IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING COTTON FOR SPINNING, AND IN MACHINERY FOR THE SAME
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING COTTON FOR SPINNING, AND IN MACHINERY
FOR THE SAME."-A communication from abroad by Georges Alphonse
Risler, of Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 15th September 1875.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING COTTON FOR SPINNING,
AND IN MACHINERY FOR THE SAME," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the preparation of cotton
for spinning by the employment of a new machine intermediately
between the scutching machine and the carding engine.
The Invention has for its object to. effectually clean the cotton before
it is submitted to the carding engine proper, and at same time to

page_text: subject it to a preliminary carding, which facilitates the general
operation of carding, and ensures better results.
The machine of this Invention consists principally of drums and
cylinders, having a novel and special kind of clothing, as hereafter
described, but it should be understood that the details_of_the-machine
may be modified according to the different kinds of cotton to be
operated on.
As before mentioned the operation of this Invention comes inter-
mediato of the scutching and the carding operations, and it consequently
supplies a want which exists in the preliminary treatment of cotton for
spinning.
In order that the Invention, may be more readily understood I have
illustrated the machine in the accompanying Drawing, in which a repre-
sents a drum provided with a new kind of card clothing consisting of a
fillet or plate furnished with teeth, of the form shown at b. This drum a
şerves to free the cotton (supplied thereto from one, two, or more laps
of cotton at k by the feed rollers c) from the motes and leaves, which
fall through the curved grid d, and at same time to still further open
the cotton and separate so to speak the individual filaments.
second drum, also having a special kind of clothing, and serving to to
continue the operation of opening the cotton and freeing it from the
dust, motes, and leaf, which fall through the grid f specially constructed
for the purpose. The cotton conveyed along table g is then wafted
onwards and drawn by the exhaustion of the fan h on the drums i, i,
arranged as shown, whence it passes to the lap machine j.
.
e is a
.
The advantageous opération of the machine is due principally to the
fact that the drum a works continuously without retaining any of the
cotton upon it, and-consequently without requiring to be stripped. This
result has been-arrived at by the particular arrangement-of-the grids d
and f, by the speed of the drums-a-and-e, and the particular description
of teeth-with-which-they-are-clothed, and also by a current of air of the
_exact-strength required. The arrangement of table g and the distance
between-drums a, e, and those i, i, also contribute to this result.
This system of stripping by the mere action of a current of air
constitutes a novel feature of this Invention.

page_text: Office on the 14th March 1876.
TO ALL TỌ.WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
,
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Melville Clark,
Her special license that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alexander Melville Clark, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
COTTON FOR SPINNING AND IN MACHINERY FOR THE SAME,' a communication to
me from abroad by Georges Alphonso Risler, of Paris, France, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Melville
Clark, my executors or administrators, by. an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly 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 Alexander Melville Clark, 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, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that
in to

page_text: This Invention relates to improvements in the preparation of cotton
for spinning by the employment of a new machinc intermediately
between the scutching machine and the carding engine.
The Invention has for its object to effectually clean the cotton before.
it is submitted to the carding engine proper, and.at-same time to subject
it to a preliminary carding, which facilitates the general operation of
carding, and ensures better results.
The machine of this Invention consists principally of drums or
cylinders, having a novel and special kind of card clothing, as hereafter
described, but it should be understood that the details of the machine
may be modified according to the different kinds of cotton to be
operated on.
As before mentioned the operation of this Invention comes inter-
mediate of the scutching and the carding operations, and it consequently
fulfils a want which exists in the preliminary treatment of cotton for
spinning.
In order that the Invention may be more readily understood I have
illustrated the machine in the accompanying Drawing, in which a repre-
sents a drum provided with a new kind of card clothing consisting of a
fillet or strip furnished with ratchet teeth of steel or other metal, as
shown at b. This drum a serves to free the cotton (supplied thereto
from one, two, or more laps of cotton at k by the feed rollers c) from
the motes and leaves which fall through the curved grid d, and at same
time to still further open the cotton and separate, so, to speak, the
individual filaments. e is a second drum, also having a special kind of
clothing, and serving to continue the operation of opening the cotton
and freeing-it-from the dust, motes, and leaf which fall through-the
_grid-f-specially constructed for the purpose. The cotton conveyed along
table g is then wafted-onwards-and-drawn by the exhaustion of the
fan--on-to-the-drums i, i, arranged as shown, whence it passes to the
lap machine j.
The advantageous operation of the machine is due principally to the
fact that the drum a works continuously without retaining any of the
cotton upon it, and consequently without requiring to be stripped. This
result has been arrived at by the particular arrangement of the grids da
andf, by the speed of the drums a and e, and the particular description

page_text: of teeth with which they are clothed, and also by a current of air of the
exact strength required. The arrangement of table 7 and the distance
between drums a, e, and those i, i, also contribute to this result.
This system of stripping by the mere action of a current of air con-
stitutes a novel feature of this Invention.
Ane advantages resulting from the use of the machine above described
are,-
1st. The cotton is more perfectly freed from the motes and leaves,
besides being still further opened, and each individual filament separated.
2nd. The waste is lessened, as this machine extracts only the motes
and leaf without any of the cotton.
3rd. The subsequent carding operation is facilitated and a larger pro-
'duct obtained, the carding engine proper being fed with laps of well
opened cotton from the machine of this Invention, which deprives
the cotton of the greater part of the motes and loaf, and the card waste
is therefore much cleaner and whiter and of greater value.
4th. An economy is effected both in the working expenses and tho
capital invested, inasmuch as this intermediate carder may in part
replace the finisher scutcher, besides eight or ten cards, which increase
the expense for motive power, repairs of card clothing, grinding and
stripping, these items being almost entirely saved by this intermediate
carder, more particularly as regards stripping, which is entirely avoided,
neither cotton nor waste being retained in the clothing of the drum,
whereby a product is ensured as uniform as when a scutcher is employed.
The card clothing herein-before described whose teeth are of the
special form shown may also be advantageously employed on cylinders
working in combination either with a certain number of clearers or with
one or more workers, also provided with this kind of clothing.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1st. In preparing cotton for spinning the employment of a machine
constructed as shown and described, intermediate of the scutcher and
carding engine, by which the cotton is effectually cleaned, and at same