IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN PREPARING AND TWISTING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Illingworth, of Bradford, in the County of
York, Spinner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR
APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN PREPARING AND TWISTING COTTON, WOOL, AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 6th May 1864, and dated the 12th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Illingworth at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
November 1863.
I, ALFRED ILLINGWORTH, of Bradford, in the County of York, Spinner, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN PREPARING AND TWISTING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
Machinery employed in the processes of preparing cotton and other fibres is
arranged so that two and often more than two slivers, slubbings, or rovings
pass together from the feeding means, in order that such several slivers,
slubbings, or rovings may be combined and treated together, and when, as
often happens, that one of such slivers, slubbings, or rovings becomes broken
or used up by the continuance of the operation upon the remaining sliver or
slivers, slubbings, or rovings, imperfect produce is obtained, and means are
adopted to effect the stoppage of such machinery when such breakage or ter-
mination of the sliver, slubbing, or roving takes place; but stopping means as

page_text: hitherto adopted for the purpose, by continuously acting on the fibre under
operation, has had a tendency to injure it.
The object of the improvements is to effect the stoppage of the machinery
without acting upon the sliver, slubbing, or roving until breakage or other
termination thereof has taken place. For this purpose a bar or other surface
is placed in position to be acted upon by the falling end of a sliver, slubbing,
or roving as it passes from the feed means, and such bar or other surface is by
Jeyer or other suitable means connected to the stop motion, and thereby effects
a stoppage of the machine. The bar or surface acted upon by the falling end
of the sliver, slubbing, or roving may, when an increased holding power
is needed, be serrated or roughened.
The improvements also relate to substituting for the stoppage of the
operations of such machinery by effecting the breakage of the other or others
of the slivers, slubbings, or rovings being combined with one which breaks or
For this purpose the bar or surface upon which the broken or other
end of sliver, slubbing, or roving falls, in place of acting by its lever or con-
necting means on the stop motion, acts to bring a series of teeth or a
separator into or upon the fibres of the remaining sliver, slubbing, or roving,
or slivers, slubbings, or rovings when the draught or pull thereon will effect
separation.
This last part of the improvements is also applicable to machinery used in
twisting two or more yarns or threads into one, by which when one of such
yarns or threads being combined together, breaks or terminates the other or
others of them will be separated; or the action of the broken or terminated
yarn or thread falling in its passage from the bobbins to between the rollers
or other feed means on a bar or other surface by giving motion to that bar or
other surface, and thence by suitable connection to the feed means, will effect
the stoppage of such feed means, and thereby effect the breakage of the
remaining yarns or threads.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed s
by the said Alfred Illingworth in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
ILLINGWORTH, of Bradford, in the County of York, Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 3
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our

page_text: Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Alfred Illingworth, Her special licence that I, the
said Alfred Illingworth, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Alfred Illingworth, 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 MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN PREPARING
AND TWISTING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Illingworth, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 Alfred Illingworth, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
Machinery employed in the processes of preparing cotton and other fibres
is arranged so that two and often more than two slivers, slubbings, or rovings
pass together from the feeeding means in order that such. several slivers,
slubbings, or rovings may be combined and treated together, and when, as
often happens, that one of such slivers, slubbings, or rovings becomes broken
or used up by the continuance of the operation upon the remaining sliver or
slivers, slubbings, or rovings of those intended to be combined together,
imperfect produce is obtained. And means have heretofore been adopted to
effect the stoppage of such machinery when such breakage or other termi-
nation of some of the slivers, slubbings, or rovings takes place; but stopping
means, as hitherto adopted for the purpose, have been. arranged to act conr
tinuously on the fibre under operation, and such continuous action on the fibro
has been found to injure it.
The object of the first part of the improvements is to effect the stoppage of the
machinery without any action upon
the sliver, slubbing, or roving arising until
breakage or other termination thereof has taken place. For this purpose a
bar or other surface is placed in position to be acted upon by the falling end

page_text: of a sliver, slubbing, or roving as it passes from the feed means, and such bar
or other surface is by lever or other suitable means connected to the stop
motion, and thereby effects a stoppage of the machine. The bar or surface
acted upon by the falling end of the sliver, slubbing, or roving may, when an
increased holding power is needed, be serrated or roughened.
The improvements relate, secondly, to substituting for the stoppage of the
operations of such machinery by effecting the breakage of the other or others
of the slivers, slubbings, or rovings being combined with one which breaks or
For this purpose the bar or surface upon which the broken or other
end of sliver, slubbing, or roving falls, in place of acting by its lever or con-
necting means on the stop motion, acts to bring a series of teeth or a separator
into or upon the fibres of the remaining sliver, slubbing, or roving, or slivers,
slubbings, or rovings when the draught or pull thereon will effect separation.
But that the improvements may be better understood, I will, by the aid of
the accompanying Drawings, proceed to describe means by which I carry the
Figure 1 shows a portion of the side view of a doubling frame and the
pressing rollers thereof sufficient to render the first part of my improvements
intelligible to persons acquainted with such machinery; Figure 2 is a back
view of the same.
a, a, indicates a portion of the framing; b, b, b, the delivery or pressing
rollers, partly around and between which the fibre which is indicated by the
red lines is drawn from bobbins or other feed means by the action of the
machinery to supply the receiving bobbins or spools, as is well understood,
but which I have not thought it necessary to show. c is a thin bar carried
by arms c from the shaft c2, which is supported in suitable stationary
bearings a¹, with capability of turning therein. The shaft c' is also provided
with the short arm d, and when the bar c is set, as indicated by the Drawing,
in position for operation, one of the arms at each end will be resting against
a stop e, whilst the arm d will be supporting the outer end of the lever f
which simply turns on the fixed stud f¹ carried by the stationary bracket a³,
and when in that position the nib or projection f' on the under side of the
lever holds the upper. end of the lever g, which is capable of turning on the
fixed stud g³, and at its lower end is by the chain or band h connected to
the lever for shifting the driving strap from the fast to the loose pulley, whilst
by the chain or band i it is connected to the weight with a constant ten-
dency to pull it in that direction. When any sliver, slubbing, or roving across

page_text: the machine breaks or separates as it leaves the bobbin or other feed means
so as to fall as indicated by red dotted lines by its own weight on to the bar c,
it will catch on to the edge of that bar, and to facilitate this catching, I
prefer that the back edge thereof be serrated or roughened, then the drawing
action of the rollers b, b, b, will cause the broken or separated fibre to pull on
that bar c, so as to cause it to turn with the axis c, with the arm c¹ resting on
the stop e', when the arm & will lift the lever f to release its projection f*
from its hold of the upper end of the lever g, and the weight to the chain or
band i will cause the chain or band to act upon the throwing out or stopping
lever attached to it by which the driving strap. will be shifted from the fast to
the loose pulley to stop the further movements of the apparatus. The parts
are set in position again by the act of setting the machine in motion by the
lever for shifting the driving strap from the loose to the fast pulley acting to
pull the chain h so as to bring the upper end of the lever 9 again within the
projection of the lever f, and at the same time another chain or band j,
attached by one end to the chain h and at the other end to an arm c³ from
the axis c, will bring the bar c into position with the arms c', again resting
against the stops e. The weight will be varied to the power required to be
exerted.
I will now describe the second part of my improvements, which is shown
by the Diagrams, Figures 3 and 4. In this case the red lines indicate slivers,
slubbings, or rovings in their passage to the drawing or delivery rollers k, k,
and represents a bar with teeth or a serrated edge carried by the lever
arm 1, which is capable of turning as upon an axis upon the fixed stud m,
and it is weighted at the other end by the weight 12, so that a slight action
upon the bar will raise it from the position indicated by Figure 3 to that
indicated by Figure 4. When any one of two or more slivers, slubbings, or
rovings being combined together breaks, as indicated by the dotted red line in
Figure 3, the broken end of sliver, slubbing, or roving will fall on to the bar l.
and in the continuous motion of the rollers k that broken end will draw up
the bar against the stationary bar n, as indicated by Figure 4. Behind this
bar is also another bar o serrated or with teeth on its outer edge. The
teeth or serrated edges of the bars and o then act on the remaining sliver,
slubbing, or roving, or two or more of them intended to be combined together,
holding them back so as to cause a separation of them, as indicated by
Figure 4. p is a stop, and q a supporting bar. Figure 5 shows one of the lever
arms with its bars of teeth and o separately; and I would here remark,
that although I have only shown two bars and o, other number of them may
be applied, and there will be one of these lever arms with its bars of teeth in

page_text: "position to act on each set or series of slivers, slubbings, or rovings intended to
be combined together.
This last part of the improvements is also applicable to machinery used in
twisting two or more yarns or threads into one, by which, when one of such
yarns or threads being combined together breaks or terminates the other or
others of them will be separated.
. Having thus described my improvements, I would have it understood that
I do not confine myself to the precise details shown and described, as these
may be varied without departing from the peculiar character of the improve-
ments; but what I claim, is,-
First, the method of stopping the apparatus when a sliver, slubbing, or
roving breaks, substantially as described in respect of Figures 1 and 2.
Secondly, I claim the method of operating to break other of a series of
slivers, slubbings, rovings, yarns, or threads intended to be combined together
when one of them breaks, substantially as described under the second head
of Invention,
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Illingworth, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
ALFRED ILLINGWORTH. (L.8.)