IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BALLING THREADS, YARNS, OR TWINES, MADE FROM FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Grimston, of Clifford, in the County of
York, Shoe Thread Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR BALLING THREADS, YARNS, OR TWINES, MADE FROM FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
Sealed the 21st December 1860, and dated the 3rd September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Grimston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd September 1860.
I, THOMAS GRIMSTON, of Clifford, in the County of York, Shoe Thread
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR BALLING THREADS, YARNS, OR TWINES MADE
FROM FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
By the balling machinery now in use, the balls or clews are obliged to be
taken off the spindles by hand from time to time, and weighed to ascertain
whether a sufficient quantity has been wound, but by my Invention I avoid
this necessity by the connection of teeth gearing from the shaft of the driving
wheel to an index plate, and the index thereon, in such a manner that when
the index needle is placed at any given point upon the index plate, such an
exact amount of yarn, thread, or twine will be wound upon the spindles as will
produce a ball or clew of the weight required. Upon the shaft of the index

page_text: needle I fix a cam, and cause it to alter the gearing which drives the spindles
when required, so as to produce the topping or covering motion, which motion
consists in driving the spindles at a slower speed, whereby the last layer of
thread, yarn, or twine, is wound upon the ball or clew quite close and regularly.
This alteration of gearing in the old machines is made by hand. The applica-
tion of the cam to alter the gearing of the spindles so as to produce the topping
motion, I effect at the exact period of time when the winding on of the last
layer, and which will complete the ball or clew commences, by which means
the alteration is made with greater accuracy and in less time than if made by
hand. After the ball or clew is completed, the machine may either be stopped
by hand or thrown out of gear by the application of a catch connected to the
cam shaft, and acting upon a lever fixed to the throwing out .handle of the
machine.
In addition to the other advantages of this Invention, the economy of time
which results from it will enable me to employ three or more spindles at once
on the same balling machine instead of being limited to one or two, as is the
case with the balling machines now in use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Grimston in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GRIMSTON, of Clifford, in the County of York, Shoe Thread Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Grimston, Her special license that I, the said Thomas Grimston, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as the said Thomas
Grimston, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
'vend within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR BALLING THREADS, YARNS, OR TWINES MADE FROM FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Grimston, by an
•

page_text: instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said. Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas, Grimston, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and, by the following
statement,, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention of improvements in machinery for balling threads, yarns, or.
twines, made made from fibrous materials consist, -
Firstly, in a novel arrangement of the ordinary balling machine, whereby
the balls or clews are wound to a certain size without the necessity of removing
them from their spindles from time to time for the purpose of being weighed.
again and again until the proper length or weight of ball is arrived at..
Secondly, in winding on the yarn, thread, or twine, with any required degree.
of openness up to the last layer, which is laid on close and, uniformly and gives
the balls a firm and finished appearance.
Thirdly, in one person being able to attend to three or more spindles instead
of one or two as before, with a proportionate increase of work consequent upon.
the saving of time affected, in at once arriving at the, proper weight, of the
balls.
And, lastly, in a novel method of driving three or four flyers from one and
the same pulley.
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation; Figure 2 a
plan view; and Figure 3 a side elevation of a balling machine constructed
according to my Invention.
A is the driving shaft of the machine, by which, motion is communicated to
three distinct parts of the machine, videlicit, the flyers B, the cam or pointer
shaft C, which regulates the size of the balls, and the spindles D-on which the
balls are wound; E (Figure 3) is a large pulley mounted on the driving, shaft
and having two endless tapes or belts passing round a portion of its periphery,
and also round the wharves of the flyers B. The outside tape drives the two
outside flyers, and the inside one, which is of course next the pulley, drives
the middle one or two, the wharve or wharves of which is or are a. shade less:
in diameter to allow for the increased diameter which the inside-tape necessarily
gives to the outside one; F (Figure 2) is an endless screw. or, worm on the
driving shaft A, and works into a wheel G on the upright shaft H at the lower

page_text: .
end of which is a bevil pinion which gears into a bevil wheel on the horizontal
shaft I, and therefore drives the same, as seen in Figure 3. At the other end
of the shaft I is another bevil pinion, which gears into and drives a similar
pinion on the upright shaft J, which by means of a pair of bevils drives the
horizontal cam or pointer shaft C above. The upright shaft J has a free
vertical movement, the step at its lower end working freely in its bearing, and
is pressed upwards by the lever K until the upper extremity of the shaft J
touches the bottom of the socket L. As soon then as the pressure of the
lever K is removed from the under side of the step (which the girl in attendance
readily effects by placing her foot on the plate d) the bevil wheels on the
upright shaft J drop out of gear, and the cam shaft C is pulled round by the
weight M (Figure 1) until the cam a rests or is stopped by the pin b project-
ing from the worm wheel c. This worm wheel c works loose upon the cam
shaft, and is controlled by a worm on the short shaft e at the outer extremity
of which is a handle, which on being turned either one way or the other, brings
the projecting pin 6 nearer to or further away from the cam, and thereby
causes more or less time to be occupied by the cam in raising the spring
handle fout of the notch g. A friction pulley N. (Figure 2) at the extremity
of the driving shaft A drives a friction plate O on the upright shaft O¹. The
friction pulley N and friction plate O are pressed together by means of a lever
acting upon the step which supports the bottom of the upright shaft O¹. A
diagonal shaft P is driven from the upright shaft O¹, and communicates its
motion to the upright or radial shaft Q. Another diagonal shaft P¹ gears
into bevil wheels on the shaft Q, and gives the quick or first motion to the
spindles D, D, D, whereas the upper diagonal shaft gives the slow or covering
imotion to the spindles.
The vertical or radial shaft Q is shewn as driven from the lower diagonal
shaft P¹, but before the balls are finished it is driven from the upper shaft P:
The raising of the radial shaft Q into gear with the top diagonal shaft P is
effected in the following manner :From the commencement of the winding
of a ball until it is ready for the last closely laid layer, the spring handle f
attached to the spindle frame R, is secured on the notch g, the chain and
weight (which are attached to the said spindle frame for the purpose of
pulling it round to the stop iso soon as the spring handle f is released from
the notch by. the action of the cam a), are. also connected with the lever S
(Figure 1) which has a weight at one end, and the step or socket of the radial
shaft secured at the other: When the spring handle f is in the notch, the
chain from the spindle frame to the weight h, and the weight to the lever S is
drawn tight, but as soon as the cam a throws the handle out of the notch the

page_text: frame swings back; and setting the chain at liberty causes the weight on the
lever S to raise the step and radial shaft Q at the other end out of gear with
the lower diagonal shaft P¹, and into gear with the upper diagonal shaft P.
k is a screw bolt working in the weight h, by which the length of chain is
increased or diminished as required by the position to which the frame R is
allowed to fall back by the stop i. The connection betwixt the radial shaft Q
and the spindles D, D, D, is the same as in the ordinary balling machines as
shewn at Figure 1.
Having now explained the driving of the flyers, cam shaft, and spindles, I
will proceed to explain their relation to each other during the process of filling
one set of balls.
T is the bobbin creel constructed in the usual way, and having three or more
bobbins of yarn, thread, or twine, each mounted on its own spindle. The
yarn, thread, or twine, which supplies the balls is, as in the old machines, un-
wound or drawn from the bobbins, and passing through the hole in the flyer,
wharve axle, reappears at the shoulder of the flyer and passes through an eye
or curl at the extremity of the flyer on to the spindle, where, from its oblique
direction to the flyer, and the relative speeds of the same, the ball receives its
form and size. No change takes place in the relative movements of the
machine until the moment has arrived when the last or covering layer must
be wound on the ball, when the cam a having arrived at a certain point in its
course produces, as already explained, the changes necessary to the finishing of
the balls.
This machine will either produce, with equal facility, balls closely laid or
wound open throughout, or with these two methods combined; the results
being attained as follows:-For the production of balls closely laid, the
weight his disconnected from the lever S, which brings the upper bevil wheel
on the radial shaft Q into gear, and for balls to be wound open throughout the
weight X (Figure 3) is removed from the lever S, whereby the lower bevil
wheel on the same radial shaft is allowed to resume its original position.
An index plate U is fastened to the table of the machine, and the end of
the cam shaft passes through its centre, and on this shaft is placed a needle or
pointer to indicate any required number on the plate. This plate may be
divided into any number of parts, and it is the duty of the person in attendance
to see that before beginning to ball the pointer indicates that number, which
on previous trial has been found to give at the stoppage of the machine the
required weight of ball. A catch or pin j on the cam shaft C acts upon the
end of a cranked rod V, which is attached to the belt fork W, and throws it
off the fast pulley at the moment that the last layer is completed.

page_text: Having now described my improvements in machinery for balling threads,
yarns, and twines made from fibrous substances, and having explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to
me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,―
The mode herein set forth of holding and releasing the ball spindle frame,
whereby the necessity of weighing the balls as now practised is avoided.
I also claim winding balls of thread, yarn, or twine, by combining as herein
set forth, the two methods of open and close winding, whereby a saving of
time and labour is effected in the winding operation, and the balls are made
larger and may be unwound with greater facility and regularity than
heretofore.
flyers, and also
I further claim the mode herein set forth of driving the
the arrangement of parts herein set forth, whereby balls. of thread, yarn or
twine may be wound, either entirely close or entirely open, laid, on by the two
methods combined.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Grimston, has hereunto set my
hand and seal; the Tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
THOMAS GRIMSTON: (L.S.)
Signed, and sealed by the said Thomas
Grimston, in the presence of
J. B. WILKINSON,
17, Albion Street, Leeds.