IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA- BATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON, WOOL, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, WILLIAM
JOHNSON, of Bury, in the County of Lancashire, Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of May, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Johnson, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Johnson, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Johnson, my exors, admors, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA-
BATUS FOR PREPARING COTTON, WOOL, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William
Johnson, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her
said 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, I, the said
William Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and

page_text: the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
My Invention relates,--
First, to improvements in apparatus to operate on slivers of cotton, wool,
flax, and other fibrous substances, in order to condense and calender the slivers
thereof.
And, secondly, my Invention relates to a mode of giving motion to cans used
for receiving slivers of cotton, wool, flax, and other fibrous substances.
And in order that the Invention may be most fully understood, and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to explain the means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a side section of machinery or apparatus for condensing
slivers according to my Invention; and Figure 2 shows a front view thereof.
The improvements are shown as applied to a drawing frame, but the Invention
equally applicable in other machines, where other slivers are delivered
through rollers, and pressed between calendering rollers, as hereafter explained.
a, a, are two drawing rollers of a drawing frame; and b, b, are two calendering
rollers, revolving with a like surface speed with the drawing rollers a, a, hence
they deliver the sliver at the same speed as the drawing rollers a, a. Between
the drawing rollers a, a, and the calendering rollers b, b, is applied a revolving,
condensing, conical, or bell-mouthed apparatus c, which turns in a bearing at d,
affixed to the front framing of the machine. This conical or bell-mouthed
condenser in revolving collects the sliver or slivers at its enlarged end, and by
its revolution condenses the sanie, delivering the condensed sliver at the other
or small end, the apparatus c being hollow. Motion is communicated to the
revolving bell-mouthed condenser c, and to the calendering rollers, in the
following manner :-e is a cog wheel on the axis of the lower of the drawing
rollers a, which takes into and drives the cog wheel f moving on the fixed
axis g, there being a pulley h affixed to the cog wheel f, which by a band
drives the pulley i affixed on the axis j, on which is affixed the pulley k, which
by means of a band gives motion to the pulley affixed on the revolving con-
denser c, and the cog wheel f gives motion to the cog wheel l affixed on the axis
of the lower of the calendering rollers b. By this arrangement slivers coming
from rollers a, a, and held by rollers b, b, will be collected and condensed by
the revolving condenser c much more advantageously than when a fixed funnel
between such rollers a and b is used for such like purposes as heretofore, owing

page_text: to the peculiar effect produced by giving rotatory motion to a funnel-shaped
apparatus c, as above explained. And in order to improve the calendering of
the slivers so condensed, in place of simply allowing them to pass between the
ordinary calendering rollers b, b, as heretofore, and then to descend into a can
below, I apply a pressing callendering roller m in such manner that the sliver
passes from between the rollers b, b, upwards over the upper roller 6, and
thence over the roller m, as is shown, there being a guard roller n grooved in
its middle to direct the sliver, the sliver then descends into a can. The
roller m is shown to be driven by the surface motion of the upper roller b. By
this application of the roller m, the condensed sliver will be callendered in a
much better manner than heretofore.
I will now describe the second part of my Invention, which relates to a
means of giving motion to the cans used for receiving slivers of cotton, wool,
flax, and other fibrous substances.
Figure 3 shows a side view of apparatus for giving motion to a can for
receiving sliver as it is delivered from a drawing frame or other machine. The
can revolving with a peculiar motion constantly offers a fresh surface for receiv-
ing the sliver, so that the sliver will be better packed therein than by the
means heretofore practised. In place of the can simply being caused to
revolve on an axis as heretofore, its axis of motion also revolves about another
axis.
o is a fixed axis, having fixed thereon a cog wheel p, and on this axis a
cog wheel g turns freely, such wheel q receiving motion by a cog wheel on a verti-
cal axis as heretofore, such vertical axis being driven by bevilled toothed wheels
from the calendering rollers. In the wheel q is formed a slit or slot, in which
is fixed (yet capable of adjustment, to allow of different sized wheels being
used) a bearing for the axis r, on which is affixed the cog wheels, which
takes into the fixed cog wheel p; hence, as the cog wheel 9 is caused to
revolve, rotatory motion is communicated to the axis r which carries the can,
and at the same time the axis r rotates about the axis o, by which the sliver,
as it descends in a line above the axis o, will be constantly received into the
can in constantly varying positions, and it will thereby be more uniformly and
advantageously packed in the can; and the workman can, by changing the
wheels, and substituting a larger wheels, enlarge the diameter of the coil of
sliver laid into the can, and this is desirable with thick slivers, the slot in the
wheel q allowing of a considerable extent of variation, from small slivers up to
large ones.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I make
no claim to any of the mechanical parts separately; nor do I confine myself