IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE SORTING OF WOOL
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Ramsden, John Charles
Pearce, and Robert Ayrey at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 25th March 1870.
We, WILLIAM RAMSDEN, JOHN CHARLES PEARCE, and ROBERT AYREY,
all of Bradford, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE
SORTING OF WOOL," to be as follows:-
We construct a chest or receiver of any convenient form and dimen-
sions, as, for example, 3 feet square and 3 feet deep, with a close fitting
cover or lid made air-tight or nearly so, and capable of being easily
opened and shut. At a short distance, about 6 inches from the bottom.
there is a plate or partition perforated with numerous small holes, and
in the space or chamber beneath the perforated partition there is a series
of pipes or a gridiron-shaped frame with hollow bars forming a heater,
to which a small pipe and stop-cock outside the receiver are connected

page_text: for supplying steam to the heater. Another small pipe and stop-cock
are provided for taking away the water formed by the condensation of
steam within the heater. A small blowing fan or other suitable con-
trivance for extracting and forcing air is fixed to the side of the receiver
or in some convenient situation near to it. Two openings are made in
the receiver, one near the top just under the lid, and the other near the
bottom below the perforated partition. These openings lead into suitable
pipes or passages communicating with the inlet and outlet of the fan or
blower. The wool to be operated upon is put into the receiver resting
on the perforated partition or false bottom. The lid is then closed, and
the fan or blower being in motion draws out the air from above the wool
and forces it into the heating chamber beneath the perforated falso
bottom, where it comes into contact with the heating surfaces of the
steam pipes and acquires a considerable increase of temperature. The
air in its heated state ascends through the numerous perforations in the
false bottom, and is drawn and forced upwards through the wool in
obedience to the peculiar double action of the blower, which keeps up a
continuous current. No fresh air is necessary, but the same air already
contained within the receiver is continually circulated through the wool
and blower, and returned to heating chamber to be rewarmed, until after
a few minutes' operation the wool becomes thoroughly and uniformly
warmed, and is ready for removal from the apparatus to be sorted.
Wool that has been much squeezed or compressed so as to produce
felting or matting together is by the treatment above described softened,
loosened, and expanded so as to admit of its fibres being casily separated
and sorted.
Where large quantities of wool have to be operated upon we construct
receivers having several compartments with a separate lid to each com-
partment. The body of the receiver may be made of cast or wrought
iron, galvanized iron, tin, or wood lined with tin. When the receiver
is made of iron we prefer the inner surfaces which come into contact
with the wool to be glazed or coated with tin or other suitable material.
The current of heated air may be made to pass through the wool by
other means than a blower, as, for instance, a powerful chimney draught
would be sufficient to produce the required distribution of warmth; nor
is it absolutely necessary for the heated current to traverse the wool

page_text: upwards; the action of the blower or other means of producing the
circulating current of air through the wool might be made to act down-
wards or sidewise, the effect being nearly the same in either case. In
some cases we employ a separate heater communicating with several
wool receivers, and one blower answering for all.