CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE MACHINERY USED IN THE PREPARATION FOR SPINNING OF WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WILSON, of Kelso, in the County of Roxburgh, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of June, in the fourth year of lis reigu,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Wilson, my exors, admiors, and assigns, His special licence, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Charles Wilson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as I, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE
MACHINERY USED IN THE PREPARATION FOR SPINNING OF WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Charles Wilson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
enrolled in His 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, I, the said
Charles Wilson, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in the arrangement and application of certain apparatus or machinery to the
carding engines and scribblers used in the preparation for spinning woollen or
other yarns, by which the wool or other material received from the doffer of
the finishing carding engine is reduced to a state of fineness fit to be spun
by the mule, throstle, or other spinning machine, without the necessity of
passing through the intermediate machine known by the name of the billy
or slubbing frame, and thereby dispensing altogether with the use of that
machine. And the manner in which the same is to be performed and carried
into effect will be seen by reference to the annexed Drawing, and the following
description thereof, in which certain letters and figures of reference are used,
the same letters and figures of reference indicating the same parts throughout
the whole of the Drawings.
In pursuing the process of scribbling or carding required for carrying my
Invention into effect, the wool, in the first place having been prepared in the
usual manner, is fel to the scribbling engine of the ordinary construction,
which machine is too well known to need any description. This first scribbling
engine is provided with two or more feeding cloths placed side by side on the
feeding table, and separated by a slight division, so that an exact and equal
weight of wool being spread on each cloth, it passes through the scribbling
engine in two or more separate portions side by side, and is taken from the
doffer cylinder by the action of the comb, and thence conducted through two or
more separate revolving tubes, by the twisting action of which the two or more
sheets of carded wool are slightly compressed into the form of two or more
separate slivers. In front of these revolving tubes is placed a similar revolving
tube of somewhat larger dimensions, through which the slivers produced from
the engine are conducted, and thence conveyed into a can through two
calendar rollers placed side by side, which, when the can has become full of
loose sliver, compresses or forces the sliver down into the can in a moro con-
pact or dense state as it accumulates, and thereby enables me to fill the cans
with a much greater amount of sliver than would be otherwise effected.
soon as a sufficient number of cans are filled by this process at the first scribbler
they are removed to the back or feeding part of the second scribbler, which, as
well as the finishing engine, is provided with a feeding apparatus of a peculiar
construction, which I shall now proceed to describe.
As
Figure 1 represents an elevation, and Figure 2 a plan of the finishing card,
to which a similar feeding apparatus to that used for feeding the second
scribbler is applied. In these Figures A represents the tin cans which contain

page_text: the slivers of wool or other fibrous substance, which cans are placed in succes-
sive rows immediately under a series of wooden rollers represented at a, a, a, a,
a, a, over which the slivers are conducted and carried forward in the direction
indicated by the arrow towards the grooved roller A', which delivers them to
the feeding rollers of the machine. For the better guiding of the slivers
in passing from the cans A to the guiding roller A', I cause each sliver to be
conducted through a guiding loop or ring of wire which is placed over each
can, and attached to a stretcher of wood fastened at each end to the framing
under the rollers a, a, a; the grooved roller A¹ receives a slow rotatory
motion from a worm wheel placed on the axis of one of the card cylinders, as
seen in Figures 1 and 2; and the remaining rollers a, a, a, a, a, a, are driven
from the grooved roller A', at a slight reduction of speed, by means of a band
carried in succession round the warve or groove cut in each roller. This
reduction of speed creates a slight drag on the slivers of wool in the process
of conducting them to the feeding rollers, and thus makes them enter better
into the grooves of the roller A'; at the same time the reduction of speed must
not be so great as to injure the sliver by ratching. From the second scribbler
the wool is taken from the doffer cylinder by the comb, as in the first, and
conducted again through revolving tubes similar to those used in the first
engine; but, instead of being again reunited and placed in one can, I receive
the slivers produced from each revolving tube into separate cans, which are
provided with calendar rollers for compressing the sliver, as in the first scrib-
bler. The importance of this peculiar arrangement for feeding the second
scribbler will be more apparent when I describe the subsequent process, in
which the quality of the work to be performed must in a great degree depend
on the regularity of the sliver produced the second scribbler, and it is clear
that the uniform regularity with which I am enabled to feed the second
scribbler by this arrangement must produce a level and uniform sliver at the
delivery from the revolving tube of the second scribbler. As soon as a suffi-
cient number of cans are filled with woolen sliver from the second scribbling
engine, they are removed to the finishing card and placed under the feeding
apparatus already described and represented at a, a, a, a, a, a, by which they
are carried into the feeding rollers of the engine in the manner already
described in feeding the second scribbler.
The construction of the finishing card, represented at Figures 1 and 2, does
not vary from an ordinary card of that description, with the exception of the
feeding apparatus already described, until the wool arrives at the point
at which it would, in ordinary finishing cards, be received into the doffer
cylinder. At this point a very essential part of my Invention commences.

page_text: B, B, represent two dofling cylinders, which are so adjusted by set screws or
otherwise as to take an equal amount of carded wool from the carding cylinder
to which they are applied. But these two dofling cylinders are not covered
with cards, as in ordinary engines, but provided with a succession of annular
belts or strips of card, which are placed at regular distances, as seen at
Figure 2, and so arranged that the annular belts of card which are placed
on the lower doffing cylinder B shall fall perpendicularly under the spaces
between the annular belts of card placed upon the upper dofling cylinder B,
by which arrangement the amount of wool which passes between the cards on
the upper dofling cylinder B is received and retained on the card of the lower
dofling cylinder B. and the carding cylinder free of the amount of carded
wool required to be removed from its surface. These strips or annular belts of
cards are also placed exactly opposite the grooves in the guiding roller A', so
that each sliver fed into the card may, after passing through the engine,
be taken off the main cylinder by its corresponding strip or annular belt of
card on the doffers B, B. I find that for the upper doffer annular belts about
seven eighths of an inch in breadth, and for the under doffer about one inch
and one eighth in breadth, are suitable for general sizes of yarn, those on the
upper dofler being narrower in order to prevent them taking more wool off
the main cylinder than those on the under doffer, which they would other-
wise do, in consequence of the main cylinder being full of wool when it
comes in contact with the upper doffer. These annular belts of card may be
encreased or diminished in breadth according to the particular fineness of the
yarn to be spun. From these two doffing cylinders the amount of wool received
into the separate annular belts of card placed on their surface is taken by
the action of the fluted rollers b, b, one of which is placed at a small
distance in front of each of the doffing cylinders B, B, and provided with
smooth top rollers c, c, c, c, c, c, which fall back and rest against the wire or
cards of the dofling cylinders, and receive motion by their surface contact with
the fluted rollers b, b, which are speeded to revolve a little faster than the
doffing cylinder to which they are applied, as will be seen by reference to the
Drawing and scale on which it is delineated. I would here remark that
the uniformity with which I am enabled to free the doffer of the sliver of wool
at the finishing card, by means of the arrangement of rollers in the place of
the ordinary doffer comb, completely obviates the irregularity caused in the
slivers (slivers) by the successive strokes of the comb when used for this
purpose, and this mode is of the utmost importance to the ultimate spinning of
the yarn at the mule or other spinning machine. It is also requisite to place
small projections or divisions, as seen at p and q, Figure 5. between each

page_text: sliver, those marked p being placed between the doffer cylinders B, B, and
the fluted rollers b, b, and those marked 7 being placed between the fluted
rollers b, b, and the second rollers E, E, for the purpose of securing a complete
separation of the slivers of the wool, which might otherwise run together and
spoil the work in the subsequent twisting operation. On the delivery of the
carded wool from the fluted-rollers b, b, it is conveyed forward in the direction
of the arrow shewn in the Drawing, and passed between the straps or
belts C, C, which are driven from pullies placed on the shaft 1), as best seen
in Figure 1. These straps or belts C, C, are endless belts, and are passed over
guide pullies in an horizontal direction, as seen in the Drawing, parallel to the
fluted roller b, b, the under or returning part of the belt being pressed up by
small springs provided with set screws; and that part of the belt which
is uppermost is prevented from rising too high by the small brass projections,
as seen in plan at Figure 2. These projections and springs are so placed that
the slivers pass through the intermediate space between them.
By this
arrangement of the belts C, C, the respective slivers which are passed through
them are necessarily twisted and compressed by the rubbing action of the two
inner surfaces, and are received in this compressed state by a second fluted
roller E, similar to the roller b, b, which is also provided with small top
rollers e, e, c, c, e, c. The last roller E, which receives the rotation from the
previous roller b, b, by means of the bevel geer, as seen in plan at Figure 2,
is sometimes speeded rather quicker than the roller b, b, so that there is a
constant tendency to elongate the various slivers in their transit from the
roller b, b, to the roller E, which levels and draws out the sliver in any
required degree. Although I find no disadvantage, in course wool, in thus
levelling or drawing out the sliver, still I find it advantageous, in the finer
descriptions of wool, to drive the second roller E at nearly the same speed as
the first roller b, and also to move the second roller E along with the belt C,
nearer to the stripping roller b. These changes and modifications I consider
of great importance for the proper working of this machine, which may
be varied in any required degree, according to the nature of the work
to be performed. From the last fluted roller E the slivers (or rovings, as
they may now be more properly called) are conducted forward through the
guides f, ff, f, to the long spool or bobbin F, where they are taken up or
wound on at a uniform surface speed imparted from the wooden cylinder G,
on which it is supported; and the same letters being used to similar parts, as
already stated, will enable the reader to trace the course of the slivers and the
action of the machine from the lower doffing cylinder B to the lower spool or

page_text: bobbin F, which receives the compressed sliver or roving in a similar manner
to that already described in reference to the upper dofter B in Figure 2.
The wooden cylinder G, which carries the spool or bobbin F in either of the
arrangements for the upper or under doffer, is placed on a small carriage
marked g, g, supported on friction pullies, which allow it to move free on the
straight edges h, h, h, h, as best seen in plan at Figure 2.
The necessary
traverse for distributing the rovings on the surfaces of the upper and under
bobbins F, F, is effected by means of the lever m, which vibrates on a stud at
its centre at n, and receives a reciprocating motion from the rod I, which is
connected to its lower extremity. This rod I is caused to reciprocate by
means of the well-known heart-wheel motion, the arrangement and action of
which is represented separate at Figures 3 and 4. The rotation of the heart
wheel i may be varied by changing the pinion o, which, together with the
cylinder G, is driven by bevel geering from the second fluted roller E, as seen in
the Drawing, the decrease of speed required in the heart-wheel motion being
effected by the worm, as there represented, and the lower cylinder G being
driven by the bevels marked k, k, the geering of which is represented in the
Drawings. By this arrangement of apparatus and. system of proceeding it
will be seen that the wool received from the finishing card into the spools or
bobbins marked F, F, is in a fit state to be removed to the mule or other
spinning machine without the intervention of the billy or slubbing frame, as
before described. And in practising this process of manufacture I have found
little or in difficulty to arise from winding so many rovings into the same
spool, which, when filled, is removed to the mule or other spinning machine.
In order to prevent the ratching of the rovings produced by this process in the
subsequent spinning at the mule or other spinning machine, it is requisito
to place a shaft the whole length of the drawing rollers in the position of the
ordinary creel. This shaft is provided with a series of wooden cylinders, on
which the bobbins F, F, are supported, similar to the cylinder marked Gat
the finishing card, so that motion being imparted to this shaft from the
drawing rollers of the mule, the bobbins will receive a surface motion, by
which the roving will be delivered to them without any tension or stretch, at
the same time that the motion which delivers the roving will cease with the
motion of the drawing rollers.
In the foregoing description, and in the Drawings, it will be remarked that
I have delineated and described parts of many well-known machines which I
have considered necessary to render the working and operation to be effected
by my Invention understood, none of which well-known machinery I in any