A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING AND FINISHING WOOLLEN CLOTHS AND OTHER WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
RITCHIE, of Leeds, in the County of York, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of June, in the sixth year of His
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
six, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander Ritchie, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Alexander Ritchie, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Ritchie, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
timo to time, and at all times, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of "A CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING AND FINISHING WOOLLEN
CLOTHS AND OTHER WOVEN FABRICS," being a communication from a foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said Alexander Ritchie, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner tho same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in His 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
Largo anucar.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Ritchie, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-—
These improvements in dressing and finishing woollen cloths and other
woven fabrics consist in the employment of a hollow perforated steam cylinder
or cylinders, or other vessel or vessels of approximate figures, by means of
which a multitude of small jets of steam may be introduced into tightly rolled
or closely compacted thicknesses of woollen cloth for the purpose of producing
upon such cloths effects equivalent to the operation technically called "roll
boiling. As there are obviously many modes of constructions of machinery
by which these hollow perforated vessels may be made to suit jets of steam
into closely compacted or tightly rolled thicknesses of cloth, I shall consider it
sufficient to shew one particular method of applying them to that purpose in
connexion with a gig mill or brushing machine.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a gig mill
with two hollow perforated steam cylinders connected therewith, and the other
necessary appendages by which they are adapted to perform the steaming
operation. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the same, cast iron end standards
a, a, a, a, braced together by longitudinal bars or rods support the machinery.
The gig barrel b, b, covered in the ordinary way with teasles, or cords, or
brushes, is mounted upon an axle and made to revolve by a band (from the
steam engino or other first mover) passed round the pulley c. The hollow
steam cylinders d, d, placed one above the gig barrel and the other below it,
turn with their hollow gudgeons in plummer boxes, mounted on the end
standards. They are in preference made of sheet copper of suitable thicknesses
and have each a multitude of small holes perforated through from the
periphery to the interior for the discharge of the steam.
To the extremity
of tho hollow gudgeon of each hollow cylinder a pipe e, e, is attached, with
suitable steam-tight joint and packing, for the conveyance of steam from a
boiler placed at any convenient distance and to the corresponding gudgeons;
at the reverse ends of these hollow cylinders similar pipes f, f, are in like
manner connected for the conveyance of cold water into those cylinders, when
required to cool the cloth under operation. Of course, it will be understood
that the steam and water pipes must have stop cocks to let in or shut off the
steam and the water as may be necessary in the course of the operation.
The machinery by which the steam cylinders are occasionally made to revolve

page_text: I
being nearly the same as that usually applied to the woodden winding rollers
of an ordinary gig mill, it is not necessary to describe it particularly, but
merely to say that a pinion g on the end of the axle of the gig barrel, taking
into the toothed wheel h, causes by its rotation the whole train of wheels h, i, k,
and to revolve. The wheel k slides loosely upon the gudgeon of the lower
hollow cylinder, and the wheel upon that of the upper hollow cylinder, one
of which wheels, as occasion may require is to be locked by means of a
clutch m to the gudgeon for the purpose of giving rotary motion to its cylinder
in order to wind or roll on the cloth, whilst the other cylinder being released
by the withdrawal of the clutch, turns freely and allows the roll of cloth to
be unwound and drawn off. For the purpose of giving such tension to the
cloth as shall cause it to be wound tightly upon the taking-up or lapping
cylinder, a friction break n, n, with a weighted lever o, o, is applied to the
periphery of a pulley p, p, fixed upon the gudgeon of each of the hollow
cylinders, which friction break, when brought into operation upon the pulley
of the delivering cylinder, will necessarily produce such retardation of the
unwinding roll of cloth as will cause the taking up roller to draw the cloth
with a considerable tension, and wind or lap it on tightly. This effect. is also
further aided by a pressing roller 9, 9, acting against the surface of the cloth
rolled. upon the periphery of the hollow cylinder, the pivots of which roller
turn in levers r,., hanging upon fulcrum pins fixed in the end standards or
framework, and weights s, s, s, s, are suspended from the longer arms of these
levers for the purposo of increasing the effect of the pressing roller against the
cloth winding upon the cylinder.
Having now given a general description of a machine in which these hollow
perforated steam vessels may be advantageously employed for the dressing of
cloth, I proceed to explain the process or manner of conducting the operation
in connection with the machine above exhibited. Before the woollen clothi
intended to be submitted to the process is wound upon the cylinders, about
twenty yards, more or less, at discretion, of cotton or linen cloth should be
wound tight around the cylinders, in order to prevent the cloth intended to be
operated upon from being too much heated by coming into immediate contact
with the cylinders, and to cause the steam after passing through the holes in
the cylinders to spread, so as to operate uniformily upon the cloth rolled
thereon. The process to be performed upon the cloth may in general be
applied with the best advantage immediately after the pile or nap has been
raised by the gig mill and before the process of shearing; but it may be per-
formed with nearly the same effect after. the pile of the cloth has been partly
cropped, and particularly, where the threads of the cloth are very fine. Ono'

page_text: end of the piece of woollen cloth to be operated upon is to be attached to one
end of the piece of cotton or linen cloth wound on one of the hollow perforated
cylinders, and the other end of the piece of woollen cloth attached to the end
of the other piece of cotton or linen cloth wound on the other hollow per-
forated cylinder. Before the steam is thrown into the cylinders, the woollen
cloth to be operated upon, together with all the cotton or linen cloth attached
to it, should be wound very tightly around the cylinder into which the steam
is to be introduced, the cloth being wet and the pile raised; now let steam
be admitted into the cylinder upon which the cloth is wound, in order that it
may pass from the cavity inside of the cylinder through the perforated holes
into the cloth, and whilst the cloth is thus wound tight upon the cylinder, con-
tinue the operation of the steam for the space of from ten to twenty minutes,
more or less, according to the pressure of the steam, which may be from twelve
to forty pounds on the inch, more or less, at discretion. After the cloth has
had the steam acting thus upon it for the given time, as soon as the steam is
stopped, let cold water be admitted into the cylinder by the pipe f, and let this
cold water be forced through the cloth till it has become entirely cold, which
will require ten or fifteen minutes. The water may be forced into the cylinder
by a force pump or by a head of water from above, a thirty or forty feet head
of water is sufficient to force it through. After this has been done, let the
cloth bo wound off from this cylinder on to the other cylinder, and while it is
thus winding let it be wetted again with water in the way that cloth is usually
wetted when upon the gig mill. The cloth in thus passing from one cylinder
to the other is to be operated upon by the teazles of the gig barrel, prepara-
tory to winding it tightly with the cotton or linen cloth attached to it upon the
other cylinder into which the steam has not yet been admitted. When the
whole of the cloth has been tightly wound on the other cylinder, let the steam
be admitted into that cylinder in the same way as it has before been admitted
into the other cylinder for a like length of time; and after this, let the cloth be
wound off as before from the cylinder upon the other cylinder, and while it is
winding let it be wetted and operated upon by the teazles of the gig barrel as
before; it may then be taken from the cylinders, the process having been com-
pleted. These operations, however, may be performed with only one cylinder
and a common cloth roller in the place of the two cylinders, as shewn; but
two cylinders are preferable, as the operations can be performed thereby in less
time, and each end of the cloth in its turn be brought nearest to the steam
cylinder, which will cause the cloth to be more uniformly operated upon.
In the operations of loosening, straightning, and laying the nap, stiff brushes
or metallic points may be-used instead of teazles, but teazles are much to be

page_text: preferred to either. The operation may be performed by forcing the steam
through the cloth but once instead of twice, and by continuing this part of the
process for about twice the length of time; or the operation may be performed
by forcing the steam through the cloth three or more times, limiting the
duration of each operation to the proportionate shorter period; but the method
of operating above described is deemed preferable. The object and purpose
of applying steam through such hollow perforated cylinders or vessels to cloth
wound tightly upon them in the way and manner described, is to aid in
straightning and laying the nap of the cloth, and to give it a smoothness, soft-
ness, and gloss on the surface, which can be better effected and in a much
shorter time by the means above set out than by any other method or process
heretofore in use.
In conclusion, I repeat that the subject of this Invention and that which I
claim as new in the dressing and finishing of woollen cloths and other woven
fabrics consists in the employment of a hollow perforated cylinder or cylinders,
or other vessels of approximate figures, by means of which a multitude of small
jets of steam may be introduced into a tightly rolled or closely compacted
series of thicknesses of woollen cloth, for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Ritchie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.