AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRESSING AND CRUSHING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Watson Burton, of Ipswich, and George Pye,
of the same Place, and of 80, Lombard Street, in the City of London,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRESSING AND CRUSHING FLAX,
HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 29th September 1857, and dated the 19th May 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Watson Burton and
George Pye at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 19th May 1857.
We, JOHN WATSON BURTON, of Ipswich, and GEORGE PYE, of the same
Place, and of 80, Lombard Street, in the City of London, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRESSING AND CRUSHING
FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in pressing and crushing
flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances. Heretofore when using rollers to
press and crush flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances they have been
made with their surfaces solid and unyielding, and the improvement consists
in the employment of rollers the surfaces of which are composed of a series
of metal rings pressed outwards by springs or other elastic means, each of
such rollers acting by preference with a roller having a solid unyielding
surface.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Watson Burton and George Pye in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
WATSON BURTON, of Ipswich, and GEORGE PYE, of the same Place, and of 80,
Lombard Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Watson Burton and George Pye, Her special licence that we, the
said John Watson Burton and George Pye, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Watson Burton and George Pye,
our 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRESSING AND CRUSHING
FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Watson Burton and George Pye, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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. .
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Watson Burton and George
Pye, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in pressing and crushing
flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances. Heretofore when using rollers to
press or crush flax, hemp, or other fibrous substances they have been made
with their surfaces solid and unyielding, and the improvement consists in
the employment of rollers the surfaces of which are composed of a series
of metal rings pressed outwards by springs or other elastic means, each of
such rollers acting by preference with a roller having a solid or unyielding
surface.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed more.
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a machine. for subjecting flax, hemp,
and other fibrous substances to pressure between rollers; Figure 2 is a plan.
of the same. In each of the Figures the same letters are used to indicate
the same parts. A, A, are troughs containing water, by preference impregnated
with fullers' earth, which may be of any desired temperature by having been
previously heated or otherwise in a separate cistern; B, B, are iron flexible
sheets, working over the pitch chain wheels C, C; D, D, are wood rollers, the
periphery of which revolve below the surface of the water, and keep down
the flexible sheets B, B; E, E, are pressing rollers, the bottom ones being
ordinary solid rollers. The top roller is constructed of iron F, F, (as shewn
in Figure 1,) and the iron covered with rings of vulcanized india-rubber G, G,
and then finally covered with rings of brass or other metal H, H. The rollers
are weighted by compound levers J, J, and weights K, K, as required. The
top rollers when working empty (i. e., nothing passing between the top and
bottom rollers,) are not allowed to touch the bottom rollers, and..are driven
or connected by the spur wheels L, L. M, M, are the driving wheels, and
N, N, the driving pullies.
The flax, hemp, or other fibrous substances having been previously prepared
by vatting, steeping, or otherwise, are first placed upon the moving flexible
sheets B, which carry them under the roller D, thereby immersing the
substance in the water, and afterwards carry them to the rollers E, which
press the same. The fibres then pass over a second moveable flexible sheet,
and are again immersed and pressed, as before. The rollers E being composed
of metals and india-rubber in this form allow the fibres to be squeezed by a
hard and yet flexible surface, giving an uniform pressure over an irregular
one, thereby obviating the damage and waste hitherto caused by the irregularity
of feeding or otherwise when rolling or pressing fibrous substances by ordinary
metal rollers.
For flax, hemp, and many other fibres in a wet or prepared state two pairs
of rollers are sufficient, but for fibres or fibrous substances requiring more
pressure additional pairs of rollers may be added in continuity with the
framework, as shewn in the Drawings, without disturbing the present
arrangement.
Although the machinery is shewn suitably arranged for pressing and crushing
fibrous substances when in a wet state, we do not confine ourselves thereto,

page_text: as the flexible rollers are equally applicable for when crushing vegetable
fibrous substances in a dry state, and the arrangement of the framing and
other parts of the machinery may be greatly varied in order to suit the
machinery for particular purposes.
What we claim is the application of rollers such as herein described when
pressing and crushing flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Watson Burton and George Pye,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourteenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
Witness,
HENRY SANDHAM.
JOHN WATSON BURTON. (L.S.)
GEORGE PYE.
(L.S.)