IMPROVEMENTS IN HACKLING MACHINES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Clayton Mewburn, of 172, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent and Consulting Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HACKLING MACHINES." -A
communication from abroad by Pierre Charles Florentin Joseph
Droulers-Vernier, of Lille, France.
Sealed the 22nd May 1872, and dated the 17th February 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Clayton Mewburn
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th February 1872.
I, JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 172, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent and Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HACKLING MACHINES,"
to be as follows :-
This Invention has reference to those hackling machines in which sets
of hackle bars are carried upon endless travelling aprons or straps, the

page_text: said aprons or straps being passed round drums or cylinders at the lower
part of the machine and round shafts at the upper part where the flax
or fibre to be hackled is presented to the hackle pins by suitable holders.
In these machines as heretofore constructed it is found that the hackle
bars descend by a series of jerks owing to the small diameter of the
upper shaft before referred to, and besides the hackle pins cannot
approach very close to the fibre holders.
Now this Invention consists in the employment of guides for the
purpose of giving a greater diameter to the hackle bars and travelling
aprons, that is to say, of producing a greater separation between those
bars which are travelling upwards and those which are travelling
downwards. The effect of this is that the motion of the hackle bars is
regular and free from jerks and that the hackle pins can approach very
close to the fibre holders. The hackled portion of the fibre may there-
fore be held at a very little distance from the unhackled portion when
the fibre is reversed for the purpose of presenting the opposite ends or
unhackled portion to the action of the machine. The upper shaft,
round which the hackle bars travel, may when these guides are used be
made of small diameter, less than an inch.
The guides above mentioned consist of bars attached at an angle near
the ends of the upper shaft, so that the ends of the hackle bars may
travel upon or over them. These guide bars are held by blocks or
supports upon cross beams.
The hackle pins are by preference flat and placed in the centre of their
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Clayton Mewburn in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th June 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 172, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent 30
Agent and Consulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Clayton Mewburn, Her special
licence that I, the said John Clayton Mewburn, my executors, adminis-
3trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Clayton Mewburn,
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN HACKLING MACHINES," (a communication from
abroad by Pierre Charles Florentin Joseph Droulers-Vernier, of Lille,
France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Clayton Mewburn, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, 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 John Clayton Mewburn, 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, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention has reference to those hackling machines in which sets
of hackle bars are carried upon endless travelling aprons or straps, the
said aprons or straps being passed round drums or cylinders at the lower
part of the machine and round shafts at the upper part where the flax
or fibre to be hackled is presented to the hackle pins by suitable holders.
In these machines as heretofore constructed it is found that the hackle
bars descend by a series of jerks, owing to the small diameter of the
upper shaft before referred to, and besides the hackle pins cannot
approach very close to the fibre holders.
Now this Invention consists in the employment of guides for the
purpose of giving a greater diameter to the hackle bars and travelling
aprons, that is to say, of producing a greater separation between those
bars which are travelling upwards and those which are travelling down-

page_text: wards. The effect of this is that the motion of the hackle bars is regular
and free from jerks, and that the hackle pins can approach very close to
the fibre holders. The hackled portion of the fibre may therefore be
held at a very little distance from the unhackled portion, when the fibre
is reversed for the purpose of presenting the opposite ends or unhackled 5
portion to the action of the machine. The upper shaft, round which
the hackle bars travel, may when these guides are used be made of small
diameter, less than an inch.
The guides above mentioned consist of bars attached at an angle near
the ends of the upper shafts, so that the ends of the hackle bars may 1
travel upon or over them. These guide bars are held by blocks or
supports upon cross beams.
The hackle pins are by preference flat and placed in the centre of
their bars.
The Invention will be understood by the annexed Drawings.
A, A, are the guide bars; B, B, the hackle bars; C, C, the straps to
which the hackle bars are attached by rivets or pins; D, D, the drums
or cylinders round which the straps pass at the lower part of their
travel; E, E, the upper shafts round which the straps pass. These shafts
are grooved as shewn to give room for the rivets of the hackle bars.
F represents the holders for the flax or fibre to be hackled; G, G, are
the supports for the guide bars; H, H, cross beams to which the
supports G are secured; I, I, brackets for holding the beams H.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, 2
constructing hackling machines, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Clayton Mewburn, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of June One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
1