IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND WINDING AND SPINNING AND WINDING WOOL, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS BODIES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARTYN
JOHN ROBERTS, of Byru y Caeran, Carmarthenshire, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS IIer present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Martyn John Roberts, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Martyn John Roberts,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Martyn John
Roberts, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND WINDING AND SPINNING AND
WINDING WOOL, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS BODIES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Martyn John Roberts, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
sanie, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Martyn John Roberts, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say :-
My Invention consists, first, of a new combination of machinery for the
purpose of producing a more uniform tension (technically called the drag)
upon the thread, yarn, or roving, or other form of the fibrous material during
the operation of spinning and winding, or preparing and winding, when such
material is being spun and woven by the action of spindles and flyers, as in
the machines called throstle and roving frames.
Secondly, the giving a temporary twist to rovings, or other form of the
fibrous material, at the same time that a twist is also thrown into them which
is permanent, that is, remains in the roving, &c., while wound upon the bobbin,
the temporary twist is not retained in the roving when on the bobbin, but is
thrown in between the bobbin and delivering rollers merely for the purpose of
giving greater strength to the roving which is under the operation of being
spun and wound upon the bobbin from the delivering rollers; and,
Thirdly, the throwing of the fibres of yarn, or ribband of wool, &c., trans-
versely to the length of the thread, after the bundle or cord of fibres have
been attenuated or clongated by a process of drawing; this throwing of the
fibres across is to produce a yarn such as woollen yarn, in contradistinction to
worsted thread, in which latter the fibres are laid in the direction of the length
of the thread. And in order that my Invention may be fully understood, I
will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
I will first describe that part of my Invention which relates to producing a
more uniform drag. The method at present most generally employed, is to
place the bobbin upon and in contact with a spindle, the thread being led
from the delivering rollers through the eye of the flyer leg, and on to the
bobbin, when the spindle revolving puts the required twist into the thread, and
the bobbin being retarded by friction applied to its lower end is thus pre-
vented from turning at the same velocity as the spindle and flyer, consequently
the thread is wound upon the bobbin. There are objections to the form of
machinery most commonly employed for this purpose, first, the spindle
has much of its length unsupported, and, secondly, the spindle being in actual
contact with the bobbin, is apt to lay hold of it and carry the bobbin round at
too great a speed; when this happens, the thread is not tightly wound upon
the bobbin, and runs into what is technically called "snarls." Attempts
have been made in several ways to remedy these defects; among others I may
mention the method described in the Specification of a Patent granted to
Gore, in One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, in which the spindle is
supported by a socket screwed to the bobbin-lifter rail, the spindle running

page_text: within the socket, the bobbin on the outside; but it has been found that fine
or tender thread, if spun at a high velocity, is not strong enough to pull the
bobbin round upon the socket, the friction between them being too great, as is
also the inertia of the bobbin at the moment of starting into motion. It is
also found that large bobbins cannot be economically used for fine or tender
yarns, the weight of the bobbins to be drawn round being too great, and
therefore small bobbins are employed, and as they can hold but little thread
much time is lost in changing the bobbins (when full) technically called
"doffing." In my Invention these difficulties no longer exist, for if it be
necessary to support the spindle by a socket, the excessive friction which
would arise between the bobbin and socket is by my Invention compensated
for or neutralized; for I make use of a friction plate resting upon the bobbin';
I drive this friction plate, and I prefer to do so, by the legs of the flyer, conse-
quently the friction or adhesion of the friction plate on the head of the bobbin
helping to turn it round relieves the thread of that excessive strain which
would be created were the bobbin turned upon the fixed socket by the action
of the thread alone. I sometimes place this plate below the bobbin, the
bobbin resting upon it, and I drive it by the flyer legs or spindle; but I
take care that it is always driven by its own spindle, and it consequently
partakes of the irregularities of motion of that spindle; these several devices
may be used without the socket or tube to support the spindle, but I prefer
the use of the socket for high velocities. The friction plate may be furnished
with a pipe projecting into the barrel of the bobbin. It will be seen that the
use of the friction plate is productive of many advantages; it assists the bobbin's
motion, overcoming any excessive friction the bobbin may be subjected to, it
enables me to use larger bobbins than usual, it protects the thread under
operation from rubbing on the head of the wooden bobbin, and being thus
injured. In some cases I derive motion from the spindle, and communicate it
by a band to the bobbin wharve or carrier; such means like the preceding
causes the bobbin to partake of the irregularities of the spindle which
carries it.
Having now stated generally the nature of this first part of my Invention,
I will proceed to describe the means of arranging machinery for carrying the
said Invention into operation :-
A, A, Fig. 1, represents a spindle supported in the step rail B, and by the
socket or tube F screwed into the bobbin lifter D; the spindle is driven in the
usual manner by a band upon the wharve C from a driving cylinder. The
spindle is furnished with the ordinary flyer G. The tube F extends from the
bobbin lifter through both ends of the bobbin, and projects about half an inch

page_text: above it. The spindle revolves within the tube, and is supported thereby; the
outer surface of the tube is of a diameter that fits the bushes of the bobbin,
which runs loosely and with as little friction as can easily be attained upon
the tube F. Upon the upper part of the tube which projects above the bobbin
a friction plate W runs. This plate W is of the samo diameter as the head
of the bobbin; the tube X being attached to the plate, projects into the upper
bush of the bobbin, as shewn. The plate W and tube, are of metal, and of
sufficient weight to carry the bobbin round by the friction or adhesion between
the plate W and the bobbin when the plate is made to revolve. A pin P is
inserted into the side of the plate, and is made long enough to come in the
way of the leg of the flyer, when the plate is in its proper position on the top
of the bobbin, consequently when the spindle and flyer revolve, the leg of the
flyer drives the plate round at the same velocity as itself by the intervention
of the pin P, and were no drag or retarding power applied to the bobbin, the
plate W would carry the bobbin round with it at the same speed as itself and the
spindle; but in order that the thread, &c., may be wound upon the bobbin
during the process of spinning, a drag of any convenient kind, as is well under-
stood, is to be applied to the bobbin, which will cause it to revolve at a less
speed than that of the flyer and friction plate. The drag may be caused by the
usual weighted string used in the flax spinning, or a cloth washer under the
bobbin as in worsted spinning. The bobbin is moved up and down by the
traversing motion of the rail D, and is regularly filled with thread from top to
bottom in the well-known manner of the throstle frame. Although I prefer
to use the socket as shewn; yet it may be dispensed with, and I can use one
not fixed to the rail, but loose and free to move both on the rail and spindle,
and by affixing to this socket (which may be long or short) a foot or base
to rest upon the rail, the loose socket will run at a less speed than the spindle
rail.
I will now proceed to describe another arrangement of machinery according
to the first part of my Invention, where the bobbin is driven by means of
motion derived from the spindle; hence the motion of the spindle and the
bobbin partake of the same irregularities. The spindle A, Figure 2, is driven
by a wharve in the usual manner, and supported by a step rail S, and tra-
versing bobbin lifter B. Upon this spindle runs a wharve and tube, or bobbin
carrier W, T, which may simply rest upon the bobbin lifter, or it may pass
through it, the wharve being on the under side of the lifter, and its tube pro-
jecting through and entering the bobbin, but the former being more simple, is
here delineated; the wharve resting on the lifter rail, traverses up and down
with it. Upon the spindle a second wharve X is fixed; and behind the spindle,

page_text: attached to a convenient part of the frame, are guide pullies G, and which are
free to turn on their axis; and they also act as tightening pulley to a band
or cord placed over the wharve X, round the guide pullies G, and then on to
the wharve or bobbin carrier W, which wharve is made of a somewhat larger
diameter than that at X. The sizes of these wharves W, X, are so adjusted
that the wharve W shall not go faster than the bobbin, the bobbin O being
placed on its carrier and tube W, T, and the spindle A being made to revolve,
it drives the bobbin, by means of the band m, m, at a slower speed than the
spindle and flyer, consequently the thread is wound upon the bobbin with a
tension determined by the slowness of the motion of the bobbin carrier, regu
lated by the ordinary drags. This action may, of course, be reversed, the
bobbin going faster than the spindle, in which case the thread would be wound
upon the bobbin in an opposite direction to that in the former case.
The second part of my Invention is applicable to roving or preparing fibrous
bodies. It is well known that a roving is a cord of wool, or other fibrous body,
of considerable thickness, having but little twist; it is brought to that state as
a preparation for the final operation of spinuing. The cord being but little
twisted, and very tender, it is easily stretched and injured by any unequal'
tension it may be subjected to, and as the machines often employed for making
these rovings wind them upon bobbins by the action of the ordinary friction drag,
the rovings are frequently injured. According to this part of my Invention, a
very considerable twist is thrown into the roving, which imparts great strength
to it, and enables it to bear inequality in the drag without injury; but as'
this excessive twist, if retained in the roving, would be injurious for the after'
operations, the principle part of the twist is thrown out before the roving is
laid upon the bobbin, and only so much twist is retained in it as may be
necessary for the subsequent operations. The spindle A, Figure 3, is
supported by a step rail Y, and bolster rail B; it is driven by a band (from
the usual driving cylinder) on to tho wharve W. To the bolster rail is
screwed a socket S, S, S, which extends from this rail to near the head of the
spindle; the use of this socket is to prevent the wharve or pulley P, P, from
running round. The flyer F, F, is fixed upon the head of the spindle in the
usual manner, and to one leg of the flyer is fastened two studs or bearings
0,0; in these bearings runs a tube t, of nearly the same length as the leg of
the flyer; this tube is provided with a bridge at both ends, or two pins (1, (1),
inserted across its diameter for the purpose of preventing the roving from
turning in the tube as the roving passes through it; in fact the tube is tho
samic in construction as that used in what is called Dyer's roving frames, which
are well known. The neck of the flyer is fitted to receive and act as the'

page_text: bearing or axis to a wharve or pulley P, P, Figure 3 and Figure 4, the neck
revolving easily within this wharve, but fitted with a shoulder 0, 0, for the
purpose of raising the wharve with the flyer when it is taken off the spindle,
so that the flyer, the wharve P, P, and tube t, are all removed together when
the flyer is taken off the spindle; but when the flyer is in its proper position
on the head of the spindle, the wharve cannot turn with the flyer and spindle,
in consequence of being fixed by two studs D, D, which drop into slots made
in the socket S, S, S, before described, and which slots are shewn more at large
at y, Figure 5. The tube t, Figure 3, is furnished with a small wharve R,
whose diameter is about one eighth or one tenth of that of the pulley P, P,
from which it receives motion by a band. The spindle being made to revolve,
it carries the flyer, and the tube t attached to the flyer, and as the pulley P, P,
is retained at rest by the socket S, S, S, it follows that (the wharve R being driven
by the band round it and P, P) the tube t will revolve on its own axis, and during
one revolution of the spindle it will make a number of turns proportioned to
the difference of diameter of the pulley P, P, and wharve R, and in conse-
quence of the band being crossed, the direction of the revolution will be the
same as that of the spindle; and it will be evident that if a roving M be led
from the delivery rollers through the tube t, and on to a bobbin N, N, placed
upon the socket S, S, S, and the spindle be made to revolve, the tube revolving
on its own axis will throw a twist into the roving from the lower end of the
tube up the delivering rollers, and between the lower end of the tube and the
bobbin this twist will be thrown out; but it will be seen that in consequence
of the revolution of the spindle and bobbin, a twist is also thrown into the
roving which is permanent, and retained in the roving when wound upon the
bobbin, for this is but the usual mode of putting a permanent twist into
fibrous cords. The twist put in by the revolving tube t (which I will call the
temporary twist), is in proportion to the number of revolutions of the tube and
speed of the delivering rollers; and as the number of temporary twists will
be very great when the ordinary permanent twist is given, the roving is made
of considerable strength, and capable of bearing without injury the unequal
drag or tension it may be subjected to. It may be well here to describe more
fully a convenient mode of attaching the pulley P, P, to the flyer neck in such
a manner that the neck shall be free to turn within the pulley, and yet that
the pulley shall be removed from the socket and remain stationary on the
neck of the flyer. The pulley P, P, has a tube J, J, of the form shewn in the
Figure, the upper part of the tube running on the neck m, m, of the flyer
F, F, and its lower part embracing the socket S, the studs D, D, slipping into
slots in this socket, as shown. The neck m, m, has a shoulder o, o, which

page_text: runs under the bent part of the tube J, J, and it is by this shoulder that
the warve is lifted off the socket and removed with the flyer when this is
taken from the spindle.
The third part of my Invention, which I will now describe, is more parti-
cularly applicable to the manufacture of woollen yarn, and such other fibrous
threads in which the fibres lie transversely or at a considerable angle to the
direction of the length of the thread or yarn. In the present mode of manu-
facturing such thread or yarn, the fibre is thrown across in the first operation,
that is, in the carding, where the stout cord issues from the carding engine
with the fibres transverse to their length, and these cords or "cardings" are
afterwards elongated by "slubbing machines" and "mules," still retaining the
fibres transverse, or nearly so, to the length of the thread. The objection to
the use of these machines is, that their action is not continuous, much time
being lost both in the slow speed during the stretch, and also in winding the
yarn upon the spooles or bobbins. Throstles, on the contrary, spin con-
tinuously, but as in these machines the fibrous cord is elongated by drawing
rollers, the action tends to place the fibres parallel to the length of the thread,
and thus deprive it of the essential character of woollen yarn. According
to this part of my Invention, the carding, slubbing, or roving has its fibre
parallel to its length, and is elongated by drawing rollers, and spun con-
tinuously in the manner usual with flax and worsted; but when the fibrous
cord has passed a drawing process preparatory to being twisted and wound
upon bobbins, I then cause the fibres to be thrown transversely to the length
of the thread by suitable apparatus, which I will now proceed to describe. I
thus spin continuously, which is a great saving of time, while I retain the
essential character of woollen yarn in the fibrous cord, for the fibres are
transverse, or at a considerable angle to the direction of its length :-After
having passed the sliver, slubbing, or roving, through a series of drawing
machines similar to those now used in worsted, I bring it to the throstle,
which, being well understood, need not be shown or described. In front of the
delivering rollers A, A, of this throstle, Figure 6, a roller B revolves horizon-
tally, or at a considerable angle to the plane of revolution of the rollers A, A.
The roller B is driven by any convenient kind of gearing, such as an endless
screw lying beneath B, and gearing into a cog wheel upon its axis, or by other
convenient means. In front of the roller B, another roller C revolves vertically;
both these rollers are covered with cards, and so arranged that B shall receive
the untwisted ribband from the delivery rollers A, A; this ribband is then
stripped off B by the roller C, and as the motion of C is at an angle to that of
B, the fibres under action will be inclined across the face of C. A "doffer

page_text: knife" or "comb" D, working upon the front of C, strips the ribband from C;
this ribband is received by a pair of delivering rollers E, E, and issuing from
these, is finally twisted and wound upon bobbins by a spindle and flyers, or
other device, in the usual manner. The rollers B, C, E, E, revolve with the
same surface speed as the rollers A, A.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would remark that I do not confine
myself to the details shown and described, so long as the peculiar character of
either part of my Invention be retained; but what I claim is,---
First, the assisting the motion of the bobbin by applying a friction plate W, 1
Fig. 1, driven by a flyer or spindle, as above explained.
And I also claim the mode of assisting the motion of the bobbin by
transmitting motion from the spindle to the bobbin by a band, as herein
described.
5
Secondly, I claim the putting on a temporary twist on to rovings or fibrous 1
cords, to give strength thereto, combined with a permanent twist when
working with bobbin or spool, as herein described.
And, thirdly, I claim the causing the fibres of a carding or loose cord
of fibres to be laid transversely, after having passed through a process of
drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Martyn John Roberts, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
MARTYN JOHN (L.s.) ROBERTS.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of July,
in the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Martyn John Roberts came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statuto made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five.