AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND POLISHING SILK THREAD
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Armand Gilbee, of No. 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND POLISHING SILK THREAD."-A communica-
tion from abroad by Messieurs Lyonnet and Prénat, of St. Etienne,.
France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Armand Gilbee
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd March 1859.
I, WILLIAM ARMAND GILBEE, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND POLISHING SILK THREAD," to be as.
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in the construction of an apparatus for stretching
and polishing dyed silk, whereby the operation is more perfectly and more.
speedily effected than by the means hitherto employed. The apparatus.
consists of a suitable framework in which any desired number of bobbins are
placed side by side, and immediately underneath are arranged as many smaller
bobbins fixed on axes, these latter are connected by bent rods to vertical rods
underneath, formed at their lower extremity with a hook to receive a weight
suited to the tension required to be given to the silk. To enable the skeins
of silk to be placed on a pair of bobbins, a support is disposed under tho
weight which may be raised horizontally so as to render the rods free from
pressure, such supports being removed when the skeins are adjusted. The
skeins while thus stretched by the weights and rods receive an alternate rotatory
motion by means of an arrangement of toothed wheels and pinions applied to

page_text: the upper bobbins. During the intervals in which this twisting operation
is suspended the skeins also receive a twist and untwist by means of a rack or
other suitable arrangement for giving an alternate motion which is com-
municated to the pinions fixed on the vertical rods of the lower bobbins.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Armand Gilbee in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd September 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ARMAND GILBEE, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Patent Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Hor most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Armand Gilbee, Her special licence that I, the said
William Armand Gilbee, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Armand Gilbee, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR STRETCHING AND POLISHING
SILK THREAD," communicated to me from abroad by Messieurs Lyonnet and
Prénat, of St. Etienne, France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Armand Gilbee, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals,
'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 William Armand Gilbee, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in the construction of an

page_text: improved apparatus in which are employed a number of pegs or bobbins on
which the skeins of dyed silk to be operated upon are placed, and receive a
combined rotatory and alternate circular or twisting motion, and a regular and
continuous tension, by which means the stretching and polishing of dyed silk
is moro perfectly and more speedily effected than by the means hitherto
employed.
Silk threads after dyeing preserve a stiffness and irregularity of tension
injurious to the manufacture of stuffs and ribbons, and the means of stretching
and rolling resorted to until the present time for restoring to silk its primitivė
suppleness have not produced favorable results. The mode as ordinarily
adopted consists of using a peg, on which the workman stretches, by jerks, all
the fibres of the skein, at the same time twisting it and causing it to turn in
every direction. This operation being long and tedious soon fatigues the
workman, hence the stretching and twisting motions are performed with less
precision and regularity, and the silk is sometimes broken and not always
rendered completely supple. The improved apparatus obviates these defects
and is represented in the accompanying Drawing, in which Figure 1 is an
elevation; Figure 2 a plan; and Figure 3 an end view in partial section of
the same. It consists of any required number of large bobbins or pegs A,
receiving an intermittent rotary motion; immediately underneath each of these
bobbins or pegs is placed a small bobbin or peg B, supported by a vertical
rod B', bent at top and having attached to it a weight E, varying in size
according to the amount of tension required to be given to the silk. A rack C
receiving an alternate rectilinear motion, and gearing with the pinion D
mounted on the rods B' imparts to the small pegs B an alternate circular
motion from right to left. By these means the hanks of silk are subjected to
three simultaneous motions, vizt., first to a regular and continuous tension;
secondly, to a graduated rotation; and thirdly, a vigorous twist in all directions.
To commence the operation of polishing and stretching the silk by this
apparatus the weights E are made to rest on the cams or supports F, suitably
disposed therefor, each cam being worked by a separate lever G and gearing
G. A skein of silk S is then placed on each pair of pegs or bobbins as
shewn at Figure 1, and when placed in position the cams are lowered and
then the skeins are made to support the rods B' and weights E. One of the
pullies H receives motion from a prime mover, and communicates it to the
different parts of the apparatus. The axle K is provided with a series of arm's
or pawls T, and which receiving motion from the bevil wheels K', strike the
teeth of the ratchet pinions V, which are fixed at the extremity of the axis of
cach of the pegs A, and cause them at each stroke to rotate one-fifth of a

page_text: i
revolution. Another pinion W fixed on the main axle W', works the
wheel L, which actuates the rack C by, means of the slide block M, which by
its rotation gives to the sliding frame or rack Z a to-and-fro rectilinear
motion. The slide block M moves away from or near to the centre so as to
increase or diminish the to-and-fro movement of the rack C, which gearing
with the pinions D, the latter cause the rotation of the pegs or bobbins B.
The pinions D work friction-wise on the rods so that in proportion as the
skeins are shortened by the twisting motion the rods ascend and descend,
.sliding in the pinions supported by the framework (see Figure 3). By this
arrangement whatever shortening is produced by the twist, the weights keep
up a constant tension on the banks of silk. The rotary motion of the
pegs A may be obtained from a steam engine or other suitable means. The
twisting of the banks may be produced by straps or endless chains or other
means of transmitting motion.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention communicated to me,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the exact details of construction herein
laid down, as the same may be modified without departing from the principle
or main feature of the Invention, what I claim as the Invention communicated
.to me and desired to be secured by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is,―
First, the general arrangement and construction of the apparatus for
stretching and polishing dyed silk as herein-before described and represented
in the annexed Drawing.
Secondly, the peculiar construction and employment of the pegs or bobbins
.A, B, as herein-before described and shewn in the accompanying Drawing.
Thirdly, the arrangement of mechanism for imparting a simultaneous
rotatory and alternate circular or twisting motion and a regular and continuous
tension to the skeins of silk on the bobbins or pegs A, B, as herein-before
described and represented in the annexed Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Armand Gilbee, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of September Oue
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.