IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Wright Child, of Halifax, in the County of
York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND
APPARATUS FOR WORKING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES."
Sealed the 15th May 1863, and dated the 20th November 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Wright Child at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th November 1862.
I, JOHN WRIGHT CHILD, of Halifax, in the County of York, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES," to be as
follows:-
In the various processes of preparing wool and other fibres oil is employed,
but in many cases with injurious or inconvenient effects.
My improvements relate to the use of glycerine or combinations thereof
with oleaginous, fatty, or saponaceous matters to facilitate the working of wool
and other fibres in the various processes before weaving, either instead of oil,
or in cases where the use of oil is from various causes objectionable.
My improvements also relate, when working. wool, by straightening or
drawing the fibres thereof after they have been subjected to the combing
process, to opening it by effecting a partial separation or loosening of the

page_text: fibres in a direction at right angles to the line of draught. For this purpose
the working teeth of the straightening or drawing apparatus employed have,
in addition to their forward motion, motions at right angles thereto and in
opposite directions to each other. When gill apparatus is used this may be
conveniently effected by the gill teeth in place of their being fixed stationarily
on the gill bars being divided into sets with capability of sliding endwise on
such bars, some in one direction and some in the opposite direction, so that
the gill teeth may have diverging in addition to their progressive motion. For
this purpose the heads or plates carrying the gill teeth are formed to slide in
either direction on the gill bars and in sections capable of independent motions,
so that fibre whilst being conducted forwards by the gill teeth may at the same
time be opened laterally.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Wright Child in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th May 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WRIGHT CHILD, of Halifax, in the County of York, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Wright Child, Her special licence that I, the said John
Wright Child, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Wright Child, my 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 IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING WOOL AND OTHER.
FIBRES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Wright
Child, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Wright Child, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
In the various processes of preparing wool and other fibres oil is employed,
but in many cases with injurious or inconvenient effects.
My improvements relate, first, to the use of glycerine or combinations
thereof with oleaginous, fatty, or saponaceous matters to facilitate the working
of wool and other fibres in the various processes before weaving, either instead
of oil, or in cases where the use of oil is from various causes objectionable.
When oil is used to facilitate the working of wool and other fibres it has
generally to be removed by washing or scouring in some stage of the progress
of the fibre towards the finished goods, or from the goods themselves; if this
removal is effected in any of the earlier processes fresh oil (if admissible), is
applied to facilitate the subsequent processes, and probably has again to be
removed. Now I find that by the use of glycerine instead of oil in the
various preparatory processes for operating upon wool and other fibres, the
necessity for the removal of the glycerine by washing or scouring is in most
cases avoided. When glycerine is used in and from the first stage, instead of
oil to facilitate the working of wool or other fibres, it may remain throughout
the whole of the processes up to and in the piece goods. In dyeing these
goods the glycerine will simply be dissolved in the water, and disappear
without special washing or scouring being required for that purpose. When
wool or other fibre is dyed in the robbing or slubbing, and glycerine has been
used in the preparation of the fibre up to that stage, the usual washing or
Scouring before dyeing may be omitted, and if after dyeing it be treated with
glycerine again during the succeeding stages it may remain in the finished
goods without detriment to them. The glycerine may be used either alone or
diluted with water, or in combination with small portions of oily, fatty, or
soapy matters, but I prefer to use it alone, or diluted with water. When the
glycerine is used alone about one-half or even less in weight than the weight
of oil ordinarily used, will in general be found sufficient to obtain similar.
effects.
My improvements relate, secondly, when working wool by straightening or
drawing the fibres thereof, after they have been subjected to the combing.
process to opening it by effecting a partial separation or loosening of the fibres
in a direction at right angles to the line of draught. For this purpose the
working teeth of the straightening or drawing apparatus employed have, in
addition to their forward motion, motions at right angles thereto, and. in.

page_text: opposite directions to each other. When gill apparatus is used this may be
conveniently effected by the gill teeth, in place of their being fixed stationarily
on the gill bars being divided into sets with capability of sliding endwise on
such bars, some in one direction and some in the opposite direction, so that
the gill teeth may have diverging in addition to their progressive motion. For
this purpose the heads or plates carrying the gill teeth are formed to slide in
either direction on the gill bars, and in sections capable of independent
motions, so that fibre whilst being conducted forwards by the gill teeth may
at the same time be opened laterally.
But that this part of the improvements may be more fully understood, I
will by the aid of the accompanying Drawings proceed to describe means
which I have found to answer in carrying the same into effect.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a plan of parts of gill apparatus with adaptations thereto,
according to the second part of my improvements. This view is taken above
the upper screws; Figure 2 shows a corresponding plan of the same, but
taken just above the lower screws; Figure 3 shows one pair of the gill combs
and its bar separately; Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7, show sections of Figure 3,
through the respective lines 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 4, 4.
a, a, shows part of the main framing; b, b, the upper pair of screws for giving.
the progressive motion to the gill bars in the direction of the arrow in Figure 1,
when such bars are in the upper saddles, as is well understood; c, c, are the
lower screws for giving the return motion to the gill bars in the direction of
the arrow in Figure 2, when such bars are in the lower saddles. I have not
thought it necessary to show means for lifting or lowering the gill bars at the
ends of their traverses from one to the other pair of saddles; as these may be
such as are ordinarily employed for the purpose, and they form no part of my
improvements. d, 'd, are the gill bars, but in place of their teeth e, e, being
affixed stationarily to the bars d, they are set in plates or bars f, which are
capable of sliding endways on the bars d, d, so that in the movement given to
the bars d, d, by the screws b, b, each pair of teeth e, e, may progressively
separate one from the other, as indicated by the different position of the
respective bars d, with their plates. f, in Figure 1, and thereby effect an
opening, or a partial separation of the fibres under operation. The plates f
are formed, as shown, partly to embrace their bars d, and with clips or .pro-
jections to pass into slits or grooves formed for them on one side of the
bars d. These clips or projections f¹ only extend a short distance, and portions
of the side of each bar d, from the top to the lower edge thereof, are cut away.

page_text: to admit of the clips f¹ passing up or down for the application or removal of
the plates from the bars d, where they are capable of freely sliding in the
grooves formed in the bars d. Each of the plates f is also formed with a
projection f, which rises from its plate into position to be acted upon by a
rib
9, of which there is one on each side of the apparatus supported by and
projecting downwards from the plates g', g', which are hinged to the stationary
frame a, a, at g', 9%. As the gill bars d are progressively moved along the
upper saddle by their screws b, b, the projections f* from the plates f of each
bar d, will be acted upon by the ribs g, with a tendency to draw the plates or
bars along those bars d in the direction of their length, by which the desired
separation of the teeth e, e, will be effected. The bars d, after traversing along
the upper saddles to the extent obtainable by the screws b, b, descend, as is well
understood, to the lower saddles, and are then taken back by the action of the
screws c, c. During this back motion of the bars d, d, in the lower saddles
the projections f² will be acted upon by the stationary plates h, h, with a
tendency to slide the plates or bars f, f, of each bar d with their teeth e, e,
towards each other, so that when they are in a position to be again raised into
the upper saddles the teeth e, e, thereof may be near to each other, and by
their movement again in the upper saddles their separation will be again pro-
gressively effected, as already explained. i, i, are guides or conductors for
conducting the separate slivers on to the respective pairs or sets of teeth.
Figure 8 shows a sectional side view, and Figure 9 a plan of parts, also
partly in section, representing a modification of this head of the improvements,
in which the respective teeth employed to operate on the wool or other fibre
have given to them in addition to their forward motions, motions at right
angles thereto and in opposite directions, by such teeth being set in the peri-
pheries of revolving rings or surfaces, whose axes whilst opposite are slightly
at angles to each other. The fibre to be operated upon is guided by the
groove in the segment ; on to the teeth e set in the peripheries of the two
wheels or revolving surfaces k, affixed to axes k¹, to which motion is given to
cause these two wheels or surfaces k to revolve at the same surface speed, but
at an angle one to the other. The teeth e, e, in these two wheels or sur-
faces k, k, are set so as to incline towards each other, in order that the sliver
of fibre to be acted upon may be more readily and uniformly laid on to both
sets of such teeth, and then as those wheels revolve the teeth in one of them
will progressively separate from those in the other to effect the separation or
loosening of the fibres until the fibre has arrived at a position in relation to
those wheels k, k, opposite that of its being received on to them, when, if
desired, it may be taken by other teeth 1, similar to the teeth e, and set in the

page_text: peripheries of wheels 1', carried by axes 1, also at angles to each other, so
that these teeth may by their continued action continue or increase the
separation or loosening, and, if desired, other pairs of such teeth may continue
to operate, so as to effect still further separation of the fibres, and this sepa-
ration or loosening may be further facilitated by the teeth of one set at the
point of receiving the fibre being set some distance without those from which
they receive such fibre. The fibre thus separated or loosened may be drawn
off by drawing off rollers m, m, or by other suitable means. To prevent portions
of fibre carried forward by the respective circles of teeth from falling in
between the wheels or surfaces carrying such teeth, I apply supporting bars
or. rods n, n, which rest in notches formed in each pair of such wheels or
surfaces, and revolve with them whilst they are guided and held in position by
the frames o, o.
Having thus described my said Invention and means which I adopt in
carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details shown and described, as these may be varied
without departing from the peculiar character of my improvements.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Wright Child, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
J. W. CHILD. (L.S.)