Improvements in Combing Machines, and in the Preparation of Fibres for Combing.
Year: 1892

page_text: [Communicated from abroad by JOSEPH IMBS, of 58, Rue de la Chaussée
d'Antin, Paris, France, Engineer.]
Improvements in Combing Machines, and in the Preparation of
Fibres for Combing.
I, ERNEST DE PASS, of 78 Fleet Street, in the City of London, Fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this 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 drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say :-
I will first describe that which in this invention relates to the preparation, then
that which refers to the combing machines.
1. In the Specifications of previous Patents I described a drawing apparatus for
working directly on the laps of cotton scutchers in order to be able to comb
without previous carding.
I have modified this drawing apparatus which must, in order to be able to lay
hold of, or to seize, very close, be furnished with rollers of small diameter, which,
however, must not bend longitudinally.
Fig. 1 of the annexed drawings represents full size, and in section, the modified.
apparatus.
A is the urchin or feed roller revolving in a trough B. The drawing apparatus
consists of a large roller C against which works, under heavy pressure, one or two
rollers D, D, of small diameter. These rollers D would inevitably bend if I
furnished them, according to custom, with pressure applied at their ends. Instead
of this, 1 place above each of the rollers D two rollers d, d, which are short, and
which are carried in bearings e fixed to the strong cross beam T mounted in a
fork F. Along this cross beam T, I repeat, as often as desired, these pairs of short
rollers d, d, mounted in bearings e. It is upon this cross beam T that I apply the
pressure which is transmitted to D which bears for its whole length on the roller C
without being able to bend neither upwards nor forwards or backwards. In addition
to this I give to the drawing apparatus (constituted as herein described, or as
described in the previous Patents) a circumferential speed relatively very great in
relation to the speed of the feeding apparatus. Although, with cotton, one seldom
uses the ratios of speed of 1 to 8 or 10, I give, from the feeding to the drawing
apparatus, a ratio of speed of 1 to 25, 30, or even 40, and I thus obtain a result
which, though not in accordance with recognised tradition, is infinitely better than
by following such tradition.
2. I now purpose to apply to the voluminous sliver, coming from a cotton comber,
the same principle of drawing as above, by preference to the ordinary rollers, with
low ratio of speed, as is adapted to combing machines for drawing the coarse sliver
before its entry into the coiler.
Fig. 2 shows full size and in section, the drawing apparatus which I substitute
for that everywhere used. A first pair of rollers J, J, compresses and condenses
the combed coarse sliver, and supplies it, under simple suitable tension, to the
urchin I revolving in a trough I¹ having a thin nose. A pair of drawing rollers H H
work very near to the nose of the trough I' and produce, at this point only, a very
powerful drawing, which experiment has shown me to be the most favourable with
a variable ratio of speed of 12 to 20, or more.
3. Fig. 3 shows full size, and in vertical section, the feeding nipper M, M', and
the seizing nipper N, N1, of my own combing machine. I now purpose, for certain
kinds of fibrous material, to provide the axis o of my small rotary comb, not with

page_text: combs properly so called, but with a band of fine and close card clothing. It will
be seen in the drawing that the axis o is thus clothed (and it must be supposed that
the teeth of the clothing exist in continuity throughout the circumference, which is
evidently preferable). But it will further be seen that the rotary organ o is not
represented at a certain distance from the nippers as would be imagined, but, on
the contrary, working in effective contact with these nippers. Indeed it is this
peculiar working which I intend to bring about, so as to reproduce, in a continuous
and automatic combing machine, a kind of action which heretofore has only been
applied in certain apparatus, more or less manual, employed in the discontinuous
combing of large and very fine fibres, such as silk waste. All existing continuous
combing machines since Heilmann's have only employed combs, that is to say,
straight and rigid teeth in successive rows, and such combs render an effective
contact impossible. A. suitable device covered with card-clothing, opposite suitable
nippers, permits this working by contact which no one has ever thought of applying,
nor been able to apply to any existing continuous machine. Fig. 3 shows my
combing machine for carrying out this working at the moment that the head and
the tail are thoroughly combed, both simultaneously. Besides an exceptionally
energetic action, 1 obtain, as result, perfect working quite up to the bottom of the
head, or of the tail, and I can therefore, at the moment of the seizing of the head,
bring together my two nippers almost one against the other without the risk of
seizing this head at an imperfectly cleaned point. I employ for this rubbing
operation card clothing, the teeth of which have, as exactly as possible, their foot
and their point in the same straight line 7, 9, passing through the centre of the
axis. The teeth, thus made bend backwards but very little at the moment of
friction to resume their exact position immediately after.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I claim, as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent :-
1. In a scutcher lap drawing frame the use of the cross beam T carrying the
pairs of rollers d, d, for applying pressure the whole length of a small roller D
bearing upon the large drawing roller C, substantially as described.
2. The method for suitably drawing cotton scutcher laps, consisting in producing
at one and the same time, by the drawing roller, a lengthening of 20, 25, 30, 40,
substantially as described.
3. The application to the coarse combed sliver of a cotton combing machine, of
the drawing apparatus comprising a feed urchin revolving in a trough and followed
by a pair of rollers producing very nearly and at the same time a powerful drawing
of 10, 20, etc. substantially as described and shown with reference to Fig. 2 of the
accompanying drawings.
4. The employment in a continuous automitic combing machine, of a combing
roller or cylinder provided with flexible cards and working by friction against the
nipper holding the head, or the tail, of the fibres to be combed, substantially as
described and shown with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 8th day of March 1892
ERNEST DE PASS,
78, Fleet Street, London, and 6, Victoria Street, Nottingham,
Chartered Patent Agent.