IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PACKING FOR GLANDS AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,
Year: 1873

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Alfred William Olarke, of Leicester, in
the County of Leicester, and Edward Turner, of Bedminster, in
the County of Somerset, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF PACKING FOR GLANDS AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Alfred
William Clarke and Edward Turner at the Office of the Com.
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 16th August
1878.
We, THOMAS ALFRED WILLIAM OLARKE, of Leicester, in the County
of Leicester, and EDWARD TURNER, of Bedminster, in the County of
Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PACKING FOR GLANDS AND IN APPARATUS
AMPLOYED THEREIN, SUCH APPARATUS BEING APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER PURPOSES,"
to be as follows:—
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of

page_text: packing for glands and in apparatus employed therein, such apparatus
being applicable also to other purposes.
For packing glands we construct a fabric partly of wire and partly of
flax or other fibrous yarn. We plait or braid the wire and yarn
together, the wire and yarn running in opposite directions in the fabric.
We cut off the fabric for use in the lengths required, plaited or rolled
into various sizes to suit the stuffing boxes, and bent round into a ring
of a size to encircle the rod or piston. The ends of the ring are fitted
with bevelled joints, and one ring is placed over the other and so as to
break joint with it as is.practiced when other packings are employed.
At the present time there is great difficulty in working wire in
braiding machines; the wire is formed to break constantly in consequence
of the severity of the action of the machine upon it. The bobbins on
which the wires are wound as they pass together with the carriages in a
zig-zag course around the centre at which the braid is formed are
obliged in order to pass each other alternately to approach to and recede
from the centre.
Now heretofore in order to compensate for the variation of distance, a
weight has been hung upon the wire to take up the slack. The weight
is suspended in a U form bend of the wire, and each portion of the wire
before it finally passes the weight is many times bent and straightened.
Now we avoid this destructive action upon the wire by allowing the
bobbin on which the wire is wound to itself rise and fall on its carriage
to compensate for the motion to and from the centre. For this purpose
the frame of the bobbin which is weighted sufficiently to keep the wire
taut is arranged to slide in an upright guide groove upon the carriage, and
there is a friction spring acting upon the bobbin which prevents it
turning until the bobbin arrives at the top of the guide groove. The
pressure of the spring is then relieved, and the depth of wire which is
required to be taken up into the work is drawn from the bobbin. By
this arrangement the wire is relieved of the greater part of that to-and-
fro bending which has hitherto interfered with the successful working of
wire in braiding machines.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Alfred William Olarke and. Edward
Turner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th February 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
ALFRED WILLIAM CLARKE, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester,
and EDWARD TURNER, of Bedminster, in the County of Somerset, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Alfred William Clarke and
Edward Turner, Her special license that we, the said Thomas Alfred
William Olarke and Edward Turner, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Alfred William Clarke
and Edward Turner, 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 Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PACKING FOR
GLANDS AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, SUCH APPARATUS BEING APPLICABLE
ALSO TO OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Thomas Alfred William Olarke and Edward Turner, our exe-
cutors, or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, 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 Thomas Alfred William Clarke
and Edward Turner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the some is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say :—

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
packing for glands, and in apparatus employed therein, such apparatus
being applicable also to other purposes.
For packing glands we construct a fabric partly of wire and partly of
flax or other fibrous yarn. We plait or braid the wire and yarn together,
the wire and yarn running in opposite directions in the fabric. We cut
off the fabric for use in the lengths required, plaited or rolled into various
sizes, to suit the stuffing boxes, and bent round into a ring of a size to
encircle the rod or piston. The ends of the ring are fitted with bevellod
joints, and ono ring is placed over the other and so as to break joint
with it, as is practiced when other packings are employed.
At the present time there is great difficulty in working wire in
braiding machines. The wire is found to break constantly in consequence
of the severity of the action of the machine upon it. The bobbins on
which the wires are wound as they pass together with their carriages in
a zig-zag course around the centre at which the braid is formed are
obliged in order to pass each other alternately to approach to and recede
from the centre.
Now heretofore, in order to compensate for the variation of distance, a
weight has been hung upon the wire to take up the slack. The weight
is suspended in a U form bend of the wire, and each portion of the wire
before it finally passes the weight is many times bent and straightened.
Now we avoid this destructive action upon the wire by allowing the
bobbin on which the wire is wound to itself rise and fall on its carriage,
to compensate for the motion to and from the centre. For this purpose
the frame of the bobbin, which is weighted sufficiently to keep the wire
taut, is arranged to slide in an upright guide groove upon the carriage,
and there is a friction spring acting upon the bobbin, which prevents it
turning until the bobbin arrives at the top of the guide groove. The
of the spring is then relieved, and the depth of wire which
pressure
is required to be taken up into the work is drawn from the bobbin. By
this arrangement the wire is relieved of the greater part of that to-and-fro
bending which has hitherto interfered with the successful working of
wire in braiding machines.
-

page_text: At Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed we have shewn a
side view partly in section of a machine constructed as above described.
a, a, are bobbins carrying cotton, hemp, or other fibrous yarns. The
spindles of these bobbins are carried by frames or carriages at the top of
vertical stems b. Each of these stems is held in semicircular notches in
two discs c at a distance apart from one another on vertical axes d.
There are a number of such axes and discs ranged in a circle, and close
up to one another, as shewn on the left-hand side of the plan view at
Figure 2, and the several axes at their lower ends are geared together so
that they all revolve simultaneously when motion is transmitted to one
of them by the toothed wheel e, as shewn. The axis of the wheel e is
itself driven by bevil wheels from the driving axis e*, upon which are
fast and loose driving pulleys.
The several discs c lie within holes cut in fixed plates f, there being
sufficient space between the discs and plates for the vertical stems & to
pass between them when these stems lie partly within the semicircular
notches, as in an ordinary braiding machine, and thus when the axes d
are caused to revolve the carriages of the bobbins are carried round with
the discs, and are thus caused to travel in a curved course around the
circle of discs, passing from the notch in one disc to the notch in the
next, and there are dogs or switches f*, as usual, to compel the stems of
the carriages to keep in their proper course.
Each of the vertical stems 6 is hollow, and those of them that carry
the bobbins a of fibrous yarn have a vertical stem passing up through
them, having an eye at its upper end through which the yarn passing
from the bobbin is threaded after having previously been threaded
through eyes in the carriage frame.
-
The stems above mentioned have pins passing out from them at their
lower ends through slots in the hollow vertical axes, and have weights g
attached to them in order to keep an even tension on the yarn, as the
bobbins in their course move towards or away from the centre of the
circle. On each bobbin is a ratchet wheel into which a pawl or catch h
enters and prevents its rotating, but as the yarn passing from it through
the eye
in the weighted vertical rod before mentioned gets taken up as
5 the braiding goes on the rod rises and releases this catch, so allowing
the bobbin to turn, and the weighted rod to descend. So far the
machine is similar to ordinary braiding machinery, and heretofore when

page_text: wires have been braided together with fibrous yarn, every alternate hollow
vertical spindle has carried a bobbin of fine wire and an even tension has
been kept upon the wire in the same manner as that above described
for keeping an even tension upon the yarn, and the wire has thus been
frequently bent to and fro before it is taken up in the braiding, and has
been thereby so injured or crippled that after a short time it breaks to
pieces. But according to our Invention in place of thus keeping an
even tension upon the wire strands we mount the carriages or frames
which carry the bobbins upon the weighted rods, which pass down
through the hollow axes, so that these bobbins shall themselves rise and
fall as they move nearer to or recede from the centre of the circle where
the braiding takes place; and to prevent these bobbins from turning we
employ a strong spring i to press against each of them, which prevents
them from turning until they have been raised to their highest point.
The spring then comes against a fixed stop, which releases the bobbin
and allows it to turn and wire to be drawn off from it. By this
arrangement the wire is as before stated relieved from the to-and-fro
bending to which it has heretofore been subjected, and consequently.
much thicker wire may be successfully used, and the wire will be incor-
porated in the braid without having been previously crippled or injured
as heretofore.
In order that the machine may be stopped whenever one of the
bobbins becomes empty the belt shipper n rests against the end of
the lever o, when however any of the bobbins become empty the
weighted rod drops, and as it is carried round in its circular course :
its lower end comes against the arm o* of the lever, and thereby turns
the lever on its axis, and allows the belt shipper to throw the driving
belt from the fast on to the loose pulley.
In the Drawing, Figure 1, the machine is shewn to be braiding the
alternate strands of fibre and wire around a central core k, which passes
up through the centre of the machine from a ball or reel, and has the
wire braided around it at the point l. The coated corc is then led over
a grooved pulley m, to which a slow revolving motion is imparted as
shewn, and which thereby continuously draws the coated core upwards,
and from there it passes on to a bobbin, upon which it is wound, the
bobbin being itself caused to rotate by a band from a pulley on the axis
of the grooved pulley m.

page_text: The central core may be composed of numerous strands of cotton or
other fibrous material or of vulcanized india-rubber, surrounded with
Linden bark; or twisted or braided cores might be used or other cores
suitable for forming the central portion of a packing.
In some cases also after having thus made a braided coating of wire
and yarn around a central core, such coated core may be again passed
through the machine and have a second braided coating of wire and
yarn formed around it, and so any desired number of braided coatings
may be placed around the central core.
When several braided coatings of wire and yarn are used the brass or
other wire may be finer than when the core has only one such coating
placed around it.
In place of there being only one bobbin carriage to each head or axis
d and of the bobbins carrying alternate strands of fibre and wire there
may be two carriages to each head or axis by forming four notches in
each of the disos c, as shown on the right hand side of the plan view,
Figure 2, one carriage for a bobbin of fibrous yarn and the other for
wire.
In place also of the bobbins being carried round continuously in
a circle and caused to braid the yarns and wires around a central core
separate cores may be led up through the centre of each head and the
wires and strands braided around them, the several carriages being then
after having been carried round nearly the whole of the circle caused to
travel back again in the opposite direction, and thus a flat braid will
be produced. To effect this the last pair of discs at each and is provided
with an additional notch, as shewn in the plan view, Figure 3, and in
this case also one bobbin may be used with each head, as shewn on the
left hand side of this Figure, or two bobbins may be used with cach
head, as shown on the right hand side.
By manufacturing packing in the manner herein-before described of
wire and fibrous yarn braided together, and by avoiding as far as possible
all bendings of the wire, as herein described, so that the wire shall not
be crippled or injured, we are enabled to manufacture a compound
metallic and fibrous packing with which steam-tight joints may be made
without applying so great an amount of friction to the moving surface
with which the packing is in contact as when fibrous packings alone are

page_text: used, whilst at the same time the fibrous material in our compound
packing will serve to retain a large supply of lubricating material and
to conduct it continuously to the rubbing surfaces. We would also state
that the means herein-before described for keeping an even tension upon
the wire strands are also applicable to other braiding machines used for
braiding wire for other purposes.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that we claim,-
"
1st. The construction of packing suitable for packing glands, substan-
tially as herein described.
2nd. The combined arrangement of braiding machine, substantially as
herein described.
3rd. The means, substantially as herein described, for keeping an even
tension upon strands of wire in braiding machines without subjecting
the wire to numerous to-and-fro bendings as heretoforc.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Alfred William Clarke
and Edward Turner, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-four.