AN INSTRUMENT FOR INDICATING OR ASCER- TAINING THE RELATIVE SPEED OF REVOLVING SURFACES, THE SAME BEING ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR ASCERTAINING THE DRAFT IN PREPARING OR SPINNING MACHINERY, AND FOR MEASURING THE DELIVERY OR UP-TAKE OF SLIVERS OR YARNS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Ireland, of Buckhaven, in the County of Fife, North
Britain, for the Invention of "AN INSTRUMENT FOR INDICATING OR ASCER-
TAINING THE RELATIVE SPEED OF REVOLVING SURFACES, THE SAME BEING
ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR ASCERTAINING THE DRAFT IN PREPARING OR
SPINNING MACHINERY, AND FOR MEASURING THE DELIVERY OR UP-TAKE OF
SLIVERS OR YARNS."
Sealed the 11th August 1876, and dated the 30th March 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Ireland at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th March 1876.
WILLIAM IRELAND, of Buckhaven, in the County of Fife, North Britain. "AN
INSTRUMENT FOR INDICATING OR ASCERTAINING THE RELATIVE SPEED OF REVOLVING
SURFACES, THE SAME BEING ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR ASCERTAINING THE DRAFT
IN PREPARING OR SPINNING MACHINERY, AND FOR MEASURING THE DELIVERY OR
UP-TAKE OF SLIVERS OR YARNS."
This Invention which relates to an instrument to be used for ascertaining the
relative speed or rate of motion of the surfaces of rollers, shafts, or other rotating
bodies, is adapted for use upon mechanisin generally, in which such rotating bodies,
exist and it is especially applicable to machinery for preparing and spinning
yarns.
The object of the Invention is to enable the surface speed to be ascertained at
once by observation, and thereby to either act as a check upon or to avoid the
existing practice and time occupied in ascertaining such speeds by calculation as
well as the error inherent to that method.
The instrument constituting the Invention consists of two legs or bars jointed
together at one end in such manner that their opposite ends are free to be moved
to and from one another, and to be fixed or adjusted by a pinching screw or nut to
any required distance apart. At the free end of each leg a roller of any definite
size is so carried as to be free to rotate on its axis. These rollers may be each of
the same size, or their diameters, and therefore their peripheries, may bear any
lesired ratio to one another, according to the size of the instrument or purpose for
which it is to be used. To one of the rollers an indicating dial or finger is con-
Price Gd]

page_text: nected either direct or by intermediate gearing, so that by placing one roller in
contact with a rotating part of the machine, and the other roller having the dial
or finger in connection therewith in contact with the other rotating part of the
machine, whose relative speed of surface motion to the surface motion of the
rotating part first mentioned it is desired to ascertain, that relation or ratio is at
once indicated by the extent of movement of the dial or pointer.
In taking an observation with the instrument constituting this Invention it is
essential that both rollers be set in rotation at the same instant, the dial or pointer
being previously set at zero. To enable this to be done with all the accuracy
desirable, whilst the rollers of the instrument are being adjusted in frictional con-
tact with the rotating parts of the machine, each roller is provided with a stop
which on being withdrawn permits the rotation of both rollers to commence simul-
taneously. Each of these stops is also provided with a spring which depresses the
stops on to the roller at the instant the first-named roller has moved through an unit
of division, or one or more complete rotations or part of a rotation, as the case
may be (this being a fixed quantity). The other stop acting upon the other roller
at the same instant fixes the dial or pointer, thereby showing the number of divi-
sions or distance it has moved through, and therefore the ratio of surface speed of
the parts of the machine tested.
By applying that leg of the instrument only to which the indicating dial or
finger is attached, it at once becomes a measurer of the rate of delivery or intake of
slivers or yarns by rotating rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Ireland in the Great Seal Patent Oflice on the 28th September
1870.
"AN
WILLIAM IRELAND, of Buckhayen, in the County of Fife, North Britain.
INSTRUMENT FOR INDICATING OR ASCERTAINING THE RELATIVE SPEED OF REVOLVING
SURFACES, THE SAME BEING ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR ASCERTAINING THE DRAFT
IN PREPARING OR SPINNING MACHINERY, AND FOR MEASURING THE DELIVERY OR
UP-TAKE OF SLIVERS OR YARNS."
My said Invention which relates to an instrument to be used for ascertaining the
relative speed or rate of motion of the surfaces of rollers, shafts, and other rotating
bodies, is adapted for use upon mechanism generally in which such rotating bodies
exist, and it is especially applicable to machinery for preparing and spinning yarns.
The object of the Invention is to enable the surface speed to be ascertained at
once by observation, and thereby to either act as a check upon or to avoid the
existing practice and time occupied in ascertaining such speed by calculation as well
as the error inherent to that method.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood I now procced
more particularly to set forth the system, mode, or inanner in or under which the
same is or may be used or practically carried into effect, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say -
On the Sheet of Drawings hereunto appended Figure 1 is an elevation of one side
of the instrument constituting my said Invention; Figure 2 is an elevation of its
opposite side; whilst Figure 3 is a plan of the instrument, details of portions of
which are illustrated by the several Figures 4 to 9 inclusive.
As seen by these Figures the instrument consists of two legs or bars a and b,
jointed together at one end in such a manner that their opposite ends are free to be
moved to and from one another, and to be fixed or adjusted at any desired position
by a pinching nut e screwed on the shaft or stud d passing through the adjacent
ends of the legs or bars. At the free end of each leg or bar a roller e of any

page_text: definite size is so carried as to he free to rotate upon its axis. The rollers may
cach be of the same size, or their diameters, and therefore their peripheries, may
bear any desired ratio to one another, according to the size of the instrument or the
purpose for which it is to be employed. On the axis of one of the rollers e a spur
pinion is formed or fixed, and genred with a corresponding wheel carried on a
stud fixed in the leg or bar a. The side of the wheel y is divided into parts, so as
to constitute an indicator dial, for which the extremity of a rod or pawl acts as
an index finger or pointer, as seen at Figure 1 of the Drawings. By placing the
roller ein contact with a rotating part of the machine, and the other roller e,
having the indicator wheel geared therewith, in contact with the other rotating
part, whose relative speed of surface motion to the surface motion of the rotating
part first referred to it is desired to ascertain, that relation or ratio is at onco
seen by the arc of rotation of the dial g, from the position of zero to which,
previous to observing with the instrument, it had been adjusted opposite to tho
index or pointer h.
In taking an observation it is essential that the rollers.e and e¹ be set in rotation
at the same instant. To enable this to be done with all the accuracy desirable, and
after the rollers e and e¹ have been adjusted in frictional contact with the rotating
parts of the machine, or whilst they are being so adjusted, each roller is provided
with a stop, which on being withdrawn permits the rotation of both rollers to
commence simultaneously. The stop for the roller e consists of the rod or pawl h,
herein-before referred to, which enters between the teeth of the dial wheel g, thereby
preventing rotation of the said wheel and roller. The rod or pawl h, which passes
through a guide in the leg or bar a at i, is at its inner end connected by a pin to a
collar placed loosely on the shaft d. This collar j and pin are illustrated in detail
at Figures 6 and 7 of the Drawings, and, as seen at Figure 6, a slot is made in the
collar concentrically therewith.
Another collar n, seen in detail at Figures 8 and 9 (and which is placed on the
shaft d at the outer side of the collar j, being held in position by a nut & screwed on to
the back of the said collar), has a pin m fixed in it, which passes through the slot
1 of the collar into the inner end of another pawl o, whose lower extremity enters
into a notch in the boss of the roller e', as seen in dotted lines at Figure 2. The
pawl is held in the notch by the spiral spring p, the tension of which is capable of.
adjustment by shifting the movable collar on the pawl. To allow the pin m to
enter into the inner extremity of the pawl o a slot s corresponding to the slot in
the collar jis made in the upper end of the leg or bar a, as seen in detail at
Figure 4. With this arrangement when the legs or bars a, b, have been adjusted to
the position required to bring the rollers e and e¹ to the proper distance apart for
frictionally acting upon the parts of the machine whose relative speeds of rotation
it is desired to ascertain, and when the legs or bars have been secured in position by
the nut c, the rollers e and e¹ are placed in contact with the said rotating parts.
The nut is then turned so as through the intervention of the pins and m to
release the pawls and o from the dial wheely and notched boss of the roller el
respectively. The rollers e and el are then simultaneously rotated by the revolving
parts of the machine until the notch in the roller el again comes opposite the point
of the pawl o, which being forced by the spring p into the notch stops the rotation.
of the roller e¹. The rotation of the roller e is simultaneously stopped, the pawl h
being forced by the same spring into the space between two teeth of the wheel y.
By this means one revolution of the roller el being a fixed or known quantity, the
relative surface speed of the rotating parts being tested of the machine is seen by
the are through which the index wheel g has been rotated.
The instrument is provided with a clamp or bracket, adjustable both radially
and to a greater or less distance from the axis of the roller c¹; this clamp or.
bracket by bearing against a fixed part of the machine, or against any of its.
revolving rollers, steadies the instrument whilst observing, as herein-before set
forth.

page_text: Figures 10 and 11 are elevations of opposito sides of a modification of the apparatus
With this arrangement
herein-before described, and Figure 12 a plan of the same.
the apparatus, instead of having two legs or bars with rollers at each of their outer
ends, as herein-before set forth, consists of one bar only, at whose lower end a
rotating roller a geared with an index wheel b is centred, another rotating roller c
being also centred towards the opposite end of the bar. A notch is made in the
boss of the roller c, into which one end of a pawl & centred on the axis of the index
wheel benters, the other end of the pawl entering between teeth made in the
periphery of the roller a, as seen at Figure 11. A spring secured at one end to
the bar acts against the pawl, and tends to hold it in the notch and teeth of the
rollers a and c. On the upper end of the bar a rod g is centred, and provided at its
outer end with a jaw which, when the apparatus is in operation, bears against a rod
or bar extending across the machine, in conjunction with which the indicator is
used, thereby steadying the said apparatus.
In taking an observation with this apparatus when employed in measuring the
relative speed of two draft rollers, such as are employed on spinning frames, the
roller a is placed in frictional contact with the drawing roller and the rove from the
rove bobbin is passed through the slot or hole 8 in the bar and round the roller c,
from whence it is conducted to the retaining roller. The apparatus is then set in
motion by pressing on the heel of the pawl, which has the effect of releasing the
points thereof from the teeth and notch of the rollers a and c; the roller c is thus
permitted to rotate through one revolution, being actuated by the retaining roller
and by the rove as by a belt or band, whilst the roller a is rotated by frictional
contact with the drawing roller. Thus the rotation of the roller c being a fixed or
known quantity, the surface rotation of the drawing roller relatively with the
retaining roller is ascertained by the arc of rotation. indicated on the dial, the
index of which may either be a finger or pointer fixed on the axis of the dial or on
the bar or leg, or as seen on the Drawings; the said index may simply be a notch a
cut into the said leg or bar.
This arrangement of the apparatus may also be used in indicating the relative
speeds of rotation of shafts or rollers in machines other than spinning frames, by
applying the roller to one shaft or roller and passing a cord round the other shaft
or roller, and round the roller c.
In some cases the roller c, instead of being rotated by the rove as hercin-before
set forth, may be applied directly to the surface of the retaining roller and rotated
by frictional contact therewith.
By dispensing with the roller c, pawl d, spring f, and support g, or by turning
round the roller c so that the point of the pawl does not enter the notch in the boss
thereof, the said pawl being consequently also prevented from acting in the teeth of
the roller , the apparatus may be used for measuring the length of yarns or fabrics
passing through a machine in a given time, by applying the roller a to the delivery
roller of the machine and holding the finger on the side of the indicator, which
when used for this purpose is provided with a knob l, or equivalent means for
denoting by coming in contact with the finger each revolution of the indicator,
the said revolution representing a given or known length of the material being
measured.
The apparatus illustrated at Figures 1, 2, and 3, may also be used..as a measurer
for continuous lengths, in the manner last set forth, by lifting the pawl clear of
the wheel g, and securing it in that position by the screw nut b.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the system, mode, or manner in or under which the same is or may be
used or practically carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The instrument constructed substantially as herein-before described and
shewn at Figures 1 to 9, inclusive of the Drawings, consisting of two legs united

page_text: at one end and having rollers at their free ends, each provided with pawls, and one
of them with an indicating dial, and the employment of the said instrument as and
for the purposes described.
Second. The instrument herein-before described and shewn at Figures 10, 11, and
12, of the Drawings, and the employment of the same as and for the purposes set
forth, or for purposes analogous thereto.
Third. The instrument herein-before described, and consisting of a roller carried
on a leg or bar and geared with an indicator or dial, and the employment of the
same in measuring the length of yarns, slivers, or fabrics passing over or between
rotating cylindrical surfaces, substantially as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ireland, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-six.
WILLIAM IRELAND. (L.S.)