IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING, SPINNING, AND DOUBLING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1856

page_text: PATENT to George Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and Thomas Holcroft,
all of the City of Manchester, Engineers, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING, SPINNING, AND DOUBLING COTTON AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 25th July 1856, and dated the 1st February 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Holcroft, Joseph
Smith, and Thomas Holcroft at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 1st February 1856.
We, GEORGE HOLCROFT, JOSEPH SMITH, and THOMAS HOLCROFT, all of the
City of Manchester, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IM MACHINERY FOR PREPARING, SPINNING, AND
DOUBLING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, to be as follows:-
The nature of our Invention consists in twisting and winding rovings or
yarn on a bobbin or spindle by means of a wire or flyer attached to a warf
revolving in a stationary rail. The spindle is caused to revolve by the winding
on of the yarn or roving, and it is supported in suitable bearings in a spindle
box, to which an up and down motion is given for building the cop, by means
of a cam for making the nose or tapered part, and a copping motion for the
parallel part. When these improvements are used for roving frames or
other machines in which parallel bobbins are produced, the spindles are
mounted in the usual lifting rails.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and Thomas Holcroft in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st August 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
HOLCROFT, JOSEPH SMITH, and THOMAS HOLCROFT, all of the City of Man-
chester, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said George
Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and Thomas Holcroft, Her special licence that we,
the said George Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and Thomas Holcroft, our exccutors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George Holcroft,
Joseph Smith, and Thomas Holcroft, our 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING, SPINNING, AND DOUBLING COTTON AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said George Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and Thomas Holcroft, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their or one of our or
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 we, the said George Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and
Thomas Holcroft, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is, to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
The nature of our Invention consists in an improved combination of
machinery for preparing, spinning, and doubling cotton, and other fibrous
materials, whereby rovings may be wound on parallel bobbins, or yarn may be
wound in the form of a cop, as in the machines for spinning and doubling
called mules; and in order that our Invention may be fully understood and
readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the accompanying
Drawing, reference being had to the figures and letters marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is an elevation, in section, of our improved machinery as constructed

page_text: The
for spinning and doubling, and Fig. 2 is a front elevation of part of the same
a are the bobbins of fine rovings to be spun into yarn; b, the drawing rollers;
and c, the spindles on which the yarn is wound in the form of cops.
spindles are supported in foot steps on the rail d and in the bolster rail e,
which are connected at their ends by the brackets f, and by other brackets at
suitable distances apart, throughout the length of the machine, the rail g with
the guide hooks is also connected to the rail e, as shewn in Fig. 1. At one
side of Fig. 2 is shewn the guide rod h and the counter-weight h' for the
rails d, e, and g, which are moved up and down, as will be explained hereafter.
The stationary rail i extends the whole length of the machine, and is furnished
with holes, in which revolve the wharves j, to which the wires or flyers j' are
attached. The wharves are driven by a band passing around the drum k and
round the guide pulley . The spindles are caused to revolve by the drag of
the yarn passing through the revolving flyers j'. The requisite rotary motion
is communicated to the various parts of the machine by the driving pulley
fast on the shaft m. To this shaft is fixed the pulley ', by which the drum k
is driven; to the shaft m is also fixed the spur wheel m', by which, and the
carrier pinions n, n, the front drawing roller bis driven. The wheel m¹ com-
municates motion to the cross shaft o by means of the carrier o' and wheel o³,
fixed on the said shaft o; this shaft gives the up and down motion to the
spindles c in the following manner :-The rail d, in which are fixed the foot-
steps of the spindles c, is supported at each end on the cams p; each cam is
mounted on a stud fixed in a sliding plate q. To the cam p is fixed a worm
wheel p', into which gears the worn p³, which revolves on a stud fixed to the
sliding plate q. To the worm p² is fixed a pinion p³, which is driven by the
wheel 3 on the shaft o, and by the two carriers o' and o, the former of which
is mounted on a stud in the lever ; this lever is jointed to the shaft o, and it
is weighted, for the purpose of keeping the carrier o' in gear with the carrier o³,
which is mounted on a stud fixed to the sliding plate q. As it is requisite in
building the cops to vary the up and down motion of the spindles, so as to
make the bottom of the cops of the proper form, we apply to each of the cams
pa plate p; this plate is loose on the stud of the cam. The pinion p' is fixed
to the boss of the cam p. The plate p has bearings for the shaft p, which
has a worm upon it gearing into the pinion p³, and above it has a small spoke
wheel p, which, as the cam p re-revolves, comes in contact with a stud p8 pro-
jecting from the rail d. At the commencement of building the cop, the end of
the plate projects beyond the end of the cam p, but at cach revolution of
the cam, the spoke wheel p coming against the stud p³ imparts motion to the
pinion p, thereby gradually bringing the end of the plate p' in a line with the

page_text: end of the cam p, the two ends coinciding, when the bottom of the cop is
completed. The sliding plate q is at its highest point at the commencement
of the cop, but it is gradually lowered by means of a pinion q', gearing in a
rack at the back of the sliding plate; this pinion is moved slowly round by
the ratchet wlicel q2 and click ', which is actuated by a crank pin on the
worm wheel q, driven by a worm on the shaft o. The click q³ is hinged to a
lever, which is made to vibrate by the crank pin on the wheel 2. The motion
is given to the centre and back drawing rollers, and the top rollers are
weighted, in the manner usually adopted in machines for spinning. When
these improvements are applied to a machine having a row of spindles on eacli
side the same band may be made to drive two spindles at each side of the
machine, and when our improvements are used for roving frames or other
machines in which parallel bobbins are produced, the copping motion is
dispensed with, and the spindles are mounted in the usual lifting rails, which
are raised and lowered by the usual heart motion.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we wish it to be understood that we do not limit
ourselves to the details herein set forth, nor do we claim any of the well-known
parts of machinery shown in the Drawing to illustrate the mode of applying
our Invention; but what we do claim is, the improvements in machinery
herein-before shewn and described for preparing, spinning, and doubling
cotton and other fibrous materials, and particularly the combination of the
wharvej and flyer j revolving in the stationary rail i, and the machinery by
which the spindles are raised and lowered to build the cops.
In witness whereof, we, the said George Holcroft, Joseph Smith, and
Thomas Holcroft, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirty-
first day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty cine
Witness,
H. B. BARLOW,
Manchester.
GEO. HOLCROFT.
(L.S.)
JOSEPH SMITH.
(L.S.)
THOMAS HOLCROFT.
(L.S.)