present to be more diffuse; when the subsequent improvements are matured, and given to the public under the proposed new patent, we shall have much pleasure in laying before our readers the complete subject, with our views of its practical advantages.―[Inrolled in the Petty Bag Office, November, 1828.]

TO JOHN JONES, of Leeds, in the county of York, brush maker, for his having invented or found out certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for dressing and finishing woollen cloths.-[Sealed 21st August, 1829.]

THE object of this invention, in the first instance, is to produce a more beautiful and permanent lustre on the faces of the finer descriptions of woollen cloths than is obtained by the ordinary process of dressing, by brushing and pressing, or by the operation commonly called roll boiling. There is also an apparatus to be attached to a gig mill, or brushing mill, for the purpose of keeping the cloth tightly distended, and preventing it from wrinkling while under the operation of the teasles or brushes.

The first of these objects is proposed to be effected, by pressing the surface of the cloth against a smooth firm surface, while the cloth is under the operation of boiling or steaming, which is described as done by the following means, (viz.) Applying to the surface of the cloth smooth polished plates, or sheets of copper, or smooth surfaces of wood.

The cloths are to be spread out, and tightly distended upon the smooth faces of these plates of metal, or surfaces of wood, and being immersed in hot water or steam,

are then to be submitted to very considerable pressure, and after being thus operated upon for a sufficient space of time, the face of the cloth will, by the pressure and the moist heat, acquire a smooth brilliant and soft surface, superior to that obtained by any other operation of dressing woollen cloths heretofore practised.

The Patentee proposes two methods of performing this operation; the first is by providing a large vat or flat vessel, about two yards wide and twenty-two yards long, which will afford a sufficient area to receive the end of cloth, (that is half the piece) extended upon its bottom. When the cloth has been smoothly spread in this vat, he places a sheet of polished copper plate of equal area, to the part upon the face of the cloth, then turning over the other end of the piece of cloth, on the reverse polished surface of the copper, he lays that smooth in like manner, and having repeated the same with a succession of pieces of cloth, and sheets of copper placed one upon another, until the vat is considered to have a sufficient charge, a flat surface of board or any other suitable material, is then lowered down upon the pile of cloth and plates, and a series of hydraulic presses brought to bear upon it, so as to give the pressure to the cloth required.

Plate IX, fig. 1, represents a portion of one of these vats a, a, with the hydraulic presses b, b, adapted thereto; fig. 2, is a transverse section of the same, shewing the cloth and copper plates within under pressure. As the construction and mode of working an hydraulic press is well known, it is not thought necessary to describe it, except that it should be said that the several presses b, b, are all connected together by the water pipe c, c, and are consequently all acted upon simultaneously by one pump or lever.

Intead of the machinery and hydraulic presses above described, it is proposed under some circumstances, to employ a close vessel to be filled with water, in which the cloths are to be placed, with the plates of copper as above described, and the pressure effected by the bydraulic pump, applied thereto in the ordinary way. Under either of the plans, however, it is proposed to heat the water in which the cloths are immersed, by steam conducted into the vat by means of a pipe from a boiler, in any convenient situation nearly contiguous, and in this heated medium the cloths are to remain from twelve to twenty-four hours, or perhaps more, according to the quantity of the cloth, its colour, and the required lustre, or height of dress which may be desired.

The second plan proposed is by rolling up the cloth in contact with a thin sheet of smooth copper, or other smooth, fine, but flexible substance.

Fig. 3, shews the front view of a machine intended to be employed for the purpose of rolling the cloth and sheet of copper together; fig. 4, is a transverse section of the same; a, is the roller, upon which the piece of cloth is first rolled, before it is brought to the machine; b, is a roll, round which the sheet of thin copper, or other smooth firm material is wound; c, is the roll, upon which it is intended that the cloth and sheet of copper together should be rolled; d, is a pressure roller, held down with considerable force against the roller c, by means of a weighted lever, for the purpose of causing the lengths of cloth and sheet copper to be very tightly rolled together. It is unnecessary to point out the particular arrangement of toothed wheels, by means of which, the several rollers are made to turn simultaneously, so as to preserve the tension of the cloth; it is only to be observed, that the cloth must be delivered with considerable tension, in order

that it may pressed firmly by the surface of the sheet copper by which it is to be enveloped.

Motion is given to the rollers by a winch, or by a band passed over the rigger e, which by the gear of pinions and wheels, causes the cloth and sheet copper to be drawn tightly, as they are wound on, and when that is done, the roll is enclosed within a wrapper of canvass or any other material, and very tightly braced, and afterwards immersed in a boiler, and treated in the way usually pratised when submitted to the ordinary operation called roll boiling.

Instead of the sheets of copper above mentioned, the Patentee proposes under some circumstances to employ slips of wood, closely fitted together, and held fast by rods passed through them, and screwed up at the ends, see fig. 5; these slips of wood are to be rendered perfectly smooth, and their lengths to correspond with the breadth of the cloth, and as many may be connected together as will form a flat smooth tablet, equal to the length of twenty-two yards, which tablets may then be employed as the smooth surface to press against the face of the cloth in the vat, in place of the sheets of copper, as above described

The other apparatus to be attached to a gig mill or brushing machine, for the purpose of distending the cloth in breadth, while it is under the operation of brushing or gigging, is a skeleton roller, formed by ribs of wood, which ribs are enabled to slide endwise.

Fig. 6, is a representation of this skeleton roller; a, a, is the axle that it turns upon; b, b, the ribs, of which there are two series mounted in the blocks c, c, each series reaching to about the middle of the roller. The one set. of the ribs slide in one direction, and the other set in the

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opposite direction, which movement is effected by the following contrivance:

The ribs are attached to blocks, and enabled to slide therein by dovetails or by pieces on their under sides, let into sockets cut in the blocks in the form of the letter T, and they are slidden to and fro in those sockets by means of a stud on the under part of each rail, which acts in an oblique groove in one of the end pieces d, d.

These end pieces d, slide loosely round the axle of the skeleton roller, but are prevented from revolving with the roller when it is in operation, by a projecting pin e, extending outwards from each end piece, which pin is intended to stop against a fixed part of the frame of the gig mill or brushing machine, to which the apparatus may be attached.

It will now be perceived that as the skeleton roller goes round when mounted in a machine, the studs on the under part of each rib being inserted into the oblique groove in the stationary blocks d, d, that the ribs will be severally slidden outwards as their studs approach those parts of the oblique grooves which are farthest from the centre of the machine, and inward as they approach those parts of the oblique grooves which are nearest to the centre of the machine, the ribs continuing, as the roller goes round, to slide outwards at the front part of the roller, and inward at the back part of the roller.

It is only necessary further to say, that the ribs being slightly notched on their outer surface, take hold of the cloth as it passes over them, and by sliding outward, of course distends it breadthwise, and keeps the cloth tight and free from wrinkles, as it advances to the brushing or teasle roller of the gig mill or brushing machine.

This last part of the invention, which is extremely in genious and simple, appears to have been found very