IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Shorrock, Ralph Shorrock,
and William Mould at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 9th September 1864.
We, JOHN SHORROCK, RALPH SHORROCK, and WILLIAM MOULD, all of Over
Darwin, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists of an improved method of giving any given number
of picks or shots of weft in the inch that may be desired and with uniformity
from one end of the piece to the other without the aid of an emery or glass
roller, the said roller only answering for a limited number of fabrics; our object
is to produce a positive taking-up motion by the use of one roller only without
any glass or any other covering.
We place a small shaft in a horizontal position supported by a long socket
or bearing which is screwed fast to the framing of the loom, and the shaft
being longer than the socket, the ends project through at each end of its bearing,.
one end towards the inside of the loom and the other towards the outside..
On each end of this shaft is fixed a toothed wheel, the one on the outer end is
the change pinion wheel and is connected to the ordinary train of wheels for
the winding on of the cloth. We make no alteration in the system of theso
wheels; it is on the opposite end of the shaft inside the loom where we con-
mence our improvements. This end of the shaft is provided with a broad fine
toothed ratchet wheel and a kind of fork-like lever, something in the form of

page_text: a musical pitch fork, and each prong at its extremity has a round hole in it;
this fork lover is placed on the end of the shaft with the ratchet wheel between
its prongs, the said ratchet wheel being screwed fast to the shaft keeps the
lever in its proper position, which must work or hang loose on the shaft plumb
down by its own gravity. The space between the prongs at the bottom and a
little below the surface of the ratchet wheel is filled up by a number of small
catches, placed upon a pin which passes through the prongs of the lever and
parallel with the shaft that the lever moves upon. The catches being a little
heavier at the opposite end to the points cause the points to be always kept in
contact with the surface of the wheel, so that when the fork lever takes a
backward motion from the perpendicular the catches yield, which allows them
to slip over the surface of the wheel something like a ratchet drill, only having
more catches; all the movements being dependent on the ratchet wheel,
the shaft is at a stand whilst the lever oscillates backwards and forwards, but
as soon as the lever takes its forward motion the points of the catches take
hold of the wheel and propel it forward as far as the oscillation of the lever
and catches will allow, and to prevent any slipping back of the wheel whilst
the backward motion is being performed, it is provided with a number of small
catches placed on a fast stud in the frame of the loom, and whilst the forward
ination of the lever is being performed they yield and allow the wheel to be
propelled forward, but as soon as the backward motion takes place they fall in
some of the teeth and retain whatever has been given to them. The object of
these catches and fine toothed ratchet wheel is to make the motion very sen-
sitive, so that whatever distance the wheel is propelled forward by the bottom
catches, the catches on the fast stud are sure to retain as much of the surface
of the wheel as it has been moved or propelled forward. The catches are
formed one a little longer than the other, so that if the wheel is moved ever so
little some of them is sure to have a hold. The catches in the fork lover
also vary in their length, so that the increase or decrease in the oscillation of
the lever causes some one of them to have a hold, and so on at every
oscillation.
We will now describe how the fork lever and its catches obtain their motion,
and by what means the decrease in their oscillation is to be performed, to
correspond with the increase of the cloth as it increases in diameter upon
the surface of the cloth roller. We place a round metal rod, supported at
each end by a slot in the frame of the loom, perpendicular with the centres of
the cloth roller, so that it can rise freely by the increase of the cloth as it laps
or winds on the roller; on this rod is fixed a toothed rack in a vertical position
with the teeth towards the rack, and above the end of the small horizontal

page_text: shaft that supports the fork lever and ratchet wheel, and opposite the rack, is
placed another rack supported in a bracket vertically, and at the end of the
small horizontal shaft with the teeth towards the other rack, the two racks are
connected together by a toothed beam, which is toothed at each end so as to
gear
in the teeth of the two vertical racks; each end of the beam has its own
radius from the centre it moves upon. The said centre and stud are not mid-
way between the ends of the beam, but much nearer the rack on the round
metal rod, so that when the rod and its rack is raised by the cloth it causes
the other rack to drop or descend double the distance the rod and rack havo
been raised by the cloth, the rod having been only raised half as much as the
diameter of the cloth roller has increased, so that the rack has dropped double
the distance the other has risen. At the bottom end of the rack and above
the small shaft it is formed so as to admit of a pendulum slotted nearly its
entire length and connected to the bottom part of the rack by means of a pin so
as to form a loose or moveable joint, at the other or bottom end of the pendulum
is a fast stud for a small connecting rod from the slay sword or arm or by any
other means of giving it motion, so that when the slay moves or oscillates the
pendulum must oscillato also. When the pendulum is plumb or perpendicular
with the fork lever the slotted part of the pendulum is so situated that the pin
in the fork lever can project apart from the lever and through the slot in the
pendulum, so that the fork lever and pendulum can move side by side, and by
this means the fork lever obtains its motion. At the commencement of weaving
the piece the pin in the lever is near the stud and at the bottom of the slot in
the pendulum, that being the part of the pendulum that gives the greatest
oscillation, it being at the opposite end to the fulcrum or joint that it is sup-
ported upon. Now it will be more clearly seen how the decrease in the
oscillation of the fork lever is obtained. Suppose the slay and connecting rod
to move the pendulum at that part where it comes in contact with the pin
from the fork lever to move one inch, the lever must oscillate one inch also, as
it is the tendency of the pendulum, so in the forward oscillation the ratchet
wheel is moved or propelled forward one inch. When the cloth roller has
increased four inches in diameter the round metal rod on the surface of the
cloth will have been raised two inches and have caused the rack and pendulum
to have descended four inches, which will have brought the fulcrum of the
pendulum four inches nearer the pin in the fork lever, which in this part of the
pendulum only gives half the oscillation to the pin in the fork lever, so that the
rack wheel is only moved or propelled one-half the distance it was at the
commencement of the piece, therefore as the cloth roller increases the pendulum
descends at a uniform rate with the increase of the diameter, because as every

page_text: lap or layer of cloth that is wound on the rollor as it is woven causes tho
metal rod and its rack to rise, and by this means the toothed beam that con-
nects the two vertical racks together moves the rack and pendulum downwards,
so that the nearer the fulcrum and the pin in the fork lever come together the
slower it will take up.