CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES, AND IN TOOLS FOR MANUFACTURING THE FLATS OF THE SAME
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur Leigh, of the City
of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, for the In-
vention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES, AND IN TOOLS
FOR MANUFACTURING THE FLATS OF THE SAME.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Evan Leigh and Evan
Arthur Leigh at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 8th April 1875.
We, EVAN LEIGH and EVAN ARTHUR LEIGH, of the City of Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING
ENGINES, AND IN TOOLS FOR MANUFACTURING THE FLATS OF THE SAME," to be as
follows:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Evan Leigh and Evan
Arthur Leigh at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 8th April 1875.
We, EVAN LEIGH and EVAN ARTHUR LEIGH, of the City of Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING
ENGINES, AND IN TOOLS FOR MANUFACTURING THE FLATS OF THE SAME," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists, first, in improved mechanical arrangements
or modes of driving the various parts of carding engines, and of con-
necting a series or "preparation" of them together.

page_text: In effecting our object we place a light shaft in the front part of
carding engines, by preference about eight inches from the floor, and
drive it at a speed of about four hundred and fifty revolutions per
minute. This shaft has a triple threaded worm upon it about the centro
of the engine which drives a pair of transverse calenders to take the 5
product from the doffer. It has also a twitch nick or a plain pulley
about eight inches diameter keyed upon it, and running near one side of
the framing right or left, as the case may be. An open band or strap
passes from this pulley to drive the comb, licker in, and dandy pulley
which is geared to the doffer wheel; we then dispense with the side
shaft by driving the feed rollers from the taker-in through worms and
wheels having a catch box on the feed roller end to disconnect it when
required.
Instead of placing bevel wheels upon the shafts that go across the
engine to work the screws for setting up the doffer, licker-in, flats, or 1
grinding rollers, both ends at once, as shown in the Specification of Evan
Arthur Leigh's Patent, No. 398, dated January 31st, 1874, we effect the
same object by worms and wheels in preference.
Instead of having holes in the flats where they are driven by ragged
wheels we shape the ends of the flats so that the wheel tooth come
between the flats.
Instead of working the dirt roller and stripping comb under tho
licker in, as shown in same Patent, we work the roller by a catch placed
on the oscillating arm of the stripping comb and taking into a ratchet
wheel fixed upon the dirt roller.
Instead of setting the licker-in up to the revolving flats to strip them,
as shown in the before-mentioned Specification, we bring the flats down
to the licker-in, and instead of having a large bevel wheel on each
cylinder pedestal to work the small bevels attached to the screws which
adjust the flexible bands, we work the same by two or more shafts on
each side of the engine set at an obtuse angle to each other and con-
nected either by bevel wheels or universal joints. Another way is to
work them by one shaft, part of which forms a helical spring, the threads
taking into the gears of the setting screws.
Our next improvement relates to tools for manufacturing the flats
used in carding engines, viz., we first cast the flats two together, face to

page_text: face, and after planing or grinding them 'true on the edges we place a
number of these castings upon the bed of a planing machine constructed
as follows:-Instead of the usual tool boxes we place a strong rocking
shaft which works in pedestals attached to the uprights and moved
› upwards or downwards by screws in the usual manner. Upon the
rocking shaft are as many leaves, about two and a half inches apart, as
there are castings to be operated upon. Each of these leaves has two
grooves cut in it about one inch and three-quarters wide, and one
sixteenth of an inch deep. The grooves are cut at an angle to each
> other of about forty-five degrees and are fitted with cramps and bolts to
hold tools, those on one side about one-eighth of an inch wide, and those
on the other about one-sixteenth, and as deep as the slots. When one
· set of tools have made a cut and the machine reverses the rocking shaft
turns about one quarter of a revolution the other tools come into action,
and it cuts both ways, and so splits the castings, each of which makes
too flats planed true on the face.
'
Our next improvement is in drilling the tack holes of the flats. For
this purpose we construct a vertical drilling machine with about one
hundred and twenty small spindles in two rows of sixty each. These
▸ spindles are placed about eleven-sixteenths of an inch apart, and the
rows about an inch and three-quarters from each other. They are
driven in a noiseless manner by a triple threaded screw which passes
between the spindles and gears into small skew wheels cut upon the
spindles. The flat to be drilled is placed upon a table that is raised by
5 screws, and all the tack holes are drilled at once.
Our next improvement relates to cutting the curves at the ends of the
flats where they slide on the flexible bends and also the back grinding
surface. For this purpose we construct a machine as follows:-Upon a
strong shaft wo key two narrow rings or pulleys about two inches larger
) in diameter than the carding cylinders and turn them up true. The
shaft runs in bearings fixed to a suitable frame. The flat's after being
planed are cramped down to the rings which are a sufficient distance
apart to allow the ends to stand over about one inch and a quarter.
After giving a slow motion to the shaft we bring a quick running emery
wheel up to the flats to cut the curves and another to true up the ends.
The back curve or grinding surface may be cut in a similar manner in

page_text: another machine with the flats reversed, or in the same machine, one at
a time, by emery rollers or cutters running at the end of swinging
levers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur Leigh in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 8th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, Evan
LEIGH and EVAN ARTHUR LEIGH, of the City of Manchester, in tho
County of Lancaster, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 1
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur Leigh,
Her special license, that we, the said Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur 1
Leigh, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur Leigh, our executors, ad-
ministrators, 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, 2
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for “CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
CARDING ENGINES, AND IN TOOLS FOR MANUFACTURING THE FLATS OF THE SAME,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Evan Leigh and
Evan Arthur Leigh, our executors or administrators, by an instrument 2
in writing under our, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters 3
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur
Tech

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, that, is to say :—
In order that our Invention may be clearly understood, we annex the
accompanying six Sheets of Drawings, in which Fig. 1, Sheet 1, is an
elevation of one side of a carding engine; Fig. 2, Sheet 2, a plan; and
Fig. 3, Sheet 3, a side elevation of the other side of the engine
arranged and constructed according to our improvements, the front
plate in Fig. 1 being taken off in order to shew the working parts; and
Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, Sheet 1, are detached views of some of the
parts.
1
The first part of our Invention consists in an improved method of
driving the various parts of carding engines, and of connecting a series
or "preparation" of them together. To attain our object we place a
light shaft a at the front part of the carding engine, by preference about
eight inches from. the floor, and drive it at a speed of about four hundred
and fifty or other suitable number of revolutions per minute. This shaft
has a triple-threaded worm a¹ upon it about the centre of the engine,
which worm drives a pair of transverse callenders b, b, Figs. 1 and 2,
to take the product from the doffer c. The shaft a has fixed to it a
twitch nick or a plain pulley a² about eight inches diameter, and running
near one side of the framing right or left, as the case may be, and an
open band or strap a³, Fig. 1, passes from this pulley to drive the comb d,
licker in e, and dandy pulley ƒ which is geared to the doffer wheel c'.
It also gives motion to the double nick pulley e' from which the grinding
rollers are driven by the open band. This arrangement enables the
main cylinder to be put upon a slow motion when being ground up or
stripped out, such motion being obtained from the doffer by a temporary
strap working on the pulleys x, x², Figs. 2 and 3, Sheets 2 and 8. The
doffer during grinding runs just the same as when carding.
Instead of placing bevel wheels upon the shafts that go across the
engine to work the screws for setting up the doffer licker in flats or
grinding rollers, both ends at once, as shewn and described in the
Specification of Evan Arthur Leigh's Patent, dated January Thirty-
first, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, No. 398, we
3 attain the same object (that is) the bringing down the flats m,
bringing in the doffer c, comb d, licker in e simultaneously by means

page_text: of worms and worm wheels tapped as nuts and fitting upon screws.
Across the engine between the doffer and cylinder we place a shaft g, Fig.1,
square at one end for a setting key, and at each end of the shaft there
are worms g' geared into worm wheels 9' keyed on the shaft 9³, and on
this shaft there is a worm g' which works into a worm wheel g³, Fig. 4,
placed under it, the worm wheel having in it a thread forming a nut fitting
a screw on the pillar 96, Figs. 1, 4, and 5, and as the worm wheel is held
in the bracket 9', Figs. 1 and 4, it causes the pillar 96 to rise or fall,
according to the direction in which the shaft g is turned by the setting
key. The pillar 9 is dovetailed at the top end, fitting into the flexible
bend h, best seen in Figs. 4 and 5, Fig. 5 being drawn full size, shewing
the top of the pillar and section of one of the flexible bends. The
shaft g³ has also on it a bevil wheel 9 which gears into another bevil
wheel gº, and so on for all the flexible bends, thereby acting on all
the pillars connected to the bends, and likewise bringing the licker-in
in a similar manner as seen at 9", Fig. 1.
By referring to the worm shaft g and worm g¹, Fig. 1, it will be scen
that the worm gears into a worm wheel g" on the small vertical shaft 9"
on which is koyed two worms 9" geared into worm wheels having nuts
fitting screw rods 9" and ", so that when the shaft g is turned the
doffer c and comb d are brought in at the same time as the flats and
licker-in, and as the screw on the rod 9" is one-half coarser pitch than
that on the rod 9" it compensates for the wear of the doffer wire on both
sides, and keeps the comb in the exact position it ought to occupy in
reference to such wear.
Fig. 8 shows how the grooves in the flexible bends h and the top
bend h¹ are connected together by the grooved bracket h³; Fig. 9 is an
end view, full size, of the flat, and Fig. 10 is a side view of one end of the
same; and Fig. 11 shows the shape of the ends of the flats, so that they
can pass through the curved groove from the upper bend to the flexible {
bend.
Instead of having holes in the flats where they are driven by ragged
wheels we shape the ends of the flats, so that the wheel teeth come
between the flats, as seen at Fig. 6, and section Fig. 7.
Instead of working the dirt roller and stripping comb under the 3
licker-in, as shown and described in the Specification of the Patent before

page_text: referred to, we work the roller by a catch placed on the oscillating
arm of the stripping comb, and taking into a ratchet wheel fixed upon
the dirt roller or by a worm and worm wheel driven from the side shaft,
as shewn in Fig. 3, Sheet 3.
3. Instead of setting the licker-in up to the traversing flats to strip them.
when the strips are not taken out, we bring the flats down to the licker-
in, and adjust them by the screws h³ which rest upon flanges cast upon.
the bends. In this case the stripping comb is dispensed with, and
the engine may be used for the coarsest work hitherto carded upon roller.
> engines, and it will be seen that instead of having a large bevil wheel on
each cylinder pedestal to work the small bevils attached to the screws
which adjust the flexible bends, we work the same by two or more shafts
on each side of the engine set at an obtuse angle to each other, and con-.
nected either by bevil wheels or universal joints. Another way is to
5 work them by one shaft, part of which forms a helical spring the threads
taking into the gears of the setting screws.
The grinding rollers j,j, j, Fig. 1, are set both ends at once by
worms k, k, k, fixed to the shafts 1, 2, 1, the worms gearing into.
wheels m, m, m, having internal nuts fitting screws cut in pillars or
supports n, n,, n, of the rollers which are lowered or raised according to
the direction in which the shafts are turned by a key placed on a
square end of each of the shafts. The fly plate o is bolted to a bracket o²
which slides in another bracket that carries the elevating screw o³, and
the latter moves sideways concentric with the cylinder.
Our next improvement relates to tools for manufacturing the “ flats"
used in carding engines, and are represented in Sheets 4, 5, and 6.
We first cast the flats two together, as shewn in section, Fig. 1, Sheet 4,
and after planing or grinding them true on the edges, we place a number
of these castings upon the bed of a planing machine, as shewn in Fig. 2,
Sheet 4. This machine is constructed as follows:-Instead of the usual
tool boxes we employ a rocking shaft a; Figs. 2 and 8, which works in
pedestals attached to the uprights, and is moved upwards or downwards.
by screws in the usual manner. Upon the rocking shaft a are cast or
fixed as many leaves or tool holders as there are castings to be operated
upon, by preference, about ten or twelve. Each of these tool holders
2

page_text: has two grooves cut in it about one inch and three-quarters wide, and
one-sixteenth of an inch deep. The grooves are cut at an angle to each
other, by preference, of about fifty-seven degrees, and are fitted with
cramps and bolts to hold tools of about one-sixteenth of an inch wide on
one side and one-eighth of an inch on the other. When the thinner
set of tools have made a cut and the machine reverses, the rocking
shaft a turns about thirty-five degrees by the lever action shewn
at b, b, b, and weight 6', put in motion by 'the notch c in the usual
manner, and the thicker tools finish the cut during the return of the
table.
Our next improvement is in drilling the tack holes of the flats
(represented in Sheet 5). For this purpose we construct a vertical
drilling machine with about one hundred and twenty small spindlos in
two rows of sixty each. These spindles are placed about eleven-
sixteenths of an inch apart, and the rows about one inch and [three-
quarters from cach other. They are driven in a noiseless manner by a
triple-threaded screw which passes between the spindles and gears into
small skew wheels cut upon the spindles, as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2, in
which a, a, is the framing; b, b, b, the spindles; c, c, the triple-threaded
screw cut half way with a right-hand thread and the other half with a
The lifting
left-hand thread so as to balance the pressure endwise.
table upon which the object rests is shown at d, d, and is raised or
lowered by the screws d³, d, operated by the shaft d³ and skewed
wheels d³, d³.
Our next improvement relates to cutting the curves at the ends of the
flats where they slide on the flexible bends and also the back grinding
surface, and are represented on Sheet 6 of the Drawings. For this
purpose we construct a machine as follows:-Upon a strong shaft we
key two narrow rings or pulleys, about two inches larger in diameter
than the carding cylinders, and turn them up true. The shaft runs in
bearings fixed to a suitable frame. The flats after being planed are
cramped down to the rings which aro a sufficient distance apart to allow
the ends to stand over about one inch and a quarter. After giving a
slow motion to the shaft we bring a quick running emery wheel up to
the flats to cut the curves, and another to true up the ends; the back
curve or grinding surface of the flats may be cut in a similar manner in

page_text: .
another machine with the flats reversed, or in the same machine one at
'a time by emery rollers or cutters running at the ends of swinging levers,
or steel cutters having a slow motion may be used instead of the emery
wheels, if preferred; Fig. 1 shews an end elevation of a suitable
machine for this purpose, in which a is the ring shaft and 6 the rims to
which the flats are cramped all round; c, one of the cutters or emery
wheels for cutting the carding or inner curve of the flats; d is one of
the cutters for ending the same; and ½ is one of the cutters mounted
upon the arm or lever i. In cutting the inner curves the cylinder or
ring shaft a is turned slowly round by suitable mechanism, and the
cutters revolve in [an opposite direction, being brought up by screws
and slides so as to cut the proper depth of curve on the face of the flat.
The cutters d are at the same time brought against the ends of the flats.
To cut the backs or grinding curves the cylinder or ring shaft is fixed,
and the cutters on the arm or lever i are passed over one flat at a time
the cylinder or ring shaft being moved round sufficiently to bring the
next flat under the cutters. After leaving this machine the ends of the
flats are scraped and nicely adjusted to exact guages.
Having now described the nature and particulars of our said In-
vention and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we
desire it to be understood, that we claim,―
First. The method herein-before shown and described of driving the
callender rollers, combs, takers-in, and doffers of carding engines by a
quick running shaft, which enables a series or "preparation" of them to
be connected together in a superior manner, and a slow backward
motion to be given to the main cylinder whilst stripping out or
grinding.
Secondly. The method shewn and described of setting up all the
carding points of carding engines simultaneously by one handle, or any
mere modification of the same.
Thirdly. The method shewn and described of so arranging the
travelling flats of carding engines that they can be adjusted to and
stripped by the takers-in more perfectly than heretofore when required
for low numbers, in which case they are run at a quicker speed and the
combs are dispensed with..

page_text: Fourthly. The tools shewn and described for manufacturing the
"flats" of carding engines.
In witness whereof, we, the said Evan Leigh and Evan Arthur
Leigh, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventh day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred 5
and seventy-five
EVAN LEIGH.
(L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered
by the within-named Evan
Leigh and Evan Arthur
•
Leigh in the presence of
G. SEPTIMUS HUGHES,
EVAN ARTHUR LEIGH. (L.S.)
Patent Agent,
Manchester.