CERTAIN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND PREPARING OF WOOL, COTTON, SILK, FLAX, HEMP, AND MOHAIR, FOR. THE PURPOSE OF SPINNING
Year: 1793

page_text: TOPLIS SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
TOPLIS the younger, of Cuckney, in the County of Nottingham, Worsted
Manufacturer, send greeting:
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by. His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Eighth day of June instant, hath given' and granted, unto me, the said
William Toplis, my. executors, administrators, and assigns; special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, to make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, during the term of
years therein expressed, my Invention of CERTAIN MACHINERY FOR COMBING AND
PREPARING OF WOOL, COTTON, SILK, FLAX, HEMP, AND MOHAIR, FOR. THE PURPOSE
OF SPINNING;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said William Toplis; by an instrument.in writing under my
hand and, seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention,, and in what. manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of. Chancery within one calendar month next
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto.had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW..YE, that I; the said William Toplis, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in the plan hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof (that is to say) :-

page_text: Figure 1 is a side view of the combing machine; Figuro 2 is tho flat or
ground plan to shew those parts that could not so well be seen in Figure 1st.
In both, the same parts are marked with the same letters.
The parts A, B, in, Figure the 1st, are called the combers; a, b, c, the
combs, with curved teeth fixed on the arms d, e, f, or detached at pleasure.
The combers when in action turn the same way round, that is, in tho
direction of the letters a, b, c. On the shaft of the comber A is a wheel P,
shewn in Figure 2, which by means of the wheels Q, S, T, and the rod R
gives motion to the shaft and comber B; or the motion may be communi-
cated to B by a train of spur wheels. Upon the shaft of the comber A is
another wheel K, which moves the wheel L upon the rod M, or this rod
may be moved by a wheel upon it and worked by the wheel I, at the top
of which rod is a worm N, which moves the worm wheel O upon the roller
D; the roller C being pressed against the roller D has motion given to it
by the friction against D, or those rollers may be put in motion by pullies
and cords. These rollers are intended to deliver down the wool to the combs
a, b, c, of the comber A, as represented by the dotted perpendicular lines
behind the flanck of the roller E. The wool to he combed may bo spread on
a cloth rolled up, as seen in Figure 3, and again represented in its place in
Figure 1, by circle k, or twisted into thick ropes, or made into long slivers;
either way the wool is to be introduced betwixt the rollers D and C, and passed
behind the roller E, which has a broad flanck to keep the wool from spreading
out wider than the teeth of the combs; or it may pass betwixt two rollers
placed below D and C, one of which may only bear against the other slightly,
so as not to hold the wool fast. The teeth of the combs on the comber A
passing through the wool as it is brought down by these rollers, takes away a
part, and the points of the combs of the combers B being made to meet the wool
upon the combs of the combers A, as the respective combs pass each other,
the necessary operation is performed by the comb teeth of tho combs on B
working through the wool on the combs on A to straighten tho wool, and
draw such staples away that are too loosely connected with those combs. Tho
curvature given to the teeth of either or both depends on the length of the
wool, and may vary as circumstances require, and the number of pitches of
the combs may be more or less as fancy may lead. The combs may be made
broader or narrower, as more or less quantity of work is intended to be done,
and the combers may have any number of combs as may be thought proper,
varying the length and increasing the number of the arms of the combers.
In Figure 2 on the shaft B3 is shown part of the comber; the cross piece
M, N. is for the comb head to be fixed on during the operation of combing, as

page_text: shown in Figure 1; 0, 0, is a table supported by the standard i and l, on
which the cloth rests, upon which the wool is spread, or if the wool ba twisted
into ropes or long slivers for them to be conveyed to the rollers D and C, this
table must be raised or lowered according to the length of tho wool. At P
and Q, Figure 1, part of the framing is removed to shew the movements better.
The rod R in Figure 2 may be made in two, and the ends fold over each other
and be secured together by screws, so as by sliding the ends over each other will
make the rod longer or shorter to vary the distance of the combers, when
necessary. The machine as exhibited in Figure 1 may be put in motion by
a train of wheels communicating from the large gearing of the mill with the
shaft G, or the shafts of the combers A or B, or with a strap or belt from
the large gearing to the binder F on the shaft G, or to one on the shafts of
the combers A or B, or it may be worked by hand with a winch on either of its
shafts. In this Figure on the shaft G is a wheel H, which moves the wheel I
on the shaft of the comber A.
Figure 4 is the front view of the rollers C and E of Figure 1. On the end
of this roller E, in this view, is the wheel U, by which this roller is moved by a
wheel V on the end of the roller D, shewn in Figure 5. These wheels are not
seen in Figure 1, but the ends of the rollers and these wheels are represented
in Figure 6.
In Figures 5 and 6 is likewise shown a pulley W on the axis of the roller D,
which by a cord and pulley X moves the roller X in Figures 1 and 6 to carry
the cloth away that the wool was laid on, if that method is used of conveying
the wool to the combs on the comber A, which cloth is shewn part drawn off
in Figure 1 at Y and Z. The wheel O in Figure 5 is the worm wheel O in
Figure 1.
In Figure 4, 9 and h are the springs that press the roller C to D; in
Figures 1 and 6, S is a roller on the top of the roller ✗, to assist in drawing
away the cloth. For coarse wool, a first comber only might be used by working
it twice over.
Figure 7 is a side view of the drawing frame; Figure 8, a front view
of the same. The same parts in each are marked with the same letters.
When the combs are taken from the combers, the heads are placed in a
groove in the upright standard A, A.
In Figure 8 at B is shewu part of the groove, and from C to D is shewn
part of the teeth of the combs, the points represented as broken off standing
out from the upright A with the wool on the teeth. In Figure 7 is shewn the
ends of the three rollers, by which the wool is drawn off' from the combs.
The rollers E and F are connected together by wheels not here shewn. The

page_text: roller Ghere shown is a plain or covered roller forceably..pressed. against
the other two by either weights or springs, and has motion given.to.it by the
friction against E and F. These three,rollers may be either: fluted or plain.
The wool drawn from the combs by these rollers is collected together.by. the
tweedler H, which is turned round by, means of a largo pulley on tlie end of
the axis of roller E, as shewn Figure 8 at 1: The shaft or axis a, b, belongs
to the roller E. The wool passes through this tweedler.not in a straight! line,
but through a channel cut through.it, as represented by the..dotted lines, and
receives by the motion of the tweedler a partial twist. It is thon received. by
the two rollers K and L. The roller K receives its motion from tlio roller E,
by means of a pulley and a cord; the roller L, by its resting on, the roller.K.
Those rollers draws it away from the tweedler, and throws the. wool which is
formed into a perpetual sliver, or roving into baskets. Upon tlio axis of the
roller E there is a small pinion r. that, moves the, whee! N, upon a shaft on
which is placed another wheel O that works in the teeth of a rack placed upon
the heads of the combs, as shown in the opening of the upright standard A, sec
Figure. 7 and 8, at P and Q, where the rack is shown. By this rack; the
combs are drawn down to feed the rollers with a constant supply of wool, and a
greater.or less-quantity may be thrown down at a time by altering the wheels
N and O. After such combs have passed the wheels they fall out of the frame
by part of the back of the groove being cut away. The motion, to be given
to the whole may be by means of the drum-R, the shaft S, the wheel. T,
on the top of it, and the wheel U on the axis of the roller E. The opening
P, Q, as seen in the standard A, Figure 7, is part of the standard removed
merely to show the position of the comb, head rack; and wheel; but in the
front view, Figure 8, the opening P, Q, is what must be made in the standard
for the wheels O to work the combs down by the micans of the rack. On the
back of the standard; Figure 7, W is a cast metal heater, made, hot; in a
stove, and placed in an iron frame to heat the combs,while. the wool is
drawing off, if necessary. The standard A, A, of the drawing frame may
be placed in an inclined. position, either hanging over the rollers'or reclining
from them, or it may be, made quite upright.
Figure 9 is a representation of the comb detached from tlie comber...
In witness whereof, I, the said William Toplis, have hereunto' set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June, in the thirty-third year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King George the Third, and in tho
year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-threo.
W TOPLIS, JUN³. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-sixth day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Toplis came before our
Lord the King in his Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.