IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Welsh, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Mechanic, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS
FOR WEAVING."
Sealed the 21st November 1865, and dated the 25th May 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Welsh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th May 1865.
I, DAVID WELSH, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improvements in looms for weaving, and comprises
arrangements of a simple and efficient nature for actuating shifting shuttle
boxes.
In one modification the arrangements are adapted to three shuttles with
the boxes shifting vertically. The boxes are fixed upon a vertical rod
arranged to work. in guides upon the lathe sword, and their weight is partly
borne up by a spring, which acts upon a stud on the vertical rod. To another

page_text: stud on this rod there is jointed the upper end of a connecting rod, the bottom
end of which is jointed upon a pin disposed eccentrically on a disc arranged
to turn on a horizontal axis coincident or nearly coincident with the axis of
the lathe. The disc is made with four sides, and with four pins projecting
laterally, the sides and pins being each one more in number than the shuttles.
A hooked rod is arranged to turn the disc, being made to reciprocate by a
motion from the low shaft, and catching on one of the pins, excepting when it
is held up clear thereof by the pattern mechanism. The disc is formed with
sides, so that a blade spring or a spring hammer may bear on each as it comes
round, and insure the shuttle box's resting accurately in each of its positions.
The turning of the disc puts the eccentric pin in four different positions, but
as the two middle positions on opposite sides of the centre are of the same
height, the shuttle box is moved into only. three different positions. By these
means only one box at a time will be shifted, but if it is wished to skip a box
the disc is made with a pinion, with which there gears a wheel of twice its
size, and this wheel is fitted with pins, and is acted on by a second recipro-
cating hooked rod, which has its action regulated by the pattern mechanism.
Various well-known arrangements of pattern mechanism may be easily
adapted to the described details, but it is preferred to use a small barrel
turning on a fixed stud, and formed with a ratchet wheel to be turned by and
with star wheels to receive an endless pattern chain, consisting of two plies
of leather rivetted together at regular intervals, so that pattern pins can be
inserted between the plies at the parts between the rivet eyelets. Two levers
arranged above the barrel are connected by wires to the hooked bars herein-
before described, and they keep the hooks out of action whenever they are
supported by pins in the pattern chain. When a change of shuttle is to take
place a short pattern pin is inserted, or the pin is altogether omitted, in con-
sequence of which the lever drops a little, and the hooked bar acts on the
pinned disc. The pattern barrel is turned by a catch, which is made to
reciprocate by a cam on the low shaft, and it has connected to it an arm,
which lifts up the lever or levers to allow the barrel to turn.
In another modification the wheel in gear with a pinion having an eccentric
pin connected to the shuttle boxes, or in gear with a rack connected to the
shuttle boxes is made sufficiently large to give all the required shift of the
boxes up or down, without turning as much as half round. Two bars are
jointed to diametrically opposite pins, one on the upper side, and the other on
the lower side of the wheel, and these bars are guided horizontally, and they
are acted on by a horizontally moving piece, the height of which is regulated
by the pattern mechanism and determines the shift. When the moving piece

page_text: which may be actuated from the low shaft is opposite the upper bar it turns
the wheel one way, and when it is opposite the lower bar it turns it the other
way; and in this way any required shift of the shuttle boxes can be easily
obtained. This last described modification may be applied to a rotating
shuttle box, the pinion being fixed on the shuttle box.