IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND POLISHING YARN, THREAD, TWINE, CORDS, OR ROPES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hill, of Leeds, in the County of York,
Twine and Linen Manufacturer, and Thomas Whitehead, of the Firm of
Taylor, Wordsworth, and Company, of the same Place, Machine Makers,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND
POLISHING YARN, THREAD, TWINE, CORDS, OR ROPES."
Sealed the 25th September 1866, and dated the 2nd April 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hill and Thomas
Whitehead at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 2nd April 1866.
We, WILLIAM HILL, of Leeds, in the County of York, Twine and Linen
Manufacturer, and THOMAS WHITEHEAD, of the Firm of Taylor, Wordsworth,
and Company, of the same Place, Machine Makers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING
AND POLISHING YARN, THREAD, TWINE, CORDS, OR ROPES," to be as follows:-
The object of our improvements is to dress, polish, and more ovenly lay the
surface fibres of yarn threads, twines, cords, and ropes after the same have
been carded and sized. For this purpose the yarn threads, twine, oords, or
ropes are carried over carding rollers or other rough surfaces, adjustable or not,
which run in a contrary direction or otherwise to the material operated upon,
and at a high speed. The material is then passed over or under a sizing
roller, then over or under one or moro intermediate small plain heated
cylinders, if thought advisable, then over or under one or more polishing

page_text: rollers, and is eventually carried to a large heated and grooved cylinder, which
may be set dead or made to revolve. The material is then taken to another
heated and grooved cylinder which turns in a contrary direction or otherwise
to the material, and which revolves at the same speed as the material travels,
or faster or slower as may be required. Or after leaving the polishing rollers
the material may be carried to one single grooved and heated cylinder only,
but in the latter case the grooves are cut spirally on the surface of the cylinder
like a screw thread, and the cylinder must be stationary. All the threads
of the material operated on are kept separate from each other in passing
through the machine, and the grooves of the heated cylinder receive separate
threads, thereby preventing their massing or sticking together. After the
material leaves the grooved and heated cylinder or cylinders it passes through
folds of a hair or other rope for the purpose of being "snugged" or finally
polished, and then carried to the bobbins in a state ready to be balled or
hanked.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Hill and Thomas Whitehead in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 2nd October 1866,
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
HILL, of Leeds, in the County of York, Twine and Linen Manufacturer, and
THOMAS WHITEHEAD, of the Firm of Taylor, Wordsworth, and Company, of
the same Place, Machine Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Iler most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing dato the Second day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William Hill and Thomas Whitehead, IIer special licence that
we, the said William Hill and Thomas Whitehead, our executors, admin-
istrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Hill and
Thomas Whitehead, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING AND POLISHING YARN, THREAD, TWINE,
CORDS OR ROPES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
William Hill and Thomas Whitehead, our executors or administrators, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under our, 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 Thomas Whitehead, on behalf of:
myself and of the said William Hill, do hereby declare the nature of our,
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to bo
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of our Invention is to dress, polish, and lay the surface fibres of
yarn threads, twines, cords, and ropes after the samo have been carded and
sized in a more efficient manner than heretofore. To this end we employ an
arrangement of machinery in which the yarn after being carried over carding.
rollers or other rough surfaces running at a high speed, either in a contrary
direction or otherwise to the material under operation, is passed over a sizing
roller, then over or under one or more polishing rollers, thence to drawing
rollers, and eventually it is carried round one or more heated and grooved
cylinders, and led out of the machine to bobbins prepared to receive it.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents the carding, sizing, and
polishing machine in side elevation. The yarn threads or cords are led off
from a set of: bobbins A, and after dipping into a trough B they are passed
through a guide C to a carding roller D, which is driven in the reverse
direction to the progress of the yarn or threads. A second guide C¹ now
passes the yarn to a second carding roller D', and after passing through a
third guide the yarn is led over the sizing roller E, which is mounted as usual
in a trough E, and sustains the weight of a pressing roller E2 employed for,
squeezing out the superfluous size from the yarn. The yarn thread, twine, or
cord now sized is led by guides over a series of polishing rollers F, F, F.
Before passing the yarn or twine to the drawing rollers it is advisable to
subject it to the beat of one or more polished steam pipes, in order that the
size may be set before being acted upon by the drawing rollers.
pipes is shown at G. The drawing rollers are marked H, and
heated or not as thought desirable. The course of the yarn, twine, or cord
after passing under and over the rollers H, as shewn by the red line, is now
led to a large heated cylinder I, which in this arrangement is stationary. It
is provided with spirally cut grooves like a screw thread to separate the
threads under treatment and to keep them from sticking together. Tho
One of these
they may be

page_text: threads after being laid round this cylinder I pass upwards to a revolving
small heated cylinder K, furnished with straight grooves, and down again from
this cylinder to the heated cylinder I, or as many times round the heated
cylinders I and K (as shown in the Diagram, Fig. 5) as may be thought
necessary to make it sufficiently dry, and the threads are then led out of the
machine to the bobbins L, on to which they are wound. While passing from
one heated cylinder to the other the threads are operated upon by extra
polishing rollers M, M, but in some cases the use of these rollers may not be
thought advisable.
The traverse of the yarn thread or cord through the machine and the
rotation of tho various revolving rollers and cylinders is effected by the
following means:-N, N', are two transverse driving shafts mounted in
bearings in the lower part of the framework of the machine. These shafts
carry belt pulleys 1 of similar diameter, and by means of a belt the shafts are
coupled together. On rotary motion being given to one shaft in the direction
of the red arrow from any first mover that motion will be transmitted to the
other. The shafts N, N', are also fitted with a belt pulley 2, and by the aid
of guide pulleys 3 endless bands are led from the pulleys 2 round the pulleys
4 and 5 respectively of the rollers D and F. Thus rotary motion is given to
the card rollers D and the polishing rollers F in the direction opposite to that
of the progress of the yarn. On the shaft N is keyed a small belt pulley 6,
which through a cross belt drives a pulley 7 mounted on a stud axle, and
carrying a spur pinion 8; this pinion gears into a spur wheel 9 keyed on the
shaft of the size roller E, and through this means it receives its rotary motion.
A similar arrangement of gearing is employed to transmit motion from the
shaft N to the first of the three drawing rollers H, and from a belt pulley on
the axle of the third of the drawing rollers motion is conveyed to the
cylinder K. When the extra polishing rollers M are used they are driven
by a band from a pulley on the axle of the last of the polishing rollers F.
.
A modification of the above-described machine is shewn at Fig. 2, which
represents an arrangement of gearing for both the heated cylinders I and K.
In this case the cylinders must have straight, cut, or parallel grooves, as
shewn at Fig. 3. The top heated cylinder K may either revolve in the same
direction or the contrary, as may be thought advisable to the progress of the
material under operation. On leaving theso cylinders it is passed round a
hair rope O, whereby it is finally "snugged" or polished. Motion is trans-
mitted from the shaft N of Fig. 1 to the belt pulley 1, Fig. 2, which is
mounted on an adjustable stud axle carried by a standard of the main
framing. On the boss of this pulley is a spur pinion 2 which gears with a

page_text: spur wheel 3 on the shaft of the cylinder I, and also with an intermediate spur
wheel 4 carried by an adjustable stud axle. This wheel 4 gears into a spur
wheel 5 on the axle of the cylinder K, and thus transmits rotary motion to
that cylinder.
Fig. 4 shows the arrangement of the grooves with a stationary top heated
cylinder and a rotating bottom heated cylinder. In this caso the top heated
cylinder has spirally cut grooves like a screw thread, and the bottom heated
cylinder parallel grooves.
For polishing yarn, instead of taking the yarn to the drying room, as is now
usually done, we prefer to take the yarn direct from the spinning prior to
passing it through the process herein-before described, and to place the bobbin
in a creel, as shewn at a, Fig. 6, then to draw the yarn by the drawing
rollers b, b, b, and to lay it round the spirally grooved heated cylinder c
as many times as may be thought desirable to dry and polish it sufficiently,
and to wind it from this cylinder on to the reel swift d in the usual manner.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of improvements in
machinery for dressing and polishing yarn, thread, twine, cords, or ropes,
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it
to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we
claim the arrangement of machinery above described for facilitating the
operation of dressing and polishing or finishing yarn, thread, twine, and cord
or ropes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Whitehead, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the First day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
THOMAS WHITEHEAD. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by
the said Thomas Whitehead,
in the presence of
JA. W. HAMILTON RICHARDSON,
Solicitor, Leeds.
EDWARD WRITELEY,
Clerk to Mess. Richardson & Turner,
Solicitors. Leeds.