CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING WOOL; AND IN PREPARING WOOL FOR COMBING AND CARDING
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
PERRY, of the Borough of Leicester, Wool Comb Manufacturer, and JAMES
NOBLE, of the Borough of Leicester, Wool Comber, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Perry and James Noble, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full. power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Perry and James Noble, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said John Perry and James Noble, our exors, adñors, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING WOOL; AND
IN PREPARING WOOL FOR COMBING AND CARDING;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that we, the said John Perry and James Noble, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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.

page_text: 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, we, the said
John Perry and James Noble, do hereby declare that the nature of our Inven
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists, first, of improvements in machinery for combing
wool; and, secondly, our Invention consists of improvements in machinery for
preparing wool for combing and carding. And in order that our Invention may
be most fully understood and readily carried into effect, we will proceed to
describe the Drawings hereunto annexed, in which Figure 1 shows a plan of
so much of a combing machine as will enable us to describe the first part
of our Invention; and Figure. 2 shows an elevation of the machine.
The peculiar character of this machine consists in the combination of a cir-
cular carrying comb a with a circular working comb b; the teeth of the circular
comb a are set or fixed on one side or surface of the circle, and produce a
cylindrical comb a; the teeth of the comb bare set in the periphery, and are
inclined to the circumference of the circle b, and I call this comb a porcupine
comb; and although we prefer the relative positions of these two combs to-be
as shewn in the Drawing, we do not coufine ourselves thereto. The carrying
comb a is similar to that which has before been used, and has a constant
rotatory motion given to it, and it receives wool by suitable lashing or feeding
apparatus; at one point of the circumference the wool is worked by the
working comb b, and the wool is drawn off at another point of the circumference,
and the "slippings" are removed at another point of the circumference, much
of which is similar to what is now in use, and is not of our Invention. The
circular comba has a circular toothed rack a', by which it receives motion
from the pinion a², which is on a shaft which receives motion in like manner
to what is now generally practised; the same will not therefore require to be
shewn or described by us. c is the main or driving shaft, which receives
motion from a steam engine or other power by a strap working on the fixed
pulley thereon; d is a cog wheel on the axis, which takes into and drives the
cog wheel e fixed on the axis f on which axis the cog wheel g is fixed, which
takes into and drives the cog wheel h, fixed on the axis of the porcupine
working comb b; and we would state that we prefer that this porcupine comb
should be hollow, and have steam or heated fluid admitted thereto by a pipe,
as is well understood in heating similar apparatus. It will be readily seen that

page_text: the teeth of the coinb b rise up through the wool in the teeth of the comb a,
and as the comb b moves faster than the conıb a, the wool will be combed out
or worked by the comb b against the teeth of the comb a, and as there will
thus be a tendency of the wool to rise in the teeth of the comb a, we apply the
fixed curved plate i within the upper parts of the teeth of the comb a, hence,
any wool rising up the teeth of the comb a will be prevented rising to the
points of those teeth; and this mode of applying a plate or stop i within
the teeth of a carrying comb, when combined with a working comb like b,
constitutes another of our improvements. It is not, however, new to employ.
such like instrunients to that shewn at i when using other constructions of
working combs. The working comb b will constantly, in the act of combing
the wool, take part of the wool into its own teeth, and in order to clear such a
comb and obtain a constant sliver of wool therefrom, we apply an apparatus j
within the teeth of this comb. The apparatus ; consists of a ring fixed to the
framing, which is so arranged as to prevent the wool when working with. the
comb a descending to the head, whilst at another point the ring is so placed
that it protrudes beyond the points of the teeth of the comb b; hence, as the
comb revolves it will comb out the wool, and, having done so, any wool which
it may have taken will be gradually pushed out towards the points by the
ring, till the wool is ultimately pushed off the points, and the sliver is
received by the rollers k, and then, as it does not form a good sliver, the sanie
is wound on to the endless band, which we prefer to be covered with card
teeth, and from which surface & the wool is from time to time removed and
re-combed. The surface k receives motion from the axis of one of the 'rollers:
k, so as to drive it in the proper direction to receive and wind up the wool.
delivered from the rollers k; the rollers k receive motion from the axis f by
the strap ³ acting on a drum or pulley fixed on the axis of one of the roller's k..
The sliver of wool from the comb it is to be drawn off in the usual manner by
drawing rollers 7, and the sliver removed 'to a can or otherwise by rollers l', as
is well understood, and need not be further described; the Drawings, however,.
show the position of such apparatus. The "slippings" are removed by means öf
a revolving brush m, which receives motion from the axis f by a screw thereon
taking into and driving the screw wheel m¹ fixed on the axis m², which by the
bevelled toothed wheel m³ gives motion to the axis net, on which is affixed the
toothed wheel m³, which drives the toothed wheel me on the axis of the brush.
and thus will the "slippings" be raised out of the comb a, and the slippings, in.
the character of a sliver, may then pass between the rollers », and be received
into a can and be fresh combed. The rollers n are to receive motion from the
axis in such manner as to take the wool from the brush at the speed it delivers

page_text: the wool. On the wheel e is fixed a crank pin o, to which the rod p is connected;
this rod p is also connected with the crank q, on the axis r of the feeding or
lashing apparatus. This apparatus is similar to that heretofore used for similar
purposes, but it has one peculiarity in its arrangement, which constitutes one
of our improvements, as hereafter explained. r,, are two arms, fixed on the
axis, which carry the feed rollers 8. The wool is brought to the machine
prepared for being combed, in the form of a sliver, in cans, and the same is
conducted from the cans over the axis r to the feed rollers s, and motion- is
communicated to the rollers s in the following manner :-On the axis is a
ratchet wheel t, which turns freely thereon, and fixed to it is a cog wheel t',
which takes into and drives the cog wheel u on the axis of one of the rollers s,
the axes of the two rollers s being geared together by suitable cog wheels, as
shown. is a driver, which on the ratchet teeth of the wheel t coming against
it, stops that wheel, and then by the further movement of the arms which carry
the rollers s, the wheel u will receive motion by working partly round the cog
wheel t', which is held stationary, and thus will the feed rollers s from time to
time move partly round, their rotation only taking place towards the end of
their downward motion; and the stop is kept from going into the ratchet t
during a part of the movement of the arms by means of the plate &, which is
fixed to the axis r by means of the screw ; but so soon as the arms with the
plate have moved so far as that the plate is out of the way of the stop v,
the stop passes into the ratchet t, and by stopping the farther rotation of the
wheel t¹ gives motion to the wheel u on the axis of one of the rollers 8, and
according to the distance which the roller has to rotate, and quantity to bo
given off each movement, so will be the position of the plate & with respect to
the axis r. On the axis rare two circular plates w, which are capable
of sliding nearer together, and are for the purpose of guiding the wool in its
passage over the axis 1. The feed rollers are not of the ordinary kind, but
consist of one roller with rows of teeth thereon; and the other roller consists of
deep vanes or projecting surfaces, which respectively come between the rows
of teeth in the other roller, and thus cause the wool to be pressed down into
and between the rows of teeth, by which the wool, in place of being nipped
between two feeding rollers of the ordinary construction, is held as if in a
comb, and the same will be lashed more advantageously into the carrying
comb; and this combination of two rollers of the description above described
applied to feeding apparatus in place of ordinary feed rollers, constitutes
another of our improvements, and the same may be applied to other arrange-
ments of apparatus to that shewn for feeding wool into combs in place of the
ordinary feed rollers now employed.
.

page_text: We will now describe the second part of our Invention, which consists of
applying similar apparatus for forcing wool into and between the rows of teeth
of preparing machinery to what we have above described when using rollers
to feed wool on to combs. Figure 3 shews a plan, Figure 4 a side view,
and Figure 5 a longitudinal section, of a machine for preparing wool for
combing or carding, having our improvements applied thereto; the arrange-
ment and parts of the machine are otherwise old. a is a pinion on the fixed
axis c; the pinion being fixed to the drum b, turns with it, and the drum b
receives motion from a steam engine or other power by a strap, as is well
understood; from this pinion a motion is communicated to the various parts of
the machine by the gearing, in the following manner:-The pinion a takes
into and drives the toothed wheel d on the axis d' of the porcupine cylinder d³,
and motion is communicated from the axis d¹ to the other rollers by means of
the pinion e on that axis taking into the intermediate wheel f, which drives.
the toothed wheel g on the axis of the roller E, on the other end of which is
affixed the pinion, which by means of the intermediate wheel i gives motion.
to the pinion j, fixed on the axis of one of the rollers c, and the pinion j gives
motion to the roller D and the lower of the rollers B by means of the
intermediate wheels and l, as shown; and the upper and the lower of the
series of rollers are geared together by toothed wheels, as is well understood;
the axis I is driven by means of the toothed wheel m affixed on the axis d',
taking into the toothed wheel n, the axis of which turns freely in the framing
of the machine, and has affixed upon it the toothed wheel n', which by means
of the intermediate wheel o drives the toothed wheel on the axis I. The wool
to be prepared is placed on to the feeding cloth A, and it passes between the
two grooved rollers B, B, and thence to the grooved rollers C, C, and thence to
the large porcupine cylinder, around which the wool is wound, and from which
the wool is from time to time broken, as is well understood in taking wool
from like surfaces, and is again to be subjected to the operation of the machine.
The wool in passing from the rollers B, B, to the rollers C, C, and also in
passing from the rollers C, C, to the porcupine roller, is acted on by means of
rollers D and E, each having teeth formed thereon, which penetrating the wool
cause it to be laid longitudinally: these parts, however, are not of our
Invention, but are similar to those which have long been known and used; this
part of our Invention consisting of the application of axes or rollers having
projections or vanes so arranged that the vancs or projections will come
between the rows of teeth set in the rollers D, E, and also between the teeth
of the porcupine cylinder, whereby the wool will be more effectually caused to
enter between the teeth, and the wool will be better held while being drawn

page_text: than heretofore has resulted from the means used. G, H, are the axes carrying
the vanes or projecting surfaces, which respectively work with the rollers D
and E; and the axes I with its projections works with the porcupine roller;
and cause the wool to be pressed down into and between the rows of teeth on
those cylinders; and it will be found that by using the apparatus G, H, and I,
the wool will be better prepared than heretofore.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, we would have it understood that we do.
not confine ourselves to the details shown and described so long as the
peculiar character of cither part of our Invention be retained; but what we
claim is,―
First, the combining a circular comb a with a circular comb b, such as is
herein described. We also claim the mode of retaining wool in revolving
combs a by a plate or stop i when being worked by combs b, such as herein
described. And we also claim the combination of rollers s, s, when they are
arranged as herein described, and applied to feeding wool into combs.
And, secondly, we claim the application of the apparatus G, H, I, to the
rollers used in preparing wool for combing and carding, as above described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Perry and James Noble, have
hereunto set their hands and seals, this Twenty-first day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.