IMPROVEMENTS IN FINISHING THREAD, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hugh Crawford and James Crawford, both of Barr
Mill, Beith, in the County of Ayr, North Britain, Manufacturers, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FINISHING THREAD, AND IN THE
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR."
Sealed the 80th November 1866, and dated the 1st June 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hugh Crawford and
James Crawford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 1st June 1866.
We, HUGH CRAWFORD and JAMES CRAWFORD, both of Barr Mill, Beith, in the
County of Ayr, North Britain, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FINISHING THREAD, AND IN THE
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOB," to be as follows, that is
to say:
This Invention has reference more especially to improvements in that
description of thread-finishing machines technically known as the "pinning
machine," or "iron man," which softens, stretches, and gives a gloss or polish
to the thread in hanks by twisting or screwing them in vertical rows upon and
between corresponding upper revolving and lower non-revolving hooks, and
which improvements render such machines much moro efficient than they
have heretofore been, and enable them to impart as regular and perfect a

page_text: finish to the thread in and by the machines themselves direct as has here-
tofore been done by the hand-finishing pins, and which still involved great
manual labour after the banks were removed from the pinning machine,
which could only then partially finish the hanks.
In
The essential feature of this Invention consists in loading each hook of the
lower row with a separate weight, distinct and separate from those attached to
the other hooks, so that every hank or set of banks bung between each
corresponding upper and lower twisting and stretching hook shall receive a
nearly equal strain, due to the weight on each lower hook, as it rises and falls
by the shortening of the banks while being twisted in reverse directions.
this improved arrangement of the weights the vertically sliding longitudinal
sole plate which formerly formed one common heavy weight attached to the
whole lower row of hooks is dispensed with, or if used is wholly counter-
balanced by weights, and only used as a simple bar, which is required in this
improved construction of the said pinning machine for simultaneously guiding
and preventing the lower row of books from revolving, and for partially
tilting and supporting them when desired, so as to facilitate the twisting,
turning round, as also the taking off and renewing the hanks upon the hooks;
each weight with its hook is so attached to the said guide and actuating bar
common to them all, by guide pins and holes, slot, or vertical guides, that
they are free to move a considerable distance up and down upon it, inde-
pendent of each other, so as to compensate for any slight difference in the
length of the hanks (either as at first when put upon the hooks, or as after-
wards caused by the screw or twist they assume, which may alter their
length) and yet allow of their all rising together along with the bar as the
whole row of banks are twisted by the upper hooks and their actuating
spindles and mechanism in the usual manner.
Another novel feature of this Invention consists in some cases of hanging a
second weight to each of the former weights and their books by a loose chain
or cord of a certain regulated length, these weights resting on a common
fixed sole plate, so that when the last or nearly last finishing or greater
twisting of the banks is being performed, and the banks consequently
shortened, the said supplementary weights are at this time raised, so as to
put on an extra strain or pressure upon the banks for the last few greater
twists or screws given to the hanks, which completes the fiuish, equivalent to
the last finish heretofore given to the hanks of thread by the twist pins and
and hand labour after being removed from the machine. Those improved
duplicate weights attached to each lower hook are made of various weights
to suit the particular fineness or coarseness of thread in the hanks under

page_text: treatment; or the weights may each be constructed of a minimum weight,
and additional small weights added thereto when required. Although a
weight and supplementary weight have been described as attached to each
of the lower hooks, yet springs might in some cases be employed as a sub-
stitute for either or both of these weights, and certainly most judiciously for
the latter or supplementary weight used for giving the final pressure and
finish to the thread.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Hugh Crawford and James Crawford in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th November 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HoonT
CRAWFORD and JAMES CRAWFORD, both of Barr Mill, Beith, in the County of
Ayr, North Britain, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by IIer Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Hugh Crawford and James Crawford, Her special licence that we,
the said Hugh Crawford and James Crawford, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Hugh Crawford and James
Crawford, our executors, administrators, 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 aud lawfully might make, use,
excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FINISHING THREAD, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Hugh
Crawford and James Crawford, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 causo 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Hugh Crawford and James Crawford,
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

page_text: by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention has reference more especially to improvements in that
description of thread-finishing machines technically known as the "pinning
machine" or "iron man," which stretches and gives a gloss or polish to the
thread in hanks by twisting or screwing them in vertical rows upon and
between corresponding upper revolving and lower non-revolving hooks, and
which improvements render such machines much more efficient than they
have heretofore been, and enable them to impart nearly as regular and perfect a
finish to the thread in and by the machines themselves direct as has heretofore
been done by the hand-finishing pins, and which still involved great manual
labour after the banks were removed from the pinning machine, which could
only then partially finish the banks.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing the
same may be properly understood, we have hereunto appended a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing a
pinning machine or "iron man" of the double form with two rows of hooks
constructed with our said improvements applied thereto for the improved
finishing of sewing thread.
Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section, and Figure 2 is a longitudinal
elevation of the machine, while Figures 3, 4, and 5 are detached detail views
which shall herein-after be more fully named and described, and the same
reference letters indicate the same parts in all the Figures.
The general arrangement of the machine is of an ordinary construction, and
consists of the two main side frames or standards A firmly secured to and
supporting the longitudinal frame or entablature A' by screw bolts and flanges
at their upper ends, and at their lower ends firmly "tied" or secured to each
other by the longitudinal " tie or stay frame A³, the whole forming a rigid
self-contained or supporting portable frame carrying all the working and
other parts of the machine, and capable of being bolted down by broad
flanges or feet formed on the side standards A to any suitable foundation of
wood or masonry. The first motion shaft B which revolves in bearings
formed in two brackets bolted to the front of the entablature A' is actuated
by an open and cross belt from an adjacent prime moving shaft passed round
the triplet set of one fast and two loose pulleys furnished with the usual
sliding "fork" bar actuated by the starting, stopping, and reversing band
lever C at the will of the attendant. A pinion D on the end of the shaft B
gears into the spur wheel E fast on the end of the shaft F, and this wheel E
gears into a corresponding wheel E fast on the shaft F, which two longi-

page_text: tudinal shafts F and F revolving in bearings formed in brackets projecting
up from the entablature A' transmit motion by the pairs of mitre wheels G
and G' to the spindles of the two sets or rows of hooks H and H', so as to
revolve in either direction in their bearings formed in the front of the
entablature A¹ by the motion of the band lever C to one side or the other of
the vertical line respectively. Two rows of correspondingly arranged non-
revolving hooks I and I are made to rise and fall vertically along with the
longitudinal sole plates or bars J and J' working in guiding recesses A³ and A*
formed in the side frames A. These sole plates J and J' have heretofore been
so directly attached to the stems of the hooks I and I' as to form and be used
only as one long heavy weight common to the whole row of hooks I and 1',
so that the short banks received too severe a strain, or nearly the whole
stretching and tensional strain which ought to have been distributed over the
entire row of hanks, while the others which were lighter or longer than the
former were not properly stretched and finished.
The first and essential new or improved feature of our said Invention
consists in loading each hook I and l' of the lower rows with a separate
weight a in the form of an intersected sole plate analogous to J, each section
or piece forming the weight a distinct and separate from those attached to
the other hooks, so that every bank of thread K hung and stretched between
each upper and lower twisting and non-twisting or stretching hook II and I,
or H and I respectively shall receive a nearly equal stretching or tensional
strain due or equivalent to the actual weight of the section piece or weight a
attached to each lower hook as it rises and falls by the shortening or length-
ening of the banks K while being twisted in reverso directions by the
revolving of the upper hooks. In this our improved arrangement of the
intersected sole or separate weights the vertically sliding longitudinal sole
plates or bars J and J' (which were formerly very lightly counterbalanced, and
formed one common heavy weight attached to the whole lower row of hooks I
and 1' respectively) are now nearly or wholly counterbalanced by the weights
L and L', respectively attached to the chains M and M', and by the counter
chains N and N¹ attached to the ends of the guide bars J and J¹, through or
by the arrangement of shafts O and O', and their respective chain pulleys to
which the upper ends of the chains M, N, and M', N', are fixed, while the
bars J and J¹ are capable of being held at any desired height by the hand
lever arrangement and segmental quadrants P and P¹ at one end of each
shaft O and O. These sole plates J and J are therefore now under our
improvements only used as simple bars for simultaneously guiding and pre-
venting the lower row of hooks I and 1' and their intersected sole or weights a

page_text: from revolving, and for partially tilting them and the hooks I and 1' by the
hand levers Q and Q when the kinks or spiral twists or curls are about to
begin upon the banks, and also for supporting the hooks I when desired, so
as to facilitate the twisting, turning round, and also the taking off and
renewing the banks upon the books. Each section of the sole or weight a
with its hook I is so attached to the guiding and actuating or kinking bar J
(common to the whole row of hooks) by two guide holes in the section or
weight upon or over two guide pins screwed or otherwise made fast in tho
guide bar J, that they are free to move a considerable distance vertically up
or down upon it independently of each other and the guide bar J, so as to
compensate for the slight difference in the length of the banks. Either as at
first when the banks K are put upon the hooks, as shown in Figure 1, or as
afterwards caused by the first straight stretching and twisting of the hanks,
as shown in their various positions in Figure 2, or as afterwards caused by
the second screw or curl formed on them, as shown in red lines in the same
Figure, and in the detached side view, Figure 3, of one revolving and non-
revolving hook II and I with the hank K, so curled with the improved section
or weight a attached to the lower hook, as well as the second or supple-
mentary weight to be herein-after more fully described, and showing the
action or various positions which the weights a assume by the altered length
of the hanks, and yet allow all the sections or weights a to rise or fall along
with the guide bar J as the whole row of hanks K are simultaneously
shortened or lengthened by the twisting or untwisting of the banks K by the
hooks H and their actuating spindles and mechanism in the usual manner.
Another novel feature of this our Invention consists in hanging a second
weight c to each book and its section sole or weight I and a by a loose chain
or cord d of a certain regulated length, these weights c resting on a fixed solo
plate e common to the whole row of weights, so that when the last or nearly
last finishing or greater twisting of the banks is being performed, which
shorten the banks so as to raise the supplementary weights c, and thus put on
an extra strain or tensional pressure upon the banks at this time and position
or part of the operation, shown particularly in Figure 3, and in red lines in
Figure 2 for the last few greater twists or screw curls given to the banks for
a considerable time backward and forward by reversing the motion of the
upper hooks, which completes the gloss and finishing of the thread, equivalent
to the last finish heretofore given to the hanks of thread by the twist pins and
hand labour after being removed from the machine. The improved separate
section sole or weight a and supplementary weight care shown in side
elevation in Figure 3, detached from the guiding bar J and other parts of the

page_text: machine, so as to show their individual manner of attachment to one of the
lower hooks I by a square stem and deep washer or collar a¹, secured by a
screw nut below with an eye washer, to which the chain d of the weight c is
attached. Figure 4 shows a detached front view of a lower book I with its
section sole weight a attached corresponding to Figure 3, but showing a mode
of lengthening the stem in red lines for adding more weight to the lower
hooks for finisbing various strengths of thread. And Figure 5 shows a side
view of another modification or form of the supplementary weight c, so as to
make it lighter or heavier, also to suit the strength of the thread and tho
tensional strain and finish desired to be given thereto, both these differential
arrangements being composed of circular blocks or discs of iron, which can
be added to or removed from the spindles of the respective weights at
pleasure, as shown at a³ and in red lines in Figures 4 and 5.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, we may observe that we do not confine or restrict ourselves to tho
precise details or arrangements which we have had occasion to describe,
delineate, and refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
departing from the main or essential features of our said Invention; neither
do we claim the form and arrangements of many of the parts by themselves
which we have thought it necessary to delineate and name or refer to for the
purpose of making our Invention understood, and which are in many respects
the same or analogous to other thread-finishing machines heretofore in use,
except in combination with the new parts and movements, or use of the same
forming the main features of our said Invention; but what we consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
First, the general arrangement, construction, and use of thread-finishing
machines, substantially in the improved manner and for the purposes herein-
described and shown in the accompanying Drawings, or any mere modification
thereof.
Second, the application and use of a separate weight attached to each lower
hook, or an intersected sole having each sectional part attached to a separate
lower hook of thread-finishing machines, substantially in the improved manner
and for the purposes herein-before described and shown in the accompanying
Drawings under the first head or part of our said Invention, or any mere
modification thereof.
Third, the application and use of a second or supplementary weight
attached to cach lower hook of thread-finishing machines, substantially in

page_text: the improved manner and for the purposes herein described and shown in the
accompanying Drawings under the second head or part of our said Invention,
or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, we, the said Hugh Crawford and James Crawford,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-seventh day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-six.
Witness,
W. R. M. TпомSON,
Patent Agent,
20, Buchanan Street,
Glasgow.
HUGH CRAWFORD. (L.s.)
JAMES CRAWFORD. (L.S.)