IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZING MACHINES, PART OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO BEAMING MACHINES, AND IN GENERAL TO MACHINES HAVING BEAMS UPON WHICH THE YARN OR CLOTH IS LAPPED AND FROM WHICH IT IS UNLAPPED AS IN THE LOOMS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVSIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Lancaster at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
February 1871.
I, WILLIAM LANCASTER, of Cannstatt, in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg,
in the German Empire, Machinery Agent, but at present resident in
Accrington, Lancashire, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZING MACHINES, PART OF WHICH IS ALSO
APPLICABLE TO BEAMING MACHINES, AND IN GENERAL TO MACHINES HAVING BEAMS
UPON WHICH THE YARN OR CLOTH IS LAPPED AND FROM WHICH IT IS UNLAPPED AS
IN THE LOOMS," to be as follows:-
:-
My first improvement refers to a combination for the driving of beams
in the sizing, warping, and similar machines upon which the yarn or
cloth has to be lapped so as the process of winding on shall be performed
with the greatest regularity and efficiency over the whole beam, and to
act more efficiently on each thread. The first element in this combi-
nation is a revolving drum covered with layers of india-rubber or other
suitable material at short distances apart and lying in oblique direction.
It is well known that the method of driving a beam varying in thickness
and, of course, in surface by lapping material upon itself by a plane

page_text: revolving roller of invariable surface and invariable velocity the resulting
motion should be theoretically perfect, the surface of the beam should
be constant and regular, whilst the strain upon cach thread should bo
exactly equal, this, however, is not so, and for the purpose of equalizing
the inaccuracies thereof, I employ the following means:-Firstly, an
empty beam has not the same pressure or weight as a full beam, hence
the frictional power is not equal. To equalize this pressure I place
the pivots on which the beam rotates against a curved or inclined
surface, the ascending of which adds a considerable increase of frictional
effect to the beam, as it is forced up the same; to aid this effect I place
two levers one on each side of the beam having studs in them for
receiving bowls which rest on the ends of the beam, the levers being
so placed that as the beam fills they are lifted nearly upright; at
the same time a greater distance is caused to take place between the
centre of the weaver's beam and the centre of the levers, the combined
action of these two agencies, that is to say of the inclined or curved planes
and lever weights being to vary the pressure as the beam fills, so that
the pressure when it begins to fill and the weight of it when filled are
nearly equalized. The same arrangement of curves or inclines reversed
when the beam approaches being full, enables me to make the pressure
upon the beam somewhat less than the weight thereof and enables me to
make a beam as hard or soft as may be deemed desirable towards the
top, as the lower part of the curves or inclines enables me to make tho
first part of the beam hard or soft at will. By these means the first
source of inaccuracy is removed.
A second source of inaccuracy arises from the condition of the yarn,
varying states of moisture having possession of individual threads, thereby
causing increase or decrease of retarding effect in the use of the opening
rods even when the lagged roller is, where I prefer to put it, within
eighteen inches of the weaver's beam and in front of these rods.
The condition of moisture above referred to has a prejudicial effect,
first, in varying the effect of the opening rods; secondly, in varying tho
pull of the lagged roller; thirdly, in varying the frictional effect of a
plain revolving roller driving the weaver's beam. To remedy this class
of defects I place upon the revolving drum or roller which gives motion
to the weaver's beam a series of layers of india-rubber at short distances
.apart, and I prefer to space or place them in an oblique direction, which
arrangement has the following effects:-First, the spaces between the

page_text: india-rubber layers permit the more or less yielding yarns being lapped
upon the beam to penetrate between them and thereby enable the drum
or roller to give the beam a more effective push forward, the same spaces
allowing the formation of similar interstices and projections in the yarn
itself, pull up individual threads, remove the slacknesses upon the
lagged roller, and equalize more or less perfectly the strain upon each
individual thread and upon the whole beam.
Thus my first improvement embraces a combination in which a beam's
pressure is regulated by inclined planes acting against the rising pivots
thereof; lever weights so placed as to become upright or nearly so
during the filling of the beam; spaced layers of india-rubber or other
suitable material on the surface of a revolving drum and giving motion
to the weaver's beam; equalizing the strain on cach individual thread
and on the whole beam by aiding the action of the lagged roller placed
in front of the opening rods; and preventing the formation of slack
places by the counteraction of a differential state of moisture in the
threads operated on by the opening rods, lagged roller, and weaver's
beam, as herein-before described.
My second improvement refers to a method of exchanging the thin
film of size upon the yarn and sizing rollers when the sizing machine is
stopped, and which can only be removed by washing, for a thick massivo
coating of fluid size not easily changeable; this exchange I accomplish
by hanging the squeezing rollers upon a swing frame and dipping them
so deep into the size box when the machine is stopped that the above
effect is accomplished and the washing up thereby dispensed with.
My improvement refers, thirdly, to resting the pivots of the weaver's
beam upon a scroll varying in diameter as the beam increases in size,
and so weighted as to meet the conditions stated under my first im-
provement. Similar scrolls may be applied to the warp beam of looms,
thus, I hang a wide scroll formed lever weighted against the warp beam,
the small diameter pressing upon the beam when filled and gradually
varying its position as the beam emptics until the largest part of the
scroll will press upon the beam when empty.
My fourth improvement refers to the application of a slow motion to
the beaming machine when the operative is searching for broken threads
of yarn, or when the broken thread has been found, is lifting the falling
rods by which the broken thread has been found; I place within the
ordinary fast pulley of the beaming machine an internal wheel into

page_text: which I gear a small spur pinion fastened on a short line shaft, to which
I also fasten a second driving pulley, in addition to which pulley I place
loose upon the same shaft a pulley loose and disconnected, and also
another loose but connected by a spur wheel on its boss, gearing into
another spur wheel fastened on the main shaft of the beaming machine, i
these wheel being properly proportioned. This addition to the beaming
machine will enable the operative to drive it both back and forward at
a slow rate.
My improvements refer, fifthly, to a novel method of applying friction
to giving out and taking up yarn or cloth from a beam upon which 1
either is lapped. I rest the beam of variable diameter upon a roller
or drum of invariable diameter, and upon a pivot or shaft attached
thereto I fasten a friction plate; I place in contact therewith an edge
friction on an upright shaft, positively. driven and suspended so that
it gives motion to the beam near the centre of a filling beam, departing 1
therefrom as it fills; and in an emptying beam commencing to act at
the extremity thereof and advancing toward the centre as it empties.