IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING, CLEANING, BLOWING, OR SCUTCHING ANIMAL WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES OR MATERIALS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Smedley, of Lea Mills, Matlock, in the
County of Derby, Spinner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING, CLEANING, BLOWING, OR
SCUTCHING ANIMAL WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES OR
MATERIALS."
Sealed the 8th September 1853, and dated 1st April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Smedley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st April 1853.
I, JOHN SMEDLEY, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
5 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING, CLEANING,"
BLOWING, OR SCUTCHING ANIMAL WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES," to be as follows:-
Blowing machines, as at present used, have "open beaters;" that is
to say, an axle, with projecting arms and horizontal blades fixed on
o them to the width of the machine, or separate arms with blunt ends.
Instead of these, I propose to use a drum or cylinder, and fix horizontal
blades or shafts thereon; which improvement I find to be much more
efficient than the "open beaters" above mentioned,

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Smedley, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 30th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN SMEDLEY, of Lea Mills, Matlock, in the County of Derby,
Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Smedley, Her especial licence
that I, the said John Smedley, my executors, administrators, and as-
signs, or such others as I, the said John Smedley, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 MA-
CHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING, CLEANING, BLOWING, OR SCUTCHING
ANIMAL WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES OR MATERIALS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Smedley, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly de-
scribe 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 Royal Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Smedley, 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
following statement, that is to say:
My Invention relates to improvements in the construction of the
beaters of the blowing machine; and, instead of open beaters, as now
generally used, I use a drum or cylinder with blades or projecting
knives on the surface of it, so that during its revolutions or revolving

page_text: motion the said blades or knives strike the cotton or material to be
opened, instead of the projecting blades on the arms of the beaters of
the present machines. This alteration or modification of the blowing
machine, although simple in appearance, will be found in practice to be
very efficient, and will be easily understood by reference to the accom-
panying sheet of drawings, in which the same letters of reference are
used to represent similar. parts, where different views or diagrams are
shewn. Fig. 1, is a front view of the drum or cylinder, shewing the
blades or knives on the surface; and, though placed in a perpendicular
or vertical position on the drawing, it revolves horizontally in the
machine; and Fig. 2, is a plan of the same. a, represents the axles
of the drum or cylinder; and b, the blades or knives on its surface.
Having thus described the nature and particulars of my said Inven-
tion, I desire it to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself
to any precise number of blades or knives on the surface of the drum
or cylinder, nor to any particular size or dimensions thereof; but I
claim as of my Invention, and which, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, has not been hitherto used within this realm, the use of a drum
or cylinder with projecting blades or knives for the blowing machine,
as herein described and illustrated in the accompanying sheet of
drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Smedley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of September One thou-
cand night hundred and fifty-three
JOHN SMEDLEY. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named John Smedley, in
the presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
Patent Agent, Manchester.