IMPROVE- MENTS IN SPINNING MULES AND SLUBBING MACHINES."
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nathan James Greenwood, of Morley, near Leeds,
in the County of York, Woollen Spinner, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SPINNING MULES AND SLUBBING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nathan James Greenwood
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th March 1857.
I, NATHAN JAMES GREENWOOD, of Morley, near Leeds, in the County of
York, Woollen Spinner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPINNING MULES AND SLUBBING MACHINES," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists in the application to spinning mules and slubbing
machines of an additional draft motion to the motion in present use for draw-
ing the wool or other textile material to a proper thickness. By the old mode,
the draft motion is confined to one speed from the commencement of the draw
until the draft wheel regulating the draft is thrown out of gear, and which
concludes the drawing operation.
For the present purposes of my Invention, I allow the old draft motion to
be continued only so long as the wool to be drawn is passing between the
drawing rollers. When this has been done the old draft motion is thrown out
of gear and my draft motion commences. My draft motion can be regulated
(by fitting different sized pinions) to make the draft quicker or slower, as may
be required, to suit the quality of the textile material operated upon, and
thereby lessen the liability of the threads to breakage.
I effect this object by having an additional draft wheel fixed upon a swing

page_text: lever so as to gear when required-into the ordinary scroll wheel. This swing
lever is held in a position to keep the draft wheel that is fixed thereon out of
gear until the draft wheel in present use is thrown out of gear. This is done
in the present instance when the drawing rollers have ceased to act.
By the old draft wheel being thrown out of gear the swing lever is released,
and is then drawn into gear with the scroll wheel by a weighted cord or chain,
which passes over pullies, and is applied to the lower end of the swing lever.
The swing lever is carried back to its original position by the operation of
levers, which are acted upon when the mule or slubbing machine reaches
the end of the race.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Nathan James Greenwood in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 19th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, NATHAN
JAMES GREENWOOD, of Morley, near Leeds, in the County of York, Woollen
Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Nathan James Greenwood, Her special license that I, the said Nathan
James Greenwood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Nathan James Greenwood, 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 SPINNING MULES AND SLUBBING MACHINES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Nathan James Greenwood, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Scal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Nathan James Greenwood, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, referencé being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures"marked thereon (that is to say):
This Invention, of improvements in spinning. mules and slubbing ma-
chines, consists in the application to such machines of an additional draft
motion to the one in present use for drawing the wool or other material to a
proper thickness. By the old mode, the draft motion is confined to one speed
from the commencement to the conclusion of the drawing operation; but by
means of this new and additional draft motion, consisting of different sized
pinions, which may be thrown into gear when desired, the parts may also be:so
regulated as to give a quicker or slower draft, as may be required, to suit the:
nature of the material, that is being operated upon. By this means the liability:
of the threads to breakage is very much diminished.
:
In carrying out my Invention, I allow the draft motion to be continued only!
whilst the wool is passing between the drawing rollers, and when this has been
done the old motion is thrown out of gear, the new and additional one is.
brought into operation.
The Figure in the accompanying Drawing represents, in elevation, the head:
of a spinning mule with my apparatus attached, but it is evident that tho
same apparatus may be easily adapted to a slubbing machine also. a is a
pinion wheel, fixed. on the main driving shaft, and by means of the inter-
mediate pinion b the pinion a drives the wheel c, which has a pinion attached
to its boss that gears into the scroll wheel f, whereby the "carriage" is drawn
out; I is the ordinary rod, whereby the usual apparatus in a common mule is
pushed forward to lift the pinion c out of gear with the scroll wheel f, by
pressing against the elbow lever H, connected to rods H¹, upon which latter is
the moveable slotted arm H2, that serves as a support or bearing for the pinions
or wheels and c. All the above apparatus is common to an ordinary mule,
as is well understood. d is an intermediate wheel or pinion, fixed upon the
lever
9, and
gears into and drives the additional wheel or pinion e, which latter
has a pinion upon its boss, and is made to gear into and drive the scroll wheel f
when necessary. The lever g is fixed to the framing or any other convenient
part of the machine, and at its lower end is connected by a cord h to the
weight 4. When the mule is set in motion the catch presses against the
end W of a jointed sliding bar or lever 7 (jointed at the point 7), and supported
in slotted bracket pieces 9, 10, 11, attached to the framing. The catch k
pushes the bar 2 forward, until a notch ' near the other end of the bar catches
against the slotted bracket piece 9. This is effected as soon as by the rising
of the end of the lever (by reason of the incline bearing against the slotted

page_text: On the
bracket 11°) the lever is released from the pressure of the catch k.
rod I is a pin 1, which, so long as the rod is not pushed forward, keeps the
lever g in its position, in consequence of this lever pressing against the pin 1;
but when the rod I is pushed forward for the purpose of lifting the pinion c
out of gear with the scroll wheel f, the lever g is drawn forward by the weight 4,
and the pinion e is brought into gear with the scroll wheel f. When the
carriage has got to the end of the race the catch k lifts up the forward end X
of the sliding bar l, and when thus lifted a knob 8 on the bar raises the rod j,
which, by the drawing of the lever g into gear with the scroll wheel f, had
pushed forward that bar (to which it is connected at the point o) into the
catch hole j. Whilst in this raised position the bar is drawn back into its
first position by the weight 6 at the opposite end, and thereby carries back the
lever g, by causing the pin 5 on the lever I to strike against the lever 9,
thus the pinion e is thrown out of gear again with the scroll wheel f. The
rodj pushes forward the lever H by means of a pin 2 being made to press
against a pin 3 in that lever.
and
It will be evident that the relative size of the wheels or pinions c and e
may be altered at pleasure, according to the nature of the material to be
operated upon, and greater or lesser amount of draft required.
Having now described my Invention of "Improvements in Spinning Mules
and Slubbing Machines," and having explained the means of carrying the
same into effect, I claim, as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as
aforesaid, the application to spinning mules and slubbing machines of an
additional draft motion, whereby a quicker or slower draft may be imparted
to the material at certain stages of the spinning or slabbing operation, as
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nathan James Greenwood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
NATHAN JAMES GREENWOOD. (L.S.)
Witness to the signature of the said
Nathan James Greenwood,
J. B. WILKINSON,
11, Albion Street, Lecds.