A CERTAIN NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD APPLICABLE TO PREPARING, CLEANING, DRESSING, AND BEAMING SILK WARPS, AND ALSO APPLICABLE TO BEAMING OTHER WARPS
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HARWOOD HORROCKS, of Portwood within Brinnington, in the County of
Chester, Cotton Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Harwood Horrocks, His especial licence that I, the said William
Harwood Horrocks, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Harwood Horrocks, my exors, admors, 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 "A CERTAIN NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD APPLICABLE TO
PREPARING, CLEANING, DRESSING, AND BEAMING SILK WARPS, AND ALSO APPLICABLE
TO BEAMING OTHER WARPS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said William Harwood Harrocks, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Harwood Horrocks, do hereby declare the nature of my said Inven-
tion to consist in an apparatus for preparing, cleaning, dressing, and beaming
silk warps, by means of which said apparatus the several aforesaid operations
are being performed on different parts of the same thread at one and the same
time; and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said William
Harwood Horrocks, do hereby describe the manner in which I perform the
said operations, and the apparatus used therefor, by the following description
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings annexed, and the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
Figure 1 is a longitudinal side elevation of my said apparatus, which is so
constructed as to perform the operations of preparing, cleaning, and dressing
on two separate sets of threads, one at each side of a central beam, which, being
common to both sets of threads, receives each set at the same time, in manner
herein-after described.
No. 1. A, A, two creels or frames, in which the bobbins containing the silk
are placed; B, B, two recds, through which the silk C, C, is drawn, that the
threads may be kept separate, and spread equally over the surface of the rollers
D, D, E, E, F, F; C, C, the silk passing from the bobbins on the creel to the
reeds B, B; D, D, two rollers over which the silk C, C, passes after having
passed through the reeds B, B; these rollers have their centers in d, d, and
are for the purpose of carrying the silk under the large rollers E, E. E, E,
two circular yard measures or rollers, under which the silk, as delivered
from D, D, passes, and is measured, and the length in yards indicated
or registered by a dial plate attached to one of the centers e, e, to the index of
which is attached an ordinary clock movement, regulated by the size of the
rollers E. E. F, F, two rollers, for the purpose of receiving the silk as
delivered from the circular yard measures E, E, having their centres at f, f.
The rollers D, D, and F, F, bind the silk sufficiently tight under E, E, as by
its passing along to give motion to the whole, answering the purpose not only
of measuring, but also of making every thread of the same tension. G, G,
two pullies, made fast to the axle of the yard measures E, E, over which a
strap or cord may pass and be attached to the lever g, g, so that in case the silk
gives way too easily for the cleaning and dressing, by moving the weight h, h,
any tension that may be judged proper can be obtained; H, H, the silk as
delivered from the rollers F, F, to the reeds I, I, I, I, two reeds, for the
purpose of keeping the silk separate after having been cleaned and picked,
(which is performed between these reeds and the rollers F, F, in the usual

page_text: mode, by a person using an instrument for the purpose.) These reeds deliver
the silk when so cleaned regularly and evenly to the size rollers M, M. K, K,
two troughs or boxes into which the size or dressing liquid is put. L, L, two
wooden rollers, revolving in the dressing liquid, and delivering it to the rollers
M, M, having their centres at the bottom of long slots i, i; M, M, two
rollers, covered with cloth or some absorbing substance, for the purpose of
receiving the dressing liquid from the under rollers L, L, and resting on
them. These rollers have their centres also in the long slots i, i, and receive
their motion from L, L. N, N, two rollers, for the purpose of keeping the silk
upon the dressing rollers M, M, that every thread of it may receive its proper
proportion of dressing liquid; these rollers having their centres in k, k, in an
iron 1, 1, attached to the frames at the centre of the rollers M, M, by a move-
able joint, so as to enable N, N, to be raised or depressed at pleasure, causing
the silk to pass over a greater or less circumference of the rollers M, M, thus
giving more or less dressing liquid, as may be required; it is best for these
rollers not to touch M, M, but receive their motion from the silk passing
under them. O, O, the silk after having received the dressing liquid passing
to reeds P, P; P, P, two reeds to deliver the silk level and separated after
having been brushed to the rollers R, R; Q, Q, two brushes, for the purpose
of laying the size or dressing liquid regularly over every part of the silk, and
moved by cranks in the ordinary way, as described in the Drawing; R, R,
two rollers, under which the silk passes to the reed T; S, S, silk as delivered
from the rollers R, R; T, reed through which the silk passes to the heavel or
heald U; U, heavel or heald through which the silk passes, for the purpose
of taking the cross for the weaver, or for any other
purpose that
may
required; V, the beam receiving the silk after having passed through the
operations already described. At one end of the axis of this beam is attached
the index J, for the purpose of registering the number of revolutions made
by the beam in any given length of warp, as the revolutions of the other beams,
herein-after mentioned, are to be regulated by this index, and not by that
described as attached to the rollers E, E, and used to register the number of
yards drawn on to the first beam from the bobbins. W, the fan, for the pur-
pose of drying the silk after being dressed before it reaches the beam V; X,
the crank shaft for giving motion to the brushes, which receives its impetus
from some other shaft or drum independent of the machine, connected by a
strap; Y, loose and fast pullies on the crank shaft, driven by a strap from an
independent drum; Z, spur wheel on the crank shaft, working into the pinion
m in the end of the fan shaft, and driving the same; n, perpendicular shaft,
be

page_text: driven from the other end of the crank shaft by means of two bevel wheels r
ands (as shewn on Figure 3), one on the crank shaft, and the other on the
bottom of the perpendicular shaft, and likewise giving motion to beam V, by
an endless screw on the upright shaft working into a worm wheel v on the
axle of the beam V; o, small pulley on the end of the crank shaft, for driving
the wooden rollers L, L, by means of straps p, p, passing over pulleys 9, 4,
attached to the axle of the rollers L, L.
By this arrangement it will be seen that the threads which are intended to
constitute a warp are in their progress from the bobbin to the beam-prepared
or warped, cleaned, and dressed, and that all these several operations aro
going on -at- the same time with the beaming, but it may-sometimes happon
-that the number of threads required cannot conveniently be put on to one beam
at one operation; in such cases the deficiency must be made up in the
following manner:-Divide the number of ends or threads required in all into
equal parts, and prepare or warp, clean, dress, and beam one-third, one-fourth,
or one-half, or any other equal part of such number of threads at once; when
a certain length of thread (ascertained by the revolutions marked by the index
before mentioned at the end of the beam) has been drawn off in manner
aforesaid on the beam V, that beam is removed, and a second beam, exactly
similar to the first, is put in its place, and a similar length of thread beamed
upon it in like manner by a similar number of revolutions being given to it;
when this is done (supposing the division of the number of threads to have
been into thirds), the second beam is removed; and a third beam, exactly
similar to the first and second, is put in its place, and a similar length of
thread beamed upon it in manner aforesaid; and when full, all three beams,
cach having been filled with similar thread by means of a similar number of
revolutions having been given to it, are placed in the machine No. 2, as per
Drawing, in the following manner; videlicet, spur wheels of equal diameters
and number of teeth are attached to the axle of each beam, A, B, C, and there
connected together by intermediate spur wheels D and E of the same pitch,
working on studs made fast to the frame of the machine. Thus, by the
former the beams are all made to move at exactly the same speed, and by
the latter are all made to move the same way. The beams thus fixed, the silk
or warp of whatever kind from all of them, (as described by the lines in the
Drawing,) is wound on the beam F intended for the loom through a heald G,
(for the purpose of taking a lace for the weaver,) and a reed H, or otherwise;
by means of this contrivance the beams A, B, C, will be empty at the same
time, or nearly so, preventing any unnecessary waste. The lever and weight F

page_text: attached to the hinder beam is for the purpose of keeping the silk or warp, of
whatever kind, of all of them of a proper tension. Motion may be given to the
beam F by any convenient plan. Figure 3 is an elevation of the central frame,
shewing the opposite side to that shewn in Figure 1.
Now, it is evident that my said apparatus is susceptible of various altera-
tions in the manner of producing the different movements required, and also
that the materials of which it is made may vary, to suit the convenience or
taste of the manufacturer; wherefore, though I have represented my frame-
work in the Drawings annexed to be of cast iron and the rollers of wood, I have
not thought it necessary to explain more particularly the materials employed
in its manufacture. But an apparatus as aforesaid, whereby silk threads may
be prepared, cleaned, dressed, and beamed, for the purpose of constituting
warps, the first three of which said operations are performed during a continued
progress of the thread from the bobbin to the beam, and also an apparatus
as aforesaid, whereby silk and other threads may be beamed for the purpose of
constituting a warp, being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new, and never before practised in this kingdom, I do hereby declare this to
be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said
Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise
with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain my exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Harwood Horrocks, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of January, in the
fourth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Fourth, by
the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.

page_text: VAUGHAN, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid William Harwood Horrocks
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and everything 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 Twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.