IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS. FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas James Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th July 1871.-A communication from abroad by Louis Bourau,
of Rue Panquet, Paris, France.
I, THOMAS JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS. FOR COMBING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
:-
These improvements relate to certain constructions and arrangements
of apparatus for combing wool, cotton, and other fibrous substances,
and are chiefly applicable to circular machines in which the fibre or
the sliver is fed from the inside to the outside of the combs, such as
is described in the Specifications of the Patents granted to Edward
Tavernier and Henry Walton Whitehead, dated 1st November 1866,
No. 2832, and to Louis Ferdinand Tavernier, dated 12th October 1870,
No. 2691.
The present improvements consist as follows:-1st, I suppress the con-

page_text: composed of a circular nip of which the fixed part has a portion cut
out at the entrance of slivers, and another portion cut out at the going
out of slivers as in Schlumberger' fils' circular feeding plates. I can
also produce the alimentation by suppressing the feeding boxes either
by means of plates fixed under the carded slivers, and behind the
main comb, so that when the slivers are brought under the keeping
plate, nipping their heads in the circular comb, in order to produce
the feeding or delivery, these plates or knives lift up all the slivers
as they come, and in this way unroll them. Another way consists in
setting nearer to the main comb the pins of the feeding boxes or
conductors which lift up these feeding boxes. I suppress the boxes
and terminate the extremities of these pins like a T so that each T lifts
up the slivers and produces their delivery. In this case I take care
to make each of these pins long enough to allow the extremity of each
to cover the extremity of the next.
My second improvement consists in using intersecting gills or fallers,
in order to produce the combing of the outside fringe protruding out
of the circle. I can substitute for these intersecting gills a combination
of two intersecting gills only, which have a to-and-fro motion, and
open and shut in a vertical plane, the points of one entering the
points of the other. I clean these intersecting gills of the noils by
Instead of intersecting
means of fixed brushes, bars, or otherwise.
screw gills acting as combing organs, I can use square motions with
intersecting combs.
My third improvement consists in combing the ends or uncombed
part of the fibres simply by the guard or clearing combs of the machine.
In this case can suppress the main circular comb. I nip the slivers
before the working combs by means of a keeping plate formed of a fixed
plate with pressing springs pressing on the large circular plate, bearing
all the slivers of the machine, these operating in some way like the
"keeping plates of Hubner's machine.
My fourth improvement consists in combing the ends or uncombed
parts of the fibres when drawn out by means of intersecting segments
of guard or clearing combs. In this case I take care to dispose these
segments in such a way that the points of junction of two segments
are not at the same place as the points of junction of the two segments
that intersect them.

page_text: My fifth improvement consists in using a nip instead of drawing off
rollers. This nip has a to-and-fro motion. It seizes the cleaned fringe,
and deposits it either on a screw gill, on a card roller, or on a porcupine
on which the fibres form a bat in the well-known manner.
In this case
I can have only one segment of guard comb. I can however, if I
wish, employ two segments of guard combs, one being above the
other, and intersecting at the moment the nip draws off the fibres.