IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MACHINERY FOR FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Boyle, of the York Street Spinning Company,
Belfast, in the County of Antrim, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING MACHINERY FOR FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 8th March 1861, and dated the 11th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Boyle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th September 1860. ...
I, THOMAS BOYLE, of the York Street Spinning Company, Belfast, in
the County of Antrim, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MACHINERY FOR FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing machinery for
flax and other fibrous substances.
In making rovings of flax or other fibrous substance as at present practised,
waste is produced on the bobbins when the conė belt or strap breaks, and my
improvements consist in causing a roving machine to be stopped when the
cone belt or strap breaks, which is accomplished by causing a lever to act on
a catch when the cone belt or strap breaks, so as to release the ordinary fork
handle, which is then put in motion by a weight or spring, and thus is the
driving strap moved off the fixed drum, and the roving machine is stopped.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Boyle in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BOYLE, of the York Street Spinning Company, Belfast, in the County of
Antrim, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Boyle, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Boyle,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Boyle, 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE-
PARING MACHINERY FOR FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,"
upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Boyle, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 Thomas Boyle, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing machinery for
flax and other fibrous substances.
In making rovings of flax or other fibrous substances as at present practised
waste is produced on the bobbins when the cone belt or strap breaks, and
my improvements consist in causing a roving machine to be stopped when the
cone belt or strap breaks, which is accomplished by causing a lever to act on
a catch when the cone belt or strap breaks, so as to release the ordinary fork
handle, which is then put in motion by a weight or spring, and thus is the
driving strap moved off the fixed drum, and the roving machine is stopped.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews part of a side elevation, Figure 2 part of a front elevation,
and Figure 3 shews part of a plan of the machinery having my Invention
applied thereto.
A is the cone which is driven from a pulley above by an endless strap or
band; B is a radiating frame in which the cone is mounted in two bearings,
one at either end. This frame works freely on the shaft C, being only retained
sideways by a wheel and a collar made fast on the shaft. It will be seen that
the cone, if left to its own gravity, will radiate freely round the shaft C, and is
only prevented from doing so by the endless strap, which not only holds it up
but gives it a rotary motion which is communicated by a pinion to a wheel on
the shaft C, and from thence to the bobbins. On the long socket of the
radiating frame is fixed a bracket D, in which is again fixed a pin or other
projection, which, as soon as the belt breaks, radiates round the shaft C until
it meets the extremity of the lever E, the other end of which is depressed so
as to set at liberty the weight F, which draws round the pulley G, and being
connected by another chain to the bar H, pulls it along, causing the inside of
the slot I in the said bar to act against a pin in the belt bar, to which is affixed
the belt fork, and thereby moving the driving strap from the fast to the loose
pulley of the machine. By having the slot I in the bar H, the usual appa-
ratus for stopping and setting on the machine may be employed in combination
with that for stopping it when the cone belt breaks.
In the Drawings and the above description, the Invention is shewn as
applied to roving machinery, but a machinist, aided by such description and
Drawings, will readily apply the Invention to other forms or arrangements of
machines used for preparing flax and other fibrous substances, wherein cone
belts are similarly used.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately, but what I claim is the combination
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Boyle, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
THOMAS BOYLE. (L.S.)