IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Mills, of Heywood, in the County of Lancaster,
Machine Maker, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Mills at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1881..
FREDERICK MILLS, of Heywood, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
My Invention relates to certain modifications of and improvements in the
mechanical details for setting and adjusting the top cards or flats of a carding
engine, as described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to Thomas
Bispham Kay on the Thirty-first day of January, A.D. 1870, No. 275, for certain
improvements in carding engines for carding cotton and other fibrous substances.
According to the Invention therein specified, the flats are shewn and described
as supported by and traversing upon the conical or inclined surfaces, one upon
each bend, by the adjustment of which they are set to the surface of the main
carding cylinder.
Now according to my present Invention I support the flats upon flexible rings,
which lie upon the aforesaid conical or inclined surfaces, and against turned flanges
upon the bends and upon which the flats traverse. By this means I am enabled to
attain greater accuracy in the setting or adjusting of the flats, and to secure a
more regular carding action between them and the surface of the main carding.
cylinder.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Frederick Mills in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th September 1881.
"
FREDERICK MILLS, of. Heywood, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
My Invention relates to certain modifications of and improvements in the
mechanical details for setting and adjusting the top cards or flats of a carding
engine, as described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to Thomas
Bispham Kay on the Thirty first day of January, A.D. 1870, No. 275, for
Certain Improvements in Carding Engines for Carding Cotton and other Fibrous
Substances."
According to the Invention therein specified, the flats are shown and described
as supported by and traversing upon the conical or inclined surfaces, one upon
each bend, by the adjustment of which they are set to the surface of the main
carding cylinder.
Now according to my present Invention I support the flats upon flexible rings,
which lie upon the aforesaid conical or inclined surfaces and against turned flanges
upon the bends, and upon which the flats traverse. By this means I am enabled
to attain greater accuracy in the setting of or adjusting of the flats, and to
secure a more regular carding action between them and the surface of the main
carding cylinder.
Such being the nature and object of my said Invention for "Improvements in
Machinery for Carding Cotton and other Fibrous Materials," I will now proceed.
to describe in detail the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed
or carried into practical effect; and in order that the same may be clearly under-
stood I have annexed hereunto a Sheet of Drawings illustrative thereof, and have
marked the same with figures and letters of reference corresponding with those in
the following explanation thereof, that is to say :-
Fig. 1 in the annexed Drawings represents a partial sectional view of a carding
engine having travelling flats showing the arrangement of bend, and mode of
supporting and setting the flats.
<
Fig. 2 represents a partial side elevation of the same.
All the Drawings are one half real size.
In Figs. 1 and 2, 6 represents a flange attached to the bend a of the carding
engine, which is turned on its upper surface and fixed in a position concentric
with and having its upper surface parallel to the axis of the cylinder h. Upon this
flange rests and slides the segment of a frustrum of a cone c (hereinafter called the
cone") which is turned on its upper and under surfaces, and the position of which
on the said flange is regulated by a series of screws tapped thereunto (one of which
is shown at f), and held in brackets (one of which is shown at g) affixed to the
aforesaid flange in front of the said cone as heretofore. Now upon the inclined
upper surface of this "cone" I place the segment of a thin flexible ring d (berein-
after called the "ring"), and which also lies against a second turned flange b' (which
may be cast along with the first named flange, as shown in the Drawings), so that it is
prevented thereby from having any lateral motion, but can nevertheless slide freely
in a radial direction up and down the inclined surface of the "cone," and against
the said flange when the flats e, e, which lie upon it are set or adjusted. This ring
is turned upon its upper surface: upon its under surface with its bearing edge
bevelled off, and also upon its inner face, and is made sufficiently thin to be able to
adapt itself easily, when pressed by the weight of the superincumbent flats, to the

page_text: varying radius of the cone as the latter is withdrawn outwardly or forced inwardly
by the action of the aforesaid regulating screws, and in accordance with the degree
of approximation desired between the wire on the said flats and the wire on the
main carding cylinder. The length of the arc both in the "ring" and in the
cone" should slightly exceed that of the chain of flats simultaneously at work
with the cylinder, so as to extend beyond the same at both ends, and provide them
with a safe and sufficient support.
"
The general construction and manner of working of this class of carding engine
being now well known, and as the bends with their appendages upon both sides of
the carding engine are similar, I have thought it sufficient to describe that on one
side, and confine myself to a complete explanation of the various parts thereof so
far only as my said Invention is concerned.
I may here remark that a difficulty has hitherto existed in setting flats of this
description to the cylinder as the wire thereupon wears down, and at the same
time maintaining a perfectly true are for the flats to traverse upon at all times till
the said wire is worn out. Now by this my present Invention a series of perfect
ares of diminishing radius are provided which may be brought consecutively under
the flexible ring, which latter will be compelled by the weight of the superincum-
bent flats to adapt itself closely thereto. By these means I obtain a setting
arrangement of great accuracy, and at the same time provide a horizontal in lieu
of an inclined surface for the flats to traverse upon, thus rendering any slight lateral
vibration immaterial, and securing a more certain carding action between the said
flats and the main carding cylinder.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention, together
with the manner in which the same is to be or may be carried into practical effect,
I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not claim the cone nor the flexible
ring individually and separately, but what I do claim as secured to me under the
above in part recited Letters Patent is,-
The novel arrangement or combination of parts marked b, b¹, c, d, or any mere
modification or imitation of the above mentioned arrangement or combination of
parts, when used substantially in the same manner and for the same purposes as
hereinbefore described, set forth, and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Mills, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.