982 



COTTON-SPINNING 



, for this purpose a long fork, and the interior of the tube a corresponding touguo 



or catch. There is besides upon the tube beneath the pulley, at u", a groove that goes 

 round it", in which the staple or forked end of an arm like v 1 , fig. 565, made fast to the 

 copping beam p, catches. By the up-and-down movement of that beam, the pulley t* 

 takes along with it the arm that embraces the tube, which therefore rises and falls 

 equally with the bobbins h', and their pulleys or whorls q. This is requisite, since 

 the bobbins are made to revolve by the pulleys P by means of two endless cords or 

 bands. 



Such was the bobbin and fly frame prior to the improvements introduced by Mr. H. 

 Houldsworth in the 'equation box' mechanism and the 'spring fingers.' By means 

 of the former the differential movement of the bobbins already referred to was accom- 

 plished with much greater precision and neatness than previously. The object of the 

 latter was, by laying the soft cord or sliver upon the bobbin with a certain degree of 

 pressure, to put an increased weight of cotton upon it, and thus to save some portion 

 of the time and labour lost in the then frequent operations of ' doffing ' or removing 

 the full bobbins and placing empty ones in their places. 



Fig. 569 represents a portion of a fly frame with Mr. Houldsworth's invention. 



569 



a a a are the front drawing rollers, turning upon bearings in the top of the machine, 

 and worked by a train of toothed wheels, in the way that drawing rollers are usually 

 actuated. From the drawing rollers, the filaments of cotton are brought down to b b, 

 and passed through the arms of the flyers c c, mounted on the tops of the spindles d d, 

 which spindles also carry the loose bobbins e e. According to the former mode of 

 constructing such machines, the spindles were turned by cords or bands passing from 

 a rotatory drum round their respective pulleys or whorls /, and the loose bobbins e, 

 turned with them by the friction of their slight contact to the spindle, as before said ; 

 in the improved machine, however, the movements of the spindles and the bobbins 

 are independent and distinct from each other, being actuated from different sources. 



The main shaft g, turned by a band and rigger A as usual, communicates motion by 

 a train of wheels h, through the shaft i, to the drawing rollers at the reverse end of 

 the machine, and causes them to deliver the filaments to be twisted. Upon the main 

 shaft ff, is mounted a cylindrical hollow box or drum pulley, whence one cord passes 

 to drive the whorls and spindles / and d, and another to drive the bobbins e. This 

 cylindrical box pulley is made in two parts, k and I, and slipped upon the axle with a 

 toothed wheel m, intervening between them. The box and wheel are shown detached 

 in Jig. 570, and partly in section &tjig. 571. That portion of the box with its pulley 

 marked I, is fixed to the shaft g ; but the other part of the box and its pulley *, and 

 the toothed wheel m, slide loosely round upon the shaft g, and when brought in 

 contact and confined by a fixed collar n, as in the machine shown at Jig. 569, they 

 constitute two distinct pulleys, one being intended to actuate the spindles, and the 



