CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRE- PARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SIMSON, of Riches Court, Lime Street, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of June,
in the tenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Simmons, my exors, admors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
John Simson, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Simson, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, the Invention, communicated to me by a
foreigner residing abroad, of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRE-
PARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS;" in which Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said John Simson, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calen-
dar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Simson, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, communi-
cated to me as aforesaid, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are
fully described in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings exhibits a front elevation of a machine
for preparing flax for spinning; Figure 2, a back view thereof (partly in sec-
tion), in the reverse direction of Figure 1; and Figure 3, a plan. In using
this machine the flax is subjected to two distinct operations, the parts con-
cerned in which it will be proper therefore to describe here separately.
FIRST OPERATION.
A, A, is a wooden framework; A is an endless chain, of copper or zinc
bars, which turns on two cylinders B, B, forming a travelling travelling table
on which the flax to he heckled is laid (after having been first thoroughly
cleansed and scratched). On this table the flax is gathered into four (or more)
parcels or stricks, which are conducted to the funnels a, a, a, a, passing through
which they are drawn between two equal sized rollers C1, C2, the upper
of which (C) is made of iron, covered with leather, and the under (C) of
copper, iron, or zinc, grooved. The stricks are next passed over a small carding
cylinder D, then through a second set of funnels b, b, b, b, on emerging from
which they are carried under a second small carding cylinder D, and thence
between two rollers C, C, of the same description as C³, C. From C, C
the stricks enter a third set of funnels c, c, c, c, from which they pass over a large
carding cylinder F, and under a bar G, armed with four or more obliquely
fixed brushes (corresponding to the number of stricks of flax which serve to
equalize the fibres). F*, F*, are tension weights and pullies. From the large
carding cylinder F, the stricks of flax are next passed under a combing cylinder
G (see Figure 2), where they are drawn by the needles H, H, into fine slivers
("bonding.") Immediately behind these needles there is a series of steel
spring pushers or doffers I, I, so placed as that each needle has a pusher in
the rear of, but not in the same parallel with it, and until these pushers are
acted upon by pressure, in the manner to be presently explained, they remain
in a quiescent state. On the opposite side to that at which the stricks of flax
enter upon the cylinder G³ there is fixed a crescent-shaped piece K, which, as
the spring pushers I, I, are brought into contact with it, by the revolution of
the cylinder, pushes them outwards, and causes them thereby to push the
slivers of flax from off the needles. The combed flax, as it is thrown off the
needles, falls into a series of funnels d, d, d, d, and passes thence to the ma-

page_text: chinery described under the "second operation." The manner in which the
machinery, so far as it has been described, is actuated, is as follows:-A³, A³,
are fast and loose pulleys on one end of the shaft of the large combing cylinder
Gs, which by means of a clutch are put in and out of gear, as required, with a
steam engine or other first mover. A' is a pinion on the opposite end of the
same axis, which takes into a cog wheel B', on the axis of which there is a
small wheel, which is connected by means of a pitch chain and pulley (assisted
by the guide pulleys f, f.) with the axis of the carding cylinder F, which in its
turn commands, through the medium of a series of pitch chains and wheels (as
shewn), the rollers on which the travelling table A³ revolves, as also the smaller
19
From the funnels d, d, d, d, the slivers of flax are conducted between two
drawing rollers S, S, and thence to the throstles or spindles Q, Q, for the pur-
pose of being twisted into rovings. The cylinders S, S, are of unequal
diameters; the larger of the two is made of copper, and grooved, and the
smaller of wood. The spindles with their bobbins are of a peculiar construc-
tion, which will be herein-after described when treating of the machinery for
spinning, the flax spindles and bobbins of the same sort being used for both.
operations. The delivery funnels d, d, d, d, and the spindles Q, Q, with their
appendages, are all attached to a separate cast-iron chase or framework M, M,
suspended from a common shaft M2, which is supported by standards raised on
the principal framework A, A, and is by means of a screwed rod R capable of
being moved to a greater or less distance from the large combing cylinder G³,
according as is it is flax or tow which is to be rove, that is to say, according as
the filaments are long or short. N is a large pitched pulley (called tête de
cheval) fixed on the shaft M³, which is connected by a pitch chain O to a
pinion P¹, on one end of the axis of a drum P2, which again is connected by
cords to the whorls p, p, of the spindles or throstles Q, Q. Each sliver as it
passes from between the drawing rollers S, S, enters the neck of one of the
spindles Q, Q, and, passing down a tube in one of the forks of the flyer T, has
the requisite twist given to it as it is wound upon the bobbin U. X, X, is a
come-and-go movement, by which the bobbin is made to rise and fall, and
which is worked by means of the pulleys and bands W, W,
heart wheel W to revolve, which in its turn acts on X, X.
which causes the
Y is a
Y is a grooved
to the frame-
wheel, from which a chain is carried round a pulley y, affixed
work A, and thence round the axis M of the wheel N. The axis of this wheel
Y is free to move to a certain extent in slotted bearings g. g, and is commanded

page_text: by a clutch Y, so that, according as the clutch is moved to one side or the
other, the chain is tightened or slackened, and the roving part of the machinery
thrown in or out of gear. When tow instead of flax is the material to be pre-
pared and rove, one of the two small carding cylinders D1, D2, is removed, and
all the other parts of the preparing machinery brought closer together.
In order to remove from the teeth of the working cylinder G any filaments
of tow which may be left from time to time adhering thereto, there is a second
set of brushes Få affixed to a bar a little way below the point at which the
flax enters upon the cylinder G2, and which may be brought by means of the
lever F into as close contact with the needles as may be required. The lever
F commands also the bar of the other set of brushes F¹, so that, when the
brushes F are pressed against the teeth of the combing cylinder G³, the
brushes F are raised from off the teeth of the carding cylinder F.
In Figure 3 another arrangement is shewn for the removal of the tow from
the combing cylinder. A is a cylindrical brush, against which the teeth of the
combing cylinder C impinge when the cylinder revolves in the direction of
the arrows, and which free these teeth from the adhering filaments; B is a
carding cylinder, which takes the filaments from off the brush A, and delivers
them between two plain wooden cylinders, covered with leather, by which
they are drawn into ribbands, to be afterwards dressed or prepared by the
machinery first herein-before described. E, E, E, e, e, e, are the pulleys and
bands by which the different cylinders belonging to this arrangement are put
in motion.
In Figures 4 and 5 is shewn a combing cylinder of a construction somewhat
different from that before described. Figure 4 is an end view, and Figure 5 a
side view of this machine. I, I, is the framework; A is the cylinder, the
periphery of which is studded with needle points D, D, as before; and A³, the
axis on which it turns; p, p, pulleys on one end of the axis for connecting it
by a band with a steam engine; and g, a crank handle, to be applied to the
other end when manual power is preferred; E, E, are the spring pusher rods
for doffing the flax from the needles; F, a spring clamp, in which the flax to be
combed is placed, and which consists of a rectangular wooden frame, attached
by the two ends to the side posts of the framework I, I, the spring F being
fixed in the centre of the frame, and secured by a binding screw M; G is a
shield or partial cover to the cylinder A, which is loosely attached by two
arms g', g', (connected by a cross piece g³) to the axis A2 of the cylinder, and
may be moved round by these arms to any part of the cylinder desired; on
the inside this shield has a fillet or ridge r, r, (see Figure 4,) of gradually
increasing depth, which is placed in such a position as to catch against and

page_text: press m, more or less, the spring pusher rous L, L, so that on the smeru being
drawn over any division of the cylinder in the direction of the arrows,
Figure 4, the last pusher rods which it covers are pressed inwards quite
beyond the line of the needles, and those behind it are pressed inwards in a
gradually diminishing ratio. Supposing, therefore, the flax to be presented by
the clamp F to the action of the needles at the point a while the cylinder is
revolving in the direction of the arrows, it will follow, that the needles from a
towards 6 will all be charged with flax, and the corresponding pushers will all
be held back by the fillets r, r, until they arrive at the point b, when every
pusher rod, as is freed from the restraint of the shield, will spring out its
full extent, and doff the flax from the next adjoining needle.
THE SPINNING MACHINERY.
The flax being thus formed into rovings, is next spun into yarn by means of
the machinery represented in Figures 6, 7, and 8. Figures 6 and 7 are end
views, and Figure 8 a front elevation of this machinery. A, A is a frame-
work of cast iron; B, main wheel, through the medium of which motion is
given to the whole; C is an escapement or break, by which the wheel B may
be thrown out of gear when required; D, a fly wheel, which is connected by
a link chain E to a pinion on the axis of a drum G, which, by means of cords
carried from it to the whorls of the spindles, causes the latter to revolve; K is
a pinion on the axis of the main wheel B, which takes into a toothed wheel
L, which is connected by a link chain to a larger toothed wheel M; N is a
small pinion on the axis of the wheel M, which takes into a toothed wheel O,
which last commands the two feeding cylinders P, P; Q is a pinion on the axis
of the wheel O, which is connected by means of a link chain to the heart-
shaped pulley R of the come-and-go movement R²; T is one of several
bobbins from which the rovings are carried upwards over the guide roller T',
and then between the feeding rollers P, P, from which they are conducted to
the drawing cylinders U, U, from which they drop into the necks of the
spindles or throstles I, I; a view of one of which is given separately on an
enlarged scale in Figure 9. The bobbins, instead of being regulated as in
ordinary machines by a cord and weight, revolve within a forked spring W,
shewn on an enlarged scale in Figure 10, which rests on a plate attached to
the come-and-go movement R³, and embraces a pulley groove turned on the
lower end of the bobbin; X is a spring, attached to a hook (crapaudine) X',
by means of which each bobbin can be detached in an instant from its spindle
when full; S, S, are a series of racks which support the spring hooks X';
S², S², are a series of lever clutches, by which each spindle can be separately

page_text: stopped in the event of a thread breaking without interfering with the rest.
In the front view of the machinery, Figure 8, N, N, are the grooved feeding
cylinders, and O, O, the drawing cylinders; L, L, are forks for the reception
of the wooden galleys M, M; and P, P, wooden pressure cylinders. Some-
times the Inventor dispenses altogether with the roving part of the operations
before described, and carries the slivers of flax as they come from the drawing
rollers S, S, at once to the spinning machinery, which in that case, however,
is modified in the manner represented in the Drawing, Figure 11; on passing
from the rollers P, P, the slivers are carried under a carding roller No. 1,
and then over another carding roller No. 2, from which they pass between the
drawing rollers U, U, as before.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what is claimed as new
is as follows:-
First, the machinery for preparing or drawing and roving flax, tow, and
other fibrous materials, as before described, in the general arrangement and
combination of parts of which the same consists (none of these parts being
claimed as being in and by itself new, with the exception of the combing
cylinders, spindles, and bobbins), whereby the flax or two or other fibrous
material is manufactured into the state of rovings, by passing it once through
the machinery instead of its having to be passed several times through and
through the same machine, as is now commonly the practice.
Second, the spinning machinery, before described, in the general arrangement
and combination of parts of which the same consists, that is to say, in so far
as such arrangement and combination embrace the employment of spindles and
bobbins of the peculiar description and provided with the peculiar appendages
before specified.
Third, the employment of combing cylinders, constructed and acting as before
described, whether applied to such preparing machinery as has been before
described or to any other sort of machinery, for preparing flax and other
fibrous materials for spinning.
And, fourth, the employment of spindles and bobbins of the peculiar con-
struction and provided with the peculiar appendages before specified, whether
applied to preparing and spinning machinery of the description before described,
or to any other sort of preparing and spinning machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Simson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-six.
JOHN (L.S.) SIMSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of December,
in year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid John Simson came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-six.