CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Fletcher Cottam, of the City of Manchester,
Machinist, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES FOR
SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 27th May 1856, and dated the 17th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th December 1855.
I, SAMUEL FLETCHER COTTAM, of the City of Manchester, Machinist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MULES FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in substituting for the catch or clutch boxes usually
employed in self-acting or hand mules the following improved machinery :-
The wheel or other article to be turned round is loose on the shaft, and is
furnished with holes, into which enter studs, fixed into a disk, which is
capable of being moved endways on the shaft between the wheel or other
article to be turned round, and the disk is a plate for guiding the studs; this
plate is keyed on the shaft. The disk in which the studs are fixed is made to
slide on the shaft by a lever or other agent, and it is pressed towards the fixed
plate by a spring. When the lever or other agent has been acted upon to
draw the studs out of the holes in the wheel or other article the studs still

page_text: remain in the guide plate, and when the lever or other agent is released, the
spring, acting on the disk, presses the studs through the guide plate, and as
soon as they come opposite the holes in the article to be turned, they enter
therein, and carry the said article round with them.
The spring above referred to may be dispensed with, and a lever used to
move the sliding disk to and fro.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
FLETCHER COTTAM, of the City of Manchester, Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, Her special license that I, the said
Samuel Fletcher Cottam, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, my 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 CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MULES FOR SPINNING COTTON AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Fletcher Cottam, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 I, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following Specification thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawing (that is to say) :-
The nature of my Invention consists in the application of an improved

page_text: clutch box to self-acting or hand mules for spinning, which improved clutch
box is to be substituted for the catch or clutch boxes hitherto employed in
such machines.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and.readily carried
into effect,. I. will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
Fig. 1 is an elevation, and Fig. 2 a plan view, of part of a self-acting mule,
shewing one mode of applying the improved clutch box.. a, a, are the side
frames of the headstock; b, the scroll shaft; c, part of the taking-in shaft;
and d, the can shaft; e is the bevel pinion, by which motion is communicated
when required to the wheel f on the shaft 6; the pinion e is loose on the
shaft c, and is furnished with a disk e', through which any convenient number
of holes are made. 9 is the plate keyed on the shaft c. This plate has two
holes for guiding the studs h, which are fixed in the disk h¹, loose on the
shaft c. The disk h¹ has a boss with a circular groove for the bridle i of
the lever j, which is acted upon as usual by the cam d¹ on the cam shaft d.
The prolongation of the boss of the disk h¹ fits within the box k keyed on
the shaft c, and this box contains a spring k¹, acting on the end of the boss
of the disk h'.
The mode of action is as follows:-The Drawing represents the parts in
the positions they assume when the clutch box is out of, gear, that is to say,
when no motion is communicated to the wheel ƒ by the pinion e; the cam d¹
holds the lever j in the position shewn in Fig. 2, until the cam shaft in
revolving causes the lever j to assume the position shewn by a dotted line, the
circular groove in the boss of the disk h' being sufficiently wide to allow the
bridle i to move without imparting motion to the disk h¹; the spring k¹ then
pressing against the end of the boss of the disk h¹, causes it to slide along the
shaft c until the points of the studs h come against the disk e¹, into the holes
of which they enter, thereby causing the pinion e to be carried round with
the shaft c, and communicating the requisite motion to the wheel fand scroll
shaft b. In order to facilitate the entrance of the studs h into the holes in
the disk e', the ends of the studs are rounded and the holes are countersunk.
The spring for sliding the disk h¹ along the shaft may be dispensed
with, and a lever may be employed to put the clutch box in or out of
gear.
I wish to observe, that although I have only shewn the mode of applying
this improved clutch box to the machinery for putting up the carriage
of the mule, the same is also applicable to giving motion to the drawing
rollers, and to other parts of mules where catch boxes have hitherto been
employed.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I declare that I claim the application of the improved
clutch box shewn and described to self-acting and hand mules for spinning..
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Fletcher, Cottam, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
H. B. BARLOW,
Manchester.
S. F. COTTAM. (L.S.)