IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bispham Kay, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the
County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, and Frederick Mills, of
Heywood, in the same County, Machino Maker, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Scaled the 18th July 1873, and dated the 31st January 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bispham Kay
and Frederick Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 31st January 1873.
We, TпомAS BISPHAM KAY, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County of
Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, and FREDERICK MILLS, of Heywood,
in the same County, Machine Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES FOR CARDING COTTON
AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain modifications of and improvements in
the mechanical details for lifting, stripping, brushing out, and grinding
the top cards or flats of carding engines described in the Specification of

page_text: Letters Patent granted to Thomas Bispham Kay and Francis Hamilton,
on or about the 27th day of February 1807, for "Certain Improvements
in Carding Engines to be employed for Carding Cotton and other Fibrous
Materials," whereby greater simplicity, economy, and efficiency are ob-
tained. According to the Invention therein specified, the top cards were
raised and the radial arms were moved by the action of revolving chains
carrying studs, and driven by gearing upon brackets and toothed chain
wheels, and also the revolving boxes carrying the flat ends were turnod
by the action thereupon of swing levers working in curved guides and
slid in contact with the vertical brackets, and the grinding roller revolved
in sockets piercing the radial arms, an arrangement of mechanism
necessitating extreme care in its application and working, and not
securing the needful expedition and accuracy in some cases required in
the stripping and grinding of the flats.
According to this Invention, it is proposed to dispense with the lifting
chain, its gearing, and brackets, upon each radial arm, and to substitute a
spur wheel driven by gearing and band pulley from the cylinder shaft,
and having a swing arm thereupon connected by a rod with the small
internal slide in the main slide carried by the radial arm, and also a
wheel with two toothed segments driving a pinion with two set plates
communicating with the rack in the usual manner, and fixed thercon a
stud carrying a toothed wheel gearing into an internal wheel held
stationary upon the radial arm, and also gearing into a pinion on the
aforesaid spur wheel carried upon a stud or boss on the aforesaid
internal wheel, and the first-named pinion is provided with a rim
intersecting a flange upon the aforesaid swing arm, in which revolves a
disc actuated at intervals by two projections on the aforesaid spur wheel,
and the revolving box on the main slide gears into a fixed rack on the
radial arm, and the flat end recessed for the lifting stud is kept in close
sliding contact with the vertical slide by a spring, and the stripper
oscillates upon the cross shaft by the action of the toothed segment
wheel on a second pinion with two set plates connected by a lever
and rod therewith, and which is also provided with a camb surface,
actuating a lever communicating by intermittent gearing with the
aforesaid disc and the grinding roller, and revolving brush when in usc
revolve in bushes held by adjustable brackets and outside the radial
arms.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Bispham Kay and Frederick Mills in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, THOMAS
BISPILAM KAY, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County of Lancaster,
Mechanical Engincer, and FREDERICK MILLS, of Heywood, in the same
County, Machine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her hoirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Bispham Kay
and Frederick Mills, Her special licence that wc, the said Thomas
Bispham Kay, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as wc, the said Thomas Bispham Kay and Frederick, 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 makc, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Ohannel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas
Bispham Kay and Frederick Mills, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and
scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be porformed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six
calendar monthis next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Bispham Kay, on behalf of
myself and the said Frederick Mills, do hereby declare the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to certain modifications of and improvements in
the mechanical details for lifting, stripping, brushing out, and grinding

page_text: the top cards or flats of carding engines, described in the Specification
of Letters Patent granted to Thomas Bispham Kay and Francis Hamilton,
on or about the 27th day of February 1867, for "Certain Improvements
in Carding Engines to be employed for Carding Cotton and other Fibrous
Materials, whereby greater simplicity, economy, and efficiency are ob-
tained. According to the Invention therein specified the top cards were
raised, and the radial arms were moved by the action of revolving chains
carrying studs, and driven by gearing upon brackets and toothed chain
wheels, and also the revolving boxes carrying the flat ends were turned
by the action thereupon of swing levers working in curved guides, and
slid in contact with the vertical brackets, and the grinding roller
revolved in sockets piercing the radial arms, an arrangement of mechan-
ism necessitating extreme caro in its application and working, and not
securing the needful expedition and accuracy in some cases required in
the stripping and grinding of the flats.
According to this Invention it is proposed to dispense with the lifting
chain, its gearing, and brackets, upon cach radial arm, and to substitute
a spur wheel driven by gearing and band pulley from the cylinder shaft,
and having a swing arm thereupon connected by a rod with the small
internal slide in the main slide carried by the radial arm, and also a
wheel with two toothed segments driving a pinion with two set plates
communicating with the rack in the usual manner, and fixed thercon
a stud carrying a toothed wheel gearing into an internal wheel held
stationary upon the radial arm, and also gearing into a pinion on tho
aforesaid spur wheel carried upon a stud or boss on the aforesaid
internal wheel, and the first-named pinion is provided with a rim inter-
secting a flange upon the aforesaid swing arm, in which revolves
a disc actuated at intervals by two projections on the aforesaid spur
wheel, and the revolving box on the main slide gears into a fixed
rack on the radial arm, and the flat end recessed for the lifting stud is
kept in close sliding contact with the vertical guide by a spring, and thic
stripper oscillates upon the cross shaft by the action of the toothed
segment wheel on a second pinion with two set plates connected by a
lever and rod therowith, and which is also provided with a camb surface
actuating a lever communicating by intermittent gearing with the afore-
said disc and the grinding roller, and revolving brush when in usc
revolvo in bushics held by adjustable brackets and outside the radial
arms.

page_text: And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose we shall refer to several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings one-
third full size hereunto annexed, the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts throughout all the corresponding Figures.
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose we shall refer to several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings one-
third full size hereunto annexed, the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts throughout all the corresponding Figures.
Figs. 1 and 2 represent partial front and side views respectively of our
self flat stripping and grinding carding engine.
Figs. 3 and 4 represent partial front and side detailed views of the rack
and revolving box.
Figs. 5 and 6 represent front and sectional views respectively of the
internal wheel, with its appendages.
Figs. 7 and 8 represent front and side views respectively of the rever-
sible intermittent lifting motion.
Figs. 9 and 10 represent front and side views respectively of the swing
arm upon the spur wheel, connected by a rod with the slide.
Figs. 11, 12, 13, and 14 represent front and side views of our improved
arrangement of stripper.
I
In Figs. 1, 2, and 3, a is the radial arm; b, the main slide; c, the
small internal slide; d, the revolving box, geared into the fixed rack
e; and fis the lifting stud attached to the slide. The internal wheel g of
78 teeth fixed upon studs against the arm a carries upon its boss a spur
wheel of 82 teeth, and fast thereto a pinion i of 13 teeth, and also a
wheel k provided with two toothed segments of 5 teeth each, and a set
rim and a swing arm / connected by a rod m with the slide c, the two
3 latter, i.c., & and 1, resting upon flanges attached to h. In the segment
wheel is fixed a stud with a carrier wheel n thercon, gearing into the
spur pinion i, and also into the internal wheel g, and o and o' are two
pinions of 14 toeth and two set plates, cach gearing to k, and revolving
on two fixed bosses on a and g respectively, to the former of which is
fixed the spur wheel p gearing into p', which is carried by the connecting
link oscillating upon the aforesaid fixed boss on a, and communicating
with the rack in the usual manner, and to the latter is fixed the spur
wheel of 30 teeth actuating through a pinion of 15 teeth, and a lever
and rod attached thereto, the stripper 8, which oscillates upon the cross
shaft t, connecting the mechanism upon the two radial arms. The spur
wheel has a camb affixed to it, which acts upon a bowl on one end of a
""

page_text: lever actuating the shaft u, which pierces the boss of the internal
wheel g, and has fixed to its inner extremity a plate v, provided with a
partial flange, and three teeth gearing into a wheel to, which has 6
teeth and two set plates on its periphery, and forming an intermittent
gear. The wheel 10 is carried through a boss upon the swing arm 7, and
has fast to it a disc x, in the flange of which two spaces have been left,
and upon which two projections on the spur wheel / act intermittently.
A flange upon the bottom of swing arm has two spaces cut therein, and
is intersected by a rim attached to the segment pinion o, also having two
spaces cut therein.
In order to describe intelligibly the operation of raising, stripping,
brushing out or grinding, and lowering each flat, we will suppose No. 0
of the flats has just been stripped and the stripping apparatus moved on to
No. 7. The spur wheel h, driven by band pulley and gearing from tho
cylinder shaft, continues its revolution at a speed of about 7 per minute,
and the spur pinion i fixed thereto driving the internal carrier » gearing
into the internal wheel 7 moves the segment wheel at a speed of
about one per minute, which in this case we have taken to be about the
interval of time between the stripping of each flat. When the sixth
revolution of his about completed, the first of the segments on & having
come up to and acted upon the segment pinion o, the latter makes half
a revolution and moves the radial arm on to No. 8 flat, and the same
segment acting when about two thirds of the above motion is completed,
upon the segment pinion o', the latter through the camb, lever, and
plate turns the flange of disc x on the swing arm in the path of the
projections on spur wheel which had hitherto passed through tho
spaces therein since the stripping of the last flat, and is caught hold of
thereby at the end of its seventh revolution, and at the samo moment
the semi-revolution of o being completed, the spaces in the rim thereof
and in the flange on the swing arm come opposite to each other, the
latter is unlocked and carried round one complete revolution by the spur
wheel, the teeth in now held stationary by the camb in wheel 7
causing w to revolve, and thus lock the flange upon disc between
the afore-mentioned two projections on wheel h, and the concave surface
on to slides upon the convex surface of until the revolution of h
approaches completion, when the disc a is unlocked by the same means,
and the second segment on having come up to and acted upon o
relocks the swing arm and moves the arm on to No. 9 flat.
•

page_text: That part of the herein-before described mechanism which effects the
intermittent communication between the spur wheel and the slide c
necessary to effect the rise and fall of each flat in its turn may be
modified in the following manner:-A bowl ¹, see Figs. 7 and 8, is
carried upon a disc ¹ which revolves upon a stud fixed near tho
periphery of the spur wheel ³, and to which is affixed a pinion 10¹
provided with 12 teeth and two set plates in contact with a circular
plate provided with a set rim, and three toothed segments of 10, 4,
and 4 teeth respectively, so as to form an intermittent gear. The plate r¹
is keyed or fixed to the inner end of the shaft u¹ which pierces the boss
of the internal wheel, and has a horizontal to-and-fro motion periodically
imparted to it by the action of a camb attached to the segment pinion o'
upon a lever hinged at the centre, and linked upon a lever to the outer
end of the said shaft a¹ so as to prevent the same from revolving. The
aforesaid bowl is caused hereby to act intermittently upon a double
flanged bracket m' attached to the slide c². Its mode of action may bo
thus described when the sixth revolution of 7' is about completed the
first segment on having come up to and acted upon the segment
pinion o', the latter makes half a revolution and moves the radial arm
from No. 7 to No. 8 flat, and in finishing the said movement the camb
attached thereto actuates the lever connected with the outer end of
shaft u¹, causing the latter to traverse horizontally towards the arm a¹
and to bring the teeth upon the circumference of the plate v affixed
thereto into the path of the pinion w¹ which is now in a position beneath
the bracket m³, and so that when the teeth upon the aforesaid pinion by
the continued motion of wheel ' come into contact with the first
segment of 4 teeth upon ², the disc 2¹ commences its semi-revolution
and the set plate hitherto in sliding contact with the set rim falls into
the space cut therein, and the bowl 7¹ carried by the said disc ¹ turns
between the flanges of the bracket m¹ which commences to rise as the spur
wheel continues its revolution, and the second set plate upon a¹ is in
sliding contact with the set rim upon o' until the segment of 10 teeth is
reached, when the disc 2 is thereby caused to make one complete
revolution, and the bracket m¹ is raised to the necessary height by the
combined effect of the revolutions of wheel ¹ and disc a¹. The converse
of the above described operation brings down the bracket until it
approaches its lowest point, when the second segment of 4 teeth upon d¹
causes the disc a¹ to make a semi-revolution, the bowl 1 is turned from
between the flanges of the bracket m' and the segment pinion o' being

page_text: again set in motion by the segment wheel ', the plate o' is moved away
from the arm a³ so that the teeth thereupon are clear of the pinion 101
as it continues to be carried round by the wheel ', the set plate there-
upon being in sliding contact with the set rim on v' which is at this part
of its surface a complete circle, the bowl 1 being hereby kept from
acting upon the bracket m' until the stripping of the flat next in
as it continues to be carried round by the wheel, the set plate there-
upon being in sliding contact with the set rim on v' which is at this part
of its surface a complete circle, the bowl being hereby kept from
acting upon the bracket m' until the stripping of the flat next in
order.
The number of teeth upon v¹ and a' may be varied, and the flanges
of the bracket m³ may in some cases be made arcs of circles with an
average radius equal to the sweep of bowl," when furthest from the centre
of ', but we have found the above described arrangement to work well.
It may here be mentioned that when the slide c commences to move
upwards, the stud f projecting into a recess on the flat end commences
to raise the same into the guides on the revolving box d until the top of
the slot in the main slide b is reached when the latter commences to
rise, and at the same time the teeth on box & being geared into the
fixed rack e cause the former to revolve upon a flange attached to the
main slide 6 until the flat is turned over on its side and is met by the
descending stripper actuated by the toothed segments upon k, which
removes the strippings thereupon and deposits them upon a board fixed
across the carding engine as heretofore, the flat in its ascent and descent
having the planed under surface of its ond pressed by a spring on d into
close sliding contact with the planed surface of the vertical bracket fixed
against the arm. The stripper oscillating upon the cross shaft, and
describing an are round the same may be made to enclose and cover, it,
thereby preventing the strippings lapping thereupon during its revolution
(see Figs. 11, 12, 13, and 14). The grinding roller or revolving brush,
whichever happens to be in use, is carried by adjustable brackets affixed
to the radial arms in the position shown in Fig. 1 instead of piercing the
radial arms as heretofore. As the gearing and other mechanism is
similar on both sides of the carding engine, we have simply described the
apparatus as shown on one side.
Although in our Drawings we have represented other parts of a
carding engine in order to render them more complete and intelligible,
we do not consider it necessary to enter into any description of these
parts as they aro well-known and understood by those acquainted with