MENTS IN THE MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANSING, AND CARDING FIBROUS MATERIAL
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richards. Harding, of Leeds; in the County
of York, Hackle Pin Manufacturer, for the Invention of IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANSING, AND CARDING FIBROUS
MATERIAL"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richards Harding
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition; on
the 25th September 1862.
I, THOMAS RICHARDS HARDING, of Leeds, in the County of York, Hackle
Pin Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANSING, AND, CARDING FIBROUS
MATERIAL," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in opening, cleansing, or preparing fibrous
material by placing the material to be operated upon on to a feeding sheet
which delivers it to the first of a series of porcupine rollers. Each of these
rollers has its pins set in a direction contrary, to that of its motion, and, an
increased speed is given to each of the rollers of the series over the roller
immediately preceding it.:, Thus the second roller on to which the material
passes has an increased rapidity of revolution as, compared with the first, and
the third roller in like manner revolves more rapidly than the second, and so
on through the series. Under each of these rollers (which may if required

page_text: be heated) is a dish, trough, or plate of the same sweep or curve as the
surface of the pins. The inner surface of the dish, trough, or plate approaches
nearly to the surface of the pins, but openings may be made in various parts
of the dish, trough, or plate, so as to allow any waste tow, impurities, or foreign
matter to fall through. Between each porcupine roller the plates, dishes, or
troughs are joined, and when the material operated upon is transferred from
one roller to the other, it is drawn out a little by the greater speed of the
roller on to which it is transferred. The fibrous material is then taken from
the last roller by any of the ordinary modes now in use for such purpose.
My Invention consists, secondly, in a peculiar construction of circular tow
card cylinders, whereby they can be made lighter and at less cost than those
now in use, and so constructed that dust and other impurities shall be taken
away. For this purpose I dispense entirely with the heavy iron or wood
surfaces or peripheries of card cylinders, and in lieu thereof I key firmly on
to the shaft a pair or.more of. swifts :or. pulleys of the required diameter,.the
number of swifts or pulleys being regulated according to the width of carding
surface required. On to these swifts or pulleys I bolt or otherwise fasten the
card lags or staves, the latter stretching across the intermediate space between
the swifts or pulleys, and any, support to the card lags or staves between the
swifts or pulleys can be obtained by means of rings turned to the same
diameter as the swifts or pulleys, and mounted on the shaft, and also by
backing the lags or staves with pieces of sheet iron or other suitable material
of the same width; when; therefore, all the lags or staves are mounted on to
their swifts or pulleys there will be produced a circular carding surface equi-
valent to the ordinary carding cylinder. This mode of constructing carders is
applicable to any of the cylinders of carding engines.
In order to give the card covering greater strength, I tongue or fasten
together the lags or staves which adjoin each other in any suitable manner.
The arrangement for taking away the dust and flyings during the process of
carding consists in constructing the card cylinders, as already indicated,
excepting that the lags or staves in this case are to be set at some convenient
distance from each other to allow for a current of air between the exterior
and interior thereof. To the upper portion of each arm of the swifts or
pulleys is fastened a light sheet iron wing or plate extending the whole
length of the shaft; by this means a current of air will be carried from the
circumference to the centre of the cylinder, carrying with it the impurities
and flyings. These can be discharged from the interior of the cylinder by
making the shaft hollow and suitably perforated to receive them. Each end
of such hollow shaft is brought into communication with an air passage made

page_text: in any convenient place (and which may be common to several cards) in
which air passage a fan may be placed and worked.
Another mode of carrying off the impurities and flyings consists in leaving a
portion of the ends of the cylinders open; and covering such open parts with
wire gauze of sufficient fineness to allow the air to pass through, but not the
impurities or flyings; the latter thereby will accumulate, and may be removed
at convenience when the carder is stopped, but no perforated shaft is required
for this mode. If necessary, this arrangement of carrying off impurities and
flyings may be applied to the smaller cylinders of carding engines.
My Invention consists, thirdly, in dispensing with the knife and double
roller heretofore used in the doffing of cards, and employing one cylinder only
in lieu thereof. This cylinder, the motion of which may be either continuous
or intermittent, is furnished with pins set in a suitable manner which will
doff the fibre from the doffing cylinder, and from the position of the pins
allow the same to drop or fall therefrom, and then be carried forward. in the
usual way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Thomas Richards Harding in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 25th March 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
RICHARDS HARDING, of Leeds, in the County of York, Hackle Pin Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Richards Harding, Her special license, that I, the said Thomas
Richards Harding, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Thomas Richards Harding, 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 "IN-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANSING, AND CARDING FIBROUS
MATERIAL," upon the condition: (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Richards Harding, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Richards Harding, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked theroon (that is to say):
My Invention of "Improvements in Machinery for Opening, Cleansing, and
Carding Fibrous Materials," relates, in the first place, to a novel arrange-
ment of apparatus for opening, cleansing, or preparing fibrous material. In
carrying out my Invention, the material to be operated upon is placed upon a
travelling feeding sheet, which delivers it to the first of a series of porcupine
rollers; each of these rollers has its pins set in a direction contrary to that of
its motion, and an increased speed is given to each of the rollers of this
series over the roller immediately preceding it; thus the second roller on to
which the material passes has an increased rapidity of revolution as compared
with the first roller. In like manner the third roller revolves more rapidly
than the second, and so on through the series. Under each of these rollers
(which may if required be heated) is a dish, trough, or plate of the same
sweep or curve as the curve described by the points of the pins during the
revolution of the rollers. The inner surface of the dish, trough, or plate
approaches nearly to the points of the pins, but openings may be made in
various parts of the dish, trough, or plate, so as to allow any waste tow or any
impurities or foreign matter to fall through. Between each porcupine rollers
the plates, dishes, or troughs are joined, and when the material operated
'upon is taken from one roller to the other, it is drawn out a little by the
greater speed of the roller which takes it up. The fibrous material is then
taken from the last roller by any of the ordinary mechanical arrangements
now in use for such purpose.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section of
the principal working parts which constitute that part of the Invention
relating to apparatus for opening and cleansing fibrous materials.
a is an endless travelling feeding apron; b, c, d, and e are four porcupine
rollers made of wood, brass, or other suitable material. The first roller 6 is
about four inches in diameter, and the other rollers c, d, and e are about ten
inches in diameter, and the whole are about twenty inches long. The rollers
may, when required for wool or silk, be heated internally, as is now frequently

page_text: practised. It will be seen that the steel or other pins on these rollers are
inclined in a direction contrary to that of their motion, and that the rollers
all turn in the same direction as indicated by the arrows. By the arrange.
ment of the driving gear, shewn red lines in the Drawing, each of the
rollers b, c, d, e, rotates at greater speed than the one immediately preceding
it, and the pins may be finer set, so that in addition to the accelerated speeds
of the rollers, the material will be operated upon by finer pins as it becomes
more opened.
'Under each of the porcupine rollers b, c, d, e, are placed the dishes or
troughs f, g, h, i, which are made concave with a curve corresponding to the
circumference of the rollers or the curve described by the points of the pins
when the rollers revolve. The concave troughs f, g, h, and i are brought as
close up to the rollers or their pins as is practicable, thereby keeping the
material in close contact with the pins so as to produce à gentle opening
effect upon the material as it passes through the machine. The bottoms of
the troughs may have openings made in them; these openings may be made
in a helical direction or otherwise, as may be found most convenient, so as to
allow the dust and impurities to fall through. It is necessary that each
-porcupine-roller-should-be-brought as close as possible to the pins of the
preceding one in order to clear this latter effectually of the material laid
thereon; and to bring the fibres over the junction of the concave troughs, I
would here observe, that I find it advisable to adapt to the junctions of the
concave troughs f, g, h, i, a well fitted piece of steel in order to protect this
part from undue wear. The material to be operated upon is firmly held by
the pins of the roller 6 while it is submitted to the brushing or opening action
produced by the increased speed of the roller c. The action is precisely the
same between the cylinders c and d and between d and e; the pins in the
latter rollers are finer than in the others, as has already been explained.
The fibres may be taken off the last rollere of the series either by the doffing
system, hereafter to be described, or by a pair of drawing-off rollers (whereby
an additional draft may be produced if necessary.) A sliver is then formed,
or if this sliver should be found too attenuated, the fibres may be formed into
an' endless sheet, or collected in any other suitable manner. It will be under-
stood that although in the Drawings I have shewn only four porcupine
-rollers, a large number may be employed if thought desirable, and they may
be somewhat differently placed.
My Invention consists, secondly, in a peculiar mode of constructing circular
card cylinders, whereby these cylinders can be made lighter and at less cust
than these now in use, and so constructed that dust and other impurities may

page_text: be removed from the fibres with facility. For this purpose I dispense entirely
with the heavy iron or wood surfaces or peripheries of card' cylinders as usually
constructed, and. in place thereof I key firmly on to the shafts of the card
cylinders a pair or more of swifts or pulleys of the required diameter. The
number of these swifts or pullies will of course depend upon the width of the
carding surface required; on to these swifts or pullies I bolt or otherwise
fasten the card lags or staves which carry the pins or teeth, and the staves are
made to stretch across the intermediate space between the swifts or pullies, and
any additional support to the card lags or staves between the swifts or pullies
can be obtained by means of rings turned to the same diameter as the swifts
or'pullies and mounted on the shaft of the card cylinder. The same effect
may be produced by backing the lags or staves with pieces of sheet or angle
iron or other suitable material. When therefore all the lags or staves are
mounted on their swifts or pullies an even carding surface equivalent to the
ordinary cylinders will be produced. This mode of constructing card cylinders
is applicable to any of the cylinders of carding engines. In order to give the
card covering greater strength I fasten together the lags or staves which
adjoin by means of tongueing and grooving or by dowelling the staves to
each other in any suitable manner. Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal vertical
section of a carding cylinder constructed according to this part of my Inven-
tion; Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the same; Fig. 4 is an end view of
part of a stripper of a carding engine drawn upon an enlarged scale; Fig. 5
is a front view of two of the staves detached shewing the mode of fastening
them to each other. It will be seen that I dispense with the heavy iron or
wood surfaces, of ordinary card cylinders, and in place thereof I fix by bolts,
screws, or otherwise the lags j, j, to the swifts or pullies k, which are keyed
on to the central shaft 1. In order to strengthen the lags between the swifts
I tongue or dowel them in any suitable manner as shewn in Figures 4 and 5
from which it will be seen that the staves are connected either by dowels as
at m, or by tongueing and grooving as at n. It will of course be understood
that various analogous mechanical contrivances may be employed to effect the
same object. In addition to or in place of the mode just described of fastening
the staves together I sometimes use a kind of elongated washer or connecting
plate o, Figures 4 and 5, by which means the screw or bolt p will be made
to bear on a larger surface of the wood segment, and in fact to hold down to
contiguous staves as shewn in Figures 4 and 5. In some cases where bolts
are used the head of the bolt may be similarly elongated so as to allow it to
lie between the rows of pins as shewn in the Drawing. The arrangement
for taking away the dust and flyings during the process of carding consists in

page_text: constructing the card cylinders as already indicated excepting that the lags or
staves in this case are to be set at some convenient distance from each other,
say about one-eighth of an inch, more or less, according to circumstances.
These openings will enable the dust and impurities to be drawn through into
the interior of the cylinder. The best mode of drawing in these impurities is
to construct the cylinders with ends more or less open, as shewn in Fig. 2, and
under the circle or bend which carries the workers and strippers I apply a
stationery sheet iron cover r, which enters the cylinder under the staves and
thereby closes up the end of the cylinder, as shewn in Fig. 2. The space
between the bend and the shaft 2 of the cylinder, or the whole interior space of
the circular framing is closed by a piece of sheet iron. The space thus enclosed
is put in communication with the interior of the cylinder, and through the
hollow framework of the card also communicates with suitable air passages
or channels and from thence communicates with a pipe or channel which
may be common to several carding engines; then by means of a fan of the
ordinary construction the air will be drawn through the spaces between the
staves into the interior of the cylinder and will carry with it the dust and
impurities which will be conducted from thence through the hollow framework
to the air conduit or channel above mentioned.
The third part of my Invention relates to a novel method of or arrangement
of apparatus for removing the worked or carded fibres from the doffing
cylinder. This improvement is shewn in Fig. 8. Behind the ordinary doffing
cylinder ta rotary doffer u is mounted as shewn. This doffer u is set with
rows of pins arranged in a straight or helical manner on the circumference
of the cylinder, the pins being moreover inclined in a direction contrary to the
motion of the cylinder. These rows of pins are set some distance apart so that
the carded fibres when taken off the ordinary doffing cylinder t, by the rotary
doffer u, will be held only until by the revolution of this cylinder the pins
will be brought into their perpendicular position when they will be found to rise
freely out of the fibres which will be carried on in the usual way, the ordinary
brush is so placed as to clean both cylinders, as will be seen in Fig. 3 of the
Drawing.
Having now described my Invention of " Improvements in Machinery for
Opening, Cleansing, and Carding Fibrous Material," and having explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to
me by Letters Patent as aforesaid.
First, operating upon fibrous substances by means of porcupine rollers con-
structed, combined, and worked in the manner above set forth, or any mere
modification thereof.

page_text: Second, I claim the mode herein set forth of constructing the cylinders and
rollers of carding engines, and also leaving spaces or interstices between the
staves, through which spaces or interstices the dust and other impurities may
be drawn to the interior of the cylinders, and conducted away out of the
-machine as above described...
Third, I claim the mode herein set forth of doffing by means of the rotary
apparatus u.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richards Harding, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
three
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
.66, Chancery Lane.:
THO. R. HARDING. (L.S.)