IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING COTTON WADDING
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Kemble Hall, Engineer, of 36, Cannon
Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING COTTON WADDING." -A
communication
from abroad by John Smith, of New York, in the U. S. of America.
Sealed the 17th January 1860, and dated the 17th October 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Kemble Hall
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th October 1859.
I, WILLIAM KEMBLE HALI, Engineer, of 36, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING COTTON WADDING," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of a certain combination of machinery and dyeing
and sizing tubs and of steam pipes, and of a certain combination of knives
and machinery for the purpose of manufacturing cotton wadding. The cotton
is carded to the proper consistency in thin layers or laps," and wound on
the lap rollers of the machine. The first operation of the apparatus cou-
stituting my Invention is to combine these laps and carry them forward at
an uniform rate with feed rollers that deliver them to calender rollers by
which they are compressed into a single sheet. The sheet then passes between
rollers in a tub containing dyeing material, and is delivered to hollow drying
rollers heated by the introduction of steam. It is thus presented nearly dry
Pine 27

page_text: to the action of a roller worked in a tub containing sizing material, by which
one side is sized, and it is then passed over a series of steam pipes, by
which it is dried before it is reversed by other rollers which present the
unsized side to a second sizing roller working in another size tub. Having
been thus sized on both sides it is carried over a second set of steam pipes
and rollers, by which it is dried and finished. The sheet of wadding is cut
into pieces' of the requisite length by a combination of knives with a roller,
to which motion is imparted by a reciprocating and vibrating bar. This bar
is furnished with teeth by which a rotary motion is conveyed to the roller
until a determined point is reached, when it is disengaged and the motion
of the sheet arrested by a gripper acting in advance of a knife which severs
the sheet. The knife is then withdrawn and the sheet relieved from the
gripper, and the motion of the roller is resumed until another piece of the
length determined has been measured and passed over the roller, when the
wadding is again gripped and severed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Kemble Hall in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
KEMBLE HALL, Engineer, of 36, Cannon Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Kemble Hall, Her special licence that I, the said
William Kemble Hall, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Kemble Hall, iny executors, adminis-
trators, 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, 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 APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING COTTON
WADDING," (a communication from abroad by John Smith, of New York,
in the U. S. of America), upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Kemble Hall, my executors or administrators, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Kemble Hall, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a certain combination of machinery and dyeing
and sizing tubs and of steam pipes, and of a certain combination of knives and
machinery for the purpose of manufacturing cotton wadding. The cotton is
carded to the proper consistency in thin layers or laps, and wound on the
lap rollers of the machine. The first operation of the apparatus constituting
my Invention is to combine these laps and carry them forward at an uniform
rate with feed rollers that deliver them to calender rollers, by which they are
compressed into a single sheet. The sheet then passes between rollers in a
tub containing dyeing material, and is delivered to hollow drying rollers heated
by the introduction of steam. It is thus presented nearly dry to the action of a
roller working in a tub containing sizing material, by which one side is sized,
and it is then passed over a series of steam pipes by which it is dried before
it is reversed by other rollers, which present the unsized side to a second sizing
roller working in another size tub. Having been thus sized on both sides it
is carried over a second set of steam pipes and rollers by which it is dried and
finished. The sheet of wadding is cut into pieces of the requisite length by a
combination of knives with a roller, to which motion is imparted by a recipro-
cating and vibrating bar. This bar is furnished with teeth, by which a rotary
motion is conveyed to the roller until a determinate point is reached, when it
is disengaged, and the motion of the sheet arrested by a gripper acting in
advance of a knife which severs the sheet. The knife is then withdrawn, and
the sheet relieved from the gripper, and the motion of the roller is resumed
until another piece of the length determined has been measured and passed
over the roller, when the wadding is again gripped and severed.
In order that the said Invention may be better understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation
most fully with reference to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, and
forming part of this Specification.
Fig. 1 is a sectional side elevation, and Fig. 2 is a plan of the apparatus,
arranged according to this Invention, and drawn to a scale of one inch and

page_text: a-half to the foot. A, A, A, A, are lap rollers upon which the thin layers or
laps of carded cotton are wound. The journals of these rollers are mounted
in vertical slots a, a, that permit the rollers and their laps to rest upon the
feed rollers B, B, B, B, from which they derive their rotary motion, and thus
ensures the laps being always carried forward at the uniform rate provided
for by the gearing of the feed rollers. Both these sets of rollers are of wood
with metal journals; C, C, C, are calender rollers by which the laps are
compressed into a single sheet; D, D, E, E, F, F, are pairs of rollers placed
in a dye tub. The dye tub should be provided with a steam pipe by which
the dye stuff may be kept hot; G, G, are a pair of calender rollers by which
the wadding is compressed after it leaves the dye tub. All these calender or
drawing rollers should be of metal; H, H, are hollow metal rollers into which
steam is introduced to keep them hot. They are provided with stuffing boxes
at the ends, into one of which leads a branch steam pipe, and into the other a
waste water pipe, by which the water of condensation may be carried away;
I, I, are also hollow steam rollers, fitted with steam and water pipes; J is a
roller revolving in a size tub, by which the sizing is laid upon one side of the
wadding as it passes between the rollers; J, k, K, is a gridiron or coil of
steam pipes by which the sizing and wadding may be partially dried; L, L,
are hollow metal rollers furnished with steam and waste water pipes; Mis a
second sizing roller placed in a size tub. The size tubs are provided with
steam pipes to keep the size hot and soft. N is a second gridiron or coil of
steam' pipes; 0, 0, are also hollow steam rollers, furnished with steam and
water pipes; P is a pair of guide rollers leading to the measuring and cutting
portion of the apparatus, which may be placed in any part of the mill that
may be convenient, care being taken to provide proper rollers for the support
of the sheet of wadding. All the rollers heretofore described derive their
motions from the driving pulley X through the gearing indicated on the
Drawing; both the gearing and the frame may be varied, but the arrangement
shewn is most convenient and compact. Qis a roller or drum of wood,
revolving freely upon metal journals, and provided at one end with a pinion;
ġ is a small roller resting upon the drum; R is a rack bar gearing into the
pinion of the drum, and deriving a vibrating and reciprocating motion from
the crank 7 on the shaft S; T is a roller mounted on an adjustable lever, so
that the rack bar R may be ungeared from its pinion at a determinable point
in its motion. The continuous revolution of the shaft. S, which is driven by a
belt and steadied with a fly wheel, thus causes the drum Q to revolve while
the rack bar is in gear with the pinion; and when the rack bar bears upon
the roller T, it is disengaged from the pinion, and the motion of the drum
1

page_text: ceases until the further revolution of the shaft S and the crank r brings the
rack bar again into gear.
U is a four-wheel carriage running upon a track
provided on the frame, and furnished with a grip bar V and a knife w, with
a diagonal edge, The grip bar V has springs v, which are compressed when
the grip bar is brought against the wadding, and thus holds the sheet firmly
while it is being severed by the knife. The forward motion of the carriage U
is occasioned by the revolution of the crank on the shaft S, operating
through its connecting rod x on the lever and band wheels on the shaft Y, in
such a manner that the revolution of the shaft S causes a partial rotation of
the shaft Y, and draws the carriage forward by the strapsy. The carriage is
drawn back, and the wadding released by the weights Z, the cords of which
pass over the pulleys z.
The thin layers of carded cotton having been wound upon the lap rollers A,
and the dye tub and size tubs supplied with proper dye stuff and sizing
material, the machine is put into operation from the driving pulley X; the
laps are carried forward by the feed rollers B at an uniform rate, whether
there is much or little cotton on the lap rollers. The laps are first compressed
into a single sheet by the double pressing from the rollers C; the sheet then
passes into the dye tub, and between the pairs of rollers D, E, F, and on
leaving the dye tub is compressed by the rollers G, which also squeeze out
the superfluous dye stuff. It is then dried by its passage over the steam
rollers H, H, and I, I, and the intermediate roller h, and passing over the
guide roller i, is sized on one side by the roller J operating in the size tub,
against which it is held by the small roller . The sheet then passes over the
coil of steam pipes K and the steam rollers L,L,and theirintermediate roller,
by which it is reversed, so that when it passes over the guide roller m, the
unsized side is presented to the action ofthe sizing rollers M and n. Both sides
of the sheet of wadding having thus been sized, it is carried over the coil of
steam pipes N, and is further dried and finished by the steam rollers O,O,and
their intermediate roller o. The sheet is theucarried forward through the guide
rollers P to the drum Q, which is caused to rotate a determinate distance by
the revolution of the shaft S until the rack bar R is disengaged from its
pinion by coming in contact with the roller T. The carriage U is then
brought forward by the crank u; the gripper V holds the wadding firmly
against the cross bar of the frame, the springs yielding as the carriage
advances, until the knife w has severed the sheet. The carriage is then drawn
back by the weight Z, and the wadding is released from the gripper until
another piece has been measured by the rotation of the drum. I claim, as
my Invention.-

page_text: First, the combination of machinery, dye and size tubs, and steam pipes,
substantially as described, for the purpose of making cotton wadding.
Second, arranging a series of lap rollers over the feed rollers, so that several
laps may be combined in a single sheet.
Third, the arrangement of sizing tubs and rollers described, by which the
sheet of wadding is sized on one side, and then reversed and sized on the
other.
Fourth, the combination of the rack bar R, the drum Q, and the disen-
gaging roller T, substantially as described, for the purpose of regulating the
length of the sheets.
Fifth, the combination of the reciprocating carriage and its gripper and
knife with the drum Q and its mechanism as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Kemble Hall, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
WILLIAM KEMBLE HALL. (L.S.)