IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND PRINTING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry William Ripley, of Montpellier Lawn, Chel-
tenham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING
AND PRINTING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES."-A communication from abroad
by Stanilas Vigoureux, residing at Reims, in the Empire of France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry William Ripley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th April 1863.
I, HENRY WILLIAM RIPLEY, of Montpellier Lawn, Cheltenham, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING AND PRINTING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for preparing
and printing wool and other fibres, and consists in combining a gill box or
gill mechanism with printing machinery, in order that an even sliver or web
be produced, and then printed by the combined machinery. Wool or other
fibrous material is caused to enter the gill box or gill mechanism in the form
of a sliver or slivers, which may be either partially twisted or be devoid of
twist. A sliver or web of the desired width is produced by the gill box or
gill mechanism, which is conducted directly to the printing machinery on a
supporting roller or rollers, or otherwise, and by means of the rollers or

page_text: printing surfaces of the printing machinery the sliver or web from the gill
mechanism is impressed or printed with the desired device, and is then
conducted away, by preference, by an endless apron to a suitable receptacle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry William Ripley in the Geat Seal Patent Office on the
10th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WILLIAM RIPLEY, of Montpellier Lawn, Cheltenham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and seccessors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry William Ripley, Her special licence that I, the said Henry William
Ripley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry William Ripley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND PRINTING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES," a commu-
nication to me from abroad by Stanislas Vigoureux, a person resident at
Reims, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Henry William Ripley, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry William Ripley, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say.
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for preparing
and printing wool and other fibres, and consists in combining a gill box or gill
mechanism with printing machinery, in order that an even sliver or web may

page_text: be produced, and then printed by the combined machinery. I would here
state that it has before been proposed to print slivers and webs of wool or
other fibre with parallel transverse lines or devices, and then after printing to
subject the printed fibres to a process of drawing before spinning, so as to
cause the printed fibres to slide amongst themselves, and thus to extend or
shade off the printed lines or devices.
The present Invention consists in combining the gill machinery used in
preparing or producing an even web or sliver of wool or other fibres with a
printing machine, so that the sheet or web of fibres may at once pass from the
preparing gill machinery into and be acted on by the roller printing machine
without requiring to be made into rolls, or be handled and conveyed between
ono machine and the other. The details of the printing machine and also of
the gill apparatus employed in combination according to the Invention may be
greatly varied, the combined arrangement shown in the Drawing is that which
is preferred.
The Drawing represents so much of a transverse section of a combined
machine as will enable a mechanic readily to understand and carry out the
Invention.
(1) is the wool or fibrous substance; (2), the pressing rollers; (3), the gill
teeth; (4), pressing rollers; (5) is the web of fibres passing from the gill
teeth to the printing rollers. A is the color trough; B is the color supply
roller; C is a roller covered with elastic porous material, such as is described
in the Provisional Specification of another Patent granted to me, dated 29th
April 1863, No. 1085. D is a doctor or expressing roller; E is a scraper ;
F is an engraved printing roller; G is the apron or endless cloth for conveying
the printed web of fibres to a suitable drying apparatus or receiver. In place
of this arrangement of printing machinery, other printing machinery wherein
the printing roller or surface receives the color may be employed for printing
the desired device on the continuous web of fibres-proceeding from proper gill
apparatus. The wool or other fibrous material is caused to enter the gill box or
gill mechanism in the form of a sliver or slivers, which may be either partially
twisted or be devoid of twist. A sliver or web of the desired width is produced
by the gill box or gill mechanism in the ordinary way, and as is well under-
stood, and to which separately no claim is made, which web or sliver is con-
ducted directly to the printing machinery on a supporting roller or rollers, or
otherwise, and by means of the rollers or printing surfaces of the printing
machinery the sliver or web from the gill mechanism is impressed or printed
with the desired device, and is then conducted away, by preference, by an end-

page_text: less apron to a suitable receptacle or drying chamber, where the same is dried.
The printed web or sliver is afterwards steamed, washed, and dried, after
which it is gilled and drawn, by which the desired extending and consequent
mixing of the fibres are effected, to which processes no claim is made.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry William Ripley, have hereunto 5
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
HENRY W. RIPLEY. (Ls.)