CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING, DRAWING, ROVING, AND SPINNING FLAX, HEMP, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
WORDSWORTH, of Leeds, in the. County of York, Machine Maker, send
greeting...
WHEREAS His present Majesty King William the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-sixth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, in
the third year of. His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Joshua Wordsworth, His especial licence, full
power; sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joshua Wordsworth,
my-executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Joshua Wordsworth, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree, with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years, therein. mentioned, should and lawfully might make," use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my, Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING,
DRAWING, ROVING, AND SPINNING FLAX, HEMP, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS;" in which said. Letters Patent there is contained a. proviso obliging

page_text: me, the said Joshua Wordsworth, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joshua Wordsworth, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof (that is to say)
My Improvements in Machinery for Preparing, Drawing, Roving, and Spin-
ning Flax, Hemp, Wool, and other Fibrous Substances consist in a novel con-
trivance or mechanism to be adapted to the machine commonly called the gill,
employed for preparing, drawing, and roving flax and hemp, and for combing
and spinning long wool, which improvements allow the points of the travelling
heckles to continue longer in operation than in the ordinary construction of
gill, and cause the heckle points to be withdrawn from the fibres at the end
of the stroke without the possibility of their drawing the fibres down with
them.
The manner of effecting this object will be seen by reference to the accom-
panying Drawings, which exhibit a gill on my improved plan in different
views, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 being drawn on a scale of four inches to the
foot, and in all the Figures the similar parts of the machine are marked with
the same letters of reference.
Figure 2 is a
Figure is a side elevation of the machine complete.
plan or horizontal view, exhibiting the upper surface of the machine; and
Figure 3 is a longitudinal section taken through the iniddle of the machine.
Figure 4 is a representation of the front of the machine, but in which
several parts have been removed to shew the action of the heckles more
perfectly. The several heckles a, a, a, are formed by a series of needles or
heckle points set into a metal bar, as represented at full size in Figures 5
and 6. These bars are each of them suspended in a frame or carriage b, b, b
(shewn also full size in two views at Figures 7 and 8), by means of double
jointed levers c, c, seen in two positions, full size, at Figures 9 and 10, the heckle
bar, its levers and carriage or frame, being shewn put together in Figures 11
When the heckles are in operation the points are raised, as in
and 12.

page_text: Figure 11, but when they are withdrawn from the fibres, then the points are
sunk down into the carrying frames, as Figure 12. These two positions of
the heckles are produced by the nobs or parts d, that project from the jointed
levers c, acting against the edges of guide bars, which will be explained in
describing the operations of the machine. The several heckles are adapted:
and made to work in the machine by attaching the ends of the respective
frames or carriages 6 to travelling endless chains e, e (scen in Figures 1, 2,
and 4). These endless chains pass over fluted guide rollers f,f (scen also in
Figures 1, 2, and 4), and over horizontal bars g, g (seen best in Figures 2
and 3). The chains, with the heckles, are driven through the machine
by rotary spur wheels h, h (see Figures 2 and 3), the teeth of which take into
the spaces between the cylindrical parts of the several heckle carriages b, b, and
consequently drive the heckles forward, and these spur wheels are actuated by
a train of toothed gear from the first moving shaft i, which gives motion to
all the operative parts of the machine. If flax, hemp, long wool, or other
fibrous material be passed into the machine at the back part by a feeding
cloth or creeper through a guide k (best seen in Figures 2 and 3), and be
conducted under and over the feeding rollers l, m, n, and over the heckles
a, a, a, to the drawing rollers o and p, and thence to the flyer and bobbin,
or to a receiving can, the fibres will be opened in their progress, and combed
by the points of the heckles entering into and separating the fibres, the
material being drawn by a different speed to that with which the heckles
travel. This operation of preparing, drawing, and roving flax and hemp, and
the general construction of a machine of this kind being well understood, it is
not necessary to explain its details, excepting as respects those parts which
constitute the present improvements. It will be perceived by reference to
Figures 2. and 3 that the knobs d, which project from the jointed levers c, as
they travel along the machine bear against the outer edges of the two fixed
guide bars q, q, that extend along the top of the machine above the heckles
which keep the heckle points raised as Figure 11. This will also be very
evidently seen in the front view of the machine, Figure 4, where the upper
heckle bar a is raised in its carriage 6 by the knobs d, d, bearing against the
outer edges of these guide bars q, q. But when the endless chains e, e, which
support and conduct the frames or carriages of the heckles, have advanced the
heckle points to within a very little distance of the drawing rollers (see
Figure 3), then the knob d of the jointed levers at each end of the heckle
bar passes the ends of the guide bars q, q, and they immediately come.in
contact with the inclined planes r, r (seen in Figures 2, 3, and 4), which
b

page_text: "
instantly depress the levers c, and consequently cause the heckle bar. a, with its
points, to descend in the frame or carriage b, withdrawing the points from the
fibres of the material almost in a perpendicular direction: The heckles that
have become thus depressed pass with their carriages by the traversing of the
endless chains along the under part of the machine,-and-when they arrive at
the back and begin to rise, the guide bars q, q; being at their commencement
slightly bent, conduct the knobs 6 of the levers c-until they are forced back
into the positions first described, which raises the.heckles-points as they come
to the upper part of the machine into effective operation. The fibres of
material operated, after passing through the drawing process between the
rollers, may be roved, twisted, or spun by the employment of a bobbin-and
flyer, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, or it may be delivered into a can to be
roved, twisted, or spun by other machinery, by substituting a pair of conducting
rollers instead of the bobbin and flyer, which shall conduct the sliver of
material into a tin can below, as represented in the partial view of the machine
at Figure 13. The descent of the heckles a into their frames b, by the falling
of the levers c, c, precludes the possibility of the fibres of the material operated
upon being carried down under the machine by the points, as frequently
happens in gill machines of the ordinary construction;--and this mode of
mounting the heckles and traversing them with the assistance of the guide
bars q, q, and inclined planes r, r, allows the heckle points to be brought
much nearer to the drawing rollers o, p, by means of the metal bars
in which the heckle points or needles are set falling below the centre
of the endless chain e, e (shewn in Figures 1 and 2), and thereby affords
the means of preparing, drawing, roving, and spinning various qualities of
flax, hemp, wool, and other fibrous materials, particularly such as have a
much shorter staple than any fibrous materials hitherto operated upon in gill
machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Wordsworth, have hereunto :set
my hand and seal, this. Twenty-fourth day of January, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-three:

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of January,
in the third year of the reign of His present Majesty King William the
Fourth, the said Joshua Wordsworth came before our Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the
Third
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-three.