A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING YARN OR THREAD AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for an Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING YARN OR THREAD AND OTHER MATERIALS."
A communication from abroad by Jean Léonide Mouchère, of Paris, in the
Republic of France, Manufacturer.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd January 1881.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING YARN OR
THREAD AND OTHER MATERIALS." A communication from abroad by Jean Léonide
Mouchère, of Paris, in the Republic of France, Manufacturer.
This Invention relates to the construction of apparatus for automatically or
mechanically ascertaining or determining the quantity of yarn or thread, unwound
from a skein or hank, in order to be ultimately made up into balls of a given
weight, previously fixed upon, which weight is capable of being changed at pleasure,
irrespective of the size of the yarn or thread, or of the balls into which the yarn or
thread is to be formed.
In order to obtain this variation in the weight, and this automatic action of the
mechanism, the apparatus is constructed in two distinct parts, one of which is
controlled by the other.
The first part of the apparatus is formed by a balance or pair of scales of any
suitable construction, one of the scales being employed to carry a receptacle for the
yarn or thread as it is unwound, and formed into a ball or pile, whilst weights
varying according to the size of the said ball and number of the yarn or thread are
placed in the other scale.
The second part of the apparatus is composed of a device for feeding the yarn or
thread, which device is brought into action, or stopped by the motion of the balance
itself, so as to produce or arrest the unwinding of the yarn or thread.
Under these conditions, when the quantity of yarn or thread necessary to form

page_text: a ball of the desired weight has been unwound from the skein, and this yarn or
thread has been deposited in the receptacle carried by the scale of the balance, the
latter, being then in a state of equilibrium, arrests the supply of yarn or thread
automatically.
The apparatus is thus rendered perfectly automatic in its action, as the measuring 5
or weighing device itself controlls the feeding or supplying mechanism.
An important feature of the Invention consists in the means employed for
rendering the two parts of the apparatus dependent one upon the other.
One of the scales of the balance, viz., the one carrying the weights for example,
carries an arm or verge provided with two needles or points, which, by the 1
oscillations of the balance, are alternately inserted in and lifted out of two small
cups filled with mercury. One of the cups communicates by means of a wire with
one of the poles of a battery, and the other cup is in communication with an
electro-magnet, which is also connected with the battery. This electro-magnet
serves to attract a piece of soft iron provided at one extremity of a lever; the other
end of this lever acts upon a presser cylinder or roller which bears upon the yarn
or thread, and presses it against the periphery of a pulley revolving without
intermission. This pulley is enabled to draw or feed the yarn or thread, so long as
the presser cylinder presses the thread against it, but the yarn or thread is thus
acted upon by the presser only when the electro magnet attracts the lever, and
when the magnet ceases to act, the feed ceases also, and the motion of the reels
'carrying the skein is arrested.
The electro magnet is brought into action only when the current is passing, that
is to say, when the points are immersed in the mercury. On their being lifted out
of the cups, the current, which previously entered at one point and passed out at s
the other, is interrupted, and the electro magnet ceases to attract the soft iron,
thereby throwing the presser cylinder out of action.
The needles are carried on a bar insulated from the arm or verge by which they
are connected to the balance, the extremity of the arm or verge being enveloped in
india rubber acting as an insulator; the said extremity is also nipped between a
cross bar to which the needles are attached and a plate or stirrup, the cross bar
being tapped at each end for the reception of two adjusting screws.
It will be seen from the foregoing description that the system depends on the
automatic control of the reels carrying the yarn or thread by the direct action of
the measuring or weighing apparatus.
The arrangement by which the measuring device or balance is kept altogether
apart from the magnetic current, so that the latter is unable to produce any effect
upon the sensitiveness of the said balance, constitutes an important feature of this
Invention.
Moreover as the feed of the yarn or thread stops when the current is interrupted,
and the interruption takes place at the moment when the needles are lifted out of
the mercury, the sensitiveness cannot be affected, as this lifting out may be caused
to take place as nearly as desired at the time when the balance reaches the position
of equilibrium.
In order to enable the moment when the various parts are called into action to
be regulated with precision suitable provision is made for adjusting the position of
the needles and of the soft iron or armature.
In order to diminish the resistance to the attraction of the electro-magnet the
lever which carries the presser roller is balanced by means of a moveable counter
weight, the position of which may be adjusted as required, and the extent of
motion of the lever is limited by a screw fixed to the frame acting as a stop, and
serving to prevent the lever from swinging out of the field of attraction of the
magnet.
The expenditure of the battery is reduced to a minimum by regulating the
positions of the armature and of the contact points by means of adjusting screws
which enable the distances to be reduced as much as possible, so that a small
amount of force is sufficient to actuate the apparatus. Moreover as the balance is

page_text: not included in the circuit, and the adjusting screws enable the position of the
points to be regulated with precision, the moment at which the balance attains the
position of equilibrium may be brought as near as desired to the instant when
the passage of the current and consequently the supply of yarn or thread is
arrested.
This arrangement enables the apparatus to work with great precision; moreover
it is simply necessary to change the weights in order to enable the same apparatus
to weigh yarn or thread for balls of different sizes or formed by yarn or thread of
different numbers.
The electric current may be obtained from other sources than a battery, such, for
example, as a small magneto-electric machine, and the apparatus may be provided
with an alarm or signalling device of any suitable construction.
The Invention is applicable to the weighing of yarn or thread of every descrip-
tion, such, for example, as wool, cotton, silk, flax, hemp, & the like, also to the
weighing of other materials where the operation is required to be frequently repeated
and conducted with great precision.
The details of the apparatus may be modified according circumstances and
the exigencies of particular cases.

page_text: 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
1st July 1881.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman.. "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WEIGHING YARN OR
THREAD AND OTHER MATERIAL.” A communication from abroad by Jean Léonide
Mouchère, of Paris, in the Republic of France, Manufacturer.
The said Invention relates to the construction of apparatus for automatically or
mechanically ascertaining or determining the quantity of yarn or thread unwound
from a skein or bank in order to be ultimately made up into balls of a given
weight, previously fixed upon, which weight is capable of being changed at pleasure,
irrespective of the size of the yarn or thread or of the balls into which the yarn or
thread is to be formed.
In order to obtain this variation in the weight and this automatic action of the
mechanism the apparatus is constructed in two distinct parts, one of which is
controlled by the other.
The first part of the apparatus consists of a balance or pair of scales of any
suitable construction, one of the scales being employed to carry a receptacle for the
yarn or thread as it is unwound and formed into a ball or pile, whilst weights
varying according to the size of the said ball and number of the yarn or thread are
placed in the other scale.
The second part of the apparatus is composed of certain mechanism for feeding
the yarn or thread, which mechanism is brought into action or stopped by the
motion of the balance itself, so as to produce or arrest the unwinding of the yarn
at the required moment.
Under these conditions, when the quantity of yarn or thread necessary to form
a ball of the desired weight has been unwound from the skein, and this yarn or
thread has been deposited in the receptacle carried by the scale of the balance, the
latter being thereby brought into a state of equilibrium arrests the supply of yarn
or thread automatically.
The apparatus is thus rendered perfectly automatic in its action, as the measuring
or weighing device itself controls the feeding or supplying mechanism.
An important feature of the Invention consists in the means employed for
rendering the two parts of the apparatus dependent one upon the other, as next
hereinafter described.
One of the scales of the balance, viz., the one carrying the weights for example,
carries an arm or verge provided with two needles or points, which, by the
oscillations of the balance, are alternately inserted in and lifted out of two small
cups or troughs filled with mercury. One of the cups communicates by means of a
wire with one of the poles of a battery, and the other cup is in communication with
an electro-magnet, which is also connected with the same battery. This electro-
magnet serves to attract a piece of soft iron or armature provided at one extremity
of a lever; the other end of this lever acts upon a presser cylinder or roller, which
bears upon the yarn or thread and presses it against the periphery of a pulley
revolving without intermission. This pulley is enabled to draw or feed the yarn
or thread so long as the presser cylinder presses the thread against it, but the yarn
or thread is thus acted upon by the presser only when the electro-magnet attracts
the armature on the lever, and when the magnet ceases to act the feed ceases also,
and the motion of the reels carrying the skein is consequently arrested.
The electro-magnet is brought into action only when the current is
passing, that is to say, when the points are immersed in the mercury. On their]

page_text: being lifted out of the cups the current, which previously entered at one point and
passed out at the other, is interrupted, and the electro-magnet ceases to attract the
soft iron, thereby throwing the presser cylinder out of action.
The points or needles are carried on a bar insulated from the arm or verge by
which they are connected to the balance.
It will be seen from the foregoing description that the system depends on the
automatic control of the reels carrying the yarn or thread by the direct action of
the measuring or weighing apparatus.
The arrangement by which the measuring device or balance is kept altogether
apart from the magnetic current, so that the latter is unable to produce any effect
upon the sensitiveness of the said balance, constitutes an important feature of this
Invention.
Moreover, as the feed of the yarn or thread stops when the current is interrupted,
and the interruption takes place at the moment when the needles are lifted out of
the mercury, the sensitiveness of the balance cannot be affected, as this lifting out
may be caused to take place as nearly as desired at the time when the balance
reaches the position of equilibrium.
In order to enable the moment when the various parts are called into action to
be regulated with precision suitable provision is made for adjusting the position of
the needles and of the soft iron or armature on the lever.
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 Sheet of Drawings, the same letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents a transverse section of an
apparatus constructed according to the said Invention.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the same corresponding to Figure 1; and
Figure 3 is a detail hereinafter referred to shewing the arrangement of the needles
or points.
This apparatus is constructed with a frame D provided with as many reels D¹
carrying hanks or skeins of thread F as may be attended to by one woman for.
example.
The thread F from each skein passes under a presser roller g, which, at the
desired moment, presses it against a feed pulley P, and this latter draws forward
the thread, causing it to coil itself in a suitable receptacle R.
The feed pulley Pis mounted on a suitable shaft A, and partakes of a continuous
rotary motion, which is imparted to it by a driving pulley P", carried on the same
shaft at the side of a loose pulley P¹, the latter being only employed when it is
desired to disconnect the apparatus from the main driving mechanism.
A balance B is arranged at a suitable level on the frame of the apparatus, being
provided with two scales B¹ and B¹¹, one of which, viz., the scale B', carries the box
or receptacle R, whilst the scale B¹¹ carries weights R₁ employed for weighing
the thread or yarn. The latter scale is also provided with an arm or verge V,
which carries contact points formed by two pendent needles a and a¹. The
extremity of this arm is enveloped in india rubber c (see detail Figure 3) acting
as an insulator, and is nipped between a cross bar t, to which the needles are
attached, and a bent plate or stirrup e.
The cross bar t is tapped at each extremity for the reception of two adjusting
screws T and T¹. The passage or interruption of the electric current is obtained
by means of the two small cups b, b¹, containing mercury, into which the extremities
of the needles a, a', are respectively immersed, as hereinafter described.
The presser roller g is guided in vertical slots and is acted on by a lever L
pivotted at O to the frame. The other extremity of the said lever carries an
armature of soft iron, the position of which is capable of adjustment by means of
a screw v, and an electro magnet E is arranged facing this armature in the line of
motion of the latter.
In order to diminish the resistance to the attraction of the electro-magnet, the

page_text: lever L is balanced by means of a moveable counter weight p, the position of which
may be adjusted as required, and the extent of motion of the lever is limited by a
screw v¹ fixed to the frame, and which acts as a stop and serves to prevent the lever
from swinging out of the field of attraction of the magnet E.
A battery H, of any suitable construction, is provided underneath the balance B,
and communicates or is connected with a circuit formed by wires f¹, f, and ƒ³, the
two cups b, b', of mercury, the needles a and a¹, and the cross bar t carrying the
latter.
The arrangement of parts hereinbefore described for feeding and weighing the
thread or yarn is the same in the case of each skein, as shewn in Figure 2.
The apparatus operates in the following manner :— -When the receptacle R for
the thread carried on the scale B¹ of the balance B, as herein before described, is
empty, the weight or weights R¹ on the scale B¹¹, causes the extremities of the
needles a, a¹, to be immersed in the mercury in the cups b, 61, the current from the
battery H is then enabled to pass traversing the wire f¹, and proceeding from the
needle a to the needle a¹, through the cross bar t. This bar being insulated from
the verge V, the current produces no effect upon the balance but passes along the
wires fand f¹¹ and excites the electro-magnet E, causing the latter to attract the
armature on the lever L, which is thereby induced to assume a more horizontal
position and lower the presser roller g on to the feed pulley P, pressing the
thread F between the said presser and the feed pulley. Now as the latter partakes
of a continuous rotary motion it draws forward the thread F and causes it to coil
itself in the receptacle R on the scale of the balance. Then as the thread
accumulates in this receptacle the needles a, a¹, are gradually drawn out of the
mercury in the cups, and when the weight of the thread taken off the skein and
deposited on the scale B₁ of the balance B is equal to that of the weight or
weights R' on the scale B", the needles a, a¹, will have been lifted entirely out of
contact with the mercury so as to break the circuit; on the passage of the current
being thus interrupted, the electro magnet E ceases to attract the armature land
the corresponding extremity of the lever L falls against the screw stop v', at the
same time raising the presser roller g.
The thread F immediately ceases to be fed forwards by the feed pulley P on being
thus relieved from pressure, and is cut by the attendant at a point between the feed
pulley and the receptacle; the latter may then be removed and an empty receptacle
inserted in its place, whereupon the parts of the apparatus resume their former
position and the thread is fed forwards as before. It will be observed that one
attendant is thus enabled to attend to a number of reels or skein holders mounted
on the same frame or machine.
The expenditure of the battery is reduced to a minimum by regulating the
positions of the armature and of the contact points by means of the adjusting
screws T, T¹, and V, hereinbefore described, which enable the distances to be reduced
as much as possible, so that a small amount of force is sufficient to actuate the
apparatus. Moreover, as the balance is not included in the circuit, and the adjusting
screws T, T¹, enable the position of the points a, a¹, to be regulated with precision,
the moment at which the balance attains the position of equilibrium may be brought
as near as desired to the instant when the passage of the current and consequently
the supply of yarn or thread is arrested.
This arrangement enables the apparatus to work with great precision; moreover,
it is simply necessary to change the weights in order to enable the same apparatus
to weigh yarn or thread for balls of different sizes, or formed by yarn or thread of
different numbers.
The electric current may be obtained from other sources than a battery, such, for
example, as a small magneto-electric machine, and the apparatus may be provided
with an alarm or signalling device of any suitable construction.
The arrangement of the parts of the improved apparatus hereinbefore described,
possesses the advantage of in no way diminishing the sensitiveness of the balance

page_text: and of arresting the unwinding action of the reel precisely at the moment when the
equilibrium is reached.
A practical result from the employment of this improved apparatus consists in
the facility afforded for determining the weight of the balls of thread with the
greatest precision, and for varying this weight at pleasure within any suitable
limits by means of the same apparatus. Considerable saving of labour is also
obtained by the employment of the apparatus herein before described.
The said Invention is applicable to the weighing of yarn or thread of every
description, such, for example, as wool, cotton, silk, flax, hemp, and the like, also to
the weighing of other materials where the operation is required to be frequently
repeated and conducted with great precision.
The details of the apparatus may be modified according to circumstances and the
exigencies of particular cases.
4
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 hereinbefore in
part recited Letters Patent is,-
Automatically weighing thread or yarn or other materials where frequently
repeated weighing operations involving great precision are required, by the employ-
ment of a balance which acts upon or controls an electro-magnetic current, in
order to effect the unwinding or supply, or to arrest the supply of the thread or
yarn or other material from the reels or carrier, whilst at the same time remaining
independent of the said current, substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)