IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO BE SPUN
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Whittaker, Spinner and Manufacturer, and
Jeremiah Clare, Carder, both of Hurst, in the County of Lancaster, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
PREPARING COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO BE SPUN."
Sealed the 7th November 1862, and dated the 14th May 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Whittaker and
Jeremiah Clare at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 14th May 1862.
We, EDWIN WHITTAKER, Spinner and Manufacturer, and JEREMIAH CLARE,
Carder, both of Hurst, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR PREPARING COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO BE SPUN," to be as
follows:-
In the machines commonly known as the opener or scutcher, or blower and
carding engine, used for opening and cleaning fibrous materials, instead of the
ordinary fixed grate bars or grid through which the dirt or refuse passes, we
use revolving rollers, which may be either grooved, fluted, or have a screw-
formed surface, or rollers of any suitable description, or if found desirable,
may be plain, and we place the said rollers either in a longitudinal, transverse,
or diagonal position.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Whittaker and Jeremiah Clare in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 14th November 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWIN
WHITTAKER, Spinner and Manufacturer, and JEREMIAH CLARE, Carder, both
of Hurst, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Edwin Whittaker and Jeremiah Clare, Her special licence that we, the
said Edwin Whittaker and Jeremiah Clare, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Edwin Whittaker and Jeremiah Clare,
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 OR
APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS TO BE SPUN,'
upon the condition (amongst others), that we, the said Edwin Whittaker and
Jeremiah Clare, our executors 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 Edwin Whittaker and Jeremiah Clare,
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):-
In the machines commonly known as the opener or scutcher and beater,
used for opening and cleaning cotton and other fibrous materials, we employ
revolving rollers instead of the ordinary fixed grate bars or grid through
which the dirt or refuse passes. The said rollers are plain, grooved, or
notched, or have a screw thread formed in them, and are placed either in a
longitudinal, transverse, or diagonal position, and have, when required, motion
given to them in any convenient manner, either by hand or power.
This Invention will be clearly understood by referring to the figures and

page_text: ;
letters on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a longi-
_tudinal section of a combined opener and blowing machine having several
arrangements of our improved rollers and modes of giving them motion
Figs. 2, 3, and 4, are plans of part of the same; Fig. 5, a longitudinal eleva-
tion; and Fig. 6, a transverse section of one of the grooved or fluted rollers;
Fig. 7, an end view of some of them combined; Fig. 8, a longitudinal eleva-
tion of one of the screwed rollers; and Fig. 9, an end view of some of the
same.
.
In Fig. 1, a represents the toothed drums of the opener; b, the beaters of
the blowing machine; and c, the cages. Under the drums a we place a series
of rollers d extending across the machine, as partly shewn in Fig. 2, instead of
the ordinary grids and sieves, and between the beaters 6 and cages c of the
blower we place rollers e, also extending across the machine, as partly shewn
in Figs. 3 and 4, and cause them to revolve at a slow speed. The rollers may
be plain, grooved, screwed, or notched, and cut in any desired manner, and
made to revolve in the same or different directions.
In one arrangement, when grooved rollers are used we place a screw f,
Figs. 1 and 2, across the machine and enter the threads of it into the grooves
of the rollers, so that when the screw is turned it gives motion to each roller
in one direction, in a similar manner to a worm and wheel. Or we fix a spur
wheel g, Figs. 1, 3, and 5, at one end of each roller aud gear the wheels into
each other; and to one or more of the rollers we fix a bevil wheel h gearing
into another bevil wheel i on the shaft k, which, when it is turned, causes the
rollers to turn in opposite directions. This arrangement of spur and bevil
gearing is applicable to all descriptions of rollers. If it be desired to turn
grooved rollers in different directions we place under them a shaft 1, Figs. 1
and 4, having upon it a worm m for each roller, the worms having right and
left handed threads, in order to turn the rollers in different directions.
Revolving motion may be given to the screw f and shafts 9 and 7 in any
convenient manner. In one arrangement we fix a ratchet wheel m' upon the
screw or shaft that has to be turned, and give motion to the ratchet wheel by
a catch or ratchet n at one end of the rod o, the other end of which is
formed as a ring and fitted to an eccentric p fixed to one of the shafts q
of the revolving cages, so that as each eccentric revolves a to-and-fro motion
will be given to the ratchet, which thereby turns the ratchet wheel and parts
communicating with it. We shew a ratchet wheel and eccentric for each
series of rollers, but it is evident that one eccentric may work a number of
ratchets and ratchet wheels.
In Fig. 1 we shew various modes of turning the rollers, one of which may

page_text: be chosen for all the series, as may be desired, or they may be turned by hand
instead of by the action of the machine.
Having now described the nature and particulars of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, we desire it to be understood
that we claim, in the opener or scutcher and beater or blower the employment
of rollers made to revolve, when required, either by hand or power, instead
of the fixed grids or grate bars through which the dirt or refuse passes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jeremiah Clare, for and on behalf of
myself and the said Edwin Whittaker, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Eleventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Jeremiah Clare in
the presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.
JEREMIAH CLARE. (L.s.)