IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND MACHINERY OR APPAratus FOR PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR BEING SPUN
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Michael Henry at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
August 1872.-A communication from abroad by Marie Philippe
Auguste Pinel and Edouard Jules Joseph Lecœur, both of 17,
Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of Fleet Chambers, 68, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND MACHINERY OR APPAratus
FOR PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR BEING SPUN," communicated to mo
from abroad by Marie Philippe Auguste Pinel and Edouard Jules
Joseph Lecceur, both of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be
as follows:-
According to this Invention currents, blasts, jets, or streams of air or
gas, or aeriform fluid are used for guiding and conveying, or moving
fibrous materials to instruments, appliances, or parts of apparatus used
in the operations of carding, combing, teasing, and preparing them for
being spun, by which operations they are laid parallel, freed from
impurities, and duly prepared for being spun, the impurities being
driven off by air, gas, or acriform currents, blasts, jets, or streams.
°

page_text: I proceed to describe certain improved apparatus or machinery in
which air, gas, or aeriform fluid is used for the above described purpose.
In this improved apparatus a number of moveable bars, rods, or arms are
arranged in guide ways around a centre in a frame, and move in a
rotary direction. Each bar with the next forms jaws or nippers for
holding the fibrous material to be treated. The interior of this arrange-
ment may be described as forming a sort of cylinder or cylindrical
contrivance. This portion of the apparatus is in connection and
communicates by means of air passages formed in a frame with a fan
blower or apparatus for injecting air. The air enters only in the
opening between the jaws at a part near rollers herein-after described,
the other spaces being closed by a diaphragm. Motion is given to the
bars or jaws by toothed cam wheels, against which their axes bear.
Each bar or jaw in turn is first met by the outer periphery of the cams,
and then drops into a notch between two teeth therein, which draws it
down thus tending to close the space between it and the immediately
preceding jaw, and when the latter is drawn down the first jaw is
disengaged from the teeth of the cams and remains at rest till another
jaw acts on it and so on. A fleece of fibrous material is fed by fluted
and pressure rollers to the opening between each pair of jaws in turn.
The air blown or drawn in through such opening, directing and driving
the fleece thercinto. When the jaws are closed a cutter having a to-
and-fro motion, slits the fleece in an upward direction, and its free end is
ready to be seized in the next succeeding opening formed by the bars or
jaws. The jaws carrying the fibrous material present it to a carding
or combing roller wheel, or appliance, which is cleared by a brush
(revolving at greater velocity) from the impuritics which the roller
wheel or appliance separates from the fibres and which arc blown away
by currents of air from the fan. As the bars or jaws turn they abut
against another pair of cams the teeth of which are thicker than the
space between the axes of the jaws. The jaws open and these cams
move the bars which by their own gravity complete their revolution
and come again in position ready to be acted on by the first named
cams.

page_text: “second named cams open so that the fibres may not be free to be blown
away. These jaws also present their charge of fibre to a combing or
carding wheel with brush similar to the one above described.
The shafts of the two last named sets of cams are in gear so that onc
3 works the other. The fibres pass under a pair of rollers turning in a
reverse direction to that of the jaws and at greater peripheral speed,
thereby guiding the fibres in a different direction and bringing their end
in contact with a fluted roller working in a direction reverse to that of
these rollers, whereby the fibres aro guided right again and caught
between this fluted roller and another roller exerting very slight pressure,
at that moment the cams open the jaws; the pressure necessary for
holding the fibres in the jaws when the fleece is separated and carded
is effected by a break on the cam shaft, and regulated by a weight
adjustable on a lever. The batches of fibrous material acted on and
carried forward by the fluted roller fall in layers on an inclined surface,
where they are seized between another fluted roller and pressure roller,
and reconstituted into a fleece which is drawn down through a funnel
by a pair of rollers which also condense or cause the fibres to adhere to
cach other; the material thence passes into a turning can or coiler.
Motion is taken from a driving shaft to work the various parts of the
machinery by means of gearing or suitable connections.
"
Several machines may be used in combination, and the slivers
conducted from them (a number together) under a set of drawing
rollers to form a lap or coil, or be converted into a single sliver in a can
or coiler.
I proceed to describe at length the arrangement of a machine which
may be advantageously used for carrying the Invention into practical
effect. In this machine two hóllow frame pieces are connected by air
passages leading from a fan or blower, worked by motion taken from the
driving shaft. The main driving shaft carries a wheel or pulley working
the carding rollers, the brushes, and one of the reversing rollers, through
proper gearing. The tension of the driving shaft is regulated by means
of a screw, adjusting the position of a pulley (mounted on a threaded
bearing) in a slot. A cam plate or excentric imparts reciprocating
motion to the cutter carrier which is guided by a cross piece, and by -
plates screwed to the guide ways. One end of the c cam shaft carries
gearing for working one of the fluted rollers. which works the second

page_text: fluted roller; a slight drawing action regulated by a twin wheel over-
comes the adherence of the fibres and facilitates their separation. The
roller on which the cylinder carrying the fibre to be worked rests and
which is separated from the first fluted roller by the inclined surface
over which the fleece travels, has a circumferential speed equal to that
of the fluted roller. The fibrous material roller is held between side
plates, and a wheel is keyed to it worked by a pinion (fast to the fluted
roller) through intermediate gearing. The second reversing roller has
at one side a pinion worked by one on the first reversing roller through
an intermediate wheel; the second roller and wheel may be raised in
a backward direction, turning or being centered on the first roller so
as to allow of the disengagement of the pressure roller. Its distance
from the jaws is regulated by adjusting screws. A third fluted roller
is worked by a wheel in connection with a bevil wheel which drives
a bevil wheel on an upright shaft, at the top of which is a bevil pinion 1
working a wheel connected with a pinion which actuates a twin-
wheel. The pinion at back works a wheel on the fluted roller; its
peripheral velocity is in relation to that of the feed (fluted) roller. A
fourth fluted roller is actuated by the third by a wheel keyed thereon
and intermediate gearing. Between the frame and this wheel is a pinion
working a wheel keyed on a roller working at the same rate as tho
third fluted roller. A pinion works the roller which draws the sliver
through the shoot, and this roller works the can or coiler by inter-
mediate gearing.
Weighted pressure rollers are used. There are guards or shields over
the carding wheels and brushes. Doors or sight holes are provided for
inspecting the air passages. The slope of the inclined surface is regu-
lated by adjusting rods.