IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to José Puig y Llagostera, of No. 10, Strand, in the
City of Westminster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."-A
communication from abroad by Juan Esteve y Vilá and Gil Esteve y Vilá,
both of Barcelona, in the Kingdom of Spain.
Sealed the 13th June 1865, and dated the 20th December 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said José Puig y Llagostera
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th December 1864.
I, JOSÉ PUIG Y LLAGOSTERA, of No. 10, Strand, in the City of Westminster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be
as follows:-
The Invention has reference to driving the spindles, and consists in effecting
this by means of a rolling friction from a wheel or drum made of or covered
with leather, or other suitable material of sufficient elasticity, and affording
sufficient adherence to or against the part of the spindle which is thereby
driven. Two such spindles may be conveniently driven from one wheel or
drum, and a number of wheels or drums so actuating their pairs of spindles
may be conveniently driven by bevil or other gearing, or in any other con-
venient manner. The steps or bottom bearings in which the spindles revolve

page_text: may be pressed towards the wheels or drums by wedges with weights suspended
from them, or by springs, so as to keep the spindles fairly and properly in
contact with the peripheries of the drums.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said José Puig y Llagostera in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSÉ
PUIG LLAGOSTERA, of No. 10, Strand, in the City of Westminster, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said José Puig y Llagostera, Her special licence that I, the said
José Puig y Llagostera, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others, as I, the said José Puig y Llagostera, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and in 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 MACHINERY FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
José Puig y Llagostera, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said José Puig y Llagostera, 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:-
My Invention has reference to driving the spindles, and consists in effecting
this by means of a rolling friction from a wheel or drum made of or covered
with leather, or other suitable material of sufficient elasticity, and affording
sufficient adherence to or against the part of the spindle which is thereby

page_text: driven. Also in driving such spindles in manner as above set forth, and in
pairs, that is to say, two from each wheel or drum, a number of such wheels
or drums so actuating their pairs of spindles being driven by bevil or other
gearing, or in any other convenient manner. Also in making moveable
(instead of fixed) the steps or bottom bearings in which the spindles revolve,
and causing them to be pressed towards the wheels or drums by wedges with
weights suspended from them, or by springs, so as to keep the spindles fairly
and properly in contact with the peripheries of the drums.
Having now set forth the nature of my said Invention, I will contrast it
with spinning machinery of the ordinary description, in order that the
improvements may be more distinctly understood, and will then proceed by
an explanation of the accompanying illustrative Drawing to describe the
manner in which my said Invention is to be performed.
In spinning machinery of the ordinary description the spindles are furnished
with small pullies, as shown at m, in Figure 1° of the Drawing, these pullies
receiving cords, from which they are driven from drums of a large diameter,
and which are placed horizontally or vertically in some convenient position,
each spindle having a separate driving cord. This arrangement presents
several defects, especially with drums placed horizontally, for in order that it
should work conveniently, the upper edge or the lower edge of the drum
should be on a level with the groove of the pulley to enable the cord to run
properly in its groove. But the drum being of large diameter, the cord forms
a wide or open angle upon the plan of the groove, thereby producing a
continual and considerable friction of the cord against the upper or lower
edge of the groove, causing loss of power and also a stretching of the cord
and consequent irregularity of twist; and this irregularity is increased by
atmospheric influences of moisture and temperature, which stretch and relax
the cords, and that differently for each, according to its particular quality and
the time it may have been in use.
By my Invention I obtain a perfect or greatly improved regularity of speed
and diminution of friction, and of absorbed or lost power, by dispensing with
the pullies, the cords, and the ordinary drums, and replacing them as repre-
sented in the Drawing, which shews full-sized representations of machinery
constructed in accordance with the several improvements.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a spinning machine, and
partly a section through the line A, B, in Figure 3; Figure 2, a side view of
same, partly in section; and Figure 3, a plan view.
a is a driving shaft, on which are bevil wheels b, b, in gear with the bevil
pinions p, p, which are cast on or in one with the lengthened tubular stems or

page_text: axes of the wheels or drums c, c. Theso drums are covered each with a
leather band e, and revolve on pivots or axes f fixed to the arms or brackets
9, 9, projecting from the frame h, which supports the twisting spindles z,, of
the machine. These spindles, instead of being furnished with pullies m, as
in Figure 1, are formed with an enlarged cylindrical or roller-shaped and
accurately turned surface n near their lower end, against which the elastic
bande of a drum c presses, and by the rolling friction so occasioned the
spindles are caused to revolve, each drum driving two spindles; or if desired
the machine may be arranged for each drum to drive only one spindle. The
'several spindles rest each at its lower end in a step or bearing o, which is
carried by the frame h, and is free to move to a small extent therein towards
and away from the drums c, and each such step or bearing is furnished with a
small wedge i, to which a weight i* is suspended, the inclined surface of the
wedge bearing against a corresponding surface on the frame h, by which
means the step o is pressed towards the drum c, and consequently the spindle =
is kept in proper contact with the clastic covering e upon the drum, the degree
of pressure being regulated as may be necessary by using a lighter or heavier
weight *. The same object may, however, be attained by springs, or in any
convenient manner.
I would remark that the disposition of the bevil gearing as represented may
be varied, the pinions p being close up, or nearly to the discs of the drums,
instead of on the lower ends of lengthened tubular axes, and the driving
shaft a and wheels 6 being raised and placed at the back of the arms or
brackets g, but if so the gearing should be hyperboloidal or oblique; or the
wheels or drums c may be driven in any other convenient manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said José Puig y Llagostera, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOSE PUIG Y LLAGOSTERA. (L.S.)