A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE TREATMENT OF COTTON WOOL IN PREPARATION FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME INTO YARN & THREAD
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SHARPE, of the City of Glasgow, in North Britain, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by petition, humbly represent unto His present most
Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, that, after considerable applica-
tion & expence, I had invented or found out "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
TREATMENT OF COTTON WOOL IN PREPARATION FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME
INTO YARN & THREAD;" and His said Majesty being willing to give encou-
ragement to all arts & inventions which may be for the public good, was
graciously pleased, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster,
the 15th day of December last (1886), in the seventh year of His reign, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, to give and grant unto me, the said
William Sharpe, my executors, administrators, & assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I or they, by myself or themselves,
or by my or their deputies, servants, or agents, or such others as I or they should'.
agree with, and no others, during the term of fourteen years from the date
of the said Letters Patent, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, &
vend my said Invention within that part of His said Majesty's Dominions
called England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner.
as to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, shall seem meet, and so
that I or they shall enjoy the whole profit and advantage arising by reason of
the said Invention, during the said term of fourteen years: And whereas the
said Letters Patent contain a proviso obliging me, the said William Sharpe,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Sharpe, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, &
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in manner following, together with the aid of the Drawing hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
The object of my said improvement in the treatment of cotton wool in
preparation for manufacturing the same into yarn or thread, is to enable the
cotton wool to undergo the process of bleaching whilst it is still in the state of
cotton wool, and has only gone so far through the usual course of what is
called preparation as to have reached that stage thereof which is known to
manufacturers by the term opening or scutching, by action of the machinery
called opening, or scutching, or blowing machinery, & by means whereof the
cotton wool is opened or loosened from the state of compression in which it
was packed up for transport, & the fibres are separated in some degree, and
dirt, seeds, dust, and other extraneous matters are in great part removed. And
after having bleached the cotton wool when it has reached the aforesaid stage
of its progress through the ordinary series of operations called preparation, the
subsequent stages of the preparation for manufacturing the same into thread
or yarn may be performed as usual, but upon the bleached cotton wool instead
of upon grey or unbleached cotton wool as is usual. And my said improve-
ment in the treatment of cotton wool consists in preparing a thin & even
layer or fleece thereof, of any suitable length, breadth, & thickness, and in
enclosing the same between two tissues of strong gauze or net work, or any
other suitable fabric, so applied and connected together (in manner herein-
after more fully explained) as will retain the cotton wool in such layer or fleece
whilst it is undergoing the treatment requisite for the bleaching of cotton,
according to the usual process of bleaching cotton when it is in the state of
yarn; and the manner of performing my said improvement in the treatment of
cotton wool is as follows:-The raw cotton wool may be subjected to any
of the usual operations of sorting, mixing, picking, or opening, until it is
brought (by action of the machine called a scutcher) into a thin layer or fleece
of as nearly as can be even breadth and thickness, and such as would, if it were
to be gathered or rolled up (by aid of what is called lapping-up machinery,
and which is commonly appended to certain scutching machines, be suitable

page_text: for feeding the carding machinery, by operation whereof the cotton wool is to
be carded and its fibres detached and disentangled from each other; and for
practising my improvement, the feeding of the scutcher and the proportions of
its parts should be regulated so as to give about half a pound weight of cotton
wool to each square foot of the said layer or fleece, which is formed by the
machinery, & which, according to my said improvement, is to be enclosed.
between two tissues of strong gauze or net work as aforesaid, and for the
convenience of obtaining such a layer or fleece from the scutching machine,
and in the required dimensions, it will be advisable to apply thereto, in place of
the common lapping-up machinery, a revolving lapping-up drum or cylinder,
which is turned slowly round by suitable wheelwork so as to gather or wrap the
cotton wool around its circumference as fast as the cotton wool is delivered out
in a thin film or layer by the other parts of the scutching machine, & thereby
winding one such film or layer of cotton wool around or over another like
preceding film, as often as is requisite for obtaining a layer or fleece of the
required thickness, in the same manner as was formerly and still may be.
practised with carding machines called breaking cards, and the cotton envelope
of the said drum or cylinder, after attaining the required thickness, being
broken off or removed from the circumference thereof, will form a layer or
fleece of the intended dimensions ready for enclosing between two tissues of
gauze or net work, as aforesaid.
And for the more complete explanation of the manner of thus obtaining
the requisite fleeces or layers of cotton wool, I have, in the Drawing here-
unto annexed, represented a scutching machine with such a lapping-up drum
or cylinder appended to it. Figure 1 is a vertical section of the whole
machine; Figure 2, a horizontal plan; and Figure 3, a side elevation. 1, 1,
is the main axle of the two revolving scutchers, which are marked 2, 2;
and are fixed on the ends of arms projecting out from the axes 1, 1,
being correctly balanced on each side of that axis and fixed at equal distances
therefrom; 3, 3, are the iron fluted feeding rollers, between which the cotton
wool is passed & subjected to the blows of the scutchers 2, 2, as they revolve;
4, 4, is a pair of wooden rollers, twice as large in diameter as the iron rollers
3, 3, but they are turned round so that their surfaces move at the same speed
as the surfaces of the rollers 3, 3, move; 5 is the breast roller, over which
& the lowermost roller 4, the endless feeding cloth is extended, in order to
form a slow moving surface, upon which the raw cotton wool is regularly
spread by hand in an even layer for feeding the machine with regularity. The
breast roller 5 is supported in bearings, which can be slided in order to accom-

page_text: modate the position of the roller 5 to the endless cloth, so as to keep it extended
to a proper tightness; 6 is a bridge. or cross bearer to support the table, over
which the endless feeding cloth moves, and which table bears up the cloth
when the. cotton is spread upon it; 7 is the support for the iron fluted feeding
rollers 3, 3, and which support is fastened down upon the frame so as to
admit of slight adjustment of the position of the feeding rollers in respect to
their proximity to the revolving scutchers 2, 2; 8 is the top cover inclosing
over the revolving scutchers; it can be lifted up about hinges to give access to
the scutchers; 9 is the cover of. the space along which: the open cotton is to
proceed after having received the action of the scutchers; and part of the
cover 9 can also be lifted up on hinges; 10, 10, are a pair of rollers for
receiving and taking away the cotton wool as fast as it is thrown out by the
scutchers, and as fast as the rollers 10, 10, deliver it, the film of cotton, from
between them, it falls upon the circumference of the lapping-up drum A, and is
compressed smoothly down thereon (or upon the cotton previously lapped
thereon) by the roller 11. The lapping-up drum A is turned slowly round by
wheelwork with such a rate of motion as will correspond to the rate of feeding
or spreading of the raw cotton on the feeding cloth, and to the motions of the
other rollers of the machine, in a suitable manner for obtaining (after a suitable
number of revolutions of the drum A) a compound layer or fleece of about
half a pound weight to every square foot of surface of such layer or fleece,
as before mentioned. And a suitable counting wheel should be connected
by a pinion with the axis of the drum A, to indicate by striking with
a hammer on a bell when the. drum has made the proper number of turns
(as six or eight for instance); & has gathered or lapped up that number of
laps around its circumference which will constitute a layer or fleece of the
intended thickness; for instance, if the drum A is two feet broad & 6 feet
in circumference, then the enveloping cotton being broken off, will form a
layer or fleece of twelve square feet, and should contain about six pounds of
cotton wool. The first for the machine motion is communicated by an endless
strap to the revolving scutchers 2, 2, by a pulley on the end of their axle 1, 1,
from a revolving drum turned by power of mill-work, so that the scutchers will
make about 1,000 revolutions per minute; a small pulley 12 on the axis 1 by
means of a crossed strap turns a pulley 13 of five times the diameter, fixed on
one end of an axis which extends across the frame, and has a spur pinion 14
fixed upon the other end of it, to turn the spur wheel 15, which is mounted on a
stud pin, and has a pinion 16 fixed to it, to turn the large spur wheel 17, on the
end of the axis of the lowermost of the pair of delivering rollers 10, 10; and on

page_text: the latter axis a pinion 18 is fixed, to turn (by means of an intermediate stud
wheel 19) the large spur wheel 20 on the axis of the lapping-up drum A, with
a suitable rate of motion, in order that the surface of the drum A may be
qualified to receive and gather up the film of cotton wool just as fast as the
Also on the same axis as the
rollers 10, 10, give out or deliver the same.
wheel 17 and the pinion 18, a púlley 21 is fixed, to turn (by an endless
strap) a pulley 22, of equal diameter on the end of the axis of the lower-
most fluted iron feeding roller 3, thereby giving motion to the feeding part
and a spur pinion which is fixed on the opposite end of the axis of the lower-
most feeding roller 3 (by means of an intermediate spur wheel) turns a spur
pinion of the end of the axis of the lowermost roller 4, for moving the feeding.
cloth along the feeding table, so as to advance the cotton wool which is spread
upon it as before mentioned, and pass the same under the upper roller 4, and
between the two feeding rollers 3, 3, which rollers submit it to the strokes
of the revolving scutchers, and then after the cotton wool escapes from
the feeding rollers 3, 3, the scutchers throw the same with violence downwards.
against the grating called the heck, and which is partly composed of triangular.
cross bars of iron and the remainder of wooden cross bars. The cotton seeds
and fragments and dirt and dust pass through the grating into the space'
beneath the heck whilst the opened cotton wool is thrown out by the centri-
fugal force of the revolving scutchers 2, 2, between the delivering rollers 10, 10,
as fast as they in consequence of their motion will take the same, and they
deliver the cotton wool in a continuous film to the lapping-up drum A, in order
that it may be wound or lapped around the circumference thereof until the
film of cotton wool has accumulated as many successive thicknesses as is
requisite to produce a layer or fleece of the requisite thickness, and which may,
at the signal of the ringing of the bell before mentioned, be broken off and
removed from around the circumference of the drum A; and note, the pinion
16 may be changed for any other of a different number of teeth, in order to
obtain any required speed of the delivering rollers 10, 10, for giving a suitable.
thickness to the film of cotton wool, which is to be lapped up around the drum
A. The stud on which the wheel 15 and pinion 16 are mounted, is supported
by an adjusting slide, to admit of such changing of pinions; and note, there is
nothing new or unusual in the construction of the said scutching machine,
excepting the application of the lapping-up cylinder or drum A thereto, for
the purpose of obtaining layers or fleeces suitable for being enclosed in en-
velopes, or coverings of gauze or net work, or any other suitable fabric, in order
to undergo the operation of bleaching. A piece of coarse gauze or net work,

page_text: or tissue of any other suitable fabric in which (according to my said improve-
ments) the layer or fleece of cotton wool is to be inclosed, is spread out upon
a suitable table near to the machine, and when the envelope of cotton wool on
the drum A is broken off from around the circumference thereof, it is to be
laid evenly over the said gauze or net work upon the table, and then a similar
piece of gauze or net work being spread over the cotton wool, the ends &
sides of the said two pieces of gauze or net work are to be secured together by
a lacing of twine introduced by a long needle or otherwise, or they may be
tied together with tapes, in such manner as to enclose the lair or fleece of
cotton wool securely between the two tissues of gauze or net work, and in that
state the cotton wool is ready for bleaching, by nearly the same process as that
which is well known and commonly practised for bleaching cotton yarn. The
layers or fleeces of cotton wool enclosed as aforesaid in coarse gauze or net
work, or other fabric, are to be rolled up in bundles & tied, to prevent, as
much as can be, the cotton wool from shifting its position in each layer or fleece,
and running into lumps; and a number of such bundles are to be boiled in
alkaline ley of about the same strength, and during about the same length of
time, as is the usual treatment of cotton yarn.
After the boiling (which may
be repeated, if necessary,) the ley is to be well washed out by running water
through the cotton wool, & then the water squeezed out by pressure in any
kind of press used by bleachers of cotton yarn. Then, the bundles being
unrolled to extend each of the layers or fleeces of cotton wool, the layer is to
be made even between the tissues of coarse gauze or net work at any parts
which may have become deranged during the previous treatment, and
then a number of such fleeces or layers of cotton wool (each inclosed
in its coarse gauze or net work) are to be laid one over another in a
suitable bleaching vessel, wherein the cotton wool is to be subjected to
the action of a suitable quantity of bleaching liquor, which may be nearly of
the same nature and strength as is commonly used for bleaching cotton
yarn, and may be applied during about the same length of time. The size and
shape of the bleaching vessel may be adapted to that of the fleeces or layers of
cotton wool, so that a number thereof will pack into and fill the vessel, and it
should have a false bottom of wood pierced with holes, or else made like a fine
grating, to allow the liquor to pass down, and to get freely away from the cotton
wool when tapped or drawn off from an outlet at the bottom of the vessel;
& after this treatment with bleaching liquor, the cotton wool is next to be
subjected to the action of what is called a sour, composed of vitriol and water
of the usual strength for cotton yarn, and which may be applied to the cotton

page_text: wool during the usual period of time, and then drawn off; after which, all
remains of the bleaching liquor and of the sour liquor must be thoroughly
washed out of the cotton wool with clean water, and finally it must be
subjected to water containing a due quantity of blue, as is usual for cotton yarn,
and the bleaching will be finished. Note: from the time that the cotton wool
is filled with steam.
The
is subjected to the bleaching liquor until it is finally subjected to the blue
liquor, the layers or flecces ought to be handled as little or as lightly as pos-
sible, but after it is finished with blue, the several layers or fleeces (each in its
covering of gauze or net work, or other fabric), may be rolled or doubled up,
& the water pressed out, and then they may be extended to their length &
breadth and laid on spars or staves in a drying stove, heated by steam or by
other suitable application of fire, until the cotton wool is quite dry, or the dry-
ing may be performed by coiling each layer or fleece around a cylinder, which
When thoroughly dried, the bleached cotton wool will be
ready to undergo the remainder of the treatment, which constitutes the usual
series of operations for preparing cotton wool for manufacturing into
yarn.
bleached cotton wool may be fed to the carding machine by spreading it on the
feeding cloth thereof by hand, or, if preferred, the bleached cotton wool may be
put through a scutching machine, which has lapping-up machinery appended to
it, in order thereby to obtain a sufficiently even layer or lap for supplying the
carding machine without the necessity of feeding the same by hand. Note:
the said coarse gauze or net work, which is to be used according to my said
improvement, for retaining the cotton wool in an even layer or fleece, whilst it
is subjected to the treatment required for bleaching, may be made of streng
cotton or linen yarn or thread, woven into a tissue of gauze, or made into a
net work by the means commonly employed for making gauzes or nets.
any other fabric which may admit of the free action of the bleaching liquor on
the wool inclosed, and of retaining the fleeces in the said even state through-
out the processes before mentioned, may be used for that purpose.
But
Having now described my said Invention, and the manner of performing the
same, I, the said William Sharpe, do hereby declare that what I claim as new
Invention is my improvement herein-before described in the treatment of cotton
wool in preparation, for manufacturing the same into yarn or thread, by forming
or preparing of suitable layers or fleeces of cotton wool, and by inclosing the
same within suitable tissues of coarse gauze or net work, or other suitable
fabric, for the purpose of retaining such cotton wool, without material derange-
ment, during the process of bleaching the cotton wool contained in such
envelopes of coarse gauze or net work, or other suitable fabric, and thereby

page_text: Inrolled the Fifteenth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-seven.