IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bell, Cloth Manufacturer, William
Walton Urquhart, Machinist, and Joseph Lindsay, Machinist, all
of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS."
Sealed the 4th April 1871, and dated the 4th February 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bell, William
Walton Urquhart, and Joseph Lindsay at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 4th February
1871.
We, THOMAS BELL, Cloth Manufacturer, WILLIAM WALTON URQUHART,
Machinist, and JOSEPH LINDSAY, Machinist, all of Dundee, in the
County of Forfar, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS," to be as follows;,;"
that is to say :—.
This Invention has principally for its object the adaptation of power
loom mechanism for weaving fabrics of. extra widths (such, for example,

page_text: as three yards and upwards) in a more satisfactory manner than has
been hitherto attained, but the improvements or some of them are also
applicable to looms for ordinary widths..
"
'
An important part of the improvements relates to the details for
driving the shuttle, and is applicable to a lathe the rocking shaft of
which is underneath as in most modern power looms, or to a lathe
sliding in guides, but it is preferred to adapt them to a lathe the swords
of which depend from an over head axis as in old hand looms. A cam
or wiper, sometimes called the "picking truck or "picking point" is
fixed on the shaft which directly actuates the lathe and acts on a lever
or spanner which transmits the motion by a link or other suitable
connection to a lever or spanner upon a short picking shaft mounted
transversely upon the rocking shaft of the lathe sword, or in an equi-
valent manner in the same axial line. The picking shaft has the picking
arm or stick attached to it by the usual rosette clutches. The parts
are repeated at each side of the loom, and in order that the picking
sticks may be actuated alternately a cam on the low shaft or a shaft
revolving once for every two picks is arranged to shift the levers acted
on by the picking points alternately into or out of the way of those
points or to shift the picking points into or out of the way of the
levers. If preferred the picking points may be upon shafts. geared
to revolve more rapidly than that actuating the lathe.
In a second modification of the mechanism for driving the shuttle a
cylinder with a piston is employed at each side of the loom and the
piston is connected to the lever acted on by the picking point or cam,
but this cam is arranged to lift the lever and piston, which causes the
formation of a partial vacuum below the piston; and on the point of the
cam passing the end of the lever the atmospheric pressure causes the
descent of the piston and thereby produces the stroke of the picking
stick. For the piston and cylinder there may be substituted a weight
to be lifted, or a spring to be extended, but in all cases the back of the
lifting cam is shaped so as to control and regulate the return of the
piston, weight, or spring.
.
The lathe may be worked by cranks in the ordinary way, but it is
preferred to employ cams with grooves on their faces to act on rollers or
balls attached to the lathe swords, the cam grooves being either circular
so as to act like cranks, or of an irregular form so as to cause a
"dwell""
j

page_text: of the lathe in its innermost position, and thus give comparatively more
time for the traverse of the shuttle. The lathe may either be fixed
rigidly to the swords in the ordinary way or it may be connected to the
swords by joints and be connected by other joints to rods so centred as
to cause the lathe to assume at different points in its swinging motion
positions better adapted to the positions of the warps than when it is
rigidly fixed to the swords.
Means are applied in the loom for smoothing the threads after the
cloth is woven, and consist according to one modification of a heavy
piece of iron which is made to reciprocate upon the surface of the cloth
as it passes over the breat beam; or a barrel with chain or cord may
be used, the cord passing round guide pulleys and the barrel reversing
and operating intermittently or continuously as may be required, or the
cloth may be passed between two or more rollers under heavy pressure,
or be drawn tightly over a rail of iron or hard material..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Bell, William Walton Urquhart, and
Joseph Lindsay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd August
.1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BELL, Cloth Manufacturer, and WILLIAM WALTON URQUHART,
Machinist, and JOSEPH LINDSAY, Machinist, all of Dundee, in the
County of Forfar, North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Bell, William Walton
Urquhart, and Joseph Lindsay, Her special licence that we, the said.
Thomas Bell; William Walton Urquhart, and Joseph Lindsay, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Bell, William Walton Urquhart, and Joseph Lindsay, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should. at any time agree with,
.

page_text: ;
t
66
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for IM-
PROVEMENTS IN POWER LOCMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Thomas Bell, William Walton Urquhart, and Joseph
Lindsay, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Bell, William Walton
Urquhart, and Joseph Lindsay, do hereby declare the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is
to say:
. Our said Invention has principally for its object the adaptation of
power-loom mechanism for weaving fabrics of extra widths (such, for
example, as three yards and 'upwards) in a more satisfactory manner
than has been hitherto attained; but our improvements, or some of
them, are also applicable to looms for ordinary widths.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood we hereunto append three Sheets
of explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and showing the
practical application of modifications of our improved arrangements.
In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings, is a front. elevation of about
one half of a power loom for weaving a fabric of eight yards. in width;
Figure 2, Sheet 2, is a side elevation. corresponding to Figure 1; and
Figure 3 is a back elevation of a part of the loom. The other Figures
will be herein-after spécially referred to. These Drawings are.not made
elaborately and unnecessarily complete as regards minute details or
well-known parts, but are such, we believe, as will render the practical

page_text: application of our improvements quite easy to those acquainted with
ordinary power-loom mechanism.
;
The framing of the loom consists of two main gables 1, which in this
example are rectangular in form, and connected by two transverse beams
or girders 2 bolted to the front and back upper corners of the gables.
The gables 1 are also connected at the back by a beam or girder 52 and
by the rail 47, over which the warps pass. At intervals along the upper
beams 2 they carry intermediate bearers 3 extending from front to
back between them, and to these intermediate bearers are attached the
supports 4 for the upper heddle levers 5, or the upper heddle levers may
be supported by a single beam parallel to the beams 2. The driving'
details, of part of which there are duplicate sets, one at each side of the
loom, are in each case contained between the gable 1 and a smaller"
outer gable or frame 6.
i
An important part of our improvements relates to the details for
driving the shuttle, and is applicable to a loom lathe, the rocking shaft
of which is underneath as in most modern power looms, or to a lathe
sliding in guides, but we prefer to adapt them to a lathe 7, the swords 8′
of which depend from an overhead axis as in old hand looms. Each,
sword S is fixed to a short rocking shaft 9, having its outer end in
bearings on the gable 1, whilst its inner end is in bearings on the nearest
intermediate bearer 3, made deeper than the others at its front end for
the purpose. The lathe 7 is directly actuated by a revolving shaft 10,
which being driven by a pinion and spur wheel from a short first motion
shaft 11, carrying the usual fast and loose pulleys 12 for a driving belt,
is continued completely across the loom, and serves to communicate
motion to the picking details at the further side. For driving the
picking details at one side a cam or wiper 13, sometimes called the
"picking truck" or "picking point," is fixed directly on the lathe
driving shaft 10, and acts on a lever or spanner 14, which transmits
the motion by a link 15, or other suitable connection, to a lever or
spanner 16 upon a short picking shaft 17 mounted transversely upon
the rocking shaft 9 of the lathe sword, or in an equivalent manner in
the same axial line. The picking shaft 17 has the picking arm or
stick 18 attached to it by the usual rosette clutches 19. The parts are
repeated at each side of the loom; and in order that the picking'
sticks 18 may be actuated alternately cams 20 on the low.shaft 21 (or

page_text: on any shaft revolving once for every two picks), are arranged to shift
the levers 14, acted on by the picking points 13, into or out of the way
of those points.
In the modification of these parts shown in the Drawings each lever 14
is fixed on a horizontal shaft 22, capable of moving on end in eyes in
the gable 1 and outer frame 6, and this shaft 22 has formed or fixed on
it a pair of collars 23, between which there gear the ends of a forked
lever 24 centered on a bracket 25, and having its other end acted on by
the cylindrical grooved cam 20. Instead of the lever shaft 22 being
movable it may be fixed, and the lever 14 may be formed with an
elongated boss or eye piece to slide on it, such boss being formed with
the groove or collars for the lever. 24 to act on. Or again, the lever 21
may be arranged to shift the cam or point 13 along its shaft 10. into or
out of the way of the lever 14, the cam 13 being in that case formed
with a boss to slide on the shaft 10, but made to revolve with it by
means of a groove and key. If preferred the picking points 13 may be
upon shafts geared to revolve more rapidly than that actuating the
lathe. The picking sticks 18 are returned as usual by springs 26, each
being fixed by one end to the intermediate bearer 3, and by the other
end to a spanner 27 on the picking shaft 17.
In a second modification of our improved mechanism for driving the
shuttle, and which is shown in sectional side elevation in Figure 4,
Sheet 3, of the accompanying Drawings, a cylinder 28 with a piston 29
is employed at each side of the loom, and the piston 29 is connected
to the lever 14 acted on by the picking point or cam 13, but this cam
is arranged to lift the lever 14 and piston 29, which causes the formation
of a partial vacuum below the piston, and on the point of the cam
passing the end of the lever 14 the atmospheric pressure causes the
piston 29 to descend and thereby produces the stroke. of the picking
stick. For the piston and cylinder there may be substituted a weight
to be lifted or a spring to be extended; but in all cases the back 30 of
the lifting cam 13 is shaped so as to control and regulate the return
of the piston, weight, or spring. The lathe 7 may be worked by cranks
in the ordinary way, but we prefer to employ cams 31 with grooves on
their faces to act on rollers or balls attached to the lathe swords 8, the
_cam grooves being either circular, as shown in Figure 5 (Sheet 2), to
act like cranks or of an irregular form, as shown in Figure 2, to cause a

page_text: "dwell" of the lathe in its innermost position and thus give com-
paratively more time for the traverse of the shuttle. The form shown
in Figure 2 is preferable for very wide looms, whilst that shown in
Figure 5 is suitable for comparatively smaller widths. The lathe 7 may
either be fixed rigidly to the swords 8 in the ordinary way, or it may be
connected to the swords by joints 32, as shown in side elevation in
Figure 6, Sheet 3, and be connected by other joints 33 to rods 34 so
centered on brackets 35 fixed to the gables 1 as to cause the lathe to
assume at different points in its swinging motion positions better
adapted to the positions of the warps than when it is rigidly fixed to the
swords. In Figure 6, for example; the position assumed by the lathe
when drawn inwards is indicated by dotted lines.
We apply means in the loom for smoothing the threads after the cloth
is woven, and one modification of such means is shown in Figures 7
and 8 which are elevations at right angles to each other. The cloth is
subjected to the smoothing action as it passes over the breast beam 36,
the smoothing appliance being a heavy iron bar 37 formed with pro-
jections on its under side which are rendered round and smooth to act
on the cloth. The bar 37 is made to reciprocate along the bar, that is,
across the cloth as the cloth passes over, being connected by a link 38
to a lever 39 on a rocking shaft 40, whilst another lever 41 on the
shaft 40 is connected by a link 42 to an eccentric 43 on a revolving
shaft 21. The smoothing may be effected in other ways; thus, for
example, a barrel with chain or cord may be used, the cord passing
round guide pulleys and the barrel reversing and operating intermittently
or continuously as may be required; or the cloth may be passed between
two or more rollers under heavy pressure, or be drawn tightly over or
under a rail of iron or hard material.
It will be observed from the back clevation, Figure 3 (Sheet 2), that
the warps are drawn off a series of beam rollers 44, the central parts of
which consist of tubular barrels connected together in the manner
shown in the section Figure 9. The beam rollers are supported by
brackets 45 fixed to the gables 1 at the extreme ends, and by standards
or frames 46 at the intermediate points, and the warps from them pass
over a rail 47 fixed to the gables 1, and also supported by the inter-
mediate frames 46. The beam rollers rest on wooden blocks on the
brackets 45 and frames 46 by grooved pulley surfaces formed on them

page_text: for the purpose, and the requisite drag is applied to the warps by means
of friction straps 48 binding the rollers down on the wooden blocks,
each strap 48 being held by a fixed hook at one end, whilst its other
end is connected by a screwed link 49 to a lever 50, the end of which
is held down under a bracket 51. The spring of the levers 50 gives
quite sufficient elasticity to the drag, whilst its degree is adjusted by
screwing the links 49 more or less down through the levers.
When constructing the improved loom for widths of less than eight
yards, as, for example, for a width of four yards, and also in other cases
the end frames or gables (1) may be made of a different form from that
shown, and in some cases they may be connected by a single upper
beam, and a single rocking shaft (9) extending quite across may be used
for supporting the lathe:
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we have to state that we 1
do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or
delineated; but that what we believe to be novel and original, and claim
as the Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is,―
1. The general arrangement or combination of parts herein-before 2
described with reference to Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying
Drawings, and their adaptation for weaving fabrics of three yards and
upwards in width.
2. The herein described and delineated arrangement of framing for
looms for fabrics of extra widths.
3. The driving of the picking sticks from cams on the lathe shaft (10)
or on a more quickly revolving shaft, and through the intervention of
parts, substantially such as are herein-before described.
2
4. The driving of the picking details by means of a piston and cylinder,.
weight or spring, acting as hercin-before described in combination with 3
a cam, the back (30) of which is shaped to control and regulate the
action.
5. The jointing of the lathe to the swords and to additional supporting
rods, in the manner and for the purpose herein-before described:

page_text: 6. The application in the loom of means for smoothing the fabric on
its being woven, as herein-before described.
7. The mode of arranging and applying drag to the warp beams or
rollers, herein-before described with reference to Figures 2, 3, and 9 of
the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Bell, William Walton
Urquhart, and Joseph Lindsay, have hereunto set our hands and
seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.