CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING FLAX OR OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Stephen Cotton, of Leeds, in the County of York,
Machine Maker, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stephen Cotton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
October 1865.
I, STEPHEN COTTON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Machine Maker, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING FLAX OR OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as
follows:-
My improvements consist, firstly, in a new method of attaching the hackles
or hackle bars to the leather or other sheets, and of driving the sheets of (and
as applicable to) flax hackling machines. For this purpose I use hollow
rivets or screws (having a head at one end) and pass them through both sheet
and bar. The end which is without the head is then rivetted or laid open in
such a manner that the sheet and bar or hackle will be held fast together, and
the holes or eyes of the hollow rivets or screws will at the same time be
preserved clear and entire. The holes or eyes in the rivets or screws are large
enough to receive corresponding projecting pins or teeth in the bottom or
driving sheet pulley of the hackling machine, whereby the sheets are driven
round by and at the same surface speed as the sheet driving pulleys, and

page_text: prevented from slipping by the projecting pins falling or gearing into the eyes
or holes of the hollow fastening rivets or screws.
Secondly, in a new mode of removing the tow from the hackles. This I
accomplish by a revolving cylinder with hackles fixed thereon, and mounted
beneath the lower part of each hackle sheet. These last-mentioned hackles are
made to intersect or pass through the spaces in the first-mentioned hackles, and
thereby draw or clear the tow therefrom, which tow after being so taken by
the hackles on the revolving cylinder is again taken therefrom or thrown off
by a series of stripper bars connected therewith and worked as stripper bars
usually are in ordinary flax machines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Stephen Cotton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th April 1866.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
COTTON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Machine.Maker, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand. eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Stephen Cotton, Her special licence that I, the said Stephen
Cotton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Stephen Cotton, 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR HACKLING FLAX OR OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Stephen
Cotton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Stephen Cotton, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures, marked thereon (that is to say):
: 9.0
My improvements consist, firstly, in a new method of attaching the hackles
or hackle bars to the leather or other sheets, and of driving the sheets of flax
hackling machines; to which such improvement may be applied. For this
purpose I use hollow rivets or screws (having a head at one end) and pass
them through both sheet and bar, or sheet and hackle, or sheet, bar, and hackle.
The end of the rivet which is without a head is then rivetted or laid open, or
if a screw be used, a nut or female screw in the bar or hackle will render the
rivetting operation unnecessary, and the sheet and bar or hackle are held
fast together, whilst the holes or eyes in the rivets or screws are preserved
clear and entire. The holes or eyes in the rivets or screws are large enough
to receive corresponding projecting pins or teeth in the bottom or driving sheet
pulley of the hackling machine, whereby the sheets are driven round by and
at the same surface speed as the sheet driving pulleys, and are prevented from
slipping by the projecting pins or teeth. falling or gearing into the eyes or
holes in the hollow fastening rivets or screws.
The Invention consists, secondly, in a new mode of removing the tow from
the hackles. This is accomplished by a revolving cylinder having hackles
fixed thereon, and mounted beneath each hackle sheet. These last-mentioned
hackles are made to intersect or pass through the spaces in the sheet hackles,
and as they move at a greater speed they are made to draw or clear the tow
therefrom, which tow after being so taken on the revolving cylinder is again
taken therefrom or thrown off by a series of stripper rods connected
therewith.
'
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig, 1 is an end elevation of the improved
hackling machine; Fig. 2 is an end elevation of one of the lower, or, driving
sheet pulleys and its corresponding stripping cylinder drawn on an enlarged
scale; Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of the same on the line X, X, of
Fig. 2.
In Fig. 1, A is the driving shaft of the machine, and also forms one of the
stripping cylinder shafts from which motion is communicated by a train, of
wheels B, B, B, B, B, B, to the lower or driving sheet pulleys and the other
stripping cylinder. Motion is also, communicated from the driving shaft A by
a train of wheels C, C, C, C, to the pin or stud D, which is connected with
and gives a rocking motion to the top shaft E, on which are pulleys or cams,
from which is suspended by chains or belts. the flax holder trough F, which
receives its rising and falling motion from the alternate motion of the shaft E;
i)

page_text: G, G, are the two top sheet shafts; and H, H, are the leather or other sheets
on which are fastened the hackles, which hackle the flax as it presents itself
to the same by the rising and falling of the holder trough F.
This novel method of attaching the sheets to the hackles or hackle bars,
and of driving the former (as applied to flax hackling machines), and also the
stripping of the tow from the hackles, may be better explained by reference to
Figures 2 and 3, in which I is one of the lower or driving sheet pulleys having
the projecting teeth or pins J cast or fixed on to the periphery; K are the
hackle bars, and L the hackles fastened to the sheets H, H, by the hollow
rivet as shewn at Q, or by the hollow screw as shewn at R, so that as the
sheet pulley revolves, it will be seen that if properly pitched the teeth or
projecting pins J will fall into the eyes or holes of the hollow rivets Q or
screws R, which fasten the sheets H, the bars K, and the hackles L together,
and thereby prevent the sheets from slipping when the hackles have begun to
operate on the flax.
As a modification of this mode of fastening the sheet H, bar K, and
hackle L together, the sheet and bar only may be fastened to each other by
the hollow screw or rivet, as shewn at R, and the hackle L may then be
fastened to the bar K by screws in the ordinary way. M is the stripping
cylinder in connexion with the lower sheet pulleys; N, N, are the stripping
hackles attached to the cylinder; M and O are the stripper rods, which have a
free action in the stop P, except during the intersection of the hackles, when
a guide keeps them at the bottom of the slot. The diameters of the wheels
B, B, B, B, B, B, are so arranged that although the sheet hackles are finer
pitched than the stripping hackles, each sheet hackle will meet its correspond-
ing stripper hackle, the pins of which will pass through the spaces of the former
at a certain angle and at a greater velocity, thereby drawing away any tow
which may be on the aforesaid sheet hackles, and as the stripper rods are
now allowed to have free action they fly out to the top of the slot P in
obedience to the natural law of centrifugal force, thereby clearing the tow off
the pins and allowing it to fall down into a box placed to receive it.
Having now described my Invention of "Certain Improvements in
Machinery for Hackling Flax or other Fibrous Substances," and having
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Inven-
tion secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid, the mode herein set forth
of fastening the bars and hackles of hackling machinery to the travelling
endless sheets,-
I claim particularly the use of hollow rivets for the purpose set forth.
I claim secondly, the employment of revolving and intersecting hackles

page_text: with stripper rods for the purpose of clearing the tow from the ordinary sheet
hackles as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Cotton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
J. R. T. MULHOLLAND,
Northern Spinning & Weaving
Co. (Limited),
Belfast.
STEPHEN COTTON. (L.S.)