IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Oddy, of Birkenshaw, in the County of
York, Stuff Manufacturer, and Henry Walton Whitehead, of
Holbeck, in the Parish of Leeds, in the said County, a Partner in
the Firm of Taylor, Wordsworth, and Company, of the same Place,
Machine Makers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Oddy and
Henry Walton Whitehead at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 4th June 1870.
We, JAMES ODDY, of Birkenshaw, in the County of York, Stuff
Manufacturer, and HENRY WALTON WHITEHEAD, of Holbeck, in the
Parish of Leeds, in the said County, a Partner in the Firm of Taylor,
Wordsworth, and Company, of the same Place, Machine Makers, do

page_text: hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,"
to be as follows :-
Our improvements are more particularly applicable to the well-known
Noble's combing machine. It has hitherto been the practice to draw off
two slivers of cleaned or combed wool for the large circular comb and a
sliver of cleaned or combed wool from each of the two small circular
combs, and then to mix the four slivers or run them into one sliver by
delivering them together into one can or forming them into one ball.
It is proved by experience (especially in the longer kinds of wool), that
the slivers coming from the small circular combs are defective owing to
the longer fibres frequently getting tightly lapped round the sliver,
thereby causing slugs or lumps when the combined sliver is subjected
to the operation of the after gill drawing machinery, and it is also found
that the slivers from the small circular combs always contain a larger
proportion of noil, knots, and dirt than the slivers from the large
circular comb.
The object of our Invention is to keep separate the slivers coming
from the small circular combs so that whenever they are in a state
which renders it desirable they may be combed over again. This we
effect by running them through a middle tunnel or tunnels, and having
fixed at right angles to the present drawing-off head a second drawing-
off head, by means of which the slivers from the small circular combs
will run into a separate can or formed into a separate ball apart from
the slivers from the large circular comb. This new drawing-off head
may be driven by a pair of bevil wheels communicating motion from
the present drawing-off head or by any other suitable means. The sliver
from the small circular combs may then, whenever found desirable, be
taken from the can or drawn off from the ball, delivered on to any of the
preparing gill boxes, and gradually mixed with the uncombed slivers to
be combed over again..

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Oddy and Henry Walton Whitehead in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES ODDY,
of Birkenshaw, in the County of York, Stuff Manufacturer, and HENRY
WALTON WHITEHEAD, of Holbeck, in the Parish of Leeds, in the said
County, a Partner in the Firm of Taylor, Wordsworth, and Company, of
the same Place, Machine Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said James Oddy and Henry Walton Whitehead, Her special
licence that we, the said James Oddy and Henry Walton Whitehead, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
James Oddy and Henry Walton Whitehead, our 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
COMBING WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Oddy and Henry
Walton Whitehead, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Oddy and Henry Walton
Whitehead, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had

page_text: to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
Our improvements are more particularly applicable to the well known
Noble's combing machine. It has been the common practice to draw
off two slivers of cleaned or combed wool from the large circular comb
and a sliver of cleaned or combed wool from each of the two small
circular combs, and then to mix the four slivers or run them into one
sliver while delivering the same into a can or forming them into a ball.
It is proved by experience (especially when operating upon the longer
kinds of wool) that the slivers coming from the small circular combs
are defective owing to the longer fibres frequently getting tightly lapped
round the sliver thereby causing "slugs" or lumps when the combined
sliver is subjected to the operation of the after gill drawing machinery,
and it is also found that the slivers from the small circular combs always
contain a larger proportion of noil, knots, and dirt than the slivers from
the large circular comb.
The object of our Invention is to provide an efficient means for keeping
separate from the combed fibre of the large circular comb the slivers
coming from the small circular combs, so that whenever they are in a
state which renders it desirable they may be combed over again. This
we effect by the use of a middle tunnel or tunnels through which the
slivers are run, and having fixed adjacent to, and, say, at right angles to
the present drawing-off head a second drawing-off head for running
the slivers from the small circular combs into a separate can apart from
the sliver from the large circular comb.
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 shews in plan view so much
of a Noble's combing machine with our improvements applied thereto
as will serve to explain the manner of drawing off the combed wool
from the large and smaller combs as separate slivers, and Figure 2 is a
sectional elevation of the improved machine.
A, A, are the upright driving shafts of the machine which receive
motion from the main driving shaft as usual. These shafts A, A, give
motion through a series of gear wheels, not shewn in the Drawing,
to the large circular comb B, and to the smaller circular combs C, C¹,
working within the large comb B in the usual manner.

page_text: We have not thought it necessary to illustrate the mode of feeding
the wool or other fibre to this machine as it differs in no respect from
that commonly employed in this class of combing machines. The wool
as it is combed out by the action of the combs B and C, C¹, is stripped
5 from these combs by pairs of fluted drawing-off rollers as usual. The
pairs of rollers D and E take the combed fibres from the large comb B,
and pass it in the form of slivers through tunnels or conductors J, J,
situated near the centre of the comb B to a pair of fluted horizontal
rollers K and L. The slivers as they pass between these fluted rollers
are led over a guide roller M, and are passed through a guide N to the
drawing-off head O which delivers the slivers H, H', now combined into
one sliver into the tunnel or spout P, whence it passes into cans. The
combed fibre is taken from the small circular combs C, C¹, by pairs
of fluted drawing-off rollers F and G. These slivers marked H2, H³,
are led to a central tunnel or conductor J', and passed thence as a
combined sliver between the fluted rollers K and L. This combined
sliver then passes over the guide roller M, to and through a conductor R,
which is fitted to an additional drawing-off head S. This drawing-
off head is fitted with a tunnel or spout T which conducts the sliver
into cans ready for undergoing a repetition of the combing and drawing
operations.
From this explanation it will be understood that the separation
of the sliver derived from the large circular comb and the small
circular combs is maintained throughout the combing and drawing
operations, and that thus two qualities of sliver are simultaneously
produced from one and the same machine. The drawing-off head S
serves to carry both the conductors N and R, and the motion of
this drawing-off head is derived from the drawing-off head O, which
receives its motion from a vertical shaft U in gear with one or other of
the shafts A in a manner common to this class of machines. V and V,
are bevil wheels through which the drawing-off head S receives its
motion from the drawing-off head O. The fluted horizontal rollers K
and L are also driven from the vertical shaft U, the roller L receiving
rotary motion through beviled gear.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of " 'Improvements
in Machinery for Combing Wool, Cotton, Flax, and other Fibrous
Substances," and having explained the manner of carrying the same

page_text: into effect, we wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent we claim, delivering from the combing machine
the combed fibres drawn from the large circular comb, and the small
circular combs in separate slivers by the arrangement of apparatus above
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Oddy and Henry Walton
Whitehead, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Eighth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy.