IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND PREPARING THE FIBRES OF FLAX AND HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR SPINNING."
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, near Bradford,
in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
AND PREPARING THE FIBRES OF FLAX AND HEMP, AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES FOR SPINNING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th March 1855.
.
I, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the County
of York, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING AND PREPARING THE FIBRES OF FLAX AND HEMP AND, OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES FOR SPINNING" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the treating and preparing of the fibres of
flax and hemp, and other substances, which require hackling or splitting; and
although these improvements chiefly apply to such descriptions of fibres as arc
reduced by chemical or mechanical means, or by a combination of such means,
to a short staple, such improvements are also applicable to other fibres. And
my Invention consists of combining certain well-known mechanical instruments
or apparatus into a machine, by which the fibres under treatment are fed or
moved forward, and one end is held and is hackled or split first on one side

page_text: and then on the other. The hackled or split ends of the fibres are then taken
and detached by nippers or holders, and the other ends of the fibres are hackled
or split. The detached quantities are then fed into a comb, to be drawn out
therefrom into a sliver or slivers, or the successive detached quantities are
pieced up in succession into a sliver. For this purpose, it is preferred that the
fibres should have been first carded and doffed into a sliver, or otherwise laid
parallel and made into a sliver. The fibres are fed into the machine by feeding
rollers, and the protruding ends of the fibres are hackled or split on both
sides by suitable hackle or pointed surfaces, which I prefer to be on rollers.
Nipples or holders are now, by the working of the machine, caused to take and
detach a quantity of the fibres from the sliver, the holders or nippers holding
the hackled ends of the fibres, leaving the other ends of the fibres protruding
so as to be acted on by hackle surfaces on both sides; by which means cach
detached quantity is hackled and cleaned out at both sides and at both ends by
the working of the machine, and without requiring the fibres to be taken hold
of or handled by the workpeople intermediate of these processes. The detached
quantities are then, according as the machinery may be arranged, either pieced
up into slivers or fed into combs, to be drawn out therefrom in slivers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister in the Great Seal Patent Office ou
the 8th September 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
Cunliffe LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the County of York,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel
Cunliffe Lister, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND PREPARING THE FIBRES OF FLAX AND HEMP AND

page_text: OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR SPINNING," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 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 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 I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):—
This Invention has for its object the treating and preparing of the fibres of
flax and hemp, and other substances, which require hackling or splitting; and
although these improvements chiefly apply to such descriptions of fibres as are
reduced by chemical or mechanical means, or by a combination of such means,
to a short staple, such improvements are also applicable to other fibres. And
my Invention consists of combining certain well-known mechanical instruments
or apparatus into a machine, by which the fibres under treatment are fed or
moved forward, and one end is held and is hackled or split first on one side
and then on the other. The hackled or split ends of the fibres are then taken
and detached by nippers or holders, and the other ends of the fibres are hackled
or split. The detached quantities are then fed into a comb, to be drawn out
therefrom into a sliver or slivers, or the successive detached quantities are
picced up in succession into a sliver. For this purpose, it is preferred that the
fibres should have been first carded and doffed into a sliver, or otherwise laid
parallel, and made into a sliver. The fibres are fed into the machine by feed-
ing rollers, and the protruding ends of the fibres are hackled or split on both
sides by suitable hackle or pointed surfaces, which I prefer to be on rollers.
Nippers or holders are now, by the working of the machine, caused to take
and detach a quantity of the fibres from the sliver, the holders or nippers hold-
ing the hackled ends of the fibres, leaving the other ends of the fibres pro-
truding, so as to be acted on by hackled surfaces on both sides; by which
means, each detached quantity is hackled and cleaned out at both sides and at
both ends by the working of the machine, and without requiring the fibres to
be taken hold of or handled by the workpeople intermediate of these processes.
The detached quantities are then, according as the machinery may be arranged,
either pieced up into slivers, or fed into combs, to be drawn out therefrom in
slivers.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the best manner I am acquainted with for performing the same.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a vertical section of a machine for treating and preparing
the fibre of flax, liemp, and other fibrous substances for spinning, constructed
and combined according to my Invention. a, a, is the framing of the machine;
is the cam shaft or axis, to which motion is communicated from the axis c,
by means of the toothed wheels b', cl.
The axis c is caused to rotate by a band passing around the pulley ç³; d, d,
are the feed rollers, which is the form of feed apparatus preferred, but other
arrangements may be used in place thereof. The feed rollers take the fibre
into the machine; e, e, are the nippers which retain the end of the sliver so
fed, while it is being hackled or split on both sides previously to that portion
being detached. The fibres while held by the nippers e, e, are hackled or
split,
first on one side and then on the other by the card or porcupine rollers f,f,
which revolve in opposite directions; and they are caused to come into action
on the fibre by the revolution of the axis. g, which causes them to pass the
protruding end of the sliver of fibrous material retained by the nippers e, c.
After the end of the sliver of fibrous material retained by the nippers e, c, has
thus been hackled, the detaching nippers 9', 9, will, by the further revolution of
the axis g, be brought opposite to the portion of fibre projecting from the nippers
e̟é̟; the nippers e, e, and feed rollers d, d, are caused to recede a short
distance at the time the detaching nippers g', g', co
come opposite to them. When
the detaching nippers g¹, 9, are opposite the nippers e, e, they and the feeding
apparatus in connection with them are caused to move, so as to place the end
of the sliver between the detaching nippers g', g', which then close; at the same
time the nippers e, e, are caused to open,, and together with the feed rollers
recede; they thus cause the nippers g', g', to detach a tuft of fibre.
The feed rollers are now caused to feed forward a fresh portion of fibre, upon
which the nippers e,,e, close, and are then moved into a suitable position for
the card or hackle rollers ff, to operate in succession on the projecting por-
tion on both sides, as above described. The tuft of fibre retained by the
detaching nippers 9, 9, is, by the further revolution of the axis g, carried past
the porcupine rollers h, h; these rollers by revolving in opposite directions,
hackle first one side and then the other of the detached tuft of fibre. Hence
it will be seen that the one end of a portion of the fibres is first hackled cn
both sides, then, detached, and then backled on both sides before making a
sliver. The cleaned and split or hackled tuft of fibre is afterwards taken
from the detaching nippers 9',g', by the carrying comb i, which pieces up the
successive portions or tufts on the travelling band . The detaching nippers

page_text: g', g', are so constructed and arranged, that at the same time.one pair closes on
the end of the sliver previous to detaching a tuftthe other pair opens, and
thus allows the comb i to remove the fibre. By the working of the machine,
the axis g is caused to rest when the detaching nippers g, g, arrive opposite to
the feed apparatus on one side, and opposite the carrying combi on the other
side. The axis g is also caused to rest, as the detaching nippers arrive
opposite to the porcupine, and hackling, rollers h, h. The rollers f,f, are opposite
to the end of the sliver projecting from the nippers at the same time that
the detaching nippers are opposite to the feed apparatus. As the porcup
rollers h, h, are caused to rotate at a higher velocity than the porcupine rollers
ff, the short fibres will be removed from the porcupine, rollers ff, by the por
cupine rollers h, h, which deliver in their turn the fibre that they receive from
the rollers and the tufts of fibre carried past them by the detaching
nippers 99, to the doffing roller h, to be removed in the fo
form
rm of a sliver by
the doffer and it is then carried away. by the travelling band to
h the
delivering rollers h
.
"
...
th
And I would here state that I am aware that machinery has been so
arranged, that one end of a sliver of fibrous material while held by nipping
apparatus has been acted upon on one side by a pointed surface, and that the
end of the sliver, when so combed or cleaned has been afterwards taken hold of
and detached by detaching, apparatus, which has presented the unconibed or
uncleaned end of the detached tuft of fibre to be operated upon on one side
only by a pointed surface; each tuft or detached quantity of the fibres being
by these means cleaned or combed at both ends; but only on one side, and I
mention this fact, in order to state that I make no claim to machinery, wherein
one side only of detached quantities of fibre is cleaned or combed.
.
The feed apparatus and nippers e, e, are actuated in the following manner
The nippers ee, and feed rollers d, d, are carried by the leverse, which move
upon the cam shaft b, and are connected together by the bars A to and fro
movement is given to the levers e, and to the apparatus connected with them,
by the cam cacting on a truck on the lever e, which moves on a stud, attached
to the framing of the machine, and is connected to, the levers e' by the stud es.
The nippers e are caused to open and close by cams, which act on trucks,
attached to the sliding, frames e, to which the nippers are affixed, the.springs
elo-serving always to cause the nippers to open. When th
When the nippers e, e, are
open, a portion of a revolution is given to the rollers
a fresh portion of fibre by the intermittent screw el
into the screw wheel el, on the axis
d, d, so as to feed forward
on the cam shaft b, taking
which by the toothed, wheels ele
gives motion to the rollers d, d. The axis. 9 is caused to rotate.by the toothed
9.

page_text: wheel g², represented by dotted lines on the axis b, taking into the toothed
wheel g³, represented by dotted lines on the axis 9', which gives motion to the
axis g by the toothed wheel g', on the axis g' taking into the toothed wheel g
on the axis g. The revolution of the toothed wheels g', 9, and axis 9, is
arrested and accelerated from time to time in the following manner :-
:-g' is a
tube, capable of sliding on the axis g' and on the prolonged boss of the wheel
g', there being projections from the boss, of the wheel 95 and from the axis g',
which enter spiral slots in the tube g', which thus forms a clutch to connect
them together, the wheel g³ not being otherwise positively attached to the axis
g; and it will be seen that when the cam gs upon the axis 6 acts upon the lever
g, so as by the projection g₁ to move the sliding tube g along the axis 9' in
one direction, a partial revolution will be given to the wheel g, over and above
that communicated to it by the axis g', and when the tube g' is moved in the
other direction, a corresponding stopping of the wheel g³ will take place.
The cams
The detaching nippers g, g', are carried by the levers g", capable of move-
ment on the axis g, and are opened and closed from time to time by the cams
g2 on the axis p acting on the sliding pieces g¹³, the sliding pieces g¹³ carrying
the cam surfaces 9", which act on trucks attached to the levers g¹¹.
9 are fixed upon the axis p, but are caused to travel with the axis g by the
toothed wheel g¹5, represented by dotted lines affixed to the wheel g³, taking
into a wheel n, loose upon the axis of the card roller h; the wheel n' affixed
to the wheel n communicates this motion to the wheel n² moving around the
axis c, and the bevil wheel n³ attached to the wheel n² transfers the motion by
a bevil wheel to the axis n", and the axis n³ drives the cams. 91 simultane-
ously with the axis g, by the bevil wheel n on the axis n taking into the bevil
wheel g, on the axis of the canis 912; and at times the cams g¹² have a partial
revolution communicated to them first in one direction and then in the other,
so as to cause them to act on the sliding piece g¹ in the following manner :-
m is a cam on the cam shaft b, acting on the lever m', which moves on a stud
affixed to the framing of the machine, and acts by a projection on its other
end on the sliding tube n' on the axis n'; this sliding tube n' is constructed
and acts in a similar manner to that already described for acting on the
toothed wheel gs, and it will be seen upon examining the Drawing, that upon
sliding the tube n', a motion will be communicated to the wheel nº, more or
less than that communicated to the axis 25. The porcupine rollers h, h, h', f,f,
are caused to revolve by toothed gearing, shewn by dotted circles marked o, o*,
the wheel o*, which communicates motion to the porcupine rollers f. f, moving
round the axis p. The carrying comb i is operated upon by a cam on the
axis i, acting on a toothed quadrant, which takes into a toothed wheel on the

page_text: axis of the comb i. is a depositing plate which is acted upon by the fixed
stop is, to deposit the fibre from the carrying comb i on to the band i, the
fixed stop moving back the plate into its original position.
27
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately, and the details may be modified or altered
without departing from my Invention; but what I claim is, the combining
mechanical parts into a machine, as herein described, and in such manner that
the fibres being fed endways, or in the form of a sliver, into the machine are
first hackled or acted upon by points on both sides, then detached and held by
nipping or holding apparatus in such manner that the other end of the detached
quantity of fibres is hackled or acted on by points on both sides, and then the
detached quantities are picced up or formed into a sliver without requiring
the workman to handle the fibres from time to time, as heretofore.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto
*set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
JNO. COOK,
4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.
S. C. LISTER. (L.S.)