Improvements in Clutches for Transmitting Power.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Dec., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Sept., 1895-Accepted, 5th Oct., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Clutches for Transmitting Power.
We, CHARLES EDMESTON and ALFRED EDMESTON, of the Firm of Archibald
Edmeston & Sons, of Cannon Street Works, Salford, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Millwrights and Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of our said
invention, to be as follows:-
"
Our invention relates to clutches for transmitting power, and its object is to
obviate "shock more or less when bringing the clutches into gear in starting
shafts or machinery into motion.
According to our invention, one half or part of the clutch acted upon by the
clutch fork and lever, is slided to and fro on the shaft on a fixed key, to bring the
clutch in or out of gear, the other half or part of the clutch, is upon a cylindrical
boss or part free to rotate, but not to move end ways upon the shaft.
This cylindrical boss or part is or may be partly within a recess in a dise or dish
part having a flange at its periphery and the boss of this disc or dish part is fast
on the shaft, if it is to drive a shaft, but loose upon the shaft if power is to be
transmitted from the boss of the disc or dish part or by a pulley or wheel upon or
connected with it.
This boss of the disc or dish part is arranged not to move endways upon the
shaft when loose.
To the periphery of the cylindrical boss of the clutch part free to rotate on the
shaft, one end of a flat spiral spring is secured in any convenient manner, and
the other end of this spiral spring is secured in any convenient manner to the
flange of the disc or dish part.
In moving the sliding part of the clutch into gear with the other part, the spiral
spring is wound up on the cylindrical part and upon itself, by which time the disc
or dish part will be started into rotary motion and the full power will operate and
this will be done with little or no shock upon the mechanism.
There is friction between the coils of the spiral spring when being wound up
which helps to take up shock as well as the gradual increasing tension of the spring
in winding up.
The catching parts or teeth of the clutch are inclined so as to easily enter into
and draw out of gear.
When the clutch is thrown out of gear, the spiral spring uncoils and rotates the
cylindrical part of the clutch, which is thus ready to be moved up again when
putting the clutch again into gear.
There is or may be a spring acting as a brake or other frictional arrangement,
which operates when the spiral spring uncoils suddenly when the clutches are
thrown out of gear to check any shock from the sudden reaction or uncoiling of the
spiral spring.
Our invention is or may be modified by using one or more helical springs in
place of spiral springs.
Two clutches according to our invention may be arranged as reversing clutches
f desired.
Dated this Seventh day of December 1894.
PETER J. LIVSEI,
Agent.

page_text: Improvements in Clutones for Transmitting Power.
We, CHARLES EDMESTON and ALFRED EDMESTON, of the Firm of Archibald
Edmeston & Sons, of Cannon Street Works, Salford, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Millwrights and Engineers, 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 :-
"
Our invention relates to clutches for transmitting power and its object is to
obviate "shock more or less when bringing the clutches into gear in starting
shafts or machinery into motion.
According to our invention, one half or part of the clutch acted upon by the
clutch fork and lever, is slided to and fro on the shaft on a fixed key, to bring the
clutch in or out of gear, the other half or part of the clutch is upon a cylindrical
boss or part free to rotate, but not to move endways upon the shaft.
This cylindrical boss or part is or may be partly within a recess in a disc or dish
part having a flange at its periphery and the boss of this disc or dish part is fast on
the shaft, if it is to drive a shaft, but loose upon the shaft if power is to be
transmitted from the boss of the disc or dish part or by a pulley or wheel upon or
connected with it.
This boss of the disc or dish part is arranged not to move endways upon the
shaft when loose.
To the periphery of the cylindrical boss of the clutch part free to rotate on the
shaft, one end of a flat spiral spring is secured in any convenient manner, and
the other end of this spiral spring is secured in any convenient manner to the
flange of the disc or dish part.
In moving the sliding part of the clutch into gear with the other part, the
spiral spring is wound up on the cylindrical part and upon itself, by which time the
disc or dish part will be started into rotary motion and the full power will operate
and this will be done with little or no shock upon the mechanism.
There is friction between the coils of the spiral spring when being wound up
which helps to take up shock as well as the gradual increasing tension of the
spring in winding up.
The catching parts or teeth of the clutch are inclined so as to easily enter into
and draw out of gear.
When the clutch is thrown out of gear the spiral spring uncoils and rotates the
cylindrical part of the clutch, which is thus ready to be wound up again when
putting the clutch again into gear.
There is or may be a spring acting as a brake or other frictional arrangement,
which operates when the spiral spring uncoils suddenly when the clutches are
thrown out of gear to check any shock from the sudden re-action or uncoiling of
the spiral spring.
Our invention is or may be modified by using one or more helical springs in
place of spiral springs.
Two clutches according to our invention may be arranged as reversing clutches,
if desired.
Fig. 1, is an elevation looking in the line of the axis of the shaft, from the
moving clutch box end.
Fig. 2, is a longitudinal elevation in section, and
Fig. 3, is an elevation of the moving clutch, looking from the end of the shaft.
These Figs. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate one modification of our invention where the
parts driven or driving can rotate on the driving shaft or on the shaft to be
driven as arranged.

page_text: Fig. 4, is an elevation similar in combination to that shown by Fig. 2, illustrating
our invention when one shaft is to drive or be driven by another shaft in the same
axial line.
Fig. 5, is an elevation similar to Fig. 1, and
Fig. 6, a longitudinal section similar to Fig. 2, but illustrating a modification of
our invention where helical springs are used in place of spiral springs used in
Figs. 1, 2 and 4.
Fig. 7, is a longitudinal elevation intended to illustrate the construction and
arrangement of the teeth or catching parts of our improvel clutches and ordinary
clutches.
In Figs. 1, 2 and 3, a, is the shaft upon which the mechanism is arranged; b, is
that half of the clutch that can slide to and fro on the shaft a, but is connected to
rotate therewith by a fixed key a'; ', are the projecting catching teeth or
clutches, the groove in the part b, for the fork of the clutch lever which is to
slide the clutch part b, to and fro.
c, is the boss or disc for the other half of the clutch, it has a bush e', secured in
it to rotate upon the shaft a, and there is a recess in its face for a washer c³, which
may be upon the end of the fixed key a', or the end of the fixed key a', may come
against one side of it to prevent it from moving in the direction of the key a².
This clutch boss c, has teeth or projections 3, for catching upon the teeth ¹, of
the other clutch part b.
This clutch boss c, fits into a recess in a disc d, having a boss d¹, which has a
bush d², secured in it to rotate on the shaft a, and upon the boss d', the boss of the
wheel or pulley e, is secured.
There is a collar f, secured upon the shaft a, to come against the end of the
boss d¹, and thus prevent the parts from moving endways on the shift a.
To the boss part c, one end of a spiral spring g, is secured by a pin g', passing
through an eye formed in the end of the spring, and the other end of the spiral
spring y, is secured by a ping, passing through a hole in the disc d, and a
projection da, from the cylindrical part 3, from the disc d.
When the spiral spring g, is uncoiled as it is at starting the boss c, can rotate
and wind up the coils of the spiral spring g, upon it and then when fully wound up
the disc part d, must follow and rotate with the clutch part c, but in use the
beginning to wind up the spring g, causes the dise part d, to start slowly into
motion so that by the time the spring g, is fully wound up or before, the disc part d,
has attained the same rotary speed as the driving shaft a.
There is friction between the coils of the spring g, when being wound up and
this also assists in starting the disc part d, into rotary motion, but there is slippage
and frictional resistance on and by the coils of the spring g, until this is effected, so
that the starting into rotary motion is partly due to the elasticity or resistance of
the spring and its friction upon itself when being wound up.
There are inward projections d', from the cylindrical part d³, of the disc d, for the
outer coil of the spiral spring g, to come against when it uncoils as it does when the
clutches and c, are disconnected.
The pulley or a wheel e, may be the driver and the shaft a, may be driven
by the arrangement shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 in which case the direction of
rotation is the reverse of that shown by the arrows on Fig. 1, which point the
direction of rotation when the shaft a, is the driver with the spring 7, coiled in
the direction shown in Fig. 1, but the pulley e, may be the driver and the shaft a,
be driven in the same direction as shown by the arrows on Fig. 1, if the spiral
spring g, be coiled and arranged in the reverse direction to that shown in
Fig. 1.
The spring g, should be coiled and arranged in all cases to wind up upon itself
to tighten when the clutches are brought into gear.
In Fig. 4, the clutches and other mechanism are arranged as in Figs. 1, 2
and 3, that is to say, the clutch b, can move to and fro along the shaft a, and
rotate with it.

page_text: The boss c, can rotate on the shaft to the extent permitted by the winding and
unwinding of the coil of the spring g.
The boss of the disc part d, is keyed directly upon another shaft aª, the axis of
which is directly in line with the axis of the shaft a. If the shaft a, is the driver
it can drive the shaft a", through the clutches.
If the shaft a, is the driver, the shaft a, can be driven through the clutches, the
direction of the coil of the spiral spring y, being arranged according to the direction
of rotation required as above explained.
Figs. 5 and 6, illustrate a modification of our invention where helical springs
are used.
The pulley e, and clutches b and c, are arranged as in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.
In this modification there are two annular cavities d³ and do, in the disc part d,
across each of which there is a partition or stop d', forming an abutment for one end
of cach helical spring 9, which is bent round and fits into the annular cavity for it
extending (when uncompressed) to a projection cª or cb, from the disc cc, of the boss
part c, these projections a and b, being shown in section in Fig. 5, the disc cc, from
the boss c, being supposed cut away in Fig. 5.
If the shaft a, is rotating in the direction pointed by the arrow in Fig. 5, the
projections and cb, when the clutches are brought into gear, will compress the
springs g, to some extent in the annular cavities (5 and (6) until say they occupy
only about one fourth (more or less) of the circumference-and during this
compression there will be the lateral friction of the springs g, on the sides of the
annular cavities d' and dⓇ.
on
As illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, the shaft a, is supposed to be the driver and the
pulley e, the driven for the direction of rotation indicated by the arrow
Fig. 5, but this may be reversed, that is to say, the pulley e, may be the driver
and the shaft a, the driven, without alteration if the direction of rotation be
reversed, but if it is to be in the same direction as shown by the arrow in
Fig. 5, then the helical springs must be arranged accordingly, that is to say, so
that they will be compressed when the clutches are thrown into gear-helical
springs may be arranged if required side by side instead of in annular rings or
both ways.
To provide against re-action of the springs 9", when the clutches are thrown
out of gear, a short helical spring, to act as a buffer is placed in each of
the annular cavities and do, to come between the stop d', in each cavity and
the projections and eb, so that in the rebound the buffer springs gb, will be
compressed.
In all clutch arrangements through which considerable power is transmitted
which have to be brought in and out of gear quickly by a hand lever there is
difficulty in bringing the clutches out of gear while the mechanism is in motion, in
fact in some cases where the power transmitted is great, the clutches cannot be
brought out of gear by the haud lever, while the mechanism is in motion, and the
full power is being transmitted owing to the friction of the catching faces or teeth
of the clutches one upon the other, and also the friction of the moving part of the
clutch b, upon and against its key (a¹).
In order to obviate this difficulty in putting the clutches out of gear while in
motion and while all the power is being transmitted through them, we form the
teeth or catching projections (and c) of the clutches in a certain manner and
this improvement is applicable to ordinary clutch mechanism as well as to our
improved clutch mechanism.
In Fig. 7, let a, be a shaft; b, the sliding clutch, and c, the other part of the
clutch rotating on the shaft a.
The catching and contact faces of the ordinary clutches are represented by the
dotted line a, Fig. 7. Our improvements consists in making the contact faces of the
clutches inclined (more or less) as shown in full line ', in relation to the longitudinal
axis of the shaft a.
The effect of this incline (æ³) when the clutches are in gear if the incline or angle

page_text: he great and sufficient will be to force the sliding clutch b, out of gear with the other
part of the clutch r.
According to our invention we make this incline (c) of such angle to the axis of
the shaft a, that the sliding clutch b, can be easily moved by the hand lever employed
to put the clutches out of
gear.
In Figs. 1, 2 and 3, Fig. 4, and Figs. 5 and 6, the catching faces of the clutches
are inclined according to our invention as above explained and the angle of inclination
is at about 60 degrees to the axis of the shaft a, and we also apply the same
inclination with the same object (greater or less in extent as required) to ordinary
clutch mechanism.
Two of our improved clutches (Figs. 1, 2 and 3) may be arranged as on the same
shaft (a) as reversing clutches if the levers for actuating the sliding clutches (b) are
connected so that when one is thrown out the other can be thrown into gear, or two
clutch arrangements (Figs. 1, 2 and 3) may be arranged on the same shaft (a) with
the clutches of the bosses c, facing each other and with a double ended sliding clutch b,
(projections 6', at both ends) between them.
But in this case one spiral spring g, for one clutch will have to be coiled in a reverse
direction to that of the other spiral spring for the other clutch or if helical springs
be used they will have to be reversed one to the other or arranged to suit the direction
of rotary motion as hereinbefore explained.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:-
1. The combination of a spring or springs with clutch mechanism for transmitting
rotary motion, substantially as and for the purpose herein before explained and
illustrated by the drawings.
2. The combination and arrangement of clutch mechanism for transmitting rotary
motion substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described and illustrated
by Figs. 1, 2 and 3, and Fig. 4, of the drawings.
3. The combination and arrangement of springs with clutch mechanism sub-
stantially as and for the purpose herein before described and illustrated by Figs. 5
and 6 of the drawings.
4. In combination with the mechanism herein before described and illustrated by
Figs. 1, 2 and 3, Fig. 4, Figs. 5 and 6, and also with ordinary clutches, the forming
of the faces of the teeth or catching projections of the clutches which catch upon
each other at an angle to the axis of the driving shaft substantially as and for the
purpose herein before described and illustrated by reference to Fig. 7 of the
drawings.
Dated this Second day of September 1895.
PETER J. LIVSEY,
Agent.