IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CRIMPED HAIR, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1873

page_text: LEITERS PATENT to Roderic Flower Donisthorpe and Thomas Alfred
William Clarke, both of Leicester, in the County of Leicester, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CRIMPED HAIR,
AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 4th March 1873, and dated the 10th January 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Roderic Flower
Donisthorpe and Thomas Alfred William Clarke at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 10th January
1873.
We, RODERIC FLOWER DONISTHORPE and THOMAS ALFRED WILLIAM
CLARKE, both of Leicester, in the County of Leicester, do hereby declare
the nature of the said "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CRIMPED
HAIR, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
Heretofore in the manufacture of crimped hair tufts of hair have
been plaited or wound between and around two parallel strings in a
figure of 8 pattern, and when one tuft has thus been plaited on to the
[Price 8d.]

page_text: strings another tuft has been taken and plaited on in a similar manner. ·
Afterwards the hair thus plaited has been boiled and subsequently
stoved or dried, and when drawn off from the strings it retains the
crimpings or bends which it had when plaited upon the strings. This
process has however the disadvantages that the hand plaiting is com-
paratively slow, and also that as the extreme ends of the tufts cannot be
properly twisted around the strings they consequently are not properly
crimped, and spoil the appearance of the remainder of the crimped hair.
The crimping of the air is also uneven and irregular by reason of some
of the tufts containing more hair than others, and by reason of the ends
of the several tufts being thinner than their central portion.
:
According to our Invention, in order to remedy these disadvantages,
we first form the hair into a continuous roving, or it might be a narrow
sliver, and in this form we by automatic apparatus plait or twist it as
above described around strings or wires, and thus obtain an
even and
continuous plait or twist without any projecting and unplaited ends, or
with such ends at long intervals only, and this continuous plait or twist
we afterwards heat in the ordinary manner. The continuous roving
may simply be wound in a continuous spiral around a wire or cord, the
roving being for the purpose wound upon a bobbin which is caused to
revolve around the wire or cord, whilst at the same time the wire or
cord is drawn slowly forward. Or the roving may by itself be looped
together so as to form a single plait, or be worked up so as to form a
knitted or looped fabric, or may be twisted around two cords or wires
in the manner above described by leading the roving up through a
hollow cone, and carrying the cords or wires alternately around it in
opposite directions, the cords or wires being carried upon bobbins, which
by apparatus are moved alternately around the cone in such a manner
that each cord as it is passed around the roving comes below the other
cord, or the cords may be led up through two hollow spindles, and a
bobbin carrying the roving be caused to move between and around the
spindles in a figure of 8. For this purpose we mount the axes of the
bobbin in a fork carried by a stem which can rise and fall freely in
a frame carried at the upper end of a tubular stem or spindle, and the
roving is led up from the bobbin through an eye at the top of the
frame.
To carry the tubular stem between and around the two hollow
L
the

page_text: similar to that used in a braiding or plaiting machine, that is to say
we employ discs caused to revolve around the spindles, and meeting
together at one point of their periphery. The discs have each a semi-
circular notch or recess into which the tubular stem carrying the bobbin
frame can enter. Around the discs is a fixed guide surface which
retains the tubular stem in the notch or recess. When the tubular stem
has been carried round by the discs of one spindle it is delivered into the
notch in the discs of the other spindle, and is then carried round by
such discs, so that the tubular stem is moved in a figure of 8 around the
two spindles.
To ensure that the tubular stem shall pass from the notch in one set
of discs to the notch in the other set of discs, there is an oscillating
T shaped switch piece which turns upon a pivot where the head and
stem of the T piece unite. The end of the stem forms the switch, and
is situated on the line where two discs meet together, and it is moved
first to one side and then to the other of this line by the tubular stem
in its movements coming alternately against the two arms of the head
of the T piece and rocking it upon its axis.
The upper ends of the two spindles through which the cords are led
are bent towards and nearly meet one another. The roving as it is
carried around one or other of the spindles rides over the top of such
spindle until the stem which carries it passes between the two spindles,
the tension on the roving then draws it downwards between the ends of
the spindles, and as it is afterwards carried round the other spindle the
roving again rides over such spindle, and then again descends between
the spindles, and so on continuously..
In order to keep an even tension upon the roving as it is thus carried
around the two spindles, the stem of the fork which carries the bobbin
rises and falls in the tubular spindle or stem which surrounds it. An
approximately even tension is thus kept upon the roving, although the
eye through which it is led is constantly moving towards and away
from the cords which rise up through the two hollow spindles. As the
fork carrying the bobbin thus rises and falls, the bobbin is retained from
revolving by two pins at its end coming against a flat plate. When,
however, a length of the roving has been plaited up sufficient to cause
the pins at the side of the bobbin to come above the top of the flat plate,
the bobbin makes a half turn and again descends, and is again retained

page_text: from revolving until another length of the roving has been plaited up.
In order that too great a strain may not come upon the roving when the
stem carrying the bobbin descends, the descent of the stem is arrested by
a light spring.
A bobbin carrying a roving of hair might also for the same purpose be
mounted in a shuttle moved to and fro between two cords, which are
alternately raised and lowered like the warps in a loom.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Roderic Flower Donisthorpe and Thomas Alfred
William Clarke in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th July
1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RODERIC
FLOWER DONISTHORPE and THOMAS ALFRED WILLIAM CLARKE, both of
Leicester, in the County of Leicester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Roderic Flower Donisthorpe and
Thomas Alfred William Clarke, Her special license that we, the said
Roderic Flower Donisthorpe and Thomas Alfred William Clarke, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Roderic Flower Donisthorpe and Thomas. Alfred William Clarke, 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, 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 "In-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CRIMPED HAIR, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Roderic
Flower Donisthorpe and Thomas Alfred William Clarke, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: 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 Thomas Alfred William Clarke, on
behalf of myself and the said Roderic Flower Donisthorpe, 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 :-
Heretofore in the manufacture of crimped hair tufts of hair have been
plaited or wound between and around two parallel strings in a figure
of 8 pattern, and when one tuft has thus been plaited on to the strings
another tuft has been taken and plaited on in a similar manner. After-
wards the hair thus plaited has been boiled, and subsequently stoved or
dried, and when drawn off from the strings it retains the crimpings or
bends which it had when plaited upon the strings. This process has,
however, the disadvantages that the hand plaiting is comparatively slow,
and also that as the extreme ends of the tufts cannot be properly twisted
around the strings, they consequently are not properly crimped, and
spoil the appearance of the remainder of the crimped hair. The crimping
of the hair is also uneven and irregular by reason of some of the tufts
containing more hair than others, and by reason of the ends of the
several tufts being thinner than their central portion,
According to our Invention, in order to remedy these disadvantages,
we first form the hair into a continuous roving, or it might be a narrow
sliver, and in this form we, by automatic apparatus, cause it to be plaited
or twisted in a figure of 8 pattern around strings or wires, or otherwise
crimp or bend the rɔving, and retain it in its crimped or bent form by a
string or strings, or wire or wires, so as to obtain an even and continuous
length of crimped, plaited, or twisted hair without any projecting and
unplaited ends, and this we afterwards treat in the ordinary manner to
set the hair in its bent or crimped form.
In order to twist a reving of hair in a figure of 8 pattern around two
parallel cords or wires, we prefer to employ apparatus such as is shewn
at Figures and 2 Sheet 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed. In this
apparatus the roving is led up through a hollow cone or tube, and the
cords or wires are carried alternately around it in opposite directions, and

page_text: below the other cord or wire.
Figure 1 is a front elevation, and Figure 2 a horizontal section of part
of the machine.
a is the fixed framing of the machine; b, the main or driving shaft
having upon it a bevel wheel c by which motion is given to the plaiting
apparatus. The shaft b may have several bevel wheels c upon it, each
to give motion to a separate plaiting apparatus, as will readily be under-
stood. Each wheel c gears into a bevel pinion d which is capable of
turning loosely on a shaft e, but is made fast thereto by a sliding
clutch d. This clutch can be raised whenever the apparatus is to be
thrown out of action by means of a lever d², as shewn. On the shaft e is
a toothed wheel f, and this gears with two toothed wheels g¹ on the
shaft 9, and so transmits motion to these shafts. On each shaft g is also
a toothed pinion g², and these gear with other pinions 93 which turn on
fixed studs. The pinions 92, ³, serve to give motion to two bobbins h,
each carrying a cord, and cause them to lap their cords in opposite
directions around a roving of hair, as we will now proceed to describe.
The roving of hair is wound around a bobbin k, and is led therefrom
up through a tube 7, the top of which is somewhat rounded on the edge,
as shewn; and as it passes out from the top of the tube the cords
are lapped around it, and the plait so formed passes up between fluted
friction rollers m, and over a small guide pulley n, then around a roller o,
and is led back over another guide pulley n¹, from which it passes to the
bobbin p, on to which it is wound. The bobbins h carrying the two
cords are each carried by a small frame a mounted on the top of a semi-
circular arc 1. Each arc has teeth formed around its outer edge, and
these come into gear with the pinions g², g³. The arcs are received in
circular grooves s, s, which intersect one another, as shewn at Figure 2;
and as the pinions g², g³, revolve they are caused to travel around these
grooves in opposite directions, and cross one another's path. The ends
of the toothed arc are cut away for half their thickness, the upper
surface of one end and the under surface of the other end being so
cut away in order that the end of one arc may pass under the end of the
other arc, and so clear one another as they cross each other's track, the
tube 1, 1, rises up in the central space enclosed by the intersection of the
two circular grooves, so that it will be seen the two bobbins are carried

page_text: around it in opposite directions, and lap their cords around the roving
which rises up from the top of the tube. In order to keep an even
tension on the cords each cord is led through an eye marked t, then
through other eyes u, u, and over a pulley on the upper end of a small
lever v, and through another eye w, and from thence around the roving.
An arm at the lower end of the lever is acted upon by a spring x or
springs, so that as the bobbins approach nearer to or recede from the
tube 7 the lever takes up all slack in the thread. y, y, are springs for
putting friction on the periphery of the bobbins, and so putting tension
on the threads passing therefrom. Should this tension become too
great, and the upper end of the lever be consequently brought too
close to the eye w a pin z on another arm of the lever comes down on to
the spring y, and presses it away from the bobbin, so relieving the
tension on the cord. It will be seen that the eyes w, w, from which the
cords pass to the roving are below the top of the tube 1, and also that
when one bobbin is in its nearest position to this tube the other is in
the position furthest from it, consequently each bobbiu as it passes
around the tube passes its cord below the cord of the other bobbin, and
the tension on the cords being greater than the tension on the roving
the roving is drawn first in one direction and then the opposite direction
by the two cords, whilst the cords themselves in the completed plait lay
parallel with one another, the roving lying around them in a series of
figure of 8 bends. In order to take up the plait as it is produced, and
to raise the roving continuously through the tube 1, the axis of the.
roller o has a slow revolving motion given to it by a worm and worm
wheel from the upright axis e. The bobbin p has also a revolving
motion given to it by an endless cord passing over a grooved pulley on
the axis of the roller o, as shewn, so as to cause the bobbin to wind up
the plait, and the plait is laid evenly on to the bobbin by a traversing
thread layer not shewn in the Drawing.
The arrangement of machine above described is the one which we
prefer to employ in order to lay a roving of hair in a figure of 8 pattern,
around two parallel cords; other arrangements may however be adopted,
as for example the cords may be led up through two hollow spindles,
and a bobbin carrying the roving be caused to move between and around
the spindles in a figure of 8.
A machine constructed to work in this manner is shewn at Figures 3
and 4, Sheet 2; Figure 3 being a vertical section, and Figure 4 a

page_text: horizontal section.
a is the bobbin mounted on a pin carried by a frame
b at the top of a rod ; this rod can rise and fall freely in a tubular
stem d, but is prevented from turning therein by a pin upon it working
in a slot in the tube as shewn. On the top of the tube d is a frame e
with an eye at its stop, through which the roving from the bobbin a is
led; ff are two fixed hollow spindles, up through which the two cords
are led; they are bent over towards one another at their upper ends, a
slight space only being left between them. The tubular stem is
carried between and around the two hollow spindles in the following
manner.
Each of the fixed spindles ƒ has around it a hollow axis g at the lower
end of which are toothed wheels which gear with one another and are
Each axis has upon it two discs, one
driven in any convenient manner.
at its upper end and the other near its lower end, the discs on the two
axes meet together at one point of their periphery, and they have cach a
semicircular notch or recess into which the tubular stem d can enter,
and the stem d is retained in this notch by a guide surface k which is
fixed around the discs; when the tubular stem has been carried round
by the discs of one spindle it is delivered into the notch in the discs
of the other spindle and is then carried round by such discs so that the
tubular stem is moved in a figure of 8 around the two spindles.
To ensure that the tubular stem shall pass from the notch in one set
of discs to the notch in the other set of discs there is an oscillating
Tshaped switch piece / which turns upon a pivot where the head and
stem of the T piece unite, the end of the stem forms the switch, and is
situated on the line where two discs meet together, and it is moved first
to one side and then to the other of this line by the tubular stem in its
movements coming alternately against the two arms of the head of the
T piece and rocking it upon its axis.
The upper ends of the two spindles through which the cords are led
are, as before stated, bent towards and nearly meet one another, the
roving as it is carried around one or other of the spindles rides over the
top of such spindle until the stem which carries it passes between the
two spindles, the tension on the roving then draws it downwards between
the ends of the spindles, and as it is afterwards carried round the other
spindles, the roving again rides over such spindle, and then again
descends between the spindles, and so on continuously.

page_text: In order to keep an even tension upon the roving as it is thus carried
around the two spindles, the bobbin is retained from revolving, whilst
the rod c which carries it is free to rise and fall, so that the weight of
this rod is carried by the roving, and the rod rises or falls according as
the eye at the top of the frame e moves towards or away from the cords
which rise up through the two hollow spindles; the bobbin is retained
When
from revolving by pins at its end coming against a flat plate m.
however a length of the roving has been plaited up sufficient to cause
the pins at the end of the bobbin to come above the top of the flat plate
the bobbin makes a quarter or it might be a half turn or a turn of any
desired amount, according to the number of pins on its end, and again
descends and is again retained from revolving until another length of
the roving has been plaited up.
In order that too great a strain may not come upon the roving when
the stem carrying the bobbin descends the descent of the stem is arrested
by a light spring n. In place of twisting the roving in a figure of 8
pattern around two parallel cords the roving might be inserted in loops
between two cords which are alternately raised and lowered in a similar
manner to the warps in a loom, so that the loops or bends of roving are
tied and retained together by the cords as indicated by the diagram,
Figure 5. A side view of a machine constructed to work in this manner
is shewn at Figure 6. In this Figure a, a¹, are the warps of string or
cord passing from the bobbins b, and having an even tension kept upon
them by weights c, as shewn. is a lathe or batten worked to and fro
by a crank on the axis e. f is a needle through which the roving is
threaded. This is shewn on a larger scale in the diagram Figure 5. It
is carried by a short lever jointed to the batten, and as the batten swings
to and fro it is acted on by fixed inclines in such a manner that when
the shed between the warps is open, as shewn at Figure 6, the needle is
caused to enter between the warps; a hook g, actuated as shewn by a cam
on the shaft e, is then caused to seize the loop of roving, and when the
batten again swings forward the needle retires from the shed, leaving
the loop of roving held by the hook g, and this loop is beaten up by the
• batten and the warps shifted, the warp a¹ being carried above the warp a
by the rocking of the lever h. The hook g then releases its hold of the
loop, and the lever is caused to shog sidewise, so that when it next
descends it shall carry its warp down on the opposite side of the warp a,
B

page_text: The
when the needle will again enter between the warps and the loop of
roving be again caught by the hook, and so on in succession.
shogging sidewise of the lever h upon its axis is effected by a lever k,
acted upon by a cam, on the shaft of which is a ratchet wheel driven by
a ratchet carried by an incline on a slide which is caused to move up and
Another arm
down by being connected to an arm upon the batten.
upon the batten by a pawl and ratchet arrangement actuates the take up
roller m.
The rocking of the lever h upon its axis to open and close the
shed is effected by a cam on the cam shaft, as shewn.
We would here state that other means than those herein-before
described may be adopted for forming a continuous roving of hair into
crimps or bends and of retaining it in its crimped or bent form by cords
or wires during the setting operations to which it has afterwards to be
subjected, as for example, a roving of hair may simply be wound in a
continuous spiral around a wire or cord, the roving being for this purpose
wound upon a bobbin which is caused to revolve around the wire or cord,
whilst at the same time the wire or cord is drawn slowly forward, or the
wire or cord itself may be caused to revolve around the roving, or other
means might be adopted for binding or tying together by means of a
cord or cords or wires the several crimpings or bends formed in the
roving of hair so as to retain the roving in this crimped or bent form
during the operations to which it is afterwards subjected.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner of
performing the same, we would state that we are aware that it has before
been attempted to manufacture crimped hair from a continuous roving
of hair by passing the continuous roving between heated crimping rollers
or by making it up into a cord or twist, and subsequently moistening
and drying it. We would therefore have it understood that we make no
claim to the so treating a roving of hair, but we claim,—
First. The manufacture of crimped hair from a continuous roving of
hair by the means substantially as herein described, the roving being by
mechanical means formed into crimpings or bends and retained by cords
or wires in such crimped or bent form during the subsequent setting
operations.
Second. The combined arrangements of apparatus, substantially as

page_text: aying a continuous roving of hair in a figure of eight pattern around
two cords or wires.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Alfred William Clarke,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
T. A. W. CLARKE. (L.S.)