IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND COMBING WOOL, GOATS HAIR, ALPACA, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Seebohm at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th April 1854.
I, HENRY SEEBOHм, of Bradford, in the County of York, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND COMBING
WOOL, GOATS HAIR, ALPACA, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL," to be as
follows:-
In order to straighten and lay the fibres, I first subject them to the action of
I
teeth upon the periphery of a series of rotating rings or discs, arranged side by
side upon a common axis, so as to form, in fact, a cylinder or drum of teeth,
but each ring or disc of which is caused to rotate at an increased speed rela-
tively to its next adjoining on one side.
The fibre is fed on to this combined cylinder or drum of teeth at one portion
of its surface by feed rollers or other feeding means, and drawn off at another
portion by drawing-off' rollers.
Fibre thus prepared I then cause to travel along or through a mass of comb
teeth, which have a reciprocal motion given to them, and are so arranged that
the teeth shall travel forwards when in the fibre and return when out of it, to
give place to others acting in like manner, whereby the whole or part of the
teeth are changing position whilst the fibre is being combed, so that the loops
or entanglements which are formed behind the teeth may be liberated; and each

page_text: set of teeth acts upon the fibre in a manner somewhat similar to the teeth of
a screw gill, except that the fibre travels through the combs with the length of
the staple in a transverse direction to their line of motion, and the mass of comb
teeth is divided into sets, two sets acting together as a pair, but with motions in
directions diverging from each other, and they act alternately with the others,
having like movements. The apparatus for effecting this I arrange in the fol-
lowing manner-There are two pairs of gratings or sets of parellel bars, one
pair being placed at the side of the other, but at an angle thereto (or so that one
set may diverge from the other), so that at one end they are close together and
at the other end separated, say, about two feet, more or less. The gratings in
each pair are placed parallel to each other; between the bars in each grating
rows of teeth or combs are caused to enter and to travel a short distance in a
direction from the point where the two pairs of gratings adjoin, then to retire
& return outside the gratings.
At that end of the gratings at which the two pairs adjoin, the prepared fibre
is placed in lengths or stricks transversely or nearly at right angles between the
bars, and by the motion of the rows of teeth it is caused to travel forwards.
When the fibres have reached that part of the gratings where they are sepa-
rated, part will have remained in one grating & part in the other, and a tuft
of combed fibre will project between them, which may be drawn off by drawing-
off' rollers.
The front rows of teeth are caused alternately to overlap each other in order
to prevent the escape of the noil, which may be removed beyond the drawing:
off rollers by a brush or other suitable clearing means.
When the fibre to be combed is so much entangled that the changing of the
teeth is insufficient to liberate the loops, I propose to introduce a blast of air
or steam in front of or between the rows of teeth.