1172 WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE 



wheels r" :tnd Q", upon the ends of the beams P and Q, which take into the pinions 

 M and N. 



The mechanism destined to stretch the cloth is placed at the other end of the 

 machine, where the shafts of the beams, p, Q, are prolonged beyond the frame, and 

 bear at their extremities p' and ft', armed each with a brake. The beam p (fig. 2129), 

 turns in an opposite direction to the drum ; consequently the cloth is wound upon p, 

 and unwound from Q. If, at the same time as this is going on, the handle R, of the 

 brake-shaft, be turned so as to clasp the brake' of the pulley Q' and release that of the 

 pulley P', it is obvious that a greater or smaller resistance will be occasioned in the 

 beam Q, and the cloth which pulls it in unwinding, will be able to make it turn only 

 when it has acquired the requisite tension ; hence it will be necessary, in order to in- 

 crease or diminish the tension, to turn the handle R' a little more or a little less in the 

 direction which clasps the brake of the pulley Q' ; and as the brake acts in a very 

 equable manner, a very equable tension will take place all the time that the cloth 

 takes to pass. Besides, should the diminution of the diameter of the beam Q render 

 the tension less efficacious in any considerable degree, the brake would need to be un- 

 clamped a very little, to restore the primitive tension. 



When the cloth is to be returned from the beam p to the beam Q, z must be 

 lowered, to put the shaft L out of gear above, and in gear below ; then the cloth-beam 

 Q, being driven by that vertical shaft, it will turn in the same direction as the drum, 

 and will wind the cloth round its surface. In order that it may do so, with a suitable 

 tension, the pulley Q' must be left free, by clasping the brake of the pulley p' so as to 

 oppose an adequate resistance. 



The cloth is brought into more or less close contact with the drum as follows : 

 There is for this purpose a wooden roller T, against which it presses in passing from 

 the one winding beam to the other, and which may have its position changed rela- 

 tively to the drum. It is obvious, for example, that in departing from the position 

 represented in fig. 2129, where the cloth is nearly a tangent to the drum, if the roller 

 T' be raised, the cloth will cease to touch it ; and if it be lowered, the cloth will, on 

 the contrary, embrace the drum over a greater or loss portion of its periphery. For 

 it to produce these effects, the roller is borne at each end, by iron gudgeons, upon the 

 heads of an arched rack T" (fig. 2129), where it is held merely by pins. These racks 

 have the same curvature as the circle of the frame, against which they are adjusted by 

 two bolts ; and by means of slits, which these bolts traverse, they may be slidden up- 

 wards or downwards, and consequently raise or depress the roller T. But to graduate 

 the movements, and to render them equal in the two racks, there is a shaft TJ, sup- 

 ported by the uprights of the frame, and which carries, at each end, pinions n', ID", 

 which work into the two racks T', T" : this shaft is extended in front of the frame, 

 upon the side of the head of the machine (fig. 2130), and there it carries a ratchet- 

 wheel u, with a handle u'. The workman, therefore, requires merely to lay hold of 

 the handle, and turn it in the direction of the ratchet-wheel, to raise the racks, and 

 the roller T, which they carry ; or to lift the click or catch, and turn the handle in 

 the opposite direction, when he wishes to lower the roller, so as to apply the cloth to 

 a larger portion of the drum. 



CLOTH CROPPING. 



Of machines for cropping or shearing woollen cloths, those of Lewis and Davis have 

 been very generally used. 



Fig. 2134 is an end view, and fig. 2135 is a side view, of Lewis's machine for 

 shearing cloth from list to list. Fig. 2136 is an end view of the carriage, with the 

 rotatory cutter detached from the frame of the machine, and upon a larger scale : a is 

 a cylinder of metal, on which is fixed a triangular steel wire ; this wire is previously 

 bent round the cylinder in the form of a screw, as represented at a, a, in fig. 2134, 

 and, being hardened, is intended to constitute one edge of the shear or cutter. 



The axis of the cylindrical cutter a turns in the frame b, which, having proper 

 adjustments, is mounted on pivots c, in the standard of the travelling carriage d, d; 

 and e is the fixed or ledger blade, attached to a bar/, which constitutes the other edge 

 of the cutter ; that is, the stationary blade, against which the edges of the rotatory 

 cutter act ; / and g are flat springs, intended to keep the cloth (shown by dots) up 

 against the cutting edges. The form of these flat springs f g is shown at figs. 2137 

 and 2138, as consisting of plates of thin metal out into narrow slips (fig. 2138), or 

 perforated with long holes (fig. 2137). Their object is to support the cloth which is 

 intended to pass between them, and operate as a spring bed, bearing the surface of the 

 cloth against the cutters, so that its pile or nap may be cropped off or shorn as the 

 carriage d is drawn along the top rails of the standard or frame of the machine h ft, 

 by means of cords. 





