IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO PLATTING OR BRAIDING MACHINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Furnival at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st March
1863.
I, RICHARD FURNIVAL, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lan-
5 caster, Machine and Tool Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO PLATTING OR BRAIDING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
There are defects and imperfections in fabrics hitherto produced in braiding
machines which arise from various causes, such as an unevenness in the threads
and accidental or irregular adhesion of one thread to another, and these
causes prevent the twists, plats, or interweavings of the threads from being
properly and uniformly transmitted to what I shall term the focas of the
threads, or that place or point from which they all radiate, and where the threads
are braided into the fully formed fabric. Various arrangements have been
adopted to overcome the objection, such as rotatory beaters or "wipers "acting
upon a portion of the threads, but they have only partially succeeded in re-
moving the objection. Persons acquainted with braiding machines know that
after the threads have crossed each other they move in opposite directions,
therefore further they move from each other and greater will be the angle
which the threads will make to each other, and the greater this angle is, and
more power (or leverage) has the strain acting upon them to cause them to
separate and compel the twist or plats to be transmitted to the "focas." In the

page_text: common braiding machine the angle between the threads immediately after
crossing is comparatively small and increases slowly, so that the strain upon
the threads has but little power (or leverage) upon them to cause them to
separate by overcoming the adhesion of the threads to each other. Now I have
discovered (and upon this a part of my Invention is based) that if at a point
between the focas and the bobbins the motion of the threads from each other
between the point fixed upon and the focas be alternately arrested and released
at. regular intervals, the angle between the threads when separating from each
other will be more rapidly increased, and that power (or leverage) will be
accumulated during the time when the threads are arrested so that when the
threads are released the increased power (or leverage) will act suddenly by
reason of the threads assuming the line of their natural angle between the
focas and the bobbins, and overcome the adhesive obstructions of the threads
upon each other, and drive the twists, plats, or interweavings uniformly towards
the focas.
My Invention therefore consists, firstly, in the use of arrangements accom-
plishing the objects above described by alternately and at regular intervals
arresting the motion of the threads from each other at a point between the
foças and the bobbins, and then releasing them, and my improvements may be
carried out by various means, namely, by a circle or surface carrying teeth which
can pass through all (or a part only if required) the spaces between the threads
at the same time, this toothed circle or surface being arranged on a vertical rod
which has an up-and-down motion imparted to it by a cam, so that when
elevated its teeth pass between and interrupt the motion of the threads, and
when lowered the teeth are withdrawn from the threads, which are thus
released and allowed to assume their natural position when unobstructed. In
place of teeth, pinching surfaces may be employed or other equivalent means.
The point between the focas and bobbins at which the threads are acted upon
may be varied according to the amount of power (or leverage) required by
the threads in each position to produce the uniform action for the transmission
of the twists or plats.
My Invention consists, secondly, in introducing pushers between the threads
all round the focas so as to enter between them and push the plats or twist
towards the focas, and this action may be combined with that described in the
first part of my Invention by making the teeth inclined on the upper edge,
the incline being upward from the inner circumference to the outer circum-
ference, so that the outer point of the teeth will first pass between the threads
and as the surface carrying the teeth is lifted, the incline of the teeth will
drive the plats forward towards the focas. Instead of fixed teeth moveable

page_text: teeth may be employed, and these teeth may be caused to open and close
to and from the focas in a radial direction simultaneously by two cams, one
acting upon the vertical rod carrying the fulcrums of the teeth, the other on a
vertical rod actuating a ring through which all the jointed teeth will pass, the
changes in the relative position of the ring and the part carrying the fulcrums
of the teeth causing the teeth to have a motion in a radial direction to and
from the focas.