IMPROVEMENTS IN WIRE CARDS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jonas Haley at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th February
1874.
I, JONAS HALEY, of the Firm of Samuel Haley and Son, of Cleckheaton,
in the County of York, Card Manufacturers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WIRE CARDS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF," to be as follows,
that is to say:
My Invention relates to manufacturing wire elliptic, oblong, oval, or
slightly flattened, having flat parrallel sections, giving a solid base, and
producing flat wire with two sections totally different. For this
purpose
I pass through rollers or dies or any suitable apparatus elliptic, oblong,
oval, or slightly flattened wire, submitting such wire to a slight flattening.
The wire thus prepared is passed through a setting machine, and placed
on a feeder between the flattener and headwork, and. made. to pass
through a pair of dies, one fixed and the other movable, working in
guides fitted to the setting machine. The movable die is actuated by a
bell-crank lever, the short arm working the die backwards and forwards,
striking the wire, flattening portions of its length, and at intervals the
long arm of the bell-crank lever is worked by means of an excentric fitted

page_text: on a shaft. This excentric lifts the lever, causing the short arm to move
forward, giving the blow to the wire. The die after striking is.brought
back by a spiral spring fixed to the under side of the long lever, and to
the frame of the setting machine. On one end of the shaft working the
excentric is fitted a clutch or catch box. The wire so prepared is cut in 5
lengths to form the teeth of the wire cards. By these means I produce
wire cards with teeth of equal thickness, quite straight, and with a solid
foundation, doing away with the evils attending the different kinds of
wires heretofore manufactured, which may be classed in three different
kinds, namely, ordinary round wire, flat wire, and wire round at the 1
base and flat at the points.
The ordinary round wire, by far the more common, presents serious
drawbacks, on account of its losing the point in a very short time, and
obliging frequent grinding to give the necessary bite.
With flat wire the points last much longer, on account of the form of 1
the wire and its position on the cylinder, and the points are more
quickly sharpened; but the lateral weakness of the wire is a serious
defect and a decided obstacle to its general use; only short or fine
material, such as cotton, can be advantageously carded by it.
The wires round at the base and flat at the points preserve to the card 2
the strength necessary for the special treatment of long material, on
account of the base preserving to the card all the strength, whilst the
flat points have to a certain extent the advantages attached to the flat
wire; but even this wire is faulty, the points do not work as well as the
flat wire, the teeth not being straight and of equal thickness, the reason 2
being that in order to obtain from the round a twist in the flat section
it is impossible to avoid the contraction which is produced by the
twisting..
My wire being slightly flattened and of two sections totally different
prevents these defects, the wire tending to a line straight and parallel to 3
the flat of the section, producing wire cards with teeth of equal thickness,
straight and with a solid foundation, doing away with the contraction
produced by wire with a round base and flat points.