IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WASHING AND CLEANSING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Lee Norton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th September
1866.
J, JAMES. LEE NORTON, of Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, in the City
of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WASHING AND CLEANSING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for washing
and cleansing wool and other fibrous materials; the wool or fibre to be washed
is immersed in a trough in which there is agitating apparatus consisting of a
horizontal axis with a number of screw blades upon it, which as the axis
rotates dip into the liquid in the trough and cause the fibre to travel forwards;
this screw apparatus is not in itself new, but I employ it in combination with
a fork worked by a crank or similar contrivance in such manner as to cause
it to dip into the trough immediately in advance of the screw axis and to
take the fibre as it leaves the blades. The fork then carries the fibre on
along the bottom of the trough and delivers it to other apparatus (it may be
such as is herein-after described), which lifts it out of the washing trough and
delivers it to squeezing rollers. In its return stroke the fork is lifted above
the surface of the liquid, and it again enters immediately in front of the screw
axis; the prongs of the fork in taking the fibre may descend between inclined
bars fixed in the trough and extending from the surface of the liquid nearly
to the bottom; these bars serve to keep the fibre from floating to the surface
after it escapes from the screw blades. The lifting-out apparatus which I

page_text: employ according to my Invention either in combination with the agitating
apparatus just described or otherwise, and which itself also acts more or less
as a washer or agitator, consists of endless chains or bands passing around
pulleys and carrying spikes or teeth; these chains or bands are placed in an
inclined position so that the spikes or teeth dip into and rise up out of the
trough and by means of a guide and roller they are caused to travel parallel
to the bottom and inclined end of the trough with which the ends of the
spikes or teeth come nearly in contact, so that they rake the fibre along and
up the inclined end of the trough, at the top of which it is delivered, and in
order that the spikes or teeth may drop the fibre at this point they are
not fixed to the chains or bands, but are jointed thereto, and guides are
employed to hold them at right angles to the chains or bands which carry
them until they come to the point of delivery, where the guides release them
and allow them to hang down in such manner that the fibre falls freely off
them. The fibre is not as heretofore delivered on to an endless apron which
in turn transfers it to the squeezing rollers, but the teeth at once deliver the
fibre to the squeezing rollers, and to admit of this the rollers are placed in an
inclined position so that the fibre may fall on to them. I prefer to employ
three rollers, the two lower ones being on the same level and driven in the
same direction. The upper roller, which is weighted and arranged so that
it can rise and fall vertically, rests on the two lower rollers, or rather it
squeezes the fibre against them, for the rollers (when made of bare metal
without any elastic coating) are not allowed to come into actual contact,
otherwise they might shear the fibre when the feed was thin. In constructing
tanks for steeping wool or fibre to prepare it for the washing machine I
arrange them with longitudinal partitions, these partitions divide the tank
into compartments, three by preference, and then the first compartment at
its further end communicates with the second, and this at its other end
communicates with the third, on which an apparatus for lifting the wool out
is fitted; this apparatus I prefer to be such as I have already described in
respect to the washing machinery. When the fibre has been steeped a
sufficient time it is propelled forward by suitable mechanical paddles or
otherwise into the last compartment, where the lifting-out apparatus takes it
out of the steeping tank; by this arrangement a considerable saving of hand
labor is effected.