A NEW AND USEFUL MACHINE FOR PREPARING COTTON, WOOL, OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough Park,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "A NEW AND
USEFUL MACHINE FOR PREPARING COTTON, WOOL, OR OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIAL. A communication from abroad by Cullen Whipple, residing
at the City and County of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, in
the United States of America.
Sealed the 29th August 1863, and dated the 1st July 1863.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 1st July 1863, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BE IT
KNOWN, that I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park,.
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, am in possession of an Invention for "A
NEW AND USEFUL MACHINE FOR PREPARING COTTON, WOOL, OR OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIAL," communicated to me from abroad by Cullen Whipple, a person
resident at the City and County of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island,
in the United States of America; and I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield,
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:-
Figure 1 is a top view; Figure 2 a side view; Figure 3 an end view;

page_text: Figure 4 a view of the several cylinders without their gill combs. Nos. 1, 2, 3,
and 4 are transverse sections of the several cylinders showing their gill
combs and the means by which the combs are controlled; and Figure 5 a
longitudinal section of the machine with one of the sides of its frame
removed.
It is well understood, that in the process of working wool, cotton, or other
fibrous material into yarn by the machinery now employed much of the
fibre is broken, and a corresponding waste of the stock occasioned. The
purpose of the Invention is to avoid this serious cause of loss by so preparing
the material for the subsequent operations preparatory to its being spun into
yarn, that while the fibres are straightened their natural length shall be fully
preserved. This result is accomplished by the use of a machine which
involves the principle of drawing the material through successive sets of gill
combs of increasing fineness by means of a series of cylinders, each of which
is provided with a set of gill teeth, and which, by the accelerated motion of
each cylinder relatively to the preceding one, transfers the material from the
first to the last of the series, and thereby not only straightens the fibre without
breaking it, but also frees it from the coarser foreign particles.
In the accompanying Drawings, F, F, F, F are the toothed cylinders
for working the material, which are mounted on the frame A in suitable
bearings. Motion is communicated to each of these cylinders from the driving
shaft, to which the pulley P is affixed by means of toothed wheels and pinions,
as shown, each cylinder transmitting its motion to the next in the series, but
the rate of revolution of each cylinder is reduced from that of the one from
which it receives its motion in a regular ratio, so that if the cylinder at the
end of the machine where the material is first received will make, for example,
two revolutions per minute, the next in order will make four, the next eight,
and the last at the end where the power is applied and the material taken
off will make sixteen revolutions per minute. The rate of speed which I have
given, and the ratio of increase of speed in each cylinder, are merely arbitrary;
the speed as well as the ratio of increase will depend upon the quality, condition,
and character of the material to be worked, but this can easily be determined
by experiment, the essential principle to be preserved being an increase of
speed in the successive cylinders of the series in a regular progression.
The cylinder.at the end where the material is first received is provided with
coarser and stronger teeth than the other cylinders, whose teeth increase in
number and fineness toward the end of the series; with this difference, the
cylinders are alike, all being of the same length and diameter, and similarly.
constructed. The teeth are set in bars which are fitted to longitudinal

page_text: grooves planed at regular distances in the surface of the cylinder between the
heads c, c, (Figure 4.) As these grooves or slots extend through the shell of
the cylinder, the under side of the bars which hold the teeth rest upon the
peripheries of two cam disks a, a, a, o, Figure 4, one at each end; these
cám discs remain stationary on the axle of the cylinder, while the shell
revolves. One side of each cam disc is cut away from a true circle, so that
in the course of the revolution of the cylinder, the plates which hold the teeth..
as they successively arrive at this part of the disc are made by means of the.
guide plate d, d', d, d, which acts upon their upper edges, to follow the
periphery of the cam disc, and draw the teeth below the surface of
the cylinder. The object of this arrangement is to effect the transfer of the
cotton or other material which is being worked from one cylinder. to the next,.
which can only be done by withdrawing the teeth from the material at the
point at which it is to be taken up by the teeth of the next cylinder in the
series.
In Figure 5 the course of the fibrous material in its passage through the
machine is shown. It is placed in a mass upon the endless apron D between
the sideboards B, and is fed to the machinery by the apron, to which a slow
motion is imparted by a belt from the driving shaft. A portion is led under.
the pressure feed roller E to the first cylinder, and which revolves from left to
right, as indicated by the arrow. Over this cylinder, and just above the points.
of the teeth, is placed a metallic shell S, the only office of which is to crowd
the material to be worked among the teeth. No such arrangement is
necessary for the succeeding cylinders, as the stock is liable to pile only upon
the first. The second cylinder revolves from right to left, and so near to the
first that its teeth will take up the cotton as soon as the teeth of the first have
been withdrawn, in the manner previously described, and in a similar way
the material is transferred from each cylinder to the next throughout the
series, passing, as will be seen in the Drawings (Figure 5), over the first, under
the second, over the third, under the fourth, and so on to the point where it is
discharged in a wave line of regular curves. Now, it is obvious that the
increased speed of each successive cylinder causes a drawing operation to be
performed upon the fibres of the material worked, not only straightening
them, but also causing all foreign particles larger than the spaces between the
teeth to be removed. These effects are repeated, under increased advantages,
with each successive cylinder, so that the batting which is delivered by the
drawing rollers G, H, to the toothed drum K from the last cylinder has its
fibres evenly laid and of their natural length.
The receiving drum K has its periphery covered with teeth, and is the

page_text: most effectual means for taking off the material in a sheet, but it can be taken
off in the form of a sliver through a bell-mouthed funnel in the usual way.
If the drum is employed, an endless belt J should be used for conveying the
batting, the constant pressure of which against the teeth of the drum can be
maintained by the weight R.
What I claim as the Invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,―
First, combining two or more combing cylinders in a series whose speed of
rotation shall increase from first to last in the series in a regular progressive
ratio, whereby the fibres of the material to be worked are straightened and
combed, substantially as described.
Second, the mode of operation by means of which fibrous material is
transferred from each cylinder to the next in succession, such mode of
operation consisting in causing each row of combing teeth to be withdrawn
from.the material at the point and for the length of time in the revolution of
the cylinder that will enable the teeth of the next cylinder to take off the
sliver, substantially as described.
Third, causing the material. to be combed to travel throughout the series
of combing cylinders in a wave line of regular curves for the purpose of
drawing out the stock without breaking the fibre, substantially as described.
Fourth, the combination of the shell S with the first cylinder of the series,
substantially as described for the purposes specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.