AN IMPROVED STRETCHER TO BE USED IN OR WITHOUT HAND OR POWER Looms
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
PARKINSON, of Low Moor, in the County of Lancaster, Overlooker of Power
Looms, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of March, One thou-
sand eight hundred and thirty-six, give and grant unto me, the said Andrew
Parkinson, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence that I, the said
Andrew Parkinson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should and lawfully might,
during the term of fourteen years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED STRETCHER TO BE USED IN OR WITHOUT HAND OR POWER
Looms," in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
Andrew Parkinson, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
then next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent now in
recital, that then the said Letters Patent and all liberties and advantages
thereby granted should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said provis0, 1, the Sa
Andrew Parkinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention of an
improved stretcher to be used in or with hand or power looms consists in the
construction and application of an apparatus or mechanical arrangement
substituted for the ordinary temple or stretcher used in both hand and power
looms, and by the use and application of which the amount of attention
required from the operative or attendant on any loom or number of looms is
greatly decreased, inasmuch as the speed or action of my improved stretcher
is regulated and adjusted by and according to the progressive motion of the
cloth or web in its progress through the loom without the intervention or aid
of the operative, and the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect will be clearly seen by reference to the annexed Drawing,
and the following description thereof. In the several Figures contained in
the annexed Drawing the same letters and figures indicate the same parts
throughout the whole of the Figures.
Before I proceed to describe the manner in which my Invention may
be performed and carried into effect, I shall briefly state the nature and
office of the ordinary stretcher or temple used in or with hand or power
looms, for the purpose of making the application and utility of my
Invention better understood. The temple or stretcher used in or with
ordinary looms is an implement which has been variously constructed, but
generally consists of a jointed rod or shaft of wood provided with small points
or pins at each extremity. These points or pins are placed in the salvage or
edge of the cloth by the operative or attendant, by whom the jointed rod is
then forced into a straight position, and the cloth thereby held at a uniform
width as it proceeds towards the cloth beam. As the process of weaving
proceeds, and the cloth is taken up on the cloth beam, the stretcher or temple
must be removed or shifted back, and this occasional removal of the temple or
stretcher constitutes one part of the occupation of the operative or attendant
on the loom. To produce an uniform width of cloth, or what is generally
called-a-good-selvage, great attention must be paid to the occasional removal
of the temple or stretcher; and it is obvious that, when the stretcher or templo
moves along with the cloth, as it does in ordinary cases, it cannot long remain
in the most efficient position for performing its office. To obviate these
difficulties which present themselves in using the ordinary stretcher or temple;
and to render the action of the temple or stretcher independent of the
assistance of the operative, is the object of my Invention, which I shall now
proceed to describe with reference to the annexed Drawing:
Figure represents a front view, and Figure 2 a plan or bird's-eye

page_text: view of a description of loom in common use. In these Figures, A repre-
sents the cloth beam on to which the cloth is received as it is woven'
and produced; and B is the stationary breast beam over which the cloth
passes previous to its arrival at the cloth beam. The position in which
the ordinary temple or stretcher is placed on the cloth is indicated by
the dotted lines b, b, seen across the cloth at Figure 2, and the position
of my improved stretcher is seen at C, in Figures 1 and 2, where the
improved stretchers, tinted red in the Drawing, are firmly attached to the
breast beam B; Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are various views, sections, and
detached parts of my improved stretcher at full size; Figure 3 is an elevation,
and Figure 4, a plan of a circular disk or wheel, having a levelled face, from
which projects a series of small pins which deflect obliquely both from the
radius of the wheel and from the plane of its levelled face. This revolving or
moving disk is placed on a stud m, on which it moves freely, the position of
which is best seen in section at Figure 5. The stud m, on which the revolving
disk is placed, is attached to or forms a part of the metallic piece a, a, a, a,
the external shape and construction of which will be seen in elevation and plan
at Figures 6, 7, which Figures represent the improved stretcher in a com-
plete state, and ready to attach to the breast beam B of the loom, in or with
which it is to be used, and the internal construction of this piece a, a, a, a,
will be seen in section at Figure 5. On reference to Figure 7, it will be
remarked that this part is provided with a slot, cut, or opening through which
the edge or selvage of the cloth in manufacture passes, such edge or selvage
being indicated by the line c, c, in Figure 7, and the same letters in Figure 2,
which represent the cloth and position in which the improved stretcher is
placed; in this position the pins with which the circular disks are provided (as
already explained) pierce and insert themselves into the cloth, and from their
oblique position hold it in a stretched and extended form, similar to an ordi-
nary stretcher or temple, at the saine time that the progressive motion of the
cloth as it passes towards the cloth beam revolves the disk so as to present a
regular succession of points, and thereby continuously hold the cloth in the
extended and stretched position to make the uniform and good selvage which
is required. The hold of the pins on the selvage is preserved and secured by
the cap or hood under which the attaching part of the wheel passes in its
revolution, and on the cloth passing from under this cap, the inclination of the
pins permits the cloth to escape from their hold and pass onward to the cloth
beam.
Having thus described my said improved stretcher, I declare that I do
not claim as of my Invention the employment for the purposes aforesaid of a

page_text: revolving disk or wheel with pins for laying bold of the cloth or web in the
loom otherwise than in combination with such a hood or cap, furnished with a
slot, as I have herein-before described, for guiding the selvage of the cloth
or web uniformly and accurately to and from the pins, and preventing its
premature escape therefrom in the manner I have described. But I do claim
the entire instrument, including a hood or tap furnished with a slot, as herein-
before set forth, as together forming the improved stretcher which I claim as
my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Parkinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
ANDREW (L.s.) PARKINSON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Andrew Parkinson 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 Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.