IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY POR COMBING, DRESSING, AND DISINTEGRATING HEMP, FLAX, WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBRES AND FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1866

page_text: Lancaster, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR
APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY POR COMBING, DRESSING, AND DISINTEGRATING
HEMP, FLAX, WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBRES AND FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 3rd July 1866, and dated the 5th January 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Ronald at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th January 1866.
I, JAMES RONALD, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN OR APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR COMBING. DRESSING, AND DISINTEGRATING
HEMP, FLAX, WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBRES AND FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be
as follows (that is to say):-
This Invention consists of an improved continuous feed apparatus for
card and gill cylinders which are used for dressing cotton, combing,
dressing, and disintricating hemp, flax, cotton, and other fibres and
fibrous materials, also for disintricating cotton, woolen, and linen rags,
ropes, yarns, and other fibrous materials for the purpose of reducing and dis-
intricating the same for paper making, for oakum, tow, or re-spinning,
according to the material and purpose for which the said materials
are operated upon. The continuous feed apparatus for carding and dressing
[Price 8d1

page_text: fibrous materials by means of card or gill cylinders heretofore have
been chiefly constructed with a pair or greater number of feed rollers, by which
arrangement the fibre or fibrous material is brought up to the face of the
cylinders, generally as near as practicable to the cards or gill teeth, but in
consequence of the forms of the rollers the material could not be held closer
than half the diameter of the feed rollers from the points of the teeth, which in
the case of short material is disadvantageous.
Now this invention has for its object a means whereby, say, short
fibre or fibrous materials may be held nearer to the points of the cards or gill
teeth than can be done by means of feed rollers, and which is applicable
to all descriptions of carding and gill cylinders, but is more particu-
larly intended as an improvement on the feed apparatus of Inventions by the
applicant for "Improvements in Apparatus for Dressing or Preparing
for Spinning Hemp, Flax, Manilla Hemp, and other like Fibrous Material,"
and Improvements in and Apparatus for Converting Ropes and other
Cordage into Oakum, Tow, and Paper Stuff, Parts of which are
applicable to Teasing and Cleaning Wool or Hair on Skins and Dressing Waste'
Tow, Wool, Hair, and other Waste Fibres," for which Her most Gracious
Majesty was pleased to grant him Letters Patent, dated respectively
22d day of July 1863 and 23d day of December 1863, and numbered 1833 and
3246.
This Invention may be described as a double series of horizontal vertical-
sided flat bars, one series being placed above the other, and slightly inter-
secting each other. These vertical-sided flat bars work within
grooves on the side of the frame of the machine, and the upper and lower sets
of which are actuated by means of a pair of horizontal or nearly horizontal
screws on each side of the ends of the bars, being so formed as to take
into the thread of the said screws on the screwed shafts. On rotary motion
being given to the screws the several bars are propelled forward, in the
case of the upper ones until they arrive at the ends of the screws nearest
the gil or card cylinder, when by means of cams on the ends of the said
screw shafts they are elevated on to the upper sides of the screws, when
they are carried backwards to the reverse end of the screws, when they
fall down through suitable slots to the under side of the screws, when being
pressed forward by a lever motion they are again taken hold of by the
screws at the under side of the shaft, and are thus again propelled forward.
The lower set of the horizontal transverse vertical-sided bars actuated
by the lower pair of screws, which have their axis in line immediately below
the upper pair, are actuated in the same way as the upper series of bars,

page_text: except that they are moved towards the machine on the upper sides of the
screwed shafts, and when they severally arrive at the ends of the said
screws nearest the dressing cylinders they fall down and are carried back
beneath the screwed shafts until they arrive at the reverse end, when they
are again elevated by cams on the rear end of the shafts to the
top thereof.
It will be observed from the foregoing that the action of the apparatus
is very similar to that known as screw gill dressing machines. The screws
for actuating the transverse bars may be placed at such an angle to each
other that they may not intersect each other at the point at which
the fibre or other material to be operated upon is fed thereto, but so that they
will intersect each other as they advance towards the dressing drum; or
a pair or set of feed rollers of the ordinary description may be
used for delivering the material to be operated upon between the feed bars
described. In some cases a single set of feed bars in combination with an
endless apron may be used.
The object of causing the feed bars to intersect each other is to enable
a firm hold to be taken of the material to be operated upon, and in some
cases the bars may be formed with a longitudinal slot or rebate on the
edge into which the sister bar may take, and which sister bar may
be formed with a tongue or knife edge which takes into the slot or rebate
immediately below or above it, as the case may be, thus securely
holding the material between the bars until released by the lower bars falling
down and the upper bars being elevated on arriving at the end of the screws
next to the dressing cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Ronald in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th
July 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
RONALD, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the
sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said James Ronald, Her special licence that I, the

page_text: said James Ronald, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said James Ronald, 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 OR APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR
COMBING, DRESSING, AND DISINTEGRATING HEMP, FLAX, WOOL. COTTON, AND OTHER
FIBRES AND FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
1, the said James Ronald, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly 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 1, the said James Ronald, 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):-
This my said Invention consists of an improved continuous feed
apparatus for card and gill cylinders which are used for dressing
cotton, combing, dressing, and disintegrating hemp, flax, cotton, and other
fibres and fibrous materials, also for disintegrating cotton, woollen, and linen
rags, ropes, yarns, and other fibrous materials for the purpose of reducing
and disintegrating the same for paper making, for oakum, tow, or re-spin-
ning, according to the material and purpose for which the said materials
are operated upon. The continuous feed apparatus for carding and
dressing fibrous materials by means of card or gill cylinders heretofore have
been chiefly constructed with a pair or a greater number of feed rollers, by
which arrangement the fibre or fibrous materials is brought up to the face of
the cylinders, generally as near as practicable to the cards or gill teeth, but
in consequence of the forms of the rollers the material could not be held closer
than half the diameter of the feed rollers from the points of the teeth, which
in the case of short material is disadvantageous.
Now this my said Invention has for its object a means whereby, say,
short fibre or fibrous materials may be held nearer to the points of the cards
or gil teeth than can be done by means of feed rollers, and which is
applicable to all descriptions of carding and gill cylinders, but is more
particularly intended as an improvement on the feed apparatus of Inven-

page_text: tions for Improvements in Apparatus for Dressing or Preparing for
Spinning Hemp, Flax, Manilla Hemp, and other like Fibrous Materials," and
Improvements in and Apparatus for Converting Ropes and other Cordage into
Oakum, Tow, and Paper Stuff, Parts of which are applicable to Teasing and
Cleaning Wool or Hair on Skins and Dressing Waste' Tow, Wool, Hair,
and other Waste' Fibres," for which Inventions Her most Gracious Majesty
was pleased to grant to me Letters Patent, dated respectively Twenty-second
day of July, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and Twenty-third
day of December, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and numbered
1833 and 3246.
This my said Invention may be described as a double series of horizontal
vertical-sided flat bars, one series being placed above the other, and slightly
intersecting each other. These vertical-sided flat bars work within grooves
on the side of the frame of the machine, and the upper and lower sets of
which are actuated by means of a pair of horizontal or nearly horizontal
screws on each side of the ends of the bars, being so formed as to take into
the thread of the said screws on the screwed shafts. On rotary motion being
given to the screws the several bars are propelled forward, in the case of
the upper ones until they arrive at the ends of the screws nearest the gill
or card cylinder, when by means of cams on the ends of the said screw
shafts they are elevated on to the upper sides of the screws, when they are
carried backwards to the reverse end of the screws, when they fall down
through suitable slots to the under side of the screws, when being pressed
forwards by a lever motion they are again taken hold of by the screws at the
under side of the shaft, and are thus again propelled forward. The lower
set of the horizontal transverse vertical-sided bars actuated by the lower pair
of screws, which have their axis in line immediately below the upper pair,
are actuated in the same way as the upper series of bars, except that they are
moved towards the machine on the upper sides of the screwed shafts, and
when they severally arrive at the ends of the said screws nearest the dressing
cylinders they fall down and are carried back beneath the screwed shafts until
they arrive at the reverse end, where they are again elevated by cams on the
rear end of the shafts to the top thereof.
It will be observed from the foregoing that the action of the apparatus is
very similar to that known as screw gill dressing machines. The screws
for actuating the transverse bars may be placed at such an angle to each
other that they may not intersect each other at the point at which the
fibre or other material to be operated upon is fed thereto, but so that they
will intersect each other as they advance towards the dressing drum; or

page_text: a pair or set of feed rollers of the ordinary description may be used
for delivering the material to be operated upon between the feed bars described.
In some cases a single set of feed bars in combination with an endless apron
may be used.
The object of causing the feed bars to intersect each other is to enable a
firm hold to be taken of the material to be operated upon, and in some cases
the bars may be formed with a longitudinal slot or rebate on the edge into
which the sister bar may take, and which sister bar may be formed with a
tongue or knife edge which takes into the slot or rebate immediately below or
above it, as the case may be, thus securely holding the material between the
bars until released by the lower bars falling down and the upper bars being
elevated on arriving at the end of the screws next to the dressing cylinder.
That this my said Invention may be the more readily seen and under-
stood I have hereunto annexed outline Drawings illustrating so much of
the apparatus as will enable those acquainted with the art to put the same
into practice.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved feed apparatus for gill and card
cylinders; Figure 2 is a plan, and Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of the
same taken through the line a, b, (Figure 2); Figure 4 is an enlarged elevation
shewing the form of the cams on the end of the screwed shafts for elevating
the transverse parallel sliding bars.
A, stationary frame of the apparatus; B and B, pair of parallel screws
which propel forward the transverse upper set of bars; B' and B', the pair
of screws by which the upper set of transverse bars are withdrawn from
the face of the card or gill cylinder; C and C¹, upper set of transverse
bars D and D', lower set of transverse bars; E, screwed shafts which
propel the transverse bars D towards the card or gill cylinder; F, F, pair
of parallel screwed shafts used to withdraw the transverse bars D and D';
G, rib brackets cast on the side of the stationary frame of the apparatus.
and upon which the ends of the transverse bars are supported and on
which they travel; H and H, a pair of friction or toothed wheels which
communicate motion to the upper pairs of screwed shafts through I, a
mitre wheel, which is geared into a second mitre wheel, but which
is unnecessary should be shewn in the Drawings; J and J¹, as second pair of
friction or toothed wheels which give motion to the lower pairs of screwed
shafts, and which are actuated from suitable driving gear through K, a
mitre wheel L, a circle shewing the position of the card or gill cylinder.
The fibre is held between the transverse parallel bars as shewn by the dotted
line.

page_text: Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this my said
Invention, and the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the same
into practical effect, I wish to be understood that I do not confine myself
to the relative dimensions or proportions of the several parts of the
apparatus, or to the number of transverse holding bars or plates, as it will
be readily seen the same may be considerably varied without departing
from the Invention; but what I claim as new and my Invention is, an improved
feed apparatus for card and gill cylinders, consisting of transverse parallel
advancing and receding holding plates or blades actuated by screwed shafts
and elevating cams, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-before
described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Ronald, have hereunto set my hand
and affixed my seal, this Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
WILLIAM WALKER,
of 44, Castle Street,
Liverpool.
JAMES (L.S.) RONALD.