IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ATTACHING TICKETS OR LABELS TO SEWING THREAD SPOOLS AND similar BobBINS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Ralston, Manufacturer, Carl Friedrich Heinrich
Bollé, Engineer, and Wentworth Wilson Schofield, Machinist, all of the City
of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ATTACHING TICKETS OR LABELS TO SEWING THREAD
SPOOLS AND similar BobBINS.”
Sealed the 23rd March 1880, and dated the 24th September 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Ralston, Carl
Friedrich Heinrich Bollé, and Wentworth Wilson Schofield at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th September 1879.
WALTER RALSTON, Manufacturer, CARL FRIEDRICH HEINRICH BOLLÉ, Engineer,
and WENTWORTH WILSON SCHOFIELD, Machinist, all of the City of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ATTACHING
TICKETS OR LABELS TO SEWING THREAD SPOOLS AND SIMILAR BOBBINS."
Our Invention relates to self-acting machinery for attaching tickets or labels to
sewing thread spools and similar bobbins, and consists in improved combinations
and arrangements of mechanism for this purpose.
Our machinery consists of a framing formed by two end frames connected by
cross rails, and supporting a flat board or table along the front edge of which the
mechanisms described further on are ranged. The end frames have bosses in which
the driving shaft provided with a fast and a loose pulley revolves.
The spools to be ticketed are placed on end upon the table, and pushed by the
attendant upon an endless band travelling horizontally slightly below the top of the
table in a recess made in the same. A second endless band is arranged above
the top of the spools. Each band is taken over guide pulleys and round a separate
roller placed below the table. These rollers are of equal diameters, and are
connected by spur wheels of equal diameters; one of these rollers receiving a rotary
motion from the machine driving shaft through gearing and belting imparts the
same to the other roller, thus causing both bands to travel at the same speed.
Below these rollers are two others running in a trough with size, and pressed
upwards by levers and weights. By these means a portion of the size is transferred

page_text: to the endless bands. The guide pulleys for the upper band turn on spindles fixed
between two bars, which swivel upon a stud in a bracket placed near one end of
the machine above the driving rollers at such a height that the longest spools to be
ticketed can be pushed between the bands near this end, while at the other end the
weight of the bars causes the top band to rest on the spools. These bands carry the
spools forward between adjustable guides to a turnstile, until they are stopped by
the arm of the turnstile standing across their path, when the bands continuing to
travel wipe over both ends of the spools, and impart to them the size.
The turnstile may be made with any number of wings, but by preference is made
with four. It is fixed upon a vertical spindle passing through brackets attached to
the front crossrails. The lower end of the spindle carries a mitre wheel placed
in gear with another mitre wheel, which revolves on a stud and is attached to a star
wheel having as many teeth as the turnstile has wings. On the driving shaft a disc
with a stud is fixed forming a single cog wheel, which in revolving comes against
the teeth of the star wheel and causes it to make a quarter turn for each revolution
of the driving shaft, which is transmitted to the turnstile by the mitre wheels. In
making this quarter turn the turnstile moves the spool delivered to it by the
travelling bands forward, and places it over a tube containing a pile of tickets
placed with their printed sides downwards, while the next compartment of the
turnstile is advanced for the reception of another spool.
Underneath the pile of tickets in the tube is a piston attached to a piston rod,
the lower end of which is guided in a bracket attached to the cross rail. This rod
carries an arm connected by a link to one end of a two armed lever having its
fulcrum in a bracket on the back cross rail and weighted at the opposite end. This
lever is connected by an adjustable link to another lever below the driving shaft,
having its fulcrum in a bracket attached to the lower front crossrail, and carrying a
stud with a bowl which is acted upon by a cam fixed on the driving shaft. This
cam is so shaped as to depress the levers and piston rod during part of each
revolution, while the turnstile brings the spool over the tube, and then to release
the bowls when the weight will raise the levers and piston rod until the latter is
stopped by the pile of tickets in the tube coming against the spool, which is mean-
while held by a clip presently to be described. The topmost ticket is thereby
caused to adhere to the spool, and immediately afterwards an incline on the cam
depresses the levers and piston rod again to their previous position.
When the tickets are nearly used up and the piston rises to nearly the top of the
tube, the arm by which the piston rod is lifted strikes against a finger formed on a
loose bush placed between collars on the strap shifting rod, and turns the bush
partly round, thereby disengaging a catch attached to the bush, and resting
previously against a stop on the frame. A spring placed on the strap rod and
compressed between the frame, and a collar on the rod is thus liberated, and shifts
the strap to the loose pulley, and stops the machine for the attendant to refill the
ticket tube.
The clip mentioned above consists of a curved plate partly covered with leather,
and fixed to a vertical spindle moveable in brackets bolted to the front crossrails.
This spindle carries two levers, one of them being pulled by a spring so as to turn
the clipspindle and bring the clip over the ticket-tube, the other having two arms,
to one of which a cord or chain is attached, which passes over a guide pulley and is
fastened to the end of a lever placed below the driving shaft. This lever carries a
stud with a bowl upon which a cam on the driving shaft acts. This cam in
depressing the bowl and lever turns by the mechanism described above the clip
spindle, and holds the clip away from the ticket tube, while the turnstile moves the
spool over it, after which the cam releases the bowl, and the spring causes the clip
to press the spool into the corner of the turnstile and hold it fast, while the piston
ascends and attaches the ticket, an incline on the cam depressing the bowl again,
and thereby removing the clip from the spool as soon as the piston commences to
return. If there should happen to be no spool over the ticket tube, the clipspindle
will turn further until the other arm of the double lever is arrested by the piston

page_text: rod. In this position this arm is above the arm on the piston rod by which it is
lifted, and thus stops the piston from being moved upwards by the weight, as
described above, and prevents the ejection of the tickets from the tube.
After the spool has received the ticket on one end it is lifted by a finger through
a semicircular tube or channel, and delivered with the other end down on the top
of a second tube containing the tickets for this other end. This finger is arranged
to be below a part of the edge of the spool left free around the ticket while the
spool is over the first tube. The other end of the finger forms a disc with a boss,
which is bored out to fit loosely upon the boss of a small pulley. This pulley has
a flange upon it next to the disc, and a washer of leather or cloth is placed between
the two. A collar is serowed unto the pulley boss, and a spring placed between
this collar and the disc, which presses the latter against the washer and flange, and
causes the finger to move with the pulley by the friction thus produced. A band
is passed round the pulley, and connected at the ends to two rods which pass
through the ends of two levers, and carry weights below them. These levers
oscillate on a pin in a bracket bolted to the lower back cross rail, and carry each a
stud with a bowl. Two cams are fixed on the driving shaft, and so shaped that
they depress and liberate the bowls alternately, so that the levers acting on the
weights attached to the band by the rods cause the pulley to turn alternately in
the one or the other direction. The amount of rotation given to the pulley is a
little in excess of what is required for the finger to turn the spool over through the
guide tube or channel, which has a slot on the underside to allow the passage of
the finger. The latter moves with the pulley until arrested by the spool delivered
on the top of the second tube when the frictional connection between the finger
and pulley allows the flange to slip on the washer.. In the return movement the
finger is carried with the pulley until stopped by the top of the first ticket tube.
By these means the movement of the finger can adjust itself to different lengths
of spools, and the finger is always fairly brought home to its position on the top
of the first tube. A second turnstile is placed near the second tube in such a
position that the spool is between two of its wings when delivered on the top of
the second tube.
This tube contains a piston attached to a rod constructed and actuated by means
of an arm, link, double lever with weight, adjustable link, second lever with stud
and bowl and a cam on the driving shaft in the same manner as the piston in the
first tube. A second clip is provided for holding the spool in the corner of the
turnstile wings over the tube and attached to a spindle actuated by a lever and
spring; second double lever with cord or chain attached to a lever below the
driving shaft with stud and bowl, and a cam on the shaft in the same manner as
the first clip, the double lever arresting the upward movement of the piston when
no spool is over the tube in the same manner as described before for the first
piston.
A second finger is formed on the bush on the strap rod, against which the arm
on the piston rod strikes when the tickets are nearly used up and stops the machine
in the manner previously explained.
The second turnstile is fixed on a vertical spindle receiving intermittent motion
through mitre wheels, star wheel, and cog disc in the same way as the first turn-
stile. The wings of this turnstile are each composed of two or more arms with
spaces between them, and a guide is fixed to the table with projections reaching
between these arms and in line with them, so that when the turnstile has removed
the spool from the tube, and then makes another quarter turn, it cannot take the
spool further round, but pushes it along the guide out of reach of its wings. The
next spool then pushes the first further between two revolving rollers. These
rollers are driven by mitre wheels from a vertical spindle so as to turn in opposite
directions, and are covered with an elastic material as india rubber, felt, or printer's
cloth, and placed at a distance somewhat less than the length of the spool from
each other, so that they seize the spool pushed towards them and forward it to the
other side, at the same time squeezing the tickets firmly against the spool. Instead

page_text: of the rollers being covered with elastic material an endless band may be passed
round each and a corresponding guide pulley, the one for the lower band being
fixed, and that for the upper band being moveable and weighted. The vertical
shaft receives continuous motion from the driving shaft through a pair of spur and
a pair of bevil wheels, and drives through another pair of bevil wheels across shaft.
A pulley on this cross shaft drives by a belt a pulley on the shaft of one of the
endless band rollers.
The cog discs and cams on the driving shaft are so set that the movements of
the various parts described succeed each other as follows:-
The spool delivered to the first turnstile by the endless bands is pushed by the
turnstile over the first tube, the clip then fixes it in position, and the piston
ascends and attaches a ticket, and immediately recedes again, while the clip is
taken off the spool at the same time. The lifting finger then forwards the spool
through the curved guide tube, and places it on its other end over the second
ticket tube, and at once returns to its previous position. The second clip then
fixes the spool in position over the second tube, the piston ascends, and attaches
the second ticket, and immediately recedes again, while the clip is removed from
the spool at the same time. The second turnstile then removes the spool from the
tube, and by its succeeding movement pushes it along the guide, and by means of
the following spool between the squeezing rollers or bands which deliver it upon
the table. The following spools push the preceeding ones along the table until
a number of them have accumulated, when they are removed by an attendant.
The mechanisms described for actuating the turnstiles, pistons, clips, and finger
may be replaced by other arrangements imparting the same movements in the
same order to these parts.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Walter Ralston, Carl Friedrich Heinrich Bollé, and Wentworth
Wilson Schofield in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th March 1880.
WALTER RALSTON, Manufacturer, CARL FRIEDRICH HEINRICH BOLLÉ, Engineer,
and WENTWORTH WILSON SCHOFIELD, Machinist, all of the City of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ATTACHING
TICKETS OR LABELS TO SEWING THREAD SPOOLS AND SIMILAR BOBBINS."
Our Invention relates to self-acting machinery for attaching labels or tickets to
sewing thread spools and similar bobbins, and consists in improved combinations
and arrangements of mechanisms for this purpose, which are fully shewn on the
accompanying Drawings, of which Fig. 1, Sheet I., shews a sectional elevation of
the machine seen from the front; and Fig. 2, Sheet II., a sectional elevation seen
from the back; Fig. 3, Sheet III., a partial top view of the machine; and Fig. 4, a
sectional plan of the same; Fig. 5, Sheet IV., an end view of the machine; and
Fig. 6, a cross section along the lines A, B.
Our machinery consists of a framing formed by two end frames a¹ and a³, con-
nected by cross rails 61, 62, 63, and 64, and supporting a flat board or table c, along
the front edge of which the mechanisms described further on are ranged. The end
frames have bosses a³ and a', in which the driving shaft d provided with a loose
and a fast pulley d¹ and d² revolves.
The spools to be ticketed are placed on end upon the table c, and pushed by the
attendant upon an endless band e¹ travelling horizontally slightly below the top of
the table c.in a recess made in the same. A second endless band e² is arranged
above the top of the spools. Each band is taken over guide rollers e³, et, e³, eo, e7,
and e³, and round a separate roller e and e¹ placed below the table. These rollers are
of equal diameters, and connected by spur wheels ell, e12, of equal diameters; one of
these rollers el receiving a rotary motion from the driving shaft d through gearing
and belting imparts the same to the other roller, thus causing both bands e¹ and e
to travel at the same speed. Below these rollers two others f¹, are placed,
running in a trough fs with size, and pressed upwards by levers and weights. By
these means a portion of the size is transferred to the endless bands. The guide
pulleys e³, e, e, for the upper band turn on spindles fixed between two bars
els, e, which swivel upon a stud es in a bracket e¹ placed near one end of the
machine above the driving rollers at such a beight that the longest spools to be
ticketed can be pushed between the bands near this end, while at the other end the
weight of the bars causes the top band to rest upon the spools. These bands carry
the spools forward between adjustable guides c¹, c², to a turnstile g¹, until they are
stopped by the arm of the turnstile standing across their path, when the bands
continuing to travel wipe over both ends of the spools and impart to them the
size.
The turnstile may be made with any number of wings, but by preference is
made with four. It is fixed upon a vertical spindle gå passing through brackets g³
and g attached to the front cross rails b', 63. The lower end of the spindle carries
a mitre wheel g5 placed in gear with another mitre wheel ge, which revolves on a
stud 97, and is attached to a star wheel 98, having as many teeth as the turnstile
has wings. On the driving shaft d a disc g with a stud g¹º is fixed, forming a
single cog" wheel, which in revolving comes against the teeth of the star wheel
and causes it to make a quarter turn for each revolution of the driving shaft, which
is transmitted to the turnstile g' by the mitre wheels go, go. In making this quarter
turn the turnstile moves the spool delivered to it by the travelling bands forward,
and places it over a tube h¹ containing a pile of tickets placed with their printed sides
downwards, while the next compartment of the turnstile is advanced for the
reception of another spool.

page_text: Underneath the pile of tickets in the tube is a piston h² attached to a piston
rod h³, the lower end of which is guided in the bracket g; this rod carries an arm ³
connected by a link ho to one end of a two armed lever h having its fulcrum in a
bracket hs on the back cross rail 64, and weighted at the opposite end. This lever
is connected by an adjustable link h³ to another lever 10 below the driving shaft d,
having its fulcrum in a bracket h" attached to the cross rail 62, and carrying a stud
with a bowl which is acted upon by a cam h¹² fixed on the driving shaft. This
cam is so shaped as to depress the levers and piston rod during a part of each revo-
lution, while the turnstile brings the spool over the tube and then to release the
bowl, when the weight will raise the levers and piston rod until the latter is stopped
by the pile of tickets coming against the spool, which is meanwhile held by a clip
presently to be described. The topmost ticket is thereby caused to adhere to the
spool, and immediately afterwards an incline on the cam depresses the levers and
piston rod again to their previous position. Instead of a weight a spring may be
used to move the levers and piston rod.
When the tickets are nearly used up and the piston rises to nearly the top of the
tube the arm ho, by which the piston rod is lifted, strikes against a finger i¹
formed on a loose bush placed between collars on the strap shifting rod i³, and
turns the bush partly round, thereby disengaging a catch it attached to the bush,
and resting previously against a stop attached to the frame. A spring placed
on the strap rod and compressed between the frame and a collar on the rod is
thus liberated and shifts the strap to the loose pulley d² and stops the machine for
the attendant to refill the ticket tube.
The clip mentioned above consists of a curved plate k partly covered with
leather, and fixed to a vertical spindle moveable in the brackets 93 and 9. This
spindle carries two levers, one of them being pulled by a spring / so as to turn
the spindle and bring the clip over the ticket tube, the other having two arms,
to one of which a cord or chain ke is attached, which passes over a guide pulley k²,
and is fastened to the end of a lever les placed below the driving shaft. This lever
carries a stud with a bowl, upon which a cam k on the driving shaft acts. This
cam in depressing the bowl and lever turns by the mechanism described the clip
spindle 2, and holds the clip away from the ticket tube while the turnstile moves
the spool over it, after which the cam releases the bowl, and the spring * causes
the clip to press the spool into the corner of the turnstile and to hold it fast
while the piston ascends and attaches the ticket, an incline on the cam k depressing
the bowl again and thereby removing the clip from the spool as soon as the
piston commences to return. If there should happen to be no spool over the ticket
tube the clip spindle 2 will turn further until the other arm of the double lever k³
is arrested by the piston rod h³. In this position this arm is above the arm k³ on
the piston rod by which it is lifted, and thus stops the piston from being moved
upwards by the weight, as described above, and prevents the ejection of the tickets
from the tube.
After the spool has received the ticket on one end, it is lifted by a finger l' through
a semicircular tube or channel 12, and delivered with the end down on the top
of a second tubes m¹ containing the tickets for this other end. This finger lis
arranged to be below a part of the edge of the spool left free round the ticket
while the spool is over the first tube. The other end of the finger forms a disc with
a boss, which is bored out to fit loosely upon the boss of a small pulley. 13. This
pulley has a flange upon it next to the disc, and a washer of leather or cloth is
placed between the two; a collar 1* is fixed upon the pulley boss and a spring
placed between this collar and the disc, which presses the latter against the washer
and flange and causes the finger ¹ to move with the pulley 13 by the friction thus
produced. A band is passed round the pulley and connected at the ends to two
rods 15, 1, which pass through the ends of two levers 17, 18, and carry weights below
them. These levers oscillate on a pin in a bracket 19 bolted to the lower back cross
rail and carry each a stud with a bowl. Two cams 110, 111, are fixed on the driving
shaft, and so shaped that they depress and liberate the bowls alternately, so that

page_text: the levers acting on the weights attached to the band by the rods cause the pulley
to turn alternately in the one or the other direction. The amount of rotation given
to the pulley is a little in excess of what is required for the finger to turn the spool
over through the guide tube or channel, which has a slot on the underside to allow
the passage of the finger. The latter moves with the pulley until arrested by the
spool delivered on the top of the second ticket tube, when the frictional connection
between the finger and pulley allows the flange to slip on the washer. In the
return movement the finger is carried with the pulley until stopped by the top of
the first ticket tube. By these means the movement of the finger can adjust itself
to different lengths of spools, and the finger is always fairly brought home to its
position on the top of the first tube. A second turnstile n¹ is placed near the
second tube m¹ in such a position that the spool is between two of its wings when
delivered on the top of the second tube.
This tube contains a piston m² attached to a rod m³ actuated by means of an arm
m*, link m³, double lever me with weight, adjustable link m³, second lever m³ with
stud and bowl, and a cam m³ on the driving shaft in the same manner as the piston
in the first tube. A second clip o¹ is provided for holding the spool in the corner
of the turnstile wings over the tube and attached to a spindle o², actuated by a lever
03, and spring, second double lever o with cord or chain attached to a lever 05
below the driving shaft with stud and bowl and a cam of on the shaft in the same
manner as the first clip, the double lever of arresting.the upward movement of the
piston when no spool is over the tube, the same manner as described before for
the first piston. A second finger 18 is formed on the bush 2 on the strap rod
against which the arm m' on the piston rod m³ strikes when the tickets are nearly
used up, and stops the machine in the manner previously explained.
The second turnstile n' is fixed on a vertical spindle m², receiving intermittent
motion through mitre wheels n³, n, star wheel n5, and cog disc n', in the same way
as the first turnstile. The wings of this turnstile are each composed of two or
more arms with spaces between them, and a guide p¹ is fixed to the table with
projections reaching between these arms and in line with them, so that when the
turnstile n¹ has removed the spool from the tube and then makes another quarter
turn, it cannot take the spool further round but pushes it along the guide p¹ out of
reach of its wings. The next spool then pushes the first farther between two
revolving rollers p², p³. These rollers are driven from a vertical spindle q¹ by mitre
wheels p, p, p, p, so as to turn in opposite directions, and are covered with an
elastic material, as india rubber, felt, or printer's cloth, and placed at a distance
somewhat less than the length of the spools from each other, so that they seize the
spool pushed towards them and forward it to the other side, at the same time
squeezing the tickets firmly against the spool. Instead of the rollers being covered
with an elastic material an endless band may be passed round each, and a corre-
sponding guide pulley, the one for the lower band being fixed, and that for the
upper band being moveable and weighted. The vertical shaft g¹ receives continuous
motion from the driving shaft d through a pair of spur wheels q², q³, and a pair of
bevel wheels 9, 95, and drives through another pair of bevel wheels 96, 97, a cross
shaft. A pulley 2 on this cross shaft drives by a belt a pulley 3 on the shaft
of the endless band rollers e¹0.
The cog discs and cams on the driving shaft are so set that the movements of the
various parts described succeed each other as follows:-
The spool delivered to the first turnstile g¹ by the endless bands e', e³, is pushed
by the turnstile over the first tube h¹. The clip then fixes it in position, and
the piston 2 ascends and attaches a ticket, and immediately recedes again, while
the clip is taken from the spool at the same time. The turn-over finger l' then
forwards the spool through the curved guide tube and places it on its other end
over the second ticket tube m', and at once returns to its previous position. The
second clip o' then fixes the spool in position over the second tube, the piston m²
ascends and attaches the second ticket, and immediately recedes again, while the
clip o' is removed from the spool at the same time. The second turnstile n' then

page_text: removes the spool from the tube, and by its succeeding movement pushes it along
the guide p¹, and by means of the following spool between the squeezing rollers
p², ps, which deliver it upon the table. The following spools push the preceding
ones along the table until a number of them have accumulated, when they are
removed by the attendant.
The mechanism described for actuating the turnstiles, clips, pistons, finger, and
rollers, may be replaced by other arrangements imparting the same movements in
the same order.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our Invention
and the manner of carrying the same into practice, we claim as our Invention
substantially,-
First. The combination of endless sizing bands, turnstiles, pistons working in
tubes, clips, turn over finger, and squeezing rollers, or bands, operating upon the
bobbins and tickets in succession in the manner described.
Secondly. The mechanism for arresting the ascent of the pistons when no
'spool is over the tube, substantially as described and illustrated by the Drawings.
Thirdly. The arrangement for stopping the machine when the supply of tickets
is nearly exhausted, substantially as described and illustrated by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Walter Ralston, Carl Friedrich Heinrich
Bollé, and Wentworth Wilson Schofield, have hereunto set our hands and
seals, this Twenty second day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
WALTER RALSTON.
(L.S.)
CARL FRIEDRICH HEINRICH BOLLÉ. (L.S.)
WENTWORTH WILSON SCHOFIELD..
(LS.)