IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR INDICATING AND RECORDING THE WORK DONE BY MACHINES USED IN PREPARING, SPINNING, DOUBLING, AND WEAVING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS.
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Wilkinson, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Yarn Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR INDICATING AND RECORDING THE WORK DONE BY MACHINES USED IN
PREPARING, SPINNING, DOUBLING, AND WEAVING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS.'
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Wilkinson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd August 1878.
FREDERICK WILKINSON, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Yarn Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR INDICATING AND RECORDING THE WORK DONE
BY MACHINES USED IN PREPARING, SPINNING, DOUBLING, AND WEAVING COTTON
AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS,"
My Invention relates to that system of indicating and recording the work done
by machines by the aid of electricity, for which Provisional Protection was granted
to me, dated 5th September 1873, No. 2924, and consists in arrangements whereby
greater simplicity and efficiency are obtained.
According to my former Invention it was necessary to have a conducting wire
from each machine to the surface on which the work was accorded, but by my
present Invention such wires proceed to an intermediate apparatus, which may be
placed in the room containing the machines, and from this two wires only may
proceed to the apartment where the work is to be indicated and recorded.
To illustrate my Invention I will suppose that the machines to be tested are
fifty carding engines. I take an electric wire from each of these and connect them
to as many pins, which project from a dial, and I cause a finger to move across
these pins at a determined speed by any convenient mechanical arrangement.
From these two parts two other wires extend, one to an electro-magnet and tho
other to a finger situate on a dial having projecting pins as in the former case, the
said electro-magnet being used to rotate the finger at the same speed as that first

page_text: mentioned. From the pins of this second dial wires proceed and terminate in
springs or other apparatus resting upon paper prepared (as is well known) so as to
become marked by the passage of a current of electricity, such paper being caused
to travel by clockwork, and ruled to represent the number of machines and periods
of time.
When a machine is at work the current of electricity is broken and no mark is
made on the paper, but when the machine is stopped then the circuit being com-
pleted the current is caused to pass through the paper and effect a mark, and by
the use of the stop rod this may also take place when the strap is partly on the
loose pulley.
Either the dials or the fingers may be caused to revolve, and instead of the pro-
jecting pins alternate conducting and non-conducting substances may be used, and
cams or other equivalents for the dials may be employed. Or instead of rotatory
motion a vibratory movement may be adopted.
In order to prevent the marking at meal and other times when the machines
properly stop I cause the clockwork which moves the paper to break the electric
current at the proper times.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Frederick Wilkinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd
February 1879.
FREDERICK WILKINSON, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Yarn Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR INDICATING AND RECORDING THE WORK DONE
BY MACHINES USED IN PREPARING, SPINNING, DOUBLING, AND WEAVING COTTON
AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
My Invention relates to that system of indicating and recording the work dono
by machines used in preparing, spinning, doubling, and weaving cotton and other
fibrous materials by the aid of electricity, for which Provisional Protection was
granted to me, dated 5th Sept. 1873, No. 2924, and consists in an arrangement
whereby greater simplicity and efficiency are obtained.
The arrangement I employ is illustrated in the diagram plan view, Fig. 1, and in
the detached views, Figs. 2, 3, 4.
At a is a sheet of paper or other suitable material, upon which the work is to be
recorded, ruled with lines as at b, which correspond to any desired periods of time,
the said paper being so prepared and kept sensitive by any of the known processes
that when a current of electricity passes through it, it becomes discoloured. This
sheet of paper is placed upon a table c, which is caused to travel at a given speed
by any suitable arrangement of clockwork, and resting upon it are fingers d, to be
used as hereafter to be described.
At e is a shaft placed in any convenient situation, upon which there is a ratchet
wheel driven by a click and lever g actuated by a rod & communicating with any
convenient driven shaft. Upon the shaft c is a finger i capable of traversing a
series of metallic pins h, k, &c., fixed in a stationary disc 7 made of ebonite or other
non-conducting material, such pins being equal in number to the machines, the
work of which is to be recorded; the Drawing shews them spaced for forty, but a
a few only are shewn.
At m is another shaft, upon which there is a finger n traversing a second set of
pins o, o¹, &c., carried by a disc p, similar to that shown at l, and these two discs
have to travel at the same speed, so that when the finger i is in contact with the
pin the other finger n shall be in contact with the pin o, and so on in the cases
of k¹, o, and throughout the two series of the supposed number of forty each.
The way in which these corresponding movements are effected is as follows:-
At g is a disc, having projecting pins, which as the shaft e revolves arrive suc-
cessively in contact with a metallic springs connected by a wire t with one pole of
a galvanic battery w, the other pole being connected by a wire t* with an electro-
magnet t**, the keeper of which is a detant v capable of governing the motion of
an escapement wheel x mounted on the shaft m, which is drawn in one direction
through the medium of toothed wheels y, z, the latter of which is actuated by any
ordinary spring or weight arrangement, one pole of the said electro-magnet being
connected, as mentioned, by the wire to the spring 8. The pegs r therefore as
they revolve alternately (through the medium of the spring s) charge and withdraw
the electric current from the magnet **, which thus causes the detant v to liberate
the wheel x periodically, and allow the finger n to revolve and arrive successively
against the pins o, o¹, &c, but as this motion is governed by the sheet e it follows
that the other shaft m and the two fingers i, n, have the same periodical move-
ments imparted to them, and that the finger i is in contact with (say, No. 1) pin k
of the disc 1, when the second finger n is in contact with No. 1 pin of the second
disc p, and I now proceed to describe the application of the arrangement.
2
Referring to Fig. 4, at z is the usual stop rod, say, of a roving machine moving in
a bracket I, which carries two wires 2, 3, the ends of which rest (in the position
shewn) upon ebonite or other non-conducting material 4. One of these wires
passes from the stopping apparatus of the machine A to the peg k of the disc l, and

page_text: the current might therefore pass from thence through the finger i (now in con-
tact therewith) to the metallic boss 7* of the said disc l, the current being con-
ducted therefrom by a wire 6 to the boss p* of the disc p, subsequently through
the finger n to the peg o, and from thence by a wire 8 to the finger d, pressing
upon the prepared paper, after which it might pass through the said paper a and
table c to be conducted by the wire to a pole of the battery B*, the other pole
being connected to the wire 3. According however to the position of the stop rod
shewn there is no electric current passing, as the circuit is broken by the wires 2, 3,
resting on the non-conducting material 4; but supposing that rod z to be shifted to
place the strap on the loose pulley, then the metallic part thereof will be brought
into contact with both wires 2, 3, the circuit will be established, and a current of
electricity will pass through the prepared paper a and table c, proceeding afterwards
by the wire 9, and by these means a mark will be effected on the paper, shewing
divisions representing periods of time, how long the machine has been out of work,
and the same effect takes place with regard to any number of machines, there being
a corresponding number of pegs k and markers d, and the finger i by successively
arriving in contact with the said pegs feels as it were whether a particular machine
is at work, and recording the fact.
In the Drawing the peg k¹ of the machine B is free of the finger i, and there is
therefore no electric current established, and will not be until the said finger arrives
in contact therewith, having acted successively upon intervening pegs.
I have above spoken of the electric currents as having been generated by galvanic
batteries, but electro-magnetic machines of ordinary construction may be employed,
and it will be evident to all competent persons that insulation of certain parts by
interposing non-conducting materials is necessary.
At meal times, when the machines are of course stopped, the clockwork arrange-
ment may break the electric current in any suitable manner, and at the end of a
day's work the said clockwork may throw out the driving gear of the table c, or
these operations may be effected by hand.
Instead of using the chemically-prepared paper the electric current may be
employed to puncture or otherwise mark ordinary paper or other material.
The diagram Fig. 1 shews the apparatus condensed, but it will be seen that the
disc p and its adjuncts may be at any distance from the primary disc l.
I would also remark that instead of the general arrangement shewn, separate
wires or a cable thereof may proceed to one disc or p from a series of machines,
and that instead of the indication being made when the machines are stopped the
marking may be made to take place when they are at work,
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be understood that I
claim as secured to me under the above in part recited Letters Patent and for the
purposes above set forth, the use of the intermediate discs l, p, or one of them, with
their pegs, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Wilkinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.