AND IM- PROVED MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES BY POWER
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
Kay, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Kay, His especial licence that I, the said James Kay, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Kay, my exors,
admiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
find the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "NEW AND IM-
PROVED MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER
FIBROUS SUBSTANCES BY POWER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said James Kay, 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 recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
uuto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Kay, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist in
new machinery for macerating flax and other similar fibrous substances
previous to drawing and spinning it, which process I call preparing it; and
also in improved machinery for spinning the same after having been so
prepared. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said James
Kay, do hereby describe the manner in which I perform my said Invention by
the following description; first, of the new machinery for macerating, and,
secondly, of the improved machinery for spinning; reference being had to the
Drawing annexed, and the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
I will first describe the new machinery for the purposes of maceration.
Figure 1 represents a front elevation of an ordinary flax spinning frame, as
used for preparing flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances, by power, with
this alteration, namely, instead of the ordinary spindles, which would be
placed at M, J,substitute the twisters and rollers colored blue; but to which,
being well known in the trade, I lay no claim as being any part of my said
Invention. A, A, A, A, are four tin cans, set into tin or other vessels
B, B, B, B, and kept from slipping to the bottom of these vessels by means of
the beading or rim r, r. The can and vessel on the right are shown in
section, in order more distinctly to show how the one sets into the other; the
vessel B, B, B, B, are bored with holes like a cullender, and set into a
trough C, C, filled with distilled or other soft water at about summer heat.
As the cans A fill with rovings or slivers of flax such rovings or slivers should
be pressed down by means of a plunger into the vessels B, B, B, B, until all
the air in the flax be expelled through the holes in the vessels B, B, B, B;
until this is effected the roving or sliver will not be sufficiently macerated.
When the roving orsliver lies in one completely saturated mass at the bottom
of the vessels B, B, B, B, from having been repeatedly pressed down and
under the water by the plunger, the cans may be lifted off, and the roving or
sliver may be divided, and the vessels and trough may be removed with the
compressed rovings or slivers in them, and left to steep for about five or six
hours, when they will be in a fit state to be removed to the spinning frame,
and acted upon as herein-after set forth.
Figure 2 is a side view of Figure 1, and merely given to show the relative
position of the can, macerating vessel, and flax spinning frame.
Having now described the new machinery for the purposes of maceration,
and which consists only of the vessels marked B, and the trough of water

page_text: marked C, I. will proceed to describe the improved machinery for spinning
flax and other similar fibrous substances...
Figure 3 represents a side view in section of my improved spinning frame
to be worked by power in any of the ordinary methods. D, D, is a wooden
or other trough divided into compartments, cach compartment having the
contents of one of the macerating vessels emptied into it, in such manner-that-
the said contents, when so emptied into it; may have the appearance represented
in this Figure, and the best mode which I have found.of doing this has been
to turn the macerating vessel upside down carefully over the compartment,
when the end of the roving or sliver will be casily found.. E, E, represent the
contents of two of the macerating vessels emptied as aforesaid. The ends of
the roving or sliver being found; they are led over the roller G at the top of
the frame H. From this, roller G the roving or sliver is led between an
ordinary pair of retaining rollers e, e, and a pair of drawing rollers c, c. The
drawing rollers.c, c,.move, at a space eight times faster than the retaining
rollers e, e, which retaining rollers I find answer better to be fluted. I.place.
the drawing rollers only two and a half inches from the retaining rollers, and
this constitutes the principal improvement in the said spinning machinery; for
the roving being so completely macerated would not hold together to be
drawn out while in such a state to the ordinary length of the staple, but this
very state, when drawn in so short a length as here represented, enables it to
be spun very fine and evenly; for it should be stated that there is no elasticity
in the fibre of flax, hemp, nettle weed, or other the like substances, but when.
drawn by rollers so placed as aforesaid, and moving at the relative speeds
aforesaid, and in the completely saturated state aforesaid, the-fibres themselves.
are pulled asunder, and require to be twisted immediately, or the continuity of
the thread would be destroyed. This position of the rollers is not necessary.
in the ordinary mode of spinning such substances as aforesaid, for in the
ordinary process the elongation of the skim only is effected by the process of
drawing, and not the elongation of the fibres themselves which compose the
skin; J is the thread or staple in its twisted or spun state, and L is the
ordinary bobbin and fly.
Now whereas I hereby declare that what I claim as my Invention in
respect of new machinery for preparing flax, hemp, and other fibrous sub-
stances, are the macerating vessels marked B,and trough of water marked C;
and that which I claim as my Invention in respect of improved machinery for
spinning flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances, is the wooden or other
trough marked D), for holding the rovings when taken from the inacerating
vessels, and the placing of the retaining rollers e, e, and the drawing rollers

page_text: c, c, nearer to each other than they have ever before been placed, say, within
two and a half inches of each other, for the purpose aforesaid. And such my
Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and
never before used within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said Dominion of Wales, or
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification
of my said Invention, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification
doth comply, in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the
proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained;
wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Kay, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1826, the aforesaid James Kay came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
CT