the occasional oxydation of the iron, it would be desirable to cover the upper surface of the box, forming the table, with a thin plate of pewter or other metal, least susceptible of oxydation. For the same reason, the face of the platen should be covered also.

In order to apply this machine to the purpose of dressing woollen cloth, it is necessary, in the first place, to fill the upper chamber of the box or tables with water, and then the lower chamber with steam, for the purpose of heating the water; and having determined the temperature at which I mean to work (say 200° Fahrenheit; but that must depend upon the quality of the cloth, and the required dress), I regulate the supply of steam accordingly, which will keep the water, and consequently the upper surface of the table, at one uniform temperature, or nearly so, during the continuance of the operation.

The piece of cloth is now to be brought, in its wet state, from the gig mill, and placed in a trough or suitable vessel, or perhaps wound on a roller. I then draw the cloth on to a flat wooden table, shown at m, in fig. 38, and connect its lists to a series of habiting hooks on each side, as is the practice in shearing machines, for the purpose of distending the cloth to one uniform width. When the cloth has been thus distended, it may be drawn forward, allowing the habit rods n, to slide along the side bars 0, 0; by which means the cloth will be brought between the table and platen, as shown in fig. 38, ready to be pressed. The platen is now brought down upon the table by means of the levers, in the ordinary way of working printing presses, and a very considerable pressure is thereby given to the cloth. While this pressure, in conjunction with the heat and humidity, is operating upon the portion of cloth, the habiting hooks may be removed from the lists, and the habit rods n, slidden back again upon the bars o, o, in order to hook on to the lists of another portion of the cloth to distend it, ready to be brought forward in like manner. It must here be remarked that, as a succession of pressing operations are intended to give the same smooth and equal appearance to the face of the cloth, as if it had been operated upon by one uniform extended pressing surface, equal to the whole length of the piece, the parts of the cloth at which the successive operations meet each other, must not be allowed to exhibit any mark or junction, I therefore chamfer off blunt, bevel, or round the edges of the platen; so that the precise point at which the pressure finishes in one operation, and commences in the next, may not be perceptible. In this way I am enabled to blend the several successive pressing operations along the length of the piece, and to produce the same appearance as though the pressure had acted at once upon the whole extended surface.

As a convenient mode of conducting the cloth forward, I pass it over a small carrier roller p, mounted in brackets, extending from the frame of the press, and I attach the end of the cloth to a roller, mounted upon an axle in a suitable standard or frame q; and as the cloth is required to be drawn forward, I turn the winch upon the axle, and wind it on to the roller.

The Patentee concludes by saying, "Having now described my improved method of dressing woollen cloth by pressing it in portions with heat and humidity, I beg it to be observed that I do not intend to confine myself to pressing exactly one yard in length at each operation, as a greater or less length of cloth may be operated upon, if a platen and table of greater or less dimensions should be found to be more conve nient. And as to the width of the platen, in order to accommodate it to the pressing of broad cloth of various breadths between the lists, I have occasionally found it convenient to enlarge the platen, by attaching suitable pieces to its sides, as at r, r, fig. 37. Pieces of this sort, of different widths, may be provided, in order that, by displacing those of one width, and attaching others, the platen may be brought to such dimensions as may suit the width of any particular cloth; and they may be attached, as shown by screws, or by any other means that may be found convenient,---[Inrolled in the Rolls Chapel Office, November, 1834.]

Specification drawn by Messrs. Newton and Berry.

TO CHARLES WILSON, of Kelso, in the county of Roxburgh, North Britain, for his invention of certain improvements applicable to the machinery used in the preparation for spinning wool, and other fibrous substances. [Sealed 17th June, 1834.]

THE invention which forms the subject of this patent, is intended to supersede the necessity of employing the machine called the slubbing billy, in preparing wool for spinning; and consists in the adaptation of certain pieces of mechanism, as auxiliaries to an engine for scribbling or carding wool.

The wool having been scribbled in the ordinary way, and deposited in loose untwisted bands in a series of receiving cans, as commonly practised, the first feature of the invention applies to the manner of feeding or conducting those bands from the cans into a second scribbling or carding engine, which is done by leading those bands of sliver over a series of horizontal rollers, mounted in a frame at the feeding end of the engine; and by the rotation of these rollers, passing the bands severally through distinct guides or eyes, and between grooved rollers and partitions, in order that the bands of wool may not be indiscriminately mixed on the carding cylinder, but that they may be carded in the same form, and for the purpose of being taken off at the doffer end of the engine again in hands, and so conducted forward and wound in bands as slubbings on bobbins, ready for the subsequent operations of mule or throstle spinning.

The second feature is the adaptation of a cylinder with bands or ribs of cards round it, and intervening blanks; which cylinder is employed as a stripper, in place of a doffing comb, to take off or strip the slivers of wool from the doffing cylinder, in the same form in which they were fed into the engine at the reverse end.

The fibres of wool are to be removed from the points of the cards of this cylinder by a fluted roller turning in contact with it, by which means the slivers again assume the form of bands of slubbing, and are passed between a pair of rollers to compress them. They are then conducted between two straps, or a doubled endless band, travelling in opposite directions, in order to give a slight degree of twist to the fibres of the wool; and after this the slubbings are passed between another pair of rollers, turning something faster than the former pair, for the purpose of drawing out the fibres, and slightly elongate the bands of slubbing.

The slubbings are then wound or lapped upon a

VOL. VI.

U

roller or long bobbin, which is made to turn upon its axis by the friction of its contact with the surfaces of two revolving rollers below, driven by the gearing wheels of the engine; and this lapping roller has a short lateral movement to and fro in its carriage, for the purpose of causing the several bands of slubbing to be wound in a slight degree spirally, or in helical curves round the bobbin.

There appears to be but little novelty in this invention, as our readers will perceive by referring to the specifications of Bodmer's patent, vol. xii. of our First Series, page 63; Dyer's patent, vol. xiv., page 6, also First Series; Seldon's patent, vol. viii., Second Series, page 74; and again vol. i., Conjoined Series, page 309; and Simpson's patent, vol. v., Conjoined Series, page 250. We therefore consider the foregoing description sufficient without figures, as the drawings which accompany this specification are for the most part minute details of machinery generally known to cotton-spinners.

The claims of the Patentee are these:-First, to the mode of feeding the slivers into the carding engine immediately from a series of cans, and of passing it in distinct bands over guide rollers into the engine. Second, to the adaptation of a cylinder with bands of cards for stripping or taking off the slivers from the doffer cylinder: and third, the employment of a second pair of rollers for the purposes of drawing or slightly elongating the slubbings.-[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, December, 1834.]