IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WEAVING FIGURED OR PLAIN FABRICS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Crawford at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th September
1860.
I, ROBERT CRAWFORD, of Beith, in the County of Ayr, North Britain, Mer-
chant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WEAVING FIGURED OR PLAIN FABRICS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of the jacquard
mechanism employed in weaving for producing the ornamental figures and
twilling of the fabric. The present Invention is based to a certain extent upon
certain improvements in ornamental weaving, for which I obtained British
Letters Patent on or about the 18th day of August 1855, No. 1875. In the
Specification of these Letters Patent, a mode of weaving by means of jacquard
mechanism is described, in which the jacquard cylinder or barrel and endless
chain of cards is superseded, and in lieu thereof a pattern board or block is
used, which is arranged so as to actuate the jacquard needles in the required
predetermined sequential order. This pattern board consists of a great number
of rectangular slips of wood, which are arranged in a frame according to the
order of the colours as laid down on the design paper, each colour being repre-
sented by slips of wood of a certain height. Under the present Invention it is
intended to extend the use of these pattern boards by taking casts from an

page_text: original design either in gutta percha, paper pulp, soft metal, or other suitable
material. These casts, when properly mounted, may be supplied to manufac-
turers for producing the figured fabric. In lieu of this mode of arranging the
pattern board a series of wires are arranged to pass through parallel rows of
holes formed in the upper side of a box or carriage. The lower part of each
wire is twisted, so as to form a series of chain-like eyes, through any of which
a horizontal wire extending through the sides of the box may be passed. In
this way the horizontal wire of each row may be passed through the several
eyes of the vertical wires, so as to arrange them at different heights, according
to the sequence of colours on the design paper.
Thus, white is represented by one gradation of height, blue by another, red
by another, and so on throughout the series; each row of vertical wires repre-
senting the arrangement of the shed for one shot of weft. The pattern board
or carriage is caused to traverse by means of a rack and self-acting lever
arrangement beneath a series of vertical rods. As the pattern board is
traversed forward the distance of a tooth of the rack another row of wire pins
is brought under the ends of the vertical rods, which work up and down in a
transverse guide extending across the framing. The upper ends of these rods
terminate in hooked wires, which, when raised up to a certain height, are
caught on the edge of a thin slip of metal, which is attached to a tumbling bar
extending across the upper part of the framing. Holes are made in the ver-
tical rods, through which the ends of a series of horizontal needles pass. These
wires extend backwards between two fixed bars fitted to the standards of the
framing, and eyes are formed at this part of the needles, through which the
vertical wires or "cleeks" for raising the heddles pass. The upper ends of
these cleeks are hooked in the ordinary way, and they are by the arrangement
of the pattern board or carriage brought over the bar or bars of the brander,
which moves up and down in guides formed in the side standards. Motion is
communicated to the brander from the main driving shaft, which may be driven
by means of an endless belt or by the foot; the crank on the main shaft is
connected by a rod to an overhead lever, which imparts a rapid reciprocatory
motion to the brander. The brander frame has two laterally projecting studs
fixed in it, which operate two slotted levers that are centred on studs in the
lower part of the framing. These slotted levers are fitted in duplicate on each
side of the framing; two of them are connected to a pair of bell-crank levers,
the free ends of which are attached to a transverse bar outside the vertical
rods. This bar serves to lift in succession the horizontal needles as they pro-
ject through the vertical rods that are resting on the ends of the pins in the
pattern board or carriage. The second pair of slotted levers are connected to

page_text: a transverse bar arranged inside the vertical rods; this bar extends beneath
the series of horizontal needles, and serves to push them forward as it presses
against a bend formed near the front end of each needle. The needle bar
moves to and fro in the forked ends of two rocking levers, which are fast to a
shaft extending across the apparatus, and one of these rocking levers is con-
nected to a counterpoise lever overhead, so that the needle bar is balanced
like a scale-beam on the transverse rocking shaft. According to the height of
the row of pins in the pattern board a certain number of the horizontal needles
will be within range of the inner needle bar, which, at its forward movement,
will push these needles through the vertical rods; this movement of the
needles draws the corresponding cleeks forward; they are hooked on the
brander, and the shed is formed according to the arrangement of the row of
pins in the pattern board. The needles which have just formed the shed are
now raised by the outside lifting bar, and the rods which are carried up with
them are hooked on to the edge of the tumbling bar, where they are suspended
whilst another portion of the series of needles are brought into action. At the
next movement of the needles the needle bar, together with the rocking levers
attached to the transverse shaft, are raised a step by means of two bent rods,
which are jointed to the needle bar. These rods descend on to graduated pins
arranged in the pattern board at the end of each row, and they prevent the
needle bar from descending too low, which would otherwise be beyond the
range of the bends in the series of needles next to be actuated. When the
whole of the vertical rods have been lifted in the predetermined sequential
order, they are released by the tumbling bar turning upon its axis, and the
rods suddenly descend by means of springs or weights. The tumbling bar is
held in position by means of a weighted bell-crank lever which falls into a
notch formed in a disc that is fitted on the end of a tumbling bar. The disc
is released from the weighted lever at the proper moment by means of a link,
the end of which forms a catch, which is operated by the movement of one of
the rocking levers. The pattern board or carriage is moved forward one tooth
of the rack at a time by means of a bent lever, which is centred on the trans-
verse rocking shaft of the inner needle bar. One arm of this bent lever extends
downwards within reach of a small spring lever which actuates the carriage;
the other arm of the bent lever extends backwards over the rod of the outer
bar, its extremity being formed into a catch. At the beginning of the rise of
the vertical rods the hooked end of the bent lever is at its highest point, and
as the needle bar is raised step by step the horizontal arm of the bent lever is
gradually depressed until it catches on a stop on the rod of the needle bar. The
motion of this rod causes the free extremity of the bent lever to strike against the

page_text: spring lever and move the pattern board forward; the moment this is effected
the catch of the bent lever is released by the motion of the transverse shaft, and
the parts are restored to their normal position. The pattern board may, if found
preferable, be arranged in the form of a cylinder instead of a flat surface.
With these improvements a great variety of ornamental effects may be pro-
duced either in power or hand-loom weaving.