IMPROVEMENTS IN SHUTTLES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Thomson, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SHUTTLES."
Sealed the 4th November 1859, and dated the 10th May 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Thomson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
May 1859.
I, ROBERT THOMSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Manager, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SHUTTLES," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction of shuttles
designed to prevent or lessen the breakage or separation of the cop, which has
hitherto been so common a cause of waste. The breakage which it is intended
to prevent or lessen is that which occurs either on the starting or stopping of
the shuttle, and is due to the strain exerted in overcoming either the inertia or
the momentum of the cop. This breakage it is by this Invention proposed to
prevent by mounting the skewer or spindle upon which the cop is placed, so

page_text: that such skewer, with the cop on it, may be capable of yielding in the shuttle
when the latter is suddenly started or stopped. To this end the skewer may
be mounted in various ways; according to one simple plan it is mounted
loosely in a socket piece fitted into the shuttle with the usual joint and spring,
so that the skewer can be turned up for putting on the cop. A small helical
or other spring is applied to the skewer to hold it back in its place, and yet
allow it to yield with the cop, and so save the latter when a difference of
momentum between it and the shuttle tends to break it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Thomson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
THOMSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Manager, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Robert Thomson, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Thomson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Robert Thomson, my executors, administrators, or 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN SHUTTLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Robert Thomson, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Thomson, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to improvements in the construction of shuttles
for looms, and has for object to prevent or lessen the breakage or separation
of the cop, which has hitherto been so common a cause of waste. The breakage
which it is intended to prevent or lessen is that separation of the cop into two
portions which occurs or may occur during the action of the loom, either on
the starting or stopping of the shuttle, and is considered to be due to the
strain arising in overcoming either the inertia or the momentum of the cop.
This breakage it is by this Invention proposed to prevent by mounting the
skewer or spindle upon which the cop is placed, so that such skewer, with the
cop on it, may be capable of yielding longitudinally in the shuttle when the
latter is suddenly started or stopped.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood and carried
into effect, I have delineated upon the accompanying Sheet of explanatory
Drawings, and shall particularly describe some of the more suitable of the
various contrivances which may be adopted in applying the same, premising
that the same reference letters mark the same or like parts in all the Figures..
The first contrivance which I shall describe is represented in Figures 1,
2, and 3, Figure 1 being a longitudinal vertical section of the shuttle A,
with the skewer B, and accompanying internal details in elevation; whilst
Figure 2 is a vertical section through the skewer socket or holder C, and
Figure 3 is a plan of the skewer B and its holder C. In this modification
the skewer B is fitted loosely into the socket or holder C, this last being
mounted upon the cross pin D, fast in the shuttle A; the usual spring E is
applied to the holder C to keep it in position, and at the same time permit of
its being turned up to receive the cop. The skewer B is formed with a
shoulder F, the upper end of which is shaped to receive one end of a caoutchouc
spring G, the other end of this spring being passed over a horn or hook H,
formed on the holder or socket C; the spring G tends to hold the skewer B
back in its socket or holder C, but allows it to yield with the cop, and so
save the latter when the strain of concussion tends to break it. In Figure 4
another mode is represented of applying a spring to the skewer B; in this
case the socket or holder C is made larger internally than the shank I of the
skewer B to receive a number of caoutchouc rings J, which are separated by
thin metal rings; these cautchouc rings J, are held between the front end of
the socket C, and a cross pin fixed in the end of the skewer shank I, and

page_text: projecting into a slot or slots in the side of the socket C. The skewer in
yielding to the concussive strain compresses the rings J, and their reactionary
expansion draws back the skewer.
Another mode of applying the spring is shown in Figure 5, which represents
the socket or holder C in vertical section; the socket or holder C is as it were
a short length of square tube, the shank I of the skewer B fitting and working
loosely inside it; a short slot K is formed in the top of the socket C, and a
pin L fixed in the skewer shank I, projects through it to receive one end of a
caoutchouc spring G, the other end of which is passed over a hook H, formed
upon the socket C; a filling-up piece M is inserted in the end of the socket C,
and through this is passed the pin D, which holds them in the shuttle. In
another modification represented partially in section in Figure 6, the holder C
is made solid, whilst the skewer B is partly tubular, and is passed upon a
spindle N, fixed in or formed on the holder C. In this example a couple of
caoutchouc springs G are used, being passed over catch projections H and O
on the holder and skewer respectively.
In a further modification represented in Figure 7, in which the shuttle A
is shown in longitudinal vertical section, one spring P (of caoutchouc in this
example) is contrived to answer instead of the two springs E and G in the
modifications already described. The skewer B is made with a fixed head Q,
instead of the separate socket C, and this head Q is formed with a slot
through which the pin D passes, and which allows of the longitudinal move-
ment of the skewer as well as of its being turned up to receive the cop. The
spring P is passed upon a hook R, fixed or formed on the under side of the
skewer head Q, and upon a hook S fixed in the shuttle A. Instead of the
caoutchouc springs G and P, herein-before described and referred to, spiral or
other metallic springs may be used, and if it is found desirable, the spring
contrivance may be arranged to permit of the yielding of the skewer in the
direction opposite to that provided for in the modifications described, or in
both directions. When the shuttle is to receive a wooden pirn, a hook is
formed on the skewer as indicated by dotted lines at T in Figure 2, and
entering a groove formed near the end of the pirn holds it in its place. This
hook may be a spring hook or it may be got into the pirn groove by a notch
at one part, the pirn being afterwards turned round to secure it.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, I have to state
that I do not restrict myself to the precise details herein-before described or
delineated, and that I do not claim to have invented every separate detail

page_text: herein-before described and delineated, but that what I consider to be novel
and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent, is, the constructing of shuttles so that the
skewer or spindle carrying the cop or pirn is capable of yielding when subjected
to concussion, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Thomson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
0 Witness,
EDMUND HUNT, Patent Agent,
28, St. Enoch Square, Glasgow.
ROBERT THOMSON. (L.S.)