IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR WASHING OR SCOURING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER MACHINERY FOR CONVEYING, `OPENING, AND CLEANING FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Thomas, Overlooker, of Luddenden, in
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the County of York, and William Rothwell, of Luddenden-foot, in
the said County, Mechanic, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS
APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR WASHING OR SCOURING WOOL AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER MACHINERY FOR CONVEYING,
`OPENING, AND CLEANING FIBROUS MATERIALS.”
Sealed the 5th May 1871, and dated the 8th November 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Thomas and
William Rothwell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 8th November 1870.
We, WILLIAM THOMAS, Overlooker, of Luddenden, in the County of
York, and WILLIAM ROTHWELL, of Luddenden-foot, in the said County,
Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR WASHING OR SCOURING WOOL AND-
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER MACHINERY FOR CONVEYING,
OPENING, AND CLEANING FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention in reference to machinery for washing or scouring wool
and other fibrous materials consists in the use of certain apparatus placed

page_text: either at the feed or delivery end of the machine or at both, and is
designed to receive the material and' open the tangled masses, while at
the same time it is conveyed forward.
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The apparatus we employ consists of a series of bars placed side by side
or united together so as to form a grid or net work. This apparatus has
an upward and downward motion imparted to it by cranks or other
ordinary means, while at the same time it is caused to move transversely
but at a differential speed. The conveying forward is effected by the
aforesaid motions, and to assist this the apparatus may be inclined.
"brat" may
Instead of employing bars or grids a continuous surface or
.
be used with the above described motions, and in addition thereto it may
be caused to travel forward. I employ the same apparatus to other
machines in which it is desired to open and clean fibrous materials, or it
may constitute a machine in itself.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Thomas and William Rothwell in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th May 1871.
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TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
THOMAS, Overlooker, of Luddenden, in the County of York, and WILLIAM
ROTHWELL, of Luddenden-foot, in the said County, Mechanic, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing, date the Eighth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Thomas and William Rothwell,
Her special license that we, the said William Thomas and William
Rothwell, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Thomas and William Rothwell, 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 Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO

page_text: MACHINERY FOR WASHING OR SCOURING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS,
APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER MACHINERY FOR CONVEYING, OPENING, AND CLEANING
FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the
said William Thomas and William Rothwell, 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 Inven-
tion, 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 William Rothwell, do hereby
declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to
say:
Our Invention in reference to machinery for washing or scouring wool
and other fibrous materials consists in the use of certain apparatus
placed at either the delivery, or feed end, or both, of the machine, and
is designed to receive the material and open the tangled masses while
at the same time it is conveyed forward.
'
The apparatus we employ consists of a series of bars placed separately
side by side or united together so as to form a grid or net work. This
apparatus has an upward and downward motion imparted to it, while at
the same time it is caused to move transversely but at a differential
speed.
. In the accompanying Sheet of Drawing our Invention is shewn as
adapted to the delivery end of a machine for washing or scouring wool
or other fibrous materials, Fig. 1 being a side view, Fig. 2 an end view,
and Fig. 3 a plan.
At a is a portion of the frame, and at 6 the usual squeezing rollers
which deliver the material on to the endless travelling apron or "brat"
C. The driving shaft for our apparatus is shewn at d, and it receives
rotatory motion from any convenient part of the machine. Upon
this shaft is a pulley e, over which there passes a band f, from thence
over guide pullies, and then around two pullics g mounted upon studs
which are carried by the frame a. Upon the discs of the pullies g are
crank pins h, i, on which are mounted parts j, k, formed with sockets,
and in these sockets is placed a rod ; one of these socket pieces is
shewn detached upon an enlarged scale at Fig. 4, and it will there be

page_text: seen that the rod is formed with a groove m, within which is a pin n
passing through the said socket piece. By these means the rod / is
prevented from passing out of the sockets, but it is left at liberty to
oscillate therein. Upon the bar is mounted a series of blades o, they
being provided with bosses by means of which they can be secured to
-the said bar l.
It will be seen from the above described parts of the Invention that
when rotatory motion is communicated to the shaft d, the pulley e and
band will cause the pullies to revolve, and that in so doing they
will carry round with them the crank pins h; i, and that thus the rod 1
and series of blades o will be caused to move forward and backward
in a transverse direction. The said rod and series of blades o will also
of course be carried bodily upward and downward, but that movement
is not essential to our Invention as will hereafter be pointed out. Upon
the driving shaft dis a pulley p, which by means of a strap q gives
motion to a pulley mounted upon a shaft 8 which is carried by the
frame a, and upon the said shaft 8 is a disc t provided with a crank
pin u. This crank pin extends through a slot formed in a lever w
which is fast upon the before-mentioned rod 1, as therefore the pulley r
and disc revolve the crank pin u causes the lever to to impart an
oscillating motion to the rod 1, which is at liberty so to move within
its socket pieces j, k. The wool or other material being conveyed to
the squeezing rollers in any convenient manner as usual, is delivered
by them on to the endless apron or brat c, and from thence the said
material falls on to the series of blades o near their inward ends, which
by means of the crank pins h, i, will be caused to move to and fro
transversely, while at the same time the crank pin u will through the
lever wimpart an oscillating movement to the rod 7, thus effecting an
upward and downward movement to the blades o, the two positions
thereof being shewn in Fig. 2, the one by full, and the other by dotted
lines. By this compound movement of the said blades the material is
opened out from its tangled masses, and is at the same time conveyed
towards the outward ends of the blades from which it falls on to the floor
or into any receptacle placed to receive it.
'
Fig. 5 shews another method by which the rod 1 may be connected
to the socket pieces so as to allow of the oscillation of the former. In
this instance the said socket piece is formed in two parts k, k*, the latter
being formed with a recess within which is situate a flange x of the rod

page_text: when the two parts of the socket piece are fastened together, but not soʻ
as to press upon the flange x, the rod is at liberty to oscillate as
required, but is confined longitudinally. It will be seen, and it has
before been observed, that in addition to the upward and downward
motion of the blades o caused by the oscillation of the bar that they
move in those directions bodily, but it has also been observed that this
latter motion is not essential to our Invention, and we will now proceed
to describe at Fig. 6 an arrangement in which it does not exist. The
main driving shaft is as before at d communicating an oscillating
motion to the rod by the same means as those already described. In
this instance however the said rod is mounted so as to be capable of
oscillating in bearings, and is connected at one end to a rod y by means
of a ball-and-socket joint z. The rod y is at its other end mounted on
a crank pin h, carried by a pulley g, which is driven by a band f passing
over a pulley e on the main shaft d. By these means the blades of
are caused to move to and fro transversely by the sliding of the
rod in its bearings, while at the same time the said rod is caused to
oscillate by the crank pin u, its ball-and-socket joint z permitting that
movement.
We have in the above description alluded to our Invention as applied
to the delivery end of a machine for washing wool and other fibrous
materials, but it may if desired be adapted to the other end thereof,
the material being fed on to the doubly vibrating blades o, for the
purpose of being opened before it passes into the washing trough, into
which the said blades may deliver it direct, or they may pass it on to a
travelling apron, or "brat," or other ordinary apparatus, to be conveyed
thereby into the said trough, or our said Invention may be applied at
both ends of the washing machine.
In the Drawings and description thereof we have alluded to the
blades o as being joined together at their inward ends only, but if desired
they may be connected together at their outward ends also, thus forming
a complete grid, but we have found that when made according to the
method shewn, the resulting vibration of the blades assists the required
opening of the material. If it be desired to hasten the delivery of the
material, the blades may be so adapted as to incline downward more
than is shewn in the Drawing. The width apart of the blades o may
require to be varied according to the character of material to be operated
upon, but we have found that for the ordinary purposes of a wool

page_text: washing machine a distance between blade and blade of about thrce
inches answers the purpose, they are thus shewn in the Drawing. It
'will have been understood that the vibrations of the blades upward and
downward, and transversely are effected at different speeds, and it is
by reason of these differing motions that the material becomes opened
out and disentangled from its masses. These relative speeds may be
varied, but we have found in practice that the desired result may be
attained by causing the revolutions of the pin u to be four hundred per
minute, and those of pins h, i, to be three hundred per minute.
As a modification of our Invention there may be employed an endless
travelling surface or "brat" with bars, ribs, or other projections thereon,
having the compound motions above described imparted thereto, but
travelling forward bodily after the manner of an endless feed or delivery
apron or brat.
Our Invention as above described is also applicable to known machines
such as carding engines, burring machines, or others of a like character,
in which it is required to open the material previously to or as it is fed
into the machine. Or it may be used as a separate machine for opening
and cleaning fibrous materials. For this purpose a series of vibrating
bars placed one over the other may be employed as shewn in the
diagram Fig. 7, the material falling from the top set on to the next
and so on.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it
to be understood that I claim as secured to us under the above in part
recited Letters Patent, and for the purposes above set forth, the use of
blades or bars as illustrated at o, or other such apparatus as aforesaid to
which an upward and downward and transverse motion is imparted at
different speeds.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Rothwell, have hercunto
set my hand and scal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.