CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS. IN PRINTING, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF COLOURS TO SILK, COTTON, LINEN, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DALGLISH, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, in Scotland, Merchant and
Calico Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Seventh day of May, in the thirteenth year of Her reign (1850), did
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Dalglish, my exors, adññors, and
assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Robert Dalglish, my exors, adññors, and assigns, and every of us, by
myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as I, the said Robert Dalglish, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention therein recited, vide-
licet,. "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS. IN PRINTING, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF COLOURS
TO SILK, COTTON, LINEN, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS," within that part
of Her United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, and
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to
me, the said Robert Dalglish, my exors, admors, or assigns, or any of us, should,
in my or their discretions, seem meet; in which said Letters Patent there is

page_text: contained a proviso, that if I, the said Robert Dalglish, should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine,
and become void, anything therein contained to the contrary thereof in any-
wise notwithstanding, as the said Letters Patent to which reference is hereunto
had more fully bear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Dalglish, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):
My Invention consists of so arranging machinery employed for printing and
applying colours to silk, cotton, linen, woollen, and other textile fabrics, that
the "blankets," or fabrics called by that name, may be washed at the same
time that the printing is going on, in order continuously to present clean
surfaces, and thus to dispense with the necessity of using fabrics between the
"blankets" and the fabrics which are being printed. And in order that my
Invention may be most fully understood, and readily carried into effect, I will
proceed to describe the means pursued by me; and in doing so, I would, at the
outset, state that the machinery now in common use for printing and applying
colour in pattern, wherein what are called "blankets" are employed, is very
various, and the same forms no part of my Invention. In such machinery, the
blanket, or fabric so called, if not covered by another fabric, would have colour
placed therein by the passage of such colour through the fabric which is
printed. Now, the object of my Invention is to render the introduction of a
second fabric unnecessary, by causing the blanket, or fabric called by that
name, to be washed or cleansed as it progresses through the machinery, and
before it again comes to be used with different parts of the fabrics to be
printed.

page_text: describe a manner of carrying my Invention into practice; Figure 2 is a
transverse section of the same, on the same scale as Figure 1, to shew more
clearly how the cleansing of the blanket is accomplished; and Figure 3 is
another section, on an enlarged scale, of the principal parts of the machinery,
so arranged for more clear elucidation.
The following description refers more particularly to Figures 1 and 2:-
A represents the cylinder of the printing machine; and B, the roll of cloth to
be printed. The blanket is represented by the line which passes round the
cylinder A, and between it and the cloth to be printed, which comes from the
roll B. The blanket passes partly round the several cylinders or rollers
,, as is indicated. In consequence of passing with the cloth to be
printed through the printing machine, the blanket receives a portion of the
colour, and is taken over the roller f, and carried along to, after which the
washing process commences. W represents a water pipe or pipes, perforated
with small holes on the side next to the blanket, throwing a stream of water
upon the blanket, thereby softening the colour which has adhered to the
blanket, and washing off a portion of the same. These pipes may be erected
in the manner represented, or in any other equally convenient manner, and
may be supplied in the usual way. H represents a shaft driven by belts,
wheels, or any other description of mechanism from the moving power, and on
which are two excentrics or cranks marked O, intended to give motion to
the brushes marked i, which brushes are in contact with the "blanket" to be
cleaned, and the pressure of which brushes is regulated by the screws n.
The Drawing shews only four sets of brushes, but the number of brushes may
be encreased or diminished, as required. The motion represented on this
Drawing is a perpendicular motion; but a horizontal motion, or any other
motion, may be used; I believe the perpendicular motion to be best.
After the blanket has been sufficiently cleansed by the bruslies, it turns at
the roller, and is acted upon by the scraper G, which is set with screws the
same as a doctor in a cylinder printing machine, and which scraper may be
made of wood, iron, or any other suitable material; the use of the scraper is
to take off as much water as possible from the blanket or cloth, to render it
more easily dried. The blanket passes on a roller e, covered with sponge,
which is passed against the blanket to remove water or moisture; this sponge
roller e is in contact with roller f, which squeezes out or expresses water which
the sponge has taken from the blanket. The water from the perforated pipes,
after being soiled, is received into the cistern K, and is conveyed away by a
waste pipe in the ordinary way. The washing process is now finished, and the

page_text: blanket is carried over the rollers
to the drying can or cylinder d
filled with steam, and then round the different cylinders marked for
dddd
as many similar cylinders as may be necessary, for the purpose of thoroughly
drying the blanket, or it may be carried over cylinders T,, which are heated
by steam, and on which revolves an endless blanket, shewn by a dotted line
on the Drawing, and which revolves in the reverse way to the blanket to
be dried, the friction on the blanket being regulated by screws n, and the
moisture which the endless blanket takes off the printing blanket is dried up
by the passage over the cylinders T, . [N.B. These steam cylinders,,
are erected and supplied on the usual plan, and they may be used with the
whole process herein-before described, or without the use and in place of the
drying cylinders d; I find either mode to be well adapted for the purpose.]
The "blanket" is conveyed by the rollers, 10, 11, 1, 1, 1, to the
printing cylinder A, where it again is ready for use, following the process
already described.
I would remark, that I am aware that waterproof cloths or fabrics used as
printing blankets have been cleansed in their passage through printing
machines, but this cleansing was effected when the machine was not employed
in the operation of printing, and consequently involved a loss of time; and I
have been informed, that it has been attempted to wash the grey or unbleached
cloth which is used between the white cloth to be printed and the cylinder
cloth or "blanket," and I mention these, in order to state that I make no claim
thereto, nor do I claim any part of the machinery herein mentioned or
described, or mode of erecting the same, when separately considered; but what
I claim is, the so arranging machinery employed for printing and applying
colour to silk, cotton, linen, woollen, and other textile fabrics, that the blankets
or fabrics called by that name may be washed at the same time that the
printing is going on, in order continuously to present clean surfaces, and thus to
dispense with the necessity of using interposed fabrics between the "blankets."
and the cloths to be printed.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, at Glasgow,
this First day of November, in the year One thousand eight hundred

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the First day of November, in
the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Robert Dalglish came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforeaid, and all and every thing 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.
Enrolled the Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.