IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND IN MACHINERY FOR UNWINDING AND OTHERWISE MANIPULATING COCOONS
Year: 1878

page_text: "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Phillips Thompson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th September 1878. (A com-
munication from abroad by Calixte Robert Philisdor, Count de Montencamp,
and Pierre Felix Ziegler, both of Paris, in the Republic of France.)
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, British and International Patent Agent and Consulting Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND IN MACHINERY FOR UNWINDING AND
OTHERWISE MANIPULATING COCOONS." (A communication from abroad by Calixte
Robert Philisdor, Count de Montencamp, and Pierre Félix Ziegler, both of Paris, in
the Republic of France.)
The object of this Invention is to unwind cocoons in suitable chemical liquid.
The cocoons are placed in basins; these primary basins are open at bottom and
closed in the interior by other secondary basins, also open at bottom, and bound. to
the primary basins by ribs sliding in grooves; these grooves are very important.
In fine the general principle of the machine being, as will be seen, to cause the
cocoons to turn in the liquid in the basin so as to facilitate the disentanglement of
the thread of all cocoons, and above all of double ones.
It moreover enables one to give a given number of turns of silk throwing per
metre. When one causes the cocoons to turn in the liquid if a thread breaks the
cocoon to which it belongs flies immediately to the angle of the groove, and will be
nearly motionless. A mechanism with shielded wings or vanes receives a rotary
motion from the machine and agitates the water. A special apparatus permits the
winding of defective cocoons or cocoons pierced for eggs. This apparatus is fixed
to the basin. It is composed of a curved trunk or shaft carrying four steel blades,
which penetrate the cocoon by means of a spiral or bell spring, which can be liberated
by means of a bolt.

page_text: This apparatus also turns in the water, and the cocoon winds itself. The cocoons
are made to turn in the following manner:-Five different means can be employed.
The first consists in a transmission of motion from the machine to the axis of the
masked vanes by means of a pulley placed under the basin. This process necessitates
the employment of a stuffing box at the bottom of the reservoir containing the
basins. To avoid using the stuffing which will be necessary in this case it is pre-
ferable to employ a transmission composed of two shafts, the one that carrying the
vanes, the other an intermediate one upon the edge of the basin, receiving its motion
from a pulley, with a single bevel wheel turning all the vanes. The pulley also
turns a wheel above, placed upon the axis of the winder driving the latter. The
winder is moveable, can be raised without one having to touch the pulley.
Instead of using shielded vanes one can give the liquid a movement of rotation
by means of a steam jet tangential to the secondary basin. Steam being inconve-
nient from its changing the chemical composition of the liquid by the addition of
water, it can be replaced by a blast of air produced by a fan or ventilator, and
arriving in the same conditions. Lastly, we can use the liquid itself by bringing it
from a reservoir above, and causing the effect of a hydraulic wheel. In some
cases the tail-piece, which serves for the transmission of movement from below,
can be done away with, and then it is the upper shaft along which the thread
mounts which carries the "barbins" which transmit the movement. (A barbin is
a small glass ring used in silk winding.) For this purpose the shaft is encircled by
a collar with two branches which take the place of the barbins, and turn the
apparatus. In this case the two barbin carriers, the napkin ring, and the funnel
are placed above.
Following the nature of the cocoons we can use indifferently one or other of
these means, or any others having the general result of turning the cocoons in the
fluid specially prepared therefor. The following is a description of one of the elements
of the machine, which latter naturally can be composed of a variable number of
these elements, according to circumstances :-
In going out of the basin the filament passes on to the first barbin, then into the
napkin ring, then on to two barbins in the form of hooks, which support it well,
and cause it to rub against the napkin ring in such manner as to tighten the strands
and smooth and to round off the thread. The barbin and the napkin ring can be
replaced by a hollow truncated cone, with a parallel or widening part added at the
small end. The thread passes through a funnel with re-entering ends to retain the
oil and prevent soiling the silk. This part of the machine carries a special dis-
engaging gear so as to be able to instantaneously arrest the rotation of one of
the elements already described forming an element of the machine without the other
elements being arrested at the same time.
In order to do this one has only to press a button to arrest the movement of the
part of the mechanism immediately below. The button when pressed down is kept
in this position by means of a flat bolt or catch held by a bent or spiral spring. To
put the part again in motion one has only to press the flat bolt. Another disengaging
gear permits the arrestation at once of the barbins and the reel or winder. In this
case the winder has a friction on the shaft, caused by pieces of copper, which form
a clutch. The lever which stops the barbins carries a peg, which places itself
between the branches of the winder and arrests its movement. At all times by
means of a spring the winder can be disengaged and worked by hand so as to take
up a broken thread. The thread now passes into a moveable glass cleaner (purgeur),
of which the arms can approach each other or recede at will by means of a spiral
spring. Coming out from this the thread arrives at the last barbin, which has a
horizontal reciprocating movement, in such manner as to wind the thread evenly
on the winder. The reciprocating movement of the barbin is obtained by means of
special mechanism consisting of a pair of slotted levers with sliding pins, a pulley,
an arm, and a guide so arranged as to guide the thread to wind evenly on the
winder. For the cooking of the cocoons a perforated vessel is used, into which the

page_text: cocoons are placed, and in which they are prepared partly by steam and partly by
water. For some cocoons the perforations are made so large that the cocoons can
be slipped into the vessel, and merely half submerged and soaked. It may be further
added that there are placed on each side of the basin two compartments which serve
to receive the refuse of the cocoons.
.
The divisions in the basin are equally mounted upon grooved supports.