CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES AND OTHER MACHINES FOR SPINNING AND
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Elce, of the City of Manchester, Machinist,
and John Hewitt, of the same Place, Foreman, for the Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES AND OTHER MACHINES FOR SPINNING AND
Sealed the 10th July 1857, and dated the 28th January 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Elce and John
Hewitt at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 28th January 1857.
We, JOHN ELCE, of the City of Manchester, Machinist, and JoHN HEWITT,
of the same Place, Foreman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES AND OTHER MACHINES FOR SPINNING AND
DOUBLING," to be as follows:-
The nature of our Invention consists, first, in an improved copping motion,
applicable to mules and other machines for spinning and doubling. A disk, with
suitable elevations upon it to guide the fallers of a mule, or the copping rail of
a throstle or doubling frame is made to rotate first in one direction and then
in the other by any suitable mechanism. On this disk a bowl connected to. a
lever to which the shaping plate is attached works; this lever is moved towards
the centre of the disk by a screw, acted upon at each stretch or at each lift by
a ratchet wheel, as in other copping motions. The motions of the lever are
communicated to the fallers or to the lifting rail by a rod bearing on the

page_text: shaping plate, and by levers connected to the fallers or to the lifting rail, as
usual.
Secondly, in the application of a segment ratchet to the ratchet wheels used
in giving motion to the screws of copping motions. This segment ratchet is acted
upon by the click during the first few stretches to prevent the screw being
turned round until they have been performed; it then falls over, and allows the
motion to be imparted to the screw in the usual manner.
Thirdly, in an improved combination of machinery for effecting the after-
draft, chiefly applicable to hand mules. This consists of a toothed scroll fixed to
a shaft near the back shaft; this scroll is turned slowly round by a pinion
on a swing frame driven by the front roller or other part of the mule, and to
the scroll is fixed a pinion gearing into a wheel on the back shaft; by this
means, when the carriage is nearly out the slow motion for effecting the after-
draft is imparted to the carriage.
Our Invention also consists in obtaining the after-draft by means of two
bevel wheels fixed on the front roller or other convenient part of the mule,
into each of which a pinion gears alternately. These bevel wheels are con-
nected by gearing to the back shaft, one imparting the motion for taking out
the carriage at the usual speed, and the other at the reduced speed for the
after draft. By this arrangement the clutch boxes usually employed are
dispensed with.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Elce and John Hewitt in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th July 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ELCE, of the City of Manchester, Machinist, and JoHN HEWITT, of the same
Place, Foreman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said John Elce and John Hewitt, Her special license that we, the
said John Elce and John Hewitt, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said John Elce and John Hewitt, our 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

page_text: expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and the Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES AND
OTHER MACHINES FOR SPINNING AND DOUBLING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Elce and John Hewitt, our executors and
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their or one of our
or their hands and seals, 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 we, the said John Elce and John Hewitt, do hereby
declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-.
The nature of our Invention consists, first, in an improved copping motion,
or combination of parts, applicable to mules and other machines for spinning
and doubling, for actuating the fallers or copping rail to form the cops or
bobbins.
Secondly, in the application of a segment ratchet to the ratchet wheels used
in giving motion to the screws of copping motions, to prevent the screw being
turned round until the first few layers of yarn have been wound on the
spindles.
And, thirdly, in a certain improved combination of machinery for effecting
the after-draft.
In order that our Invention may be fully understood and. readily carried
into effect, we will proceed to describe the means pursued by us, reference
being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon.
Figure 1 is an elevation of part of a carriage of an ordinary self-acting
mule to which our improved copping motion is applied; Figure 2 is a plan of
the same.
a is the carriage square; b, one of the spindles; c, the faller shaft;
d, the counter faller shaft; and e, the segment shaft. These parts, and all the
others requisite to complete the machine, which are not particularly referred to
hereafter, are made in the usual manner. f is a disk, furnished with suitable
elevations and depressions, acting on the fallers, and made to rotate first in one
.direction and then in the other by the following mechanism :-The disk f, seen
best in the, detached views, Figures 3 and 4, which are drawn half size, is fixed
to the upper end of the shaft g, to the lower end of which is fixed the pinion

page_text: h; this pinion gears into the segment i, mounted on a stud fixed to the under
side of the carriage. To the segment i is connected the lever j, furnished with
an antifriction roller, taking into the groove of an inclined rail k, which is fast
to the floor or to the framing of the machine. When the carriage of the mule
is going out or in, the inclined rail k causes the lever j and segment i to
oscillate, thereby imparting the requisite motion in contrary directions to the
disk f. Above the disk f is supported the lever or rail 1, to which is con-
nected the bowl l', bearing on the disk f; this lever or rail is moved longi-
tudinally, so as to cause the bowl to move gradually towards the centre of
the disk f by the screw m; which revolves in fixed bearings attached to the
carriage, and takes into a nut connected to the lever or rail l. To the screw m
is fixed the ratchet wheel m', which is acted upon by a click n, jointed to the
lever n' in the usual manner, or according to the improved mode shewn in
Figure 5, which will be described hereafter. To the lever or rail l is fixed an
adjustable shaping plate 1, upon which bears the stud o; this stud is adjust-
able in the lever p; by increasing or diminishing the distance of this stud from
the fulcrum of the lever p the chase of the cop is diminished or increased.
The catch q takes into the notch of the segment e¹ in the usual manner. The
mode of operation is as follows:-The Drawing represents the parts in the
positions they occupy when the carriage is nearly out, and when the bottom of
the cop is about half formed. At the commencement of building a set
of cops,
the rail or lever l'is in such a position that the outer portion of the
disk facts on the bowl ; after every stretch the carriage in running out
brings the lever n' against an inclined piece, which raises the lever and causes
the click n to act on the ratchet wheel m³, thereby turning the screw m partly
round, and bringing the bowl nearer to the centre of the disk f. The
gradual variations in the position of the bowl l cause the stud o to slide down
the shaping plate, and the elevations and depressions on the face of the disk
facting on the bowl , produce the requisite variations in the motion com-
municated to the fallers. When the bowl has arrived in the position shewn
in dotted lines in Figure 2 the cop is completed. When our improved
copping motion is applied to doubling frames or "throstles" the disk facts on
the copping rail to raise and lower the bobbins.
The object of our improved copping motion is to economise labour in
erecting the machine in the mill, as the copping motion can be put together
in the machine shop, and requires little or no adjustment afterwards. The
elevations and depressions on the disk are calculated to build cops of the most
approved form, and cannot be altered or tampered with by the spinner. The
parts are also more durable.

page_text: Figure 5 represents our improved mode of giving motion to the ratchet
wheel fixed to the screw of the copping motion. This part of our Invention is
applicable to all copping motions in which a screw is employed for varying the
position of the shaper plate. It is well known to practical spinners that in
commencing to build a cop the yarn ought to be allowed to accumulate on the
spindle, and that no motion should be given to the shaper plate during the first
few stretches. Now, in order to accomplish this, we apply a segment ratchet r,
as shewn at Figure 5, which is loose on the end of the copping screw m;
this
segment ratchet has a retaining pall s. is the working lever, furnished with
a catch n in the usual manner. The Drawing shews the parts in the positions
they occupy at starting to build the cop. When the carriage has run out, the
lever n¹ is raised in the usual manner, and the catch n moves the segment
ratchetone tooth in the direction of the arrow, and as this segment ratchet
is loose on the screw, no motion is imparted to the screw or to the shaper plate.
The second, third, and fourth, or any suitable number of stretches, are effected
in the same manner until the segment ratchet r has been moved beyond the
reach of the catch n; the segment ratchet then drops into the position shewn
in dotted lines, and the catch n drops on the ratchet wheel m¹ fixed to the
screw m, so that at the next stretch the catch n is in position for moving
the screw partly round in the usual manner; the motion continues to be given
to the screw until the cop is formed. On recommencing a set of cops, the
spinner raises the segment ratchet r into the position in which it is shewn in
Figure 5, and the operations proceed as before described.
Figure 6 is an elevation of our improved combination of machinery for
taking the carriage out, and for effecting the after-draft; and Figure 7, a
side view of the same. x is a toothed scroll projecting from the wheel,
and a is a pinion gearing into it. This pinion is fixed to a shaft a working
in the swing frame y; to the shaft a is also fixed the wheel a³, to which
motion is imparted by the wheel and a pinion ³, connected to the front
roller by a catch box. When the carriage is nearly out, the front roller catch
box is disengaged, and the requisite slow motion is imparted to the carriage
for effecting the after-draft, by the pinion a¹ acting on the larger segment of the
scrolla, the carriage having been taken out by the pinion a¹ acting on the
concentric part of the scroll, and the wheel driving the pinion ¹ on the back,
shaft.
Having thus particularly described the nature of our Invention, and the
manner of performing the same; we wish it to be understood that we do not
limit ourselves to the precise details herein set forth, as the same may be

page_text: modified without departing from the peculiar character thereof; but what
we do claim is,-
First, the disc marked f, and the parts acting in combination therewith, for
giving motion to the fallers of mules or the copping rail of throstles and
doubling machines, as described.
Secondly, the application of a segment ratchet to the ratchet wheel of the
screw of the copping motion, as described.
And, lastly, the application of a toothed scroll for effecting the after-draft, as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Elce, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
⚫ thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
H. B. BARLOW,
Manchester.
JOHN ELCE. (L.S.)