IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING AND DRESSING MACHINES
Year: 1881

page_text: 26
LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, in the County of
York, Manufacturer, for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING AND
DRESSING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th May 1881.
SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, in the County of York, Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING AND DRESSING MACHINES."
My improvements relate more especially to dressing frames (and machines of a
similar character) such as described in the Specification of a former Patent granted
to me, No. 2191, in the year 1878. In this machine the material after being
dressed or combed at both ends is placed upon a comb to be drawn into a sliver.
There are however special objections to this plan, more particularly for silk, because
without twist there is not sufficient cohesion in the sliver to come out of the can,
and with twist it cannot afterwards be properly drawn. In order to avoid and
overcome these difficulties I adopt the following plan.
Just where the two nipping surfaces begin to open and separate from each other
I place between them two small rollers at right angles to the nips, and round these
rollers two travelling aprons or sheets are so arranged as to take the silk or other
fibre from between the nipping surfaces, and to carry it along between them to the
feed apron of a gill upon which it is deposited. I may here remark that the gill
drawing head is placed at right angles to the leather aprons that carry the silk
between them, and has a reciprocating motion given to it of about six inches, that
is, equal to about the breadth of the feed leather upon which the silk or other fibre
is deposited; or the gill may be stationary, and the ends of the aprons may be
made to oscillate or reciprocate equal to the breadth of the feed apron of the gill
or thereabouts. In this manner the fibrous material is placed upon the feed table
of the gill drawing head, and the dressing and drawing are accomplished at one
operation in the most perfect manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th November 1881.
SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, in the County of York, Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN. COMBING AND DRESSING MACHINES."
My improvements relate more especially to dressing frames (and machines of a
similar character) such as described in the Specification of a former Patent granted
to me, No. 2191, in the year 1878. In this machine the material after being
dressed or combed at both ends is placed upon a comb to be drawn into a sliver.
There are however special objections to this plan, more particularly for silk, because
without twist there is not sufficient cohesion in the sliver to come out of the can,
and with twist it cannot afterwards be properly drawn. In order to avoid and
overcome these difficulties I adopt the following plan.
Just where the two nipping surfaces begin to open and separate from each other
I place between them two small rollers at right angles to the nips, and round these
rollers two travelling aprons or sheets are so arranged as to take the silk or other
fibre from between the nipping surfaces, and to carry it along between them to the
feed apron of a gill, upon which it is deposited. I may here remark that the gill
drawing head is placed at right angles to the leather aprons that carry the silk
between them, and has a reciprocating motion given to it of about six inches, that
is, equal to about the breadth of the feed leather upon which the silk or other fibro
is deposited; or the gill may be stationary, and the ends of the aprons may be
made to oscillate or reciprocate equal to the breadth of the feed apron of the gill
or thereabouts. In this manner the fibrous material is placed upon the feed table
of the gill drawing head, and the dressing and drawing are accomplished at onc
operation in the most perfect manner.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe
more fully the
Figure 1 shews a front view of the delivery end of a combing or dressing
machine arranged as above described; Figure 2 shews a plan view of the same
with the top nip removed.
A is the upper endless chain of nipping bars; B, B, the lower endless chain of
nipping bars; C, C, are two small rollers one above the other, and at right angles
to the nip; D, D, are two endless aprons, one passing round one roller, and the
other round the other roller; C₁ are other rollers which keep the endless aprons
distended; they are driven by a driving belt E from a pulley on a shaft F,
which is itself driven from the main driving shaft G of the machine, as shewn
at Figure 2; H is a narrow apron which travels at the same speed as the
nip, and supports the ends of the fibres projecting from the nip until they are taken
between the two travelling aprons D; it is driven by a driving band I from a
pulley on the shaft F.
J is an ordinary gill drawing head supported on four small wheels which run in
grooves in the top of a fixed horizontal bed K; L is a connecting rod coupling the
gill drawing head to a crank pin on the shaft F, the gill drawing head has thus a
reciprocating to and fro motion of a few inches given to it; M is an endless belt
by which movement is given to a pulley O on the driving axis of the gill drawing
head. The belt M is itself driven by a pulley on a shaft N driven froin the shaft F,
as shewn at Figure 2. The pulley O is made broad enough to allow of the to and

page_text: fro movement of the gill drawing head without the belt M coming off from it. A
vertical cross section taken through the gill drawing head is shewn at Figure 3.
The fibre taken from the nip by the endless aprons D is carried by them up to
the rollers C. Hero the fibre passes down between two small rollers P, and is
delivered by them on to an endless apron Q, which carries it forwards to the gill
head, and from the gill head it is allowed to drop into a sliver can placed on the
table R. The rollers P are driven by belts from small pullies on the ends of the
rollers C, as shewn by dotted lines. The apron Q is driven by fluted rollers Q¹.
Figures 4 and 5 shew a modification of the above arrangement, in which the
gill head is stationary and the fibre is laid on to and spread over the surface of the
feed apron of the gill head by oscillating aprons.
In this arrangement the gill head is driven by a belt M from a pulley on the
main driving shaft G of the machine. The endless aprons D are driven by pressing
rollers S which gear together at their ends, and are driven by a driving belt T
from a pulley on the shaft F. The lower endless apron D after passing over one
of the rollers C¹ is, as shown, carried down vertically over a small roller u at the
lower end of a suspended frame V. Where the apron so passes down in a vertical
direction, the fibre is held against it by an endless apron W, which also passes over
a small roller at the lower end of the suspending frame V. The endless apron W is
driven by a belt Z from the axis of one of the pressure rollers S. The lower end
of the frame V is by a connecting rod X coupled to a crank pin on an axis Y
which is driven by a belt from the shaft F; in this way the frame V and rollers
carried at its lower end is oscillated to and fro. The fibre taken from the nip by
the endless aprons D is carried onwards by them, and then downwards between
the rollers U and a second pair of rollers P at the lower ends of the swinging
frame V, and is by them delivered on to and spread over the surface of the feed
apron Q of the gill head. The rollers P are driven by a band, as shewn by dotted
lines.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I would have it understood that I claim the above described improve-
ments in combing and dressing machines.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.