No.2 shows the feed stopped, the nippers closed and the cir

cular comb acting.

No. 3 shows the nippers open, the top comb down and the detaching commenced.

It will be noticed that the axis of the circular comb is sta

tionary. This also applies to the detaching rolls and lap. All the remaining essential parts of the machine have, however, independent of their separate motions, an oscillating motion altogether forward and back from the circular comb to the detaching rolls and vice versa. The details of the mechanism operating the several motions of the machine I will not enter into; suffice it to say that they are very easy motions, free from complication and most practical in their working.

The designers of this combing machine claim many advantages which may be briefly enumerated.

1st. By separating the detaching rolls from the cylinder and avoiding the fluted segments, the cylinder can have a circular

comb upon it, with many more rows of needles than is possible upon any other machine.

2nd. When the top comb falls the beard is free from the cylinder, and the top comb falls clear through it. On the Heilman machine it has to stop before the end of the needles reach the segments, and thus there are always some fibres in the tail on the Heilman comber that do not pass through the top comb or get properly cleaned.

3rd. Moreover, the top comb does not have to wait before falling. As a matter of fact, it falls through the fibres as near to the front end on the German comber as it does to the tail end on the Heilman machine; thus the fibres are in large proportion actually double combed, first by the cylinder and then by the top comb.

4th. The above described arrangement enables the use of an extremely heavy lap, 2,000 grains per yard, or 61⁄2 times as heavy as can be used on any Heilman machine.