IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPREADING, DRAWING, AND CARDING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Combe, of Leeds, in the County of York,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
SPREADING, DRAWING, AND CARDING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 23rd June 1868, and dated the 17th January 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Combe at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
January 1863.
I, JOHN COMBE, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
SPREADING, DRAWING, AND CARDING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be
as follows:-
My Invention consists of apparatus for forming fibrous substances into
slivers, and includes certain improvements on machinery specified by me in a
Patent, dated 7th May 1862 (No. 1368).
The improvements on machinery previously specified consist, firstly, in
placing the rollers which carry the spiral feeding sheet at such an angle to
each other that the narrow strap is naturally led in a spiral coil from roller to
roller, and thus dispensing with all the intermediate guide pullies and
retaining only the two canted pulleys at the sides, which lead back the narrow
strap to re-enter on its circuit. Or when shorter fibres are to be operated
upon, as in feeding carding engines, I make the feeding sheet of one thin

page_text: sheet of the full width required, to which I stitch on a series of ribs of thick
leather, between which ribs the projecting horns of the bearing plate are
introduced, so that the material fed in is passed on to the bearing plate, such
ribs acting instead of the narrow strap above referred to.
Secondly, in the use of plain or fluted rollers cut out in spaces which
receive the bars of gratings previously specified, so that the projecting circular
ridges of such rollers revolving between the bars of such gratings press upon
or nip the layer of fibrous material, and push it on between the gratings and
plates by which it is confined.
Thirdly, in giving motion to the driving roller of the feeding sheet by
means of a friction disc pressed against the side of the driving wheel by means
of a spiral spring acted on by a nut screwed on to the shaft end, by which the
amount of friction given by the pressure of the disc may be regulated as
required.
My further improvement consists in a new method which I adopt for
transposing fibres fed into the machine laterally, so that such fibres are
presented end ways in regular succession to the nip of a pair of rollers, which
may either be delivering rollers constituting a part of this machine, or may be
the back rollers of a drawing frame, according to the manner in which my
Invention may be applied.
In order to effect the object described, I arrange a series of endless chains
carrying rows of steel pins projecting upwards, technically called travelling
gills, in such a manner that the layer of fibrous material is pressed in between
the pins and carried along by their motion. These travelling gills where the
fibrous material first enters upon them being separated at regular intervals to
a width suitable to the length of the fibre of the material to be operated upon,
and afterwards converging as they travel forward, and each endless chain of
such gills being also made to travel with a successively accelerated motion
from left to right, or vice versâ; the effect produced is that from the time that
the fibrous material enters upon the pins of these travelling gills the fibres are
gradually slued round in a direction more and more diagonal as they proceed,
and those ends of the fibres which are carried along with the greatest
acceleration are presented in regular succession to the nip of a pair of rollers
placed to receive them. In causing the layer of fibrous material to enter
upon the pins of the travelling gills described, I make the two plates between
which the layer of fibrous material is passing to slope downwards, so that the
upper plate dips to some extent below the plane in which the pin points travel,
the sloping edges of these plates being cut out with, slots through which the
lines of the pins pass freely when the layer of fibrous material is. pressed into

page_text: them by the downward slope of the upper plate. And so also vice versa, when
the requisite transposal of the fibres is effected, the lower plate is made to
slope upwards, so as to throw the fibrous material off the points of the pins
which disappear through similar slots now brought more contiguous to each
other by the convergence of the travelling gills. In the application of this
action I also make the travelling gills of leather straps sets edgeways upwards,
and actuated by horizontal rollers, such straps being pierced with gill pins
projecting upwards as described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Combe in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th
July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
COMBE, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Combe, Her special licence that I, the said John Combe, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Combe, my 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, 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
MACHINERY FOR SPREADING, DRAWING, AND CARDING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Combe, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Combe, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following.
statement thereof, that is to say :-

page_text: My Invention consists of apparatus for forming fibrous substances into
slivers, and includes certain improvements on machinery specified by me in a
Patent dated 7th May 1862, (No. 1868.)
The improvements on machinery previously specified consists, firstly, in
placing the rollers which carry the spiral feeding sheet at such an angle to
each other that the narrow strap is naturally led in a spiral coil from roller to
roller, and thus dispensing with all the intermediate guide pulleys and retaining
only the two canted pulleys at the sides, which lead back the narrow strap to
re-enter on its circuit, or when shorter fibres are to be operated upon, as in
feeding carding engines, I make the feeding sheet of one thin sheet of the
full width required, to which I stitch on a series of ribs of thick leather,
between which ribs the projecting horns of the bearing plate are introduced,
so that the material fed in is passed on to the bearing plate, such ribs acting
instead of the narrow strap above referred to.
Secondly, in the use of plain or fluted rollers cut out in spaces, which receive
the bars of gratings previously specified, so that the projecting circular ridges
of such rollers revolving between the bars of such gratings press upon or nip
the layer of fibrous material, and push it on between the gratings and plates
by which it is confined.
Thirdly, in giving motion to the driving roller of the feeding sheet by means
of a friction disc pressed against the side of the driving wheel by means of a
spiral spring acted on by a nut screwed on to the shaft end, by which the
amount of friction given by the pressure of the disc may be regulated as
required.
My further improvements consist in a new method, which I adopt for
transposing fibres fed into the machine laterally, so that such fibres are pre-
sented endways in regular succession to the nip of a pair of rollers, which may
either be delivering rollers, constituting a part of this machine, or may be the
back rollers of a drawing frame, according to the manner in which my Inven-
tion may be applied.
In order to effect the object described I arrange a series of endless chains
carrying rows of steel pins projecting upwards, technically called travelling
gills, in such a manner that the layer of fibrous material is pressed in between
the pins and carried along by their motion. These travelling gills where the
fibrous material first enters upon them, being separated at regular intervals, to a
width suitable to the length of the fibre of the material to be operated upon,
and afterwards converging as they travel forward, and each endless chain of
such gills being also made to travel with a successively accelerated motion
from left to right, or vice versâ; the effect produced is that from the time that

page_text: of the spreading machine will take in, and by this means when the girl
spreads lighter than is required the surplus speed of the feed sheet will still
carry in a full quantity, while when the girl spreads the proper quantity the
friction wheel h will slip on the leather surface of the disc i, when the feed
sheet and nipping rollers have carried forward as much of the fibrous material
fed in as the gills will receive.
In the application of this principle to carding engines, the rollers b and d,
Figure 11, are worked by friction, as described, at an extra speed, while the
nipping rollers and 9 are worked at a determinate speed in connection with
and suitable to the speed of the feed rollers of the carding engine. In
Figures 2 and 3 I shew a side view and plan of an arrangement of feeding
sheet, which I use in some cases in place of those shewn in Figure 1. In
these Figures n, n, &c., are a series of endless straps of well-stretched leather,
or of slightly elastic material, which pass round the rollers 6 and k, and are
kept in tension by the screws u, u; and m, m, are another series of similar
straps rather longer, which are placed alternately between those at n, n, and
pass on over the roller b, and return round the roller o to the roller k, the roller o
being acted on by the screws p, p, so as to keep the straps m, m, in a state
of tension. q, q, is a flat metal plate planed out with five converging grooves,
the wider ends of which grooves fall in between the alternate straps m, m.
These grooves receive a series of endless chain gills, a portion of one of which
is shewn in. Figure 8, and these grooves are partially covered over by plates
of sheet iron screwed to the top of 9, 9, as partly shewn in Figure 5, so as to
allow the gill pins to slide along between their edges, but to prevent the chains
from .rising out of the grooves, along which they are made to slide by the
driving wheels r, r, &c., Figures 3 and 8, one of which is placed at the end of
each groove in q, q, where the five grooves converge. These driving wheels "", "",
are each carried on the ends of shafts 8, s, &c., Figures 2 and 3, which shafts
carry also spur wheels of the numbers of teeth respectively 45, 40, 36, 33, 30,
as shewn in Figures 2 and 3. The middle shaft s is made stronger than the
others, and is geared in connection with the driving shaft I, I, and the 36 wheel
which it carries is made of wrought iron. The other four shafts are so placed
that their axes converge in a point in the axis of the middle shaft 44 inches
from the side of the 36 wheel, and the teeth of all these five wheels are also
worked to the same point instead of being parallel, as spur wheels are usually
made. Between the wheels 36 and 33, and 36 and 40, two double intermediate
.wheels are geared, one above and one below, as shewn in Figure 2, the teeth
of which are also worked to the same point of convergence, to which point also
the axis of the studs on which these double intermediates revolve are made to

page_text: point, so that the rotation of the 36 wheel, by means of these double inter-
mediates, gives motion respectively in inverse proportion to their numbers of
teeth to the two wheels 33 and 40. Between the two wheels 36 and 45, and
36 and 30 two single intermediates, with teeth worked in the same manner,
are similarly placed on studs one above and one below, as shewn in Figure 2,
by which means the rotation of the wheel 36 is also made to communicate
rotation to the wheels 45 and 30, at a rate of speed in inverse ratio to the
numbers of their teeth. At the other end of each groove in the plate q, q, a
pulley t, Figures 2, 8, and 9 is placed revolving freely on a pin at the end of
a grooved bar, Eigures 8 and 9, which is made to slide in the direction of the
roller t by the action of the screw v. The endless chains of gills turning over
the driving wheels r, r, &c., pass on in their inverted position along the grooved
bar, as seen in Figure 8 in the deep groove, of which Figure 9, the gill pins
are received and protected as they press along the roller t, over which the links
of the chain are caused to return successively to their upright position by the
action of the driving wheels r, r, pulling the chains along the grooves of the
plate 7, 7. The lower surface of the plate c, Figure 2, coming a little below
the plane in which the pin points travel, the lower surface of the plate c is
hollowed out in transverse grooves, which allow the pin points to travel freely
in their course under the plate c after they have risen to their level, and in
order to prevent the flax from rising out of the gills, guard bars, one of which
is partly shewn in Figures 2 and 3, are placed over each line of gills, in which
the grooves originating in the under surface of the plate care continued along
the under surface of such bars, as shewn in Figure 2, at the end of which a
cross section of guard bar and gill is also shewn. The rollers b, e, and o are
geared together, so that the motion of 6 communicates an equal speed of
surface to the rollers e and o, and consequently fibres of flax laid on the sheet
formed by the straps m and n will be carried forward and downward by the
action of the straps m, m, &c., and the ridges of the roller e, between which
such fibres are firmly nipped by the tension of the straps m, m, &c., under the
action of the screws p, p, and the lower surface of the plate c, and the ridges
of the roller e, by dipping a little below the plane in which the pin points
travel, the fibres of flax will be received on and carried forward by the
five lines of gills travelling in the five grooves of the plate 7, 9, and the chain
on the extreme right side travelling at a rate of 3 in proportion to 2 of the
chain on the extreme left, and the other chains at rates of intermediate pro-
portion, the consequence will be that the fibres, as they are made to traverse
the surface of the plate 7, 7, will be slewed round in a diagonal direction, and
their ends presented in succession to the rollers and w, Figures 3, 6, and 7,

page_text: which pull the fibres up the sloping conducting plate y, y, Figures 4 and 5,
which is cut out in slots to allow the travelling gills to pass on as the flax is
pulled off them and delivered by the rollers x and w to the back rollers of a
screw gill drawing frame.
win
Figures 6 and 7, is the wood part of a circular brush, the bristles of which
sweep the ends of the flax fibres straight as they are brought forward by the
extreme chain gill on the right, and causes them to enter into the nip of the
rollers and w in regular succession, as they are presented in travelling
forward by the motion of the gills. Motion is communicated to the roller a
by a pair of bevel wheels and an intermediate spur wheel from the shaft s,
carrying the 30 wheel, and the roller w and the brush are driven from the
roller x, as partly shewn in Figures 6 and 7.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately; but what I claim are the combined
arrangements herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Combe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
JOHN COMBE. (L.S.)