CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL FOR SPINNING
Year: 1820

page_text: BATE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BATE, of Peterborough, in the County of Northampton, Esquire, send greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of June,
in the first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William Bate,
my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege,
and authority, that I, the said William Bate, my exors, admors, and assigns,
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 " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING HEMP,
FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL FOR SPINNING;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said William Bate, shall
not particularly 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 cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery, within four calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation being
thereunto had) will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Bate, do hereby declare that my said Invention of certain improve-
ments in preparing, hemp, flax, or other fibrous material, consists of certain
cylinders or rollers so disposed as to receive, guide, and hold the hemp, flax, or
other fibrous material, and to conduct the same while it is operated upon or

page_text: broken and dressed by certain revolving scutchers or breakers, which move
with much greater velocity than the said materials, such cylinders or rollers
being disposed and fixed in a frame in such form and manner as to produce
the effect above mentioned, one form of which is shewn by the annexed
Drawing, in which Fig. 1 shews a side view of the machine as it would appear
if part of one of the sides of its frame were removed, which is done to shew
the several parts of the machine more distinctly; and Fig. 2 is an end view of
the same machinery as it would appear if looked at from the right-hand side
of Fig. 1, and which exhibits some of the several cylinders or rollers, and shews
that the several wheels by which motion is communicated to the whole are fixed
at the outside of the frame. Similar letters of reference are used to denote the
same parts in both the said views of the said machine. Thus A, A, A, A, in
both the said Figures is the frame of timber, cast iron, or other fit material for
supporting the machinery, which consists of the main drum B, B, the breaking
rollers D, D, the guiding, rollers E, E, the shaking-frame or trough k, l, m, the
presenting rollers F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, the intermediate conducting and
stretching rollers marked N and O, the secondary scutching drum P, and the
several wheels and levers by means of which motion is communicated to the
several parts. This motion may be derived from wind, water, steam, animal
strength, or other usual prime mover of machinery, and is to be given in the
first instance to the spur wheel Q, which acts into the teeth of the pinions or
small wheels R and S, R being fixed upon, the shaft. of the main drum B, while S
acts into the teeth of the pinion T, which is fixed upon the shaft. of the secondary
drum P, so that when the wheel Q is turned both the said drums will revolve
rapidly. Upon the shaft V of the main drum B an endless screw z is formed,
and into this.the teeth, of the screw wheels .U and W engage. The former of
these wheels U.is hung upon a shaft, carrying the bevil wheel X at its opposite
end. This wheel:acts into another, bevil wheel Y, upon the axis. of which is
also fixed the smal spur.wheel Z, the teeth of which act into the teeth of a
spur wheel of the same diameter as the main drum, as shewn at a, a, a. This
wheel is hung upon (but not fixed to) around part of the main drum shaft V,
and consequently.is.free to move upon it, which it does with a slow motion,
derived as aforesaid. This large spur wheel a, a, a, acts into the teeth of five
wheels fixed upon the ends of the axles or shafts of the five presenting rollers
F, G, H, I and J, and thus a slow, steady, and equal, motion is given to all of
them, while the intermediate conducting rollers derive their motion from smaller
wheels also fixed on their axles, and taking into the teeth of the wheels of the
presenting rollers, but not touching those of the great wheel a, a, a. The
lower presenting rollers L, M, obtain their motion from another large wheel

page_text: b, b, turning freely on the shaft of the secondary drum P, as already described
This wheel b, b, derives its motion
and since the teeth of two wheels
in the speaking of the large wheel a; a; a.
from taking into the teeth of the wheel K,
upon the ends of the shafts or axles of the presenting rollers L and M take
5 into b, b, they will be moved while the teeth of the pinions upon the ends of the
three intermediate rollers 0, 0, 0, take into the teeth of the wheels K, L, M;
without touching those of the great wheel b; b. The other screw wheel W
takes into the same endless' screw z aforesaid, formed on the shaft V of the main
drum B, and thus motion is communicated to the pair of bevil wheels c, d,
and by them to the wheel e, which is hung on the same shaft as d. The
wheel e takes into the teeth of the larger spur wheel f, which again communi-
cates with the wheel g fixed upon the end of the shaft or axle of one of the
sharp grooved cylinders D, and as the wheelf likewise takes into the teeth of
the wheel h, and this acts upon the wheel i, also placed upon the end of the
shaft or axle of the other similarly grooved cylinder D, it is evident that the
whole machine will be put into motion at once, whenever the first wheel Q is
turned by the application of any power. One of the grooved cylinders. D turns
in fixed bearings, and the other in sliding ones, and they are pressed into con-
tact by a lever and weight x, y, at each side of the machine, so as to accom-
modate themselves to the varying thickness of the flax or other materials
introduced. Each of the drums B and P are equipped with scutchers or
beaters on their circumference, as at C, C, C, C, four of which on each drum
will be sufficient, and these, together with the drums themselves; are similar in
construction to those generally used in thrashing machines, except only that
for fine work the scutchers should be fixed upon springs, to enable them to give
way, and to prevent their having too much power over the materials. to. be
dressed or broken. The flax or other material to be broken or dressed is to
be introduced between the grooved rollers D, D, as regularly as possible with
half the length of the straw laid successively over half the length of the straw
that went before it, in order to keep up and maintain a regular course of supply.
without its breaking or giving way. The operation of these grooved rollers will be
to break off the principal part of the boon or woody matter, and to prevent this
from falling upon the machine a shade or trough, sloping both ways, as.at k, k, is
placed under these rollers and over the machinery, this trough has a long slip or
opening through its upper part, as at l, for the flax to pass through, and has a
kind of spout at each of its lower extremities m, m, to convey. the chaff away.
This trough is kept constantly shaking while the machine is at work by means of
the two levers n, n, connected with its under side, the bottom of the lowest lever
being brought into contact with an excentric wheel or with joggles fixed
upon the

page_text: shaft V of the main drum B, by which means the chaff is made to move away
The flax or other material, after passing
from the spouts or shoots m, m.
thro' the slit 1, is passed between the two light rollers E, E, for holding and
conducting it, for which purpose they are kept together by springs or light
weights. They have toothed wheels of equal size fixed to one of their ends to
insure their moving together, and they derive their motion from the interme-
diate toothed wheel s, which takes into the teeth of the wheel of the first
presenting roller F. The flax or other material then passes between such first
presenting roller F and the holding roller p, which is about half the diameter
of F, and has a toothed wheel on its axis taking into the wheel of F. The
roller p moves in a sliding bearing, and must be pressed against the roller F
by springs or other means with sufficient force to prevent the flax or other
material from being torn or carried away by the action of the scutchers. The
flax or other material then passes under the lower part of the presenting roller
F, over the top of the first conducting roller N, under the second presenting
roller G, and so on, as indicated by the red line in Fig. 1, until it arrives at the
point q, when, having presented one side only to the operation of the scutchers
or breakers C, C, C, C, on the main drum B, it becomes necessary to turn the
flax or other material, in order that its other side may be operated upon; and
this is effected by passing it under the presenting roller K, over the interme-
diate or conducting one O, under L, over the second conducting roller Q, and
over the last presenting roller M; and since the rollers K, L, and M have
their surfaces in contact with the scutchers of the secondary drum P, instead
of with those of the main drum B, of course the opposite side to that which
was first operated upon will now be dressed. The second drum P and its
presenting cylinders K, L, M, may be made less than the first drum and
presenting cylinders, because the greatest part of the dressing will have been
performed above; and since it is necessary for the due operation of the
machine that the flax or other material should be evenly drawn and stretched
over the several surfaces of the rollers or cylinders, which are all flat and
smooth, with the exception of those marked D, D, I make each roller F, G,
H, I, J, and also K, L, and M, which are smaller by about an inch
in diameter than those above them, to increase in diameter, each about
the sixteenth of an inch beyond that which preceded it, so that by this
means the speed of the surface of each roller in succession is sufficiently
increased to produce such effect; and in order to insure the due con
ducting of the materials to be so broken or dressed, the smaller or inter
mediate rollers marked N and O, which are smooth on their surfaces, mus
also have their diameters increased in like proportion as the larger rollers

page_text: and, that they may accommodate themselves to any varying quantity of
material, they should all be placed in sliding bearings, and be forced against
the presenting rollers by springs or weights of sufficient force to prevent the
said materials from being torn or drawn from between the said rollers or
cylinders by the action of the scutchers. W, W, are sheilds of rolled iron
placed under the presenting rollers to prevent the flax or other material from
being carried directly from one presenting roller to another, without passing
over the intermediate rollers. The rollers or cylinders are formed of hard
wood, cast iron, or other material, and the distance of their centers one from
the other must be so regulated and adjusted in constructing the machine that
the conducting or intermediate rollers cannot pass between one presenting
roller and another, even when no flax or other material is introduced into the
machine; and likewise that when such material is so introduced, these
scutchers or intermediate rollers cannot in any case have the teeth of their
end or driving wheels brought into contact with the teeth of the great wheels
a, a, a, or b, b. In the Drawings of this machine the number of presenting
rollers is eight, viz, five for the preparation of one side of the flax or other
material, and three for the other side; but this number may be varied in
proportion to the fineness of the work required, and in some cases it may be
necessary to pass the material more than once thro' the machine, or even to
pass it thro' another sınaller but similar machine to reduce it to the fineness
required, for the process may be repeated as often as it may be found
necessary.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bate, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of October, in the year of our Lord