IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY For MAKING CORD OR ROPE
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, Patent Agent, of 38, Southampton
Buildings, London, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY For
MAKING CORD OR ROPE." A communication from abroad by Charles
Emerson Barnes, Prentiss Webster, and Paul Butler, all of Lowell, Massa-
chusetts, United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan-Brown at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th October 1880.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, Patent Agent, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London.
[A communi-
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING CORD OR ROPE"
cation from abroad by Charles Emerson Barnes, Prentiss Webster, and Paul Butler,
all of Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America.]
This Invention relates to a novel mechanism for and method of making cord.
The object of the Invention is to produce a solid woven cord or rope without
the necessity of employing a separate core or centre filling strand, as now commonly
done.
In certain cord-making machines now in use, working much after the manner
of braiding machines, each traveller bobbin is made to carry its thread about the
threads carried by bobbins of two other travellers, they being at that time
stationary; but in that class of machine the cord produced has a hollow centre
which has to be filled with a core strand, and the larger the diameter of the cord
produced by such braiding machine the larger the hole at its centre.
In the class of machine referred to it is impracticable to form a cord of greater
diameter than about 5/10 of an inch, because of the size of the core necessary to be
used; in that class of machine the cover or jacket so woven or braided upon the
core is liable in use to become displaced.
The present Invention is based upon the fact, ascertained by experiment, that the
travellers which carry the bobbins, upon which are wound the threads to be united
to form the cord, may, in their operation, be made to produce a firm solid cord of
any desired diameter, and that without the employment of a core, provided each
traveller is so operated as to cause the thread of its bobbin to appear at the

page_text: surface of the cord being woven at but three different points during each complete
revolution of each of the said travellers and bobbins, for by so manipulating the
travellers their bobbin threads are so concatenated as to extend from one side of
the cord across the same almost centrally, the exact centre of the cord at such
crossing of the tbreads being composed of several of the bobbin strands of other
travellers, the latter strands then being partially twisted together at the centre.
These centre strands are constantly being changed, and each crossing strand
from outside to outside passes diagonally across a crossing strand previously made.
In this machine for making a solid cord there are employed a series of travellers,
a traveller-holding plate, and a series of rotating carriers, and with each carrier
there is a traveller-selector which determines which of the series of travellers
shall be taken up and moved by the carriers and which left in the traveller-holding
plate.
This Invention consists in the combination in a cord making machine of a
rotating table, rotating carriers thereon, notched traveller holding-plate, and a
series of travellers combined with a traveller selector composed of two jaws grooved
and pivoted as described, and with links, levers, and cam to move the selectors as
herein after set forth.
Also in the combination with a rotating table and carriers, traveller holding
plate, and travellers, of traveller selectors having grooved jaws and a cam to
positively open and close the said jaws to thereby place their grooves either
concentric with the chambers of the table in which the carriers rotate, or with the
outer edge of the rotating table to drop or pick up and move a traveller.
Also in a cord making machine, a movable table, rotating carriers mounted
thereon, and means to operate them, combined with a series of traveller-selectors
and means to operate them, whereby each selector is adapted to transfer a traveller
from a notch in the traveller-holder and deliver it at a point substantially 120°,
distant therefrom, thereby enabling each strand or thread upon the bobbin of
each traveller to be made to appear at but three points on the outside of the cord
being produced during each rotation of that traveller about the machine to produce
a solid cord or rope, substantially as described.
Also that improvement in the art or method of manufacturing cord or rope to
make it solid, which consists in concatenating the individual strands thereof each
with the other, as described, so that each strand is permitted and compelled to
appear at the surface of the cord or rope being made but three times during any
one round of the said cord or rope, such crossing of the strands one with the other
completely filling the centre of the cord or rope and avoiding the use of a core,
substantially as described.
Also in combination, a traveller, a tension device, a tension lever, and a main
sinker supported by the thread beyond the tension device, and a sinker to bear
upon the thread between the bobbin and said tension device, the said sinker being
arranged to drop quickly and engage the usual stop motion ring when the thread
breaks or runs out, as specified.
Also in the combination with the traveller bobbin of two sinkers arranged and
operating as and for the purposes herein set forth.
The base of the machine supported on suitable legs has standards, at the upper
ends of which is attached a traveller-holding plate, an annular plate having a series
of notches more or less in number according to the number of travellers to be
used, such number depending upon the diameter desired for the cord or rope to be
made.
The main shaft of the machine, driven in any usual way, has at its inner end a
bevel pinion which engages with the teeth of two bevel toothed discs, thereby
causing them to move in opposite directions.
The bevel toothed disc is fastened to a sleeve extended upward, and the said
sleeve has connected with it a rotating table.
This table has upon it suitable lugs or bearings for the shafts of the carriers,.
and is recessed upon its top below the carrier to receive the feet of the travellers,

page_text: and each carrier has a series of notches, in which at the proper times are placed the
necks of the travellers which are to be changed from one to another notch of the
traveller holding plate.
The carrier shafts have fixed upon them gears, each of which is engaged by
another gear, these being held on a stud in the table.
These gears engage and are rotated by the centre gear fast with a positively
driven bevel toothed disc.
The centre gear is rotated in a direction the reverse of that in which the table
rotates, which enables the gears to rotate the carriers on their own axes in a very
rapid manner as they are revolved about the axis of the table.
One of the carrier shafts, the one first named, has a second gear fast to the gear,
and this second gear through an intermediate carried by the table engages a toothed
gear which is attached to the cam disc baving a cam groove, and rotates the said
cam disc at the proper speed and in a direction opposite that of the table.
A shaft having a bevel gear and this shaft driven positively by toothed dises is
employed to operate the shaft that actuates the usual take-up.
The traveller-selector is composed of two jaws, each having a groove and pivoted
on a common stud fixed with relation to the table.
Each jaw is by suitable links connected with one of a set of levers, each pivoted
on a stud, also fixed to the table, and each lever has a roller or pin to euter the
groove in the cam disc.
As this disc and table rotate, the grooves acting upon the rollers of the levers move
them and turn the jaws upon their pivots, thereby causing them to so change their
positions that the grooves will at times be concentric with the outer wall or periphery
of the table and at other times concentric with the edges of the chambers cut in the
table before the carriers.
When the jaws of the selectors are closed its grooves are so placed as to engage
the foot of the traveller opposite it, then held by the traveller holding plate, and
take it from said plate and direct it into one of the notches of that carrier next to
it, to be carried by it to another notch of the traveller holding plate, but when the
rollers of the lever are nearest the centre of the cam disc with the jaws open and
grooves concentric with the carriers, the foot of a traveller held in a notch of a
carrier will enter the groove and pass from the same and be left in a notch of the
traveller-holding plate.
In this machine the cam is so shaped as to pick up every ninth traveller, there
being twenty seven travellers employed, and transfer it from the one position to
another or substantially one third the distance about the machine.
In this way cach thread of each traveller is passed over substantially one third
the number of threads being used, and each thread is caused to appear but three
times at the surface of the cord during each complete revolution about the machine
of the travellers, which results in the production of a solid cord or rope or hard
compact rope without a separate core.
The travellers have side arms, the former, to guide the main sinker, having a
finger extended or hooked over the tension lever pivoted upon a bracket, the curved
end of the said lever engaging and resting upon the thread after it passes through
the regular tension device mounted upon a pin and pressed upward by a spring
controlled by a nut. This tension device may be of any usual kind.
The tension lever will drop and allow the sinker to descend and strike the usual
shipping ring whenever the thread breaks between the tension device and the cord
being made on the machine.
An arm carries an auxilliary sinker, which will be supported by the thread as it
passes from the bobbin to the tension device, and should the bobbin thread run out
this auxilliary sinker will drop and stop the machine.
The traveller sinkers are supported by the threads when the machine is in regular
operation.
The stopping ring in common use on braiding machines has fingers which will be
struck by the lower ends of either of the main and auxilliary sinkers should they

page_text: drop, the said sinkers then acting to turn the said ring far enough to disengage a
lug thereon from a notched bar, which permits a spring to move the shipping
lever far enough to shift the driving belt from the usual fast to the usual loose
pulley.
The upright will have a double spring attached to it, the arms of which will be
acted upon by the pins of the stop motion ring according to the direction of the
movement of the said ring when acted upon by one or the other sinker.
If the thread breaks beyond the tension device the main sinker drops under,
strikes the right hand side of one of the fingers, but if the thread on the bobbin
becomes exhausted or breaks between the bobbin and tension device, then the
auxilliary sinker droops and strikes the opposite or left hand side of one of the said
fingers.
In other cord making machines it is customary and quite necessary to watch the
machine and stop it by hand before the thread on any bobbin is exhausted or runs
out, or else the end of the thread will pass beyond the tension device before the
machine will be automatically stopped, causing much trouble to then pick it from
the mass of threads and connect it with the thread of the bobbin to be added, but
by adding the sinker auxilliary to operate as described in advance of the usual sinker,
it is possible to always stop the machine automatically whenever the bobbin thread
runs out or breaks between the bobbin and tension device, and the end of the thread
is thus never passed from the control of the tension.
With but one tension device operating on the thread only outside the bobbin
the end of a broken thread is free to pass the tension, which accident always pro-
duces an uneven spot in the cord, but by the use of two sinkers these bad spots are
avoided.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd
April 1881.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, Patent Agent, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING CORD OR ROPE." A communi-
cation from abroad by Charles Emerson Barnes, Prentiss Webster, and Paul Butler,
all of Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America.
This Invention relates to a novel mechanism for and method of making cord.
The object of the Invention is to produce a solid woven cord or rope without the
necessity of employing a separate core or centre filling strand, as now commonly
done.
In certain cord making machines now in use, working much after the manner of
braiding machines, each traveller bobbin is made to carry its thread about the
threads carried by bobbins of two other travellers, they being at that time
stationary, but in that class of machine the cord produced has a hollow centre,
which has to be filled with a core strand, and the larger the diameter of the
cord produced by such braiding machine the larger the hole at its centre.
In the class of inachine referred to it is impracticable to form a form of greater
diameter than about 5 of an inch, because of the size of the core necessary to be
used in that class of machine; the cover or jacket so woven or braided upon the core
is liable in use to become displaced.
The present Invention is based upon the fact, ascertained by experiment, that the
travellers which carry the bobbins, upon which are wound the threads to be united
to form the cord, may in their operation be made to produce a firm solid cord
of any desired diameter, and that without the employment of a core, provided
cach traveller is so operated as to cause the thread of its bobbin to appear at
the surface of the cord being woven at but three different points during each
complete revolution of cach of the said travellers and bobbins, for by so manipulating
the travellers their bobbin threads are so concatenated as to extend from one
side of the cord across the same, almost contrally, the exact centre of the cord
at such crossing of the threads being composed of several of the bobbin strands of
other travellers, the latter strands then being partially twisted together at the
centre.
These centre strands are constantly being changed, and each crossing strand
from outside to outside passes diagonally across a crossing strand previously laid.
In this machine for making a solid cord there are employed a series of travellers,
a traveller-holding plate, and a series of rotating carriers, and with each carrier
there is a traveller-selector, which determines which of the series of travellers shall
be taken up and moved by the carriers and which left in the traveller holding
plate.
This Invention consists in the combination in a cord making machine, of a
rotating table, rotating carriers thereon, notched traveller holding-plate, and a
series of travellers combined with a traveller selector composed of two jaws grooved
and pivoted as described, and with links, levers, and cam to move the selectors, as
hereinafter set forth.
Also in the combination with the rotating table j and carriers, traveller holder
plate, and travellers, of the traveller selectors having grooved jaws, and a cam to
positively open and close the said jaws, to thereby place their grooves either con-
centric with the chambers of the table in which the carriers rotate, or with the
outer edge of the rotating table to drop or pick up and move a traveller as herein-
after set forth.
Also in a cord making machine a moveable table, rotating carriers mounted
thereon, and means to operate them, combined with a series of traveller-selectors,
and means to operate them, whereby each selector is adapted to transfer a traveller
from a notch in the traveller holder, and deliver it at a point substantially 120°

page_text: distant therefrom, thereby enabling each strand or thread upon the bobbin of each
traveller to be made to appear at but three points on the outside of the cord being
produced during each rotation of that traveller about the machine to produce a
solid cord or rope, substantially as described.
Also that improvement in the art or method of manufacturing cord or rope to
make it solid, which consists in concatenating the individual strands thereof each
with the other, as described, so that each strand is permitted and compelled to
appear at the surface of the cord or rope being made but three times during any
one round of the said cord or rope, such crossing of the strands, one with the other,
completely filling the centre of the cord or rope, and avoiding the use of a core,
substantially as described.
Also in combination, the traveller, the tension device, the tension lever 20, and
main sinker supported by the thread beyond the tension device, and the sinker 23
to bear upon the thread between the bobbin and said tension device, the said
sinker being arranged to drop quickly and engage the usual stop motion ring when
the thread breaks or runs out, as specified.
Also in the combination with the traveller bobbin of two sinkers arranged and
operating as and for the purposes herein set forth.
Figure 1 represents in top view a cord making machine embodying the
Invention herein contained, a part of the traveller holding plate being broken
away, and a carrier removed to show the traveller selector and its operating parts.
Figure 2, a vertical section of the machine on the line x, x, Figures 1 and 3;
Figure 3, a view of that part of the machine looking upward from the line y, y,
Figure 2 Figure 4, one of the carriers removed; Figure 5, one of the travellers in
two positions; Figure 6, a detail of the stopping mechanism to be referred to.
In some of the said Figures the travellers, to avoid confusion, are shown by rings,
but it will be remembered that each of the said rings represents a traveller,
substantially as shown in Figure 5.
The base a of the machine, supported on suitable legs, has standards b, at the
upper ends of which is attached the traveller holding plate c, it being shewn as an
annular plate having a series of notches 2, more or less in number, according to
the number of travellers d to be used, such number depending upon the diameter
desired for the cord or rope to be made.
The main shaft e of the machine, driven in any usual way, has at its inner end a
bevel pinion ƒ which engages with the teeth of the two bevel toothed discs g, h,
thereby causing them to move in opposite directions.
The bevil toothed disc g is fastened to sleeve i extended upward, as shown in
Figure 2, and the said sleeve has connected with it the rotating table j.
This table has upon it suitable lugs or bearings for the shafts le, ¹, &c., of the
carriers, ¹, &c., and is recessed upon its top, being the carrier to receive the feet 3
of the travellers (see Figures 2 and 5), and each carrier has a series of notches 4,
in which at the proper times are placed the necks 5 of the travellers which are to
be changed from one to another notch 2 of the traveller holding plate.
The carrier shafts k, l, have fixed upon them gears le², each of which is engaged
by a gear ³, each gear being held on a stud in the table j.
Each gear engages and is rotated by the centre gear m fast with the positively
driven bevel-toothed disc h.
The gear m is rotated in a direction the reverse of that in which the table j
rotates, which enables the gears ³ to rotate the carriers on their own axes in a
very rapid manner as they are revolved about the axis of the table.
One of the carrier-shafts, the one le¹, has a second gear n fast to the gear 2, and
gear n through intermediate n' carried by the table engages the toothed gear
n³
which is attached to the cam disc n³, having a cam groove n³, see Figure 2, and
dotted lines, Figures 1, and rotates the said cam disc at the proper speed, and in a
direction opposite that of the table j.
At the left of Figure 2 I have shown a shaft o having a bevel gear 0%, and this
shaft, driven positively by the toothed discs g, h, is employed to operate the shaft g²

page_text: that actuates the usual take up, not herein shown, as it will be of usual
construction.
The traveller selector is composed of two jaws p, p, each having a groove 10
and pivoted on a common stud 12 fixed with relation to the table.
Each jaw p, p, is by suitable links 13 connected with one of the levers 14, each
pivoted on the stud 15, also fixed to the table j, and each lever 14 has a roller or
pin to enter the groove n' in the cam disc n³.
As the disc n³ and table rotate the grooves acting upon the rollers of the levers 14
move them and turn the jaws p, p, upon their pivots 12, thereby causing them
to so change their positions that the grooves 10 will at times be concentric with
the outer wall or periphery of the table, as in Figure 1, and at other times
concentric with the edges of the chambers cut in the table for the carriers.
When the jaws of the selectors are closed, as in Figure 1, its grooves 10 are so
placed as to engage the foot of the traveller opposite it, then held by the traveller
holding plate e, and take it from said plate, and direct it into one of the notches of
that carrier next to it, to be carried by it to another notch 2 of the traveller-
holding plate, but when the rollers of the lever 14 are nearest the centre of the
cam disc with the jaws open, and grooves 10 concentric with the carriers, the foot
of a traveller held in a notch 4 of a carrier will enter the groove 10 and pass from
the same, and be left in a notch 2 of the traveller-holding plate.
In this machine the cam n is so shaped as to pick up every ninth traveller
there being twenty seven travellers employed, and transfer it from the position d
to that of 3 in Figure 1, or substantially one third the distance about the
machine.
In this way, each thread of each traveller is passed over substantially one third
the number of threads being used, and such thread is caused to appear but three
times at the surface of the cord during each complete revolution about the machine
of the travellers, which results in the production of a solid cord or rope, or hard
compact rope without a separate core.
The travellers d have side arms 16, 17, the former to guide the main sinker 18,
having a finger 19 extended or hooked over the tension lever 20 pivoted upon the
bracket 21, the curved end of the said lever 20 engaging and resting upon the
thread after it passes through the regular tension device A mounted upon the pin 22
and pressed upward by the spring B controlled by the nut C. This tension device
may be of any usual kind.
The lever 20 will drop and allow the sinker 18 to descend and strike the usual
shipping ring 25 whenever the thread breaks between the tension device and the
cord being made on the machine.
The arm 17 carries an auxiliary sinker 23, which will be supported by the thread
as it passes from the bobbin to the tension device A, and should the bobbin thread
run out this auxiliary sinker will drop and stop the machine.
The traveller sinkers in Figure 5 are shown in the positions they will occupy
when supported by the threads and the machine is in regular operation.
The stopping ring 25 in common use on braiding machines has fingers 26, which
will be struck by the lower ends of either of the sinkers 18 or 23 should they drop the
said sinkers then acting to turn the said ring far enough to disengage a lug 32 thereon
from a notched bar 37, which permits the spring 28 to move the shipping lever E
far enough to shift the driving belt from the usual fast to the usual loose pulley.
The upright 33 will have a double spring 34 attached to it, see Figure 6, the
arms of which will be acted upon by the pins 35, 36, of the stop motion ring
according to the direction of movement of the said ring when acted upon by one
or the other sinker.
If the thread breaks beyond the tension device the sinker 18 drops under, strikes
the right hand side of one of the fingers 26, but if the thread on the bobbin
becomes exhausted or breaks between the bobbin and tension device, then the
sinker 23 droops and strikes the opposite or left hand side of one of the said
fingers.

page_text: In other cord making machines it is customary and quite necessary to watch
the machine and stop it by hand before the threads on any bobbin is exhausted or
runs out, or else the end of the thread will pass beyond the tension device before
the machine will be automatically stopped, causing much trouble to then pick it
up from the mass of threads and connect it with the thread of the bobbin to be
added, but by adding the sinker 23 to operate as described in advance of the usual
sinker 18, it is possible to always stop the machine automatically whenever the
bobbin thread runs out or breaks between the bobbin and tension device, and the
end of the thread is never passed from the control of the tension.
With but one tension device operating on the thread only outside the bobbin,
the end of a broken thread is free to pass the tension, which accident always.
produces an uneven spot in the cord, but by the use of two sinkers these bad spots
are avoided.
Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the said Invention
and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that
what I claim is,-
1st. In a cord making machine the rotating table, rotating carriers thereon,
notched traveller-holding plate, and a series of travellers combined with a traveller-
selector composed of grooved and pivoted jaws, and with links, levers, and cam
to operate the selectors, substantially as and for the purpose described.
2nd. In combination, the rotating table ; and carriers, traveller-holding plate
and travellers, the traveller-selectors having grooved jaws and a cam to open and
close the said jaws, to thereby place in grooves 10 either concentric with the
chambers in the table in which the carriera rotate or with the outer edge of the
said table, substantially as described.
3rd. In a cord making machine a movable table, rotating carriers mounted
thereon and means to operate them, combined with a series of traveller-selectors
and means to operate them, whereby cach selector is adapted to transfer a traveller
from a notch in the traveller-holder and deliver it at a point substantially 120°
distant therefrom, thereby enabling each strand or thread upon the bobbin of each
traveller to be made to appear at but three points on the outside of the cord being
produced during each rotation of that traveller about that machine to produce a
solid cord or rope, substantially as described.
4th. That improvement in the art or method of manufacturing cord or rope to
make it solid, which consists in concatenating the individual strands thereof, each
with the other as described, so that each strand is permitted and compelled to
appear at the surface of the cord or rope being made but three times during any
one round of the said cord or rope, such crossing of the strands, one with the other,
completely filling the centre of the cord or rope, and avoiding the use of a core by
the means substantially as described.
5th. In combination, the traveller, the tension device, the tension lever 20, and
main sinker supported by the thread beyond the tension device, and the sinker 23.
to bear upon the thread between the bobbin and said tension device, the said
sinker being arranged to drop quickly and engage the usual stop motion ring when
the thread breaks or runs out, as specified.
6th. In combination with the traveller bobbin of two sinkers, arranged and
operating as and for the purposes herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty ninth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.