IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WASHING AND CLEANSING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATON left by James Lee Norton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th March
1867.
I, JAMES LER NORTON, of Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR WASHING AND CLEANSING WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for washing
and cleansing wool and other fibrous materials. The wool or fibre to be washed
is immersed in a trough in which there is agitating apparatus consisting of a
horizontal axis with a number of screw blades upon it, which as the axis
rotates dip into the liquid in the trough and cause the fibre to travel forwards.
This screw apparatus is not in itself new, but I employ it in combination with
a fork placed diagonally and worked by a crank or similar contrivance in such
manner as to cause it to dip into the trough immediately in advance of the
screw blades, and to take the fibre as it leaves the blades. The fork then
carries the fibre on along the bottom of the trough, and delivers it to other
apparatus (it may be such as is herein-after described), which lifts it out of
the washing trough and delivers it to squeezing rollers. In its return stroke

page_text: the fork is lifted above the surface of the liquid, and it again enters immediately
in front of the screw blades. The prongs of the fork in taking the fibre may
descend between inclined bars fixed in the trough and extending from the
surface of the liquid nearly to the bottom; these bars serve to keep the fibre
from floating to the surface after it escapes from the screw blades.
The lifting-out apparatus which I employ according to my Invention either
in combination with the agitating apparatus just described or otherwise, and
which itself also acts more or less as a washer or agitator, consists of endless
chains or bands passing around pulleys and carrying spikes or teeth; these
chains or bands are placed in an inclined position, so that the spikes or teeth
dip into and rise up out of the trough, and by means of a guide and roller
they are caused to travel parallel to the bottom and inclined end of the trough
with which the ends of the spikes or teeth come nearly in contact, so that they
rake the fibre along and up the inclined end of the trough, at the top of which
it is delivered, and in order that the spikes or teeth may drop the fibre at this
point they are not fixed to the chains or bands, but are jointed thereto, and
guides are employed to hold them at right angles to the chains or bands which
carry them until they come to the point of delivery, where the guides release
them and allow them to hang down in such manner that the fibre falls freely
off them. The fibre is not, as heretofore, delivered on to an endless apron
which in turn transfers it to the squeezing rollers, but the teeth at once deliver
the fibre to the squeezing rollers, and to admit of this the rollers are placed in
an inclined position, so that the fibre may fall on to them; or in some cases I
employ a simpler and very effective lifting-out apparatus consisting of prongs
mounted on an axis which is caused to revolve rapidly. I generally mount
two rows of prongs on the axis on opposite sides of it. The prongs in each
row are mounted some inches apart, but the distance is varied to suit different
sorts of fibre. The ends of the prongs are turned or bent back, and as the
axis revolves they pass in close proximity to the curved false bottom or end
of the washing vessel. The axis with its prongs is cased in over the top of
the washing vessel, except at a slit or opening at the end of the vessel where it
is desired that the delivery should take place. The rapid rotation of the
lifting prongs causes the fibre as it is lifted by them to move outwards by
centrifugal force, and when it comes to the opening or mouth it escapes thereat
on to an apron which leads to the squeezing rollers. I prefer to employ three
squeezing rollers, the two lower ones being on the same level and driven in the
same direction. The upper roller, which is weighted and arranged so that it
can rise and fall vertically, rests on the two lower rollers, or rather it squeezes
the fibre against them,. for the rollers (when made of bare metal without any

page_text: elastic coating) are not allowed to come into actual contact, otherwise they
might shear the fibre when the feed was thin.
In constructing tanks for steeping wool or fibre to prepare it for the washing
machine I arrange them with longitudinal partitions; these partitions divide the
tank into compartments, three by preference, and then the first compartment at
its further end communicates with the second, and this at its other end com-
municates with the third, on which an apparatus for lifting the wool out is
fitted; this apparatus I prefer to be such as I have already described in respect
to the washing machinery. When the fibre has been steeped a sufficient time
it is propelled forward by suitable mechanical paddles or otherwise into the last
compartment, where the lifting-out apparatus takes it out of the steeping tank.
By this arrangement a considerable saving of hand labour is effected.