CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
60, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES."-A communi-
cation
ounty
neer, for
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES."-A communi-
cation
Sealed the 31st October 1854, and dated the 22nd August 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd August 1854.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES
as follows:-
The object of this Invention is two-fold: first, to increase the capacity of
those parts of carding engines which have hitherto restricted the operation
of the entire machine; and, secondly, to clean the main working cylinder
whilst it is in motion by a continuous process, or which might with propriety
be said to be a process which prevents the cotton, gum, &c. from becoming
packed on the cylinder, and thus save the time and expense of cleaning them,
as now done.
The nature of the Invention may be therefore stated as follows:-
First, in the application to carding engines of two or more pairs or sets of

page_text: feeding rolls, or their equivalent appliances, which will deliver the cotton or
other material on to the working cylinder at two or more points, for the
purpose of feeding in as much as the cylinder can carry without causing the
card teeth to pass through so thick a lap as to endanger their breaking or
bending, and to keep the feeding rollers at a moderate rate of speed, and by
which means also a far greater amount of work can be accomplished without
any but very slight expense to the machine, in addition to the ordinary cost of
construction.
Second, in so gearing the main working cylinder and stripper as that their
relative velocities or motions may be periodically changed and reversed by an
automatic shipper, or other equivalent mechanical appliances, and so that the
main cylinder shall strip the stripper, and then the stripper strip the main
cylinder at regular intervals, which entirely prevents the accumulation or
packing of the fibre, gum, &c. upon the working cylinder, and enables it to
run for weeks without cleaning; this being rather a preventative of than a
remedy for this inconvenience in carding engines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 22nd February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents; 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said
William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDING ENGINES," being a. com-
munication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand

page_text: and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thercon (that is to say):-
Carding engines, as at present constructed, are limited in their operation
from two causes. First, the main working cylinder is capable of receiving
and advantageously working double as much material as can with safety be
fed on to it with one pair or set of feeding rollers, as, in order to force in an
additional supply of the cotton or other material, or increase the quantity to
be fed in, either a highly increased speed must be given to the feeding rolls,
thereby rendering their operation uncertain, or the lap must be increased in
thickness, which will strain the carding teeth or clothing, and if carried to
any extent would make it impossible for the teeth to pass through the lap
or bat at all, or at least to effect anything like a desirable carding operation.
Second, the engine must be repeatedly stopped to clean the main working
cylinder of the cotton, gum, dirt, and other refuse matters which become
packed thereon, so much so as to prevent the production of good work.
Besides the cleaning of the working cylinder, every time this operation is
performed the working of the engine will vary in its results, as, when clogged
or packed with cotton or other fibrous material, which is not removed con-
stantly or at intervals, the cylinder will not take from the feed rolls, and
deliver to the workers or doffers, the same amount of material that it can
when divested of the constantly accumulating dirt or other extraneous matters.
Thus, by the present system the operation of carding is a constantly varying
one, whilst the main portions of the machine are restricted from doing the
amount of work that they are really capable of performing by the imperfection
of some of the minor parts of the machine.
The object of the present Invention is two-fold, (viz.,) first, to increase the
capacity of those parts which have hitherto restricted the operation of the
entire machine; and, secondly, to clean the main working cylinder whilst it is
in motion. This object is effected by a continuous process, or which might
with propriety be said to be a process which prevents the cotton, gum, and
other extraneous matters from becoming packed on the cylinder; by this means
the time and expense of cleaning the cylinder, as is now done, will be saved.

page_text: The nature of the present improvements consists,—
First, in the application of two or more pairs or sets of feeding rolls, or their
equivalent appliances, which will deliver the cotton or other material on to the
working cylinder at two or more points, for the purpose of feeding in as much
as the cylinder can carry without causing the teeth or clothing to pass through
so thick a lap as to endanger their breaking or bending, and to keep the
feeding rollers at a moderate rate of speed, and by which means also a far
greater amount of work can be accomplished without any but very slight
expense to the machine, in addition to the ordinary cost of construction.
Second, in so gearing the main working cylinder and stripper as that their
relative velocities or motions may be periodically changed and reversed, by an
automatic shipper, or other equivalent mechanical appliances, so that the main
cylinder shall strip the stripper, and then the stripper strip the main cylinder
at regular intervals, which will entirely prevent the accumulation or packing
of the fibre, gum, and other extraneous matters upon the working cylinder, and
will enable it to run for weeks without cleaning; this being rather a preventive
of than a remedy for this inconvenience in carding engines. In a machine
thus constructed, it is also found in practice that the waste is but a fraction of
that usually incidental to machines, as heretofore constructed.
Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawings represents a side view of a carding
engine constructed according to the present improvements; Fig. 2 represents
in part a view from the feeding end of the machine, and in part an end view,
with the lap rolls removed, in order more clearly to see the feeding rolls. **
A represents the main working cylinder; B, the workers; and C, the
strippers, which may be made and operated in any of the usual well-known
ways; the doffer also may be made in the usual form.
D, D', D; D', represent two pairs or sets of lap rollers; and E, E', E, E', two
pairs or sets of feeding rollers, by which the lap or bat is fed on to the working
cylinder A at two points thereon. The peculiar advantages of this arrange-
ment have been already explained, the object being to furnish the fleece or lap
in thin sheets to the main working cylinder, without increasing the speed of
the feed rollers, or causing the card teeth to pass through so thick a fleece as to
break or strain them, and to furnish a greater amount of material to the main
working cylinder, which, from its size and construction, it is fully capable of
receiving and advantageously working, the quantity to be fed in being greater
in amount than can be delivered to it with safety and economy by one set of
feeding rollers alone.
And I would here state that although I have represented but two pairs or
sets of feeding rolls, more may be used; and instead of feeding rolls alone,

page_text: "lickers
or "whippers in," as they are termed, may be used, the object
being to deliver the material on to the working cylinder at two or more
points and in fleeces or laps of such thickness as the machine will most
advantageously work.
On the end of one of the workers, or its shaft or journal, a cam F is
attached, and works in a fork or slot in the upper end of a shipper G. This
shipper may have an adjustable fulcrum or pivot pin in an arm N, so that by
an adjustment of the said fulcrum a greater or less sweep of the lower end of
the shipper may be had for carrying the belt, which may thereby be moved to
a greater or less distance along the cone pullies, the relative velocities of the
main working and stripping cylinders being consequently varied as these cone
pullies are connected with the respective shafts or journals of the working and
stripping cylinders. The lower end of the shipper G straddles an endless
belt H, which passes around two conical pullies I, J. One of the said pullies I
receives its motion from a drum K on the shaft of the main working cylinder A,
and transmits motion through the belt H to the conical pulley J, placed on the
shaft of the stripping cylinder M. The apices of these cone pullies stand in a
reversed position in relation to each other, and when the belt H is equidistant
from the extreme ends of the cone pullies, the relative velocities of the peri-
pheries of the main cylinder A and of the stripper M are the same.
But as
the cam E revolves, the shipper G carries the belt H back and forth along the
cone pullies, and changes their relative velocities; so that about one-half the
time the cylinder A is stripping the cylinder M, whilst during the remaining
period of these changes, or half the time, the cylinder M is stripping the main
cylinder. Thus, by an automatic movement the functions of these two cylin-
ders are reversed at regular intervals, the one having the higher velocity being
always the stripper for the time being; and by this means of giving and
receiving back the material it is kept near the points of the card teeth, and
prevented from clogging or packing upon the main cylinder, and avoids the
necessity of stopping the machine to clean the main cylinder, the material
being continually loosened up, and thus more readily taken off by the
workers.
It is obvious that, instead of getting these reversed movements by the
special means herein specified, they may be had by gearing up or down from
any other of the moving parts of the machine, and the same general results
produced, and by the addition of these appliances from thirty to fifty per cent.
more work can be attained over other machines as ordinarily constructed
without them, and which may be, with the exception of the afore-mentioned
improvements, of the same capacity or calibre. As one of the means or

page_text: modified forms of getting up these alternating motions of the stripper and
main working cylinder, the stripper, instead of merely changing its velocity in
the same direction, may have its motion roversed, or so as to run backward, as
before stated, and produce the same result. This method of stripping the main
cylinders constantly or at intervals makes much less waste than in any of the
present known machines. This may be accounted for by the constantly
loosening up of the cotton on the main cylinder, and to the facility which such
loosening up gives to the doffer to take everything from the cylinder.
In place of "flats," as heretofore used, I use a metallic plate O, which has
almost a knife edge, and by means of an adjusting screw. P may be brought
into such proximity with the teeth on the periphery of the main cylinder, or
with the strippers, as to remove therefrom any impurity which may be worked
out of the cotton, and convey it back into a trough-like receiver Q, from whence
it may be removed.
Having thus fully described the nature of the Invention that has been com-
municated to me, as aforesaid, what I claim therein as new and desire to securo
by Letters Patent is,―
First, the application of two or more pairs or sets of feeding rollers to the
main working cylinder of carding engines, substantially in the manner and for
the purpose described.
I also claim the reversing of the relative velocities of the peripheries of
the inain working cylinder and stripper at intervals by an automatic move-
ment, for the purpose of cleaning or preventing the clogging or packing of the
main cylinder.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)