IMPROVEMENTS IN TWISTING AND THROWING SILK AND OTHER FIBRES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Antoine Monnet at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th January
1863.
I, ANTOINE MONNET, of No. 5, Rue de la Platière, Lyon, (Rhone,) in the
Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TWISTING AND THROWING SILK AND OTHER FIBRES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in twisting and throwing
silk and other fibres. For the purpose of twisting silk and other fibres, three,
four, or other number of fibres are drawn off from bobbins on which they
have been previously wound, and are caused to pass down under a pulley of
glass or earthenware contained in a reservoir of water; the fibres thus
moistened pass up over another guide or pulley, and then pass to the twisting
apparatus.
The twisting apparatus consists of a spindle caused to rotate rapidly by
means of a driving band moving in contact with a whirl upon it. The
spindle receives at its upper end a circle or ring of metal which receives and
winds up the fibres as they are twisted; this circle or ring is concentric with
the spindle, and revolves with it. Within the circle or ring there is gearing
or wheelwork actuated by the spindle, and giving motion to a guide through
which the fibres pass to be wound on the circle or ring; this guide the
gearing causes to travel slowly around the circle or ring so as to wind thereon
the fibre which it carries.

page_text: The revolution of the spindle, as will be seen, gives the requisite twist, to
the fibres, and by the motion already described the fibre, as it is twisted, is
caused to be wound up. This arrangement allows of a very regular twist
being given to the fibre; and the circle or ring being able to be made of a
diameter much exceeding that of the bobbins heretofore employed, the
irregularity arising from the increase in the diameter of the circle or ring
by the winding of the fibre upon it is inconsiderable. When the circle or
ring has a sufficient quantity of twisted fibre wound upon it, it is removed
from the spindle, and replaced by another empty circle or ring, but the wheel-
work remains in permanent connexion with the spindle.
For throwing together two or more strands of twisted fibres, the circles or
rings, with the fibres wound upon them, as already described, are placed on
axes, and the strands are drawn from them, and passed, as in the twisting
operation, under a pulley contained in the reservoir of water; the strands are
then taken over other gnides, which place them side by side, and they then
descend to twisting or throwing apparatus arranged as already described, but
revolving in the opposite direction, so that the throwing apparatus, whilst
laying the strands together, takes off more or less of the twist previously put
upon the strands. Between the point where the strands are brought together
and the guides of the throwing apparatus the strands are passed between two
flat surfaces lightly pressed together by springs; these, by preventing the
twist passing them, and by keeping the threads steady and free from vibration,
insure a much more regular laying together of the strands than would other-
wise result. In order to regulate the tension of these strands, friction breaks
actuated by light springs are applied to the circles or rings from which they
are drawn. Similar breaks are also, in the twisting operation, applied to the
bobbins from which the fibres are drawn.