WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE 



The construction of the bed will be seen by reference to the cross-section fig. 2141. 

 It consists of an iron or other metal roller, k, k, turned to a truly cylindrical figure, 

 ,ind covered with cloth or leather, to afford a small degree of elasticity. This roller 

 is mounted upon pivots in a frame, I, I, and is supported by a smaller roller tn, 

 similarly mounted, -which roller m, is intended merely to prevent any bending or 

 depression of the central part of the upper roller or bed k, k, so that the cloth may be 

 kept in close contact with, the whole length of the cutting blades. 



2141 



In order to allow the bed k to rise and fall, for the purpose of bringing the cloth up 

 to the cutters to be shorn, or lowering it away from them after the operation, the frame 

 /, /, is made to slide up and clown in the grooved standard n, it, the moveable part en- 

 closed within the standard being shown by dots. This standard , is situated about 

 the middle of the machine, crossing it immediately under the cutters, and is made 

 fast to the frame a, by bolts and screws. There is a lever, o, attached to the lower 

 cross-rail of the standard, which turns upon a fulcrum-pin, the extremity of the 

 shorter arm of which lever acts under the centre of the sliding-frame, so that by the 

 lover o, the sliding-frame, with the bed, may bo raised or lowered, and when so raised, 

 bo held up by a spring-catch^'. 



It being now explained by what means the bed which supports the cloth is con- 

 structed, and brought up, so as to keep the cloth in close contact with the cutters, 

 while the operation of shearing is going on ; it is necessary, in the next place, to 

 describe the construction of the cutters, and their mode of working ; for which pur- 

 pose, in addition to what is shown in the first three figures, the cutters are also repre- 

 sented detached, and upon a larger scale, in fig. 2142. 



In this figure is exhibited a portion of the cutters in the same situation as in .fig. 

 2136 ; and alongside of it is a section of the same, taken through it at right angles 

 to the former ; p, is a metallic bar or rib, somewhat of a wedge form, which is 

 fastened to the top part of the standard a a, seen besting. 2135. To this bar a 

 straight blade of steel g, is attached 

 by screws, the edge of which stands \mW 

 forward even with the centre or axis 

 of the cylindrical ciitter i, and forms 

 the ledger blade, or lower fixed edge 

 of the shears. This blade remains 

 stationary, and is in close contact 

 with the pile or nap of the cloth, when the bed k, is raised, in the manner above 

 described. 



The cutter or upper blade of the shears, is formed by inserting two or more strips 

 of plate steel, r, r, in twisted directions, into grooves in the metallic cylinder /, f, the 

 edges of which blades r, as the cylinder i revolves, traverse along the edge of the 

 fixed or ledger-blade g, and by their obliquity produce a cutting action like shears ; 

 the edges of the two blades taking hold of the piled or raised nap, as the cloth 

 passes under it, shaves off the superfluous ends of the wool, and leaves the fiico 

 smooth. 



Rotatory motion is given to the cutting cylinder i, by means of a band leading 

 from the wheel s, which passes round the pulley fixed on the end of the cylinder i, 

 the wheel 5 being driven by a band leading from the rotatory part of the steam- 



2142 



