Iм- PROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THROSTLE, WORSTED SPINNING, AND DOUBLING FRAMES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Makin and William Skerratt, of Salford,
in the County of Lancaster, Mechanics, for the Invention of “Iм-
PROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THROSTLE, WORSTED SPINNING, AND DOUBLING
FRAMES."
Scaled the 31st July 1874, and dated the 4th February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Makin and
William Skerratt at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 4th February 1874.
We, SAMUEL MAKIN and WILLIAM SKERRATT, of Salford, in the
County of Lancaster, Mechanics, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THROSTLE, WORSTED
SPINNING, AND DOUBLING FRAMES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is the construction of a simple apparatus
to be applied to throstle, worsted spinning, and doubling frames, to
check the waste made on such machines when an end breaks between
the rollers and the flyer, such waste being caused by the rollers con-
tinuing to draw off the broken ends from the cops on the creel and

page_text: either lapping or winding such broken ends around themselves or
allowing them to become entangled with the thread or threads of the
neighbouring spindles. This we accomplish by leading the thread or
threads through a simple apparatus which shall snap or break such
thread or threads behind the rollers immediately they become broken
in front of the rollers.
| The apparatus consists of a small clamp provided for each spindle and
mounted in a slightly oblique position so as to fall by its own gravity
against a fixed surface, but held open by the thread in front of the rollers
bearing against a light lever in connection with such clamp. So long as
the thread in front of the rollers remains intact the thread or threads
behind the rollers pass by or through the clamp without interruption,
but as soon as the thread breaks in front of the rollers such clamp closes
against the fixed surface as before described and so snaps the thread or
threads behind the rollers, thus preventing them winding round the
rollers or becoming entangled with the thread or threads of the neigh-
bouring spindle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Makin and William Skerratt in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 4th August 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
MAKIN and WILLIAM SKERRATT, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster,
Mechanics, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Samuel Makin and William Skerratt, Her
special licence that we, the said Samuel Makin and William Skerratt,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Samuel Makin and William Skerratt, 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
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United

page_text: Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THROSTLE, WORSTED
SPINNING, AND DOUBLING FRAMES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Samuel Makin and William Skerratt, our exc-
cutors 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Makin and William
Skerratt, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
-
The object of this Invention is the construction of a simple apparatus
to be applied to throstle, worsted spinning, and doubling frames, to check
the waste made on such machines when an end breaks between the
rollers and the flyer, such waste being caused by the rollers continuing
to draw off the broken ends from the cops or bobbins on the creel and
either lapping or winding such broken ends around themselves or allow-
ing them to become entangled with the thread or threads of the neigh-
bouring spindles. This we accomplish by leading the thread or threads
through a simple apparatus which shall snap or break such thread or
threads behind the rollers immediately they become broken in front of
the rollers.
The apparatus consists of a small clamp provided for cach spindle and
mounted in a slightly oblique position so as to fall by its own gravity
against a fixed surface, but held open by the thread in front of the
rollers bearing against a light lever in connection with such clamp. So
long as the thread in front of the rollers remains intact the thread or
threads behind the rollers pass by or through the clamp without inter-
ruption, but as soon as the thread breaks in front of the rollers such
clamp closes against the fixed surface as before described, and so snaps
the thread or threads behind the rollers, thus preventing them winding
round the rollers or becoming entangled with the thread or threads of
the neighbouring spindles.
And in order that this our Invention may be more thoroughly under-
stood and more readily carried into practical effect, we have hereunto

page_text: annexed a Sheet of Drawings illustrating the application of our
improvements to one side of a doubling frame, in which Fig. I. is a
transverse sectional elevation, and Fig. 2 a plan drawn to a scale of
about half size. Fig. 3 is a side elevation, and Fig. 4 an end elevation,
and Fig. 5 a plan of a portion of Figs. 1 and 2 drawn about full
size. Similar letters of reference are used to denote similar parts on all
the views.
A is the bottom drawing roller upon which rests the top rollers B
supported in the upper stand C, by which rollers the threads x to be
doubled are drawn off the creel in their course, passing under the glass
or other rod D in the water trough E, and which threads are finally
twisted and wound by the flyer F upon the bobbin G.
Behind the drawing rollers A, B, and between such drawing rollers
and the water trough E we place the apparatus marked H, which may
be termed a self-acting clamp, and which forms the subject of the
present Invention.
The details of this self-acting clamp will be best understood by
reference to Figs. 3, 4, and 5, which illustrate the clamp in its open
position, being the position which it usually occupies when the frame is
working. is the base plate of the clamp, from which rises an abut-
ment ', having at its lower extremity a footstep 12, and also a projecting
piece ³, forming a bearing by which the spindle 74, carrying the clamp
is supported. This clamp spindle is purposely set in the inclined
position illustrated, so that the clamp h³ may always have a tendency to
fall by its own gravity into its closed position, that is, towards the abut-
ment ', against which it thrusts when in use. Projecting from the
clamp spindle * is an arm 7º, on to which is slipped one end of a wire
link, which link is connected at its other extremity to the short arm
78 of a double armed lever free to oscillate upon a centre hº in the
standard rising from the base plate h. The other and longer arm h¹¹
of this lever is bent into the form seen best in Fig. 1 and 2. As the
clamp 5 and arm 7° are both formed in one piece, with the clamp
spindle, in order to get such spindle into its position in the bearing
³ we flatten the spindle (74) between the arm and clamp, as seen at h¹²
(Figs. 3 and 4), and cut a slot ¹³ (see Fig. 5) in the projecting piece 7³
from one side down to the bearing of about the same width as the
flattened portion of the spindle. In placing the spindle in position
the flattened part 1 of such spindle is presented to and slipped down

page_text: the slot until the bearing is reached, when the spindle is allowed to
drop into its place in the footstep h³, so presenting to the slot a part of
the spindle of larger diameter, which effectually prevents the spindle
returning by the slot.
One of these clamps so constructed is provided for cach spindle of the
frame and secured upon a bar I of any convenient length by the set
screws J at a distance apart from one another corresponding with the
gauge of the spindles of the frame. The bar I carrying a series of these
clamps is now placed behind the rollers A and B, and fastened upon the
roller beam K in the position illustrated by an occasional set screw L.
By this method of previously attaching the clamps to a bar instead of
attaching them separately and direct to the roller beam much time and
|labour is saved in applying them to the frame.
The action of the apparatus may be thus described:-Previous to
setting on the frame the attendant places the clamp in its open position
by pushing the long arm " of the double armed lever almost in contact
with the top roller B, as seen in Fig. I. (and in Fig. 2 in the case of the
clamps marked. H). The yarns or threads are now led through the
open clamp, that is between the clamp and the abutment 7, and in the
usual manner around the rollers A, B, over the cyclet ", formed at the
end of the lever arm ", and forward to the flyer F and bobbin G.
Each of the clamps being similarly treated the frame may now be
started.
Now it will be evident as the clamp ' always has a tendency to close
against the abutment that it will only be prevented so doing as long
as the tension of the yarns or threads a is sufficient to retain the lever arm
h" at or about the position shewn by the full lines in Fig. 1, so that
should an end break and the lever arm be free to fall outwards into
the position shewn by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, the clamp ³ is thereby
set free, and immediately closes against the abutment ¹ (as seen at H*
in Fig. 2) and so snaps or breaks the yarns or threads between such
clamp and the rollers A, B.
By thus breaking the yarns or threads behind the rollers & immediately
they break in front of such rollers, much waste of material and loss of
time on the part of the attendant are avoided, as the rollers are thereby
prevented continuing to draw off the yarns or threads from the bobbins
on the creel, and cither lapping such material around themselves or

page_text: allowing it to become entangled with the neighbouring yarns or threads
producing "fourfold," or in turn breaking them down.
We would here observe that the lever arm ½" serves as a good
indicator of a broken end, and in that respect is useful to the attendant.
Although we have described the application of our Invention to
doubling frames only, it will be apparent that its application to throstle
and worsted spinning frames would be substantially the same.
In Figs. 6 and 7 we illustrate a useful addition to the crecl of a
doubling frame, which consists of a series of stout wires M driven into
the framework of the creel in the position illustrated and projecting
about the same distance outwards as the wires which carry the bobbins.
The object of these wires is to guide the yarns or threads coming from
the second or third course of bobbins past the lower bobbins, and so
prevent them becoming entangled therewith.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of our
said Invention, together with the best methods with which we are
acquainted for carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to be
understood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details,
relative proportions or dimensions of the several parts illustrated on the
accompanying Drawing, as the same may be considerably varied without
departing from the Invention, but what we claim is, the application to
throstle, worsted spinning, and doubling frames of the apparatus herein-
before described as a "self-acting clamp," substantially as and for the
purposes described and illustrated on the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Makin and William :
Skerratt, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Third
day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-four.