Improvements in Automatic Feed Apparatus used in connection with Textile Machinery.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 28th July, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 28th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 2nd June, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Feed Apparatus used in connection
with Textile Machinery.
We JOHN MCQUEEN of the Firm of Messrs. John Hetherington and Sons
Limited, of the Vulcan Works, Pollard Street, Ancoats, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Machine Makers, THOMAS THOMPSON 47 Hyde Road,
Ardwick, Manchester aforesaid, Manager, and JAMES HEYWOOD of 191 Palmerston
Street, Ancoats, aforesaid, Foreman, both in the employment of the said firm, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to the apparatus now well known under the designation of
automatic feed machines and used principally in the feeding of cotton machinery.
In such apparatus the cotton is lifted out of a box by a travelling spiked apron.
Many attempts have been made to ensure the carrying forward of an uniform
quantity of cotton so as to obtain a regular feed and our invention has this
object.
We apply a pedal motion to the feeding machine and employ such motion to vary
the speed of the machine.
We apply a roller provided with a set of pedals at the delivery side of the
machine so that the cotton has to pass between the roller and the pedals as it leaves
the machine. The pedals are connected with the strap guide of a pair of high
speed cone pullies. The drivery conc is actuated by means of a band from a
pulley upon the machine or directly from a counter or driving shaft as preferred.
The driver cone gives motion to the first motion shaft of the feed machine by
means of a worm and wheel or of suitable reducing gearing.
When the rate of feed is reduced below the normal average the pedal motion
increases the speed of the feed machine and in the contrary when too much cotton
is being passed forward the speed of the machine is reduced.
Dated this 26th day of July 1893.
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, A gents.
COME DELE DI MUITICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Feed Apparatus used in connection
with Textile Machinery.
We JOHN MCQUEEN of the Firm of Messrs. John Hetherington and Sons
Limited, of the Vulcan Works, Pollard Street, Ancoats, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Machine Makers, THOMAS THOMPSON of 47 Hyde Road,
Ardwick, Manchester, aforesaid, Manager, and JAMES HEYWOOD of 191 Palmerston
Street, Ancoats, aforesaid, Foreman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying drawings :-
:-
Our invention relates to the apparatus now well known under the designation of
automatic feed machines and used principally in the feeding of cotton machinery.
In such apparatus the cotton is lifted out of a box by a travelling spiked apron.
Many attempts have been made to ensure the carrying forward of an uniform
quantity of cotton so as to obtain a regular feed and our invention has this
object.
•

page_text: We apply a pedal motion to the feeding machine and employ such motion to vary
the speed of the machine.
We apply a roller or rollers provided with a set of pedals at the delivery side of
the machine, so that the cotton has to pass between the rollers or the roller and
the pedals as it leaves the machine. The pedals are connected with the strap guide
of a pair of high speed cone pulleys. The driving cone is actuated by means of a
band from a pulley upon the machine or directly from a counter or driving shaft as
preferred. The driven cone, which is preferably suspended in an adjustable frame,
gives motion to the spiked lattice of the feed machine, and the delivery roller or
rollers is or are driven from the shaft of the driving cone by means of a worm and
wheel or of suitable reducing gearing.
When the rate of feed is reduced below the normal average, the pedal motion
increases the speed of the feed machine and on the contrary when too much cotton
is being passed forward, the speed of the machine is reduced."
The spiked lattice and the delivery roller may be driven through clutch boxes
which are connected with the drop lever of the scutcher or other machine to be
fed, and which may be thrown out of gear as required.
To render our invention more fully understood we will now proceed to describe
the same with reference to the annexed sheet of illustrative drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an automatic feed apparatus constructed in accordance
with our invention.
Fig. 2 is an elevation of the delivery end of Fig. 1.
The hopper or box of the machine is marked a; the feed apron ; and the
spiked lattice c, these parts being mounted and operated in the usual or in any
suitable manner. The cotton is placed in the box a and is carried forward by the
feed apron to the spiked lattice c. The spiked lattice lifts the cotton to the top
where it is "evened " by a spiked apron or cylinder d and finally stripped from the
spiked lattice by the ordinary stripper. The cotton thus stripped from the lattice
falls towards the delivery rollers e, f, by which the cotton is fed to the apron of the
scutcher or other machine which is connected to the automatic feed.
It is at this point that our first improvement-is-applied, and this consists in the
combination of a pedal motion with the delivery roller or rollers, so that the speed
of the machine is regulated in accordance with the amount of cotton passing the
delivery roller or rollers. The pedals consist of short levers 7 carried on the ends
of the shaft, the upright heels of the levers resting against projections from the
sliding bearings which carry the axis of the roller
About the centre or at any suitable point of the shaft g is a horizontal lever i
the end of which is connected by a shackle j with a bell-crank lever arrangement k
pivotted on a stud / fixed to the column m.
The bell-crank lever is connected by the link n to an arm o pivotted at p to
the box or casing of the cones, and provided with a counter-balance weight 7, the
tendency of which is to bring the arm o in the direction of the arrow Fig. 2 and
to cause the pedals 9 to press inwardly upon the sliding bearings of the roller f.
The upper end of the arm o moves the strap fork which shifts the belt connecting
the cones r, s, and thus alters the speed of the machine. The couer is the driving
cone and is driven by fast and loose pullies t, u, mounted on the axis of the cone
and connected by a belt with a drum on a counter or main shaft. The cones is the
driven cone, and operates the spiked lattice by means of the gearing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
The cones is carried in a swivel tee shaped frame, pivotted at e, the two sides
of the swivel frame being connected at the top by a cross bar w, having a set-
screw which bears upon the top of the box or cone casing, and which can be used
to adjust the frame so as to tighten the strap connecting the two cones.
spur wheel 2 with which the pinion gears, runs on the pivot v of the frame
so that the adjustment of the frame does not disturb the relation of the gear
wheels. A jamb screw y may be used to assist in fixing the frame z in its
adjusted position.
C
The
The last wheel 5 of the gearing is connected to a clutch 6, the clutch sliding on a

page_text: slip feather and groove on the shaft of the lattice drum. The fork of the clutch 6
is carried on an upright 7, supported in suitable bearings and connected by a
lever 8 and rod 9, to the drop lever of the scutcher or other machine being fed.
Another lever 10, also mounted on the upright 7, operates the fork of the a sliding
clutch 11, which connects the spur wheel 17 with the shaft of the delivery roller e.
This delivery roller e is driven from the shaft of the driving cone, through bevel
gearing 12, which imparts motion to a diagonal shaft 13, a worm on the said
shaft gearing with a worm wheel 14, and thence by the gearing 15, 16 and 17 to
the axis of the delivery roller. The consequence of these arrangements is that
when the scutcher or other machine being fed is stopped, the drop lever actuates
the upright 7 so as to stop the spiked lattice and delivery rollers simultaneously.
The practical results of the arrangements hereinbefore described will now be
easily understood. The bearings of the roller e being fixed in their position while
those of the roller fare capable of sliding, it will be evident that as the feed
of cotton passes between the said rollers, the roller will move further from or
nearer to the roller e in accordance with the thickness of the feed. The normal
thickness of feed being fixed, it is clear that anything above or below the said
normal bulk will determine the position of the roller and consequently the speed
of the machine, because if the roller is thrust out beyond a certain distance,i
owing to too much cotton being fed, the pedals g will be correspondingly moved
and will thus shift the belt on the inclined strap cones r, s, in such a manner as to
decrease the speed of the spiked lattice and consequently the amount of feed.
If on the contrary the feed becomes too thin, the roller will approach the roller e
and the pedals following the roller f up, will correspondingly increase the speed of
the lattice and therefore the amount of feed. Thus any change in the bulk of
feed will correspondingly and automatically affect the speed of the machine, and
re-adjust the feed to the required degree. The counter-balance weight has the
effect of holding the pedals g with a constant pressure against the sliding bearings
of the roller f. A spring might however be used instead of the counter-balance
weight . Instead of using the auxiliary roller f together with two end pedals in
conjunction with the delivery roller e as, herein before described, we might use the
delivery roller e alone, and apply a series of pedals g directly against the periphery
of the roller e as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4.
In such a case we would require to employ a number of pedals g arranged closely
together and mounted upon a common shaft gas shown in Fig. 4. The cotton
feed would then pass directly between the roller e and the pedals g each of which
would act upon the common shaft y' so as to operate the end levers i and thus
govern the speed of the machine by the means already described with reference to
Figs. 1 and 2. Instead however of having a series of separate pedals g throughout
the length of the roller e as described, we might extend a pedal bar along the
length of the roller, and cause the bar to operate two end pedals just as in the case
of the auxiliary roller shown in Figs. 1 and 2. We do not confine ourselves to
the exact disposition of parts nor to the precise driving arrangements shown as
these might be altered without departing from the spirit of our invention.
We are aware that pedal motions have been used in conjunction with scutchers
for example but our invention is limited to the adaptation of such pedal motions or
to equivalent governing devices such as we have described, to automatic feed
apparatus of the indicated nature.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is.
1. The combination of a pedal motion or other equivalent pedal governing device,
with the delivery roller or rollers of automatic feed apparatus used in connection
with textile machinery substantially as described and shown.
2. The general arrangement and combination of automatic feed apparatus with

page_text: pedal or other equivalent governing motion applied to the delivery roller or rollers.
substantially as described and shown.
3. In automatic feed apparatus, the employment of a series of pedals g arranged
upon a common pivot shaft and employed in conjunction with the delivery roller
the cotton feed passing between the pedals and the roller in such a mauner that
irregularities in the feed, communicate movements to the pedals, the said movements
being transmitted to the belt fork of the cone pullies so as to correct and adjust
the speed of the machine to the required degree, substantially as described and
:shown.
4. In automatic feed apparatus the employment of an auxiliary moveable roller f
or it might be an equivalent pedal bar, in conjunction with the delivery roller e,
the feed of cotton being passed between the delivery roller and the said moveable
auxiliary roller or pedal bar, so that irregularities in the feed correspondingly
move the auxiliary roller or bar, which movements are transmitted through pedals
and other parts to the cone pullies, so as to regulate the speed of the machine
substantially as described and shown.
5. Actuating the delivery roller or rollers of automatic feed apparatus from the
shaft of the driving cone in the manner described and illustrated or any mere
modification thereof.
Dated this 27th day of April 1894
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.