IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Taylor, of Oldham, in the County of
Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, and Samuel Buckley, of the same Place,
Millwright and Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
-Sealed the 11th March 1863, and dated the 4th October 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Taylor and
Samuel Buckley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 4th October 1862.
We, WILLIAM TAYLOR, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton
Spinner, and SAMUEL BUCKLEY, of the same Place, Millwright and Engineer;
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention is applicable, first, to openers, blowers, and other machines of
the like nature in which drums or beaters are employed to act upon the fibrous
materials. In performing our Invention we make use of a hollow drum or
cylinder provided with slots for toothed or plain blades of steel or other metal
to enter between. These blades are attached to bosses loose on a shaft, which
shaft is eccentric to and connected with the hollow drum or cylinder, so
that when rotary motion is communicated to the shaft the drum revolves
also on its own centre and the blades are caused to project beyond and enter

page_text: within the slots; by this arrangement the fibres presented by feeding rollers or
otherwise to the drum are acted upon by the toothed or other blades and
effectually opened and cleaned.
Secondly, a similar arrangement of parts is also applicable to carding
engines for stripping the fleece of fibres from the surface of the doffer.
Our Invention may be modified by fixing the toothed blades to a shaft and
in making the slots in which the blades enter in segmental pieces of metal or
other material, the ends of the segmental pieces are guided by brackets fixed to
the frame sides, and the segmental pieces are pressed outwards by springs.
When the apparatus is in operation the ends of the segments acting on
the fixed brackets cause the segments to approach the shaft, thereby exposing
the teeth of the blades sufficiently for stripping the fleece off the doffer.
Thirdly, in order to keep the apparatus clean, we apply a rotary clearer
or an endless band to the surface. The clearer is applicable to other apparatus
for stripping the doffer.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Taylor and Samuel Buckley in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 4th April 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
TAYLOR, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, and
SAMUEL BUCKLEY, of the same Place, Millwright and Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Taylor and Samuel Buckley, Her special license that we, the said
William Taylor and Samuel Buckley, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Taylor and Samuel Buckley, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the. Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRE-
PARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said William Taylor and Samuel Buckley, our executors

page_text: or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one
of our or 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 we, the said William Taylor and Samuel Buckley,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
Our Invention is applicable, first, to openers, blowers, and other machines
of the like nature, in which drums or beaters are employed to act upon the
fibrous materials. In performing our Invention we make use of a hollow
drum or cylinder provided with slots for toothed or plain blades of steel or
other metal to enter between. These blades are attached to bosses loose on a
shaft, which shaft is eccentric to and connected with the hollow drum or
cylinder, so that when rotary motion is communicated to the shaft the drum
revolves also, and the blades are caused to project beyond and enter within
the slots; by this arrangement the fibres presented by feeding rollers or
otherwise to the drum are acted upon by the toothed or other blade, and
effectually opened and cleaned.
Secondly, a similar arrangement of parts is also applicable to carding
engines for stripping the fleece of fibres from the surface of the doffer.
Thirdly, in order to keep the apparatus clean we apply a rotary clearer
or an endless band to the surface. The clearer is applicable to other apparatus
for stripping the doffer.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into operation we will proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet of Drawings,
reference being had to the figures and letters marked thereon.
Figure 1 is an elevation of part of a carding engine to which our improved
machinery for stripping the doffer is applied; Figure 2, is a plan of the
same; Figure 3 is a section of one end of the stripping apparatus; Figure 4
is a transverse section drawn full size; Figure 5 is a section of the hollow
drum constructed according to a modification of our Invention, and Figures 6,
7, and 8, are detached portions of the same.
b
In Figures 1 and 2, a is a portion of the framing of the carding engine,
and 6 part of the doffer, the other parts of the carding engine are made in the
usual manner; c, c, are brackets fixed to the framing a, and d, d, are bearings
fixed to the brackets c, and capable of adjustment by means of the set screws e;

page_text: these bearings are made as usual; f is the axle or shaft of our improved
machinery for stripping the fleece of fibres from the surface of the doffer,
this axle or shaft is supported in the bearings d, and it is made to revolve
by a wheel on the doffer shaft geering into the pinion fƒ³, see Figure 2, or by
a band and pulley on the main cylinder or in any other convenient manner.
The bearings d have bosses on them, see Fig. 3, which are eccentric to the
shaft f; on these bosses fit the two end pieces g, supporting the ends of the
lags or segments g¹, g', which are stayed at two or more parts by the blocks g,
see Figures 2, 5, and 6. The parts g, g¹, and g, form, when combined, a hollow
drum or cylinder which is turned round with the shaft f, by the peg f¹, see
Figure 3, the spaces between the lags or segments form slots for the toothed
or plain blades of steel or other metal h to enter between. These blades are
attached at two or more places to the bosses i, seen detached in Figures 7
and 8, which are loose on the shaft f, or the blades h may be hinged to bosses
fixed on the shaft f. The shaft and hollow drum are eccentric to each other,
and when rotary motion is communicated to the shaft, the hollow drum revolves
also on its own axis, the bevelled edges of the blades h are thus caused to
project beyond and enter within the slots, as shewn in Figure 4 consequently
when the drum revolves in the direction of the arrow in Figure 1 the fleece
of fibres on the doffer is stripped off it by the projecting blades and is
conveyed to the calender rollers, or drawing head in the usual manner.
When the blades h enter within the slots in the hollow drum they strip
themselves of any fibres adhering to them, which fibres remain on the
circumference of the hollow drum, until they are collected on the self-acting
clearer consisting of the endless band j passing around the rollers k, k, which
are supported in the swing frame 1, hinged to the bearings d, d. A rotary
clearer may be used instead of the endless band shewn, and we wish to observe
that the above described self-aoting clearers may be applied to other apparatus
for stripping the doffer. The clearer is turned round by the friction of the
hollow drum, and as the waste or fibres accumulate upon it the swing frame
allows the clearing roller to rise. Instead of making the lags gl of segments
of circles, as shewn in Figures 1 and 4, I prefer to make them either flat or
slightly grooved, as shewn in Figure 5, the object of this flat or recessed
surface is to prevent the adhesion of the fleece which is liable to take place
when the lags are perfect segments of a circle.
When our improvements are applied to openers, blowers, and other machines
of the like nature, the ordinary beaters or drums are replaced by hollow drums
or cylinders with slots for the toothed combs or blades as shewn in Fig. 4,
such combs or blades are projected beyond the hollow drum or cylinder to act

page_text: upon the fibrous materials presented by the feeding rollers or otherwise. It is
evident that the diameter of the hollow drum and the number of blades or
combs must be varied according to the machine to be altered and the result to
be obtained.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention and the manner of
performing the same we declare that we claim, the application of hollow
drums or cylinders with slots for toothed or plain blades, alternately projecting
beyond and entering within the same, to openers, blowers, and other similar
machines and to carding engines, as shewn and described.
We also claim the improved self-acting clearers shewn and described for
clearing the stripping rollers of carding engines.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Taylor and Samuel Buckley,
have hereto set our hands and seals, this First day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
throo
WILLIAM TAYLOR. (L.S.)
SAMUEL BUCKLEY. (L.B.)
WILLIAM TAYLOR. (L.S.)
SAMUEL BUCKLEY. (L.S.)