MENTS IN EQUALISING APPARATUS FOR CARDING MACHINES."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Cunningham, of Dundee, in the County
of Forfar, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of
MENTS IN EQUALISING APPARATUS FOR CARDING MACHINES."
"IMPROVE.
This Invention relates to improvements that have arisen in carrying
out an earlier Invention for which the present applicant has obtained
Letters Patent, dated 3 December 1873 (No. 8962).

page_text: material by means of the displacement of a roller by the passage under
it of the said fibrous material.
By the present Invention an increased and more manageable action is
obtained by combining two or more such displacements. Thus the
fibrous material in the form of a card end, fleece, or sliver is passed in
succession between the adjacent surfaces of a number of rollers arranged
in such proximity that the displacement of the end roller of the series is
necessarily the sum of all the amounts of separation produced between
the rollers.
In one modification the rollers are placed in a vertical row resting on
each other, and the card end is led round and between them in suc-.
cession, so that the top roller is lifted in proportion to the number of
times the card end passes between the rollers. The top roller is connected
to mechanism for shifting a driving belt on two reversed cones just as
described in the earlier Specification herein-before referred to.
By a second improvement an index lever is connected to the movable
roller, and being arranged to sweep over a large scale or dial shows at a
glance what at any moment is the condition as to thickness of the fibrous
material being delivered, so that the attendants can judge of the action
of the machine, and make any adjustments that may be desirable. This
index lever may be combined with the self-acting mechanism for
varying the speed of parts of the machinery, or it may be used without
such mechanism, and still be of great practical utility in guiding the
workers, so that they can supply the materials to the feed apron.or
aprons in the best manner for obtaining a uniform result.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Cunningham in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th November 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CUNNINGHAM, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of

page_text: our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Cunningham, Her special licence
that I, the said William Cunningham, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Cunningham, my
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 EQUALISING APPARATUS FOR CARDING MACHINES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Cunningham, my executors
or administrators, 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 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Cunningham, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to improvements that have arisen in carrying
out my earlier Invention for which I obtained Letters Patent dated
3 December 1873 (No. 3962).
By my said earlier Invention the speed of certain parts of or in con-
nection with a carding machine was alterable so as to equalise the delivery
of the fibrous materials by means of the displacement of
passing under it of the said fibrous material.
.
roller by the
A.
By my present Invention an increased and more manageable action 'is
obtained by combining two or more such displacements.""
By a second improvement an index lever is applied in connection with
the movable roller or rollers to show at a glance what at any moment,
is the condition as to thickness of the fibrous material being delivered,
so that the attendants can judge of the action of the machine, and make
any adjustments that may be desirable. This index lever may be com-
:

page_text: bined with the self-acting mechanism for varying the speed of parts of
the machinery, or it may be used without such mechanism, and still. be
of great practical utility in guiding the workers, so that they can supply
the materials to the feed apron or aprons in the best manner for obtaining
a uniform result.
. And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood; I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing a
modification of my improved equalising and indicating mechanism for
the delivery of carding machines. In these Drawings the same reference
numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are
repeated.
Figure 1 is a plan of the apparatus, and Figures 2 and 3 are a side and
an end elevation.
i
.
"
The
The card end or sliver 20 as it leaves the delivery conductor 16 of the
carding machine passes along a guide plate to a series of rollers 21, 22,
and entering between the bottom and next roller is. thence passed round
and between all the rollers in a serpentine course until it issues between
the top one and 'the next, and passes down a delivery shoot.
rollers 21, 22, are by preference fixed on comparatively long shafts '45,
which are held in vertical slots in three standards 23, and which are
geared together by spur wheels 24 at the ends furthest from the rollers.
This arrangement admits of the separation of the rollers by the card end
or sliver passing between them without the wheels 24 getting out of
gear or disarranged, and at the same time keeps the rollers steadier
than they would be with short journals. In the slot. of the standard 23
nearnest the wheels 24 the several shafts 45, are held in bearing blocks,
but so as not to interfere with the slight angular movements of the
shafts when the rollers are lifted by the card end or sliver. The parts of
the shafts 45 passing through the standards 23 close to the rollers do not
require to be fitted with bearing blocks, excepting in the case of the top
roller 21. A saddle piece 25 rests on the bearing blocks of the top
roller 21, and when raised by the sliver passing. between the rollers acts
on the under side of a lever 26, 27, centered on a cross head 46, fixed on
the frame pieces 23. The inner end of this lever 26, 27, is connected
by a link 28, the length of which, is adjustable. by means of a screw
coupling to a transverse weighted lever 29 moving in a vertical plane at
right angles to that of the shafts 45, and centered at 30 on a frāmę
÷
"

page_text: 1
י
bracket 31... The transverse lever: 29. has jointed to it two weighted
Linger pieces 32, which have: between them a longitudinal shaft 33,
carried so as to be capable of a slight lateral movement, and driven by
means of 'a' spur wheel 34 fast on it, and in gear with a spur wheel on
one of the roller shafts 45. The shaft 33 has also on it a frictional
pulley 35, which lies between two discs 36, 37, fast on a transverse screw
shaft 38; which is consequently turned in one direction or the other
whenever the pulley 35 is pressed into contact with one of the discs
36, 37.
The parts are adjusted so that when the sliver 20 is of the
proper thickness the pulley 35 touches.neither disc, and, it follows that
when the sliver is too thick the screw shaft will be turned in one.direc-
tion, and in the opposite direction when it is too thin. This screw shaft.
38 has on it a corresponding internally screwed nut or boss 39, which
has fixed to it fork points for shifting a driving belt' 40, 'transmitting
motion between two. reversely placed cones 41, 42. With these arrange-
ments it is obvious that the speed of the driven' cone 42 will vary in
accordance with the action of the equalising apparatus. The variable
motion thus derived may be communicated by any convenient gearing
to the rollers 21; 22; or it may be communicated instead or conjointly to
other parts of the carding machinery so as to have an equivalent effect,
or on the other hand it might be communicated to an additional pair of
rollers through which the sliver would pass after leaving the roller 21.
A long light lever 43 centered on a bracket 44 is jointed to the screw
nut 39, and serves as a pointer to show on a scale or marked arc formed
on the bracket 44 whether a thin or thick sliver is being delivered from
the machine, and acts as a guide to the workers feeding the machine.
The point of the lever 43 is bended back over the arc, which has
indicating words or marks put on both sides of it so that it can be seen
from either end of the machine what the pointer 43 is at any time
indicating. The lever 26, 27, which transmits the movement of the
rollers 21 is made in two parts jointed together to avoid breakage in the.
event of some unusual action taking place tending to move it further
than its inner end is free to go, in which case the inner part 27, which
is weighted to keep it straight under ordinary circumstances, turns on
the joint connecting the two parts.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe

page_text: to be novel and original and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
-
1. The combining and arranging of three or more rollers so that
fibrous material being delivered from a carding machine may by passing
between such rollers cause two or more separations or displacements
thereof, and so that the aggregate movement due to such separations
may act on parts for varying the speed of certain parts of the machinery,
substantially as and for the purposes herein-before described.
2. The indicating of the condition as to thickness of fibrous material
being delivered from carding machinery by improved mechanism, sub-
stantially such as is herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cunningham, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. (L.S.)