CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Openshaw, Manufacturer, William Entwistle,
Manager, and James Lord, Mechanic, all of Bury, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES' FOR
Sealed the 21st March 1862, and dated the 26th September 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Openshaw, William
Entwistle, and James Lord at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 26th September 1861.
We, JAMES OPENSHAW, Manufacturer, WILLIAM ENTWISTLE, Manager, and
JAMES LORD, Mechanic, all of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
'MULES' FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,"
follows:-
Our Invention is designed for the purpose of facilitating the "doffing" or
removal of the finished "cops" from the spindles upon which they have been
wound, and is more particularly applicable to those "mules in which "cop
tubes" are used as a foundation for the "cops."
Our improvements consist in the use of an inclined plane fitted to slide on a
suitably shaped bar extending the length of the "spindle carriage," tho
"inclined plane "being caused to travel along the spindle carriage from end to

page_text: end in either direction. This "inclined plane" is drawn from the end of the
carriage, passing close up to the spindles, its lower end or the point of the
incline coming in contact with the under side of the flanch of a short tubular
ring fitting loosely into the lower end of the "cop tube" upon each spindle,
and in its passage raising or lifting the rings together with the attached cops,
until the "cops" are loose on the spindles ready for "doffing," in which position
they are held or sustained by the "faller rod," which is brought to bear or
press against them; the "cops" may then be easily "doffed" or removed in
the usual manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Openshaw, William Entwistle, and James Lord in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
OPENSHAW, Manufacturer, WILLIAM ENTWISTLE, Manager, and JAMES LORD,
Mechanic, all of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said James Openshaw, William Entwistle, and James Lord, Her
special license that we, the said James Openshaw, William Entwistle, and
James Lord, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said James Openshaw, William Entwistle, and James Lord, our
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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES
FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," upon the condition,
amongst others, that we, the said James Openshaw, William Entwistle, and
James Lord, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Openshaw, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):
Our Invention is designed for the purpose of facilitating the "doffing" or
removal of the finished "cops" from the spindles "upon which they have been
wound, and is more particularly applicable to those "mules" in which "cop
tubes" are used as a foundation for the "cops."
Our improvements consist in the use of an inclined plane fitted to slide on a
suitably shaped bar extending the length of the "spindle carriage," the
inclined plane" being caused to travel along the spindle carriage from end to
end in either direction. This inclined plane is drawn from, the end of the
carriage, passing close up to the spindles, its lower end or the point of the incline
coming in contact with the under side of the flanch of a short tubular ring
fitting loosely into the lower end of the "cop tubes" upon each spindle, and in
its passage raising or lifting the rings together with the attached cops, until the
" cops are loose on the spindles ready for "doffing," in which position they
are held or sustained by the "faller rod" and wire, which is brought to bear
or press against them; the "cops" may then be easily "doffed" or removed
in the usual manner.
"
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained in
detail, we have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings made upon a scale of
about three inches to a foot, and having similar letters of reference marked on
corresponding parts.
Fig. 1 is a front view of a portion of the "spindle" carriage," shewing the
inclined plane as travelling from one end to the other, and lifting the cops in
its course; Fig. 2 is an end view of the same; and Fig. 3 is a detached view
shewing the V bar and carriage bearing the inclined plane.
In Fig. 1, a, a, is the spindle carriage supporting the V bar b, upon which
the carriage slide c moves, and d is the band by which the inclined plane e on
the slide c is actuated from the winch or pulley f, and g, g, are the metallic
flanches or collars beneath the "cop tubes," upon which the cops are built.
When the formation of the cops is complete and they are ready for doffing,
the attendant, by turning the handle and pulley f, causes the inclined plane to
pass from one end of the spindle carriage to the other, and to raise the flanches
and cops on the spindles into a position ready for doffing, where they are
retained by the "faller rod and wire," to be removed at convenience in the
ordinary manner.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with the

page_text: method of carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to be distinctly
understood that we claim raising the "cops" into a position ready for doffing by
means of a travelling inclined plane acting upon flanches beneath the cops,
and actuated by convenient mechanism, as herein-before described, set forth,
and fully illustrated in the Drawings attached.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Openshaw, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JAMES OPENSHAW. (L.s.)