IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SPUN OR THROWN SILK THREADS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Prior Sharp and Williarz Weild, both of
the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machinists, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND IN MACHINERY FOR
THE MANUFACTURE OF SPUN OR THROWN SILK THREADS."
Sealed the 15th October 1855, and dated the 21st April 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Prior Sharp and
William Weild at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their l'etition, on the 21st April 1855.
We, WILLIAM PRIOR SHARP and WILLIAM WEILD, both of the City of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machinists, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND IN
MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SPUN OR THROWN SILK THREADS " to be as
follows:-
The first part of our Invention relates to the manufacture of spun or thrown
silk threads directly from the cocoons. The threads known commercially as
tram or organzine are manufactured from threads formed of the filaments
from a number of cocoons combined together, and which have been generally
wound from the cocoons upon reels or otherwise in the form of hanks or skeins.
The combination of the filaments forming the thread of the hanks is the result
of their natural adhesion to each other when brought in close contact imme-
[Price 8d.]

page_text: diately after leaving the cocoons, and this intimate contact of the filaments
is mechanically produced most simply and effectually by the method known as
crossing." The thread thus produced is, according to the ordinary process,
wound from the hanks or skeins on to bobbins. Means have been devised for
spinning threads direct from the cocoons on to bobbins, spools, or spindles
without the operation of crossing, and without having brought the threads into
the form of hanks or skeins, but such means have not hitherto been successful
in producing threads possessing when spun the peculiar characteristics required
for tram, or for threads to be subsequently manufactured into organzine. Our
Invention consists in combining the operation of crossing, for the purpose of
effectually uniting the filaments as drawn from the cocoons with the direct
spinning of the filaments.so united on to bobbins, spools, or spindles. By this
combination, which has not hitherto been practised, spun threads of the desired
quality are produced. For the making of thread of the character known as
tram," the two threads or sets of combined filaments we have described, after
been separated at the crossing or twisted part, are brought together again on
the same machine, and spun and wound on to one bobbin. For the making
of thread of the character known as organzine, the two threads or sets of
combined filaments, after been separated at the crossing or twisted part, are
spun and wound on to separate bobbins, and are afterwards doubled and thrown
in the usual manner.
Our Invention, in the second place, consists in the application and adaptation
of the machine known as the "ring and traveller" spinning frame, for the
purpose of spinning silk threads direct from the cocoons.
For this purpose
we apply a trough for the cocoons to be unwound in, and a roller or rollers (in
place of ordinary drawing rollers) that will draw off the filaments from the
cocoons, and deliver the threads formed of the several sets of filaments at
an uniform speed, to be twisted and to be wound by means of the ring and
traveller apparatus on to the bobbins which rotate with the spindles.
The third part of our Invention has reference to machines for spinning,
or for spinning and doubling, or for throwing silk; in which machines the
bobbin containing the silk to be spun or thrown is made to rotate, in order to
put twist in the thread, which is drawn off from it at an uniform speed as
ii. is twisted by being wound on to another bobbin or on to a reel; and
this part of our Iuvention consists in the application, adaptation, and arrange-
ment of mechanism similar to the "ring and traveller "before referred to, to
accomplish the purposes for which the flyer is commonly used.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed.
by the said William Prior Sharp and William Weild in the Great Seal.
Patent Office on the 19th October 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
PRIOR SHARP and WILLIAM WEILD, both of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Machinists, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Prior Sharp and William Weild, Her especial licence that we,
the said William Prior Sharp and William Weild, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Prior Sharp and
William Weild, 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 AND IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SPUN OR THROWN
SILK THREADS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Prior Sharp and William Weild, by an instrument in writing under our
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 William Prior Sharp and William
Weild, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement and the accompanying Drawings
(that is to say)
The first part of our Invention relates to the manufacture of spun or thrown
silk threads directly from the cocoons. The threads known commercially as
"tram" or "organzine" are manufactured from threads formed of the filaments
from a number of cocoons combined together, and which have been generally
wound from the cocoons upon reels or otherwise in the form of hanks or skeins.
The combination of the filaments forming the thread of the hanks is the result:
of their natural adhesion to each other when brought in close contact immé-
diately after leaving the cocoons, and this intimate contact of the filaments is.

page_text: mechanically produced most simply and effectually by the method known as
"crossing." The thread thus produced is, according to the ordinary process,
wound from the hanks or skeins on to bobbins. Means have been devised for
spinning threads direct from the cocoons on to bobbins, spools, or spindles
without the operation of crossing, and without having brought the threads into
the form of hanks or skeins, but such means have not hitherto been successful
in producing threads possessing when spun the peculiar characteristics required
for "tram" or for threads to be subsequently manufactured into organzine.
Now, this part of our Invention consists in combining the operation of crossing,
for the purpose of effectually uniting the filaments as drawn from the cocoons
with the direct spinning of the filaments so united on to bobbins, spools, or
spindles. By this combination, which has not hitherto been practiced, spun
threads of the desired quality are produced. For the making of thread of
the character known as tram, the two threads or sets of combined filaments
we have described, after being separated at the crossing or twisted part, are
brought together again on the same machine, and spun and wound on to one
bobbin. And for the making of thread of the character known as organzine,
the two threads or sets of combined filaments, after being separated at the
crossing or twisted part, are spun and wound on to separate bobbins, and are
afterwards doubled and thrown in the usual manner. This will be more fully
understood from the description of the Drawings explaining the next part of
our Invention.
The second part of our Invention consists in the application and adaptation
of the machine known as the "ring" and "traveller" spinning frame, for the
purpose of spinning silk threads direct from the cocoon.
For this purpose
we apply a trough for the cocoons to be unwound in, and a roller or rollers
(in place of ordinary drawing rollers) that will draw off the filaments from the
cocoons, and deliver the threads formed of the several sets of filaments at an
uniform speed, to be twisted and to be wound by means of the ring and
traveller apparatus on to the bobbins which rotate with the spindles.
In Sheet 1 of the two Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed we have shewn
the arrangement of mechanism used by us for effecting this part of our Inven-
tion. (The same letters and figures of reference will be repeated on the same
and corresponding parts of each Figure of the Drawings.)
Fig. 1 is partly an end view and partly a transverse section, and Fig. 2 is
a front view, of a machine with our improvements for the purpose before
mentioned. A is the framing of the machine; B, fast and loose pulleys, by
which the machine has motion imparted to it by a belt (a) from the driving
power employed; a¹ is the belt lever, having its fulcrum on the framing at a²,

page_text: by which the belt is guided or transferred from one pulley to the other as
required. The fast and loose pulleys are placed upon the axis of the roller or
drum b, which imparts motion to the spindles (4) in the usual mannerbybands,
which pass round it and the warf on each of the spindles, which work in
bearings placed on or in the rails A, A. On the upper part of each spindle
a disc (1) is screwed, in which is fixed one or two pins (2); the bobbin (3) on
which the spun thread is to be wound rests on the disc (1), and is caused to
revolve with the spindle by the pin or pins (2), which enter into holes made
in the head of the bobbin (3). A is the copping rail, in which the rings (4)
are fixed, that form the paths of the bent pieces of wire (5),known as travellers,
that are made to grip loosely the upper part of the ring. (The construction
and arrangement of the spindles, bobbin, ring, and traveller are shewn of full
size in Figs. 14 and 15, Sheet 2.) are brackets, screwed to the spindle
rails, and form guides to slide bars e, to the upper end of which brackets are
fixed, upon which the copping rails A4 are secured. are shafts, which are
free in bearings fixed to the front and back rails of the machine. On these
shafts formed levers are keyed. The upright arms of these levers (1)
are connected together by a rod 2, the horizontal arms bearing against the
ends of rods, which are jointed in pieces, secured on the slide barse. This
arrangement of mechanism will convey a parallel vertical movement to the
copping rail A', which is obtained from a heart wheel g (fixed on a shaft
working in bearings in brackets secured to the frame), which acts on a friction
bowl or pin secured at the end of an arm keyed on one of the shafts f.
The heart wheel shaft has a worm wheel keyed upon it, into which a worm
geers, fixed on an upright shaft h, working in brackets secured to the frame.
fx is a weight, placed on an arm from one of the shafts, to counterbalance
the weight of the copping rail, &c. We presume that the mode of action of
the ring and traveller is well understood; but we may briefly explain that the
thread is first attached to the bobbin and hooked in the "traveller;" the
revolving of the bobbin will drag by the thread the traveller round its ring at
the same speed as it is caused to revolve by the spindle if no thread is
delivered; but if a certain length of thread is delivered during the time the
bobbin is revolving or spinning, the thread will be wound on the bobbin, the
traveller making fewer revolutions round its ring than the bobbin, in pro-
portion to the length of thread delivered, and the speed at which it is wound
round the bebbin. is a trough, with compartments, in which the cocoons are
placed to be unwound; it may be of the ordinary construction.,, are eyes,
through which the filaments pass from the cocoons intended to compose the
thread, then over the surface of a pulley 2, through the traveller and on to the

page_text: bobbin. The shaft li, on which the pulleys are fixed, is made to revolve at
such speed as will cause the surface of the pulleys to wind from the cocoons
and deliver such length of thread in the time of any given number of revo-
lutions of the spindles as shall be proportionate to the amount of twist required
in the spun thread. Each thread should have sufficient adhesion to the surface.
of its roller or pulley to unwind the cocoons and to resist the drag of the
"traveller" upon it. Various modifications of mechanism may be adopted for
unwinding the cocoons and delivering the thread to the spindle; as, for instance,
either of those shewn by Figs. 4 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9, or 10 and 11; the
first-mentioned Figure of each modification being end views and the second
longitudinal views.
In the modification, Figs. 4 and 5, two grooved pulleys are used of the same
diameter, and the axis of both are driven by suitable geer, a short loose roller
or pulley being used for each thread, which can be readily lifted out of and
replaced in its bearings to depress the thread between the pulleys or rollers/,
so as to give more hold on their surfaces, the middle roller or pulley being
free to revolve by the action of the thread upon it.
The modifications, represented by Figs. 6 and 7, and 10 and 11, act on the
same principle, the thread being pinched between two rollers or pulleys, the
lower roller or pulley 7 being driven, and driving the upper roller or pulley /²
(which acts as a weight) by contact. The difference between the two modifi-
cations consists in forming both rollers or pulleys in one case cylindrical and
in the other the lower roller or pulley with a V groove, into which the upper
pulley or roller is shaped to fit.
Figs. 8 and 9 shew another modification, in which two rollers or pulleys are
used, one of them, 7, having two grooves in it, the thread passing over one
groove, then under the lower roller 12, and over the other groove of to its
spindle. In these modifications the thread is represented by lines marked a,
and those shafts marked correspond to that shewn in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
Motion is communicated to the shaft l' in the machine represented by
Figs. 1, 2, and 3 from the drum shaft by a series of toothed wheels 6,7,8,9,
and 10, and to the upright shaft h by bevel wheels, one of which is fixed on
the top of that shaft, and the other is keyed on a short shaft, which forms the
axis of the wheels 8 and 9. Fig. 3 is a plan view, shewing the direction of
the threads from the cocoon through to the spindles. From this it will be seen
that each set of filaments may go direct, as shewn by x, or two such sets of
filaments may be crossed, in the manner described as the first part of this
Invention, as shewn by ¹ and ². It will also be seen that the two sets of
filaments may be crossed and then separated, being spun and wound on to

page_text: separate bobbins, as in , or, having been separated, may be again united
and wound on to one bobbin, as in 2. Standards m may be fixed in the frame
of the machine, to which a bar m' may be secured, upon which the instrument
used in reeling cocoons to put the crossing twist in the threads may be hooked,
and slide backwards and forwards as required.
The third part of our Invention has reference to machines for spinning, or
for spinning and doubling, or for throwing silk, in which machines the bobbin
containing the silk to be spun or thrown is made to rotate in order to puttwist
in the thread, which is drawn off from it at an uniform speed as it is twisted
by being wound on to another bobbin or on to a reel; and this part of our
Invention consists in the application, adaptation, and arrangement of mecha-
nism similar to the ring and traveller," herein-before referred to in the
second part of our Invention, to accomplish the purposes for which the flyer is
commonly used; and we have represented this part of our Invention in Sheet 2
inits application to a throwing frame, where the thread as it is twisted is drawn
from the bobbin on the spindle on to a reel or swift. Fig. 12 is partly an end
view and partly a transverse section of the frame; Fig. 13, a front or side
view; Fig. 14, a full size sectional view of a spindle and bobbin, the spindle rails,
ring and traveller, and its rail; Fig. 15 is a plan view of the same. A2, A3, are
the spindle rails; t, spindles; 3, bobbins which rest upon discs 1. Each bobbin
is carried round with its spindle by the pin or pins 2, fixed in the disc ]. A+
is a fixed rail, supporting the rings 4, round which the travellers work. The
rail A4 in this part of our Invention is fixed and not moveable, as when used
as the copping rail in the second part of our Invention. As this part of our
Invention consists only in the application, adaptation, and arrangement of the
ring and traveller, we need not minutely describe the other parts of the frame;
but that the Drawings may be better understood, we will name the principal
parts. A, framing; A', belt lever; B, fast and loose driving pulleys; b, drum
driving spindles; 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13, wheels, through which motion
is imparted to swifts or reels y; k, traverse bar, having the eyes fixed on it,
through which the threads pass to be spread upon the swifts or reels. We
have now particularly described the nature of our Invention, and the modes
by which it may be carried into effect, and claim as new and of our Invention
as follows, namely:-
First, the combination of the methods of spinning or manufacturing
threads directly from cocoons with the process or method of crossing, in the
manner and for the purpose herein-before explained in describing the first
part of our Invention.
Secondly, the application and adaptation for the purpose of spinning silk

page_text: threads direct from the cocoon of the "ring and traveller" mechanism, in the
mannerand with the connected parts herein-before described in explaining the
second part of our Invention.
And, thirdly, the application and adaptation to machines for spinning, or
for spinning and doubling, or for throwing silk, of the ring and traveller
mechanism, for the purposes and in the manner herein-before explained in
describing the third part of our Invention.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Prior Sharp and William
Weild, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eighteenth day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
WM P. SHARP. (L.S.)
W. WEILD.
(L.S.)