IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HACKLING MACHINES
Year: 1872

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by George Lowry at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declara-
tion, on the 29th June 1872, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
LOWRY, of Bury Street Foundry and Cross Street Works, Salford, County
of Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HACKLING MACHINES," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declara-
tion that I am the true and first Inventor thereof, and that the same is
not in use by any other person or persons to the best of my knowledge
and belief.

page_text: statement:—
These improvements consist,-
Firstly. In constructing the sheets of hackles with the hackle bars of
different pitches, the flax being operated upon firstly by the sheet of
hackles having the coarsest pitch of bar, and is taken forward from
sheet to sheet of hackles of finer pitches.
The flax is thus more
gradually hackled and the fibre is less liable to be broken, and conse-
quently less waste is made. Also when the head or trough carrying the
flax commences to lift the top roller or beams carrying the sheets of
hackles are moved inwards and the speeds of the hackles is reduced to
almost nil, whilst the flax is lifted up through the pins and the ends
thus cleaned out.
•
The motion for reducing the speed of the hackle sheets is shewn in
Figure I., in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which 6 is the
doffing roller, carrying a fast and a loose pulley e, e¹, and c is the block
shaft, carrying the fast and loose pulleys f, f', and f*, and the change is
made by means of the rod d, which draws the double strap fork a to and
fro when the lift of the trough takes place.
The motion for moving the top beam inwards is shewn in Figure 5,
and is effected by means of a cam p, shewn in dotted lines, and the rods
and lever and 8.
Secondly. My Invention consists in obtaining different speeds of the
backle sheets from the bottom block shaft by employing pulleys of
different diameters and cranking the hackle bar, or using thicker hackle
stocks and longer pins so as to bring the hackle points to a line for the
brush to act upon. The top roller is made in lengths and adjustable to
suit the line of entering the flax.
The arrangement of the bottom block shaft and hackle bars is sliewn
in Figure 2, in accompanying Drawings, in which 9 is the bent or
cranked hackle bar, and h is the bottom block shaft; the Drawings will
be found sufficiently explanatory without further description.
"
Thirdly. In constructing the hackle bars with a slot into which teeth
fixed to the bottom block shaft take into and thus drive the hackles, and

page_text: is shewn in the accompanying Sheets of Drawings in Figures 2 and 3.
The teeth on the bottom block shaft are indicated by the letter .7,
Figure 2. In Figure 3, j' is a hackle bar, and k a slot formed therein,
into which the teeth on the bottom block shaft take into, and thus drive
the sheets of hackles.
Fourthly. My Invention consists in coupling and driving two hackling
machines together, and in so arranging them as to carry the holders
round from the trough in one machine to the trough in the other. A
rising and falling platform for the attendants to stand upon, and fol-
lowing and moving bodily with the motion of the troughs, being suitably
arranged between the machines.
The various motions and mechanical combinations required in a
hackling machine are only necessary in one machine by this arrange-
ment, as they are transmitted or communicated to the other by suitable
connections and attachments, as shewn in the accompanying Drawings,
Figures 4, 5, and 6, Sheets 1 and 2, which represent respectively a front
and side elevation and part plan of this compound hackling machine,
constructed according to my Invention. The machine A, see end
elevation, Figure 5, is the complete machine, from which the machine B
is driven.
The motion of the hackle sheets and brushes in A. is transmitted to B
by means of the belt C. The troughs by the chain D which is guided
by suitable pulleys E, E¹, the letters F, F¹, indicating the troughs. The
grippers are fed forward in the troughs by means of the levers and
rods G, H, I, J, which are worked by the cam K, see Figures 4, 5, and 6,
which motion is entirely independant of that of the-trough, but works in
combination therewith. The doffing rod is indicated by the letter L.
The attendants stand upon the platform M, and as the grippers are fed
forwards from machine A they are guided to the attendants by the curved
trough and are then put into trough F¹ of the machine B by the
attendants, and so on.
Having described and ascertained the nature of my Invention, and
the manner of carrying the same into practical effect, I would have it
understood that I do not bind myself to the precise details herein
described and shewn for carrying out my Invention, as they may be
modified without -departing from the spirit of the same, but what I

page_text: claim and desire to have secured to me is the several improvements in
hackling machines, substantially as herein-before described, and shewn
in the accompanying Sheets of Drawings.
-
In witness whereof, I, the said George Lowry, have hereto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June in the year of 5
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
J. W. HUDSON.
GEORGE LOWRY. (L.S.)