A New or Improved Method of and Means for Preparing Wool, Silk, Cotton, and other Animal or Vegetable Fibres for Spinning.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Dec., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Sept., 1890-Accepted, 18th Oct., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Method of and Means for Preparing Wool,
Silk, Cotton, and other Animal or Vegetable Fibres for
Spinning.
I GEORGE TOLSON of Prospect House, Wakefield Road, Dewsbury, Yorkshire,
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has reference to a new or improved method of and means for carding
and combing wool, silk, cotton, and other animal or vegetable fibres, and its object is
to perform the processes of carding and combing (at present requiring two or more
machines) in one machine and at one operation.
In order to carry out my invention I employ a number of lags, or two or more
tables, one table or series of lags being placed above the other table or series of lags
and their opposing surfaces provided with card teeth or card clothing of any suitable
description so as to form two horizontal opposing cards or combs whose teeth point
in opposite directions. The upper table or series of lags is caused to reciprocate or
travel rapidly backwards and forwards, whilst the lower table or series of lags has a
slow forward and quick return movement imparted to it; the mechanical means for
giving these movements consisting of any suitable description of cranks, cams levers or
other equivalent means which may be found to answer the best.
The material to be operated upon is fed by spiked rollers or other means, between
the opposing card covered lags or tables where it is taken hold of by the teeth of the
cards so that by the reciprocating motion of the tables or lags, the fibre is carried
forward and at the same time opened, straightened, combed or otherwise acted upon.
by the card teeth or combs to produce the same results as are produced at present by
the carding and combing machines, this process being carried on until the fibre arrives
at the opposite end of the machine where it is removed and delivered by a porcupine
roller or other suitable means, in a film of fibre which may, if required, be divided
and condensed into slivers or rovings of fibre of small diameter and wound upon reels
or bobbins, or otherwise treated according to the final processes it may be necessary
for it to undergo before being ready for weaving.
A current of air generated by any ordinary means may be brought to bear on the
fibre as it passes through or out of the machine in order to assist its traverse and
delivery. When lags are employed, they are preferably arranged at short distances
apart so that dirt grit or other similar foreign substance or matter may be deposited
therein and conveyed away from the working surfaces; and like arrangements may
be made for the same purpose when tables are employed.
The card teeth or combs may vary in fineness from the feeding to the delivery end
of the machine for acting upon different classes of material or varying the result of
the combined operation.
Instead of the cards or card clothing or combs being attached to the tables or lags,
I may make them endless and cause such endless cards or combs to travel around the
tables or lags in addition to being reciprocated or carried backwards and forwards by
and with the said tables or lags.
The machine above described is less complicated than a carding or combing
machine and performs the same work in less time than can be done by the said
machines.
Dated this 3rd day of December 1889.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Method of and Means for Preparing Wool,
Silk, Cotton, and other Animal or Vegetable Fibres for
Spinning.
I, GEORGE TOLSON, of Prospect House, Wakefield Road, Dewsbury, Yorkshire,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention has reference to a new or improved method of and means for carding
and combing wool, silk, cotton, and other animal or vegetable fibres, and its object is
to perform the processes of carding and combing (at present requiring two or more
machines) in one machine and at one operation.
In order to carry out my invention, I employ a number of lags or two or more
tables, one table or series of lags being placed above the other table or series of lags
and their opposing surfaces provided with card teeth or card clothing of any suitable
description, so as to form two horizontal opposing cards or combs whose teeth point
in opposite directions. The upper table or series of lags is caused to reciprocate or
travel backwards and forwards, whilst the lower table or series of lags is stationary,
or has a slow backward and forward movement imparted to it: the mechanical means
for giving these movements consisting of any suitable description of cranks, cams,
levers, or other equivalents which may be found to answer best.
The material to be operated upon is fed by spiked rollers or other suitable means to
or between the opposing card covered lags or tables where it is taken hold of by the
tooth of the cards so that by the reciprocatory motion of the tables or lags the fibre is
carried forward and at the same time opened, straightened, combed, or otherwise acted
upon by the card teeth or combs to produce the same results as are produced at present
by the carding and combing machines, this process being carried on until the fibre
arrives at the opposite end of the machine, where it is removed and delivered in a
film of fibre which may, if required, be divided and condensed into slivers or rovings
of small diameter and wound upon reels or bobbins, or otherwise treated.
Such being the nature and object of my invention, I will now make reference to
the accompanying sheet of drawings illustrative thereof, wherein Fig. 1 is a longi-
tudinal section of a carding machine, constructed according to my invention, at the
commencement of its stroke, and Fig. 2 is a corresponding view thereof at the end
of the stroke. The fibre to be operated upon is placed upon the feeding apron A
from which it is taken by the card rollers B and deposited onto an endless travelling
apron C, provided with card teeth, for the purpose of carrying the fibre forward and
as it travels under the revolving card rollers B the fibre is evenly distributed and
partially straightened ready to be received by the lags of cards attached to a bar or
framework D, which has a reciprocatory motion imparted to it by the eccentric E or
other equivalent devices. The bars D which carry the lags of cards also carry a
comb a (see enlarged details Figs. 3 and 4) which comb acts upon the fibre before
the card teeth, to assist in straightening the fibre before the cards commence to
act. F represents stationary tables, also provided with card teeth, the points of
which are opposite the points of these cards on the bars D, so that as the said bars
are reciprocated backwards and forwards the fibre will be opened and combed, as is
obvious, the reciprocatory motion of the series of cards not only carding and combing
the fibre, but causing it to travel forward, as the points of the cards in the
reciprocating lags are only in contact with the lower teeth during the forward motion,
the said teeth being clear of each other during the backward motion of the reci
procating cards, and this is effected by eccentrics 6 fixed on the end of the driving
shaft c; the eccentric b revolves in the box d and causes it to be raised, together
with the bars D attached thereto. The eccentrics are so timed as to lift the bars D
during the back stroke but to lower them in the forward stroke. When the fibre
reaches the end of the machine it is divided into two slivers or films, and wound

page_text: upon the rollers or bobbins G, when it is afterwards treated in any process of
manufacture thought necessary. The tables F are preferably formed hollow and
heated by steam, but they may be made solid and heated by jets of gas, and although
I have stated that the said tables F are stationary, they may be made to
reciprocate. The card teeth on the first of the reciprocatory lags are coarse, but
each subsequent card has finer teeth, so that the carding or combing of the fibre
is gradual.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The carding or combing of wool and other fibre by reciprocating lags working in
contact with card teeth on a stationary or moving table, in manner substantially as
shewn and described.
1
2
TASKER & CROSSLEY,
Huddersfield and Halifax, Agents.