CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Dobson, of the Firm of Messieurs
Dobson and Barlow, of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Machine
Makers, and James Clough, of the same Place, Foreman, for the
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING
COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 16th April 1869, and dated the 29th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Dobson and
James Clough at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 29th October 1868.
We, BENJAMIN DOBSON, of the Firm of Messieurs Dobson and Barlow,
of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Makers, and JAMES
CLOUGH, of the same Place, Foreman, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING
COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
These improvements are particularly applicable to the machines for
preparing cotton and other fibrous substances called drawing frames, and
they consist in an improved self-acting apparatus for stopping the frame

page_text: when one or more slivers break, or when the proper quantity of fibres is
not passing through the machine.
In performing our Invention we employ a balanced lever, the upper
end of which forms a guide to guide the fibres in passing from the front
drawing roller to the trumpet mouth placed above the calender rollers
which deliver the sliver to the can or coiler or other receptacle. The
lower end of the lever takes into a slot in the end of a vibrating rod,
which is connected to and actuated by the usual rocking shaft of the
back-stop motion. As long as the proper quantity of slivers are passing
to the calender rollers the slivers hold the lower end of the balanced
lever clear of the vibrating rod and the machine continues its work,
but if one or more slivers break or the quantity of fibres is otherwise
deficient, the upper end of the balanced lever rises and the lower end
drops, and is then struck by the end of the slot in the vibrating rod, the
lower end of the lever coming against a stop in the stand supporting the
balanced lever; by this means the rod is stopped, and the rocking shaft
being also arrested moves the driving strap from the fast to the loose
pulley in the usual manner. When the: end or ends have been pieced
up and the frame is again started the end of the vibrating rod comes
against the lower end of the balanced lever, and replaces it in its proper
working position. The balanced lever can be adjusted by a regulating
screw connected to the lower end of the said lever.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Dobson and James Clough in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 27th April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, BENJAMIN
DOBSON, of the Firm of Messieurs Dobson and Barlow, of Bolton, in the
County of Lancaster, Machine Makers, and JAMES CLOUGH, of the same
Place, Foreman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Benjamin Dobson and James
Clough, Her special license that we, the said Benjamin Dobson and

page_text: James Clough, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Benjamin Dobson and James Clough, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Benjamin Dobson
and James Clough, our exccutors or 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 In-
vention, 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 Benjamin Dobson and James
Clough, 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)
These improvements are particularly applicable to the machines for
preparing cotton and other fibrous substances called drawing frames, and
they consist in an improved self-acting apparatus for stopping the frame
when one or more slivers break, or when the proper quantity of fibres is
not passing through the machine.
In performing our Invention we employ a balanced lever, the upper
end of which forms a guide to guide the fibres in passing from the front
drawing rollers to the trumpet mouth placed above the calender rollers,
which deliver the sliver to the can or coiler or other receptacle. The
lower end of the lever takes into a slot in the end, of a vibrating rod,
which is connected to and actuated by the usual rocking shaft of the
back-stop motion. As long as the proper quantity of slivers are passing
to the calender rollers the slivers hold the lower end of the balanced
lever clear of the vibrating rod, and the machine continues its work,
but if one or more slivers break, or the quantity of fibres is otherwise
deficient, the upper end of the balanced lever rises and the lower end
drops, and is then struck by the end of the slot in the vibrating rod, the
lower end of the lever coming against a stop in the standard supporting

page_text: the balanced lever; by this means the rod is stopped, and the rocking
shaft being also arrested moves the driving strap from the fast to the loose
pulley in the usual manner. When the end or ends have been pieced
up, and the frame is again started, the end of the vibrating rod comes
against the lower end of the balanced lever and replaces it in its proper
working position. The balanced lever can be adjusted by a regulating
screw connected to the lower end of the said lever.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood we will
proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which
Figure 1 represents a side elevation of part of a drawing frame with our
improved stop motion applied; Figure 2 is a plan of the same.
same letters refer to similar parts in the different views.
The
A is the balanced lever, the upper end of which forms a guide for the
fibres or slivers to pass through; A', guide plate placed below the upper
end of the balanced lever; B, B, the top and bottom front drawing
rollers; C, the delivery calender rollers; D, the vibrating rod; E,
the rocking shaft of the back-stop motion, which is applied in the usual
mauner; F, the standard supporting the balanced lever A; G, the regu-
lating screw; H, the fulcrum of the balanced lever; I, weights on the
screw for regulating the balance of the lever; and J a stop projecting
from the standard F, against which the lower end of the lever A is
pressed by the rod D. In Figure 1 the lower end of the balanced lever A
is shewn in the proper working position, when the proper quantity of
slivers are passing through the guide at its upper end. When the lower
end of the balanced lever A is in the position shewn in Figure 1 the
vibrating rod D works past the end of the lever A without moving it,
but when any of the slivers are missing the lower end of the lever A
overbalances the upper end and takes into the slot in the end of the
vibrating rod D, and arrests its motion, and also that of the rocking
shaft E, and by this means the ordinary mechanism is brought into
action, which shifts the driving strap from the fast to the loose pulley.
When the ends or slivers have been pieced up and the frame is again
started the other end of the slot of the vibrating rod D comes against
the lower end of the balanced lever A, and replaces it in its proper
working position. The screw G is for regulating or adjusting the balance
of the lever A, according to the thickness of the slivers passing through
the upper end. Thus if the slivers are thin and light the screw G is
brought near to the fulcrum H of the lever A; but if the slivers are

page_text: thick and heavy the screw G is brought towards the lower end of the
lever A.
Figures 3 and 4 represent a modification of our improved machinery;
in this arrangement the balanced lever A is jointed at H to the under
side of the plate F", which is hinged to the standard F, and the weight I
is adjustable in a slot of the balanced lever, being held in its place by
the screw G. The full lines in Figure 3 represent the balanced lever A
in the position it assumes when some of the slivers which should be
passing through its upper end are missing; the end of the lever A is
now shewn in the slot at the end of the rod D. The dotted lines shew
the lever A in the position it occupies when the proper number of slivers
are passing through its upper end.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described the
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we
make.no claim to the parts which are well known and in common usc,
such as the rocking shaft and other apparatus connected with the
ordinary back stop motion; but what we do claim is, the combinations
and arrangements of self-acting mechanism, as described and shewn in
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, for stopping drawing frames or other machines of
the like nature when one or more slivers break, or when the proper
quantity of fibres is not passing through the spout in the balanced
lever.