MAKING AN IMPROVED ROVING MACHINE FOR PREPARING FLAX, TOW, AND WOOL, FOR SPINNING
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WC, MARK
LAYBOURN, of Great Driffield, in the County of York, Mechanic, and RICHARD
MILBOURN, of the same place, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Ninth day of December instant, hath given and granted unto us, the said
Mark Laybourn and Richard Milbourn, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, to make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, during the term of years therein expressed, our Invention of
"MAKING AN IMPROVED ROVING MACHINE FOR PREPARING FLAX, TOW, AND WOOL,
FOR SPINNING; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging us, the said Mark Laybourn and Richard Milbourn, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and scals, or the and scal of one of us,
to cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next after the date of the
said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Mark Laybourn and Richard
Milbourn, in compliance with the said proviso in the said Letters Patent
mentioned and contained, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly

page_text: described and ascertained by the Plan or Drawing hereunto annexed, and as
follows, that is to say :-
C, two carded rollers, or rollers prepared with metal or wire teeth, connected
by two wheels, and weighted so that the teeth press hard upon the sliver, and
act as a binder at the same time that they adjust and straighten the fibres
in the roving, thereby producing an even thread of twice the fineness the
common method of roving will produce from the same raw materials. B, two
drawing rollers; D, two delivering rollers; E, two conducting rollers; M,
two pair of small iron rollers for regulating the sliver before it enters the
carded rollers; O, a conductor, regulated by two screws; K, heart motion;
L, spindle; H, H, H, three wheels of forty-eight teeth each; 1, 2, and 3,
pinions, the first twelve teeth, the second thirteen teeth, and the third fourteen
teeth; 4, a pinion of fourteen teeth; 5, a pinion of thirty-six teeth; N, the
sliver; F, a tin conductor; A and G, carrying rollers; I, a pulley for the
strap to turn the machine. The present mode of roving is performed by plain
or fluted rollers, which leave the sliver undivided, and roves them indiscri-
minately double, triple, or quadruple, as they pass from the combing or carding
machines; but our new machine entirely obviates these disadvantages, by
regulating, dividing, and laying straight all the fibres of the flax, tow, or wool,
as they pass through the roving machine, thereby adding in a very great
degree to the strength, evenness and fineness of thread made therefrom, and
produces a great saving in the consumption of the raw material; so much so,
that yarn made from common tow, which, by the present method of roving,
is made so uneven as to be only fit for common sacking, is, by this instrument
in roving, made to spin of an even thread, and so strong as to be capable of
wefting into sail cloth or into coarse linen cloth for sheeting, according to
the fineness of the thread, which also, through this improvement, may be spun
to any fineness, and a quantity of thread spun from common tow, roved by our
machine, may be wove into webs fit for sheeting, and, as the fibres of the tow
are allowed to be as strong as any other part of the flax, if they could be
layed straight and work'd even, which our machine will cause to be done,
and a great advantage will thereby arise to the sail cloth manufactories by
the use of an article hitherto look'd upon of little or no value, and which will
at a cheap rate add to the strength and durability of the sail cloth. The effect
and advantage of our roving machine is equal in every description and quality
of flax, tow, and wool, as a given quantity of raw material of equal quality
may be manufactured into double the length of thread, and much evener and
stronger by this machine than by the present method of roving. Another
very great advantage and saving of expence to be derived from this our

page_text: Invention is, that the same machinery that is used for spinning tow may also
be used for spinning short flax, for which two sets of spinning frames are now
required; and this our roving machine will prepare rovings for four times the
quantity of spindles that the roving machines now in use can do, theroby
saving much time, expence, and labour, at the same time producing a much
superior article.
In witness whereof, the said Mark Laybourn and Richard Milbourn,
have hereunto set their hands and seals, the Twenty-sixth day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seven.
MARK LAYBOURN. (L.s.) RICHARD MILBOURN. (L.s.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-sixth day of
December, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Mark Laybourne and
Richard Milbourn came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and
provided.
Inrolled the Ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand