CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WIND- ING, SPINNING, DOUBLING, AND THROWING SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NASH, of Budge Row, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-third day of February, in the second year of Her
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
nine, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Nash, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and
authority, that I, the said William Nash, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Nash, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WIND-
ING, SPINNING, DOUBLING, AND THROWING SILK, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS;"
being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Nash,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after

page_text: 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
William Nash, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and the letters and figures indorsed thereon
(that is to say)—
These improvements in machinery for winding, spinning, doubling, and
throwing silk and other fibrous substances, consist in the construction of four
different kinds of machines :-
First, a peculiar arrangement of spindles, bobbins, and conductors for the
preparation or conversion of silk into the states called organzine or tram.
Second, certain apparatus to be attached to spinning and doubling machines,
for the purpose of suspending the doubling operation in the event of one of the
threads breaking.
Third, a machine for winding long-reeled silk.
And, fourth, an expanding swift for winding raw silk, so as to keep it
in constant tension.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents an elevation of two bobbins
with their appendages, mounted in certain framework, for spinning or twisting
and doubling and throwing silk at one operation; Fig. 2 is a horizontal view of
the same. A bracket arma, affixed to and extending from the longitudinal rail of
the machine, confines and steadies the main spindle b, which turns round
freely in a hole formed therein; c is the warve or pulley, fixed upon g
the spindle to receive the band which gives rotary motion to the spindle;
a circular horizontal plate d is made fast to the spindle, and consequently
turns with it; and in this plate the dead spindles e, e, are affixed on which the
bobbins f, f, are mounted. A circular frame or ring 9 is, with the bracket
a, also made fast to the horizontal rail of the machine in such a position 3
that the main spindle shall turn exactly in the centre of the ring. The
inner circumference of this ring has a circle of teeth, shewn in Fig. 2, and a boss
or socket h, turning loosely upon each daed spindle e, has a pinion or toothed
wheel i, i, fixed upon it, which takes into the teeth or inner edge of the ring y.
The upper end of each boss or socket his wedge-formed, fitting into a 3
square central hole in the bottom of the bobbin, so that the bobbin may bear
upon, and be affixed to the loose socket, and yet turn freely upon the dead
spindle. On the top of each bobbin on the dead spindle a loose cap piece k is
placed, which carries the book or thread guider ; this cap piece is drawn round

page_text: by the draft of the thread proceeding from the bobbin to the reel above. The
main spindle 6 having been put in rotary motion by the driving band, the plate d,
with the bobbins, will be carried round within the ring g, and the pinions i, i,
upon the sockets h, being in gear with the teeth of the stationary ring g, will,
with the bobbins be made to rotate upon the dead spindles, and to give an
independent rotary motion to each bobbin upon its own axes, in addition to
their revolution on the main spindle b. By these means the threads of silk
drawn from the bobbins, will each be spun separately; and when combined at
the hooks above, will become doubled and thrown, which three processes are
thus performed simultaneously by the same operation of the machinery. The
thread or filament drawn from each bobbin, in proceeding to the receiving or
winding bobbin or reel above, passes through the hook or guider / in the cap
piece, and through the stationery guide r, m, suspended over the bobbin, and
thence under the central hooks n and o, where the doubling and throwing
The construction of the central hooks, and their mode of.
process commences.
operating upon the threads, will be best seen by reference to the auxillary
Fig. 3. The hook n is fixed, and stands firm and erect; but the hook o is
loose, and capable of falling over toward either side, it being kept up by the
tension of the threads passing under it. In the event of one of the threads
breaking, the centrifugal force produced by the rotation of the spindle will
cause the hook o to fall over on that side which is not supported toward the
unbroken thread, and then an arm p, extending from the cap piece k, will, as
the bobbin revolves, come in contact with the fallen hook, (as shewn by dots in
Fig. 1,) which will stop the rotation of the cap piece and guider, and necessarily
break the other thread, thereby preventing the doubling and throwing opera-
tions from being partially and imperfectly conducted. I have described the
rotation of the bobbins upon their dead spindles, as produced by the toothed
pinions acting in the circular rack; I do not, however, intend to confine
my improved construction of machinery to that mode of actuating the bobbins,
as it must be obvious that a similar rotary motion might be given to the
bobbins by friction, or by bands, or by other construction of toothed gear, in
the manner shewn at Figs. 4, 5, and 6, or by any other arrangement or
And I would remark, that though only two delivering bobbins are
shewn in the Figures, yet I intend to avail myself of similar modes of driving
three or more bobbins in a set, if required; and when tram only is required to
be produced, I dispense with the mechanical contrivances by which the bobbins
are made to rotate on the dead spindles. When three bobbins are adapted in
a set, I construct the thread-breaking apparatus as shewn at Fig. 7.
means.
Figs. 8 and 9 represent, in perspective, two views of the apparatus to be

page_text: appended to a machine for spinning and doubling, by which in the event of one
thread breaking, the other thread will immediately be broken by the falling of
a bent lever. In Fig. 8, the two threads a and 6-are-shewn severally passed
round a glass friction stud c, c, and beneath the upper arms of bent lever
hooks d, d, and e, e. If the thread a should become broken, the upper arm of
the levor hook d, which is supported by the thread, will immediately fall into the
position shewn by dots; and the reverse or lower end of the lever d will come
forward as shewn by dots, and catch hold of the other thread b, which, by the
rotation of the bobbin below will instantly break, and so cause the operation
of the spinning and doubling to be suspended; Fig. 9 shews the position of
the apparatus when this has taken place. Two bent wires or levers f. f, are
applied for the purpose of raising the lever hooks from the positions shewn
in Fig. 9 to those in Fig. 8.
Fig. 10 represents, in front elevation, part of a machine for winding long-
reeled silk; Fig. 11 is an end elevation of the same. By means of this
machine, long-reeled silk, (which has heretofore been found so difficult to wind,)
can, (by dividing the hank into several skeins,) and folding the skeins over
tension rollers into half lengths, be as easily wound as from the short-reeled
hanks. The skein having been folded into half its length, the two extremities
of the skein are passed over the roller a at top, and the middle part of the skein
under the hanging roller b at bottom, and having found the end of the thread,
conduct that end to the winding roller c, and proceed as in the ordinary winding
process. For lightness, I usually make the rollers in the lantern form, the
upper turning on fixed axles, the lower on their own pivots in a lever frame,
which is shewn detached in perspective at Fig. 12. This frame hangs as a
lever, and may be weighted for the purpose of keeping the skein of silk always
in tension.
The expanding swift for winding raw silk is formed by two discs of wood
or other fit material, A and B, which being brought together, the arms
of the swift C extend out between them. Fig. 13 shews the swift so con-
structed as it would appear sideways, with the arms extending radially from it;
Fig. 14 is an edge view of the same; Fig. 15 represents the inner surface of
one disc A, and Fig. 16 of the other disc B. One of the arms C is shewn
detached in two positions at Figs. 17 and 18. A pin a, fixed near the inner
end of the arm C, is intended to be inserted into the disc as at a, a, a, in Fig. 15,
and similar pins c, c, c, are fixed in the disc B, Fig. 16, which last-mentioned pin,
when the discs are brought together, as at Fig. 14, passes into the slot b, formed
in the arm C near its inner ends, and then acts as a guide to determine the
position of the arm; that is, whether it shall stand radially, as at Fig. 13, or

page_text: approaching to a tangent, as shewn by dots. In the centre of the disc A, Fig. 15,
a coiled spring d is placed, its inner extremity being made fast to the disc A,
and the other or outer extremity to the disc B, when they are brought
together. By then moving back the disc B upon its centre, that is, causing it
to slide round part of a rotation, the pin a will be brought into the situation
shewn by dots at Fig. 13, whilst the pin c remains stationary, and acting in the
slot b, which throws the arm C into the inclined direction indicated by the dots
in Fig. 13. In this position, as shewn at Fig. 19, all the arms of the swift
are intended to stand when the hank is first placed upon it for the silk to be
wound off; but the spring continually exerting its force, will, as the silk is
drawn off, and the hank expands, bring back the disc B to its former place,
and raise the several arms into radial positions, shewn at Fig. 13.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Nash, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our
Land One thousand night hundred and thirty
ine