IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FIBRES FOR SPINNING, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FIBRES FOR SPINNING, AND IN MACHINERY
EMPLOYED THEREIN."-A communication from H. Hofer.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th November 1856.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FIBRES FOR SPINNING, AND IN MA-
CHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," (communicated to me by H. Hofer, a foreigner
residing abroad,) to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in a method of and arrangement of machinery or
apparatus for ensuring the regularity, evenness of gauge, or thickness of slivers
or fibres, by causing the fibres after they come from the carding engine to
pass in flat laps between rollers, cylinders, or other like appliances, so con-
nected with drawing rollers as to alter the speed thereof upon any inequality
or irregularity of thickness in the laps.
With the particular arrangement of machinery I employ, the Invention is
performed as follows:-The fibrous materials after they come from the carding

page_text: engine are gathered in laps on to gathering rollers, from which they are trans-
ferred on to feed rollers, thence led between a series of rollers or cylinders, free
to move on a moveable frame with any inequalities or irregularities of the laps
in one direction or another, according to the laps being too thin or two thick.
At the end of the moveable frames is a pivoted lever, which the frames cause to
incline in one direction or another, according to the thickness or thinness of the
laps. The pivoted lever carries at top a bevelled friction or toothed pinion,
which gears into one or other of two toothed or friction wheels, according to
the direction of its inclination. The toothed or friction wheels are mounted
upon the same shaft, and arranged to impart different degrees of speed thereto.
This shaft is connected through gear with drums or wheels capable of being
expanded or contracted, and these expanding drums are so connected to
drawing rollers as to increase or diminish the speed thereof, according to the
inequalities in the laps, whereby slivers or fibres, for spinning, of regularity and
evenness of gauge are insured.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 12th May 1857.
TO ALL TO. WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROONAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
'Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and. fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 THE PREPARATION OF FIBRES FOR SPINNING, AND IN MACHINERY
EMPLOYED THEREIN," a communication from II. Hofer, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, tho said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under or their or one of their

page_text: 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:-
This Invention consists in a method of and arrangements of machinery or
apparatus for ensuring the regularity or evenness of gauge, or thickness of
slivers or fibres, by causing the fibres after they come from the carding engine
to pass in flat laps between rollers, cylinders, or other like appliances, so con-
nected with drawing rollers as to alter the speed thereof upon any inequality
or irregularity of thickness in the laps.
.
The Invention will be clearly understood by reference to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, in which is represented the machinery which the Inventor
prefers to employ for carrying the Invention into effect.
Figure 1 is a front view, Figure 2 a side view, and Figure 3 a plan view,
of the machine employed for conducting the fibres from the carding cylinders
to the regulating or equalizing machine, and for reducing the breadth of the
lap. y is the lap of fibres, which passes from the carding cylinder A down an
inclined surface B, which has a slanting edge, over which the fibres descend to
a guide piece C; round which they pass at a reduced breadth; they next
pass between the directing rollers or cylinders D, D', and then are led to the
drums or rollers E, E, of the regulating or equalizing machine, the opposite
sides of which machine are represented in elevation at Figures 4 and 5, and
of which Figure 6 is a plan, and Figure 7 an end view. The rollers E, E',
are placed at the front of the regulating machine, at the further extremity of
which are the drawing rollers F, F, and G, G', of which there are two pairs.
In traversing from the rollers E, E', to the drawing rollers F, F, G, G', the
lap is led between the supply rollers J, J', and passes alternately above and
below the additional small cylinders K, K', K", &c., (the number of which
may be varied.) Each of these is carried on a moveable vertical supporting
frame I, I, capable of moving in either direction about one or other of the
shafts,, . Motion is given to the cylinders K, K', K", by a series of.
bevil wheels x, x1, x, xl, seen separately in Figure 8. The shafts u, u', u",
receive their motion from bevil pinions t, t, t", mounted upon a general

page_text: shaft v. (In the Drawings but one bevil wheel is used to every three cylinders
K, K', K", but the Inventor prefers to give motion to each cylinder by a
bevil pinion of its own.) The shaft receives its motion from a motive
machine by means of a bevil wheel n, mounted upon a shaft o, to which
motion is imparted by the toothed wheels p and q, of which the first is mounted
upon the same shaft as the driving and slack pullies L, L'. As the fibres
pass between the cylinders K, K', K", these cylinders will be inclined by them
more or less in proportion to the thickness of the lap, or in other words, in
proportion to the distance to which they are made to separate by the passing
lap. The last frame I', which supports the last cylinder K", will be inclined
through a distance equal to the sum of the successive inclinations of tho
others. This last frame I' is prolonged, and carries the shaft of a bevil
pinion M, placed vertically between two bevil wheels N, O. When the lap
is of a certain mean or average thickness the pinion M stands between
N and O and touches neither of them, but when any increase or decrease
occurs in the thickness of the lap, the frame I' is inclined; and comes into gear
with either N or O, as the case may be. The wheels N and O are mounted
on the same shaft P, and cause it to rotate either in one direction or the other,
and thus give motion to the toothed pinion Q, which then moves the rack R
by means of a series of intermediate pinions, wheels, and shafts. This rack R
is represented separately in Figure 9; it is carried by a rod S, which carries
at its two extremities a system of jaws T and points a, b, a', b. When the
rod S advances ono or other of the teeth or projections a and b causes the
pinions c, c, c, c, to turn in one or other directions, and these either draw
together or extend the segments d, d', and thus decrease or increase the
diameter of the riggers or pullics X and Y. The details of these expanding
riggers or pullies are represented in Figures 10 and 11; Figure 10 being a
side view, and Figure 11 a cross view of a portion of the same. By this
arrangement the diameters of the riggers or pullies X and Y are varied in
such manner, that as one decreases the other increases, and their relative
velocities are therefore changed; and as these riggors or pullies X and Y
convey the motion from the prime mover to the drawing rollers F, F,
and G, G', their speed is accelerated when the lap becomes too thick, and
diminished when the lap becomes too thin. A weight 2 is employed to keep
the cylinders K, K', K", in contact. The shaft P is threaded at U, and
passes through a corresponding thread in its bearing in such manner, that
while the rotary motion of the shaft P is proceeding, that is, while M is in
contact with either N or O, every turn of the shaft P produces a lateral

page_text: motion in that shaft to the extent of one thread of the screw, in order to avoid
extremes of motion. The arrangements before described may be modified in
various ways without departing from the nature of this Invention.
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,-
First, the machinery or apparatus herein-before described, and represented
in Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the Drawings hereunto annexed, for reducing the
breadth of fibrous laps as they come from the carding cylinders.
Secondly, the machinery or apparatus herein-before described, and repre-
sented in Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of the Drawings hereunto
annexed, for regulating and rendering uniform in thickness laps or slivers of
fibres after they have left the carding cylinders.
Thirdly, the employment in the last-mentioned machinery or apparatus of
a series of cylinders capable of being separated more or less by the lap of
fibres as it varies in thickness, and so arranged that their aggregate motions
shall be combined and rendered available by means of suitable mechanical
contrivances for varying the speed of the drawing rollers, and for thus
regulating and equalizing the thickness of the lap, as herein-before described.
Fourthly, the method of regulating or equalizing the thickness of laps
of fibres by means of a mechanical action produced by the fibres themselves,
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-seven.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.B.)