OR IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE SPRINGS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Roger Pyo, of Blackburn, in the County of
Lancaster, Agent, for the Invention of "NEW OR IMPROVED
MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE SPRINGS."
Sealed the 6th July 1875, and dated the 8th January 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Roger Pye at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th January 1875.
I, ROGER PYE, of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, Agent, do
5 hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "NEW OB
IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE SPRINGS," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is the production of shuttle springs by
_machinery, and consists in mounting the block (which has hitherto been
O raised and lowered by a screw press) at the lower extremity of a con-
necting rod attached to a crank upon a driving shaft worked by hand or
power. This shaft communicates motion through an intermediate

page_text: vertical shaft to a pair of crank shafts set at right angles to each other,
one carrying a crank for operating a roller, and the other carrying a
crank for operating a pair of tongue picces, which are designed to hold
the partially formed spring in position whilst the afore-mentioned roller
passes over it to form the spring; and another crank on the same shaft
but set to work at a different instant has a guage plate connected to it,
which is thereby drawn out of the way whilst the roller herein-before
mentioned performs its function.
The action of this machine is as follows:-The spring steel being
placed by hand upon the stationary block the first action is that owing
to the revolution of the driving shaft the top block is brought down and
presses the steel into a shape somewhat corresponding to that of the
upper block, and at the same time cuts off the spring to the proper
length and forms a nick in the steel for the next spring; this done the
tongue picces hercin-beforo mentioned pass at right angles across the 1
upper surface of the piece of steel or spring in course of formation and
thus hold it in position whilst the roller turns the ends down to form
the spring portion; meanwhile the guage plato has been drawn out of
the way by its respective crank. The tongue picces in their return
action draw off the spring sideways and allow it to fall into water or
other suitable liquid for the purposes of hardening.
Although I have only mentioned the construction of one spring at a
time, it will be obvious that several springs may be made together side
by side by clipping several bars of steel together, and by having the
blocks wide enough.
2
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Roger Pye in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th July 1875.
"
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROGER
PYE, of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, Agent, send 3
grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give 3

page_text: and grant unto me, the said Roger Pye, Her special licence, that I,
the said Roger Pye, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Roger Pye, 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 "NEW OB IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE SPRINGS," upon the condition (amongst others).
that I, the said Roger Pye, 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 Roger Pye, 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:-
The object of this Invention is the production of shuttle springs by
machinery, and consists in connecting the upper dio or block, hitherto.
used in the manufacture of shuttlo springs, to a connecting rod or
sliding plate actuated by a crank or cam upon a driving shaft worked by
hand or power. This shaft communicates motion through an inter-
mediate vertical shaft, to a pair of crank shafts set at right angles to
each other, one carrying a crank for operating a roller, and the other
carrying a cam for operating a tongue picce, which is designed to hald
the partially formed spring in position whilst the afore-mentioned roller
passes over it to form the spring.
The action of this macbino is as follows:-The spring steel being:
placed by hand upon the stationary block, the first action is that owing.
to the revolution of the driving shaft the top block is brought down and
presses the steel into a shape somewhat corresponding to that of the .
upper block and at the same time cuts off the spring to the proper
length and forms a nick in the steel for the next spring; this done, the
tongue picce, herein-before mentioned, passes at right angles across the
upper surface of the piece of steel or spring in course of formation, and

page_text: thus holds it in position whilst the roller turns the ends down to form
the spring portion. The tongue picce in its return action now draws off
the spring sideways and allows it to fall into water or other suitablo
liquid for the purpose of hardening.
And in order that this my said Invention may be the more readily
understood and carried into practical effect, I have hereunto annexed a
Drawing of a machine (drawn to a scale of about quarter size) con-
structed in accordance with my Invention, similar letters marked on tho
several views being used to indicate similar parts.
Fig. 1 is a front view, Fig. 2 an end view, and Fig. 3 a partial plan of
such machine; and Fig. 4 is a sectional plan of part of Fig. 1, viz.,
along the line y—z.
In all the views A is the driving shaft carrying the fast and loose driving
pulleys B, B, and at its extremities the fly wheels C and C', such driving
shaft being mounted in the pedestals A' supported upon the frameing D:
rising from the base plate E. This driving shaft is further provided
near its extremities with two eccentrics F and F', which are arranged
to actuate the upper dies G and G' respectively, and for which purpose
such eccentrics are fixed upon the driving shaft at a point diametrically
opposite to each other, so that as one is performing its maximum work
the other is simply raising its die, and vice versa. It will thus be
noticed that this machine is in duplicate, and as both ends of the
machine are precisely similar, I will simply describe the construction
and action of one end, it being understood that the other end only
differs in being "timed" to. work alternately with it. The upper or
moveable die G is constructed in two parts, an inner or stamping
portion g, and an outer or shearing portion g', the latter being used for
cutting off the requisite length of spring steel and "nicking" the suc-
ceeding length, as herein-after described. Both these portions g and g¹
(constituting the upper die) are formed with a dovetail taking into a
corresponding dovetailed recess (seen dotted in Fig. 2) in the die box H,
and such die is secured in position therein by the cover plate and set
screws i. This die box H is in turn, by means of its shank II' and set
screw H³, secured in the boss I formed at the lower extremity of the
V slide I', and which at its upper extremity terminates in rectangular
frame I. This frame I embraces the eccentric F, and is thus raised and
lowered, and at the same time raises and lowers the upper die G as such
eccentric revolves.

page_text: Instead of eccentrics it will be obvious that a crank may be used with
an adjustable crank pin for operating this upper dic.
The lower or stationary die J is also formed in two parts, an inner or
stamping part J' and an outer or shearing portion J', the cutting edge J®
of which latter corresponds with the cutting edge g' of the upper die.
This shearing portion J'.also carries a "nicking" plate J', the edge of
which projects upwards, as illustrated, so that as the shearing portion of
the upper die continues its descent after it has cut off the length of steel
to form a spring, and carries the succeeding portion of the steel bar
down with it, the front extremity of such bar is nipped between the
upper die and such "nicking" plate, and thus the requisite transverse
"nick" or groove is formed for holding the spring in the shuttle. This
stationary die (as so formed in two parts) is secured in a suitable recess
formed in the base plate by the set screw Jº.
K is a vertical shaft which communicates motion from the driving
shaft by bevil gearing, as illustrated, to the intermediate shaft K',
and this latter in its turn is geared by bevil gearing with the cam
shaft L. At each extremity of this cam shaft La cam plate I³ is
affixed; the cam groove in which (as seen dotted in Fig. 2) is so shaped
as to actuate a block I carrying a sliding tongue piece M, a to-
and-fro motion being communicated to such block and tongue piece
by a bowl M (mounted upon the side of the forked arm I affixed to
the block I³) taking into the cam groove in the cam plate I, and so
receiving motion therefrom. The front extremity of the intermediate
5. shaft K¹ also carries a crank pin Kª which is embraced by a slot N formed
in the sliding plate N' sliding in the V'd guide blocks N°, this sliding
plate N' carrying at each extremity a roller N' for turning over the
springs in the course of formation, as herein after described. O is a
hinged guage plate capable of being depressed when the roller N³ passes
) over it, and weighted at the other end in order to ensure it rising again
as soon as the roller N° has receded from contact with it.
The action of this machine may be thus described :-The gunge
plate O being in the position seen in Fig. 1, and the machine being set
in motion, the bar of red hot steel from which the shuttle spring is to
5 be made is placed upon the lower die J with its extremity against the
guage plate, as seen in position on the right-hand side of the machine
in Fig. 1; the upper die in its descent will then first cut off the requisite

page_text: "
length of the steel bar to form the spring, and in its further descent
will force such cut-off piece into the shape illustrated full size in
diagram 5; whilst at the same time the extremity of the red hot bar
will be forced down upon the edge of the "nicking" plate, as seen in
the same diagram, thereby imparting a transverse "nick or groove to
such extremity ready for the next spring. As the upper die now rises
the tongue piece M. advances across the hollow of the partially formed
spring, as seen in diagram 6, until such tongue picce enters the staplo P,
seen in Figs. 2 and 4, and so the partially formed spring is thus held by
the tongue pieco M in position on the stationary die J whilst the
roller N' advances and turns over and finishes the end of the spring, the
projecting end of the partially formed spring, marked R in diagram 5,.
being thus turned down on to the tongue piece M, as seen in diagram 7,
this turning-over operation being also seen in action on the left-hand
side of the machine in Fig. 1. In its return or backward motion, which
does not commence until the roller has receded off the spring, the
tongue piece M carries the spring off the lower die J until in coming in
contact with the fixed scraper S, such spring is caused to slide off the
tongue piece and to fall through the holo T formed in the base plate
into a vessel of water or other suitable liquid for the purpose of 1
hardening such spring.
Diagram 8 represents a side view and plan of a shuttle spring made
in accordance with my Invention, but it must be understood that by
altering the shape of the dies and tongue piece I can manufacture other
forms of shuttle springs for weaving purposes with my improved
machinery.
Although I have only described the manufacture of one spring at a
time on each side of my duplicate machine, it will be obvious that two
or more springs may be made together sido by sido by clipping two or
more bars of steel together, and by having the dies of suitablo
width.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this
my said Invention, together with the best methods with which I am
acquainted for carrying the same into practical effect, I wish it to bo
understood, that I do not confine myself to the precise details, relative &
proportions, or dimensions of the various parts of the machine illustrated
on the Drawing and herein-before described, as the same may be con-

page_text: siderably varied without departing from the Invention, and I claim
particularly,―
1st. The general construction and arrangement of machinery for
making shuttle springs by one continuous operation, as herein-before
described and illustrated on the accompanying Drawing.
2nd. The novel construction of dies and method of mounting and
operating the same, whereby the cutting-off operation is performed
simultaneously with the stamping and nicking operations, substantially
as and for the purposes described and illustrated on the accompanying
Drawing.
:
3rd. The use and application of a reciprocating roller when mounted
and arranged for turning over and finishing shuttle springs, substantially
as described and illustrated on the accompanying Drawing.
4th. The reciprocating "tongue piece" for holding the partially
formed spring in position upon the lower dic, as and for the purposes
described and illustrated on the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Roger Pye, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.