IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUB- STANCES.
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Walton Whitehead, of Holbeck, in the
Parish of Leeds, in the County of York, a Partner in the Firm of
Taylor, Wordsworth, and Company, of the same Place, Machine
and Tool Makers, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES.
"
Scaled the 15th January 1875, and dated the 23rd November 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Walton White-
head at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 23rd November 1874.
I, HENRY WALTON WHITEHEAD, of Holbeck, in 'the Parish of Leeds,
in the County of York, a Partner in the Firm of Taylor, Wordsworth,
and Company, of the same Place, Machine and Tool Makers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,"
to be as follows :—
My improvements consist in certain devices for preparing flax, hemp.

page_text: and other fibrous substances, and forming them into slivers, and the
same improvements are applicable to the spinning of such fibres.
The first part of my improvements consists of a series of toothed or
gilled rollers or porcupine rollers fixed in pairs one above the other, or
the top roller may be placed in the hollow formed by contiguity of the
bottom rollers, having the teeth of such rollers leaning backwards and
not straight from the centre. The hemp or fibre is fed betwixt such
series of toothed rollers, or gills, or porcupines, and then taken off the
last pair of toothed rollers, gills, or porcupines by an endless chain or
chains of bars of hackling needles, which are arranged horizontally, and
running at such an accelerated speed that they have considerable draught
over the scries of toothed rollers, or gills, or porcupines. By these means
the fibre operated upon is hackled or straightened out, and thence
passed over a pair or pairs of pressing rollers, and delivered in the form
of a sliver.
In making the chains which carry the hackling bars I form the links
in a different manner from what has hitherto been adopted, which gives
me an advantage, and enables me to take out each separate gill bar without
removing the dog or guide fixed at each end of the hackling bar by
placing a "he link" at one end of the hackle bar, and a "she link" at
the other end, which in other chains has had to be removed before any
single bar could be removed for repair.
I form the chain of links, which are made with the hackle bars fixed
in the middle of each link. At each end of every other link is a hole,
and every alternate link has a short stud or pin, which is inserted in the
hole of its attendant link. The dogs or guides at both ends of each
hackle bar are formed with a projecting pin or pins at the top and
bottom, fixed at such a place as is found desirable, the middle of each
dog or guide being made with a projection of the width of such dog or
guide, so that the projection may slide in a groove made in the slides
fixed on the frame at each end of the hackle, for the purpose of more
effectually keeping the hackle bars firm and the hackle pins per-
pendicular.

page_text: the top or bottom; by this means, if the above-named groove is found
to fill up with dirt, this mode of forming the slide will allow any
accumulation of dirt to fall down, so as not to wedge fast the guide
by such accumulation.
Another mode of keeping the hackle pins perpendicular is attained by
making the dogs or guides flat at the bottom part, so that they ride on a
guide fixed at cach side of the frame.
The second part of my Invention relates to the mode or manner in
which the endless chain or links may be made so as to enable me to
adapt them to any fineness in pitch, by fixing the hackle bar directly
above one of the pins in one link, and over one of the holes in the other
link.
Where more than one chain is used for the hackling of the fibre I
propose to drive each chain by side shafts and bevil wheels, or spur
wheels may be used, so as to save the wear and tear causeḍ by one chain
having to drive the other, as hitherto.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Walton Whitehead in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd May 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WALTON WHITEHEAD, of Holbeck, in the Parish of Leeds, in the County
of York, a Partner in the Firm of Taylor, Wordsworth, and Company, of -
the same Place, Machine and Tool Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Walton Whitehead,
Her special licence that I, the said Henry Walton Whitehead, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Walton Whitehead, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND 5
SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Henry Walton Whitehead, 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 tho
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to 10
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 Henry Walton Whitehead, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same 16
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say) :—
This Invention relates, firstly, to an improved arrangement of ma- 20
chinery for straightening and drawing flax, bemp, and other fibrous
substances, and forming the same into slivers, which arrangement is
also applicable to the spinning of rope yarns and other materials.
In preparing the sliver the hemp or other fibre is laid on what is
known as a lathed feed sheet, which carries it to a pair of fluted or plain 2
feed rollers. By these rollers the fibre is passed to a series of porcupine
rollers provided with tangential teeth or pins. These porcupine rollers
may be so arranged that the pins of one roller will in working intersect
the pins of adjacent rollers, or they may be adjusted so that the points
of one roller will be brought nearly in contact with those of adjacent 30
rollers. The fibre after passing under the action of the porcupine rollers
is taken off by an endless chain of gill or hackle bars, which are arranged
to travel horizontally and at such a speed that they have a considerable
draft over the porcupine rollers. The fibre is thus hackled or straightened
out by the rapid passage of the hackle pins through the same. On 3
leaving the hackle pins the fibre is passed by means of a conductor

page_text: between a pair of drawing rollers, which have a slight draft over the
chain or chains of gill bars, and it is then led between a pair of com-
pressing rollers, which deliver it into a can or on to spindles, bobbins, or
other suitable receptacles.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents a plan
of the preparing machine constructed in accordance with the first head
of my Invention; and Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the
same.
A is the feed sheet, made of narrow laths and kept tight by means of
sheet rollers at each end; B, B', are the two feed rollers; C, C, C, are a
series of porcupine rollers which take the fibre from the feed rollers B
and B', present it to the hackle pins, and hold it betwixt their teeth
until it has been operated upon by the pins of the endless chain or chains
of hackle bars D. By running these hackle bars D at such velocity that
they will have a considerable draft over the porcupine rollers C, C, C,
the fibre will be hackled, drawn out, and passed to a conductor E, which
will present it to a pair of drawing rollers F and F', having a slight
draft. An even sliver will thus be formed, which is conducted to the
compressing rollers G and G', and by them delivered into a can or other
suitable receptacle.
To save stopping the machine from time to time for clearing the gill
or hackle pins I place the brush roller H at the under side of the hackle
bars, and in such a position that it effectually cleanses the pins of any
accumulation, and deposits the same upon the floor, thereby preventing
any fibres that might adhere to the pins leading any portion of the sliver
from its proper course, and endangering the continuity of the sliver.
Rotary motion is communicated to the various acting parts of the
machine in the following manner :-I, I, are the driving pulleys fitted
to a shaft I', on the opposite end of which is keyed a pinion J. This
pinion gears into and drives a wheel K, keyed on the chain boss shaft K¹.
On the opposite end of this shaft K' is fixed a wheel K³, which gives
motion through the wheel K³ to the wheel K', keyed on the lower
drawing-off roller F. On the outside of the wheel K is fixed a bevel
pinion L, giving motion to the bevil wheel M, fixed on the side shaft N.
This side shaft N transmits motion through the bevil pinions O', 0%,

page_text: 0³, O', to the bevil wheels P', P², P³, P', keyed on the axles of the lower
porcupine rollers C³, 0³, C³, C+. At the opposite end of the axle of the
porcupine roller C' is keyed a spur wheel R, which drives a wheel R³
fixed on the upper porcupine roller C³, and in like manner the remainder
of the series of upper porcupine rollers are driven on the inside of the
frame, but at alternate sides, as shown in Figure 1, from the lower
rollers. On the axle of the lower porcupine roller C" is a pinion S, which
which gives motion through the double stud pinion S¹ to the wheel T,
fixed on the axle of the lower roller B. This feed roller carrics at its
opposite end a pinion U, which. gives motion through a pinion U¹ to a
pinion W on the sheet roller A. The brush H receives motion through
the chain boss shaft K², and the compressing rollers G and G₁ are driven
by a train of gearing actuated from the lower drawing roller F.
In making the chain which carries the hackle bars I form the links
in a different manner from what has hitherto been adopted, which gives
me an advantage, and enables me to take out any gill bar without
removing the dog or guide fixed at each end of the hackling bars. This
advantago I attain by the use of interlocking or lic and she links, placing
a he link at one end of the hackle bar and a she link at the other end.
In order to obviate an evil in these chains I form the link of each 1
chain so that the pins of the he link are fixed lower down in the chains
than the gill bar, which also requires that the holes in the alternate
links should be lower down than the hole in which the gill bar passes.
By these means I am enabled to have the gill bars fixed in the middle of
every link in the chain. The dogs or guides at the ends of each hackle
bar are formed with a projecting pin or pins at the top or bottom, or
both, and at the middle of cach dog or guide a projection or lip is formed
of the full width of the dog or guide, which projection or lip may slide
in a groove formed in the steel or hardened slides fixed on the framing
at each end of the hackle bar, and thus effectually keep the pins of the
hackle bars perpendicular as well as firm.
It may sometimes be found advisable to dispense with the bottom part
of the slide fixed on the framing when these machines are employed in
very dirty work, so that any accumulation of dirt may more easily fall
down and not get wedged fast in the slide. I also place a slide at the

page_text: bottom of the dog or guide, and by making the bottom of the dog or
guide flat and broad, so that they ride on the slide fixed at cach side of
the frame, the hackle bars may be more effectually steadied and kept
perpendicular than by the use of the grooves in the top slides only.
These improvements in the chains and slides are illustrated in
Sheets II. and III. of the Drawings.
Figure 3 is a transverse section through the frames A and A' of the
machine, showing a section of the chain B at each end of the hacklo
bar C, and the dog or guides D for actuating the same, and the slides E
and E' as fixed to the frames A and A' for keeping the pins of the gill
bars perpendicular and steady.
Figure 4 is a section of a modification showing the bottom part of the
slide E taken away, so as to allow of any dirt that might accumulate
falling down. This slide E will in conjunction with the bottom slide E'
effectually steady the hackle bars, and keep the hackle pins per-
pendicular.
Figure 5 is a plan view of Figure 1, shewing the arrangement of my
chain composed of counterpart or interlocking he and she links.
Figure 6 is an elevation of Figure 5, showing the links, bars, and
hackle pins.
Figures 7 are a system of link or chain by which I obviate the
difference in pitch or centres of the gill bars C while going round the
bosses keyed on the shafts K' and K, Figures 1 and 2, which when the
links are made straight are found to vary in pitch while turning round
the bosses.
Figures 8 are a modification of my chains shewing the dogs or
guides D placed inside or between the chains. This arrangement enables
me to take off the whole of the links B without disturbing any of the
dogs or guides D, and also to work the whole of the chain or links B in
the slides E and E¹, thereby more effectually steadying the chain. It
further enables me to draw out any part with greater ease and rapidity.
In this case the frames A and A³ of the machine arc planed and fitted
with a loose picce to be taken out (to facilitate the removal of the hacklo
bars, &c.), as shewn at X in Figure 2.

page_text: frame side, with a groove or rebate instead of a projection, in which the
middle projection of the dog or guide is made to slide.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Walton Whitehead, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of May,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
H. W. WHITEHEAD. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
said Henry Walton Whitehead in
the presence of
EDWARD WHITELEY,
Clerk to Mr. Tho'. Turner,
Sol'.,
GEO. BENTLEY,
Leeds.
Draughtsman to Messrs. Taylor, Wordsworth, & Co.