CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SAME TO ROVING FRAMES, MULES, THROSTLES, ANY OTHER SPINNING OR DOUBLING MACHINERY
Year: 1836

page_text: AITKEN'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
AITKEN, of Edinfield, in the Parish of Bury, in the County of Lancaster,
Spinner and Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of April, in the sixth year of
His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Aitken, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Thomas Aitken, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Thomas Aitken, 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 Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,
AND IN THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SAME TO ROVING FRAMES, MULES, THROSTLES,
ANY OTHER SPINNING OR DOUBLING MACHINERY; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Thomas Aitken, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately 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: 1, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Thomas Aitken, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in the Drawings hereto annexed, and by the following explanation
thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists, in the first place, in coiling or placing slubbings or
rovings of cotton or other fibrous material (in that state which they are
brought from the ordinary slubbing frame after having passed through the
carding engine and drawing apparatus) into tin cans or other convenient
receptacles, in the place of winding them on to bobbins, as heretofore com-
monly practiced, and which cans, containing the preparation of cotton or other
fibrous material, I propose to substitute for and use in the place of the ordi-
nary creel and bobbins, from which roving frames have hitherto been fed or
supplied with slubbings of cotton or other fibrous material, in order to convert
them into rovings as now commonly used. But it will also be perceived that
my Invention extends to the packing of rovings into cans, or other such
receptacle, which are designed to supply mules, throstles, and other spinning
machines, which are now fed or supplied with rovings wound upon bobbins,
and thus superseding the use of creels and bobbins in those machines also.
For the more perfect illustration of this improvement to those who are not
fully conversant with the practice of cotton spinning, as now commonly per-
formed, it may be necessary to state that "slubbings" of cotton consist
of that first process of winding the cotton on to bobbins in strips or bands
immediately after it has undergone the process of carding and drawing, and
that "rovings" are composed of one, two, or more strips or bands of
slubbings in a doubling or twisting machine, commonly called the roving frame;
and, as before said, these roving frames and the subsequent spinning machinery
are fed or supplied from bobbins placed upon creels for that purpose.
present system of roving and spinning from slubbings and rovings wound
upon bobbins, and placed upon creels in the ordinary roving or spinning
machines, the roving or yaru is necessarily composed of only one, two, or
three slubbings or rovings, owing to the impracticability of feeding from more
than the same number of bobbins, as the necessary dimensions of the crecl
and bobbins will prevent any greater number of folds of slubbings or rovings;
but in my improved plan of feeding such machines, it will be evident that any
number of folds or strands of slubbings or rovings may be placed together in
one can, and set behind the roving or spinning frames, and consequently the
roving or yarn may be made of any required number of slubbings or rovings.
Now to shew the great saving of time and labour, which is commonly per-
In the

page_text: formed by children in attending the various frames or machines, to replace
those bobbins which have been exhausted of their material with full bobbins,
it is only necessary to state, by way of example, that to produce what is
termed a four hanks roving, the bobbins of ten inches long and five inches
diameter must be changed fourteen or fifteen times per week throughout the
whole machine; whereas the cans I propose to use, if properly packed, being
thirty-two inches high and five inches in diameter, will contain sufficient cotton
(that is eight pounds) to supply the said machines to produce the before-inen-
tioned rovings, and being sufficient for one week's stock, without requiring
any alteration or replacing of the cans, and at the same time the yarn pro-
duced is much superior, much less subject to "piecing" and making con-
siderably less waste, and being kept entirely free from dust and damp by being
packed in cans instead of wound upon bobbins, as heretofore, together with
great advantage of the non-obstruction of light, caused by the entire removal
of the whole height of the creels and bobbins now commonly in use.
The second feature of novelty which I claim as my Invention, is the
mode of packing and pressing the slubbings or rovings of cotton or other
material into the cans which have been prepared to receive them; and this
part of the improvement will be fully illustrated by reference to the accom-
panying Drawing, in which Figure 1 is an end view of the doubling machine
I
propose to use, to double the slubbings or rovings into the cans from the
bobbins, upon which they have been previously wound in the slubbing and
roving frame.
Figure 2 is a front elevation of the same, shewing three of the said machines
set side by side, as it is evident that these machines may be so arranged that
any required number may be so placed, and I prefer that they shall not be con-
nected; so that each machine shall be separate, and may be stopped, removed,
or added individually, without affecting the other machines; and Figure 3 is
a section taken through the middle of one of the said machines. The
upright standards or the side framings of the machine are shewn at a, a,
carrying the main or driving shaft b, b; extending through the whole set of the
machines from end to end, and carrying pullies c, c, c, from which a strap or
band d, d, passes to the driving shaft above, connected with the primary motivė
power; smaller pullies e, e, are also fixed upon the shaft b, b, carrying straps
ff, which drive the pullies 9, 9; on the end of the lower of the small pair of
doubling rollers h, h, on the other end of the shaft of which is a fly wheel i, i,
the slubbings of cotton are brought from the bobbins, which are placed abovo
at j, j, and passed through the trumpet or mouth-piece k, running through the
pair of rollers h, h; and, after being laid evenly together by them, the

page_text: slubbings proceed to the tin cans 7, 1, ready to be taken to the roving frames, in
which machines, after they have been again twisted and wound upon smaller
bobbins, they are called rovings, and these rovings may be again taken and passed
through my improved doubling machine, and packed into cans ready to supply the
mules and throstles to complete the operation of spinning. The tin cans 1, 1,
are placed upon dises or plates of metal or other material formed with a groove
cut in the peripheries for the purpose of being slowly turned round by a band
passed round them during the time they are being filled with slubbings, in
order that the slubbings may be laid evenly therein; and after the cans
have completed one revolution they are turned the reverse way, that no twist
may be put in unless required, then the cans may revolve one way and put in
a considerable number of turns. This revolution of the cans, which is very
slow, is effected by a worm upon the shaft b, b, taking into a wheel carried by
an upright shaft having a small pinion at its other extremity running in a
common mangle wheel driving the pullies upon which the tin cans are placed;
or it may be effected by any other convenient means. When the cans have
become apparently filled with slubbings or rovings of cotton, or other fibrous
material, the contents are to be pressed downwards by hand, or any small and
convenient contrivance for this purpose, which may either be worked by hand
or made self-acting by its connection with the doubling machine; and when the
cans have been filled as much as the ordinary pressure of the hand will allow,
two or more of them are to be submitted to the more powerful pressure of a
common rack, screw, lever, or any other press; when the cans having false
bottoms will allow the contents of two or three to be pressed into the under-
most one, which will be provided with a fast bottom, and then taken away to
supply the roving frames, or other spinning machinery as before said, and
from which it will be found that the slubbings or rovings will draw much
easier and better than from bobbins, as heretofore used.
It is evident that it will be perfectly unnecessary to recapitulate what has
been before said in order to constitute my claim to protection under the above
in part recited Letters Patent, but it may nevertheless be necessary to state
that I do not intend to confine myself to the precise mode or means of accom-
plishing or effecting the object which has been herein-before fully explained
and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Aitken, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
THOMAS (L.S.) AITKEN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of October, in the
seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said Thomas Aitken came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His lato Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of October, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-six.