AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRAWING AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR MAKING ROPES AND CABLES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacques Novikow, of Briansk, Orel, in the Empire
of Russia, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRAWING
AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR MAKING
ROPES AND CABLES."
Sealed the 6th March 1868, and dated the 31st December 1867.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Jacques Novikow at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Decla
ration, on the 31st December 1867, pursuant to the 9th.Section of the
Patent Law Amendment, Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACQUES
NOVIKOW, of Briansk, Orel, in the Empire of Russia, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRAWING
AND SPINNING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR MAKING ROPES
AND CABLES," and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to
the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
The spinning of yarns for ropes and cables has heretofore almost invariably
been effected by hand with the aid of certain implements, such as the whirl.
It has also been endeavoured to effect the spinning by machinery, for which

page_text: purpose bobbin and fly frames and other special apparatus have been used.
Such machines have, however, not generally given satisfactory results; they
do but little work, and that of an inferior quality, the twist being effected
upon too short a length of yarn at a time, and it is difficult to adapt thereto
an instrument for preventing the entanglement or ravelling of the fibres.
Now my present Invention consists in an improved system of spinning yarns
by machinery, whereby an improved product is obtained, and this at a less
cost than was attainable by the processes heretofore employed.. By such
system I am enabled to spin a number of yarns at one time and of considerable
length and in an alternating manner, as in the old hand process, but by means
of machinery requiring the attendance of but few workmen, and even capable
of being managed by children. The apparatus is of very simple construction;
it may be worked by night as well as by day, requiring very little light. The
yarns are formed of the same length as by hand, and it only requires one
workman to join them, to fix them on the hooks, and to combine them in
groups for the subsequent tarring process. For facilitating the work the
apparatus is in duplicate, and the two parts work in a reciprocal manner
in contrary directions.
Each apparatus includes a railway or tramway, a
carriage running upon the same carrying the whirls, and at each end it is
provided with an unravelling apparatus acting with pressure, receiving the
combed slivers of hemp from a series of receptacles.
Upon the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is shown the arrangement and
mode of working of my improved apparatus; similar letters of reference
indicate similar parts in each of the Figures.
Figure 1 shews a plan of the double apparatus constituting the system;
Figures 2 and 3 show respectively a front and side elevation of the carriage
with the whirls; Figure 4 shows a sect on and front view of the unraveller for
smoothing the fibres; and Figure 5 shows one of the whirls. The whirl
frame, which is the essential part of my apparatus, differs principally from that
ordinarily employed in the form of the whirl hooks, which in this case are
double, and in its being actuated upon the carriage by which it receives a
rectilinear motion, whereas in the old hand system it is stationary.
A is the whirl frame composed of two vertical cheeks of sheet iron carried
by the carriage framing E, and between which are situated the whirls B, B,
through which motion is imparted to the whirl hooks b, b, fixed therein. The
whirls receive their motion from the band wheel D by means of the band C..
The wheel D is mounted on a spindle 6 carrying a pinion F, to which rotary
motion in one direction or the other is inparted by the two pinions G, G¹,
according as the one or the other is put in gear therewith by means of the

page_text: clutch H revolving with the driving shaft 1. Upon the shaft is fixed the
expanding grooved pulley J, round which passes the endless driving cord j
passing down the rope walk; actuated in any suitable manner. by a fixed
diving pulley driven by the prime mover and supported at intervals by guide.
pulleys; ly this means the requisite. rotary motion is imparted to the whirls
for producing the required twist of the yarns.
:
.
The rectilinear motion of the carriage upon the rails. X is derived from
the motion of the shaft I in the following manner :-Upon this shaft is fixedl,
a spur wheel K in gear with another spur wheel L fixed upon the shaft M,
which consequently receives rotary motion from the shaft I. Upon the end
of the shaft M is the expanding grooved pulley N, which imparts the requisite
motion to the carriage by the bight it has upon the fixed rope n. A second
wheel K upon the shaft I in gear with a pinion L' loose on the shaft M
enables the relative speed of the whirls and of the carriage to be altered by
removing the pulley J from the shaft I and fixing it on the sleeve loose on
the shaft M and fixed to or formed in one with the pinion L'. The carriage
is provided with a cover R which protects the mechanism and allows the
workman to stand on the carriage. S is a winch handle fixed on the shaft b
of the band wheel D.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The hemp slivers o, o, contained
in the receptacles 0, 0, (of which in the Drawing there are shown sixteen, so
as to spin that number of yarns at one time), pass first through the holes
of a separator P and thence through the unravelling apparatus Q, each sliver
being made to pass separately through a notch shown in detail at Figure 4.
A strip of cloth q' is wound round the sliver for smoothing and straightening
the fibres in a similar manner to the piece of list held by the operator in the
old hand process, and it is pressed upon the sliver by means of the weighted
block g.
The slivers pass thence to the hooks b of the whirls, to which they
are attached. The carriage is then caused to move away from the apparatus
Q, drawing out the slivers at the same time that these are spun by the
rotation of the whirls. Simultaneously the other carriage is made to travel
in the contrary direction, and when they have each arrived at the end of the
walk as indicated in dotted lines on the Drawing a workman unhooks the spun
yarns, cuts them, and joins them together successively by connecting a yarn
of the one carriage to a yarn of the other carriage. The group of thirty-two
yarns, of a length equal to the travel of the carriages is suspended
upon trestles, and after the requisite number of yarns have been formed
each group is tied together at several places ready to be sent to the tarring

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner it
is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the
precise details of the apparatus herein-before described, as these may be varied.
according to circumstances without departing from the nature of my Invention,
but what I claim is the before-described system of and apparatus for drawing
and spinning yarns for ropes and cables consisting mainly of a whirl frame
provided with whirls having double hooks and mounted upon a travelling
carriage, operating substantially as and for the purposes herein-before set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacques Novikow, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
J. NOVIKOW. (L.B.)