CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SPINNING WOOL, COTTON, HEMP, FLAX, OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN TRAVIS
the younger, of Shaw Mills, near Manchester, in the County Palatine of
Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of
November, in the fourth year of His reign, did, Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Travis, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Travis, my
executors, administrators; and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Travis, my executors, administrators, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SPINNING
WOOL, COTTON, HEMP, FLAX, OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Travis, should 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 His 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 same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Travis, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and in

page_text: what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the Figures and Letters marked
thereon; that is to say :-
My Improvements in apparatus for spinning apply to that particular con-
struction of spinning machinery commonly called or known by the names of
mule, billey, jenney, and stretching frame, and consist in a new mode or
method of working the apparatus called the counter-faller in connection with
the faller, by which the yarns are more tightly wound upon the spindles as the
carriage runs in than can be effected by the ordinary construction of such
machinery, and which improved mode of working the counter-faller in a great
measure supersedes the necessity of backing off or giving a retrogade move-
ment to the spindles for the purpose of unwinding the coiled yarns from the
points of the spindles previously to their being wound on to the cops.
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 represents a portion of the front
of a mule carriage with the improved parts adapted thereunto.
Figure 2 is a transverse section taken through the carriage, for the purpose
of shewing the operations of the improved parts more evidently. The con-
struction of the carriage is the same as in ordinary mules, having a series of
upright spindles a, a, a, driven by bands or cords from a rotary drum
barrel or roller b, which is actuated by the usual machinery, as the carriage
runs in and out upon the edges of the iron rails c, c. The faller d is a longi-
tudinal wire extending along the carriage, and which is connected by arms; to a
longitudinal shaft e, mounted in brackets f, affixed to the front of the carriage.
This wire d is enabled to rise and fall in the direction of the dotted segment
shewn in Figure 2, by partially turning the shaft e upon its axis, which move-
ment is given to the shaft by the hand of the spinner when the carriage runs
in for the purpose of guiding the yarns in uniform coils round the spindles to
form the cops as they are wound on. The counter-faller g is a rod or slight
bar of metal placed longitudinally along the carriage parallel to the faller. It
is mounted like the faller on arms h, h, but sliding loosely round the shaft e,
by which it is made capable of moving up and down in a similar curve to the
faller. The lower part of the arm his formed into a segment rack i, intended
to take into the teeth of a corresponding segment rack k, affixed to the lower
longitudinal shaft l, l, the pivots of which shaft 7 turn in bearings m attached
to the brackets f. The shaft l, with its segment rack k, taking into the cor-
responding segment rack i on the arm h, governs the position of the counter-
faller g; and the elevated position of the counter-faller, shewn in Figure 2, is
effected by means of a weighted cord m attached to the periphery of a palley o

page_text: fixed on the shaft 1, which pulls the segmcut rack round, and raises the counter-
faller. But in order that the counter-faller may not rise too high when the
carriage runs out, a step lever p is fixed upon the shaft l, which stop at this
time bears against the notch or ledge in the vertical lever q. This lever is
kept up, bearing against the end of the step, by a spring r, affixed to the front
of the carriage, but, when the carriage has run out to the extent of the stretch,
and the yarns are about to be wound on, then the vertical lever q is thrown
back by the action of a horizontal lever behind the shaft 7, which at that time is
to be pressed by the finger of the spinner. This lever is shewn at s in the hori-
zontal view of that part of the machine represented in the detached Figure 3.
The faller wire d is at this time raised to that part of the dotted curve
marked, in Figure 2, which is above the points of the spindles, when by the
liberation of the step p the weighted cord n is enabled to draw the rack and shaft
k and further round, by which means the counter-faller g rises also above the
points of the spindles, but the extent of the arc through which the shaft and
segment rack and k are enabled to turn is limited by a step lever t, fixed on
the shaft as seen in Figure 1. By the rising of the counter-faller g above
the points of the spindles in the way described, the loose coils of yarn twisted
round the naked parts of the spindles above the cops are drawn off, by which
means the ordinary operation of giving to the spindles retrogade movements,
to effect what is technically called backing off, is in a great measure, if not
entirely, rendered unnecessary.
Lastly, having found it desirable, for the better illustration of my Invention,
to describe several parts of the ordinary mule for spinning cotton and other
fibrous materials which are not new, I desire it to be understood that my
present Invention consists simply in the means and mechanism above described
by which I am enabled to work the counter-faller for the purpose of giving
increased tension to the yarns in winding on to the spindles, and also to draw
off the coiled yarns from the upper end of the spindles, to supersede the necessity
of backing off.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Travis, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of April, in
the fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said John Travis, Jun", came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.