CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ernest Grether, of the City of Manchester, Merchant,'
for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES."-A
communication from abroad by Frederick Morf, of Wetzikon, in the
Canton of Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ernest Grether at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th March 1864.
I, ERNEST GRETHER, of the City of Manchester, Merchant, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
CARDING ENGINES," a communication to me from abroad by Frederick Morf, of
Wetzikon, in the Canton of Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland, to be as
follows:-
This Invention is applicable to the machines known as George Wellman's
Patent self-stripping carding engines, and for which Letters Patent were
granted to the said George Wellman on the Eleventh day of September One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, Number 2190.
The object of the present Invention is to enable the top flats to be stripped
in any required succession, instead of stripping them in regular alternate
succession, as described in the Specification of the said George Wellman's
Patent. The machinery employed consists of the segmental rack and pinion,
the large toothed wheel, and the swing frame now in use, but the large toothed

page_text: wheel is provided with an additional toothed segment projecting from the
opposite face of the wheel to that now in use; this additional segment gears
into a pinion which slides to and fro on the same axle as the pinion gearing
into the segmental rack; this sliding pinion is brought into gear when
required by a lever and cam connected to a worm wheel, driven by a worm on
the boss of the large toothed wheel. By this improved combination of
machinery, when 20 top flats are used, they are stripped in the following
succession:-1, 8, 5, 7, 9, 13, -17, 20, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11,
15, 19, 18, 14, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, and so on. By varying the number of teeth
in the wheels, segments, and pinions, and the shape of the cam, the succession
in which the top flats are stripped may be modified.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ernest Grether in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ERNEST
GRETHER, of the City of Manchester, Merchant, send greeting.:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Ernest Grether, Her spécial license that I, the said Ernest
Grether, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Ernest Grether, 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 "CERTAIN. IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CARDING ENGINES," a communication.to me from abroad by Frederick
Morf, of Wetzikon, in the Canton of Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland;
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Ernest Grether, 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. per
formed, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ernest Grether, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is. to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
.
This Invention is applicable to the machines known as George Wellman's
Patent self-stripping carding engines, and for which Letters Patent were
granted to the said George Wellman on the Eleventh day of September One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, Number 2190.
The object of the present Invention is to enable the top flats or top cards to
be stripped in any required. succession, instead of stripping them in regular
alternate succession, as described in the Specification of the said George
Wellman's Patent.
And in order that the Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, I will proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, reference being had to the figures and letters marked thereon.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a carding engine constructed according to
the Patent of George Wellman above referred to, and to which my improve-
iments are applied:
a is the main cylinder; b, the doffer; c, the mangle segments fixed to the
side framing of the carding engine; d, are the rocker frames supported on the
projecting ends of the axle of the main cylinder; to these rocker frames are
attached the stripping apparatus of the top cards e. I have in this instance
represented twenty top cards, but the number may be increased or diminished.
The rocker frames d, and the parts connected therewith, are counterbalanced by
the weights f, which are jointed as usual to the lower arms of the rocker frames;
g is the principal wheel of the stripping apparatus, this wheel has one hundred
and twenty teeth, and it is loose on the stud h which is fixed in the rocker
frame'd; i is the shaft with the small rack pinion with eight teeth gearing in
the mangle segment c, fixed to the bend of the carding, engine, and which sets
the stripping apparatus in motion; this pinion i¹ is assisted in travelling over the
centres of the mangle segment by the spring. fixed to the rocker framed, and
pressing against the double arm d¹ in which the shaft i revolves; the stud h
connects this arm to the rocker frame. d; jis'a pinion with twenty teoth fixed
on the shaft i, which is driven by the toothed segment g¹ on the face of the inner
part of the large wheel 'g; to this pinion is fixed the tumbler plate j'; k is the
toothed segment on the outside of the wheel g, similar to the one inside, only
it stands, further back that it may come into operation when. the inner wheel
is, out of gear; is a double arm to connect the stud h with the shaft i; m.is
a worm fixed on the boss of the wheel g, this worm gears into the worm.

page_text: wheel n, which has thirty teeth; this wheel revolves on the stud o which is
fixed in a projection of the arm 1; p is an eccentric fixed on the worm
wheel n; and q is a catch lever on the stud r, which is also fixed in the arm 7;
this catch lever q is acted upon by the eccentric p. When the lift is over the
catch lever q is drawn back by the spring s¹. t is a second pinion with twenty
?
teeth on the shaft i; it is similar to the wheel j, but instead of having a
tumbler plate it is provided with a grooved boss in which the stud of the
lever q enters; this lever through the motion given to it by the eccentric p
causes the pinion t to slide on the shaft i, and brings it into or out of gear
with the toothed segment k. In this case the shaft i makes two revolutions
instead of only one, as usual; it is driven once round by the inner toothed
segment g¹ of the wheel 9 and the pinion j as usual, and it is driven round a
second time by the segment k on the outside of the wheel g, gearing into the
pinion t, consequently when both segments are in gear with the pinions the
whole apparatus travels a double distance and goes over three top cards
instead of only one. It is evident that the eccentric p must be made so that
the pinion t is thrown out of gear during the stripping of the first half of the
top cards in order that the stripping apparatus may travel only its usual
distance, and that it must come into operation during the stripping of the
second half of the top cards when the apparatus travels a double distance.
The mode of operation is as follows:-When the stripping apparatus arrives
at the ninth top card, as shewn in Figure 1, and has stripped it, the pinion t
comes into gear with the segment k, and the apparatus then moves at the
next motion to the thirteenth top card and strips it, then the seventeenth,
twentieth, sixteenth, and twelfth top cards are stripped, here the pinion t is
drawn out of gear, and the apparatus strips the top cards marked 10, 8, 6, 4,
2, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11; at this point the pinion t comes again into gear, the
apparatus now strips the top cards marked 15, 19, 18, 14,10; the pinion t is now
again thrown out of gear, and the apparatus strips the top cards marked 8, 6,
4, 2, 1, 8, 5, 7, which brings it again to the ninth top card, after which the
above operation commences again. The first ten top cards are consequently
stripped twice while the last ten are only stripped once, in all thirty top cards
are stripped, so that the wheel 9 has to make thirty revolutions while the
worm wheel n and the eccentric p make one revolution. In order that the
shaft i can make two revolutions it is necessary that the gap on the border of
the wheel 9 be twice as wide as the horns of the tumber j¹ of the pinion j
By varying the number of teeth in the wheels, segments, and pinions, and the
shape of the eccentric, the order of succession in which the top flats are
stripped may be modified or varied.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of the Invention, and described the manner
of performing the same, as communicated to me by the within-named
Frederick Morf, I declare that I claim the improved combination and
arrangement of parts shewn and described for stripping the top flats of carding
5 engines in any required succession.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ernest Grether, have hereto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.
ERNEST GRETHER. (L.S.).