IMPROVEMENT IN THE OPERATION OF OPENING RAW COTTON OR COTTON WOOL PREVIOUS TO THE CARDING AND SPINNING THE SAME, AND BY WHICH IMPROVEMENTS SUCH OPERATIONS WILL BE FACILITATED
Year: 1818

page_text: GREENWAY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
GREENWAY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, send
greeting
:
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date Twenty-
sixth day of: May now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Greenway, His especial licence, that 1, the said Charles Greenway,' my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Greenway,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully. might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention "IMPROVEMENT IN THE OPERATION OF OPENING
RAW COTTON OR COTTON WOOL PREVIOUS TO THE CARDING AND SPINNING THE SAME,
AND BY WHICH IMPROVEMENTS SUCH OPERATIONS WILL BE FACILITATED;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Charles
Greenway, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar mouths next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Greenway, do hereby declare
that my improvement in the operation of opening raw cotton or cotton wool
previous to the carding and spinning the same, consists in relaxing the fibres

page_text: of the raw cotton or cotton wool, by subjecting such raw cotton or cotton wool
to the action of the steam or vapour of boiling water, previous to the batting
or beating with sticks or any other operation of opening by any of the machines
now in use for the purpose of opening cotton, which relaxation of the fibres
of the raw cotton or cotton wool by steam will render it much more casy to
separate, and disentangle the cotton, and greatly facilitate all the subsequent
operations of opening, and render the fibres less subject to injury by such
operations; no particular form of apparatus is required. Allowance must be
made, in supplying the vessel in which the cotton is to be subjected to the
steam with the raw cotton or cotton wool, for the expansion and increase of
bulk. I have performed the operation most satisfactorily by putting the cotton
or cotton wool into a vessel, to be afterwards closed except where it has a
communication with a steam boiler by a pipe and cock to admit or exclude
the steam at pleasure, and another small opening at the opposite end of the
vessel, by which the air at first contained in the vessel may escape on the
admission of the steam; and I have found that the steam will better penetrate
the cotton or cotton wool, if it be allowed constantly to escape at the opening
during the operation. The length of time which the cotton must remain in
the stain to effect the requisite relaxation of its fibres depends upon the com-
bination of many circumstances, and must vary and be regulated according to
the nature and quality of the cotton and its condition, and the quantity which
is put into the steam vessel at once, and also upon the heat of the steam.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
second day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and eighteen
J. S. HARVEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-second day of
July, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Charles Greenway came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of July, in the year above written.