IMPROVE- MENTS IN SPINNING
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Bradford, and James
Warburton, of Addingham, Spinners, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SPINNING."
Sealed the 25th November 1858, and dated the 26th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister
and James Warburton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th May 1858.
We, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Bradford, and JAMES WARBURTON, of
Addingham, Spinners, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention' for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SPINNING," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in first combing or hackling flax and similar fibre,
and then spinning, either wet or dry, such dressed fibre upon mules. Also in
spinning flax and similar fibre upon cotton machinery, especially mules, after
being reduced to a state of flax cotton, and then hackled or combed, or to a
short fibre, say, from 1 to 3 inches in length. We find metal rollers to
answer well for spinning wet or dry, especially galvanised iron, to be a great
improvement upon the rollers now in use.
Another improvement consists in spinning yarn soft, and then passing it
through size or water, or otherwise, and putting any further twist into it that

page_text: may be required. We prefer to spin the yaru soft upon mules, and then to
pass it through size or water in a throstle fraine and increase the twist. After
flax or similar fibre has been combed or hackled, and reduced to a short
Jonath we find it a creat improvement to spin it dry
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister and James Warburton, in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 26th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
Cunliffe Lister, of Bradford, and JAMES WARBURTON, of Addingham, Spinners,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Ierself, Iler heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Samuel Cunliffe Lister and James Warburton, Her special licence
that we, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister and James Warburton, our exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel
Cunliffe Lister and James Warburton, our 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 Kingdoin
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPINNING," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister and James Warburton, our execu-
tors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Samuel Cunliffe Lister, on behalf of
myself and the said James Warburton, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to bo
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say :-

page_text: Our Invention consists in first combing or hackling flax and similar fibre,.
and then spinning, either wet or dry, such dressed fibre upon mules. Also in
spinning flax and similar fibre upon cotton machinery, especially mules, after
being reduced to a state of flax cotton, and then hackled or combed, to a
short fibre, say, from 1 to 3 inches in length. We find metal rollers to
answer well for spinning wet or dry, especially galvanized iron, to be a great
improvement upon the rollers now in use.
Another improvement cousists in spinning yarn soft, and then passing it
through size or water, or otherwise, and putting any further twist into it that-
may be required. We prefer to spin the yarn soft upon mules, and then to
pass it through size or water in a throstle frame, and increase the twist. After
flax or similar fibre has been combed or hackled, and reduced to a short
length, we find it a great improvement to spin it dry.
Having described the nature of our Invention, we will now proceed to
describe the mode we adopt in carrying it out.
By numerous experiments we have discovered that flax and simclar fibre
can be spun upon the mule much better and cheaper than the throstle after
being hackled or combed. At the present time all hackled, combed, or
dressed flax is spun upon the throstle, and that is one reason why flax yarns
are so much dearer than cotton, especially in bigh numbers, to which class of
yarns our improved process is intended more particularly to apply.
In order to facilitate and cheapen the process of spinning upon cotton
machinery, we reduce the flax by mechanical or chemical means to a state of
flax cotton, as we can then work it upon cotton machinery very readily and at
little cost. We prefer to have the combed or dressed fibre sometimes a little
longer, say, about three inches in length; in that case we have the drawing
rollers so made that they can be set to suit any length, as is well understood.
It is not necessary that we should describe the process by which we reduce
the fibre to flax cotton, and then comb it, as Patents have already been taken
by Mr. Lister for such processes, and do not form any part of our Invention,
excepting so far as when combined with the spinning of such combed fibres
upon mules, so as to produce yarn spun to higher numbers and at less cost
than can now be done upon throstles.
Another improvement consists in spinning flax yarn soft, that is with little
twist, especially upon mules, we then take the yarn & put it upon another
frame, and pass it through size & water, or otherwise, and increase the twist
to any extent that may be required, as will be readily understood. No drawing
rollers are required when additional twist is given, but simply a pair of

page_text: delivery rollers. We are enabled by this process to spin the yarn dry to high
numbers upon mules, and then to give increased strength by passing it through
size and water, and giving it more twist. We may remark that this process
may be applied to other yarns besides flax.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred & fifty-eight.
Witness,
JAMES HAMILTON,
of Manningham.
S. C. LISTER. (L.S.)