CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Hulme, Samuel Ivers, and
John Yardley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th April 1856.
We, CHARLES HULME, SAMUEL IVERS, and JOHN YARDLEY, all of Farnworth,
in the County of Lancaster, Mechanics, do hereby declare the nature of. our
said Invention for CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS FOR WEAVING, to be
as follows:-
Our Invention applies, first, to a method of stopping the loom either upon
the breaking of a warp or weft thread, or on the accidental occurrence of
imperfect weaving; and consists in the employment of a light metal bar
supported by brackets secured upon the "breast beam" or other convenient
part of the loom. On this metal bar are placed at convenient distances (for
instance about two inches apart) a series of small curved metal fingers,
working loosely on the bar, their points or tapered extremities being lightly
pressed upon the surface of the fabric under process of manufacture by suitable
springs. To this bar, carrying the fingers, is imparted a transverse reciprocating
motion, in such a manner that should any imperfection take place in the
fabric under process of manufacture, caused by the breaking of either the warp
or weft thread, the nearest finger to such imperfection will be checked in its
lateral traverse by partially falling through the fabric, and being there retained

page_text: the traverse of the bar will be stopped. At one end of the bar, and near the
ordinary stopping motion "two small pins embrace the bar and cause a small
lever to follow its traverse; this lever is supported by a vertical rod, having at
its lower extremity a "catch box," to which is imparted a reciprocating motion,
it being connected by a slotted lever at one end to a rod secured at its other
end, to a pin revolving upon a worm wheel working horizontally, and actuated
by a worm upon the ordinary "tappet shaft." Should a "float" or other im-
perfection occur in the weaving, the nearest finger falls through the fabric, or
is otherwise checked together with the traversing bar, the vertical rod is lifted
by the teeth of the catch box; the small lever is thus forced up and lifts an
arm secured at one end to the "stop motion;" this arm coming into contact
with a pin or stud upon the advancing slay forces back the arm attached to
the "stop motion," and thus stops the loom.
And, secondly, my Invention consists in the novel method of actuating the
picking arms of power looms, more particularly those which have the fulcrum
of the arm placed below the shuttle box. The fulcrum of the picking rod is,
in this instance, secured to the bottom bar or sword of the slay, and upon this
rod a projecting pin at right angles to it is fixed. At a convenient point upon
the ordinary tappet shaft is keyed a short lever or arm, having at its extremity
a finger also at right angles to it; this finger, in its revolution, strikes an
arm or rod, secured at one end of a short shaft, to the other end of which a
curved finger is attached which falls over the pin upon the picking rod. The
tappet shaft now being set in motion the finger will strike the rod upon
the short shaft, and will by means of the curved lever suddenly draw the
picking rod against the shuttle, and thus impel it through the "race" or
"shed" in order to bring the rod back again for the next stroke. One end of
a spring is attached to a stud upon the extremity of the rod below the fulcrum
and the other to the slay sword, by this means the lower end of the rod is
drawn towards the centre of the loom, and the upper or striking portion is
taken back to the end of the shuttle box for the succeeding blow.