IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND WINDING OF COLORED OR DYED YARN FOR FILLING FOR USE IN WEAVING
Year: 1885

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
.
I ALFRED GEORGE BROOKES of the firm of Wm Brookes & Son of 55 & 56
Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent
Agents do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PREPARATION AND WINDING OF COLORED OR DYED YARN FOR FILLING FOR USE
IN WEAVING, (communicated to me from abroad by Herman Foster Straw of
Manchester County of Hillsborough in the State of New Hampshire one of the
United States of America Mill Superintendent) and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
In accordance with my improved method of preparing colored yarn for filling,
the filling is formed into chains, is dyed in the chain and then dryed, after which
the dyed and dried yarn is wound upon a beam and is subsequently wound directly
from the beam upon filling bobbins for use in loom shuttles or similar holders as
will be described.
".
The chains of filling yarn are treated and dyed in precisely the same way as
warps are treated in the long chain system of dyeing, wherein the chains are
handled by machinery which operates very rapidly and economically, whereas as
now commonly practised the filling is dyed in the skein by a hand process.
Handling by machinery the chains being dyed results in less snarling and strain
on the yarn than when wrung in the skein system.
The dyed chains are dried on a drying machine having a steam drum, and when
dried are rewound on to a warp beam on a machine called a "beamer" and the
chain dyed beamed yarn is subsequently wound upon filling bobbins.
13
By the process now in common use the bobbins or cops of yarn when taken from
the spinning frame or mule are wound into skeins on a reeling machine and in this
form are dyed by hand labor and dried in heated rooms called dry rooms.
When dry, the skeins are returned to the mill where they are wound, on
a machine called a quill or yarn winder, from the skein upon filling bobbins or

page_text: quills ready for the loom shuttle. In some mills the dyed skeins are first wound in
a spooling machine upon spools like warper spools, and in a second machine are
rewound from the spools upon filling bobbins.
Each of the above methods has some advantages but the cost in either case does
not materially vary.
When the filling yarn is wound from the skein directly upon the filling bobbins
the process is slow, for by reason of the varying diameter of the bobbins and the
mass of yarn wound thereon, the skeins held on the swifts are jerked or turned at
different speeds resulting in frequent breakage of the yarns or in delivering at times
too much yarn by reason of the momentum of the swifts, such slack yarn resulting
in quills wound too soft to properly unwind from the bobbins when in the shuttle.
To obviate the evils enumerated as arising from winding the yarn from the
skeins directly upon the filling bobbins of unequal diameter, the said skeins, as
stated have been wound upon spools having heads, the bodies of the spools being of
equal diameter, thus enabling the strain on the yarn and the movement of the skein
and swifts to be uniform; and the spools, the yarn having been wound uniformly
on them, have been placed in a second machine provided with spindles to rotate the
filling bobbins which are to receive the yarn from the said spools.
In this second machine the process of winding the yarn upon the filling bobbins
is quite rapid as compared with the speed of winding from the skeins, because the
spools inay be controlled as to their rotation by friction mechanism, but even then
very much difficulty is experienced in regulating the tension and keeping it as
nearly uniform as possible while the yarn is being wound upon the filling bobbins
of various diameter.
In both these old plans it is very difficult to make the nose of the wound mass
of yarn on the filling bobbin sufficiently hard, without excessivo strain on the yarns
going upon the part of the bobbin of greater diameter, strain which is liable
to frequently break the same.
The mass of yarn on the bobbin, provided its nose is sufficiently hard, when in
the shuttle, unwinds from the bobbin without snarling.
Both these old plans have however greater objections than those noted which
arise solely from the skeining process, as for instance, the yarn in skein form is
subjected to frequent handling and wringings, depending much upon the color the
yarn is to have, and the yarn in the skeins becomes matted and tangled, and in
some cases more than others because of the varying nature of the dye stuff for
different colors, and the disentangling of the yarn in these skeins without breaking
the same, the skein having been dried, is one of the slowest and most costly
processes in the manufacture of colored goods, and with the best machinery such as
now used, and with the most careful of operators, frequent breakage occurs, and a
large amount of yarn is wasted, and waste of dyed yarn cannot be too little.
To obviate the difficulties inherent in the skein process, and at the same time
save money on the cost of preparing colored filling for the shuttle, my foreign
correspondent has by experiment discovered that the step of skeining, heretofore
considered necessary in the production of colored filling, may be entirely dispensed
with, and by a machine which he has produced he has been enabled to wind the
filling bobbins very uniformly as to hardness and with the minimum of breakage in
the-yarn.
The two steps of beaming the yarn and winding from the beams upon bobbins
can be performed at a cost for labor not exceeding two thirds the cost of winding
from skeins onto bobbins; and the waste made in skein winding is from three to
ten per cent according to the colors and quality of the yarn, the waste made by my
method will not in any event exceed one or two per cent of the yarn.
The substitution of chain dyeing for skein dyeing effects a very considerable
saving in the cost of, and in the time required for dyeing and drying, and at the
same time I am enabled to obtain much more uniform colors or shades than is
possible when the skein method is used.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
The described improvement in the method of preparing colored yarn for filling,
which consists in forming the filling into chains, then dyeing and drying the
chains, winding the dyed yarn upon a beam, and subsequently rewinding it upon
filling bobbins for use in loom shuttles, substantially as described.
Dated this 3rd day of March 1885.
W BROOKES & SON,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London,
Agents for the said Alfred George Brookes: