 51 carrying at their lower ends rollers 49, 49, posts 29, together
with levers 51 and pivots 48, forming a toggle-jointed support for the spreading
appliances, more fully referred to hereinafter. All these parts substantially cor-
respond in their construction and in their mutual relations and functions with the

page_text: parts bearing corresponding letters of reference in my Letters Patent for Great
Britain of 1893, No. 16,914.
60 are vertical arms forming parts of brackets 28 and serving to guide posts 29.
L, L are two lugs extending laterally from the top of each post 29 to which is
secured, by means of screw bolts B, a platform 65, carrying studs 1, 2 and 3
screwed into said platform and jam nuts 4 for holding said studs in position. 70
is the spreader or rubber provided with a base having lugs, and adapted
to play along the upper portions of studs 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
s, sand
are springs placed around said studs and yieldingly supporting
the lugs of the spreader.
The upper surface of spreader 70 is provided with two contact portions, the one
nearest to the color wheel indicated by a being very short and substantially form-
ing an edge, from which a slight slope extends towards wheel 23 while the rear
contact surface Z is made flat and much longer than portion a, an intermediate
slope connecting the two contact portions. The rubber is preferably made of
such width and so positioned as to cover not only the path of the color wheel but
also the adjoining streak previously printed, and appliances are used for throwing
both spreaders out of action when a single streak or the first one of a series of
streaks is being printed all in manner substantially as set forth in my Letters
Patent for Great Britain of 1893 No. 16,914. For such purpose rollers 49 are
adapted to travel on rail R placed between track rails 32, 32 and said rail is with-
drawn laterally when desired for the purpose of keeping both spreaders out of
action while underneath the drum by moving beam C and with it bolts a attached
to it and to said rail in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 2, springs o serving to
replace the rail in its normal position when sideward thrust on beam C ceases.
It is desirable to guard against smearing the yarn by the carrying of color from
the ends of the drum not covered with yarn and indicated by E, to the yarn itself
and for such purpose slopes f are provided on rail R in such positions that as the
carriage travels toward the drum the lever 51 first approaching the drum will be
tripped and, together with the spreading appliances above it, will assume the
positions illustrated in the right hand portion of Fig. 1, while rear lever 51 will
be brought into a substantially vertical position as it passes over such slope, said
slope being preferably so located that contact surface which is placed forward
of the bottom of roller 49 is brought in contact with the end threads of the yarn
on the drum when roller 49 reaches the upper end of the slope, while contact sur-
face Z is brought up against the extreme end of the drum, and is made to pass
over the corresponding part E which does not contain any yarn and in doing so
partly removes and partly spreads out color deposited there by the wheel and pre-
vents its flow along the edges of the drum which would be apt to over-saturate
the end threads of the yarn.
The two ends of rail R being arranged symmetrically with reference to the ends
of the drum and to the yarn thereon it will be seen that as the left hand roller 49
reaches the top of the slope at the right hand end of the drum the contact portion c
of the rubber will about reach the extreme end of the drum, the said contact
portion therefore being made to pass over the right hand portion E of the drum
containing the oil cloth free from yarn and to thereby remove from it coloring
matter that may have been deposited thereon by the color wheel. Thus, and par-
ticularly where the spreader is made to extend over the ridge between the streak
in course of application and the streak previously made so as to dispose of and
remove the coloring matter in such ridge the oil cloth at the ends of the drum can
be kept clean.
Upon the return of the wheel from the right to the left, the left hand spreader
is put out of action and the right hand spreader is put into action in corresponding
manner.
In printing streaks of color side by side by means of a color wheel, ridges are
formed on both sides of said streaks and it becomes necessary to spread the color-
ing substances forming the same laterally over the adjoining streaks, except where

page_text: said ridges are placed between adjoining streaks of different shade or color when
the rubbing of color of one shade into an adjoining streak of different shade must
be carefully guarded against in order to secure a true reproduction of the pattern.
At the same time it is desirable to subject the larger portion of the surface of the
yarn on the drum to two rubbing actions, so as to thoroughly rub the color into
the yarn. This is accomplished by placing the rubbers in alignment with
reference to the color wheel as shown more particularly in Figures 2, 5 and 6.
In Fig. 6, A¹ A³ &c. represent adjoining streaks the arrows indicating the direc-
tion in which the color wheel travels in printing such streaks.
Assuming A1 and A2 to be blue streaks previously printed and A3, A5 and A7
two red streaks, filling out the space between streaks A¹ and A2, A3 having been
printed first without rubbing it, and A being in course of application, I so pro-
portion and align the extreme outer edges of the spreader 70 which follows after
the color wheel, that during such printing operation it will cover the whole of
streak A5 and more than half and less than the whole of streak A3 in such manner
as to bring one of its edges substantially in alignment with that edge of streak A³
which adjoins streak A, and with the corresponding edge of the color wheel, and
to bring its other edge into that half of streak A3 which is nearest to streak A',
while, when the color wheel is printing streak A', the spreader 70* then following
in the path of the color wheel will in corresponding manner cover the whole of
streak A and the adjoining half of streak A5 and will extend into the other half
of said streak A without reaching or covering that one of its ridges which is
nearest to streak A. It will therefore be seen that in streak A³ nearest to A¹
there will be a bank or ridge of color left untouched while the greater portion of
said streak together with streak A5 is being rubbed, which will guard against color
from streak A being forced into streak A. While all the other ridges in the
series of streaks A³, A, A will receive thorough rubbings including that ridge of
streak A which is nearest to A. The adjoining ridge of A° nearest to A having
remained untouched during the printing of streaks A and A" it will be seen that
while perfect alignment is preserved between streaks of different shade as A¹ and
A³ as well as A and A, and re-rubbing in opposite directions of the greater por-
tion of the surface of the yarn is accomplished, the forcing of color at these points
from one streak into the other is guarded against, as shown in Fig. 3.
prefer to make rubbing surface Z slightly wider on both sides than surface X,
so as to have surface Z rub out such ridges as might be produced by the edges of
surface X, and also to provide the upper face of surface with a suitable de-
pression in known manner, so as to carry along and re-apply surplus coloring
matter previously removed by it from the yarn.
I have found in practice that by making the combined spring pressure exerted
upon short contact portion smaller than that exerted upon contact portion z
I obtain the best results as thereby I enable said portion to readily pass over
the yarn, and to equalize the coloring matter thereon without catching with and
displacing such yarn while the heavier pressure applied to the wider contact
surface z will thoroughly force such coloring matter through the yarn.
For the purpose of promoting perfectly free action and movement of the spreader
laterally I mount a bridge piece P, preferably made elastic, upon the springs sl
and 2 causing the central portion only of said bridge piece to support a ridge or
projection on the underside of the base of the spreader, thus preventing bind-
ing of lugs 7 and 7 on the studs along which they are designed to travel as the
spreader moves up and down.
15 is a pan for catching and discharging sideways color dripping down from the
spreader. The same is placed around post 29 and secured to the underside of
lugs L L.
When a spreader of different width is to be substituted for spreader 70, the
latter, together with its platform 65 and supporting springs, is detached from
post 29 by unscrewing screw bolts B, when the new spreader with its platform studs
and springs may be substituted and secured by means of such bolts.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. In printing yarns; the method herein described which consists in printing
series of streaks of color upon yarn side by side, different series being of different
shades, and during such printing of the yarn performing rubbing of that portion
of an end streak in one of said series nearest to the adjoining end streak of the
adjoining series, and subjecting portion of said adjoining end streak of the adjoin-
ing series to rubbing action, while leaving such portion of it which adjoins the
first named series unrubbed.
2. In an apparatus for coloring yarns, the combination with a drum which carries
the yarn, of a color wheel and a spreading device comprising a rubbing portion c
and a longer rubbing portion z following it both mounted upon the same spring
supported base, substantially as set forth.
3. In an apparatus for coloring yarns, the combination with a drum which
carries the yarn of a color wheel and a spreading device comprising a rubbing
portion and a longer rubbing portion in the rear thereof, both mounted upon
the same spring supported base, the spring pressure upon portion being lighter
than that upon portion z, substantially as set forth.
4. In an apparatus for coloring yarns, the combination with a drum which
carries the yarn, of a color wheel, a spreader supporting springs on each side of
the spreader and a bridge piece mounted upon said springs and centrally support-
ing the spreader substantially as set forth.'
5. In an apparatus for coloring yarns, the combination with a drum carrying
the yarn of the color wheel a spreader with elastic tension device mounted upon a
suitable base, and a support 29 adapted to be raised and lowered to which said
base is detachably secured, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 2.1 love Lun 1000
DAY, DAVIES & HUNT,
Chartered Patent Agents, 321, High Holborn, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.