IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING, OPENING, AND STRAIGHTENING Tow AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Greenwood and Jacob Dockray, both of
Leeds, in the County of York, Machine Makers, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING, OPENING, AND STRAIGHTENING
Tow AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 28th December 1860, and dated the 29th October 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Greenwood and
Jacob Dockray.at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 29th October 1860.
We, THOMAS GREENWOOD and JACOB DOCKRAY, both of Leeds, in the County
of York, Machine Makers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CARDING, OPENING; AND STRAIGHTENING
Tow AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to the application to the intermediate rollers
generally employed in carding engines, and known as workers and strippers,
of certain means for better securing the uniform delivery of the material by
the workers to the strippers. This apparatus consists of a properly shaped
plate or bar, which may be termed a holding or retaining plate or bar, and
which is placed as near the bite of the worker and stripper as is required' by
the length of fibre of the material under operation. The material being
sufficiently retained by this apparatus in conjunction with the worker is not
drawn away by the stripper unequally or in lumps, but is better and more

page_text: evenly distributed or delivered, whereby a more even and regular sliver is
obtained from the carding engine. In addition to this advantage the material
is better opened and straightened by the action of the stripper, consequent
upon the fibres being better held and presented to it; and there is also a
greater economy of material, as the fibres have not the same tendency to fly
about or to fall down from the rollers. Or in place of the holding or retaining
plate or bar a stationary or revolving roller of proper dimensions may be
adopted, which may be either plain on its surface, or be mounted with card
cloth, or with pins. The holding or retaining plate or bar may be applied to
every pair of workers and strippers in the carding engine, or to so many of
them in an engine as the material to be operated upon may require.
Another part of our Invention relates to a novel arrangement of the feeding
apparatus of carding engines, and consists in using an intermediate or opening
roller in conjunction with a holding or retaining bar between the feed roller
and the main cylinder of the carding engine. This opening roller has a less
surface speed than the main, cylinder, and has for, its object to lessen the severe
action which the main cylinder has on the material when presented to it
unopened direct from the feed rollers, and thus to prevent the fibres from
being so much broken as they now are by the direct action of the main
cylinder against the feed roller.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Thomas Greenwood and Jacob Dockray in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 29th April 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
GREENWOOD and JACOB DOCKRAY, both of Leeds, in the County of York;
Machine Makers, send greeting.
i
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us;
the said Thomas Greenwood and Jacob Dockray, Her special license that we;
the said Thomas Greenwood, and Jacob Dockray, our executors, 'adminis
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Greenwood and
Jacob Dockray, our executors, administrators, and assigns; should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times.there-
after during the term therein expressed; should and lawfully might make, use;

page_text: exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CARDING, OPENING, AND STRAIGHTENING TOW AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas
Greenwood and Jacob Dockray, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 Thomas Greenwood (on behalf of
myself and of the said Jacob Dockray), do hereby declare the nature of our
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 Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters:
and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention of improvements in machinery for carding, opening, and
straightening tow and other fibrous substances, relates chiefly to certain means
for securing a more uniform delivery of the fibrous material under operation
by the rollers known as "workers" to the rollers known as "strippers" than
has heretofore been effected.
.:
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents in longitudinal
vertical section a carding engine constructed according to the first part of our
Invention. In this Figure it will be seen that we apply between the workers
and strippers, and between the feed rollers and the main cylinder, a-wedge-
shaped plate or bar (which may be termed a holding or retaining. plate or
bar), the object and operation of which is so to retain the fibrous material in
conjunction with the workers, as to prevent its being drawn away by the
strippers unequally or in lumps.
A is the main card cylinder, constructed in the usual manner; B is the
feed roller for taking the tow or other fibrous material from the feed apron
and transmitting it to the cylinder; C, C; are the workers; and D, D, the
strippers, constructed and arranged in the usual manner; E, E, E, are the
doffers; F is a second feeder for transferring to, the cylinder the material
5 taken from the first doffer E; -G, G;. are two pairs of delivery. rollers for
passing the carded fibres out of the machine in the form of slivers; H is the
doubling plate for uniting the slivers produced by the machine; 1, 11, 12, are
the doffing combs for acting upon their respective-doffers E; E'; E. These
combs are connected together by rocking arms and links, and receive their

page_text: motion from a crank shaft K; L, L, L, are rotary brushes for clearing the
doffers. Projecting between the feeder B and cylinder A is a wedge-shaped
plate or har M, secured by slotted side pieces or cheeks to the main framing.
This plate is capable of adjustment by means of a pair of screws a, to move it
nearer to or farther from the bite of the feeder and cylinder. M' is a similar
bar set between the first pair of workers and strippers; and M2 is a bar of the
like construction set between the second pair of workers and strippers. The
mode of fitting these bars in place will be best seen by referring to the partial
plan, view, Fig. 2, which shews one end of the bar M² secured to the side
framing. bis a guiding screw passing through the slot in the cheek c of the
bar, and entering a threaded hole in the framing. On the end of the cheek c
a lug.c is formed, which is tapped to receive the adjusting screw a. This
screw a is carried by a lug d attached to the framing; and turns freely therein.
When, therefore, it is desired to adjust the bar, it is only necessary to turn.
the screws a at the opposite ends thereof, and the bar will be moved forward
towards or drawn back from the..bite of the rollers, as required.
The action of the carding engine being well understood, it will be un-
necessary to explain the operation further than as respects the retaining plates.
or bars M.These bars by keeping the fibres. in contact with the workers C
(and also with the feeders B and F where the cylinder plays the part of a
stripper) up to a certain determined point capable of adjustment, as above
described, to suit different lengths of staple, will effectually prevent the fibres
from being stripped unequally or drawn off in lumps, and thus the production
of a more even and regular sliver will be ensured than is ordinarily obtaining
from carding engines. The bolding or retaining bar may be applied to every
pair of workers and strippers in the carding engine, as shewn in the Drawing,
or to so many only of them as the material to be operated upon may require.
As a modification of this part of our Invention, we propose to substitute for
the holding or retaining plate or bar a stationary or revolving roller of suitable
dimensions, which being, set up between the workers and strippers so as to be
just clear of them, will serve like the bar (though not perhaps quite so
efficiently) to retain the fibres on the worker, and thus equalize the action of
the stripper. This modification is shewn in' the, sectional elevation at Fig. 8,
(Sheet II.,) where N, N, represent rollers mounted in adjustable bearings, that
will allow of the rollers being brought into the space across which the stripper
has a tendency to draw the fibres while stripping. the worker. In this position
the rollers will serve to prevent the fibres being as it were peeled off the card
surface of the worker. These rollers may either be made with plain surfaces,
or they may be covered on their periphery with card cloth or pins.

page_text: Another improvement which we propose to effect in carding engines has for
its object to prevent the fibres under operation from being so much broken as
they have hitherto been, owing to the severe action of the main cylinder upon
them when presented to that cylinder unopened and direct from the feed
roller. The means adopted for remedying this evil is also shewn at Fig. 3.
It consists in using an intermediate or opening roller in conjunction with the
holding or retaining bar or bars before described, or their equivalent, which
roller is placed between the feed roller and the main carding cylinder. In
Fig. 3, A is the main cylinder; B, the feed roller; and O, the intermediate
or opening roller, clothed with a card surface. Between this roller O and the
feed roller is situate a retaining bar M*; and also between the roller O and
the main cylinder is placed another retaining bar M**. The opening roller
we drive at a surface speed inferior to that of the main cylinder, but superior
to that of the feed roller, and thus by the interposition of the opening roller
and one or more retaining bars, we are enabled effectually to prevent the
fibres from being so much broken as they have heretofore been by the direct
action of the rapidly revolving main cylinder on the fibres as they are slowly
passed into the machine by the feed roller.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements in
Machinery for Carding, Opening, and Straightening Tow and other Fibrous
Substances," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we
wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent,
we claim,
-
First, applying to carding engines holding or retaining bars, or equivalent
fibre-retaining surfaces, in the manner and for the purpose above set forth.
And, secondly, the means above described for tempering the action of the
main cylinder on the fibres as they are fed into the machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Greenwood, 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-one.
THOMAS GREENWOOD. (L.S.)