IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING RAW SILK
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to, John Henry Johnson, of 47; Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING RAW
SILK. A communication from abroad by Geraud Dechamp, of
Paris, in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 24th August 1869, and dated the 27th February 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th February 1869.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING
RAW SILK," a communication to me from abroad by Geraud Dechamp,
of Paris, in the Empire of France, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the measuring of raw silk, as it proceeds
from the basins, and consists,―
First. In measuring the exact length of silk in each skein by self-
acting mechanism.

page_text: Second. In obtaining by self-acting mechanism hanks or skeins of a
given length.
Third. In ascertaining exactly the number of skeins in a hank.
According to this Invention the silk after leaving the basin passes
round a grooved wheel of a given diameter, which by its revolution sets
in motion through worms and worm wheels certain cams or tappets
which operate at the proper moment on a releasing apparatus which
allows a knife to fall and sever the filament directly the desired length
has been wound. By suitably adjusting the position of the releasing
mechanism by the aid of a notched plate and catches the knife can
be made to descend at any desired moment. At the moment. the
filament is severed a self-acting break is applied to the grooved wheel
which arrests its motion. The number of skeins or hanks is counted
on a dial by a pointer worked through the intervention of a ratchet
wheel by the same mechanism which releases the knife, so that as
each skein is completed it is indicated on the dial. A peculiar guide
eye is employed through which the silk passes before entering the
reel, its object being to prevent or check any unevenness in the thick-
ness of the filament by causing it to pass under a spring adjusted in
the bent part of the guide eye. The reel employed is provided with
expanding adjustable arms suitably marked or divided so as to enable
any diameter of skein or hank to be obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th August 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight. hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-.
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her
special license that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry

page_text: Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING RAW SILK,"
a communication from abroad by Geraud Dechamp, of Paris, in the
Empire of France," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, 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 John Henry Johnson, 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, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:―
The said Invention relates to the measuring of raw silk as it proceeds
from the basins, and consists,-
1. In measuring the exact length of silk in each skein by self-acting
mechanism.
2. In obtaining by self-acting mechanism hanks or skeins of a given
length.
3. In ascertaining exactly the number of skeins in a hank.
According to this Invention the silk after leaving the basin passes
round a grooved wheel of a given diameter, which by its revolution sets
in motion through worms and worm wheels certain cams or tappets
which operate at the proper moment on a relcasing apparatus which
allows a knife to fall and sever the filament directly the desired length
has been wound. By suitably adjusting the position of the releasing
mechanism by the aid of a notched plate and catches the knife can
be made to descend at any desired moment. At the moment the
filament is severed a self-acting break is applied to the grooved wheel
which arrests its motion. The number of skeins is counted on a dial by

page_text: a pointer marked through the intervention of a ratchet wheel by the
same mechanism which releases the knife so that as each skein is
completed it is indicated on the dial. A peculiar guide eye is employed
through which the silk passes before entering the reel, its object being
to prevent or check any irreguality in the thickness of the filament
by causing it to pass under a spring adjusted in the bent part of the
guide eye. The reel employed is provided with expanding adjustable
arms suitably marked or divided so as to enable any diameter of skein or
hank to be obtained.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings;
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
corresponding Figures.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings is a side elevation; Figure 2, a
plan; Figure 3, a longitudinal vertical section, and Figure 4, a horizontal
section of the special apparatus employed for measuring the silk and auto-
matically forming skeins of a given length; Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8, are
detail views of some of the parts thereof.
This apparatus is composed of a wheel b, over which the silk is passed
before being wound on the reel, which wheel transmits motion to a
shaft a provided at its central part with an endless screw c which
actuates the toothed wheel d mounted on an auxiliary shaft e, which is
also provided with an endless screw f. The speed of rotation of the
screw is thus considerably diminished, and there are in gear with this
screw two toothed wheels g, h, the vertical spindles of which terminate
in knobs carrying the four cams j disposed in different horizontal planes
which effect the descent of the thread cutter, as hercin-after described.
The number of teeth in the wheels g, h, of the apparatus, shewn on the
Drawings, is calculated so as to correspond exactly to the formation of
the lengths which are most frequently adopted in the silk trade, say,
about two thousand yards. The wheels g, h, are loose on their axis, and
are connected thereto by means of a ratchet arrangement i (Figure 5),
so that the shafts are turned by their respective wheels only in one
direction. They may be turned by hand in the opposite direction by
means of the knobs on their upper ends in order to adjust the position
of the cams j, which are carried by these knobs relatively to projections
formed on the bosses n, o; the object of which is herein-after explained.

page_text: The bosses n, o, are moveable in a plate k secured to and carried
by a sliding rods, herein-after referred to, and are provided with
levers m, by the aid of which they may be turned or adjusted circularly
by hand. The short bent arms of the levers m enter notches I formed in
the edge of the plate k, and the bosses n, o, are thus maintained in the
positions assigned to them. The bosses n, o, are each provided with
three projections; the first, p, extends downwards from the top to one-
third the height of the boss; the second, q, to two-thirds, and the
third, r, throughout the whole height (see Figure 6). The object of this
arrangement is to admit of one or other of these projections coming in
contact at a given moment with the cams j of the knobs corresponding
to the toothed wheels g, h. The boss n, in the position shewn in the
Drawing, Figure 2, is in connection with the toothed wheel h, and one
of the cams will have to make a complete revolution in order to come
in contact with the projection p, which operates upon the apparatus for
actuating the thread cutter, as herein-after described. Figures 6 and 7
shew in elevation and plan respectively the different positions which the
boss assumes according to the lengths to be measured. Number 1
indicates the position of the boss when the apparatus is disposed to receive
a length of silk of, say, two thousand yards. The upper cam ; which is
carried on the knob actuated by the wheel h will necessarily come in
contact with the first projection p of the boss n, and consequently will
have made a complete revolution. Number 2 indicates the position of
the bosses when they are at rest, that is to say, in such a position that
none of the cams j can come in contact with the projections. Number 3
indicates the position that the boss assumes when the apparatus is dis-
posed to count a length of, say, one thousand yards, or half of that which
it would count when in the position No. 1. In order to effect this the
projection q, which is twice the height of one the canis j, is struck by
two of these cams which cause the knife to descend twice during a
complete revolution of the toothed wheel h. No. 4 shews the position
which the boss occupies when the apparatus is disposed to measure a
length of, say, five hundred yards, or a quarter of the length measured
when the apparatus is adjusted to position Number 1. The projection >
extends throughout the whole height or from top to bottom of the boss n,
so that the four cams j actuated by the wheel h come in contact with it,
which causes the knife to descend four times during one revolution of the
wheel. As before explained the boss n is maintained in its various
positions by a curved lever m which takes into notches corresponding
of

page_text: exactly to the required positions. The other boss o performs precisely
the same functions as the boss n, but the toothed wheel g which actuates
the corresponding cams j is divided so as to measure a rather greater
length of silk than the wheel h, say, two thousand one hundred yards.
This boss is placed by turns in the various positions, herein-before
described, in order to cause the knife to descend once, twice, and four
times during one revolution of the wheel g, which corresponds to the
measurement of three lengths of silk, viz., two thousand one hundred
yards, one thousand and fifty yards, and five hundred and twenty-
five yards, or any other number with the aliquot parts thereof.
The plate is provided in the middle with an enlargement or boss
through which the rod s passes, and on which the said rod is secured by
a pinching screw or otherwise, such rod being guided in bearings placed
on the outside faces of the main casing of the machine, and being pro-
vided with an arm for carrying the lever a on which the knife rests.
A helical spring on the rod s constantly presses it in one direction
keeping the bosses n, o, pressed towards the cams j, which act on the
projections of the said bosses; thus the picce k, the bosses n, o, and the
rod & being compelled to recede together before the cams j, the lever u,
which is dependent thereon, recedes also and moves from under the
knife, which then drops on to a hinged vertical arm x, which maintains
it elevated until the moment when the cam suddenly escaping past the
projection of one or other of the bosses n, o, in front of it allows the
helical spring to act freely, which thrusting the rod & quickly against
the arm causes it to recede slightly, thereby allowing of the complete
descent of the knife w at the precise moment when it should cut the
thread. Springs are also employed to bring back the arms u, a, into the
position which they should occupy. The knife or thread cutter is
carried on two centres in a bearing v, and beneath its cutting extremity
there is disposed a piece y which is covered with lead in order to prevent
the blade being injured, and in the sides of which are formed two
grooves, through which the thread passes as it proceeds from the carrier
whcel.
One of the essential features of this Invention consists in the system

page_text: to an eccentric which pivots on centres in a bearing secured to the
outer casing of the apparatus, the ring of such eccentric having a rod
mounted on it which terminates in the form of a socket z¹ for the
reception of a piece of india-rubber, cork, or other suitable substance
which by frictional contact with the wheel b arrests its motion at the
moment when the thread being broken it ceases to maintain the guide
in an elevated position. This effect is also produced when the tension
of the thread is suspended from any cause whatever, so that no crror
can be committed in the measurement of the silk wound.
In order to count automatically the number of skeins wound on the
reel a dial is employed, round which an indicating pointer moves
traversing the space of one division after cach descent of the knife w.
In order to obtain this result the rear end of the rod 8 passes through
the case containing the counting mechanism and strikes an arm c¹
carrying at its upper end a jointed lever d¹ which terminates in the
form of a pawl and engages with the ratchet wheel a¹. The pawl
causes the pointer to move round the dial, a spring detent e¹ which
constantly engages in the teeth of the wheel a' maintains it stationary
until the descent of the knife causes it to advance another tooth.
spindle which passes through the centre of the case containing the
counting mechanism and carries the pointer is provided at its rear end
with a knob f which enables the pointer to be replaced at zero when
the counting is recommenced.
The
Figure 8 shews a peculiar guide for the passage of the silk through it
composed of a rod g¹ on which is placed a socket h' carrying a spring
which engages in the corner formed by the curved part or hook of the
rod g. The object of this arrangement is to prevent the passage of
any protruding substance or impurity which may be attached to the
silk and to regulate the size of the thread before it is wound on the
recl.
It will be understood that the external forms of the apparatus herein-
before described may be varied from those shewn in the Drawings, and
the various parts composing it may also be so arranged as to occupy
less space and be contained in a box of a circular form similar to that
of alarm clocks, and which by enclosing all the parts of the mechanism
would preserve them from dust or injury. In the arrangement which
is shewn at Figure 9 (Sheet 1) the flat face of the apparatus is simply
provided with three dials, the upper one a of which indicates the number

page_text: of skeins prepared. The two lower dials B indicate the position of
the knobs which actuate the cams, and the rod y which corresponds
to the rods of the apparatus herein-before described, actuates then
directly a species of knife & in which it terminates, or a cutting chisel
destined to cut the silk thread, thus obviating the necessity for the
readjusting of the apparatus by the workman after each descent of the
knife.
Figure 1 (Sheet 2) is an elevation and Figure 2 a plan of a reel of
a variable diameter constructed according to this Invention. It is
composed of a metal boss a' and the six or other number of arms b¹
of the reel, these arms are recessed or made hollow for the reception
of the rod c¹ carrying the blades d', and their ends terminate in the
form of a socket e¹ which is provided with a pinching screw f' for
the purpose of maintaining the rods c¹ in the position they are required
to occupy. In order to facilitate the adjustment of the moveable arms
or rods c', when it is required to make hanks of a given diameter,
transverse divisions are marked at regular intervals on one side of the
arms corresponding to the more usual diameters of the hanks, recesses
are also formed for the entrance of the extremities of the screws f¹ so
that the rods when once put in their place are incapable of motion
and the perimeter of the reel remains invariable.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The measuring of raw silk as it proceeds from the basin and
before being wound on to the reel, substantially in the manner and by
the means hercin-before described and illustrated by the Drawings
annexed.
Second. The production of hanks or skeins of a given length by
self-acting mechanism arranged and operating substantially as herein-
before described.
Third. The counting by self-acting mechanism arranged and operating,
substantially as herein-before described of the number of skeins in a
hank.

page_text: Fourth. The production of skeins or hanks of any given diameter
by means of an adjustable reel, substantially as herein-before described.
Fifth. The peculiar combination, and arrangement of cams j and
adjustable bosses n, o, provided with projections of different depths,
substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described.
Sixth. The combination with the arrangement referred to in the fifth
claiming clause of a knife and counting mechanism, respectively
actuated substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein-
before described.
Seventh. The peculiar construction of adjustable reel, substantially as
and for the purpose herein-before described.
Eighth. The peculiar self-acting brake arranged and operating sub-
stantially as and for the purpose herein-before described.
Ninth. The peculiar cleaning guide, herein-before described and
illustrated by Figure 8 of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of
August, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine:
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)