IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SILK WASTE, ALSO THE NOILS OF SILK, WOOL, AND GOATS' WOOL OR HAIR BEFORE BEING SPUN
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, Bradford, in
the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
SILK WASTE, ALSO THE NOILS OF SILK, WOOL, AND GOATS' WOOL OR HAIR
BEFORE BEING SPUN."
Sealed the 10th August 1855, and dated the 14th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th June 1855.
I, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER, of Manningham, Bradford, in the County of
York, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING SILK WASTE, ALSO THE NOILS OF SILK, WOOL, AND GOATS' WOOL OR HAIR
BEFORE BEING SPUN," to be as follows:-
Whereas up to this time the silk of perished cocoons has been of little
value, owing to the difficulty of cleansing it from impurities: my Invention
consists of first carding or otherwise preparing it, so as to set the fibres
straight, as has heretofore been practised, and then to comb or hackle it
upon self-acting machines, which I prefer to be similar to those recently
patented by me, by which valuable products from silk waste may be obtained.
Chussam silk may also be treated by the same process with great-advantage.

page_text: Another improvement consists in re-combing the noils, backings, and milkings
made in combing silk noils. For this purpose a machine adapted for combing
short fibre will answer.
My Invention also consists of mixing the noils of silk after being combed
with combed noils of wool, hair, or with cotton, also of mixing the combed
noils of wool or hair with cotton; for which purpose I first comb these fibres
on suitable machines; and then mix them in the-drawing-or. other. operations
before spinning the combined fibres.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, Bradford, in the County of York, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe
Lister, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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
TREATING SILK WASTE, ALSO THE NOILS OF SILK, WOOL,,AND GOATS WOOL OR HAIR
BEFORE BEING SPUN," upon the condition (amongst others). that I, the said
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is. to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):
1
3

page_text: Whereas up. to this time the silk of perished: cocoons has been of little
value, owing to the difficulty of cleansing it from impurities: my Invention
consists of first carding or otherwise preparing it, so as to set the fibres straight;
as has heretofore been practised, and then to comb or hackle it upon self-acting
machines, which I prefer to be: similar to those recently. patented by me, by.
which valuable products from silk, waste may be obtained. Chusṣam silk may:
also be treated by the same process with great advantage.
Another improvement consists in re-conibing thé noils, backings, and milkings
made-in combing silk.noils. For this purpose a machine: adapted for combing
short fibre will answer.
i
My Invention also, consists of mixing the noils of silk. after being combed
with: ¡combed,noils of wool, hair, or with cotton, also of mixing the combed
noils of wool or hair with cotton; for which purposes I first comb these fibres
on suitable machines, and then mix them in the drawing or other operations
before spinning the combined fibres..
2.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same.
Perished cocoons, also East India waste silk called chusan.or. chussam, are
two very low qualities of silk, from which heretofore comparatively little useful
products have been obtained, and this I have found to be consequent. on the
treatment to which such low classes. of waste silk have been heretofore sub-
jected. And I have discovered, in course of experiment on such classes of
silk, that if they be first discharged of their gum, as is well understood, then
carded, or the fibres otherwise laid parallel by teeth; as has heretofore been done,
that if such silks be then introduced and combed, or hackled by self-acting
combing or hackling machines, very useful products of silk waste for spinning
may be obtained, and far more useful than have been before produced from the-
two low qualities of silk waste above mentioned.
And in carrying out this part of my Invention,, I prefer, after having dis-
charged the gum and dried the silk waste, to card it, and thus to obtain a
sliver with the fibres laid evenly and for the most part parallel to each other;
I then cause such slivers to be fed into a self-acting combing or self-acting
hackling machine, and for this purpose I prefer to use those descriptions of self-
acting combing machines wherein the sliver of fibre is detached into tufts in
such manner that each of the tufts is then first cleaned of their noil at one
end, and then either placed in a comb with the noil and dirt in and beyond the
back of the comb, or else to comb out the other end of each such tuft, and then
to cause the cleaned tufts to be pieced up end to end, in like manner to what
has before been done in respect to other descriptions of silk waste, and also

page_text: wool and other fibres. Or, in place of such self-acting combing machines I
use a self-acting hackling machine, such as is described in the Specification of
a Patent granted to me on the Ninth day of March 1855.
I would remark that I do not claim the treating all classes of silk waste by
the process and machinery above mentioned, but confine my claim of Invention
to the treating of the two classes of waste silk above mentioned in the manner
herein described.
Another part of my Invention consists of re-combing the noils of waste silk.
For this purpose I card or otherwise treat the noil of waste silk to obtain a
sliver, and then feed it into a self-acting combing machine, in the same manner
as when treating uncombed waste silk; and I thus obtain a good quality of
sliver of re-combed noil, which is valuable for spinning, particularly for mixing
with cotton and with noils of wool and hair.
And part of my Invention consists of combining noils of waste silk after
being combed with cotton or with combed noils of wool or hair; for which
purpose I take a sliver or slivers of combed silk noils and a sliver or slivers of
cotton or of noils of wool or hair, and by a drawing head or otherwise combine
them into a sliver, and then spin the same.
And another part of my Invention consists in combining noils of wool or
hair with cotton, for which purpose these fibres are each to be first combed and
then mixed in a drawing head or otherwise, and thus made into a combined
sliver suitable for spinning.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
B. GOBEY,
4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.
S. C. LISTER.
(L.S.)