IMPROVEMENTS IN REELING MACHINERY USED FOR FORMING THREADS OR YARNS INTO SKEINS OR HANKS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Thomas Hughes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th April 1871.-A communication from abroad by Albert Snoeck,
of Ensival, Belgium, Merchant.
I, EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent
Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REELING MACHINERY USED FOR
FORMING THREADS OR YARNS INTO SKEINS OR HANKS," (a communication to
me from abroad by Albert Snoeck, of Ensival, Belgium, Merchant,) to
be as follows :-
This Invention consists, first, in the construction of an improved
expanding and contracting reel, on which the skeins or hanks are
wound. Instead of making the shaft of the reel solid, as at present
in use, I make it tubular and connect to it tubes containing rods for
forming the arms which carry the bars to form the exterior of the reel.
The rods are held in the tubes by screws, and as the rods can be moved

page_text: farther in or out of the tubes and be afterwards held by the screws, it
follows that the diameter of the reel can be lessened or enlarged as
required.
The second part of the Invention relates to the speed of the reel, and
consists in improved arrangements for enabling the reel to be driven
at more or less speed as required, and this effect is procured by means
of cone pulleys placed in reverse positions, and the strap moved to and
fro as required.
The next improvement consists in an improved stopping motion for
stopping the machine when a thread or yarn breaks or is absent. The
driving pulley is geared when the machine is at work by a clutch or
pins with one of the conc pulleys, but when there is a breakage or
absence of thread or yarn the pulley is out of gear and the machine
stopped. Each thread or yarn is passed through an eye in one arm
of a double lever, which is so balanced that if the thread or yarn is
broken or absent the arm falls and calls into action certain movements
which move the driving pulley out of gear with the conc pulley, and
causes the stoppage of the machine.
Another part of the Invention consists in an improved break for
instantly stopping the revolution of the reel after the driving pulley
is placed out of gear. In connection with the conc pulleys there is a
pulley or break wheel, on which there is a break strap made of steel
mounted with leather, and at the bottom of the strap there is a weight
resting on a rod when the break is not in use, the rod being supported
on the boss of the driving pulley when the machine is at work, but the
instant the driving pulley is unclutched from the cone pulley the rod
is released from the weight by its falling into a groove in the boss, and
thereby allows the weight to tighten the strap on the break pulley, and
prevent any revolving movement of the reel.
The next part of the Invention consists in certain arrangements of
mechanism for moving the reel horizontally to obtain the separation
of the skeins or hanks, which separation has been hitherto obtained
by moving the table which carries the spindles, or by moving tho guides
which lead the threads or yarns. In brackets fixed to a cross frame
of the machine there is a rod having one end in contact with a wheel
having parts of different radii, which wheel is turned slowly by means
of gearing. When the first skein or hank is being wound on the reel

page_text: the end of the rod is against tho larger radius, for the second skein or
hank against the next lesser radius, and so on, and as the rod is moved
a strong spring is called into action, which moves the reel horizontally
as required, and when all the skeins or banks are wound on the machine
is stopped.