A MACHINE BY HIM INVENTED FOR CLEANING, SPREADING, TWISTING, AND CUTTING COTTON, AND MAKING WICKS FOR CANDLES
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WILLIAM
COOPER, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Tallow Chandler, sends greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of August last, upon the Petition of the said
William Cooper, did give and grant unto him, the said William Cooper, his
executors, adñiors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that he, the said William Cooper, his exors, admors, and
assigns, and every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said William
Cooper, his exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of His Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, "A MACHINE BY HIM
INVENTED FOR CLEANING, SPREADING, TWISTING, AND CUTTING COTTON, AND MAKING
WICKS FOR CANDLES," in such manner as to him, the said William Cooper, his
exors, admors, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or their discretions
seem meet, and that he, the said William Cooper, his exors, admors, and

page_text: assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing and
arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of years
therein mentioned; and it is by the said in part recited Letters Patent
(amongst other provisoes therein) provided, that if the said William Cooper
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said William Cooper, in compliance with and
in performance of the condition in the said proviso expressed and contained,
doth hereby declare that the nature of his said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, are as follows; viz*:-
The skin or piece of parchment hereunto annexed contains a Draught or
Representation of the machine, and the parts of which it is composed, cal-
culated to elucidate the description, and the more clearly to ascertain the said
Invention, in which Draught or Plan Figure 1 represents a front view of the
machine. The parts distinguished by the letters Q, Q, represent the external
frame of the machine, the dimensions of which must depend upon the size of
the machine itself, which may be made upon a large or small construc-
tion, as may best suit the convenience of the trade; but the identical machine
from which the annex'd Drawing is taken is six feet seven inches in length,
and two feet three inches in breadth within the frame, and three feet six
inches in heighth. G, G, represent a bridge or beam of wood, about the
width of two inches or thereabouts, which is moved backwards or forwards by
hand, and extends in a right line from the one end to the other of the
machine, and is fixed between two blocks of wood laced parallel to each other
at the opposite ends of the bridge or beam, in each of which blocks are two
wheels H, H, V, V, which runs in grooves formed in the two ends of the
frame. The back wheels V, V, are kept at equal distances by means of the
roller U, U, fixed between them in the form of an axis, but having a circular
motion with the wheels, which are further guided by strong wires fixed in
them at equal distances, projecting horizontally from the inside of each wheel,
and supported in their revolution by a scolloped board, which forms the inner
side of each groove, and is represented by R, R; and these wheels, thus

page_text: guarded and conducted, serve to carry the beam or bridge. To keep it in its
proper direction, and to accelerate its motion, a small block, standing upon legs
or pins, must be placed in the groove behind the wheels V, V, when the
machine is used; and there are holes made in the groove at different distances
to receive the legs or pins of this block, by which means the bridge can be
stopped at any distance required from the front.
Figure 3, in the annexed Drawing, represents a front view of this bridge
or beam; Figure 4, a back view of it. I, I, Figure 3, represent a frame, which
may be constructed of iron, brass, or other metal, consisting of two sides, with
an equal number of holes or cavities, one inch and a quarter distant from each
other in each side. These sides, placed parallel to each other, serve as
bearings to the cranks, one arm of each crank passing through a hole or
cavity on one side, and the other arm on the opposite side. To the front of
each crank a knob is fixed in a perpendicular direction, the lower part of
which is gradually sloped on the outside from the center downwards. The
inner side slopes inwardly from the center downwards.
Figure 7 represents a crank with the knob compleat. This frame is placed
underneath the bridge or beam, and is fastned to it by bars and screws.
Above the bridge or beam are three other cranks D, D, D, of the same
dimensions, constructed of brass, iron, or other metal, one placed nearly at
each end, and the other in the center of the said bridge or beam. To the one
placed in the center is affixed a winch E, which turns all the other cranks.
Y, Figure 6, is a distinct representation of the center crank, with the
winch compleat. T, T, is a bed or frame of thin wood placed underneath the
bridge or beam, in which bed or frame are as many holes as there are knobbed
cranks in the machine. One of the cranks passes through each hole, and the
bed or frame is suspended from a bar C, C, above by means of small plates of
iron F, F, F, F, F, F, at equal distances, fixed to the bar C, C, and passing
through the bridge or beam, in which they have room to play. The cranks
D, D, D, when turned by means of the wynch E, alternately raise and depress
the bar C, C, which communicates the same motion, by means of the plates
F, F, F, F, F, F, to the bed or frame T, T, and from thence to all the
crauks S, S, S, which cranks are turned by that motion. K, K, represent a bar
of wood resting upon the front of the machine, and extending nearly its whole
length. This bar is moveable to the right or to the left by means of the
handles L, L, and of small incisions or channels made in the bar at equal
distances, through which run thin plates of iron M, M, M, M, M, upon which
the bar plays. The plates are guarded on the top by buttons screwed in,

page_text: which, by crossing the plates and the incisions or channels in the bar, stop
the bar when moving from rising too high or slipping over the plates
M, M, M, M, M. To the inside of this bar are fixed a number of wire
hooks, which serve to convey the cotton to the rods herein-after described;
and the curve of the hooks come below the bar in order to admit the cotton.
Several small knobs or projections on the surface of the frame on which this
bar rests prevent it, when moved to the left, from closing to the frame; but
when it returns to the right, those projections fall into cavities in the bar, and
no longer obstruct its resting home upon the surface, which it then does.
0, 0, 0, represent two rows of rods, about the size of candle rods in circum-
ference, the front row nine inches & an half, and the back row eight inches
and an half in heighth, which are fixed uprightly at equal distances from each
other in a beam placed about two feet nine inches from the ground, extending
from one end of the inside of the machine to the other. The two rows are
parallel to each other. The back row is made to take in or out by means of
grooves in the frame, and is used in twisting and cutting only, and must be
taken out when the spreading frame W, W, herein-after described, is used.
The number of rods must depend upon the size of the machine. The machine
represented by the annexed Drawing contains sixty rods in each row, and the
number of the wire hooks annexed to the bar K, K, must correspond with the
number of rods in one of the rows, as must likewise the cranks S, S, S. The front
row is fixed. The back row moves in a groove made in the frame, and by means
of that motion is extended when used as far from the front row as the length of
the wicks are required to be of. Each of the front rods has a small channel
or incision scooped down its front, which will admit the end of a knife or a pair
of scissars; and thereby, when the proper number of wicks are formed upon
the rods, they are cut off and disengaged from the front row, and left suspended
on the back row only. P, P, P, represent a number of flyers. These flyers
are made of mahogany or other wood. They are placed in the front of the
machine, and each flyer is suspended, by means of two laths or thin stays of
wood, from a bar fixed to and underneath the frame of the front row of rods
0, 0, 0. The use of the flyers is to wind the cotton upon, and the same
must be wound upon them before it comes to the machine, or it may be
worked off from the balls without making use of the flyers at all.
W, W, Figure 2, is used only when the cotton is intended to be spread as
well as twisted, and cut at the same time. It consists of two beams, about
two inches & an half broad, and two inches & an half thick, placed one above
the other. In the lower beam are as many holes as there are rods in the

page_text: front row 0, 0, 0. In each of these rows are placed a common candle rod,
which must pass through the beam above by means of a cavity for that
purpose, and which beam is formed with cavities for that purpose, and divides
in two parts, and opens to admit the rods, and closes again by means of the
screws a, a, a, a; and this beam slides upwards or downwards at pleasure
upon two bars or stays placed in the front nearly at each end. The bars or
stays also serve to keep the separator X, X, Figure 5, herein-after described,
in its due position. When the frame is fixed with the rods in ready for use,
it is put into the machine at the back part, and brought forwards by means of
sliders in the two beams, which run in grooves made in the principle frame.
At each of the lower beam is a leg or wire b, b, which serves to fix into the
principle frame, and when in the beams are fastned in the principal frame by
means of iron pins passing through the ends of such frame into the beams.
the
To work the machine.-If the cotton is only required to be twisted and cut,
but not spread, the back row of rods O, O, O, is used instead of the frame
W, W; but if required to be twisted, cut, and spread, then such back row is
taken out, and the frame W, W, placed in its stead. The cotton, being
placed upon the flyers or balls, stand in the front of the machine. Take from
one of the balls or flyers one end of the cotton; carry it over the front of the
machine; lift up the bar K, K; put the cotton through the curve of one of
the hooks or wires fixed to it, and hank it over one of the rods in the front
row. Hank a piece in like manner to every other rod in the same row.
Then put the bar K, K, down; turn the winch E half round; draw the
bridge G, G, home to the front; drop the winch, and one of the knobs of
the cranks will come between every one of the front rods, and the tops of the
rods and knobs will appear placed alternately, as at S, S, S; then lift up
bar K, K, and move it to the left as far as it will go, and let it fall as close to
the frame as it can, but it will rest upon the projections on the frame, which
will prevent its shutting close in this situation, by means whereof a passage is
preserved between the bar and the frame for the cotton to be drawn from the
flyers. This motion of the bar conveys the cotton by carrying it with the
hooks behind the knobs of the cranks. Then turn the wynch E half round,
which will bring the bottom part of the cranks upwards. The back row of
rods should be previously placed at the same width from the front row as the
length of the wicks is required to be, and the stop block placed at a proper
distance in the grooves to prevent the bridge or beam running beyond that
distance. Push the bridge or beam G, G, backwards till it has carried the
knobs of the cranks over the back rods, observing to keep the bottom part of

page_text: the cranks upwards till they are past the back rods. Each crank, on its
return from the front; draws with it the cotton' cast behind the knob, as afore-
said. When the cranks are over the back rods let them drop, which they
will do if their own accord, into their due position, and the cotton will then
remain suspended from the lower part of the knobs of the cranks over the
rods in the back row. Then move the bar K, K, back to the right again, and
shut it close to the beam, to which it will come in this position as the projec-
tions will fall into the cavities, and the cotton by that means be prevented from
slipping. This retrogade motion of the bar K, K, throws one part of the
cotton back again over each of the front rods to the right, and the cotton will
then be suspended by the bar K, K, and the cranks over each of the rods in
the two rows, and ready to be pressed down upon them after it is twisted, and
it will appear as in Figure 8. Turn the wynch E to the left till the cotton is
sufficiently twisted; then take the presser A, A, lay it flat upon the cotton
between the front and back rows of rods, and with it press the cotton from off
the knobs of the cranks on to the rods in the back row, and the same motion
will press it down on the rods in the front row; then bring the beam forward
again, and proceed as before, till the rods are full or the required quantity
made; then cut the cotton from off the front rods by running the point of a
knife or scissars up the channel or incision made in them for that purpose;
brush it whilst on the back rods; then shift the wicks on to the common
candle rods, and they are then ready to be spread by hand in the usual way.
But if they are required to be spread by the machine, it must be done at the
time they are twisted, for which purpose the frame W, W, with the candle
rods in it, as above described, must be substituted, and placed in the room of
the back row of rods 0, 0, 0; and the cotton is then worked upon the candle
rods in the same manner as it would have been upon the back row of rods, only
observing at every time the bridge draws back a thread, a separator, as X, X,
being a straight slip of wood, must be placed upon the cotton close to the
front of the candle rods, and behind the bars or stays upon which the upper
beam slides, so as to separate that set of threads from the next that are to
follow (X, X, Figure 2, represents the separator passing down), and so on
till the quantity intended is got upon each rod. Then go behind the machine,
and by means of the separators press the wicks upon all the rods to their
proper distances; take out the rods by unscrewing the beam at a, a, a, a,
and let the separators fall, which they will do of their own accord, and then
the wicks will remain at their proper distances ready for use.
The machine will work yarn as well as cotton; and if the size of it be

page_text: extended, it may be used to great advantage in twisting and making pack
thread and other threads, and most of the component parts may be made in
metal as well as in wood.
In witness whereof, the said William Cooper hath hereunto set his hand
and seal, the Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifth day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1787, the aforesaid William Cooper came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Indenture was stampt according to the tenor
of the Statutes made for that purpose,
Inrolled the Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.