AN IMPROVE- MENT APPLICABLE TO THE JACQUARD LOOMS FOR WEAVING FIGURED FABRICS
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACQUES
FRANCOIS VICTOR GERARD, of Redmonds Row, Mile End, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS in consequence of .a communication made to me from a
foreigner residing abroad, I am in possession of an Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT APPLICABLE TO THE JACQUARD LOOMS FOR WEAVING FIGURED FABRICS :" and
whereas His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westininster, the Nineteeeth day of October, in the fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jacques Francois Victor Gerard, His especial licence, that I, the said Jacques
Francois Victor Gerard, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Jacques Francois Victor Gerard, my exors, adñors, 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, the said Invention; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said Jacques Francois Victor Gerard,. by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High

page_text: Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Jacques Francois Victor Gerard, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention to consist in the substitution of paper for the pasteboard cards now
used in jacquard looms; and in further compliance with the said proviso, I,
the said Jacques Francois Victor Gerard, do hereby describe the manner in
which the said Invention is to be performed by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a side view of so much of a jacquard loom as is sufficient to
shew the apparatus required to be added to it for the purpose of substituting
paper for the pasteboard cards hitherto used. Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 is a
wooden frame; A is the lanternon moved by the mantonet of the jacquard;
B, B, B, B, are four tappets acting upon the ratchet wheel C; this ratchet
wheel is attached to the cylinder D, which cylinder must be as wide as the
paper
intended to be used, and must be furnished with a toothed band at each
end, the teeth of which must take into holes pierced in the borders of the
paper for that purpose so as to keep it in an uniform position; E, E, E, E, is
the paper
with the pattern read upon it, and it will be seen that the paper
passes between the rollers P, M, the upper roller moving in a slot, and thus
by its weight resting on the lower roller, acting as a sort of detent roller to
keep the paper straight. From the rollers P, M, the paper passes over the
cylinder D, and thence between the rollers R, M, by which arrangement it
will be evident that if the paper be made exactly of the length required for the
pattern the two ends may be joined, and thus it will form an endless web,
whereby the operation of lacing which is required where cards are used will be
entirely superseded. In order to make so thin a substance as paper efficient,
it is necessary to relieve it from the pressure of the needles as much as possible,
and this is effected by means of the lever H, which turns on the pivot at J,
and is moved up and down by the cams F, F, F, F, on the tappit wheel
striking the cross bar T at the bottom of the upright shaft C; this lever acts
upon the lifting fram J, J, and raises the set of pins S, when required, above
the grooves in the grooved block K, or lowers them so as to pass into the
grooves at pleasure; the block K thus answers the purpose of the pierced

page_text: cylinder in the jacquard loom. W is the recess into which the needles L fall
when the holes in the paper allow of it, and it will be seen that each of these
needles is supported by the eye or loop at its upper parts as here shown. Now
it is evident that the paper when used in this manner will be liable to stretch
and shrink according to the moisture or dryness of the atmosphere, and N is
an apparatus for adjusting the needles L so as to meet this difficulty; the
position of it in the loom is here shown, but its structure will be better seen
by the Figures 2 and 3, the former of which represents a plan and the latter
an end view of the said apparatus, which I call the adjusting beam. The
beam is composed of 51 pieces, and each bored with 8 holes. These pieces
are moved nearer together or further apart by wedges V, V, at each end of
the perforated piece; these wedges are acted upon by the screw Z, which has
a right and left thread cut on it as here shown. There should be one of these
screws at each end of the beam, and drawing the sides r, e, of the beam
together by means of these screws forces a small tenant projecting from the
wedges V into a groove made for it in the side pieces e, r, and thus adjusts the
pierced pieces, two of which in this Figure are marked V.
Now whereas I do not confine myself to this particular apparatus for
applying paper instead of pasteboard cards, because it may be done in many
other ways, provided only that proper care is taken to avoid too much pressure
on the paper by the needles, and to provide for the stretching and shrinking
of the paper; but whereas I claim as the said Invention the substitution of
paper as herein-before described for the pasteboard cards now in use for
jacquard looms; and such Invention being to the best of my knowledge and
belief entirely new and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe that this
my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or
disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right
and privilege to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacques Francois Victor Gerard, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.
J. F. V. (L.s.) GERARD.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1834, the aforesaid Jacques Francois Victor Gerard, through
the interpretation of John Bourdelain, came before our said Lord the King in
His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
for that purpose
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.