AN IMPROVED MODE OF DOPPING FIBROUS MATERIALS FROM HACKLERING
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richards Harding, of Leeds, in the County
of York, Hackle and Hackle Pin Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED MODE OF DOPPING FIBROUS MATERIALS FROM HACKLE
Sealed the 9th January 1855, and dated the 11th July 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richards Harding
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
11th July 1854.
I, THOMAS RICHARDS HARDING, of Leeds, in the County of York, Hackle
and Hackle Pin Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF DOFFING FIBROUS MATERIALS FROM HACKLE
CYLINDERS AND GILL OR PORCUPINE OR PREPARING ROLLERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel mode of doffing or discharging the fibre
from hackle cylinders and gill or porcupine rollers, whereby a greater amount
of work may be effected in a given time than by the ordinary modes of doffing.
In carrying out this Invention, I construct the cylinders or rollers with lines of
pins set helically around their periphery instead of in straight lines, and I cause
the stripper pins to traverse along these helical lines of pins, and thereby lift

page_text: up the fibres free of the pins. The fibres may be then drawn off the stripper
pins by any ordinary arrangement of drawing-off apparatus. I may find it
desirable, instead of fixing the hackle or gill pins on a plain cylindrical surface,
to fix them on ribs, which take the direction intended for the pins. By this
means I form, between the rows of pins, helical grooves in which the points
of the strippers may work, and by which, when the cylinder is rotating, they
may be actuated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richards Harding in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 11th January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
RICHARDS HARDING, of Leeds, in the County of York, Hackle and Hackle
Pin Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and-fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Richards Harding, Her special license that I, the said Thomas
Richards Harding, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Thomas Richards Harding, 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
"AN IMPROVED MODE oz DOPFING FIBROUS MATERIALS FROM HACKLE CYLINDERS
AND GILL OR PORCUPINE OR PREPARING ROLLERS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Richards Harding, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, 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 Thomas Richards Harding, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the

page_text: following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to a novel mode of doffing or discharging the fibre
from hackle cylinders and gill or porcupine rollers, whereby a greater amount
of work may be effected in a given time than by the ordinary modes of
doffing.
In carrying out this Invention, I construct the cylinders or rollers with lines
of pins set helically around their periphery instead of in straight lines, and I
cause the stripper pins to traverse along these helical lines of pins, and thereby
lift up the fibres free of the pins. The fibres may then be drawn off the
stripper pins by any ordinary arrangement of drawing-off apparatus.
I may
find it desirable, instead of fixing the hackle or gill pins on a plain cylindrical
surface, to fix them on ribs, which take the direction intended for the pins.
By this means I form, between the rows of pins, helical grooves in which the
points of the strippers may work, and by which, when the cylinder is rotating,
they may be actuated.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shown several arrangements of
machinery for carrying my improvements into effect. Fig. 1 is a longitudinal
section, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section, of one arrangement, in which two
porcupine or combing cylinders a, a, are employed. These cylinders are
mounted side by side in suitable bearings, and are connected together by spur
gearing b, b, in order to ensure their rotation at precisely the same speed.
Steam chests c, c, are placed below the cylinders a, a, for the purpose of
heating the teeth of the cylinders. The fibre to be operated upon is fed into
the machine by means of the endless apron d, and is taken therefrom by the
small porcupine roller e, and conveyed thereby to the large cylinders a, the
peripheries of which are driven at a much greater speed than that of the
roller e, for the purpose of creating a draft, or producing the effect of combing
or straightening the fibres. There being two combing cylinders a, a, of course
a similar feeding arrangement is placed on the opposite side. The teeth or
pins of the cylinders a, a, are set in helical lines round the cylinders, and aro
not only inclined to the plane of the periphery of the cylinder, as is now
usually the case, and as shewn in Fig. 2, but are also set at an angle to the
helical line in which they are ranged round the cylinder, as will be seen in
Fig. 1. Between the two cylinders a, a, are mounted sets of travelling combs
or strippers f, f, which are connected together in the form of an endless
chain 9, 9, 9, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2. A plan view of one of these
strippers or combs is shewn detached at Fig. 3, and it will be seen that the
teeth thereof are inclined in such a manner as to correspond with the helical
.

page_text: line of the pins or teeth of the cylinders a, a.
These strippers or combs have
a slow progressive motion communicated to them by means of a snail or end-
less screw on the shaft of one of the cylinders a, being made to gear into a
screw wheel on the axle of one of the wheels h, h, which carry the endless
chain g,g. The speed of this chain must of course be made to correspond
with the motion of the cylinders a, and must be so calculated and arranged
that the teeth of the strippers or combs f, f, may traverse from end to end
of the cylinders a in the helical lines between the rows of pins on the
cylinders, so that the pins of the strippers or combs may go under, lift out, and
remove all the fibres from the said cylinders, and deliver the combed fibres
to the taking-off rollers, i, i, Fig. 1, at the other end, or deliver them to
another porcupine roller if a further draft be required.
Fig. 4 is a sectional view, representing an arrangement in which only one
cylinder a is employed. Fig. 5 is a side view of this cylinder, and the
travelling combs in front thereof. In this instance, immediately the strippers
or combs f remove the fibres from the cylinder a, the taking-off rollers i, i,
draw them from the strippers or combs, instead of allowing the latter to
carry. the material out of the machine as before. The rollers i, i, must,
therefore, be of the same length, or nearly so, as the cylinder a. Instead of
effecting the slow progressive motion of the travelling strippers or combs f, f
in the manner described in reference to Figures 1 and 2, they may be actuated
by means of a screw toothed wheel of suitable pitch, being made to take
into a rack on the sides of the strippers or combs. Fig. 6 is an end view,
and Fig. 7 a side view, of another arrangement, in which the stripper pins are
mounted on discs or wheels, and made to rotate round a centre. The discs or
wheels are shewn at k, k, and are provided with one, two, or more pins; they
are mounted at an angle, and have a slightly lateral motion communicated to
them, corresponding with the motion of the helices of the cylinder a. The
discs are kept in their inclined position by a comb bar or plate 7, 7, to which a
lateral or shogging motion is communicated, so that at every rotation of the
lises the pins may not only be carried along the helical grooves of the cylinder a,
but they may be brought back to their original position, after acting on and
lifting out the fibres.
The shaft m, m, which passes through all the discs or wheels k, k, and
actuates the same, is provided with a slot or feather, whereby the motion of
the shaft is transferred to the discs k, as will be well understood. This will
admit of the comb bar or plate l with the discs & moving laterally, so as to keep
the pins of the disc in the helical grooves of the cylinder as the latter rotates,
and immediately the pins of the discs are free of the pins of the cylinder, the

page_text: comb bar or plate l is moved back, and the discs brought to their origina place,
ready to act a second time on the cylinder. In place of the, separate discs,
mounted in a comb bar or plate 1, and actuated by the shaft m, I propose
sometimes to employ a kind of porcupine roller, provided with only one or two
teeth for every groove of the helical coil of the cylinder a, as shewn also in
Fig. 6 at n. This roller need only be a simple shaft or bar, provided with
pins or teeth, as shewn, and to which a lateral motion must be communicated
by means of a cam or other suitable contrivance, so that the stripper pins or
teeth of the bar or roller may be kept in the helical grooves of the cylinder a,
and made to travel therewith; and when the pins have become free, the
roller n will move back again to its original position, ready for another
operation. Behind the roller n, or the discs k, k, (whichever contrivance is
employed,) there must be a stripper or other suitable mechanical arrangement
for taking off the combed fibre, as is well understood. Fig. 8 is a side view,
and Fig. 9 a front view, of another arrangement, which is only applicable
when the porcupine cylinder a is very narrow, such as would be used in
drawing apparatus. A wheel o, o, is provided round its periphery with inclined
teeth, which take into the helical groove of the cylinder a, and lift out and
remove the fibre therefrom, as will be understood by referring to the Drawing.
I do not find it necessary to provide any mechanical arrangement for actuating
the wheel o, as it will be found that the teeth of the porcupine cylinder a will
be sufficient to drive the wheel o at the proper speed.
Having now described my Invention of an "Improved Mode of Doffing
Fibrous Materials from Hackle Cylinders and Gill or Porcupine or Preparing
Rollers, and also the method of carrying the same into effect, I claim, in
conclusion,-
First, the use and application, for the purposes above set forth, of stripper
pins or teeth, which while in action are made to move or travel laterally,
so that the points of such pins or teeth may be kept in the helical lines
or grooves of the pins on the porcupine or other cylinders or rollers which
require doffing.
Second, I claim setting the pins or teeth of the porcupine or other cylin-
ders at an angle, or inclined towards the end of the cylinder, for the purpose
of facilitating doffing. I also claim setting the stripper pins or teeth at an
angle corresponding to the helical line of the pins on the porcupine or other
cylinder.
Third, I claim arranging sets of stripper pins or teeth on each side of a
travelling endless chain, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, so that the teeth may
be made to act on two cylinders at one time.

page_text: Lastly, I claim the use of rollers or discs or bars, with one, two, or more
teeth or rows of teeth or pins, for the purpose of stripping or doffing, as shewn
in Figures 6 and 7.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richards Harding, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
Wx MACKEN.
THOS R. HARDING. (L.B.)