A NEW MACHINE FOR BATTING, OPENING, AND CLEANSING COTTON, WOOL, AND SHEEPS' WOOL
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,. THOMAS
CONNOP, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of March,
in the forty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Cannop, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence,.
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Cannop, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, by myself and themselves, or by my
and their deputy or deputies, servants or agent, or such others as I,. the said
Thomas Connop, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thenafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention or discovery of "A NEW MACHINE FOR
BATTING, OPENING, AND CLEANSING COTTON, WOOL, AND SHEEPS' WOOL;" in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas
Connop, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be .inrolled in.in His

page_text: Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of and compliance with the said
recited proviso, I, the said Thomas Connop, do hereby declare that the nature
of my said Invention, and the manner of using the same, and in which the
same is to be performed, is as follow:-
The machine by me invented consists of,-
1st, a cylinder or cylinders, or roller or rollers, or wheel or wheels, or pulley
or pullies, or other body or substance, or bodies or substances, moving upon an
axis or upon axes.
The cylinder or other body moving on an axis which I
usually make, is about twenty inches in diameter, and four feet and six inches
in length; but it may be made of a greater or less diameter, and of a greater
less length. On the surface of the above cylinder or other body, moving on an
axis, I usually make circular grooves, of the breath of two inches, or there-
abouts, and about one quarter of an inch in depth, and at the distance of about
seven inches from each other. The cylinder or other body moving on an axis,
in the form in which I usually make the same, is marked with the letter A
in the different Drawings thereof in the margin hereof, and in such Drawings
is shewn in different points of view.
2ndly, one or more flexible strap or straps, of leather or other flexible sub-
stance or substances, which I'usually make of the length of twenty-one inches,
or thereabouts, and of the breadth of two inches, or thereabouts, at one end
thereof, and diminishing gradually in breadth so as to be only one inch in
breadth, or thereabouts, at the other end thereof, and of the thickness of half
an inch, or thereabouts, the whole length thereof, but which may be made of
greater or less length, breadth, or thickness, and in other shapes; the broad end
of which strap or straps, or other flexible substance or substances, I affix by
means of a hinge to the cylinder or other body moving on an axis, before
described, in the grooves before described. And that the machine may work
-more-regularly, I usually divide the circle' or circumference of the cylinder or
other body, moving on an axis, into seven-equal-parts or degrees, and affix
such straps successively at the distance of one' of such seventh parts or degrees
from each other, so that such straps may regularly and successively be
employed in causing the rods, herein-after described and affixed at the
narrow ends of such straps, to strike or beat the wool successively. These
relative situations of the fixture of the straps to the cylinder or other body,
moving on an axis, are shewn in the Figure Number 6 in the margin hereof,

page_text: which contains an end view of such cylinder or other body moving on an axis,
with such straps or other flexible substances affixed, thereto, and of such rods
as are herein-after described, affixed to the narrow ends of such straps.
The straps in the Drawings in the margin hereof are marked with the
letter B.
3rdly, a beating or batting rod, of iron, steel, wood, or other substance, and of
such length, breadth, and thickness as is proper for beating or batting wool, to
be affixed to the narrow end of each such strap of leather, or other flexible
substance or substances. I most usually make, each of my rods of iron or
steel, of the length of twenty-six inches, or thereabouts, and half an inch, or
thereabouts, in thickness, at that end thereof which is affixed to the narrow
end of such strap of leather, or other flexible substance or substances, as
aforesaid, and gradually tapering or diminishing in thickness, so as to be only
one quarter of an inch, or thereabouts, in thickness at the other end thereof.
The beating or batting rods in the Drawings in the margin heretofore marked
with the letter C.
4thly, guiders, made of wood, or any other substance, to be set in the form
shewn in the Drawings No. 1 and No. 2 in the margin hereof, which guide
the straps of leather, or other flexible substance or substances, after such straps
quit the cylinders or other body, moving on an axis, in a proper direction to
the flake or other body containing or supporting the wool.
5thly, a frame of wood, or other substance or substances, as shewn in the
Drawing No. 1 in the margin hereof, which is a single machine; or in the
Drawing No. 2 in the margin hereof, which is a double machine. The flake
may be made either of strings or cloth, in the common usual form, or of
leather straps; and it may either be fixed and immoveable, in which case the
wool must be spread upon it, and removed when sufficiently batted
or beaten,
cleansed and opened; or the flake may consist of endless strings, cloth, or
straps of leather, moving round two cylinders or rollers at each end of the
The rollers may have
flake, as shewn in Drawings No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4.
2
a motion communicated to them in the manner shewn in the Drawing. No. 3;
but I claim no right to the Invention of the flake, or the movement thereof,
the same having long been in common use. I mention them only to shew
the application of my machine to a flake of any description. My machine is
worked by turning round the cylinder or cylinders, or roller or rollers, or wheel
or wheels, or pully or pullies, or other body or substance, or bodies or sub-
stances, moving on an axis or axes first described, with such degree of velocity
as to cause the rods before described to move round such axis or, axes, and to
fall the wool with sufficient force to beat or bat, cleanse and open the
upon

page_text: same. I usually cause the cylinder by me before particularly described, to
make sixty revolutions, or thereabouts, in every minute, but the number of such
revolutions may be varied. The velocity ought to be such as to cause both
ends of the rod to fall upon the wool at the same time. The cylinder may be
turned round by means of a wince, crank, pulley, wheel, or any other means,
and by the force of human labour, or of a horse, water wheel, steam engine, or
Drawing No. 1 is a perspective view of the single machine invented by
me for seven straps and rods, but in which only three of the straps and
rods are shewn.
Drawing No. 2 is a perspective view of the double machine invented by me
for fourteen straps and rods, with a flake or place of wool in the middle
thereof. In this Drawing only 6 of such straps and rods are shewn.
Drawing No. 3 is a side view of the double machine, with a strap 'for
communicating the circular motion of one cylinder to the other cylinder. In
this Drawing it is also shewn how a motion may be communicated from one of
the cylinders to an endless flake.
Drawing No. 4 is a view of the other side of the double machine, with a
pulley added to the end of one of the cylinders, and a strap thereon, by
means whereof the machine may receive motion from any moving power.
Drawing No. 5 is an end view of the machine, shewing distinctly the
grooves in the cylinder, and three of the rods and straps affixed in their
proper situations to the cylinder. It also shews, on the right-hand side, a
strap and pullies, by means whereof power may be communicated to a moving
flake, and on the left-hand side thereof a strap, giving power to the machine,
by means of a fixed pulley, and another pulley, on a circular axis adjoining
to the fixed pulley, which may receive the moving strap when the machine is
intended to be stopped.
Drawing No. 6 is an end view of the cylinder, straps; and rods when in
motion.
Drawing No. 7 is a bird's-eye view of a double frame, prior to the cylinders
and guiders being affixed thercon. In this frame the apertures between the
boards on which the guiders are to be affixed are wide enough to admit of the
rods falling down between then when the rods pass under the cylinder, but
not so wide as to admit of the straps falling through them. A section of
these apertures is shewn in the Drawing No. 5. In fixing the cylinders of the
'double machine the grooves in one of the cylinders should be opposite to the

page_text: middle of the spaces between the grooves in the other cylinder, that the wool
may be more equally beaten or batted, and that the rods on one side may not
interfere with the rods on the other side.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Connop, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, the Twenty-sixth day of April, in the forty-second
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and two.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year above written.