IMPROVEMENTS IN ⚫ REGULATING OR CONTROLLING THE POWER EMPLOYED IN ACTUATING SEWING AND OTHER MACHINES OF A LIGHT NATURE
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Fothergill, of 27, Cornhill, in the City of
London, Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
⚫ REGULATING OR CONTROLLING THE POWER EMPLOYED IN ACTUATING SEWING
AND OTHER MACHINES OF A LIGHT NATURE:"
Sealed the 9th January 1866, and dated the 11th July 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Fothergill at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with his Petition, on the
11th July 1865.
I, BENJAMIN FOTHERGILL, of 27, Cornhill, in the City of London, Consulting
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN REGULATING OR CONTROLLING THE POWER EMPLOYED IN ACTUATING
SEWING AND OTHER MACHINES OF A LIGHT NATURE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the driving or actuating of sewing machines,
watchmakers' lathes, jewellers" and lapidaries' polishing and cutting machines,
and other light, machines, which do not require much power to drive them,
and has for its object the regulating or controlling the driving power employed

page_text: in accordance with the requirements of the machine, so that the machine may
operate in a regular and uniform manner, whether executing light or heavy
work.
In carrying out this Invention it is preferred to use as the motive-power a
train of toothed wheels, and the well-known "fusee" arrangement, set in
motion either by means of a barrel spring, or by a weight and cord, as is well
understood by mechanicians (when a weight is used the "fusee" will not be
required), and to combine with such gearing any convenient self-acting speed
regulator or governor with a view to prevent over-running of the machine in
lieu of accomplishing the same end by the application of friction which
always entails loss or waste of power and wear and tear of machinery.
It is this application and use of a self-acting speed regulator or governor in
combination with the driving mechanism above referred to that constitutes
the essential feature of the said Invention.
Various forms and constructions of self-acting speed regulators or governors
may be employed, but I prefer to use a set of two or more revolving vanes,
which on rotating at a high velocity meet with sufficient resistance from the
atmosphere to check or control the working of the machine. These vanes
should be by preference capable of adjustment, so as to increase or diminish
their resisting powers, for which purpose they may be constructed in the form
of louvre boards, made to open or close more or less, or they may be simple
flat discs or surfaces, which are turned more or less edgewise to the resisting
medium; they may either revolve in free air or be enclosed within a box or
casing, filled or partially filled with water or other liquid medium of a denser
nature than the atmosphere. The opening and closing of the louvre boards, or
the varying of the angle of the flat surfaces or discs, may be effected by the
action of centrifugal force so applied that when revolving at a high velocity
the vanes shall be closed or túrned with the flat faces more or less to the
resisting medium, and vice versa.