A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING HEMP, FLAX,HORDS, SHORT TOW, AND CLEARINGS, AND OTHER INFERIOR PARTS OF HEMP AND FLAX, EITHER ALONE OR MIXED WITH COTTON WOOL, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SPINNING THE SAME INTO YARN OR THREAD; AND ALSO CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF SPINNING THE SAME
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wo, THOMAS
DICKEN, of Alrewas Mills, in the County of Stafford, Cotton Manufacturer,
and HENRY BRADLEY, of the same place, Cotton Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of
August last past, did give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Dicken and
Henry Bradley, our executors, adñiors, and assigns, His special licence that
we, the said Thomas Dicken and Henry Bradley, our exors, admors, and
assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
solely and exclusively make, use, exercised and vend, within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick, our Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF
PREPARING HEMP, FLAX, HORDS, SHORT TOW, AND CLEARINGS, AND OTHER INFERIOR
PARTS OF HEMP AND FLAX, EITHER ALONE OR MIXED WITH COTTON WOOL, FOR
THE PURPOSE OF SPINNING THE SAME INTO YARN OR THREAD; AND ALSO CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF SPINNING THE SAME;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Thomas Dicken
and Henry Bradley, or one of us, under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us, to cause a particular description of the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
annear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Dicken and Henry Bradley,
in compliance with and in performance of the aforesaid proviso in the said
in part recited Letters Patent contained, do by this present Instrument in
writing declare that our said Invention is herein-after particularly described.
Our method of preparing short tow, hurds, clearings, or other inferior
parts of hemp and flax for spinning, and also of spinning the same, either
alone or mixed with cotton, is, first, by working the said short tow, hurds,
clearings, or other inferior parts of hemp and flax thro' a certain machine
called a willow or devil, such as is commonly used for cleaning cotton wool
or waste. The short tow, hurds, clearings, or other inferior parts of hemp
and flax is then carded by a machine similar to those used for the carding
of cotton, but with cards made with much stronger wire than is commonly
used for that purpose. After the short tow, hurds, clearings, or other
inferior parts of hemp and flax has been carded, it is passed through a
drawing frame, which is so constructed that the rollers may be set to such
'a distance from each other as corresponds with the length of the staple or
fibres of the short tow, hurds, clearings, or other inferior parts of hemp or
flax, or as near thereto as possible, that the staple or fibres may be thereby
drawn straight; and this operation ought generally to be performed twice,
except when the short tow or hurds is of a short and uniform length of staple,
in which case, passing it once thro' the drawing machine may be deficient.
When the short tow, hurds, clearings, or other inferior parts of hemp or flax
has been passed thro' the drawing machine, it is to be cut into the length
required for spinning, to effect which we employ our new invented cutting
machine, described in the annexed Drawings, Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
and 8. If the short. If the short tow, hurds, clearings, or other inferior
parts of hemp and flax is intended to bo mixed with cotton, it is cut into
lengths corresponding as nearly as may be with the length of the staple
of the cotton with which it is to be mixed, and when so cut it will be in a
state to be mixed with any proportion of cotton wool, and to be proceeded
with through all the operations of carding, drawing, roving and spinning,
on the same kind of machinery that is used in the preparation and spinning
of cotton wool, by which means an even and fine thread of yarn may
be produced. If the short tow, hurds, clearings, or other inferior parts of
hemp or flax is to be spun without any mixture of cotton, it should, after
it has been worked through the drawing machine, as before described, be
cut into lengths of from two to four inches, after which it should be proceeded
with in the same manner as when it is mixed with cotton, but the back
drawing, roving, and spinning rollers must be made moveable, and set at a

page_text: distance from the front rollers, according to the length to which the staple
has been so cut. When we open the short tow, hurds, clearings, or other
inferior parts of hemp or flax, without being mixed with cotton, we use a
plain brass roller, which runs in a small wooden trough filled with water,
the top roller being of wood, not covered, and weighted in the usual manner.
The bottom back roller is of iron, and the top back roller of wood, and not
covered. The back rollers are moveable from one to six inches, and the
draft between the front and back rollers may be altered at pleasure by wheel
for the purpose. When we make use of flax or hemp, in the first place we
hackle it, and then, by means of our cutting machine, cut the staple into
lengths of from two to four inches, or thereabouts, if it is to be used alone,
but if it is to be mixed with cotton we cut it into lengths corresponding with
the staple of the cotton; and the flax or hemp, when so cut, is worked
in the same manner as the short tow or hurds, and which is before described..
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS.
:
Figure 1, view of the cutting machine; a, a, is an oblong square frame
of wood, on which the machine is mounted; b, the cutting frame; d, d, screws
to fasten the cutting knife c to the frame b, and to regulate and set it true
and even to the cutting block e; ff, ff, rollers; g, g, cast iron stands for
the rollers to run in; h, iron upright for centers of cutting frame b to turn
on; i, i, weights to press the top rollers down on the article to be cut, to
keep it even and solid; j, the feeding frame. Figure 2, the cutting machine,
the opposito side to Figuro 1. Figure 3, the cutting frame b, b; cutting
knife c; crank k; and pulley l. Figure 4, the feeding frame j, with an
oblong square piece of leather along the frame and round the rollers f, f.
Figure 5, front rollers f, with their wheels. Figure 6, cutting knife C, made
made of steel, ground perfectly straight and true on the edge. Figure 7,
cast iron stands 9 for the rollers f, f, to work in. Figure 8 an iron plate
to confine the article to be cut betwixt the breadth f, f. The letters to
Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 correspond with the letters to the Figures 1 and 2.
The manner in which the said machine works is as follows:-The pulley l
being turned, moves the crank k, which lifts up and down the cutting knife
c with the frame b, and at the same time a strap or band turns the pulley n,
and the wheel o, which is part toothed, when the cutting frame is nearly as
high as it will go. The teeth of the wheel o act on the wheel p, which is
made fast ou the axle of the front roller f, which roller delivers the article
to be cut the required length, when instantly the cutting knife c falls down
and cuts the same on the block of wood e. By altering the wheel o or the
g

page_text: THO. DICKEN (L.s.) HENRY BRADLEY (Ls.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1809, the aforesaid Thomas Dicken and Henry Bradley
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stampt according to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and ten.