CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY POR ROLLING OR ROLLERING WOOL FROM THE CARDING ENGINE
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JOHN DOWDING, of the Parish of Parolshot, in the County of Wilts, Clothier,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-seven, in the eighth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said William John Dowding, His especial licence that I,
the said William John Dowding, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said William John Dowding, my exors, adññors, 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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
POR ROLLING OR ROLLERING WOOL FROM THE CARDING ENGINE;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said William John
Dowding, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William John Dowding, do hereby declare that the following is a true,
faithful, and correct description of my aforesaid Improvements in Machinery
for Rolling or Rollering Wool, which I have further illustrated by an expla-
natory Drawing attached hereunto.
Before proceeding to describe the particulars of my said Invention and
improvements it will be necessary to say that they are confined to the process
of preparing wool of all descriptions for the operation of spinning by machinery
after it has been carded either by carding machines, or by any other efficient
means. My Invention may therefore be said to be an addition to and
improvements upon those machines called carding or scribbling machines,
through which wool generally passes before it is spun, in order to form it
into those small rolls or rollers which are afterwards to form the yarn or
thread, and which is technically called rollering the wool. In all the machines
I have hitherto seen or believes to exist these rolls or rollers of wool are formed
and produced upon the surface of certain cylinders properly covered in spaces
with fine wire cards,, being part of the carding or scribbling machine before
mentioned, and they are always produced in a direction parallel to the axes of
those cylinders, and consequently the rolls or rollers can in no case exceed
the length of the cylinders which produce them, and which rarely exceed
thirty inches. These. short rolls or rollers fall in rapid succession in an hori-
zontal position into a box or boxes placed to receive them, from which they
have to be carefully picked up by the children or workmen who attend upon
the machine, and carried to the spinning machine, whether the same be of the
denominations called billics, jennies, or mules. In these machines the length
of the rolls or rollers of wool being so very short, they are rapidly taken up,
and therefore it becomes necessary to employ persons constantly at each
machine to feed it with new rolls as those that are spinning are carried into
the machine, and this is done by piecing the end of each roll that is so
supplied to the end of the last roll before it is drawn into the machine.
This operation of piecing (generally performed by children) is one of consider-
able nicety, because if the piecing or splice is thinner than the rest of the
continuous roll so formed, the thread or yarn when produced will also be
thinner at this part, and, on the contrary, if the rolls are laid too much over
each other, or too much wool is thrown into the splice, the yarn will become
thicker. Now the object of my Invention and improvements is to produce
rolls or rollers of wool of any required size or degree of hardness, and which,
instead of being in short lengths, are brought out by my process in one con-
tinued length, and of a uniform size throughout, so as to obviate the necessity

page_text: of joining them at all, unless for the convenience of working, thus insuring a
yarn of uniform size from one end to the other, and obviating the tedious and
precarious operations of carrying them in short lengths, and piecing or splicing
them, with uncertainty in the short lengths, as usually practised; and this
improvement, together with the double rubbing motion in the machinery by
which I produce this desirable end, and which I shall next proceed to describe,
are the objects which I hereby claim under my. herein-before recited Letters
Patent, to be exclusively secured to myself and my representatives and assigns.
Previously to proceeding to describe the nature and operation of my new
machine for the purposes aforesaid, I deem it necessary to observe that the
single doffing roller that is employed in any scribbling or carding machine to
which my new machine is about to be attached must be removed, and two or
more doffers on a different construction must be applied. I say two or more
doffers because two are quite necessary to use my machine to advantage, but
three or four may be applied to one main cylinder if required, as will after-
wards appear; for the present, however, I shall confine my description to two
doffers only. On each of these doffers are fixed rounds or rings of the usual
sized wire card neatly joined at thin ends and sufficiently wide to take up
a sufficient quantity of wool from the main cylinder to form the rollers of wool
intended to be made. If these are to be fine and thin the rings may be narrow,
but if thicker and more solid they must be proportionably wider. The spaces
between the rounds of the cards must always be exactly equal to their width,
and the rounds of card on one doffer must be opposite to the spaces left in the
others, to the end that one or other of the doffers may take off the whole width
of wool from the main cylinder, but as they do not take off the whole
quantity of wool, so two rounds of cards may work over the same part of
it if required. When more than two doffers are used, the whole of the
spaces and rounds of card should together be exactly equal to the length of
the main cylinder of the scribbling or carding engine. As I make use of
two or more doffing cylinders prepared as above, so I likewise use as
many combs to detach the wool from each doffer, the consequence of which is
that the wool is taken from the main cylinder and delivered out in perpetual
or continuous strips in the nature of ribbands ready to be operated upon by
my new machine for so far I make no claim to the altered form and arrange-
ment of doffers above described, except so far as they are necessary in the
combination of machinery connected with my new and improved process. In
working the doffers as above described, I find that the wires on the edges of
the rings of card are apt to spread a little and overreach the spaces, which I
prevent by fixing bands or straps of leather of sufficient thickness to confine

page_text: the wires of the cards without reaching those of the main cylinder. These
leather bands are neatly fixed close to the edges of the rounds of card, and
cause them to continue to work truly. The wool being so delivered in strips
or continuous ribbands of the proper width, and which, by reason of the spaces
above mentioned, are separated and detached from each other by the distance
of their own width, is ready to enter my machine, which it does by falling
upon, or being guided to, the perpetual cloth or table a, b, in the Drawing,
which I call a creeper, being in the nature of an ordinary feeding table or
feeding cloth, such as is commonly used for feeding, carding, or scribbling
machines; that is to say, it consists of about two or three yards of cloth neatly
sewed together at its two ends, and kept tightly stretched by the two rollers c, c,
and d, d, which are about three inches in diameter, and are placed near the
top of the framework of the machine e, e, c, e. One of these rollers, as c, c,
has a projecting gudgeon to carry the pulley or rigger f, by which that roller is
made to turn round (being connected by a strap or band with the machinery
that drives the carding or scribbling engine) in such direction as will cause the
top of the creeper cloth or table to recede from the carding or scribbling
engine, and consequently to carry the ribbands of wool which fall upon it with
it. The velocity of the motion of this creeper must be inade exactly propor-
tionate to the delivery of the carding or scribbling machine, in order that it
may carry the ribbands of wool forwards just as fast as they are produced,
which it is needless to say may be effected by a proper diameter of the rigger f.
Another cloth stretched upon rollers exactly like the first, but which I call the
rubber, is shewn at g, g, but the rollers which run in the detached rubber
frame h, h, need not be more than eighteen or twenty inches asunder. One
of these rollers has likewise a gudgeon or rigger, as at i, by which it is to be
moved round, as before described, but in a contrary direction, because the
under side of this rubber cloth must agree in direction and velocity with the
upper side of the creeper cloth, in order that the ribbands of wool may pass
regularly and without derangement through or between them. The upper side
of the creeper cloth a, b, moves over a smooth table of wood, part of which is
seen at k, k, which prevents its being depressed in the middle, and the under
side of the rubber cloth g, g, likewise moves under a smooth board united to
the two ends h, h, of the frame, and extending very nearly to the rollers.
These two smooth boards are properly strengthened by bearers placed between
their respective rollers, some of which are seen at j, j, and their surfaces and
the two cloths between them would be in actual contact were it not for the four
small wheels 1, 1, 1, 1, upon which the upper detached rubber frame h, h, with
its cloth, is supported; these small wheels run in grooves made to receive them

page_text: in the projecting arms or brackets m, m, m, and thus the whole upper detached
rubber frame is allowed to run five or six inches backwards and forwards in a
direction at right angles to that in which the cloths are moving, and as the
arbors upon which the small wheels turn, or the brackets themselves, are made
adjustable in an up and down direction, by means of screws, wedges, or other
contrivances not shewn in the Drawing to avoid confusion, so it is evident that
the said boards and cloths between them may be made to press more or less
upon the ribbands of wool as they pass between them, according as the rolls of
wool are to be more or less compressed in their formation This lateral
motion of the upper rubbing frame and cloth, in conjunction with the ordinary
motion of the two cloths, as before described, or a similar motion brought
about by one roller only, or by the board, without the perpetual cloth, or in
whatsoever manner the said rubbing motion be produced, I consider the essen-
tial or principal part of the Invention which I claim, because by means of it
I produce the same effect upon the ribbands of wool as if they were rubbed
between the palms of the hands, or, in other words, they enter between the two
cloths in the form of ribbands and are delivered by means of this rubbing
motion at the opposite end of the cloth b, b, in regularly formed continuous
rolls or rollers, and in this state they fall into the box n, n, which is placed to
receive them, and in which they may be moved without fear of entanglement
when the box is full, or may be run at once into the spinning machine if it is
sufficiently near. It has been before observed that when two doffing cylinders
of the kind above described are used in the carding or scribbling engine,
spaces are left between the rings of card. The second doffer will, therefore,
make all that wool into ribbands which the first doffer does not take from the
main cylinder, and as a certain space must be preserved between these ribbands
while they are in the act of rolling, so the work produced by the second doffer
must not be permitted to mix with that of the first while rolling, or entangle-
ment might ensue. It is on this account that the second pair of tables and
revolving cloths are placed underneath the first in the frame of the machine, as
shewn at n, o, p, q, but it is unnecessary to repeat the description of these, since
they are in their motions and every other particular precisely the same as the
upper pair, which have been already described; and in like manner, if 3, 4,
or more doffers were made use of, each doffer must have its separate pair of
rubbing cloths, which may be still arranged one above another, as shown in
the Figure, or in any more convenient way, always observing that the work pro-
duced by each doffer must be delivered between a separate pair of rubbers, or if
not, that the ribbands may be kept at such a distance from each other as to pre-
vent any chance of their entanglement. As it is the principle of rubbing the

page_text: ribbands into rollers as they pass between the cloths by the lateral motion
of the upper rubbing frame, or of both the cloths, or of the under one
only, if found more efficacious, that I claim as the principle point of my Inven-
tion, it is not material how that motion is produced, but the means I have
resorted to, and which I find to answer very well," is to apply an upright shaft
with cranks or arms upon it, as at r, s, and connecting those cranks or arms by
links or connecting rods to the ends of the shifting frame, as at t.
If arms
are used, as shewn in the Drawing, then the upright shaft will only want
to make part of a revolution, and that may be effected by connecting one of
its arms v by a rod with a crank or excentric wheel fixed on the axis of the
main cylinder of the carding or scribbling engine, so that it may move at the
same rate, which I find answers very well. If cranks are used on the upright
shaft, then their connection to the ends of the shifting frames will be the same,
but the shaft may revolve continually round, being driven by bevil or other
gear, at the rate which experience proves to be the best, whatever may be the
number of doffers used. The width of all the cloths must be rather greater
than the length of such doffers, in order to allow of all the ribbands being
taken in, and for a sufficient lateral motion for rubbing them, and from two to
six inches will in all cases be ample for this purpose.
Throughout the whole of my description I have adopted the word cloth as
explanatory of the material used to pass over the rollers, and produce the
necessary rubbing, but by so doing I do not mean to confine myself to linen,
woollen, or cotton cloth, since shammy leather and all other substances which
are sufficiently flexible to bend easily over the rollers, and which are sufficiently
rough on their surface to take proper hold of the ribbands of wool, and
not to tear, destroy, or rub them asunder, will answer the purpose, and I hereby
declare that amongst the several cloths or materials which I have hitherto
tried, I find coarse linen or Russia duck the best.
yet
In constructing my machines I do not confine myself to the wheels and
mode of supporting the rubber frame herein-before described, because the
wheels or friction pullies may be fixed to the frame of the machine, and the
bearers be made to project from the rubber frame and lay upon them, or, the
wheels or pullies may be altogether dispensed with; and the guides may slide
through holes, still, however, always preserving the screw adjustments for the
proper height and pressure of the rubber frame and cloth.
Lastly, I have to observe, that as the feeding tables of carding and scribbling
machines are usually constructed, there are boards standing perpendicularly at
each side of the feeding cloth to prevent any of the wool placed upon it from
falling off, and being scattered and wasted. Now, unless these boards are per-

page_text: fectly smooth and free from humidity, the loosely carded wool sometimes hangs
upon or sticks to them instead of proceeding with the cloth, and afterwards
moves on in a larger mass. than is intended, consequently the two outsides of
the work are not so regular as the middle part of it, which is not of great im-
portance in the ordinary way of working; since these irregular parts occur at
the two ends of the short rolls heretofore produced, and the defect, if observed,
may be pretty well repaired by a careful piecing or splicing of the ends, or
allowing for the deficiency or redundancy, though this is not often attended
to. In my new machine and process above described it is necessary that the
greatest regularity should be preserved, particularly at the two sides, otherwise
the external ribbands might not agree in size, or have the same regularity
which those produced in the middle have, and I therefore recommend that
another improvement which I have invented (and which I include as part of
the improvements mentioned in my said Patent) should be adopted and used
to the feeding tables of all carding or scribbling engines to which my herein-
before described process and machinery are to be attached. This improve-
ment is simply as follows:-
Instead of letting the two edges of the feeding cloth come into contract with
the side guard boards as before mentioned and as usually practised, I cover those
side guard boards with narrow endless cloths, such as those used upon the
table itself, which cloths are stretched between two rollers, one being placed
at end of each guard board. These rollers and the narrow cloths upon them
stand vertically, and I cause one of each end rollers to be driven round by
small bevil wheels fixed to their lower ends, the teeth of which act into similar
bevil wheels fixed to the two ends of one of the long rollers, upon which the
horizontal feed cloth itself moves; such wheels being all of the same size and
number of teeth will cause the two side cloths to move with the same velocity
as the feeding cloth itself, and thus insure the samic regularity of delivery of
the wool into the machine at its edges as in the other parts, which improve-
ment is not only applicable to the purposes aforesaid, but to all other uses in
which feeding cloths are used, and particularly when it is desirable that they
should carry forward the same quantity of material at their edges as at their
other parts.
In witness whereof, I, the said William John Dowding, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of January, One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
WILLIAM JNO. (L.S.) DOWDING.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1828, the aforesaid William John Dowding 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 stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.