IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES.
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Pettitt, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING AND SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES.'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Pettitt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 12th July 1869.
I, EDWIN PETTITT, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the construction and application of one or
more tubes or cases, which are to be filled with the cotton or other
fibrous substance to be operated upon. When so filled a weight is
placed in each tube or case, and, resting upon the fibrous mass, by its
gravity compresses it and forces it downwards towards the teeth of a
licker-in roller as it revolves upon its axis. The teeth take hold of the

page_text: fibrous substance and gradually draw it from the tube or case and present
it over the edge of a plate to the first of two or more carding rollers,
where it undergoes one or more carding processes, and being detached
from the card teeth by a doffing knife or comb it is finally passed
through gathering funnels or orifices to the drawing rollers, and after
being drawn to the spindles is to be wound upon bobbins and finished as
rovings or yarns. The tubes or cases may contain a sufficient quantity
of the fibrous substance to supply more than one spindle, or they may
be formed by partitions in a hollow chamber or case extending the whole
length of the machine, and pressure may be put upon the fibrous sub-
stance by similar equivalent means, but I prefer the simple dead weight
as the cheapest and most effective agent for giving and maintaining
an equable pressure upon the fibrous substance as it is fed to the
machine.
This Invention is also applicable to obtaining a constant and equable
pressure on fibrous substances, and a regular and determined feed in
carding engines and lap making machines, with the beneficial effect of
improving the product of such machines. In some kinds of yarn or
roving I propose to apply my feed apparatus directly to the first of a
series of drawing rollers, whereby the fibrous substance is drawn out,
and being passed through a gathering funnel or orifice is drawn and
carried to the spindles in the usual way, thus dispensing entirely with
the carding processes. When carding rollers are used an end to end
motion may be given to one or more of them, and instead of being
entirely covered with card they may be filleted to any convenient width
to divide the fibrous material into separate slivers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Pettitt in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 12th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN 30
PETTITT, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-

page_text: third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Edwin Pettitt, Her special licence that
I, the said Edwin Pettitt, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Edwin Pettitt, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 PREPARING AND SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edwin
Pettitt, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that .I, the said Edwin Pettitt, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
The objects of my Invention are, firstly, the construction of a feeding
apparatus capable of supplying a regular and uniform quantity of cotton
or other fibrous substance to the machines used for preparing and
converting it into slubbings, rovings, or yarns with the view of obtaining
greater evenness, uniformity, and strength, in the products of such
machines; and, secondly, the combination with and application to
slubbing, roving, and spinning machines of the before-mentioned feeding
apparatus, or a modified form thereof, for the purpose of supplying
to such machines a regular and determined quantity of the uniform
products of a previous operation, so that the finished yarn shall be even
throughout its length. This feeding apparatus constructed according to
my Invention I designate a "grip feeder."
Figure 1 is a transverse section, Figure 2 a front view, and Figure 3
a top view of one of my "grip feeders."
A is a roller, with iron or other suitable metal teeth or pins projecting
from its periphery.; it is made to revolve in a metal case B in the direction

page_text: shewn by the arrow at any required rate by means of a shaft a and
worm 6 in communication with a toothed or worm wheel c on its axle d,
such shaft a being driven or actuated in the usual manner applied to the
feed rollers of carding engines or scutchers. The teeth or pins of the
roller A approach the interior surface of the case B as nearly as is possible
without contact. C is a part which when in place forms a continuation
of the case B, but for the convenience of filling it with a fresh supply of
material to be operated upon it is made movable. Into this movable
case C the cotton or other fibrous substance is filled by hand or machinery,
or by the case being placed upon or in contact with a perforated surface
in the opening or scutching machine to allow of its being filled by
exhaustion of the air from its interior. When so filled it is placed in the
lower case B, and a weight D, which is somewhat less in area than the
interior of the case C, is allowed to rest upon the upper surface of the
cotton or other fibrous material to be operated upon, for the purpose of
consolidating the fibrous mass and pressing it forwards to the roller A,
which revolving at the same time slowly draws the fibrous substance
from the case and delivers it at a determined speed over the edge of the
case at the point E to the first carding roller or to the beaters of an
opener or scutcher. The downward pressure of the fibrous substance
upon the roller A fills the interstices of the teeth or pins with it, and a firm
grip or hold of the fibres being effected a snatching away of irregular
and loosely held masses (of cotton for instance under process of carding)
is prevented, and at the same time a more perfect carding or combing
of the fibrous substance takes place at the point E, owing to the grip
with which the fibrous substance is held by the aid of the inner surface
of the case B, while it is gradually fed by the revolution of the roller A.
The weight D may consist of a hollow box more or less filled with shot
or other material, according to the pressure required.
Figure 4 is a transverse section of a grip feeder in which there is no
movable part or case C, the case B being carried up to any convenient
height or through the floor of a room above, from which the cleaned
cotton may be filled into the case. Figure 5 shows another grip feeder
in which also the case B may be carried up and filled in the same
manner.

page_text: be of sufficient weight in itself (the case B being kept full) to fill the
interstices of the teeth on the roller A.
The modification shown in Figure 5 differs from that shown in
Figure 4 only in that the roller A delivers the fibrous substance over
the upper edge of the case B, the lower half of the case being open.
The dimensions of the case and of the grip feeder must of necessity vary
with the kind of fibrous substance under operation and the work to be
performed. In cotton and wool spinning the diameter of the roller A
may be a few inches only or as much as two feet or even more, and the
case of proportionate capacity, as may be convenient to the user for his
particular purpose; so also the teeth or pins in the roller A may be
placed at different distances to suit the varying lengths of fibre. I prefer
that the fibres should be drawn over and in contact with three at least
of these teeth or pins at the point of delivery (as indicated in Figure 5º)
as well as over the edge of the case at E, and it will be evident that long
stapled wool will require fewer teeth over a given area of surface on the
roller A than cotton or other shorter fibre. The length also of the teeth
must be governed by the work for which they are required and the rate
of delivery of the grip feeder.
Figure 6 is a top view of a grip feeder showing that part of the
case B which is above the roller A divided into tubes or cylinders, each
tube or cylinder being adapted to receive the fibrous substance, either
in the manner herein-before described or in the shape of the ordinary
lap of cotton as produced by the machines now in use; but instead of
in the latter case feeding the lap to the first carding roller in the usual
manner I drop the lap into the tube or cylinder endways, so that it falls
upon the teeth. I construct each tube or cylinder of sufficient height
and capacity to hold two or more laps endways one upon another. It
is necessary that the laps so used shall be uniform in weight, and two
or more of these tubes or cylinders may form part of the grip feeder,
according as the width of the carding engine and the diameter of the
laps will allow. There may be as many deliveries at the front of the
engine as there are cylinders, or the fleeces may be gathered at the front
into one delivery, and be either coiled into a can or wound upon a reel
or bobbin, and receive twist or not as may be considered desirable.
Figure 7 shows the grip feeder applied to the back part of a carding

page_text: Figure 8 is an end view partly in section, and Figure 9 a plan of a
modified form of the grip feeder applied to a throstle frame in com-
bination with two or more carding rollers. The same combination of
parts and mechanism are equally applicable to slubbing and roving
frames, and also to mules, varying, however, somewhat in dimensions
and distances according to the particular purpose for which the machine
is adapted. In this instance I take the produce of a previous operation
(that of carding, for example) in which the grip feeder has been
employed, having formed a roll of slivers in the usual way by means of
the Derby doubler. I place it in bearings above the machine, and lead
one or more card ends through the case B of the grip feeder to the teeth
of the roller A of the same, which roller delivers the fibrous substance
over the edge of the case at the point E to the first carding roller F,
which revolves in the direction shown by the arrow, and cards or combs
the fibres as they are delivered to it. The card roller G strips the roller F,
and its teeth meeting those of the smaller roller H the fibres are again
carded, and as the roller H retreats and revolves in the direction shown
by the arrow it carries away with it the short fibres, dirt, and neps left
in its teeth by the roller G, and the fixed comb I clears it as it revolves
of the waste which it collects. The doffing roller J receives the carded
fibres from the roller G in the usual manner, and the vibration or motion
of the doffing knife or comb K removes the fleece or film of fibrous sub-
stance from the teeth of the doffing roller, from whence it passes through
a small trumpet or orifice L to the drawing head, and so to the spindle
which converts it into a yarn. The rollers are by preference driven by
suitable gearing in connection with the main shaft of the machine. The
speed of the card roller F is sufficient to take the fibrous substance fed
to it by the grip feeder, and that of the card roller G is more than twice
that of F, but less than that of the doffing roller J. The hank number
or grist is regulated by the rate of delivery of the grip feeder of a
known quantity of fibrous material and the drafts of the card roller
and drawing head, as is well understood.
Figure 10 shows a section of a grip feeder in combination with card
rollers and a drawing head. A sliver or slubbing may be produced, and
by means of the usual mechanism twist may be put into it, and the
twisted sliver wound upon a bobbin M for subsequent use and conversion
into a slubbing roving or yarn upon any of the existing machines in the
manner described and shown.

page_text: Where the fibre to be operated upon is silk waste the grip feeder
may deliver at a given rate direct to the drawing head without the
intervention of any carding process whatever, and the fibre may then be
twisted by the spindle and flyer, and wound upon a bobbin preparatory
to further manipulation on the usual spinning machines used for such
fibrous material.
The card rollers may either be wholly covered with cards or they may
be filletted, as seen in Figure 9, but in all cases the width of the card
surface should be greater than the width of the delivery of the grip
feeder.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not confine myself to the exact details herein set forth, so long as the
general character of my Invention be maintained; but what I claim
is, the construction of grip feeding apparatus and its application to and
combination with machines for preparing and spinning cotton and other
fibrous substances, substantially as herein-before described with reference
to the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Pettitt, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of January One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
J. C. MEWBURN,
Patent Agent,
172, Fleet Street,
London.
EDWIN PETTITT. (L.S.)