IMPROVEMENTS IN BRAIDING MACHINERY FOR MAKING ELASTIC BRAIDS OR CORDS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Ellis Jefferson and Edward Lee, both of Leicester,
for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BRAIDING MACHINERY FOR MAKING
ELASTIC BRAIDS OR CORDS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Ellis Jefferson_and
Edward Lee at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st Juno
1880.
WILLIAM ELLIS JEFFERSON and EDWARD LEE, both of Leicester. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BRAIDING MACHINERY FOR MAKING ELASTIC BRAIDS OR CORDS."
In braiding machinery used for covering threads of caoutchouc with silk or other
thread, it is usual to construct the machine with automatic stopping apparatus, by
which the movement of the machine is at once stopped in case any one or other of
the covering threads should break, but no direct or practical mechanical means
have been adopted for automatically stopping the machine in case of the breakage
or running out of any one or other of the rubber threads which are being covered.
The object of our Invention is to provide an efficient means of at once stopping
the machine in case of the breakage or running out of any one or other of the
rubber threads,
The rubber threads to be covered are, as heretofore, carried by bobbins below the
table which carries the braiding mechanism, and the rubber threads, after being led
off from the bobbins, are passed through eyes in a fixed rail and around a tension
roller (the surface of which is roughened), or by another process by incans of
weighted bobbins, and are then led up through the hollow axes of the revolving
heads of the machine as is usual. A disc or wheel on the lower end of the axis of
one of the revolving heads has a pin passed downwards through it near its
circumference. The head of this pin lies in a recess in the upper face of the. disc,
and as the head revolves the pin is carried round with it, and at each revolution
passes below the stop lever now commonly employed for stopping the machine in
case of the breakage of any one or other of the covering threads. Should, however,
any one or other of the rubber threads break or fail a spring is set free, and
springing upwards brings an incline into the path of the lower end of the pin, so
that as the pin is carried round by the revolving head its lower end comes against
the incline and the pin is thereby caused to rise up. The upper end of the pin
then comes against the stop lever and turns it, thereby at once stopping the
075

page_text: machine. So long as all the rubber threads are unbroken, the spring above
mentioned is held down by a wire passing from it to a sliding bar carried by the
fixed rail of the tension apparatus hereinbefore mentioned.
In the bar is a notch into which enters a wire pin which holds the bar down.
The wire pin stands out horizontally from the end of a short lever arm which is
vertical or nearly so when the pin is holding the bar down; on the axis of this
lever arm is another arm, which is horizontal or nearly so, and which at some
distance from the axis has a right angle bend formed in it, so that its extremity
forms as it were a bar or crank handle parallel with the axis.
The rubber threads as they pass from the tension roller to the hollow axes of
the revolving heads are each led through an eye at the upper end of a weighted
lever arm, the weight upon such arm being capable of adjustment to suit the
various tensions of the rubber used, and which weighted arm when the rubber
threads are unbroken stands somewhat in a vertical position. Each of these levers
has also an arm standing out froin it somewhat in a horizontal direction. If any
one or other of the rubber threads breaks or fails, the weighted lever arm which
this thread previously held up drops, and its horizontal arm strikes against the
horizontal bar or crank handle of the catch lever above mentioned and turns it
upwards, thereby releasing the catch which previously held down the sliding bar
and spring connected with it, and at once stopping the machine in the manner
explained.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Ellis Jefferson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st December 1880.
WILLIAM ELLIS JEFFERSON and EDWARD LEE, both of Leicester.
"IMPROVEMENTS
IN BRAIDING MACHINERY FOR MAKING ELASTIC BRAIDS OR CORDS."
In braiding machinery used for covering threads of caoutchouc with silk or other
thread, it is usual to construct the machine with automatic stopping apparatus, by
which the movement of the machine is at once stopped in case any one or other of
the covering threads should break, but no direct or practical mechanical means have
been adopted for automatically stopping the machine in case of the breakage or
running out of any one or other of the rubber threads which are being covered.
Tho object of our Invention is to provide an efficient means of at once stopping
the machine in caso of the breakage or running out of any one or other of the
rubber threads.
Tho rubber threads to be covered are, as heretofore, carried by bobbins below tho
table which carries the braiding mechanism, and the rubber threads, aftor being led
off from the bobbins, are passed through eyes in a fixed rail and around & tension
roller (the surface of which is roughened), or by another process by means of
weighted bobbins, and are then led up through the hollow axes of the revolving
heads of the machine as is usual. A disc or wheel on the lower end of the axis of
one of the revolving heads has a pin passed downwards through it near its
circumference. The head of this pin lies in a recess in the upper face of the disc,
and as the head revolves the pin is carried round with it, and at each revolution
passes below the stop bar now commonly employed for stopping the machine in
case of the breakage of any one or other of the covering threads. Should,
however, any one or other of the rubber threads break or fail a spring is set free,
and springing upwards brings an incline into the path of the lower end of the pin,
so that as the pin is carried round by the revolving head its lower end comes
against the incline and the pin is thereby caused to rise up. The upper end of the
pin then comes against the stop bar, and by moving it allows the stop lever to turn,
thereby at once stopping the machine. So long as all the rubber threads are
unbroken, the spring above mentioned is held down by a wire passing from it to a
sliding bar carried by the fixed rail of the tension apparatus herein before mentioned.
In the bar is a notch into which enters a wire pin which holds the bar down. The
wire pin stands out horizontally from the end of a short lever arm which is vertical
or nearly so when the pin is holding the bar down; on the axis of this lover arm
is another arm which is horizontal or nearly so, and which at some distance from
the axis has a right angle bend formed in it, so that its extremity forms as it were
a bar or crank handle parallel with the axis.
The rubber threads as they pass from the tension roller to the hollow axes of the
revolving heads are each led through an eye at the upper end of a weighted lever
arm, the weight upon such arm being capable of adjustment to suit the various
tensions of the rubber used, and which weighted arm when the rubber threads are
unbroken stands somewhat in a vertical position. If any one or other of the
rubber threads breaks or fails, the weighted lever arm which this thread previously
held up drops, and strikes against the horizontal bar or crank handle of the catch
lever above mentioned and turns the lever, thereby releasing the catch which
previously held down the sliding bar and spring connected with it, and at once
stopping the machine in the manner explained. In place of using a weight upon
the lever arm to cause it to drop, should the rubber thread break which previously
held it up, a spring might be used to effect the same object.
In the Drawing hereunto annexed we have shewn our Invention applied to an
ordinary braiding machine such as is commonly used for covering threads of

page_text: caoutchouc with silk or other thread; so much only of the parts of the braiding
machine are shewn as is necessary to explain the action of our automatic stopping
apparatus for stopping the machine whenever any one of the rubber threads
breaks.
Figure 1 is a horizontal section of the braiding machine; Figure 2 is a front
view, and Figure 3 a side view.
A, A, are the lower ends of the hollow axes of the revolving heads of tho
braiding machine up through which the rubber threads to be covered are led; these
axes as usual have ench a toothed wheel upon them, and the toothed wheels all
gear together, so that when one axis is turned all the others turn likewise. The
notched discs on the axes A, by which the spindles carrying the bobbins of
covering thread are caused to travel, and the spindles carrying these bobbins are
not shown in the Drawing, as their construction and mode of action is well
understood. Gearing with one of the toothed wheels is a toothed wheel B on an
axis C, which can be coupled to or uncoupled from a driving toothed wheel D by a
clutch E F is a clutch lever by which that portion of the clutch which is free to
move endwise along the shaft, but not to turn around it, can be moved to and fro,
as shown more clearly at Figure 4. The clutch is constantly pressed upwards by a
spring G, as shown at Figures 3 and 4, so as to tend to uncouple the axis C from
the wheel by which it is driven; but so long as the machine is working properly
and no threads break, it is prevented from so rising by the end of a sliding bar H
coming above it. On the opposite extremity of the bar H are two side projections H'.
If any one or other of the covering threads break the weighted pin or skewer
contained within the hollow spindle of the bobbin of that thread drops, and its
lower end protrudes from the bottom of the spindle, and in the working of the
machine is carried against one or other of the side arms of the bar H, and shifts
the bar a distance endwise; the clutch lever is then thrown upwards by the
spring G, and the machine is thereby disconnected from the driving gear and at
once stops. This is the most usual way of stopping a braiding machine when any
one or other of the covering threads breaks. We have, therefore, shown our
improvements for stopping the machine whenever any one or other of the rubber
threads breaks applied to this class of machine; it will however readily be scen
that they can be applied to other braiding machines in which the mechanism for
disconnecting the machine from the driving gear is modified from that shown in the
Drawing.
I is a pin passing loosely through a hole in the toothed wheel upon one of the
hollow axes A at one end of the circular row of these axes. The head of the pin I
lies in a recess in the top face of this wheel, and its lower end projects below the
underside of the toothed wheel; K is a spring fixed at one end to the frame of the
machine, and at the other end curved so as to lie below part of the toothed wheel,
this end is also beut downwards, as shown at Figure 3, so as to form an incline;
ordinarily this end of the spring is held down out of the path of the lower end of
the pin, but when allowed to spring up it comes into the circular path in which the
pin travels, and the pin then comes against and rises up the incline at the end of
the spring; the head of the pin is thereby made to project above the top of the
toothed wheel and comes against one of the side arms of the bar H, and shifts the
bar endwise, thereby stopping the machine as above explained.
The way in which the spring K is held down out of the way of the pin I during
A wire L is
the proper working of the machine is shewn at Figures 2 and 3.
carried down from it to a slide M; at the top of the slide is a notch into which
enters a pin N¹, carried by or forming a continuation of a short crank arm at the
end of an axis N. When the pin is in the notch the crank arm is vertical or
nearly so, and therefore holds down the slide. O, O, are bobbins of rubber thread
to be covered; each thread is led up through an eye P in the frame, then around
the ordinary tension roller Q, and then through another eye in the frame, and from
thence are led upwards through eyes carried by small weighted levers R, and up

page_text: into the hollow axes A of the braiding machine. The weighted levers R are by this
means held up towards a vertical position so that the weight does not bear heavily
upon the thread; but if the thread breaks the weighted lover drops forward on to
some part or another of a long crank on the axis N, and turns this axis, the pin N'
is thereby moved out of the notch at the top of the slide M, and the slide being
thus set free is lifted by the action of the spring K. The springing upwards of the
spring stops the machine as before explained. In place of using a weight upon
each lever R to cause it to drop should the rubber thread break which previously
held it up, a spring might, as before stated, be used to effect the same object. N³ is
a counterbalance weight to counterbalance the weight of the long crank on the
axis N.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, wo would have it understood that we do not confine ourselves to the
precise construction of mechanism shown in the Drawings hereunto annexed, but
that we claim,—
The combination of mechanism, substantially as herein before described, for
arresting the movement of braiding machines used for making elastic braids or
cords whenevor any one or other of the elastic threads which are being covered
breaks or fails.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ellis Jefferson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.