IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HECKLING FLAX, HEMP, TOW, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Fairbairn, of Leeds, in the County of York,
Machinist, and Thomas Marsden, of Broughton, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR HECKLING FLAX, HEMP, TOW, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Fairbairn and Thomas
Marsden at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 2nd May 1857.
We, PETER FAIRBAIRN, of Leeds, in the County of York, Machinist, and
THOMAS MARSDEN, of Broughton, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HECKLING FLAX, HEMP, TOW, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in the application to machines for heckling or
combing flax and other fibrous materials, in which the heckles or.combs are
placed upon endless sheets or belts of leather, cloth, metallic chains, or other
flexible or elastic materials, and whether placed in an horizontal, vertical, or
angular position, of mechanical arrangements, by means of which the heckles
and heckle bars are so guided in their rotation as to cause the heckles to
strike into the flax or other fibrous material at or about right angles. with the
longitudinal surface of the flax, and to continue in that position during their

page_text: passage through the flax. This is effected by a guide attached to each heckle
bar, moving in advance of it and working in a groove so shaped as to give the
desired motion to the heckle bars. The proposed arrangements may also be so
applied as to cause the heckles to strike into the flax or other fibre at any
other angle whatever which may be found desirable, and, indeed, to pursue any
course whatever which may be found best adapted to the purposes to which the
machine is to be applied. Our Invention is applicable equally to machines
having one single sheet of heckles and to those having two or more sheets of
heckles.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Fairbairn and Thomas Marsden in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 2nd November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, PETER
FAIRBAIRN, of Leeds, in the County of York, Machinist, and THOMAS MARSDEN,
of Broughton, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
-thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Peter Fairbairn and Thomas Marsden, Her special licenso that we, the
said Peter Fairbairn and Thomas Marsden, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Peter Fairbairn and Thomas Marsden,
our 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 MACHINERY
FOR HECKLING FLAX, HEMP, TOW, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Peter Fairbairn and Thomas
Marsden, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under
ithe hand and seal of one of us, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Fairbairn, on behalf of myself
and of the said Thomas Marsden, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to enable the heckles of what are known as
sheet heckling machines to strike closer to the holders than heretofore, and
thereby to produce a greater yield of finished fibre for a given amount of flax
operated upon than can now be obtained. It is well known that in turning
the strick of flax in the holder after one end has been heckled, that to insure
the heckling of the strick throughout its whole length the bite of the holder is
taken somewhat short of the middle of the strick each time it is placed in the
holder, in order to allow for the failing of the heckles to strike into the flax
close up to the nip of the holder. The effect of this arrangement is to leave
many of the fibres either loose in the strick or not sufficiently tightly gripped
in the holder after the turning of the strick to enable them to resist the drag
of the descending heckle pins, and consequently a considerable per-centage of
useful fibre is combed out and made into tow. To avoid this waste, and at the
same time to prevent the breakage of the fibre on the entrance of the heckle
pins into the pendent stricks, we apply to the well-known sheet heckling
machine a mechanical arrangement for guiding the heckle bars in the course
of their rotation, and causing them to present the heckle pins at right angles,
or thereabouts, to the strick before they commence to act on the fibres, and
retain that position until they leave the strick..
In the accompanying Drawing, Figure 1 is a vertical cross section of so
much of a double sheet heckling machine as will serve to explain the nature
of our Invention; and Figure 2 is a partial side view of a licckle bar, shewing
the mode of attaching it to the heckle sheets or bands.
a, a, are the barrels, which carry the belts or sheets 6, to which the hecklę
bars c, c, are attached. Of these barrels there are four or more (according to
the width of the pachine), mounted on each of the axles d, which have their
bearings in the end framings. The heckle bars c are connected by hinge joints
to the belts or sheets b, suitable lugs 6* being bolted. to the sheets to receive
the joint pin of the hinge fastening. Cast upon or attached to the ends of each
of the heckle bars are arms c*, which project below. the heckle bars, and
severally carry at their extremities a pin, which is intended to receive an anti-
friction guide roller. These rollers work in fixed guides e, e, which are bolted
to the main framing of the machine, and are so shaped at their upper parts
•

page_text: near the line of traverse of the holders as to guide the heckles as they approach
the strick clear of the holders, and yet insure their striking at right angles or
nearly so into the strick. By referring to Figure 1 the course of the heckles
as they descend to the strick will be clearly traced, the red lines representing
the extreme reach of the points of the heckle pins. The varying position taken
by the heckles with respect to the sheets which carry them (to allow the
heckles to work up to the nip of the holders) is due mainly to the guide
rollers or pins being placed in advance of the heckle bars, instead of, as in other
sheet machines which have guides, being in the same plane with or in
the rear of the heckle bars. The fixed guides are now therefore enabled to act
efficiently before the heckle pins enter the strick, instead of at the moment of
or after their entrance into it, the effect of which latter arrangement is either
to tear the fibres or not to heckle the higher portion of the pendent end of the
flax. When the heckles have struck into the pendent fibres they move down
through the strick, guided in their course by the vertical portion of the guides
e, e, and in passing round the segmental portion e*, ex, of these guides the tow
is removed therefrom by the rotating brushes f. f. We may remark that this
mode of guiding the heckle bars, so as to insure their working up to the nip of
the holders, may be applied to single as well as double sheet machines.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of improvements in
machinery for heckling flax, hemp, tow, and other fibrous material, and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be under-
stood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we claim tho
application to the heckle bars of sheet heckling machines of guide pins or
rollers working in fixed guides and preceding the heckles in their advance to
the strick.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Fairbairn, on behalf of myself and
Thomas Marsden, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first
day of October One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven...
Signed and sealed by the said Peter
Fairbairn, in the presence of
J. B. WILKINSON,
No. 11, Albion Street, Leeds.
PETER FAIRBAIRN. (L.S.)