IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPANDING AND CONTRACTING COMBS OR WRAITHS FOR WARPING, BEAMING, DRESSING, AND OTHER FRAMES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Conlong at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th June
1867.
I, JAMES CONLONG, of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, do bereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPANDING
AND CONTRACTING COMBS OR WRAITHS FOR WARPING, BEAMING, DRESSING, AND
OTHER FRAMES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be
as follows:-
The object of my said improvements is to obviate the defects of that class
of expanding and contracting combs in which the dents are actuated by spiral
or other springs, and are contracted or expanded by elongating or compressing
such springs. And one part of the Invention consists in substituting for the
said springs differential right and left handed screws acting independently on
each dent by means of pins fitted into the said dents and fitting loosely in the
threads, so that when the screws are turned a positive motion is conveyed to
each dent separately; and another part of the Invention consists in improved
mechanism for cutting such differential screws.
In carrying out this Invention I form the dents with an eye or eyes on the
bottom part of the dents, of from one quarter of an inch to one inch in
diameter, and of a thickness equal to the fineness of the dent required to
form the comb, the dents are fitted on to one or more shafts, but I prefer

page_text: two; the said shafts are supported by journals at each end, fastened to a
case enclosing them, and the shafts are also supported in the centre and are
fitted parallel one underneath the other in the case, about half an inch apart.
The dents are punched from steel, or charcoal iron, or other metal, and the
holes are pressed out on the edges and a ferrule or boss is formed on one side
by means of a press punch and die, the dents are then placed on the shaft
and marked for drilling if they are coarse or strong dents, if they are fine or
light they are placed on the screw shafts, and when in position are counter-
sunk by a fine punch into the threads of the screws. In cutting or chasing a
thread on the said shafts the screws are cut or chased from the middle of the
shaft in one direction left handed, and in the other direction right handed, the
screws being formed or chased with a differential thread, that is, with a
variable pitch, being finer, or having more threads to the inch towards the
centre or middle of the shaft, and coarser or less threads to the inch towards
the ends of the shaft, the strong or coarse dents are drilled after marking, and
a light steel pin is driven tight into each boss, and the pin is caused to fit into
the thread on the shaft; the said screwed shafts are connected together
outside the casing by means of a pair of spur wheels and a handle or milled
pulley fitted on one shaft for giving motion to the screw shafts, or by a
worm on a short shaft fitted on the case and resting or gearing into.both
wheels. In this case the wheels are made less than when the motion is
conveyed direct to the screw shafts. On motion being conveyed to the screw
shafts the dents are actuated by the pins in the dents fitting into the threads
in the screw shafts or by the indentations in the dents fitting into the threads
of the screw shafts, and the dents are caused to expand and contract, and as
the threads are of a differential pitch the expansion and contraction may be
formed in the same ratio as in spring expanding and contracting combs or
wraiths, but as each dent is acted upon separately and independently the
expanding and contracting is more positive and certain than by springs acted
upon only at each end.
In cutting the said screws on the shaft I use an ordinary light screw
cutting lathe, on the bed of which I fit a bracket bolted to the lathe bed, and
set the same at right angles to the bed. In the said bracket I'fit' a shaft
and fix on it a radial arm having fitted to it a bracket capable of being raised
or depressed. The bracket is fitted with a stud for receiving a connecting rod
and on the same shaft there is a wheel gearing into the ordinary screw shaft.
On the side of the lathe slide or saddle I fit a stud and connect the same to
a stud in the radial arm by means of a connecting rod. The shaft to be
chased is placed in the lathe and the radial arm is set by means of the adjusting

page_text: screw to the length of the screw to be cut, or one half the width of the comb,
and brought down to the same level as the stud in the slide or saddle of the
lathe. The tool is then set in the middle of the screw shaft, the radial arm
carrying the saddle or slide by means of the connecting rod, as described,
until the radial arm assumes a vertical position, when the work or screw will
be completed on that side. The screw is then taken out and turned, and a
thread cut on the opposite side of an opposite hand; if the first thread
be a right then the other should be a left-hand thread. By raising or
depressing the bracket by means of the screw any width of screw may be cut
between its longest length.