CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
CRAIG, Engineer, ROBERT JARVIE, Ropemaker, and JAMES JARVIE, Rope-
maker, all of Glasgow, in the Kingdom of Scotland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of August, in the fifth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
William Craig, Robert Jarvie, and James Jarvie, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said William Craig, Robert
Jarvie, and James Jarvie, our executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as we, the said William Craig, Robert Jarvie, and James Jarvie, our
executors, administrators, 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, our Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING HEMP,
FLAX, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS;" in which said Letters Patent: is
contained a proviso obliging us, the said William Craig, Robert Jarvie, and
James Jarvie, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or

page_text: :
under the hand and seal of one of us, particularly to describe and ascertai
the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Craig, Robert Jarvie, and James Jarvie, do hereby declare that our
said Invention consists in an improvement or improvements in the arrange-
ment and application of certain machinery for the preparing and spinning of
hemp, flax, or other fibrous substances into threads or yarns for the purpose
of superseding the operative workman, and which have the effect of greatly
improving the quality and also increasing the quantity of production (at a
comparatively trifling expense) over any other mode of operating that has yet
been brought before the public. And we do hereby further declare, in compli-
ance with the said proviso, that the manner in which our said Invention is to be
performed and carried into effect is set forth and ascertained by the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof, the same letters or
figures of reference in the different sections or views representing the same
parts throughout, and the scale to which these several sections or. views are
drawn is marked on the Sheet.
7
In other instances, where attempts have been made, and Patents taken out,
for spinning rope, yarn, or threads by machinery, the object of the parties appears
to have been to spin these yarns for ropes.or twines upon machines fixed in their
places, putting the material through a series of complicated operations, winding
the yarn upon bobbins by spindle. and fly frames, or into revolving cans, so
that by either process the fibres of the hemp or flax are severely injured, being
broken and deranged by the centrifugal motion of the spindle or can, thereby
giving a rough: bristly surface to the yarn which no subsequent attention can
obviate, a consequent loss in waste produced. by breakage and the flying off of
the loose fibres; whereas, by our principle of operation, we do away with that
machinery, and spin direct from the gilling or drawing head common to
machinery. for, preparing of. hemp and, flax, and..thus,. taking the sliver or
thread down and along. the common walk or rails, spinning and twisting the
yarn, upon the stretch. The twist-.being thus given.as. the yarn: comes from
the delivering. rollers, the fibres are.so. run into.one another that, the yarn is

page_text: kept equal throughout, and perfectly smooth on the surface, and that solidity
produced which is so indispensably necessary to well-spun rope yarn.
Fig. 1 of the Drawing represents a partial side elevation of the common
drawing head or gilling. machine A, A, fór drawing hemp, flax, and other
fibrous substances; so far as we consider necessary to exhibit the application' of
our Invention, shewing the row of gill teeth H infaction upon the fibres con-
ducted from the cans 1, 2, 3, to the delivering rollers at B.
1.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal or bird's-eye view of the delivering parts of the same
machine, shewing the delivering rollers and tube through which the hemp or
flax or other fibrous material passes just before receiving the twist: "As this
machine is so universally known, we conceive it to be quite unnecessary to
describe it further.
Fig. 3 represents a side elevation. of our twisting machine E, E, which is
somewhat similar to the common hauling out or forming machine used by
ropemakers for the purpose of stranding and laying the ropes after the yarn
has been spun either by the hand or by machinery..
3.
Fig. 4 is a bird's-eye or top view of part of the twisting machine, shewing
the different spindles or hooks in action upon the yarn, as delivered from the
second drawing or gilling machine, at G. After the hemp or flax, &c. has
undergone, in the usual way, the process of spreading, and first drawing, it is
taken in cans to the second drawing head or roving head, as it may be called.
This roving head (as represented at Fig. 1), by our principle, is to be placed at
one end of a common ropemaker's walk or line of rails with the cans, as seen
on the Drawing at 1, 2, 3, &c., and the material to be operated upon is
divided into as many threads or strands as may be thought most suitable for
the width of the machine and quality of yarn to be spun.
In the present,
eight is the number used. These eight strands or threads having passed
through this machine, and the fibres straightened and smoothed by the gills or
needles at H, are carried through betwixt the delivering rollers or balls and
the tube K. They are then attached to the hooks a, a, a, of the twisting
machine. This machine is placed on the rails b; 6; and, as the motion of
these two machines (the drawing and twisting) is dependant on one another,
they move or stop simultaneously. The twisting machine traverses down' the
railway at a speed exactly proportionate to the delivery of the threads or yarn
at the drawing head, so that a requisite degree of tension be given to the yarn

page_text: during the process of twisting. The twisting motion of the travelling machine
is produced by a continuous band or rope L passing over the gabb wheel M
and antifriction pullies N, N, running the whole length of the walk or rails in
the usual way; and the downward or traversing motion is produced and regu-
lated by the friction of the wheels P, P, on the rails. This we consider
preferable to the usual mode of taking down the common hauling-out or
forming machine by a fixed or what is called a ground rope, or by toothed
rails or wheels working into them, as the natural elasticity of the yarn and
the number of threads to be spun at once require a varying degree of speed
and tension, and this can be regulating by adding or diminishing the
weight on the rails. When the twisting or travelling machine E, E, has
reached the 'extreme length of the stretch, and at the other end of the
walk or rails, the eight threads spun are now detached from it, and laid aside.
Another drawing head may be here placed, exactly the same. as the one.
described as at work at A, A; so that, by having hooks at both ends of the
twisting machine, and reversing the motion of the twist, it can be made to
spin and twist both up and down the walk at pleasure, and thus save the time
it would occupy in returning empty. or disengaged to the head of the walk,
after having spun down one stretch.
Having, now explained the particular arrangement and application of the
several machines used in our improved mode or principle of spinning, we-
desire it to be distinctly understood that we do not claim as of our Invention
any of the machines in detail which are drawn or described, as these have, long
been in use, on nearly a similar construction, but for a different purpose, and
applied in a totally different way. Neither do we limit ourselves to the precise
arrangement or construction of any of these machines, as this obviously may
be susceptible of various modifications, from which the same or similar
results may be obtained. But what we do claim as original, and of our
Invention, under our aforesaid Letters Patent, are as follows; viz:- i
First, we claim as our Invention the arrangement and application of the
machines before described as applied to the principle of spinning and twisting:
upon the stretch all sorts of rope, yarn, threads, and twines direct from-the-
drawing head or gilling. head along the common rope walk and rails, as
delineated and described, whatever may be the primary movement: for setting.
them in action, whether by belts, bands, or wheels.
Secondly we also claim of of

page_text: traversing the twisting machine, which is done altogether by the friction of the
wheels upon the rails, dispensing with the fixed ground rope. This could be
done by toothed. rails and pinions also, but we prefer the friction, which
admits of a little yielding on its part, which is desirable on account of the
natural elasticity of the yarn during the process of spinning.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Craig, Robert Jarvic, and
James Jarvie, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourth day
of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
forty-two.
WILLIAM (L.S.) CRAIG.
ROBERT (L.S.) JARVIE.
JAMES (L.S.) JARVIE.
This is the Deed or Parchment Writing marked (A) referred to in the
affidavit of John Connell hereunto annexed, sworn before me, this Tenth day
of February, 1842.
N. W. SENIOR.
John Connell, of Fludyer Street, Westminster, Solicitor in Parliament,
hereby maketh oath and saith, that he knows and is well acquainted with
William Mills, Esquire, Justice of the Peace for the County of Lanark, in the
Kingdom of Scotland, and with the manner and character of his handwriting,
having often seen him write. And this Deponent further saith, that the name
and words "William Mills, J.P. for the County of Lanark," set and sub-
scribed to the Deed or Parchment Writing hereunto annexed, marked with the
letter A (purporting to be the Specification of a Patent granted to William
Craig, Robert Jarvie, and James Jarvie, for their Invention of "Certain
Improvements in Machinery for Preparing and Spinning Hemp, Flax, Wool,
and other Fibrous Materials"), is in the proper handwriting of the said
William Mills. And this Deponent further saith, that, to the best of his
knowledge and belief, the said William Mills was, at the time of his signing