IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING YARNS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Stringer, of Kidderminster, in the County of
Worcester, Color Maker, and George Birch, of Halifax, in the County
of York, Mechanic, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING
YARNS."
Sealed the 6th April 1866, and dated the 22nd January 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Stringer and George
Birch at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 22nd January 1866.
We, JOHN STRINGER, of Kidderminster, in the County of Worcester, Color
5 Maker; and GEORGE BIRCH, of Halifax, in the County of York, Mechanic,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRINTING YARNS," to be as follows::
Our Invention relates to that method of printing yarns which is well known
to the carpet trade as Whytock's system, and where the threads are first
o wound on to a drum and afterwards printed upon by means of a color trough

page_text: and roller caused to pass underneath the drum in contact with the yarns; and
our improvements consist in the means whereby the yarns or threads are
wound on to the drum so as to ensure their being laid together side by side
more evenly and accurately than has heretofore been done. According to
the present practice of winding yarns on to the printing drum great difficulty
is experienced owing to the liability of the succeeding coils of yarn overriding
or overlapping each other, and so forming an uneven surface or ridges, the
consequence of which is that when the yarns come to be printed the coloring
matter is unevenly distributed and some parts of the threads are printed of a
darker shade than others.
The object of our improvements is to remedy these defects, and the
means by which we propose to accomplish this is to combine with the
ordinary guide which may have been heretofore used for conducting the threads
on to the drum an instrument or finger piece, which is caused to press on
the surface of the coils of yarn which have been already wound on to the
drum, and which at the same time, by means of a projecting guide piece formed
on the under side of such pressure finger, acts upon each successive coil of
yarn in such manner as to lay it evenly and push it up alongside of the
preceding coil, the projecting edge or guide piece being bevilled or rounded off
in order to ensure its gathering the thread correctly and guiding and pushing
it up to the required position alongside of the preceding coil..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Stringer and George Birch in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th April 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
STRINGER, of Kidderminster, in the County of Worcester, Color Maker,
and GEORGE BIRCH, of Halifax, in the County of York, Mechanic, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said John Stringer and George Birch, Her special licence that we,

page_text: the said John Stringer and George Birch, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Stringer and George Birch,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 PRINTING
YARNS, upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Stringer
and George Birch, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one
of us or them, 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 we, the said John Stringer and George Birch; 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 :-
Our Invention relates to that method of printing yarns which is well known
to the carpet trade as Whytock's system, and where the threads are first
wound on to a drum and afterwards printed upon by means of a color trough
and roller caused to pass underneath the drum in contact with the yarns;
and our improvements consist in the means whereby the yarns or threads
are wound on to the drum so as to ensure their being laid together, side. by
side more evenly and accurately than has beretofore been done. According
to the present practice of winding yarns on to the printing drums great
difficulty is experienced owing to the liability of the succeeding coils of yara
overriding or overlapping each other, and so forming an uneven surface or
ridges, the consequence of which is that when the yarns come to be printed
the coloring' matter is unevenly distributed and some parts of the threads
are' printed of a' darker shade than others.
The object of our improvements, is to remedy these defects, and the means
by which we propose to accomplish this is to combine with the ordinary guide
which may have been heretofore used for conducting the threads on to the
drum an instrument or finger piece, which is caused to press on the surface
of the coils of yarn which have been already wound on to the drum, and

page_text: which at the same time, by means of a projecting guide piece formed on the.
under side of such pressure finger, acts upon each successive coil of yarn in:
such manner as to lay it evenly and push it up alongside of the preceding
coil, the projecting edge or guide piece being bevilled or rounded off in order
to ensure its gathering the thread correctly and guiding and pushing it up to
the required position alongside of the preceding coil.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same. Heretofore in winding.
yarns or threads on to drums preparatory to their receiving colors various
forms of guides have been used, and although any of such guides may be
employed, when carrying out our Invention we prefer to employ that form of
guide which consists of a rod bent or formed into a long loop, such as is
shewn in plan and side view in Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawing hereunto
annexed. With this or with other suitable form of guide for laying the yarn
or thread on to the surface of a drum we employ a finger, which presses on
some of the coils of yarn or thread already on the drum, and which at the
same time ensures that each successive coil of yarn as it is laid on to the
drum (by the guide) shall be gathered and pushed up close to the last coil
previously wound on to the surface of the drum. The form of this finger
may be somewhat varied, but that which we employ is shewn in the Drawing,
and is by preference formed of steel, its stem is thin, flexible, and elastic,
whilst near its outer end where it is caused to press on the yarn it is com-
paratively thick, or it may be simply bent forward, and the thickened or bent
part is at its under side rounded off at its ends. At that edge of this finger
which projects beyond the coils of yarn already laid on to the drum it has a
downward flange, which is slightly inclined to the coils of yarn or thread on
the drum, and the object of this is to enable the succeeding layers of yarn to
be guided and wound on to the drum at a sufficient distance apart from the
preceding coil so as to prevent the possibility or tendency of their overlapping
each other, and at the same time to ensure also that the coil of yarn last laid
on to the drum shall be guided and pushed by the inclined flange close up
against the preceding coils. The flat part of the finger, which rests on the
yarns already wound on to the drum, not only serves to "smooth," as it were,
the surface of the yarns, but also prevents the thin edge of the "inclined
flange" from cutting or wearing the oilcloth which covers the drum, and on
-to which the yarns are wound.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of

page_text: performing the same, we would have it understood, that what we claim is the
application of a finger in combination with a suitable guide as herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Stringer and George Birch, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-ninth day of March
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.