Year: 1887

page_text: We GEORGE ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH of the firm of Ashworth Brothers
of the Moss Brook Works, Collyhurst, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the carding engines employed in the carding of textile
fibres and has for its object to improve the means whereby certain parts are covered
in or enclosed in order partly to prevent fly or fluff from escaping into the atmosphere
of the carding room or from mingling with the carded sliver. At the front of the
engine a space below the doffer has been enclosed to check the draft of air carried
inward by the doffer. During the working of the engine knots shell and fluff have
accumulated upon the enclosing appliance and on the falling down of the sliver from
any cause such accumulation has mingled with the sliver. To obviate this defect we
employ a travelling apron to effect the enclosure and we give a slow intermittent or
continuous motion to the said apron by means of gearing or of a ratchet wheel and
pawl lever or by suitable means. The fluff falling upon this apron is continually
discharged into a box or receptacle so that a large accumulation is prevented. The
returning part of the apron may be cleared by a doctor or fixed brush or by contact
with the edge of the fluff box. We have found that fluff accumulates upon the
flexible cover which we apply upon the backs of the travelling flats in accordance
with the specification of our Letters Patent number 3810 of the year 1886.
check this accumulation we form the said flexible cover as an endless apron and
arrange for it to travel so that the fluff can be removed from the cover by means
of a brush or clearer the cover being mounted upon suitably arranged rollers. To
guide the cover we may attach it to belts or bands which would enter grooves turned
in the carrying rollers. We make the part of the doffer cover which extends over
the comb in accordance with the specification of our Letters Patent No. 5857 of the
year 1884 of a curved form the curvature being similar to that of the back part
of the cover but reversed so that when the front hinged portion is turned back it
fits down upon the back portion and is thus well out of the way and occupies
little space.
Dated this 21st day of November 1887.
To
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Carding Engines.
We GEORGE ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH of the firm of Ashworth Brothers
of the Moss Brook Works, Collyhurst, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying drawings:
Our invention relates to the Carding Engines employed in the carding of textile
fibres and has for its object to improve the means whereby certain parts are covered
in or enclosed in order partly to prevent fly or fluff from escaping into the atmosphere
of the carding room or from mingling with the carded sliver. At the front of the
engine a space below the doffer has been enclosed to check the draft of air carried
inward by the doffer. During the working of the engine knots shell and fluff have
accumulated upon the enclosing appliance and on the falling down of the sliver from
any cause such accumulation has mingled with the sliver. To obviate this defect
we employ a travelling apron to effect the enclosure and we give a slow intermittent
or continuous motion to the said apron by means of gearing or of a ratchet wheel
and pawl lever or by suitable means. The fluff falling upon this apron is continually
discharged into a box or receptacle so that a large accumulation is prevented. We
have found that fluff accumulates upon the flexible cover which we apply upon the
backs of the travelling flats in accordance with the specification of our Letters Patent
number 3810 of the year 1886. To check this accumulation we form the said flexible
cover as an endless apron and arrange for it to travel so that the fluff can be
removed from the cover by means of a brush or clearer the cover being mounted
upon suitably arranged rollers. We make the part of the doffer cover which extends
over the comb in accordance with the specification of our Letters Patent No. 5857
of the year 1884 of a curved form the curvature being similar to that of the back
part of the cover but reversed so that when the front hinged portion is turned
back it fits down upon the back portion and is thus well out of the way and occupies
little space.
Our invention will be understood when described more fully with reference to
the accompanying drawings.
In the said drawings Fig. 1 represents a side elevation and Fig. 2 a plan of the
doffer end of a carding engine ordinary parts not necessary to the illustration of our
invention being omitted. In the said Figs. a is the travelling apron which we apply
in front of the engine as aforesaid the ordinary doffer being indicated by b in Fig. 1.
The said apron is carried by two rollers c c which are provided with gudgeons which
are mounted to revolve in bearings formed in brackets d d which we bolt to the
insides of the ordinary engine framing. The ends of these rollers are turned down
as indicated in Fig. 3 and upon these reduced ends we mount two endless leather
bands which are perforated to suit studs which are fixed in the roller ends or in
the ends only of the roller c. The apron is secured to the said bands. We have

page_text: adopted this construction in order to obtain a positive driving connection between the
front roller c and the apron. Upon one of the gudgeons of the roller c is fixed a
ratchet wheel e with which engages a pawl f which is mounted upon an excentric
which is upon the shaft g. At each revolution of the said excentric the pawl turns
the wheel e part of a revolution so that during the working of the engine the upper
surface of the apron travels in the indicated direction and delivers any fluff which
it receives into a receptacle h. The back edge of this receptacle or a plate h¹ secured
thereto acts as a scraper to remove adhering fluff from the apron as indicated in
Fig. 1. The apron may be arranged to travel in a reverse direction. Fig. 4
illustrates one of the methods whereby we may give motion to the flexible cover
which we apply upon the backs of the travelling flats as aforesaid. In this example i i
represent the ends of the flats in a portion of the endless chain j being a part of the
said cover.
The cover extends over the backs of all the flats in the chain so as to
form an endless apron and is secured at intervals to the chain of flats by means of
screws k. k or by suitable attachments. We may attach belts or bands to the cover to
strengthen the same. In the Fig. j represents such a band. These bands may be of
leather or other suitable material and be secured at or near the two edges of the
cover and if considered to be advisable at one or more points in the breadth of the
cover. Instead of the cover being secured to the flats it may be free in which case
we should mount it upon carrying rollers upon which it would be guided by the
bands . The formation of our improved doffer cover is illustrated by Fig. 5
wherein represents the doffer cover which is concentric with the doffer axis and the
comb cover.
The comb cover l¹ is made of the same curvature as the doffer cover / or
thereabouts and is hinged to the front edge of the said doffer cover.
It will be seen
that when the comb cover is turned back it will be close down upon the doffer cover
especially if the radius of the curve of the comb cover is made to be slightly longer
than the radius of the curve of the doffer cover.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is
(1) A travelling apron applied at the doffer end of a carding engine substantially
as and for the purpose set forth and indicated with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the
drawings.
(2) In a carding engine the travelling apron a mounted upon rollers c c¹ and
receiving motion through the ratchet wheel and pawl e f substantially as and for the
purpose set forth and indicated.
(3) The endless apron forming an enclosing cover for the flats of a carding engine
the part of such cover which rests upon the backs of the flats at work travelling with
such flats substantially as set forth.
(4) The formation of the comb cover hinged to the doffer cover of a carding engine
as set forth and indicated.
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.