AN IMPROVED CARDING AND SLUBBING ENGINE FOR WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
SELDEN, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King William the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-second day of November, in the second year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said David
Selden, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said David Selden, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said David Selden, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED CARDING AND SLUBBING ENGINE FOR WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," communication to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad;
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said David
Selden, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said
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 in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with said proviso, I, the said
David Selden, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say):
The
improvement-for--which-I--have-solicited-the--above-recited Letters
Patent consists in the adaptation of certain mechanism to a carding and
slubbing engine, or to a series of carding and slubbing engines, whereby the
wool or other fibrous materials may be taken in the form of slubbing direct
from the carding engine, without the intervention of the billy or other similar
machine.
In order to render this subject perfectly intelligible, I shall commence the
description of this improvement at that part of the preparing process called the
scribbling.
Let it be supposed that the wool or other fibrous material intended
to be operated upon is about to be introduced into an ordinary scribbling
engine, but from which I desire to take distinct slivers of certain breadths;
the carding cylinder of the scribbling engine being about four feet six inches
in length, I should place a board of an inch thick edgewise longitudinally over
the middle of the feeding cloth; for the purpose of separating the wool or other
material upon the feeding cloth into two distinct parcels, and keeping them
distinct as the feeding goes on. This division of the material fed in, will
cause its separation to be continued as it passes through the engine; and
when it arrives at the doffing cylinder the material may be, taken off in
distinct slivers..
}:
A scribbling engine is so well known that it is not necessary for me to
explain its' construction; but the parts to which I am about to refer being
additions to that engine, and, constituting one of the modifications of the
improvement, I have, shewn them in the accompanying Drawings as attached
to an engine for scribbling wool:
Figure 1 is a longitudinal elevation of the machinery. Figure. 2
a tranverse elevation or front view of the same. a may be supposed
'to represent the large carding cylinder;.b the fancy roller or cylinder by
which the wool is raised immediately before it comes into contact with the

page_text: doffing cylinder c. It will be remembered that the wool or other material is
separated, by the means above described, into two parts in the engine; conse-
quently the doffing comb & strips it off the doffing cylinder in two slivers.
These slivers are severally conducted through a revolving trumpet tube ⚫e,
placed before the doffing cylinder, its centre. being level with the lowest
action of the doffer conib; from thence the sliver passes to a pair of drawing
rollers f, mounted immediately opposite to each trumpet. The several trumpet
tubes (for there may be two or more; -dependent upon the width of the
machine) may be made to turn by bands or cords passing from a rotary
drum below and round the pullies upon the trumpet tubes, which give a slight
degree of twist to the sliver as it passes through, the amount of twist depending
upon the rotary speed of the trumpet tubes, and also of the drawing rollers,
which, as they revolve, conduct the slubbing forward. These drawing rollers
may be actuated by a band from a rigger on the axle of any of the rotary
cylinders carried round a pully g, on the axle of the lower drawing rollers, when
the upper drawing rollers will turn by the friction of their contact. From the
drawing rollers the slubbing is carried forward to be wound into a cop, which
is done by the following means:-Small drums h, h, seen best in Figure 2,
are mounted on axles turning in bearings in front of the machine, which are
driven by a band passed over the pully i, as shewn, or by any other suitable
contrivance. Spools or bobbins with pivots are mounted in the forks of the
inclined arms k, k, k, k, and let down so as to bear upon the periphery of the
drums h, and as these drums go round the spools are made to revolve also by
their contact. The slubbing, therefore, being led from the drawing rollers
and attached to the spools, as the drums h revolve the spools revolve also,
and cause the slubbing to wind round them, and thus form the cop. In
order to wind the slubbings in uniform coils and form the cop in the
shape of a cylinder with conical ends, 'the slubbing passes through a long
opening or croók guide formed on a vibrating arm 1. These vibrating arms
hang on pins in the top rail m, passed through slots in the arms seen at
Figure 2, and are made to traverse to and fro, by means of their connection,
by pivot joints at their upper ends, to the sliding rail n, n. The movement of
the sliding rail is effected by an endless screw o; on the axle of the small
drums h, h, which takes into a horizontal wheel on the perpendicular shaft p,
and drives it round. At the top of this shaft p there is a horizontal heart
wheel 9, which acts between two pins r, r, fixed to the top sliding rail n; and
as the heart wheel goes round, the rail is slidden to and fro from bearings j, j,
which causes the levers and guides to vibrate, and to traverse the slubbings as
they advance, so as to lay the yarns upon the spools in uniform coils alongside

page_text: each other from end to end. As the bobbins fill, the cops increasing in dia-
meter, they rise in their forked bearings, and consequently bring the slubbings
higher up the crooked guide, which shortens the leverage of the guide arms,
and prevents the slubbings from being conducted to the ends of the spools;
hence the cops are made with conical ends, and consequently require no
heads. The bobbins or spools carrying the cops thus formed are now to be
placed in a creel, and as many ends of slubbing as will be necessary to feed
the next carding engine are to be taken from so many cops, and wound upon a
large horizontal spool of corresponding length with the cylinders of the carder;
but if the wool or other material has been sufficiently scribbled to be taken
immediately to the finishing carder, then as many ends are to be taken from
the cops in the creel, and wound on to the horizontal spool, as there are
intended to be yarns or threads of slubbing taken from the doffer of the
finishing carding engine. The large spool thus filled with slubbings is now to
be placed horizontally in the situation of the feeding cloth at the back of the
finishing carder, as shewn in the Drawings at Figure 3, which is a side view
or elevation of the finishing carder, and Figure 4 is a section of the same taken
longitudinally through the middle of the machine. This finisher is a single
carding engine with two doffing cylinders covered with fillets of cards of about
an inch in breadth, carried round the cylinders in rings, there being about
an inch space between each ring or fillet, and the cylinders are so placed
one over the other that those parts of the main carding cylinder which
is not cleared by the fillets of the upper doffer will be cleared by the
fillets of the lower doffer. The large spool or bobbin, filled with the
slubbings as described, is to be placed horizontally at the back of the
machine, its pivots turning in bearings as at a, in Figures 3 and 4, and the
ends of the slubbing taken therefrom are severally to be passed through
distinct apertures between the partitions of the guide rack b, in order that
each end of fibres may be directed to a distant fillet on the doffing cylinders.
The wool or other material thus introduced is carried forward by the feeding
rollers c, c, and after having passed through the engine and been operated
upon in the usual way, it is taken from the fillets of the two doffing cylinders
d, d, in front by the vibrating doffer combs e, e, actuated by a rod and
crank in the ordinary manner. In front of each fillet a rotatory tube g and
pair of rollers h, h, is mounted, a series of which extend across the machine.
To the rails which support the rotatory tubes g there are affixed guide racks
i, i, formed of wood in thin slips, their curved edges standing in the grooves
between the fillets. These are for the purpose of separating the slivers, keeping
their fibres together, and conducting them severally to the respective tubes.

page_text: The lower Drawings
are made to revolve by pullies and bands leading from
any convenient rotatory part of the engine; the upper ones turn by friction.
Whatever may be the speed given to the doffing cylinders, that of the
drawing rollers should be slower by about one third or fourth of the speed, in
order that the fibres of the wool or other material may not be drawn apart,
but be laid in close spirals in the slubbing, and this twist will be greater or
less according to the speed of the rotatory tubes g, but it is only desirable to
give the slubbing such a slight twist as shall just keep its fibres together.
From the drawing rollers the slubbings pass forward to the winding apparatus,
which is placed in a frame in front of the carding engine, and connected
thereto by bevel gear, as shewn in the side view Figure 3. This winding
apparatus consists of a frame carrying two drums k, k, which turn in
vertical directions on axles placed longitudinally. Over these drunis an
endless band 1, 1, 1, 1, passes, shewn best in the front view at Figure 5. Two
planks n, m, fixed into the frame, are placed under the band, for the
purpose of supporting it; and to the edges of these planks forked standards
n, n, n, are affixed, in which the pivots of a series of horizontal bobbins
0, 0, 0, are intended to turn. These bobbins are formed by cylindrical pieces
of wood, with small metal pivots which drop into the forked standards n, n,
and bear upon the endless band l, l. On rotatory motion being given to the
drums k, k, through the bevel gear shewn in Figure 3, or by any other con-
venient means, the endless band I, 1, is carried along the planks m, m, in the
direction of the arrows, and the bobbins o, o, are made to revolve on their
axes by the friction of the travelling endless band. The ends of slubbing
therefore being conducted from the drawing rollers h, h, and passed over the
guide rods p, p, mounted in semicircular or bent arms, are severally attached
each to one of the bobbins, and hence, as. the travelling endless band goes
on, the bobbins turn upon their axes and wind on the slubbing. In order
that the slubbings may be traversed and laid in uniform coils side by
side upon the bobbins from end to end, the bent arins with the guide
rails p, p, are made to advance and recede by a reciprocating movement,
which is communicated to them through the long vibrating levers 7, 9,
that carry the guides, and which levers are fixed on the end of a shaft r, r,
extending along the front of the winding frame. To this shaft is also attached
an arms, by which the shaft and its vibrating levers are moved. A long
connecting rod t, t, that passes longitudinally through the machine under the
carding cylinder, is attached to the arms at one end by a staple, and at its
reverse end is acted upon by a heart wheel. This heart wheel therefore being
turued by any convenient connection to the rotary parts of the carding engine

page_text: causes the 'connecting rod t to slide to and fro, by which movement the
arms, s, the shaft r, r, and the levers q, q, carrying the guides, are made to
vibrate and to traverse the slubbings from end to end of the bobbins as they
wind on.
But as it is desirable that the cops upon the bobbins should be
formed with conical ends, there is a contrivance by which the traverse of the
guides may be progressively shortened as the cop increases in diameter. It will
be perceived in Figure 4 that there is a small pinion u, turning upon an axle in
the staple near the end of the connecting rod t, t, which acts in a rack formed
in the arm s. Upon the axle of this pinion a small pendant lever v is fixed,
and also a ratchet wheel: w, and to the upper arm of this pendant lever a
checkstring. x is attached, the reverse end of which string is made fast to a
fixed staple. When by the larger diameter of the heart wheel coming round,
the connecting rod t with the arms is moved forward, the checkstring will draw
the upper arm of the small pendant lever v, and cause the pinion to turn
and to proceed a tooth or two up the rack, which by so doing raises that end
of the connecting rod, and the palls y in the teeth of the ratchet wheel
prevent it from returning. Hence it will be perceived, that by a succession of
strokes the connecting rod will be raised to the top of the rack, by which
means the extent of vibratory motion of the levers will be lessened, and con-
sequently the guides will progessively shorten the traverse of the slubbings
and produce the cops with conical ends as required.
Lastly, I wish it to be understood, that the filleted doffer cylinders and the
tubes, as well as most of the other parts of the machinery, have been long
known and in use; I do not claim them separately, as forming any part of my
Invention; but I claim the novel arrangement of the whole machinery for
giving to the loffing cylinder a motion exceeding that of the drawing rollers,
and using the comb conjointly with the rotatory tube, by which I am enabled
to produce an accumulation of fibres at that point, which accumulation is to
be taken up by the rotatory motion of the tubes, and to cause the fibres to
take spiral directions in the threads of slubbings, so as to throw the ends
of the fibres upon the outside, and, by varying this difference of motion
between the, doffers and the rollers, to lay the fibres more or less spirally
as may be desired. When a slubbing or sliver of worsted is to be made, the
first described scribbling machine or breaker must have two doffing cylinders,
one above the other, with a winding apparatus to each, with two tubes to
each; so that four slivers instead of two will be produced. Now, by placing
the upper doffer at a proper distance from the swift or main cylinder, just so
much of the wool from the same will be received on it as may be desired, and
this will be the longest wool; that proportion of wool or noil which is allowed

page_text: to pass the first doffing cylinder is received upon the second, and the swift or
main cylinder is cleared. Thus two slivers of the longest wool may be taken
and wound upon the bobbins from the upper doffer, and the shortest wool may
be wound on two bobbins from the lower one, answering in a measure the
purpose of combing in worsted, and in woollens serves to give the manufacturer
the best part of his wool from the upper doffer for his warps, and from the
lower the most suitable for his weft.
This application of two doffers to sort the wool, or separate the long from
the short fibres, I also claim as new, and forming part of this Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Selden, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.