NEW AND IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF NEEDLES "
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Walter Alfred Barlow at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th September 1883. Communi-
cated to him from abroad by Henry Eugène Fontaine of Paris in the
Republic of France.
WALTER ALFRED BARLOW of 6 St Pauls Churchyard in the City of London
Patent Agent and Engineer. "NEW AND IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF NEEDLES "A Communication to me from abroad by Henry
Eugène Fontaine of Paris in the Republic of France.
"
This Invention relates to certain new and improved machinery for the
manufacture of needles.
The apparatus is constructed as follows:-
The machine is mounted upon a framework and upon the frame work are
secured three horizontal plates. The first plate serves to feed the steel wire and
also it is upon this that the eye of the needle is made and the head so brought into
form.
The thread of steel from which the needles are manufactured is rolled up on a
cylinder or drum and passes between two cylinders which act by pressure on it
and causes the unrolling and forward feed of the wire.
Between these cylinders and the drum a certain number of small grooved pulleys
arranged conveniently serve as regulators.
It is necessary also to remark that the operation of this machine is alternate
that is to say that the machine operates then stops and then again operates and
go on.
The two cylinders have thus an alternative movement and the fed thread
becomes engaged in a little guide and then enters into a needle carrier and the first
horizontal plate is provided with eight of these needle carriers
The needle carrier is composed of a hollow piece forining a socket and a conical
opening permits of the easy introduction of the wire into the socket.
A brake worked by a spring serves as a nipping jaw at the end of the socket,
said brake being worked by a small lever. The horizontal plate is displaced an
eighth of a revolution each movement of the machine that is to say each
movement brings a fresh needle carrier into the required position for receiving
its wire.

page_text: The socket of the needle carrier is pierced from end to end and a rod of steel.
serves to close one of the ends.
The thread introduced into the socket comes in contact with and is stopped by
the steel rod and the pressure of the two feed cylinders is so regulated that the
fed wire will be arrested by the resistance so afforded or set up and thus any
desired length of the fed wire will be introduced into the needle carrier according
to the length of the steel stop rod and when the length of wire is so properly
introduced a pair of shears cuts off the length.
The shears have a special edge of inverted V form and are operated by a cam
When the needle carrier is furnished with the wire the horizontal carrying plate
immediately commences to move one eighth of a turn so carrying the wire length
to be made into the needle.
An operating piece having an alternate up and down movement operates a
number of tools as follows:
When the wire arrives at its second position a punch descends and indents the
wire where the eye is to be; at the third position another punch completely
pierces through and makes the eye-hole at the fourth position a system of four
circular cutters forms up the head and takes off all burrs; at the fifth position two
small vertical bits polish and clean the eye of the needle; at the sixth position a
fixed brush removes all light steel dust or foreign portions which may remain
adhering and then an incline causes the opening of the nipping jaws, and a needle
carrier of the second horizontal plate comes into position and a needle carrier
thereof takes the partially formed needle from its first needle carrier, by the head,
and the nipping jaws of the second needle carrier is then closed automatically and
withdrawn.
The second horizontal plate has sixteen needle carriers which have the same
character as those of the first plate only they turn rapidly which rotation is
obtained through conical gearing operating bevel gearing which drives a socket
concentric with the needle carrier and engaging with a clutch box thereon. When
the needle carrier advances outward from the centre of the plate the clutch is
separated and the movement of revolution ceases, but upon being retired the clutch
will again engage and the needle carrier be rotated rapidly.
The second plate has also an alternate movement but advances at each movement
but one sixteenth of a turn and this movement corresponds in time to the one
eighth movement of the first plate and the needle fixed by its head in the needle
carriers of the second plate will be brought before various tools arranged in
positions two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine and will have a time of
stoppage before each of them, the said tools being placed in such wise as to be
available to the needle carrier at each sixteenth of the turn.
.
At position two the needle is made of a convenient length by means of a small
stamp which strikes on the extremities of the steel wire; at position three is a
very hard cutter which commences to shape the point; a second cutter at position
four cuts the steel wire a little more, at position five there is another cutter which
continues the previous operations and gives the needle the desired form.
When the point is shaped the needle arrives at position seven where it is
polished by means of an endless band of emery and this polishing is continued at
positions eight and nine all the part which leaves the needle carrier is thus polished
by the last mentioned three arrangements, at positions ten and eleven the needle
is not operated upon but at twelve the second needle carrier advances and at the
same time ceasing to turn upon itself.
On the third horizontal plate a needle carrier is now advanced and a star piece
placed between the said second and third plates opens the nipping jaws.
The needle carrier of the third plate now seizes the needle and so the head
portion will be exposed The needle carriers of the third plate correspond to those
already described for the second plate and are fitted in like manner to rotate and
this third plate has a one sixteenth movement similarly to the second plate and

page_text: emery ribands placed around this plate serve to polish the head portion of the
needle
After having been subjected to this action at the second third and fourth
positions the needle is at the fifth position released from the projected needle
carrier and is deposited upon two cylinders which have imparted thereto a rapid
movement of rotation and the needle is thrown off to a shoot to be further
packed.
This completes the description of the general arrangement and disposition of
the machine.
12
The first plate has a wheel thereon which suddenly diminishes in thickness
forming a space and this wheel supports the "length rod of the needle carrier
but when the head is struck the blow elongates the wire and at this time the
length rod will have arrived opposite the space in the wheel and this lengthening
of the needle wire will take place without bending the same so improving the
make.
The simultaneous and alternate movement of the machine is obtained by means
of an eccentric which operates a system of ratchet and pawl.
It is very important that the stoppages of the machine be effected at
corresponding times and place in each of the three plates and for this purpose each
plate is provided with holes placed at equal distance apart and a movable stud
enters these holes at each movement and stops the plates regularly. These pins
are slightly conical and have a vertical movement imparted to them by a single
moving piece so as to be moved simultaneously.
The opening and closing of the gripping jaws of the needle carriers is effected
by a circular incline piece contained in a hollow casting and provided with levers
which act upon the nipping jaws
For carrying the different tools which operate upon the needles in the course of
manufacture a special tool carrier is provided which is remarkable in the sense
that it is regulated automatically in any position.
This tool carrier is constructed as follows:-
The cutter which acts to shape the needles is fixed on an axis which may be
inclined to any desired position in the socket and is fixed in said position by a
regulating screw.
The socket is itself fixed by the axis in a piece where it is maintained in any
desired position by a binding screw, so that the socket can be raised or lowered
at will as also the cutter.
The piece is itself fixed in a second socket and can turn in any direction in this
socket and is stopped by a binding screw.
This last arrangement allows of changing at will in a vertical plane the position
of the various parts and also the cutter.
This arrangement of tool carrier is very important because upon the operation
and regulation of the various tools absolutely depends the manufacture of the
needles.
The driving of the machine is effected as ordinarily.
The needle carriers of the second and third plates have not only a rotary
movement on themselves but also are able to advance and retreat which movement
is effected by a fork which engages with a cleat placed under the needle carrier
and which at certain times shoots them forward and backward and this movement
is communicated to them by a part of the machine