IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Bispham Kay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th November 1871.
I, THOMAS BISPHAM KAY, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND PREPARING COTTON AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
:-
My Invention consists firstly in an arrangement of mechanism for
combing cotton and other fibrous materials, whereby greater regularity
of motion and efficiency of action are obtained.
According to this Invention I propose to key two spur wheels upon a
shaft carried by two pedestals attached to a framing, and at a distance
from each other determined by the width of the lap, the said wheels
being driven by gearing from the driving pulley. Upon each of the
aforesaid spur wheels, and near its periphery are fixed bosses equidistant
from each other, and so that the bosses on one wheel exactly face those on
the other, and are each pierced by a short shaft, upon the inside end of
which is fixed a disc carrying two L shaped levers with bosses at their angles

page_text: working upon studs attached to the inside face of the said disc, and
exactly opposite to each other, and each also having upon one end a
second boss, and upon the other a friction bowl. Upon the inside face of
each disc is a flange with a ring fitting easily thereupon, having through
it two oblique slots, into which the aforesaid friction bowls respectively
project. Slung between each pair of discs across the machine are two
roller nippers, the extremities of which turn in the bossed ends of the
aforesaid shaped levers by which they are supported. These two roller
nippers are held in close contact, or caused to separate by the action of
the slots in the said rings upon the L shaped levers, and are caused to
roll by the action of a fixed eccentric upon a slide on the disc through
slots, in which studs attached to the roller nippers project. Upon the
outer end of each aforesaid short shaft is keyed a wheel provided with
teeth, and two set plates which by bearing upon a set rim attached to the
framing prevents the disc from revolving further after each semi-
revolution has been effected by the action of the wheel upon teeth fixed
in a space cut out of the said set rim. Tappets placed so as to act on the
rings of each pair of discs as they are brought consecutively before the lap
roller by the revolution of the said spur wheels, cause the roller nippers
to close and when before the doffer to open, the said nippers being held
closed during the revolution of the said discs by springs acting upon the
rings thereupon. At convenient intervals are placed two or more
revolving combs for acting upon the "beard" projecting from the
roller nippers cleaned by revolving brushes which deposit their strippings
upon a waste doffer shipped in the usual manner. The lap roller with
its plate or the two rollers, whichever arrangement is used, may be either
stationary relatively to the framing, or caused to oscillate by connecting
links upon the ends thereof working as eccentrics upon studds attached to
wheels gearing into the aforesaid spur wheels. An intermittent ratchet
motion drives from the said wheels advances the lap as each set of roller
nippers comes opposite to it, which when opposite to the doffer
open, and
the fibres held thereby are left upon the wire, so that one delivery
partially overlaps another, a quick revolving roller laying the loose ends,
and thus producing a continuous fleece, which is doffed in the usual
manner.
The next part of my Invention relates to self shipping carding engines,
and consists in an arrangement of mechanism whereby the period of a
flats absence from the bend may be diminished without the rate of
stripping being altered.

page_text: In carrying out this Invention I arrange the pinion and spur wheels
(which connect the stripper driving pulley with the self stripping motion),
so that the latter consists of two parts, one containing the teeth being
loose, but carrying a tumbling catch which is thrown alternately into and
out of gear with the other part, consisting of a disc keyed on to the shaft,
by the action of a projecting tooth upon the said pinion upon the ends of
the said catch which is retained in position by a spring.