IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CONVERTING OLD ROPE OR CORDAGE INTO Tow
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Mildlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CONVERTING OLD ROPE OR CORDAGE
INTO Tow." A communication from Messieurs Goulley & Company of
Honfleur, in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 1st January 1858, and dated the 13th July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 13th July 1857.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66 Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CONVERTING OLD ROPE OR
CORDAGE INTO Tow," to be as follows:-
In carrying out this Invention the rope to be operated upon is first cut
into pieces of suitable lengths and untwisted either by machinery or by hand.
In order to facilitate the untwisting operation the pieces of rope may be
enclosed in boxes or vessels into which steam is introduced, or if the untwist.

page_text: ing operation is easy and it be preferred, they are untwisted in a dry state or
simply soaked. By these means the quality of the tow is superior to that
produced from cordage boiled with potash, black ash, or other analogous
ingredients. The rope having been thus prepared is fed into the improved
machine by which it is converted into tow. For this purpose it is placed on
guides furnished with gills or pins, or on chain gills, by which it is conducted
between drawing rollers; from these drawing rollers the rope is taken by a
large rotating cylinder provided with gills or pins on which the fibres are held
down by means of rotary fans, and consolidated by means of rotating brushes.
The tow thus produced may be taken off this large cylinder either by hand or
by mechanical means.
Motion is communicated to the machine by means of a band or other
equivalent contrivance which is driven by a steam engine or other prime
mover, and the several parts are actuated from the main shaft by means of
toothed gearing or other well-known mechanical appliances.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton, in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of July in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
alid, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, 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
"IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CONVERTING OLD ROPE OR CORDAGE INTO Tow," being
a communication from Messieurs Goulley and Company, of Honfleur, in the
Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others) that J, the said William

page_text: Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 William Edward Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
In carrying out this Invention of "Improved Machinery for Converting Old
Rope or Cordage into Tow," the rope to be operated upon is first to be cut
into pieces of suitable lengths, and untwisted either by machinery or by hand.
In order to facilitate the untwisting operation, the pieces of rope may, as a
preliminary operation, be enclosed in boxes or vessels into which steam is
introduced, or if the untwisting operation is easy and it be preferred they
may be untwisted in a dry state, or simply soaked in water. By carrying on
the operation in the manner proposed, and according to the present Invention,
the quality of the tow is superior to that produced from cordage boiled with
potash, black ash, or other analogous ingredients. The rope having been
thus prepared is fed into the improved machine by which it is converted into
tow. For this purpose it is placed in guides furnished with gills or pins, or
is placed on chain gills, by which it is conducted between drawing rollers;
from these drawing rollers the rope is taken by a large rotating cylinder
provided with gills or pins on which the fibres are held or kept down by the
pressure of a current of air produced by means of rotary fans, and the fibres
are consolidated by means of rotating brushes. The tow thus produced may
be taken off this large cylinder either by hand or by mechanical means.
Motion may be communicated to the machine by means of a band or other-
equivalent contrivance driven by a steam engine or other prime mover, and:
the several parts are actuated from the main shaft by means of toothed:
gearing or other well-known mechanical appliances.
The machinery which the Inventors prefer to employ for the purpose of
carrying out this Invention is reprosented in the several Figures of the
accompanying Drawing, in which Fig. 1 is an elevation of the right-hand sido
of the machine, showing the toothed gearing whereby the several working
parts are operated; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the left-hand side of the machine;
Fig. 3 is a plan view corresponding to Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is an elevation

page_text: taken at that end of the machine where the large card cylinder is situato;
Figures 5 are views of some of the parts detached. Similar letters of reference
denote corresponding parts in all these Figures. A, A, is the framing of the
machine, which may be constructed either of iron or wood, and the dimensions
of which may vary according to circumstances; M (Fig. 8) is the feed
table, situate at the front end of the machine, and which may be provided
with a row of card teeth N, for guiding the substance or material to be
operated upon into the machine. Immediately behind this feed table and its
guide there are two rollers b, b, mounted one above the other (Fig. 3) these
rollers may either be both grooved or fluted, or one of them plain, the
material to be operated upon is delivered by these rollers to the endless chain
of gills g, or by dispensing with the chain g, it may be conducted direct to
the large card cylinder L; these rollers are enclosed in casings c, d, (see
Figures 5,) and they complete the feed apparatus; the requisite pressure is given
to them by means of weighted levers H, H. Above the second pair of feed
rollers is mounted another roller e, (see Fig. 2,) made of wood and furnished
with wings or beaters of iron, and above this roller e a second roller e¹ is
mounted of equal dimensions, and also provided with wings or beaters.
These two rollers act as blowers, and serve to lay the fibres upon the
periphery of the large cylinder L. At some distance behind the second
roller e' is mounted another roller f, (Figures 2 and 4,) covered with strong
brushes, which serves to take the tow off the large card cylinder. Theso
three rollers are mounted in bearings O, attached to the framing. Below the
rollers e, e, f, is mounted the large cylinder L, provided with gills or card
teeth which vary in number, length, and thickness, according to the kind of
rope or cordage to be converted into tow; this cylinder when rotating serves
to tear or separate the filaments of the rope or cordage supplied to it by the
.feed apparatus. Motion is communicated to the machine at the left hand
(sco Figures 2 and 4) by means of the fast and loose pulleys mounted on the
shaft of the large card cylinder L, and is thence transmitted by means of
gearing to the various parts of the machine (sec Fig. 1).
The dimensions and speeds of the various parts will of course vary according
to the nature of the material to be operated upon.
Having now described the Invention of "Improved Machinery for Con-
verting Old Rope or Cordage into Tow," and having explained the means of
carrying the same into effect as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondents, I would observe that I do not mean or intend to confine myself
rigidly to the precise arrangement or construction of parts herein shewn and

page_text: described, as they may perhaps be varied without departing from the nature
and object of the present Invention. In conclusion, I claim the mechanical
combination for separating the fibres of old ropes and cordage, and converting
the same into tow, as herein shewn and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twelfth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lanc.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.B.)