In the annexed cut, .Fig. 1 exhibit, a bird's-eye view of a portion of the machinery, which may be continued to any extent : a a are the axes which give motion to the receiving bobbins ff, by means of the wooden rollers dd; these are made of any required length to suit a continued series of succeeding bob bins, with a roller under each : the wooden axis which carries the receiving bobbin has a leaden roller e fixed in it, which receives motion by mere contact, on account of its weight. Two pine are fixed on the leaden roller to form a stop to its revolution by means of the catch n, when a thread happens to break ; as the receiving bobbin revolves, it draws the threads from two, three, or four bob bins gggg, as previously determined ; and in order to lessen the friction of these bobbins, which are fitted on wooden pins u u tc, the pins are perforated, and ride upon a wirer, and the bottoms of these pins, as well as the loops which hold the wires, are rounded, leaving just friction enough to keep the threads extended : they are shown separate in Fig. 2. Now, should any one of these threads break, it is requisite that the receiving bobbin should immediately stop ; for this purpose a crank wire ,n, with a catch n, and a fixed crank o, is placed near each roller ; over this fixed crank o are placed four light drop-wires, k k, which swing freely, and have eyes to bang on the threads, which are their only support; now, should either of the threads break, the drop wire k, which hung on it, would fall in the crank o, and cause the wire m to revolve, and bring the catch n forwards from its position, which would lay hold of the pin of the leaden roller e, and stop it immediately ; then, as soon as the thread is mended, the thumb is laid on the tails w of the drop wires, to bring up the fallen one ; the thread is then put in the eye, and the catch is withdrawn by turning back the end w of the crank wire, and the work goes on again. There are two spare
notches, ar x, to every bobbin, to lay them in whilejoining the thread, that it may be out of gear, and move freely till set right by land. The silk threads, on leaving the bobbins gggg, pass freely over a glass rod i, and through the eyes of the drop wires, and are then gathered together in passing through the eve of the guide wire b. In order to distribute equally over the bobbins the an, threads thus gathered together, an alternating motion is given to the sliding bar c c, which carries the guide wires / by means of a in r, working in an oblique or spiral groove in the block 1), on the axis a, and the obliquity of this groove corresponds with the length the silk is to be distributed on the bob bins, causing the sliding bar to reciprocate that length every turn of the wooden roller, or every four turns of the bobbin ; the bobbin rollers being one-fourth the size of the wooden rollers d d. The bars h h h, which support the supplying Lobbins, are so placed as to make the bobbins stand at right angles with the thread, when it passes from their middle to the glass rod. It is best to make the tour eyes of the drop wires lie parallel to the glass rod, which causes their vunutions on the threads to be more equal. q q are two sliding wires: it will be saau last where four threads are tramming, the sliding wire q is drawn oack; but where three threads are tramming, it is pushed in to support the drop wire out of use, and prevent it acting on the crank wire. See Wasvzsio.