IMPROVE- MENTS IN TRANSMITTING ROTARY MOTION APPLICABLE SPECIALLY TO MACHINERY FOR PREPALING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Combe and James Barbour, both of
Belfast, in the Kingdom of Ireland, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TRANSMITTING ROTARY MOTION APPLICABLE SPECIALLY TO MACHINERY
FOR PREPALING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 18th September 1869, and dated the 22nd March 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Combe and
James Barbour at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 22nd March 1869.
We, JAMES COMBE and JAMES BARBOUR, both of Belfast, in the
Kingdom of Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING ROTARY MOTION APPLICABLE SPECIALLY TO
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,"
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to give a more smooth and uniform
rotary motion to the shafts, rollers, spindles, and bobbins of preparing
and spinning machinery than has been heretofore obtained, and thereby
to increase the regularity of the action of the machines.

page_text: The want of a regular motion is found to be particularly objection-
able in the working of flax, hemp, jute, or other non-elastic fibres. We
carry out these improvements by adapting to the machine to be driven
what is known as White's improvement on Hooke's gearing, wherein the
teeth of the wheels forming trains of gearing instead of being parallel to
their axes are slightly angled thereto, so that the breadth of each tooth
comes gradually into action and goes gradually out of action, and in this
way it is always the pitch line of the wheels that is driving, and not
alternately the top or bottom of the teeth as well as the pitch line.
When the pressure endwise on the shafts., caused by the angle of the
teeth being all in the same direction would be an objection one half the
length of each tooth may be angled in one direction and the other half
in the opposite, so that they will neutralise each other; or instead of the
teeth being made angled to their axes they may be divided into two or
more sets, planes, or steps, as in Hooke's gearing.
The room for overrunning and backlash being greater in wheels wide
pitched than in finer ones, by this arrangement we obtain the advantage
of fine-pitched gearing in so far as regular or uniform driving is con-
cerned, and at the same time sufficient strength. But in order to pre-
vent still more effectually overrunning and backlash we fix a pulley on
the end of the shaft that drives, say the spindles, in roving or slubbing
frames, and drive the same by a belt from a pulley on the main or first
motion shaft of the machine. These pullies we so proportion to each
other that the belt communicates the same speed or a slightly slower
one, so as to act as a drag upon the spindle shaft and so prevent it
generating, overrunning, and backlash in the train of wheels connecting
the main driving shaft with the spindle shaft, this train of wheels being
the place where the irregular motion principally originates. In some
constructions of machines this drag belt may be applied to correct the
irregularities arising in the train of wheels connecting the differential
motion with the bobbin shafts. This drag belt may also be applied with
advantage to shafting when driven with gearing by connecting the
extremities of two or more shafts.
The above-described arrangements are of advantage in all the
processes of drawing and preparing, but especially so in the roving or
slubbing frame, where a positive "take up" motion is given to the
bobbins, and where the slight irregularities of speed are increased by
any overrunning and backlash in the gearing, and so causing jerks at

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said James Combe and James Barbour in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd September 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
COMBE and JAMES BARBOUR, both of Belfast, in the Kingdom of Ireland,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said James Combe and James
Barbour, Her special licence that we, the said James Combe and James
Barbour, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said James Combe and James Barbour, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING
ROTARY MOTION APPLICABLE
MACHINERY FOR PREPARING AND
SPINNING FLAX AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCEE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said James Combe and James Barbour,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
SPECIALLY TO
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Combe, on behalf of myself
and of the said James Barbour, do hereby declare the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,

page_text: reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say); -
The chief object of this Invention is to give a more smooth and
uniform rotary motion to the shafts, rollers, spindles, and bobbins of
preparing and spinning machinery than has been heretofore obtained,
and thereby to increase the regularity of the action of the machines.
65
The want of a regular motion is found to be particularly objection-
able in the working of flax, hemp, jute, or other non-elastic fibres. To
meet this want we adapt to the machine to be driven what is known as
White's improvement on Hooke's gearing," wherein the teeth of the
wheels forming trains of gearing instead of being parallel to their axes
are slightly angled thereto, so that the breadth of each tooth comes
gradually into action and goes gradually out of action, and in this way it
is always the pitch line of the wheels that is driving, and not alternately
the top or bottom of the teeth as well as the pitch line. This arrange-
ment is shewn in edge and side views at Figures 1 and 2 of the
accompanying Drawing. When the pressure endwise on the shaft
caused by the angular setting of the teeth would be an objection one-
half the length of each tooth may be angled in one direction and the
other half in the opposite, so that the pressures in the opposite directions
will neutralize each other. This arrangement is shewn at Fig. 3.
instead of the teeth being made angled to their axes they may be divided
into two or more sets, planes, or steps, with a lead, that is, the teeth
of one plane or step being in line with the spaces between the teeth of
the adjacent planes or steps, as in Hooke's gearing. This arrangement
is shewn in side and edge views at Figures 4 and 5.
Or
The room for overrunning and backlash being greater in wheels wide
pitched than in finer ones, by this arrangement we obtain the advantage
of fine pitched gearing in so far as regular or uniform driving is con-
cerned, and at the same time sufficient strength. But in order to
prevent still more effectually overrunning and backlash we employ also
the arrangement shewn at Fig. 6; that is to say,) we fix a pulley a on
the end of the shaft that drives, say, the spindles in roving or slubbing
frames, and drive the same by a belt 6 from a pulley c on the main or
first motion shaft c' of the machine. These pullies we so proportion to
each other that the belt communicates the same speed, or a slightly
slower one, so as to act as a drag upon the spindle shaft a, and so pre-
vent it generating overrunning and backlash in the train of wheels e

page_text: by which the main driving shaft b is connected with the spindle
shaft a, this train of wheels being the place where the irregular motion
principally originates. In some constructions of machines this drag
belt b may be applied to correct the irregularities arising in the train of
wheels connecting the differential motion with the bobbin shafts. This
drag belt may also be applied with advantage to shafting when driven
with ordinary gearing by connecting the extremities of two or more
shafts.
The above-described arrangements are of advantage in all the processes
of drawing and preparing, but especially so in the roving or slubbing
frame, where a positive take-up motion is given to the bobbins, and
where the slight irregularities of speed are increased by any overrunning
and backlash in the gearing, and so causing jerks at intervals on the
sliver which is being twisted between the front or delivery roller and the
top of the flyer.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements
in Transmitting Rotary Motion applicable specially to Machinery for
Preparing and Spinning Flax and other Fibrous Substances," and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be
understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we claim,
transmitting rotary motion to preparing, spinning, and other machinery
requiring a smooth motion, in the manner and for the purpose above
described:
In witness whereof, I, the said James Combe, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JAMES COMBE. (L.S.)