OBSON AND BARLOW'S IMPROVEMENTS IN HEILMANN'S COMBERS.]

We give herewith a perspective view of the improved machine. On
examination it will be noticed that an alteration is made in the motion
seen at the end of the machine for working the detached rollers. This
alteration we believe to be a decided improvement over Heilmann's original
arrangement. It dispenses with the large detaching cam, the cradle, the
notch-wheel, the catch and its spring, the large spur wheel which drives
the calender roller, and the internal wheels for the detaching
roller-shaft, substituting in their stead a much simpler motion,
consisting of a smaller cam, a quadrant, and a clutch. The arrangement,
having fewer parts, is also much more compact than the old one, for with
the driving pulleys in the best position it enables the machine outside
the framing to be shortened 10 in., an important point in a room full of
combers. The action of this detaching motion is positive, and enables the
machine to be run at a high speed without danger of missing, as happens
when the point of the catch for the old notch-wheel becomes broken or worn
away. Another important feature of the new arrangement is that it allows
the motion of the detaching-roller to be varied. By an adjustment, easily
made in a few seconds, the delivery may be altered to suit different
classes of cotton or kinds of work without the necessity of changing the
cams or the notch-wheels.

An improvement has been made in the construction of the nippers. In the
ordinary Heilmann's comber, the upper blade has a groove in its nipping
edge, and the cushion plate is covered with cloth and leather, the fibers
being held by the grip between the leather of the cushion plate and the
edges of the groove in the upper blade, or knife, as it is called. The
objections to this mode of construction were that the leather on the
cushion plate required frequent renewing, and unless the adjustment was
more accurate than could always be relied on, the grip of the nippers was
not perfect, for while at one end the nipper might be closed, at the other
end it might be open wide enough to allow the cotton to be pulled through
by the combing cylinder, and made into waste. In Messrs. Dobson and
Barlow's nipper there is neither cloth nor leather on the cushion plate.
Its edge is made into a blunt ^, upon which the narrow flat surface of a
strip of India rubber or leather fixed in the knife falls to give the nip.
By this pla