IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Adolphe Lecat, of Crevecoeur, in the Department of
Oise, in the Empire of France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOOMS FOR WEAVING."-A communication from Monsieur Francois Postel,
resident at Doméliers, in said Department of Oise, in the Empire of
France.
Sealed the 9th August 1861, and dated the 15th February 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adolphe Lecat at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
February 1861.
I, ADOLPHE LECAT, of Crevecoeur, in the Department of Oise, in the Empire
5 of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," (a communication from Monsieur Francois
Postel, resident at Doméliers, in said Department of Oise, in the Empire of
France), to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in substituting a less complicated loom for the pro-
duction of patterns usually produced by the action of treadles, to be set in
motion by any suitable or convenient power, such as a steam engine, water-
wheel, turbine, or other such like power.
I propose employing a jacquard apparatus in combination with a power
loom for the manufacture of harnesses of all kinds, and a lifting and lowering
mechanical harness to be actuated by any known motive power; also a cylinder

page_text: which is made to advance or return similar to the cylinder of a barrel organ,
said cylinder being supplied with a series of cogs or teeth corresponding with
divisions in the cylinder, which cause the needles to go, and producing the
required patterns. I also propose using hooks in pairs, co-operating with
spiral or other springs, which bring them constantly back to their original
position. The deviation of the needles is caused either through the inter-
mediacy of eccentrics or cams, or by the motion of the cylinder as beforo
described, my principal object being to produce various patterns in tissues
without the use of treadles as ordinarily used by combining a jacquard appa-
ratus, and using any motive power most convenient for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Adolphe Lecat in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th
August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ADOLPHE
LECAT, of Crevecoeur, in the Department of Oise, in the Empire of France,
send greeting.
of
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Adolphe Lecat, Her special licence that I, the said Adolphe
Lecat, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such other as I, the
said Adolphe Lecat, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," (a communication from Monsieur Francois
Postel, resident at Doméliers, in said Department of Oise, in the Empire of
France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Adolphe
Lecat, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, 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 Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Adolphe Lecat, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in substituting a less complicated loom for the pro-
duction of patterns usually produced by the action of treadles, to be set in
motion by any suitable or convenient power, such as a steam engine, water-
wheel, turbine, or other such like power.
In order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Sheet of
Drawings hereto annexed, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference
marked thereon respectively as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a front view of a mechanical loom to which my apparatus is
applied; Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken about the centre of the loom;
Fig. 3, a transverse section of the mechanism of the harnesses; Fig. 4 is a
vertical section of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 shews in detail the mechanism which sets in
motion the cylinder with grooves; Fig. 5* shews a plan view of Fig. 5;
Fig. 6 shews a dial indicator used to discover the trace of an irregular thread
of the weft, or of a broken thread; Fig. 7 is a transverse and vertical section
of the improvements without the mechanism of the loom.
In the mechanism which moves the lifting blades L the roller H is seen, in
which are made the circular grooves which receive the cams or iron pins H¹;
the axle of this roller is supported by two plummer blocks cast in a piece
with a small sash h, which slides as wanted over the principal frame A of the
mechanism. The frame A is fixed upon a crown piece B; which has resting
points upon the frame of the loom by the intermediate poles B¹.
The shaft G which supports the beams 9, g', on which are fixed the chains g³
has two supports, of which the position can be regulated on the crowning
piece B. The clutch G which must lift up the hooks c or c¹ is worked by the
chains o passing over the beams o; each of the chains o' has a rod with a
screw thread at the end, which is attached to the cross-beam F, which con-
nects the chain g. One may conceive, that if the chain p² (Fig. 1) is drawn,
the cross beam F is lowered, and the clutch G necessarily rises, and carries.
along with it the hooks touching the double blade c. The drawing of the chain
p is obtained in the following manner:-On the working shaftj of the loom
is a cam Q which acts on the rollers 9, causing thus the lever P to oscillate

page_text: and having at the other end
All these pins are supported
in the point p¹, the lever P oscillating from the right to the left (Fig. 1),
carries along with it the chain p' fixed on the beam g'; the clutch G brings
back the whole mechanism to its normal position. When at rest the clutch
leans upon the frame, which carries as many needles: or blades d as there are
double hooks wanted to lift up the blades L. Each of these blades d is con-
stantly repulsed by one end by the flat spring d,
a notch in which a pin D¹ enters (see Fig. 5°).
by the same shaft e, and their other end is regulated by the rode. The rod e
could also be fixed at the top of the pins D¹ as is shown by the red circle,
Fig. 3. The roller H is worked by each ascending of the clutch G by the
following mechanism:-A lever S fixed on the clutch has a rollers which
presses at each descent upon the lever R' turning loosely round the shaft of
the roller H. The detent r acting upon one of the teeth of the pall wheel R
falls also, turning round consequently the pall wheel and the roller, the
spring being a spiral spring, brings always the lever R' up again, so that
the detent can always fall in a new tooth of the pall wheel. The number of
the teeth of the pall wheel R are changed according to the kind of tissue
wanted, and it is therefore necessary to change the position of the lever S upon
the clutch in order to have the required course according to the advance of
the roller H. To discover a wrong thread of the woof, or the place of
a broken weft thread, I dispose in front of the roller H a dial X, which
is divided (Fig. 6), and I fix upon the shaft a double needle X' pro-
vided with two buttons. At the moment the loom stops by cause of
the waste produced by the broken thread of the woof, the weaver must
look at the figure or cypher on which the needle has stopped, by turning
this needle in an inverted direction of its motion till it is placed two divi-
sions backwards; thus the roller being also displaced with the cams, the loom
can be brought again in motion, and the weaving continued precisely at the
point where it was stopped. One can produce instantaneously a change in
the pattern by displacing longitudinally the roller H. The pins D¹ would
come then upon the cams of the grooves placed immediately next those in
which they first worked. It can now easily be understood that by this dispo-
sition different designs can be produced without waste of time, because it is
only wanted to put back the roller one or two grooves, to one or the other
side.
For the production of much complicated design, I reserve specially to
substitute to the roller H a jacquard cylinder with the cards wanted. The
machinery would exactly be the same, except the pins D which are to be
taken away, when the blades d would act as the horizontal needles of jacquard.

page_text: .upon the cards of the cylinder, which would always be set in motion by the
ascent of the clutch G. I obtain by the disposition of the mechanism and the
balances L' fixed on a support l, the same rise and fall as in the ordinary
looms, but with half the course. Thus the immense advantage of not fatiguing
the warp N, which gives an economy of time and a very regular work, because
the loom is less frequently stopped, the threads don't break more. To obviate the
inconvenience of the slackening of the blades when the clutch G ascends, the
plank with arcades E rises by the action of the springs till the distance regu-
lated by the nuts V is made. This disposition is also applicable to the jac-
quard machinery I have already mentioned, viz., the rise and fall will be
always produced by the double motion both of the cross beam F and the plank
with arcades E. The hooks c are attached to the blades by cords at the
top m and the hooks c¹ to the balances L', and these to the blades L by
'rods m³. I reserve specially to substitute, as I have already executed the
traction by means of wires, of the blades attached to the hooks instead of
strings, cords, etc. For this the blades or ties are provided with pins with
hooks wherein the hooks of the wires attached to the mechanism of harnesses
end. I can when the jacquard mechanism is used, substitute the blades and
the balances L' by ties and weights. A certain number of weights are
attached to each tie, and the clutch is constructed so as to have double the
weight of these weights together in this manner, that the ascent of the clutch
once executed, the clutch will fall again by its proper weight, drawing with
it the weights of the ties. One of the two hooks always being lifted up by the
clutch the other is at rest; if the hook C is raised the corresponding blade
will rise, if on the contrary the hook is raised the blade will fall.
In the loom represented on the Drawing the warp N passes from the beam
upon a roller N, then in the blades L, and afterwards over .the comb of the
batten to go, as tissue rolled round the roller n, the rotation of which is
obtained by an ordinary regulator of the loom; the roller n' rests always upon
the tissue by the disposition of the lever with counterpoise n² (see Fig. 2).
This last mechanism is not absolutely necessary, and every system of rotation
can be applied. The swinging swords I of the batten oscillate on the shaft i,
supported by supports which can be raised or lowered as wanted for the raising
necessary to the required tissue.
In following the application of my mechanism the construction of the
mechanical loom can be simplified very much, the shaft with-cams-k has
not more than the eccentrics K, which set in motion the axis k' of the
lashings K. The cast iron cams, the treadles, and the grates are altogether
dispensed with. To simplify the construction of the mechanical loom the

page_text: roller N can be removed, and but one cross polished piece can be used, which
would serve at the same time for transom to fix the two sides of the frames of
the looms. I will finish this descriptiou by observing that the number of blades
designed on the Drawing is 12, but that this number can be multiplied consi-
derably to the number of 30 to 40, or even more, according to the dimensions
of the looms to which I could apply my mechanism of harnesses.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention of "Improvements
in Looms for Weaving," and the manner in which the same is to be per-
formed, I would remark, in conclusion, that the Invention is not confined to
the precise shape or dimensions of any part of the details shewn in the
Drawings and berein described, as many slight modifications and variations
may be made therein without in any way departing from the principle of the
Invention; but what is claimed as the Invention intended to be secured by
the herein in part recited Letters Patent is, the application of the mechanism of
harnesses to ordinary looms worked by any suitable motive power for the pur-
pose of producing various patterns or designs of tissues by the action of treadles
in the manner herein described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Adophe Lecat, have hereunto set my hand
and seal this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one
Witness,
HOUPIU,
Huissier à Crèvecœur (Oise).
LECAT (LS.)