AN ENTIRE NEW IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING AND WORKING OP MACHINES FOR DRAWING OUT WOOL OR FLAX, COMB'D BY HAND, INTO A PERPETUAL LENGTH OR SLAVER, AND WHICH MACHINES MAY BE WORKED BY WATER, STEAM, OR HORSE MILLS, OR BY ANY OTHER MOVING POWER; AND SUCH IMPROVEMENT WILL, AS CONCEIVE, BE OF GREAT PUBLIC UTILITY IN PRO- DUCING SUCH PERPETUAL LENGTH SLAVER IN WOOL OR FLAX, AND IN THE PRE- PARING OF WOOL, FLAX, HEMP, Tow, AND OTHER MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURING OP ALL AND EVERY KIND OF WOOLLEN CLOTH AND WOOLLEN AND WORSTED GOODS OF
Year: 1797

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SELLARS, of the City of Bristol, Manufacturer of Spinning Machines, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of March, in the thirty-seventh year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William Sellars, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Sellars, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great Britain called
England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "AN ENTIRE NEW IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING AND WORKING OP
MACHINES FOR DRAWING OUT WOOL OR FLAX, COMB'D BY HAND, INTO A PERPETUAL
LENGTH OR SLAVER, AND WHICH MACHINES MAY BE WORKED BY WATER, STEAM, OR
HORSE MILLS, OR BY ANY OTHER MOVING POWER; AND SUCH IMPROVEMENT WILL, AS
I, THE SAID WILLIAM SELLARS, CONCEIVE, BE OF GREAT PUBLIC UTILITY IN PRO-
DUCING SUCH PERPETUAL LENGTH OR SLAVER IN WOOL OR FLAX, AND IN THE PRE-
PARING OF WOOL, FLAX, HEMP, Tow, AND OTHER MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURING
OP ALL AND EVERY KIND OF WOOLLEN CLOTH AND WOOLLEN AND WORSTED GOODS OF

page_text: EVERY DESCRIPTION, AS WELL ALSO FOR THE MANUFACTURING OF LINENS, SAIL
CLOTH, TWINE, LINES, AND CORDAGE, AND SEVERAL OTHER THINGS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Sellars
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, as, by the said Letters Patent, reference
being thereunto had, may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Sellars, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the four several sections in the Plan or Drawing here-
unto annexed (being laid down from a scale of two inches and one eighth to a
foot), and in the explanation or description of such Plan or Drawing, and
the parts or sections thereof herein-after mentioned, and referring thereto
(that is to say):
A, a crank or handle, by which the machine is put in motion by manual
labour. B 1 is a cylinder or drum, fixed on the axis B 3, and used when the
power-is-given by water, steam, or horses. B 2 is another cylinder or drum
on the same axis B 3, not fixed or attached thereto, but revolves around it,
and is separated from the other cylinder or drum B 1 by a washer sufficiently
thick to prevent the two cylinders or drums forming a contract or approaching
each other too closely. When the machine is put in motion by either of the
last-mentioned powers, such motion is produced by a strong strop or belt,
which connects the power of motion with the cylinder or drum B 1. The
cylinder B 2 is for the purpose of stopping the machine without impeding the
first cause or primary power of the water, steam, or horses, by guiding with the
hand the strop or belt from B1 to B 2. Then, although the power of motion
is still continued, the machine itself is perfectly at rest; and so vice versa,
for again putting in motion, by shifting the strop or belt from the cylinder or
drum B2 to the cylinder or drum B 1. C is a vertical wheel, of twelve teeth,
or nearly that number, which may be varied as more or less speed should be
wanting, and is at the upper end of the shaft or axis B, and connected with
the horizontal wheel D of sixteen teeth, on the shaft F. E, a spiral screw
on the shaft F, which communicates motion to G, a vertical wheel of sixteen
teeth, seen in section 2, on the axis g, g. On this axis is also the pinion H of
eight teeth, which takes the teeth beneath and on the under edge of the large

page_text: wooden wheel I. (The diameter of this wooden wheel I, in the Drawing, is six
feet five inches, but this diameter is by no means absolute; it may be more or
less, according to the power applied). The teeth under this large wheel 1, now
describing, are two hundred and fifteen in number, or thereabouts, and are
5 cast in segments agreeable to the diameter of the wheel to which they
are affixed. K, the shaft which carries the said wheel I, with its upper and
lower gudgeon. On this large wooden wheel I the combs or hackles are
placed, as will be herein-after explained. L, a pinion with twelve teeth, at the
upper part of the shaft F, which gives motion to the wheel M, of sixteen teeth
or thereabouts, which, with its axis, is connected with N, a fluted roller,
which said roller N acts against another fluted roller O. (Rollers of this
description, altho' a small part of this machine, are by no means a new
Invention, but are and has been applied to a variety of other purposes in
mechanical operations). The axis P of this last-mentioned fluted roller O
traverses and bears in the slot or fork Q. At the end of the axis is the
pully R, connected by a band or strop to another pully S on the axis T, and on
this axis is also a plain roller U, above which lays another roller V, which
bears with its own weight only on the lower roller U. Both these plain
rollers U and V rest and are contained within the slots or forks W. X, an iron
frame, which bears the whole of the movements described, and beginning with
the letter M, and ending with the letter v, in Section 1 and 2. Y, an iron
bracket screwed fast to the iron frame x, and secured by another screw and nut
to the wooden frame Z. A a, are two strong springs, which act inward, and
are secured and connected by a screw to the iron frame x, at A a, 1, Section 8.
Bb, two nuts on the screw or hook Cc, between which nuts the said spring A a
acts inwards as a lever against the axis of the roller O. The pressure of these
springs are regulated by the said two nuts B b. Section 1, C c, Figure 1, is
represented a band comb on the large wheel I, in which the wool has been first
lashed or laid on. The comb, thus prepared with wool, is attached to and passing
with the revolution of the great wheel I, under the fluted rollers N and O, which
draws the wool between them, and is the first process of producing the slever.
Section 1, Cc, Figure 2, is a comb attached also at the opposite extremity of
the great wheel I, and shews it approaching the rollers. Section 2, Cc,
Figure 3, shews the back part of the combs resting on the brackets Dd, and
in the sockets Ff, on the great wheel I, and in the act and position of deliver-
ing the wool between the fluted rollers N and O. In Section 4, Figure 4
shews the teeth of the same combs, with the wool in the act of delivering
it between the fluted rollers N and O, and the slever passing from them

page_text: between the plain rollers U and V into a tin can Ee, which receives it in its
prepared state for spinning. Section 1, 2, and 4, Dd, shew the brackets
which support the combs on the great wheel I. These brackets are screwed
fast to the said great wheel, and form a connected part thereof on the whole
outward diameter; in which brackets as many combs are placed as may be
wanting, according to the required length of the sleever, which may at plea-
sure be infinitely produced. The combs are shifted and detached from the
brackets and sockets which hold them, when they are to be refilled with wool,
after they have passed the rollers, which is done in the usual way, by hand or
otherwise.
It may be here remarked, as the wool and other materials vary in length of
staple, it requires the rollers to be placed further from or nearer to the combs
in the act of working, for which purpose slots or spaces are made in the iron
frame X, which contain and bear the rollers and other movements herein-
before described, so as to remove the same up or down as occasion shall
require.
Ff shews the different appearance of the socket affixed to the great wheel I,
which receives the lower part of the handle of the comb Cc, Figure 3, through
which is seen to pass a small pin of wood or metal, which at the bottom keep
the combs from rising, and the brackets D d confines the head of the comb
from stirring whilst at work. Where the necks or collars are left in the
several axis and shafts in the Drawings unconnected, it is for their stays
or bearings, which could not be well introduced without incumbering the
Drawing with unnecessary lines; their situations, being so simple, may be easily
conceived. What has been heretofore sayd respecting the bringing of wool
into a partial or continued sleever by this machine, described as aforesaid.
It is also further intended, by introducing hackles in the room or stead of
combs, for producing 'flax, hemp, tow, and other materials into a sleever, for
the various purposes of spinning, and constitutes together this novel Invention.
Notwithstanding the machine is described by a horizontal Drawing of the
great wheel 1, it being more plain and less intricate to be understood, yet it
works equally as well in a vertical situation, or the same effect is produced
by a movement in a straight line.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Sellars, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven.
W (L.S.) SELLARS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Sixth day of April, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Sellars came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Seventh day of April, in the year above written.