IMPROVEMENTS IN SPINNING MACHINERY
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Sang, of Edinburgh, in the County of
Mid Lothian, North Britain, for the Invention of “ IMPROVEMENTS IN
SPINNING MACHINERY."
Sealed the 25th February 1873, and dated the 19th November 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Sang at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th November 1872.
I; EDWARD SANG, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN SPINNING MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the machinery for spinning
fibrous substances, and is more particularly applicable for the spinning
of rope yarns from hemp, flax, Manilla, and other long fibred substances,
but it is also capable of being used for cotton and other short fibres, and
consists,
First. In an arrangement of rollers, smooth, grooved, or criddled,
around, over, or between which the twine or thread in the course of

page_text: formation is made to press in such a way as to be drawn forward while
the spinning proceeds.
Secondly. In placing the said arrangement of rollers on a revolving
axis or throstle having its journals pierced to admit the twine or thread
to the rollers, and to allow the twine or thread to pass away from those 5
rollers.
Thirdly. In so connecting the motion of the rollers with the rotatory
motion of the throstle as that the twine or thread shall receive a definite
uniform twist in proportion to its length.
The farther or escape end of the throstle axis is connected in the usual 1
way with a fly and bobbin so as that the twine or thread shall be wound
upon the bobbin as it is formed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Edward Sang in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 16th May 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
SANG, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Sang, Her
special license that I, the said Edward Sang, my executors, adminis-
trators; and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Sang,
my executors, administrators, or 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 SPINNING MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Edward Sang, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly

page_text: 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 Edward Sang, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
-
My said Invention relates to improvements in machinery for spinning
fibrous substances, and is primarily designed for the spinning of flax,
hemp, Manilla, and other long fibred substances either from the waist or
from slivers prepared by machinery, but it is also capable of being used
for cotton and other short fibres, as well as for the laying, doubling, and
combining of two or more yarns already spun, and consists,—
First. Of an arrangement of two or more rollers represented in Figures
1, 2, 4, and 5 at some of the letters A, B, C, D, the number and arrange-
ment of these being suited to the kind of work to be done, as herein-after
more particularly explained. Of these rollers some as A and B are
driven by the means afterwards to be described, while others, as O and D
are pressed against these by the agency of springs so as to hold the
twine between them, and at the same time to permit of variations in this
thickness. Or, all the rollers may be driven, arrangements at the same
time being made for small variations in their distance.
Second. In placing the said arrangement of rollers on a revolving axis
or throstle consisting of a box or frame marked E, E, E, E, in Figures
1, 2, and 3, having two journals F, G, and H, I, on which it is free to
turn. The said box or frame with its journals may be made of one piece
of metal, but I prefer to make the journals separately of steel, firmly
screwed into or otherwise fastened to the ends of the box, as shewn in
Figure 1. If the journals be screwed into the ends of the box, one of
the screws should be left handed, the other right handed, in order that
the motion may not tend to unscrew them. In the usual way of twining
the ingoing journal F, G, should have a left-hand screw. These journals
rotate in a head stock or frame K, K, K, K, somewhat like the head stock

page_text: of a common turning lathe, and are both pierced for the purpose of
allowing the twine to pass through them.
Third. In connecting the driven rollers, as A and B, with the rotatory
motion of the whole throstle in such a way as that a determinate relative
speed may be given to them, that relative speed being arranged to suit
the degree of twist that may be desired. This connection may be by
any of the well-known mechanical contrivances for such purposes as by
toothed wheels, bevelled wheels, or snail wheels, or by all combined.
The arrangement which I have used is to fix a ring toothed wheel L
firmly, on the inner surface of the head stock K, K, and concentric with
the axle, and to gear into this a second toothed wheel or pinion M fixed
on the end of an axle N, N, working in the frame or box E, E. Portions
of this axis opposite to the driven pulleys are screwed or snail cut, and
these portions or snails work snail wheels P, P, fixed on the axes of those
pulleys, so that when the throstle is turned round, the fixed wheel L
drives the second wheel or pinion M, causing the snails to revolve, and
so to turn the snail wheels P, P, and the rollers A and B attached to
them. These driven rollers communicate motion to the non-driven
rollers C and B by adhesion or friction.
Having now explained the general arrangement and character of my
said improvement I proceed to describe more particularly the mode of
its operation.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent the machine as arranged for spinning
hemp or Manilla from the waist, and are drawn on a scale of one-third
part of the actual size. Figure 1 is a vertical section along the principal
axis; Figures 2 and 3 are sections across that axis. The front or
entrance journal F, G, is pierced through its whole length so as to admit
easily the thickest twine that is to be spun, and at F the mouth is made
trumpet-shaped with its edges carefully rounded and smoothed to facili-
tate the entrance of the twine. Its farther end G is carried as near as
may be to the surface of the rollers A, C, in order to lead the beginning
of the twine to them. When these rollers have caught hold of the
twine they continue to draw it forward, and so bring it to pass between
the next pair of rollers B, D, and if it were necessary these might lead
it to a third pair. It is prudent to make the second driven roller per-
ceptibly greater in diameter than the first one in order to keep the

page_text: thread tight detween the two pairs, but this difference in diameter must
not go beyond the elasticity of the twine. An increase of one part in a
thousand is sufficient for the purpose, but for safety and to guard against
bad workmanship it may be made more, say one in one hundred.
The hole in the second or outgoing journal H, I, is trumpet-mouthed
at the near end H to admit the beginning of the twine, and is also
trumpet-mouthed at the farther end I to avoid injury to the thread at
its outgoing.
The end I of the journal projects beyond the face of the head stock
far enough to carry a double arm Q, Q, from the ends of which two
rods R, R, project, forming altogether what is commonly called a fly, or
the whole fly may be made in one piece. At the points S, S, S, there
are placed eyes or small deeply grooved pulleys for guiding the twine
from the throstle to the bobbin T, T, the course of the twine being
indicated by the dotted line. I have found it convenient to form the
rod R which carries the pulleys 8 like a half tube open inwards, in
which the twine may be protected from the effects of its centrifugal
force, or the well known hollow fly may be used for this purpose. The
bobbin may be supported in any convenient way, as by a stud U, U,
projecting from a back support V, V, or partly by a prolongation of the
axis of the throstle, as shewn in Figure 1. The bobbin is retarded by
the friction on the stud or by any other arrangement, say a friction strap
or a chain and weight, the frictional arrangement being a matter of
indifference so far as my Invention is concerned. The retardation must
be enough to lay the twine upon the bobbin, but must not be so great
as to drag the twine through the throstle. The bobbin must also have
an alternating motion endwise for the purpose of evenly filling it, and
this alternating motion may be obtained by any of the already known
contrivances for that purpose. The support V, V, is made moveable for
the purpose of withdrawing the bobbin when filled and of replacing it
by an empty one.
The whole throstle is enclosed in a oulindrical casing e
which

page_text: In the spinning of rope yarns and twine from the waist the worker
has to exert considerable pressure on the fibres in order to make a
smooth thread, and so has to hold back the twine; the rollers therefore
must have a grip sufficient to overcome this back pull, and this grip may
be obtained from a single pair of slightly roughened or of smooth
rollers A, C, provided the springs keeping these together be strong
enough. The pressure of the springs tends to flatten the twine. This
flattening is of little or no consequence in the case of rope yarns
which have eventually to be squeezed forcibly together, but in other
cases it may be detrimental. For the purpose of lessening the
flattening of the twine two or more pairs of rollers are used, and the
requisite pressure is shared among them so as to be less on each pair.
In this way the flattening is proportionally diminished. I have found
that two pairs of rollers, as shown in Figure 1, produce yarns sufficiently
round for rope and twine making.
When spinning from the sliver the back pull is much less, and a
single pair of rollers may be sufficient.
The flattening of the twine may be rendered imperceptible, or may be
entirely avoided by either of the arrangements of rollers shown in
Figures 4 and 5.
Figure 4 shows an arrangement which may be substituted for that
shewn in Figure 1. In Figure 4 the two driven rollers A and B with
their snail or worm wheels P, P, are shewn as placed on opposite sides
of the axis of the throstle, and a small moveable pulley C is shown as
pressing against the side of A. On the circumferences of A and B one,
two, or more shallow grooves just deep enough to guide the twine are
made, and the twine is passed round them in the direction of the arrows
in the following manner:-After being brought through the ingoing
journal F, G, of Figure 1 the twine is passed forward to B, round which
it makes about three-quarters of a turn, thence it passes across to A,
round which it also makes about three-quarters of a turn, passing under
the roller C, and thence to the outgoing journal H, I, of Figure 1. Or
before passing under C the twine may once more pass round B, and
thereafter round A.; or this course may be repeated previous to the
twine passing under C, and thence to the outgoing journal. The
grooves in the rollers must be so placed as that the different parts of the
twine may pass clear of each other, and the roller C must be so placed

page_text: as to avoid all the turns of the twine but the last. The effective
diameters of the grooved parts of the rollers should be perceptibly
augmented at each step, in order to keep the successive portions of the
twine tight, and thus give it a hold upon the surface. As much
increase as can be distinguished by help of an ordinary pair of callipers
is enough. By this arrangement a very slight grip between the rollers O
and A is sufficient to overcome the back pull by the worker, and thus all
perceptible flattening of the twine may be avoided.
Figure 5 shows an arrangement of only two rollers A and B, each of
which is driven. These rollers are to be grooved, and the twine is to be
passed alternately round them, as in Figure 4, the same precautions
being taken as above described, and the twine proceeds directly to the
outgoing journal. In this arrangement a very slight forward pull
caused by the retardation of the bobbin gives the rollers such a hold of
the twine as to resist the back pull of the spinner on the one hand, and
on the other hand the slightest back pull by the worker is enough to
prevent the bobbin from dragging the twine through the throstle, and
thus the proper rate of progress is secured. I recommend either of these
arrangements, Figures 4 and 5, for spinning the finer class of hempen
lines. The use of them is attended with a little trouble at the com-
mencement of a line, but the worker may easily take care to leave an
end out for beginning his next one.
For the purpose of spinning from sliver two distinct throstle may be
used, the first having no fly, exerting only a moderate pressure, and
giving a slight twist takes up the sliver at a rate somewhat greater than
the rate of delivery by the sliver rollers; the slightly twisted sliver then
proceeds directly from the outgoing journal of the first throstle to the
ingoing journal of the second or finishing throstle, which draws at a
rate again somewhat quicker than the former. In this way the ends
of the fibres are drawn into the partially twisted sliver, and a com-
paratively smooth line is produced. The distances of the several parts
must be arranged to suit the staple of the fibre to be spun.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not claim as
forming any part of my said Invention the fly and bobbin, or the mode

page_text: of causing them to operate, neither do I claim as new the causing the
twine to pass through a perforated axis or throstle with or without
rollers and other machinery thereunto attached; but what I consider to
be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the peculiar
arrangement and combination of rollers caused to operate in such a
manner as that they shall control and regulate the progress of the
twine, so that the rate of twist or number of turns in a given length
shall be fixed and determined, and shall not be dependent on the
fullness or emptiness of the bobbin, substantially as and for the purpose 1
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Sang, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of May One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
EDWARD SANG. (L.S.)