IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE CARDS, AND IN MACHINERY USED THEREIN
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Walton, of Haughton Dale, Denton, near
Manchester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
WIRE CARDS, AND IN MACHINERY USED THEREIN.”
Sealed the 7th February 1861, and dated the 15th August 1860..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Walton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
August 1860.
I, WILLIAM WALTON, of Haughton Dale, Denton, near Manchester, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF WIRE CARDS, AND IN MACHINERY USED THEREIN," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of wire
cards, and in machinery used therein. In the manufacture of wire cards by
machinery it has been usual to employ fillets or strips of india-rubber (or of
other material employed to form the back of the cards), of greater width than
is required to receive the rows of teeth which the machine places in them, and
the margins have afterwards been cut off. This has been done because the
fillet in passing the point where the teeth are placed into it is, from the
manner in which the machines are arranged, liable to a slight sideway move-
ment. The present arrangement of the machines is as follows:-The fillet as
it enters the machine passes between two wires or guides to two rollers, over
and between which it passes, and then it is led over the edge of a metal plate

page_text: to a point immediately above where the teeth are put into it, hence it will
readily be seen that the guides being at a considerable distance from the point
where the teeth are introduced, the fillet will be very liable to sideway move-
ment after passing the guides more especially, as rollers are interposed between
the guides and the said point.
Now, according to this Invention, I employ guides to guide the fillet after
it has passed the rollers, and as close up to the point where the teeth are
introduced as possible in practice. I attach them to the metal plate before
mentioned, and I do not as heretofore employ fillets from which margins have
afterwards to be cut, but I employ fillets of the exact width required to receive
the teeth; in this manner a considerable saving is effected in the cost of the
manufacture..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Walton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th February 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WALTON, of Haughton Dale, Denton, near Manchester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Walton, Her special licence that I, the said William Walton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Walton, 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE CARDS, AND IN MACHINERY USED THEREIN," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Walton, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Walton, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of wire
cards, and in machinery used therein. In the manufacture of wire cards by
machinery it has been usual to employ fillets or strips of india-rubber (or of
other material employed to form the backs of the cards) of greater width than
is required to receive the rows of teeth which the machine places in them, and
the margins have afterwards been cut off. This has been done because the
fillet in passing the point where the teeth are placed into it is, from the
manner in which the machines are arranged, liable to a slight sideway move-
ment. The present arrangement of the machines is as follows:-The fillet 'as
it enters the machine passes between two wires or guides to two rollers over
and between which it passes, and then it is led over the edge of a metal plate
to, a point immediately above where the teeth are put into it; hence it will
readily be seen that the guides being at a considerable distance from the point
where the teeth are introduced the fillets will be very liable to sideway move
ment after passing the guides, more especially as rollers are interposed between
the guides and the said point.
Now, according to this Invention, I employ guides to guide the fillet after
it has passed the rollers, and as close up to the point where the teeth are
introduced as possible. In practice I attach them to the mutal plate before
mentioned, and I do not, as heretofore, employ fillets, from which margins have
afterwards to be cut, but I employ fillets of the exact width required to receive
the teeth, in this manner a considerable saving is effected in the cost of the
manufacture.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
described apparatus suitable for carrying out my Invention; I would, however,
at the same time state that the form of the guides or mechanism used, and the
manner of performing my Invention may be varied, so long as the fillets
employed for the backs in the manufacture of wire cards are such, and the
mechanism employed for setting the teeth be so arranged that the fillets or
backs may be set with wire teeth, and (without being cut at the edges) be
applied on to the cylinder of carding engines, and still as heretofore present
uniform or nearly uniform surfaces of card teeth without gaps or spaces
between the rows of teeth where the edges of the fillets come together; I
would further state that by my Invention not only may an important saving
be obtained in regard to the materials used for the backs of fillet cards, but at

page_text: .
the same time the labour and cost of cutting away the edges of such backs
after they have been set with teeth will be saved. In cutting the fillets or
strips of materials for making the backs of fillet cards suitable for carding
engines, I cause the material to be cut very accurately to the finished widths
of the intended fillet cards, the edges being cut true and at right angles to the
surfaces of the materials used; and I cause the fillets to be fed up to the
prickers and teeth-setting apparatus with correctness by suitable guides, in
order that the teeth may be set close up to the two-edges of each of such
backs, and only slightly within the materials at the edges; thus I am as nearly
as may be enabled to obtain such a result that the teeth next the edges of two
contiguous fillets, when fixed on a carding cylinder, will be uniform, or as
nearly uniform as may be, in distance one from the other, as the teeth are in
other parts of the surface of the carding cylinder, where there is no coming
together of the edges of two fillets, and this may be done with greater
'exactness when working according to my Invention than is usually ac
complished when using fillet cards, the backs of which, have been cut away
at the edges after they have been set with teeth, as has heretofore been the

page_text: of the additional guides B', B', which are fixed to the guides B, and are
adjusted and fixed to the plate A. by the same set screws as are used to the
guides B..
Figure 9 shews a front elevation; Figure 10, a back elevation; Figure 11,
a plan; and Figure 12, a section of another arrangement of guides in which
the guides B are fixed together and are set correctly for one width of fillet,
but the two guides B thus combined together are capable of adjustment on
the plate A by set screws E and F..
I have not thought it necessary to shew a card setting machine, the con-
struction and manner of working of such machines being well understood, and
I make no alteration therein except in respect to applying guides or instru-
ments suitable for securely holding and guiding the fillets of materials for
forming the backs of wire cards in such manner as to prevent movement of
the fillets sideways at a point as near as may be where the prickers and the
setting apparatus are situated, in order that the fillets (which before they are
introduced into the setting machine, are accurately cut or formed to the exact
widths of the intended fillet cards) may be accurately set with wire teeth in
the setting machine, and not require to be cut at the edges before they are
applied to a carding engine.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Walton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
WILLIAM WALTON. (L.S.)