IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING MULES FOR SPINNING
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Alfred Cowper at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
August 1863.
I, EDWARD ALFRED COWPER, of No. 35, Great George Street, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING MULES FOR SPINNING," to be
as follows:-
My Invention relates to the mode of driving cam shafts in "mules
cams employed in "mules" for making the various changes, or some of the
changes required; and the object I bave in view is the giving such cams
motion in a safer and more certain manner thau beretofore without loss of
time, and without endangering the parts. There have been various modes
employed to drive the cam shaft, and, in some cases; twist shafts with wipers
on them, and various Letters Patent have been granted from time to time for
numerous plans intended to accomplish the object in view, but every plan has
bad its defects, which defects have in extended practical work become so fully
developed that many arrangements have been found commercially valueless,
and have been confined to the first few mules made, and many others have
been thrown aside altogether, notwithstanding which the advantage of using
cams for making the changes in a mule is so great that much attention has
been directed to the best mode of communicating motion to them from the

page_text: time of the Invention of the cam shaft by Richard Roberts in 1825 down to
the present time. I am aware of the attempts made by Richard Roberts,
William Fletcher, and others, who have made mules very similar in their
action to the one first named, but with space, spur wheels, or bevil wheels,
in place of space pulleys and contact pulleys, either with or without an inter-
mediate wheel to yield by means of a spring in case of the teeth jamming, or
with a spur wheel or bevil wheel to be lifted out of gear, either with or without
a spring to allow one wheel or an intermediate wheel to yield in case of the
teeth jaiming themselves; also I am aware that John Wain in 1854, and
John Platt in 1856, and others, have driven cam shafts by means of clutches
capable of throwing themselves out of gear after making a change by the
action of a pin and incline. I am also aware of the several modes of working
mules proposed in the Specifications of Patents granted to Richard Roberts in
1825, 1830, 1834, 1839, 1844, 1847, and 1850; to James Potter in 1881,
1886, 1842, 1849, and 1851; to. Craig and Sharp in 1840 and 1841; to
James Fletcher in 1843; to William Robertson in 1846 and 1850; to William
Wield in 1848; to Lakin and Rhodes in 1849 and 1852; to Higgins and
Whitworth in 1853; to Henry Brierly in 1845, 1847, 1853, and 1856; to
Mackindoe in 1849; to Fothergill in 1845; to Fothergill and Johnson in
1846; to Houghton and Hoyle in 1854; to Mason and Robertson in 1849,
1850, 1852, and 1854; to Halliwell and Johnson in 1858, and in the Speci-
fications of many other Patentees, as well as certain modifications thereof.
One part of the driving gear I employ consists in an arrangement of spur
wheels, one of which is to be slid into gear endways, the ends of the teeth of
both wheels being cut away behind the acting curves or sides of the teeth, so
as to form inclines.(something like ratchet teeth), so that the teeth of the
sliding wheel may enter easily into the teeth of the other wheel without the
possibility of the tops or ends of one set of teeth catching on the tops or ends
of the other set. One of such wheels is to be fixed on the cam shaft, and
the other is to be moved in or out of gear when it is necessary to make a
"change" in the mule; the moving wheel is to be driven from some wheel in
constant motion in the mule, such as the backing-off' wheel.
Another part of my Invention consists in the use of spur wheels with
diagonal teeth, the one being slid into gear with the other end ways; and I find
it best to slide the one into gear with the other in that direction in which
the speed of rotation shall rather be diminished than accelerated, so that the
driving wheel may
have a good hold of the driven wheel before it is called
upon to exert its full force to drive the other at full speed.

page_text: Another part of my Invention consists in so cutting away the teeth of two
spur wheels diagonally, as that they shall when they gear together by one of
them being slid endways into the other take a better hold, or have a greater
width of tooth in gear than ordinary spur wheels would have, or diagonal teeth
may be used or cut away in like manner.
Another part of my Invention consists in the employment of Robertson's
frictional gearing, such as described in the Specification of Robertson's Patent,
dated 11th June 1857, No. 1639, for communicating the requisite motion, one
wheel being fixed on the cam shaft, and the other fixed to or driven by the
"backing-off wheel," or other wheel having continuous motion, and at the
proper periods I impart a slight motion either to the cam shaft or to the shaft
of the "backing-off wheel," or shaft driven by the same, so as to draw the two
grooved wheels out of gear; or I communicate the motion through an inter-
mediate grooved wheel in gear with both the other grooved wheels, and so
arranged as to be capable of being thrown out of gear with one of them at
the proper periods. Stops or excentric inclines are provided on the cam shaft
or other secondary or "stop shaft" to cause the slight motion requisite to
throw the frictional gearing out of gear. A rod or bar with blocks or stops
upon it may be introduced between the excentric inclines and supports for the
axis of one of the frictional wheels, so that after the wheel has been thrust out
of gear the withdrawal of such block will cause the same to go into gear
again. In place of such frictional gearing being thrown out of gear one
wheel may have spaces cut in it, after the manner of Roberts' "spaced
pulley."
Another part of my Invention consists in the use of a "star wheel" in a
peculiar manner for driving the cam shaft, there being a pin on the driving
shaft (whether connected or not with the backing-off wheel), which gears at
intervals into the "star wheel," and causes it to turn the proper part of a
revolution to effect a "change," the "star wheel" being formed with four or
more or less radial grooves or slots, in each of which the pin before named
works in turn.
Another part of my Invention is an improvement on the strap fork described
in the Specification of the Patent granted to John Wain on the 10th November
1854, No. 2393, and consists in forming a strap fork lever working in a plano
nearly at right angles with the strap with one part near its fulcrum, formed so
as nearly to fit the width of the strap, whilst the outer end that extends to the
strap on the other side of the pulley is made wider, or the strap fork lever is
made with the wide part near the fulcrum and the narrow part at the end, or

page_text: it is made single at one end near the fulcrum and double at the outer end,
or vice versa, by which means any variable rate of traverse may be given to a
strap; or it may be moved slowly at first and fast at last, or fast at first and
slowly at last, without any other machinery to control the action of the weight,
spring, or other moving power over and above the action of the strap itself.