IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SPINNING COTTON, FLAX, AND SIMILAR FIBRES."
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, near Brad-
ford, York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SPINNING
COTTON, FLAX, AND SIMILAR FIBRES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th September 1856.
I, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, York, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
AND SPINNING COTTON, FLAX, AND SIMILAR FIBRES," to be as follows:―
Having recently patented the process of spinning cotton wet, I have since
then discovered that much stronger and smoother yarn may be produced by
first combing the cotton, so as to take out the short fibres, and then spinning
the combed cotton wet.
When preparing and spinning flax and similar fibre, the following process
will be found highly useful:-First, reduce the flax to a state of "flax cotton,"
that is, to its ultimate fibre, so that the length of the fibres shall not much
exceed that of long cotton, then comb it, and then spin the product wet in
the usual way, by which means better yarn will be produced than by any of
the processes now in use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe
Lister, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING AND SPINNING COTTON, FLAX, AND SIMILAR FIBRES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 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:-
Having recently patented the process of spinning cotton wet, I have since
discovered that much stronger and smoother yarn may be produced by first
combing the cotton, so as to take out the short fibres, and then spinning the
combed cotton wet.
I will now proceed to describe the plan which I adopt to carry out my
said Invention. I take the cotton and pass it through a beating machine, so
as to clean it from dust and dirt, and after that I card it, in order to obtain
good slivers suitable for combing. The carded slivers are then combed in
order to separate the long fibres from the noil and dirt; having thus perfectly
cleansed the cotton from all extraneus matter, it is then drawn and roved in

page_text: the usual manner.
The combed cotton roving is then subjected to a process
of wet spinning, which I prefer to be as follows:-A trough containing hot
water is placed behind the drawing rollers of the spinning frame, through
which the combed cotton sliver is passed; it is then taken hold of by the
drawing rollers, and drawn and spun, as is well understood.
Now what I claim as of my Invention is, the combined process of first
combing and then spinning such combed cotton wet, whereby very superior
yarn may be produced.
When preparing and spinning flax and similar fibre, the following pro-
cess will be found highly useful:-First reduce the flax to a state of "flax
cotton," that is, to its ultimate fibre, so that the length of the fibres shall not
much exceed those of long cotton, then comb it, and then spin the product
wet in the usual way, by which means better yarn will be produced than by
any of the processes now in use. It is important, when carrying out this part
of my Invention, that the flax should be reduced to a state of "flax cotton,"
that is, to its ultimate fibre, by chemical or mechanical means, or by both
combined. This I prefer to accomplish by boiling it in a solution of caustic
potash for two or three hours, and then passing it through heavy rollers
(similar to such as are now used for washing wool), so as to squeeze out the
gluten and coloring matter. If this is not sufficiently accomplished by one
operation, the flax should be again and again immersed in the boiling solution,
and passed through the expressing rollers until the gluten is entirely removed
and the fibres set free, so that when dried & well carded, the fibres shall not
much exceed those of long cotton. Sometimes, after being dried, the fibrous
material is very much felted and matted together, in that case it should be
passed through a beater or teazer, so arranged as to tear in pieces and open
out the fibrous mass, which will greatly assist the after operation of carding;
the carded sliver of fibre should then be well combed, and the longer fibres
separated from the short, also from the dirt and other objectionable matter,
and then drawn, roved, and prepared for spinning in the ordinary way of pre-
paring short fibre. But I would remark that, when being spun, I prefer not
to treat it in the usual way of flax spinning, but in the way that cotton is
usually spun wet, that is to say, instead of placing the rollers of the spinning
nearer together than the length of the hackled or combed fibre, as is now
practised, I place the rollers further apart than the length of the fibre in the
roving. When spinning flax in the ordinary way, the roving is passed through
a trough of heated water to soften the gluten which holds the ultimate fibres
together in a bunch, so that when the drawing rollers take hold of the ends of
the fibres they readily draw out and separate from each other. Now, by my

page_text: process, although I pass the roving through hot water, it is to give cohesion
and strength to the yarn when spun; there is no softening of the gluten or
separation of the ultimate fibres from each other by the action of the drawing
rollers, because all the gluten has been already removed, and all the fibres
reduced (so far as is needful or practicable) to ultimate ones before being spun,
so that if the drawing rollers in the spinning frame were set nearer together
than the length of the fibres composing the roving, as is now practised, they
must be broken. Although I pass the roving through hot water in the usual
way, still as the fibres have been already (by the process described) reduced to
ultimate fibres, that is, to their ultimate length & fineness, they cannot be
further reduced, but would be broken; it is for that reason that I place the
drawing rollers in the spinning frame further apart than the length of the fibres
composing the roving.
What I claim as my Invention is, the combined process of first, reducing the
the flax or simelar fibre to a state of "flax cotton," that is, to its ultimate fibre,
or nearly so; then, combing the same, and afterwards spinning it wet; but I do
not confine myself to the precise manner herein described, so long as the
peculiar character of my Inventions be retained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred & fifty-seven.
Witness,
JAMES HAMILTON,
of Manningham.
S. C. LISTER. (L.S.)