IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1876

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LETTERS PATENT to John Good, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York,
United States of America, but at present residing at Leeds, in the County of
York, Machinist, and Thomas Lawson, of Leeds aforesaid, Manufacturer, for tho
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FLAX, HEMP,
JUTE, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 5th January 1877, and dated the 12th July 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Good and Thomas
Lawson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th July
1876.
JOHN GOOD, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York, United States of America,
but at present residing at Leeds, in the County of York, Machinist, and THOMAS
LAWSON, of Leeds aforesaid, Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
This Invention relates to that classs of preading and drawing machines, in which
endless chains are used for carrying bars furnished with gills or pins.
The objects of our improvements are, 1st, to bring the bar or faller carrying.
the gills or pins nearer to the nip or bite of the drawing rollers than heretofore;
and, 2ndly, to cause the gills or pins to leave the fibrous material in a vertical
position.
To attain this end we take away the front carrier or driver shaft, and drive the
chain of gills by means of the back carrier shaft, so that in place of the chain being
drawn forward by the first shaft, as heretofore, it is pushed forward by the back
shaft.
The chain of gills is supported near the drawing rollers by a fixed guide so
shaped as to allow of the vertical drop of the gills when they have come to the"
end of their reach.
+
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by.
the said John Good and Thomas Lawson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th January 1877.
JOHN GOOD, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York, United States of America, .
5 but at present residing at Leeds, in the County of York, Machinist, and THOMAS:
[Price 6d.

page_text: LAWSON, of Leeds aforesaid, Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
This Invention relates to that class of spreading and drawing machines, in which
endless chains are used for carrying bars furnished with gills or pins.
The objects of our improvements are, first, to bring the bars or fallers carrying
the gills or pins nearer to the nip or bite of the drawing rollers than heretofore;
and, secondly, to cause the gills or pins to leave the fibrous material in a vertical
position, and thereby reduce the tendency to loss to a minimum.
In order to attain these ends we take away the front carrier or driver shaft, and
drive the chain of gills by means of the back carrier shaft, so that in place of the
chain being drawn forward by the first shaft, as heretofore, it is pushed forward by
the back shaft.
The chain of gills is supported near the drawing rollers by fixed guides, so
shaped as to allow of the vertical drop of the gills when they have come to the end
of their reach.
In order to make our Invention clearly understood, we have shewn in the
accompanying Drawing the well-known plan for working the chains of gills, and
also the arrangement which constitutes the subject of our present Invention.
Fig. 1 shews in longitudinal section a chain of gill bars driven in the ordinary
manner, that is, by means of the front chain carrier; and Fig. 2, the new arrange-
ment for driving the gills by means of the back carrier, both Figures being drawn
to the same scale.
In Fig. 1, A is the front driving carrier; and A¹, the back carrier for the chains
of gill bars B, B; C and D represent the interlocking drawing bars, for which
Letters Patent were obtained the Thirtieth day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-six, No. 2276, on behalf of one of the present Inventors.
By the rotation of these holding surfaces the fibre is drawn off from the chain of
gills as by the ordinary drawing rollers.
A great drawback to the use of the chain, when driven as illustrated at Fig. 1,
has been the lapping of the sliver round the sheet or chain. This results mainly
from the bars moving in a circular course around the carrier A, whereby the fore-
most row of pins as it leaves the fibre receives an increased velocity, the pitch or
distance between it and the succeeding row of pins increasing as the foremost gill
bar approaches the horizontal plane of the axis of the carrier A. A tendency is
thus set up for the foremost row of pins on its descent to take the loose fibres
down with it. This will be understood by comparing the distance between
the pins 1 and 2, Fig. 1, and the spaces between the pins before and below
them.
Another disadvantage consequent on the use of this mode of driving the gill
chains is the space required in front of the nip for the clearance of the gill pins,
it being, as is well known, a great desideratum that the pins shall leave the
sliver as near as possible to the bite of the drawing rollers or their equivalent.
By reference to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the front carrier is removed, and that
in lieu thereof fixed slides E, E, are substituted. The chain of gill bars is in this
instance driven by the back carrier A¹. The slides E, E, are so constructed as to
receive the gill bars and their dogs as they leave the ordinary horizontal slides,
and ensure that the descending gill bars as they drop out of action and pass the
lower drawing roller or its equivalent shall follow each other in an inclined plane,
and in such manner as to maintain, as near [as may be, the verticality of the gill
pins, and the pitch of those pins unchanged. By thus dropping the gills in a
vertical position we are enabled to reduce to a minimum the tendency of the fibres
to lap on the gill chains.
By referring to Figures 1 and 2 it will be seen that the gill pin 2* of Fig. 2
leaves the sliver closer to the nip or point of contact marked 3* than the pin-2 of
Fig. 1 leaves the nip 3. Thus the sliver is carried by the gill pins as operated by our
improved arrangement closer up to the nip than has heretofore been practicable in
spreading and drawing machines, and it is left free to follow the draft of the

page_text: drawing surfaces by the pins dropping vertically out of contact with the
sliver.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements in Machinery
for Preparing Flax, Hemp, Jute, Wool, and other Fibrous Substances," and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood
that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we claim, the means above
described for bringing the bars of chain gill spreading and drawing machines nearer
to the nip of the drawing rollers than heretofore, and withdrawing the gills in a
vertical position from the fibrous material under treatment.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Lawson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal the Eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
THOMAS LAWSON. (L.S.)