IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Holden, of the Firm of Isaac Holden and
Sons, of Bradford, in the County of York, for the Invention of
“IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER
FIBRES."
"
Scaled the 11th March 1873, and dated the 13th September 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Holden at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th September 1872.
I, EDWARD HOLDEN, of the Firm of Isaac Holden and Sons, of
Bradford, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING WOOL,
COTTON, AND OTHER FIBRES," to be as follows:-
The object of the Invention is to facilitate the action upon the shorter
fibres and the separation of the noil in the process of preparing for
combing in place of leaving it to be effected solely by the combing. For
this purpose I pass the fibre through gill preparers to in part lay and

page_text: straighten them, and I find it convenient to employ for this purpose the
arrangement of apparatus for which Letters Patent were granted to me,
bearing date the 4th of November 1868, No. 3347, and the 5th of July
1870, No. 1896, and then I operate upon the fibro so treated by other
finer gill combs, but in place of drawing off from these finer gill combs by t
rollers I employ nipping surfaces for that purpose, such as are employed
in the nip machines, in order to take hold of the fibre close up to the gill
teeth and draw off the fibre in separate tufts or a series of them, which
tufts are then taken from these nippers by a carrier comb and by it laid
into and accumulated by a circle of comb or holding teeth from which 1
the fibre is drawn by drawing-off rollers so as to separate noil, and these
drawings are then combed in the usual way.
By these means the removal of noil and short fibre is effected before
combing and the labor of combing is reduced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 1
filed by the said Edward Holden in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 12th March 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Edward
HOLDEN, of the Firm of Isaac Holden and Sons, of Bradford, in the
County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Holden, Her special license 2
that I, the said Edward Holden, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Holden, my exccutors,
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, excrcise, and
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ircland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBRES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Holden, my

page_text: 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Holden, do hereby declarc
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
-
The object of the Invention is to facilitate the action upon the shorter
fibres and the separation of the noil in the process of preparing for
combing in place of leaving it to be effected solely by the combing. For
this purpose I pass the fibres through gill preparers to in part lay and
straighten them, and I find it convenient to employ for this purpose the
arrangement of apparatus for which Letters Patent were granted to me,
bearing date the 4th of November 1868, No. 3347, and the 5th of July
1870, No. 1896, and then I operate upon the fibre so treated by other
finer gill combs, but in place of drawing off from these finer gill combs
by rollers I employ nipping surfaces for that purpose, such as aro
employed in the nip machines, in order to take hold of the fibre close up
to the finer gill teeth and draw off the fibre in separate tufts or a series
of them, which tufts are then taken from these nippers by a carrier comb
and by it laid into and accumulated by a circular or other comb or series
of holding teeth from which the fibre is drawn by drawing off rollers so
as to separate noil, and the slivers obtained by these drawings are then
fed into suitable combing apparatus to be thereby combed in the usual
way by combing machinery preparatory to drawing and spinning for
weaving.
By these means the removal of noil and short fibre is offected before
combing and the labor of combing is reduced.
Having thus described my Invention, and means which I adopt in
carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that what I
claim is, the operating upon wool, cotton, and other fibres by two or
more sets of gill combs of progressively increased fineness as such fibres
are fed to nipping surfaces to be detached into tufts, and in such tufts
fed to a circle of receiving combs or holding teeth from which it is

page_text: drawn off by drawing-off rollers substantially as described, as a preparing
process before such fibres are combed by other suitable combing
machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Holden, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Sixth day of March, in the year of 5
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
EDWARD HOLDEN. (L.S.)