CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Newberry, of Burnley, in the County of
Lancaster, Manager, and Henry Moore, of the same Place, Cotton
Spinner, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR
WEAVING."
Sealed the 20th January 1860, and dated the 17th October 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Newberry and
Henry Moore at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th October 1859.
We, SAMUEL NEWBERRY; of Burnley, in the County of Lancaster, Manager,
and HENRY MOORE, of the same Place, Cotton Spinner, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR
WEAVING," to be as follows:-
The said Invention has reference to the shedding tappets of power looms,
and is applicable to such of the said tappets as are constructed in the form of
revolving cams or discs, which actuate the treadles by the contact of their
edges or peripheries.
The said Invention consists in making the eccentricy of the axis round
which the tappets revolve variable in respect of each individual tappet, so that
either the extent of the opening of the shed may be increased or diminished
by setting the tappets collectively, so that they will depress the treadles more

page_text: or less; or if requisite the degree of depression effected by the tappets
severally in their corresponding treadles may be regulated or proportioned, so
as to compensate in each case for the difference in the virtual lengths of the
treadles, occasioned by their respective healds being attached at differing
distances from the common fulcrum.
The means by which these improvements are effected are the construction
of the tappets separate from each other, and from their boss or bosses, and
their subsequent connection to the latter, cach by a separate and adjustable
fastening, so that each tappet is moveable upon its boss, and capable of
adjustment to any required sweep or depth of tread, either conjointly with or
independently of the other or others.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Newberry and Henry Moore in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 13th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
NEWBERRY, of Burnley, in the County of Lancaster, Manager, and HENRY
MOORE, of the same Place, Cotton Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Samuel Newberry and Henry Moore, Her special license that
we, the said Samuel Newberry and Henry Moore, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel Newberry and
Henry Moore, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Samuel Newberry and Henry Moore, our exécutors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our or their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Newberry and Henry Moore,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained in
and by this present instrument in writing and the Drawing thereunto annexed
and forming part thereof, reference being made to the Figures or Diagrams
contained in the said Drawing by means of the alphabetical characters thereon
marked, which characters when repeated are to be understood always to
indicate the same or similar parts or things.
Our said Invention has reference to the shedding tappets of power looms,
and is applicable to such of the said tappets as are constructed in the form of
revolving cams or discs, which actuate the treadles by the contact of their
edges or peripheries.
The tappets before mentioned are generally cast in one piece with the
bosses, whereby they are affixed to the tappet shaft. The disadvantage of this
construction is that it affords no opportunity of varying the length of the
.vibration or sweep of the treadles, so that the only means available for
adjusting the general depth of the shed, as well as for duly proportioning the
traverses of the back and front healds to each other (the heald bosses being of
fixed magnitude), is the very inadequate one of altering the points of attach-
ment of the lamm rods to the treadles. It being at the same time highly
important to the economy of power loom weaving that the opening and
changing of the sheds should be effected by smooth and equable movements,
and that all jerks and sudden or excessive strains upon the yarn should be
avoided, some improved facilities for effecting the before-mentioned adjust-
ments are a desideratum which it is the aim of the present Invention to
supply.
The said Invention consists in making the eccentricity of the axis upon
which the tappets revolve variable in respect of each tappet severally and
independently of the other or others. The advantages thereby gained are that
the extent of the opening of the shed can be increased or diminished at
discretion by setting both or all the tappets, so that they will effect a greater
or less amount of depression in the treadles, and that the space through which
each of the tappets causes its corresponding treadle to vibrate can be duly
proportioned relatively to the space moved through by the other of them.
Attention to these proportions is requisite, both to compensate for the
difference in the virtual lengths of the treadles considered as levers (a
difference necessarily resulting from their respective healds being attached at
differing distances from the common fulcrum), and also to make due allowance
for the greater extent of traverse demanded in the back healds as compared

page_text: with the front, so far as such allowance fails to be adequately provided for by
the very defective contrivances commonly resorted to, of making the heald
bosses or the tappets, or both, of different magnitudes.
By the term "eccentricity," we intend to express, in the case of circular
tappets, the distance of the axis upon which the tappet revolves from the
centre of the tappet; and in the case of tappets of other forms, the distance of
the axis upon which the tappet revolves from a point in the tappet found by
the bisection of that diameter of the tappet which passes through its axis of
revolution, and through the point in its circumference which is most remote
therefrom. Thus, in Figure 2 of the accompanying Drawing, the point o,
which is the axis of the tappet shaft, being the axis upon which the tappet
revolves, q, the point in the circumference of the tappet which is most remote
therefrom, and r, q, the diameter which passes through those points, the
distance of the point o from the point p, in which the last mentioned diameter
is bisected, is the eccentricity of the axis o.
The means by which we carry into effect these our improvements may bé
gathered from the Figures delineated in the accompanying Drawing and the
following explanation:-We construct the tappets separate from each other,
and from their boss or bosses, and connect the former to the latter each by
its several and distinct adjustable fastening. In the edge view, Figure 1, and
side view, Figure 2, a represents the boss upon the tappet shaft b; it is
furnished with a wing or flanch c, which fits between ribs s, t, upon the tappet;
d is the tappet, represented separately in side view at Figure 3. It has an
oblong aperture e, extending in the line of its diameter q, r, which allows the
passage through it of the tappet shaft b, without impediment to the adjustment
of the distance of the point p from the axis o of the tappet shaft. The tappet
is fixed and retained in its working position by a bolt 9, passing through a hole
in the flanch c of the boss, and through a slot h in the tappet. The adjustment
and moving
of the tappet is effected by relaxing the screw nutt of the bolt 9,
the tappet in the required direction, the tappet being slided nearer to or further
from the tappet shaft, according as it is intended to impart less or more motion
to the healds.
In the arrangement which has now been described the boss a is supposed to
be fastened upon the tappet shaft by set screws v, v,. and each tappet has a
separate boss. This construction permits each tappet to be separately moved
along with its boss round the tappet shaft from any given position to another
position at any angle with the former one. By this means the tappets are
capable of being adjusted as to their positions upon the tappet shaft, so as to
act upon the treadles sooner or later as may be required, and also so as to

page_text: compensate for any slight incorrectness or deviation from the true line of the
axis in the boring of the bosses. These adjustments are provided for in
another manner in the second arrangement, which we are next about to
describe, and in which one boss only is used for both tappets. We shall
explain it by reference to Figures 4, 5, and 6, the first being an edge view of
a pair of tappets; the second, an end view of the double flanched boss; and
the third, a side view of the tappets in their relative positions. a is the boss
common to both tappets; it has two flanches c, c, projecting from its opposite
ends in contrary directions; each flanch is perforated with two curved slots
y, y, (Figure 5) equidistant at all their parts from the tappet shaft; x, x,
(Figure 5), represents a chipping rib on that face of the flanch to which the
tappet is applied; d, d, are the tappets, which are similar to that represented
at Figure 3, except that the ribs s, t, in the latter are absent, and the single
slot h in the one is replaced in the other by two slots h, h, in each tappet
corresponding to the slots y, y, in each flanch of the boss. Each tappet is
affixed to its boss by two bolts g. 9. The adjustment of the eccentricity of
these tappets is effected as in that firstly described. The adjustment of their
position with reference to the tappet shaft is rendered easy by the slots
y, y, y, y, which allow the places at which the bolts g, 9, 9, 9, pass through
the flanches to be varied in either direction. This construction admits of the
boss being permanently keyed upon the tappet shaft, but it is only applicable
to plain tappets. These Figures need no further explanation.
In Figure 7 is delineated in side view a pair of our improved tappets in
connection with their treadles, an inspection of which will shew how the arc
of vibration of each treadle may be shortened or lengthened by diminishing or
increasing the distance of the axis o of the tappet shaft from the central
point p of the tappet. We may here observe, that the extent of the depression
of the treadle is increased or diminished in the direct ratio of the distance of
the point q from the point o, while the extent of its elevation is increased or
diminished in the inverse ratio of the distance of the point r from the point o,
so that the arc of vibration is shortened or lengthened (as the case may be) at
both ends by any alteration in the position of the tappet.
The manner of carrying into effect the Invention, according to the modifi-
cation firstly herein-before described, is the same in all essential particulars,
whether the number of tappets employed, be two only, as in weaving plain
cloth, or more than two, as in weaving tweels; and according to both modifi-
cations the Invention may be applied indifferently to tappets constructed to
operate in conjunction with treadles whose fulcrum is behind the loom, or
with those which are pivoted in front thereof.

page_text: Considering therefore that our Invention has now been fully described and
explained by the foregoing examples, both as to the nature and manner of
performing of the same, we shall conclude this statement by finally declaring
that what we would be understood hereby to claim as new, and as constituting
our aforesaid Invention, is, the art or method of constructing shedding tappets
for power looms separate from their boss or bosses, and attached thereto so as
to allow the eccentricity of their axis of revolution to be varied or adjusted in
respect of each or of any of the said tappets severally and independently of
the other or others of them, according to the manner and by the means
herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Newberry and Henry Moore,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twelfth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Signed and sealed by the said Samuel
Newberry and Henry Moore, in the
presence of
JOHN PICKLES.
SAMUEL NEWBERRY. (L.S.)
HENRY MOORE.
(L.S.)