IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WINDING YARN OR THREAD
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Carmichael, of Dens Works, Dundee, in
the County of Forfar, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR WINDING YARN OR THREAD."
Sealed the 17th January 1853, and dated the 19th November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Carmichael
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition;
on the 19th November 1852.
I, PETER CARMICHAEL, of Dens Works, Dundee, in the County of
Forfar, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WINDING YARN OR THREAD" to be as
follows: -
This Invention has for its object three improvements in machi-
nery first, the obtaining a variable motion to the spindles, in
order to secure the uniform velocity of the yarn or thread, and also
balancing the power required for driving the machinery; secondly,
means of giving variable movement to the guides or instruments
for laying the yarn or thread on the pirns; and, thirdly, the appli-
cation of a lever for regulating the harness of the winding, and for
stopping the spindles when full.

page_text: The machine may contain any convenient number of spindles,
in two opposite rows. Upon the driving shaft are fixed discs, and
the spindles receive revolving motion by their discs being in contact
with the discs on the driving shaft. The spindles are each made in
two parts; on one (which is hollow) is fixed its discs, the other
part sliding within. Upon a cross shaft is a worm, giving motion
to a worm wheel, on a shaft on which are fixed cans, giving a
traversing motion to carriers or sliding bars, which carry the
driving shaft. By this traversing motion of the main shaft, the
velocity of the spindles and pirns thereon alternately increases and
diminishes, and the power to drive them is balanced, for when the
large diameter of a disc is driving one spindle, its smaller diameter
is driving the opposite spindle.
The guide which feeds or guides a thread, and lays it evenly on
a pirn, has to travel the exact distance of the length of the cone of
yarn on the pirn, and it has also to travel quicker and slower as
the motion of the spindle is quicker or slower. This is effected by
a cam, which gives a suitable traverse motion to the bars, on which
are fixed the longitudinal bars, into which are screwed the guides.
The levers for regulating the hardness of the laying on of the
yarn, and also for stopping the spindles when the pirns are full, are
attached to the spindles by sliding rods, moving parallel with the
spindles, and connected to them by forked ends, embracing collars
upon the spindles. As the pirns fill, the spindles and levers are
pushed back by the filling on of the yarn, and the inclined plane
upon the lever is made of such a slope, as that the resistance to the
rising up the incline shall just give the requisite hardness to the
laying on of the yarn on a pirn. When a pirn is full,. it will have
pushed back the lever to the extreme end of the inclined plane, when
the lever drops, and brings a projecting point in contact with a
wedge, and causes the spindle to stop.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Carmichael in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th May 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
PETER CARMICHAEL, of Dens Works, Dundee, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Peter Carmichael, Her
special licence that I, the said Peter Carmichael, my executors;
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter
Carmichael, 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 terin 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 MACHINERY FOR WINDING YARN OR
THREAD," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Peter Carmichael, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, 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 Peter Carmichael, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
This Invention has for its object three improvements in machi-
nery first, the obtaining a variable motion to the spindles, in
order to secure the uniform velocity of the yarn or thread, and also
balancing the power required for driving the machinery; secondly,

page_text: means of giving variable movement to the guides or instruments for
laying the yarn or thread on the pirns; and, thirdly, the application
of a lever for regulating the hardness of the winding, and for stopping
the spindles when full.
The pirns or cops, it is well known, are usually filled with yarn
or thread in a conical form. This cone shape (which is necessary
for the weaving) causes a great irregularity of speed in the lank or
bobbin from which the yarn is wound, and of course operates by a
succession of tugs or pulls upon the yarn as it passes from the
small to the large end of the cone, and at the same time from the
nature of the motion the yarn is laid or built too soft upon the
small end of the cone, rendering it very liable to slip off and cause
waste and bad work in the weaving.
For the purpose of obviating these and other evils, and for more
economically performing the operation of winding, I have invented
the mechanical arrangements which I shall now proceed to describe,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, the same figures and letters
referring to the same parts in the different views.
Figure I. is an end elevation of the machine; Figure II. is a front
elevation and section; Figure III. a plan; Figure IV. the disc plate
traverse motion, showing the shape and mode of operation of the
cam; Figure V. the thread guide traverse motion, showing the
shape of cam, and the mode of connection (by an india-rubber band)
of the guide rods for the different sides of the machine; Figure VI.
shows the socket and spindle; and Figure 7, the tempering and
stopping lever.
A, A, the driving pullies of the machine; B, b, bevil wheel and
pinion, giving motion to the longitudinal shaft; C, the whole length
of the machine, which may contain any convenient number of
spindles. Upon the shaft C, are fixed the disc plates D, D, &c.
The spindles, with their pirns E, E, &c., are driven by pullies
or washers of leather F, F, &c. kept true and stiffened by iron
washers, one on each side of the leather. These drivers with

page_text: their spindles receive their revolving motion by contact with the disc
plates D, D.
The spindles E, E, &c. are made in two parts: the part on which
the driver is fixed has only the revolving motion, and is made
hollow; the other part has also the revolving motion, and is made
to slide back into the hollow, being driven by a key sliding in a
groove.
Next, to effect the variable motion of the spindles, upon the cross
shaft is a spiral G, giving motion by a spiral wheel to the shaft H,
upon which are fixed hearts or cams I, giving a uniform traversing
speed to the carriers or sliding bars J, which bars carry the shaft
C, and disc plates D, and at the same time moves the bevil wheel B,
through the same space on the cross shaft, keeping it always in gear
with the pinion b. By this traversing motion of the disc plates, the
large and small diameters of which correspond proportionally with
the large and small diameter of the cone of the pirn, the velocity of
the pirn or spindle alternately encreases and diminishes, and the
power is at the same time balanced, for when the large diameter of
the disc is driving the one spindle, the small diameter is driving the
opposite one, and so on alternately.
The next point to be described is the finger or guide K, which
feeds or guides the thread, and lays it evenly on the pirn. This
guide has to travel the exact distance of the length of the cone on
the pirn, and it has also to travel quicker or slower as the motion of
the spindle is quicker or slower. This is effected by a peculiar shaped
heart or cam on the shaft H, shewn at L. This heart gives a suitable
traverse motion to the bars M, M, on which are fixed the longi-
tudinal bars N, N, into which are screwed the fingers or guides
K, K, &c.
The remaining point to be described is that of the levers O, O, &c.
for regulating the hardness of the laying on of the yarn, and also
for stopping the spindles when the pirns are full. They are attached
to the spindles by sliding rods P, P, moving parallel with the
spindles and connected to them by the forked ends W, W, of the

page_text: upright studs Q, Q, embracing collars upon the spindles. The
levers are jointed upon the studs R, R. As the pirn fills the spindles
and levers are pushed back by the filling on of the yarn; and the
inclined plane upon the lever seen at U, is made of such a shape
as the resistance of its rising up the incline shall just give the
requisite hardness to the laying on of the yarn on the pirn, which is
a very essential point. When the pirn is full, it has pushed back
the lever O, to the extreme end of the inclined plane, when the lever
drops and brings a projecting point S, in contact with a wedge at-
tached to the top of the stud T, which carries the spindle driver and
removes the driver from contact with the disc plates D, D, and then
the spindle stops.
The mode of operation is as follows: An empty pirn being
attached to the end of the thread by the attendant, she then lays
hold of the lever O, and pulls it forward, along with the spindle,
until a cross head on the end of the spindle comes into a notch for
it in the head of the pirn, when the pirn is set in motion, and goes
on without farther attention until it is full, when the lever drops,
and the spindle stops. The attendant removes the full pirn, and
replaces it with an empty one, and so on.
Having thus fully described the nature of my Invention, and the
means by which I carry the same into effect, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I do not confine myself to the exact mechanical
details given, provided the peculiar character of my Invention is
retained; and what I claim as my Invention is,―
First, the mode of driving the spindles, so as to give them a
variable motion, thus securing the uniform velocity of the yarn upon
the swifts or bobbins; and the mode of driving them by friction,
upon the moveable disc plates for giving this motion; and also the
ballancing of the power required for driving the machine, the
spindles on the one side running at the quick speed, while the
opposite are running slow, and vice versâ :
Second, I claim the mode of giving the variable motion to the
finger or guide for laying the yarn on the pirn: And,

page_text: Third, I claim the application of the lever, for the double purpose
f regulating the hardness of the yarn on the pirn, and for stopping
the spindle when the pirn is full.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Carmichael, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
PETER CARMICHAEL. (L.S.)
ANDREW ROBERTSON,
Mechanic,
Princes St., Dundee.