IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDS EMPLOYED IN THE CARDING OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Ashworth and Elijah Ashworth, both of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Card Manufacturers, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDS EMPLOYED IN THE CARDING OF
COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 11th January 1871, and dated the 15th July 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Ashworth and
Elijah Ashworth at the Office of. the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 15th July 1870.
We, GEORGE ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH, both of Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, Card Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDS
EMPLOYED IN THE CARDING OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention relates more particularly to the manufacture of cards
suitable to be employed as a covering for the lickers-in of the carding
engines employed in the preparation of cotton, but is also applicable
to cards employed in the treatment or preparation of other fibrous
materials. The said cards are of a coarser description than the cards
employed to cover the main cylinders, rollers, and doffers of carding
engines.
:

page_text: When making the said cards in manner according with our said
Invention we employ in lieu of wire a flat strip preferably of steel,
and formed by flattening a round wire by passing the same between
rollers, or so otherwise formed as may be preferred or found to be
suitable. The said strip of metal is fed into a card making machine,
in which it is severed into pieces or blanks, cach of a suitable length
to make two dents of the card. The process of severance forms each
end of each of the said blanks into an angular point resembling the
tooth of a saw, and these said ends being bent at right angles to the
central part of the said blank as in the making of ordinary cards, are
thrust by preference in a diagonal direction through a ribbon, sheet.
or fillet of leather, or other suitable material, the angular points pro-
jecting from the face of the fillet or sheet of leather or other material.
The card so made is covered on the face with teeth, each tooth resembling
the tooth of a saw as aforesaid, and is very suitable to be used for
covering lickers-in as aforesaid and for other purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Ashworth and Elijah Ashworth in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH, both of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said George Ashworth and Elijah Ashworth, Her
special license that we, the said George Ashworth and Elijah Ash-
worth, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said George Ashworth and Elijah Ashworth, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARDS

page_text: EMPLOYED IN THE CARDING OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon
the condition, amongst others, that we, the said George Ashworth and
Elijah Ashworth, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
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 we, the said George Ashworth and Elijahı
Ashworth, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement (and accompanying
Drawings), that is to say :-
Our Invention relates principally to the manufacture of cards suitable
to be employed as a covering for the "lickers-in" of carding engines
employed in the preparation of cotton, but is also applicable to cards
otherwise employed in the treatment or preparation of cotton or other
fibrous materials. The said cards are of a coarser description than the
cards employed to cover the main cylinders, rollers, and doffers of carding
engines.
When making the said cards in manner according with our said
Invention we employ in lieu of wire a flat strip preferably of steel, and
formed by flattening wire by passing the same between rollers, or so
otherwise formed as may be preferred or found to be suitable. The said
strip of metal is fed into a card making machine, in which it is severed
into pieces or blanks each of a suitable length to make two dents of the
card. The process of severance may form each end of each of the said
blanks into an angular point resembling the tooth of a saw, and these
said ends being bent at right angles to the central part of the said blank
as in the making of ordinary cards, are thrust by preference in a diagonal
direction through a ribbon, sheet, or fillet of leather or other suitable
material, the angular point projecting from the face of the fillet or sheet
of leather or other material. The card so made is covered on the face
with teeth, each tooth resembling the tooth of a saw as aforesaid, and is
very suitable to be used for covering "lickers-in" as aforesaid, and for
other purposes.
When applying our Invention to the making of cards of a finer
description than the cards herein-before referred to, we may dispense with
the saw tooth point herein-before described.

page_text: In order that our Invention may be fully understood, we have
supplied to accompany this Specification a Sheet of Drawings representing
cards made in manner according with our said Invention.
Referring in this place to the said Drawings, Fig. 1 represents a side
view of a portion of a strip of card suitable to be employed to cover 5
"lickers-in ;" Fig. 2 being a plan of the same.
Fig. 3 illustrates the saw like appearance of the improved card when
the same is applied to a "licker-in" or other roller.
Fig. 4 illustrates a modification which we may make in the form of
the teeth or dents; and Figs. 5 and 6 shew our Invention as adapted to 1
finer cards than those represented in the other Figures.
The dents of the cards represented by Figs. 1 and 2 are formed of
steel or other suitable metal wire which has been flattened in a similar
manner as in the case of the flattened wire employed in the making of
reeds, or the said wire may be drawn through dies which will impart a 1
cross sectional form to the said wire similar to that of the said flattened
wire, and which will enable the cards formed of the said drawn wire to
produce the same practical effect as the cards made from the said
flattened wire.
The said flat or flattened wire is fed into a card making machine 2
which severs the said wire into blanks of a form similar to Fig. 7, which
are then bent into the form illustrated by Fig. 8, and are then thrust
through a strip of leather or other material as in the making of ordinary
cards.
In Fig. 1 the dents are shewn as thrust through the leather or other
material in a diagonal direction, in order that the said dents shall be
better adapted to act in the desired manner upon the cotton or other
fibrous material.
In Fig. 4 the said dents are represented as having been thrust through
the said leather or material at or nearly at right angles thereto, a small
portion being removed from each end of the blank in the process of
cutting in order to impart the required keenness to the points of the said
dents.
In Figs. 5 and 6 a card suitable to be employed in the covering of the
main cylinders of carding engines is represented. In this example the
dents of the said card are formed of flattened wire, the said wire being
employed in the card making machines in manner exactly as when using
the ordinary round wire. We have found that the said flattened wire

page_text: dents penetrate between the filaments of cotton or other fibrous material
more readily than the dents as ordinarily formed from round wire, and
also that less waste is produced when our improved cards are employed
than when the ordinary cards are used.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and illustrated
our methods of carrying the same into practical effect, we would in
conclusion have it to be distinctly understood that we desire to claim
with reference to such cards as are formed by thrusting dents or bent
wires through the substance of leather, wood, cloth, or other material
usually employed,―
First. The making and using of the said cards when wire flattened in
the manner herein indicated is employed to form the dents or teeth of
the said cards.
Secondly. The employment of wire which has been drawn or formed
to resemble the said flattened wire and to have the same practical effect
in the coarser or stronger varieties of the said cards, as, for example,
such as are or may be employed to cover the lickers-in of carding
engines.
And, lastly. The employment in the said cards of dents which when
in position in the said cards have a saw-like appearance, substantially as
illustrated in Figs. 1, 3, and 4 of the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whercof, we, the said George Ashworth and Elijah Ash-
worth, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand- eight
hundred and seventy-one.
Signed and sealed by the said
George Ashworth and Elijah
Ashworth, in the presence of
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
Agent to the Patentees,
Manchester.
GEO. ADHWURTH.
(L.S.)
ELIJAH ASHWORTH. (L.S.)

page_text: of forming this flat wire is by submitting ordinary round wire to the
action of flattening rollers, wire so flattened being superior in practical
effect for our purpose to flat wire produced in any other way:
And whereas we so framed the Specification filed in fulfilment of
one of the conditions contained in the said Letters Patent as that it
should include the use, for the purposes mentioned, of wire flattened by
means of rollers, and also of wire drawn or formed to resemble the wire
flattened by means of rollers :
And whereas wire of oval, triangular, and other sections formed by
drawing in the ordinary manner in which wire is drawn had been
used for such purposes, and such wire might be said to resemble
our flattened wire, we desire, in order to render our claims more
distinct, and to prevent misunderstandings, to confine our claims to
the use of wire flattened by means of rollers. To this end we propose
to disclaim certain parts of our said Specification, and to make the
herein-after indicated alterations therein, reference being made to the
Queen's Printers'
printed
A
copies thereof published at the Great Seal
Patent Office in the year One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
In page 3, lines 22 and 23, we strike out the words." or so otherwise
formed as may be preferred or found to be suitable." In page 4 we
strike out the portion of the sentence following the word "flattened
15
A
or the said wire
A
reeds
A
" in
line 13 and beginning with the words in-a-similar-manner down to and
including the words "flattened wire" in line 19, and we-substitute for the
portion-so-struck-out the words" by means of-rollers-as-aforesaid." In page 5
we strike out the word "wood" in line 9, and in the same page we
strike out the word 65 First" in line 11, and-in-the-same-line-after-the-word-
"flattened "-we-insert-the-words-" by-rollers," and also in the same page we
strike out the whole of the words in lines 14 to 21 both inclusive.
The Specification so amended would then read as follows, namely:-
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH, both of Manchester, in the County.
of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-

page_text: and these said ends being bent at right angles to the central part of the
said blank as, in the making of ordinary cards, are thrust by preference
in a diagonal direction through a ribbon, sheet, or fillet of leather or
other suitable material, the angular point projecting from the face of
the fillet or sheet of leather or other material. The card so made is 5
covered on the face with cach tooth resembling the tooth of a
saw as aforesaid, and is very suitable to be used for covering "lickers
in" as aforesaid, and for other purposes.
teeth
A
When applying our Invention to the making of cards of a finer
description than the cards herein-before referred to we may dispense 1
with the saw tooth point herein-before described.
In order that our Invention may be fully understood we have supplied
to accompany this Specification a Sheet of Drawings representing cards
made in manner according with our said Invention.
Referring in this place to the said Drawings, Figure 1 represents a 1
side view of a portion of a strip of card suitable to be employed to cover
"lickers in"; Figure 2 being a plan of the same.
Figure 3 illustrates the saw-like appearance of the improved card
when the same is applied to a "licker in " or other roller.
Figure 4 illustrates a modification which we may make in the form of 2
the teeth or dents; and Figures 5 and 6 shew our Invention as adapted
to finer cards than those represented in the other Figures.
The dents of the cards represented by Figures 1 and 2 are formed of
steel or other suitable metal wire which has been flattened by-means-of
rollers-as-aforesaid.
in a similar manner as in the case of the flattened wire employed in the making of rivets.
said
V
Λ
The flat or flattened wire is fed into a card 2
making machine which severs the said wire into blanks of a form
similar to Figure 7 which are then bent into the form illustrated by
Figure 8, and are then thrust through a strip of leather or other material
as in the making of ordinary cards.
In Figure 1 the den are shewn as thrust through the leather or 3
other material in a diagonal direction in order that the said dents shall
be better adapted to act in the desired manner upon the cotton or other
fibrous material.

page_text: In Figure 4 the said dents are represented as having been thrust
through the said leather or material at or nearly at right angles thereto,
a small portion being removed from each end of the blank in the process
of cutting in order to impart the required keenness to the points of the
said dents.
In Figures 5 and 6 a card suitable to be employed in the covering of
the main cylinders of carding engines is represented. In this example
the dents of the said card are formed of flattened wire, the said wire
being employed in the card making machines in manner exactly as when
using the ordinary round wire. We have found that the said flattened
wire dents penetrate between the filaments of cotton or other fibrous
material more readily than the dents as ordinarily formed from round
wire, and also that less waste is produced when our improved cards are
employed than when the ordinary cards are used.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and illustrated
our methods of carrying the same into practical effect, we would in
conclusion have it to be distinctly understood that we desire to claim
with reference to such cards as are formed by thrusting dents or bent
wires through the substance of leather, cloth, or other material usually
employed, the making and using of the said cards when wire flattened
by rollers in the manner herein indicated is employed to form the dents
or teeth of the said cards.
In witness whereof, we, the said George Ashworth and Elijah

page_text: I hereby grant my fiat, giving leave to the above-named George
Ashworth and Elijah Ashworth, to file in the Great Seal Patent Office,
with the Specification to which the same relates, the above-written
Amended Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration.
Dated this Eighth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and
sortanter from
10, Old Square,
Lincoln's Inn.
RICHARD BAGGALLAY.