In- PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRAWING, ROVING, AND SPINNING FLAX, HEMP, SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1846

page_text: In the Matter of Letters Patent granted to Peter Fair-
bairn, of Leeds, in the County of York, Machine Maker,
and Peter Carmichael, Manager for Mess™ Baxter Brothers
and Co., Flax Spinners, Dundee, North Britain, for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRAWING, ROVING, AND SPINNING
FLAX, HEMP, SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," bearing
date at Westminster, the Second day of October, One thou-
sand eight hundred and forty-six.
10 DISCLAIMER entered by the said Peter Fairbairn with the Clerk of
the Patents of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the fifth
and sixth years of His late Majesty's reign, intituled "An Act to
"amend the Law touching Letters Patent for Inventions."
I, the said PETER FAIRBAIRN (co-patentee with the said PETER CAR-
15 MICHAEL, and now sole proprietor of the said Patent), do hereby declare
that since the enrolment of the Specification of our said Invention, I

page_text: "
have been led to doubt the novelty of the third part of the Invention,
(viz.) the adaptation of the tubes or sockets in which the spindles for
spinning various fibrous materials turn, and the mode of their insertion
into the planed parallel groove of the collar rail, by means of the
parallel flatted edges of their flanges, and I have therefore applied to
and obtained the permission of Her Majesty's Attorney General, to
enter a Disclaimer to such parts of our said Specification as refer to
the said third part of our Invention, and also to such Figures in the
DrawingsaccompanyingtheSpecification as are described in reference
to the third part of our Invention. And further, I, the said Peter
Fairbairn,do hereby declare that, agreeably to such permission of Her
Majesty's Attorney General, I hereby disclaim aud cancel in our said
Specification the following paragraph, and so much of the Drawing
accompanying the Specification as is herein referred to (viz.): "The
"third feature of our improvements is designed to effect a permanent
adjustment of the upright spindles of a spinning machine in their
"sockets or collars. This consists in the adaptation of peculiarly con-
"structed sockets or collars inserted in the collar rail, by means of
which, the collars being once adjusted to the spindles, the machine
may be taken to pieces and put together again, without requiring any
readjustment of the collars to render the rotary action of the spindles
perfectly true. Fig. 5, in the accompanying Drawing represents in
"elevation an ordinary spindle a, a, with its flyer and warve; b,is the
" step rail below, in the step of which the lower end of the spindle
"turns; c,is the socket rail or collar rail; and d,d,is a tube forming the
"collar or socket in which the spindle revolves. This tube or collar
" is inserted into the rail c, a horizontal representation of which rail is
"shewn at Fig. 6. In the upper surface of the rail a longitudinal
groove e,e, is cut, and the flange of the collar d, is flattened on each
side to fit accurately into this groove, for the purpose of preventing
"the tube turning round or altering its situation in the collar rail,and
"the point of a small screw passed through the rail is inserted into the
"side of the tube to prevent its rising. When these tubes or collars
"have been thus let into the rail, and properly adjusted to the spindles,
$6
"
66
66
"

page_text: "they are severally marked, and a corresponding mark made upon
"the rail, so that being at any time removed from the rail they may be
"*replaced according to their corresponding marks, and will be found to
"be accurately adjusted to the spindles as when the machinery was
originally perfected."
And furthermore I declare, that after the end of our second claim, I
do hereby disclaim and cancel the following words:-"And thirdly, the
"form and adaptation of the tubes orsockets in which the spindles for
"spinning various fibrous materials turn, and the mode of their inser-
"tion into the planed parallel groove of the collar rail, by means of the
parallel flatted edges of their flanges, as described and shewn at
"Figures 5, and 6."
16
In-witness whereof, I, the said Peter Fairbairn, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
(L.B.) P. FAIRBAIRN.
To the Clerk of the Patents of England.
This is to certify that Peter Fairbairn, of Leeds, in the County of
York, Machine Maker, has applied to me for leave to enter with you
the above-written Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration to the
Specification, of a certain Invention, for which Letters Patent were
granted to the said Peter Fairbairn and Peter Carmichael, Manager
for Mess" Baxter Brothers and Company, Flax Spinners, Dundee,
North Britain, under the Great Seal, dated the 2nd day of October,
1846, and to which the Specification was duly enrolled: And on con-
sidering of the said application I directed him to advertise his said
Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alterations in the London Gazette,
and the Times, Morning Advertiser, and the Leeds Mercury news-
papers: And such advertisements having been duly made, and there
being no objection to the said application, I have accordingly granted
leave to the said Peter Fairbairn to file his said Disclaimer and Memo.
randum of Alterations, pursuant to the Statute passed in the 6th year

page_text: of the reign of His late Majesty, entitled "An Act to amend the Law
"touching Letters Patent for Inventions."
A. E. COOKADRN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of June,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Peter Fairbairn came
before our said Lady the Queen, in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Disclaimer aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Disclaimer aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Enrolled the Eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.

page_text: FAIRBAIRN AND CARMICHAEL'S SPECIFICATION.
11:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
PETER FAIRBAIRN, of Leeds; in the County of York, Machine Maker,
and PETER CARMICHAEL, Manager for Messieurs Baxter Brothers and
Company, Flax Spinners, Dundee, North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,
by Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of October, in the tenth
year of Her reign; did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us; the said Peter Fairbairn and Peter Carmichael, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege'and authority, that we, the
said Péter Fairbairn and Peter Carmichael, our executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, and 'such others'as we, the said Peter Fairbairn and
Peter Carmichael, four exécutors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years thörein-mentioned, shouldand lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and -vend; within England, Wales, the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
[Price 8d.]

page_text: DRAWING, ROVING, AND SPINNING FLAX, HEMP, SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
obliging us, the said Peter Fairbairne and Peter Carmichael, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Peter Fairbairn, on behalf of myself and of the said Peter Car-
michael, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say):
One of our improvements, which we shall first describe, applies to
machinery for drawing the fibres of flax and hemp, and consists in the
novel adaptation and arrangement of certain known and mechanical
agents for the purpose of aiding and improving the drawing of those
fibrous materials, previously to their being formed into rovings or spun
into yarn. The materials, flax, hemp, and tow, are frequently found in
the condition of long and short fibres intermixed after heckling, and
also entangled together when coming from a carding engine, which
fibres it is necessary to equallize and draw out straight before they can
be submitted to the operations of roving and spinning. In the usual
machinery employed for drawing out the fibres of the heckled and
combed material, and also of the carded sliver, a series of travelling
bars with heckle points have been introduced between the holding and
the drawing rollers, as in the screw gill machines, which heckle points,
being made to move onward with a slower speed than that of the
advancing sliver, caused the shorterfibres of the material to be retained
in the heckle points, and thereby enabled the drawing rollers to draw
out, straighten, and equalize the shorter with the longer fibres so as to

page_text: produce a sliver of uniform substance fit for the roving process. It has
however been found that on each of the descending heckle bars of the
screw gill machinery quitting the sliver a slight thickness or rib of
accumulated fibres was left in the sliver at those parts, which thick-
nesses in the after process of spinning produced an unevenness in the
yarn. This defect in the preparation of the sliver it is our object to
correct, and this is done by our improvements inand simplification of
the construction or arrangement of the operative mechanism whereby
the drawing and equalization of the sliver is effected, and by which the
work produced is of a superior quality, and performed with very con-
siderably greater expedition than in any of the gill machinery hereto-
fore employed. In the accompanying delineations, Figure1, represents
in vertical section an improved arrangement of the mechanism of a
drawing head,that is, the operative parts of adrawing or roving frame,
by which the fibres of flax, hemp, or two are opened, drawn out,
straightened, and equallized preparatory to beir gconvertedintorovings
or spun into yarns. The stand or frame of cast iron a, a, a, carries the
machinery, consisting of the retaining rollers which hold the sliver,the
drawing rollers which elongate the sliver, and a small cylindrical
heckle or roller with needle points for arresting the fibres of the sliver
in its progress through the drawing machinery. Two rollers b and c,
driven by toothed gear, conduct the sliver of fibrous materials d, d, d,
which is supplied from a carding engine, or from a can in the ordinary
way. A heavy back pressing roller e, bears upon or against the two
conducting rollers b, c, for the purpose of pinching and holding the
sliver that passes partially round them. This roller e, is unconnected
with any gearing, and is turned upon its axis merely by friction from
its contact with the rollers b, and c. The roller c, is called the retaining
roller, because at the pinch or point of contact between itand the heavy
back pressing roller e, the "reach" commences from whence the fibres
of the sliver are drawn. The drawing roller is shewn at ƒ, and upon
the periphery of this the front pressing roller g is made to bear heavily
by the force of a powerful spring or weighted lever acting upon itsaxle
as at h, h, which causes the sliver to be tightly pinched between them.
A small cylindrical gill 1, or roller with needle points, is placed as near

page_text: as possible to the bite between the drawing rollers f, g, for the purpose
of insinuating its point between the fibres as thesliver passes through
the drawing process. These several rollers are driven much in the
ordinary way of actuating drawing machinery; but for the better
illustration of our improved arrangement or construction of drawing
and roving machinery, it may be desirable to say that we com-
municate the driving power from the first mover to the shaft of
the front drawing roller f, and from thence by toothed gear pro-
duce a diminished rotary motion of the retaining rollers c, and b;
the latter moving with a slightly inferior speed to c, for the pur-
pose of keeping the sliver d in tension; and the pressing rollers g,
and e, turning independently by the friction of their surfaces against
the rollers on which they bear. The gill roller i is also driven by
the connected gear with a rotary motion somewhat slower than the
progressive movement of the sliver,and in the same direction, by means
of which the fibres are retained until they are taken hold of and drawn
out of the gill points by the drawing rollers. We do not, however, in-
tended to confine our construction and arrangement of machinery pre-
cisely to that shewn in the Drawing, nor to any particular combination
of driving gear, as other dispositions of drawing rollers, and other modes
of driving them, may equally well answer the purpose. And as it may
be desirable in some cases to conduct the sliver of material over the
upper surface of the gill roller i, and in other cases under the gill roller,
we in the former instance place the guide roller which leads the sliver
in the situation shewn at k, in Figure 1, the sliver passing under it
and over the gill roller; or, in the other case, we place the guide
roller lower, as shewn by dots, the sliver of material then passing over
it and under the rotary gill; the gill roller, in the latter instance, having
its heckle points inclined in the reverse direction to that shewn in the
Drawing. We desire, therefore, that it may be understood that the
particular feature which constitutes the essential improvement in our
drawing and roving machinery is, the introduction of a small rotary
gill or roller, having heck le points in the immediate vicinity of and
behind the bite of the front drawing rollers, by which we are enabled
to hold the fibres of the sliver as near, if not nearer, to the bite of the

page_text: drawing rollers as in any of the best constructed screw gills, and by a
much more simple, economical, and expeditiously working machinery
than has heretofore been employed with the like effect for a similar
purpose. It may also be necessary to say, that, in the event of
operating upon materials which have fibres of considerable length,
it will be necessary to introduce one or more additional gill rollers,
as shewn in the auxiliary Figure 1 A.
The second feature of our Invention applies to the roving frame, and
in some instances to the spinning machine, and is designed for giving
regulating motions to the bobbins suited to the winding on or filling of
them with the rovings or yarns, in accordance with the delivery of the
drawing rollers and the increasing diameters of the filling bobbins. This
object has been heretofore effected by a driving band passed round a
conical pulley, connected with a rack and apparatus, well understood asa
part of the ordinary roving frame. Fig. 2, represents in elevation, and
partly in section, a portion of the back of a roving frame, showing our
novel constructions and arrangements adapted thereto. Figure 3, is a
transverse section of the same, taken vertically in the dotted line A, B,
of Figure 2, looking toward the right hand in that Figure, the similar
letters of reference pointing out the same parts of the machinery in
both. The standards and general framing are marked a, a, a, and
support the horizontal roller beam b, b. The driving shaft c, c, carries
the twist pinion d, as usual, from whence, by a train of intermediate
wheels, the drawing rollers are actuated in the ordinary way, and also
the back shaft e, that heretofore carried the sliding pulley by which
the ordinary differential cone was driven. Now in place of the ordi-
nary differential cone, its pulley and other appendages, we employ
an apparatus which is to be driven by the said back shaft e, through
the
agency of a mitre wheel f, fixed at the inner end of the back shaft,
which wheel f, takes into two corresponding mitre wheels g and h.
The mitre wheel g, is made fast upon an upright shaft i, to which shaft
there is affixed below a disc plate k; and to the socket of the other
mitre wheel h, there is affixed an upper similar disc plate l, which plate
with the wheel h, turns loosely upon the shaft i; hence by the rotation
of the mitre wheel fit will be perceived that the disc plates / and /, are

page_text: made to revolve horizontally in opposite directions. These two discs
having smooth internal surfaces, are designed as they revolve to give
rotary motion by means of friction to a vertical wheel or bowl m, the
periphery of which wheel or bowl at two points will be always in
contact with the inner faces of the discs k, and 7. This friction
bowl m, is fixed upon the end of a horizontal shaft n, which slides
longitudinally through the socket of a pinion o, this pinion being made
to revolve with the shaft n, by a rib or feather which locks them
together. The socket of the pinion o, turns in a plummer block fixed
to one of the standards, and is so situate that as it revolves the pinion
o, actuates the ordinary train of wheels j,j, which give motion to the
spur wheel in the differential box p, p, placed upon the driving shaft
for purposes well understood by spinners. The shaft n, n, carrying
the friction bowl m, is mounted, and turns between its shoulders or
collars in a plummer block q, fixed in the face of a sliding plate r, 1,
which sliding plate is moveable longitudinally in dovetailed grooves
(see Figure 3), in the horizontal frame s, s, affixed to the standards
(both of which are shewn partially broken away in Figure 2). To the
sliding plate 1, 1, a rack piece t is attached by bolts; and a pinion u,
fixed on a transverse axle v, mounted on the stationary frames, takes
into this-rack t, so that by the rotation of the pinion u, the rack t, and
sliding plater, r, are moved longitudinally, and with them the plummer
block 2, which slides the shaft n, along in the socket of the pinion o,
and thereby moves the friction bowl m, on to a smaller radius of the
friction discs k and 1, consequently the rotary speed of the shaft n
(driven merely by the friction) with its pinion o becomes reduced, and
the rotary motion of the differential box p,p, varied accordingly. It is
quite unnecessary to describe the construction and use of the differential
box p, p, as that is a well known mechanism commonly adapted to
roving and spinning machines; but it is necessary to explain more
particularly the way in which we have constructed and adapted an
escapement apparatus for controlling the rotary motion of the differen-
tial box. Upon the transverse shaft v, there is affixed a pulley w, from
which pulley is suspended by a chain a heavy weight; this weight
has a constant tendency to draw the pulley w, and shaft v, round in

page_text: that direction which would cause the pinion u, to drive the rack t,
with its sliding plate r, toward the right hand of Figure 2, and in
doing so to shift the situation of the bowl m from the larger to
the lesser radius of the friction discs and Z. In order therefore
to prevent this running down of the weight, an escapement apparatus
is mounted in the front part of the.machine, consisting of a ratchet
wheel y, with clicks taking into its teeth, which clicks are raised
occasionally for the purpose of letting off the escapement, one tooth at
a time. Figure 4, represents a portion of the front part of the machine,
in which the ratchet wheel y is more distinctly seen, with the clicks,
and the means employed for releasing them. The clicks 1, and 2,
hang upon studs set in a plate or bracket piece s, fixed to the under
part of the roller beam. The point of the upper click 1, falls by its own
gravity into the teeth of the ratchet wheely; the point of the lower
click 2, is held up in the teeth of the ratchet wheel by a weight 3, pen.
dant from the tail of the click. By these clicks holding the ratchet wheel,
the running down of the weight a, and the running in the rack t, and
bowl m, is prevented, as before said. A perpendicular rod 4, 4, 4, sliding
in sockets at top and bottom, has two slots cut through it to receive
each a pin set in the side of the clicks 1, and 2. The ends of these
slots acting against the pins in the studs will, on the rod 4 being raised;
cause the click 1 to be lifted out of the ratchet, and on the rod 4
descending, cause the click 2 to be drawn out of the ratchet, thus pro-
ducing the escapement. The sliding movements of the perpendicular
rod 4, are effected by the rotation of a pinion 5, fixed at the outer end
of the ordinary mangle wheel shaft 6. This pinion takes into a vertical
rack 7, bolted to a slider 8, which slider carries a bracket arm 9, and
moves up and down in a groove formed in an upright standard 10, on
the pinion 5. Upon the mangle wheel shaft raising the rack 7 and
slider 8, the bracket arm 9 will be brought against the under side of
the upper stop 11, fixed upon the perpendicular shaft 4, and the shaft
will by that means be lifted, and consequently the click 1 raised out of
the ratchet, allowing the escapement of one tooth; and on the rack 7,
with the slider 8, being brought down by the contrary rotation of the
pinion 5, on the mangle wheel shaft, the arm 9 will come in contact

page_text: with the lower stop 12, upon the shaft 4, and by depressing that shaft
draw the click 2 out of the ratchet, and allow the escapement of
another tooth of the ratchet wheel. Thus in connection and simul-
taneously with the ordinary traverse or copping movements of the
machine, the bowlm will be slidden from the larger to the lesser radius
of the friction discs k and l, as before described, and the speed of the
idfferential wheels p, p,will be varied in accordance with the increasing
diameter of the bobbins as they become filled with yarn.
The third feature of our improvements is designed to effect a perma-
nent adjustment of the upright spindles of a spinning machine in their
socketsorcollars. This consistsintheadaptationofpeculiarly constructed
sockets or collars inserted into the collar rail, by means of which, the
collars being once adjusted to the spindles, the machine may be taken to
pieces and put together again without requiring any readjustment of the
collars to render the rotary action of the spindles perfectly true. Figure
5, in the accompanying Drawing represents in elevation an ordinary
spindle a, a, with its flyer and warve; b, is the step rail below, in the step
of which the lower end of the spindle turns; c, is the socket rail or
collar rail; and d, d, is a tube forming the collaror socket in which the
spindle revolves. This tube or collar is inserted into the rail c, a
horizontal representation of which rail is shown at Figure 6. In the
upper surface of the raila longitudinal groove e, e, iscut, and the flange
of the collar d is flattened on each side to fit accurately into this groove,
for the purpose of preventing the tube turning round, or altering its
situation in the collar rail, and the point of a small screw passed through
the rail is inserted into the side of the tube to prevent its rising. When
these tubes or collars have been thus let into the rail and properly
adjusted to the spindles they are severally marked, anda corresponding
mark made upon the rail, so that being at any time removed from the
rail they may be replaced according to their corresponding marks, and
will be found to be accurately adjusted to the spindles as when the
machinery was originally perfected.
Having now described the several parts of our improvements in
connection with other well known mechanism, we desire it to be
understood that we claim the following features of novelty in the

page_text: construction of and in additions to the ordinary machinery for drawing,
roving, and spinning flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances (viz³) :-
Firstly, the introduction into drawing, roving, and sometimes spinning
machinery for flax, hemp, and tow, of one or more small rotary gills or
rollers having heckle points set in metal or other rigid substances, one
of which rotary gills or heckle rollers shall act in the immediate vicinity
of and behind the bite of the front drawing rollers, for the purpose of
partially holding the fibres of the sliver of flax, hemp, or other material
to be drawn therefrom. Secondly, the adaptation of a friction wheel
or bowl between two revolving friction dies or surfaces, for the purpose
of regulating the winding on of the rovings or yarns of various fibrous
materials upon bobbins through the intervention of the differential
apparatus, as described and shewn at Figures 2,3,and 4. And thirdly,
the form and adaptation of the tubes or sockets in which the spindles
for spinning various fibrous materials turn, and the mode of their
insertion into the planed parallel groove of the collar rail by means of
the parallel flatted edges of their flanges, as described and shewn at
Figures 5, and 6.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Fairbairn, have hereunto set
my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
PETER (L.s.) FAIRBAIRN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Nineteenth day of
March, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Peter Fairbairn
came before our Lady the Queen, in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and
provided.
Inrolled the First day of April, in the year above written.