IM- PROVEMENTS IN WEAVING
Year: 1857

page_text: oy the Act)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Watson, at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th September:
1857.
I, RICHARD WATSON, of Galashiels, in the County of Selkirk, North Britain,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN WEAVING," to be as follows, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of looms for
weaving various classes of goods, by means of several shuttles operating in
concert for the production of various effects in the woven goods. The Invention
is available for moveable shuttle boxes, both of the rectilinear and rotatory
kind, and it consists essentially in the adaptation of the slay or lathe action to
the shifting of the shuttle box.
As applied to the storied or rectilinear action shuttle box, the movement
consists of an adjustable lever disposed vertically on a bottom centre, and con-
nected near its upper end with the slay or lathe. To this lever there is jointed
a connecting rod, actuating the ratchet movement of a ratchet wheel running
on a stud carried by the framing of the loom; the face of this ratchet wheel
carries suitably disposed adjustable studs or rollers, which in their sphere of
action come in contact with a projection on a bottom horizontal lever, one end
of which is set upon a fixed stud centre, whilst the other is connected by an

page_text: ascending rod with an over-head lever; the opposite end of this lever is
similarly connected to the shuttle box. In this way the action for the change
from one shuttle to another is entirely obtained from the slay or lathe move-
ment, the proper cell of the shuttle box being brought into play in accordance
with the positions and numbers of the pins or operating parts in the face of
the ratchet wheel.
When applied for working a rotatory shuttle box, the arrangements are of
a generally similar character, but the actual details of the parts for working
the rotatory box partake of the features adopted in working the barrel of a
jacquard movement; a ratchet wheel is fitted up to work on a stud in the
loom framing, this wheel being actuated by the slay or lathe, as in the pre-
viously described example; one half of the face of this wheel carries actuating
pins for working a pair of levers set on fixed studs one above and one below
the rotatory shuttle box, so that during one half of the revolution of this wheel
the upper lever only is operated on, whilst during the other half, the lower
lever is similarly worked. The shuttle box being carried upon the slay or
lathe; it obviously follows, that when a catch of either of the upper and lower
levers is brought by the pin wheel within the sphere of action of the rotatory
box or parts connected therewith, the reciprocatory action of the box itself
causes the necessary revolution for the change from one cell to the other.
The pins being set but upon one balf of the wheel, it follows that at each
half turn of the wheel the direction of the revolution of the box is reversed,
and thus the weft threads are not wound upon the box.
Instead of these arrangements, an endless chain of operating projections,
actuated by the ratchet wheel worked from the slay or lathe, may be used for
giving the required shift to the shuttle boxes.