CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
SPARKES, of Wellington, in the County of Somerset, Foreman and Super-
intendent of a Woollen Manufactory, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of June, in the sixth year of Her reign, did for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Samuel
Sparkes, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Samuel Sparkes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others, as I, the said Samuel Sparkes, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR CARDING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Samuel Sparkes,
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 inrolled in Her 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
Samuel Sparkes, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon), that is to say:-'
My improvements in machinery for carding wool, cotton, and other fibrous
materials, consist in a peculiar adaptation of endless bands of wire cards to a
carding engine, by means of which I am enabled to take equal quantities of
the fibrous materials from the main drum or cylinder of the carding engine
in a great number of distinct bands or strands of continuous slubbings or
rovings.
In effecting this object, I propose no material alterations in the constructions
of the carding engines from those usually employed for carding fibrous ma-
terials, but only so far as regards the peculiar adaptation and arrangement of
endless card bands.
In order, therefore, to explain my improvements more clearly, I have in the
accompanying Drawing shewn, first, the new arrangement of the card bands
and their appendages, by partial representation of the doffing and delivering
end of the engine; and in further Drawings, a carding engine complete, with
the improvements appended thereto.
Fig: 1 represents a section of the doffing and delivering end of the engine,
taken longitudinally in a vertical direction, by which the arrangement of the
endless card bands will be seen, and the manner in which they take the fibres
of the material under operation from the main carding cylinder and deliver
them in continuous bands of slubbing or roving to lapping rollers, or bobbins,
or other winding-on apparatus.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal view of the same parts of the machine as it would be
seen when looking upon it from above. A, A, represents a portion of the.
main cylinder of the carding engine, covered with wire cards, as usual; B is
a plain cylinder or drum, in the place of the ordinary doffer cylinder, over
the periphery of which the series of endless card bands a, a, a, are passed.
These bands of wire cards I prefer to arrange in two series, and therefore
pass one half of them over the roller C and the other half of them over the
roller D; and in order to distend and conduct the two series of bands properly,
I employ the several tension rollers E, E, E, E. All the rollers C, D, and
E, E, E, E, have angular grooves formed round them, for the purpose of
receiving the bands severally, and thereby guiding them in their proper courses.
The card bands which I use are made fillets or strips of leather, or firm cloth,

page_text: or any other suitable materials, with the wires set in them in the usual way,
and they may be about an inch broad, consequently the several angular grooves
in the rollers which are made to receive the bands, should be very little more
than an inch in width.
'
The main carding cylinder A and the cylinder B are made to revolve in the
direction of the arrows, shewn in Fig. 1, by the ordinary means usually em-
ployed in driving carding engines, and all the other guide and delivering rollers
may be actuated at the required speeds by similar means, which may be varied
under circumstances at the will of the operator, the manner of effecting which
is well understood by carders. When the working parts of the carding engine
are thus put in rotary motion, the fibres, of the material under operation will
be taken off, doffed, or stripped from the main cylinder A, in an horizontal line
from end to end of the cylinder, by the several endless travelling card bands
a, a, a, all operating at the same time, these bands being made to travel in
their endless course by the friction of the contact of the backs of the bands
with the periphery of the revolving cylinder B; or the bands may be made to
travel by any other convenient means. When the fibres of the material
operated upon by the carding engine are brought by the several card bands
nearly opposite to the several pairs of drawing-off rollers F, F, the narrow
sliver from each band may be doffed by a doffer comb; but I prefer to conduct
the end of each sliver between travelling straps G, which pass laterally in
opposite directions by means well known, and thereby slightly twist the fibres
of the material into a thread, roving, or slubbing, giving it a degree of tenacity
which enables the slivers to be drawn off the bands without the use of a doffer
comb. The slubbings or rovings are then passed between the drawing rollers
F, and guided to the taking-up rollers or bobbins H, upon which they may be
wound; or, the roving or slubbings may be taken up from the bite of the
drawing rollers in any other mode that may be found convenient.
It will be observed that by my arrangement of the card bands they all doff
or strip the fibres of wool, cotton, or other material from the main carding
cylinder simultaneously, and in one horizontal line parallel to the axis of the
cylinder, by which means equal quantities of the carded material are taken off
by each of the several card bands, and thereby the slubbings or rovings are all
produced of equal thickness and uniform substance. It will be perceived that
I have divided the bands into two series, this, however, is not absolutely
necessary, but is so arranged in order that the whole of the carded material
taken by each individual band from the main cylinder may be carried onward
to form each distinct sliver without the risk of one band robbing another of its
material as it proceeds, which might be the case if they travelled side by side

page_text: in the same plane; it is also more convenient, by affording greater space for
the drawing rollers, and, if thought proper, trumpet tubes might be placed
beyond the drawing rollers to give a slight degree of twist to the slubbings or
rovings; this, however, is well known, and forms no part of my Invention.
The arrangement, therefore, of the series of card bands ought to be all coin-
cident, and the slivers be all made to pass through or between a series of
drawing rollers placed in one horizontal range; also the bands might be divided
into more than two series, if desired; but the arrangement must be such as to
allow all the endless card bands to take off, strip, or doff the carded material
at the same time and in the same horizontal line of contact from the main
drum or cylinder, or from a doffer cylinder similarly placed. In the arrange-
ment of the endless card bands divided into two series, as shewn in the
Drawing at Fig. 1, I find it desirable to introduce an endless apron 2, 2, of
silk, leather, or other suitable material, distended over two rollers y, y, across
the whole width of the machine between the two series of card bands, for the
purpose of preventing the fibres of the carded materials being drawn from one
band on to another at the parts where they separate. This endless apron is
made to travel in the direction of the arrow by the friction of contact of the
cards against its upper surface, or, like the other parts of the machinery, may
be driven by any convenient means well known, and to which modes of driving
I lay no claim; but I would observe that it is very desirable that the lower one
of the two tension rollers y should be brought as nearly into the angle formed
by the parting of the two series of bands as possible, for it is at that angle the
fibres would be most likely to be drawn off by the neighbouring bands if not
guarded, and the endless apron is designed to prevent that taking place. As
to the general arrangement of the carding engine, and the mode of driving its
working parts, I lay no claim; but I have merely shewn at Fig. 3 a longi-
tudinal section of a single engine, for the purpose of exhibiting the positions of
the various agents, and the manner in which I connect my improvements
thereto; and Fig. 4 is a horizontal view of the same, which, being well under-
stood, require no further description, as the novel parts are all pointed out by
the same letters of reference as in the preceding Figure; and the mode of
actuating them will be readily perceived, to which, however, I do not intend
to confine myself, as other modes of driving the series of endless bands might
be employed, perhaps with equally beneficial effect.
My Invention, therefore, and that which I desire to claim under the above
in part recited Letters Patent, must be understood to consist in the peculiar
adaptation of endless bands of wire cards to a carding engine, in the ways
shewn and described, by means of which I am enabled to take equal quantities

page_text: of the carded material from the surface of the cylinder in a number of separate
bands of continuous sliver, and to lead these separate bands to drawing rollers,
where they may be delivered in the form of distinct strands of slubbings or
rovings, and may thence be taken up, wound, or lapped upon bobbins, or
received on to or into other suitable receptacles ready to be further operated
upon by spinning machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Sparkes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.