IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND PREPARING SILK, AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Briggs, of Castleton Mills, near Rochdale,
in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturer, and William Souter, of the
same place, Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
AND PREPARING SILK, AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH."
Sealed the 10th October 1854, and dated the 1st May 1854
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Briggs and
William Souter at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 1st May 1854.
We, EDWARD BRIGGS, of Castleton Mills, near Rochdale, in the County of
Lancaster, Manufacturer, and WILLIAM SOUTER, of the same place, Manager,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING AND PREPARING SILK, AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be
as follows:-
Our improvements consist, firstly, in subjecting silk in a raw or partially
manufactured state to a bath formed of a weak solution of sulphuric or other
suitable acid.
Secondly, in subjecting silk to the action of wire card teeth or gills fixed
to a revolving cylinder. The silk, after passing partly round the said
cylinder, is taken out of the card teeth or gills by doffing rollers, assisted by
a rod, the ends of which fit in circular grooves, which are excentric to the
cylinder at the point where the silk is doffed. The fleece or web of silk thus
prepared-is-passed through drawing rollers; and deposited in a can in the form
of a sliver

page_text: The third improvement consists in passing the slivers thus obtained through
a gill frame, or through a machine consisting of several pairs of rollers, which
elongate the slivers, and double them to the required extent for the next
operation. The slivers are then brought toa damping machine,consisting of a
pair of rollers for drawing the slivers out ofthe cans; these rollers deliver them
to the damping box, through which they are drawn by another pair of rollers,
and then deposited in other cans.
Another of our improvements consists in separating slivers into lengths of
about 6 to 10 inches long, or more or less, to prepare them for the subsequent
processes. The machinery for effecting this consists of an endless belt passing
over a table. The slivers are fed on to this belt by rollers, and they are drawn
off by other rollers, to which a quick intermittent motion is given; by this
means the web of slivers is broken off into the required lengths, and a knife
may be used for completely severing them. These lengths are deposited on
an endless creeper, or are otherwise disposed of, being theu in a fit state to be
placed in holders ready for any subsequent process.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Briggs and William Souter in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 31st October 1854..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
BRIGGS, of Castleton Mills, near Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster,
Manufacturer, and WILLIAM SOUTER, of the same place, Manager, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Edward Briggs and William Souter, Her special license that we, the said
Edward Briggs and William Souter, our executors, administrators, and
assigus, or such others as we, the said Edward Briggs and William Souter,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND
PREPARING SILKS, AND IN MACHINERY CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon the condition

page_text: (amongst others) that we, the said Edward Briggs and William Souter
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the han
and seal of either of us,should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Edward Briggs and William Souter,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, that is to say :--
The nature of our Invention of improvements in treating and preparing silk
consists in subjecting raw and partially manufactured silk to a bath, formed of a
weak solution of sulphuric or other suitable acid. Our improvements in
machinery for preparing silk consist in various adaptations and arrangements
of machinery and apparatus for preparing waste cocoons, "husks and knubs,"
and other silk waste, and rendering the same fit for subsequent operations.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into effect, we will proceed to describe the means pursued by us, reference
being had to the annexed Drawing, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a diagram representing the principal parts of a machine for
removing the silk from waste cocoons. a is a feeding apron, upon which the
waste cocoons are spread; this apron delivers them to the feeding rollers >>,
which present them to the action of the card teeth or gill combs, fixed on the
circumference of the drum c; the fibres of silk adhering to the waste cocoons
are stripped from the shells of the cocoous, and collected in the teeth or gills of
the drum c, which is made to revolve at a considerable velocity, so that the
fibres of silk may be drawn from the feed rollers and collected in a fleece. The
smaller portions of shell fall between the main drum c and the small drum d.
which is also covered with card teeth; but the larger portions of the cocoons
are caught between these two drums, and the fibres of the silk are cleaned off
them by the teeth of the drum c. As soon as a sufficient quantity of silk
has accumulated in the card teeth or gill combs on the circumference of the
drum c, the fleece thus formed is cut across and removed from the drum in the
same way as is now customary in preparing wool.
Figure 2 is a diagram representing the principal parts of a machine for
reducing the fleece made on the drum c of the machine, above described, to a

page_text: sliver. In this machine e is the feeding aprou; f, a pair of feeding rollers,
taking the fleece from the feeding apron and delivering it to the second pair of
feeding rollers g, which revolverather faster than those marked f; h is a drum,
covered with card teeth or gill combs, which draw the fleece from the feeding
rollers 9: and after elongating it convey it to the delivery rollers . In order
to facilitate the removal of the fibres of silk from the card teeth or combs of
the drum h, we place six or other convenient number of rods in grooves in
the drum h; the ends of these rods take into grooved plates (one of which is
shewn detached in Figures), fixed to the framing of the machine. Thesegrooved
plates are concentric to the drum, exceptat the part marked, which is placed
in a line with the space between the rollers; consequently, when the drum /
in revolving brings one of the rods h¹ near the delivering rollers i, the rod is
drawn out of the groove in the drum h, thereby lifting the fibres of silk out of
the teeth or gills, and presenting them to the action of the delivering rollers i;
from these rollers the silk passes between those marked and %, and thence to
the callender rollers 7, which deposit the silk in the form of a sliver into the
can m. The velocities of the circumferences of the rollers i, j, k, and 7, must
be progressively accelarating, so that the fleece taken out of the drum / may
be reduced to a sliver of the requisite thickness.
The machine above described in reference to Figure 2 may either be used
to perform the second operation in treating waste cocoons, or it may be used to
perform the first operation, in preparing and assorting the fibres of the silk
waste, known as "husks and knubs," or other silk waste; when used for the
latter purposes, the silk waste is spread on the feeding apron e, and carried
forward by the feeding rollers and g, as above described. The slivers thus
formed and collected in the cans m are then deposited on the feeding apron of
the machine shewn in Figure 4, which machine we call a spreading frame. It
may in some cases be preferable to dispense with the feeding apron markedn,
and place the caus m behind the spreading frame. The slivers from the
feeding apron or from the cans m are carried forward by the rollers o, the
circumferences of which we prefer to make fluted, then between the rollers p,
which revolve rather faster than those marked o, in order to elongate the
slivers and to keep them tight; the slivers are then acted upon by the gill
combs y, which are constructed in the same manner as the gill combs used in
the manufacture of flax and wool. These gills elongate the slivers, and lay the
fibres of silk parallel to each other; the rollers draw the silk from the gills,
and the sliver thus produced is carried forward through the spout 1 by the
rollerss and callender rollers t, which deposit into the can t¹. If it should
be found requisite to double the slivers formed on the spreading frame, two or

page_text: more of the cans t' are placed behind the machine represented in Figure 5;
this machine consists of four or other suitable number of pairs of drawing
rollers, marked u, u¹, u², and u³, the circumference of which revolveatgradually
increasing velocities, so as to elongate the slivers on their passage from the
cans f¹ to the can w. The rollers u and u² are mounted in adjustable bearings
to suit the length of staple of the silk.
The slivers in the cans ', or those in the cans marked t¹, if the doubling
process is dispensed with, are then damped, by passing through the machine
represented in Figure 6. The slivers are drawn out of the cans by which this
machine is fed by the rollers e, and they are drawn through the steam chest''
by the rollers, which deliver them to the callender rollers ³, placed above the
can v, into which they are collected. The steam is admitted into the chest v¹
by the perforated pipe, shewn in dotted lines, or by any other suitable
arrangement; when the slivers have been thus operated upon they are in a
fit state for undergoing the operation of breaking or dividing into lengths of
nine inches, or more or less, which is performed by the machine represented in
Figure 7. The cams containing the dampslivers are placed behind the breaks
ing engine. The slivers are drawn from the cans by the rollers w; these roller-
deposit them on the table, from whence they are carried forward by the
rollers, which revolve rather faster than those marked w. is an endless
belt, passing over the rollersy' and table y, and under the rollery"; this end-
less belt moves at about the same speed as the circumference of the rollers w¹,
which deposit the slivers upon it. is a roller supported by levers placed
above the belt y; this roller is occasionally brought down to bear on the slivers
on the belty, as will be explained hereafter. we are a pair of rollers, to which
an intermittent motion is given by the star wheel, shewn by dotted lines; when
these rollers are put in motion they draw the slivers off the endless belty, and
as the roller y is brought down on to the endless belt at the same time that
the rollers w commence moving, it is evident that the fleece of slivers is
broken, and a portion of the slivers equal in length to the distance between the
nip of the rollers w² and the roller y' is severed from the rest of the eccc;the
roller y' is then raised to its original position, and the portion of the slivers
that had been broken off is carried forward by the rollers wand w³, and
delivered by them to the projecting boards attached to the endless belt z; and
as soon as the roller y has been raised off the belt y, the fleece of slivers is
at liberty to be carried forward towards the rollers w², which are again put
in motion by the intermittent wheel as soon as the ends of the slivers arrive at
the nip of the said rollers. The portions of sliver deposited on the endless
belt are removed by an attendant, who collects them in an instrument called

page_text: a holder, in which they are conveyed to the dressing frame or other machine
to be further operated upon in the ordinary manner.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
forming the same, we declare that we claim,―
per-
First, treating or preparing silk, by subjecting it when in a raw or partially
manufactured state to the action of a weak solution of sulphuric or other
suitable acid.
Secondly, the application and arrangement of the machinery, herein before
described, for preparing waste cocoons and other silk waste, or any combination
of such machinery.
In witness whereof, we, thesaid Edward Briggs and William Souter, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirtieth day of October, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
EDW. BRIGGS. (L.S.)
WILLIAM SOUTER. (...)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named Edward Briggs and William Souter
in the presence of
H. B. BARLOW,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.