MENTS IN PREPARING & COMBING WASTE SILK
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Cunliffe Lister at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th November 1873.
I, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, in the County of
York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING & COMBING WASTE SILK," to be as follows:-
In a Patent granted to me dated June 28th 1866, No. 1727, among
other things I describe a roller working with a concave feed plate. In
practice I find that it does not sufficiently retain the fibres of the silk,
but allows the teeth of the drum to pluck out a considerable portion
without properly working it. This I prevent by having another roller.
pressing against it just at the point where the silk passes under the
concave feed plate.
When preparing the waste known as "China curly" or "Japan
curly," or other like material, I first steep it in water, or soap and water
to soften it; it is then dried and prepared upon gills or drums and then
rough combed, called technically "jigging," to separate the long fibres
from the short and noil. When this is accomplished the "jiggings" are

page_text: boiled to remove the gum, or they may be further softened for that
purpose; they are then gilled and combed a second time. The noils
made in jigging are carded and combed.
I find that Canton and other gum waste can be treated with advantage
in the same manner.
After many years spent in experiments I have discovered that the
present plan of preparing waste silk for combing is exceedingly
objectionable, and very injurious to the fibres of the silk. At the
present time knubs or waste silk after the gum has been removed by
boiling or partially so by softening is gilled and then drumed, and the
drum laps are again gilled into slivers suitable for combing.
The fibres of the silk are much broken by undergoing these processess,
consequently the quantity and quality of the "top" or combed silk is
much diminished. This arises from two causes, first, having the teeth
of the gills too coarse; and secondly, from having too much draft. The
gills now used for preparing before druming have from three to five
teeth per lineal inch, and a draft of three on and three off. By increasing
the number of pins from seven up to about fifteen to the lineal inch,
and reducing the draft on to about one or two, and having little or no.
draft off the silk is so much better prepared that the lower descriptions 2
of waste, such as Persian balls, low Japan frissonetts, and low chassum,
and other common descriptions of waste will do with once drumming,
which is a great saving besides preserving the fibre:
Punjum, Tama, and Canton gum and similar waste when combed is
first prepared upon screw gills and then drummed, but by adopting a
low draft, say from one to two, or even considerably less; combined with
very fine teeth, say from 20 to 30 or more per lineal inch, I can open,
separate, and parallelise the fibres so as to do without drumming, which
is very important.
The principle of low draft can also be used with great advantage in g
gilling knubs, chassums, Persian balls, low Japan frisonitts, and similar
waste after being drummed. At present a draught of about five is used,
but from one to one and a half is much better, or two at the most.
The same principle can be applied to taking thick threads or unopened
pieces of silk out of the combed top, as from 30 to 50 teeth per lineal 8
inch can be used if the draft be reduced in the gills to one or two, or
even less.
"

page_text: In a Patent granted to me dated 23rd October 1872, No. 3139, under
the fourth head or claim I describe a machine where the fibrous material
under process is fed forward through a circular feed comb, and the end
is then cleaned by card surfaces, and the segmental combs are caused to
enter into the cleaned fringe. The fringe is then taken hold of by a
nipper and the whole of the projecting fibre is drawn out by a nipper or
nipper and comb combined.
My improvements under this head consist in having a nipping plate
placed in the feed comb, which prevents the long fibres being drawn
out with the short, and so enables me to separate the long from the
short, which is of great consequence.
4
When the fibres in the working of the machine pass under the nipping
plate in the feed comb they pass from under the nipper in the other
comb, and are thus set at liberty, so that the long fibres are retained in
the feed comb and the shorter fibres only are taken by the other comb
working with it. The long fibres are then drawn from the feed comb
by drawing rollers into a sliver, and the shorter ones into a sliver from
the other comb, thus separating the lengths. But I would remark that
after the ends of the fibre protruding from the feed comb have been
cleaned the segmental combs are inserted into the cleaned fringe of
fibre and a nipper then takes hold of it and pulls it out through the
teeth of segmental comb'a short distance, say about an inch, before the
end is taken hold of by the comb and nipper before described, when the
long and short fibres are separated from each other.
Another improvement consists in using a circular comb to partially