Ix- PROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Nairne, of South Inch Mill, Perth,
in the County of Perth, Flax Spinner, for the Invention of "Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS."
Sealed the 15th July 1858, and dated the 17th January 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Nairne
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th January 1853.
I, WILLIAM NAIRNE, of South Inch Mill, Perth, in the County of.
Perth, Flax Spinner, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention,for "IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS" to be as follows:-
The objects of my improvements are to take away all extra strain
from the warp to render the loom so certain in its action that the cloth
shall be produced of the same thickness from beginning to end of the
web, without any alteration of the machinery, and that all "gaase," or
small portions without weft, shall be avoided.
These ends I gain by driving the yarn or warp beam with a train of
wheels or gearing, and this train is put in motion by a circular plate or
disc revolving on a shaft, against the face of which disc a friction wheel
(the first in the above-mentioned train) is pressed by a weight or spring;
this friction wheel recedes from the centre of the disc as the diameter..

page_text: of the yarn on the warp beam is diminished, which increases the re-
volving motion of the beam, so that the surface of the yarn on it always
moves at the same speed. The different sets of webs is regulated by
change pinions in the train of gearing.,
place a rocking shaft
beam and the cloth
arms a roller revolves
rocking shaft, and
To regulate the uptake of the cloth bean
in the framing of the loom between the brea
beam. Upon this shaft I fix two arms, into white
as the cloth passes. over it.. Nearly on a level.
two or three inches.in front of it, I place anotheoller, which revolves
with the cloth passing over it. The cloth from the under side of the
breast beam passing over the roller fixed in the arms of the rocking
shaft, and also over the roller in front of that shaft, may be said to
form a triangle of which the angles at the breast beam and at the front
riller are equal: On the rocking shaft I fix a long arm or -lever-nearly
at right angles to the short arms, into which the roller is hung-and at
or near the extreme end of this long arm I fix or hang a weight;- and
this is the weight which regulates the tension of the web for, as by the
unwinding of the warp from the yarn beam this weight descends, it
brings a friction wheel (which is the first of a train that drives the
cloth beam) into contact with a similar wheel which is. always. in
motion when the loom is going; it immediately gives motion. to the
cloth beam, which motion continues until by the rising of the weight
the friction wheels are brought out of contact; consequently the tension
of the web can never be greater than is required to sustain the
weight above referred to; and as the angle at which the weight
acts upon the cloth is not altered by the increasing diameter of the
cloth beam, the tension of the web can only be altered by the alteration
of the weight. When a'loom is not instantaneously stopped by a break
or otherwise from the acquired momentum it often makes a number
of picks after the driving strap, &c. is. off; and if there be no weft in the
shuttle. at the time, should the loom be of the kind in which the yarn or
cloth beam, or both, are driven by a constant motion, the want of a few
weft shots causes à fault in the cloth, which in the trade is called a
"gaa." To prevent this, when the catch which keeps on the driving
strap.on my.loom. is disengaged, the spring or weight which pulls off

page_text: the driving strap at the same instant pulls the friction wheel which is
the first in the train that drives the yarn beam clear of the disc, which
gives it motion, and consequently both yarn and cloth beam is stopped
until the loom be again put in motion in the proper way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Nairne in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th July, 1853.
2
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL..COME, I,
WILLIAM NAIRNE, of South Inch Mill, Perth, in the County of Perth,
Flax Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unito.me, the said William Nairne, Her 'special license
that 1, the said William Nairne, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Nairne, my exécutors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any tinie agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN POWER LOOMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Nairne, by an instrument in writing under iny hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain. the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same was to be perfornied, 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.
NOW KNOW YE that I, the said William Nairne, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
The objects of my improvements are to take away all extra strain

page_text: from the warp, to render the loom so certain in its action that the cloth
shall be produced of the same thickness from beginning to end of the
inch without any alteration of the machinery, and that all (gaase) or
small portions without weft shall be avoided.
These ends I gain by driving the yarn or warp beam with a train of
wheels or gearing, and this train is put in motion by a circular plate or
disk revolving on a shaft, against the face of which disk a friction wheel
(the first in the above-mentioned train) is pressed by a weight or spring.
This friction wheel recedes from the centre of the disk as the diameter
of the yarn on the warp beam is diminished, which increases the re-
volving motion of the beam so that the surface of the yarn on it always
moves at the same speed. The different sets of webs are regulated by
change-pinions in the train of gearing. To regulate the uptake of the
cloth beam I place a rocking shaft in the framing of the loom, between
the breast beam and the cloth beam. Upon this shaft I fix two arms,
into which arms a roller revolves as the cloth passes over it. Nearly
on a level with the rocking shaft, and two or three inches in front of it.
and place another roller, which revolves with the cloth passing over it.
The cloth from the under side of the breast beam passing over the roller
fixed in the arms of the rocking shaft, and also over the roller in front
of that shaft, may be said to form a triangle, of which the angles at the
breast beam and at the front roller are equal. On the rocking shaft I
fix a long arm or lever nearly at right angles to the short arms, into
which the roller is hung, and at or near the extreme end of this long
arm I fix or hang a weight, and this is the weight which regulates the
tension of the web; for, as by the unwinding of the warp from the yarn
beam this weight descends, it brings a friction wheel (which is the first
of a train that drives the cloth beam) into contact with a similar wheel
which is always in motion when the loom is going; it immediately gives
motion to the cloth beam, which motion continues until, by the rising
of the weight, the friction wheels are brought out of contact; con-
sequently the tension of the web can never be greater than is required
to sustain the weight above referred to; and as the angle at which the
weight acts upon the cloth is not altered by the increasing diameter of
the cloth beam, the tension of the web can only be altered by the

page_text: alteration of the weight. When a loom is not instantaneously stopped
by a break or otherwise from the acquired momentum it often makes a
number of picks after the driving strap, &c. is off'; and if there be no
weft in the shuttle at the time, should the loom be of the kind in which
the yarn or cloth beam, or both, are driven by à constant notion, the
want of a few weft shots causes a fault in the cloth which in the trade
is called a gaa. To prevent this, when the catch which keeps on the
driving strap on my loom is disengaged, the spring or weight which
pulls off the driving strap at the same instant pulls the friction wheel,
which is the first in the train, that drives the yarn beam clear of the
disc which gives it motion, and consequently both yarn and cloth beam
is stopped until the loom be again put in motion in the proper way.
My improvements in power looms consist in so regulating the motion
of the yarn and cloth beams that the strain on the yarn and the number
of shots of weft on any given length of warp, shall be always nearly the
same, without any attention on the part of the tender or weaver to
shift weights or to make other alterations on the machinery. I regulate
the motion of the yarn beam by placing a plate or disc on a revolving
shaft, say the crank shaft; against this disc the hem of a plain or
teethless wheel at right angles to the disc is pressed, and on the same
shaft with this wheel is fixed a long spur pinion, which pinion gives
motion to a train of gearing, the last wheel or pinion of which gives
motion to a worm or endless screw, which works into a wheel fixed on
the yarn beam. The above-mentioned plain wheel with the long
pinion are placed in a frame or carriage, and move freely to or from
the centres of the shaft on which the disc is fixed, and when the yarn
beam is full a roller or cushion pressing on the yarn pushes the wheel
towards the centre of the shaft; but when the beam is empty the
wheel has receded as far from the position it occupied when the beam
was full as the thickness of the yarn on the beam; so that, supposing
the diameter of the full bean twelve, and that of the empty beam six
inches, when the beam is full the disc will drive the plain wheel at a
circle on its surface of six inches diameter; but when the beam is
empty the disc will drive the wheel at a circle on its surface twelve
inches diameter, and consequently the empty beam will make two

page_text: I
revolutions for one that the full beam will make; therefore in all states
of the yarn beam the same length of warp yarn will be unwound o
given off for a given number of weft shots. I regulate the tension of
the web or strain on the warp by passing the cloth first over the breast
beam or slab stock, as in the common loom; but then; instead of passing
it on to the cloth beam, as in the common loom, or over and round
friction rollers, as in what has been called the surface uptaking motion,
I pass it over or partially round two smooth rollers revolving freely on
their journals, which rollers are placed so that lines drawn from the
under edge of the breast beam to the centres of, the rollers shall form
nearly an isoscoles triangle, the base of said triangle. being between
the under edge of the breast beam, and the centre of the roller round
which the cloth takes the last turn before it is wound on the cloth beam.
The roller at the apex of this supposed triangle is placed in arms made
fast on a rocking shaft, one of which arms, or another arm of a similar
kind placed nearer the end of the working shaft, acts upon a lever in
which a stud is fixed, and on this stud a plain or teethless wheel, the
hem of which is placed near to another wheel of a similar kind, fixed
on a shaft (say the wiper shaft); this last plain wheel is always in
motion when the loom is going, and the wheel on the stud placed near
it is put in motion whenever it is pressed to its surface. On the stud
wheel nave is fixed a pinion which gives motion to a train of wheels
which drives the cloth bean. From the above-mentioned rocking
shaft is projected a long arm or lever nearly at right angles to the arms
in which the journals of the cloth roller turn. On this lever is placed
a weight, which ascends when the cloth lengthens, and brings the above-
mentioned plain wheels into contact, which immediately gives motion
to the cloth beam, and by winding up the cloth draws the plain wheels
out of contact, and stops the cloth beam until by the lengthening of the
cloth it is again required to move. By this arrangement the tension
of the web does not depend on the diameter of the cloth beam, but on
the weight on the long arm or lever, and consequently while that
weight remains unchanged the strain on the web remains the same.
Any change on the set or thickness of the web is effected by. change
pinions in the yarn beam train, and by adjusting the weight on the

page_text: above-mentioned lever; but all such changes are made with certainty,
and require no further attention until the set or thickness of the web is
again changed. However, that my Invention may be more fully under-
stood, I annex Drawings, which I shall now describe..
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS OF THE POWER LOOM.
The same letters refer to the same things in all the Figures:
A, is the crank shaft. B, is the plate or disc fixed on the shaft A.
C, is a plain or teethless wheel fixed on the end of the cross shaft D, at
right angles to the shaft A; on the other end of the shaft D, is fixed
the long spur pinion E, which gives motion to the train of wheels F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O. On the same shaft withthe wheel O,, is an
endless screw or worm P, which gears into the screw, or worm wheel
Q, which is fixed on the yarn beain "R. S, is a frame for holding the
plain wheel C, and the roller T, which roller is pressed to the warpion*
the yarn beam by the weight U, and. the stud on which the plain wheel
C, revolves being fixed to the same frame S; as the yarn beam decreases
in diameter the plain wheel C, will recede from the centre of the plate
or disc B, giving an increasing motion to the yarn beam in proportion
to the diameter of the yarn contained on it. V, V, are guide rods for
the frame S. W, W, are the frame ends of loom. X, is the slay or
lathe. Y, is the cloth beam. Z, is a spur wheel on cloth beam Y.
a, is a double intermediate wheel, which revolves on the stud b, which
is fixed on the framing of the loom. c, is a pinion fixed on the one end
of a socket, on the other end of which is fixed the plain or teethless
wheel d. e, is another teethless wheel fixed on the tappet or wiper
shaft f; the socket on which the wheel d, is fixed revolves on a stud
fixed in the upright lever g, the lower end of which lever oscillates on a
stud fixed in the framing of the loom; the upper end of the said lever
is connected by the rod h, to the arın i, which arm is fixed on the
rocking shaft j. k, k, are other two arms fixed on the shaft j, at the one
end, and in the other end revolves the roller l; and m, is another arm
fixed in said shaft, with the weight n, hung to the end of it. o, is a
roller which revolves in the framing of the loom. p, is a catch which
holds the wheel a, from going back. 9, is the breast beam.

page_text: I claim the application of the plate differential motion to regulate
the motion of the yarn beam, and the invention and application of
the machinery described for regulating the tension of the weh, and the
motion of the cloth beain.
In witness whereof, 1, the said William Nairne, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred fifty-three.
WILLIAM NAIRNE. (L.S.)
Witness,
JOHN PRUNTY,
Falls Road, Belfast.
JOHN METCALFE,
28, College Square North, Belfast.