CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN'
STEVENSON, of Roan Mills, Dungannon, County Tyrone, Flax Spinner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and fifty, in the thirteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,.
the said John Stevenson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Stevenson, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Stevenson,
my exors, adiiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER SUBSTANCES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Stevenson, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the

page_text: said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Stevenson, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
The nature of my said Invention consists in an improved construction of
the ordinary spinning frame, whereby, firstly, the threads while in the course
of being spun are, by the action of the machine itself, kept at the requisite
degree of tension (instead of this being done by hand, as at present), and all
at one uniform degree of tension, and this quite irrespective also of the coarse-
ness or fineness of the material spun. And, secondly, the flyers and bobbins
(or cops) are mounted independently of one another, so that the bobbins can
be removed when filled, and replaced by others without the necessity of
taking off the flyers at the same time, as is now the practice. By these
improvements the waste and delay now consequent on the frequent breakage
of threads will be almost wholly avoided; much greater speed may be given
to the rollers, flyers, and bobbins; less power will be required to drive the
machine, and the whole process of spinning be not only greatly accelerated,
but much reduced in cost. The manner in which these improvements in the
construction of the machine are effected is represented in the Drawings
annexed.
1
Figure 1 is a front view, partly in section, of a portion of a spinning frame
as thus improved; and Figure 2 a transverse sectional elevation on the
line a, b. The remaining Figures are detached views of those parts to which
my improvements have more particular reference, as will be herein-after
pointed out; C, C, are the delivering rollers; D, D, a series of tubes through
which the threads pass as they come from the rollers which revolve in bearings
in the rails E, E, and have attached to them at their under ends the flyers
F, F, G, G, are the whorls by which rotation is given to the tubes, and
through them to the flyers. A vertical section of one of these tubes, with
flyers attached, is given separately in Figure 3, and an elevation in Figure 4.
Eye pieces c, c, are inserted into these tubes at top and bottom, by leading
the thread through which it is kept in the centre of the tubes, and any
friction against the sides prevented; G', G', are guides by which the thread
on emerging from the tube is conducted to the extreme end of one of the
arms of the flyer, whence it is passed on to the bobbin H. The bobbins are
mounted loosely on spindles I, I, so as to be put on and taken off without the

page_text: least interference with the other parts of the machine, and they are mounted
at such an elevation as to come each within the circle described by the flyer
to which it is the receiver. But to connect each bobbin (when in its place)
with its spindle, and to secure their revolving together, a wire is passed
crosswise through the axis of each bobbin, which takes into a cleft h in the
top of the spindle. The spindles have their bearings in the rising and falling
rails K', K, which constitute what is technically called the "builder." To
the front rail K' there is attached a sliding plate L, which acts on the spindles
and bobbins in the manner to be next explained. For every spindle and
bobbin there is a weight attached to the sliding plate by means of a cord d,
which bears against a pulley g, and then passes over the side pulley e to the
weight. At each rise of the plates K', K², or builder, they raise along with
them the paul P, which turns the ratchet wheel M, which gives a partial
turn to the screw N, which works into a nut p on the face of the sliding
plate L, and thereby draws the plate L from the right towards the left, which
causes the cord d to press against the periphery of the pulley g, in a ratio
encreasing successively with each rise of the builder. A front elevation and.
end view of a portion of the machine, shewing the. arrangements connected
with the bobbins and spindle and sliding plate on an enlarged scale, are given
in Figures 5 and 6. The weights L are so adjusted by trial, that when the
ends of the threads are passed once or twice (by hand) round the bobbins, the
weights shall not prevent the threads from causing, by their own action alone,
the bobbins and their spindles to revolve, but shall be just sufficient at the
same time, with the assistance of the sliding plate, to keep the threads at
the one uniform degree of tension requisite for the production of good work
without interruption from breakage and piecing.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvements which
I claim are as follows:-
First, I claim the employment in spinning machines of tubes through which
the threads are passed to the flyers, and which revolve in bearings above the
bobbins, as before described.
Second, I claim the giving motion to the flyers from the said revolving
tubes, as before described.
Third, I claim the mounting of the flyers and bobbins wholly independently
of one another, and so that they are connected only by the threads as before
described.
Fourth, I claim the giving motion to the bobbins and their spindles by
means of the threads alone, as before described.

page_text: And, fifth, I claim the employment of the regulating weight and slide to
keep the threads at the proper degree of tension, as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Stevenson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty