CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR SPINNING
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL KIRK,
of Staly Bridge, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirty-first day of January, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Samuel
Kirk, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Samuel Kirk, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Samuel Kirk, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Twee,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR SPINNING;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Samuel Kirk, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, 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
Samuel Kirk, 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 Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof (that is to say):-
My improvements in machinery or apparatus for preparing cotton and other
fibrous substances for spinning consists in a novel arrangement and combina-
tion of mechanism, for the purpose of compressing the sliver or web of cotton
(as produced by the carding engine and other preparation machinery) or
other fibrous substance into cans or other suitable receptacles, in order to
form the same into coils containing a much greater quantity or weight of
cotton or other fibrous substances than hitherto produced, and consequently
lessen the number of piecings, producing thereby a more even sliver, and also
to lessen the number of hands or attendants and the amount of labor usually
employed in the preparation processes. The practical spinner will doubtless be
aware that the sliver or web of cotton has in some manufactories been hitherto
slightly pressed into the common small cans, and on or into other receptacles
now ordinarily used to receive the web as it is produced by the carding engine,
either occasionally by the hand of the attendant or by a mechanical contrivance.
The object of my Invention is to effect this operation in a greatly extended
degree, to employ cans or other receptacles of increased diameter or size, and
to compress the web or sliver into a firm and compact body, or to form a con-
tinuous coil, as hard as the fibres will allow, and consequently effect a great
economy in the number of cans or other receptacles, as well as the bobbins as
commonly used, as those said coils of slivers or webs may be doubled in any
degree or number, and similarly pressed in connection with the drawing,
slubbing, and roving machines, and so afterwards be taken direct to the
spinning frames entirely, without the use of bobbins, if so preferred. Such
being the nature of my Invention, I proceed to describe the manner in which
the same may be performed, and in order that the construction, application,
and use of my improved combination and arrangement of mechanism may be
clearly understood, I have attached to these presents a Sheet of Drawings,
shewing its mode of application to an ordinary carding engine for carding
cotton, and which will also sufficiently illustrate its constructive detail. As
the further application to the various operations during the preparation process
will be evident to the practical spinner I consider it perfectly unnecessary to
enter particularly into its use with reference to the drawing, slubbing, and
roving machines, and shall therefore confine my mechanical description of the
improved apparatus as used in connection with the carding engine, wherein
the web or sliver is first produced. For the sake of distinction I have repre-
sented 'my improved apparatus as shaded with color, the ordinary carding
engine being in outline only.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a side elevation of my improved pressing apparatus as
attached to the delivering or doffing end of the carding engine; Figure 2 is a
front or end elevation, shewn partly in section; and Figure 3, a longitudinal
section, taken vertically through the same. The frame of the carding engine
is represented at a, a: the main cylinder at b, b; and the doffing cylinder at c;
the web or sliver of cotton is shewn at d, d, proceeding through the drawing
rollers e, e, and conducted upwards through a pair of delivering rollers f,f,
from whence it is passed into the can or receptacle g, g. This can, casing, or
receptacle is merely a tube of about 12 or 14 inches in diameter, and of about
four feet long, open at both ends, and placed within a slight frame of upright
rods h, h, connected with the bottom or bed plates i, i, upon which the can or
receptacle stands. The can or receptacle is caused to revolve slowly, as
hereafter described, in order to coil the sliver or web therein, and after
moving a certain portion of a revolution it is caused to ascend, and thus com-
press the sliver or web which has been collected into the can or receptacle
between the bottom plate and a presser or block k, k, which is suspended in the
can, and as it meets the descending sliver the danger of stretching it is thereby
obviated, which in the present plans it is liable to. This presser or block k is
formed with an opening 7, (see plan view, Figure 4,) through which the sliver
or web d, d, passes downwards into the can. The operation of the improved
apparatus is as follows:-Supposing the can to be down, or in the position shewn
by red lines, and motion to be communicated to the shaft of the main cylinder,
and the sliver or web d passing from the carding engine between the small
delivering rollers f, f, and through the slot in the block k, into the can or
receptacle g, the pinion m on the cylinder shaft giving motion to the spur
wheels n, m, n, the bevel wheels o, o, and diagonal shaft p, will by means of
the cross shaft g, and mitre wheel r, being in gear with the other mitre wheel s.
attached to the plate i*, under the bottom plate i, (see Figure 3), cause the
can to revolve slowly, and bring that portion of the sliver & which has just
been delivered into the can immediately beneath the solid part of the block k.
A crank pin t is fixed to the spur wheel n*, and is connected to the lever r, r;
the other end of which lever will at every revolution of the wheel n* strike the
pin v on the short lever w, and push it into the position shown in the Drawing,
and thus by means of the segment wheel on the shaft y raise the rack z, and
with it the bottom plates supporting the can g; thus the can will be lifted into
the position shewn in the Drawing, and the cotton or other fibrous material
be closely compressed between the bottom plate i and pressing block k. The

page_text: wheel n still continuing to revolve, will then, by withdrawing the lever r, r,
from the pin v, allow the can to descend by its own gravity; and the tail r, r*,
of the lever u sliding along upon the pin v, it will thus be out of action, and
allow the can again to revolve by the mitre wheels falling into gear with the
mitre wheel r; the can will thus again commence revolving, and the operation
proceed as before described. As the cotton or other fibrous substance accumu-
lates in the can and raises the block higher, the small ratchet A falls into the
notches in one side of the upright rack B, which supports the block k, remaining
in the same notch until the accumulation requires another, and prevents the
block from falling when the can descends; the small pinion C, which takes
into the teeth on the other side of the rack B, being merely for the pur-
pose of raising or lowering the block by hand, when necessary, by turning
the hand wheel D. As the revolution of the can imparts a slight degree
of twist to the sliver, and as this is not in all instances desirable, I have
represented in the Drawing a common reversing motion which may be
applied to the apparatus, and which, by causing the can to revolve alter-
nately in different directions (say three times in one direction and three
in the reverse), thus keeps the sliver even and untwisted throughout. In
order to drive this reversing motion, a train of spur wheels E, E, E, actuate
the worm F, working into a worm wheel G on the short shaft H; on the other
end of this shaft H is a catch I, which acting alternately against one of the
pins K, K, on the upper end of the lever L, will cause that lever to oscilliate
on its centre, and throw the mitre wheels M and N alternately into geer with
the wheel O on the lower end of the diagonal shaft p. When the can or
receptacle has become filled with the compressed sliver or web, the can, case, or
receptacle g may be lifted up and entirely withdrawn, leaving the coil of cotton
on the bottom plate, and supported by the rods or framing h, h, which may thus
be removed from the machine. Instead of using the rods h, h, outside the can
an upright spindle connected to the bottom plate may be placed inside the can,
and the coil of cotton built around it, which will sufficiently support the coil
when the outer can or casing is removed. It will be perfectly evident to the
practical spinner, that a similar application of my improvement as above
described, in connection with the carding engine, may also be employed with
the other machinery used for preparing cotton or other fibrous material for
spinning, namely, the drawing, slubbing, and roving machines in those
instances where it is preferred to have the slivers of cotton, &c. made into coils
as just described, instead of being wound on to bobbins as heretofore commonly
practised.
Having now particularly described the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be carried into practical effect, I wish it to be
perfectly understood that I am aware that the sliver or web of cotton or other
fibrous material has been heretofore pressed into cans, and on or into other
receptacles by hand or by mechanical contrivances, and that I do not intend to
claim that or any of the separate parts of the mechanism above described for
effecting that purpose. But I claim as my Invention the peculiar combination,
arrangement, and application of the machinery or apparatus above described,
and exhibited in the Drawings annexed, to be used in connexion with the
ordinary machines for preparing cotton and other fibrous substances for spin-
ning, without confining myself to the precise dimensions of the mode or means
of accomplishing or effecting the object above particularly described and set
forth; that is, compressing the sliver or web into cans or other receptacles of
a much larger diameter and length than commonly used, commencing the
operation on the sliver at the bottom of the can or receptacle, and proceeding
upwards progressively by self-acting means throughout.
In witness whereof I, the said Samuel Kirk, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of July, One thousand eight hundred
and forty thro
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the
seventh year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Samuel
Kirk came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written.. And also the Instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in fifty-fifth year of the
reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.