IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND MACHINERY FOR OCTAINING FROM VARIOUS FIBRE-YIELDING PLANTS USEFUL FIBRES FOR SPINNING AND WEAVING
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hill Dickson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
March 1871.
I, JAMES HILL DICKSON, of Peckham, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND MACHINERY FOR OCTAINING FROM VARIOUS
FIBRE-YIELDING PLANTS USEFUL FIBRES FOR SPINNING AND WEAVING," to be as
follows:-
The first part of my Invention relates to an improved process for re-
moving from the fibres the cuticle or gum like substance which is usually
attached to fibre plants grown in warm climates. This is effected by
immersing either the fresh green or the dried plant in a running stream,
or steeping it in vats in which a flow of water may be maintained from
time to time so as to carry away the black colour which the plant imparts
to the water. The fibres after being submitted to this process for some
days may be removed from the water and suspended on poles or lines
so that they may be subjected to the action of a shower of water, whereby
a very large proportion of the gummy matter will be washed away.
The fibres may then be subjected to the action of a hot solution of
mineral and vegetable soap composed of fatty matters as usual, but with

page_text: the addition of crude petroleum and the pulp of potatoes or other roots,
instead of the acid and alkalies usually employed. These substances
are boiled together until they are well and perfectly incorporated and
the soapy solution is to be used in a hot state. By scalding the fibres
in this hot soapy solution for about half an hour all the gummy matters
will be softened or dissolved out and can be removed by wringing out
the liquid from the plant. The next operation is to pass all the fibres
either in the wet or dry state between two, three, or more pairs of
smooth rollers, whereby the fibres will be flattened and made into a
ribbon previous to passing them between fluted rollers.. When partially
dry the fibres may be hackled.
The next part of the Invention relates to improved mechanism for
breaking up, detaching, and removing from the useful fibres the woody
matters which are found in many fibre-yielding plants such as flax,
hemp, and other plants which grow in temperate climates. This
operation is technically called scutching.
The machine I employ for this operation, consists of several pairs of
barrels or cylindrical cages made of bars placed at certain distances
apart. Three, four, or more pairs of these open cylinders or barrels are
mounted horizontally side by side. The bars of the first pair are placed,
say from two to three inches apart, those of the second are closer, those
of the third are closed still, and so on, the working surfaces of all the
barrels getting finer & finer in succession. These cages or barrels are
so geared. that adjacent pairs of cages or barrels rotate in opposite
directions so that when the stalks of the plant are passed between the
first pair of barrels they may be returned from the other side between
the second pair which rotate in the opposite direction, and so on, to and
fro until the fibres have been passed between all the barrels and the
woody parts have become so broken and loosened that they may be
shaken out of the fibres.
As the fibres of New Zealand flax (phormium tenax) and the Indian
rheea are of great length they require to be cut into lengths suitable
for the machinery used for preparing ordinary flax. To this end I cut
them up by means of a guilotine knife, but in order that the fibres may
not all be cut to exactly the same length the cutting instrument is
formed of a series of cutters arranged in a row but set at angles to such
other, thus
or thus,

page_text: The machine for hackling the fibres consists mainly of two large
cylinders, one of which carries the fibre holders and rotates slowly on its
horizontal axis. The other cylinder carries the hackles and rotates
much quicker, so as to bring the points of the hackle pins against the
strick of fibres and cause them to penetrate the strick and split the fibres
without combing them out and making a large quantity of tow as is now
the case.