IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Rowan, of the Firm of John Rowan and
Sons, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, Engineers, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING FLAX, HEMP, AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 15th December 1868, and dated the 16th June 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Rowan at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th June 1868.
I, WILLIAM ROWAN, of the Firm of John Rowan and Sons, of Belfast,
in. the County of Antrim, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING FLAX, HEMP;
AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
My improvements consist, firstly, in fixing the hackle pins to hackle
bars or stocks at an angle of about 40°, less or more, as practical
experience may suggest, the pins moving in a plane somewhat similar
to that in which the pins move in machines in which an endless sheet
is employed.

page_text: Secondly. In placing a bar or guard in advance of each row of hackle
pins; this bar presses the fibre being operated upon, and keeps it in firm
contact with the opposite row of pins.
Thirdly. In fitting a stripper bar immediately behind this guard to
free the tow from the hackle pins.
Fourthly. In attaching three or more guide bars to the top and lower
axles that carry the driving sheets, to which sheets the guard bars and
hackles are fixed; these guards are to cause the hackle bars and hackles
to move in a straight line, so that I am not compelled to depend upon
the tension or rigidity of the driving sheets.
Sometimes I combine my hackling machine with a scutching machine,
that is to say, the flax will undergo the process of scutching on one
side of the machine and be hackled on the other side.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Rowan in the Great Seal Patent Office on.
the 16th December 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROWAN, of the Firm of John Rowan and Sons, of Belfast, in the County
of Antrim, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-first
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Rowan, Her special licence that I,
the said William Rowan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Rowan, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING
FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Rowan, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and

page_text: 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 William Rowan, do hereby 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The nature of my Invention consists, firstly, in a new mode of fixing
the hackle pins to the stocks and bars, and of attaching the same to
endless belts or sheets passing over drums placed one above the other, so
that the said hacklė pins shall act upon the fibre at an angle of from
70° to 80°, more or less, as experience may suggest.
Second. In an arrangement of moveable bars termed stripping bars;
these bars are for the purpose of freeing the said hackles from the tow
after they have operated on the fibre, thus abolishing the use of brushes,
card drums, and doffing combs, together with the costly arrangements
necessary for their connection to the machine and their mechanism of
working.
Thirdly. In applying three or more guide bars to the upper and lower
shafts, which carry the drums around which the belts or sheets for
carrying the hackle bars are placed; the object of these guides is to
cause the hackle bars and hackles to move in a parallel line, so that the
tension or rigidity of the belts or sheets is not depended upon alone.
The machine itself consists of two end frames, between which on each
side a series of drums is placed one above the other, around which pass
endless belts or sheets to which hackle bars are attached, these drums
and belts being so placed that the flax during the period of hackling
shall be operated upon both sides at once. Upon a shaft extending
across the machine is placed a heart-shaped cam, which gives a recipro-
cating motion by means of a connecting rod to a rocking beam, which
in turn imparts an ascending and descending motion to two galleries
placed in guides one on each side of the machine, and connected to the
rocking beam by variating links; at the commencement of the hackling
the pitch of the hackles is somewhat far apart, but gradually becomes
narrower towards the opposite end of the machine.

page_text: The action is as follows:-The stricks of flax in proper quantities are
firmly fixed in holders and placed in one end of the galleries before
described, so that the tails hang between the belts or sheets, and on the
descent of the galleries are brought in contact with the hackles of the
first or widest pitch, and the downward motion of the flax being con-
tinued through the hackles the first grade of the hackling action is
produced. During the ascent of the galleries the material thus partly
hackled is propelled with the holder a certain distance to another position
between the hackles, the pitch of which, as previously explained, being
progressively narrower, the flax is subjected to a finer grade of hackling,
and so on, until it has been propelled the whole length of the row of
hackles, by which time the hackling of one end is finished. One
attendant on the machine supplies holders charged with flax as space
is left by the preceding holders having advanced on their journey across
the machine, and on the arrival of each holder at the opposite end
another attendant receives it, and after reversing the flax end for end
in the holder he passes it along the other side of the machine to be
subjected to a similar operation on that portion of the material pre-
viously in the grasp of the holder, and consequently untouched in the
first stage of operation. Thus since both sides of the machine are pre-
cisely similar, when the holders have made their return journey and arrived
at the end they started from, the flax contained in them is completely
hackled throughout the whole length of the fibre, and the first-named
attendant removes it in a finished state, making use of the holders for
fresh portions of flax. The progressive motion of the holders continues
across the machine as long as fresh ones are supplied. The propelling
motion of the holders is accomplished by means of pauls connected to
slides on the top of the galleries, which slides are moved by means of
two levers and upright bars, the levers being connected together by a
connecting rod, one of the levers receiving the forward and backward
motion from a grooved pulley or wiper fixed on the cam shaft and
giving motion to the other lever by means of the connecting rod just
referred to.
In Sheet One of the annexed Drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of
the machine, Figure 2 an end view, and Figure 3 a ground plan; Figures
4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are different views of the hackle bars, stocks, and
stripping bars, which are hereafter explained separately; these views are
drawn on a larger scale. The same letters are used in all the Figures to
indicate the same parts.

page_text: A, A, are frames of cast iron, one at each end of the machine, connected
together by cross stays; B, B, are the lower and C, C, the upper drums,
around which are passed the belts or sheets D, to which are attached
the hackle bars E and hackle stocks F; G is a shaft having on it at one
end a fast and loose pulley H, H, to receive the motion from a belt from
the mill; on the pulley end of this shaft is a spur wheel I giving motion
to a spur wheel J, to which is joined a pinion K; this combined wheel
and pinion J, K, works upon a stud L and imparts motion by means of
the spur wheel M to one of the lower shafts N, which carries the lower
belt or sheet drums B. On this same shaft is another spur wheel O
gearing into a wheel P fixed on a stud below, this wheel P gears into
a similar wheel Q also fixed on a stud, and this gearing into another
wheel R above it gives motion to the other lower drum shaft, the upper
drums C receiving their motion from the lower drums B by means
of the belts or sheets D. Both sides of the machine being arranged
in the same manner a description of one side is sufficient. At the
other end of the pulley shaft G is a pinion S giving motion to a spur
wheel T to which is joined a pinion U, this combined wheel and pinion
T, U, works upon a stud V imparting motion by means of a spur
wheel W to a shaft X; upon this shaft are placed two heart-shaped
cams Y, communicating a reciprocating motion by means of connecting
rods Z to the rocking beam a, to which are suspended by varying links b
the galleries c, in which are placed the holders & for holding the flax
during the process of hackling. e are the pauls; fare the vertical bars
fastened into the levers g; h is the connecting rod connecting the two
levers together; i is the grooved pulley or wiper for giving the forward and
backward motion; j, j, are guide bars fitted to the upper and lower belt
or sheet drum shafts, for the purpose of keeping the hackling bars and
hackles in a parallel line, all previously described. The hackle bars E
are intended to be formed of angle iron, the angle to be the same as the
hackles, viz., from 70 to 80°, more or less, as may be found the most
bencficial; the method of fixing the hackle bars to the belts or sheets
is by screw pins, as shewn in Figure 4; upon the hackle bars E are fixed
the hackle stocks F, and screwed thereto by screw pins, as shewn also
in Figure 4. The stripping bars k, Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, are formed
of malleable iron and of convenient lengths, their ends are rivetted to
brass guides 1, which move in and out of the recesses m formed for them
in each end of the hackling stocks F, the travel of these guides being such
that when the stripping bark is at its outer position it shall be about

page_text: level with the points of the hackle pins, as shewn in Figures 4 and 6,
and when at its inner position projecting a little beyond the hackle
stock F, as seen in Figures 5 and 7. When the machine is at work the
stripping bark before striking the flax is at its outward position, as shewn
in Figure 4, but as the flax. descends and meets this stripping bar it
forces the latter to its inner position, as shewn at Figure 5, it then
presses against the fibre when being operated upon and keeps it in firm
contact with the opposite row of pins, which is a material advantage.
As soon therefore as it leaves the fibre it shifts by its centrifugal force
again to its former outward position, in doing which it completely clears
the hackles of the tow and other extraneous matter, leaving the said
hackles clean for the next operation.
Sheet 2 represents another mode of working the stripping bars, the
attachment of the various parts being similar to the mode already
described, but instead of the centrifugal force of action being applied
to the stripping bars springs are used, which are acted upon by coming
into contact with the lower belt drum B, which pushes the bar to its
outward position, shewn at +, Figure 9; after the hackle bar bas cleared
itself from the drum the spring becoming free brings back the stripping
bar to its original inner position preparatory to the next operation of
hackling, shown at d, Figure 9.
Figure 9 is a transverse section, Figure 10 is a side view of the upper
drum and one of the hackle bars; Figure 11 is a side view of the lower
drum and of the inside of the driving sheet. In these Figures B, B, are
the lower and C the upper belt drums; D, the sheets or belts; E, the
hackle bars; F, hackle stocks; k, stripping bar; 1, the brass guides;
m, the recesses; n, the springs, all previously described.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my
"Improvements in Machinery for Hackling. Flax, Hemp, and other
Fibrous Materials,"-
First. Fixing the hackle pins to the stocks and bars, and attaching the
same to endless belts or sheets, so that the pins shall act upon the fibre
at an angle of 70° to 80°, more or less, all substantially as herein-before
described and represented in the accompanying Drawings.
Second. Arranging stripping bars, substantially as herein-before
described and represented in the accompanying Drawings for the purpose

page_text: of freeing the hackle pins from the tow after they have operated upon
the fibre.
Third. The employment of guides or guide bars, substantially as
herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawings
for the purpose of causing the hackle bars and hackles to move in a
parallel line.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Rowan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-cight.
WILL. ROWAN. (L.S.)