IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY POR DRESSING OR HACKLING FLAX AND HEMP
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
MARSDEN, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, and
SOLOMON ROBINSON, of the same place, Flax Dresser, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of September, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Thomas Marsden and Solomon Robinson, Her especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Thomas Marsden and Solomon
Robinson, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Marsden and Solomon Robinson, our exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, 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, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY POR
DRESSING OR HACKLING FLAX AND HEMP;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that we, the said Thomas Marsden and Solomon Robin-
son, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said 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: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Thomas Marsden and Solomon Robinson, do hereby declare that the nature
of our Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
:-
Figure 1 represents a side view of a machine constructed according to our
Invention; Figure 2, an end view thereof; Figure 3, the arms on which the
heckles and heckle bars are placed without the eccentric ring; and Figure 4,
the manner in which the heckles and bars are moved on the arms. The
same letters represent on each Figure the same part. A is the driving shaft
receiving its motion by a strap from a steam engine or other power.
A' is
the shaft placed parallel to the shaft A, and is connected with it by means of
the cog wheels B. On each of these shafts are placed four arms marked C
and C', as shewn in Figures 1, 3, and 4. To these arms the heckles E and
the heckle bars a are attached. These arms are so placed on the shafts A
and A' that the heckles, heckle bars, and a part of the arms on one shaft
pass within the circle described by the heckles on the other shaft. Thus one
line of the heckles, heckle bars, and part of the arm on the shaft A, passes
within the circle described by the heckles on the shaft A', while immediately
following it a line of the heckles, heckle bars, and a part of the arm on the
shaft A', passes within the circle described by the heckles on the shaft A. By
this means an alternate stroke or cut is given to the flax or hemp, first on one
side, by the heckles attached to a line of bars, &c. on the shaft A, and then
on the other by a line of heckles attached to a line of bars, &c. on the shaft
A¹ The flax which is suspended vertically from the trough F (which
trough is placed over the centre of the horizontal line from the centre of the
two shafts A and A¹) is carried forward beyond its vertical position by every
alternate stroke it receives, by which means the pins penetrate it the better,
and consequently give it a more effectual cut. The distance between the
shafts A and A¹, the number of bars, arms, and heckles on each shaft, the
length of the arms, so as to cause the heckles to make a greater or less circle,
and the depth that the heckles on one shaft intersect the heckles, bars, and
arms on the other, may be varied according to the length and quality of the flax
or hemp that the machine may be required to dress. And we would remark,
that it is essential to our mode of dressing flax and hemp that there should
be only one line of heckles or pins passing through each side of the flax at
the same time, when a third penetrates the line, but one prior to it ought to
be about leaving the flax. As the heckles or pins should penetrate the flax

page_text: at right angles, or nearly so, with the vertical line of the flax, we fix the
heckle bars a to the upper part of the arm above the point b, as shewn in
Figures 3 and 4. Attached to the heckle bars a, are fixed plates c, on one
end of which are round studs d, which take into the eccentric ring G. One
of these rings is placed on each side of the machine, one at one side for the
studs attached to the heckle bars, fixed to the arms on the shaft A to revolve
round, and one ou the other for the studs attached to the heckle bars fixed to
the arms on the shaft A¹ to revolve round. The position which these eccentric
rings G hold, in reference to the shafts A and A', is shewn in Figure 4, where
the ring is fixed, and a section of one of the shafts shewn. It will be seen
that, by means of these excentric rings, the heckle bars and heckles are moved
on the joints b, according to the shape of the ring, thus receiving a motion
different to the circular motion that would be imparted to them if fixed firmly
to the shafts A and A¹. The heckles or pins may thus be placed in the angle
considered best for penetrating the flax, keep the same angle as they pass
through the body of the flax, and be thrown into the proper position for the
brush M to effectually clear the tow from them as they pass it. On the
shaft A is fixed the cog wheel H, which takes into and drives the cog wheel I,
which takes into and drives the cog wheel K, which takes into and drives the
cog wheel L, fixed on a shaft, on which the brush M is fixed. This brush
clears the pins or heckles from the two which they take from the flax in the
process of dressing. On the opposite end of the shaft A, from which the brush
is driven, is fixed a cog wheel N (shewn in dotted lines in Figure 1), which
takes into and drives the cog wheel O, attached to which, and working on the
same centre, is the pinion P, which takes into and works the cog wheel Q,
which is attached to the shaft on which the cylinder S is placed. This cylin-
der is set round with card teeth, with needle points having a considerable
inclination downwards. This cylinder takes the tow from the brush M. The
tow is stripped from this cylinder by means of the doffing plate D attached to
the shafte by means of the arms f. This shaft receives motion from an excen-
tric g fixed to the shaft of the brush M. Round this excentric is a clip
attached to the rod h, which rod h is attached to the swivel i, fixed on the
shaft 1. The arms, bars, and heckles on the shaft A¹ have a brush, tow cylin-
der, and doffing motion exactly similar to those above described for the arms,
bars, and heckles on the shaft A. The trough F, for fixing the holders k in,
for containing the flax or hemp are fixed to the two arms T, T, on the lower
part of which is a slide working into the fixed slides U, firmly fastened to the
framing of the machine, as shewn in Figure 1. A front view of the troughs,
arms, and fixed slides are shewn in Figure 1, and an end view in Figure 2.

page_text: The trough F is suspended by means of chains over the pulleys W and W',
which chains are attached over the pulley W to the weight l, and over the
pulley W¹ to the levers X. There is also a weight attached to the lever X.
These weights being together heavier than the trough, when the holders are
in it, and the arms to which the trough is attached, it follows that they lift the
trough as high as the cams Y will allow the lever X to fall. These cams are
fixed on the shaft Z, which shaft is driven from a cog wheel m, fixed on the
end of the doffing cylinder S (as shewn in Figure 1), which takes into and
drives the cog wheel n, which takes into and drives the cog wheel o, which
takes into and drives the cog wheel p, fixed on the shaft Z. As this shaft
revolves it carries round with it the cam Y. When the lever X rests on that
part of the cam nearest the centre of the shaft Z, the trough F has its greatest
elevation; but on the shaft revolving, the cam lifts up the lever X, together
with the weight attached to it. The trough F having then only the weights
to counterbalance, is heavier than the weight, and begins to fall as the pecu-
liar form of the cam Y allows it. The heckles commence cutting the flax
when the trough is at its greatest elevation, and keep cutting it higher as the
trough falls. When the friction pulley, attached to the lever X, has passed
the largest circumference of the cam, the levers are at liberty to fall down the
inclined plane on the canis, the weight P, together with the weight 7 prepon-
dering over the trough F, lift it up as quickly as the inclined plane on the
cam Y will allow. During the time the trough has been falling, a holder of
flax has been fixed in it at the end projecting past the framing of the machine,
as is shewn in Figure 2. On the trough rising, the person attending the
machine, by means of the handle q, which slides on the rod ?, moves this
holder into that part of the trough that is over the coarsest heckle (see
Figure 2). This operation (which may be done by the action of the machine
itself, if required), moves all the other holders in the trough, pushing the
farthest out at the other side of the machine, with one end of the flax finished,
and placing every other holder, with the flax or hemp in it, opposite finer
heckles. The flax is then changed from the holder, moved out by the means
well known, passed again through the machine, and the other end dressed and
finished.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not claim any
of the parts separately, nor do we confine ourselves to the precise details,
provided the peculiar character of our improvements be retained; and we
wish it to be understood, that what we claim as our Invention is the placing
the heckles and heckle bars on arms having a joint in each arm, these arms

page_text: to be attached to two separate shafts or axles, these shafts to be so placed
that the heckles, heckle bars, and part of the arms on one shaft shall pass
within the circle described by the heckles on the other shaft, and so alter-
nately, as before described, the flax being by this means carried beyond its
vertical position by every alternate stroke or cut it receives from the heckles
in connection with the intersecting motion so applied, as above described.
We also claim the fixing the heckles and heckle bars to these arms in such
a manner that each line of the heckles, heckle bars, and the arms above
the joint, has a motion given to it varying from the circular motion that
would have been imparted by the shafts on which the arms are placed; this
motion being so applied that the heckles shall penetrate the flax at about
right angles with the vertical line of the flax, and as the arms attached to
the shafts progress forward, shall gradually fall backwards, so as to keep at
nearly the same angle through the body of the flax.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Marsden and Solomon Robin-
son, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fourth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
forty-three.
THOMAS (L.S.) MARSDEN.
SOLOMON (L.S.) ROBINSON.