CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR SPINNING
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
TRAVIS, of Shaw Mills, near Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton
Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of July, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edwin Travis, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Edwin Travis, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Edwin Travis, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no other, 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 Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR SPINNING;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Edwin
Travis, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately 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
Edwin Travis, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly de-
scribed and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the
following explanation thereof (that is to say) :-
My Improvements in Machinery or Apparatus for Preparing Cotton and other
Fibrous Materials for Spinning, consists in a novel construction and arrange-
ment of mechanism designed for the purpose of spreading or levelling the
cotton or other fibrous material more evenly in the preparation process than
has hitherto been accomplished, and thus enable the ordinary lapping
machines to produce laps or rolls of equal substance and thickness throughout,
and of course more fit for the subsequent processes of roving or spinning.
The ordinary process of feeding or supplying the cotton or other material to the
first lapping machine, as it comes from the willow scutcher or other opening
machinery, has hitherto been done by means of weighing out certain quantities
of the raw material, and spreading it by hand upon certain portions or
divisions of the endless lattice or feeding cloth of the lap machine, and thus
it has been allowed to pass unevenly through the lap machine and to form
laps or rolls of unequal thicknesses, besides requiring a careful hand to attend
the machine. Now, my improvements consist in placing in front of the lap
machine a certain arrangement of apparatus to be worked by power in
connection with the lap machine, and also either in connection with the willow
or other opening machinery, or independent of them, as thought niore desir-
able. But, in order that these improvements may be more perfectly explained,
I have attached to these Presents a Sheet of Drawings, representing my
improved spreading machine, drawn upon a scale of about an inch to the foot;
and, for the sake of illustration, I have represented it as attached to an ordinary
machine for lapping cotton, which apparatus is drawn in outline only.
Figure 1 is a plan or horizontal view of the machine as seen from above;
Figure 2, a side elevation; and Figure 3, a longitudinal section taken ver-
tically through the machine: the whole of which Figures have similar letters
of reference placed upon corresponding parts of the apparatus.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
An ordinary feeding table or endless lattice, a, a, is mounted upon rollers
b, b, b, and placed in the general framing c, c, c, of the apparatus. The
cotton or other fibrous material as it comes from the willow or other opening
machine is placed upon this lattice without being weighed.
An upper endless
lattice d, d, is provided for the purpose of forming a receiving box, for

page_text: measuring the utmost quantity that can be passed through the machine.
The cotton is drawn forwards by means of the lattices and passes through a
pair of plain regulating or adjusting rollers e, e, for the purpose of admitting
a greater or less quantity of cotton to the fluted feed rollers f. f. It must be
observed that these rollers e, e, should revolve considerably slower than the
lattices a and d, in order to resist the pressure or friction of the lattices,
in consequence of which the space betwixt the lattices is continually charged
with cotton backflooding to the entrance. g, g, is a cylinder of wood or other
material, the periphery of which is covered with pegs or blades; this roller
is for the purpose of breaking off the cotton from the feed roller f, f, and
again depositing it upon another endless travelling lattice h, h, where but one
certain quantity of cotton can be received, and as more than the required
quantity may be given in this position the surplus cotton is also carried over
by the toothed roller g, stripped off by the blade i, and passed forward under
the cage roller or perforated dust cylinder j, between which and the lattice
d, d, it is again discharged upon the first feeding lattice a, a. There is a
fluted roller, upon which the cotton is thrown and thereby preserved
uniformly light. 1, 1, 1, are three rollers with plain surfaces, which are
designed to act upon the surface of the cotton, in order to assist it forward;
the speed of these rollers must be gaining upon the speed of the travelling
under lattice h, h, upon which the cotton is now deposited, and regulated or
adjusted to a certain thickness by means of the sinooth board or plate n
extending the entire width of the machine and thus forming a box or chamber
for the passage of the cotton. The dimensions or space of this box or
passage may be fixed or adjusted according to the quantity of cotton to be
passed through. Now, as the upper side of the stratum of cotton is slightly
pressed by the rollers 1, 1, 1, and the under side by the lattice h, h, the two
delivering rollers o, o, are intended, by having a slower motion than the
rollers and lattice, to impede or retard the passage of the cotton, whereby
the box becomes charged to the mouth or receiving part; in consequence of
which, any more cotton coming forward than the slow speed of the rollers o, o,
will take away, is cast back by and over the cylinder g, g, as before described.
An intermediate roller may be placed at p for the purpose of preventing any
cotton being carried round the under side of the lattice. The cotton is now
taken as above described in a thin even sheet by the rollers o, o, and passed
forwards and formed into a lap or roll, by the ordinary lapping machine, as
shewn at A, B. I would here remark, that in order to insure a perfect
levelling or spreading of the cotton, I have shewn the spreading apparatus
both before and behind the toothed cylinder g, but it will be evident that

page_text: either arrangement, whether separate or combined, may be suitably employed
for this purpose. I would observe, in conclusion, that I have represented all
these various lattices, rollers, and other parts of the mechanism as suitably
geared and receiving rotary motion from the strap pulley p, but to which
precise arrangement or construction I don't intend to confine myself, as that
or any other slight modification of the apparatus might be readily varied with-
out interfering with the object of my improvements.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Travis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.