IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING OR CUTTING FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Nichols, James Burnley, Thomas Wilson,
and George Jackson, all of Leeds, in the County of York, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING OR CUTTING
FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 1st November 1867, and dated the 21st May 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Nichols, James
Burnley, Thomas Wilson, and George Jackson at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 21st May 1867.
We, WILLIAM NICHOLS, JAMES BURNLEY, THOMAS WILSON, and GEORGE
JACKSON, all of Leeds, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING OR CUTTING
FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
In separating flax into various lengths previously to heckling or carding, as is
practised in the manufacture of that and other fibrous materials, it has been
usual to employ a machine in which every strick or handful of the material is
presented separately by the person attending, who retains hold of the two ends
of the material until it is separated, and then lays them aside preparatory to
taking another handful, or (if the fibrous material is to be separated into more
than two lengths) after a portion is broken or cut off the bandful is again
presented to the machine in a similar manner to that already described.
The flax or other fibrous material when presented to the machine as above

page_text: described is taken hold of transversely by a pair of rollers on each side of the
revolving breaker or cutter; these rollers have annular flutes in their peripheries
which take into each other, and they are caused to revolve at a slow speed
compared with the breaker or cutter, which revolves at a high velocity. The
rollers are pressed together by means of weighted levers or other suitable
means, and the periphery of the rotating wheel of breakers or cutters is set
as near as may be to intersect the point at which the feeding or holding rollers
are nearest together and have the most powerful hold upon the material.
Now persons attending to machines as above arranged have been found in
practice to be liable to injury by reason of their hands being close to the working
parts of the machine, and the object of our Invention is to render such
machines safer as well as to reduce the amount of labour employed in attending
to the machine, and at the same time increase their production by making
the feeding and delivery of the material to and from the breaking
self-acting.
wheel
In carrying out our Invention we arrange endless belts of leather or other
suitable material in such positions that the fibrous material when laid
transversely across the belts is carried by them and presented to the holding
rollers on each side of the breaking wheel, and as the material is delivered
from the holding rollers it is carried away and delivered out of the machine
by such belts. The endless belts are driven by suitable gearing applied to one
of the rollers over which they pass, and we arrange other endless belts over
those first described in such manner that the fibrous material is taken between
the upper and lower belts, and carried (after it has passed the breaking wheel)
the
to the delivering end of the machine, from which it is removed by
attendance. If it is desired to break the material again it is either carried
back and passed through the machine again, or passed through another machine
to be operated upon as above described.
persons
in
When it is desired to separate the fibrous material into three or more
lengths at an operation, we then combine two or more breaking wheels in one
machine, each breaking wheel having arranged with it its pairs of holding
rollers on each side. In a machine so arranged, besides the endless belts
arranged (as above described) outside the holding rollers, we arrange endless
belts between the breaking wheels, such endless belts acting to feed the
material and deliver it in three or more lengths, as may be desired, in the same
manner as that described above, where only one breaking wheel is employed.
The endless belts are so arranged as to be capable of being adjusted to a
suitable degree of tension by means of screws or otherwise, and we protect
the axis and sides of the breaking wheel or wheels by means of suitable guards

page_text: .
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Nichols, James Burnley, Thomas Wilson, and George
Jackson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th November 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
NICHOLS, JAMES BURNLEY, THOMAS WILSON, and GEORGE JACKSON, all of Leeds,
in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
William Nichols, James Burnley, Thomas Wilson, and George Jackson, Her
special license that we, the said William Nichols, James Burnley, Thomas
Wilson, and George Jackson, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Nichols, James Burnley, Thomas
Wilson, and George Jackson, our 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING OR CUTTING FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
William Nichols, James Burnley, Thomas Wilson, and George Jackson, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should par-
ticularly 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 we, the said William Nichols and James Burnley, on
behalf of ourselves and the said Thomas Wilson and George Jackson, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
In separating flax into various lengths previously to heckling or carding, as is

page_text: practised in the manufacture of that and other fibrous materials, it has been
usual to employ a machine in which every strick or handful of the material is
presented separately by the person attending, who retains hold of the two ends
of the material until it is separated and then lays them aside preparatory to
taking another handful, or (if the fibrous material is to be separated into more
than two lengths) after a portion is broken or cut off the handful is again
presented to the machine in a similar manner to that already described. The
flax or other fibrous material when presented to the machine as above
described is taken hold of transversely by a pair of rollers on each side of the
revolving breaker or cutter; these rollers have annular flutes in their peri-
pheries which take into each other, and they are caused to revolve at a
slow speed compared with the breaker or cutter, which revolves at a high
velocity. The rollers are pressed together by means of weighted levers or
other suitable means, and the periphery of the rotating wheel of breakers or
cutters is set as near as may be to intersect the point at which the feeding or
holding rollers are nearest together and have the most powerful hold upon the
material. Now persons attending to machines as above arranged have been
found in practice to be liable to injury by reason of their hands being close to
the working parts of the machine, and the object of our Invention is to
render such machines safe, as well as to reduce the amount of labor employed
in attending to the machine, and at the same time increase their production
by making the feeding and delivery of the material to and from the breaking
wheel self-acting.
2
In carrying out our Invention we arrange endless belts of leather or other
suitable material in such positions that the fibrous material when laid trans-
versely across the belts is carried by them and presented to the holding rollers
on each side of the breaking wheel, and as the material is delivered from the
bolding rollers it is carried away and delivered out of the machine by such
belts. The endless belts are driven by suitable gearing applied to one of the
rollers over which they pass, and we arrange other endless belts over those
first described in such manner that the fibrous material is taken between the
upper and lower belts and carried (after it has passed the breaking wheel)
to the delivering end of the machine, from which it is removed by the persons
in attendance. If it is desired to break the material again it is either carried
back and passed through the machine again, or passed through another
machine to be operated upon as above described.
When it is desired to separate the fibrous material into three or more
lengths at one operation, we then combine two or more breaking wheels in
one machine, each breaking wheel having arranged with it its pairs of holding

page_text: rollers on each side. In a machine so arranged, besides the endless belts
arranged (as above described) outside the holding rollers, we arrange endless
belts between the breaking wheels, such endless belts acting to feed the
material and deliver it in three or more lengths, as may be desired, in the same
manner as that described above, where only one breaking wheel is employed.
The endless belts are so arranged as to be capable of being adjusted to a
suitable degree of tension by means of screws or otherwise, and we protect
the axis and sides of the breaking wheel or wheels by means of suitable guards
or covers, so that the fibrous material after being separated into lengths may
not be disarranged or accumulated by the rotation of the breaking wheel.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, we will now proceed to
describe the accompanying Drawings, which show so much of a machine
constructed according to our Invention as will enable a mechanic acquainted
with this description of machinery to carry the same into operation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figures 1 and 2 shew side views, Figure 3 is a plan, and Figure 4 a
transverse section of some of the parts of a machine arranged according to our
Invention to cut or break the flax or other fibrous material into three lengths
during its passage through the machine; but it will be readily understood
that the machine may be arranged to break the fibrous material into other
numbers of lengths without departing from the nature of our Invention.
a, a, is the framing of the machine, and 6, 6', the cutting or breaking wheels,
which we prefer to form in a similar manner to the cutting and breaking
wheel at present employed. The wheel b, b', are mounted upon an axis b³,
revolving in bearings carried by the framing as shewn, and motion is imparted
to the axis be by means of a belt on the pulley 63. c, c, c, c, are the pairs of
holding or nipping and feeding rollers, a pair of which are arranged, as shewn,
on each side of the breaking wheels b, b, and the lower roller of each pair is
mounted upon the axis c, revolving in bearings carried by the framing, as
shewn; these holding and feeding rollers are formed with annular grooves,
the upper roller taking into the grooves of the lower roller, so as to hold and
grip the fibrous material at the point at which it is presented to the rotating
wheels b, b', and the upper roller of each pair of rollers c, c', c³, c³, is pressed
upon the lower roller by means of the weighted levers c³, c. The axis c* is caused
to revolve at a much lower speed than the axis 6 by means of the train of
toothed pinions and wheels c', c, co, clo, cl, cl, indicated by dotted circles in
Figure 1 of the Drawing, so that the feeding and holding rollers upon the
axis c may present the fibrous material at a suitable speed to the breaking

page_text: wheels b, b', and the upper and lower rollers are caused to revolve together by
means of the wheels c¹³, c, which are of a coarse pitch and long in the tooth,
so as to admit of their remaining in gear when the fibrous material is intro-
duced between the pairs of rollers. The fibrous material to be separated into
lengths is laid transversely across the endless travelling belts d, d', d², and is
conducted by them over the table e and guides e¹ to the holding and feeding
rollers c, c¹, c², c³, which present the material to rotating breaking wheels b, b',
which separate the material into lengths. The further rotation of the feeding
rollers causes them to deliver the separated material, which is then carried
forward by the endless belts d, d, d², in three separate lengths, and there are
endless belts so arranged over each of the belts d, d', d, that the fibrous
material is taken by the lower endless belts d, d', d³, and the upper endless
belts and carried between such upper and lower belts away from the
breaking wheels b, 6', towards the delivering end of the machine, from which
it may be removed and placed aside according to quality by the persons in
attendance. The lower endless belts d, d, d, are arranged to pass over
the table g at the delivering end of the machine, and they pass around
the rollers d', d, and are supported by pullies upon the axis c*.
The axes
of the rollers d³, d', revolve in bearings d, de, carried by the framing of
the machine, and these bearings are capable of adjustment by means of the
screws d', d³, so as to regulate the amount of tension upon the endless belts
passing around them. The roller is caused to revolve, so as to drive the
endless belts d, d', d², by means of the toothed wheels c¹³, do, d¹º, d¹¹, d¹³,
indicated by dotted circles in Figure 2 of the Drawings. The upper endless
belts pass around the rollers f³, fs, motion being communicated to the roller
f, so as to drive the endless belts f by means of the toothed wheel f³ (indi-
cated by a dotted circle in Figure 2 of the Drawing) on the axis f*. The
axis frevolves in the bearings f³ attached to the framing of the machine,
and these bearings can be adjusted by means of screws fa, so as to regulate
the amount of tension upon the endless belts f; the bearings f' are also so
arranged that the roller f³ can rise as the fibrous material passes between the
belts. The axes of the rollers f¹ revolve in the bearings f' attached to the
framing of the machine, and these bearings are so arranged that the rollers fi
can rise as the fibrous material is carried under them. The axis and the
sides of the breaking wheels b, b', are protected by the stationary tubes b* and
the guard plates 65, within which the axis 6 and wheels b, b1, revolve, and
by this means these parts are so protected that they do not disarrange or
accumulate the fibrous material as it is carried through the machine.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which

page_text: the same is performed or carried into practice, we would have it understood
that we do not confine ourselves to the particular arrangement of machinery
herein described and shown by the accompanying Drawings, as the same may
be considerably varied without departing from the true character of our
Invention; but what we claim is the improved arrangements of machinery
herein described for breaking or cutting flax, hemp, jute, or other fibrous
materials, in which the feeding and delivering of the material to and from the
breaking wheels is rendered self-acting, thus increasing their production,
reducing the amount of labour required, and rendering them safer to the
persons employed in attending the same.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Nichols and James Burnley,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifteenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
WILLIAM NICHOLS. (L.S.)
JAMES BURNLEY.
(L.B.)