IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO CARDING OR OTHER MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Philip Charles Evans, Cloth Manufacturer, of
Brimscombe Mills, in the County of Gloucester, and Henry James
Hogg King, Engineer, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
for the Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING
WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO CARDING OR OTHER
MACHINES."
Sealed the 18th November 1870, and dated the 23rd May 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Philip Charles Evans
and Henry James Hogg King at the Office of the Commissioner's
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd May 1870.
WC, PHILIP CHARLES EVANS, Cloth Manufacturer, of Brimscombe
Mills, in the County of Gloucester, and HENRY JAMES HOGG KING,
Engineer, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING
WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO CARDING OR OTHER MACHINES,"
to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus of the kind
described in the Specification of certain Letters Patent granted to the

page_text: present applicants, and dated 20th January 1869 (No. 184), and which
is now known as a "first feed."
One improvement consists in fixing the hooks in the endless cloth
which lifts and supplies the fibrous material to the weighing scale by
inserting them in their proper positions during the weaving of the cloth,
so that they will be interwoven and firmly held in the cloth. Each
pair of hooks is formed of one piece of wire, and it is the middle part of
the wire between the two hooks which is interwoven in the cloth. After
the cloth is woven strips of wood or other suitable material are fixed
upon the hooked side of the cloth between the rows of hooks to prevent
the hooks from being turned or bent out of their proper ercct positions ;
or the hooks may be entered from the back through strips of wood, and
the strips be subsequently fixed on the cloth whereby the hooks will be
securely held.
A second improvement consists in lubricating the fibrous materials
by sprays of oil or other lubricant projected from nozzles on a supply
pipe by jets of air issuing from perforations in a pipe supplied with com-
pressed air. The spray is by preference projected upon the fibrous
materials as they fall into the weighing scale.
A third improvement consists in mounting the horizontal spindle on
which the weighing scale is carried, and on which it turns on counter-
weighted levers at the sides of the machine, which levers' have sufficient
movement downwards to allow of the pendent link going into gear with
the mechanism which pulls down and empties the scale.
A fourth improvement consists in combining two or three or more
weighing scales on one spindle carried on counter-weighted levers, and
when one scale is full the emptying action simply turns the set round a
half, or a third, or other portion of a turn so as to bring the next scale
into a position for being filled.
A fifth improvement relates to the arrangement described in a Pro-
visional Specification lodged by the present applicants on 13th December
1869 (No. 3600), in which arrangement a hooked roller is employed
for lifting the fibrous materials out of the hopper or box.
By the
present Invention the disengaging of the fibres from the hooked roller
is rendered more certain so as the better to adapt the apparatus for
'long staple" fibres by causing endless cords or bands with or without
cross strips or bars to pass round the hooked roller and round one or
more small plain rollers. The cords and bars lie between the rows of
66

page_text: hooks on the roller surface, so that the hooks project beyond them at
the part where the roller has to pick up the fibres, but where they leave
the hooked roller to pass to the plain roller they lift the fibres off the
hooks and drop them into the weighing scale. Instead of the endless
cords fixed wires may be arranged with their ends lying on the surface
of the roller; between the hooks, disposed in circular rows at a point
some little distance round from their ends, the wires leave the roller
surface at a tangent and in an inclined or downward direction, in con-
sequence of which the fibres are compelled to leave the hooks as the
cylinder revolves.
A sixth improvement relates to the doffing paddle which is employed
to beat the fibres off from the hooked roller or hooked apron, and its
object is to prevent the fibres from being carried round upon the paddle.
For this purpose the beating parts are in the form of combs or sets of
prongs, and they work through the interstices of a fixed grating, which
causes the detaching of any fibres as the prongs retire within it in
passing round; or the paddle may have plain blades arranged to work
through slits in a revolving cylindrical casing, within which slits the
blades retire in passing round in consequence of being arranged to turn
about an axis eccentric to that of the casing.
A seventh improvement consists in arranging in the hopper or box into
which the fibrous materials are first put one or more revolving spiked
rollers for the purpose of separating portions of the materials that may
be matted or massed together.
An eight improvement relates to the distributing or equalising paddle
which acts on the fibrous materials as they pass along the endless feed
apron upon which they fall from the weighing apparatus, and it consists in
making this paddle self-adjusting as to height by mounting it on a frame
which rests on two or more rollers lying on the fibrous materials. Thẻ
frame on the rollers will rise and fall with any variation in the thickness.
of the stream or materials due to their more or less condensed state, and
will thus always adjust the distributing paddle as required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Philip Charles Evans and Henry James Hogg
King in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PHILIP
CHARLES EVANS, Cloth Manufacturer, of Brimscombe Mills, in the f
County of Gloucester, and HENRY JAMES HOGG KING, Engineer, of
Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Philip Charles Evans and Henry James Hogg
King, Her special licence that wc, the said Philip Charles Evans and
Henry James Hogg King, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Philip Charles Evans and Henry James
Hogg King, 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 Inven-
tion for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WOOL, COTTON, OR OTHER
FIDROUS MATERIALS TO CARDING AND OTHER MACHINES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Philip Charles Evans and Henry
James Hogg King, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, 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 performed, and cause the
sume 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 we, the said Philip Charles Evans and
Henry James Hogg King, 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
in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is
to say:

page_text: .
Our said Invention relates to improvements in apparatus of the kind
described in the Specification of certain Letters Patent granted to us and
dated the 20th January 1869 (No. 184), and which apparatus is now
known as a "first feed."
Our improvement consists in fixing the hooks in the endless cloth
which in some modifications of our apparatus lifts and supplies the
fibrous material to the weighing scale, by inserting them in their proper
positions during the weaving of the cloth, so that they will be interwoven
and firmly held in the cloth. Each pair of hooks is formed of one piece
of wire, and it is the middle part of the wire between the two turned-up
and hooked points which is interwoven in the cloth. After the cloth is
woven strips of wood or other suitable material are
hooked side of the cloth between the rows of hooks to prevent the hooks
from being turned or bent out of their proper erect positions.
fixed upon the
Or by a modification of this improvement we enter the hooks from the
back through strips of wood and then fix the strips of wood upon the
cloth so that the middle parts of the wires forming each pair of hooks
are securely held between the strips of wood and the cloth.
A second improvement consists in lubricating the fibrous materials
by sprays of oil or other lubricant projected in a manner that will be
understood from Figures 1 and 2, on the accompanying Sheet of explana-
tory Diagrams, these Figures being views as at right angles to each other.
The lubricant is supplied by a pipe 1 and issues from nozzles 2 thereon,
as indicated by red lines, being projected and thrown into spray by jets
of air issuing from a pipe 3 supplied with compressed air. The spray
is. by preference projected upon the fibrous materials as they are passing
over the cylinder 4 and about to fall into the weighing scale.
A third improvement is shown in Figure 3 and consists in mounting
the horizontal spindle 5 on which the weighing scale 6 is carried and
on which it turns, on counter-weighted levers 7 at the sides of the
machine, which levers have sufficient movement, limited by a pin 8, to
allow of the pendent link 9 going into gear with the mechanism which
pulls down and empties the scale.
A fourth improvement, shown in Figure 4, consists in combining two
(or more) weighing scales 6, 6, on one spindle 5, carried on counter-
weighted levers (7, Figure 3), and when one scale is full the emptying
action simply turns the set round a half, a third, or other portion of a
turn so as to bring the next scale into a position for being filled.

page_text: A fifth improvement relates to the arrangement described in the
Specification of certain Letters Patent granted to us and dated the 13th
December 1869 (No. 3600) in which arrangement a hooked roller
(marked 4, in many of the Figures on the accompanying Sheet of
Diagrams) is employed for lifting the fibrous materials out of the hopper
or box.
"
In one modification, shown in section and plan in Figures 5 and 6 the
disengaging of the fibres from the hooked roller 4 is rendered more
certain so as the better to adapt the apparatus for "long staple ” fibres,
by causing narrow endless cords or bands 10 (with or without cross
strips or bars) to pass round the hooked roller 4, and round one or more
small plain rollers 11. The cords lie between the rows of hooks on the
roller surface 4, so that the hooks project beyond them at the part where
the roller has to pick up the fibres, but where they leave the hooked
roller 4, to pass to the plain roller 11, they lift the fibres off the hooks
and afterwards drop them into the weighing scale. Instead of the
endless moving cords 10, fixed wires 12 may be arranged with their ends, or
as we now find better, with their middle parts, lying on the surface of the
roller 4 between the hooks, disposed in circular rows as shown in Figures
7 and S. These wires 12 are fixed to a bar 13 so as to leave the roller
surface at a tangent on the descending side of the roller, in consequence
of which the fibres are compelled to leave the hooks as the roller
revolves.
A sixth improvement relates to the doffing paddle 14, which is
employed to beat the fibres off from the hooked roller 4, or from the
hooked apron when employed instead of a roller, and its object is to
prevent the fibres from being carried round upon the paddle 14. For
this purpose we make the beating parts in the form of combs or sets
of prongs, as shown in Figures 9 and 10, and arrange them to work
through the interstices of a fixed grating 15 which causes any adhering
fibres to be detached as the prongs retire within the grating in passing
round. Or the paddle 14 may, as shown in Figure 11, have plain blades
arranged to work through slits in a revolving cylindrical casing 16,
within which slits the blades retire in passing round in consequence
of being arranged to turn about an axis eccentric to that of the casing.
The blades are fitted on their shaft with as much freedom of vibration
thereon as will allow them to adapt themselves. to the slits in the
casing 16.

page_text: A seventh improvement is shown in Figure 12, and consists in
arranging in the hopper or box 17, into which the fibrous materials are
first put one or more revolving spiked rollers 18 for the purpose of
separating portions of the materials that may be matted or massed
together.
An eighth improvement relates to the distributing or equalising
paddle 19, Figure 13, which acts on the fibrous materials as they pass
along the endless feed apron 20 upon which they fall from the weighing
apparatus, and it consists in rendering this paddle 19 self-adjusting as
to height by mounting it on a frame 21, which rests on two or more
rollers 22 lying on the fibrous materials. The frame 21 will rise and fall
with any variation in the thickness of the stream of materials due to
their more or less condensed state, and will thus always adjust the
distributing paddle as required.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we have to state that we do not
restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated;
but that what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as
the Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, the fitting of "first feed" apparatus with improved parts,
substantially such as are herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry James Hogg King, on
behalf of the said Philip Charles Evans and myself, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
H. J. H. KING. (L.S.)