CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING COTTON, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER FABRICS, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES OR MATERIALS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
HICK, of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her,
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the second year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Benjamin Hick, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Benjamin Hick, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said Benjamin Hick, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no other, 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 and Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING COTTON, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER
FABRICS, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES OR MATERIALS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Benjamin Hick, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her 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
Benjamin Hick, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: My Improvements in machinery or apparatus for arying cotton, woonen,
and other fabrics, and other fibrous substances or materials, consists in the
arrrangement and application of machinery and apparatus whereby a stream
or current of atmospheric air is brought into contact with and along the
surfaces of the goods to be submitted to the process of drying during their
continuance and passage in and through a confined vessel or box in such
a manner that the moisture in them may be rapidly taken up and carried
away, or any required degree of dampness or "condition," as it is technically
called in the trade, may be left in the goods, and thus the process of drying
may be performed more efficiently and advantegeously than has hitherto been
accomplished.
:
I will now proceed to, describe one method of carrying my improvements
into practical operation in drying cloth, and will aftewards explain the
arrangement of the machinery or apparatus more particularly by reference
to the Drawings hereto annexed. The cloth to be dried is brought from the
mangling, stiffening, or any other wet process, being wound upon a roller, and
forming what is usually called a "catch." This "catch" or roll of cloth is
placed upon a frame, and so arranged that the cloth may be unwound and
extended or drawn horizontally along and through a chamber or vessel, which
I call a drying box; and wound upon corresponding rollers at the contrary end
of the drying box. The Drawings herewith shew a number of such rolls of
cloth or batches on the frame, the cloth from each being drawn through the
vessel one above the other, and about two inches apart, and being supported
at intervals by small rollers. The air will in most states of the atmosphere
and with most descriptions of cloth require to be heated or otherwise dried to
increase its capability of absorbing moisture, for which purpose an ordinary
coal or other stove, or a hot air furnace called a "cockle," may be used. This
stove or furnace is situated near one end of the drying box, having suitable
flues for conveying the heated air into the box, through which the air is
drawn in a continuous and uniform stream by means of an exhausting fan
placed near the other extremity of the drying box. It is necessary here to
observe that I prefer to draw the cloth through the drying box in a direction
contrary to the current of the air, and that the air is introduced into the box
at that end where the cloth is dryest, and drawn off or out of it at that
end where the cloth is wet, to prevent any moisture when once absorbed by
the dry air from being deposited upon the dried cloth. It will be evident
that various descriptions of cloth will require different periods of time in
drying, which may be easily obtained by altering the progression of the cloth
through the box, or allowing it to remain stationary therein some time; or by

page_text: changing the speed of the fan, or varying the temperature or dryness and
quantity of air which is brought into contact with the cloth. In like manner
any required degree of dampness or condition may be left in the cloth, to be
accurately ascertained by the application of a hygrometer to the interior of the
drying box; but these and similar modifications will be easily adapted to the
material to be operated upon by those conversant with the business without
further description or explanation.
In order, however, that the above method of carrying my improvements into
effect may be rendered perfectly intelligible to the practical operator I have
attached to these Presents a Sheet of Drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side
elevation, and Figure 2.is a plan of the same. Similar letters of reference
denote corresponding parts of the machinery or apparatus in each of the
Figures.
a
The side frames or castings a, a, a, a, are placed at suitable distances apart
at each end of the room in which the drying box is situated, supporting
number of catches or rolls of cotton cloth b, b, b, b, each containing a number
of pieces, stitched together end to end, which are drawn through the drying
box c, c, c, c, in a horizontal line, one under the other, being supported at certain
intervals by the transverse bearing rollers d, d, d, d, until they arrive at the
other end of the drying box, where they are again wound upon similar rollers
e, e, e, é, suitably mounted to receive them; this box is broken off in the
Drawings for want of space, but may be made about forty feet long, or more,
where convenience will allow. One end or pivott of the catch rollers is in-
serted in sockets which slide in the frame a, in order to accommodate any
width of cloth or length of roll, and the other end of the batch roll is placed
in a socket which carries a worm wheel ffff, upon its outer extremity, in
gear with the worms g, g, g, g, upon the longitudinal shaft h, h, which, means
of the upright shaft i, i, driven from the main geering, will thus draw the cloth
through the box c, c, and cause it to be wound upon the batch rollers e, e,
in a dried state. The cross shafts k and for driving the upright shaft i
are provided with reverse conical pullies, in order that the cloth may pass
through the drying box at an uniform speed, notwithstanding the varying
'diameters of the catches. If desired, the whole may be readily thrown out of
gear by means of the forked lever m, and the operation performed by hand.
An apparatus is shewn at n, n, consisting of a lever, suspended by a pulley
running on a rail above, for more conveniently lifting the catches in or out of
their places. The air heated by means of the stove o, o, rushes in from the
atmosphere through the apertures or air boxes p, p, and is thus caused to
impinge or strike against the "cackle" q, q, and thence discharged through

page_text: similar apertures r, r, and conducted to the end of the drying box c, c, con-
taining the cloth; the air is drawn through this box by means of the revolving
fan s, s, the red arrows denoting the direction of the air course, and the black
arrows that of the cloth under operation.
It will be perceived that I am not in any way confined or limited to the
number of pieces or batches to be operated upon simultaneously, the speed of
the cloth rollers, or the exhausting apparatus, or the materials, form, position,
or dimensions of all or any part of the apparatus above described, or the degrees
of temperature or absorbing power of the air to be thus employed.
It is also obvious that this arrangement may be modified by using the fan
to force the air through the drying box instead of drawing it through by
exhaustion. A similar arrangement or modification may be applied to the
drying of yarns, warps, cotton, woollen, linen, silk, and other piece goods, and
other fibrous articles and materials, to which my Invention is equally applicable.
Having now particularly described the nature of my improvements in
machinery or apparatus for drying cotton, woollen, and other fabrics, and other
fibrous substances or materials, and one manner of carrying the same into effect,
I desire it to be understood that I claim as my Invention, the novel and peculiar
arrangement, combination, and application of machinery and apparatus, and a
current of air to perform the process of drying, in the manner and for the
purposes shewn in the Drawings hereto attached, and also herein particularly
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Hick, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.