IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SIZING, VARNISHING, AND STRETCHING HEALDS OR HEDDLES USED IN WEAVING
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Cook, senior, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster,
Machine Maker, and Samuel Cook, junior, of the same Place, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SIZING, VARNISHING,
AND STRETCHING HEALDS OR HEDDLES USED IN WEAVING."
}
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Cook, senior, and
Samuel Cook, junior, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th
October 1879.
SAMUEL COOK, senior, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, and
SAMUEL COOK, junior, of the same Place. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR'
APPARATUS FOR SIZING, VARNISHING, AND STRETCHING HEALDS OR HEDDLES USED
IN WEAVING."
Our Invention relates to improvements in the machinery and appliances used for
sizing, varnishing, and stretching healds or heddles used in weaving.
For this purpose instead of using a machine with a rigid frame travelling back-
wards and forwards, on which the healds are suspended when being brushed, our
improvements consist of a machine fitted up with flexible endless bands or belts
working round pulleys or drums, which always travel in the same direction. To
this endless belt or band are attached a number of bowls with spring hooks, which
travel on iron guides or tramways.
. When the healds are sufficiently brushed we suspend them upon a stretching
machine, and the requisite tension is given to them by a number of spiral springs,
which keep them in position until sufficiently dried.
By the use of our improvements a great saving of time is effected, and the quality
of the work done is much improved.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Samuel Cook, senior, and Samuel Cook, junior, in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 20th April 1880.
SAMUEL COOK, senior, and SAMUEL COOK, junior, of Bury, in the County of
Lancaster, Machine Makers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SIZING, VAR-
NISHING, AND STRETCHING HEALDS OR HEDDLES."
Our said Invention has for its object improvements in machinery and appliances
used for sizing, varnishing, and stretching healds or heddles used in weaving. For this
purpose instead of using a machine with a rigid frame travelling backwards and
forwards, on which the healds are suspended when being brushed, our improvement
consists of a machine fitted up with flexible endless bands or belts working round
pullies or drums, which always travel in the same direction. To these endless bands
or belts we attach a number of bowls or pullies with hooks and springs, which travel on
iron guides or tramways. When the healds are sufficiently brushed we suspend
them upon a stretching machine, the requisite tension being given to them by a
number of spiral springs, which keep them in position until sufficiently dried.
By the use of our improvements a great saving of time is effected, and the quality
of the work is much improved.
And in order that our said Invention may be well understood we shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, reference being made to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, like letters of reference indicating corresponding parts
in all the Figures.
The machinery hitherto used in sizing, varnishing, and brushing the healds has
consisted in a horizontal frame, upon which the healds one stretched and laid over
the top of a brush revolving at a high speed until the requisite smoothness is
imparted. Another plan is to hang the healds upon a rigid vertical frame, and to
pass them backwards and forwards to and fro betwixt two revolving brushes so as
to lay the fibre of the yarn and make it perfectly smooth. Now our Invention
consists in the construction and use of a machine in which we substitute endless
flexible bands or straps for the old rigid frame moving backwards and forwards
betwixt the brushes. These bands move slowly in one direction only, carrying the
healds along with them betwixt the revolving brushes, and pass entirely round the
machine in a continuous and unbroken 'track, thereby doing the work much more
expeditiously and satisfactorily. The framework of this machine can be made of
any required length, and is composed of two upright frames, one at each end, which
are connected together by iron rails, either angle or T iron, to give them strength.
On the outside of these end frames are bolted fixings working in V slides, which
carry two upright shafts, on each of which are fixed two pullies which work freely
on fast keys let into the upright shafts, and are moved up or down by a right and
left handed screw, so as to bring them nearer together or wider apart to suit the
varying depths of the healds to be operated upon. Round these pullies and frame-
work we pass an endless belt or strap of leather, hemp, or steel, and to keep this
belt in position we bolt or rivit on to the face of it a number of hooks and frames;
which carry small wheels or pulleys grooved to travel on the top and bottom of
the iron rails or tramways, and thus are always kept in position. We also apply
to each hook a spiral spring, which gives tension to the heald while being operated
upon by the brushes; the healds being suspended to the hooks upon the belts or
straps, are then set in motion by bevil wheels attached to one of the upright shafts
at the end of the machine, and are thus carried betwixt the revolving brushes to be
smoothed or dressed. The brushes have in addition to their revolving motion an
up and down motion, so as to brush any required depth, which is regulated by a
crank and screw in the usual way. After the healds have passed betwixt the
brushes they are perfectly smooth, and are then taken off by the attendant and

page_text: hung upon a stretching frame ready to be transferred to the drying stove. This
operation is of the greatest importance, and hitherto has been done in a most
objectionable way, viz., a number of healds having been taken off the brushing
machine they are theu carried into a hot stove, hung upon hooks driven into fixed
rails, and weighted with cast iron weights, or attached to springs or straps fixed to
the floor of the stove to give them the proper tension while being dried; this work
having to be done in a heated stove amidst the stifling smell of varnish is most
detrimental to health and almost unbearable. By our improved carriage this is
entirely obviated. This carriage consists of a framework with two uprights and
cross rails. At the bottom of the uprights we form two recesses or chambers, into
which are fixed a number of spiral tension springs, which are fastened down to the
bottom of the chamber by metal pins. On the top of the uprights are fixed iron
arms, on which the healds are suspended when taken off the flexible belts on the
brushing machine, and are attached by hooks to the spiral springs at the bottom of
the frame, the requisite tension being thereby given. This frame or carriage is
mounted on wheels, and loaded with healds in the varnishing room where it is cool,
and when full is wheeled into the drying stove, and thus provides against any long
stay in the hot stove.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Drawing is a front elevation of the machine.
Figure 2 is a plan of the same.
Figure 3 is a front view of the carriage for suspending and stretching the
healds.
'
Figure 4 is an end view of the same.
Figure 5 is a cross section of the top belt a, the tramway h, the grooved.
pullies k, and the suspending hook.
Figure 6 is a section of the bottom hook and framing and the tension spring g.
In Figure 1 a represents the flexible endless belt, to which is attached the hooks
for carrying the healds betwixt the brushes f, f.
b, b, are the upright frames at each end of the machine, which support the iron
rails or tramways h on which the books and pullies, Fig. 5, slide or roll when in
motion. To the said frames are bolted two bushes q, which are tapped and slide
freely in V grooves, and are moved nearer to each other or further apart by right
and left handed screws c, c; d, d, are a pair of fast and loose driving pullies for
giving motion to the main shaft r. On this shaft is keyed a pinion working in the
spur wheels on the countershaft e, which gives motion by bevil wheels to the
upright shaft i; this upright shaft communicates motion to the pullies j, and thus
traverses the endless belts round the machine. On the main driving shaft r is fixed
a grooved pulley 7, which drives another grooved pulley on the end of the circular
brush f, causing it to revolve at a high speed when brushing the healds.
Figure 2 is a plan of the machine, shewing the framing and iron rails or tram-
ways and pullies j, around which the endless belt travels when in motion; b, b, is
the framing; h, h, the iron tramways; j, j, the end pullies round which the belt a
travels in its revolution round the machine; q, q, are the sliding bushes for widening
or closing the iron rails; and f, f, are the revolving brushes. Figure 3 is a front
view of the carriage, with a set of healds p suspended and stretched upon the same
before being taken into the drying stove; Figure 4 is an end view of the same
carriage, the letter m representing the upright framing; n, the iron arın at the top,
on which the healds p are suspended; o, the recess or chamber at the bottom of
the framing which contains the spiral springs, and to which the healds are attached
by a hook to give them the requisite tension whilst being dried.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, I
would observe in conclusion that what is claimed as the Invention is,―
1. The machinery as arranged with the tramways and pulleys for keeping the
flexible bands or belts in position when travelling round the machine, substantially
as hereinbefore described and illustrated by the accompanying Drawing.

page_text: 2. The application and use of flexible bands or belts with hooks and springs
attached for carrying the healds in a continuous track betwixt the brushes, substan-
tially as herein before described and illustrated by the accompanying Drawing.
3. The construction and use of a carriage mounted on wheels with iron arms at
the top for suspending the healds upon, and spiral springs at the bottom for stretching
the same, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated by the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Cook, senior, and Samuel Cook, junior,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifth day of April, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by
the said Samuel Cook, senior,
and Samuel Cook, junior, in
the presence of
FRED. ANDERTON,
Solr.,
Bury.
SAMOLE
SAMUEL COOK, Jr.
(L.S.)