Improvements in Rubbing Aprons for Use in the Manufacture of Worsted Yarns.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 26th June, 1899-Accepted, 29th July, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Rubbing Aprons for Use in the Manufacture of
Worsted Yarns.
I, ALFRED WOLSTENHOLME, of Frankford Avenue and Westmoreland Street, in
the City and County of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, one of the United
States of America, Spinning Mili Superintendent, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to improvements in the process known as the French
system of drawing, used in the manufacture of worsted yarns, by which is meant
all woollen yarns of fine texture and long staple, the invention consisting of an
improved form of apron used for the rubbing, or rolling and compressing of the
worsted roving or sliver in this system of drawing.
My invention will be clearly understood from the following description with
reference to the accompanying drawings of which:-
Figure 1 is a diagram of sufficient of a machine, for carrying out the process
known as the French system of drawing, as is necessary to illustrate my invention
as employed therewith;
Figure 2 is a perspective view of one of my improved rubbing aprons;
Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view of my improved rubbing apron; and
Figures 4 and 5, are similar sectional views of modified forms of the rubbing
apron.
In the French system of drawing as hitherto carried out, it has been the
When.
custom to employ rubbing aprons having a uniformly roughened surface.
leather aprons have been used, this surface has either been the natural flesh side
of the hide with the lumps or inequalities of the same removed, or if the grain
side of the leather has been used, it is buffed to give it the required roughness.
Aprons composed of other material have been used, but in all instances such
aprons have had a uniformly roughened surface.
The object of such roughened surface is to insure the proper rubbing or con-
densing of the rovings or slivers operated upon. In practice, however, these
aprons have proved unsatisfactory, as after running for some length of time they
develope defects: In some instances the roughened surfaces wear smooth and
produce patches of surface having almost a glazed finish which defeats the purpose
for which they are employed, the sliver emerging from between the rubbing
aprons without any material change from the condition in which it entered the
while in other instances, the surface of the aprons will wear rougher in
parts and tear the slivers operated upon, making a very rough strand, besides
collecting more or less of the fibres on the apron, thereby forming waste.
some instances the surface of the rubbing aprons presents both of the defects
enumerated.
same:
In
In order to obviate these defects and insufficiences of the rubbing aprons now
in common use, I have invented an improved rubbing apron, the said invention
consisting in grooving or indenting the smooth grain surface of a rubbing apron
whereby the same is adapted for the rolling and compressing of the worsted

page_text: roving or sliver in the process known as the French system of drawing; the said
grooves or indentations being made continuous and preferably in parallel lines.
The grooves or indentations, which are preferably formed in the grain surface
of the rubbing aprons, may be of a width and depth sufficient to enable the said
aprons to perform the necessary amount of rubbing, rolling and compressing,
commensurate with the bulk of the roving or sliver to be operated upon, but
these grooves are generally uniform in width and depth, for the
entire extent of the apron, and I have found in practice that the best results are
obtained with grooves of a width and depth of one-sixteenth of an inch, and
arranged at about three-eighths of an inch from the centre of one groove to the
centre of the next adjacent groove.
It is essential that the leather of which the improved rubbing aprons are made,
shall present a natural, close, fine-grained surface, a condition which it should
permanently retain while in use, in contradistinction to the rubbing aprons at
present in common use, which to be effective require a semi-roughened rubbing
surface.
are
In Figure 1, of the accompanying drawings, three rovings or slivers
shown as being condensed into a single sliver or roving y which is wound on the
bobbin 15.
+
1 and 2 are the upper drawings rolls and 3 and 4 are the lower drawing rolls;
5 is the circular comb or porcupine for combing the condensed sliver into flat stock
with the fibres arranged in parallel lines; 6 is a grooved draft roller over which
the stock passes, and upon which is mounted the roll for maintaining the stock
in the flattened condition, and 8 and 9 are the aprons for rubbing the flat stock
into a roving or sliver and giving it what I terin a mock twist." The upper
apron is driven in the direction of the arrow by the rolls 10 and 11, and the
lower apron is driven by the rolls 12 and 13, in the direction of the arrow b, so
that the meeting faces of the aprons will move in the same direction, the aprons
at the same time being reciprocated laterally in different directions, by the usual
mechanism, so as to rub and twist the flat stock into a sliver. This sliver as it
emerges from between the rubbing aprons is passed through the ordinary trumpet
eye 14 onto the bobbin 15..
A roller 16 is arranged between the runs of the upper apron 8 and in contact
with the lower run of the same so as to insure the contact of the meeting faces of
the aprons 8 and 9 whereby the rubbing of the flat stock into a substantially round
sliver will be accomplished.
Figure 2 is a perspective view of the upper rubbing apron 8 provided with a
series of longitudinal parallel grooves 17 the space between the grooves being
the smooth fine-grained surface of the leather. It will be understood that the
lower rubbing apron is grooved in the same manner as the upper apron.
Figure 3 is a cross section of the rubbing apron drawn to an enlarged scale,
the smooth, fine-grained surface of the apron being indicated by the fine section
lines, and the grooves 17 being substantially square. Figures 4 and 5 shew
modifications of the shape of the grooves in the rubbing aprons; Figure 4 having
grooves of triangular shape, and Figure 5 having grooves of semi-circular shape.
The grooves or indentations in the faces of the rubbing aprons insure the
proper hold of the said aprons upon the roving or sliver while it is being rubbed,
or rolled and compressed by the lateral reciprocating motion imparted by the
machine to the said rubbing aprons, while the smooth grain surface of the leather
has no tendency to cause fibres to become detached and adhere to the rubbing
aprons, an evil commonly known as
lapping and which is unavoidable with
the use of the ordinary rubbing aprons, especially under certain conditions of the
atmosphere.
66
"
The use of my improved rubbing aprons does not necessitate any change in the
other parts of the machine on which they may be employed. A great advantage
gained by the use of the grooved rubbing aprons is that the two roving strands
in process of rubbing or rolling are never entangled in that operation, but cach

page_text: individual strand is kept absolutely intact from the other, each one being
charged from the grooved aprons free from roughened or projecting fibres; well
rounded and compact; and with no possibility of one strand becoming attached
to its adjoining strand while both are being run together parallel and in contact
through the same trumpet guide onto the receiving roving bobbin in front of
the machine.
I do not claim broadly the use of a grooved apron for the purpose of drawing
or rubbing fibrous material, but what I do claim and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is:
1. As a new article of manufacture, a leather apron for use in the drawing or
rubbing of rovings or slivers of worsted yarns, the said apron having a smooth,
close, fine-grained surface, and provided with a series of grooves arranged longi-
tudinally of the apron, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described.
2. As a new article of manufacture, a leather rubbing apron for use in a
machine for carrying out the French system of drawing or rubbing in the
manufacture of long fibre worsted yarns, the said apron having a natural, close,
smooth, fine-grained surface, and provided with a series of parallel grooves or
indentations, spaced at equal distances apart and arranged longitudinally of the
said apron, substantially as.and for the purpose herein before described.
Tune 1899.
JOHNSONS & WILLCON,
A7
Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.