which, until the application of electricity, was worth the time spent in
putting it on. With the electric motion, however, all this is changed,
and the electric attachments are not of necessity so fragile as to be
un-mechanical or to be not practical. The advantage has also been
taken, in a mechanical way, of using cotton as one element, and, being
non-conducting, so that no trouble shall arise from contact with the
working parts of the electrical apparatus with the cotton itself.

To take into consideration all the possibilities that exist from the
railway can to the front of the fine speeder is not needed by the
practical reader, and would be useless to any other. The principle of
this invention is the supplying of a magneto-electric current from
a small magneto-electric machine attached to the card, speeder, or
whatever machine it may be applied to which generates the current, and
this machine is driven by a small belt from the main driving shaft.
The machine in itself weighs but a few pounds, and can be driven by a
half-inch or three quarter-inch belt, and requires a little more power
than a light-running sewing machine.

One pole of the magneto-electric machine is connected by means of a rod
or wire to the machine frame upon which it is to be used, and the
other pole to the electromagnet in the ordinary way of conductivity
of current, which means stretching the wire from one to the other. An
armature is arranged so that when a thread is broken or a sliver or a
strand of roving, the armature drops into a ratchet wheel; this ratchet
wheel is made to revolve by the belt, and whenever it is impeded or
stopped in its course it acts upon mechanism which throws the driving
belt of the machine upon the loose pulley. Electrical contact is made by
a very simple contrivance, and these attachments are only to act in the
case of a breakage of a thread or strand.