MAKING A SWIFT, AND OTHER APPARATUS THERETO BELONGING, FOR THE PURPOSE OF WINDING SILK
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
GENT, of Congleton, in the County Palatine of Chester, Silk Throwster, and
SQUARE CLARK, of the same place, Whitesmith, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of March, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto us, the said Charles Gent and Square Clark, our
exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said Charles Gent and Square Clark, our exors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Dominion
of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our new-invented method of
"MAKING A SWIFT, AND OTHER APPARATUS THERETO BELONGING, FOR THE PURPOSE
OF WINDING SILK;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging us, the said Charles Gent and Square Clark, under our hands and
seals, to cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calender months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Charles Gent and Square Clark, do hereby declare that our said Invention is
to be performed and carried into effect in manner following, that is to say:—
We make the swift which receives the banks of raw silk that is to be
wound upon bobbins, with six arms, and at the end of each arm fix a fork

page_text: or open part to receive the hank. Those arms are made capable of sliding
out or expanding from the centre, both that they may be adapted to receive
banks of different sizes and also to give the means of balancing the weight
of the arms in all positions so that the swift will. have no preponderance to
any one side. The said swift is fixed upon an arbor or axle which turns
round with the swift; this axle has points at the ends which forms the centres
or pivots whereon the whole swift revolves, when the thread or silk is drawn
off from it by the bobbin. We also apply springs to cause such a friction.
upon the pivots or centres of the axle, that the silk will draw off regularly
from the swift.
Our other improvement of the apparatus for winding silk consists of double
wheels and double rollers, to communicate a more certain and regular motion
to the bobbin whereon the silk is wound.
To render the whole more clear, we have hereunto anuexed Drawings, in
which Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a winding machine, having
three of our improved swifts K, a, a, placed therein ready for use. Figure 2 is
a side view of the swift detached, and Figure 8 an edge view.
A, A, Figure 1, represents the frame, which has legs or standards in front
for the swifts to act between. Bis the shaft turned by the mill to give
motion to the machine; it has wheels D, D, fixed upon it (see also Figures
5 and 6), which shew that there are two wheels beneath each of the bob-
bins E; each bobbin is stuck upon a spindle or arbor, which has a small
roller fixed upon each end, and those rollers resting upon the rims of the
two wheels D, D, are turned round by their motion. In this manner the
bobbins are supported at each end, and are made more certain to turn round
than when only a single wheel and a roller at one end is used, as is common
in winding machines. F is a cog wheel to turn a pinion and axle G, upon
the end of which is the crank H, to give motion to the layer I, which guides
the ends or silks from the swifts, and lays them regularly upon the bobbins;
the motion for laying the silk may be performed in any manner! heretofore
used in winding machines, as the layer is not part of our Invention.
The swift, Figures 2 and 3, are made of six arms K, a, a, a, fixed to an
axis or centre piece K, and traced by pieces b, fixed between the arms. The
arms a are made hollow, like tubes, to receive small rods d, which are fitted into
the tubes to slide, and each rod is turned up at the inner end, as shewn at X,
to form a spring, which acting withinside the tube, renders the rod firm in the
tube, though it can readily be drawn out, to suit the size of the hank; at the
outer extremity of each rod a small fork e is firmly attached thereto, to form
a lodgement for the silk, as shewn in Figure 8. The centre piece K of the
swift has an axis or wire fixed into it, to form a centre; this axis turns

page_text: round with the swift, and its ends, which are pointed; are received into small holes
or notches in pieces of brass or iron plate g; which are fixed to the standards.
A, A, of the machine, see Figure 1. These pieces g are bent up to form a
sort of trough, as shewn in the Figures, and have within them small springs,
which are perforated with holes to receive the points of the axis f, and, by
pressing against the ends of the wire axle, these springs cause a sufficient
friction to make the swift go round just so tight on its centre as will make
the silk wind properly on the bobbins. The end of the springs must be
made to project so that they can be pressed back by the thumb to release the
centre points and take out the swift from between the standards. The swift,
as shewn in Figure 2, may be made of thin metal plate, and soldered together
at the joints; tinned iron plate is very proper for that purpose, but thin brass
or any other metal may be used. The rods a may be iron or brass, and the
forks at the end of iron or brass wire. The axles should be made of steel wiro
and hardened at the points or centres. When it is desired to make swifts on
our plan in wood instead of metal plate, the method is shewn at Figures 4
and 7. Six light arms B, e, are fixed into a centre piece B, and have other
sliding pieces d, b, fitted against them, being- united together by small bands
or clasps of metal d and e, one of theso, e, is fixed at the end of each of the
arms B, e, and embraces the sliding piece d, b. Another similar band is fixed
to the end of each of the sliding pieces d, b, and clasps the arm B, e. The
bands or clasps are bent up to spring upon the arms, and make them slide
sufficiently stiff against each other to retain the positions at which they are
placed. The forks are fixed at the ends 6 of the sliding pieces, the same as
at the ends of the sliding pieces of the swift first described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Gent and Square Clark, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Second day of May, One thousand
La Fond and filtrom
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Charles Gent and
Square Clark (being first legally
stamped), in the presence of,
JN° LOCKETT,
CHARLES (Ls.) GENT.
SQUARE (L.B.) CLARK.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid Charles Gent and Square Clark, came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
NYT TO