A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY USED TO GIVE A DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY TO, AND TO WIND ON TO BOBBINS, BARRELS, OR SPOOLS, ROVINGS OF COTTONS, AND THE LIKE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
SELDEN, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of February, in the first year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said David Selden, His especial licence, solo privilege and authority,
that I, the said David Selden, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such other as I, the said David Selden, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned; should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY USED TO GIVE A DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY TO, AND TO
WIND ON TO BOBBINS, BARRELS, OR SPOOLS, ROVINGS OF COTTONS, AND THE LIKE
FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," communicated to me by a Foreigner residing abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said David Selden,
sliall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will moro fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
David Selden, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained by the following description thereof (reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon;
(that is to say):-
The Improvement or Improvements in Machinery used to give a Degree
of Consistency to, and to Wind on to Bobbins, Barrels, or Spools, Rovings of
Cotton, and the like Fibrous Substances, which have or has been com-
municated to me from abroad, consist in certain mechanism to be connected to
or combined with the principle operative parts of the ordinary roving machines,
for the purpose of giving a suitable degree of consistency or compactness to
the fibres of the rovings, previous to their being wound upon the bobbins or
spools, in a different manner to that of the ordinary machine employed for
performing such process, and also for conducting the said rovings to the spools
or bobbins, and causing them to be wound thereon with uniformity; which
said mechanism is fully exhibited in the Drawings hereto annexed, and
will appear perfectly evident by the following description thereof :-
Figure 1 is an elevation of a roving machine as viewed from the end, in
which some parts of the improvements are shewn.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal or top view of the same machine.
Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken through the middle of the machine in the
dotted line A, B, Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a partial section taken through the
machine near the end parallel to Fig. 3, but in the opposite direction in the
dotted line C, D, of Fig. 2, the similar letters of reference indicating corre-
sponding parts of the machinery in all these four figures. The carded cotton
being placed in cans in front of the roving machine as usual, the filements are
conducted thence through the drawing rollers a, a, a, for the purpose of being
drawn into rovings. These rovings are then passed between two rubbing
surfaces b, 6, which by their progressive motion on rollers, carry the rovings for-
ward to the spools or bobbins c, c, c, but at the same time, by a reciprocating
lateral traverse given to these rubbing surfaces, they twist and untwist the
filements as they advance, and deliver them ready to be wound upon the spools
in a compact state, but nearly, if not perfectly, in an untwisted roving. The
two rubbing surfaces 6, b, are formed by two endless sheets of leather, or some
other suitable material combining flexibility with firmness of substance and

page_text: roughness of surface. These endless sheets are distended by rollers d, d, d, d,
which are mounted on pivots turning in the end pieces e, e, e, e, of two sliding
carriages. Two flat boards or other suitable material are fixed in the said car-
riages at f, f, which extend the whole length of ech' carriage for the purpose
of keeping the two surfaces of the rubbing leathers b, b, in close contact, as
they pass between the boards. The actuating power being applied to the
rigger g, the shaft h is made to turn, and a pinion upon this shaft gives motion
to the drawing rollers, as usual in other roving machines. By a connection of
gear work, the said shaft h actuates the lower toothed cylinder i, fixed to the
axle of the lower roller d, and this, taking into a corresponding toothed cylinder
fixed on the axle of the upper roller d, these rollers d, d, are both made to
turn simultaneously in opposite directions, conducting the two surfaces of the
leather 6, which are in contact, and also the rovings which are between them
towards the back part of the machine. The rovings, on being discharged from
between the rubbing surfaces, are passed over a rod and through guides k, k, k,
to the spools or bobbins c, c, c, and are laid evenly round the barrels of the
spools in uniform coils by traversing the guides, as will be further described
hereafter. In order to give compactness or consistancy to the fibres of the
rovings delivered from the drawing rollers, the rubbing process is introduced,
which is effected by the following means-At the extremity of the shaft h
there is affixed a bevel toothed wheel 6, taking into a similar wheel m, fixed
on the top of a vertical shaft mounted at the end of the machine. Upon this
shaft is fixed a crank arm n, which is connected by a link o, to a lever on the
axle of a reciprocating toothed wheel p, and of consequence, as the crank n
goes round, the wheel p is made to turn to and fro upon its axis. Two racks
9, 9, are respectively connected by joint to the upper and lower sliding carriages
e, e, e, e, and hence the reciprocating movements of the toothed wheel p cause
the racks q, q, to slide the carriages to and fro laterally in opposite directions
guided by the eyes or ears at the ends of the carriages e, e, sliding upon the
fixed rods j, j, and thereby producing that rubbing of the rovings between the
two surfaces of leather, which twists and untwists the filiaments of cotton as
before mentioned, for the purpose of giving compactness or consistancy
to the roving previously to its being wound upon the spools or bobbins.
The bobbins c, c, c, are mounted upon small axles as usual, supported in
forked arms fixed upon the longitudinal rods r, r, which rods are screwed by
auts to the framework of the machine. The peripheries of the bobbins bear
upon the aprons 8, 8, 8, 8, which aprons are formed by endless belts of leather,
extended over the two tension rollers v, v; and one of these rollers, being made

page_text: to turn by means of pullies and bands from the main shaft h, the aprons
s, 8, 8, 8, are driven, and the bobbins c, c, c, turned round, by the friction of
their contact with the travelling aprons. It will hence be perceived that the
speed with which the bobbins revolve upon their axles and take up or wind on
the rovings, will not be increased by the accumulation of the rovings or
enlargement of their diameters, but that as they are turned by the contact of
the uniformly-travelling apron, their rotation will be at all times equal to
the taking up required. The guiding of the rovings on to the spools or
bobbins in uniform coils may be effected in several ways. That which is
proposed to be employed in connection with this improved machine, as a
convenient mode of guiding the rovings, consists in attaching the guides or
eyes k, k, k, to long rods mounted upon standards affixed to the sliding carriage
u, u, which carriage has wheels or pullies under it running upon longitudinal
rods w, w, seen best in Fig. 3. A cord extending from a pulley on the
shaft (driven by the bands before described) is passed over a bowl or pully
fixed on a vertical shaft y, y, as shewn in Fig. 4. Upon this shaft there is a
horizontal wheel Z, one half of the periphery of which wheel has teeth, the
other half is plain. On each side of this wheel there a small rack fastened
to the sliding carriage; and as the wheel goes round, its teeth, taking alternately
into the one or the other of these racks, drives the carriage u to and fro by a
slow motion, and the guides k, l, attached thereto being by these means made
to traverse along in front of the bobbins, the rovings are thereby guided and
laid as they wind on to the spools in uniform coils beside each other from
end to end of the bobbins.
Lastly, I desire it to be understood that, though I have exhibited, in the
Drawings accompanying this my Specification, various parts or portions of
machines that have been heretofore well known and in use, I do not intend to
claim those pieces of mechanism as new. But I claim the whole of such parts
combined as a new combination of mechanism adopted to give a degree of
consistancy to, and to wind on to bobbins, barrels, or spools, rovings of cotton
and the like fibrous substance; and I claim in particular the employment of
rubbing surfaces for the purpose of giving a compactness or consistancy to
rovings previously to their being wound on spools or bobbins.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Selden, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
DAVID (L.B.) SELDEN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of August,
in the second year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said David Selden came before our said Lord the King, in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of August, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-one.
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