IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Dargue, of 63, Cobden Street, Lister Hills,
Bradford, in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
MARATO
11
Sealed the 11th July 1862, and dated the 14th April 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Dargue at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
April 1862.
I, JOHN DARGUE, of 63, Cobden Street, Lister Hills, Bradford, in the
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object, "Improvements in Machinery for Pre-
paring and Combing Wool and other Fibrous Materials."
The first part of my Invention relates to improvements in the machine
known as the "screw gill preparer" used for opening and preparing fibrous
materials for the combing operation. In this machine, as heretofore constructed,
the fibrous material is presented by a pair of feed rollers to the action of gills
or heckles, moving at a higher surface speed than the rollers, these beckles
being caused to rise into and travel through the fibrous material by means of
"cams" and "screws" as is well understood. The screws are carried in
stationary bearings at each end, and the ends of the screws nearest the feed

page_text: NOW IT IS
rollers are provided with collars which fit the stationary bearings.
found that the collars of the screws which force the heckles through the
fibrous material are by reason of the endwise pressure of the screws subject
to rapid wear, this has been provided against by making the above-mentioned
collars or bearings adjustable by means of screws, but I have found that it is
desirable to form the part of the screws which revolve in the above-mentioned
bearings conical, the bearings being suitably forined to receive such conical
parts of the screws, and the larger parts of the cones being nearest to the
heckle, so that such cones may receive the thrust of the screws, and thereby
Collars adjustable or
avoid the rapid wear of the collars above mentioned.
otherwise, such as are above described may be used in combination with the
conical necks above described; this part of my Invention, consisting in the
conical form of the necks above mentioned. The necks and collars may be
made of iron or steel hardened, and the bearings in which they revolve may
be formed with iron or steel bushes similarly hardened.
The second part of my Invention relates to an improved method of raising
and lowering the "fallers" or "heckles," in what are known as "screw gills"
in place of raising and lowering such "fallers" by means of cams fixed to
the screws as is at present practised. I form the screws without such cams, and
arrange a separate cam shaft or shafts below the "fallers," these shafts are
caused to act upon two sliding frames, one of such frames being arranged at
each end of the series of fallers. The sliding frames are formed with recesses
into which the "fallers" are introduced by the revolution of the screws, and
one of the frames is then caused to rise and the other to fall, carrying with
them the fallers and placing such fallers in suitable positions to be taken and
earried away by the screws, thus dispensing with the cams attached to the
screws now ordinarily employed, such cams as at present constructed as well
as the parts of the fallers, they act upon being subject to rapid wear and
constant derangement.
The third part of my Invention relates to a peculiar method of grooving
the bearings and necks of machinery used for preparing, combing, and
drawing fibrous materials, so that the oil or other lubricating material intro-
duced between the moving and stationary surfaces of such bearings or journals
may be equally distributed over such surfaces, and this I accomplish by
cutting right and left handed spiral grooves in the revolving shaft or journal,
such spiral grooves being so arranged as to cross each other. It will be seen
that such grooves form reservoirs for the oil or lubricating material, and will,
by reason of their spiral form carrying the lubricating material backwards and
forwards along the moving and stationary surfaces of the bearing or journal,

page_text: and thus equally distribute the lubricating material.
In some cases in place
of causing the grooves to cross one another, I find it desirable to form a spiral
groove, which shall be one half of its length, a right hand and the other half
a left handed spiral, by this means returning to the point froin, which it
commenced; and I also find it desirable to combine the above arrangements
of spiral grooves with circular channels cut either in the revolving or fixed.
journals or bearings as reservoirs for the lubricating material.
The fourth part of my Invention relates to various improvements in a
machine, for which Letters Patent were granted to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, dated
the 24th day of February 1851, No. 13,532, and my first improvement under
this fourth part of my Invention, consists in an improved method of constructing
In this machine an
what is known as the "nipper barrel" and "fork."
oscillating nipper is carried by, and oscillates upon a revolving cam shaft, the
nipper barrel being that part of the oscillating lever, which surrounds the cam
shaft. This barrel has hitherto been formed in one piece, and in place of so
forming the nipper barrel, I form it in halves fastened together by screws or
bolts, so that by unscrewing such fastenings the lower half of the nipper barrel
will fall, and the oscillating arms or "fork," and the nippers with the attendant
apparatus may be readily removed with one half of the nipper barrel. Hitherto
the nipper barrel and fork, with the apparatus attached thereto, has been
allowed to rest upon the revolving cam shaft, the cams upon which open
and close the nipper, and this has caused great friction and consequent wear
to the barrel and shaft. Now, in place of allowing the barrel and nipping
apparatus to rest upon the shaft as above described, I support the nipper
barrel in stationary bearings, which embrace the exterior of such barrel,
and in which it oscillates, the weight of the nipping apparatus being thus
removed from the cam shaft and the consequent friction avoided on the cam
shaft. At that part where it revolves within the barrel I fasten a ring or
rings, and such ring or rings revolve with the shaft within bushes fastened in
the nipper barrel. These rings and bushes are formed according to this part.
of my Invention of malleable cast-iron, hardened, or of "Bessemer metal."
hardened, (or other iron or steel hardened may be employed), so that: two
hardened surfaces will come in contact and thus reduce the wear of the nipper.
barrel and the cam shaft to a minimum. The rings fastened on the revolving
cam shaft above mentioned, I groove and channel as described under the
third part of my Invention, so that the lubricating material may be properly
distributed over the frictional surfaces. In the above-mentioned machine,
after the nipper has detached a tuft of fibrous material, a carrying or porter
comb is employed to take such tuft from the nipper, and deliver it to a

page_text: travelling camb to be drawn off from such comb in the form of a sliver.
This carrying comb is actuated by a crank motion, and I have found it
desirable to attach a counterbalance wheel to the crank shaft, which actuates
such carrying comb, such counterbalance wheel being so arranged as to balance
the weight of the carrying comb and crank with the other apparatus attached,
and thus cause the movement of such carrying comb to be more certain, with
a less expenditure of power and strain upon the driving parts.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Dargue, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
October 1862.
: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DARGUE, of 63, Cobden Street, Lister Hills, Bradford, in the County of York,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did,. for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Dargue, Her special licence that I, the said John Dargue,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Dargue, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING AND COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said John Dargue, my executors or
administrators by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 John Dargue, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and. in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-

page_text: .
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for preparing
and combing wool and other fibrous materials.
The first
part of my Invention relates to the improvements in the machine
known as the "screw gill preparer" used for opening and preparing fibrous
materials for the combing operation. In this machine as heretofore constructed
the fibrous material is presented by a pair of feed rollers to the action of gills
or beckles moving at a higher surface speed than the rollers, these heckles
being caused to rise into and travel through the fibrous material by means of
"cams" or "screws" as is well understood. The screws are carried by
stationary bearings at each end, and the ends of the screws nearest the feed
rollers are provided with collars which fit the stationary bearings. Now it is
found that the collars of the screws which force the heckles through the
fibrous material are by reason of the endwise pressure of the screws subject to
rapid wear, this has been provided against by making the above-mentioned
collars or bearings adjustable by means of screws, but I have found that it is
desirable to form the part of the screws which revolve in the above-mentioned
bearings conical, the bearings being suitably formed to receive such conical
parts of the screws, and the larger parts of the cones being nearest to the
heckles, so that such cones may receive the thrust of the screws, and thereby
avoid the rapid wear of the collars above-mentioned. Collars adjustable or
otherwise, such as are above described may be used in combination with the
conical necks above described; this part of my Invention consisting in the
conical form of the necks above-mentioned. The necks and collars may be
made of iron or steel hardened, and the bearings in which they revolve may
be formed with iron or steel bushes similarly hardened.
And in order that this part of my Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into practice, I will proceed to describe Figures 1, 2, and 3, of
the Drawing hereunto annexed, which shew several views of part of one of
the screw shafts or axes of a "screw gill preparer" constructed with a conical
neck or bearing, according to this part of my improvements.
"
a is part of one of the screw shafts or axes for actuating the "
gill combs
or "fallers," and a' is the conical collar keyed thereon, which revolves in the
conical recess formed in the bush b, which is fixed and supported in the main
framing of the machine; c, c, are adjustable screw nuts on the axis a, for the
purpose of adjusting the position of the parts when required.
The second part of my Invention relates to an improved method of raising
and lowering the "fallers" or heckles in what are known as "screw gills" in
place of raising and lowering such "fallers" by means of cams fixed to the
screws, as is at present practised. I form the screws without such cams, and

page_text: arrange a separate cam shaft or shafts below the fallers, these shafts are
caused to act upon two sliding frames, one of such frames being arranged at
each end of the series of fallers. The sliding frames are formed with recesses
into which the "fallers" are introduced by the revolution of the screws, and
one of the frames is then caused to rise, and the other to fall, carrying with
them the fallers and placing such fallers in suitable positions to be taken and
carried away by the screws, thus dispensing with the cams attached to the
screws now ordinarily employed, such cams as at present constructed as well
as the parts of the fallers they act upon, being subject to rapid wear and
constant derangement.
The manner in which the second part of my Invention may be carried into
practice will be readily understood by a competent workman acquainted with
this class of machinery by reference to Figure 4 of the Drawing hereunto
annexed, which shews a transverse section of a "screw gill" arranged to work
according to this part of my improvements. a, a¹, are the screw shafts or
axes for actuating the bars of heckle pins or "fallers "b, as is well understood;
care frames (one at each end of the series of "fallers" ), which are caused to
slide up and down in fixed guides c', c¹, by means of cams c², c², fixed on the
shafts or axes c³, c, to which rotary motion is communicated by suitable
toothed gearing in any convenient manner. The upper surface of each frame
c is suitably formed for the purpose of readily receiving and raising or
lowering and then delivering each "faller" in succession as they are moved
to and fro by the "screws" a and a', without the aid of cam surfaces upon
the screws as heretofore practised. The upper line of fallers slide on saddles
or guides in the centre of the top pair of screws a, and when a faller arrives
at the end of its movement it is received on the frame c, and is lowered by the
lescent of the frame into a position to be taken back along similar guides to
the other end of the gill by the bottom pair of screws a', which conduct it on
to the other frame c (not shewn in the Drawing), into a position to be raised
thereby, ready to be again acted upon by the upper pair of screws a, the fallers
being thus acted upon in continuous succession.
The third part of my Invention relates to a peculiar method of grooving the
bearings and necks of machinery used for preparing, combing, and drawing
fibrous materials, so that the oil or other lubricating material introduced
between the moving and stationary surfaces of such bearings.or journals,
may be equally distributed over such surfaces; and this I accomplish by
cutting right and left-banded spiral grooves in the revolving shaft or journal,
such spiral grooves being so arranged as to cross each other. It will be seen
that such grooves form reservoirs for the oil or lubricating material, and

page_text: will, by reason of their spiral form, carry the lubricating material backwards
and forwards along the moving and stationary surfaces of the bearing or
journal, and thus equally distribute the lubricating material. In some cases,
in place of causing the grooves to cross one another, I find it desirable to form
a spiral groove which shall be one-half of its length a right-hand, and the
other half a left-handed spiral, by this means returning to the point from
which it commenced; and I also find it desirable to combine the above
arrangements of spiral grooves with circular channels, cut either in the re-
volving or fixed journals or bearings as reservoirs for the lubricating material.
Figure 5 shews a neck or bearing suitable for my improved "nipper barrel"
and "fork" formed with spiral and circular grooves, according to this part of
my Invention, the spiral groove x in this arrangement taking a corresponding
course in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the bearing. Figures
6 and 7 show other modes of forming the spiral and circular grooves & and,
according to this part of my Invention, the nature of which will be readily.
understood on examining the Drawing. In like manner, my other bearings
or frictional parts of machinery employed for preparing, combing, and drawing
fibrous material, have spiral grooves and circular channels formed therein, as
previously described, according to this part of my Invention, for the purpose of
more effectually distributing and circulating the lubricating material applied
thereto.
The fourth part of my Invention relates to various improvements in a
machine, for which Letters Patent were granted to Samuel Cunliffe Lister,
dated the 24th day of February 1851, No. 13,532; and my first improvement
under this fourth part of my Invention, consists in an improved method of
constructing what is known as the "nipper barrel" and "fork." In the above
referred to machine an oscillating nipper is carried by and oscillates upon a
revolving cam shaft, the nipper barrel being that part of the oscillating lever
which surrounds the cam shaft. This barrel has hitherto been formed in one
piece, and in place of so forming the nipper barrel, I form it in halves or
parts A, B, as shown in Figures 8 and 9 of the Drawing, such parts being
fastened together around the cam shaft a by screws or bolts, as shown, so that
by unscrewing such fastenings, the lower half of the nipper barrel B will fall
or come away, and the oscillating arms or "fork" c, c, and the nippers D,
together with the attendant apparatus, may be readily removed with the upper
half A of the nipper barrel. Hitherto the nipper barrel and fork, with the
apparatus attached thereto, has been allowed to rest upon the revolving cam
shaft a, the cams upon which open and close the nipper, and this has caused
great friction and consequent wear to the barrel and shaft. Now, in place of

page_text: allowing the barrel and nipping apparatus to rest upon the shaft a as above
described, I support the nipper barrel in stationary bearings E, as shown at
Figure 9, which embraces the exterior of such barrel, and in which it oscillates,
the weight of the nipping apparatus being thus removed from the cam shaft a,
and the consequent friction avoided. On the cam shaft a, at that part where
it revolves within the barrel, I fasten a ring or rings F, and such ring or rings
F revolve with the shaft a within bushes G fastened in the nipper barrel.
These rings F and bushes G are formed according to this
part of my Invention
of malleable cast iron hardened, or of "Bessemer metal" hardened (or other
iron or steel hardened may be employed), so that two hardened surfaces will
come in contact, and thus reduce the wear of the nipper barrel and the cam
shaft to a minimum. The rings F fastened on the revolving cam shaft a
above mentioned, I groove and channel as described under the third part of my
Invention, so that the lubricating material may be properly distributed over
the frictional surfaces. I would here remark, that although I have shown
and described the ring or rings F as applied to the "nipper barrel" only, the
same may be adapted according to this part of my improvements, to other
bearings or frictional parts of machinery for preparing and combing wool or
other fibrous materials to which the same may be applicable. In the above-
mentioned machine, after the nipper has detached a tuft of fibrous material,
a carrying or porter comb H, as shown at Figures 10 and 11 of the Drawing
hereunto annexed, is employed to take such tuft from the nipper D, and
deliver it to a travelling comb to be drawn off from such comb in the form of
a sliver. This carrying or porter comb H is actuated by a crank motion I,
and I have found it desirable to attach a counterbalance wheel K to the crank
shaft, which actuates such carrying or porter comb H, the counterbalance
wheel K being so arranged as to balance the weight of the carrying or porter
comb H and crank I, together with the other apparatus attached, and thus
cause the movement of the carrying or porter comb II to be more certain
with a less expenditure of power and strain upon the driving parts.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Dargue have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord One-
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JOHN DARGUE. (L.S.)