AN IMPROVEMENT IN COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Wright Townend, of Harden, Bingley, in the County
of York, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN COMBING WOOL AND
OTHER FIBRES."
Sealed the 20th March 1855, and dated the 3rd October 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wright Townend at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd October 1854.
I, WRIGHT TOWNEND, of Harden, Bingley, in the County of York, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN COMBING
WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES" to be as follows:-
This Invention is applicable to the carrying comb of a machine, in which a
circular or endless comb is employed, as is now very commonly the case.. And
the improvement consists of applying a curved or bent plate (of a corresponding
radius with the circular or endless comb) to push the wool or fibre on the
carrying comb in. a curved form towards the circular or endless comb, so that
the wool or other fibre may be deposited equally in the circular or endless
comb.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Wright Townend in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WRIGHT
TOWNEND, of Harden, Bingley, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Iler boirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Wright Townend, Her special licence that I, the said Wright
Townend, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Wright Townend, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIDRES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Wright Townend, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Wright Townend, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
This Invention is applicable to the carrying comb of a machine, in which a
circular or endless comb is employed, as is now very commonly the case. And
the improvement consists of applying a curved or bent plate (of a corresponding
radius with the circular or endless comb) to push the wool or fibre on the
carrying comb in a curved form towards the circular or endless comb, so that
the wool or other fibre may be deposited equally in the circular or endless
comb.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same. In the combing of wool in those
classes of machines where a circular comb is employed to receive the succeeding
detached tufts of wool from a carrying comb, the wool at the middle portion of
the carrying comb has been put further into the teeth of the circular comb

page_text: than the wool more and more distant from the middle of the carrying comb.
Now, the object of the present Invention is to apply a curved plate to the
carrying comb to force the wool into a curved line, corresponding in radius with
the circular comb into which the wool is to be transferred.
The nature of wool-combing machines, such as are above named, and which
are called Lister and Donisthorpe's Patent Machines, being well known, it
will not be necessary to describe the same more fully in this Specification; and
it will only be desirable to explain the manner of applying a bent plate to
the carrying comb of such a machine.
For this purpose, the carrying comb, as heretofore, is moved to take a tuft of
wool from the nippers, and is then moved to the circular comb, and is caused
to deliver such tuft of wool into the teeth of the circular comb; and the only
change made in the working of these parts is, that by means of the curved plate,
applied to the side of the carrying comb next the circular comb), the tuft of
wool, immediately after it has been taken by the carrying comb, is, by the bent
plate, moved into a curved line across the carrying comb, such curved line
corresponding with the curvature of the circular comb. The curved plate is
carried by a stem, which enters the rod on which the comb is mounted, which
for this purpose is made hollow, and the curved plate is, by a spiral spring acting
on its stem, constantly drawn inwards. The curved plate is to be moved out-
wards by any suitable mechanism immediately after the tuft of wool has been
taken by the carrying comb from the nippers, and the curved plate is imme-
diately afterwards to be released and withdrawn by the spring, so that the
curved plate may be out of the way when the tuft of wool is delivered from the
carrying comb into the circular comb.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
application of a curved plate in combination with the carrying comb of wool
combing machinery, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wright Townend, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
ROBERT MILLIGAN,
of Harden, near Bingley.
WRIGHT TOWNEND. (L.S.)