PREPARING AND DRESSING WASTE SILK
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister of Manningham in the County
of York Manufacturer for an Invention of " PREPARING AND DRESSING
WASTE SILK
"
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th August 1882.
SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER of Manningham in the County of York Manufacturer
PREPARING AND DRESSING WASTE SILK
72
This Invention has for its object the preparing and dressing of waste silk.
My attention has been directed for many years to the preparation of silk waste
before being dressed or combed-
1-as when well prepared the yield of dressed silk
is greatly increased, and the process of dressing or combing is much facilitated.
After many experiments I have discovered that the carding engine can be so
arranged as to answer the purpose of a silk waste preparer with great advantage.
The silk waste after being discharged from the gum or softened or otherwise
treated is fed into a carding engine and when properly carded and worked is
delivered out of the machine on to a doffer so as to produce a continuous sliver or
lap, similar to what is now done in wool or cotton. The chief point to be attended
to is, that the "licker-in" shall be clothed with cards much coarser than are now
generally used and the angle of the pins or teeth not so keen set as is now the
practice. But I much prefer not to use cards at all but to cover the "licker-in"
with pins set in brass say about 40 to the square inch and set at a very slight
angle so as to deal as gently as possible with the waste under process.

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
3rd February 1883.
"
Samuel Cunliffe Lister of Manningham in the County of York Manufacturer,
PREPARING AND DRESSING WASTE SILK
"
This invention has for its object the preparing and dressing of waste silk.
My attention has been directed for many years to the preparation of silk waste
before being dressed or combed-as when well prepared the yield of dressed silk
is greatly increased, and the process of dressing or combing is much facilitated-
after many experiments I have discovered that the carding engine can be so
arranged as to answer the purpose of a silk waste preparer with great advantage.
The silk waste after being discharged from the gum or softened, or otherwise
treated is fed into a carding engine and when properly carded and worked is
delivered out of the machine on to a doffer so as to produce a continuous sliver or
lap, similar to what is now done in wool or cotton. The chief point to be attended
to, is that the "licker-in" shall be clothed with cards much coarser than are now
generally used and the angle of the pins or teeth not so keen set as is now the
practice. But I much prefer not to use cards at all but to cover the "licker-in
with pins set in brass say about 40 to the square inch and set at a very slight
angle so as to deal as gently as possible with the waste under process.
"
"
At the present time the dressing machine most commonly used by the trade is
the old, original flat dressing frame which may be considered as almost altogether
a hand process, but there is also another known as the "circular machine
employed to some extent, when either of these machines are used the silk waste is
not usually prepared but simply fed up to the filling engine in the crude state,
indeed speaking generally it is not usual to prepare waste silk for the process of
dressing. But for the silk combing machine patented by me in the year 1859 and
for my new patent self acting dressing frame which has now superseded the comb
it is absolutely necessary that the waste silk should be first properly prepared,
consequently, it has obliged me to spend large sums and much time in endeavouring
to find out the best mode. When first beginning many years ago, to comb silk
waste, I tried to prepare it upon a carding engine but did not at that time
succeed, although some years before I had discovered that the carding engine was
admirably adapted for preparing fine wool before being combed, and it is now
universally used for that purpose. The better descriptions of waste I generally
prepare upon screw gills or drums covered with needle pointed pins, but for the
lower descriptions of silk waste I find the card to answer the best when made and
adapted as above described.
At Figure 1 of the Drawing hereunto annexed I have shewn a longitudinal
section of a carding engine constructed in the manner I prefer for carrying out my
Invention.
A is the feed apron and B. B. feed rollers.
covered with needle pointed pins set in brass
inch A cross section full size of one of the
carried is shewn full size at Figure 2.
The first cylinder C is the licker in
and having about forty to the square
brass lags by which the pins are
The distance apart at which the pins should be placed and also the angle at
which they should be set is clearly shewn in this Figure. D' is a working roller
which catches and divides the larger pieces of silk and is stripped by the roller or
cylinder E' which also strips the licker-in, the silk on this stripper as it rotates is
worked and divided by the working roller D² which is stripped by the cylinder

page_text: or roller E' which also strips E¹ and as it passes the worker D³, the silk waste
under process is again opened and divided into filaments-the cylinder E* as well
as the worker D³ are stripped and cleared by the main cylinder of the card, which
is covered with workers in the ordinary way. G is the doffer which delivers the
silk in a continuous sliver.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing
the same I would have it understood that I claim.
First. The preparation of silk waste upon a carding engine adapted for the
purpose substantially in the manner herein before described preparatory to its
being dressed or combed.
Second. The construction of carding engines for the preparation of silk waste
with the licker in clothed with pins or teeth set substantially as herein before
described.
In witness whereof I the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister have hereunto set my
hand and seal this thirtieth day of January in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty three.
CUNLIFFE LISTER (L.S.)
'S