[Fig. 544.] shows one method of constructing the apparatus. a a is a semi-cylindrical shaped copper vessel, with flat ends, in which the dyeing process is carried on. b b b is a wheel with several circular rims mounted upon arms, which revolve upon an axle c. In the face of these rims a number of pegs or blocks are set at nearly equal distances apart, upon each of which pegs or blocks it is intended to place a hat, and as the wheel revolves, to pass it into and out of the dyeing liquor in the vat or copper. This wheel may be kept revolving with a very slow motion, either by geer connecting its axle, c, with any moving power, or it may be turned round by hand, at intervals of ten minutes; whereby the hats hung upon the pegs, will be alternately immersed for the space of ten minutes in the dyeing liquor, and then for the same space exposed to the atmospheric air. In this way, the process of dyeing, it is supposed, may be greatly facilitated, and improved, as the occasional transition from the dye vat into the air, and from the air again into the bath, will enable the oxygen of the atmosphere to strike the dye more perfectly and expeditiously into the materials of which the hat is composed, than by a continued immersion in the bath for a much longer time.
A variation in the mode of performing this process is suggested, and the apparatus [fig. 545.] is proposed to be employed, a a is a square vat or vessel containing the dyeing liquor; b b is a frame or rack having a number of pegs placed in it for hanging the hats upon, which are about to be dyed, in a manner similar to the wheel above described. This frame or rack is suspended by cords from a crane, and may in that way be lowered down with the hats into the vat, or drawn up and exposed in the air; changes which may be made every 10 or 20 minutes.
I have seen apparatus of this kind doing good work in the hat-dyeing manufactories of London, that being a department of the business with which the Union has not thought it worth their while to interfere.
Mr. William Hodge’s patent improvements in hat dyeing, partly founded upon an invention of Mr. Bowler, consist, first in causing every alternate frame to which the suspenders or blocks are to be attached, to slide in and out of grooves, for the purpose of more easily removing the said suspenders when required. [Fig. 546.] represents the improved dyeing frame, consisting of two circular rims, a a, which are connected together at top and bottom, by three fixed perpendicular bars or the frame-work b b b. Two other perpendicular frames c c, similar to the former, slide in grooves, d d d d, fixed to the upper and lower rims. These grooves have anti-friction rollers in them, for the purpose of making the frames c c, to slide in and out more freely. The suspenders or substitutes for blocks, by these means, may be more easily got at by drawing out the frames c c, about half way, when the suspenders, which are attached to the frames with the hats upon them, may be easily reached, and either removed or altered in position; and when it is done on one side, the sliding frame may be brought out on the other, and the remaining quantity of “suspenders” undergo the same operation.
The patentee remarks, that it is well known to all hat dyers, that after the hats have been in the dyeing liquor some time, they ought to be taken out and exposed to the action of the atmospheric air, when they are again immersed in the copper, that part of the hat which was uppermost in the first immersion, being placed downwards in the second. This is done for the purpose of obtaining an uniform and regular dye. The patentee’s mode of carrying this operation into effect, is shown in the figure: e e are pivots for the dyeing-frame to turn upon, which is supported by the arms f, from a crane above. The whole apparatus may be raised up or lowered into the copper by means of the crane or other mechanism. When the dyeing-frame is raised out of the copper, the whole of the suspenders or blocks are reversed, by turning the apparatus over upon the pivots e e, and thus the whole surfaces of the hats are equally acted upon by the dyeing material.