STRAIGHTENING AND SEPARATING THE FIBRES OF SILK WASTE, AND LAYING THEM IN PARALLEL LENGTHS PRE- PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sir Peter Fairbairn, of Leeds, in the County of
York, Knight, and Robert Newton, of Leeds, aforesaid, Commercial
Traveller, for the Invention of "STRAIGHTENING AND SEPARATING THE
FIBRES OF SILK WASTE, AND LAYING THEM IN PARALLEL LENGTHS PRE-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sir Peter Fairbairn and
Robert Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 22nd March 1859.
We, Sir PETER FAIRBAIRN, of Leeds, in the County of York, Knight, and
ROBERT NEWTON, of Leeds, aforesaid, Commercial Traveller, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "STRAIGHTENING AND SEPARATING THE FIBRES
OP SILK WASTE, AND LAYING THEM IN PARALLEL LENGTHS PREPARATORY TO COMBING
OR DRESSING," to be as follows:-
The particular novelty of the Invention consists in the adaptation of the
screw gill for the purpose of separating and straightening the fibres of silk
waste previous to the operation of combing or dressing.
A method in which this may be effected is as follows:-The material is
placed upon a feed sheet, and thus carried forward to fluted retaining rollers,
which are heavily pressed by levers and weights. Immediately in front of

page_text: these levers are spiral screws for the purpose of traversing or carrying forward
gill bars, which are made to move much quicker than the surface speed of the
retaining rollers, and the gill is so placed that the pins strike well into the
material, thereby drawing, separating, and straightening the fibres. In front
of the spiral screws and gill bars are placed drawing rollers (which are also
heavily pressed by levers and weights), which move quicker than the surface
speed of the gills, thus again drawing and straightening the fibres. Between
each pair of these rollers is an endless sheet of leather which prevents the
material from slipping, and also conducts it from one pair of rollers to the
other. Immediately in front of these rollers is a cylinder with gills fixed
round its circumference at equal distances from each other, and varying in
number according to the length of material to be operated upon. A brush is
used to clean the pressing roller, and also to lay the fibres parallel in the gills.
After the cylinder has made several revolutions, the material is taken from
it in stricks of parallel fibres sufficiently prepared for combing or dressing
purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sir Peter Fairbairn and Robert Newton in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 22nd September 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, Sir
PETER FAIRBAIRN, of Leeds, in the County of York, Knight, and ROBERT
NEWTON, of Leeds, aforesaid, Commercial Traveller, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the 'twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Sir Peter Fairbairn and Robert Newton, Her special license that
we, the said Sir Peter Fairbairn and Robert Newton, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Sir Peter Fairbairn and
Robert Newton, our 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 Ire-
land, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "STRAIGHTENING
AND SEPARATING THE FIBRES OF SILK WASTE, AND LAYING THEM IN PARALLEL
LENGTHS PREPARATORY TO COMBING OR DRESSING," upon the condition (amongst

page_text: others) that we, the said Sir Peter Fairbairn and Robert Newton, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us, 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 Sir Peter Fairbairn, (on behalf of myself
and of the said Robert Newton,) do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-
.
The object of this Invention is to graduate the draught to which it is requi-
site to subject the silk waste, for the purpose of separating and straightening
the fibres preparatory to submitting the silk to the action of the dressing
machine. Hitherto in preparing silk waste by machine labor, for the dressing
or combing operation, it has been customary to feed the silk directly to the
comb teeth of the opening or straightening cylinder, the draught thereforo
requisite to be upon the fibres to separate and straighten them was neces-
sarily sudden, and subjected them to great and injurious strain. Now in
order to obviate this defect and prevent the breaking of the fibres consequent
on this mode of conducting the straightening operation, we propose to inter-
pose between the feed apron and the opening cylinder an arrangement of screw
gills with feed and delivery rollers, which being driven at regulated speeds
superior to the surface speed of the feed apron, and inferior to that of the
opening cylinder, will give the silk a preparatory straightening while conducting
it to the comb teeth.
Between
In the accompanying Drawing, Figure 1 shews our improved machine in
side elevation; Figure 2 is an elevation of the feeding end of the machine;
and Figure 3 is a partial plan view of the same. A, A, is the main framing
of the machine, carrying at one end the feed apron B, and at the other the
opening or straightening cylinder C.
these are mounted the screw
gills D, with their feeding and delivery rollers. For the feed apron we prefer
to employ wire card cloth, which, when delivering the fibres to the first pair
of rollers a, a, will have a tendency to retain them against the draught of
those rollers, and thus commence the straightening operation. The rollers
a, a, are fluted, the lower rollers being driven by spur gearing, and the upper
ones weighted in the ordinary manner of weighting such rollers. The silk in.
passing from between the second pair of rollers is taken up by the screw

page_text: gills, which travelling at a somewhat greater surface speed than the feeding
rollers a, a, will continue the straightening operation, and the gills, as they
reach the end of their course, will in their turn deliver the silk to the fluted
rollers b, b, the lower ones of which are driven by spur gearing, and at a
somewhat superior surface speed to that of the screw gills. The upper rollers
are weighted by means of shackles c, c, connected by tightening rods to
weighted levers d, d, which have as their fulcrums pins fixed to the main
framing, as shewn best at Figure 1, and over the lower rollers an endless.belt b 1:
is stretched, for the purpose of supporting the now open and partially
straightened fibres, and carrying them to the cylinder C, the comb teeth of
which complete the operation.
The manner of transmitting motion to the main or operating parts of the
machine, by which this preparatory process is effected, we will now proceed
to explain. 1, 1, are the driving and loose pullies, carried by a stud axle, and
driven by a belt from any first mover. On the boss of the driving pulley is a
spur pinion 2, which takes into a spur wheel 3, on a horizontal shaft 4, which
bas its bearings in the side framing. To this shaft 4 is keyed a worm 5,
which gears into a worm wheel 6, supported by a stud axle, which is itself
carried by a bracket at the side of the framing. On the boss of the worm
wheel 6 is a bevil wheel, which takes into and drives a bevil wheel 7, mounted
loosely on a stud axle projecting from the framing A. The prolonged boss of
this wheel 7 carries a spur pinion in gear with a spur wheel 8, carried by a
stud projecting from a radius arm e, which bas the stud axle of the wheel 7
as its fulcrum. On the prolonged boss of this wheel 8 is a pinion which goers
into and drives a spur wheel 9 on the axle of the front lower roller a, and thus
rotary motion is communicated to that roller. This motion, by means of a
spur pinion 10, is transmitted through an intermediate pinion in gear with a
pinion on the axle of the tension roller 11 of the feed apron B to that apron,
and in like manner to the back lower roller a, whereby the silk is brought:
forward by the apron, and taken up with a slight drawing action by the
rollers a, a.
The motion of the screws f,f, which operate the screw gills D,
is obtained by a pair of bevil wheels 4*, 4*, keyed to the shaft 4, taking.
respectively into bevil wheels mounted on the shafts of the lower pair of
screws, and the upper and lower shafts being geared together as usual, the
motion of the lower shafts is communicated to the shafts of the upper traversing
screws. The speed of the screw gills we make absolute, according to the
quality of the staple intended to be operated upon and the weight of the.
gills employed, and we provide means for adjusting the speed of the other.
operating parts to that of the gills, according to the requirements of the manu-

page_text: facturer. Thus, we employ a radius arm for carrying the intermediate
wheel and pinion 8, in order to facilitate the introduction of change wheels
to reduce or increase the rate offered, and in like manner we make provision
for regulating the rate of increase of surface speed which the rollers b, b, and
the opening cylinder C shall respectively have over the gills. For transmitting
motion to the rollers b, b, the spur wheel 2 on the boss of the driving pulley 1
gears into a wheel 12, carried by a stud axle on the side framing. On the
boss of this wheel is a pinion, which gears into and drives a wheel 18, carried
by a radius arm, which has the stud axle of the wheel 12 as its fulcrum.
The wheel 18 gears into and drives a pinion 14 on the axle of the first of
the lower rollers b, and, by means of a train of spur pinions, the second lower
roller and a brush g, g, (which is employed to lay the fibres on the comb
teeth of the cylinder C) are driven. The cylinder C also receives motion from
the first of the lower rollers through a pinion 15, which drives a spur wheel
16, in gear with a pinion on the axle of the cylinder C. The spur wheel 16
is carried by a radial arm, which has the axle of the pinion 15 for its fulcrum.
It will now be understood, that when motion is given to the driving pulley 1,
and the silk waste is laid evenly upon the apron B by hand, the rollers a, a,.
will take up or strip the fibres from the apron, submitting them thereby to a
slight drawing action, and deliver them to the gills, which having a superior
speed will open out and elongate the fibres, and deliver them into the nip of
the rollers b. As these rollers b bave a still superior speed, their action will
be to draw out the silk from the gill pins, and by the aid of the belt 6' (which
is kept at tension by means of an adjustable roller 6, working in a bracket
slide 6 as its bearing.) deliver it into the comb teeth of the cylinder C in a
partially straightened state. The operation of this cylinder will then complete
the straightening and separation of the fibres, and prepare it for the combing
or dressing machine. This cylinder is provided with combs or gills, set at
given distances apart in the usual manner, which, when filled, are stripped by
severing the fibres at the back of the combs, and clamping the silk between
books or leaves, as is well understood. The relative speeds of the operating
parts we have already said must depend in a great mensure upon the work
in band, but, for average work we prefer the proportion indicated by the
pitched lines of the gearing in the Drawing.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention for "Straightening
and Separating the Fibres of Silk Waste, and Laying them in Parallel Lengths
preparatory to Combing and Dressing," and explained the manner of carrying
the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent, we claim graduating the draught to which it is

page_text: requisite to subject the silk waste, in the manner and for the purpose above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sir Peter Fairbairn, for and on behalf
of myself and the said Robert Newton, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our Lord 5
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Signed by the said Sir Peter Fairbairn,
in the presence of
W*. HENRY GAUNT, Sol'.,
Leeds.
P. FAIRBAIRN.. (L.S.)