Winding Silk.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 19th July, 1886.
Complete Left, 19th Apr., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 20th May, 1887.
Winding Silk.
I LÉON CAMEL of Lyons in the Republic of France, Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
In apparatus of this class as hitherto constructed, all the reels are mounted on the
same shaft, and consequently, when any one of the filaments of silk being wound
breaks, all the reels have to be stopped while the fracture is being made good, and this
occasions much loss of time.-The arrangements of the reels hitherto employed also.
takes up a considerable amount of space in the factory, which necessitates the
employment of a larger number of hands than would be necessary were the reels
more conveniently placed, as one hand could in such case attend to a greater number
of reels.
Now this invention consists in a novel arrangement of the reels, whereby the above
named disadvantages, as well as others not mentioned, will be obviated.
In carrying out my invention, I employ a pulley frame, which I provide with a
hooked prolongation to hook onto a supporting bar or rail suitably placed to receive
it. The frame carries a pulley which is keyed upon its axle, the ends of which are
prolonged beyond its bearings in the frame, to receive at either end a reel.
This reel pulley is driven by contact with a suitable driving wheel or pulley mounted
on a rotary shaft, to which motion is communicated in any convenient manner from a
prime mover.
A number of pulley frames, each carrying its pulley, and a pair of reels, are arranged
side by side on the supporting rail, and each pair of reels is thus independent of all
the others, and is driven independently, so that should a filament break in either of a
pair of reels, only that pair will be stopped in order to repair the fracture,

page_text: The means for throwing the reel pulley out of contact with the driving pulley
consists of a block secured at one end of a rod, the other end of the rod being
connected to a rock lever.-This lever is rocked on its pivot by means of a rod, to
the outer end of which is connected (so that it may turn) a threaded rod.-This
threaded rod fits into a suitable socket, and is turned by a handle placed within reach
of the attendant.
By turning the handle, the block will be pressed against the reel pulley, and raise
it out of contact with the driving pulley.
This stopping apparatus may obviously be used, if desired, as a brake apparatus.
The winding apparatus may be adapted to any of the known systems of spinning
without difficulty, and it will also adinit of obvious modification, but the arrangement
described above has been found to answer perfectly.
Dated this 19th day of July 1886.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: I LÉON CAMEL, of Lyons, in the Republic of France, Manufacturer, 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:-
--
The filaments of sick of the Mori silkworm are extremely fine, but by drawing the
filament very slowly from the cocoon, breakages are avoided.
Every breakage causes waste of silk, for it is necessary to manipulate the cocoon
and remove a layer of silk in order to find the broken end of the filament; the slow
winding, therefore, increases yield of silk.
Besides this advantage, the work of the attendant is facilitated, and each of the
hands employed is enabled to attend to the winding of a greater number of ends, as
there will be fewer breakages and fewer cocoons are detached, consequently a smaller
number of cocoons need be thrown to obtain a certain quantity of silk. But although
the slow process of unwinding avoids waste of silk and facilitates the work of the
attendant, on the other hand it should be remarked that to produce, in the same time,
the same weight of silk, it will be necessary that the number of ends under the care
of each attendant be increased in proportion to the decrease of speed of the drawing
off or winding; and this is where the difficulty arises. In fact, increasing the number
of ends increases the amount of space occupied by the apparatus, and therefore
necessitates the employment of a greater number of attendants; for the work of an
attendant can advantageously be carried on only in a certain limited space, as sho
would lose too much time in walking from one part of her work to another; and the
winding of the silk would consequently be less regular. Many attempts have been
made to secure the advantage of economy of material arising from unwinding at low
speed, without diminishing the quantity produced.
These attempts have always met with the same difficulties, and have therefore for
the most part been abandoned. The system of winding called à la tavelette, which
enables one attendant to superintend the winding of three, four, sometimes five, and
even six ends, is generally in use in Italy, but the crossing peculiar to this system
which takes place on the filament itself is open to some objections. In standard
spinning mills, therefore, the "Chambon" crossing is still used, although, with this
system, each attendant superintends the winding of only two ends, or rarely four, and
it is necessary to wind at high speed, at the risk of causing considerable waste, and
even then only a small production of silk is attained, especially when fine numbers are
being produced.
The problem was therefore to enable one attendant to superintend the winding of
more than two or four ends, and yet to use the "Chambon" crossing.
Now to give to each attendant a larger number of ends to wind is necessarily to
increase the space occupied by each attendant. Moreover, the "Chambon" crossing,

page_text: which operates upon two filaments advancing together, and at a certain distance apart,
necessitates a greater space between the filaments. Lastly, the winding of several
filaments necessitates the separation or the independence of each filament, or at least
of each pair of filaments (that is, in working on the Chambon system), for it is not
advisable to wind a great number of filaments if the breakage of one of them
necessitates the stoppage of all the others. It may be observed that the Italians
generally wind three or four filaments or ends together, forming three or four hanks
on the same recl. The ends, then, are not independent, and therefore the attendants
often neglect to tie the ends together, or when they tie them, they do not wind a
number of hanks on the same reel.
In fact, there is great inconvenience in putting a great number of hanks on the
same reel, because when a breakage of one thread takes place, all the other threads
must be stopped to repair the accident, and thus all the advantage arising from the
multiplicity of ends is soon lost.
It will therefore be seen that the problem was a very complicated one, viz., to
increase the number of ends, keep them in independent pairs, and also to arrange the
apparatus in as small a space as possible, in order to enable the attendant to super-
intend it conveniently. It was not sufficient to give four, or even six ends to each
attendant; it was desirable to give them eight, ten, or twelve ends each, because that
arrangement allowed a very slow rate of winding, by the aid of which, very inferior
cocoons could be utilized, as well as those of the best quality.
In Italy the space occupied by the apparatus for winding three or four ends on the
"tavelette " system, or two ends on the "Chambon," system, as in France, was
from 65 to 70 centimeters. As at present arranged, the apparatus necessary for
winding, on the "Chambon" system, four ends in independent pairs, occupies a space
of 1 m. 10 for each attendant. Within that space of 1 m. 10, according to the present
invention, apparatus for winding as many as twelve ends can be arranged within easy
reach of the attendant, that is to say, six apparatus independent of each other, each of
them carrying two reels. With the aid of this Invention, therefore, one attendant can
manage the winding of twelve threads of raw silk on the "Chanibon" system.
To establish another point of comparison, it should be remarked that the best
cocoons hardly bear being drawn off at a speed of from 200 to 250 meters per minute; and
that inferior cocoons do not unwind well at a higher speed than from forty to fifty meters
per minute. With my new apparatus, my the speed can be varied from 40 meters
per minute to 120, 150, or more;-and the number of ends under the care of each
attendant can be varied (according to her skill, and according to the degree of fineness
of the silk to be produced and the quality of the cocoons) from two to four, six, eight,
ten, and twelve ends, in independent pairs.
It will thus be seen to what extent the new arrangement of apparatus may be
regulated, and how readily it can be adapted to all the requirements of economical
manufacture.
The conditions which had to be considered in order to attain the required result, may
be summed up as follows:-
1. Increasing the number of ends being wound in a given place.
2. Their independence, that is to say, for example, that in a group of twelve ends,
or six pairs of ends, under the charge of one attendant, when one pair is stopped by
an accident, the other five may continue to be wound.
3. The possibility of varying the number of ends under the charge of each attendant,
or group of attendants, according to their skill, the quality of cocoon employed, and
the degree of fineness of silk to be produced.
Groups of attendants have been spoken of, because it will be often advantageous,
under this new arrangement, that a head workwoman or forewoman be assisted by one
or several apprentices.
The new arrangement of reels which is now to be described, and which is based
essentially on the independence of the parts of the apparatus, and their arrangement
in a small space, fulfils all the foregoing conditions, and also secures other advantages
which will be hereinafter mentioned.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE APPARATUS,
In the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a front elevation,
of a pair of reels arranged according to this invention.
On a driving shaft A are placed, at suitable distances apart (say from 20 to 22 centi-
meters), frictional driving wheels N.
On a second shaft S, which is fixed, and parallel to the first, are mounted or hooked,
opposite the wheels N, swinging slotted or looped frames C, each of which carries at
its centre an axle E, F.-This axle carries, 1st, within the slot or loop, a friction
wheel M; 2nd, on either side of the slot or loop, a pair of reels D, D.-The friction
wheel M and reels D D are fixed upon the axle E F, which turns freely in the sides of
the frame C.
In order rapidly to start and stop the rotation of the reels D, it will be sufficient
to swing the frames backwards and forwards, thus bringing the friction wheels N
and M into and out of contact with each other. This effect may be produced in any
convenient manner, for example, by a lever furnished with a catch or stop, but the
arrangement preferred is that illustrated in the drawing. It consists in slightly raising
the apparatus by pressing against the friction wheel M by means of a break lever L,
which will serve to arrest the rotation of the wheel M, and at the same time to swing
it out of contact with the driving wheel N.
This break L is worked by means of a crank handle m, conveniently placed at the
front of the apparatus acting through a screw upon a rock lever pivotted at 0.-Thus
the stopping of the apparatus is effected more completely and instantaneously by the
break. The speed of rotation of the apparatus may also be reduced, without stopping
it entirely.
The arrangement of the apparatus upon the shafts A and S allows them to be placed
one against the other without any intervening space. They may also be made to
correspond with a single bath, or trough, in front of which the attendants stand, either
singly or in groups, to take charge of a larger or smaller number of winders, as has
been already mentioned.
It will be understood that the spacing of the apparatus may be varied at will, for
nothing is more simple than to slide the friction wheels and their swinging carriers on
the shafts A and S.
Other advantages are obtained by this arrangement of winders. The two reels D D,
carrying only one hank each, can, when they are charged with silk, be readily removed
from their axles E F, and be arranged in a row for subsequent use.-The bank of silk
wound upon the reel will be unwound without interruption, at high speed, and
without waste.
Each apparatus or swinging carrier with its wheel and pair of reels, can be removed
for the taking of samples, the taking off of the hanks of silk, or for the purpose of
replacing the filled reels with empty ones. The apparatus can also be put back into
place without stopping the working of the adjoining reels.
The whole arrangement of apparatus occupying a limited space may be enclosed,
and the nozzles of heating apparatus for drying the silk may be placed immediately
under the reels, so as to effect the drying rapidly. In winding apparatus as at present
constructed, this arrangement of heaters is rendered impossible by the driving drums
under the reels.
Another advantage of the novel apparatus, as it has just been described, is, with the
"Chambon" system, that the joined ends drop beyond the ends of the axle E F, so that
the filament escapes the axle, and falling into an empty space, there is a complete
stoppage of the drawing forward of the joined end, and thus the waste which takes
place on the axles of the reels of apparatus at present in use, is avoided.
The apparatus just described comprises two reels, carrying one hank each. The
reels may be made larger so as to carry two hanks each, by which means a little space
may thus be further economised, but this arrangement is open to several objections.―
The first is that the working of the two other ends carried by the same swinging
frame must be arrested when a filament has to be re-joined.-The second objection is

page_text: that the joined ends will be sometimes dropped upon the axle, thus getting silk floss
into the bearings. The third objection is, that the weight of the apparatus is greatly
increased.
The arrangement of the swinging frames may also be varied; but I prefer the
arrangement described, as it fulfils the necessary condition, that is to say, to increase
the number of ends to be given to each attendant, in proportion as the speed of
winding is diminished, or vice versa.
It will also be understood, that the arrangements described and shown in the
drawing may be modified, without thereby changing the principle of the invention.
It will also be obvious that these apparatus may be used in winding on the
"tavelette" or Italian system, and that the same advantages will be obtained as by
their application to the winding of pairs of ends on the " Chambon" system.
It will be understood, lastly, that the system just described may work with or
without the use of end throwers, and may be applied to any mode of winding.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
The novel arrangement of apparatus for winding silk from the cocoons substantially
as shown and described, such apparatus allowing of the variation, at will, of the
arrangement of the work; that is to say, to give to each attendant, or group of
attendants, the number of ends which she or they can most economically take charge
of, taking into account their skill, the fineness of the silk to be produced, the quality
of the cocoons, and the speed of winding.