IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF SCUTCHING AND PREPARING FIBROUS VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES FOR MANUFACTURE, AND IN THE MACHINERY THEREFOR.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Faren, of Belfast, in the County of
Antrim, in Ireland, Flax Spinner and Merchant, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF SCUTCHING AND PREPARING
FIBROUS VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES FOR MANUFACTURE, AND IN THE MACHINERY
THEREFOR.'
"
Sealed the 16th April 1875, and dated the 18th February 1875..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Faren at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th February 1875.
I, JOSEPH FAREN, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, in Ireland,
Flax Spinner and Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF SCUTCHING AND PREPARING
FIBROUS VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES FOR MANUFACTURE, AND IN THE MACHINERY
THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the treatment of flax, hemp, jute, China
grass, and other similar fibrous vegetable substances for the purpose of
cleaning same and preparing or improving them for manufacture.

page_text: Instead of the ordinary beating and tearing method hitherto employed
for scutching I subject said substances to the operation of two or more
sets of teeth or spikes, which are made to penetrate same simultaneously
from both sides, and thus disintegrate and detach the core or woody
matter and separate the fibres from such matter and from each other.
The teeth or spikes are placed in close proximity to each other and made
to operate with great velocity. They are set in blocks, plates, or bars
attached to framework, and receive their motion by the aid of shafts,
belts, pulleys, cranks, wheels, pinions, and eccentrics, or other mechanical
means in ordinary use.
The substances to be thus operated upon may be passed between
rollers to crush and break the core or woody matter preparatory to their
being exposed to the teeth or spikes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Faren in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
FAREN, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, in Ireland, Flax Spinner
and Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Joseph Faren, Her special licence that
I, the said Joseph Faren, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Joseph Faren, my executors, admini-
strators, 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
PROCESS OF SCUTCHING AND PREPARING FIBROUS VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES FOR MANU-
FACTURE, AND IN THE MACHINERY THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Joseph Faren, my executors or administrators,

page_text: 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 per-
formed, 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 Joseph Faren, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet
of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say :-
The said Invention relates to the treatment of flax, hemp, jute, China
grass, and other similar fibrous vegetable substances for the purpose of
cleaning same, and preparing and improving them for manufacture.
Instead of the ordinary beating and tearing method hitherto employed
for scutching the substances herein-before mentioned and referred to, I
subject said substances to the operation of two or more sets of teeth or
spikes, which are made to penetrate same simultaneously from both sides,
and thus to disintegrate and detach the core or woody matter contained
in said substances and to separate the fibres from such matter and from
each other. The teeth or spikes are placed in close proximity to each
other, and are made to operate with great velocity. They are set in,
fixed upon, or attached to blocks, plates, or bars, which are actuated by
eccentrics connected with them by rods, and revolving upon a shaft
driven at the speed of four hundred revolutions per minute and upwards.
Each block, plate, or bar has a similar block, plate, or bar working
opposite to it, and both these blocks, plates, or bars, or portions thereof,
are made simultaneously and reciprocally to pass into and return from a
box, cage, or coop through transverse slots made or cut in the surfaces
thereof, and so as to operate upon the fibrous substances which are
carried along or through the interior of such box, cage, or coop.
I employ the slotted box, cage, or coop in order to maintain the
fibrous substances being operated upon in the position most favorable to
the action of the teeth or spikes, but I may substitute therefor frames of
bars or attach bars to the blocks carrying the plates or bars with the
teeth or spikes.

page_text: :
The blocks, plates, or bars are fed with the fibrous substances to be
operated upon through a pair of feeding rollers placed in front of and as
close as possible to the box, cage, or coop, and made to revolve at a
speed considerably lower than the speed of the eccentrics, and the
fibrous substances are drawn from the box, cage, or coop by a pair of
delivering rollers, which are made to revolve at a slightly higher speed
than the speed of the feeding rollers.
In order to throw forward the fibrous substances being operated upon
I attach the rods connecting the blocks, plates, or bars with the eccentrics
to slide blocks guiding the blocks, plates, or bars by means of a pin or 1
pivot so as to allow the blocks, plates, or bars to be canted or tilted up
in front by the eccentric rods when returning from the slotted box, cage,
or coop.
The blocks, plates, or bars are arranged so that when in the slotted
box, cage, or coop the teeth or spikes of each opposite block, plate, or 1
bar simultaneously and from the opposite direction or reciprocally pene-
⚫trate the fibrous substances to be operated upon.
I provide some of the blocks, plates, or bars with teeth or spikes and
some I leave without teeth or spikes in order to shake or beat out of the
fibrous substances the core or woody matter which has been disintegrated 2
by the teeth or spikes, and I may arrange such blocks, plates, or bars
alternately with or on one side of or separately from the blocks, plates,
or bars carrying teeth or spikes, or in any other manner.
I may also provide the machinery or apparatus which I have described
with other rollers to crush or break the core or woody matter preparatory 2
to exposing to the action of the teeth or spikes the fibrous substances to
be operated upon.
I prefer to use machinery or apparatus which treats said fibrous sub-
stances when in a horizontal position, and I have described such
machinery or apparatus accordingly, but I do not confine myself to the 3
use of such horizontal machinery or apparatus; nor do I confine myself
to the use of the gearing which I have described, inasmuch as other
equivalent mechanical means may be used for actuating the blocks,
plates, or bars, and teeth or spikes, and for subjecting to the action
thereof the fibrous substances herein-before mentioned and referred to.
And in order that the said Invention may be more fully understood
I shall now proceed to refer to the Drawings on the Sheet hereunto
8

page_text: annexed, the same letters of reference being used throughout all the
figures to indicate the same or corresponding parts of said machines.
Fig. I. is a front elevation of the machinery or apparatus herein-before
described shewing a horizontal slotted box, cage, or coop, and the blocks,
plates, and bars above and under the slotted box, cage, or coop, and
which pass into same to operate upon the fibrous substances herein-
before mentioned and referred to, the feeding rollers, and the gearings
and fittings connected with those parts.
Fig. II. is an end elevation of the same, shewing the horizontal slotted
box, cage, or coop, the blocks, plates, and bars above and under the
slotted box, cage, or coop, the feeding and delivering rollers, and an
endless feeding apron.
Fig. III. is a plan of the same shewing the horizontal slotted box,
cage, or coop with the transverse slots in the upper surface thereof, the
blocks, plates, and bars above the slotted box, cage, or coop, the feeding
and delivering rollers, and the endless feeding apron.
a is the framework carrying the various parts; 6 is a horizontal box,
cage, or coop fixed to the frame, having each end open, and the upper
and under surfaces slotted transversely; c, c', are two horizontal blocks
carrying plates or bars d, d, with teeth or spikes which pass x, x, x,
through the slots into the box, cage, or coop b.
The blocks c, c¹, are
attached by rods to the eccentrics e, e, e¹, e', which are placed upon a shaft
driven by a pulley, and so as to work the blocks c, c', in opposite vertical
directions simultaneously. ff.f, f, are slide blocks working in slots
or grooves made in or fixed upon rods or plates cast or bolted upon the
frame a to guide the blocks c, c', and attached to the eccentric rods by
the pins or pivots g, g,'g', g¹, to admit of the blocks being canted or tilted
up in front by the eccentrics so as to throw forward the material. h is an
endless apron on which the material to be operated upon is spread, and
by which it is carried forward to 1, 2, the feeding rollers. These rollers
are placed in front of the box, cage, or coop b, and pass the material
forward midway between the upper and under slotted surfaces of the
box, cage, or coop b, and to the delivering rollers U, V¹.
m is a spur
wheel driven by a pulley and actuating the undermost of the feeding and
delivering rollers 1, 1, 1, 1. The endless apron h receives its motion by
means of a chain band n from the undermost of the feeding rollers 7, 7.

page_text: Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would have it to be understood
that I do not claim the use of teeth or spikes, nor of a slotted box, cage,
or coop, or blocks, plates, and bars, except when the same are constructed
specially and employed as herein described, nor of any of the parts
thereof, nor the movements thereof; nor do I claim the use of rollers,
aprons, eccentrics, spur wheels, or pulleys, nor of any of the separate
mechanical parts which form the compound scutching and preparing
machinery used by me; but I claim,—
First. The cleaning or dressing and preparing of fibrous substances by
using teeth or spikes arranged and employed substantially as described
and shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed.
Secondly. The use in cleaning or dressing and preparing machines of
teeth or spikes constructed and employed substantially as described and
shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed.
Thirdly. The construction and application of machinery or apparatus
such as is shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed, in the manner and
for the purposes herein-before described.
And, Fourthly. The combination and arrangement of parts con-
stituting the cleaning or dressing and preparing machinery or apparatus,
constructed and applied substantially in the manner and for the purposes
herein-before described and illustrated in the several Drawings hereunto
annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Faren, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.