IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR SCUTCHING OR OTHER MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Albemarle Cator, of Selby, in the County
of York, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR PREPARING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR
SCUTCHING OR OTHER MANUFACTURING PROCESSES"
Scaled the 27th July 1860, and dated the 30th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Albemarle Cator
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th January 1860.
I, GEORGE ALBEMARLE CATOR, of Selby, in the County of York, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES FOR SCUTCHING OR OTHER MANUFACTURING PROCESSES," to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates to the means of applying currents of heated air for
drying and heating flax, hemp, and other similar fibrous substances while
under the action of the improved machinery for preparing such substances,
already patented by me on the 16th April 1853, No. 926, or other like
machinery. To this end I provide diagonal slits or other suitable orifices in
the drying rollers which form part of the preparing machinery, such slits or
openings being intended for the egress of the currents of air, which are thus
caused to impinge on the fibres under treatment; the hot air thus passed

page_text: through or into the rollers will serve to heat their periphery. I also propose
to increase the heating surface over which the fibres are caused to pass by
arranging (where such means are most convenient) flat or curved topped
heating chests or boxes, either plain or perforated, like the drying rollers,
between such rollers and between them and the pressing or breaking rollers
respectively, or in any other position found requisite. The flax or other
substance is to be led over these surfaces by suitable feed sheets formed of
vulcanized india-rubber, canvas, or other material, and furnished with proper
tension and drawing rollers. In cases where additional means of removing
the moisture driven off from the substances in course of preparation may be
required, I propose, in combination with the above machinery, and with or
without the use of any of the known means of heating or propelling hot air
for the purpose of supplying such drying chambers and surfaces, to apply
certain bell, funnel-mouthed, perforated, or other shaped tubes over such flat
surfaces, or over the circumferences of the rollers, and connected with a fan
blast cylinder or other means of creating a suction through them. The fan
or other exhauster may also be made the propelling power for the currents of
air before alluded to, and further, where I may find it necessary, I propose to
throw heated, warm, or cold currents of air on to the substances as they pass
over the external portion of the rollers, cylinders, or flat surfaces.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Albemarle Cator in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
ALBEMARLE CATOR, of Selby, in the County of York, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Albemarle Cator, Her special license that I, the said
George Albemarle Cator, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said George Albemarle Cator, 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

page_text: Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FLAX,.
HEMP, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR SCUTCHING OR OTHER
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said George Albemarle Cator, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 George Albemarle Cator, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,.
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to certain means of drying and heating flax, hemp;
and other similar fibrous substances while under the action of the improved:
machinery already patented by me on the Sixteenth April, One thousand eight...
hundred and fifty-three (No. 926), or other like machinery for preparing flax,.
hemp, and other vegetable fibrous substances for scutching and other manu-
facturing processes, the object of the present Invention being to discharge in
an expeditious and effectual manner the moisture imparted to the fibrous
material during the washing portion of the process. To this end instead of
using the ordinary construction of steam drying cylinders in the preparing
machine, I provide hollow metallic drying cylinders or rollers, the peripheries
of which are pierced with diagonal or other suitable orifices, such slits or
openings being intended for the egress of currents of air supplied to the
interior of the cylinders by means of a fan or other suitable contrivance,
which air will not only heat the surface of the cylinders, but impinge on the
fibres under treatment, and greatly expedite the discharge of the moisture
therefrom. I further propose to increase the heating surface over which the
fibres are caused to pass by arranging in the most convenient places heating
chests or boxes, either plain or perforated like the drying cylinders; thus these
chests may be set between the several pairs of drying cylinders contained in
the machine, these pairs being the number which I propose in general to
employ, and also between the cylinders and the pressing or breaking rollers
respectively, or in any other suitable position. The flax or other substance is
to be led from one pair of heating cylinders to the other by suitable feed
sheets formed of vulcanized india-rubber, canvas, or other material, and
furnished with proper tension and drawing rollers.

page_text: In Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings I have shewn so much of my
preparing machine fitted according to the present Invention as will serve to
explain the nature of this part of my improvements.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the preparing machine shewing
one pair of drying cylinders mounted in position; and Fig. 2 is a partial plan
view of the same, the upper drying cylinder being broken away to shew a
portion of the lower cylinder. a, a, (Fig. 1) is the endless cloth on which the
fibrous material to be operated upon is fed into the machine. From this
cloth it passes between the pressing rollers b, b, which besides expressing the
water which is thrown upon it at this part, lead the fibre to the first pair of
drying cylinders A, A. Hot air is supplied to these cylinders from suitable
heating apparatus of any suitable well-known construction by means of
pipes B, which connect with the hollow journals of the cylinders. In the
periphery of these cylinders diagonal slots or openings are formed, as shewn
at Fig. 2, for the discharge of streams of heated air on to the flax or other
fibrous material under operation, the course of which through the machine is
indicated by yellow colour in the vertical section, Fig. 3, Sheet II. The slots
for discharging the hot air I prefer to make long and narrow, as shewn at
Fig. 2, and to arrange them diagonally, and I so adjust the cylinders with
respect to each other that the slots in the contact surfaces of the cylinders
shall never come into coincidence at any part. The fibrous material having
passed round the first pair of rotating drying cylinders, is conducted to a
second pair of drying cylinders, and then to a third pair if required, after
which it enters between the breaking rollers situate at the delivery end of the
machine. When I use fixed drying surfaces between the pairs of drying
cylinders, I propose to apply them as shewn at C; this drying chest is made of
metal, pierced or not on its upper surface, and supplied with. hot air (or steam
if the surface be not perforated) by means of a pipe D; by this additional
series of heating surfaces the drying of the fibrous material may be expedited.
In order still further to expedite the drying operation, I also propose to
remove the moisture as it is driven off from the fibrous material in course of
preparation by mechanical agency. To this end I propose, in combination
with the above machinery, to employ certain bell, funnel-mouthed, or other
shaped tubes, which being brought into connection with a fan blast cylinder
or other means of creating a suction through them, will draw off the floating
vapours from the surrounding atmosphere. At Fig. 3 the mode of applying
this part of the Invention is shewn. E is a kind of hood enveloping the upper
part of the top drying cylinder, and leading off by a pipe E' to the exhaust
fan; F is a funnel mouth situate between the upper and lower cylinder, and

page_text: leading by pipes F' to the same pipe E¹. At G is also another hood covering
the chest or box C, and connecting by a pipe G with the pipe E¹. If there-
foro an exhaust be produced in the pipe E', the vapours as soon as given off by
the fibrous material will be drawn up that pipe, and discharged eventually into
the open air.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
Machinery for Preparing Flax, Hemp, and other Vegetable Fibrous Substances
for Scutching or other Manufacturing Processes," and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that, under the
above in part recited Letters Patent, I claim the means herein described
for facilitating the drying of vegetable fibrous material in the preparing
machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Albemarle Cator, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
G. A. CATOR. (L.S.)