AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF AND MACHINERY FOR TREATING FIBRE-YIELDING PLANTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING USEFUL FIBRES THEREFROM
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hill Dickson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th May 1872.
I, JAMES HILL DICKSON, of Harefield, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED PROCESS OF AND MACHINERY FOR TREATING FIBRE-YIELDING PLANTS
FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING USEFUL FIBRES THEREFROM," to be as
follows:
The object of my Invention is to obtain from the Indian rheea rods,
and various other tropical fibre-yielding plants, useful fibres which
may be employed for spinning into yarns or threads in any suitable
machinery, such as that used for spinning cotton, worsted, silk, or
flax.
By my Invention I am also enabled to prepare a portion of English
hop bine as a substitute for rags, for paper, or coarse purposes; also
sunflower stalks can be prepared by the same machines and process.
The first part of my Invention relates to the removal of the gum like
substance or cuticle which attaches the useful fibres to each other, and
also to the wood or pith on which the fibres are produced. The fibre-

page_text: yielding plants of the East Indies, and also the West Indies, as well
as Africa, Mexico, and other warm climates produce the strongest fibres
on woody substance if properly worked.
To remove such fibres from the above-named substances, I construct
or build an iron framework to hold four grate-like cylinders or drums
so fluted as that the ends of each will serve as the driving part. These
cylinders or drums act on seven, nine, or more rollers placed over the
upper half of the said drums, and having similar fluted parts so that
they will be rotated by the driving part of the four cylinders or drums.
Three or five will be smooth faced, and four or more will be fluted on
the centre so as to work in the drum. The rheea fibre rods, hemp, or
flax are introduced between the upper rollers and the grate-like drum.
The stalks will be flattened, crushed, and broken without the fibres
being cut or injured, so that by a few shakes of the hand of the
workers the woody parts that have remained will fall out, and no waste
of fibre can take place, the waste by the usual mode called scutching
being entirely obviated. The second cylinder or drum in this machine
is of a finer pitch in the centre working part than the first, and as the
root end enters the first and comes out on the delivery board at the
back or last roller the worker takes it off, and as the second part of
the machine is driven by a cross band he enters the top end between
the cylinder and the seven or nine upper rollers, so that a forward and
back motion on the stems or fibre is obtained, and all being crushed
in more parts than by the first cylinder or drum the fibres are delivered
on to the board behind. The third cylinder or drum is of a still finer
pitch in the fluted part than the second, and is driven by a straight
band the same as the first, and the worker enters the root end so as
to keep up the forward and back motion on the material. The fourth
cylinder or drum is of still finer pitch and is the finishing part of the
machine, and being driven by a cross belt, the top end is entered by
the worker, and as by this very fine fluted part of the machine the
woody substance or cuticle on the New Zealand flax or aloe fibres
is ground or rubbed into dust, a good shake by the hands of the
workers will free the fibres and leave all ready for being combed. This
machine being from thirteen to fourteen feet long, and having four axles
one on each drum or cylinder, I make the framework sufficient in
height and strength to carry a shaft with four driving pullies to work it
in any place by horse, water, or steam power.

page_text: The combing part of my Invention leaves the fibres all ready for being
spun on flax, worsted, silk, or cotton machinery; I find by experience
that if the plants are pulled, say a week before being what is termed
ripe, a finer, more oily, and stronger fibre can be obtained, and that six
or seven tons of flax, straw, prepared green without steeping in water,
in vats, or ditches to rot the wood will produce one ton of marketable
fibre.
I follow up the process above described by combing and brushing
out all the resin or gum-like substances, and for rope making Italian
hemp prepared by my machines sustained 25 per cent. in breaking more
than the strongest Russian hemp spun into 25 rope yarn.
The combing part of my Invention consists of two cylinders, of which
one carries the combs which are coarse on one side, and on the other
side finer, and are therefore finishing combs. The combs are inclined
so as to open or split the fibre without taking out anything like the
quantity of tow that the old plan of hackling makes, and as they are
set about four inches apart, and the cylinders rotate quickly, the tow or
shorts is blown out down an inclined wood grate through which the
broken wood of the flax and dust falls, and the fibres are left perfectly
free of such matters. The feeding drum or cylinder is much larger
in circumference and is turned slowly by a handle on a pinion by
hand. There is a row of cogs all round the inside in which the pinion
teeth act, and the four holders when filled with flax, hemp, or other
fibres, are pushed into the drum with two-thirds of the length of fibre
hanging down, so that when the drum is turned up to come into contact
with the combs, it is so flat or level on the outside of the drum that no
portion can be left uncombed. It is fed first at the bottom and taken
out by another attendant at the top, and when taken out it is changed
into another holder in order that the uncombed end may be combed like
the first end.