AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MACHINE FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
FAULKNER, of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Cotton
Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of August, in the sixth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unt me, the said
Samuel Faulkner, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Samuel Faulkner, my
exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Faulkner,
my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MACHINE FOR CARDING COTTON AND
OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Samuel Faulkner, by an instrument in writing
under my band and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of

page_text: my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Faulkner, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention of an
Improvement in the Construction of a Machine for Carding Cotton and other
Fibrous Substances to consist in the construction and application of certain
additional parts to an ordinary carding engine, by which I am enabled to pro-
duce a superior quality of work than would be produced by an ordinary carding
engine from the same quality of cotton or other fibrous substances to be
carded, and also in most instances to obviate the necessity of batting and
picking such cottons as are usually picked and batted previous to being sub-
mitted to the action of the carding engine; and the manner in which the same
is to be performed and carried into effect will be more clearly seen by reference
to the annexed Drawings, and the following description thereof. In the
annexed Drawing the scale is written thereon, and it will be remarked that
the same letters and figures of reference indicate the same parts throughout
the whole of the Drawing.
The improved construction of carding engine, as represented at Figure 1, 2,
and 3, in the annexed Drawing, is one which I use as the breaker or com-
mencing engine in carding Sea Island cotton, for spinning the finer numbers
of yarns, Figure 1 being a side view; Figure 2, an end view, seen from the
the opposite end to that at which the doffer cylinder is placed; and Figuro 3,
a view of the reverse side to Figure 1. In this improved construction of engine
it will be observed that the cotton is fed in the ordinary manner from a feeding
cloth, speeded from any convenient motion of the machine, and that the feeding
cloth is placed immediately under the doffer cylinder, as seen at A, Figure 1
and 3, B being the doffer cylinder. From the feeding cloth at A the cotton is
uniformly delivered to the feeding rollers in the ordinary manner; and the geering
for effecting this and other motions common to all carding engines, together
with other well-known parts appertaining to a carding engine, are here deli-
neated, for the purpose of making the nature and construction of my improve-
ment better understood. The feeding rollers are placed at a, a, Figure 1
and 3, and are shewn in sections at full size at Figure 5. These rollers are
not fluted rollers, as they generally are in carding engines of this nature, but
are iron shafts covered with fillet card of a coarse quality, which revolve
slowly, and deliver the cotton to the main-cylinder C, which is covered with

page_text: sheet cards in the ordinary manner. Now, it is well known to spinners and
persons conversant with machinery of this description, that the application of
a small cylinder covered with cards in the position which the feed roller a is to
the main cylinder C, subjects it to the inconvenience of lapping, or becoming
filled with cotton, as is experienced in applying what is called a licker-in or
small cylinder or cylinders covered with cards acting upon the main or other
cylinder, as is frequently done. To obviate this difficulty, which would pre-
clude my using the carded cylinders a, a, with advantage, I apply a metallic
plate or straight edge b, as being best suited to answer the purpose for which
it is used, as seen in section at Figure 5. But I do not confine myself to the
use of a metallic plate, as a slip of hard wood, or other substance, might be
used in place of the metallic plate, though, in my opinion, not with the same"
advantage; and it is by repeated experiments that I have discovered and
found out a position which produces this important effect, together with some
others which I shall hereafter explain. The relative position of the end feed
roller a, a, the metallic plate 6, and the main cylinder C, are best scen at the
full size at Figure 5, and the direction of rotation of each revolving surface is
indicated by small arrows; and although it may be sufficient to state the effect
produced by this arrangement of the plate or strait edge b, which may be
proved by trial, it is nevertheless obvious it must be so; for, supposing the
plate 6 to be removed, and the cotton uniformly delivered from the rollers a, a,
to the main cylinder C, the direction of rotation of that cylinder will by the
centrifugal force naturally lash or throw out some portion of cotton, which I
have found by experience to hang below, and to be in some measure attached
to the bottom feed roller (it may very properly be called flyings). This
catches the loose dirt which would otherwise fall to the floor below the card.
It is frequently taken up again by the bottom feed roller, a part of which it
retains; and such part of this dirt and flyings as is taken from the feed roller
by the main cylinder is an injury to the work. That part which is retained helps
to choak up the feed roller, and to make it less effective as a card in opening
or carding the cotton. But supposing the same action to be going forward after
the plate is placed in the position represented at Figure 5, the cotton must
pass over the upper edge of the plate, as it is taken by the main cylender from
the feed roller; and the upper edge of this plate is placed about five eighths of
an inch below the centre of the bottom, or that part of the lower feed roller
which is nearest to the main cylinder. It is desirable that this plate should
be so made that this distance of five eighths of an inch can be varied, and
the plate removed to that distance which is considered to answer best. The
plate being thus placed, protects the lower feed roller from a great portion of.

page_text: the cotton which would otherwise lap round it. This action is most obvious
when a cotton seed, with fibres attached to it, is delivered from the feeding
rollers a, a, in which case it is partly arrested in its circular motion by the
stationary plate b, this plate being placed as near the main cylinder as possible
without rubbing. When the cylinder is in motion the unopened cotton or
seed is retained by such fibres of the cotton as have passed over the edge
of the plate by the action of the main cylinder, while the fibres of cotton are
stripped or torn off by its rotation. It is desirable that this plate, metalic or
otherwise, should be as light it can be made, leaving it a sufficient strength
to prevent its vibrating when the carding engine is at work; and it is also
desirable that that edge of each plate, as represented in the annexed Drawings,
which is placed nearest to the main cylinder, should have a thin edge in order
that it may more completely lap round the roller to protect it and keep it clean
from cotton, allowing sufficient space for the free rotation of the main cylinder.
Yet I should not recommend that these plates should be brought to a sharp edge,
in order that they may not injure the staple of the cotton; at the same time,
by their being light, they take up little room, and there is more space between
each plate for the dirt to fall as it is disengaged from the cotton by the action
of the cards. In cotton, such as I use on this description of engine, I find it
necessary to give it some slight opening process in the blowing or other
machine to free it from the seed or other hard substance which may be in it,
and if suffered to remain would injure the cards; and with this preparation I
am enabled to card nearly one third more cotton upon the same engine than
in the ordinary manner.
Having described the important effects produced by the edge plate 6 used
for the purpose of clearing the lower card feed roller a, I shall proceed to
describe the further arrangement of my improvement, by which I am enabled
to clear and prevent from lapping a series of card rollers, which I place or
arrange around the lower part of the periphery of the main cylinder of the
carding engine, for the purpose of improving the action of the cards on the
cotton or other fibrous substance to be carded.
In Figures 1 and 2 D represents a series of grooved pullies, which are placed
on the end of the shaft or rollers covered with cards similar to the feed rollers
described at a, Figures 1 and 3, and are best seen at D', Figure 2. These
small rollers covered with card are speeded to revolve slowly in the direction of
the arrows, see Figure 6, by means of the bands c, e, e, e, which receives
motion from the pully E, see Figure 1, which is driven by a worm motion
gained from the rotation of the doffer cylinder or any convenient movement of
the machine. The course of this driving band will be best seen at Figure 1,

page_text: F being a tightening pully for the purpose of keeping the band e, e, e, e, at
the requisite tension. These card rollers D' are carried or supported in a
semicircular frame or casting, represented at G, G, G, which is held concentric
with the main carding cylinder C by radiating arms, and may be revolved to
any convenient position around the centre of the carding cylinder, round which
it may be moved. By this arrangement I am enabled to revolve the frame
G, G, G, into the position occupied by the top cards 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 (they being
first removed), and there to adjust the rollers D₁ at an equal and proper
distance from the main cylinder C, which is effected by adjusting screws
working in the slots S, S, the nature and arrangement of which are
represented at full size at Figure 8, where, as also at Figure 7, m, m,
represent small set screws, which press against each extremity of the D¹
rollers to keep them steady in their bearings, while the adjusting screws before
mentioned enable me to adjust the distance of the rollers from the main
cylinder with greater accuracy, which is particularly required to make the
D' roller answer effectually the purpose for which they are intended. This
being done, the frame G, G, G, is replaced in the position shewn at Figures 1
and 3, and there allowed to reinain stationary. It should be stated that the
frame G, G, G, which carries the rollers D' and their appendages, does not rest
or gain support from the axis of the main cylinder C to which it is concentric,
but is supported on a box or fixed center attached to the framing, so that no
unnecessary friction is caused in the revolution of the main eylinder C. On
referring to Figure 6, which represents two of the card rollers D' at full size, as
applied to the main cylinder C, it will be seen that an arrangement of plates
H, H, I, I, is necessary on each side of each of the D' rollers to protect them
and keep them clearer of such cotton as would otherwise lap on their surface.
The proportion as to width which these plates bear to each other will be seen
at Figure 4. The exact position of these plates must be carefully adjusted,
and they are afterwards kept fast in their proper places by the set screws n,
as shewn at Figures 7 and 8; and I find it desirable to place the plates H, H,
with the returned edge, as seen at Figure 6 in the Drawing, as near to the
main cylinder as they can be placed without rubbing. When the cylinder is
in motion the opposite plates do not require to have a returned edge, or to
be placed quite so near; but the exact distance of these plates must depend
on the weight, quality, and quantity of the cotton or other material to be
carded. In using carding engines of this improved construction, I do not
experience any difficulty in the card freeing itself from flyings or dirt, as there
is adequate space between each card roller D' for the flyings and dirt to escape
from the cylinder, and the combined action of this series of small card rollers

page_text: D₁, together with the plates or straight edges with which they are provided,
clears the cotton so effectually that the dirt and motes which are arrested or
retained by the top cards are very much diminished, so much so that the
stripping or clearing the tops in passing a given amount of cotton through a
carding engine of this construction is not required so frequently as in ordinary
engines; or, in other words, I am by this improved construction of carding
engines enabled to run through cotton which has not been picked or batted,
and produce cotton fit for the finishing carding engine without being at that
expence..
:.
Now whereas I have described various well-known parts common to ordi-
nary carding engines for the purpose of shewing the nature of my Invention;
yet I do not claim as my Invention any of the well-known parts as such.
And I am also well aware that the application of a straight edge or plate to
various parts of the main cylinder of a carding engine for the purpose of
freeing the cotton of dirt or other extraneous matter has been in common use
for many years; but it is not its application for that purpose which I
claim. But I do not claim as new, and of my Invention, the application of
the plate b to the feed roller, as also the action round the cylinder, and the
arrangement of the card rollers D', with their appendages, namely, the plates
or straight edges herein-before described, by which the rollers may be used
and applied to the cylinder without being subjected to what is called lapping;
or, in other words, inconvenienced by the accumulation of cotton on their
surface. And such Invention being, to the best of my knowledge, new and
never before used in this Kingdom, I hereby deliver this as a true and faithful
Specification of the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Faulkner, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Seventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being
first duly stamped), by the said
Samuel Faulkner, in the presence of
JOHN
SAMUEL (LS) FAULKNER.
GREGORY,
Bedford Row, London, Gent".
J. LAPWORTH,
Clerk to Messrs. Adlington, Gregory, Faulk-
& Follett, Bedford Row, London.
ner,

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of October, in
the year of our Lord 1835, the aforesaid Samuel Faulkner came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
Inrolled the Seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.