A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines / containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice

by Andrew Ure

DRYING HOUSE. An apartment fitted up in a peculiar manner for drying calicoes, and other textile fabrics. Mr. Southworth, of Sharples, a Lancashire bleacher, obtained a patent, in 1823, for the following ingenious arrangement, which has been since generally adopted, with certain modifications, in most of our extensive bleaching and printing works. [Fig. 363.] is a section of the drying-house, where a is a furnace and boiler for the purpose of generating steam; it is furnished with a safety valve in the tube b, at top, and from this tube the steam main c passes down to the floor of the basement story. From this main, a series of steam-pipes, as d d, extend over the surface of the floor, and from them heat is intended to be diffused for the purpose of warming the drying-house.

Along the middle of the building a strong beam of timber e e, extends, and is supported by cast-iron pillars; from this beam, to bearings on the side walls, a series of rails are carried in a cross direction, over which rails the wet cloth is to be hung in folds, and the steam or evaporation emitted in drying is allowed to escape through apertures or ventilators in the roof.

The mode in which the cloth is delivered on to the rails, on either side of the beam, will be best understood by reference to the delivering carriage, which is shown, with its rollers partly in section.

The wet cloth is first to be coiled upon a roller, and then placed in the carriage, as at f, with its pivots bearing upon inclined planes. The carriage is to be placed at the commencement of the rails, running upon the middle beam, and also upon the side-bearings or railways extending along the side walls of the building, parallel to and upon a level with the same beam. It is made to travel by means of an endless band passing over two riggers, g and h, in [fig. 363.], and over pulleys and a band-wheel attached to the carriage, as will be explained. The rigger g, which moves this endless band, is actuated by bevel geer, seen at i, which is put in motion by a pinion at the end of a revolving shaft leading from a steam engine.

In the same fig., k k is the endless band passing over a pulley under the band-wheel, and over the pulley n, by which it will be perceived that the traversing of the band, as described, would cause these pulleys and wheels to revolve. On the axle of the band-wheel m, there is a drum against which the roll of wet cloth f presses, and as this drum revolves, the roll of wet cloth is, by its friction, made to turn in a contrary direction, and to deliver off the cloth on to the periphery of the drum, whence it passes over a roller and descends to the tails. Upon the end of the axle of the band-wheel m, there is a pinion which takes into the teeth of the large wheel, and upon the axle of this large wheel there is a pinion that actuates the intermediate wheel, which turns another toothed wheel. This last-mentioned toothed wheel takes into cogs upon the side railway, and hence, as the train of wheels moves round, the carriage to which the wheels are attached is slowly impelled forward.

As soon as the wheels begin to move, and the carriage to advance, the wet cloth begins to uncoil, and to pass down over the first roller; a small roller attached to the carriage, as it passes over the rails in succession, holds the cloth against each rail for a short space of time, and prevents it from slipping, by which means the cloth descends in folds or loops between the rails, and is thereby made to hang in a series of folds or loops, as shown in the figure.

It will be perceived that as the pivots of the cloth roller f bear upon inclined planes, the roller will continually slide down as the cloth diminishes in bulk, keeping in contact with the drum, and delivering the cloth from the roller on to the several rails, as described.

In order to stop the carriage in any part of its course, or to adjust any of the folds of the cloth, a man is usually placed upon the platform travelling with the carriage, over which he has perfect command. This apparatus may be also employed for taking the cloth when dried off the rails; in which case the carriage must be made to travel backwards, and by first guiding the end of the cloth on to the roller f, and then putting the wheels in a retrograde motion, the cloth will be progressively coiled upon the roller f, in a similar way to that by which it was uncoiled.

DUCTILITY, (Streckbarkeit, Germ.) is the property of being drawn out in length without breaking, possessed in a pre-eminent degree by gold and silver, as also by many other metals, by glass in the liquid state, and by many semifluid resinous and gummy substances. The spider and the silk-worm exhibit the finest natural exercise of ductility upon the peculiar viscid secretions from which they spin their threads. When a body can be readily extended in all directions under the hammer, it is said to be malleable, and when into fillets under the rolling press, it is said to be laminable.