IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS, AND IN THE IMPLEMENTS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO W.
TREDEN
HALL
WOLRICH STANSFELD, of Leeds. in the County of York, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King. George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain. bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of July, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for
Himself. His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Woolrich Stansfeld. and also to William Prichard, Civil Engineer, and Samuel
Wilkinson. Mechanic, both of Leeds, aforesaid, His especial licence that we,
the said Thomas Wolrich Stansfeld. William Prichard; and Samuel Wilkinson.
our exors, admors, or assigns, or such others as we. the said Thomas Wolrich
Stansfeld. William Prichard. and Samuel Wilkinson, our exors. admors
or assigns. should at any time agree with, and no others. from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make. use, exercise, and vend. within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOOMS, AND IN THE IMPLEMENTS CONNECTED THEREWITH;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging us. the said Thomas Wolrich Stansfeld,
William Prichard, and Samuel Wilkinson, or one of us, by an instrument in
writing, under our or one of our hands and seals. particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same. reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear,

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1. the said
Thomas Wolrich Stansfeld, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention
to consist in two improvements.
And whereas it is known that, in the ordinary constructions of looms now in
use when the shuttle is prevented from entering the shuttle box. the siop rod
is not acted upon, and the loom in consequence is thrown out of gear and
ceases to work: the object therefore of our said two improvements is to siop
the loom by preventing the shuttle from entering the shuttle box whenever the
weft thread. or any one of the warp threads breaks. And the nature of the
first of our said two improvements which is for stopping the loom whenever
the weft threads break, doth consist in placing a stop or catch in the shuttle.
which stop is kept from acting by the thread so long as the thread remains
whole, but which said stop as soon as the thread breaks acts and prevents the
shuttle from entering the shuttle box. as herein-after more particularly ex-
plained. And the nature of the second of our said two improvements, which is
for stopping the loom whenever any of the warp threads break. doth consist in
an apparatus attached to the lay of the loom, and acted upon by the lower
shanks of the heald, which are made in a peculiar manner for that purpose, and
which said apparatus when so acted upon prevents the shuttle from entering
the shuttle box, as herein-after more particularly explained. And in further
compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Thomas Walrich Stansfeld, do
hereby describe a manner in which our said Invention may be performed by
the following description thereof. reference being had to the Drawings annexed
and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawing marked No. 1 contains five Figures, and comprises the whole
of the first of our said two improvements, namely, that for stopping the loom
whenever the weft thread breaks. or. which will have the same effect. when-
ever the weft bobbin is exhausted. Figure 1 is a plan of a shuttle, and it
will be seen that the only difference between this shuttle and an ordinary
shuttle consists in the small lever which passes through its side at A and
amarked with the letters T. e: this lever is in fact the stop or catch before
mentioned, and is what we call the shuttle stop. This lever has a hole bored
at its inner end through which the thread from the bobbin passes into the eye
of the shuttle. The effect of this arrangement will be better explained by
the Figures which represent sections of the shuttle. Figure 2 represents one
of the said sections: S is the shuttle: T is our said first improvement, the
shuttle stop shewn in this Figure in the position it would be raised to by the

page_text: thread passing through it to the eye of the shuttle; r is the axis of the shuttle
stop. It will be seen that the hole in the end of the shuttle stop T is cut 'ont
at the bottom, and this is done for the convenience of passing the thread into
the hole. B. B. are the ends of the two sides of the shuttle box. and C is a
section of the shuttle race; as outer end e of the shuttle stop projects beyond
the side of the shuttle it is evident that the shuttle would be prevented by it
from going into the shuttle box if some provision were not made for it in the
shuttle box. For this purpose therefore a groove G is cut in the inside of the
front part of the shuttle box which, while the weft thread remains unbroken
and keeps the shuttle stop up to the position here shewn, allows the shuttle to
pass uninterruptedly in and out of the shuttle box: but the moment the thread.
breaks. the end T of the shuttle stop falls and the end e rises. so as no longer
to lie in correspondence with the groove G: the consequence is. that the shuttle
is prevented by the end e of the shuttle stop from entering the shuttle box, and
the loom is thrown out of gear by the stop rod in the ordinary way. Figure 3
represents another of the said sections in which those parts which are similar
to parts in Figure 2 are marked with similar letters: this Figure represents
the shuttle stop in the position to which it would fall when no longer supported
by the thread, or in other words, when the thread was broken or the bobbin
was empty. It will be seen by this Figure that the end e of the shuttle stop
no longer corresponds with the groove G. but rises above it, and consequently
the shuttle cannot enter the shuttle box. Figure 4 'is a side elevation of a
shuttle, shewing the exact situation of the shuttle stop and the necessary length
in the aperture in the side: this Figure represents the end e of the shuttle stop
as it would appear when the thread was whole. Figure 5 is a similar elevation.
shewing the end e of the shuttle stop as it would appear when the thread was
broken.
The Drawings marked No. 2 and No. 3 réfer entirely to the second of our
said two improvements, namely, that for stopping the loom when any of the
warp threads break. The Drawing marked No. 2 contains three Figures.
which I will proceed to describe as follows:-
Figure represents an elevation of the healds. viewed from behind, "and
shewing the back of the shuttle boxes. The object of this Figure is to shew
the mode of making the lower shanks of the heald, and their inanner of acting
upon the apparatus attached to the lay. It will be seen by this Figure that
the upper shanks of the heald are made in the ordinary way. bit the lower
shanks are made of wire in the form of a long loop, embracing the bottom shaft
of the heald, and twisted together below it. It should be stated that we make
the lower shaft of the heald of metal to prevent friction, and that we connect

page_text: the ends of the upper and lower shafts together by means of the strong
wires N. N. so that the distance between the upper and lower shaft is always
the same, while the distance between the warp and the shafts varies according
as the shafts are rising or descending: the lower shanks of the heald when so
arranged we call a warp detector. It will be seen by a reference to this
Figure that the heald marked 7. is in the act of drawing down the warp
thread, which causes the lower shanks marked J to be kept up to their utmost
point of tension, while the upper shanks marked are all slackened: but
represents the state of one of the lower shanks of the heald when its warp
thread is broken, in which case its upper shank V will be at its full point of
iension, and the lower shank will hang down as low below the shaft Z as it
would in ordinary cases when the heald was rising. The effect of its obtaining
this situation when the heald is being depressed will he that the end of this
shank will come in contact with the string X. which extends for that purpose
in a greater width than the width of the heald, and the use and particular
action of which will be better explained hereafter. The shanks shewn at the
right side of this Figure are in the position which they would maintain pro-
vided no warp threads had broken. and it is evident that while they mainiain
this position the siring X. which is fastened to the lay and moves with it.
would pass backward and forward under the twisted points of the lower shanks
without interfering with them: but if any one of the warp threads should
break, then the shank belonging to it would drop. as shewn at 1. and would
catch the string X as it passed under it. The striking of this string by the
twisted end of the shanks when they are let down by a thread breaking is
what causes the loom to stop: and I will now proceed to describe the manner
of applying this string X. and its peculiar action, when struck. in keeping the
shuttle from entering the shuttle box:-P. P. P. P. are four pulleys fixed upon
arms Y. projecting from the back of the lay: the string X. after passing over
these pulleys, leads, as will be seen by reference to the Figure, to the cranks
K. K. one at each end of the shuttle race. F. F. are brackets screwed to
the back of the lay for the ends of these cranks to work in: L. L. are the two
pallets. Now. from this arrangement it is evident that if the string X he
struck by any of the twisted ends of the shanks. the effect will be to move the
crank K. by which the end of the crank will be raised up between the
bracket F and the pallet L.. This will, of course. keep the pallet L from flying
out to let the shuttle into the shuttle box. and the shuttle being thus prevented
from entering the shuttle box, the loom will of course stop in the ordinary way.
In order that the twisted ends of the lower shanks may have a more forcible
effect upon the string X, the ends of the lower shafts of the heald work up and

page_text: down in upright grooves or slots, as shewn at m in this Figure, so as to prevent
the heald from retreating before the string X. Figure 2 is a section of
Figure 1. Y is one of the arms projecting from the back of the lay to
support the pulley P, and is provided with adjusting screws a, a. P, Figure 3,
is a plan of the said arms Y for supporting the four pulleys marked P, and
shews the manner of applying our said apparatus to the back of the lay. The
parts colored yellow represent those parts which constitute what I have
herein-before called an apparatus attached to the back of the lay.
The Drawing marked No. 3 contains a perspective representation of our
said second improvement. As the letters marked on this Drawing have
reference to those parts similarly lettered in the other Drawing, which have
been already fully explained, 1 do not deem it necessary to enter into further
explanation of this Drawing, but only add it for purpose of giving a more
clear idea of the relative position of the various parts of our Invention in the
loom. It should here be observed that as the lay describes an arc of a circle
in its motion, it will be necessary that the twisted end of the shanks of the
hinder healds should be as much longer than the forward ones as will provide
for this motion of the lay.
Now, whereas there are various kinds of stops besides that here described
by which that part of our said Invention which relates to the shuttle stop
may be carried into effect; but what we claim as our Invention, with reference
to our said first improvement, the said shuttle stop, is a stop to prevent the
entrance of the shuttle into the shuttle box, attached to the shuttle, and kept
from acting as such preventive as aforesaid by means of the thread which
passes from the weft bobbin through the eye of the shuttle, but which said stop
does act as such preventive as aforesaid the moment the thread breaks or is
completely drawn off the bobbin.
And whereas there are also various modes by which that part of our
said Invention which relates to the warp detector may be carried into
effect; but what we claim as our Invention, with reference to our said second
improvement, is the warp detector, that is, throwing the loom out of gear
by any kind of stop; provided always, that such stop be put in action only
by the breaking of a warp thread, and the consequent depression of one
of the lower shanks of the said healds, as herein-before described, or of
other shanks through which the warp thread may be passed for that pur-
And such
pose, and which shanks shall be depressed in a similar manner.
our said Invention, as claimed with respect to our two improvements
aforesaid, being, to the best of our knowledge and belief, entirely new and
never before used in that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of

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