IMPROVE- MENTS IN PREPARING WOOL, FLAX, AND CHINA GRASS, AND IN COMBING COTTON, WOOL, FLAX, AND CHINA GRASS."
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, near
Bradford, in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING WOOL, FLAX, AND CHINA GRASS, AND IN COMBING
COTTON, WOOL, FLAX, AND CHINA GRASS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe
Lister at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th December 1868.
I, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING WOOL, FLAX, AND CHINA GRASS, AND IN
COMBING COTTON, WOOL, FLAX, AND CHINA GRASS," to be as follows:-
My improvements in preparing before combing or carding wool, flax,
and china grass consist in adapting and using the intersecting screw
gill in which the gill teeth strike into the fibre in opposite directions,
in place of the ordinary gill now in use, and for the application of which
in the said process a Patent was granted to me, dated the 7th day of
October 1847, No. 11,896.

page_text: My improvements in combing relate to the employment of machinery
'such as that for which a Patent was granted to me, together with James
Warburton, and dated 13th December 1859, No. 2832. These machines
have heretofore been applied practically only to the working of silk,
and the cleaning instruments combing the long end of the silk have
always been made of angle wire cards; now this description of card
when applied to cotton, wool, flax, and china grass breaks and robs too
much of the long fibres and does not sufficiently clean the material
under operation. In the place of angle wire cards I have discovered
that round wire cards answer perfectly, but they should be made much
finer than is usually the case, say from No. 150" to 230*.
Another improvement consists in substituting (especially for wool)
combs in the place of cards in machines such as above mentioned. I
make the combs coarse at one end and finer at the other; these combs I
prefer-to-mount-on-an-endless_chain or leather, and they are so fixed to
the chain or leather that having a crank at the end of each comb they
'can be controlled in their motion and made to enter the wool or otlicr
fibre at right angles to the nip and draw through the fibrous material
nearly horizontally.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the 'conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samnel Cunliffe Lister in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the County of
York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors;
give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Her
special licence that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Cunliffe
Lister, 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,

page_text: that of the gill fallers. When working flax or china grass I take the
fibre direct from the intersecting gills to the combing machine after
being drawn into a continuous sliver.
My improvements in combing relate to the employment of machinery
such as that for which a Patent was granted to me, together with
James Warburton, and dated the 13th day of December 1859, No. 2832.
The peculiarity of the machines to which I refer is that the fibre is
submitted to the action of endless travelling aprons or bands carrying
cleaning teeth, whilst it is held in a circular or continuous nipper, the
fringe projecting from the nipper having been previously laid straight
and partially cleaned by drawing it through teeth. These machines
have heretofore been applied practically only to the working of silk,
and the cleaning instruments combing the long end of the silk
have always been made of angle wire cards; now this description of
card when applied to cotton wool, flax, and china grass breaks and
robs too much of the long fibres, and does not sufficiently clean
the material under oporation. In the place of angle wire cards I
have discovered that round wire cards answer perfectly, but they
should be made much finer than is usually the case, say from No. 150
to 230.
Another improvement consists in substituting (especially for wool)
combs in the place of cards in machines such as above mentioned.
I make the combs coarse at one end and finer at the other; these
combs I prefer to mount on an endless chain or leather, and they
are so fixed to the chain or leather that having a crank at the end
of each comb they can be controlled in their motion and made to
enter the wool or other fibre at right angles or nearly so to the nip,
and draw through the fibrous material nearly horizontally.
The annexed Drawing represents cleaning apparatus thus constructed.
a shows in section a portion of the circular nippers; b, an endless
leather apron passing around the small rollers 6, 7, the larger one
of which is driven; c, c, are brass bearing blocks fixed on this apron;
they carry the brass bars d, d, into which fine comb teeth are set
obliquely, as is shown. The bars have pivots at their ends entering
the bearings, and at one extremity of each bar is an arm not shown
in the Drawing, with a small roller at its end entering a guide course so
formed as to cause the teeth as they rise up into the fibre held by
the nippers to be nearly at right angles to it, but inclining slightly

page_text: so that the strain on the fibre may tend somewhat to cause the.fibre.to
rise up the teeth. In this way a slight relief is given at the. point
where the teeth strike in. As the. teeth travel on their inclination is
caused to. vary, so that as soon as they are travelling in a, straight line
the inclination may tend in a small degree to draw, the fibre to the t
root of the teeth. The fibre is cleared from, the. teeth before they
descend over the further roller, and the inclination at the point of
clearance should be such as to. cause the teeth to deliver freely..
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing. the same, I would have it understood that what
I claim is,―
First. The preparing wool, flax, and china grass by passing. the fibre
through screw gills, and subsequently carding. or combing it, such
screw gills being intersecting screw gills, as shove described:
Second. The use in combing cotton wool, flax, and china grass,, of
machines in which the fibre having been straightened by drawing it
through teeth is whilst held in a circular or continuous-nipper submitted
to the action of endless travelling bands of fine round wire card teeth,
as herein described.
Third. The use in combing cotton, wool, flax, and china grass, of
machines in which the fibre having been straightened by drawing it
through teeth is whilst held in a circular nipper-submitted to the action
of endless travelling bands of governed comb teeth, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuck Cunliffe Lister, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of Junc, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine