IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING AND COMBING SILK WASTE, & IN MACHINERY USED THEREFOR."
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Bradford, in the County of
York, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING
AND COMBING SILK WASTE, & IN MACHINERY USED THEREFOR."
Sealed the 11th January 1878, and dated the 10th September 1
$$
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th September 1877.
SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Bradford, in the County of York, Manufacturer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING AND COMBING SILK WASTE, & IN MACHINERY USED
THEREFOR."
This Invention has for its object improvements in dressing and combing silk
waste, and in machinery used therefor.
The filling engine now in use consists of a series of combs placed at suitable
distances round the periphery of a drum, and as the drum rotates the combs detach
successive quantities of silk until they are sufficiently loaded; the drum or cylinder
is then stopped, and the workman removes the accumulated silk from each comb, in
what is termed a book, to be afterwards worked in the dressing frame.
Instead of using the filling engine above described, I have found that a screw
gill nipping head similar to what is used for wool combing may be adapted for
filling the books used in dressing machines with great advantage.
The waste silk being first prepared, or otherwise, as required, is fed up through
a screw gill, and then detached in tufts and placed on a cone, which may either
be stationary or travelling, and when the teeth are sufficiently loaded the accu-
mulated silk is removed in books by the workman in the same way that is now
done with the ordinary filling engine.
Sometimes I use a comb in one of the jaws of the nipper; this comb is made to
penetrate through the silk close to the gill comb, and then as the nipper moves

page_text: away it is drawn gently through the silk for some distance, say, from one inch to
four, or more, depending upon the character of the silk under process, and at the
desired point the jaws close and detach the tuft which is taken by the carrying
comb and placed on the receiving comb, or a comb only may be used to detach the
taft, and upon which it may be allowed to accumulate, but I prefer to transfer it
by a carrying comb to another comb, from which it is removed in books by the
workman from time to time.
For some descriptions of silk the gill or combs acting in a similar manner may have
a reciprocating motion, and in that manner detach successive tufts on to a receiving
comb which are from time to time removed in books by the workman as before
described.
After silk waste has been dressed various attempts have been made to separate
the short fibres from the long, but so far no plan has succeeded. It can be done,
but the cost, together with the great quantity of short made, have rendered it
profitless. I have, however, discovered that the combing machine Patented by
myself and Mr. Warburton, 13th December 1859, No. 2832, may be used as a
separater to great advantage after the waste silk has been dressed, or partially so,
on the dressing frame. The principle of this machine consists in detaching con-
tinuous tufts of fibre from the teeth of a feed comb by means of a circular or
endless nipper, which tufts are then placed upon a comb to be afterwards drawn
into a sliver or slivers.
The waste silk is first dressed quite clean, or sometimes only partially so; it is
then taken to a spreading machine and gilled and made into suitable slivers, these
slivers are then made into balls suitable for the comb, where the long is then
separated from the short.
When the dressed silk is sufficiently clean the long is simply separated from
the short, and no cleaning cards are used; but otherwise the cleaning cards must be
used as usual.
After gum waste has been dressed in the gum the machine above described will,
when the gum has been boiled out or otherwise, discharge separate the short from
the long perfectly.
The combed top produced from silk noils is usually made into carded yarns, but
by combing it a second time I am enabled to make it into combed yarns, and also
to separate the longer fibres from the short. Silk wasto is now fed up to the filling
engines of dressing frames unprepared; now I find it a great improvement to
prepare it upon drums or screw gills, and, also where it is very long, to break
down the fibres to a suitable length before being fed up to the filling engine.
In some cases I place the books of dressing machines in a frame, and draw slivers
from them without removing the silk, which is always done now.