IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR INDICATING AND REGISTERING THE TIME DURING WHICH LOOMS AND OTHER MACHINES ARE IN " OPERATION AND OUT OF OPERATION
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th November 1883. Communicated
to him from the Company called "Ateliers de construction de Mulhouse"
carrying on business at Mulhouse Alsatia.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON of 47 Lincolns Inn Fields in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR INDICATING AND
REGISTERING THE TIME DURING WHICH LOOMS AND OTHER MACHINES ARE IN
"
OPERATION AND OUT OF OPERATION a communication to me from the Company
called "Ateliers de construction de Mulhouse" carrying on business at Mulbouse
Alsatia.
•
This Invention relates to an improved electrical apparatus for automatically
registering the time during which looms or other machines are at work and for
indicating the number and duration of the stoppages thus enabling the manager or
person having charge of the mill or factory to watch the rate of production at all
times without leaving his Office. This apparatus although applicable to all
descriptions of Loomis or machinery is more particularly intended for use in
factories or mills in which spinning weaving combing and the like is carried on and
which employ a large number of independent.machines the frequent and sonie-
times prolonged stoppages of which often seriously diminish the aimount of work
that is turned out .in the course of a 'day. By giving the manager immediate
notice these stoppages may in the majority of cases be obviated or shortened
and this improved electrical apparatus by giving reliable indications of the working
or stoppage of each machine enables the manager to take the proper measures to
ascertain and remove the cause of the stoppage without loss of time.
I will describe the apparatus as applied to a single loom and it will-be
understood that the parts simply require to be multiplied in order to apply the
invention to any desired number of machines.
-
. The improved electrie indicating apparatus is provided with a registering
apparatus and a counter of any suitable description attached to or arranged near
the loom or machine to which the Invention is applied. The registering apparatus
is mounted on a frame formed by two uprights connected by two transverse bars-
To the lower bar-is-attached an electro magnet provided with an armature carried
by a spring one extremity of which is attached to the frame the other extremity

page_text: being provided with a pointed rod or style sliding in the transverse bars which
act as guides. This rod is provided with a small enlargement or shoulder which
limits its downward stroke and retains it at the desired elevation-Above the
pointed rod a paper ribbon is caused to travel being uncoiled from a roll on one
side of the apparatus and wound upon a roller on the other side after passing over
guide rollers which compel it to pass in a horizontal direction at a short distance
from the pointed end of the rod-The paper is drawn under a block covered on its
under side with India rubber for the purpose of enabling the pointed rod to prick
mark or perforate the paper without tearing the latter
The winding on roller for the paper is worked by toothed gear and a belt 1
operated continuously by the main driving shaft of the mill. These toothed wheels
and pulleys are so proportioned as to feed toward the paper at a predetermined
rate of say about one inch per hour. The apparatus is supplied with an electric
current from a battery one pole of which is connected by a suitable conductor to
the coils of the Electro magnet the other pole being similarly connected to the
counter hereinafter described
This Counter preferably attached to the roof or ceiling and enclosed in a case is
provided with a copper bar electrically connected with the coils of the electro
magnet and is also provided with a spring contact maker connected to the battery.
A worm wheel worked by a Pawl and ratchet wheel is so arranged as to perform
one revolution when the Pawl has engaged say one thousand times with the teeth
of the ratchet wheel-The spindle carrying the worm wheel is provided with an
eccentric or cam acting upon the spring contact maker so that after every thousand
revolutions contact is made with the copper bar and the circuit is closed through
the conductors, the battery and the electro magnet-The Pawl is worked by a
connecting rod operated by the loom or machine preferably by means of a small
eccentric stud on the end of the driving shaft.
The indicating or checking apparatus thus arranged operates in the following
manner. Each time, the shaft of the loom completes a thousand revolutions the
worm wheel of the counter describes one revolution and by the action of the cam
or eccentric the spring contact is pushed against the copper bar or plate the electric
current then flows through the coil of the Electro magnet along the Conductor and
the spring carrying the pointed rod being attracted by this magnet the said rod is
..pulled towards the paper and pricks it or makes a mark thereon.
The same effect. is produced every time the shaft of the machine completes a
thousand revolutions and the paper ribbon being continually drawn forwards the
impressions or marks made by the pointed rod form a regular line on the paper 80
long as the loom or machine works without stopping but when a stoppage occurs
in the working of the machine a break will appear in the line of marks of a
length corresponding to the length of the period during which the working of the
loom or machine has been interrupted.
When the Invention is applied to a large number of machines as many pointed
rods or markers conductors and electro magnets must be provided as there are
machines each machine being also provided with an independent counter which on
the completion of say every thousand revolutions of the shaft closes the circuit
and operates the corresponding marker one battery being employed to supply all
the magnets.
In order to enable a large number of registering apparatus with their markers
electro magnets and conductors to be arranged in a limited space a suitable frame
or stand is employed to carry rollers which support and guide the paper ribbon as
in the arrangement hereinbefore described and which are operated by a train of
toothed and worm wheels and endless screws or other equivalent mechanism
worked by the driving or counter shafting of the factory.
A suitable number of transverse bars on this frame support plates carrying a
series of electro magnets whose coils are connected on the one hand with a common
conducting rod connected to a wire leading to one pole of the battery and on the
other hand each magnet is separately connected by means of suitable conductors

page_text: with the copper bar or stationary contact maker in the counter of the corresponding
machine. These counters are provided as in the arrangement hereinbefore described
with a moveable device or contact maker operated by the machine and producing
an electric contact closing the circuit of an Electric battery every time that the
loom or machine completes a given number of revolutions.
The moveable armatures of the electro-magnets carry pointed rods or styles for
perforating or marking the paper which is caused to pass between the points and a
bar covered with India rubber
The rows of pointed rods and electro magnets are preferably arranged alternately
or in a quincunx upon the supports in order to economise space.
Under these conditions the paper ribbon will be perforated with a number of
parallel rows of holes each row corresponding with one of the machines in the
mill and in order to enable the particular machine that may happen to be stopping
or not working regularly to be readily distinguished the numbers of the machines
are marked upon a board arranged above the apparatus and these numbers are
connected by means of variously coloured strings for example with the teeth of a
species of comb having as many teeth as there are perforators in the registering
apparatus Any other suitable arrangement may however be employed to facilitate
reading the indications on the paper