CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING FIBROUS OR TEXTILE PLANTS, EITHER INDIGENOUS OR EXOTIC, TO BE USED IN PLACE OF FLAX OR HEMP
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the fifth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Newton, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Newton, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Newton, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING FIBROUS OR TEXTILE PLANTS, EITHER INDIGENOUS OR
EXOTIC, TO BE USED IN PLACE OF FLAX OR HEMP," being a communication
from a Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that I, the said William Newton, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be inrolled in is said Majesty's righ Court of Chancery wie
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say)-
-
This Invention of Improvements in Preparing Fibrous or Textile Plants,
either Indigenous or Exotic, to be Used in place of Hemp or Flax, has for its
object the loosening or separating the bark, boom, or other extraneous matter
from the fibres of textile plants, particularly Phornium Tenax, or New
Zealand flax, and other textile plants capable of being used in place of hemp
or flax, at the same time separating the fibres of such plants, and thereby
preparing them for heckling, and clearing them from the extraneous matters
previous to the after process of twisting or spinning them into yarn, and con-
sists in submitting such fibrous textile plants to a process of rolling, bruising,
grinding, or breaking, by the pressure of a revolving crushing stone or metal
roller (either plain or fluted), travelling round the mill on a bed of stone or
iron (either plain or fluted), by which means the fibres of the Phornium
Tenax or other textile plants become separated and softened at the same tim
the bark, boom, or other woody or extraneous matter becomes loosened or
separated from the fibres, and the plant prepared for the after process of
heckling.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent several views of a mill for effecting these
objects. Figure 1 is a side view representing the side of the roller or crusher.
Figure 2, another side view, shewing the end of the revolving stone or roller;
and Figure 3 is a plan or horizontal view. A is the bed of the mill, which
may be formed of stone, iron, or other material, with either a plain or fluted
surface. B is the revolving crusher or stone, which has also a plain or fluted
surface corresponding to the bed of the mill, and turns on it own axis pro-
jecting from the shaft C (mounted in proper bearings), which is actuated
through the bevilled wheels D and E, put in motion by a band passing from a
steam engine or other motive power, thereby causing the roller to travel round
on the bed of the mill. The Phornium Tenax or other fibrous or textile plants
are first rolled or twisted into hanks or bunches, and then laid upon the bed
of the mill, where they undergo a process of rolling, crushing, or breaking

page_text: and loosening, from the pressure of the crusher or roller B, which travels over
them; or the textile plants may be laid on the bed of the mill without twisting
them up into bunches. After submitting the fibrous plants to the process of
rolling from three to seven or more hours, according to their nature and
quality, they are to be removed to the heckling machine or frame, and heckled,
first in coarse heckles, and then in finer, and so on, in the usual manner of
treating fibrous plants, until they are sufficiently heckled and freed from the
bark, boom, or other extraneous matter, for the after-process of spinning.
Those parts of the fibrous plants which are found not to be sufficiently softened,
crushed, or loosened, may be returned from time to time between the different
processes of heckling to the mill for a further process of rolling, crushing, or
loosening, so as to perfectly prepare them for the finishing, heckling, and
spinning.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of August One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-five.