CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WINDING, CLEANING, DRAWING, AND DOUBLING HARD AND SOPT SILK, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR WINDING, CLEANING, AND DOUBLING THREAD OR YARN MANUFACTURED FROM COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MA- TERIALS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HARTER, of Manchester, Silk Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Eighth day of January, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Harter, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said. William Harter, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Harter, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and. vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR WINDING, CLEANING, DRAWING, AND DOUBLING HARD AND SOPT SILK, WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR WINDING, CLEANING, AND
DOUBLING THREAD OR YARN MANUFACTURED FROM COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MA-
TERIALS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I; the said
William Harter, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, reference. being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large.appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Harter, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being.
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My improvements consist in the construction and arrangement of certain
apparatus connected with the ordinary machinery, by which I'am enabled to
perform the various operations of winding, cleaning, drawing, and doubling silk,
as well as winding, cleaning, and doubling thread or yarn manufactured from
cotton or other fibrous materials, with much greater speed, with less breakage,
and in a more perfect manner than in which these operations are at present
performed by the machinery in ordinary use.
But before I proceed to describe the manner in which the same are to be
performed and carried into effect, I shall offer a few remarks respecting the
manufacture of silk, for the purpose of making the advantage of my improve-
ments more obvious. Of all the various processes through which silk has to
pass in its progress to the loom or to any other final process of manufacture few
are so important and so difficult as that of winding the raw silk from the skein
as imported, and on this being well performed depends very much the facility
and well doing of the subsequent operations. The improvements sought for in
the winding of silk are greater speed in the operation without (contrary to what
has hitherto been the case) greater breakage, and consequently greater waste
of this valuable material of manufacture. By the plans hitherto in use a very
limited speed has only been acquired: say that the hank or skein gives off
seldom more than sixty yards per minute, and this limited-speed could-not-be
increased by merely driving the parts faster without greatly increasing the
breakage and thus causing much waste of silk, besides loss of time in piecing
up the broken parts.
The improvements which I shall hereafter describe possess the valuable pro-
perty of a speed perfectly extraordinary (and-which-will-be-almost-incredible
to those persons in the silk trade who may not witness the operation); and
with this property is combined the advantage of very much less breakage, and
consequently fewer knots and less waste, besides that of laying the silk much
harder on the bobbins; all which greatly contribute to the speed of the
subsequent operation and the diminution of waste incident thereto. There
are also other important processes, such as drawing, cleaning, and doubling,
which, in addition to the assistance they receive from the first operation of

page_text: winding being done in an improved manner, are themselves facilitated in an
extraordinary degree by the application of the same principle.
The method by which these great advantages are obtained will be best under-
stood by a reference in the first instance to Figure 1, which represents a front
view of part of one of the winding frames now in use. A, A, are two friction
rollers, wheels, or bosses, on a spindle B, one of which is fast thereto, and the
other works on a screw at the other end of the spindle, so that the bobbin b, b,
is held firmly in its place on the spindle B. The rollers A, A, vary somewhat
both in length and diameter, but those used on the same spindle are generally
alike. These rollers A, A, rest on what are termed friction pulleys C, C; that
is, circular disks of wood or metal which are supported upon and revolvo with
the driving shaft D, and give motion to the friction rollers A, A, resting
thereon. By this arrangement the silk is wound on to the bobbin from the
skein placed on the swift E, and the requisite tension is effected by the drag or
weight F suspended on the axis, as seen in the Drawing. The same principle
is applied also to cleaning, drawing, and doubling, except that in addition to the
friction roller used in the latter process there is a species of star or ratchet
wheel, by means of which the bobbin is stopped when the thread breaks.
This is one of the ordinary methods of winding, by which a certain limited
degree of speed is acquired, say a giving off from the skein or bank of seldom
more than sixty yards per minute, which cannot be increased by merely
driving the parts faster without frequent breakage and much waste of silk.
I shall now proceed to describe my improvements for performing the
same process with greatly increased speed and less liability to breakage.
In the annexed Drawing, Figure 2 represents a side view, and Figure 3 a
plan or bird's-eye view of my improvements applied to machinery used for
winding silk off the bank or skein on to the bobbin. In these Figures, D
represents the revolving shaft driven by any adequate power, which shaft is
considered to revolve at the same speed as that in Figure 1. C, C, are the
driving or friction pulleys, which, by their contact and surface motion, impart
rotation to the spindle B, on which the bobbin b, b, is placed, such pulleys
being of the same diameter as those in Figure 1; but instead of the spindle on
which the bobbin b, b, is placed, being provided with the rollers A, A, as in
Figure 1, the rollers are dispensed with, and the spindle itself is allowed to
rest on the surface of the friction or driving pulleys C, C, and the weight F
on the axis of the swift E is also entirely dispensed with. And to make the
distinction between the ordinary winding process and my improved process
more obvious, Figure 4 represents a spindle and bobbin of the ordinary
arrangement, and Figure 5 a bobbin and spindle of my improved construction,

page_text: each at the full size. G, G, Figure 5, are two circular disks, flyes; or flanges,
one of which is attached to and forms a part of the spindle B, and the other is
screwed on so as to hold the bobbin firmly in the proper position on the spindle.
Now the necessary friction between the surface of the spindle and the surface
of the friction pulleys C, C, to produce the momentum requisite for obtaining
and maintaining the increased speed and realizing the advantages offered by
the elasticity of the atmosphere, as will be herein-after explained, is not
effected without the addition of these flies or disks G, G, which not only
increase the friction by adding to the weight of the revolving mass, of which
the bobbin forms a part, but also perform the important office of partially
retarding the rotation of the bobbin when motion is first imparted, thereby
causing it to start gradually, and thus preventing-breakage at the same time
that they obviate the necessity of the attendant assisting the machine in getting
into action, and also equalize and regulate the rotation after the spindle has
acquired its maximum velocity. This velocity being gained, the swift from
which the silk or other material is to be wound revolves with a speed equal to
give off even as high as one hundred and forty yards per minute from the skein
or hank, and at a speed at which the atmosphere is found to present so much,
resistance as to obviate entirely the necessity of the weight or drag F, as seen
in Figure 1, and furnish a more uniform and elastic tension on the silk or
other material in the process of winding than bas been heretofore effected.
Now, although the friction between the surface of the friction pulley C and the
surface of the spindle B is so much decreased as greatly to lessen the danger
of breaking the silk or other material in the process of winding, even when the.
swift is held stationary by any obstruction, entanglement, or adhesion to the skein,
yet the rapidity of the revolution of the bobbin and swift-is-such-that the elastic
resistance of the atmosphere on the skein and the arms of the swift produces a
regularity of tension in the winding, which makes a harder and more uniformly
wound bobbin than the weighted drag used to the axle of the swift in the
ordinary process; for although it may seem a paradox that a decrease of force
applied to the winding-surface-should-place-the-wound-material-harder-on
the bobbin, yet the phenomenon. is explained by more minute investigation:
for instance, when the winding commences in the ordinary process, the silk or
other material is placed on the bobbin at a tension depending on- the amount
of drag or resistance on the swift caused by the weight F; but, as soon as a
slight obstruction, entanglement, or adhesion occurs in the skein of silk or
other material, the thread either breaks by the force of the winding process,
owing to the large surface friction of the parts A and C, as seen in Figure 1,
or should the adhesion give way suddenly, the swift starts forwards and overruns

page_text: the bobbin causing what is called the back lash, when, if the silk comes off
freely, it is wound loosely on the bobbin. On the other hand, when (as in my
improvement) the speed of revolution is increased, so as to make the resistance
of the atmosphere available as a drag, this back lashing can very rarely occur,
for as the resistance of the atmosphere depends on the velocity of the revolu-
tion of the swift, it cannot overrun or back lash without overcoming a still
greater resistanco of the atmosphere. Thus, I have found a less amount of
force with a greater velocity applied to this process, according to my improved
arrangement, not only to produce a harder and more uniform bobbin than
those produced by the ordinary mode, but also greatly to diminish the amount
of breakage.
After the foregoing description of my Invention, and the remarks I have
thought it necessary to make in explanation of the advantages presented by its
adoption, the application of a similar arrangement of flies, and dispensing with
the rollers or wheels A in cleaning, drawing, and doubling, will be obvious
to manufacturers and others conversant with the subject; and although I
cannot avail myself of the resistance of the atmosphere to such advantage in
winding from one bobbin to another, yet the reduced force exerted on the
receiving bobbin, as already described, causes a less amount of breakage, while
the speed disposes of the work with a dispatch never before obtained.
Now I am well aware that the arrangement of the machinery for carrying
my Invention into effect may be much modified and varied, together with the
materials of which the various parts are formed: for instance, the weight or
fly which I place on the spindle B, in the form of the disks G, may be added in
the bobbin itself or in some other way, the object being to obtain considerable
momentum with an exceedingly small degree of constant friction of surface, as
above described, which friction may be readily overcome in the event of the
silk being stopped by adhesion or otherwise; and it may also be found in some
cases desirable to increase the resisting surface of the arms of the swift which
pass through the atmosphere, all which variations must depend on the nature of
the manufacture and material to be wound, cleaned, drawn,. or doubled. But
what I claim as my Invention or improvements in machinery for winding,
cleaning, drawing, and doubling hard and soft silk and threads and yarns
manufactured of cotton and other fibrous materials, consists in dispensing with
the ordinary friction rollers, wheels, or bosses A, A, by which the bobbins
have heretofore been driven by the pulleys C, C, and in place thereof per-
mitting the bobbin spindle itself to be used for receiving the motion from
the surfaces of the pulleys C, C, and combining therewith weighted flyes or
other similar contrivances, for enabling me to obtain the requisite momentum

page_text: in the spindle, and to take advantage of the elastic properties of the atmo-
sphere which is called into action by the great velocity of the swift in the
process of winding, and for applying such improvements to machinery for pro-
ducing the advantages herein-before pointed out in the process of cleaning,
drawing, and doubling, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Harter, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
Inrolled the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-six.