IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Blair, of Caledon Mills, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING."
Scaled the 7th December 1869, and dated the 10th June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Blair at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th June 1869.
I, JOHN BLAIR, of Caledon Mills, Manchester, in the County of Lan-
caster, Cotton Spinner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to diminish the number of carding
engines hitherto employed, and to manufacture wadding with a carded
cotton surface (either on the face only or on both sides), the bulk or
thickness of the same being made up of uncarded cotton or waste the

page_text: staple or fibre of which is too short to allow of its being carded with
advantage.
The Invention consists in the manufacture of wadding by the com-
bination of two or more carding engines (cach delivering a fleece of
carded cotton) with a machine which is a modification of the ordinary
"beater" or "lap machine" used in preparing cotton for spinning, or of
the machine known as a " 'cop bottom breaker," or other equivalent
machine in connection with an endless "creeper," which slowly carries
forward the lap or sheet of wadding as it is formed.
The machine which I prefer to use in combination with the carding
engines is the machine known as the "cop bottom breaker," but so
modified as to deliver a lap or sliver of a suitable width and thickness
for the manufacture of wadding, but any other machine of a similar
character acting in substantially the same manner, and capable of
spreading, beating, and opening out material of short fibre and delivering
a fleece or lap of the requisite width and thickness would answer the
same purpose.
This machine is placed between the carding engines,
that is to say, with two or more carding engines in front, and two or
more carding engines behind, and with the "creeper" running through
the whole scries. The first carding engine (or series of engines) lays
a fleece of carded cotton on the creeper, which then passes to the
"breaker" or "lap machine." from which it receives the lap or sheet
of uncarded material which makes up the bulk of the wadding, and
then passes to the second carding engine (or series of engines), which
deposits on the surface a second fleece of carded cotton, the thickness of
the latter depending upon the number of carding engines which are
employed to deliver the carded cotton. If a sufficient number of carding
engines be placed before and behind the "breaker" or "lap machine"
to furnish the maximum quantity of carded cotton required for superior
qualities, the amount of carded cotton may be varied through any number
of gradations down to the minimum by stopping the action of any given
number of the carding engines, and if carded cotton be only required on
one surface then the first series of carding engines may be stopped
entirely, in which case the breaker or lap machine will deliver its lap
or fleece direct on to the "creeper ".instead of on to a previously laid
fleece of carded cotton.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Blair in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th December 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BLAIR, of Caledon Mills, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Cotton Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Blair, Her special license that
I, the said John Blair, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Blair, 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, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF WADDING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Blair, 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 John Blair, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say) :-
-:
The object of this Invention is to diminish the number of carding
engines hitherto employed for such purpose, and to manufacture wadding
with a carded cotton surface (either on the face only or both sides),
the bulk or thickness of the same being made up of uncarded cotton or
waste, the staple or fibre of which is too short to allow of its being
carded with advantage.

page_text: "
The Invention consists principally in the manufacture of wadding by
the combination of two or more carding engines (each delivering a fleece
of carded cotton) with a machine which is a modification of the ordinary
"beater or "lap machine" used in preparing cotton for carding, or of
the machine known as a "cop bottom breaker," or other equivalent
machine in connection with an endless "creeper," which slowly carries
forward the "lap" or sheet of wadding as it is formed.
The machine which I prefer to use in combination with the carding.
engine is the machine known as the "cop bottom breaker," but so
modified as to deliver a lap or sliver of a suitable width and thickness
for the manufacture of wadding, but any other machine of a similar
character acting in substantially the same manner, and capable of
spreading, beating, and opening out material of short fibre, and
delivering a fleece, lap, or layer of the requisite width and thickness:
would answer the same purpose.. This machine is placed between the
carding engines, that is to say, with one, two, or more carding engines
in front, and one, two, or more carding engines behind, and with the.
creeper" running through or past the whole series. The first carding.
engine (or series of carding engines) lays a fleece of carded cotton to
form the back of the wadding on the "creeper," which then passes to
the "breaker or "lap machine," from which it receives the lap, or
sheet of uncarded material which makes. up. the bulk of the wadding,
and it then passes to the second carding engine (or series of carding
engines), which deposits on the surface a second fleece of carded cotton,
the thickness of the latter depending upon the number of carding
engines which are employed to deliver the carded cotton. If a sufficient
number of carding engines be placed before and behind the breaker or
lap machine" to furnish the maximum quantity of carded cotton.
required for superior qualities of wadding, the amount of carded cotton
may be varied through any number of gradations down to the minimum
by stopping the action of any given number of the carding engines, and
if carded cotton be only required on one surface of the wadding then
the first series of carding engines may be stopped entirely, in which case
the "breaker" or "lap machine" will deliver its lap or fleece direct
on to the "creeper" instead of on to a previously laid fleece of carded
cotton.
"
It is not absolutely necessary to the purpose of my Invention that

page_text: employed for forming the bulk or body of the wadding should be
placed in actual contiguity or juxtaposition with the carding engine
and "creeper," as (if found more convenient) it might be placed in
any other situation apart from the carding engine and "creeper," and
deliver its lap or fleece in the form of a roll, which could then be taken
from that machine and placed on the "creeper" between the carding
engines, in such a position that the motion of the "creeper" would
cause the lap or roll to unwind automatically and deliver itself between
the two fleeces of carded wool.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention for
"Improvements in the Manufacture of Wadding," together with the
manner in which the same is to be or may be performed and carried
into practical, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I make no
claim to any of the machinery herein-before described, nor to the mere
fact of manufacturing wadding by the superposition of two or more
layers of material of different qualities; but what I claim, as my
Invention is, the manufacture of wadding by the combination of two or
more carding engines (each delivering a fleece) of carded cotton) with a
modification of the "breaker" or "lap" machine or other equivalent
machine (cither in juxtaposition or otherwise) as above described, in
connection with an endless "creeper," which slowly carries forward the
lap or sheet of wadding as it is formed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Blair, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
GEORGE DAVIES, C.E.,
Office for Patents,
Manchester,
JOHN BLAIR. (L.S.)