AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR OILING, PREPARING, AND MIXING WOOL
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Leach, of Britannia Mills, Leeds, in the
County of York, Yarn Spinner and Cloth Manufacturer, for the Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR OILING, PREPARING,
AND MIXING WOOL."
Scaled the 22nd May 1860, and dated the 14th December 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Leach at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
December 1859.
I, GEORGE LEACH, of Britannia Mills, Leeds, in the County of York, Yarn
Spinner and Cloth Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR OILING, PREPARING,
AND MIXING WOOL," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of oiling, preparing, and mixing
wool. Hitherto the oiling of wool preparatory to its being prepared for spin-
ning has been effected by sprinkling it by hand while lying in heaps on the
ground, and the consequence has been the saturation of portions while others
have remained comparatively free of the oil, notwithstanding the care taken to
distribute the oil evenly, and thoroughly to mix the fibres, and thus, besides
bad work, a great waste of oil has consequently resulted. To remedy these
defects, I feed the wool to a kind of carding or combing machine formed of an
enclosed cylinder fitted with gill bars. The wool to be operated upon is carried
to the cylinder by an endless apron or grid, which delivers it to a pair of nip-

page_text: ping rollers, whence it is taken up by the gill pins. While lying on this
apron or grid, I discharge oil (by preference in the form of spray), on to the
wool by means of a rotating brush or its equivalent. This brush takes the oil
from an inclined plate or a gutter, which is supplied continuously from a foun-
tain or elevated cistern through a traversing supply pipe or its equivalent.
As the brush (if that distributor be used) rotates, it will sweep up the oil pre-
sented to it, and in passing the edge of the gutter or inclined plate, it will flick
the oil in the form of spray on to the wool that is moving forward to the gill
cylinder.
For regulating the discharge to the requirements of the wool submitted to
the action of the machine, the supply may be adjusted by a tap in the supply
pipe, the same being fitted with a pointer in front of a graduated dial or plate.
As the oiled fibres are carried round by the cylinder they are brought into
contact with a rapidly rotating brush, which strips them from the gill pins,
and discharges them in an open state into a suitable receptacle. Instead of
combining the oiling apparatus with the improved preparing machine above
described, I may find it desirable to apply it to the "willey" or "plucker" at
present in use, causing it to act on the wool while upon the feed apron of
such machine.
SPECIFICATION
in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Leach in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
LEACH, of Britannia Mills, Leeds, in the County of York, Yarn Spinner and
Cloth Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Leach, Her special license that I, the said George
Leach, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Leach, my 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
"AN IMPROVED

page_text: MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR OILING, PREPARING, AND MIXING WOOL,"
upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Leach, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 George Leach, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by following state-
ment, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to effect the oiling, preparing, and mixing
of wool in a more regular, expeditious, and economical way than heretofore.
Hitherto the oiling of wool preparatory to its being scribbled or carded for
spinning or felting, has been effected by sprinkling it by hand while lying in
layers or heaps on the ground, or, as in the worsted trade, by delivering it in
large drops by means of various appliances, and the consequence has been
the saturation of portions of the wool, while other portions have remained com-
paratively free of the oil. By this imperfect mode of conducting the operation,
not only imperfect and bad work is produced, but a great waste of oil and
labor has consequently resulted. To remedy these defects when oiling, pre-
paring, and mixing wool, before it is scribbled or carded, I feed the wool by
hand on to the apron or grid of a kind of carding or combing machine, or an
ordinary "plucker," which is a machine consisting principally of a rotating
cylinder armed with projecting spikes or teeth; and while passing to this
working cylinder in a regular and measured quantity, I discharge the oil or
other lubricating material on to the wool in the form of spray, thereby en-
suring an equable distribution of the oil through the mass of wool submitted
to the operation of the machine. Or the oiling apparatus may be applied to
an ordinary teazer or plucker, or to the various existing machines used in the
carding, combing, preparing, or drawing of wool before spinning.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings I have shewn in several views
one arrangement of machinery for preparing wool for being converted into
sliver preparatory to the spinning operation. Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical
section of the machine; Fig. 2 is a side elevation; and Fig. 3 is an end
elevation of the same. The wool to be operated upon is placed upon the
travelling endless feed sheet or apron a, a, which is extended over the
rollers b, b, to which a slow motion is communicated by any convenient

page_text: arrangement of mechanism driven from the main shaft of the machine. The
wool as it is brought forward by the travelling feed sheet is carried into the
machine by the porcupine roller c, which works in a gutter or trough c*, and
has a slow rotary motion communicated to it by means of the spur gearing
shewn in Figures 2 and 3, the spur wheel c¹ of which is keyed to the axle of
the porcupine roller c. The wool is taken from this roller c by the teeth or
gills of the gill bars d on the large cylinder A, carried by the axle A'. This
cylinder receives rapid rotation in the direction of the arrow from a band e on
the main driving shaft. Behind this cylinder A is mounted a brush cylinder B,
to which rapid rotary motion is communicated from a large pulley i on the axle
A', by means of a band which passes round a small pulley on the axle of the
brush cylinder B, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1. The oil to supply
the wool is contained in a cistern C above the machine, and it is conveyed
therefrom by a flexible pipe h to a metal discharge pipe j provided with a
cock or tap, and index or register plate, and pointer k, whereby the quantity
allowed to pass out may be indicated and regulated at pleasure. The pipe i
with its cock and register plate k is fixed on a carriage 1, which is used for
distributing the oil on to a fixed plate q, whence it is taken up by a rotating
brush, and discharged on to the wool entering the machine. The carriage I
is mounted on two horizontal rods m, m, over which it is traversed by means
of an endless leather band or strap n. This strap passes round two small
pullies o, o¹, and is provided with a pin, stud, or finger which works in a
vertical slot in the back of the carriage l, for the purpose of imparting the
traverse motion thereto. Rotary motion is communicated to the pullies o, o,
and consequently to the strap n, by means of the cord or band p (Fig. 3),
which passes from a pulley p*, and drives the pulley o* on the axle of the
pulley o¹.
The oil from the pipe j falls on to an inclined plate q, q, which
is adjustable by means of the set screws as shewn in the Drawings. As the
oil arrives at the edge of the plate q, it is discharged therefrom by the rotating
brush D in the form of spray on to the wool spread out on the travelling
apron or cloth a.
The brush D is actuated in the direction of the arrow in
Fig. 1 by means of a strap or band r, driven by a small pulley s on the axle
of the brush cylinder B, as shewn in Fig. 2.
In Sheet II. of the Drawings I have shewn another arrangement of
mechanism for carrying out the operation of oiling, preparing, and mixing
wool; Fig. 1 being a side elevation of the machine; Fig. 2, an elevation of
the opposite side; Fig. 3, a plan view; and Fig. 4, a longitudinal section.
In this arrangement I propose to mix water with the oil, and for this pur
pose use two vessels a, a, which communicate by flexible pipes with a forked

page_text: discharge pipe b, in which the oil and water run together. This pipe b is
attached to a slide or carriage c, which receives a traverse motion from a
double-action endless screw shaft d, to which continuous rotary motion is com-
municated by means of belts and pulleys 1, 1, 1, from the axle of the gill
cylinder A. Immediately below the discharge pipe (as in the before described
arrangement), a rotary brush e is mounted. In this instance, however, the oil
(mingled with water) falls directly on to the brush, the bristles of which
striking as they rotate against an adjustable fixed ledge or bar f, will throw
down the liquid on to the wool below. To facilitate the operation, I propose
to employ two feed sheets g, g, placed one above the other (see Fig. 4), to
deliver the wool to the gill cylinder. This arrangement will, besides enabling
me more effectually to oil the wool, by the wool being turned over in falling
from the top to the bottom feed sheet, and consequently receiving the oil on
both sides of the feed, enable me to deliver wool of different colours to the
gills simultaneously, which for "mixtures" is very convenient. The driving
power is first communicated to the axle of the cylinder A, and thence by a
cross strap and pulleys 2, 2, to the brush cylinder B. The porcupine roller C
is driven by means of a bevil wheel on its axle, taking into a bevil wheel on a
shaft h, furnished with a worm wheel 3, in gear with a worm on the axle of
the cylinder A. The axle of the porcupine roller also carries a spur pinion
(at the opposite end to that which carries the bevil wheel), for the purpose of
driving a train of spur gearing 4, 4, by which the feed sheets are actuated.
The operation of this machine is similar to that above described, that is, the
oil is supplied to the wool in the form of a shower or spray by means of the
rotating brush or its equivalent, which is supplied continuously from a fountain
or elevated cistern, through a flexible supply pipe, the mouth or open end of
which is made to traverse to and fro from side to side of the machine. The
shower or spray will be delivered on to the wool as it moves forward to the
gill cylinder by the travelling endless aprons. For regulating the discharge
of oil and water to the requirements of the wool submitted to the action of the
machine, the supply may be adjusted by means of the taps in their respective
supply pipes, and for greater convenience the supply taps may be fitted with a
pointer or index mounted in front of a graduated dial or plate, indicating the
quantity of liquid which will pass through the tap when opened to a given
extent. By this means the number of pounds or pints of softening liquid per
minute or hour which it is desirable to supply to a certain quantity or weight
of wool may be regulated at discretion and with accuracy. As the oiled fibres
are carried round by the gill cylinder, they are brought into contact with the
rapidly rotating brush B, which strips the wool from the gill pins and discharges

page_text: it in an opened state into a suitable receptacle, or on to a travelling apron,
which will convey the same away from the machine.
I would remark, that an obvious modification of my improved mode of
delivering oil or lubricating material to wool is to make the brush a fixture,
and to discharge the oil thereon as described, by means of a rotating grid,
which, by striking the bristles from the under side, will discharge the oil there-
from on to the wool below in the form of spray; I prefer, however, the above
described arrangement.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Mode
of and Apparatus for Oiling, Preparing, and Mixing Wool," as above described,
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood, that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,
effecting the equable distribution of oil or oleaginous substances to wool
preparatory to its being prepared for spinning, by the means above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Leach, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
GEO. LEACH. (L.S.)