IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WASHING WOOL, HAIR, AND OTHER FIBRE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Edmund Donisthorpe, of Leeds, in the County
of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WASHING
WOOL, HAIR, AND OTHER FIBRE."
Sealed the 26th March 1867, and dated the 4th October 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Edmund Donis-
thorpe at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 4th October 1866.
I, GEORGE EDMUND DONISTHORPE, of Leeds, in the County of York, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR WASHING WOOL, HAIR, AND OTHER FIBRE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for washing
wool, hair, and other fibre. In order to carry wool or fibre through a bath of
suds the wool or fibre is laid on to an endless travelling apron which passes
down at an angle into the bath, where the apron passes below the suds; a roller
or rollers, either fluted or plain, are placed above and across the apron to hold
the fibre down and prevent it rising to the top of the suds. Near the bottom
of the bath is a perforated false bottom, above and across which rollers, either
fluted or plain, are placed. The fibre fed into the bath by the arrangement
above described comes on to one end of the perforated false bottom, and is
prevented rising off it by means of the rollers. The rollers being caused to
revolve move the fibre along the perforated false bottom. When the fibre has

page_text: thus been brought to the opposite end of the perforated false bottom it is
raised out of the bath of suds by a similar arrangement of endless apron and
rollers to that by which it was fed into the bath, and is delivered to a pair of
squeezing rollers by which the suds are squeezed out of it. The rollers above
the perforated false bottom may be arranged to press down towards the false
bottom so as to press upon the fibre; by this means as the fibre passes in
succession below each roller the suds will be expressed from it, whilst as it is
passing from one roller to another the fibre will again open out into the suds.
Stampers or pressers having a reciprocating to-and-fro motion may also be
caused to act in a similar manner on the fibre as it is passing through the
bath, the stampers or pressers in their to-and-fro movement alternately
pressing the fibre on to the false bottom before mentioned.
According to another arrangement the fibre is distributed on a feeding apron
which delivers it on to an inclined board at one end of a trough containing
suds or liquid; at the bottom of this board the fibre is taken between two
endless aprons formed of chains carrying laths, or in other convenient
manner, and by them it is taken along towards the other end of the trough a
few inches beneath the surface of the suds or liquid. Whilst the fibre is thus
carried along it is exposed to a shower of the suds or liquid falling from a
cullender above, into which liquid is continually raised from the trough by a
pump; afterwards the fibre is carried on to an inclined apron which, with
the assistance of rollers above it driven at the same surface speed, raises the
fibre out of the trough and delivers it to the pressing rollers. The pressing
rollers are not driven as heretofore the one from the other by means of pinions
with long teeth, for the motion obtained in this manner is not so regular as is
desirable, but they are driven separately and at the same surface speed in the
following manner:-Each pressing roller has on its axis a large spur wheel,
and these wheels are on opposite sides of the machine. The wheel on the
lower roller gears directly with a pinion on an axis which is driven at a
suitable speed by a train of wheels. The wheel on the upper roller gears with
an intermediate or stud wheel, and this in turn gears with another pinion on
the pinion shaft; the position of the intermediate wheel is such that the rise
and fall of the upper pressing roller does not materially alter the distance of
its centre from that of the intermediate wheel, so that the spur teeth always
gear nearly to the same depth. Where the upper pressing roller is lapped
with an elastic material, as is usual, I make this roller with flanges, which
when there is no fibre between the rollers come into contact with the lower
roller. The flanges of the upper roller are of such a diameter that their
bearing surfaces shall travel at the same surface speed as the lower roller;

page_text: in this way the elastic lapping is protected from undue pressure, and its
durability is greatly increased. After the fibres have been passed through &
bath of suds, as above described, they may be further cleansed by showers of
suds applied intermediate of pairs of squeezing rollers, as described in the
Provisional Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 21st day of April
1866 (No. 1138)
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Edmund Donisthorpe in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 3rd April 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
EDMUND DONISTHORPE, of Leeds, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said George
Edmund Donisthorpe, Her special licence that I, the said George Edmund
Donisthorpe, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said George Edmund Donisthorpe, 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 MACHINERY FOR WASHING WOOL, HAIR, AND OTHER FIBRE,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Edmund
Donisthorpe, 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 George Edmund Donisthorpe, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for washing
wool, hair, and other fibre. In order to carry wool or fibre through a bath of

page_text: suds the wool or fibre is laid on to an endless travelling apron which passes
down at an angle into the bath, where the apron passes below the suds; a
roller or rollers, either fluted or plain, are placed above and across the apron
to hold the fibre down and prevent it rising to the top of the suds. Near the
bottom of the bath is a perforated false bottom, above and across which rollers,
either fluted or plain, are placed. The fibre fed into the bath by the arrangement
above described comes on to one end of the perforated false bottom, and is
prevented rising off it by means of the rollers. The rollers being caused to
revolve move the fibre along the perforated false bottom. When the fibre
has thus been brought to the opposite end of the perforated false bottom it is
raised out of the bath of suds by a similar arrangement of endless apron and
rollers to that by which it was fed into the bath, and is delivered to a pair of
squeezing rollers, by which the suds are squeezed out of it. The rollers above
the perforated false bottom may be arranged to press down towards the false
bottom so as to press upon the fibre; by this means as the fibre passes in
succession below each roller the suds will be expressed from it, whilst as it is
passing from one roller to another the fibre will again open out into the suds.
Stampers or pressers having a reciprocating to-and-fro-motion may also be
caused to act in a similar manner on the fibre as it is passing through the
bath, the stampers or pressers in their to-and-fro movement alternately
pressing the fibre on to the false bottom before mentioned.
According to another arrangement the fibre is distributed on a feeding
apron which delivers it on to an inclined board at one end of a trough con-
taining suds or liquid; at the bottom of this board the fibre is taken between
two endless aprons formed of chains carrying laths, or in other convenient
manner, and by them it is taken along towards the other end of the trough a
few inches beneath the surface of the suds or liquid. Whilst the fibre is thus
carried along it is exposed to a shower of the suds or liquid falling from a
cullender above, into which liquid is continually raised from the trough by a
pump. Afterwards the fibre is carried on to an inclined apron which, with the
assistance of rollers above it, driven at the same surface speed, raises the fibre
out of the trough and delivers it to the pressing rollers. The pressing rollers
are not driven, as heretofore, the one from the other by means of pinions with
long teeth, for the motion obtained in this manner is not so regular as is
desirable, but they are driven separately and at the same surface speed in the
following manner :-Each pressing roller bas on its axis a large spur wheel;
and these wheels are on opposite sides of the machine. The wheel on the
lower roller gears directly with a pinion on an axis which is driven at a
suitable speed by a train of wheels. The wheel on the
upper roller
gears-with

page_text: au intermediate or stud wheel, and this in turn gears with another pinion on
the pinion shaft; the position of the intermediate wheel is such that the rise
and fall of the upper pressing roller does not materially alter the distance of
its centre from that of the intermediate wheel, so that the spur teeth always
gear nearly to the same depth. Where the upper pressing roller is lapped
with an elastic material, as is usual, I make this roller with flanges, which
when there is no fibre between the rollers come into contact with the lower
roller. The flanges of the upper roller are of such a diameter that their bearing
surfaces shall travel at the same surface speed as the lower roller; in this way
the elastic lapping is protected from undue pressure, and its durability is
greatly increased. After the fibres have been passed through a bath of suds,
as above described, they may be further cleansed by showers of suds applied
intermediate of pairs of squeezing rollers, as described in the Provisional
Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 21st day of April 1866
(No: 1138).
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention I will proceed to describe
more fully the manner of performing the same.
In Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed is shown the arrangement
of machinery herein first described. a is the endless apron upon which the
wool or fibre to be washed is placed, and by which it is carried down below
the surface of the suds in the bath b and delivered on to the end of the
perforated false bottom c; d is the endless apron for raising the wool or fibre
out of the bath and delivering it to a pair of squeezing rollers. Above the
endless. aprons and the perforated bottom are the rollers 1. to 9, the rollers
1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9, which are above the endless aprons a and d, are
carried in such manner that they remain at the same distance from the endless
aprons; the rollers 4 and 5, which are above the perforated false bottom, are
also kept at one distance from this bottom; their axes may, however, if desired,
be allowed to rise and fall so that the wool or fibre shall always be pressed
against the perforated false bottom whilst it is passing below one or other
of these rollers. As before stated, fallers or stampers having a rising and
falling motion given to them may be placed between the rollers 4 and 5 so
that the wool or fibre may be squeezed between their lower ends and the
perforated false bottom; a stream of suds may also, if desired, be caused to
fall into the bath between the rollers that are above the false bottom. The
surfaces of the endless aprons and of the rollers between which the wool or
fibre is carried through the bath are all caused to travel in the same direction
with an equal surface speed. The rollers are driven by chains from the axis
of the upper squeezing roller, one-half of the rollers by a chain on one side of

page_text: the bath and the remaining rollers by a chain on the other side of the bath.
The endless aprons are driven at the same surface speed as the rollers; one
apron is driven by a cross belt from the axis of one of the rollers, and the
other is driven from the axis of the bottom squeezing roller, as shown. By
this arrangement the wool or fibre to be washed is fed into the bath of suds at
cne end, and is moved along a false bottom therein towards its opposite end
from which it is raised and delivered to a pair of squeezing rollers.
At Figure 2 is shown a longitudinal section of the second arrangement of
washing machinery. With this machine is also shown my improved arrangement
for giving motion to squeezing or drying rollers employed for drying wool or
fibre after it is taken out of the bath; this arrangement for giving motion to the
squeezing or drying rollers may be employed when other arrangements are
employed for passing the wool or fibre through a bath of suds. In the section
shown at Figure 2, a is the bath of suds; b, the endless apron, on to which
the wool or fibre to be washed is placed, and from which it falls on to an
inclined board b¹, which leads it between the endless aprons c and d; these
aprons are formed of chains carrying transverse laths as above mentioned, so
that a current of suds constantly falling on to the top of the bath from the
cullender x may flow through between these laths and carry away dirt from the
wool or fibre. Suds are constantly raised into the cullender from the bath a by
means of a pump. The endless aprons c and d deliver the wool or fibre to the
endless apron e, which, as in the arrangement first described, raises it out of the
bath, the wool or fibre being held down on this endless apron by rollers 3, 4,
and 5, as shown. If preferred an endless apron might be employed in place of
the rollers. After the endless aprone has raised the wool out of the bath it
delivers it to the squeezing or drying rollers f and 9. The upper rollers and
endless chain are at one side of the bath driven from the axis of the upper
squeezing roller, and the lower endless chains are driven at a like surface speed
from the axis of the lower squeezing roller. The axes of the squeezing rollers
receive motion in the following manner-On the axis of each roller is a spur
wheel f¹ and g¹, these spur wheels being on opposite sides of the machine.
The spur wheel f¹ on the axis of the lower roller f gears directly with a
pinion. h on the axis h', to which is given a slow rotating motion. On the
opposite end of the axis h' is another pinion h, which by the intermediate stud
wheel. k transmits motion to the spur wheel g¹ on the axis of the upper
roller g, the axes of the roller and of the intermediate wheel being nearly in a
horizontal line, so that when the upper pressing roller g rises vertically it does
not materially effect the gearing together of the wheels k and g¹. This
arrangement is applicable for driving squeezing rollers where no lapping is

page_text: employed with the rollers, as described in a former Patent granted to me, and
is applicable for driving squeezing rollers, one or other of which has around
it a lapping of wool, as is usual. When one of the rollers is lapped with an
elastic material I make this roller with flanges, between which the lapping is
retained, as shown at Figure 3; these flanges, when there is no wool or fibre
passing between the rollers, bear against the other roller, the flanges being of
such a diameter as to travel at the same surface speed as the lower roller; in
this way the durability of the lapping is increased. In place of employing
flanges, as above described, to prevent the rollers approaching so close together
as to injure the lapping, a stop placed between the axes of the rollers may be
employed to effect this object.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Edmund Donisthorpe, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
G. E. DONISTHORPE. (L.S.)