IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, SILK, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES." PROAL SP
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Albert Smith, of Bradford, in the County of York,
Spinner, and Michael Firth, of the same Placo, Combing Overlooker, for an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON,
SILK, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Albert Smith and Michael
Firth at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st November
1881.
ALBERT SMITH, of Bradford, in the County of York, Spinner, and MICHAEL
FIRTH, of the same Place, Combing Overlooker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, SILK, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
This Invention relates to that class of combing machines known as Noble's, and
has for its object the improvement of the feed by a combination of parts as
follows:-
First. A circular feeding nip by which the wool is passed over a fixed curved
incline by a revolving disc having a roughened surface to the wool, which ensures
a more certain feed than hitherto by preventing slack ends.
Second. The wool is fed into the combs by knives, which, being stationary, do
not allow the wool to pass the tangent, as is the tendency with an intermittent
motion, as, for instance, a dabbing brush.
Third. The fixing of the outer pins in the large or small circle truly vertical,
thus allowing the wool to be fed into the combs with greater facility than is the
case with the pins of the outer circles inclined to one another as hitherto.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Albert Smith and Michael Firth in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th May 1882.
ALBERT SMITH, of Bradford, in the County of York, Spinner, and MICHAEL
FIRTII, of the same Place, Combing Overlooker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, SILK, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
This Invention relates to combing machines known as "Noble's," and has for its
object an improvement on the means employed in feeding the wool into the
machine.
The drawing forward of the sliver to be combed has hitherto been accomplished
by means of a feed knife conjointly with the feeding boxes travelling up an
inclined plane.
This well known mode of feeding is attended in the practical working of the
same with drawbacks, which it is the primary object of our improvements to
overcome; for instance, if the feeding boxes are not adjusted to the greatest nicety,
or should the uncombed slivers vary to an appreciable extent in thickness, the
result is that the amount of wool drawn forward by the arrangement hitherto in
use is uneven and irregular, and what is known as slack ends" is the result.
These slack ends have to be re-carded and prepared again for the comb, thus
involving time and labour.
16
We dispenso with the feed knife, and placing in a suitable position a combination
of parts which constitute what is commonly known as a circular nip.
By this new mode of feeding a "Noble's" comb, we are to a certain extent
independant of regularity in the thicknesses of the carded slivers or the precise
adjustmont of the boxes.
The feed boxes are actuated as hitherto, the ends of the carded slivers are
guided between the roughened surface of the disc (which revolves in the same
direction and with a slight lead on the combings), and the stationary part of the
nip, a curved bar, which being smooth presses the wool more firmly on to the
roughened revolving disc. This disc being smaller than the circle formed by
the boxes recedes from the latter, and draws the ends of the carded slivers forward
in revolving until the latter have arrived at the end of the curved bar, when the
wool is liberated and travels on to be dabbed into the two circles as hitherto.
The second part of our improvement consists in setting the pins in one or the
other of the circles vertically, thus reducing the distance or space between the teeth a
of the circles at the bottom; and in order to do this we cut the small brass circlo
so that the upper portion of its circumference is slightly larger in diameter than
the bottom part, which latter is made to run just clear of the inside circumference
of the large circle and the upper portion overlapping, but only to such an extent as
to prevent the possibility of contact with the bottom of the pins in the large circle. 4
In the event of the two circles touching each other there is still clearance for the
points of the pins.
The pins in the large circle may be set at an angle, and those in the small circle
vertical, but we prefer to place them as shown in the Drawing, that is, vertical in
the large circle because a greater portion of the wool is dabbed into the large 4
circle:
The advantage of this arrangement over that hitherto in use, i.c., the pins in
both circles inclining to one another, is, that the dabbing of the wool into the comb
is more efficiently accomplished and a saving effected in the wear and tear of
dabbing brushes.
5

page_text: But in order to enable our improvements to be better understood we will proceed
to describe the same by reference to the accompanying Drawings.
Figure 1 is a plan view of portions of the large and one of the small circular
combs of a "Noble's" combing machine, also a plan of our improved feeding
apparatus and the position in which it is mounted; Figure 2 is a side elevation of
the feeding apparatus, and Figure 3 is an enlarged section through the large and
small circular combs shewing the pins in the large circular comb vertical, and the
means we adopt to prevent the points of the pins in the large and small circles
interlocking with each other.
The portion of the large circular comb is indicated by the letter A, and the small
comb by B; in both these circles the teeth or pins are represented only on. portions
of the combs. The fibre to be fed to the comb circles is mounted on the machine,
passed through the boxes C, and raised out of the teeth of the comb at each side of
the machine in the ordinary manner. The fibre thus raised out of the pins on
travelling round with the machine passes over plate D under the curved incline F
on to the rough surface or revolving disc E, and is pressed between the revolving
disc and the under surface of curved adjustable bar F, and is drawn through-the
boxes C from the feed balls the distance required, which is regulated by adjusting
the position of the stationary part of the nip. This regulation of the feed is
accomplished by slackening the nut G and adjusting the stationary part of the
nip F and F round the centre spindle M, if moved towards the pinion H, and
again secured by nut G more feed is obtained, but if moved in the opposite
direction les feed will be effected.
This feeding apparatus is bolted to the flange of steam chamber, and motion to
the disc E is obtained by means of pinion H gearing into the ordinary internal
toothed wheel of large circular comb. The pinion H is secured to a short shaft
carried by bracket J, and at the bottom of said shaft is another pinion which gears
into wheel K, the latter gearing into another wheel L secured on bottom of disc
shaft M.
The upper part of shaft M is fitted with a feather key which passes through the
hole in centre of disc, that the latter is free to slide up and down the shaft in order
10 compensate or allow for the varying thicknesses of the slivers of fibre that are
being drawn from the feed balls and fed on to the comb circles.
The disc is held up by means of spiral spring N, or in place of spiral spring and
sometimes in conjunction with same, we make the two arms P and P¹ supporting
the bar F and F of tempered steel or some other flexible material, so that if a
thick sliver should be passing between the bar and the revolving rough disc at one
end of the bar it does not alter the position of the bar at the other end, where an
ordinary sized sliver may be passing under.
We may also invert the relative position of the revolving and stationary parts
of the nip, placing the revolving uppermost and the stationary underneath.
In Figure 3 we shew the large circle A with the pins A¹ set vertically, and the
pins B' in small circle B at an angle inclined towards pins A', to such an extent that
the points are clear of each other; and in order to prevent the points of the same
interlocking, we cut the circumference of the small circle smaller in diameter at B²,
that the two circles A and B will touch before the points of the pins interlock.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, we hereby declare that we make no claim to the feeding
of the wool into the combs by means of knives described in the second portion of
our Provisional Specification, but what we believe to be novel and original and
claim as the Invention secured to us by the hereinbefore in part recited Letters
Patent is,
First. The feeding of a "Noble's" comb by means of a circular nip.
Second. The special form of the adjustable and flexible bar, over or under the
revolving frictional disc, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein

page_text: Third. The arrangement of the pins set vertically in either of the circles,
substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Albert Smith, on behalf of myself and tho
said Michael Firth, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
eighty two.
Witness,
JOHN WAUGH,
Assoc. Institute Civil Engincers,
Bradford.
ALBERT SMITH. (L.S.)