Improvements relating to the Winding of Thread, Chiefly Designed for Use in Sewing Machines.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Mar., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 29th Apr., 1887.
[Communicated from abroad by MARO VIRGIL PALMER, of Willimantic, Connecticut,
United States of America, Machinist.]
Improvements relating to the Winding of Thread, Chiefly Designed
for Use in Sewing Machines.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co. Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Referring to the accompanying drawings
:-
Figure 1 is a side view of the cop in one stage of its manufacture, shown as wound
upon a central pin with a traverse motion of the thread in winding, on enlarged
scale.
Figure 2 is an end view of the same.
Figure 3 is an end view of the cop with the central pin removed and a jacket or
cover enclosing it.
Figure 4 is an end view of a closed shuttle, such as is used in one form of the
Singer sewing machine, with my improved cop held in the shuttle.
Figure 5 is a like view of the shuttle except that the cover or side of the shuttle is
removed so as to show the position of the cop within the shuttle.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of the cop, on enlarged scale, as in Figures 1 to 3.
My invention relates to the class of cops that are particularly adapted for use in
sewing machines, and its object is to provide a peculiar cop in place of the bobbin or
like means for supporting a mass of thread usually wound in a cylindrical form, that
shall be free from the defect present in prior devices.
My invention consists in a mass of thread wound into a round form with a traverse
motion of the thread in winding, and leaving a central opening through the mass, the
latter being closely covered or wrapped in a cover of firm material, as paper, on the
periphery, but not on the ends, they being left uncovered from the center to the edge,
to promote freedom of movement of the thread in unwinding from the center of the
mass, as more particularly hereinafter described and claimed.

page_text: I have termed this new device a cop, but the word bobbin best expresses its use,
although there is no spool or interior support upon which thread is to be held while
unwinding as in the ordinary form of bobbin-used in a shuttle.
It has been customary to make a bobbin for the class of shuttles for use in which
my improved device is particularly adapted, with a barrel, flanged heads or the like
on each end and projecting pins upon which the bobbin turns as the thread is
drawn off.
These bobbins have been made of various shapes and materials, but in all cases the
thread has been wound upon them without crossing the threads, that is; in the
manner in which it is wound upon spools of cotton or thread for general use. When
the thread is rapidly unwound from such a bobbin it is liable to, and does, run ahead
in such a manner as to cause a sudden twitch or pull upon the thread which disturbs
the tension and seriously limits the speed at which the machine can be run.
Provision has to be made in the shuttle for supporting the bobbin in a position
for it to rotate freely, and the cost of the bobbin is quite an item to the manufacturers
and to the users of the machine.
I am aware, however, that in the U.S. Patent to F. W. Boland, dated January 3,
1871, No. 110730, there is shown and described a device designed to dispense with the
use of a bobbin or roller for the shuttle thread, and I do not broadly claim such a
device or cop as is therein shown and described, my within described device being an
improvement on the said Boland device as regards the cover or wrapper for the
thread.
In the accompanying drawings the letter a denotes the pin upon which the thread
is wound in one step in the process used in making my improved cop. This pin is
placed in suitable bearings in a machine and the thread is compactly wound upon it,
preferably in a cylindrical form, and at the same time is given a traverse or sidewise
motion. The winding is continued. until a cylinder of a sufficient size has been
produced when the thread is cut, fastened off and the mass of thread removed from the
machine. The pin is then removed leaving an opening through the center of the
mass b; and its periphery is covered with a jacket c of comparatively firm material
that will preserve the shape of the mass until the thread is more or less completely
withdrawn by drawing from the inside.
This jacket e is made of a strip of paper or like flexible material of a width of about
the length of the cop and it is wrapped about the latter and its ends secured by glue
or like adhesive material; the periphery of the cop alone being covered by the jacket,
the ends being left uncovered and open as illustrated in the drawings, as
I gain
thereby a greater freedom of movement in paying out of the thread as it unwinds
from the cop.
This jacket is made of paper of a sufficient thickness to preserve the cylindrical or
other form into which it may be desirable or convenient to wind the thread with the
traverse motion of the thread in winding, and it serves a useful purpose in keeping the
thread clean in handling, packing and transporting the cop as well as in aiding to
preserve the particular form of the cop until the thread is unwound, the traversing of
the thread in the successive layers as the cop is formed, of course, aids also in
preserving the general shape of the mass as the shell becomes thinner by the
unwinding of the thread from the inside.
This cop is made of a convenient size to adapt it to fit within a sewing machine
shuttle which may be of the form shown in the drawings in Figures 4 and 5 where the
letter denotes one body part of the shuttle and d the other body part which is
hinged to the first and is held closed by means of the spring e. This shuttle is
adapted for use in the Singer sewing machine and has a central bobbin socket f, the
sockets for the trunnions or axis of the old form of bobbin being shown in
Figure 5.
With my improved cop, however, there is no need of any such pivot bearings, the
cop being placed in the socket and closed within the shuttle, the end of the thread
being drawn from the inside of the cop and led through the usual outlet or guide to
the tension device and needle in the ordinary manner.

page_text: When the cover of my improved cop is formed of a separate material from the mass
of thread, the latter can be entirely used up and by the use of my improved cop there
is an economy as compared with prior devices not only in the time and labor saved in
making the old form of bobbin and in preparing a shuttle for its use, but a much
greater quantity of thread can be placed in the same bobbin socket in a shuttle and
therefore the same machine can run for a longer time without the need of putting a
new supply of thread in the shuttle. The advantage in the freedom of unwinding and
absence of any disturbance of the tension in the use of my improved cop has already
been referred to.
I am aware that it is not new to wind a mass of thread with a traverse, and also
that it is not new to unwind a mass of thread or cord by drawing it from the center of
the mass and devices having such advantages or peculiarities of construction I do not
broadly claim.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent I declare that what I claim is :-
:-
As an improved article of manufacture, a cop formed of thread wound into a mass
with the thread crossed to and fro at an angle with the axis of the mass in successive
layers, the said mass having a central opening throughout its length and having also a
cover of firm material, as paper, closely enwrapping the periphery of the mass, the
ends thereof being left uncovered, all substantially as described.
Dated 30th day of March 1887
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London,
Agents for the Applicant.