IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR AND IN SPINNING YARN FOR ROPE- MAKING
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
I ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK of the firm of A. M. and Wm Clark of
53 Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent
Agents do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR AND IN SPINNING YARN FOR ROPE-
MAKING," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the gill pins used in machinery for preparing fibrous
materials particularly Russian hemp, for and spinning rope yarn.
In spinning rope yarn by machinery the drawing and spreading machines
heretofore used have been furnished with very sharp gill pins which penetrate the
coarse fibres and split them up lengthwise into fine filaments. This although
necessary for spinning fine yarn for other purposes is absolutely injurious in the
case of coarse yarn for rope making as the splitting up of the hemp makes it fine
soft and weak and consequently spoils it for this purpose.
Therefore the less the hemp is disintegrated the better will be the yarn produced,
all that is necessary being to lay the fibres parallel without disintegrating them.
For the above reason machine spun yarn is inferior to hand spun yarn for the
purposes of rope making. This Invention has for its object to remove this objection
to the use of machinery for preparing fibrous materials, particularly Russian hemp
for, and spinning rope yarn and it consists in providing spreading drawing, and
other machines used in preparing fibres for and spinning with gill pins of com-
paratively great length and of flat round or other section but having thick rounded
points whereby the penetration and splitting of the coarse hemp by the gill pins
which is so destructive to the yarn, will be avoided, and the hemp will retain its
original bright appearance and tensile strength and will form when spun a cable
yarn possessing qualities hitherto unobtainable in machine spun yarn.
Dated this 3rd day of Janvory 1004

page_text: I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of
53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR, AND IN SPINNING YARN FOR ROPE
MAKING" and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This Invention relates to the gill pins used in machinery for preparing fibrous
materials (principally green hemp) and spinning the same into rope yarn.
In spinning long fibres into rope yarn by machinery, the fibrous material is first
put on the spreader whereby the fibres are combed and laid parallel by gill pins
fixed on faller bars and formed into slivers.
These slivers are then united and transferred to the first drawing frame where
they again undergo the same process.
The slivers are again united and transferred to the second drawing frame where
the material is again combed and formed into slivers.
Finally these slivers are transferred to the fallers of the spinning frame where
they again undergo the same process of combing by means of gill pins, and are also
twisted and spun into yarn.
It will thus be evident that the process of spinning is entirely dependent on the
preparatory combing and parallelization of the fibres.
The machines heretofore used for the above operations have always hitherto been
furnished with very sharp pins which pierce the coarse fibrous material and split it
up into fine and tender fibres or filaments. This splitting up of the coarse fibres,
although necessary for spinning fine yarns for weaving, is absolutely injurious in
spinning yarn for rope making as the splitting up of the hemp makes it fine,
delicate and weak, and consequently spoils it for rope making.
Flax and hemp have rather broad fibres composed of many fine filaments united
by a kind of natural glue, the difference between them being that in flax, the fibres
are not only finer and more tender but the constituent filaments are more slightly
glued together than in hemp. Therefore, by piercing the flax fibres with sharp
pins it is possible to split it up throughout its length into many fine filaments,
whereas with hemp this is impossible as the filaments being more strongly glued
together do not split up throughout their length but break off in several places,
thereby producing a fibre from which loose filaments stand out, giving it a very
uneven and hairy appearance. If pierced in a very thin place the fibre is apt to
break off altogether. It is therefore evident that the fibre must be much
weakened.
Therefore the less the hemp is split up the better will be the yarn produced, all
that is necessary being to lay the fibres parallel. When it is considered that each
lb. of hemp after passing through the spreader, the first and second drawing frames,
and the automatic spinner (Lawson's) has been pierced by between 16000 and
17000 gill pins and that every pin pierces, not one, but many fibres each time it
penetrates the hemp, and that at every prick the fibre is torn, it will be readily
understood why machine spun yarn presents such a rough appearance and resembles
tow yarn rather than hemp yarn.
The fact that machine spun yarn is inferior to hand spun yarn for the purposes
of rope making is entirely due to the makers ignoring the fact that the material
for making rope yarn must be treated quite differently to material for making
weaving yarn. In the latter case it should be worked as much as possible, whereas
in the former case, the less it is worked the better.

page_text: This Invention has for its object to remove this objection to the use of machinery
for preparing fibrous materials for, and spinning the same into rope yarn, and
it consists in providing the spreading, drawing, and spinning machines used in
preparing and spinning the fibres with gill pins of flat, round, or other section but
having thick rounded points incapable of piercing and splitting the coarse hemp
whereby the weakening of the fibre due to this cause will be avoided and the
hemp will retain its original bright appearance, gloss and tensile strength and will
form when spun, a yarn possessing qualities hitherto unattainable in.machine spun
yarn.
•
The accompanying Drawing represents the form of one of the gill pins as made
and used according to this Invention. In other respects the construction and
operation of the machines to which these improved gill pins are applied, remains
unchanged.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
In machines for spreading, drawing and spinning all long fibrous materials (for
instance Russian hemp) for rope yarn, the employment of gill pins of all sections
and different lengths having blunt rounded points incapable of piercing the fibres,
substantially as herein specified.