IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WINDING THREAD INTO BALLS OR UPON SPOOLS OR BOBBINS
Year: 1884

page_text: COMPLEIE
SPECIFICATION.
We, THOMAS GLEN COATS, of Ferguslie Thread Works, Paisley, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Thread Manufacturer, and THOMAS WATSON, of the same
place, Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WINDING THREAD INTO BALLS OR UPON SPOOLS OR
BOBBINS" and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our said Invention has for its object to improve machinery used for winding
thread into balls or upon spools or bobbins; and an important feature of our
Invention is the introduction of mechanism for measuring the thread as it is being
wound so that each ball, spool, or bobbin, may accurately contain a certain
predetermined length of thread. Our improved machinery also comprises tension-
regulating and other details which will be readily understood from the following
description in which reference is made to an accompanying Sheet of explanatory
Drawings.
Figure, 1, on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a vertical section and
Figure, 2, is a front view of a flyer forming part of the machinery. In these
Figures the parts are shown as arranged for winding the thread in the form of a
ball which is done upon a tapered core or boss, 3, placed in an inclined position,
and which may be held and be driven by bevil gearing, 4, in the usual or any
suitable manner. The ball of thread is formed by the combined motions of the
boss, 3, and of a flyer, 5; and this flyer which is made with a diametrically
opposite ballancing arm, 6, is fixed on the front end of a tubular spindle, 7, fitted
loosely in an outer tube, 8, which is carried in bearings, 9, in the stationary.
framing of the machine. The outer tabe, 9, is driven by means of a pinion, 10,
which is fixed on it and which gears with a spurwheel, 11, indicated by a dotted
circle. This spurwheel, 11, is on a shaft, 12, which extends below a number of the
spindles, 8, in a vertical plane at right angles to them and the teeth of the
spurwheel, 11, and pinion, 10, are helical and inclined to the respective axes of
the wheels so that the teeth in gear are parallel to each other. A casing, 13, of
thin sheet metal encloses the spurwheels, 11, and a wooden cover, 14, lined with
sheet metal encloses the pinions, 10.

page_text: The inner tubular spindle, 7, has a collar, 15, fixed on its inner end after it has
been placed in the outer tube, 8, and near its other end a collar is formed on it to
bear against the front end of the outer tube, 8. Between the last mentioned collar
and the flyer, 5, there is fixed on the inner tube, 7, a disk, 16, having ratchet
teeth formed round its outer edge, whilst on the front end of the outer tube, 8,
there is fixed a disk, 17, to one part of which there is jointed a catch, 18, which
engages with the ratchet teeth of the disk, 16, when the parts are at rest, being
pressed so as to do so by a small adjustable spring. Whenever the motion of the
spindle, 8, is started the catch, 18, acting on the ratchet teeth of the disk, 16,
makes the flyer also at once start into motion; but on a certain velocity being
attained the centrifugal force due to that velocity makes the catch, 18, turn
outwards so as to clear the teeth of the disk, 16, and thereafter as long as the
velocity is maintained the flyer is driven by an adjustable frictional device which
has to be described and on which the tension with which the thread is wound
depends. The disk, 16, herein before described as being fixed on the inner tubular
spindle, 7, is fitted with a small circular cup, 19, having in it a disk faced on its
inner side with flannel or other suitable frictional material (supposed to be absent
in the Drawing). This frictional material bears on the disk, 17, which is fixed on
the outer tubular spindle, 8, and it is through the frictional contact that motion is
transmitted from the driving disk, 17, to the disk, 16. The frictional disk, 19, is
pressed against the driving disk, 17, by a spring which is adjustable by means of a
screw, 20; and the outer end of this screw has a piece of bent wire fixed in it and
bearing frictionally against the side of a recess in the flyer balance arm, 6, to resist
any tendency to unscrew.
The thread, 21, shown by a peculiarly dotted line, passes to the flyer, 5, through
the inner tubular spindle, 7. It passes from a supply bobbin (not shown) through
a guide eye in a traverse bar, 22, thence round a feeding pulley, 23, which rests on
a larger pulley, 24, and next proceeds to the inner end of the tubular spindle, 7.
The upper pulley, 23, is fitted with a tire or circumferential cover of rubber or
other suitable frictional material, and it is for the purpose of wearing this tire or
cover uniformly over some width that a slow traverse motion is given to the
thread by the bar, 22. The traverse bar, 22, is worked by a heart cam, 25, on a
spindle, 26, driven by means of a worm wheel, 27, on one end of it in gear with a
worm, 28, on the shaft, 29, of the larger pulley, 24.
The smaller feeding pulley, 23, is placed with its journals in curved bearing slots
in the ends of light spring brackets, 30, which press it down upon the measuring
pulley, 24, and it can be easily lifted out for placing the thread round it. The
larger pulley, 24, drives the smaller one, 23, by frictional contact; and it is the
larger pulley, 24, which measures the thread whilst causing it to be fed forward to
the tubular spindle, 7. This larger pulley, 24, is by preference made with a
circumference equal to a yard or other convenient measure unit, so that the number
of turns made by it whilst forming a ball or filling a spool or bobbin will be the
same as the number of yards of thread on the ball, spool, or bobbin. The gearing
through which the measuring pulley 24, is driven and which connects it with the
other parts of machine may be variously arranged but is by preference of a
kind to be described in the Specification accompanying another application for
Letters Patent of the same date and by the present applicants.
When winding the thread on a spool or bobbin, the spool or bobbin may be fixed
on a traverse bar so as to be in a continuation of the axis of the tubular
spindle, 7, and so as to move to and fro in the direction of that axis; or the
measuring pulley, 24, and its accompanying feeding pulley, 23, may be combined
with any suitable known arrangement of mechanism for winding thread on spools
or bobbins.
We do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein before described or
shown in the accompanying Drawings provided that the distinctive features of our
Invention are retained; these being, the combination of a measuring pulley and
feeding pulley with machinery for winding thread into balls or upon spools or

page_text: bobbins; the improved construction of flyer and accessory parts; and the
arrangement for starting the flyer.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
1. The combination of a measuring pulley (24) and feeding pulley (23) with
machinery for winding thread into balls or upon spools or bobbins substantially as
hereinbefore described.
2. The improved construction of flyer and accessory parts hereinbefore described
and consisting of a flyer fixed on an inner tubular spindle carried in an outer
tubular spindle which latter is driven positively and drives the flyer by means of
an adjustable frictional device.
3. The arrangement for starting the flyer and consisting of a ratchet-toothed
disk and the catch on the driving disk the said catch moving out of gear by
centrifugal force on a certain velocity being attained substantially as hereinbefore
described.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicants' Agent.