CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY USED IN THE PREPARING AND SPINNING OF COTTON, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
SEVILLE, of Royton, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria did, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of October, in
the sixth year of Her reign, give and grant unto me, my exors, adññors, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Thomas Seville, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully
might, during the term of fourteen years therein mentioned, make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
USED IN THE PREPARING AND SPINNING OF COTTON, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I,
the said Thomas Seville, should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the
same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months then next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, then that the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and

page_text: by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Seville, 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, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon.
The same figures, letters, and numbers are used to denote the same parts
throughout.
The Drawings represent the mule rendered self-acting according to my
improvements, and the terms employed are those more particularly applicable
to that well-known machine; but the same improvements are applicable to
all that class of machinery for preparing and spinning or doubling cotton,
flax, and other fibrous substances, in which the spindles recede from and
approach the drawing rollers, or that part of the machine from which rovings
or yarn proceed to be spun or twisted, and which machines are most com-
monly known by the names of the mule stretcher and twiner or doubler. It is
unnecessary to describe my improvements in reference to any of these machines
except the mule separately, as any mechanist conversant with the construc-
tion of this class of machinery will be enabled to construct and arrange such
other machines according to my improvements. For the purpose of explaining
the nature of my said Invention and improvements I would premise, that the
action or principal movements of the mule and class of machinery herein-
before mentioned may be separated into three classes :—
The first class comprehends the movements for the delivery of rovings from
the drawing rollers, the receding of the carriage from the drawing rollers to
the extent of the stretch, and the revolution of the spindles in the carriage
during its passage along the stretch, whereby the rovings are spun with the
required number of twists in each thread of yarn..
The second class comprehends the "backing off" or removal from the
spindles of those coils of yarn which extend from the partly formed cops to
the points of the spindles. And with respect to this class of movements it is
to be observed, that in the self-acting mules, as at present usually constructed,
the carriage pauses or rests at or near to the termination of its outward pro-
gress during the process of backing off.
The third class comprehends the removal of the carriage from the extre-
mity of the stretch to the drawing rollers, and the winding the yarn round
the spindles at a regulated tension so as to form the cops. To this last class
of movements may be referred the arrangements in the self-acting mules as

page_text: at present generally constructed, for adapting the motion of the spindles to the
varying diameter of the conical surface of the cops, such being the character
of the principal movements of this class of machinery, whether self-acting or
not. The object of my Invention is to. construct a self-acting mule, or other
similar machine in which the backing off shall take place during the outward
motion of the carriage, and, further, in which the tension produced on the
yarn by winding it on spindles in the form of cops shall occasion the carriage
to move inwards, the tension put upon the yarn, and the weight or friction
necessary to bring the carriage in, being in a certain mechanical relation to
each other; there being in such machine no apparatus arrangements for regu-
lating the tension according to the varying diameter of the conical surface of
the cop, other than the apparatus or arrangements requisite for establishing
the connection between the tension of the yarn and the necessary weight or
friction which leads to the carriage being brought in.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Figure 2 a plan, of the headstock and the
parts attached thereto, with the twist band pulley, and some connected parts
of the machinery attached to the carriage of the mule.
Figure 3 is a side elevation of the carriage and the parts appertaining thereto;
and Figure 4 a front elevation of part of the same.
Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8, represent separately various parts of the machinery
for the purpose of showing them more distinctly than in the before-mentioned
Figures.
In Figures 1 and 2, a is a driving pulley fixed on the driving shaft, and in
Figure 2, 6 is the loose pulley for the driving strap. i is a pinion on the
driving shaft, which by driving the wheel n (to the shaft of which the drawing
rollers are attached) through the wheels k, l, and m, delivers the rovings to
be spun into yarn. The pinion i, at the same time, by driving the wheel m
through the wheels k and l, moves the carriage along the stretch by giving
motion to the drum A, and the chains which pass round it, and are attached
to the carriage. To this drum A, which is usually called a mendosa drum, are
attached two chains, a sufficient length of each being wound round it in
opposite directions, to admit of the carriage, which it moves out, to pass
through the required space without unfolding the whole of either of them.
These chains pass from the drum A over the carrier pullies B, B, and under
the carrier pullies C, C, and are united one to each side of the carriage
frame at D (Figure 1). The spindles are made to revolve during the
moving out of the carriage in which they are fixed, by a strap 8¹ passing

page_text: round the rim d, and the fast pulley f on the twist shaft, on the other end of
which shaft is fixed the twist pulley Y. This pulley Y has an endless twist
band Y³, which it drives, passing from it on the upper side direct to the
carrier pulley Y on the upper side, and from the under side of that pulley
the band passes to the pulley Y' on the under side, and after passing once
round that pulley, it passes on to the under side of the driving pulley Y. Y is
called the roller end pulley, which is attached to the carriage, and gives
motion to the spindles in the usual way. The pinions i and m, which have
each half a catch box attached to them, are loose upon their respective shafts,
but during the movements of the mule, before described, they are kept in gear
by the other parts of the catch boxes j and 5, which boxes are turned by the
shafts upon which they are placed in the ordinary way, and are put out of
gear in the manner herein-after described. From the stud F, in Figures
1 and 2, are suspended the levers G and E, and as the carriage moves out
or recedes from the rollers, the stud G', Figure 3, is forced against the
lever G, Figures 1 and 2, whereby the cranked strap lever H is drawn by
the rod G, which connects them, so as to remove the strap 8¹ from the fast
pulley fon to the loose pulley e, and the spindles are left to revolve by their
own momentum and that of the tin roller, which communicates motion to
them. The carriage continues to recede from the rollers, and the stud E',
Figure 3, is forced against the lever E, Figures 1 and 2, whereby the sus-
pended lobster lever I (best seen in Figure 5), by the rod E2, which unites
them, is drawn so far back as to admit of the stud on the lever J being
liberated, and that end of the lever raised by the spiral spring K, by which
action the break L is forced upon the break pulley M, fixed on the twist
shaft, and the spindles are thereby stopped. The lever J works on a stud j',
and is united to the break by a small connecting link je. The lever N, which
is centred at n' is acted upon by a friction bowl N', Figures 3 and 4, attached
to the carriage, for as the carriage goes out this friction bowl acts against the
curved piece n², fixed to the end of the lever N (see Figures 1 and 5), whereby
the opposite end of the lever is depressed, and brings down with it the lever J,
which permits the lobster lever I to fall, and to hold the break L from off
the break pulley M. O is the backing-off pulley fixed on the front drawing
roller shaft, and an endless rope or band passed almost round this pulley (from
which it receives motion) over the carrier pullies Q, R, round the pulley S',
partly round the carrier pulley P, and back to the pulley O. The pulley S¹
runs loose on the tin roller shaft; on one side of this pulley is attached half
a catch box, and on the other side a boss with a groove cut round it, scen
at S', Figures 2, 4, and 7, in which groove the forked end of the lever T,

page_text: Figures 3, 4, and 7, works. This lever is centred at t¹, Figures 3 and 7. The
lever U, Figures 4 and 7 (which, by means of a notch cut in it, holds a stud
on the lever T), is moved as the carriage goes out by a stud u', which is fixed
upon the slide 3, which, as the carriage runs out, is moved by the rack and
pinion u, and in its passage forces back and then passes under the suspended
lever u2, which is connected to the lever U, whereby the lever T is liberated,
so that the spiral spring t2, Figures 4 and 7, forces that part of the catch
box attached to the pulley S¹ into gear with the other part of the catch box
fixed to the tin roller shaft, and the backing off or unwinding of the yarn
from the points of the spindles to the partly formed cops thereby commences,
and continues, and is completed during the running out of the carriage.
After the stud u¹ has passed under the suspended lever u², the spring u
restores the lever u to its original position. The backing off ceases by the
bent lever T coming in contact with the friction bowl V, Figures 1, 6, and 8.
This bowl is placed on a stud which works on a screw V¹, the bent lever T
by this means throws the catch box connected with the pulley S¹ out of gear.
At each moving out of the carriage, a small inclined plane elevates the lever
and catch W, by passing under the friction bowl W', and forces the ratchet
wheel W one tooth of a revolution, whereby the stud and the friction bowl V
are passed forward, so as to decrease the backing-off motion at each succeeding
stretch, as required with reference to the increasing extent of the partly
formed cop. On the withdrawal of the inclined plane from underneath the
friction bowl W', the spiral spring Ws, brings the lever and catch to their
original positions. The outward progress of the carriage still continuing, and
when it has almost arrived at the greatest distance from the drawing rollers,
the stop on the carriage a, Figure 3, comes in contact with the projecting
stud a', Figure 1; this stop moves the sliding lever a², Figure 3, which by
a stud y, in the end of it, projecting behind the jointed lever a, forces up
the rack as, which is attached to it, turns the segment a, and thereby presses
down the faller. At the same time, by the stud y on the lever a being
withdrawn from the recess y² on the lever a, that lever is liberated, and being
drawn down by a spiral spring or weight in the usual manner, the counter faller
to which it is attached is thereby raised, so as to take up the slack yarn and
prevent snarls. The faller regulates the disposition of the yarn upon the
spindle, so as to form it into cops as the carriage moves inwards, the motion
of the faller being regulated by means of the inclined plane y', commonly
called a shaper. During the outward progress of the carriage, the worm
wheel p on the shaft o, turns the spur wheel 7, and thereby drives the wheel r,
which is fixed below it on the same upright shaft. The wheel » takes into

page_text: and drives the rack and bar s. The rack and bar s, which work in brackets
on the frame side, as seen at g, g, have a stud and friction bowl t' fixed to
them. t is a stud upon which works the cranked lever u, having a weight v
at one end, and at the other end an upright arm working against the friction
bowl t', just named. As the carriage moves out, this friction bowl raises the
weight v, and at the same time the rack and bars elongates the spiral spring 13
affixed to it at one end, and at the other to the lever a. In the middle of
the upright arm of the crank lever u is a slot, through which a bolt is passed,
and secures in its proper position the rod w. This rod w is attached to one
end of the horizontal lever x, which lever is fixed upon the vertical shaft y;
upon the shaft y is also fixed the horizontal forked lever z, which puts the
catch box j in and out of gear, and the horizontal lever 2 upon the same shaft,
by its connection with the lever 4 by the link 3, puts the catch box 5 in and
out of gear; that end of the lever 4 being forked, to take into the groove
round the catch box 5, at the top and bottom side. To the horizontal lever a
is also affixed the rod 6, this rod is connected at the other extremity to the
cranked strap guide 7, so that when the lever a puts the catch boxes j and 5
out of gear it also passes the strap 8 from the loose pulley g to the fast
pulley h. The stud 15°, Figure 3, on the carriage, raises in its outer progress
the lever 15, Figure 1, whereby the opposite end is depressed, and sets the
lever a at liberty, so that the spiral spring 13 in drawing that lever aside,
draws the catch boxes j and 5 out of gear, and moves the strap 8 on to the
fast pulley h, whereby motion is communicated to the twist pulley Y on the
same shaft, and to the endless band or rope Ys, which passes from the
pulley Y to the carrier pulley Y2, and round the roller end pulley Y, as
before described, and thereby the spindles are turned round so as to wind
the yarn into cops; and as soon as the tension put upon the yarn has occasioned
sufficient pressure or friction, the carriage is moved inwards to the drawing
rollers; the counter faller, by a spring or weight attached to it in the usual
manner, having taken up the slack or uncoiled yarn, the turning of the
spindles commences by the winding-on strap being passed on to the fast
pulley 8, as before stated. The motion of the drawing rollers or delivering
rollers having ceased, the threads of yarn are held fast at one end by the
drawing rollers. The carriage having arrived at the extremity of the stretch
is in a state of rest, but as the spindles continue to turn and wind the yarn
into a cop, so much tension is given to the yarn as to draw down the counter
faller, and thereby retard the revolution of the roller end pulley Y₁ and of
the spindles. The pressure or friction put upon the friction pulley Z, fixed
on the tin roller shaft end, is produced by the tension of the yarn acting on the

page_text: counter faller by means of the friction rope Z', the lever Z, and the chain Z³,
(Figures 3 & 4); and this friction existing, the twist band, which continues
to move at a uniform speed, slips upon and rubs against the surface of the
roller end pulley Y', and thereby occasions so much friction in its passage
round that pulley as to move the carriage towards the drawing rollers. The
carriage having moved, the tension of the yarn is relieved, and the pressure
on the counter faller diminished, and the friction which prevented the
pulley Z from revolving freely being removed, the spindles wind on a little
more yarn; thus a regulated pressure is preserved upon the counter faller, the
yarn is wound round the spindles into cops at a corresponding tension, and
the motion of the carriage towards the drawing rollers is governed and
regulated. At one end of the rod s is fixed the arm 10, to the extremity of
which is attached a rope; this rope passes against the under side of the friction
pulley 11, fixed on the shaft O, and is attached at the other end to the spiral
spring 12. The office of this spring rope and pulley is, by arresting the
speed of the shaft o by the friction of the rope against the pulley 11, to pre-
vent the carriage from running too speedily to the drawing rollers on its near
approach to them. By the time the carriage has arrived at the drawing
rollers, the stud 14%, Figure 3, has raised the curved end of the lever 14,
whereby the levers u and and x are liberated, and the weight upon the
lever u thereby falls, and puts the catch boxes j and 5 again into gear to
recommence the motions already described.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood, that I do not claim
the exclusive use of any of the several things or apparatus herein-before men-
tioned or referred to, except so far as they may be applied to the purposes of
my said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist in the construction and
arrangement of machinery, whereby the spindles, while the carriage is in motion
outwards, back off the yarn between their points and the partly formed cops,
and the motion of the carriage inwards is governed by and adapts itself to the
tension of the yarn as it is wound into cops.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Seville, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-three.
THOMAS (L.S.) SEVILLE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1843, the aforesaid Thomas Seville came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
Enrolled the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
nd a 10