IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Rodney Croskey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th August 1868.
I, JOSEPH RODNEY CROSKEY, of Cannon Street, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOOMS FOR WEAVING," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in looms for weaving,
more particularly in respect to that class of looms wherein the shuttle
is driven across the race by pneumatic force, some of the improve-
ments being applicable to looms wherein the shuttles are actuated by.
other means. I propose to apply in a position intervening between the
second motion wheel and the shuttle box end of the beam, and connecting
the same together, and on each side of the loom (or otherwise), a flexible
barrel or tube whereby the air is compressed preparatory to its injection
into the shuttle box or otherwise operating in the shuttle.
This barrel or tube may be made in any convenient form and material;
but I prefer to form it with a disc or plate of wood at each end with a tube
between the plates or discs, consisting of india-rubber or canvass, or the
two combined, or of any other strong flexible air-tight fabrics. This tube

page_text: should be strengthened by rings of wire, or wood, or other material at
suitable intervals, kept in position by suitable guides or slide rods, so
that when the discs are brought near together by the pressure applied to
them, the tube is contracted and assumes the form of gussets or folds;
or this barrel or tube may be made of metal operating like the slides
of a telescope. This tube is attached at one end to the sley beam and
at the other end to a projection or stud on the second motion or other
wheel of the loom, and as the beam and the stud approach each other
the air is suddenly pressed with such violence as to ensure the speedy
and effectual transit of the shuttle across the race, thus dispensing with
bell cranks and levers and other appliances, and avoiding the noise and
jar and wear and tear more or less consequent on any arrangement other
than the above described.
I also propose to operate on an elastic vessel placed at the side, end,
or bottom of the sley beam by direct action of the stud or projection of
the second motion or other wheel of the loom, such stud being arranged
in such manner as that it strikes with a graduated increasing violent
pressure on a plate or projecting arm attached to the said bag as the
beam and the projection approach each other.
I also propose, in addition to or in lieu of the spring now in use for
preventing the recoil of the shuttle, to use a pall which will operate
in such manner as to pall the shuttle and cause it to act as a spring to
prevent recoil, or as a valve (when no valve is used as mentioned below)
for restraining the air in the act of being compressed, and to release the
same at will by means of a connection with the said projection or stud.
By adopting the rotary motion obtained by the stud or projection
aforesaid. I am enabled in case of using a valve in any of the air passages
before its operating in the shuttle (which may be found necessary in
certain looms) to release such valve as speedily as may be desired,
and thus dispensing with the pall acting a valve, and in fact to control
the operations of releasing the springs or valves, or to effect other rapid
and precise movements at will.
I also propose to introduce in the cases above mentioned a valve for
the purpose of restraining the air before compression in such portion of
the air passages as may be found most convenient.
By the action of the stud, instead of other and disconnected arrange-
ments, I find I am enabled to have at my service a larger quantity of air
than by any other means, and in order to economisė such a supply of air

page_text: I propose to commence compressing it on one side immediately the
shuttle is driven from the other side and retaining it by means of valves
or palls, and in the event of my tube or barrel not being equal to such
great pressure to adapt an elastic or expanding chamber for its retention
in a compound form until ready for use, such chamber being in con-
nection with the air passages and regulated in its retentive powers by
springs or weights.
I also propose to use in the air passage a self-acting valve (when a
valve is necessary) in such a manner as that when the face of the com-
pressed air shall be of its required strength it will force back this valve,
which will be kept in its place until then by a spring or other equivalent
so arranged as that it will only recede upon a given or desired amount of
pressure being used.
I also propose when a valve is used, or when the shuttle is palled so
as to act as a valve, to introduce an induction valve to permit the entrance
of the air either into the elastic vessel or into the tube or barrel of the
air pump as herein described.
I further propose in this my Invention to use the rotary motion of the
stud or other projection from the said wheel in connection with sliding
rods, or bars, or guides, either slotted, or provided with projections, or
running on rollers, or on the stud, or on the beam, or through slides, and
with or without joints, and whether sliding from the stud through, over,
or under the beam, or from the beam over or under the stud, or througli,
over, or under any attachments thereto, so as to procure a continuous
and connected action between the beam and its attachments, whether
for the purpose of forcing the air and causing it to act either directly or
otherwise in driving the shuttle across the race by means of the flexible
air pump herein described, or for producing the violent contraction of
any other air vessel attached to the beam or to the stud; or for operating
on any bell crank, striking plate, or spring, or lever attached to the
beam or its attachments, and also to use such rotary motion in such
other immediate and direct though disconnected application as herein
partially described without the use of the said sliding bars or rods,
for the purpose of forcing the air as above described, or for acting upon
any bell crank, striking plate, spring, or lever attached to the beam or
its attachments.
I propose also to drive the shuttle across the race by creating a
vacuum in a convenient exhauster, either at the end or sides, or top or.

page_text: bottom of the beam, or in such other position as may be found most
convenient or suitable, whether for the creation of the vacuum or for
causing action in the shuttle.
I propose also in looms where the shuttle is driven by air to apply a
box, or barrel, or cylinder, or other vessel without packing or stuffing
box, and without friction or actual contact between the upper and lower
portions of such box, or the rammer of such barrel, or the piston
of a cylinder, the object being to produce a sudden and sufficient blast
of air by violent compression of a surface proportionately large to drive
the air through a tube on to the shuttle or into the shuttle box without
the use of an air-tight cylinder, bellows, case, or compressible bag, so
as to avoid the necessity of lubrication by oil or other matter to the
detriment of the work and the wear and tear of the material, especially
as in the case of compressible bags or caps.
The Invention further consists in making the warp beam move
backwards and forwards, easing the warp at the time of the opening of
the shed by the healds, and tightening the warp at the time the pick
is laid, or the beating up of the weft thread. This is accomplished by
fixing to the sword arm of the loom, or to the heald motion or the tappet
shaft for working the healds, or the swing rail at the bottom of the sword
arm, by means of a screw or otherwise, the rope or chain that is now
used as a friction stop, and carrying such rope or chain round the drum
or end of the warp beam, the other end of which rope or chain being
attached to a spring or fastened to the frame of the loom, or the other end
may be fastened also to the sword arm passing round a wheel or pulley,
or wheels or pullies, thus the sword arm gives both forward and backward
motion.
It will be evident that as the sword arm or other parts before described
are moved backward and forward motion is given to the warp beam,
the sword arm or other parts before described causing the beam to
move on its axis one way and the spring or sword arm the other,
thus slackening and tightening the warp at each stroke or beat of the
lathe bar; or the beam may be made to move in the same manner from
other working parts of the loom with appropriate means of regulating
the tension.
The working parts of the loom are made to work the bobbins by fixing
a drum or other equivalent on the crank shaft or other rotating portion of
the loom, which drives a pulley on the spindle shaft of the bobbin, such

page_text: spindle being set in any convenient part of the frame, the dwell motion
also being given off the heald motion, or the take-up motion, or other
working parts of the loom.
I also propose to dispense with the emery roller now in use by sub-
stituting an extra roller under the breast beam or cross race.