IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SILK, AND IN THE MACHINERY USED THEREIN
Year: 1857

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th May
1857. A communication.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer & Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SILK, AND IN THE MACHINERY
USED THEREIN." (a communication).
This Invention of improvements in the manufacture and in machinery.or
apparatus used for the manufacture of silk relates, first, to a machine for
winding or throwing raw silk, the principal feature in which is, that the reels
or battens carrying the raw silk, and from which it is wound, are stationary.
These battens or silk carriers consist of a stretching bars fixed to the frame,
and each having two projecting hands or parts, one of which slides so as to
reduce the distance between them for placing the hank of silk on and putting
it in tension. The position of the hands or parts carrying the silk are dis-
posed similar to the hands of a person holding a hank of thread to be wound
off, and are so formed that the silk glides readily from them. The thread of
silk is led across the frame some distance to the bobbin on which it is wound.
This is placed on a spindle coned at one end for its reception; at the other
end a small disc is placed, which has contact with a large rotating disc by
which the reel is driven.
The parts for carrying and winding the silk being placed nearly in a hori

page_text: zontal position, they may be repeated, one set above the other, and suitable
friction driving dises to correspond may be placed on the same shaft.
To distribute the threads upon the bobbins suitable guides traverse back-
wards and forwards across the bobbins, moved by upright bars, which receive
motion from a vertical bar, having a rising and falling motion communicated
from rotating shaft above. This shaft has an alternate rotary motion, com-
municated from a bar traversing to and fro, and receiving motion from an
eccentric. A thread carrier or thrower also traverses across or parallel with
the batten or silk carrier, and separates the thread from the float or skein.
The second part of the Invention relates to doubling silk. For this purpose
the bobbins from which the silk is to be taken are arranged side by side in
pairs on a suitable frame, and placed on suitable spindles, on which they are free
to rotate as the silk is drawn off. The bobbin on which the two threads are to
be wound is placed above the two from which it winds the threads, and midway
between them. The winding bobbin bas rotary motion communicated to it
for winding on the two threads simultaneously, and is driven by a band from
a suitable driving wheel, which band may drive several such simultaneously.
On the spindles of the lower bobbins small blocks are placed, each carrying a
wire eye, through which its respective thread passes to conduct them fairly off
the bobbins; the two threads pass thence up through two other eyes or loops
immediately over the bobbin spindles, which keep them at a regulated distance
apart, from thence the two threads are carried up towards the bobbin, and
approach each other at about an angle of forty-five degrees, more or less; they
are so caused to approach and meet by passing, through an eye or loop on
the end of a raised arm, which is free to oscillate from side to side, but held in
position by the two threads, from thence they pass through another eye or loop,
which conducts and distributes them on to the bobbin by motion similar to
that before explained in the winding machine. So long as the operation goes on
without either of the threads breaking, the loop arm will remain in its position;
but whenever one of those threads break, the strain of the other thread will
cause the lever arm to be deflected on one side, and it will then fall and break
or cut the remaining thread, thus preventing the continuance of the winding
up of one thread only.
The third machine relates to spinning or twisting silk. During this operation
it is wound from the bobbins and delivered of to suitable reels; the bobbins,
say the bobbins that have received the doubled silk in the last machine, are
placed on suitable spindles, to which rotary motion is communicated by straps
or bands. A small block is placed above the bobbin, which carries two wire
arms with eyes, the one to conduct the silk off the bobbin, and from which it

page_text: passes direct to the upper eye placed directly over the centre of the bobbin
spindle. The thread passes thence through a suitable guide eye to conduct or
distribute it on the reel above, on which it is wound. The reel is an open
work reel on a horizontal spindle. Besides conducting the thread, the two
arms carried by the small block keep it in sufficient tension for the purpose
required.
The rapid motion of the bobbins as the silk is wound off twists the thread,
and according to the difference of speed between the bobbin and the reel
above, so will be the amount of twist imparted to the thread.
The last part of this Invention relates to a machine for stretching or
lengthening the threads of raw silk, and is in its arrangements similar to the
machine last herein-before described; the bobbin furnished with the raw
silk being mounted on spindles, and driven as in that machine, each bobbin
has the small block on the spindles above it, and each block is furnished with
the wire arms to conduct and keep the thread in tension. The thread is
wound on bobbins above, rotating on horizontal spindles moved by toothed
gearing. These bobbins move slow, and according to the tension and the
comparative speeds of the drawing bobbin and the twisting bobbin, so will the
thread be drawn or lengthened.