IMPROVEMENTS IN SICKLES & WIRES CONNECTED WITH MULES FOR SPINNING
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Smith, of Preston, in the County of
•
Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SICKLES & WIRES CONNECTED WITH MULES FOR SPINNING."
Sealed the 19th April 1870, and dated the 3rd January 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd January 1870.
I, JOSEPH SMITH, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton-
Spinner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN SICKLES & WIRES CONNECTED WITH MULES FOR SPINNING," to be
as follows:-
The nature of this Invention and the purpose to which it is applied
is to alleviate or take off the excessive strain from the thread, and'
by this means to form a better cop. It has hitherto been the

page_text: practice to have only one wire to each sickle of a spinning mule. This
has caused much trouble on account of the great strain made to bear on
the thread. It is chiefly for the purpose of lessening this unnecessary
strain that this Invention is designed.
This Invention consists principally in attaching two or more wires or
other flat or irregular surfaces to the sickles in such a manner that they
shall be caused to run through the same the entire length of the mule.
The wires or other irregular surfaces may be placed in any suitable
positions, either circular or situated at any convenient angle with respect
to each other; they may also be placed on any axle so as to be readily
adapted to any requisite angle. They may be attached to, either or both
of two sickles, which may be caused to work either inside or outside each
other. The thread may be made to pass either over or under the wires
or other irregular surfaces, or in any way which may be found most
desirable. These improved sickles may be used the entire length of the
mule or on any desired-part of it, for instance, if thought desirable only
one, two, or more of the same may be made use of.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 2nd July 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
SMITH, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, send
greeting.
"
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Joseph Smith, Her special licence that I,
the said Joseph Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Joseph Smith, 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,

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SICKLES AND WIRES
CONNECTED WITH MULES FOR SPINNING," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Joseph Smith, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of 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 I, the said Joseph Smith, 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 :-
My Invention consists in an improved arrangement of sickle wires to
under fallers or sickles of spinning mules, the object being to take of
the excessive strain from the thread or yarn at the point pressing on the
under faller wire, and divide such strain in order that more weight may
be put on and a firmer and better cop made. This I do by attaching
two or more wires or other flat or irregular surfaces to the under faller
or sickle, such wires being placed at any convenient angle with each
other, thus adding one or more wires to the one already in use, and
dividing the pressure or strain (formerly at one point or wire) into two.
or more parts.
And in order that my Invention may be more readily understood. I
will now describe the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Fig. 1 represents a building and under faller or sickles. in position:
when building a cop.
A is the under faller or sickle shewing the wires D and E;. D is the
wire in ordinary use as refered to above; E is the wire I have shewn
as illustrative of my improvements, being fixed to the ordinary under
faller or sickle by a small arm F, and secured to any convenient or
required position. I here shew a wire by preference, but I may use:
wires or other irregular surfaces, such as a section of a tube with the
upper portion cut away, leaving two flat surfaces for the thread or yarn
to press upon, or in addition to the ordinary wire, as at D, I in
may place.

page_text: of a wire at E fix a bar of any other desired shape or form, or I may
place such shaped bars at both D and E. If I add more than one wire
or other surface I make the arm F of any suitable shape or form to carry
such addition. The builder faller. or sickle B it will be seen is not at all
altered, but I prefer to have a larger wire C than at present in use,
thereby giving more friction surface for the yarn or thread and reducing
the liability to breakage at that point.
Fig. 2 is another modification of arm as refered to above at F with
holes in a radial arc from the shaft G; this series of holes enables the
wires to be considerably varied so as to vary the angles of yarn or thread
(if required) in passing from the drawing rollers H to the spindle J or
cop I.
Having fully described the nature of my said Invention and the
way in which the same is and may be practicaly used, I may here
observe that I am fully aware that it has been proposed in a Specifica- -
tion of a Patent granted to Samuel Oddy and Robert Nuttall on the
Eighth day of September One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine,
No. 2640, to effect the same purpose by using three faller or sickle
wires, that is, two on the building faller or sickle and one on the under
faller or sickle, the two fallers working in concentric arcs of circles
with each other, the building faller or sickle having two prongs. On
each end of such prongs are secured the aforesaid two building faller
or sickle wires, the under faller or sickle having only one prong, as
now in use, on which is one under faller wire. This under faller wire
works between the two aforesaid prongs of the building faller or sickle
concentric therewith; thus the three wires are triangular with each other
and the yarn or thread passes in a triangular shape to the cop while
building, having just double the slack yarn or thread to get rid of
every journey of the carriage in than I have or by the old method.
It has been sought to prove that I am infringing on the aforesaid a
Patent.
I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not claim their
arrangement nor any part thereof; but what I do claim as substantialy
my own and herein described is,--
First. The arrangement of two or more under faller or sickle wires or 3
other surfaces, as herein-before described.

page_text: Second. The arms F for regulating the angles of such wires or other
surfaces, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Smith, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JOSEPH SMITH. (L.S.)