CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND HEMP AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1847

page_text: SPECIFICATION.
MORGAN'S
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MORGAN, of East Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Manager, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the tenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, 'the said
John Morgan, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Morgan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said John Morgan, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO PREPARING
AND SPINNING FLAX AND HEMP AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Morgan,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso,-I,-the said-
John Morgan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and

page_text: ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, (that is to say):-
The object of my improvements is, in the first place, to produce firmer and
smoother yarns of flax and similar fibrous materials in the process of drawing!
and spinning than has heretofore been obtained by the ordinary machinery,
and also to render certain parts of the machinery more durable than when
constructed in the ordinary manner, whereby a great economy is obtained;
and in order to effect this, I employ metal pressing rollers instead of those of
wood commonly used in the drawing process, and form a groove or recess
round the periphery of the drawing roller, in which recess the metal periphery
of the pressing roller is made to act for the purpose of confining and pressing
the fibres as they pass at the pinch between the drawing rollers. It is well
known that by continual use the wooden rollers usually employed quickly wear
away and become unfit for use until their surfaces are, by being turned down
again, made even and regular. This operation is expensive and occasions
much loss of time, whereas, by the employment of iron or other metal draw-
ing or pressing rollers, these latter will last as long as the other parts of the
inachinery with little or no repairs.
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 represents a portion of the front
elevation of a flax spinning frame; Figure 2 being a section taken transversely
through the same. The construction and operating parts of the machine re-
presented in these Figures are so well known that a particular description of its
details is quite unnecessary. a is the bobbin from which the roving is delivered;
6 the carrying or nipping rollers; c, c, are guide rollers; d is the drawing
roller turning in stationary brackets; e is the pressing roller, the axle of which
hangs loosely in slotted brackets, and is pressed up into contact with the draw-
ng roller by a weighted lever f. For the better explanation of the peculiar
construction of the drawing and pressing rollers, I have represented them in
section upon an enlarged scale at Figure 3. It will be perceived that a groove
or recess 9,9, is cut round the periphery of the solid iron drawing roller d, and
that a rib h, h, is formed round the periphery of the iron pressing roller 6, 6, or
the periphery of the pressing roller may be merely rounded or bevilled off. The
rib or periphery of the pressing roller takes into the groove or recess of the
drawing roller, and the flax or other material in passing between them is con-
fiued in the groove and firmly pressed by the rib, or periphery of the pressing
roller, whilst its fibres are drawn out and the yarn thereby elongated before
it reaches the spindle and flyer below.
Figure 4 represents the same improved drawing apparatus intended to be

page_text: applied to a roving frame; and Figure 5 is a transverse section of the same.
d is the drawing roller; and is the pressing roller. A sort of trumpet or
tube i conducts the fibres of the roving from the heckle sheet or gills k into the
groove of the drawing roller d, and the weight of the pressing roller e bearing
upon it pinches the roving as it passes through the process of drawing. For
the better illustration of this, I have shewn these two rollers of a roving frame
upon an enlarged scale in section at Figure 6, in which the groove in the
roller d and the rounded edge of the roller e will be clearly seen. A small
piece of wood or any other suitable material may be placed in the under part
of the groove of the wheel d (see Figures 4 and 5) for the purpose of stripping
off or preventing the fibres lapping round the roller.
Having now described my improvements in Machinery applicable to Pre-
paring and Spinning Flax and Hemp and other Fibrous Substances, I desire it
to be understood that the particular features of improvement and novelty in
such machinery, which I desire to claim under the above in part recited Letters
Patent, are the introduction of an iron or other metal pressing roller working
against or in a groove formed round the drawing roller in place of the ordinary
wooden pressing roller heretofore employed for the same purpose, and the
formation of a rib round the periphery of one roller acting in a groove or
recess formed round the periphery of the other roller for the purpose of more
effectually confining and pressing in a smaller compass the fibres of the flax
or other material acted upon during the drawing process preparatory to
spinning the fibres into yarn.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Morgan, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.