CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTING AND UNITING COTTON SPINNING MULE, JENNIES, AND STRETCHING FRAMES, SO AS A MUCH GREATER NUMBER OF THEM CONTAINING ANY NUMBER OF SPINDLES MAY BE WROUGHT AT THE SAME TIME BY THE SAME POWER AND PERSON THAN IS PRACTICED OR PRACTICABLE BY THE MODE OF SPINNING HITHERTO IN USE
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MATHEW
ROBERTSON, of Milngaire, in the Shire of Stirling, Cotton Spinner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of October, in the
forty-seventh year of His reign, and reciting that I had humbly represented
to His Majesty that I had found out and invented "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTING AND UNITING COTTON SPINNING MULE, JENNIES, AND STRETCHING
FRAMES, SO AS A MUCH GREATER NUMBER OF THEM CONTAINING ANY NUMBER OF
SPINDLES MAY BE WROUGHT AT THE SAME TIME BY THE SAME POWER AND PERSON
THAN IS PRACTICED OR PRACTICABLE BY THE MODE OF SPINNING HITHERTO IN USE;
His Majesty did, by the said Letters Patent, give and grant unto me, the
said Mathew Robertson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Mathew
Robertson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by
myself and deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others; from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my
said Invention within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

page_text: Ircland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in such manner as to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
any of them, should in my or their discretion seem meet. In which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Mathew
Robertson, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the
High Court of Chancery within ono calendar month next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that the same should be void, any
thing therein contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding,
as by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Mathew Robertson, do hereby declare that the object of my said Invention is
to save labor in that department of cotton spinning called mule spinning, and
in that branch of it's preparation which is called stretching. Attempts to save
labor by connecting mules, the one to the end of the other, have been attended
with considerable success. But the mode in which I savo labor is by con-
necting two or more mules erected parallel to each, so as that they shall all act
as one machine. And this Invention applies either to those which are situated
face to back, or those which are situated back to back. The word mule as
here used means a well-known machine for spinning cotton. The manner in
which I accomplish this union of the machines is as follows:-
I. In this case, whero the mules are situated face to back, see the margin :-
1st, by giving motion to the spindles, so as that they shall move in all the
connected mules at the same time and at the same rate. For this purpose,
one fly wheel (or rim) only, and one twist pully only are necessary. But it
is obvious that this and other movements herein-mentioned admit of various
modifications, all comprehended under the principles of my Invention.
2d, by giving motion to all the front rollers, so that when the front roller of
one machine moves, all the rest in the machines connected with it shall move at
the same time and at the same rate. It is to be understood that the other
rollers are as usual connected with the front rollers.
3d, by connecting the carriages by means of rods, so as when any one of the
carriages in the united machine is moved, all the rest shall move parallel at
the same time and at the same rate.
4th, by connecting the fallers of all the united machines, by means of pins
and rods, or by means of pullies and cords or chains, so as that when one
faller is moved all the rest shall move equally with it.

page_text: II. In the case in which the mules stand back to back, see the margin. All
that is said with regard to the former cases applies with equal propriety to this
case, but with this difference, that the mules to be united are in this last case
further separated. This separation is occasioned by every second mule only
having its face in the same direction; consequently, in order to pass the space
occupied by such second intermediate mule, the connecting parts require to be
about double the length of those in the former case. For allowing these
connections to be formed easily without interruption from the framing of the
intermediate mules, I commonly place the ends of the mules, which have their
faces in the same direction, in one line, and those which have their faces in an
opposite direction in another line; and these two lines a few inches distant
from each other. In cases where the number of mules would make the
carriage heavy to the spinner in what is called putting up, I take advantage of
contrivances which have been in use for that purpose, but which I do not claim
as any part of my Invention.
III. The case of stretching frame. Any one acquainted with cotton spinning
will at once see that the above described Invention may be applied with great
ease and advantage to the stretching frame. This is so very obvious as render
any further description quite unnecessary.
In witness, I, the said Mathew Robertson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred
and six.
MAY ROBERTSON. (L.S.)
Signed and sealed by the said Mathew
Robertson (being first duly stamped)
in the presence of
DAVID LANG.
ARCHP LANO.
David Lang, of the City of Glasgow, Writer, maketh oath, that he was
present with Arch Lang, of the same City, also Writer, and did see
Mathew Robertson, of Melngaire, in the Shire of Stirling, Cotton Spinner,
sign his name and affix his seal to the Specification hereunto annexed, bearing
date the Eighteenth day of November now current. And this Deponent further
saith, that the name Ma" Robertson, set to the said Specification, is of the
proper handwriting of the said Mathew Robertson, and that the names
David Lang, Arch Lang, subscribed as the witnesses to the execution of the
said Specification, are of the proper handwriting of the said Archª Lang and
this Deponent David Lang. Sworn at Glasgow aforesaid, the Eighteenth day

page_text: of November, Eighteen hundred and six, in presence of me, Cunningham
Corbet, Esquire, one of His Majestic's Justices of the Peace for the County of
Lanark, in Scotland.
UNNING CORBET, J.P.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of November, in the year above written.