IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF CLEANING SILK WASTE, AND IN' MACHINERY TO BE USED THEREIN
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Mason and Thomas Mason, trading
under the Style or Firm Hinde & Co., of Bulk, near Lancaster,
in the County of Lancaster, Silk Spinners, for the Invention of:
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF CLEANING SILK WASTE, AND IN'
MACHINERY TO BE USED THEREIN
"
..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Mason and
Thomas Mason at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 6th March 1874.
We, EDWARD MASON and THOMAS MASON, trading under the Style
or Firm Hinde & Co., of Bulk, near Lancaster, in the County of
Lancaster, Silk Spinners, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF CLEANING SILK WASTE, AND IN
MACHINERY TO BE USED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
In our improved process we employ a modification of the machine for

page_text: cleaning patented by James Varley and Sam Warburton Varley,
No. 2386, A.D. 1871, in which machine there are card cylinders which
operate upon the tufts of silk held by the "book" nippers, and when
the card teeth of the cylinders first operating upon the tufts for rough
cleaning are full of fibres they are stripped by a hand comb, and such
strippings have to be again operated upon by the frilling machine used
for preparing the fibres for the "books" in the first instance; this causes
much breakage and waste of valuable fibre. And our improved process
has for its object the dispensing with the necessity for the repreparation
by the filling or other preparing machine of the fibres separated from
the "tufts" by the cards first operating thereon so as to prevent the loss
and waste above referred to, and we accomplish this object by dispensing
with cylinders covered entirely with card teeth, and substituting
cylinders with rows of comb or card teeth in sheets of suitable fineness
placed parallel to the axis of the cylinders, and with spaces between
each row of sheet of teeth left entirely blank or free from pins or teeth,
so that the fibres removed from the tufts by such cylinders can be
detached from them and placed directly into the "books" to be further
operated upon.
We further modify the said Varley's machine by using two cylinders or
sets of cylinders having teeth arranged as above described, one cylinder
or set of cylinders operating upon one side, the other upon the other side
of the "tufts." As far as our present experience goes we find the best
pitch for the teeth in the sheets to be about 6 to the inch, and each row
about 1th of an inch apart.
We prefer to cone the ends of the cylinders first operating upon the
tufts, and to cover the cone surface entirely with teeth, which will act
more to straighten the fibre than remove the noil, this operation being.
left for that part of the cylinders having sheet cards or teeth.
In some instances it may be advisable to fill in the spaces between
the sheet cards by a surface, either fixed or moveable, which will come
nearly level with the points of the teeth in the card sheets.
Instead of placing the cylinders in a rotary frame, as in Varley's
machine, two cylinders may be arranged in a sliding or oscillating frame
to act upon the tufts alternately, the fibres being removed from onc,.
while the other is operating.
:

page_text: employed if desired.
Our Invention further consists in stripping the noil from the card
cylinder or cylinders, on to which it is brushed from the finishing card
or cards by a doffing comb actuated by a crank instead of by a hand
comb, as in Varley's machine.
.:
filed by the said Edward Mason and Thomas Mason in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 2nd September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
MASON and THOMAS MASON, trading under the Style or Firm of Hinde
and Co., of Bulk, near Lancaster, in the County of Lancaster, Silk
Spinners, send greeting.
•
1
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Edward Mason and Thomas Mason, Her
special license that we, the said Edward Mason and Thomas Mason, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Edward Mason and Thomas Mason, 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 Ircland; the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF
CLEANING SILK WASTE, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE USED THEREIN," upon the
condition, (amongst others) that we, the said Edward Mason and Thomas
Mason, by an instrument. in writing under our hands and scals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us, 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

page_text: 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 Edward Mason and Thomas Mason,
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
and in and by the following statement and the accompanying Drawings
(that is to say) :—
.66
In our improved process we employ a modification of the machine for
cleaning silk and other fibres patented by James Varley and Sam
Warburton Varley, Number 2386, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-one, in which machine there are card
cylinders, which operate upon the tufts of silk held by the "book
nippers," and when the card teeth of the cylinders first operating upon
the tufts for rough cleaning are full of fibres they are stripped by a hand
comb, and such strippings have to be again operated upon by the "filling
machine" used for preparing the fibres in the first instance for the
books," this causes much breakage and waste of valuable fibre. And
our improved process has for its object the dispensing with the necessity
for the repreparation by the filling or other preparing machine of the
fibres separated from the "tufts" by the cards first operating thereon,
so as to prevent the loss and waste above referred to and secure longer
and more even drafts of fibre with a smaller per centage of noil; and we
accomplish this object by dispensing with cylinders covered and entirely.
with card teeth, and substituting cylinders with rows of comb or card
teeth in sheets of suitable fineness placed parallel to the axis of the
cylinders, and with spaces between cach row or sheet of teeth left entirely
blank or free from pins or teeth, so that the fibres removed from the
tufts by such cylinders can be detached from them and placed directly
into the "books" to be further operated upon.
We further modify the said Varley's machine by using two cylinders
or sets of cylinders having teeth arranged as above described, one
cylinder or set of cylinders operating upon one side, the other upon the
other side of the "tufts." As far as our present experience goes we
find the best pitch for the teeth in the sheets to be about six to the inch,
and each row about one-fourth of an inch apart.
We prefer to conc the ends of the cylinders first operating upon the
tufts and to cover the cone surface entirely with straight pin teeth,

page_text: which will act more to straighten the fibre than remove the noil, this
operation being left for that part of the cylinders having sheet cards or
teeth; but bent card teeth may be used in place of straight pin teeth
upon the cone surface.
Instead of cylinders endless webs carrying toothed sheets may be
employed according to our Invention if desired.
The machine to which our improvements refer is that described in the
Specification of the Patent of James Varley and Sam Warburton Varley,
numbered 2386, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-one, and illustrated by Figs. 1, 2, and 3, of the Drawings
annexed to the said Specification, and by our improvements we employ
one set of cylinders placed in a rotary frame in an inclined position, as
illustrated in the Drawings accompanying the said Varley's Speci-
fication, to act upon one side of the tufts or stricks, and another set
of cylinders arranged in like manner in a rotary frame to act upon the
other side of the tufts or stricks, instead and in place of the
cylinder M shown in the Drawings of the said Varley's Specification,.
the machine being lengthened to admit of two sets of cylinders in rotary
-
•

page_text: and to obtain more combing surface, and at the same time secure as
narrow a face as possible, but the teeth may be wholly formed of bent
card teeth if desired. The cylinders acting second are similar to
those acting first upon the tufts, except that the first set of cylinders
have six sheets cach, and we prefer to place seven sheets of teeth upon
each cylinder of the second set with teeth formed of somewhat finer
wire and slightly finer in pitch than the teeth of the first set of
cylinders.
Fig. 4 shows a full size section of part of one of the cylinders and
illustrates the mode of placing the sheets of teeth upon the cylinders.
We fix the sheets of teeth so that the points of the teeth are all in a
circle struck from the same radius, as shewn by the dotted circle passing
through the points of the teeth. When a cylinder has been operating for
a time. the spaces between the teeth fill with noil and fibre and the
fibre extends from card sheet to card sheet all round, and when the
cylinder is sufficiently full the frame is partly rotated, as described in
the said Varley's Specification, which brings the cylinder which has
been operating out of geer and away from the tufts and the next cleared
cylinder into geer and operation. The fibres upon the cylinder brought
out of action are then cut across the cylinder parallel to its axis between
the sheets of cards, and the ends of the tufts or fibres are taken in a
"book" C, as shown in Fig. 3, and removed from the teeth of the
cylinder, and so on until all the fibres from the teeth of each card
sheet of the cylinder have been removed. Two or more of these tufts
or "stricks." so removed may be placed in the same book if desired.
We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention and the
mode of carrying the same into effect, and wish it to be understood that
we are aware that attempts have been made to accomplish the object
intended to be effected by our Invention, but without success, and such
attempts have been abandoned as impracticable, we therefore claim as
our Invention, the process of dressing silk fibres by machines similar to
those patented by the said James Varley and Sam Warburton Varley, and
described in the Specification of their said Patent, Number 2386, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and also
our improved modifications of the said machines, whereby the fibres
may be taken from the toothed cylinders in the form of stricks to be
placed in "books" ready to be again operated upon in the said patended

page_text: ULIO
wing machine
and preventing the loss and waste, substantially
as herein-before described.
.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edward Mason and Thomas
Mason, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this First day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-four.