IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SCUTCHING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Nelson, of Selby, in the County of York, and
David Boyd, of the same Place, Flax Scutchers, for the Invention of.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SCUTCHING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES."
"
Sealed the 5th December 1854, and dated the 9th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Nelson and David
Boyd at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 9th June 1854.
We, JOHN NELSON, of Selby, in the County of York, and DAVID BOYD, of
the same Place, Flax Scutchers, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SCUTCHING FLAX, HEMP, AND
SUBSTANCES" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of certain combinations of machinery by which the
flax, hemp, or other fibrous substances are first prepared for and then scutched.
For this purpose the flax, hemp, or other substance is conducted by an endless
apron to a succession of pairs of grooved rollers, through between which the
fibrous substance passes and becomes crushed, and the fibres partly separated.
From between these rollers the fibrous substance passes to another endless
apron, by which the fibres are conducted to a pair of grooved rollers, the axes
of which are in suitable frames, and these fluted rollers become the holder of
the fibres when subjecting them to the scutching process, and such holders are

page_text: applicable when hackling, or in other preparing process, where the fibrous
substance requires to be similarly held. The holder (consisting, as above stated,
of two grooved rollers) with a quantity of flax, hemp, or other fibre, nipped or
held between them, is placed in the scutching machine, and is supported and
guided therein by a frame and guides; and the holder is progressively lowered
to the scutching blades by means of a lever and excentric, put in motion by
the axis of one of the scutching cylinders, and the lowering takes place till tho
fibrous substance below the holder has been partly scutched; the holder then
rises, and the scutching is completed. The holder is then taken out of the
machine and turned, the parts of the fibrous substance which were above the
holder being brought below, and by the simple rotation of the grooved rollers
(constituting the holder) the fibrous substance is caused to move between them
and the nip or holding is then at a distance from that where it previously was
when the first end of the substance was scutched. The other end of the fibrous
substance is next subjected to the scutching machine in like manner to the
other end. On the two scutching cylinders the knives or blades are fixed,
and the two cylinders are geared in such manner that they revolvo at like
speeds, and so that knives or blades on the two may cause the fibres to be
alternately struck on either side, the fibrous substance being gradually lowered
and then raised.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Nelson and David Boyd in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
NELSON, of Selby, in the County of York, and DAVID BOYD, of the same Place,
Flax Scutchers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand cight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said John Nelson and David Boyd, Her special licence that we, the
said John Nelson and David Boyd, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said, John Nelson and David Boyd, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,

page_text: should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND SCUTCHING FLAX, HEMP, AND
OTHER SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Nelson and David Boyd, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Pate
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Nelson and David Boyd, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention consists of certain combinations of machinery, by which the
flax, hemp, or other fibrous substances are first prepared for and then scutched.
For this purpose, the flax, hemp, or other substance is conducted by an endless
apron to a succession of pairs of grooved rollers, through between which the
fibrous substances passes and becomes crushed, and the fibres partly separated.
From between these rollers the fibrous substance passes to another endless
apron, by which the fibres are conducted to a pair of grooved rollers, the axes
of which are in suitable frames, and these fluted rollers become the holder of
the fibres when subjecting them to the scutching process, and such holders are
applicable when heckling, or in other preparing process, where the fibrous
substance requires to be similarly held. The holder, consisting, as above
stated, of two grooved rollers, with a quantity of. flax, hemp, or other fibre
nipped or held between them, is placed in the scutching machine, and is sup-
ported and guided therein by a frame and guides, and the holder is progressively
lowered to the scutching blades by means of a lever and excentric, put in
motion by the axis of one of the scutching cylinders, and the lowering takes
place till the fibrous substance below the holder has been partly scutched; the
holder then rises, and the scutching is completed. The holder is then taken
out of the machine and turned, the parts of the fibrous substance which were
above the holder being brought below, and by the simple rotation of the
grooved rollers (constituting the holder) the fibrous substance is caused to
move between them, and the nip or holding is then at a distance from that
where it previously was when the first end of the substance was scutched. The
other end of the fibrous substance is next subjected to the scutching machine

page_text: Figure 1 shows a side elevation, and Figure 2, an end elevation, of so much
of a scutching machine as will enable us readily to describe our improvements.
The flax or other fibrous matters to be scutched are placed in a holder a, con-
sisting of pairs of grooved rollers; the ridges of one roller of each pair enter
into the grooves of the other when they are caused to rotate, and, in fact, they
act as if they were two long cog wheels, and it is by such means that the
holding of a strick of flax, placed in each pair of rollers (constituting a holder),
is accomplished. The pairs of rollers turn in bearings b, b. On the axis of
one of these rollers is a cog wheel c, by which rotation can be given to the
two rollers a, a; when desired to move, a strick of flax or other fibrous sub-
stance between them, and the axes of the two rollers are pressed towards each
other, by springs at the bearings b, b, as will be better understood by reference
to Figures 3 and 4, where the rollers a, a, and the bearings are shown on a larger
scale than in the other Figures. This roller holder a is mounted in a frame
d, d, consisting of the two bars d, d, sliding in the fixed triangular frame e, e,
at each end of the machine, the bars e, c, being formed with dovetail grooves,
in which the bars d, (which are made to correspond with the dovetail grooves,)
slide. In the machine shown there are two holders a, a, arranged in such
manner that one moves up when the other moves down, and this is acconi-
plished by means of cog wheels ff, taking into the racks en the frame or
bars d, d. The axis of the cog wheels f, f, receives motion from the axis of
one of the scutching cylinders, by means of an excentric, put into motion from
the axis of such seutching cylinder, the excentric giving motion to a lever
or bar g, with a rack at the end, which takes into the teeth in the cog wheel 1,
fixed on the axis of the cog wheels f, f; it is not, however, essential that there
should be two holders moving alternately in the machine, as a single one may
be used. i, i, are two cylinders, each having thereon pairs of knives or blades j, j.
These blades are arranged at intervals on the cylinders, but in such manner,

page_text: that the pairs on one cylinder come into action when the pairs on the other
cylinder come into action, as will be seen by reference to the Drawing, and the
blades or knives are fixed to the cylinders by screws and nuts, or otherwise, so
as to admit of varying the distance of the knives or blades of each pair one
from the other, there being slots in the cylinders to admit of such adjustment.
The scutching cylinder rotates in the direction of the arrows, and the holders
a, a, are gradually lowered and raised. Motion is communicated from the axis
of one of the scutching cylinders by a band k, which gives motion to the train
of wheels 1, m, n, o, and on the axis of the wheel o the excentric p is fixed.
The flax or other fibrous substance we prefer should first pass between three,
four, or more pairs of grooved rollers before being introduced into the holders
a, and in such case we have an endless apron extending from the first to last
pair of fluted rollers, to assist in carrying the fibrous substance through between
the pairs of fluted rollers, and then to receive the fibrous substance on to another
travelling apron, at the end of which the rollers a, a, are placed, and caused to
rotate by gearing with a pinion on the end roller carrying the endless apron,
by which, when a strick of fibrous substance has been passed between the
several pairs of grooved or fluted rollers, and received on to the moving aprons,
the ends of the substance will be conducted to the roller a and taken between
them, when the strick so taken may be subjected to the action of the scutching
machine, shown in the Drawing; and the scutching may be performed by
causing the holder a simply to descend, and then to ascend, after which to
cause the rollers a to be put in motion, either whilst in the same machine, so
as to bring the unscutched fibres into position to be scutched, when the holder
is to be again lowered. Or the holder a may be taken from this machine
and conveyed to another, the rollers a being moved to bring the unscutched
ends of the fibrous substance into position to be scutched. The machine shown
in the Drawing, however, is arranged in such manner that each holder a, a,
on having been lowered to the lowest position, brings the cog wheel or pinion on
the axis of one of them into gear with the cog wheel q on the axis which
receives motion by means of a band from the axis o, in such manner that the
fibrous substance having been scutched at one end by descending between the
scutching cylinder, the rollers a, by rotation, cause the scutched ends to ascend
and the unscutched end to descent between the scutching cylinders; and
there is a cam r, which is on the axis s, on which there is a cog wheel, which
gears with one on the axis q, by which the axes of the rollers a, a, will be
pressed on, to overcome the pressure of the springs on the bearings of the
rollers bb
9₁

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, we would have it.
understood that we do not claim any of the parts separately, nor do we claim
the passing of fibrous substances between grooved or fluted rollers; but what
we claim is, the combined scutching niachinery herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Nelson and David Boyd, have
hereunto set our hands and-seals, this First day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four..
Witness to the signature of John Nelson
and David Boyd,
THOMAS CUTTING,
Selby.
JOHN NELSON. (L.S.)
DAVID BOYD. (L.B.)