CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA- RATUS FOR PREPARING, DRAWING, OR ROVING HEMP, FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
LAWSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Machine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Ilis present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by Ilis Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, Twentieth day of August, in the fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Lawson and William King Westley, of Salford, in the County Palatine
of Lancaster, Flax Spinner, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
anthority, that we, the said William King Westley and Samuel Lawsor,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, and such other persons as we
might at any time agree with, and no others, during the term of fourteen
years from the date of such grant, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA-
RATUS FOR PREPARING, DRAWING, OR ROVING HEMP, FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER
FIBROUS SUBSTANCES; " in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging us, the said William King Westley and Samuel Lawson, or one of
us, by an indorsement in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us, to particularly describe and ascertain the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in His 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 thereto being had, will more
fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Lawson, do hereby exhibit and explain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be carried into effect, in manner
following, reference being had to the Drawings hereto annexed, that is to
say:-
These improvements in machinery or apparatus for preparing, drawing, or
roving hemp, flax, wool, and other fibrous substances, apply to that particular
construction of machinery commonly called or known by the name of the gill,
employed for opening, straightening, and separating the fibres of flax, hemp, long
wool, and other materials of a similar description, in the operation technically
called slivering. The particular feature of this improvement consists in a mode
or method of driving the heckle bars through the gill machine by means of
perpetual screws or worin shafts, instead of employing chains and spur wheels,
as in the ordinary construction and mode of working gill machines. The
various parts of the machine called the gill, its objects and mode of operating,
are so well known to mechanics connected with the business of dressing and
preparing flax, hemp, and worsted, that a particular description of it is
unnecessary; I shall therefore merely allude to such parts only as may be
necessary for the better illustration of the improvements adapted thereto.
The heckle bars which lie across the machine are, in the improved
construction, supported at their ends by fixed horizontal guide rails, on which
they slide, the extremities of the heckle bars being inserted in the helical
grooves or recesses of the worm shafts or screws, which are placed in
horizontal positions at the sides of the machine, and hence the rotatory motions
given to the screw shafts cause the heckle bars to be driven along the guide
rails with one uniform simultaneous movement. The heckle bars having
performed their usual office, that is, separated the fibres of the material as they
move onward, are at the front part of the machine depressed and put out of
operation by means of rotary cams; and by the assistance of guide levers, cach
beckle bar, when it arrives at the end of the upper horizontal guide rail, is
conducted down to the lower horizontal guide rails, where, the extremities of
the comb bars falling into the helical grooves of a lower pair of worm shafts,
revolving in opposite directions to the former, the heckle bars are by that
means conducted in retrogade directions, and when at the back end of their
horizontal guide rails, they are, by similar rotary cams, raised again to the upper
borizontal guide rails, and there, coming into gear with the upper worm shafts,
they are moved onward, as before. By these means a succession of heckles
are continually moving onward upon the upper guide rail, their points being
in constant operation between the fibres of the materials intended to be opened

page_text: separated, and their perpendicular positions are preserved through we
ntire circuit of movement.
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 is a horizontal representation of a
ill machine, shewing the improved parts attached thereto, but in which Figure
ome of the upper portions of the machine are removed to display the working
arts more clearly; Figure 2 is a side view of the gill, and Figure 3 is a ver-
ical section, taken longitudinally, in which several Figures the similar letters
of reference point out the same parts of the machine. The driving rigger (a)
s fixed upon the front roller (6), which is commonly called the drawing roller,
ecause when pressed upon by the upper wooden roller (c) the material in
passing between them is drawn forward. The rollers d, e, f, are the ordinary
back holding rollers, between which the sliver of flax, hemp, or other material
is retained, and is hence drawn by the rollers b, c, over the needles or points
of the heckle bars with considerable tension. The upper guide rail, before
alluded to, on which the heckle bars slide, is shewn at g, in the section
Figure 3, and the lower guide rail at h; the series of heckle bars with their
needles or points are represented at i, i, i, i, i, i; the upper worm shafts k, k,
are mounted in brackets affixed to the sides of the frame, and a similar pair
of worm shafts are mounted in like manner below; these worm shafts k
and on each side are connected together by tooth wheels m, and on the axles
of the lower worm shafts bevelled pinions n are fixed, which take into cor-
This shaft o,
responding bevelled pinions on the transverse shaft or axle o.
being connected by a train of tooth gear with the axle of the drawing roller b,
as shewn in Figures 1 and 2, the rotation of the roller 6 causes the shaft o to
turn also, and the bevelled gear 1 and o produce the rotary motion of the
worm shafts k and I, which turn in contrary directions. It will be seen by
Fig. 1, that the ends of the heckle bars i have nibs or projections, which fall
into the recesses of the screw or thread of the worm shafts, and that being
supported beneath upon their guide rails, as the worm shafts k, k, revolve, the
upper range of heckle bars will be progressively advanced towards the front
part of the machine. By reference to Figure 3 it will be perceived, that as
each heckle bar arrives at the front end of the guide rail g, a finger, tappet, or
cam p on the shaft k strikes it down to the lower guide rails h; and in order
that its descent may be correctly perpendicular, weighted levers q, q, in front are
made to press against the face of the heckle bar as it descends. The heckle
bar having now arrived at the lower guide rails h, h, its nibs or extremities fall
into the recesses or threads of the lower worin shafts 1, by the rotation of which
the heckle bar is made to retograde, that is, proceed toward the back of the
machine. When the heckle bar has reached the hinder end of the guide

page_text: rail h, a finger, cam, or tappet 7 on the lower worm shaft comes under it and
raises the heckle bar, guided by the back weighted levers s, as shown in
Figure 3, until it is elevated to the level of the upper guide rail g, when the
threads of the upper worm shafts take hold of its nibs, as before, and conduct
it forward upon the guide rail, in the way already decribed. Thus, the con-
tinued rotation of the worm shafts k, k, and 1, 1, by the means explained,
cause the whole series of heckle bars to travel along the guide rails, and the
cams or finger p and r, by depressing and raising them at the end of the
guide rails, cause them to move in a regular circuit, yet preserving at all times
their perpendicular positions.
Having described the particular features of our Invention, I wish it to bo
understood that we do not mean to confine ourselves to the precise con-
struction and arrangement of machinery represented in the Drawing, as a
machine to perform the same sort of operations may be variously formed and
the parts differently disposed; but we do claim as our Invention, any and
every mode in which screws or worm shafts may be adapted to conduct the
bars carrying the needles or heckles through a machine or machines for pre-
paring, drawing, or roving flax, hemp, wool, and other fibrous substances
requiring the operations of opening, separating, and straightening of the fibres
of which such material is composed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Lawson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.