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placed springs or packing opposite the upper or lower ends of this combined bolster and step, so that, during gyration, there was a constant tendency to press the spindle back to a perpendicular position.

There have been several patented modifications of the Mayor principle, but, like the original, none of them have been adopted to any great extent. Mr. C. D. McDuffie, of the Manchester Mills, has been recently experimenting in this direction, and reports considerable success. As before stated, the Rabbeth top spindle was a great step in advance in the art of spinning, even over Sawyer's.

The Sawyer spindle was limited in speed. With an unbalanced load it would vibrate and gyrate, at more than seven thousand five hundred turns per minute, so as to become useless. The Rabbeth spindle, on the contrary, will bear any speed desired, and the limit of production of the frame is transferred from the speed that the spindles will bear, to the speed with which operatives can make good piecings of yarn broken in the operation of spinning. And I might add, on fine numbers the difficulty with which travellers are attached to the rings, and with the very finest numbers the difficulty in getting a traveller of the desired weight and shape, so that at the Willimantic Woollen Mills they produce yarns at the highest speed at which they run. From nine to ten thousand revolutions per minute is the speed at which they are customarily run on medium

yarns.

The power required to drive them at a speed of nine thousand does not exceed the power required to drive the common spindle at a speed of five thousand five hundred.

Returning to Rabbeth's early experiments, the first few spindles tested in the shop of Messrs. Fales & Jenks attracted more attention, and deservedly, than any other invention in cotton manufacturing during the present generation. The spindles were found capable of unlimited speed, and capable of carrying absurdly unbalanced loads, one of the tests made for visitors being the running of a broom

stick as a bobbin on the spindle, at a speed of fifteen or twenty thousand revolutions per minute, which was accomplished with reasonable steadiness. Orders poured in rapidly

ALLEN SPINDLE.

from these exhibits; and, the facilities of Messrs. Fales & Jenks' extensive works not being sufficient to supply the demand, those of Geo. Draper & Sons, at Hopedale, were also brought into requisition, and taxed to the utmost. The "ne plus ultra " of spindles seemed to be reached.

Practical running, however, developed incidental troubles. The packing, being continually beat upon by the bolster as the spindle vibrated, became thin, and in some cases torn in two; and under these circumstances the bolster was rapidly worn out. At other times the packing was insufficient to keep the bearings from revolution, and in that case the spindle gyrated and became inefficient. About the year 1881, the Rev. George H. Allen of Ayer, Mass., in experimenting to overcome these difficulties, adopted positive stops to prevent the rotation of both the bolster and the step of the Rabbeth spindle. He also omitted the packing, and made the step loose within the bolster, and extended the spindle into the step instead of having it move on the step, as in the regular Rabbeth structure.

The Allen invention was an important one, and has been partially adopted in all the Rabbeth spindles since made. It has also gone into use as modified by Messrs. Butrick & Flanders of Holyoke, and James H. McMullan, agent of the

Saco Water Power Machine Shop, at Biddeford, Me. This spindle is now the standard spindle built by that corporation. Mr. Allen sold his patents to the proprietors of the

RABBETH AS MODIFIED BY DRAPER AND KILBURN.

Rabbeth spindle, and his principle was applied to that spindle in a manner patented by John Kilburn, Esq., agent of the Lawrence Manufacturing Company at Lowell. This made a

substantial improvement in detail in the Rabbeth spindle, by lessening the wear of packing, and obviating the need of frequent replacement of parts. In the latter part of 1883, an improvement was made by William F. Draper, the author of this paper, which still further lessened the wear of packing, and reduced to a minimum the one remaining objection. made by spinners; namely, that a tight band, by compressing the packing, would draw the spindle out of the centre of the spinning ring, and thus affect the quality of the yarn and increase its breakage in spinning. By this improvement, the bolster was provided at its upper end with a head which nearly fitted the case, and at its lower end the motion was limited by an extension of the step within it. By this arrangement, the amount of compression of the packing could be regulated, and the lateral movement of the spindle and bolster brought to the lowest terms necessary for steadiness in running.

Somewhat later Mr. George Draper made the bearing of the spindle tapering, for the purpose of saving power. This Rabbeth spindle, so modified, was known in the trade as the "Rabbeth D 49," and was the standard spindle for three years. More than million of them are in use.

During this time it was discovered by the Messrs. Draper that absolute steadiness could not be obtained without regulating the looseness in the bolster itself, that is, between the revolving spindle and its bearings. To accomplish this, Messrs. William F. and G. A. Draper experimented, and the results of their several experiments were patented in March, 1888. The spindle being tapering, and its bearing also tapering, it was evident that the looseness of fit could be regulated by raising or lowering the spindle or bolster, and that a mechanical arrangement for accomplishing this to the extent desired would enable the fit to be controlled. This they accomplished by making an external screw thread on the top of the step, and a corresponding internal one in the lower end of the bolster. The engagement was loose, so as to permit the lateral movement of the bolster, independent

of the step, as in the original Rabbeth. A turn or partial turn of the bolster raised or lowered it, and slots or notches

RABBETH"49 D."

in the bolster and step, and locking pins in the case, held both in an adjusted position when the proper fit was found.

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