CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PRE- PARING LINEN AND COTTON RAGS AND OTHER MATERIALS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DAVEY, of the Parish of Saint Giles, Camberwell, in the County of Surrey,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth
day of September, in the fourth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Davey, His especial
licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Henry Davey,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Davey, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PRE-
PARING LINEN AND COTTON RAGS AND OTHER MATERIALS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF PAPER," being a communication from a Foreigner residing abroad; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Henry Davey,
to cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, 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 in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had; will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Davey, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof (reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say):-
:-
These Improvements in Machinery or Apparatus for Preparing Linen and
Cotton Rags and other Materials used in the Manufacture of Paper, consist in
the arrangement of certain mechanical parts, heretofore well known as applied
to other purposes, but which, as a whole, are made to constitute a new
machine suited to the operation of cutting, tearing, and cleaning rags for the
purposes of making paper. The machine consists of an endless feeding cloth,
by which the rough rags supplied by the attendants are progressively con-
ducted forward to a pair of feeding rollers, and on passing through these
rollers the rags are submitted to the operation of rotary cutters, acting against
a fixed or ledger blade, which cut and tear them into small pieces, from
whence the rags, having been so cut and torn, are allowed to slide down an
enclined sieve which is put in a state of agitation. By these means the dust
and greater part of the dirt from the rags is sifted through, and the
small pieces of rag are delivered on to a horizontal sieve or sorting table,
where they are examined; and if any large pieces of rag happen to have
escaped the cutters, these pieces are returned into the machine to be again
operated upon, until they are found to be in a state ready for the pulp engine.
In the accompanying Drawing, Figure 1 is a horizontal view of the machine;
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same; and Figure 3 is a longitudinal
section, the respective letters of reference pointing out similar parts of the
machine in all the Figures. An iron or other suitable frame, consisting of
side standards a, a, with transverse bars secured to the sides by screw nuts,
constitutes the framework or support of the machine. Two wooden rollers b, b,
carry an endless cloth c, on to which cloth the rough rags are supplied by
attendant women; and these rollers being made to revolve by means hereafter
described, the rags are progressively conducted forward, and introduced between
the pair of feeding rollers d, d, which are of iron or other material, and one
or both of them may be grooved or fluted in the direction of their axis, for the
purpose of taking more firm hold of the materials. These rollers d, d, are
connected by toothed gear, as shewn by dots in Figure 2, and therefore revolve
together in opposite directions. By their rotation they receive the rags from
the feeding cloth, and conduct them through to the edge of the fixed cutter
or ledger blade e, which is secured to a transverse bar extending across the

page_text: frame of the machine. A pair of circular rims or wheels g, g, fixed upon the
rotary shaft h, carry a series of knives i, i, placed diagonally to the axis.
The ends of these knives are secured to the circular rims by screws, and they
are so fixed upon the rims, and also the axle is so accurately adjusted in its
bearings, as to cause the knives as they revolve to pass in close contact with
the fixed cutter or ledger blade e, and by so doing to produce the operation of
shears. The first moving power, as that of a steam engine, a water wheel, a
horse, or manual labour, being applied by a band to the rigger k upon the
shaft h, or by a winch to the end of the said shaft, the cutters are made to
revolve, and to act against the fixed blade in the way already described; and
a pinion, upon the shaft, taking into the toothed wheel m, fixed upon the
end of the lower feeding roller, gives that rotary motion to those rollers which
brings the rags forward from the feeding cloth, and presents them on the top
edge of the ledger blade e, to the cutting action of the rotary cutters as they
pass. From the cutters the pieces of rag fall down on to an enclined sieve n,
which is agitated for the purpose of shaking out a great portion of the dirt
from the rags. This sieve is mounted upon its lower part upon an axle or
hinge joint o, and at its upper part is supported by straps p, p, suspended from
the levers 7, 7. The levers q, q, vibrate upon fulcrum pivots r, r, inserted
into the ends of a transverse rail, supported upon blocks mounted on the
standards, the vibratory action of the levers being effected by rotary tap-
pets 8, 8, upon the shaft h, which act under the ends of the levers. As the
shaft h goes round, the tappets lift the levers q, q, at intervals, and then allow
them to fall suddenly, by which means the sieve has a rapid up and down
motion, which not only shakes out the dust, but carries the rags down into
the horizontal sieve or sorting table t, whence they may be taken without
any further operation of dusting, and placed in the engine to be washed and
reduced into pulp. I have said that a series of cutters may be employed, but
I do not at all times find it necessary to employ more than two moving blades,
though a greater number may be employed in the same way if desired, The
progressive movement of the endless cloth may be effected by a pulley v, fixed
on the end of the lower feeding roller, from whence a band may be passed
to a similar pulley on the end of the first of the rollers b, which being by that
means made to revolve, will cause the feeding cloth to travel, and the rags to
be progressively delivered to the feeding rollers. I would add that, if by the
operation of the machine some of the rags is passing through a first time
should not have been cut or torn sufficiently small, such large pieces may be
carried back again to the feeding cloth, and pass through the machine a
second time, in order to reduce them to any required degree of fineness.

page_text: Having described this improved machine or apparatus for cutting or pre-
paring rags to be used in the manufacture of paper, I wish it to be understood
that I do not mean or intend to confine myself to the precise.form or con-
struction of the several parts, as the same may be varied to suits different kinds
and qualities of material to be operated upon. And, further, that several
additional parts might be added to this machine, which would render its
working still more complete, and perform several different operations at the
same time as the cutting of the rags or other material takes place; for
instance, under some circumstances it may be desirable to place between the
rotary cutters above described, one, two, or more projecting beaters, which,
as they revolve, shall strike or act upon the rags or other material as they
are delivered from the feeding rollers to the cutters, and thereby remove or
strike off any dirt or other extraneous matter adhering to the material under
operation, which will help to cleanse the same, and render the material more
fit for the subsequent operations of manufacturing it into paper. And, fur-
ther, that there may be a rotary fan or other blowing apparatus adapted. to
this machinery, which will cause a current of air to operate upon the material
as it is delivered from the rotary cutters, whereby the lighter particles, which
would otherwise be either carried away by the agitation of the air produced
by the revolution of the cutters or fall through the meshes of the sieve with
the dirt or other foreign matters, may be seperated from the dirt or other
extraneous material, and collected and afterwards carried to the subsequent
operations in the manufacture of the material into paper. And I would
further remark, that although I prefer horizontal rotary cutters, from their
being the most simple in construction and most readily kept in proper order,
yet it will be evident that cutters or blades having a vertical rotary motion
may be adapted to this machine with good effect, and also, that blades with a
vibratory or up and down cutting motion may be employed instead of those
fixed on a rotary shaft.
Having now described the particular construction and arrangement of this
improved machine, I need only remark, that it is evident that it may be made
to operate upon the various materials used for the manufacture of paper, such
as the thrums or ends of yarn, of woven cloth, woollen goods, rope, yarn,
sacking, or other fibrous material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Davey, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.
HENRY (L.s.) DAVEY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of March,
in the fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth,
the said Henry Davey came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of March, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-four.