IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING SILK, FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Warburton, of Addingham, in the County
of York, Worsted Spinner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COMBING SILK, FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 17th April 1866, and dated the 9th December 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Warburton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th December 1865.
I, JAMES WARBURTON, of Addingham, in the County of York, Worsted
Spinner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COMBING SILK, FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as
follows:-
In machinery for combing wool, silk, flax, and other fibres constructed
according to this Invention tufts of fibre are fed on to an endless travelling
comb carried by an endless chain that for the greater part of its revolution
travels in a straight line. I by preference feed the tufts of fibre on to this
comb from screw gills by an oscillating nip and carrying comb, but tufts
of fibre may be otherwise fed on to the comb. The tufts of fibre are
carried on by the comb in a straight line and brought under a straight
stationary nipping plate or surface, which is pressed. down towards the

page_text: travelling comb; the comb and the nipping plate acting together bend the
fibres between them and so hold them fast, whilst at the same time the
fibres are carried forward by the comb. Whilst the tufts of fibre are held
by this nipping plate one of the projecting ends of the tufts is cleaned by
card cylinders or bands or otherwise. I however prefer to employ three
card cylinders or bands, commencing with a coarse and ending with a fine
one. When the tufts have been carried on by the travelling comb beyond
the nipping plate the fibres are lifted out of the comb by inclined blades
or otherwise, and are moved sidewise so as to move away from the comb the
dirty end of the tufts; the cleaned end of the tufts are then pressed into
the comb, and as the comb still moves onwards in a straight line they are
brought under another straight nipping surface; the dirty ends of the tufts
are then cleaned. When the tufts have been carried beyond this second
nip they are lifted out of the comb and deposited into a circular receiving
comb from which they are drawn off into a sliver. In place of the two
stationary straight nipping surfaces both acting with the same travelling
comb, two travelling combs such as above described may be employed;
the tufts of fibre are then fed on to one of the travelling combs, which
carries them under the first straight nipping surface for one end of the tufts
to be cleaned, and then delivers the cleaned end of the tufts on to the
second travelling comb, which carries the tufts under the second straight
nipping surface for the other end of the tufts to be cleaned. In place of
the travelling comb having tufts of fibre fed on to it as above described,
the travelling comb and straight nipping surface may be caused constantly
to take tufts from a circular filling comb having slivers ranged around it.
The ends of the slivers which project out from the comb are as the comb
revolves taken hold of between the travelling comb and the straight
nipping surface, and the fibres so taken hold of are drawn from the filling
comb. In place of employing in the arrangement of machinery first
described an endless travelling comb which for a great part of its movement
travels in a straight line, a circular comb may be employed, the circular
comb being similarly combined with nipping surfaces and with apparatus
for moving the tufts sidewise on the comb after that one end of the fibres
has been cleaned.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by, the said James Warburton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th June 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WARBURTON, of Addingham, in the County of York, Worsted Spinner,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Warburton, Her special licence that I,
the said James Warburton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said James Warburton, my 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 Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBING SILK, FLAX, WOOL, AND
OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said James Warburton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Warburton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
In machinery for combing wool, silk, flax,, and other fibres constructed
according to this Invention tufts of fibre are fed on to an endless travelling
comb carried by an endless chain that for the greater part of its revolution
travels in a straight line. I by preference feed the tufts of fibre on to this
comb from screw gills by an oscillating nip and carrying comb, but tufts of
fibre
may be otherwise fed on to the comb. The tufts of fibre are carried
on by the comb in a straight line and brought under a straight stationary
nipping plate or surface, which is pressed down towards the travelling comb';
the comb and the nipping plate acting together. bend the fibres between

page_text: them and so hold them fast, whilst at the same time the fibres are carried
forward by the comb. Whilst the tufts of fibre are held by this nipping
plate one of the projecting ends of the tufts is cleaned by card cylinders
or bands or otherwise. I however prefer to employ three card cylinders
or bands, commencing with a coarse and ending with a fine one. When
the tufts have been carried on by the travelling comb beyond the nipping
plate the fibres are lifted out of the comb by inclined blades or otherwise,
and are moved sidewise so as to move away from the comb the dirty end
of the tufts; the cleaned end of the tufts are then pressed into the comb,
and as the comb still moves onwards in a straight line they are brought
under another straight nipping surface; the dirty ends of the tufts are then
cleaned. When the tufts have been carried beyond this second nip they
are lifted out of the comb and deposited into a circular receiving comb
from which they are drawn off into a sliver. In place of the two stationary
straight nipping surfaces both acting with the same travelling comb, two
travelling combs such as above described may be employed; the tufts of
fibre are then fed on to one of the travelling combs, which carries them
under the first straight nipping surface for one end of the tufts to be
cleaned, and then delivers the cleaned end of the tufts on to the second
travelling comb, which carries the tufts under the second straight nipping
surface for the other end of the tufts to be cleaned. In place of the
travelling comb having tufts of fibre fed on to it as above described, the
travelling comb and straight nipping surface may be caused constantly to
take tufts from a circular filling comb having slivers ranged around it.
The ends of the slivers which project out from the comb are as the comb
revolves taken hold of between the travelling comb and the straight
nipping surface, and the fibres so taken hold of are drawn from the filling
comb. In place of employing in the arrangement of machinery first
described an endless travelling comb which for a great part of its move-
ment travels in a straight line, a circular comb may be employed, the
circular comb being similarly combined with nipping surfaces and with
apparatus for moving the tufts sidewise on the comb after that one end of
the fibres has been cleaned.
In order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed, which
show a machine arranged as herein first described. When combing long
fibres I prefer to employ a filling head known as Lister's filling head; a
filling head of this description is shown at Figure 1.
A is the back guide plate upon which the slivers rest as they are fed
..

page_text: into the machine; B are the back rollers; C, the gills; E, E, the nipper
for detaching the tufts of fibre; and F, the carrying comb with a tuft upon
it; G, the endless travelling comb, which I call the chain nip comb, on to
which the tufts of fibre are deposited; H is a brush for dabbing the tufts
into the comb G; a section of this comb is shown full size at Figure 2.
For combing short fibres I prefer to employ a filling head such as is shown
at Figure 3; it is called a doghead filling head, and is composed of two pairs
of rollers A, A, carried by levers B, held at the bottom by links C and
worked by cranks D, D; the slivers of fibre pass between the rollers A,
and at each revolution of the crank the rollers are caused to make a partial
rotation to feed forward the ends of the slivers, as is well understood, and
the rollers then place them on or lash them into the endless travelling
comb G. The fibres fed on to the comb G are by it carried forward and
brought under the nipping plates, which hold them whilst they are being
cleaned. This portion of the machine is shown in Figures 4, 5, and 6,
Figure 4 being a section taken through one of the nipping plates, Figure 5
a side view of the travelling comb and nipping plates, and Figure 6 a plan
view. In these Figures C, C', are the straight nipping plates pressed down
by spiral springs B, which bear against the fixed bar A; G is the bottom
chain comb nip carrying the fibre; E, E, are two card cylinders or
cleaning rollers to clean the tufts when under the nip; F, F, are brushes
to clean the cylinders E; D, D are doffers to clean the brushes, and
H, H, are doffer plates to clean the doffers; the noil removed passes through
two rollers into cans. The comb G first carries the tufts under the nipping
plate C, a section of the lower end of which, together with the comb G, is
shown full size at Figure 7. The fringe of fibre projecting from the comb
is then cleaned by the cleaning roller E; after the fibre has been carried by
the comb G past this cleaning roller it is lifted out of the teeth of the
comb by inclines or lifting blades, as is well understood, and caused to rest
on a flat plate or surface; the oscillating rake or comb J then rakes the tufts
so that the end just cleaned shall, as the comb G travels onwards, come
under the nipping plate C, whilst the other end projects out from the
comb and is cleaned by the second cleaning cylinder E; the chain comb
nip G afterwards carries forwards the tufts now cleaned at both ends
and places them on to a circular comb K, as is well understood, to be drawn
off into a sliver or slivers at L, L. The cleaning rollers I prefer to employ
are rollers covered with fillets of card teeth, coarse card teeth being placed
at the end of the roller which is first to act on the tufts, and fine card teeth
at the other end of the roller. By employing a travelling comb for

page_text: carrying forwards the tufts, which for the greater portion of its revolution
travels in a straight line, I am enabled to employ cleaning cylinders of far
greater width than if a circular comb were employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Warburton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
J. WARBURTON. (L.S.)