CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wе, CHARLES,
MURLAND, of Castlewellan, Ireland, Flax Spinner; and EDWARD LAWSON, of.
Leeds, in the County of York; Machine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen. Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighteenth day of September, in the ninth year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Charles
Murland and Edward Lawson, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege,
and authority, that we, the said Charles Murland and Edward Lawson, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as we, the said Charles
Murland and Edward Lawson, our executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said Charles Murland
and Edward Lawson, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after-the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Lawson, do hereby declare that the nature of our Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following expla-
nation thereof (that is to say):-
These Improvements in Machinery for Preparing and Spinning Flax and other
Fibrous Substances apply, in the first place, particularly to machines employed
in the preparation and spinning of flax, and consist in a novel and peculiar
combination and arrangement of two ordinary and well-known machines, by
which they are so worked in immediate connection with each other as to perform
the operations of "drawing" or "slivering" and spinning in one machine. The
machinery we thus employ is the well known "screw gill," as worked in con-
nection with the preparation machinery and the common spinning frame.
"
The
gill" is of that class of preparing machines employed for opening, straight-
ening, and separating the fibres of flax, liemp, long wool, and other materials
of a similar description in the operation called "slivering." The several parts
and operations of this machine, and also of the common spinning frame, are
so well known both to the practical operative and the mechanic connected with
the business of preparing and dressing flax, &c., that a particular description
of them is quite unnecessary. We shall therefore herein only allude to them
in general, that being quite sufficient for the purposes of explaining our im-
provement. As this arrangement or combination of machinery will be better
understood by reference to Drawings, we have attached to these Presents a
Sheet of Drawings which will fully illustrate the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner of carrying the same into practical effect.
Fig. 1 is an end elevation; Fig. 2 a front view, and Fig. 3 is a vertical
section taken through the mechanism at about the dotted line A, B, in Fig. 2.
These Figures are drawn upon a scale of about one fifth the real size, anil
similar letters of reference point out corresponding parts in these three Figures.
This improved combination of machinery is designed to dispense with the
operation of roving and twisting in the preparation process, and thus to
improve the uniformity and strength of the yarn, and also to supersede the use
of bobbins, and their transmission from one frame to another in such opera-
tions, and consequently preventing any injury to the slivers between the
preparation and spinning processes. In Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A, A, A, represents
the carriage or stand of the "screw gill," and B, B, B, the framework of the
spinning machine. The mode of operation of this combined machinery is as

page_text: follows: The slivers of flax are brought from the "drawing frame" in the
cans a, a, and placed one above the other upon the creel or stand 6 (which
will economize space instead of all being placed upon the floor as usual). They
are then passed over the conductor rod c, c, onwards to the back rollers d, d,
and from thence through the gills e, e, over the front drawing roller ff, through
the water trough g, g. The sliver then enters the ordinary spinning frame
through the front and back rollers h, h, which are mounted as usual in their
stands or carriage i, i, and proceeds through the thread plate to the spindle
k, k, k, k, the whole being driven from the cylinder shaft 7, 1, and the train of
gearing m, m, m, m.
The second part of our improvements applies to the operation of spin-..
ning only, being in this instance (and by way of illustration) shewn as
applied to spinning, twisting, or doubling flax, but it is equally applicable
in principle to spinning cotton and other fibrous substances, the only
difference being in the size and weight of the "flyer." It is an improvement
in the "flyer" of the spindle, or that part which conducts and winds on the
thread to the bobbin, and is shewn at full size in three different (front, side,
and top) views at Figs. 4, 5, and 6. The "flyer" consists of the legs n, n, as
usual, with twissle or eye o, o, and the upper part is furnished with a ring p,
for the purpose of preserving the thread from contact with the bobbin head.
A tube or conducting piece q is connected with the top of the flyer, having a
spiral or curved slit r, r, cut or formed for the passage of the thread. This
peculiar arrangement of flyer, with its conducting tube and spiral slit or
opening, is equally applicable to spinning, twisting, or doubling cotton and
other fibrous substances, and enables the thread to be spun direct from the
drawing rollers without any intermediate preventive from the twist getting up
to the nip of the rollers.
Having now fully described the nature and object of our said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it to be under-
stood that we claim as our Invention,―
Firstly, the novel and particular combination, arrangement, or construction
of the machinery above described, and exhibited in the Drawings annexed,
namely, "the screw gill," and the "spinning frame," when employed for the
purposes of "drawing" or slivering and spinning flax and other similar
materials at one operation, or in one machine, as herein set forth; and,
Secondly, the peculiar form and construction of the spindle "flyer" em-
ployed in spinning, twisting, or doubling machinery, as shewn at full size in
the Drawing annexed, having a central conducting tube or conducting orifice
for the thread or yarn immediately above the centre of the spindle, such tube

page_text: having a spiral or oblique cut or slit formed in it, made in that particular
direction as shewn in the Drawing, for the passage of the thread or yarn, and
in which the thread may be put whilst running. We also claim the combi-
nation of a twizzle or eye above the flyer, with the ring at the flyer shoulder
for keeping the thread from the bobbin head?
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Lawson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
EDW J. TEALE,
[aster Extray in Cha
teenth day
March,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Edward Lawson came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of March, in the year above written.