IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND SCUTCHING FLAX AND HEMP."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ignaz Etrich, of Trautenau, Bohemia, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND SCUTCHING FLAX
AND HEMP."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ignaz Etrich at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th June 1875.
I, IGNAZ ETRICH, of Trautenau, Bohemia, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BREAKING
AND SCUTCHING FLAX AND HEMP," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement of mechanism for
breaking and scutching flax and hemp, which mechanism may be
employed as a distinct machine, or be attached to and form part of the
ordinary sheet heckling machine.
The fibre to be operated upon is placed in holders similar to those
used in heckling machines, and rising and falling guides are used in

page_text: connection with the holders for presenting the fibre to the breaking and
scutching instruments.
the holder.
For breaking and disengaging the boon or woody fibre from the
useful fibres horizontal reciprocating blades are employed, which
approach the strick from opposite sides thercof, and crease it between
them, the end of the strick being first subjected to their action, and
then in succession the whole of that portion which is below the nip of
While this operation is proceeding or alternating with
every action of the breaking blades rotary scutching blades are caused
to act on opposite sides of the stricks, and by striking upon the loosened
portions of the boon or woody fibre disengage the same from the useful
fibres. In order to effect this double action on one and the same portion
of the stricks the breaking blades are mounted on slides carried by end
plates, between which is secured a stationary box for receiving the
breaking instruments when they are drawn back out of action. The
withdrawal of the blades within their boxes brings them within the
circuit of the rotating scutching blades. These scutching blades are
driven by being connected with gear wheels which rotate on a fixed
hollow axle that carries the box which receives the sliding blades.
These gear wheels are so turned as to pass the scutching blades
through the plane of intersection of the breaking blades, while those
blades are held back within their boxes. The gear wheels, which are
connected with the scutching blades, are driven by spur gears on axles,
which are fitted with crank pins. These crank pins serve to operate
link rods, which are external of the frames, and keyed to spindles which
pass through the hollow shafts that carry the boxes. Fitted to these
spindles and within the boxes are arms which are connected by links to
the sliding bars which carry the breaking blades. As therefore the
crank pins revolve the breaking blades will be moved towards and from
the stricks of flax, as above explained.
It will be understood that the mechanism admits of variation to suit
various kinds of material. Thus the breaking blades, of which there
will be two on one side and one intermediate thereof on the other side of
the machine, may be set so as to produce a fine or a coarse crease, or the
mechanism may be duplicated, and the stricks submitted to two such
arrangements with appropriate rotating scutches in succession before
passing to the heckles.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ignaz Etrich in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, IGNAZ
ETRICH, of Trautenau, Bohemia, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Ignaz Etrich, Her special licence that
I, the said Ignaz Etrich, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Ignaz Etrich, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BREAKING
AND SCUTCHING FLAX AND HEMP," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Ignaz Etrich, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ignaz Etrich, do declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):
-:
This Invention consists of a combined breaking and scutching
machine for dressing and cleaning raw flax or other fibrous plants pre-
paratory to submitting the same to the action of heckling machinery.
The mechanism, which forms the subject of the present Invention,
may be used independently as a separate machine, or it may be adapted
to be used in conjunction with a heckling machine.

page_text: The Invention differs from all other machinery for operating upon
flax, hemp, and other analogous fibrous plants, inasmuch as two different
operations, viz., the breaking and the scutching of the straw are effected
simultaneously, the breaking and cleaning motions of the machine
acting alternately with great velocity on the same part of the straw. The
material is secured in holders, such as those used in the ordinary heckling
machine, and it is lowered slowly into the machine (first by the root
ends as far as the middle, and then again from the top ends as far as the
middle, as and by similar means to that used in hackling machinery), so
that every portion of the strick is subjected in succession both to the
breaking and scutching mechanism.
The machine has the advantage of cleaning the fibre from all boon or
woody matter without injuring the useful fibres, and at the same time
making much less waste than the breaking and scutching machinery
hitherto used. Moreover, the raw fibrous materials do not require to be
dried before being submitted to the action of the machine.
In the accompanying Drawing. Fig. 1 shews in partial sectional
elevation the newly invented machine; Fig. 2 is an end elevation
showing the gearing; Fig. 3 is a sectional plan view of the same; and
Fig. 4 is a top view of the machine; Fig. 5 shews the machine in
elevation and as applied to hackling machinery; and Figures 6 and 7
represent the breaking and scutching apparatus arranged in duplicate as
an independent machine.
The details of construction of the breaking and scutching mechanism
are best seen in the enlarged views, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4. The breaking
mechanism consists of two corresponding parts B, B, provided with any
required number of blades b, b. In the Drawing three blades are
shewn, two in one breaker, and one in the opposite breaker. The
scutching mechanism consists of two corresponding parts S, S, provided
with segment-shaped ribbed blades m, m, of which there is one shown in
the Drawing to each scutcher. The two parts of the breaking mechanism
are situated respectively within a cast-iron box or case K, K, pro-
vided with a hinged wooden cover, and fitted horizontally into the frame
of the machine. On the ends of this box are secured by screws the ver-
tical plates or discs p, p, (see Fig. 3), and on these plates p, p, are the
guides 8, 8, Figures 1 and 2, on which the breakers move with their
blades b, b, Fig. 2, which lie parallel to and opposite to each other.

page_text: The movement of the breakers is effected in the following manner:
The excentric axles x, x, Figures 1 and 2, arc driven by means of band
pullies z, z, Fig. 3. The excentric pins on these axles x, x, give a
to-and-fro motion to the rods g, g, which (being provided with right and
left-handed screw threads) are capable of being lengthened and shortened
as may be required. A rocking motion is by this means communicated
to the levers h, h, on the lever axles h³, h¹, Fig. 2. The levers h, h, on
the lever axles at the inner side of the above-mentioned case K, K, are
connected by means of slots with pins on the ends of the breakers, and
thus drive the breakers themselves backwards and forwards in their
slides 8, 8.
The breakers in their to-and-fro motions remain parallel to
cach other, and by their advance they crease the flax or hemp between
their blades. By this means the woody portions are loosened from the
useful fibres, and are ready for removal by the action of the scutching
blades m, m.
These blades m, m, move independently in a circle around
one portion of the breaker, and that portion of its mechanism which
lies inside the machine. The driving of all this mechanism is effected
(externally of the excentric pin shaft) by means of wheels,,
situated within the framing of the machine, which wheels set in motion
the wheels, 7, (which are secured firmly to the opposite ends of the
scutching blades, but are capable of being adjusted at will), and thus,
impart motion to the scutching blades. These wheels 11, 11, which carry
the blades with them in the directions of the red arrows p, p, Fig. 2, run
on the round ends of the cases K, K, which carry the inner mechanism
and the breakers. In passing between the breaking mechanism on the
recession of the blades b, b, the scutching blades m, m, act upon those
portions of the boon or woody matters that have been loosened by the
action of the breakers, and sweep them from the fibres completely, and
throw them down under the machine; at the same time they clean the
fibrous material, which has already passed under the action of the
machine. From this it is found to be advisable in the treatment of
raw fibrous material to place two complete arrangements or heads of
mechanism, one behind the other, and to connect them together by
toothed gearing, as shewn at Figures 5, 6, and 7. The thick dotted
lines in Figures 2, 4, and 5 show how the mechanism is protected from
dust, &º. by means of covering sheets of metal.
If now the two movements described are properly understood. vizt..

page_text: parts of the breakers and the circular motion of the scutching blades
around these two parts, it will be seen that the principle which lies at
the base of the new Invention is carried out, viz., the strokes of the
breaking blades are alternated continuously with the blows of the
scutching blades on the same part of the strick of flax.
The portion or strick of fibrous material screwed into the clamp or
holder, as in hackling machines (see Fig. 5), in which this mechanism
is employed as an adjunct, and which strick is gradually lowered on the
machine, is subjected alternately in every part to the operations of the
breakers and scutchers, and is thus completely cleaned. These operations
take place with a velocity of 300 revolutions per minute and upwards,
according to the nature of the work to be produced or the quality of the
raw material to be operated upon.
The velocity of the movements, the breadth of the breakers (length of
the clamps or holders), the length of their vertical motions, the position
of the breaking blades, the depth of their interlocking, the length of
recession of the blades, the number of the same in the corresponding
parts of the breaking mechanism, the diameter of the circle described by
the scutching blades, the position of the scutching blades with respect to
each other when they pass the breakers while describing a circle in the
opposite direction; all these points are variable, and may be arranged
according to the material to be operated upon. As regards the separate
parts of the mechanism it is provided (as shown in the Drawing) that
the breakers and scutchers can be adjusted as desired for any particular
kind of work.
Considerable difference in the length and strength, or in the particular
quality of the material to be operated upon, requires a corresponding differ-
ence in the dimensions of the mechanism. By changing the wheels (which
drive the excentric pin shafts and the scutching blades) the action of the
mechanism, which is here shewn in its essential features, and as arranged a
for ordinary work, may be so modified that for one stroke of the breaker
one or two blows of the scutcher (either from one or from both blades),
or for one blow of the scutcher two strokes of the breaker may follow
and alternate with each other; or again through the uncoupling of the
rods g, g, and the consequent stoppage of the operation of the breaking 3
mechanism, the fibres can be subjected simply to the scutching mechanism;
the principle of construction of the various parts remains however always
the same.

page_text: Having now described my Invention of " Improved Machinery for
Breaking and Scutching Flax and Hemp," and having explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention
secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid, -
The combination in one machine of breaking and scutching mechanism,
so arranged that the operations of breaking and scutching are carried
on simultaneously on the same strick of flax, hemp, or other fibrous sub-
stance, substantially as herein set forth.
I claim this improved construction of breaking and scutching
mechanism, whether used separately or in combination with a hackling
machine, as shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ignaz Etrich, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.