IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TREATING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATTERS REQUIRING LIKE TREATMENT
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Spencer Trower, of Stansteadbury, near
Ware, in the County of Hertford, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR TREATING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATTERS
REQUIRING LIKE TREATMENT."
Sealed the 1st November 1858, and dated the 3rd May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Spencer Trower
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd May 1858.
I, EDWARD SPENCER TROWER, of Stansteadbury, near Ware, in the County
of Hertford, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TREATING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATTERS
REQUIRING LIKE TREATMENT," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for treating
flax, hemp, and other matters requiring like treatment. For these purposes,
when acting on flax or other fibrous matters by grooved rollers, and where
such rollers are caused to move the fibrous matters alternately forward and
backward (the quantity of forward motion prevailing over the backward motion),
motion is given to the rollers by means of two straps, one of them being
crossed, the other not. These two straps are caused to act alternately on the
driving drum of the rollers, by means of a sliding bar or moveable instru-

page_text: ment, which causes one strap to be moved on to the driving drum or pulley
when the other is moved off therefrom, and such bar or instrument is
actuated by means. of projections on a fly wheel, the projections being so
formed as to continue the driving strap for the forward motion a longer time
in action than the driving strap for the retrograde motion.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Spencer Trower in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
SPENCER TROWER, of Stansteadbury, near Ware, in the County of Hertford,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Edward Spencer Trower, Her special licence that I, the
said Edward Spencer Trower, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Edward Spencer Trower, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 APPARATUS FOR TREATING FLAX, HEMP,
AND OTHER FIBROUS MATTERS REQUIRING LIKE TREATMENT," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Edward Spencer Trower, 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 Edward Spencer Trower, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for treating
flax, hemp, and other fibrous matters requiring like treatment. For these

page_text: purposes, when acting on flax or other fibrous matters by grooved rollers, and
where such rollers are caused to move the fibrous matters alternately forward
and backward (the quantity of forward motion prevailing over the backward
motion), motion is given to the rollers by means of two straps, one of them
being crossed, the other not. These two straps are caused to act alternately
on the driving drum of the rollers by means of a sliding bar or moveable
instrument, which causes one strap to be moved on to the driving drum or
pulley when the other is moved off therefrom, and such bar or instrument is
actuated by means of projections on a fly wheel, the projections being so formed
as to continue the driving strap for the forward motion a longer time in action
than the driving strap for the retrograde motion.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe
more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews part of a plan; Figure 2, an end view; and Figure 3, part
of a longitudinal section (taken on the line 1, 1, of Figure 1,) of machinery
suitably arranged for acting upon flax, hemp, or other fibrous materials, by a
series of grooved rollers, such machinery having apparatus applied thereto
according to my Invention, for the purpose of reversing the direction in which
the rollers are driven, in order to give an alternate forward and backward
movement to the fibrous materials passing between such grooved rollers. The
Drawings, Figures 4, 5, and 6, show some of the parts on a larger scale. The
Drawings show the reversing apparatus arranged in such a position between
two separate machines or series of grooved rollers as to act simultaneously on
each set of rollers; but this may be varied. a is an axis which gives motion to
each series of grooved rollers b, b, by means of bevil gear clearly shown in the
Drawings by red lines; c, c¹, are fast and loose pullies on the shaft a, over which
the two straps d, d', pass from driving pullies fixed on an axis which receives
motion from a steam engine or other motive power, the strap d being crossed.
The straps d, d', are caused to act alternately on the fast and loose pullies
c, c', in the following manner :-e is a bar which is capable of sliding to and
fro in suitable bearings on the framing or supports f, which carry the axis g,
on which is fixed the fly wheel h, driven by a strap or band from the axis of
driving pullies before referred to; h1, h2, are cam surfaces or projections fixed
on each side of the fly wheel g, which act alternately on projections e', e², fixed
on the bar e, so as to move it to and fro, and e³, e, are forks fixed on the bar
e, which are thus caused to move the straps d, d', alternately from the fast and
loose pullies c, c'. The projecting surface h² on the fly wheel h is continued to

page_text: a greater extent around the circumference of the wheel than the projecting
surface h', by which means the driving strap for the forward motion of the
rollers is continued in action for a longer time than the driving strap
for the backward or retrograde motion, thus causing the fibrous materials to
advance gradually and pass out of the machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Spencer Trower, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. G. TONGUE.
EDWARD SPENCER TROWER. (L.S.)