IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES AND FILAMENTS, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Gibbs, of Abingdon Street, in the City of
Westminster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND
SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES AND FILAMENTS, AND IN
MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 10th November 1863, and dated the 16th May 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Gibbs at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
May 1863.
I, JOSEPH GIBBS, of Abingdon Street, in the City of Westminster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES AND FILAMENTS, AND IN MA-
CHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The first part of the Invention relates to the preparation of fibre intended
to be used in the operation of spinning.
The process for carrying out this part of the Invention commences imme-
diately after the fibrous plant is grown and has attained the necessary maturity
for spinning. I cause the fibrous material intended to be acted upon to be placed
in steep vats or proper receptacles, containing an adequate quantity of pure
distilled water, or water derived from con lensed vapour, and which I call steep.
I use the water in the steeping vats from 70 to 200 degrees of tempe-
rature, and in all cases when very soft water cannot be obtained, or when the
A

page_text: fibre is naturally fine and valuable, use distilled water. The fibre while in the
vats must at all times be completely immersed, so that the gummy matter
which unites the fibres together may be equally dissolved throughout, and the
material thereby softened; this will be effected by two or three days' steeping.
After it has undergone the preliminary maceration above described, the fibre
must be immersed in a solution composed of water and the nitric and sulphuric
acids of commerce, used separately or in combination; separate immersions
may be 10 to 20 hours' duration; but when repeated immersions are necessary
the proportion of acid is diminished; and when two or more acids are used, the
proportion of each is regulated as the difference of the nature of the fibrous
material requires. The actual time it may be necessary to steep any fibrous
material, and the strength of the acidulated steep water can only be decided
upon after a preliminary test has been made from a sample of the material;
500 parts of water to 1 part of acid may be considered a proper proportion under
ordinary circumstances. If great fineness of fibro is not required, the flax,
hemp, or other materials, after being treated as above described, may be
heckled or carded and spun in the ordinary manner. In order to render flax,
hemp, or other textile fibres finer by discharging the remainder of the gummy
material left after being macerated in the manner before described, or to still
further fine and separate the fibres of flax, hemp, and other materials after
they have been subjected to the processes of roving and bleaching, or
when flax, hemp, and other fibrous material in its ordinary merchantable state
requires further fining, and the fibres further separating, I use, either separately
or in combination, the machines and mechanical processes which I now proceed
to describe

page_text: rollers being constructed of a limited diameter, as has heretofore been the case,
the system of rollers I use are narrow on the face, say six inches, more or less,
and of a diameter of three feet and upwards, if the leaves, stalks, or stems of
the plants are thin and delicate, but if the stalks are large, the rollers are to be
increased in diameter to five or six feet, my object being to avoid injuring the
fibre contained in the leaves, stems, or stalks by flattening the plants subjected
to the action of the rollers within a space too near their point of contact.
In order to propel the rollers in an efficient manner, I place within their
outer rings, securely bolted to one side of each, a toothed bevel wheel, each bevel
wheel being driven at the same speed by separate pinions placed on a driving
shaft, by this means the force required to propel the rollers will act at the point
of pressure and contact. In some cases, especially fibre-bearing plants are
required to be converted into paper pulp, or where the gummy and ligneous
material can only be removed from the fibre with great force and difficulty, I
adopt a circular slowly revolving trough, No. 2, of great strength, mounted upon
an upright axis of adequate dimensions, in which trough stamping pestles, by
preference made of timber and of considerable weight, are brought to act upon
the fibrous plants, which are previously laid in an even manner in water on the
bottom of the trough; as the trough will necessarily move on its axis very
slowly, the material operated upon may be removed and a new charge
supplied without stopping the machine, as the stamps will only occupy about
one-sixth part of the circular area of the trough.
Many fibre-bearing plants, especially those which grow in or near the
tropics or in warm countries, have a large proportion of water combined with
their vegetable tissues, and the proportion of woody fibre is limited. When it
is desired to free such plants from their mucilaginous matter, I use a machine,
No. 3, which I call a revolving scraper, and which acts mechanically like the
hand scraper used in preparing the fibre of the Manilla hemp and other
analogous products; the machine has at each end two revolving fan shafts,
cach pair connected together by wheels keyed upon the two shafts, upon which
a series of arms is affixed, which carry the fan or scraping bars placed at
some distance apart in parallel lines with the fan shafts; the scrapers are so
adjusted that in revolving each pair, that is to say, the respective scrapers on
each shaft, will pass in the line of revolution nearly together, but without
touching. Between the two sets of revolving scrapers a feed bench is placed,
at the respective ends of which are mounted a pair of fluted feed rollers and
two endless feed cloths; the rollers and feed cloths are put in action or
stopped, or the movement of either is reversed, according to the requirements
of-the attendant placing fibrous material in the machine. The mode of working

page_text: this machine is as follows:-The material to be operated upon is spread on
the endless feed cloth, so as to form an even sheet of fibre between the feed
roliers, the feed cloth and one set of the rollers are then put in motion, and
the material then brought under the action of the revolving rollers and
scrapers until a little more than one-half of the length of fibre is so cleaned,
after which the motion of the feed cloths and rollers is reversed, and the other
end of the fibrous material is passed by the feed rollers through the opposite
revolving scrapers to a distance which will completely free all parts of the
fibre from the extraneons vegetable matter.
After rovings made from flax, hemp, and other fibrous material have been
macerated, bleached, and prepared as before described, I cause a number of
rovings to be wound upon a beam in the manner of a warp prepared for
weaving, the beam charged with rovings being placed in connection with the
machine No. 4, for further separating the fibre. The object is attained in the
following manner :-On a strong built frame are mounted, one over the other,
a pair of metal rollers properly fluted and connected together by the force of
springs; the lower roller is retained in its place by bearings fixed to the frame,
the upper roller is mounted on a pair of vibrating metal cheeks, whose centre
of movement is fixed upon and coincides with the centre of the lower roller,
about which the upper roller moves over a segment of a circle, which is
represented by the pitch line of the fluting in the lower roller; the fluting
forms the connection between the upper and lower roller; the lower roller
derives its slow forward motion from the action of a worm driving wheel
keyed upon the shank of the lower roller. Although the upper roller vibrates
and partly revolves backwards and forwards over a section of the lower roller,
yet the two rollers both carry forward the rovings and other materials upon
which they operate.
In some cases I prefer using a horizontal slowly traversing surface, No. 5, on
which the fibre is laid in a laminated manner, upon and across this traversing
surface is placed a properly weighted roller, which can rise and fall according
to the thickness of the fibrous sheet operated upon; the roller also traverses
quickly the slow traversing surface, by which means the bed or traversing
surface carries the fibre under the roller, which roller, by its quick backward
and forward motion passes over every part of the fibre many times before it
has passed through the machine. When it is desired to fine and otherwise
ward fibrous materials in either a wet or green state, I effect the object by the
mechanical means No. 6, for which purpose I construct a frame, on the upper
side of which a bed shorter than the frame is mounted, and by mechanical
means made to traverse backwards and forwards along the upper surface of the

page_text: a
frame. A strong shaft is placed across the lower part of the frame, and driven
at considerable speed, upon each end a crank or excentric of small throw is
placed, but capable of overcoming much resistance. Upon the shaft spoken of
there is placed a small fly wheel to equalize the movement of the shaft. From
each crank, set at the same angle, pair of rods are connected, the other ends
being jointed to a strong bar of hard timber, which crosses the frame, and has
connected to its under side a considerable thickness of india-rubber, which
being drawn down and rapidly lifted up by the cranks, causes a repetition of
pressures to fall upon the moving bed before alluded to, and the fibrous
material being spread upon it, and having communicated to it an alternate
traversing motion of the fibre, will be acted upon and the gummy material
separated from the fibre by repeated concussions. When succulent plants
containing fibre are operated upon, and in other cases when much gummy
material is separated, it will be found desirable to use a properly distributed
number of small jets of water, falling before and along the line of the com-
pressing bar, by which means the matter separated from the fibre will be
dispersed.
After flax, hemp, or other textile materials have been steeped or retted in
the ordinary manner, it may be found desirable to soften and separate the
fibre, so as to fit it for spinning with great facility into a finer thread. I
accomplish this object in this manner :-Rovings made thicker than usual for
the purpose are passed in a sheet from bobbins or rollers through machine
No. 7, which may be described as follows:-A frame of considerable strength
is constructed, across which two vertical metal plates are placed parallel and
at a little distance apart, in the space so left a movable plate is fitted, having
a vertical motion communicated to it by rods from two cranks or excentrics,
either of which is affixed on the same angle. At each end of a driving shaft a
series of holes, adequate to receive the rovings, and at a little distance from each
other, also in a horizontal line across the machine, are bored through the three
plates in such a manner that when the cranks are at half stroke the opposite
holes in the three plates will be concentric and in a perfect line; it is needful
to observe that every hole should be rounded slightly on the edge on both
sides of the three plates, so as to avoid cutting the rovings. Two pairs of fluted
rollers are used in this machine to feed the rovings to the rubbing plates, and
another pair to draw the rovings through and from the rubbing plates. The
centre plates are put in motion by the action of the cranks, by which means a
rubbing process is brought into operation, which dispels the gummy matter in
the form of dust, and consequently the fibres will be separated and brought
into a state of fineness; it must be observed that, where desirable, a side

page_text: motion can be applied to the centre moving plate, so as to produce a com-
pound rubbing action; and further, when several sets or one extra rubber is
required, a second set of rubbing plates may be applied in succession to the
same machine.
It is often desirable to render the fibres of flax, hemp, or other textile
materials of a like character sufficiently fine to be spun to high numbers, either
on throstles used for spinning cotton on the ordinary flax spinning machine, or
on a machine modified to spin short line fibres. In order to accomplish this
object I adopt the following process:--I cause the flax to be coarsely heckled
and afterwards roved and reeled into skeins, in which state it is bleached, the
open field system being preferred. After the rovings are bleached they must
be again wound on bobbins. The bobbins are then placed on spindles in
machine No. 8, the flyers aro caused to revolve in a contrary direction in
order to take out all or a considerable part of the twist imparted to the
rovings during their formation. The machine has two sets of fluted rollers,
held tightly together by levers or springs, the flutes being rounded to avoid
injuring the fibre; the set of rollers near the spindles, and which receives the
rovings from the bobbins, moves more slowly than the pair of drawing rollers,
and breaks the fibres which are longer than the space between the nips of the
two sets of rollers, by this means the fibre will be reduced in length to the
normal state of line fibre after the threads have been spun, woven, and
bleached. The distance between the two sets of rollers must be varied by
mechanical means according to the nature and desired length of fibre. In
many cases it will be found useful to submit the rovings to the action of the
machines Nos. 4 and 7; after they are bleached and before regulating the
length of fibre by the action of this machine, I use the machines Nos. 1, 2,
and 3, chiefly for the purpose of operating upon such fibrous plants as are
gathered in the green state, and whilst the sap is in its soluble condition, or
after the fibrous materials have been submitted to the process of steeping.
This observation applies particularly to New Zealand flax (formium tenax)
and tropical fibre-bearing plants generally, but as New Zealand flax requires
in several particulars a peculiarity of treatment I will therefore describe it in
detail. New Zealand flax should always be cut from the root stalks sometime
before the central flower stem is developed, the leaves intended for textile
purposes are then sorted according to quality and age; in some cases it will be
found advantageous to split the leaves up the middle in order to divide the fine
from the coarser fibre existing in the same leaf, the older leaves are sorted from
the more central and recent leaves grown. The outside leaves, which have lost
their succulency and deep green color and have ceased to grow, are rejected

page_text: for use;
but nevertheless, after steeping and being acted upon by either
of the machines Nos: 1, 2, & 3, may be found useful for paper fibre.
Immediately after New Zealand flax has been cut, sorted, and prepared in
the manner described, it is subjected to the machine roller No. 1, or the
stamping machine No. 2, which effectually extracts the sap and loosens the
fibre from the outer skin; the material so prepared is then steeped in either
very soft water or distilled water kept continually at a temperature of from 70
to 200 degrees, after which it may be dried and packed for exportation. The
processes now described do not complete all that is required for fitting the
New Zealand flax to be spun into threads. After it is imported into Europe
the operation of steeping in distilled water and soaking in acidulated solutions
must be again repeated.
The application of the mechanical means before described are required to a
great or less extent for bringing the flax into a perfect state for spinning.
The instructions given for preparing New Zealand flax are applicable to the
tropical plants which yield the textile fibres of commerce.
Having described the processes and mechanical means I use for preparing
non-capsular textile fibres, and improving their condition for spinning, I will
now indicate the means I employ to prepare fibres for spinning on cotton
machines. Textile fibres having been prepared by steeping and by roving,
that is to say, by being converted into long slightly twisted slivers, which are
afterwards bleached and rubbed, and worked by the machines Nos. 4, 5, and 7,
the rovings are then drawn through the feed rollers of a cutting machine,
which acts on the rovings and divides them into lengths only a little in excess
of long staple cotton. I then card the rovings through moderately coarse
cotton machines, and afterwards through fine carding machines, so that the
material is ultimately brought into regular fine rovings, which may be spun
on throstles used for making cotton threads.
My improvements for spinning combined with filaments of cotton, wool,
flax, or other textile fibres capable of being brought into a fine state of
division, relate chiefly to the arrangements of certain parts of the throstle
used for spinning cotton, and also to modifications of the flax spinning
machine.
In order to spin flax or other analogous fibres in the manner I have
described, I use a cotton spinning machine called a throstle, having new
modifications of some of the parts and arrangements respecting the disposition
of the rollers; but when the staple is longer than is convenient to be spun on
a throstle, I use a flax spinning machine having such modifications as the
nature of the diminished length of the fibre requires.

page_text: My improvements in spinning flax and other textile fibres rendered fine,
either by the processes described or by any other means, may be divided into
the following parts.
1st. Where flax and other textile materials have by bleaching and fining
become shorter than that which is now usually spun on the flax machine, I
arrange the back rollers of such machines by a method that permits the said
roller when needful to be moved to a greater distance or brought nearer to
the drawing or front roller, and for the convenience of spinning short staple
flax or other fine fibres, the front and back roller are placed horizontally on
the same line, or nearly so.
2nd. When flax or other fibre is made short and approaching the fineness of
cotton wool by bleaching, shortening, or by the combination of other processes,
I spin the same on cotton spinning machines called throstles. I dispense with
the usual centre rollers, and instead thereof I use one or several small inter-
mediate rollers placed between the front and back rollers, but higher than
they now are, and moveable to different heights, so as to increase by curvature
the distance between the front and back rollers, by which means the adjust-
ment of the distance between the rollers may be made according as the
increase or diminution of length of staple may render it necessary. It is
sometimes necessary to mix cotton and flax or other textile fibre to form
threads; I accomplish this by using separate rovings made from several
staples, but only of half the usual size; a roving from each material is drawn
together to form threads, but the distance of the back roller for bringing the
cotton rovings to the front roller is less than the back roller is which brings
forward the flax or other textile roving; this may be accomplished either by
adopting independent rollers for the flax rovings, or increasing the distance
between the rollers by using the moveable elevating rollers as before described;
sometimes I pass the rovings round a roller having a groove to receive it.
The delivery side or cheek of the said groove is nearly perpendicular, the other
side is steeper, and terminates in an ellipsis which joins a curved bottom. In
order to create a proper state of adhesion of the filaments of cotton and the
fibres of flax or other textile material, I damp the same by placing them for
an adequate period in closed chambers constructed in a proper manner, and
having a sufficient supply of low-pressure steam, or the air of the said room
kept moist by water evaporated in the room, or by any other means which
will damp the rovings without causing them to be wet. It may be proper to
observe that the cotton rovings require less moisture than the flax or other
fibrous rovings, or may be spun dry with the damp flax rovings.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Gibbs in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
GIBBS, of Abingdon Street, in the City of Westminster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Gibbs, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Gibbs,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Joseph Gibbs, my 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
PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES AND FILAMENTS, AND
IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Joseph Gibbs, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of 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 I, the said Joseph Gibbs, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:
The improvements relate principally to separating extraneous vegetable
matter, and preparing fibre obtained from endogenous plants, like phormium
tenax, or exogenous plants, as the hemp family (cannabis sativa) and the flax
family (linum usitatissimum), and all other plants yielding commercial textile
fibres. For accomplishing the objects above stated there are two methods of
proceeding. The first process to be adopted has reference to such endogenous
succulent plants as bear commercial fibre in laminated forms within the leaf,
as phormium tenax, or throughout the stem, as plantains (musa paradosica,)
or more distributed in the leaves, as aloe (agave Americana), the wild pine-

page_text: apple plant, bromelia pigna, or other plants of this category. The second
process to be adopted for extracting fibre has reference to endogenous plants
like the hemp, flax, and other fibre bearers which have tissues on the outsides
of the ligneous stem covered by the ultimate cuticle.
The first process relates to phormium tenax or other endogenous succulent
plants such as have been referred to. The leaves immediately after being cut
must be passed through a rolling mill of a peculiar construction, and which
will be described hereafter. When the sap has been separated from the leaves
by the action of compression, the fibre must then be placed in the steeping
cisterns, which will be described along with the other processes to which
further observations will be made.
The second process relates to the necessity of separating extraneous matter
and preparing the fibre derived from exogenous plants, as flax and hemp.
In this case the steeping processes must be first performed, because the fibre
goes round the woody stem, from which it cannot be well separated by
mechanical means alone. The mechanical and other means I have devised
will be now described.
Steeping cisterns.-The letters apply to all the Figures. A, A, A, Figure 1,
A, A, Figuro 2, A3, A3, A3, Figure 3, are the steep cisterns. B, Figure 1
and Figure 2, represents a sumfit or reservoir for receiving the steep water
which is raised by the pump and returned to and through the cisterns for
the purpose of keeping up a continual circulation amongst the fibres therein
contained.
Figure 1, C, C, C, is the main pipe for supplying the water to the three
feed pipes D, D, D, shewn in Figure 1; E, E, E, Figure 1, are passages
mounted with sluices placed in each cistern so as to keep a communication
between the first and second series; F, F, Figure 1, and F, Figure 2, are
valves to let the water pass out of the cisterns into the drain G, G, Figure 1,
G, Figure 2, and G, Figure 3, through which the water passes off to the
pumps H, Figure 1; H³ is the supply receiver, and I, Figure 2, is the reser-
voir, which must be alimented from an impounding reservoir for retaining rain
water, or from a soft water river having a higher level than the cisterns, in
which case a small aqueduct must be made. When all or some of the
cisterns are charged with fibre the water is circulated through them conti-
nuously by means of the valves placed in the supply pipes being opened and
the water lifted a few feet above the surface of the steep water, and let out by
the bottom valves F, F, F, Figures 1 and 2, through which the steep water
passes to the pumps, to be again circulated through the cisterns.
The process for circulating steep water goes on until it becomes discolored,

page_text: and in some degree foul, in which case it must be changed for clean water
obtained from the reservoir described or from other sources. The time of
steeping will occupy three or four days, or longer if the gummy matter agglu-
tinates with tenacity upon the fibres and to the cellular and cuticles of the
plant, and is not sufficiently softened to be removed from the steep, in which
case a longer time will be required; but it must be observed that when
extraneous matter does not readily leave the fibre, the cause will have arisen
from not selecting younger and more succulent leaves, and besides not
operating upon them before they became too dry. When it is found desirable
to use warm water, which I have found to be advantageous, a series of steam
pipes with branches are made to descend to the bottom of all the cisterns, by
which means the steam is distributed amongst the water, the temperature of
which may be raised from 100 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is not necessary to shew the steam pipes in the Drawings, as it is a
subject generally understood. When soft water cannot be obtained, or when.
the fibre is difficult to clean, I use distilled water, and circulate it by pumps
or other elevators through the cisterns in the same manner as before
described.
I have found that carbonic acid mixed with the steep water produces a
good effect in any way it can be obtained and absorbed by the water, freeing
the fibre from extraneous matter; and for accomplishing the object in a facile
way, I use prepared chalk washed fine so as to have a large portion of
soluble material, which will diffuse in the water and thereby liberate a
quantity of carbonic acid, which will again be absorbed by the steep water.
After using the steep water three or four days in continual circulation
amongst the fibre, I then allow the steep to remain quiet for one or two days
longer until bubbles commence rising, after which the water is discharged
through the pipes F, F, F, Figures 1 and 2.
It may at this point of the process (but not before) be desirable to use a
solution of some acid or alkaline salts; to this end I have used with success
in phormium tenax a solution of nitric acid, sometimes combined with vitriolic
acid in equal quantities, and in the proportion of one part by weight of each
acid of commercial density to 800 parts of water; but if only one acid is used,
then the proportion is one part by weight acid and 400 to 500 parts water.
I also use a solution of borax of commerce in about the same proportion, and
when the gummy matter upon the fibre operated upon is very difficult to
remove, I use a solution of potassa or ammonia, in the proportion by weight of
one part of the alkaline salts of commercial densities and 400 to 500 by
weight of pure soft or distilled water.

page_text: Rolling machine.-The letters apply to all the Figures. I will now describe
the rolling machine for separating the fibre from the mucilaginous sap, and
the mode of preparing the said fibre for steeping.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the rolling machines. A, A, A, B, B, B, are
great rollers, which are designed of so large a diameter that maximum pressure
may be obtained with a minimum injury to the fibre; the rollers are engaged in
equal speeds relative to each other by iron rims having cogs, and bolted to the side
of each roller; C, C, C, represent the pitch line of the connecting cog, Figure 2.
D, D, D, D, Figure 3, indicate sections of the cogs as rims of the connecting
wheels; E, E, E, Figure 1, E, E, E, E, Figure 2, E, E, E, E, Figure 3,
is the iron framing of the rolling machine standing in the timber sills F, F,
Figure 3; G, G, Figure 3, are the stay bolts for securely holding the sides of
the frame together at II, HI, H, Figure 2; it will be seen that the top rollers
are plain on the working surface and move between two ribs on the outer
surface of the bottom roller. This arrangement is made to prevent the fibrons
material from spreading and thinning at the sides of the feed. I, 1, Figures 1
and 2, are the platforms for supplying the material, and K, K, Figure 1, is the
discharging shoot, Figure M, is the outer disc weight, and N the inner
oblong weights, each series of which can be increased or diminished by adding
or removing them by means of the indentations N, Figure 1. The two inner
levers, which are jointed to the bending piece Pat Figure 2, press one of the four
rollers at R and R2, Figure 3, the other two levers being loaded act by pressure
on the great rollers, as that represented at R, R2, Figure 2. The rollers are
driven by the fast rigger S, and the mechanism is stopped by moving the belt
on to the loose rigger S. Movement is communicated to the rollers by the
pinion T, Figure 2, acting directly on the rollers through the media of the cog
rims, as herein-before described.
Traverse rolling machine.-The same letters apply to the Figures.) In
order to operate on phormium tenax, flax, hemp, or other fibrous materials,
rollers are used, either fluted or plain as it may be found necessary, and which
rollers alternate backward and forward on moving metal surfaces, on which
the flax or other material is evenly spread; these surfaces are also fluted to the
same pitch as the rollers; there should be about five flutes to the inch. The
top and bottom of the flutes must be rounded or the fibre would be chafed or
cut.
A, A, represents the frame of the machine; B, B, the rollers; C, C, the
connecting rods; D, D, the cranks; E, the crank shaft; F, the fly wheel;
G, G, the fast driving and loose pulleys; II, II, the travelling fluted surface.
The screw K gives motion to the travelling surface H, H; L, M, and N are

page_text: three mitre wheels for reversing the motion of the travelling surface H, H;
O are fast and loose pulleys for stopping and putting the screw and putting
the surface in motion as before stated. The receptacles P are loaded for
giving a greater or less weight to the fluted rollers B, B, according as the
fibre operated upon is either coarse or fine. The action of the machine is
thus-The fluted surface being covered with fibre is moved forward by the
screw and the mitre wheels, at the sanic time the rotation of the rollers and
the traversing of the table are continually going on until the requisite result
has been produced on the fibre. If the fibres are not sufficiently prepared
and made clean by their having been passed once under the pressing rollers,
the motion given to the bottom fluted surface may be reversed and the operation
may be repeated several times if needful.
Rubbing machine.-There are two fluted rollers with an extended arm on
the bottom roller for the screw wheel, as shewn in the Drawings, and two
cast-iron rollers support brackets fitted with brasses. The two rollers are
weighted by the two cross heads and four side rods, as represented full size
and half size in the Drawings with the dimensions marked. The driving
shaft A runs in two bearings at each end, and at that end where the mitre
wheels work the plummer block B, to receive the shaft, is made up with the
pattern of a small bracket C, which carries a gun metal swivel piece E, fitted
with a steel step for an intermediate shaft F to run on, the upper end of which
shaft is fitted with a worm or screw G gearing with a screw wheel H, keyed
fast on an arm of the bottom roller I, and thereby effecting the reduction
necessary to obtain a very slow speed for the feed rollers. The driving shaft
is also further fitted with three excentrics, two of which J, J, act directly on
the central working plate K, the third eccentric L being connected with a
bell crank M, thereby imparting a compound elliptical rubbing motion to the
central working plate K.
Scutching machine.-Letters refer to each Figure. A, A, Figure 1, A2, A²,
Figure 2, As, is the timber framing belonging to the scutching machine; B, B,
Figure 1, B2, B3, B2, B3, B³, Figure 3, is the iron framing screwed to A, the
wooden drum; C, C, Figure 1, C, C, Figure 3, are the scutching rollers
plated over the other on which the scraping plates and steel heckles set in
brass are alternately placed; the top and bottom rollers are connected together
by the spur wheels D3, D3, Figure 3; the teeth of the spur wheels on the
bottom roller are formed of hard, tough, and well wearing wood, like horn-
beam; the upper wheel is made of iron or brass, and both the wood and metal
teeth belonging to each wheel are cut by a dividing engine; G, Figure 2, is a
small driving shaft having a mitre wheel fitted upon the same, and gearing

page_text: with two other mitre wheels H, 11, Figure 2, which are both loose. On the
cross shaft G, Figure 3, is a clutch I, which projects at each end, and engages
alternately in the right or left recesses of the two mitre wheels H, H, Figure 2,
the double dowell-ended clutch moving on a comb or a steel sliding piece
formerly let in and screwed to the shaft G, by which the clutch is moved and
engages its prong either into the recesses of the one mitre wheel or the other,
by which means the rotation of the shaft J, J, Figures 1, 2, and 3, is reserved
when required, that is to say, the shaft J is turned either to the right or left
by the clutch I, which slides and engages one or other of the mitre wheels H,
II; the cross shaft G has on it a pair of fast and loose riggers, by which the
aforesaid shaft is at any time stopped or put in motion either in one direction
or the other without influencing the action of the vibrating rollers. On the
shaft J, Figures 1, 2, and 3, a pinion is firmly attached, its use is to move the
toothed wheel I, I, I, Figures 1, 2, and 3, and which is placed on the bottom
fluted feed roller, to which it gives motion; L, L, is the top fluted feed roller;
K, K, 1 and 2, is the feed cloth passing over L, L, Figures 1 and 2. The
aforesaid feed cloth rollers are actuated by a small strong toothed wheel fixed
on the end of the feed roller K, which engages in the teeth of a piniou driven
by the shaft J, as the annexed Drawing distinctly shews, and which draws
along the feed cloth. A full sized section of two cast-iron drums used in this
machine, having fourteen steel scrapers or short beckles, is shewn in Figure 4.
A, A, A, B, B, B, are the drums; C, C, are the heckles, which are rabetted
into the surface of the cylinder, and supported by a flange D, D, and E, F, are
the fluted feed rollers as shewn in the Figures before mentioned.
Squeezing machine.-The letters apply to all the Figures. Sometimes I
use a machine of the principle and constructing now described. Two eccentrics
are placed on a shaft across the frame of the machine. B, B, B, is the frame
supporting the eccentrics; C is one of the eccentric connecting rod, and C³,
is a portion of the other rod; D is the squeezer, composed of wrought iron,
wood, and sometimes having an india-rubber face. A travelling bed of wood
and iron with a plain surface is seen at 1, and is worked backward and forward
by a screw K. Mitre wheels and a separate pair of fast and loose riggers, as
before described in the traverse rolling machine, are employed for imparting
the necessary motions; the screw is connected at M with the movable bed,
on which the fibre is placed by the block containing the internal screw.
The mode of working the machine is as follows:-Suppose the travelling
bed is moved to one end of the frame by the screw 1, and is then spread all
over the surface with fibre, and the mitre wheels are in action, the squeezer,
by the continual revolution of the crank shaft, will draw down the fibre with

page_text: considerable velocity and force, that is to say, the crank shaft will make, say,
one hundred to one hundred and fifty revolutions per minute, the force of the
downward motion stroke will squeeze out the sap and gum and separate the fibre.
The alternate working of the screw will cause the bed to travel backwards and
forwards the length of phormium tenax or other fibre or other fibrous materials.
The time which will be occupied by repeated movements of the material under
the squeezing operation will depend on the nature of the fibre. This machine
is designed chiefly for producing clean fibre when only a small quantity is
required; but if a large supply is demanded, then I prefer the large and
powerful rolling machine described. The machine is driven by a fast pulley,
and a loose pulley is also used when the machine stops between the two
eccentrics and bearings of the shaft; a fly wheel with counterbalance is placed
so as to equalize the velocity and descending weight of the squeezer and the
eccentrics and connecting rods; these parts of the machines only are described
because such works are so generally understood.
Pestles and other machinery for pounding and grinding phormium leaves
and other analogous vegetable productions adapted for yielding fibre and
pulp. The pestles are made of heavy hard timber, and moved by mechanical
power, as there is difficulty in causing the fibre leaves to travel regularly
under ordinary pestles. I have made the following mechanical arrangements,
the first of which is the use of ordinary pestles four or five in a row,
with guiding pieces above and below sufficiently separated to receive between
them a strong one-inch thick wrought-iron box with a bottom of wrought
iron at least from 1 to 13 inches thick, which is mechanically made to slide
backwards and forwards to a distance equal to the length of the vegetable leaves
or fibre to be operated upon, that is to say, four feet six inches. The boxes
are intended to move under the pestles upon iron plates bolted down to a solid
foundation of timber, each piece of the first layer being about eighteen inches
wide and one foot thick, strongly fastened down to a second layer of the same
dimensions, besides which the pieces of timber are secured with strong lateral
iron dowels; the timber thus combined is laid on hydraulic concrete foundations
at least three feet thick; two flat chains are applied to the two ends of each
trough, and are wound round two barrels situate on each side of the pestle
frames, one of which chains will draw the trough forward and the other will
draw it back. By this means of obtaining alternately an opposite action the
charges of fibre will be regularly pounded, whilst the troughs will be moved
.under the pestles in a correct manner. From considerations of the rapid con-
cussions which the pestles produce chains are preferred to screws or racks for
accomplishing the object, but a log of squared hard timber may be placed

page_text: between guides, and the squared timber may be supported on rollers placed
close together immediately under the stump, and further at a short distance
from the stump, immediately on the piece of timber, the cisterns are to be
fixed by screws, and the mechanical work for moving the trough backward
and forward may be a rack moved by a pinion.
A, A, A, A, Figure 1, are four of a series of pestles for pounding the flax or
fibre; B, B, and B, B, are two iron slabs, about one inch thick and twelve inches
broad; they are bolted together through the timber block pieces C, C, C, C,
which serve to keep the irou slabs parallel, and by that means form a set of
guides for the lower ends of the pestles; other timber guides of the same
dimensions are placed above the cams or pestle lifters, and have such interior
dimensions as will form the pestle guides. By these combinations every part
of the leaves of the flax fibre will be operated upon so as to extract the fibre
and other matter quietly and effectively.
Circular revolving troughs and pestles in four sets, three in one set.-In
some cases it is desirable to arrange the pestles in a convenient manner for
moving from place to place: I have devised the following means by which this
object can be obtained :-A circular trough is made of wrought iron at the sides
and bottom, with a space of about fourteen inches between the outer and inner
rim, and, of about the same depth; this trough has two strong iron rins on
the under side, which are fitted to a set of rollers placed in a circular frame,
which allows the cistern to revolve, like a railway turntable, on a strong
circular iron bed; but it is requisite to further unite the immovable iron bed
last described by bolts or screws to a timber foundation made in two thick-
nesses placed lengthwise and also crossing. The timber is then to be placed on a
bed of concrete three feet thick, a quadrangular frame with guides and supports
in a proper proportion will contain twelve pestles, three in close proximity
on four points of the moveable troughs; the pestles are actuated by four cam
shafts placed on the frame on four sides of the trough; the cam shafts are
made to co-operate in moving by a pair of mitre wheels, that is to say, two
mitre wheels will be placed on one shaft, and one will be put on the end of
each of the other two shafts; the first shaft has one mitre wheel, and will be
no longer than the extended part is required to carry the driving gear, which
gives motion to the four cam shafts and the pestles. Proper iron division
plates will separate the pestles, so that as little roon as possible will be lost
between them, it being a great object to command about four to five feet
between the pestles, so as to take all fibre and replace leaves with facility, and
without stopping the movements of the pestles. It is necessary to run water
through the troughs continually to take away extraneous sappy matter.

page_text: Under the trough there is a series of segments having teeth upon them, and
jointed together to form a wheel, into the cogs of which a strong pinion takes
and moves the trough constantly round, much in the same manner as railway
turntables are moved, but much stronger and continually revolving. It will
be seen that an adequate space between the pestles will be obtained for
changing or taking out the fibre whilst the mechanism is continually moving.
The diameter of the circular trough should be about fifteen or twenty feet,
measuring from the inner sides.
Pulping processes and crushing edge runner machines for making paper
stuff. When fibrous material is intended to be converted into paper stuff or
pulp I pursue the following method:--I first cut the leaves into short pieces of
about one to two inches with a large machine on the principle of a chaff cutter,
but much stronger and capable of turning out at least ten times the quantity
of cut material that is now produced by any machine in use. The pieces of
fibre leaves so cut are then placed in the pestle machine described, or in
circular iron troughs which are worked by a strong upright iron revolving
shaft, with three arins and three turned iron runners of great weight, having a
breadth in the face of fourteen inches, and the width across the rims inside of the
trough eighteen inches, and of sufficient power to crush out the mucilage and sap
from the fibre. I make a provision to enable the arms and edge runners to
rise when the charge is thick and sink when it is thin; this is accomplished
by making the shaft where the arms radiate form a boss, leaving a triangular
mortice, which slides up and down triangular enlargement, or swell covered
with brass slides for the arms to move up and down freely, by having three
rollers; they are in equilibrio and move smoothly. Water will be constantly let
in and out of the trough through a fine grating. When the process is accom-
plished then the fibre will be split and be fine and white, and in this state it
will go to the mill for making paper stuff, and ground into what is technically
termed half stuff, in this state it will be pressed by hydraulic power into
cakes twice as thick as those ordinarily made, and a number being put
together with boards across at top and bottom will be again pressed, and
then combined by iron hoops into convenient packages for exportation or
otherwise.
Fulling hammers. In minor cases, where small quantities of fibre are
required to be operated upon, especially where paper pulp is demanded, a strong
cistern is made with sides and bottom of iron, it is mounted on heavy iron
rollers; an iron truck is placed beneath the trough, the rollers have not a greater
distance between them than three feet, the foundation for supporting the rollers
B

page_text: is made of timber one foot deep and five feet wide, each piece of timber is
well dowelled to the next piece; another stratum of timber of the same thickness
extends lengthways of the machine, and both strata of the foundations and the
rollers extend at each end about five feet beyond the length of the stock heads
or hammers, which are designed to be worked in the trough, and will be drawn
backward and forward the length of an ordinary phormium leaf, say four feet
six inches; the leaves when worked should be placed in the troughs, the root
end one way and then the top end the same way, by which the change of
leaves will be even in thickness; this observation applies to the other larger
pestle machines before described. On the line of the trough hammers with
timber heads are placed in a row, with small spaces between them; they may
be worked with strong helves and tail pieces resting on gudgeons placed in the
middle and strongest part of the helve. A timber shaft is placed at the tail
of the hammer helves. The cam shaft has trip pieces by which the trimmers
are lifted in continuous succession, and are again let fall on the fibre; a run of
water passes through all the troughs for the purpose of carrying off the
mucilaginour matter with the waste water.
Washing machine.-It is often necessary to wash the fibre to free it from
soluble mucilage after the completion of the process described for steeping,
rolling, and scutching, especially in the case of long fibre designed for rope-
making purposes and for strong thread and cloth. For accomplishing this
object I use a large dash wheel of great diameter, say twenty feet, with a
large orifice in the centre through the dish nearest the friction wheels, through
which the fibre is made to pass for the purpose of obtaining the advantage of
the charge opening being in the centre instead of the lop side. An iron
cylinder about four feet long, and having a large flange, is strongly bolted to
one side of the wheel, and the other turns on a gudgeon in the ordinary way;
upon the iron cylinder before spoken of there is rivetted an iron ring about
three inches broad and two inches deop, and accurately turned and placed on
two strong friction wheels situated below and at an angle of forty-five degrees
from the centre of the ring; the wheels have spindles with a plummer block, and
are mounted on proper iron frames bolted to a good foundation of masonry,
with good timber sills for the wheel frames to rest upon; the circular opening
into the wheel may be about two feet six inches diameter; within the wheel
will be placed transversely pieces of board like the floats of an under shot
wheel, only upwards from the shrouding instead of outwards, the object of this
arrangement is designed for the purpose of carrying up the fibre nearly to the
top of the wheel. The fall and consequent concussion and a large volume of

page_text: water passed at the same time into the wheel will free the fibre from extraneous
matter. A wheel twenty feet diameter with about twenty floats fourteen inches
wide may be found a useful size.
Cutting leaves. To cut the phormium leaves in a proper manner it is
necessary to use a short keen bladed scythe of considerable strength and
rounded in the heel, that is to say, at the part where the blade joins the
shaft on which the handles are fixed; the handle is similar to the ordinary
scythe.
Drying the fibre after steeping or pulping. After the processes I have
described wherein water has been used, I employ for drying revolving machines,
such as have revolving receptacles for containing wet fibre, and are now
generally adopted, I employ hydro-extracting machines which have circular
revolving receptacles containing the fibre, and are well understood, and which
act by dissipating the water by centrifugal force, in addition dry warm air at
about one hundred degrees is projected through the material in the spaces
containing the fibre during the rotation.
General observations relative to New Zealand flax, and the rules to bo
observed in cutting and selecting it, and also a reference to the precautions
required to be made relative to the necessity of commencing the extrication of
the fibre from the article, the cellular tissues, and the sap immediately after the
leaves are cut. Unless New Zealand flax and other fibres be acted upon by
all or some of the processes and mechanical contrivances described it will be
found coarse in character, and some of the cuticle on the leaf will adhere to
the fibre and render it of less value than it would have otherwise possessed in
the consuming markets, for each fasiculas or bundle of fibres is composed of
many united, forming a very coarse fibre, but by the adoption of the large
roller machines first described for separating the gummy and suppy matter
from the plants of succulent and indogenous character, like the phormium tenax
or other fibre bearers, forty to fifty per cent. of sap and the debris of tissues
will be separated from the green leaves and stems of endogenous plants, but if
the steeping process and then the traversing machine be used after the great
rolling machine, and then the scutching machine described, the fibre will be
rendered fine and much separated; young green leaves of plants may be
operated upon in the place where they are grown after passing through the
great rolling machine described, which is worked with diminished weight and
pressure on the top roller, the operations will be conducted in a more rapid
manner and the steeping process may be performed in a short time. The
system to be adopted in cutting, selecting, and separating the fibre of New
Zealand flax plant is as follows:-The plant should be cut before the com-
DO

page_text: mencement of the growth of the centre spindle on which the flowers are pro-
duced, and even previous to the commencement of the centre leaves uniting
together to form the cylindrical flower stem, it will be found not too soon to
commence the leaf cutting.
The best materials for producing fine and valuable fibre with the
greatest facility are the shorter herbaceous leaves near the centre of the
fan, the most stubborn to work are those of leaves beginning to dry which
are losing their bright green color and are on the outside of the fan. But
in the younger leaves the fibre may much more easily be separated from the
cuticle and the cellular tissue and other matter combined with the sap.
If the leaves are still succulent they should be at once submitted without
drying to the action of rollers leaving a large diameter, or otherwise by pound-
ing by heavy pestles of wood working in moveable iron troughs such as have
been described.
It is of the greatest importance to remove the leaves immediately after
cutting to the large roller and then to the steep cisterns, otherwise the sap will
become agglutinated to all parts of the leaf. The fibre should be placed in the
steep cisterns, and be therein immersed either in ordinary or distilled water
or in the solution before referred to.
New Zealand flax grows in flabiliform or by a combination of leaves assuming
a fan shape spreading and radiating like an iris, it is a very beautiful plant,
evergreen, continually growing at the centre of the fan, and drying on the out-
side leaves thereof. Its ten to twelve leaves are always green, and fan after
fan is added to the group, and the growth is constantly promoted by under-
growth from routs of older plants. The extensive tracts of land covered with
this plant always have a bright green aspect, the leaves fall and grow so regularly
in summer and winter that the plant may be ranked as an annual, and con-
sequently never requires renewal by tillage.
If after the crop is cut annually the leaves will again spring up as vigorous
as before and produce a new crop within the year, the fans forin large groups
and grow originally from a common root although the plant yields seeds. The
leaves alternate on each side from the centre or last two produced leaves.
The foot of the leaves is split a short distance up at the edge next to
the centre leaf; each leaf by the split embraces the next leaf, and so on
each way to the outside; the dead leaves without separating from the root fall
on each side and are worthless, for when the leaves cease growing the sap
concentrates in a bard tough gum insoluble except by means too expensive
and often injurions to the fibre, which is firmly and inseparably agglutinated
to the cuticle. Five green leaves generally grow on each side of the centre,

page_text: the fibre of which is particularly fine, and as those leaves are of a different age
they possess varying qualities, and have more or less length of fibre, besides
which there is a facility for separating the fibre of those leaves, because
they are always green and full of sap, and in the usual growth of the leaves
they are about five feet high, gradually tapering upwards to a hard spiney
point, but when passing maturity the spine often drops off and a small portion
of the leaf splits at the top and exposes a short length of the fibre.
The extreme outer leaves on both the right and left sides of each fan
become more than ripe, the outer surface is hardened and changed from a
bright green to a citron color, and therefore is commercially useless.
I have made these observations respecting the phormium tenax or New
Zealand flax in order that if this valuable indigenous plant is ever reaped
for the fibre it yields, then in such case adequate attention should be directed
to the mode for separating and selecting the leaves so as to produce clean
fibre of various qualities and adapted to fit it for forming several textile fabrics
of great commercial value; but unless the essential observations before stated
are not strictly observed in regard to the state of the fibre, it will still be
confined with the cuticles and cellular tissues, by their being dried into
gum derived from the concentration of sap, and if such fibre be exported
in that state it will not in the European market obtain an adequate return.
Although varying in the fineness of fibre, about 11 leaves grow which
form a fan 5 leaves on each side and one centre upright, which is the
youngest. All the leaves should be cut about 2 inches above the surface
of the ground, the lower part of the other stalks is coarse in various degrees;
3 or 5 of the centre leaves may be cut and placed in separate parcels some
distance from other leaves; and further, two on each side and more coarse in
fibre may be cut and placed separate in the same manner; how far the other
outside leaves are fitted for use will be known by the change of color which
has been alluded to before. Some of the partially dried leaves may have
sap remaining and be useful for making paper pulp in large blocks called half
stuff. Cutting and gathering the leaves should be performed in the following
manner:-
1st, centre leaves to be placed alone produce very fine, short, strong, and
silky fibre.
2nd, 4 side leaves, 2 on each side, fit for sheeting, table linen, and household
clothes.
3rd, the rest of the older growing outer and longer leaves may be cut
and used as far as they are green and still possess fluid sap, and they may
then produce fibre for making twine, sail cloth, ropes, cordage, and strong cloth.

page_text: 4th, the natural dried leaves, although possessing good strong fibre, are useless,
and therefore may be left on the ground, because by drying the sap is concen-
trated into a tenacious and almost insoluble gum, which cements the cuticle
tissues and fibre into a dense substance like cane, the gum cannot be dissolved
again except at an expense which, if the fibre was separated from extraneous
matter, would not be compensated for by the sale of the fibre, but if the leaves
indicated at 1, 2, and 3 are operated upon in the manner I have stated,
several descriptions of fine and coarse fibre of superior qualities, and for strength
and general excellence for making various textile fabrics it cannot be
approached in quality either by hemp or flax.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gibbs, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three.