A MACHINE FOR PREPARING AND CONDITIONING YARN
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hartley, of the Firm of William
Hartley and Sons, of Heywood, in the County of Lancaster,
Cotton Spinners, for the Invention of "A MACHINE FOR PREPARING
AND CONDITIONING YARN."
Scaled the 21st August 1868, and dated the 9th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hartley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th March 1868.
I, WILLIAM HARTLEY, of the Firm of William Hartley and Sons,
of Heywood, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinners, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "A MACHINE FOR
PREPARING AND CONDITIONING YARN," to be as follows:-
When yarn has been spun with a considerable amount of twist, it
is requisite to stretch and slacken the hanks of yarn so spun in order
to prepare it for the extra hard and Levant trade. Hitherto the
yarn has been so treated by hand; now my Invention consists in

page_text: performing these operations by self-acting machinery in order to
-economise time and labor and to produce more regular work.
A convenient mode of performing my Invention is as follows:-
The hanks to be operated upon are suspended to a row of pegs
which are made to revolve on spindles, and they pass around a
second row of pegs fixed in a movable rail which is moved up and
down or to and fro by a crank or other equivalent. The amount of
traverse given to the movable rail must be sufficient to stretch the
hanks and slacken them alternately; by this means each thread is
shaken loose and separated from the adjoining threads, and the hard
twist given to the yarn causes it to snarl or form into small curls,
being the condition in which it is required for the extra hard and
Levant trade. The machinery above described may be considerably
modified.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Hartley in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HARTLEY, of the Firm of William Hartley and Sons, of Heywood,
in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinners, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Hartley, Her
special license, that I, the said William Hartley, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Hartley, 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 "A MACHINE FOR PREPARING AND CONDITIONING YARN," upon the

page_text: condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Hartley, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 William Hartley, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say) :-
When yarn has been spun with a considerable amount of twist it is
requisite to stretch and slacken the banks of yarn so spun in order to
prepare it for the extra hard and Levant trade, hitherto the yarn has
been so treated by hand; now my Invention consists in performing.
these operations by self-acting machinery in order to economise time
and labor and to produce more regular work..
A convenient mode of performing my Invention is as follows:-
the hanks to be operated upon are suspended to a row of pegs which
are made to revolve on spindles, and they pass around a second row
of pegs fixed in a moveable rail which is moved up and down or to
and fro by a crank or other equivalent, the amount of traverse given
to the moveable rail must be sufficient to stretch the hanks and slacken
them alternately; by this means each thread is shaken loose and
5 separated from the adjoining threads, and the hard twist given to the
yarn causes it to snart or form into small curls, being the condition
in which it is required for the extra hard and Levant trade.
The machinery above described may be considerably modified..
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation I will proceed to describe the accompanying
Drawing in which Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 an end view
of a machine for preparing and conditioning yarn according to my
Invention. In these views a is a set of six or other convenient number
of revolving pegs or rollers which are mounted on studs fixed in the
5 stationary rail b, and c is a corresponding set of pegs or rollers mounted

page_text: on studs fixed in the moveable rail d. The rail is fixed to a beam
secured to the wall or any other fixture, and from it projects the
stays e which support the bearing f, this bearing and a similar bearing
in the rail 6 form the guide blocks for the rod g, to the lower end
of which the rail d is fixed. Near the upper end of the rod g is fixed
the adjustable bridle h to which the lower end of the connecting rod i
is jointed, the upper end passing around the eccentric j fixed to the
driving shaft k. By this means the rail d and the set of pegs or rollers c
is moved regularly up and down. The upper set of rollers a are
turned slowly round by the bands 1, 1, passing round the shaft k and
around the grooved pulleys on the rollers a. The mode of operation
is as follows:-The yarn to be operated upon in knots of five hanks, or
more or less, is looped on to the rollers a and c as shewn by dotted
lines at m, and in looping the yarn on it is desirable to set the machine
at work and to pass one end of the knot under one of the rollers c,
and when the rail d is raised into the position shewn in dotted lines
in Figure 1, then to push the upper end of the knot over the end
flange of the roller a as the rail d descends, the rollers c gradually
lengthen the knot, thereby stretching the yarn and straightening out
the snarls, and as the rail d descends again the yarn owing to its being
twisted extra hard forms itself again into snarls, the repeated up and
down motions of the rail d in combination with the rotary motion of
the rollers a cause the yarn to be uniformly stretched and slackened, and
the long and unequal snarls or twirls are taken out and short snarls
or twirls are distributed uniformly on the yarn, thereby preparing or
conditioning it for the extra hard and Levant trade.
I wish to observe that the machinery shewn and described may be
considerably varied or modified, and it is only given as an illustration
of the mode of carrying my Invention into operation by self-acting
machinery, whereas it has hitherto been customary to perform the
operations by hand. The operation is performed by machinery more
rapidly and more effectually than by hand, thereby saving time and
labour and producing a better result.
Having now described the nature of the improvements and the manner
in which the same may be performed and carried into effect, I wish
it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the machinery
described, but I do claim the application of machinery for preparing

page_text: and conditioning extra hard twisted yarn as described, or any combination
of machinery for effecting the same object.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hartley, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of September One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-eight.
WILLIAM HARTLEY. (L.s.)