IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING FELTS OR FELTED CLOTHS
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twentieth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-one, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Newton, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said William Newton, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and
in the Islands Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an Invention of
"IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING FELTS OR FELTED CLOTHS," being
a communication from a Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and

page_text: ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled 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
William Newton, 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 :-
This Improved Machinery for Manufacturing Felts or Felted Cloths,
communicated to me by a Foreigner residing abroad, consists in a noval
arrangement of machinery for laying broad sheets of woollen and other animal
sliver one upon another in diagonal directions, by which the fibres are made
to cross cach other, and to constitute a batt of loose wool of uniform thickness.
The Inventor states that the object effected by this improvement is the
manufacture of what is termed felt cloth, or fabric produced without the
processes of spinning and weaving, by laying the fibres of loose scribbled or
carded wool, or other material capable of felting, in a thick sheet or batt,
which is afterwards hardened and milled or fulled, and thereby converted into
a felt or felt cloth.
As the process of scribbling and carding wool is well understood, I
need not describe it, but simply say, that the wool or other fibrous material
having been prepared in the ordinary way, is to be delivered from the
doffer of a carding engine in the form of a broad continuous sheet of sliver,
on to an endless creeping cloth, from whence it is conducted to the improved
machinery, there to be laid in an endless batt, as above stated.
In the accompanying Drawings Figure 1 represents an elevation of the
improved machinery, of which Figure 2 is a horizontal view, as it would
appear when seen from above; and Figure 3 is a section taken vertically
through the machine, in the direction of the dotted line y, z, of Figure 2,
similar letters of reference indicating the same parts in all the Figures.
A, A, represents the standards or framework of an ordinary carding engine.
B is the main shaft of that engine, driven by band and rigger as usual. All
the parts of the engine are not shewn, nor those which are, in their due
proportions, as the carding engine itself forms no feature of this improved
machinery. C is the doffer cylinder, and D is an endless creeping cloth,
extending over tension rollers behind the doffer cylinder, to receive the broad

page_text: sliver of wool struck off from the doffer cylinder by the usual means.
a, a, is a rectangular frame, placed transversely at the end of the carding
engine, which frame slides upon railways b, b, fixed on the floor of the factory
or other building. This frame carries two rollers c, c, over which an endless
cloth d, d, is tightly distended. In the same frame are also mounted, below
the former, two other rollers e, e, carrying another endless cloth, which is
intended to travel with nearly continguous to the under surface of the cloth d, d.
A pulley on the main shaft engine carries a band which, as it revolves,
drives a pulley g, fixed upon a transverse shaft, mounted on the framework
A, A, under the doffer cylinder. At the reverse end of this transverse
shaft, there is a pinion h taking in a toothed wheel i, on the axle of the
doffer cylinder, and hence, by the rotation of the main shaft B, the doffer
cylinder C is made to revolve through the intervention of the pulleys, bands,
and gear f, g, h, and i. A large pulley k, also on the axle of the doffer
cylinder, carries a band which gives rotary motion to a small pulley 1, on the
axle of the one of the tension rollers of the creeping cloth D, by means of
which, as the doffer cylinder revolves, the creeping cloth is made to travel
continually, and thereby to conduct the sheet of sliver from the doffer cylinder
and deposit upon the endless cloth d. In order that the sheet of sliver so
delivered from the creeping cloth D may be laid evenly and in diagonal layers
upon the receiving cloth d, that cloth must have a continuous progressive
motion over its tension rollers c, c, and simultaneously with that motion
the carriage or frame a, a, in which the endless cloth d is mounted, must
have a reciprocating sliding movement given to it at right angles to the progress
of the endless cloth d. This is effected by the following means:-At the front
end of the axle of the doffer cylinder (see Figure 1) there is affixed a pinion m
taking into a toothed wheel n on the end of a transverse shaft o (seo
Figure 2). One extremity of this shaft o turns in a bracket attached to the
frame A, the other in an independent standard E. The front end of the
shaft o has a bevel pinion p fixed upon it, which takes into a corresponding
bevel pinion on the end of a longitudinal shaft a turning in bearings attached
to the standard E and frame a. This longitudinal shaft q is the axle on
which one of the rollers c is mounted, the roller being hollow, and the shaft
locked to it by a feather edge or rib, allowing the roller to slide freely along
the shaft, but compelling it to revolve with the shaft. It will thus bo
perceived that by the rotation of the doffer cylinder, which actuates the gear
m, n, o, p, and g, the roller c will be made to revolve, and the endless cloth
d, d, d, be carried progressively onward in the direction of the arrow shewn
in Fig. 2. For the purpose of giving the reciprocating sliding lateral move-

page_text: ments to the carriage a and its endless cloth d, d, d, the following mechanism
is employed-Near the further end of the main axle B (see Fig. 2) a pulley
On the shaft of this
ris affixed, carrying a band which drives a pulley s.
pulley there is a pinion t taking into a similar pinion on a tumbling shaft u
extending across the lower part of the frame of the carding engine under the
doffer cylinder. The pivot of one end of this tumbling shaft is supported by
a bracket on the frame A, as shewn by dots in Figure 3, the other end of the
shaft bears in a plate sliding in a small standard F, see Figs. 1 and 2, and at
that end of the tumbling shaft there is a pinion which is intended to take
into one of the racks w, w, seen in Fig. 1. The racks w, w, are formed in a
horizontal sliding frame attached to the carriage a, a; and as this frame is
slidden to and fro, it draws or pushes the carriage along upon the railways b, b,
giving the reciprocating horizontal lateral movements to the endless cloth d, d, d,
as described above. The standard F is shewn detached at Fig. 4 (in the
same position as Fig. 1) with a portion of the rack frame w, w, the pinion v
being represented by dots, as seen through it.
Fig. 5 shews the inner side of the standard F with the sliding plate in which
the pivot or end of the tumbling shaft is inserted. The sliding plate is
raised or depressed in the standard F by a small lever a mounted on a fulcrum
pin set in the standard, and this lever is worked by a weighted tumbling arm
y, which as it falls over causes the sliding plate to shift the pinion v of the
tumbling shaft u up or down, thereby bringing it into gear with one or the
other of the racks of the sliding frame w. Let it be supposed, that by the
position of the arm Y, as in Figs 1 and 4, the pinion v is placed in gear with
the lever rack w; the rotation of the main shaft B will, by means of the gear
r, s, t, and u, as described, cause the pinion v to draw the rack frame w, and
carriage a, inwards, that is, toward the carding engine, and when the tappet
attached to the rack frame comes into contact with the arm y, which it will do
when the pinion v reaches the end of the rack, the arm y will be made to tumble
over and raise the lever æ and slider, which brings the pinion vinto gear with
the upper rack w, and the continuous rotation of the tumbling shaft will move
the rack frame and the carriage outward, or away from the carding engine, until
the other tappet:* comes into contact, and in like manner tumbles over the arm
y and puts the pinion again into gear with the lower rack. By these means
it will be perceived that the continuous broad sheet of sliver from the doffer
cylinder will be carried by the creeping cloth D, and delivered into the upper
surface of the endless cloth d, d, d, and that by the two motions of the carriage
and endless cloth d, that is, its progressive and its reciprocating movements,
the sheet of sliver will be laid in successive layers one over another in diagonal

page_text: directions upon the surface of the receiving cloth, as shewn by the Diagrams
Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9, and thereby produce a compact batt of fibres of uniform
thickness. As the receiving cloth travels onward, the sheet of sliver will
pass down with the cloth between the rollers c and e, and be thereby com-
pressed and conducted between the two endless cloths until it arrives at the
first roller c, by which it will be brought again to the upper surface to receive
additional folds or sheets of sliver, to be delivered on to its surface in the way
and by the means above described; and when sufficient thickness of batt in an
endless sheet has been thus obtained, the batt is to be cut through in the
direction of the axis of the roller c, and on being removed from the machine,
may be hardened and milled or fulled by any suitable means, so as to produco
a firm felt or felted cloth.
Lastly, I desire it to be understood that I do not intend to confine myself
precisely to the forms, proportions, and arrangements of the parts of the
machinery shewn in the Drawings, but that which I consider to be the essential
feature of the Invention is, the construction or arrangement of a machine by
which slivers of wool or any other fibrous material capleble of felting may be
conducted in a broad sheet from a carding engine, and laid in folds diagonally
one upon another, to produce a compact batt ready to be fulled or milled into
a firm felt or felted cloth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our
Land One thousand night hundred and forty two
WILLIAM (L.S.) NEWTON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Nineteenth day of March
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Newton came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Nineteenth day of March, in the year above written.