IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND PREPARING FLAX AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Gardner, of 1, Old Quebec Street, Portman
Square, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND PREPARING FLAX AND OTHER FIBRES."
Sealed the 21st April 1859, and dated the 12th February 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Gardner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th February 1859.
I, HENRY GARDNER, of 1, Old Quebec Street, Portman Square, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND PREPARING FLAX AND OTHER
FIBRES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for breaking
and preparing flax and other fibres. For this purpose I employ for breaking
or crimping rollers, arranged together in a frame; one of the rollers is placed
in the centre, and the other three rollers are ranged round, and are kept up to
it by springs. The flax straw or other fibre is fed to the machine between
the centre and the top roller; it afterwards passes between the centre roller
and the two other rollers, and is thus brought back to and delivered on the
same side of the machine as it was fed in at. The rollers which I employ are
of such a length that two men can work at the machine at the same time, but.
I do not confine myself to any particular length, as I make them so that one.

page_text: or more men can work them at the same time. It is not essential that the
set should consist of four rollers, but this is the number which I prefer. The
fibre, as it passes from the rollers above described, I cause to pass through a
series of small grooved or plain rollers arranged in pairs, the upper and lower
roller of each pair being pressed towards each other by springs. These rollers
are mounted in two separate frames, each frame carrying every alternate pair,
that is to say, one frame carries the first and third pair, and the other the
second and fourth, and so on whatever may be the number of pairs employed.
One (or it may be both) of the frames has an up-and-down motion com-
municated to it by a crank and connecting rod, or otherwise, and the rollers
are thus caused so to rub the fibre as to make the woody parts of the straw,
already broken by the large rollers, to fall out.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Gardner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th August 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
GARDNER, of 1, Old Quebec Street, Portman Square, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Gardner, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Gardner, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Garduer, 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
BREAKING AND PREPARING FLAX AND OTHER FIBRES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henry Gardner, 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 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Gardner, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for breaking
and preparing flax and other fibres. For this purpose I employ four breaking
or crimping rollers, arranged together in a frame; one of the rollers is placed
in the centre, and the other three rollers are ranged round, and are kept up to
it by springs. The flax straw or other fibre is fed to the machine between
the centre and the top roller; it afterwards passes between the centre roller
and the two other rollers, and is thus brought back to and delivered on the
same side of the machine as it was fed in at. The rollers which I employ are
of such a length that two men can work at the machine at the same time, but
I do not confine myself to any particular length as I make them so that one.
or more men can work them at the same time. It is not essential that the
set should consist of four rollers, but this is the number which I prefer.
The fibre, as it passes from the rollers above described, I cause to pass
through a series of small grooved or plain rollers arranged in pairs, the upper
and lower roller of each pair being pressed towards each other by springs.
These rollers are mounted in two separate frames, each frame carrying every
alternate pair, that is to say, one frame carries the first and third pair, and
the other the second and fourth, and so on whatever may be the number of
pairs employed. One (or it may be both) of the frames has an up-and-down
motion communicated to it by a crank and connecting rod, or otherwise, and
the rollers are thus caused so to rub the fibre as to make the woody parts of
the straw, already broken by the large rollers, to fall out.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.

page_text: bearing of the roller, and at the other end on a collar formed on its screw h,
so that by turning the screws h, the pressure of the springs may be adjusted.
The rollers c, d, e, and fare grooved or fluted on their surfaces, as is shown,
and the projections on one roller enter the depressions on the next; so that the
central roller c being driven by a band passing round the pulley c¹ on its axis,
all the rollers are caused to revolve at the same surface speed. The flax
straw or other fibre to be broken and prepared is laid by a workman over
the wooden roller i, and is entered between the flnted rollers c and d, after-
wards it passes between the rollers c and e, and lastly between the rollers c
and f. In the spaces between the rollers d and e, e and f, guides are
placed to direct the fibre; their inner surfaces are concentric with the roller c,
and they are at a distance of about 1 inches from it, their edges approaching
close up to the rollers 'd, e, and e, f; these guides are not shown in the
Drawing. The axis of the roller c has a fly wheel mounted on it to keep the
four rollers revolving at a uniform speed. The fibre, when it is discharged
from between the rollers e, and f, passes on to the metal platej, which extends
all across the front of the machine, in front of the roller f. The plate turns on
hinge joints at j, j, and its edge is caused to bear constantly on the roller f
by the links k, k, which connect-the plate with the axes of the roller, so that
as the roller works up and down by the yielding of its springs, the edge of the
plate is carried with it. The fibre is by the platej guided between the small
rollers 1, 1, 1; these are carried by the wooden frames m, m, to which the bars
m', m', are fixed. m³, m³, are standards springing from these bars, and
between each pair of standards two small brasses are placed, and these brasses
receive the axes of the rollers L, L. The brasses of the lower roller of every
alternate pair are stationary, and the brasses of the lower rollers of the other
pairs are carried by stems n', n', fixed on the frames n, n, which receive an
up-and-down motion from the short cranks n² on the axis n³, and thus these
rollers receive an up-and-down motion, their bearings sliding between the
standards m³, m*; the frames n, n, are shown in their highest position in
Figure 1. The rollers l, l, are driven at the same surface speed as the rollers
c, d, and f; the gear for driving one of these sets of rollers is shown at
Figure 3, the gear for driving the other set is in all respects similar to it.
The axis n³ is driven at a suitable speed by a band passing round the pulley n¹.
The axis n³ also carries, as is shown in Figure 2, a pulley n, which by a strap
drives a pulley o' on a short axis o mounted on one of the frames m. The
axis o has a socket formed at its end, into which a stem projecting from the
lower roller of the first pair of rollers is fitted, so that the roller and the axis
turn together. On the other end of the same roller a pinion is mounted,

page_text: which gears with a similar pinion on the upper roller of the third pair; and
this again gears with a pinion on the lower roller of the fifth pair, and so on
throughout the set. In a similar manner, I prefer to gear together the rollers
of the second, fourth, and following sets by pinions at the other ends of the
rollers; this second set of pinions is not however shewn in the Drawings.
In this manner one of each pair of rollers is geared, and by them the fibre
is carried continuously forward and the woody particles rubbed and shaken
out of it. The upper rollers 1, 2, are pressed down on the lower ones by spiral
springs, as is shown.
The machine should be worked by two men, who stand in the space between
the two sets of rollers 1, 1; these men feed the fibre between the rollers c and
d, and receive it as it is discharged from the rollers; usually it is necessary to
pass the same fibre several times through the machine. In some cases, in
place of combining the rollers c, d, e, and f, with the rollers in one machine,
I form them into two separate machines, and convey the fibre from one to the
other by hand; or either machine may be used independently of the other.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Gardner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
HENRY GARDNER. (L.S.)