MACHINES FOR COMBING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Little, of Oldham, in the County of Lan-
86
IMPROVEMENTS
caster, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of
IN MACHINES FOR COMBING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 17th September 1872, and dated the 20th March 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Little at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th March 1872.
I, GEORGE LITTLE, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR COMBING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the "detaching rollers" of those combing
machines which are constructed upon the Heilmann principle. It is
well known that these rollers have a backward and forward motion for
the purpose of laying detached tufts of material upon each other, and
for passing forward a continuous sliver, and my Invention consists in
the use of certain apparatus, whereby I can vary the relative forward and

page_text: backward movements without altering the usual cam by which they are
now effected; for this purpose I use an intermediate apparatus between
the said cam and the roller, which is capable of having an independent
motion imparted thereto. This may be illustrated by the following
arrangement: Loose upon the "notched wheel" shaft is a box or disc
carrying a worm, which is in gear with a worm wheel upon the said
shaft, and carrying also a spur pinion, on the axis of which is a ratchet
wheel. When the usual motion is imparted to the "notched wheel,"
the said box and its contents move bodily together, but when it is
desired to alter the motion of the roller, a projection on the cam shaft
arrives in contact with a click in gear with the aforesaid ratchet wheel,
thereby causing it to turn one or more teeth, and effect through the
worm and worm wheel an additional motion to the box or disc, and this
is communicated to the roller by suitable gearing.
I use this additional apparatus for accelerating the motion of the
roller, but by reversing the aforesaid projection on the cam shaft the
effect may be reversed, and a retarding action accomplished.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Little in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th September 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
LITTLE, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster; Mechanical Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Little, Her special license
that I, the said George Little, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said George Little, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR COMBING
COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition, amongst others,
that I, the said George Little, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Little, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say :—
My Invention relates to the "detaching rollers" of those combing
machines which are constructed upon the Heilmann principle. It is
well known that these rollers have a backward and forward motion for
the purpose of laying detached tufts of material upon each other, and
for passing forward a continuous sliver, and my Invention consists in
the use of certain apparatus whereby I can vary the relative backward
and forward movements without altering the usual cam by which they
are now effected; for which purpose I use an intermediate apparatus
between the said cam and the roller, and which is capable of having an
independent motion imparted thereto.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents in sectional elevation
certain known parts of the combing machine, and Fig. 2, a view taken
at right angles thereto. At 1 is the usual sixteen notched wheel,
mounted upon the shaft 2, which also carries the ordinary internal
toothed wheel 3, in this instance loose upon the shaft 2, and which
according to my Invention is provided with additional parts hereafter
to be mentioned, and at 4 is the pinion of the usual under detaching
roller 5. This roller and pinion are not represented in their proper
positions at Fig. 1, which is not at the top of the wheel 3, but lower
down towards the horizontal line; they are drawn as shewn in order to
exhibit them clear of other parts behind which they would otherwise
be situate. At 6 is the ordinary driver for the notched wheel 1, which
driver is actuated by the usual cam, not shewn in the Drawing; it is

page_text: however formed precisely like those in common use, and is mounted
upon the shaft 7 which carries the spur wheel 8.
The above described parts are all in ordinary use, and I will now
proceed to describe an arrangement I employ to effect the purposes of
my Invention, pointing out in the first place the construction and
subsequently the operation thereof. Upon the face of the cam shaft
wheel is an inclined projection 9, within the path of which is a roller 10
carried by a lever 11, which turns upon a centre 12, and at 11* is another
lever mounted on the same centre and provided at its upper end with a
fork 13, which embraces a collar 14 capable of sliding loosely upon the
notched wheel shaft 2. From the collar 14 there extends an arm 15
connected at its lower end to an arm 16, the other end of which is
connected to a lever 17 turning loosely upon a stud 18, which is carried
by a box 19 formed upon the internal toothed wheel 3. The upper end
of the lever 17 carries a driver 20 situate in the teeth of a ratchet
wheel 21, which is fast upon the stud 18 and forming a portion of a spur
pinion 22. In gear with this pinion is another, 23, mounted on a stud 24,
which is carried by a bracket 25 attached to the box 19, and upon the
said stud is a worm 26 taking into a worm wheel 27 mounted fast upon
the shaft 2, and this arrangement would be sufficient; in order however
to gain steadiness of action I employ another pinion 23* and worm 26*
on the other side of the centre of motion of the shaft 2; but in this
case the pinion 23* is driven through the medium of a carrier 28 in
order to gain motion in the right direction. These parts last mentioned
are carried within the box 19 by a bracket 25*.
Before describing the operation of the parts constituting my Invention
I will allude to the ordinary working of the machine so far as regards
those motions to which it refers. According to the positions of the
parts shewn in the Drawings the driver 6 is out of gear with the notched
wheel 1 and is being moved by the cam in the direction of the arrow,
it being held clear of the notched wheel by the usual tappet, not shewn
in the Drawing. Having been moved the required distance the driver 6
is allowed to fall into the notch 30, and the motion of the said driver
being then continued, the internal toothed wheel 3 will be caused to
revolve in the direction of the arrow and the rollers will be turned back
to effect the required piecing, which consists as is well known in laying
a detached tuft of material upon the sliver previously formed in a
similar manner, and the object of my Invention is to render the rollers

page_text: capable of being varied in their rotations so as to cause the detached
tufts to overlap each other when they are pieced to any required degrec,
and this I effect in the following manner :-
Referring again to the positions of the parts shewn in the Drawings,
the driver 6 being supposed to be moving in the direction of the arrow,
the inclined projection 9 has just begun to advance upon the roller 10,
thereby turning the levers 11, 11*, upon their centre of motion and
causing the collar 14 to slide upon the shaft 2, by which means the
lever 17 will be turned upon its stud 18, and the driver 20 will act upon
the ratchet wheel 21, turning it together with the pinion 22 upon its
centre. By these means rotatory motion will be imparted to the
pinions 23, 23*, worms 26, 26*, and consequently worm wheel 27,
which being fast upon the shaft 2 will cause it and the notched wheel 1
to move in the direction of the arrow, while at the same time the
ordinary motions of the machine will be causing the driver 6 to
move in the direction of its arrow, and it therefore follows that the
said driver 6 and the notch 30 are approaching each other, and the
gearing of those two parts together will be effected at an earlier period
than they would have been geared according to the usual operation
in the first place described, but as the vibration of the driver 6 is fixed
in extent it follows that by coming into action sooner than it would
have done had the notched wheel remained stationary the motion in the
direction of the arrow will be increased in extent, and the internal
toothed wheel 3 will impart a proportionately increased turning back of
the detaching rollers, so as to cause an overlapping of the tufts above
that which is due to the ordinary operation of the cam. It has been seen
that the internal toothed wheel 3 and box 19 are mounted loosely on
the shaft 2 and cannot therefore impart the usual direct motion to the
pinion 4 and consequently to the roller 5, but as the worm wheel 27
is fast upon the shaft 2 it is carried bodily round and through the
intervention of the worms 26, 26*, which also move bodily, the internal
toothed wheel 3 is caused to revolve, these movements bodily of the
case 19 and gearing which it contains being permitted by the collar 14
and fork 13.
During the operations above described the cam wheel 8 has carried
the inclined projection 9 forward until its highest part leaves the
roller 10, and the lever 11* will then be at liberty to be turned upon
its centre in the reverse direction by the action of a spring as at 29, and

page_text: this motion will carry the driver 20 backward ready to again operate as
above described.
It will be seen by the foregoing description that the amount of
backward movement of the detaching rollers and therefore the amount
of overlapping of the tufts of material is not regulated by the ordinary
cam, but by the advance of the notched wheel 1 to meet the driver 6,
and that such advance is governed by the extent of motion imparted
to the ratchet wheel 21 by the inclined projection 9 which may be
varied to effect different degrees of overlapping, but the same effect may
be produced by adapting a stop against which the levers 11 or 11*,
or part connected therewith arrive in their backward movement so
as to cause the driver 20 to cover more or less teeth of the ratchet
wheel 21.
In the Drawing the sliding collar 14 is supposed to arrive in contact
with a boss 30 on the shaft 2, and by placing washers between those
two parts the overlapping may be varied, but as before stated a stop
may be placed in any suitable situation. The tufts having been pieced
as above described, the rollers perform their usual forward motion in
order to deliver the sliver, and this is effected by the cam in the ordinary
manner so far as the notched wheel 1 and driver 6 are concerned, but
according to the usual arrangement the internal toothed wheel 3 is
fast upon the shaft 2 and acts direct therefrom upon the pinion 4,
whereas according to the arrangement shewn, as before mentioned,
the said internal toothed wheel is loose upon the shaft 2 and is caused
to revolve by the movement bodily of an intermediate apparatus con- 2
sisting of the worm wheel and worms, as explained in the description
of the backward movement of the rollers.
In the foregoing description I have shewn how the overlapping of
the tufts may be varied by accelerating the backward movement of
the rollers, but the operation may be modified by retarding the forward 3
motion thereof, the result being the same. To accomplish this it will
simply be necessary to alter the position of the inclined projection 9
so that it may come into operation upon the roller 10 when the internal
toothed wheel 3 is effecting the forward motion of the rollers, and then
the action will be as follows:-The inclined projection 9 acting upon 3
the lever 11, as before described, will cause the ratchet wheel 21 to
be turned, and motion will thus be imparted to the worms 26, 26*,
which are fast with the box 25 and internal toothed wheel 3, and

page_text: motion will therefore be communicated to the said box and wheel in
a direction contrary to that imparted by the notched wheel 1, it being
remembered that the said wheel 3 is loose upon the shaft 2. By these
means a portion of the usual forward motion is neutralized and the
amount may be determined by a stop as above mentioned, but in this
case it will be seen that the power for turning the rollers will be thrown
upon the incline 2. I would also observe that if desired the motion of
the notched wheel may be accelerated by the above described means
while the driver 6 is in the notched wheel 1.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
desire it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the precise arrange-
ment and construction of parts above described, as it will be evident
to all competent mechanics that variations may be made therein by
the use of well-known equivalents, but I claim as secured to me under
the above in part recited Letters Patent and for the purposes above set
forth, the use of an intermediate apparatus between the usual cam and
rollers capable of having an independent motion imparted thereto, sub-
stantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Little, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
GEORGE LITTLE. (L.S.)