IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING SEWING THREADS."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Weild, of Gorebrook Ironworks, Long-
sight, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING SEWING THREADS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Weild at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th June 1874.
I, EDWARD WEILD, of Gorebrook Ironworks, Longsight, near Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TIE PROCESS OF AND IN MACHINERY
FOR PREPARING SEWING THREADS," to be as follows:-
-
The ordinary process of treating soft sewing threads is to recl them
into hanks, so that they can be bleached or dyed, then wind the hanks
on to bobbins for the subsequent processes.
I propose to treat soft sewing threads the same as threads which are
to be "polished" or glazed by forming them into a warp in a warp

page_text: "
beaming machine, the warp from such beams being unwound as
"chain," in which form they are bleached or dyed; then the threads
forming the chains are wound upon brass beams, and from these on
to large bobbins for spooling or for polishing in machines, which starch
and polish in passing from bobbin to bobbin. By this process of treat-
ment there is considerable saving of labour.
The machinery employed is ordinary, or is similar to that used for
polishing thread by the warp process; but I prefer, when winding the
bleached or dyed "chains" on to the brass beams, to employ an holding
back arrangement formed by two rollers, one pressed against the other
by levers and weights, the "chain" passing through, over, or around
guides or cross bars and between these weighted rollers, the threads
forming the chain being then divided and wound upon three brass beams
geared together and driven by cone driving drums to vary the speed as
the beams increase in diameter; the driving shaft having a brake in con-
nection with the driving belt, so that when the belt is moved off the fast
pulley the brake will be put on at the same time to arrest the motion of
the driving shaft.
My Invention further relates to improvements in the machine for
starching and polishing sewing threads, for which Letters Patent were
granted to William Weild, No. 539, dated February 18th, 1868, which
consist in applying in connection with a strap guide a brake or brakes
to stop the machine when the strap guide is moved to pass the strap
from the fast to the loose driving pulley, and also in applying arrange-
ments which will actuate the strap guide to stop the machine when a
thread breaks in the process of starching and polishing, such stopping
arrangement being similar to those used for warping or spooling thread,
cach thread passing through a small eye or an eye in a lever which falls
when the thread breaks, and acts upon the stopping mechanism.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 3
filed by the said Edward Weild in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st December 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
WELLD, of Gorebrook Ironworks, Longsight, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, send greeting.
:
3

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Weild, Her special license,
that I, the said Edward Weild, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Weild, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN.
THE PROCESS OF AND IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING SEWING THREADS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Weild, 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 Edward Weild, 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 and the accompanying Drawings (that is to
say):
The ordinary process of treating soft sewing threads is to reel them
into hanks, so that they can be bleached or dyed, then wind the hanks
on to bobbins for the subsequent processes.
I propose to treat soft sewing threads the same as threads which are
to be polished or glazed by forming them into a warp in a warp
beaming machine, the warp from such beams being unwound as "chain,"
in which form they are bleached or dyed; then the threads forming
the "chains " are wound upon brass beams, and from these on to large
bobbins for spooling or for polishing in machines, which starch and polish.
in passing from bobbin to bobbin. By this process of treatment there is
considerable saving of labour.
The machinery employed is ordinary, or is similar to that used for
polishing thread by the warp process; but I prefer, when winding the

page_text: 39
bleached or dyed "chains on to the brass beams, to employ an holding
back arrangement formed by two rollers, one pressed against the other by
levers and weights, the "chain" passing through, over, or around guide
rollers or cross bars and between these weighted rollers, the threads
forming the "chain being then divided and wound upon three brass
beams geared together and driven by cone driving drums to vary the
speed as the beams increase in diameter; the driving shaft having a brake
in connection with the driving belt, so that when the belt is moved off
the fast pulley the brake will be put on at the same time to arrest the
motion of the driving shaft.
My Invention further relates to improvements in the machine for
starching and polishing sewing threads, for which Letters Patent were
granted to William Weild, No. 539, dated February Eighteenth, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, which consist in applying in
connection with a strap guide a brake or brakes to stop the machine
when the strap guide is moved to pass the strap from the fast to the
loose driving pulley, and also in applying arrangements which will
actuate the strap guide to stop the machine when a thread breaks in the
process of starching and polishing, such stopping arrangement being
similar to those used for warping or spooling thread, each thread passing
through a small eye or an eye in a lever which falls when the thread
breaks, and acts upon the stopping mechanism.
My improvements are illustrated by the accompanying two Sheets of
Drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of machinery which I prefer to employ
in carrying out that part of my Invention for treating soft sewing.
threads.
Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the improved machine for polishing
thread.
Fig. 3 (Sheet 2) is a side elevation; Fig. 4, a plan; and Fig. 5, a
cross sectional or end elevation of the break arrangement, shewn
detached, which is used in the machinery for treating soft thread in and
the polishing machine.
Fig. 6 is a plan; Fig. 7, a side elevation; and Fig. 8, an end elevation,
illustrating the stopping arrangements when a thread breaks, as applied to
the polishing machine; and Fig. 9 is a detached end elevation shewing
the detecting levers and ratchet shaft.

page_text: Figs. 1, 3, 4, and 5 shew the machinery which I prefer to employ to
carry out my improved process of treating soft sewing thread. a is the
framing of the holding back machine. The chain (shewn by the
peculiar dotted line x passes over an elevated bar, or from a room above.
the machinery to the roller b, then to the roller b', then under tho
roller, then over the latter and under the roller b³, which rotates in
slotted bearings in side brackets c upon the roller. 2, then over the
roller ³ to a roller 6 carried by the framing & of the beaming machine,
then back to a roller b³ in the framing d, then between rollers 6 carried
by the beaming machine framing d, where the threads forming the
chain are divided. The first thread from one side passes, say, to the.
lower beam e; the next or second thread to the middle beam e', and the
third thread to the upper beam e², so that the first, fourth, and seventh
threads, and so on, pass to the lower beam e; the second, fifth, and
eighth threads, and so on, to the middle beam e¹; and the third, sixth,
and ninth threads, and so on, to the upper beam e². Friction to hold
back the chain uniformly is put upon the roller b³, which is weighted
by a lever fon each side of the framing a, having its fulcrum at f¹, the
under surface of that part of the levers opposite the roller b³ being
curved to fit the upper surface of the roller to act both as a brake and
weight lever; f being one of the weights at the end of each lever.
When the threads of the chain have passed between the rollers 6º the
divided threads pass to their respective beams over the rollers e³, e*,.
and es, as shewn. These rollers have V grooves passing round them for.
the threads, one groove for each thread. The beams e, e¹, and e² are.
geared together by toothed wheels shewn by the peculiar dotted pitch
lines from the shaft 7 of one of the cone drums. There is a screw
shaft between the two cone drum shafts g and i, which when rotated
acts upon a belt guide connected with it for traversing the belt passing
between the cone drums. The strap which drives the machine works_
upon fast and loose pulleys upon the end of the shaft i for one of the
cone drums, and there is a sliding rod ; which passes across the framing.
in suitable guides, which carries the belt guide for traversing the main.
driving belt upon the fast and loose pulleys. The sliding rod jis.
actuated to stop or start the machine by a hand lever j¹ having its
fulcrum upon a bracket upon the framing, which hand lever j¹ is con-
nected with the sliding rod j. Upon the shaft i there is secured a brake
pulley upon which a brake band acts, one end being secured to a
stud in the frame, the other end being connected by an adjustible screw_

page_text: coupling with a lever ³, having its fulcrum upon a bracket secured to
the framing, as shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. The end of the lever
carries a bowl, upon which an incline acts, that is secured upon the
stop lever j', so that when this lever is moved to stop the machine the
incline will act to tighten the brake band, and when moved in the
contrary direction the brake band will be slackened.
The beaming mechanism for the soft thread, as shown in Fig. 1, is
similar to the mechanism for that purpose in the polishing machine,
shewn by Fig. 2, and the brake mechanism above described, and shown
detached by Figs. 3, 4, and 5, is applied also in like manner to the cono
shaft of the polishing machine.
Fig. 2 shews a warp polishing machine similar to that described in
the Specification of the said Patent granted to the said William Weild,
with the exception of the brake mechanism above described, and the
mechanism and arrangements for stopping the machine when a thread
breaks to be next described.
I prefer to place the detector mechanism at 1, Fig. 2, the threads
passing over two rods ¹, the ends of which are carried by brackets &²
secured to the side frames. The detector and stop mechanism are shown
more clearly by Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9. is one of the brackets carried
by the side frames; ³, rods over which the threads pass. The detectors k
are made of thin sheet steel bent double with a hole in the centre by
which they can be balanced upon a shaft ³ passing across the machine,
One end of each lever is bent to form a hook * through which the
thread passes, and this end of the lèver is heavy enough to cause it to
fall when the thread breaks or is absent, in which case its lower edge
will come into the teeth of the shaft /* having ratchet teeth from end to
end, and will stop the rotation of the ratchet shaft. This shaft /* is
rotated by a V toothed clutch box / forming part of a pulley / working
loose upon the end of the ratchet shaft *, so that when the latter is
stopped from revolving the V teeth of the loose part of the clutch slip,
and the clutch is slided endways upon the shaft by the incline surface
of the V teeth. Connected with the clutch there is a fork upon the
upper end of a shaft 7, which shaft has an arm at its lower end.
The movement imparted to this fork when the rotation of the ratchet a
shaft is arrested by one or more of the detectors k, is transmitted by a
rod to an arm upon a short shaft 15 in a bracket 4, which shaft .

page_text: carries upon its other end an arm that comes in front of a latching
stud j in the side of the sliding stop rod j for traversing the main
driving belt from the fast to the loose pulley. The pulley part of the
clutch is driven by a belt from any convenient rotating part of the
machine, and a spring or weight is arranged, which will act to press
the sliding part of the V toothed clutch ⁄ and 6 towards that part
which does not move in the direction of the lengthway of the shaft with
a force sufficient to keep them together when there is no counteracting
force. The stop rod j or its lever has a spring or weight connected with
it to move the strap from the fast to the loose pulley when the latching
arm is released from the incline stud j*, as herein-before explained.
I have now particularly described the nature of my Invention, and
the mode of carrying it into effect, and claim as my Invention,-
Firstly. The process of treating soft sewing threads, as herein-before
described.
Secondly. The improved combination and arrangement of machinery
for treating soft sewing threads, substantially as herein-before described
and illustrated by the accompanying Drawings.
Thirdly. The improved combination and arrangement of mechanism
for polishing sewing threads formed by combining the mechanism
described in the Specification of the said Patent of William Weild with
the detector and brake mechanism, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated by the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Weild, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
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