Improvements in Drop Box Motions for Looms.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 16th May, 1898-Accepted, 30th July, 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Drop Box Motions for Looms.
I, WILLIAM FIELDING, of the Firm of William Fielding & Sons, of Kilner
Croft Mill, Unsworth, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufac-
turers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My said invention relates to improvements in drop box motions for looms and
has for its object to simplify the method of operating such drop boxes.
Under my invention I retain the usual revolving card barrel provided with cards
formed with the requisite blanks and spaces, which card barrel is operated in
the ordinary manner, and my invention consists in the improved means for operat-
ing the drop boxes from such revolving card barrel.
In carrying my invention into effect I provide two plates formed with a number
of notches corresponding to the maximum number of shuttle boxes employed, it
being understood that any suitable number of such shuttle boxes may be used.
The notched plates are carried at each end of a cross-head secured to a vertical rod
adapted to turn in suitable bearings in the frame of the loom.
The notches of the plates engage with the perforated cards each plate being
thrust either towards or from the card according to the blanks and spaces formed
on the card. The vertical rod is thus turned in its bearings.
The lower end of the rod is provided with a lever to which is connected a sliding
bar also formed with notches corresponding to the number of shuttle boxes
employed.
A spring detent is adapted to engage with the notches on the bar. The outer
end of the lever for operating the shuttle boxes and which is vibrated by means of
a cam from the tappet shaft as usual, is provided with a pendent rod formed at
its lower end with prongs or fingers, which are adapted to engage with notches
formed on two vertically sliding plates disposed one at each side of lever. This
pendent rod is secured to the end of the sliding bar by means of a link or the like.
The notches on these vertically sliding plates also correspond in number to the
shuttle boxes employed. The sliding plates are disposed with their notches facing
each other, and the plates are capable of being alternately raised and lowered by
means of the lever actuated by the tappet shaft.
The notched plates are connected at their upper and lower ends to flexible
metallic or other bands which are secured at their other ends to pullies revolving
upon fixed studs. The shuttle box rod is also connected to the pullies by means
of bands in such a manner that the revolution of the pullies will cause the shuttle
hox rod to be raised or lowered according to the direction of revolution of the
pullies.
The action of my improved mechanism is shortly as follows.
Suppose card No. 2 be presented by the revolving card barrel to the notched
plates. These plates are then actuated by the card so as to turn the vertical
rod in its bearings and cause the lever at its lower end to traverse the sliding rod
until the spring detent occupies the second notch. The sliding bar thus directs

page_text: the prongs formed on the end of the pendent rod attached to the vibrating lever,
and causes the same to engage with the corresponding notch upon one of the
vertically sliding plates. The vibration of the lever thus operates the sliding
plates, revolving the pullies and causing the shuttle box rod to be actuated by
means of the attached bands so as to bring shuttle box No. 2 into action. The
shuttle box rod is suitably counterbalanced so as to be maintained in position until
it is again operated to bring a fresh shuttle box into action.
It will thus be seen that in addition to the simplification of the mechanism for
operating the shuttle boxes an important feature of my invention consists in the
fact that each card directly actuates its own shuttle box. It will be understood
that the blanks and spaces on the cards are properly arranged and disposed to
effect the varying traverse of the notched plates with which they engage.
Dated this 14th day of August 1897
improvements in Drop Box Motions for Looms.
I, WILLIAM FIELDING, of the Firm of William Fielding & Sons, of Kilner
Croft Mill, Unsworth, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufac-
turers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying drawings:-
My said invention relates to improvements in drop box motions for looms and
has for its object to simplify the method of operating such drop boxes.
And in order that my invention may be fully understood I have attached hereto
two sheets of drawings to which I will refer.
Fig. of the said drawings shows the end framing of a loom with my invention
applied.
Figs. 2 to 9 are detail views.
Under my invention I retain the usual revolving card barrel a provided with
cards formed with the requisite blanks and spaces.
The card barrel a is operated in the usual manner by a cam a¹ on the tappet
shaft 6 of the loom, operating against the lower end of a double lever e pivotted at c¹
to the frame A of the loom. My invention consists in improved means for operat-
ing the drop boxes from the revolving card barrel a.
In carrying my invention into effect I provide two plates dd shown more
particularly in the plan view Fig. 8.
The plates d d are formed with a number of notches corresponding to the maxi-
mum number of shuttle boxes employed in the loom. In the drawings I have
indicated six as being the number of shuttle boxes, but it will be understood that
less or more than six may be employed. The notched plates d d are pivotted loosely
at dd to a cross-head e, and are guided in ways formed in a bracket el secured
to the framing (see Figs. 1, 7 and 8). The cross-head e is secured to the upper end
of a vertical rod f adapted to turn upon its axis in suitable bearings fl and foot-
step forming part of or secured to the frame of the loom.
The notches of the plates dd engage with the perforated cards, a set of which
is shown in Fig. 9, one of the plates & being always entered within the card barrel a
to a greater extent than the other according to the blanks and spaces formed on

page_text: the card. The crosshead e carrying the notched plates dd is influenced by this
movement of the notched plates d and the vertical rod f is thus turned in its
bearings as will be apparent from an inspection of Fig. 8.
The lower end of the vertical rod f is provided with a lever 9 seen more clearly
in Figs. 3 and 5, Fig. 3 being a view at right angles to Fig. 1 of a portion of the
mechanism and Fig. 5 being a plan of the vertical rod f and lever g. The lever g
is connected to a bar h sliding in bearings h¹, the bar h being also formed with
notches corresponding to the number of shuttle boxes employed.
A spring detent i is adapted to engage with the notches on the bar h. A lever j
pivotted at to the framing is vibrated by means of a cam upon the tappet
shaft b.
The cam is in rolling contact with a bowl 3 mounted upon the lever j. The
lever is provided at its outer end with a pendent rod k. The pendent rod k is
formed at its lower end with prongs or fingers k¹ which are adapted to engage with
notches formed in two vertically sliding plates 11. The sliding plates 17 are placed
one behind the other and are provided with oppositely inclined notched faces. The
sliding bar his cranked and connected to the pendent rod & by means of a hinged
link. This arrangement is more clearly shown in Fig. 2 which is a view of the
parts at right angles to Fig. 1.
The notched plates slide vertically in suitable ways formed in guides mm
as clearly shown in the sectional plan view of the parts Fig. 4. The notches on
these vertical sliding plates also correspond in number to the number of shuttle
boxes employed. The vertical sliding plates 11 are arranged with their notches
facing towards each other and the plates are capable of being raised by means of
the rod k secured to the lever operated by the cam 12 on the tappet shaft b.
The notched plates 17 are provided with oppositely disposed racks 12 12 meshing
with pinions which are secured upon a sleeve n revolving loosely upon a fixed
The shuttle box rod p is also formed with a rack pl gearing with a pinion q
secured to the sleeve m (see Fig. 4). The sleeve is prevented from moving laterally
on the stud o by means of a collar 7 secured to the stud o.
stud o.
Any motion imparted to the sleeve n by the vertically sliding notched plates 11
is communicated through the pinion q to the shuttle box rod p, the shuttle box
rod being raised or lowered according to the direction of revolution of the pinion q.
I will now describe the action of my improved mechanism.
In Fig. 9 of the drawings I show in full size the requisite cards for use in a
loom where six shuttle boxes are employed. These cards are numbered respec-
tively 1 to 6 and are formed with the requisite blanks and spaces.
d
The top card No. 1 shown in Fig. 9 is formed with a cut out space so proportioned
as to admit one of the plates d until the sixth notch comes in contact with the
card, the first notch on the other plate coming into contact with a blank on the
card. The second card is spaced to admit one plate to the fifth notch, the other
plate being admitted to the second notch and so on to the sixth card, which is
a reverse of No. 1. Holes s are provided in the cards as usual for the pegs of the
card barrel.
The cards are secured to the hexagonal card barrel a shown in plan view
Fig. 8.
The card barrel a is reciprocated by means of the lever c as usual by the cam a¹
on the tappet shaft b and is advanced towards the notched plates d d and revolved
by means of the pivotted catch a on the outward movement of the lever c.
The lever is pulled inwards by means of the spring a³.
Suppose card No. 3 be presented by the card barrel a to the notched plates dd
as indicated in the drawings.
The card is arranged so as to admit three of the notches of one plate d in the
left hand space of the card (see Fig. 9) and two of the notches of the other plate
only are admitted into the space on the right hand side of the card. This has
the effect of moving the cross-head e in the direction shown in Fig. 8 thus turning

page_text: the vertical rod f on its axis. The lever g on the lower end of the vertical rod f
thus traverses the sliding bar h until the spring detenti occupies the third notch,
the detent serving to maintain the sliding bar h in this position. The detent
however allows the sliding bar h to be traversed backwards and forwards when
required by means of the vertical rod f and lever 9. The sliding bar h by means
of the connecting link directs the prongs or fingers k¹ carried by the pendent
rod k attached to the vibrating lever ; and causes the same during its upward
traverse to engage with the corresponding notch upon one of the vertically sliding
plates and raise the plate 7. In Fig. I the cam is shown in its highest position
having during the course of its revolution raised the notched plate thus causing
the rack thereon to revolve the pinion and the sleeve n and correspondingly
operating the shuttle box rod so as to bring shuttle box No. 3 into action.
The cam is so proportioned as to give the maximum lift required to the
prongs kl.
The shuttle boxes are represented by dotted lines 1 to 6 and are of the usual
construction. The tappet shaft b as usual revolves once for every two picks. On
the revolution of the tappet shaft the cam 2 allows the free end of the lever j
to drop to its lowest position and with it the pendent rod k so that the fingers ¹
are again ready to operate one of the notched plate 7.
If on the next revolution of the tappet shaft b card No. 5 should be presented
to the notched plates dd the prongs are disposed beneath the corresponding
notch on one of the sliding plates and as the cam revolves, the prongs k¹ raise
the plate, actuating shuttle box No. 5 in the manner already described. This
is indicated in Fig. 6. In Fig. 1^ the path of the fingers k¹ on the pendent rod k
is indicated in dotted lines. Thus by duplicating the notched plates with
oppositely disposed inclined notched faces, and causing one to be lowered whilst
the other is raised by means of the oppositely disposed racks as described, one or
the other of the notched plates is always available to be actuated by the
on their upward movement.
prongs
Moreover it will be apparent that the racks on the vertically sliding plates
being disposed on opposite sides of the pinions the raising of the plates 11
causes the reverse revolution of the pinion q thus providing for the vertical
reciprocation of the shuttle box rod p.
It will be understood that no matter which sliding plate is raised by the
prongs the other notched plate is lowered to such a degree as will bring the
corresponding notch opposite to the notch operated by the prongs k. Thus in
Fig. 1 card No. 3 having been presented by the card barrel the prongs on their
upward movement engage notch No. 3 in one of the sliding plates raising the
same, whilst the gearing lowers the other sliding plate until its No. 3 notch corres-
ponds in position with the No. 3 notch on the sliding plate which has been raised.
Suppose therefore No. 1 on the front slide be raised by the prongs k¹ the upward
movement of this slide, and the downward movement of the back slide continues
until No. 1 on each slide are level. Similarly when No. 6 on the back slide is
operated and the slide raised the front slide is lowered until No. 6 is brought level.
The shuttle box rod is suitably counterbalanced so as to be maintained in
position until it is again operated to bring a fresh shuttle box into action, thus
locking the sleeve and also maintaining the notched plates 17 in position.
It is perfectly obvious that the motion is applicable or might be applied to
circular shuttle boxes of looms.
It will be seen therefore that in addition to the simplification of the mechanism

page_text: for operating the shuttle boxes an important feature of my invention consists in
the fact that each card directly actuates its own shuttle box.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:-
1) The improved mechanism for actuating the drop boxes of looms constructed
arranged and acting in the manner and substantially as described and shown.
2) Actuating the drop boxes of looms by means of notched plates carried by
a cross head and operated from a card barrel, the movement of the cross head being
communicated to a pendent rod carried by a lever vibrated by a cam, the pendent
rod being arranged to engage with vertically sliding notched plates in the manner,
for the purposes and substantially as described and shown.
3) In mechanism of the indicated nature the notched plates dd and cross head c
operated by the card barrel a so as to communicate movement to the vertical rod /
for the purpose and substantially as described and illustrated.
4) In mechanism of the indicated nature the vertically sliding plates 11 formed
with oppositely inclined notched faces and actuated by a pendent rod carried by
a lever vibrated by a cam in the manner, for the purposes and substantially as
described and shown.