AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CYLINDERS USED IN CARDING ENGINES AND OTHER MACHINES EMPLOYED IN THE PREPARATION FOR THE SPINNING OF COTTON, FLAX, WOOL, AND SILK, AND MIXTURES OF THE SAID MATERIALS OR SUBSTANCES
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WIL-
LIAM CRIGHTON and JOHN CRIGHTON, both of Manchester, in the County
Palatine of Lancaster, Machine Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom," bearing
date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of March, 1823, in the fourth year
of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said William Crighton and John
Crighton, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said William Crighton and John
Crighton, our exors, adñors, and assigns, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, excrcise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CYLINDERS USED IN CARDING ENGINES
AND OTHER MACHINES EMPLOYED IN THE PREPARATION FOR THE SPINNING OF COTTON,
FLAX, WOOL, AND SILK, AND MIXTURES OF THE SAID MATERIALS OR SUBSTANCES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if we, the
said William Crighton and John Crighton, or one of us, shall 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, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby

page_text: granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with said proviso, we, the said
William Crighton and John Crighton, do hereby declare that the nature of
our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect, is particularly described and ascertained in manner following
(that is to say):-
-
Our improvement is applicable to what are called composition cylinders,
and which are or may be used in carding engines, scribling machines, tow
machines, or other machines employed in the preparation for the spinning of
cotton, flax, wool, and silk, and mixtures of the said materials or substances.
The external cylindrical surface of the composition cylinders, which are at
present in use, is an entire coating of a composition of whiting, glue water,
white lead, and linseed oil, which is applied in a state of thick paint upon the
cylinder or drum of plate iron; the said composition being sufficiently dry, and
become hard, is turned to a true and smooth cylindrical surface,, whereon the
leathers of the cards are applied, and are fastened thereon by small screws
which pierce the edges of the leather, pass through the coating of composition,
and are screwed into the cylinder or drum of plate iron, or otherwise such
screws pass through the plate iron of the cylinder or drum, and have nuts
screwed upon them inside. This mode of fastening the leathers of the cards
upon the surface of the composition cylinders by screws is not generally
approved; and in order to be able to fasten the leathers upon the cylinder by
nails, many manufacturers continue to use wooden cylinders in preference to
such composition cylinders, notwithstanding the great advantage of the latter
in preserving their true figure under all changes of the weather.
Our present improvement is to form composition cylinders, with pieces of
wood inlaid and fastened into the cylindrical surface of the cylinder at all those
parts where the edges of the different sheets of cards will meet, so that the
leathers may be fastened upon such improved cylinders by nails driven
through the edges of the leathers into such pieces of wood, but at the same
time the backs of the cards will bear upon the surface of the composition,
which, being once turned true, is not liable to alter by the weather.
To explain our aforesaid improvement we have hereunto annexed a Drawing
of one of our improved cylinders for carding engines, employed in the prepara-
tion of cotton, and the cylinders for tow engines or for scribbling engines, or
other similar machines employed in the preparation of flax, wool, silk, or
mixtures of the said materials or substances. Being constructed in a similar
manner, it is not necessary to describe them separately in this Specification.

page_text: Fig. 1 is a section of the cylinder taken perpendicular to the axis; Fig. 2 a
section taken parellel to the axis; Fig. 3, an external view of the cylinder;
and Fig. 4 is a section of a portion of the cylinder on a larger scale than the
other Figs. The carcase or framing of the cylinder is composed of three cast-
iron wheels A, B, and C, which are fastened upon the central axis D, E, by
wedges. The two outermost wheels A and C have projecting rings or edges,
as seen a, c, in Fig. 2. F, G, is a cylinder formed of sheet iron, and fitted
upon the circumference of the three wheels A, B, and C, and is fastened
thereto by small rivets passing through the rims of the wheels as at r in
Figs. 2 and 4. Upon the circumference of this cylinder of sheet iron a
number of cast-iron plates or shallow boxes d, Figs. 2 and 4, are securely
fastened by small copper rivets as at i; these cast iron plates do not touch'
each other, but spaces are left between them forming grooves or channels of
about one inch more or less in width, and extending all the length of the
cylinder. These spaces or grooves are fitted up by slips or rulers of wood H,
which are a little thicker than the depth of the aforesaid grooves, and there-
fore project above the iron plate d. The slips of wood H are held in their
places and fastened to the sheet iron cylinder by small screw bolts put through
the wood and the sheet iron drum, and fastened by small nuts within side as at
h, in Figs. 1, 2, and 4. To prepare this cylinder to receive the composition,
the outsides of the plates d are painted with common oil paint, and when dry
the composition is spread over the iron plates d with a hard brush until the
whole are covered, the cylinder being kept in a warm room, the coating
of composition becomes dry, and a second coating is then applied, which being
also dried, the coating is repeated, and so on until the outsides of the cast-iron
plates & are thickly coated, and all the spaces between the slips of wood H are
entirely filled up by the composition and form a complete cylindrical surface.
When the composition is sufficiently dry and hard the necks m and n of the axis
are mounted on bearings so that the cylinder can be turned round by a handle in
order to turn the surface of the composition, and of the slips of wood II, by a
cutting tool, and form a true and smooth cylinder, which, when finished, will
present a surface of composition, but with a number of narrow slips or rulers
of wood imbedded in it, as shewn in Fig. 3, at H. Upon such improved
cylinder the leathers of the sheets of cards are to be fastened by nails or tacks,
in the manner usually practised with wooden cylinders. At t, in Fig. 4, the
tacks or nails are shewn being driven into the slips of wood H, but the backs.
of the card wires rest upon the truly cylindrical surface of the composition and
do not touch the wood. When any of the slips of wood become injured by
the repeated nailing on of the cards, such defective slips may be removed by

page_text: withdrawing the aforesaid nuts and screws h, and new slips of wood may be
substituted without materally injuring the coating of composition. In long
cylinders we usually make the aforesaid slips of wood in two lengths, as
represented in Fig. 3, for the convenience of applying them upon the
cylinders.
Having now fully described the nature of our aforesaid improvement, we,
the said William Crighton and John Crighton, do hereby declare that our
Invention consists wholly in the application of slips, bars, ribs, or rulers of
wood imbedded in the surface of composition cylinders to receive nails or tacks
for fixing of the leathers of the cards, as herein-before described. The
method of securing the said slips of wood in their places upon the drum or
cylinder, as well as the manner of framing the cylinder, may be varied at the
discretion of the workman who shall construct the same. The proportions of
the several parts, and the number of the slips of wood, must be varied
according to the size of the cylinder and the size of the sheets of cards. The
composition we use for coating our composition cylinders is prepared by
boiling a mixture of common glue & whitening, with white lead, paint, and
Linseed oil, to the consistency of thick paint; the proportions of the said
ingredients may be varied at the discretion of the workman. The said com-
position forms no part of our Invention, and the mode of preparing the same
is already known and practised by the makers of composition cylinders.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Crighton and John Crighton,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-first day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-
three.
WILLIAM (L.s.) CRIGHTON.
JOHN (L.S.) CRIGHTON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of August, in
the year of our Lord 1823, the aforesaid William Crighton and John Crighton
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord One.