Its construction was placed in the hands of an eminent firm of machinists in Manchester, whilst its use was restricted to the members of the syndicate. After they had been fully supplied, and had enjoyed the advantages of its exclusive use for some time, it was permitted to be sold to the public under the imposition of a royalty of £300 per machine, which, with the cost of construction, brought the charge up to the considerable amount of £500 per machine. As the patent approached expiration this charge was reduced. The machine, however, was maintained at a high price, and the patent virtually prolonged, through the same process of protection being resorted to for securing the improvements that experience had dictated, and which, indeed, were almost indispensable to make it a thorough success.

The invention and adoption of this machine has had a highly important influence upon the fine spinning branch of the cotton trade. It has rendered feasible the use of cottons formerly regarded as quite unsuited for the production of fine yarns. By thus increasing the bulk of the material, and widening the area of selection, it has done much to reduce the prices of fine yarns to a lower level than before, thereby extending their application and increasing their consumption."

In the Heilmann "comber," of which Fig. 36 is a sectional view, the lap, a, was placed upon the rollers, b, which by their revolution unrolled the fleece when it passed down an inclined guide plate, c, to a pair of steel feed rollers, d d', the lower of which was fluted, whilst the upper was covered with leather. These rollers had an intermittent movement obtained through peculiar gearing, by means of which they were turned one-sixteenth to one-twelfth of a revolution at a time. They delivered the cotton to a pair of nippers which opened to allow its passage. These nippers were composed of two parts, the blade, e, and the cushion, pivoted upon e', the latter being covered with leather. The blade, e, received its movement from a cam at the gearing end of the machine. The motion was transmitted through two

levers, a connecting rod, e3, and a shaft.

The blade had a greater movement than was required to bring it into contact with the cushion plate, and the latter being hung upon a pivot, and held forward by a spring, was pushed backward by the pressure of the blade into a position which subjected the cotton to the action of the combing cylinder, f. A reverse movement then took place, which permitted the cushion plate and nipper blade to advance with the cotton in their grip to a point where, when the nipper blade, e, rose, the fibres were taken hold of by a detaching roller, g', and a fluted segment on the combing cylinder, f'. The surface of this cylinder, opposite to the fluted segment, carried a series of seventeen combs, ƒ2, graduated in fineness from thirty to ninety teeth in the inch. Between the fluted segment and the combs was a plain space at each side, during the passage of which in the revolution of the cylinder, time was afforded for making the required changes between the combs ceasing to act and the fluted segment coming into work, and vice versa, the cylinder revolving continuously. The top comb was fitted above the cylinder, its function being to comb the ends of the fibres, and to prevent any being drawn forward except those that had been combed and cleaned by the cylinder. The top comb had only a vertical movement, being lifted out of the way of the cylinder comb when the latter was passing underneath. The detaching roller, g, and its leather covered fellow, g', with the accessory roller, g2, received their motion from a cam which was arranged to turn the roller, g, one-third of a revolution backward; then, reversing, two-thirds forwards, when it stopped until the cylinder combs had prepared another length of fibre. The reverse movement was given to the roller, g, for the purpose of taking back the rear end of the previously combed fibre, so as to place them under and attach them to the fibres coming from the combs, whereby the whole were formed into a continuous sliver or ribbon, it being necessary to detach the fibres under operation from

the remainder of the fleece as fed in, and also from the fibres already combed. The attachment being made, the roller, g, was reversed, and removed the next length of fibres out of the way of the combs. In order to ensure a a proper hold being obtained of the partially combed fibres, the top roller, g', was made to move round the axis of the roller, g, into contact with the fluted segment, ƒ1, of the cylinder, thus forming a revolving nipper. The top roller, g', was brought into contact by the lever, gʻ, and its connections by means of a cam at the gearing end of the machine. It was in contact with the fluted segment, f', of the cylinder, f, for only a portion of the time that the roller, g, was making the partial revolution forward, but it was always in contact with the roller g.

The process of combing being thus completed by these operations, the ribbon of combed cotton passed to the rollers, ii', through a trumpet tube which pressed it together to form a round sliver. The slivers from the six heads were then united, passed through the drawing head at the end of the machine, and coiled into a can.

The combing process having for its primary object the removal of the short fibres contained in the cotton, and, incidentally, dirt, leaf, and neps, it may be interesting to inquire how these were then disposed of by the machine. When the roller, g', and the fluted segment, f1, of the cylinder had got hold of the front ends of the half-combed fibres, the top comb fell a little in front of the part upon which the cylinder combs had previously operated. The roller, g', and the fluted segment of the cylinder then drew the fibres forward, the top comb preventing anything advancing, except the long fibres protruding through the teeth of the comb. The short fibres were thus left in the portion of the teeth from which the long ones had been drawn, and on the rollers, dd', delivering a fresh length through the nippers, e e', the combs, f2, on the cylinder, f, passed through the projecting part of the fleece, and separated from it the neps, dirt, and all the fibres not long

enough to be firmly held. They thus took the waste from the front ends of the fibre, and that which was left by the top comb. As the cylinder revolved the waste was cleaned out by the action of the revolving brush, g, which had a quicker revolution than the cylinder. The brush then threw the rejected fibres upon a doffing cylinder covered with card clothing, which in turn was stripped by an oscillating comb, when the waste dropped into a receptacle prepared for its reception at the back of the

machine.

The short fibre and waste thus produced was subsequently used in the spinning of low and coarse descriptions of yarns, in which cleanliness was not an essential quality.

The Heilmann comber was left by the inventor as thus described, and in that condition at the time was regarded as one of the greatest triumphs of mechanical skill and ingenuity to be found in connection with the machinery of the cotton trade. Yet when put to work it was discovered that its numerous parts rendered it intricate, liable to get out of order, and difficult to set right. Many improvements, therefore, in the way of simplifying and perfecting its details were introduced during the course of the time covered by the patent. As these details were also successively patented, the protection originally granted was virtually prolonged. The original invention, however, became public property, and was adopted as a base from which to start afresh. Messrs. Dobson and Barlow, well known as eminent makers of machinery for spinning fine yarns, knowing the combing machine to have become an important, indeed indispensable adjunct or part necessary to complete their system of machines, took this in hand for purposes of improvement. Their establishment being situated in the midst of the fine spinning district of this country, they had the best opportunities of becoming acquainted with both its merits and defects. The latter it has been their study to remove. In the comber, as we have described it above,