New Machinery to be used in carrying out said Process.
Year: 1885

page_text: New Machinery to be used in carrying out said Process.
I THEODORE THOMAS ABBOT of Lunenburg, in the County of Worcester and
State of Massachusetts, one of the United States of America, Machinist do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF SPINNING
COTTON YARN, AND ALSO CERTAIN NEW MACHINERY TO BE USED IN CARRYING
OUT SAID PROCESS to be as follows:-
In the ordinary process of spinning cotton it is, after being blown and cleaned
and made into laps or fleeces, as they are sometimes called, submitted to the action
of carding engines and there carded and converted finally into a sliver which
is a tape-like product composed of filaments of cotton held slightly together in
somne way, probably by a slight interlocking of the finer filaments.
These slivers are then drawn through pairs of drawing rolls, or rollers, in
drawing frames, so as to extend the length of the slivers, and it is usual to double
two slivers into one, or to treble the slivers in the drawing frames; and these
doublings and drawings are often repeated two or three times, a different machine
being used for each drawing.
When the sliver leaves the last of these frames and is received in a can, it has
no twist in it, but is still a tape or ribbon with the fibres more nearly parallel
to its length than when it came from the carding engine. I say it has no twist
in it, but this is not the exact truth, as the cans into which the slivers are received
from the finishing cards, or the first drawing head, (namely that working in
connection with the carding engine) or some or all of the drawing frames, have
usually a slow revolving motion, and this motion puts one turn into the sliver
for each revolution of the can. This twist is, however, almost imperceptible.
After the slivers are deposited in the cans as they pass away from the last
drawing frame in the series, they are again submitted to the action of drawing
rollers, which are in the same frame and combined with spindles and fliers, and
in such frames the sliver is again doubled or trebled and drawn, or merely drawn
and twisted by spindles and fliers, being finally wound upon bobbins; in this
twisted state it is, in a second machine, wound off from the bobbins and again
doubled and drawn, or merely drawn and again twisted, by spindles and fliers and
wound upon other bobbins. These last bobbins are usually carried to a third
machine where similar operations are performed, and when twisted and wound
upon the bobbins of the last frame or machine, the material is called fine roving.

page_text: These three machines, to the first of which the slivers are supplied, each draw
and twist the material; and the material supplied to and drawn by the last two
machines is called roving.
These machines are sometimes called speeders, or, respectively, the slubber, the
intermediate and the fine roving frame.
The fine rovings from the last machine in the series, while wound upon bobbins,
are next submitted to the operation of mules, throstles or ring-spinning frames
where they are spun into yarn, and in the ring-spinning frames, the throstles, and
usually in the mules, the roving is further drawn by drawing rollers before it
is spun.
'
Now it has been heretofore attempted, with what success I do not know, to
consolidate the three machines which convert sliver into roving by using in a
single machine a number of pairs of drawing rollers in series, by applying either
revolving or stationary trumpets or condensers between the sets of rollers in order
to compact or condense the sliver, and by employing spindles.and fliers at the end
of the series of drawing rollers and trumpets, the machine thus organized and
when working producing a roving wound upon bobbins similar to that which is
usually manufactured by the fine roving frame.
This roving has a twist in it, and is, while wound upon the bobbins, supplied to
mules, throstle frames or ring-spinning machines and there spun into yarn,
receiving in these machines the ultimate twist, but it will be seen that, by this
plan twisted fibres (rovings) must be drawn by the drawing rollers which make
part of the ring-spinning frame, throstle frame or mule.
Now I have discovered that cotton yarn may be spun without giving the fibres
any practical twist, or without winding them upon bobbins prior to the time when
the ultimate twist is given to the fibres to make finished yarn.
I have in fact discovered a new process of producing cotton yarn from sliver in
the condition in which it is usually furnished to the slubber after having been
produced by drawing frames, and have also invented a new machine which is useful
in working out this process or similar processes.
In the preferred way of carrying out my invention, I take ordinary sliver
furnished by carding engines, and draw and double these slivers in the ordinary
way; these slivers thus drawn, have no practical twist in them, although they
may have such slight twist as is produced by the ordinary revolutions of the cans
into which the slivers are received.
In fact I take such sliver as is usually furnished to the slubber and convert it
directly, in a single machine, into finished yarn. In this single machine the sliver
is drawn, compacted or condensed, and spun directly into yarn, thus saving the
use of the slubber, the intermediate and the fine roving frame, and putting no
twist (except that produced by the revolution of the cans) into the sliver until it
receives the final twist on the spindles.
In carrying out my process, I neither make roving as an intermediate step of a
process nor double nor draw roving, and I find that by my process I produce
a yarn of increased strength which is soft and fluffy and much similar to the yarn
which is spun upon mules in the usual manner.
I will describe a machine provided with several sets of drawing rollers, the
slivers passing through the grip of six pairs of drawing rollers of each set. These
rollers may be of any known construction and caused to revolve by any known
kind of machinery, and the upper may be pressed upon the lower rollers in any
known way; moreover I do not confine myself to any precise number of pairs of
rollers nor to any precise speed of revolution thereof nor to any precise relation
of the speed of one roller to that of its successor in the series; but I prefer to
revolve the third pair of rollers at the same or at about the same speed as the
second pair, and the fifth pair, at about the same speed as the fourth pair, and
so on, in succession, when more than six pairs are used, the fibre being thus drawn
between the first and second, and the third and fourth, and the fifth and sixth
pairs of rollers.

page_text: The slivers may be doubled and drawn by these rollers, but I prefer merely to
draw them.
In spinning number 20 yarn for instance, I use sliver weighing 60 grains to the
yard and run the first pair of rollers with a surface speed of 2 22-100 inches per
minute; the second pair with a surface speed of 7 92-100 inches per minute; the
third pair at the same speed as the second pair; the fourth pair at a surface speed
which is 48 33-100 inches per minute; the fifth pair at the same speed as the
fourth pair; and the sixth pair at a surface speed of 314 inches per minute.
At these revolutions of the rollers I run the spindles, according to the number
of turns to the inch desired in the finished yarn, at from 6000 to 7000 revolutions
per minute.
These speeds may of course be varied either absolutely or proportionately for the
same number of yarn or for different numbers of yarn and for different weights of
sliver; but the experienced spinner will know how to vary the speeds properly
or even the number of pairs of rollers according to the required extent of elonga-
tion or drawing of the sliver before it is spun, after reading the rule I have given
for No 20 yarn from sliver weighing sixty grains to the yard. I cannot draw the
sliver to the extent required without using trumpets to condense or compact the
sliver as it is being drawn, the trumpets serving to gather the outlying or out-
wardly projecting fibres into the body of the sliver; and I prefer to use with six
pairs of rollers three trumpets for each sliver, the first trumpet acting upon the
sliver as it enters the frame, the second applied between the second and third
pairs of rollers, and the third, between the fourth and fifth pairs, but I intend
to use a greater or less number of trumpets. These trumpets I prefer to make
stationary or non-revolving, but they may be of any usual construction.
The sliver delivered by the last pair of drawing rollers is furnished to spindles
provided with rings and travellers, and spun by them as usual, except that the
yarn receives its whole necessary twist by means of these spindles, the spindles
spinning the yarn from drawn and doubled sliver and not from drawn and doubled
roving as usual.
These spindles, rings, travellers, and the mechanism for driving them, may be
of any usual construction.
The sliver to be drawn and spun in my machine is contained in cans by
preference arranged in a double tier, one above the other, and supported above
the drawing rollers on a can stand and the sliver is lifted out of these cans by
rollers over which the sliver passes as usual, and I prefer to make the machines
double that is, with two complete sets of cans, drawing rollers, trumpets, ring
spindles, and their accessories.
In the operation of the machine the sliver is taken from the cans, drawn by the
rollers, compacted or condensed by the trumpets and finally spun into yarn by
the spindles.
Now I know that prior to the date of my invention, several pairs of drawing
rollers with intervening trumpets, in one instance stationary, and in the other
revolving, have been described as a useful combination with a spindle, bobbin and
Bier for making roving, which roving was to be converted by a subsequent process
in some kind of a spinning machine, into yarn; but so far as I know, the com-
bination of successive pairs of drawing rollers, trumpets, and ring spindles for
converting sliver directly into yarn, is new with me.

page_text: An Improved Process of Spinning Cotton Yarn, and also certain
New Machinery to be used in carrying out said Process.
I THEODORE THOMAS ABBOT of Lunenberg in the County of Worcester and
State of Massachusetts one of the United States of America, Machinist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said invention for AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF SPINNING
COTTON YARN, AND ALSO CERTAIN NEW MACHINERY TO BE USED IN CARRYING OUT
SAID PROCESS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
In the ordinary process of spinning cotton it is, after being blown and cleaned
and made into "laps" or "fleeces," as they are sometimes called, submitted to the
action of carding engines, and there carded and converted finally into a sliver,
which is a tape-like product composed of filaments of cotton held slightly together
in some way, probably by a slight interlocking of the finer filaments.
"
"
The sliver is then in drawing frames subjected to the operation of drawing and
doubling with a view to evening it and bringing it to a condition suitable for the
production of an even firm and uniform yarn. When the sliver, which at this
stage is usually termed drawing leaves the last of these frames and is
received in a can, it has no twist in it, but is still a tape or ribbon with the
fibres more nearly parallel to its length than when it came from the carding engine.
I say it has no twist in it, but this is not the exact truth, as the cans into which
the slivers are received from the finishing cards or the first drawing head (namely:
that working in connection with the carding engine) or some or all of the drawing
frames, have usually a slow revolving motion, and this motion puts one turn into
the sliver for each revolution of the can.
"
This twist is however, almost imperceptible.
The next step is to convert the drawing" so called, into roving; This is
effected by again submitting it to the action of drawing rollers which are in the
same frame, and combined with spindles and fliers; and in such frame the sliver is
again doubled or trebled and drawn, or merely drawn, and finally twisted by
spindles and fliers and wound upon bobbins. In this twisted state it is, in a second
machine, wound off from the bobbins and again doubled and drawn, or merely
drawn, and again twisted by spindles and fliers and wound upon other bobbins.
These last bobbins are usually carried to a third machine, where similar operations
are performed, and the material becomes what is called "fine roving." Sometimes
a fourth machine of similar character is employed when finer numbers are
required.
These four machines, to the first of which the slivers are supplied, each draw
and twist the material, and the material after it comes from the first of the
machines is known as "roving."

page_text: These machines are sometimes called "speeders" or, respectively the "slubber,"
the "intermediate," the "fine roving" and the "jack frame."
The final step is to convert the roving into yarn.
To this end the fine rovings from the last machine of the series, while wound
upon bobbins, are next submitted to the operation of mules, throstles or ring-
spinning frames, where they are spun into yarn, and in the ring spinning frames,
the throstles, and usually the mules, the roving is further drawn by drawing rollers
before it is spun.
Such is the ordinary process of spinning cotton yarn. Its practice necessitates
the employment of a large number of machines, which not only are both costly in
the first instance and a source of continuing expense, but require for their use a
large amount of room in the factory or mill. Furthermore, it involves frequent
handling of the material, which is objectionable, and the twisting incident to the
conversion of the sliver into roving impairs the strength of the yarn, and is apt to
render it harsh and kinky.
With a view to obviating these disadvantages various expedients have heretofore
been suggested.
It has been proposed, for instance, to combine in one machine, a carding engine,
rub aprons or rollers for condensing and putting into shape and conveying the
material as it is stripped from the carding cylinder, and spinning devices for
spinning the same into yarn, the material passing continuously from the card
through the rub aprons, or the rollers to the spinning devices. This plan, however
contemplates the splitting of the cotton lap, which is difficult, if not impracticable,
and does not provide for evening the sliver.
It has also been attempted, with what success I do not know, to consolidate the
three or four machines usually employed to convert sliver into roving, by using in
a single machine a number of pairs of drawing rollers in series in combination
with either stationary or revolving trumpets or condensers between the sets of
rollers, in order to compact or condense the sliver, and with spindles and fliers
at the end of the series of drawing rollers and trumpets, the machine thus
organized and when working producing a roving wound upon bobbins similar
to that which is usually manufactured by the fine roving or the jack frame, the
fineness of the roving depending upon the number of sets of drawing rollers
employed.
This plan is meretorious in that it makes one machine do the work of the three
or four ordinarily employed for the purpose; but it still involves the twisting of
the fibre prior to the ultimate spinning operation, and the product is distinctively
not yarn, but roving which must be drawn again and ultimately twisted in the
mule, throstle, or ring-spinning frame, by which it is spun into yarn.
Manifestly it would be of great advantage to avoid the use of machinery for
converting the sliver into roving and to maintain the sliver in untwisted state,
until it receives the ultimate twist at the time it is converted into yarn.
This result is accomplished by my invention.
I have discovered that cotton fibre may be spun into yarn, by first bringing it
to the condition of sliver, subjecting it to the drawing and doubling operation for
the purpose of evening it, and then conducting it directly to the spinning-frame in
which it is spun into finished yarn.
I thus avoid the intermediate step of converting the sliver into roving, and
neither twist the fibres, nor wind them upon bobbins prior to the time when the
ultimate twist is given to them to make finished yarn.
In the preferred way of carrying out my invention, I take ordinary sliver
furnished by carding engines, and draw and double these slivers in the ordinary
way; these slivers thus drawn have no practical twist in them although they may
have such slight twist as is produced by the ordinary revolutions of the cans into
which the slivers are received.

page_text: Figure 1 is an end view of the machine. Figure 2 is a front elevation thereof,
with the centre portion broken away to bring the ends nearer together. Figure 3
is a front elevation of the drawing rollers, with the centre portion broken away,
as in the last preceding Figure. Figure 4 is an end elevation of the drawing
rollers and their supporting frame, showing the gearing at that end, for driving
the said rollers, the bracket or stand which furnishes the bearings for the inter-
mediate gear wheels, or some of them, being broken away. Figure 5 is a like
elevation of the other end of the frame and rollers, with the bracket or stand at
that end broken away, as in the last preceding Figure.
Figure 6 is a cross section on line x x of Figure 3.-Figure 7 is a cross section
on line y y of Figure 3.-Figure 8 is a top view of the drawing rollers, their
driving gearing and supporting frame, the centre portion of the rollers being
broken away. In the portion of the figure to the right of the break the upper
rollers are reinoved, to expose to view the lower or fluted rollers and the trumpets.
Figure 9 is a section on line 2, 2, Figure 8.
There is shown in the drawings, a machine provided with several sets of
drawing rollers, the sliver passing through the grip of six pairs of drawing rollers
of each set.
These rollers may be of any known construction and caused to revolve by any
known kind of machinery, and the upper may be pressed upon the lower rollers in
any known way.
Moreover, I do not confine myself to any precise number of pairs of rollers, nor
to any precise speed of revolution thereof, nor to any precise relation of the speed
of one roller to that of its successors in the series; but I prefer to revolve the third
pair of rollers at the same, or at about the same speed as the second pair, and the
fifth pair, at about the same speed as the fourth pair, and so on in succession when
more than six pairs are used, the fibre being thus drawn between the first and
second, and the third and fourth, and the fifth and sixth pairs of rollers.
The slivers may be doubled and drawn by these rollers, but I prefer merely to
draw them.
In spinning Number 20 yarn, for instance, I use sliver weighing 60 grains to the
yard, and run the first pair of rollers a a¹ with a surface speed of 2.22-100 inches
per minute; the second pair b b with a surface speed of 7.92-100 inches per
minute; the third pair c c', at the same speed as the second pair 6 b'; the fourth
pair d dat a surface speed which is 48.33-100 inches per minute; the fifth
pair e e, at the same speed as the fourth pair; and the sixth pair ff' at a surface
speed of 314 inches per minute.
.

page_text: At these revolutions of the rollers I run the spindles, according to the number of
turns to the inch desired in the finished yarn, at from 6000, to 7000 revolutions
per minute.
These speeds may of course be varied either absolutely or proportionately for the
same number of yarn or for different numbers of yarn and for different weights of
sliver; but the experienced spinner will know how to vary the speeds properly, or
even the number of pairs of rollers, according to the required extent of elongation
or drawing of the sliver before it is spun, after reading the rule I have given for
number 20 yarn from sliver weighing sixty grains to the yard. I cannot draw the
sliver to the extent required without using trumpets to condense or compact the
sliver as it is being drawn, the trumpets serving to gather the outlying or
outwardly projecting fibres into the body of the sliver; and I prefer to use with
six pairs of rollers three trumpets g h i for each sliver, the first trumpet acting
upon the slivers as it enters the frame, the second, applied between the second
and third pairs of rollers, and the third, between the fourth and fifth pairs; but
I intend to use a greater or less number of trumpets. These trumpets I prefer to
make stationary or non-revolving, but they may be of any usual construction.
The sliver t delivered by the last pair of drawing rollers is furnished to spindles
provided with rings and travellers, shown at k k and spun by them as usual, except
that the yarn receives its whole necessary twist by means of these spindles, the
spindles spinning the yarn from drawn and doubled sliver, and not from drawn and
doubled roving as usual.
The spindles, rings, travellers, and the mechanism for driving them, may be of
any usual construction.
The sliver to be drawn and spun in my machine is contained in cans m m by
préference arranged in a double tier, one above the other, and supported above the
drawing rollers on a can stand o, o, and the sliver is lifted out of these cans by
rollers nn over which the sliver passes, as usual; and I prefer to make the
machines double, as shown in the drawings, that is, with two complete sets of
cans, drawing rollers, trumpets, ring spindles, and their accessories.
In the operation of the machine the sliver is taken from the cans, drawn by the
rollers, compacted or condensed by the trumpets, and finally spun into yarn by the
spindles.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. The described process of making cotton yarn, consisting in bringing the
cotton fibre to the condition of sliver and drawing and doubling the sliver for the
purpose of evening it, then further drawing and compacting or condensing, without
twisting, the sliver thus prepared until it is reduced to the attenuated form
requisite to allow it to be spun directly into yarn, and finally spinning said
attenuated sliver directly into finished yarn, as contra-distinguished from roving;
the whole process being substantially such as hereinbefore set forth.
2. The method of making yarn directly from sliver, consisting in taking sliver
in the condition of that usually furnished to slubbers, and drawing compacting and
spinning the same, substantially as described, no twist being imparted to such
sliver until it is ultimately spun into yarn.
3. The combination of successive pairs of drawing-rollers arranged and operating
to receive sliver, and to reduce the same, without twisting, to the attenuated form
requisite to allow it to be spun directly into yarn as contra-distinguished from
roving, trumpets to compact or condense said sliver during this process of reduction,
and rings, spindles and travellers, or their equivalent, to which said sliver is
directly conducted and by which it is directly converted into yarn, substantially as
herein before set forth.

page_text: 4. The combination of successive pairs of drawing rollers arranged and operating
to receive sliver, and to reduce the same, without twisting, to the attenuated form
requisite to allow it to be spun directly into yarn as contra-distinguished from roving,
trumpets to condense said sliver during this process of reduction, ring spindles, or
their equivalent, whereby said attenuated sliver is spun directly into yarn, and a
can stand and cans arranged above the drawing rollers, substantially as and for the
purposes herein before set forth,