IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAITING FIBROUS OR OTHER FLEXIBLE MATERIALS, SUCH AS STRANDS, THREADS, YARNS, SLIVERS, BANDS, OR WIRES, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR.”
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Norman Fraser, of the Firm of Douglas, Fraser, and
Sons, of Arbroath, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Manufacturers, for
an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAITING FIBROUS OR OTHER FLEXIBLE
MATERIALS, SUCH AS STRANDS, THREADS, YARNS, SLIVERS, BANDS, OR WIRES,
AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Norman Fraser at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th June 1881.
NORMAN FRASER, of the Firm of Douglas, Fraser, and Sons, of Arbroath, in the
County of Forfar, North Britain, Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAITING
FIBROUS OR OTHER FLEXIBLE MATERIALS, SUCH AS STRANDS, THREADS, YARNS,
SLIVERS, BANDS, OR WIRES, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR."
This Invention comprises an improved mode of and machinery for plaiting
fibrous or other flexible materials, such as strands, threads, yarns, slivers, bands, or
wires, and is applicable for forming the simplest triplo or three-end plait, or for
plaiting more than three strands or ends together.
In the ordinary way of forming a triple plait tho plaited part is held and the
plaiting is continued by manipulating or moving the strands or ends so as to
interlace them; and when the ends are long it is usual to have them wound on
bobbins which are moved about by hand or by means of machinery. In carrying
out the present Invention however, the separate ends are held instead of being
free (although of course fed forwards as the work proceeds), and the plaiting is
done by a movement imparted to the plaited part (or at the commencement of the
work to the knot, uniting the inner ends of the three strands). If the three strands
are distended horizontally, so as to radiate from a knot uniting them, and if the
knot is passed alternately under and over the strands in regular rotation, that is,
under one, over the second, under the third, over the first, under the second, and
so on, it will be found that the required plait is produced.
The details of the machinery to be used for carrying out the Invention may be
constructed or arranged in various ways, but in one convenient modification &

page_text: segmental annular box is used for receiving and moving plaited work. This
box acts as a kind of shuttle and is moved continuousl in a horizontal circular
course, at the centre of which course the plaiting action takes place, whilst the
strands, or ends, or lengths of material to form the plait proceed towards that centre
from external points which are equidistant from each other. Instead of the
shuttle rising and falling so as to carry the plait alternately over and under the
strands or ends, these are suitably raised and lowered just as warps are when shed
in a loom, whilst the shuttle noves horizontally. The strands or ends are by
preference led through tubes to which the alternate raising and lowering
movements are given, these tubes being in the form of curved levers and carried
in bearings on the fixed framing, whilst they are suitably moved by means of
cams. The outer ends of the tubes at which the strands or ends enter are placed
as nearly as possible in the axes of movement of the tubes, and the inner ends of
the tubes are also very nearly in the same axes, so that the length of course
through which the material passes never varies, and there is no more strain upon it
than what is bearly necessary to draw it forwards. This feature of the machine is
of great practical importance as it admits of fibrous materials in the state of sliver,
or of any material having little colicsion or of a fine or delicate nature being
plaited in an even and satisfactory manner.
The shuttle is carried upon a disc or wheel which is supported by its edge, this
edge running in the grooves of a sufficient number of external wheels of a
comparatively small size mounted on fixed studs in such positions as to leave clear
spaces for the movements of the tubes. The shuttle, disc, or carrier has a slot
formed inwards from its outer edge in a suitable position relatively to the shuttle
for the passage upwards or downwards of each tube as the disc moves round; and
the disc is moved by means of a segment of bevil teeth on its under side, there
being a number of bevil pinions beneath the disc on fixed studs in positions, such as
whilst out of the way of the tubes, to be always one or more of them in gear with
the bevil-toothed segment of the disc. The bovil pinions are driven by a bevil
wheel beneath them on a central. vertical shaft, and by these means the shuttle
is carried round in a continuous manner, but so that the tubes (or the strands or
ends when tubes are not used) can be moved freely into positions alternately
above and below it as required for producing the plaiting action.
As the action proceeds the plaited material passes through a guide eye at the
centre and is taken up and entered into the interior of the shuttle by means of a
pair of rollers carried by the shuttle or shuttle carrier, these rollers receiving their
motion through a pair of differential wheels or other suitable reducing gearing from
a pinion carried so as to gear with and be turned by a fixed spur wheel. This spur-
wheel is slotted through its rim at the points where the tubes have to move up
and down, but the pinion has a sufficient number of teeth in gear to pass over the
gaps without derangement.
The materials to bo plaited may be supplied to the tubes in any convenient
way. Thus, for example, when sliver is being plaited it may be drawn out of the
cans into which it is delivered from the carding machine. And in the case of
sliver, a moderate twist can be imparted to it as it leaves the cans by giving a
suitable motion to the cans; but in this case the sliver is passed between a pair of
rollers fitted at the top of each can to prevent the twist from passing down
irregularly into the can.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Norman Fraser in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th December
1881.
"
NORMAN FRASER, of the Firm of Douglas, Fraser, and Sons, of Arbroath, in the
County of Forfar, North Britain, Manufacturers. IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAITING
FIBROUS OR OTHER FLEXIBLE MATERIALS, SUCH AS STRANDS, THREADS, YARNS,
SLIVERS, BANDS, OR WIRES, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR."
My said Invention comprises an improved mode of and machinery for plaiting
fibrous or other flexible materials, such as strands, threads, yarns, slivers, bands, or
wires, and is applicable for forming the simplest triple or three-end plait, or for
plaiting more than three strands or ends together.
In the ordinary way of forming a triple plait the plaited part is held and the
plaiting is continued by manipulating or moving the strands or ends so as to
interlace them; and when the ends are long it is usual to have them wound on
bobbins which are moved about by hand or by means of machinery. In carrying
out the present Invention however, the separate ends are held instead of being
free (although of course fed forwards as the work proceeds), and the plaiting is
done by a movement imparted to the plaited part (or at the commencement of the
work to the knot, uniting the inner ends of the three strands). If the three strands
are distended horizontally, so as to radiate from a knot uniting them, and if the
knot is passed alternately under and over the strands in regular rotation, that is,
under one, over the second, under the third, over the first, under the second, and
so on, it will be found that the required plait is produced.
The details of the machinery to be used for carrying out my Invention may be
constructed or arranged in various ways, but in a convenient modification a
segmental annular box is used for receiving and moving the plaited work. This
box acts as a kind of shuttle and is moved continuously in a horizontal circular
course, at the centre of which course the plaiting action takes place, whilst the
strands, or ends, or lengths of material to forin the plait proceed towards that centre
from external points which are equidistant from each other. Instead of the shuttle
rising and falling so as to carry the plait alternately over and under the strands or
ends, these are suitably raised and lowered just as warps are when shed in a loom
whilst the shuttle moves horizontally.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I "hereunto append three Sheets of explanatory
Drawings, to be hereinafter referred to, and representing my improved plaiting
machinery.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings, is a plan of one modi-
fication of the machinery, and Figure 2, on Sheet 2, is a corresponding elevation.
Figure 3, on Sheet 3, is a vertical section corresponding to Figures 1 and 2, and
Figures 4 and 5 are vertical sections showing modifications of some of the parts.
In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like
parts wherever they are repeated.
The machinery shown in the Drawings is for making a triple or three-end plait ;
and the parts are carried upon a table or framing 6, which is of a hexagonal form
in plan, the plait being formed at the centre of the upper part of the apparatus, to
which centre the strands or ends of the fibrous or other flexible material to be
plaited are led through three tubes 7, to which alternate raising and lowering
movements are given. These tubes 7 are of a curved form, each tube being held
by a pair of arms 8 formed or fixed on a short horizontal spindle, which is held in
a bearing 9 formed at the upper end of a short standard 10, which is bolted down
to the table 6 in such a position that the axis about which each tube vibrates
coincides with a radial line. The outer ends of the tubes 7 at which the strands enter

page_text: are situated in the continuations of the axes about which the tubes vibrate, and
the inner ends of the tubes very nearly reach the same axes at the centre, so that
the vibration of the tubes does not cause any appreciable variation in the length of
course through which each strand passes, and there is no more strain upon the
material of the strands than what is barely necessary to draw it forwards. This
feature of the machine is of great practical importance, as it admits of fibrous
materials in the state of sliver, or of any material having little cohesion, or of a
fine or delicate nature, being plaited in an even and satisfactory manner.
The plait receiver or shuttle 11 is a sheet-metal box of a segmental form in plan,
and when sectioned by a vertical plane passing through the centre of the machine,
showing a shape which is best seen at the left-hand side of Figure 3. This shuttle
is carried by an open disc-shaped frame or horizontal wheel 12, which is supported
by its edge running in the grooves of a number of external wheels 13 fixed on
vertical spindles which are held in bearing brackets 14 bolted to the table 6. Theso
carrying wheels 13 are placed in such positions as to leave clear spaces for tho
movements of the tubes 7; and the shuttle disc or carrier 12 has a slot 15 formed
inwards from its outer edge in a suitable position relatively to the shuttle 11
for the passage upwards or downwards of each tube 7 as the disc 12 moves round.
The disc or shuttle carrier 12 is moved by means of a segment 16 of bevil teeth on
its under side, there being a number of bevil pinions 17 beneath the disc on studs
fixed to brackets 18 bolted to the table 6 in such positions as whilst out of the way
of the tubes 7, to be always one or more of them in gear with the bevil-toothed
segment 16 of the disc 12. The bevil pinions 17 aro driven by a bevil wheel 19
beneath them on a central vertical shaft 20; and by these means the shuttle 11 is
carried round in a continuous manner, but so that the tubes 7 (or the strands or
ends when such tubes are not used) can be moved freely into positions alternately
above and below it as required for producing the plaiting action.
The machinery is driven by means of a first-motion shaft 21 carried by suitable
bearings in a diametrical position beneath the top of the table 6. This shaft 21
has on one end of it fast and loose pulleys 22 for a driving belt, and it has fixed on
it a bevil wheel 23 which gears with a bevil pinion 24 on the short central vertical
shaft 20, thereby driving the shuttle 11 round its course. On the further end of
the shaft 21 there is fixed a cam 25, which acts through an antifriction roller on a
lever 26 centred on a fixed stud, and connected by a link 27 to one of the arms 8
of the tube 7 above. The cam 25 acts directly on the lover 26 so as to raise it, and
thereby turn the tube 7 above up to its bighest position, and the descent of the
lever 26 and tube 6 at the proper times is insured by a link 28 connecting the
lever 26 to a lower lever fitted with an antifriction roller to be acted upon
downwards by the cam 25. Each of the tubes 7 is moved by means of a similar
cain 25, two of these cams being on shafts 29, which receive their motions from the
first-motion shaft 21 by means of bevil wheels 30.
As the action of the machine proceeds the plaited material passes through a
guide eye 31 at the centre, and is taken up and entered into the interior of the
plait receiver or shuttle 11 by means of a pair of grooved or roughened rollers 32
carried by the shuttle 11 or the shuttle carrier 12; these rollers 32 receiving their
motion through suitable reducing gearing from a pinion 33 carried by the shuttle
carrier 12, so as to gear with and be turned by a fixed spur wheel 34. This spur
wheel 34 is slotted through its rim at the points where the tubes 7 bave to move
up and down, but the pinion 33 has a sufficient number of teeth in gear to pass
over the gaps without derangement. The reducing device, shown in the Drawing,
consists of differentially acting wheels, one being an internally toothed wheel 35
set on the lower end of the spindle of one of the rollers 32, and moving that spindle
by means of a spring pawl fitted to itself and gearing with a small ratchet
wheel 36 fixed on the extreme end of the roller spindle, and allowing of that
spindle being turned independently of the gearing by means of a small hand
wheel 37 above. The pinion 33 is fixed on a short tubular boss which is loose on
the roller spindle, and which is formed with a small eccentric having loose

page_text: on it a spurwheel gearing with the internally-toothed wheel 35, but prevented from
turning by a strap or guide. With this well known combination of differential
wheels, each turn of the piuion 33 causes the internally toothed wheel 35 to turn to
the extent only of the difference between the number of its teeth and that of the
teeth of the wheel gearing with it. The take up rollers 32 are geared together
by small spur wheels, and the plaited material after passing between them at onco
enters the shuttle or plait receiver 11 through an opening immediately behind
the take up rollers 32, and in the end of the shuttle or receiver. A door 38 is
fitted to the outer side of the shuttle or plait receiver 11 to give access for
removing the plaited material.
In Figure 4 a modified construction is shown for carrying and moving the
shuttle or plait receiver 11 in place of the comparatively large disc (12) and
external supporting wheels (13). The shuttle 11 is fixed to an annular saddle
or slide 39 which is slotted through at one part for the movements of the tubes 7,
and which is fitted to slide on an annular guide 40 formed on a plate 41 fixed
to the table 6 by suitable brackets. The plate 41 and annular guide 40 has
three slots formed in it for the tubes 7 to move through. The driving details
remain otherwise much as in the modification shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3. In
a further modification, shown in Figure 5, the shuttle 11 is supported and guided,
as in Figure 4, but is driven by spur gearing instead of bevil gearing, a spur
toothed ring 42 being fixed to the annular saddle or slide 40, and gearing with
pinions on the upper ends of three vertical shafts 43. The shafts 43 have pinions
on their lower ends in gear with a spurwheel 44, which is driven by means of
the bevil pinion 24 from the first-motion shaft.
•
The materials to bo plaited may be supplied to the tubes 7 in any convenient
way. Thus, for example, when sliver is being plaited it may be drawn out of
the cans into which it is delivered from the carding machine. And in the case
of sliver a moderate twist can be imparted to it as it leaves the cans by giving a
suitable motion to the cans; but in this case the sliver is passed between a pair of
rollers fitted at the top of or above each can to prevent the twist from passing
down irregularly into the can.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The system of plaiting together three or more strands or ends of fibrous or
other flexible materials by passing the combined or plaited material in rotation
over and under the several strands or ends, and substantially in the manner
hereinbefore described.
2. The combination of a plait receiver or shuttle moving in a circular course with
devices which move the strands or ends across its path, substantially in the manner
and for the purposes herein before described.
3. The arranging or combining together of parts of machinery for plaiting
fibrous or other flexible materials, substantially in the improved manner herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Norman Fraser, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
NORMAN FRASER. (L.S.)