IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bispham Kay, of Bolton le Moors, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR COMBING AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL."
Sealed the 30th May 1879, and dated the 5th December 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bispham Kay at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th December 1878.
"<
THOMAS BISPHAM KAY, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS."
My Invention relates, firstly, to machinery for performing the operation usually
termed combing. In carrying my Invention into effect I employ a framework
carrying a self-weighting intermittent swing feeder with reciprocating motion to
and from a pair of rollers driven by gearing, whose centres are in a line vertical to
the plane of motion thereof, furnished with parallel blades capable of a receding and
approximating motion with respect to each other in the direction of the said line
when revolving in contact, whereby the front end of each set of fibres is seized in
turn, and the tail end thereof drawn through a comb, carried by levers with an
alternate rising and falling motion, through which the front end of the following set
is simultaneously withdrawn by the said feeder and the waste thereupon deposited
upon a brush stripping itself upon card wire, and the sets of combed fibres are
deposited, overlapping upon a roller supported by swing levers in front of and in
contact with one of the said pair of rollers, receiving therefrom an intermittent
forward motion, and in close contact with which revolves a second roller supported
and actuated in like manner, and causing the first to retrograde intermittently. A
stripping comb removes the laid fibres from off the aforesaid roller, which are
drawn into a sliver by callender rollers in the usual manner.
Another part of my Invention relates to certain modifications of and improve-
ments in the mechanical details for lifting, stripping, brushing out, and grinding the

page_text: top cards or "flats" of carding engines described in the Specification of Letters
Patent granted to Thomas Bispham Kay and Frederick Mills on or about the 30th
day of January 1873, for "Improvements in Carding Engines for Carding Cotton
and other Fibrous Materials." According to the Invention therein specified a
stationary internal wheel affixed to the radial arm carries on its boss a spur wheel
pinion, internal carrier, and segment wheel, for effecting the traverse motion from
flat to flat, and the segment pinion with the lever for actuating the stripper, and
also a swing arm and rod, connecting therewith the lifting stud in the small slide
for raising the flat into the revolving box, geared into the fixed rack upon the
radial arm, an arrangement of mechanism requiring great care in its adjustment and
working. Now according to my present Invention in order to simplify the
mechanism and facilitate the working I dispense with the teeth but maintain the
plate and boss of the internal wheel affixed to the radial arm as heretofore, carrying
a spur wheel and two segment wheels collaterally affixed thereto, actuating two
segment pinions with the swing arm, and the traverse spur wheel respectively
attached thereto and carried below as heretofore, or a spur wheel and one segment
wheel collaterally affixed thereto actuating one segment pinion with the traverse
spur wheel attached carried below, and one segment pinion with the swing arm
attached carried above the said segment wheel, and upon the said fixed plate and
connected by a rod with the small slide for raising the flat into the revolving box
on the main slide, gearing into the fixed rack upon the radial arm, and the said spur
wheel being driven from the cylinder shaft by pulley and pinion carried on or
through the boss of the said fixed plate by spur and pinion to cross shaft, on which
stripper oscillates as heretofore, but actuated by a bowl or inclined surface on the
said spur wheel instead of by the segment pinion as heretofore.
The third part of my Invention consists in an arrangement of mechanism for
stripping the flats of travelling flat carding engines by a brush or section of a
brush with a compound oscillating, reciprocating, and rising and falling motion,
clearing itself on a retaining board.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in the formation of the oscillating
stripper of a compound of wire and bristles with simple or compound retaining
board.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Bispham Kay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th June
1879.
THOMAS BISPHAM KAY, of Bolton le Moors, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND PREPARING COTTON AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
;
My Invention relates, firstly, to machinery for performing the operation usually
termed combing. In carrying my Invention into effect, I employ a framework
carrying a self weighting intermittent swing feeder with reciprocating motion to
and from a pair of rollers driven by gearing whose centres are in a line vertical to
the plane of motion thereof, furnished with parallel blades capable of a receding and
approximating motion with respect to each other in the direction of the said line
when revolving in contact, whereby the front end of each set of fibres is seized in
turn and the tail end thereof drawn through a comb carried by levers with an
alternate rising and falling motion, through which the front end of the following set
is simultaneously withdrawn by the said feeder and the waste thereupon deposited
upon a brush stripping itself upon card wire, and the sets of combed fibres are
deposited, overlapping upon a roller supported by swing levers, in front of and in
contact with one of the said pair of rollers, receiving therefrom an intermittent
forward motion, and in close contact with which revolves a second roller supported
and actuated in like manner and causing the first to retrograde intermittently. A
stripping comb, or a pair of rollers, removes the laid fibres from off the aforesaid
roller, which are drawn into a sliver by callender rollers in the usual manner.
"
Another part of my Invention relates to certain modifications of and improve-
ments in the mechanical details for lifting, stripping, brushing out, and guiding the
top cards or "flats of carding engines, described in the Specification of Letters
Patent granted to Thomas Bispham Kay and Frederick Mills on or about the
Thirtieth day of January, One thousand eight hundred and seventy three, for "Im-
provements in Carding Engines for Carding Cotton and other Fibrous Materials."
According to the Invention therein specified a stationary internal wheel affixed to
the radial arm carries on its boss a spur-wheel pinion, internal carrier, and segment
wheel for effecting the traverse motion from flat to flat, and the segment pinion with
the lever for actuating the stripper, and also a swing arm and rod, connecting those
with the lifting stud in the small slide for raising the flat into the revolving box
geared into the fixed rack upon the radial arm, an arrangement of mechanism
requiring great care in its adjustment and working.
Now according to my present Invention in order to simplify the mechanism and
facilitate the working I dispense with the teeth but maintain the plate and boss of
the internal wheel affixed to the radial arm as heretofore, carrying a spur wheel and
two segment wheels collaterally affixed thereto, actuating two segment pinions with
the swing arm and the traverse spur wheel respectively attached thereto and
carried below as heretofore, or a spur wheel and one segment wheel collaterally
affixed thereto, actuating one segment pinion with the transverse spur wheel
attached, carried below, and one segment pinion with the swing arm attached,
carried above the said segment wheel, and upon the said fixed plate, and connected
by a rod with the small slide for raising the flat into a revolving box on the
main slide, gearing into the fixed rack upon the radial arm, and the said spur
wheel being driven from the cylinder shaft by pulley and pinion carried on or
through the boss of the said plate by spur and pinion to cross shaft, on which
stripper oscillates as heretofore, but actuated by a bowl or inclined surface on the
said spur instead of by the segment pinion as heretofore.
The third part of my Invention consists in an arrangement of mechanism for
stripping the flats of travelling flat carding engines by a brush, or section of a brush,
with a compound oscillating, reciprocating, and rising and falling motion, clearing
itself on a retaining board.

page_text: The fourth part of my Invention consists in the formation of the oscillating
stripper of a compound of wire and bristles with simple or compound retaining
board.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall refer to
several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed.
Figure I. is a side view, and Fig. II. a front view of my improved comber;
and Figures III, IV., V., VI., VII., and VIII., detailed views showing action
thereof.
Here A is the main framing carrying all the hereafter to be described mechanism
for effecting the combing of the fibre; B is a feed plate suspended therefrom by a
pair of swing arms C, C, and furnished with a feed roller D revolving in bosses at
one end of a pair of levers E, E, which swing on studs fixed in the feed plate, and
to the other end of which the swing arms C, C, are attached, and by which arrange-
ment the roller D is kept in close contact with the feed plate B, or with the bottom
roller should a pair be applied. A ratchet wheel upon B is connected by gearing
with a wheel D. The nipping knife F is held parallel in front of the feed
roller D by the swing arms F, F, oscillating on fixed centres on the framing, and
connected by a parallel motion with the swing arms C, C, so as to swing therewith,
but prevented, by regulating screws therein coming into contact with the framing,
from dipping so low as to hinder the advance of the lap. The feed plate B is
actuated by a pair of cranks or eccentrics G, G, by which a reciprocating elliptical
motion to and from a pair of detaching rollers, nippers H, I, is produced. These
latter are two revolving shafts or barrels geared together, and each furnished with
a similar number of parallel blades J, J, J, J, J¹, J, J, J', which project somewhat
(in this case about half an inch) above the surface thereof, and the edges of which
are planed perfectly true and parallel with each other and also with their axis of
revolution, and are shaped with fluted surfaces or covered with some elastic
substance, such as leather, so as to obtain a firm grip of the fibres. These blades
may either slide in and out in radial slots by the action of eccentrics or springs, or
be fixed on to the shaft or barrel. In this case the blades are four in number and
are fixed, and the roller nipper H revolves in pedestals fast to the framing, but the
roller nipper I is held in a position parallel thereto by a pair of swing arms K, K,
oscillating on fixed studs in the framing so as to admit of its rising and falling
.freely in a vertical direction. L is the piercing roller covered with leather, and is
carried on oscillating arms M, M, and which also carries the smooth reversing
roller N revolving in adjustable brackets or levers thereupon and held in close
rolling contact with roller L, and by the position of which with respect to H the
amount of "overlap" may be determined. Regulating screws in the oscillating
arms M, M, resting against the fraining keep the piecing roller, when stationary, at
its proper distance from the detaching roller nipper H. The combstock O is carried
by two pair of swing arms P, P, P, P, which oscillate on fixed centres on the
framing so as to describe an are therefrom, and is actuated by a pair of cams Q, Q,
or by a quadrant and pinion driven by suitable gearing from the main driving
shaft.
This comb has several rows of teeth either fixed in the comb stock in tiers of
graduated fineness, or capable of sliding motions with respect to each other, to
facilitate the action of the stripping brush R, which stretches across the machine
.and oscillates on fixed centres by the action of a crank motion, and is clothed with
bristles.
The retaining board S is fixed across the machine parallel to the stripping bush
and is clothed with card wire or similar material for taking the strippings there-
from.
The doffing comb T oscillates in front of the piecing roller L; and W is the draw
box for drawing off and consolidating the sliver. The gearing for actuating the
mechanism may be varied, but the arrangement shown in the Drawing will be
found to answer well.

page_text: It will be obvious that the feed plate B, the comb O, and the stripper R will make
a beat for each pair of blades on the detaching roller nippers H, I, and the lap and
delivery rollers must revolve so as to supply the lap and draw off the sliver as fast
as it is combed.
In order to explain intelligibly the action of the mechanism herein before
described I will assume that the front end of the set of fibres about to be operated
upon has already been combed by the previous movement.
The lap being unrolled by the train of wheels driving the lap rollers, the fleece
descends on to the feed plate and passes under the feed roller and the nipping knife;
when the feed plate actuated by the crank motion is advancing, the ratchet wheel
thereupon strikes the catch on the main framing, and the feed roller is caused
thereby to deliver a supply of lap, the front edge of which, as it projects beyond. the
edge of the feed plate, is seized between the blades J, J', upon the upper and lower
rollers H, I, respectively, as they come into contact in the course of their revolu-
tions.
The comb O at the same time moves forwards so that the teeth thereupon
penetrate the fleece which is being held at one end between the feed plate B and its
knife nipper F, with which it has now come into contact and which it commences
to lift, and at the other end between the edges of two of the projecting blades
upon the two detaching roller nippers H, I. The feed apparatus now commences
to recede and the roller nippers continue their revolutions, the upper one receding
from the lower one, and rising on to its centres of oscillation as the two blades holding
the front end of the set of fibres. between them detach the same from the lap and
draw the tail end thereof through the teeth of the comb, at the same time that the
front end of the succeeding set of fibres is being withdrawn and combed by the
receding motion of the feed apparatus, the forward movement of the comb at the
same time causing the teeth thereupon to act with greater completeness upon
the sets of fibres when the blades separate, the set of fibres now lying on the lower
one is pressed thereby against the piecing roller L to which it adheres slightly, the
said roller giving way upon its centres of oscillation as the blade presses against
and causes it to revolve on its axis, and lays the combed fibres thereupon. This
roller now falls back to its original position as the blade passes it but is immediately
again pressed away by the same blade coming into contact with the reversing
roller N, carried on the same levers and oscillating from the same centres and geared
therewith, and by the forward movement of which the piecing roller is caused to
retrograde sufficiently to enable the set of fibres next in order to be combed to be
laid thereupon so as to overlap the set already just laid, and form a piecing there-
with to be further consolidated by subsequently passing between the said piecing
roller and the reversing roller, the surface of which latter is smooth to prevent the
adhesion of the fibres. The doffing comb continues to strip the web of laid fibres
from off the piecing roller and it is further drawn and consolidated by the draw box
or callender rollers in the usual manner. It may here be mentioned that after the
two sets of fibres have been drawn clear of the comb O the latter descends, meeting
on the way the oscillating brush stripper R which is moving in an opposite direction
and upon which it deposits the motes and short staple obtained by the combining
operation. The stripper R continuing its course clears itself upon the retaining
board S, misses the comb on its return journey, and is ready for the next descent of
the comb charged with a fresh supply of motes and short staple. It may also be
here mentioned that by its elliptical motion the feeder is enabled to escape the
action of the catch and to effect the nipping action with the kuife during the upper
and retrograde part of its course, but to be acted upon by the said catch and to be
clear of the nipping knife during the lower and advancing part of its course.
I
may here remark that in combing machines at present in general use the
movements required in combing and piecing the front and tail ends of each set of
fibres are accompanied by much wear and tear and noise. Also the nipping process
necessitates rollers of very small diameter, they must consequently be short, the laps
narrow and light, and great lineal space occupied. Also the staple is unsupported

page_text: at one end when being combed, and is liable to be struck down instead of
penetrated by the comb teeth. Now by this my present Invention I am enabled
to diminish the wear and tear and noise, to increase the diameter and length of the
rollers, and at the same time to bring the nipping surfaces closer together and
also to support the staple while being combed, I can consequently drive the
mechanism at a higher speed, use broader and heavier laps, comb material of
shorter staple, economise space, and ensure a more complete penetration of the
comb.
Figs. IX. and X. represent partial front and side views respectively of my
improved arrangement for lifting, stripping, brushing out, and grinding the top
cards or "flats" of carding engines. As this Invention is a simpler and more con-
venient arrangement of part of a system of mechanism the action and working of
which is now well known, I do not think it necessary to describe in detail the
manner of its working in its entirety, but confine myself to a complete explanation
of the various parts so far only as my said Invention is concerned.
Here it is the radial arm; g is the plate and boss fixed thereto by means of pillar
studs is the spur wheel, with the segment wheel k and its rim affixed, revolving
thereupon; and O, O', the two segment pinions with their steady plates for
actuating alternately the traverse spur wheel and the swing arm respectively,
the former revolving in a boss carried on the arm a in a position below, and the
latter revolving on a stud carried on the fixed plate g in a position above the said
segment wheel, each pinion being caused to make one complete revolution, thereby
traversing up to and stripping the flats in alternate order. The rod M connects
the swing arin with the small slide C which carries the lifting stud f. The pulley <
driven by band from the cylinder shaft and revolving on a stud or boss on the
plate g drives through its pinion the spur wheel y, the pinion on the boss of which
gears into the spur wheel x on the cross shaft, which has keyed on to it the pinion h¹
gearing into the spur wheel h and connecting the mechanism on both sides of the
carding engine. An inclined surface v on the face of the spur wheel h actuates a
bowl and lever connected by a rod with the stripper s oscillating on the cross shaft t
as heretofore. The segment pinion O', with the swing arm attached, may also
revolve on the same axis as the segment pinion O, with the traverse spur wheel
attached, and in the position below the spur wheel h, which will then require to
have two segment wheels with two rims collaterally affixed instead of one only.
By these means I obtain a more compact and convenient arrangement of mechanism
than heretofore. Fig. XI. represents a side view of my improved arrangement for
stripping the flats of travelling flat carding engines.
Here a is one of a train of travelling flats; b is the oscillating stripper carried on
elevating and depressing levers C, C, and stripping itself on the retaining board d.
By this arrangement the bristles of the stripper are caused to pass through the flat
wire when the said stripper is depressed to deliver the strippings therefrom on to
the retaining board d, and to rise clear of the flat when returning, and so avoid
injuring or in any way disturbing the wire thereupon, but nevertheless insuring a
thorough cleansing of the said wire. By this means I cheapen production and avoid
the dust produced by a revolving brush.
Fig. XII. represents a side view of my improved stripper.
Here w is the lower and more advanced part of the oscillating stripper and is
clothed with card wire to remove the heavy strippings from the surface of the flat
wire; and x is the hinder part clothed with bristles so as to penetrate and bottom
the wire on the flat and remove the dust and dirt therein without injuring or dis-
turbing the wire thereupon; y and z are the corresponding parts of the retaining
board respectively, upon which wand a deposit their strippings and dirt. This
stripper is applicable to both stationary and travelling flats, and by its use I am
enabled to sort the strippings, collecting the comparatively long staple on y and the
dust and dirt on z, and at the same time effect the thorough cleansing of the flat
wire by the application of the bristles after the bulk of the stripping have been
removed.

page_text: Now having described the nature and objects of my said Invention together with
the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into
practical effect, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I claim as secured to me
under the above in part recited Letters Patent,-
Firstly. The arrangement of feed apparatus marked B, C, C, D, E, E, G, G.
Secondly.
Thirdly.
Fourthly.
Fifthly.
27
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nipping
detaching
piecing
comb and clearer
F, F', F¹, B.
H, I.
H, L, M, M, N,
O, P, P, P, P, Q, Q, R, S.
In the second part of my Invention the arrangement of parts marked g, h, k, o, o¹, l.
In the third
"
"
»
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
a, b, c, d.
In the fourth
w, x, y, z.
Lastly. The general arrangement of mechanism for combing and preparing cotton
and other fibrous substances, or any mere modification or imitation of the above
mentioned arrangements of parts respectively, when used substantially in the
same manner and for the same purposes as herein-before described, set forth, and
illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Bispham Kay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
THO. B. KAY. (L.S.)