IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, near Bradford,
in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES."
Sealed the 29th May 1855, and dated the 9th March 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th March 1855.
I, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the County
of York, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES " to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object a peculiar combination of mechanical parts,
by which the process of combing wool and other fibres is much simplified.
For this purpose the wool or other fibre (which it is preferred should have
been first carded and doffed in the form of a sliver, or the fibres may
have been rendered parallel and formed into a sliver by other machinery,) is.
fed into a comb by means of two feed rollers, which have a to and fro motion.
With these rollers a pair of nippers or holders also move to and from the
comb into which the fibres are placed, and beyond which the cleaned ends

page_text: protrude, which cleaned ends are taken by other nippers or holders, which
draw out and detach the fibres from amongst the teeth of the comb, and
cause the detached quantities of combed wool to be pieced up into a sliver.
The nippers or rollers which move back with the feed rollers, and which come
close up to the comb teeth, now close and go back with the wool or fibre,
drawing the same through amongst the teeth of the comb, which fibres,
thus cleansed out at one end on the feed rollers, again coming forward are
placed in the comb in such manner as to partly protrude beyond the comb,
and so as to be taken hold of by the nippers or holders on the other side
of the comb. __
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th September 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the County of York,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel
Cunliffe Lister, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, my executors, administrators, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY, POR COMBING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, by an instrument
in writing under my hand 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..
-

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 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 thereof (that is to say)
This Invention has for its object a peculiar combination of mechanical
parts, by which the process of combing wool and other fibres is much simplified.
For this purpose the wool or other fibre (which it is preferred should have
been first carded and doffed in the form of a sliver, or the fibres may have been'
rendered parallel and formed into a sliver by other machinery,) is fed into a
comb by means of two feed rollers, which have a to and fro motion...
With
these rollers a pair of nippers or holders also move to and from the comb into
which the fibres are placed, and beyond which the cleaned ends' protrude,
which cleaned ends are taken by other nippers or holders which draw out and
detach the fibres from amongst the teeth of the comb, and cause the detached'
quantities of combed wool to be pieced up into a sliver. The nippers or
rollers which move back with the feed rollers, and which come close up to the
comb teeth, now close and go back with the wool or fibre, drawing the same
through amongst the teeth of the comb, which fibres thus cleansed out at one
end, on the feed rollers again coming forward, are placed in the comb in such
manner as to partly protrude beyond the comb, and so as to be taken hold' of
by the nippers or holders on the other side of the comb.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner in which I prefer to perform the same.
.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a section, and Figure 2 a plan of an arrangement of appa-
ratus suitable for combining wool, cotton, or other fibrous material according to
my Invention, which consists in cleaning the end of a sliver of fibrous material"
by drawing it through a travelling or other cleaning comb (the sliver at that
time being held by suitable nipping apparatus); the end of the sliver 'thus
cleaned is then moved forward and again laid into the teeth of the said
cleaning comb, so that the cleaned end may project beyond it, and be in a
position to be taken by nippers or holders, by which the projecting ends of the
cleaned fibres will be drawn out and detached, and the detached cleaned tufts
will then be pieced up or formed into a sliver. During such drawing out or
detaching of the cleaned fibres the end of the sliver is held at the back of
the cleaning comb between suitable pointed or pressing surfaces, in order to
keep the fibres straight and prevent them while being detached from being
drawn up
and gathered against the back of the cleaning comb. The pointed or
:

page_text: other pressing surfaces in the arrangement shown are then caused to release
the sliver, and by moving away from the cleaning comb (in which the end of
the sliver is held), cause a further portion of the sliver to project beyond the
nipping apparatus which again closes upon the sliver, and draws it out of the
cleaning comb, by which the end of the sliver is again cleaned and in a
condition to be dealt with as before described.
The arrangement of machinery for carrying out these my improvements
admits of considerable variation, but the machinery shown by the Drawings
and herein-after described is the best I am at present acquainted with for
performing my Invention.
In the arrangement shewn by the Drawings one feeding head with nipping
apparatus is employed, there being suitable detaching apparatus to take hold
of the ends of the cleansed fibres projecting from the cleaning comb, so as to
draw them from the end of the sliver through the cleaning comb, and then
transfer the portions of fibres thus detached in such manner as to be pieced
up or formed into a sliver, as shown. The detached quantities are placed in
a travelling or other receiving comb or apparatus, to be drawn off into a
sliver, as is well understood. a, a, is an endless travelling comb carried by
axes a, a, supported in bearings on the side framing of the machine; motion
is communicated to the shaft or axis a' and endless comb a by the worm
wheel a³ taking into a worm or screw on the main cam shaft or axis a', on one
end of which is fixed the toothed wheel as, which receives motion from the
pinion a, which is connected with the pulley a', and turns freely on the shaft
or axis 6', which receives motion from the toothed wheel 6* on the other end of
the axis a. The wool, cotton, or other fibrous material previously prepared
and formed into slivers upon bobbins or otherwise, is conducted into the
machine by suitable feeding apparatus, which is capable of holding the sliver
and drawing the ends through the cleaning comb a, then placing the cleaned
end so as to protrude beyond the cleaning comb to be taken hold of by nipping
or detaching apparatus, and then releasing the sliver, so that a further portion
of the fibres may be protruded from the feed apparatus, the action of which I
will now proceed to describe. bis a cranked lever moving freely on the
shaft or axis ', which turns in bearings at each end of the machine; the
lever carries the parts which constitute the feeding apparatus, and a to and
fro movement is given to the upper end of the lever b, and parts connected
therewith by the cam c fixed on the cam shaft or axis at, which acts on a
truck or roller carried by the lever arm 62 of the lever b. d, d, are the
conducting surfaces of the feed apparatus, which are carried by a slide d',

page_text: guided up and down on the lever b, and the slide d¹ receives an up and down
movement by means of the cam & fixed on the axis b', acting on the truck or
roller carried by the arm d' of the slide d'; e*, e*, are a number of points
carried by the plate e, which also carries the upper jaw of the nipper
apparatus. The plate e is raised and lowered from time to time in order to
insert and withdraw the points from the conducting surfaces d, d, and also
to open and close the nippers so as alternately to hold and release the sliver
of fibrous material. e is a lever which receives motion from a cam e' on the
axis a; one end of the lever e¹ is carried by an axis fixed to the framing of
the machine, the other having a toothed quadrant formed thereon, which takes
into a pinion moving freely on the shaft or axis b. e² is a toothed quadrant
fixed on the boss of the pinion e²; the quadrant e takes into a bevilled toothed
pinion e fixed on the upright grooved axis e³, which passes through the
tubular right and left handed screw e", there being projections or feathers in
the hollow screw, which take into the grooves on the axis e, to act as a guide
to the parts & and e when raised or lowered. e' is an axis which receives
motion from a bevilled pinion es on the axis e, by which motion is communi-
cated to a corresponding arrangement of the vertical axis e and hollow screw
at the opposite end of the plate e. The lower ends of the hollow screws e
turn in female screws formed in projections on the part d, and the upper ends
of the screws turn in similar projections formed in the ends of the plate e, by
which movement is given to the plate e up and down when the lever e¹ is
acted upon the cam e fixed on the cam shaft or axis a'.
I will now describe the action of the detaching apparatus shown, which
takes hold of the ends of the fibres protruding beyond the cleaning comb, and
draws them out of the end of the sliver and through the cleaning comb,
and then transfers them so as to be pieced up into a sliver, which, according to
the arrangement shown, is done by a travelling or other receiving comb, to be
drawn off into a sliver, as is well understood. f, f, is a lever frame moving
freely on the shaft or axis a'; the lever frame f receives a to and fro movement
from the axis b', by means of the crank and rod f¹. The upper ends of the
lever frame f, f, are connected by the axis f, which carries the arms or jaws
fs, f, of the detaching apparatus. The arm f³ is free to move on the
axis f, the arm f* is fixed thereon; f³ is a spring fixed on the arm f', which
by pressing against the under side, of the arm f³, constantly acts to separate
or force apart the arms or jaws f³, f*. The jaws f³, f*, are closed or drawn
together by forked pieces fe, which embrace the inclined surfaces f' fixed on
the arms ff; forked pieces fare moved to and fro when required to open

page_text: and close the jaws f³, f*, by the right and left handed screw f8, which turns
freely on the axis f2; and passes through female screws in the bosses of the
forked pieces f; rotary motion is given to the screw fs by the cam f fixed
on the axis a', which acts on a truck or roller carried by the lever arm f10
moving on the axis f", by which motion will be given to the lever arm and
toothed quadrant f12, which takes into and drives the toothed pinion f 13 fixed
on the screw f... When the parts or instruments f³, f, have been-closed
upon the fibres which protrude beyond the cleaning comb so as to hold them
securely, the levers fand detaching apparatus is caused to move away from
the cleaning comb, so as to draw out and detach the fibres from the cleaning
comb; the parts f³, f, are then caused to make a partial revolution with the
axis f2by means of the toothed quadrant f, which receives motion from
the cam f1, and takes into the teeth of the pinion f fixed on the axis f".
When the parts f³, f, have been thus caused to make a partial revolution,
the detached fibres will have.been placed in a position, as seen at Figure 3,
over the receiving comb'g, 'to be'deposited thereon by the brush h, the action
of which will be readily traced on examining the Drawing. i is an air passage
formed on the part f, through which a current of air is directed' against the
detached fibres during the partial revolution of the parts f³, f, in order to
sustain the fibres in a correct position to be deposited on the receiving comb g,
from which they may be drawn in the form of a sliver, as is well understood.
And I would here remark, that other arrangements of feeding apparatus
in combination with nippers may be employed in place of the arrangement
shown, so long as it is capable of presenting the end of a sliver of fibrous
material to the action of a cleaning comb, as herein described, and then
placing the cleaned end in a position beyond the cleaning comb to be taken
by nipping or detaching apparatus, the arrangement of which may also be
varied from that shown without departing from my Invention, so long as it is
capable of detaching or transferring detached portions of fibrous material
(by intermediate apparatus or otherwise) to be pieced up into a sliver, whether
by placing it in a receiving comb or otherwise.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the best
manner. I am acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it
understood that Imake no claim to any of the mechanical parts separately,
nor do I claim the placing of the end of a sliver into a comb to comb or
cleanse the end, and then again placing such cleaned end into the comb, that
having before been done. But what I claim is, the combining mechanical
parts into a machine, as herein described, in such manner that the end of a

page_text: sliver or slivers of wool, or other fibres, may be first cleaned by a comb or
teeth, then placed beyond the comb or teeth, and taken and detached by
nipping or holding apparatus from the teeth, and transferred in such manner
that the successive detached and cleaned portions may be pieced up or formed
into a sliver.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
JNO. COOK,
4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.
S. C. LISTER. (L.S.)