IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry James Hogg King, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER
Sealed the 2nd December 1873, and dated the 14th June 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry James Hogg
King at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th June 1873.
I, HENRY JAMES HOGG KING, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WOOL, COTTON, OR
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO CARDING OR OTHER MACHINES," to be as follows,
that is to say :-
This Invention relates to what is now well known as Evans and
King's "first feed" machine, the earliest modification of which is
described in the Specification of Letters Patent obtained by Philip

page_text: Charles Evans and the present applicant, and dated 20 January 1869,
(No. 184.)
One improvement consists in arranging for the separately weighed
portions of the fibrous materials to be equidistantly spaced on the feed
apron, notwithstanding that the weighing pan may become filled and
emptied at unequal intervals. The proper deposition of the fibrous
materials on the feed apron is insured by an inclined shaking board, down
which they fall, and this board is made to vibrate by an eccentric on the
main or other convenient revolving shaft. The eccentric acts on a lever
connected to the board, and the lever is upon a movable fulcrum which
is on a bell-crank lever, placed so as to be acted on periodically by the
cam which is on the feed apron roller, and which restarts the weighing
mechanism after each action. The bell crank causes the shaking board
to move forward at regular intervals, and it pushes each portion of
the fibrous materials forward to a certain position if it does not happen
to have reached it by the progressive motion of the feed apron. If
preferred the desired action may be effected by means of an additional
board or a rake instead of by the shaking board.
A second improvement relates to the modification of the machine in
which the circumstances of existing carding machines or want of space
requires it to be placed entirely above the ordinary feed apron. It
has been proposed to reverse the machine when placed as described
and to carry forward the fibrous materials under it, but this has been
found to be accompanied by inconvenience in putting the fibrous
materials into the machine.
By the present Invention the machine is not reversed, but an inclined
board is placed in a reversed position to lead the weighed fibrous
materials down under the machine, to be acted on by the spreading or
equalising apparatus, and by a board or propeller, effecting the purpose
of the first improvement herein-before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry James Hogg King in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 3rd December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
JAMES HOGG KING, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, 8
Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry James Hogg King, Her special
licence that I, the said Henry James Hogg King, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry James
Hogg King, 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 APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS TO CARDING OR OTHER MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henry James Hogg King, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 Henry James Hogg King, 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 in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to what is now well known as Evans and
King's "first feed " machine, the earliest modification of which is de-
scribed in the Specification of Letters Patent obtained by Philip Charles
Evans and myself, and dated 20 January 1869 (No. 184.)
And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing
modifications of apparatus embodying my various improvements. In
these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same
or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 is a side elevation showing a fragment of the frame 1 of the
machine. On the main shaft 2 there is an eccentric 3 and lever 4,

page_text: connected with and conveying a vibratory motion to the inclined board 5,
down which the fibrous materials fall, and which insures their proper
deposition on the feed apron 6. The lever 4 is on a movable fulcrum
pin 7 on a bell crank lever 8, centred on a stud 9 on a projection on
the frame 1 of the machine, and placed so as to be acted on periodically
by the cam 10 on the feed apron roller 11, which cam 10 restarts
the weighing mechanism after each action. The shaking board 5 is
suspended on studs 12 on the frame 1, and receives its motion from the
eccentric 3 and lever 4, through a link 13 and adjustable connecting
piece 14. The bell-crank lever 8 causes the shaking board 5 to move
forward at regular intervals, without interfering with the shaking motion,
and it pushes each portion of the fibrous materials forward to a certain
position if it does not happen to have reached it by the progressive
motion of the feed apron. The separately weighed portions of the
fibrous materials are thus equidistantly spaced on the feed apron
notwithstanding that the weighing pan may become filled and emptied
at unequal intervals.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of a portion of the frame 1 of the machine,
showing a modification of my first improvement in which the board 5
does not have the shaking motion of that shown in Figure 1, and
herein before described, but has its pushing motion. The board 5 is
fixed to bosses on a horizontal spindle 12, the bosses being fixed in
position by pinching screws which permit of adjustment. An arm 15
fixed to another boss on the spindle 12 is acted on by the cam 10,
and communicates the desired motion to the board 5, in the manner
indicated by dotted lines in the Figure.
The desired action may otherwise be effected by means of an additional
board instead of by the shaking board as shown (for example) in
Figure 3, and herein-after described.
A. second improvement relates to the modification of the machine in 3
which the circumstances of existing carding machines, or want of space,
require it to be placed entirely above the ordinary feed apron. It has
been proposed to reverse the machine when placed as described and
carry forward the fibrous materials under it, but this has been found
to be accompanied by inconvenience in putting the fibrous materials a
into the machine.
to
By my present Invention the machine is not reversed, but an inclined
board is placed in a reversed position to lead the weighed fibrous

page_text: materials down to the under part of the machine, to be acted on by
the spreading or equalising apparatus, and by a board or propeller,
effecting the
purpose of my first improvement herein-before described.
"
Figure 3 is a side elevation of the "first feed machine, showing
my improved arrangements. The upper part of the frame 1 forms a
box or hopper into which the fibrous materials are thrown in a loose
state, and an endless apron serves as a bottom to the box, and by its
motion in that direction carries the fibrous materials to a roller 16,
shown by a dotted circle in the Drawing. This roller 16 has hooks.
fixed all over its surface and turning in the direction of the arrow
picks up the fibrous materials and carries them round over its top,
any excess being prevented from passing over by a vibrating paddle
above the roller, but not seen in the Drawing. A revolving paddle
on the shaft 17, working under the hood or cover 18, beats the fibrous
materials off the hooked roller 16, so that they fall into a weighing
scale 19. This scale 19 is carried by three armed levers 20 on a horizontal
spindle 21 supported by brackets 22 on the frame 1, and is counter-
balanced by adjustable weights 23. To one end of the weighing scale
19 there is loosely jointed a pendent rod 24, having at its bottom end
a pin projecting across a hook-toothed wheel which is constantly
revolving inside of an open box. The rim of the box is nearly in contact
with the teeth of the wheel round the sides and bottom, but is at the
top shaped to allow the pin of the pendent rod 24 to rise clear of the
teeth, the top consisting of a spring which allows the parts to yield
when the point of a tooth happens to strike the pin improperly. As
soon as the accumulation of the fibrous materials in the scale 19 causes
the scale to begin to descend, the pin of the pendant rod 24 engages
with the hook-toothed wheel before mentioned, and that wheel draws
down the scale, quickly emptying it, and then carries it up again.
The fibrous materials drop from the scale 19 down upon an endless
apron 6, which carries them into the carding machine, being guided
in their descent by a board 25, and are then pushed forward to the
proper position by a board 5, such as is herein-before described with
reference to Figure 2 of the Drawings. The board 5 is actuated by
the cam 10 on the roller of the feed apron 6. The various movements
herein-before described are all derived from a transverse horizontal
shaft 2, which is itself to be driven from the carding or other machine

page_text: by means of a pitch chain or otherwise. A cord transmits motion from
a pulley 26 on the main shaft 2 to a pulley 27, which is on a stud and
which has fast to it a pinion gearing with a spur wheel 28, indicated
by a red circle, and fast on the spindle of the hook-toothed wheel which
draws down the weighing scale. From another pulley 29 on the shaft
2 a belt 30 transmits motion to two pulleys, one 31 being on the
spindle 17 of the doffing paddle, and the other 32 on a stud, and having|
an eccentric pin which, by a connecting rod 33 jointed to a crank arm
on the spindle 34 of the vibrating paddle above the hooked roller 16,
gives the vibrating motion to that paddle. The hooked roller 16 is
driven from the paddle shaft 17 by means of a pair of bevil wheels 35,
one of which is on a spindle having on it a worm 36 in gear with a
worm wheel 37, on the spindle of the hooked roller 16. When the
weighing scale is being emptied a fork 38 on a vertical rod 39 shifts
the belt 30 to a loose pulley beside the pulley 31, in consequence of
which the motion of the hooked roller ceases for the time. The rod 39
is held up by a catch lever 40 which engages under a shoulder formed
on it, but when the weighing scale 19 begins to descend a pin 41 fixed
to it throws off the catch lever 40 and the rod 39 descends by its own
weight. After each emptying of the scale 19 the feeding is discontinued
until the rod 39 is again raised, which is done by a lever 42 acted on by
a cam 43 adapted to the speed and requirements of the carding or
other machine, and which it is generally found convenient to fix on
one of the rollers of the feed apron 6. When the weighing scale 19
rises after each emptying it is prevented from oscillating by a light
spring blade 44, which gets under one of the lever arms 20, and this
spring is afterwards pushed out of the way when the rod 39 is raised
by an arm 45 on that rod, which arm passes through an inclined guide
slot that makes the rod turn partly round when rising or falling.
turning of the rod 39 is availed of when it descends to move a brake 46,
fixed on the rod near its upper end into contact with the pulley 31.
A pulley on the spindle of the hooked roller 16 transmits motion by
a cord to pulleys on the rollers of the endless apron, which constitutes
the bottom of the box or hopper into which the fibrous materials are
first placed.
This
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself
to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what 1

page_text: believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The arranging for the separately weighed portions of the fibrous
materials to be equidistantly spaced on the feed apron by means of a
periodically moved board or rake which pushes each portion forward
when required, substantially as herein-before described.
2. The imparting of a continuous shaking motion as well as a
periodical forwarding motion to the board 5, substantially as herein-
before described.
3. The arranging of the machine above the feed apron 6, but with
the weighing details facing the carding or other machine which is in
connection, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry James Hogg King, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.