CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES USED FOR CARDING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBLOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JEREMIAH
HORSFALL and JAMES KENYON, both of Addingham, in the County of York,
Cotton Spinners, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date the Ninth day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-five, give and grant unto us, the said Jeremiah
Horsfall and James Kenyon, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, His especial
licence that we, the said Jeremiah Horsfall and James Kenyon, our exors,
adñiors, and assigns, should and lawful might, during the term of fourteen years
therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN ENGINES USED FOR CARDING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBLOUS SUBSTANCES;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if we, the said
Jeremiah Horsfall and James Kenyon, should not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, and
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months then next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent now in recital, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages thereby granted should utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Jeremiah Horsfall and James Kenyon, do hereby declare that our Invention of

page_text: "Certain Improvements in Engines used for Carding Cotton and other Fibrous
Substances" consists in the arrangement of a series of revolving cylinders
clothed with wire cards, provided with certain appendages hereafter described,
by which the necessity of flats or top cards is obviated, and the labour or trouble
of stripping or cleaning the cards entirely dispensed with, whilst at the same
time a much greater quantity of cotton is carded or passed through the engine
in a given time.
In the annexed Drawing, Figure 1 represents a side view and Figure 2 a
plan of an ordinary carding engine with our improvements applied to it.
Figure 3 is a section and Figure 4 an elevation (full size) of our improved
apparatus applicable to a carding engine. In all these Figures certain letters
of reference are used, and the same letters are throughout made to refer to the
same parts in the various Figures. The scale to which the various Figures
are drawn is written on the Drawing. In Figures 1 and 2, A represents the
main cylinder of the carding engine, and B the doffing cylinder, the rotatory
course or direction of which is indicated by small arrows. These cylinders are
driven in the ordinary manner, and the mode of feeding from the lap or roll of
cotton D is the same as usually practised. In Figures 3 and 4, E represents
one of the revolving cylinders at full size, which we substitute in place of the
ordinary flats or top cards, and the nature of the support by which it is
adjusted and set true to the main cylinder A is seen at Figure 4. In this
Figure (f) represents the fork or step in which the axis or journal of the
cylinder E revolves, and T a cross piece, which can be adjusted by the nuts on
the screw at h, h. One of these pieces T is similarly placed on each side of
the machine to each cylinder E, and supports or carries a straight edge of
wood or other suitable material, as represented at G, Figure 4, and in section
at Figure 3. This wooden straight edge G resting upon the cross piece T is
adjusted parallel to the axis of E, so as to place the feather edge (i) as near as
possible to the position in which the cylinders A and E come in contact.
Each cylinder E, with its straight edge G, being thus arranged in place of the
top cards, as represented at Figures 1 and 2, a slow revolving motion is
conveyed to them from the shaft of the feeding rollers by the carrier spur
wheels (k), (), and (m), the spur wheels M being respectively placed on the
shaft of cach succeeding cylinder E, and their motion conveyed from one to
the other by the intervening carrier wheels N. From the above explanation,
and the direction of the rotation of the various parts being indicated by small
arrows, the action of the cylinders E to produce the effect of top cards will be
easily understood.
We shall now proceed to explain the effect produced by the application

page_text: of the straight edges G on the various cylinders E, which is that of keeping
them perfectly clear of cotton, and thereby dispensing with the necessity of all
top stripping, as required where flatts or top cards are used. The peculiar
action of the straight edges G, by which this effect is produced, will be best
understood by reference to Figure 3, where the line (9, 9,) represents the
pitch line of the main cylinder A, with a small arrow to indicate the direction
of rotation, the cylinder E moving slowly in the reverse direction, as already
explained. Now, supposing the cards on the main cylinder A to be filled with
cotton, and the machine in action, a portion of such cotton would be arrested
and retained by the cards on the cylinder E, and in a short time the cylinder
E would be filled similar to a doffing cylinder, and require stripping or
cleaning; but by placing the feather edge of the straight edge G in the exact
position where the accumulation of cotton on the cylinder E is leaving the
surface of the main cylinder A, the fibres of the cotton on the cylinder overhang
the feather edge at i, and are subjected to the tearing or pulling action of the
cards on the main cylinder A. It must also be remarked, that at this period
the position of the cards which retain the cotton on the cylinder E is varied so
as to allow the cotton to be taken from them or cleared in a manner similar
to the action of a doffer comb, which action is effected by the superior
velocity of the cards on the main cylinder A, drawing the fibres of cotton over
the straight edge at i. The direction in which such fibre must proceed to be
drawn or freed from the cylinder E is indicated by a red colour passing over
the feather edge at i, and the relative position of the cards on the cylinders
E and A at this period to the stationary straight edge G will sufficiently
explain the entire action of our improvements; thus the cylinders E effect the
carding action similar to ordinary top cards, at the same time that they are
uniformly stripped or cleared by the means above described. And we find by
experience that the uniform stripping of such cylinders enables us to speed the
feeding apparatus much quicker than heretofore, and to pass a much greater
quantity of cotton or other material through the carding machine in any
given time.
Having described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which
the same may be performed and carried into effect for carding cotton, the
arrangement and application of a similar apparatus to or for carding engines,
for the purpose of carding wool, flax, or other fibrous substances, will depend
on the build and construction of such engines, and may be readily applied by.
any competent mechanic.
Although we have introduced in the annexed Drawing many of the well-
known parts of one description of ordinary carding engines, we do not claim

page_text: any such parts as of our Invention. But we do claim as of our Invention the
application and arrangement of a series of revolving cylinders, as represented
at E in the annexed Drawing in conjunction with the straight edges G, in the
manner and for the purposes hercin-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Jeremiah Horsfall and James Kenyon,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-seventh day of April,
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
JER (LS.) HORSFALL.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, on
duly stamped parchment, by the
within-named James Kenyon, at
Skipton, in the County of York,
the Twenty-eighth day of April,
JAMES (L.s.) KENYON.
Inrolled the Ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-six.