IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BREAKING UP OR CUTTING WOOL BURS
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Simon, of No. 7, St. Peter's Square, Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR BREAKING UP OR CUTTING WOOL BURS." A communication
from abroad by Leopold Offermann, of Leipzig, in the German Empire.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Simon at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th April 1880.
HENRY SIMON, of No. 7, St. Peter's Square, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BREAKING UP OR CUTTING WOOL
BURS." [A communication from abroad by Leopold Offermann, of Leipzig, in tho
German Empire.]
The burs occurring in combing-wool are reduced by the carding operation into
fibres of varying length. In the gill boxes that operate on the wool after the
carding machine, as also in the combing machine itself, these bur fibres behave in
the same manner as the wool fibres, that is, the longer bur fibres pass into tho
'tops," and only the shorter ones are led into the" noils."
This Invention has for its object to break up or cut the longer bur fibres, so that
they can no longer bo seized by the drawing rollers of the combing machine, and it
consists in the use for this purposo of a pair of rollers in front of the doffer of the
carding engine or in the gill boxes, the one such roller having a smooth surfaco
while the other has blunt cutting edges. These rollers are so arranged that the
cutting edges of the one in rotating come into very close proximity to the surface
of the other without actually coming in contact, so that on a wool sliver of
moderate thickness being passed through between the rollers the cutting edges
break up or cut the brittle bur fibres contained in the sliver, while the wool fibres,
owing to their great transverse clasticity, are not injured by the compression to
which they are subjected.

page_text: Figs. 1 and 2 of the Drawings shew respectively a part vertical section and a
part plan of a carding machine with the above described Invention applied thereto.
A is a roller with smooth surface, and B is a roller provided with blunt cutting
edges resting upon A, a full size plan of the roller B being shown at Fig. 3. The
edges are shown of annular form, but they may be made helical or parallel to the
axis of the roller. The ends C, C, of this roller, which rest upon the roller A, being
made of slightly larger diameter than that of tho cutting edges the contact of the
latter with the roller A is effectually prevented.
Both rollers rest in bearings D; the lower one A is driven by the doffer, and the
upper one B from the lower one by the toothed wheels E having exactly the same
proportion of the diameters as the rollers.
The axis of B being loaded with weights F suspended therefrom the ends C of
the roller are always maintained in contact with A while the wool sliver is passing
through, so that the burs are crushed or cut by the edges of B as they pass
through.
As shewn on the Drawing the rollers are placed between the doffer G and the
winding apparatus H. In order to insure that the wool sliver delivered from the
doffor shall pass as a broad band of uniform thickness between the rollers A and B
it is led over guide bars K, such as are frequently used in cotton carding engines.
In order to insure that the cutting roller B may act reliably and efficiently, that is
to say, crush or cut the burs without injuring the wool, it is necessary that the
distance between the cutting edges and the surface of the roller A shall be
exceedingly small without there being actual contact, consequently both rollers
must be ground absolutely cylindrical, and hardened in order that there be little or
no wear.
The above described arrangement can bo equally well applied to the gill boxes
following on the carding engine.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim,―
The use for breaking up or cutting wool burs of a pair of rollers, between which
the wool sliver is passed, one of which rollers has blunt cutting edges in close
proximity to but not touching the surface of the other roller, substantially as hercin
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Simon, have hereunto set my hand
and scal, this Twenty seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
HENRY SIMON. (L.S.)