Improvements in Jacquard Card Equivalents, the Method of Producing the same, and in Jacquards for Use therewith.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Nov., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 24th Sept., 1895-Accepted, 24th Feb., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Jacquard Card Equivalents, the Method of
Producing the same, and in Jacquards for Use therewith.
WILLIAM BIRKS 22 Claypole Road Nottingham Draughtsman WILLIAM
JOHN WATSON of 12 Middle Pavement Nottingham Solicitor and JOHN
TAYLOR, 11 Burford Road Nottingham, Agent do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in the means to be used with jacquards
instead of the usual cards, in the method of producing such means, and in the
construction and arrangement of the jacquard for use with the same a jacquard
and the card equivalent constructed according to this invention being applicable to
curtain lace machines, looms, card punching apparatus, and for other purposes in
which the jacquard is required to give an equal amount of motion at each throw,
as distinguished from the variable amount of motion obtained from a dropper
jacquard.
Now at the present time jacquards of the kind herein referred to, have a
number of rows of vertical needles to which the strings or the like are attached.
These needles are raised or lowered by means of knives, and selected by horizontal
needles, which are themselves selected by punched cards, there being the same
number of horizontal needles as there are vertical needles and a number of cards
which are produced at considerable cost.
Now the object of this invention is the provision of means by which a jacquard
will select the needles as required without the use of punched cards, and in the
production of simpler means which may be used instead of the cards.
According to this invention the means used instead of the punchel cards and
hereafter referred to as a "draft" is so made that the pattern may be marked on
the same, after which the pattern is painted or covered with a solution or other
material, and the other part of the draft destroyed. The draft may be a fabric
into which warp and weft wires are woven so as to form a number of spaces or
meshes having the same gauge as the needles in the jacquard and these spaces are
filled in with woollen or other textile threads which are woven in with the wires.
After the pattern has been marked on this draft sheet and covered with a protective
solution or material, the other textile part of the draft sheet is destroyed by
carbonizing or other equivalent process. Instead of sheets constructed as above,
they may be made entirely of wire. In this case the spacing wires are thicker than
the filling up wires so that the latter may be destroyed by acids after the pattern
has been painted on the other part of the draft with an acid resisting substance, or
the sheet inay be entirely of textile threads, the spacing threads being of a material
which will allow of the others being destroyed. The draft sheet may also be in
the form of a wire or other net the meshes of which may be filled up according to
the pattern.
With a draft constructed according to this invention, each row of holes in the
same is equivalent to a pattern card of the kind now used. Means are provided for
keeping the draft sheet at the proper tension so that the gauge of the holes in the
same way correspond to the gauge of the needles in the jacquard.
When the whole of the pattern is formed on the same draft sheet, a jacquard
with a single row of horizontal needles may be used, and when one half of the

page_text: pattern is formed on one sheet and the other half on another sheet, a jacquard
with two rows of needles is used and each row of needles is brought into action
alternately or simultaneously.
The ends of the draft sheet may be joined so as to form an endless band which
is worked by suitable rollers or it may be fitted to slide in guides but in all cases
each movement of the same in front of the Jacquard needles is equal to one
horizontal row of meshes or holes in the pattern.
The Jacquard needles are guided and actuated as in an ordinary jacquard and
the movements of the draft sheets are obtained from the jacquard or the machine
to which the jacquard is attached. Instead of the usual Jacquard cylinder a
grooved or perforated bar is used this bar moving to and from the needles but is
not rotated.
For small patterns the draft may be wrapped round a grooved roller which i3
moved to and from the needles and rotated one division for each movement.
The jacquard herein referred to may be modified as to the number of vertical
needles to each horizontal needle, or the number of strings to each vertical needle
in the same way as an ordinary jacquard.
Dated this 23rd day of November 1894.
W. H. POTTER, Wh. Sc.,
Nottingham, Patent Agent.
Improvements in Jacquard Card Equivalents, the Method of
Producing the same, and in Jacquards for Use therewith.
WILLIAM BIRKS 22 Claypole Road, Nottingham, Draughtsman WILLIAM
JOHN WATSON of 12 Middle Pavement, Nottingham, Solicitor and JOHN
TAYLOR 11 Burford Road Nottingham Agent do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to an improved Jacquard card equivalent, hereinafter
referred to as a $6
draft," in the method of producing such draft, and in the
construction and arrangement of a jacquard for use therewith, the invention being
applicable to curtain lace machines, looms, card punching machines, and to other
machines or purposes in which a jacquard giving a constant amount of motion to
the selecting means or instruments is required.
At the present time jacquards perform their selective action by means of a
number of cards which are prepared at great cost, and where a large pattern is
being made, occupy considerable space. The jacquard also cannot be run at any
great speed owing to the movement it is necessary to give to the card cylinder.
Now the object of this invention is the production of a Jacquard card equivalent
which will allow of a pattern being placed upon a machine at a comparatively
small cost, and also allow of the jacquard, when arranged to work with the draft,
to perform the same functions as the existing jacquards and be run at an increased
number of motions.
According to this invention the "draft" is made of a material which is more or
less flexible as compared with the cards now in use, and has a number of main
threads or the like which form rectangular spaces, and these spaces are filled in
with other threads or the like which are lighter than the main threads or the like,
or are of a different material. The pattern is then painted on the material, and the
threads or the like in the rectangular spaces not covered by the pattern are
destroyed. The "draft" thus produced is then caused to move to and from a
siugle row of horizontal needles in the jacquard, and also up and down one
horizontal row of the pattern for each motion of the jacquard, while the horizontal

page_text: needles are arranged to push the jacquard vertical needles on to, or away from the
lifting knives as selected by the "draft."
The jacquard used with this "draft" has one row of horizontal needles and
rollers or slides for carrying the draft and moving it up or down in front of the
needles. Instead of the usual card cylinder there is a grooved or perforated cross
bar or roller which moves to and from the needles only by which the needles
opposite to the filled or covered spaces in the draft in the "draft" are pushed
in, while the other needles pass through the spaces in the draft.
In the accompanying drawings which illustrate this invention, Fig. 1 is a side
elevation, half in section of a double jacquard constructed to work with the
"draft" or card equivalent and Fig. 2 is a drawing referred to in explanation of
the draft and the method of making the same.
According to one method of carrying out this invention, the draft is formed
upon a woven fabric in which the main warp threads a Fig. 2, and main weft
threads are of about No. 33 B.W.G. wire, and between these there are four
cotton warp threads c and four cotton weft threads d of about the same diameter as
the wire threads and these latter are woven in to form squares spaces of the same
gauge as the horizontal needles. In the particular case here referred to, the loom
is arranged to weave the main threads into meshes one twelvth of an inch square,
but the size of the mesh, and the sizes of, and the material for the threads may be
varied according to circumstances. In making this fabric it has been found
necessary to carry the wire warp threads on a separate beam to that which carries
the cotton threads, because the interweaving of the cotton warp threads with the
cotton weft threads requires a greater length of the cotton warp threads than the
wire warp threads in the same length of fabric. It is advisable also that the wire
be wound on its beam with strips of metal, card, or the like or a continuous piece
of textile material between the layers of wires, in order to prevent inequality in the
tension of the wires as they are drawn off the beam, and the same results may be
obtained by drawing each wire from a separate bobbin.
A fabric constructed as above described is represented by the part A Fig. 2, and
a draft is prepared from the same by marking the pattern on it, in the same way as
a design is drafted on ruled paper in the lace trade, and as indicated at B. Fig. 2.
The marked spaces are then painted or covered as indicated at C Fig. 2 by shellac
which has been dissolved in methylated spirits and to which there is preferably
added a fine powder of the same kind as the powder used for producing colour
washes until the mixture is of about the same consistency as ordinary paint.
The materials used for the above mixtures are such as can be obtained at a
chemist and druggist under the names mentioned, but other mixtures of a similar
nature may be used instead of the one specified.
It should be noted that with a draft constructed as described the painted or
covered spaces will when on the jacquard, push in the horizontal needles and
whether the spaces in the material are covered to form the pattern, or the intervening
spaces are covered depends upon the construction of the jacquard and the method
by which it is arranged to actuate the selecting instruments.
When it is necessary to produce patterns requiring a large number of selecting
instruments each of which has to be attached to a separate vertical needle, the draft
is preferably formed in two parts one of which working with a front jacquard
produces one part of the pattern, while the other part of the draft working with a
back jacquard produces the other part of the pattern, it being understood that both
jacquards perform their selective motions simultaneously.
After the pattern has been painted on the material, the draft is completed by
removing the cotton threads from the uncovered spaces by carbonizing or other
known process.
Although a fabric made as above described is considered preferable other fabrics
of a similar character may be used, but the gauge of the spaces in one direction
must always be equal to the gauge of the horizontal needles in the jacquard
with which the draft is to be used. In modifications of the material the spaces

page_text: may be rectangular parallelograms instead of squares and the spacing threads
may be of wool or other textile material or the fabric may be made entirely
of metal threads of different gauges, and the thinner spacing wires removed by
cutting or acids after the pattern has been painted on the material, or the fabric
may be entirely of textile threads, but this is not advised on account of the
difficulty of keeping the gauge of the meshes correct when on the jacquard,
neither is a wire fabric without spacing threads or wires advised, because there
is nothing except the side wires to hold the covering material in the spaces.
The jacquard used with this prepared draft has a single row of horizontal
needles e Fig. 1 of the same gauge as the horizontal spaces in the draft when this
in position on the machine. The needles e are guided in fixed sleys f and f¹ and
a sley g which is fitted to slide to and from the sley f¹ so as always form a guide or
stay for the outside ends of the needles e. These needles are made with eyes to
clip the vertical needles which are of the usual kind and are carried by sleys k.
There may be one or more vertical needles to each horizontal needle, and they
may be arranged in the same or different rows as may be most convenient.
In the arrangement shown in the drawings the needles e are prevented from moving
too far forward by pins el which pass through eyes in the ends of the needles e
and are held in position by clips, while the needles e are held in their most forward
position by the spring of the needles which are pressed against plates when the
needles e are pushed in. Instead of this arrangement the needles e may be held in
their forward position by springs on the end of the same or by other known means.
In the jacquard shown the needle sleys are carried by end frames which are
attached to the standards m, and the lifting knives n are mounted in a frame o which
is fitted to slide on pins p carried by the standards. Motion is given to the knives
by the usual mechanism and to the draft carrying frame 9 by mechanism similar to
that used at the present time for carrying the card cylinders in the ordinary
jacquards, both mechanisms being actuated from any convenient moving part of
the machine.
The ends of the draft according to one arrangement are joined together so as to
form an endless band which is carried by rollers s. s in a frame q fitted with rods
which slide in bearings v. The rollers are carried by bearings provided with means
for adjusting the distance between them according to the length of the draft, aud
also for moving the rollers end ways in their bearings. The frame q is also provided
with barst which have a space between them so that when the draft is moved to
the needles e, these latter may pass through the spaces in the same.
For moving forward the draft one or both of the rollers 3, is, or are covered
with emery or other similar substance, and one of the rollers is fitted with a
ratchet wheel to which is turned by a pivotted pawl a on the outward movement of
the frame q.
Instead of the arrangement shown the draft may be wrapped round a grooved
or perforated roller or fitted to slide vertically in guides, but in all cases each
movement of it in front of the needles is equal to one horizontal row of meshes in
it, and such movement may be obtained by ratchet mechanisin in the manner shown,
by worm gearing or by other means. The draft may also be moved backwards and
forwards to repeat a pattern or part of the same as is done with the ordinary cards,
the draft roller being fitted with double sets of driving mechanisms which are thrown
in and out of action as in the existing jacquards. The jacquard may also be
modified in the same way as the ordinary jacquard, that is to say, in a double
Jacquard, both draft sheets and both knives may be actuated simultaneously or
alternately or one jacquard may be thrown out of action.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare, that what we
claim is:
1. A Jacquard card equivalent of the kind herein mentioned made from a fabric
or material having rectangular spaces which are in one or both directions of the

page_text: same gauge as the gauge of the horizontal needles in the jacquard and upon which
the card equivalent is formed by painting on, or covering certain spaces according
to the pattern, and removing any filling threads or material in the uncovered spaces
as herein specified.
2. A Jacquard card equivalent made from a woven fabric with metal warp and
weft threads woven in to firm rectangular spaces of the same gauge as the horizontal
needles in the jacquard, and with textile warp and weft threads woven in between
the metal threads, having certain spaces covered with a mixture or paint of the
nature described herein, and with the textile threads removed from the uncovered
spaces, substantially as herein set forth, and for the purpose specified.
3. The general arrangement and construction of a single or double jacquard in
which the vertical needles of each jacquard are selected by a single row of
horizontal needles and in each of which the usual card cylinder is replaced by a
bar or roller having holes or grooves for the ends of the horizontal needles, and a
motion to and from the horizontal needles with means for moving the draft one
horizontal row of spaces at each motion of the jacquard, as herein shown and
described and for the purpose of selecting the needles when used in conjunction with
a card equivalent of the kind herein specified.
Dated this 20th day of September 1895.
W. H. POTTER, M.I.M.E.,
Nottingham, Patent Agent.