AN ENTIRE NEW IMPROVE- MENT IN THE PREPARING AND SPINNING OF FLAY, HEMP, TOW, AND SEVERAL OTHER: THINGS BY HECKLES AND MACHINES, AND WHICH MACHINES MAY BE WORKED OR USED BY WATER, STEAM, OR HORSE MILLS, OR BY ANY OTHER MOVING POWER
Year: 1795

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
SELLARS and PETER STANDAGE, both of Bridgenorth, in the County of Salop,.
Manufacturers of Spinning Machines, and Copartners, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at.
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of January, in the thirty-fifth year of His-
reign, did give and grant unto us, the said William Sellars and Peter Standage,.
our executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,.
sole privilege and authority, that we, the said William Sellars and Peter-
Standage, our executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,.
within that part of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "AN ENTIRE NEW IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE PREPARING AND SPINNING OF FLAY, HEMP, TOW, AND SEVERAL OTHER:
THINGS BY HECKLES AND MACHINES, AND WHICH MACHINES MAY BE WORKED OR
USED BY WATER, STEAM, OR HORSE MILLS, OR BY ANY OTHER MOVING POWER," and
such improvement will, as we, the said William Sellars and Peter Stand-
age, conceive, be of great public utility in the manufactoring of linen,
sail-cloth, cordage, and several other things; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, obliging us, the said William Sellars and Peter
Standage, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said Inven-

page_text: tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, and to cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as by the said Letters
Patent, reference being thereunto had, inay more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Sellars and Peter Standage, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in the several plans or Drawings hereunto annexed,
and in the explanation or description of such plans or Drawings, herein-after
mentioned, and referring thereto (that is to say):-
On a table, (ns in the plan, No. 1) which may have a notch cut in the front,
four inches wide and six inches deep, or thereabouts, lay one or more stricks of
flax, hemp, tow, or any other material in the same manner as taken from the
person who dresses it. Place an beckle at a small distance from each end (on
the material) with the points of the teeth downward; then lay three small
boards between tho beckles in such a position as for one end of each board to
Fress lightly on the material and to keep them steady; let another board be laid
across these three, then with the hand begin at the edge of the strick to draw
from the middle of the staple, taking a larger or smaller quantity, according to
the size of the thread to be spun, pressing the sliver, or drawing together
through both hands, and let it fall lightly (without being twisted) into a tin or
iron can, about nine inches wide and thirty-one inches deep, the ends moveable,
as when the cau is full it must have a cover put on and be turned with the
bottom upwards, so as to begin to spin with that end of the sliver which was first
drawn. A is a can, which being reversed after it is filled with the sliver or draw-
ing is placed on the floor at the back of the spinning machine. The beginning
of the sliver or drawing is passed between guides marked B (as in the plan,
No. 2.) to a pair of sinooth rollers of wood or other fit material, marked C, of
two inches diameter each, or thereabouts, which are supported in their places by
their axis turning in a slot marked with the figuro 1. The sliver or drawing is then
carried to the pair of rollers, marked D, in the slot marked with the figuro 2,
the under one of metal, fluted, one inch diameter, or thereabouts, the upper one
of wood or other fit material, covered with cloth and leather, two inches diameter,
or thereabouts, which is pressed on the under roller by a spring, marked F,
drawing a hook (as in tho plan, No. 3,) placed in the center of the axis of the
upper roller, which spring is screwed to the saddle bar that lies across under
the frame at E, (or this pressure may be affected by weights); from hence the

page_text: sliver or drawing passes between guides, marked g, of wood or metal, to another
pair of rollers in the slot marked with the figure 3, the under one of metal
fluted, the upper one of wood or other fit material, covered with cloth and
leather, two inches diameter cach, or thereabouts, and pressed on the under one
by the other end of the spring, marked F, screwed to the saddle bar at E,
drawing a hook placed on the center of the axis of the upper roller; these three
pair of rollers are placed in a sliding carriage on the long frame, fixed in its
proper place by scrowing the saddle bar at E. The use of having it moveable
is to accommodate the different lengths of flax, hemp, tow, or other material.
By this modo it is fit for any length. From hence the sliver or drawing passes
between other guides, marked L, to another pair of rollers of wood or other fit
material, marked M and S, of two inches and three quarters diameter each, or
thereabouts, in slot marked with the figure 4, which with the slot c in saddle
Y are made to slide, for the purpose of straining a leather strap, marked K, (as
in the plan No. 7,) and are fixed by screws and nuts; (the under roller M is
flanged to keep the leather strap that revolves round it in its proper place, and
which strap works between the said rollers M and S, and two other pair of
rollers, marked O, T, P, and W, that marked P being also flanged). From
hence the sliver or drawing passes the apperture of a guide, marked. N, made of
wood or metal, and under a small roller of wood or metal that lies loose on
the leather strap, and so conducted between the fluted metal rollers O and T
in the slot marked with the figure 5, which are three inches and a half
diameter cach, or thereabouts, the upper roller being pressed on the lower
roller by a spring, drawing, or hook (as in the plan, No. 6), placed on the center
of the axis of the roller T, which spring is screwed to the front saddle bar at V;
from hence it passes between the other pair of rollers of wood or other fit
material, marked P and W, in the slot marked with the figure 6, which are
two inches and three quarters diameter each, or thereabouts; from hence the
sliver or drawing is conveyed over a roller marked P,X, (which revolves in a
trough of water or size) to the spindle, marked Q, where it is twisted and
delivered on the bobbin by a flyer. Motion is given to the machine by the
following means:-Under the front in the center is an upright shaft, marked R,
with a pinion wheel, of twelve teeth, or thereabouts, screwed on the top, which
works into a face wheel of thirty teeth, or thereabouts, (or of such other number
of teeth as may be most convenient,) placed near the center of a lie shaft fixed
across under the front of the frame at U. On the farther end of this shaft is
a spur wheel, of fifteen teeth, or thereabouts, working in another spur wheel of
forty-eight teeth, or thereabouts, on the further end of the axis of the under

page_text: metal roller O. On this end of the axis a pinion wheel, of ten or twelve teeth,
or thereabouts, works in a contract wheel of thirty-four teeth, or thereabouts,
placed on the end of an horisontal shaft, marked G, supported by two bracketts,
marked H, H, which are fixed in the side of the frame; on this shaft (which
is of turned iron or other fit material) is a pinion, of twelve or fourteen teeth;
or thereabouts, fixed on the shaft by a screw, and gives action to a contract
wheel, of seventy-two teeth, or thereabouts, placed on the axis of the metal
fluted roller, marked D. This wheel has two or more circles of teeth (for the
purpose of encreasing or diminishing the draft of the sliver or drawing), either
of which circles of teeth may be used by shifting tho pinion on the horisontal
shaft G. On the inside of this wheel on the same axis is a spur wheel, of
twenty-four teeth, or thereabouts, which works in au intermediate wheel, of
thirty-eight teeth, or thereabouts, placed on the side of the frame, for the
purpose of giving motion to another spur wheel, of twenty-four teeth, or thero-
abouts, fixed on the axis of the metal fluted roller, marked I. The wood roller
P,X, working in the trough of water or size, has its motion by a pully
and belt, which communicates with another pully fixed on the axis of the
roller P. The rollers D and I may be worked with two face wheels, by
placing another pinion on the horisontal shaft, and removing the two twenty-
four teeth spur wheels and the intermediate wheel of thirty-eight teeth. All
the upper rollers (except C) may be in two parts, c supported in the middle by
saddles, the upper rollers, marked D and I, to be supported by the slots a
and 6 in the saddle X fixed in the bar at E, the other three upper rollers
marked S, T, and W, supported by the slots c, d, and e in the saddle Y fixed
in the bar at V, the slot f being a support for the guide N that bears on the
leather strap to contract the sliver or drawing. By slackening the screws in
the slots Z in the feet of the frame, the machine may be moved sideways, and
thereby prevent the shaft R from being thrown out of its perpendicular, should
the size of the pinion on its top be altered.
The following particulars are the peculiar objects of the said Letters Patent,
as being entirely our own proper Invention:-
First, the forming the sliver or drawing from the middle of the staple and
without twisting, as before described.
Secondly, the reversing the can in which the sliver or drawing is laid, in
order to begin with the end of the sliver or drawing first formed, as before also
described.
Thirdly, the using in this kind of machine the leather strap which revolves
round the rollers M, O, and P.

page_text: And, fourthly, the using of the large contract wheel with two or more circles
of teeth, as before also described, and which is entirely new in its application
to this kind of machine. As to rollers, whether plain or fluted, they are in
most machines, but these differ in proportion and distance.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Sellars and Peter Standage,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-five.