CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINES CALLED MULES, AND OTHER MACHINES FOR SPINNING COTTON WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
FOTHERGILL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria did, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of
December, in the sixth year of Her reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Benjamin Fothergill, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Benjamin Fothergill,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Benjamin Fothergill,
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 that part of Her
said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Her
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINES CALLED MULES, AND OTHER MACHINES FOR SPINNING COTTON,
WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso that if I, the said Benjamin Fothergill, should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months then next and immediately after the

page_text: date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and
become void, 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
Benjamin Fothergill, 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, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon.
The same figures, letters, and numbers are used to denote the same parts
throughout. The Drawings represent parts of one of those well-known
machines called a self-acting mule, with my improvements attached thereto in
colors. In order to show parts of my improvements more clearly, they are
exhibited in Sheet 2 in a state detached from the mule.
My improvements and the terms herein employed are applicable to all that
class of machinery for spinning called mules, and to all that class of machinery
for preparing and spinning or doubling cotton, flax, and other fibrous substances,
in which the spindles recede from and approach the drawing rollers, and which
machines are most commonly known by the names of the mule, stretcher, and
twiner or doubler. It is unnecessary to describe my improvements in reference
to any of these machines, except the mule, separately, as any mechanic conver-
sant with the construction of this class of machinery will be enabled to
construct and arrange such other machines according to my improvements.
For the purpose of explaining the nature of my said Invention and improve-
ments, I would premise that the action or principal movements of the mule
and other machines herein-before mentioned may be separated into three
classes.
The first class comprehends the movements for the delivery of rovings from
the drawing rollers, the receding of the carriage from the drawing rollers to the
extent of the stretch, and the revolution of the spindles in the carriage during
its passage along and after its arrival at the end of the stretch, whereby the
rovings are spun, with the required number of twists in each thread of yarn.
With respect to this class of movements it is to be observed that in the self-
acting mules, as at present usually constructed and worked, when the carriage
has arrived at the drawing rollers, and at the time when the machine is at rest,
prior to its being again set in motion, the faller wire, by the various means
heretofore used, has been raised above the points of the spindles whereby the
yarn is frequently left slack and forms itself into snarls. The object of my
improvements is to prevent such snarls, which I effect by not allowing the

page_text: faller wire to rise in this state of the machine higher than that part of the
spindle where it last guided the highest coil of yarn on to the partly formed
cop during the inward progress of the carriage. When the machine is set in
motion to spin another stretch of yarn, and the carriage is moving out, the
faller wire is permitted gradually to rise until it gets above the spindles, so as to
govern or guide the coils of yarn round the bare spindles, from the partly
formed cops to the points of the spindles, and thereby keeps the yarn at a
nearly uniform tension, and prevents it from forming into snarls.
The second class comprehends the backing off or removal from the spindles
of those coils of. yarn which extend from the partly formed cops to the points
of the spindles.
The third class comprehends the removal of the carriage from the extremity
of the stretch to the drawing rollers, and the winding the yarn round the
spindles at a regulated tension so as to form the cops.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Sheet 1, Figure 1, represents a side elevation of a self-acting mule with
my improvements attached thereto.
Sheet 2, Figure 2, represents a front elevation of the same machine, with
my improvements attached thereto, part of the headstock and of the machinery
attached to it being removed in order that my improvements may be more
clearly exhibited. Figure 3 is a side view of my improvements detached from
the machine on an enlarged scale. Figure 4 is a front view of the same
improvements on the same scale as in Figure 3.
In Sheet 1, Figure 1, A is a spur wheel keyed upon the rim shaft, which
communicates motion to the whole machine. B is a bar with the rack on its
upper end, which, when the carriage has arrived at the drawing rollers, is put
into gear with the wheel A. a is a stud fixed upon the rack-bar B, and
which projects from it and passes through a slot in the lever C. The lever C
works loose upon the front roller coupling shaft, and has a slot at one end and
a weight at the other. 6 is the roller end of the rack-bar, which is bent for
the purpose of passing under and supporting the stud c; this stud c has a
shoulder on one side, and that part of the stud behind the shoulder is made.
in the form of a screw. The screwed end is passed through a slot in the
crank D, which crank is keyed on the faller shaft, and is secured to that crank
in a-position as much nearer to or farther from the faller shaft as may be
required, and as the slot will admit, by a nut on the screw at the other side of
the crank. E is a cranked lever having one arm in a position almost hori-
zontal, and another arm almost vertical. At the upper end of the vertical arm

page_text: is a projecting catch, with an inclined plane running from the extremity of the
catch and terminating at the top of the arm; when the stud d, and that end of
the lever C upon which it is fixed, is depressed by the rack-bar B, that stud
presses against the inclined plane of the catch on the upright arm of the lever
E, and when it has got below it the gravitation of the lower part of the arm
draws the catch over that stud, and holds it and the lever to which it is
attached in that position until the stud e, which is fixed to the carriage,
elevates the lower arm of the cranked lever E, and thereby liberates the stud
d and lever C. f is a section of part of the carriage frame. F (Sheet 2,
Figures 2, 3, 4) is a cranked lever which works on a stud, g. The stud g is
fixed to a support h, which is bolted to the headstock. On the cranked lever F
are fixed two friction pullies i, j. The pulley i has two flanges, one at each side,
between which the bar B works, and is held in a vertical position. The pulley
jis acted upon by the cam or tappet G, and forces the rack B into gear with the
driving wheel A. All those parts of the machinery which I have shown, and
not lettered or described, are well known to machine makers who construct
such machines, and to spinners or operatives who superintend or work them.
I have now described each part separately of my improvements, and exhibited
the application of these improvements when combined to that well-known
machine called the self-acting mule.
I shall now describe the manner in which they act when the machine is at
work.
When the carriage is up the drawing rollers and the machine is set in
motion, the bottom of the faller wire is on a level with the top part of the
partially formed cop. The faller wire has a constant tendency to rise by
weights or springs being attached to an arm or pulley on the opposite side of
the faller shaft in the usual manner. As the carriage commences to move
outwards and the spindles to revolve in the usual manner by the ordinary
machinery, the faller wire is allowed to rise gradually by means of the rack-
bar B (Sheet 1, Fig. 1) being depressed by the wheel A; the stud c, which
rests upon it, and the crank D, to which it is attached, lowers at the same
time and in the same degree, whereby the yarn which would otherwise be
slack, is wound round the bare spindles to their points. When the wheel A
has forced down the toothed part of the bar B it comes opposite to the plane
surface of the bar above the rack, and the bar therefore becomes stationary, and
is held down by the catch on the lever E passing over the stud d on the lever C.
By the bar being depressed to this point the faller wire is elevated above the
points of the spindles and continues in that position until the carriage arrives
at the end of the stretch where the usual movements of the machine take

page_text: place. After the backing off motion has ceased the faller wire is lowered to
the bottom of the conical base of the cop as the carriage moves inward in the
ordinary manner. When the carriage has reached within a short distance of
the drawing rollers my improvements again come into operation by the stud e
elevating the lower arm of the cranked lever E, and thereby liberating the
lever C, the weight upon the opposite end of which raises the rack-bar B until
it comes in contact with the stud c on the crank d attached to the faller, and is
held there until the carriage arrives at the drawing rollers. When the carriage
has arrived at the drawing rollers the mechanism for putting the mule again
into motion turns the cam or tappet G (Sheet 2, Figure 2) against the friction
roller j, and by means of the friction roller i on the same lever forces the rack
on the bar B into gear with the wheel A, and the operations before described
are thereby recommenced.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that my Invention consists in the
arrangement and application of the several mechanical contrivances I have
described, when combined with the machines herein-before mentioned; by
which contrivances the yarn is prevented from snarling, whether the effects
are produced as described, or by any similar or equivalent contrivances. And I
also declare that I do not claim the exclusive use of any of the several things
or apparatus herein-before mentioned or referred to, except when applied to
the purposes of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Fothergill, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.