IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FIBROUS SUB- STANCES FOR COMBING
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd August 1878. A com-
munication from abroad by Heilmann-Ducommun and Steinlen, of Paris,
France.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES FOR COMBING." [A communication from abroad by Heilmann-Ducommun
and Steinlen, of Paris, France.]
In treating filamentous substances in the Heilmann-Ducommun combing machine
it is advantageous to employ a material which is well opened out, or of which the
impurities are detached as much as possible from the filaments to which they
adhered. The work of the comb teeth is thus greatly facilitated and fewer fibres
are broken, and there is consequently less waste.
One method of preparing the web of filaments, which partly fulfils the object
desired, consists in drawing out the filaments from a feed apparatus by the repeated
action of a nipper working as close as possible thereto, but this mode of preparing
the web for combing has the defect of producing a break or division in the web at
every stroke of the nipper.
The object of the present improvement is to avoid this objection, and yet attain
otherwise the same beneficial result as that obtained by the nipper, which seizes the
filaments close up to the feed apparatus; and to this end the nipper is replaced by
a pair of drawing rollers, which are of small diameter, so that the bite of the rollers
or the point at which the filaments are seized shall be as close as possible to the
feed cylinder.
The small diameter of these drawing rollers will however render them very liable
to flexion in two directions, viz.,—
1st. By a strain tending to bend or spring them apart, so that they will no
longer exert the necessary pressure, especially at the middle.
And, 2ndly. By a strain tending to bend them backwards in the direction of the
web of filaments in consequence of the resistance offered by the latter to leaving
the feed apparatus.

page_text: -
In order to counteract both these effects, and enable drawing rollers of small
diameter to be employed, two pressing rollers are applied, which press the two
drawing rollers together. The direction in which these two pressing rollers will
compress the drawing rollers will approach that of the resultant of the two forcos
tending to bend the drawing rollers.
In the accompanying Drawing A, Figure 1, indicates the position of the feed
apparatus, which according to the condition of the material under treatment may
either be a plain cylinder, Figuro 2, a fluted cylinder, Figure 3, a spiral plain
bladed cylinder, as in Figure 4, a spiral saw toothed bladed cylinder, as in Figure 5,
or a porcupine roller, as in Figure 1; or as in Figure 6, a small fine toothed
porcupine a placed in front of a large porcupine cylinder A, having coarser teeth
with a small space between them.
The several cylinders may either be provided with shields or guards for com-
pelling the fibres to enter the teeth of the cylinders, or with overlapping fingers
pressed on the cylinders by the stress of a spring or weight.
B, B, Figure 1, are the two drawing rollers, the one clothed with leather, or
enveloped by an endless apron passing over a tension roller provided with tightening
screws or other means of adjustment on either side, while the other is of fluted
metal, both rollers being of sufficiently small diameter to bring their line of bite or
point at which the filaments are seized as near as possible to the feed apparatus.
C, C', are two pressing rollers applied against the two drawing rollers, so as to
counteract the two bending strains, to which the drawing rollers are exposed, as
before described.
It will be seen that the lines d, e, f, g, are not in the same straight line, but form
a wide angle with each other on the sido next the feed apparatus, the position of
the axes of cylinders C, C', being such that any tendency of the rollers B, B', to
be bent by the resistance opposed by the fibres to being drawn out of the feed
apparatus will be prevented by the rollers being wedged, so to speak, into the
space between the cylinders C, C'. Similarly any tendency of the two rollers B, B',
to bend or spring apart at the middle will be opposed by the cylinders C, C¹,
holding them firmly pressed one against the other.
The rollers might also all be placed in the same straight line.
:. E, F, G, are weighted lovers for applying pressure to the two drawing rollers B, B'.
The lever E may be disconnected from F at point X, the weight H being sup-
ported upon the cam K. The lover E works on a pivot at I, and the cylinders B', C',
which are journalled in said lever, move with it around pivot I, so as to enable
them to be lifted to afford access to the feed cylinder at the commencement of the
operation, and otherwise when required. The pressing rollers C, C¹, are driven
from a toothed wheel L through the gear wheels L', L, L. The small drawing
roller B¹ receives motion through the gear wheels L³, M, M³, M².
The apparatus herein-before described serves to prepare the material to be combed,
and the feed apparatus may either consist of a cylinder with overlapping fingers, or
of a porcupine roller, according to the degree of entanglement of the fibres.
In the latter case the apparatus may also be used for drawing out the material
after combing.