IMPROVEMENTS IN JACQUARD MACHINERY
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sydney Doolan Hamilton, of No. 3, Great James
Street, Bedford Row, in the County of Middlesex, Solicitor, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN JACQUARD MACHINERY."-A communi-
cation from Eugène Vincenzi, Mechanical Engineer, of Lyons, in the
Empire of France.
Sealed the 26th March 1858, and dated the 1st October 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sydney Doolan Hamilton
at the Office of the Commissionèrs of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 1st October 1857.
I, SIDNEY DOOLAN HAMILTON, of No. 3, Great James Street, Bedford Row,
in the County of Middlesex, Solicitor, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN JACQUARD MACHINERY," (being a com-
munication from Eugene Vincenzi, Mechanical Engineer, of Lyons, in the
Empire of France,) to be as follows:-
The object of these improvements is to reduce the cards to one-third the
size of those now in use; also by the help of these improvements strips of
paper may be employed instead of pasteboard; also, by a peculiar arrange-
ment of the pins or studs in the beam or cylinder, the cards may be shifted in
all directions. Another feature of these improvements, is, that when a wrong
beat-up is given, the hooks or needles are not liable to be bent; & lastly, these

page_text: improvements allow to construct a machine of a coarse count, having 2,500
hooks in the same space as an ordinary jacquard with 1,000 hooks.
The principle of these improvements is to free the cards from any strain
they are subject to by the repulsion or reaction of the needles during the beat-
up of the cylinder which carries said needles against the holy-board. This
result is obtained by a motion which causes the needles to recoil whilst the
cylinder beats up. The card being thus placed between the holy-board and
the cylinder, almost in contact with the point of the needles, is in such a
position as to be acted upon by them without effort, or danger of injuring the
cards, and this action takes place as soon as the motion above mentioned
releases the needles to be acted upon by their springs. Every unnecessary
strain thus being done away with, paper may be used instead of pasteboard.
These improved jacquard machines contain chiefly hooks, lifting bars,
needles with coiled springs, which are acted upon by or act on the hooks,
holy-boards, against which the cylinders are drawn by means of the coiled
springs, bars for supporting said needles, grates for recoiling said needles in
such manner that their ends come flush with the external surface of the holy-
boards, division pins for the needles, and. branch boards on which the hooks
rest.
The pins, studs, or "pedols" which hold the card on the cylinder are
double, and the card strings pass through them in such a manner as to allow
the cards or designs being shifted on the cylinder.
The recoiling motion may be varied in different manners by any suitable
mechanical contrivances. Thus, the grate which supports the needles at the
hind part of the machine may be made moveable, and so as to draw the
needles direct.
These improvements also comprize the use and application of iron or steel
plates, which are perforated according to the reduced scale, and which are
indispensable for punching the cards.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sydney Doolan Hamilton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th March 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SYDNEY
DOOLAN HAMILTON, of No. 3, Great James Street, Bedford Row, in the
County of Middlesex, Solicitor, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty. Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Sydney Doolan Hamilton, Her special licence that I, the said Sydney Doolan
Hamilton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
the said
executors, administrators, and assigns should at any time
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 JACQUARD
MACHINERY," a communication from Eugène Vincenzi, Mechanical Engineer,.
of Lyons, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others), that
I, the said Sydney Doolan Hamilton, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Sydney Doolan Hamilton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of these improvements is to reduce the cards or their equivalents
to about one-third the size of those now in use, and thereby to reduce the
dimensions of the jacquard engine in about the same ratio; also by the help
of these improvements strips of paper may be successfully and practically en-
ployed instead of pasteboard, whereas paper has hitherto been found unavailable
for this purpose; also, by a novel arrangement of the pins or studs that hold the
card or paper on the cylinder, beam, or prism, the cards, &c. may be reversed
in a lateral direction, whereby a change of pattern is obtained with the same
card. Another consequence of these improvements is, that when a wrong
beat-up is given, the hooks and needles are not liable to be bent. The main
contrivance of this improved jacquard is intended to free the cards or their
equivalents from the strain they are subject to in the ordinary jacquard by the
impact and collision between the needles at the moment the cylinder is beaten
up against the points of the needles projecting through the holy-board. This
result is obtained by a motion which causes the needles to recede back into.

page_text: the holy-board whilst the cylinder or prism beats up; the card being then held
tight between the holy-board and the cylinder, almost in close contact with the
points of the needles, is in such a position as to be acted upon by the needles
with a very slight impact, when said needles are released from the motion
aforesaid, and allowed to enter the holes of the card under the impulse of their
springs as usual.
.
Having thus given a general outline of the main object and features of this
Invention, I will now enter upon the detailed description of the way in which
I have practically carried the same into effect.
On the annexed Sheet of Drawings, Fig. 1 is a skeleton elevation of the
acting parts of the improved jacquard engine. a, hook, the vertical shape of
which is intended to bring the action of the weight into the axial line of said
hook; a¹, knife; b, needle which is acted upon by or acts upon the hook; c,
elastic or spring attached near the front end of the needle by a nick or a notch
on the needle, and actuating the same by traction. This spring either hooks
on the wire of the grid e, Fig. 1, or else is retained between these wires by a
ferrel forming a moveable collar at the spring end, which is made slightly
conical for the purpose; d, holy-board; e, grid, made of flat wire, for supporting
the needles at the front end; e', grid for supporting the same at the back end;
f. grid or square frame subtended with wire; this grid slides on the griff, and
is for receding the needles in such manner that their ends come flush with the
outer surface of the holy-board d; 9, 9, division pins for the needles; h, hook
board on which the hooks rest, and which has deep grooves for safely guiding
the hooks home. From this description it will fully appear that by either
moving the grid for the wires e' in the direction of the arrow, the needle
wires are drawn back into the holy-board, so as to be protected from the
cylinder beating up.
Fig. 2 is a plan of two needles belonging to two contiguous rows of needles,
and to one row only of books a. The distance between the needles from
centre to centre is four millimètres (about one-sixth to one-seventh of an
inch), and that of the hooks double.
Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the improved jacquard engine. A, lathe or
batten; B, cylinder, beam, or prism; C, bar or catch for holding the cylinder
in its place for the beat-up; D, two stop clicks for holding the batten after
the beat-up; E, guides for said clicks, also for lifting out of gear or releasing
the same at each lift of the griff; F, griff; G, frame of the machine; H,
guides for the griff F; I, hook board; L, treadle pulley; M, griff lever.
Fig. 4 is an exterior side view of the improved jacquard engine. N, press

page_text: acting upon the batten; O, click for turning the cylinder; P, inclined plane
on which the press bowl acts for recoiling the batten; Q, detent, which comes
flush with the incline P when the press bowl N passes over it in its ascent,
and which remains projecting by its whole thickness in the return or down-
ward stroke of the griff, so as to hold the batten longer back and delay its
beating up till the needles have receded into the holy-board; R, inclined;"
plane for repelling the grids for e' (see Fig. 1), according to one or the other
being used for receding the needles; S, spring acting on the catches C;
T, roller on stud attached to the grid for e¹, and which receives the receding
motion at the descent of the griff whilst the batten is beating up; U, coiled
springs for drawing the batten against the holy-board; V, coiled spring for
drawing to the hinder needle grid W, in case it is made moveable, for receding.
the needles by means of their heels, (see Figs. 1 and 2).
Fig. 5 is a front view of the engine. The "pedols," or holding pins Z,
that are seen at Figs. 3, 4, and 5, are arranged differently from the ordinary
way, being in pairs in such manner that the cards or strips of paper can be
turned upside down on the cylinder, or reversed laterally. From what
precedes, the action of the improved jacquard engine will be fully understood
by those who are conversant with jacquard weaving, and although I have
shewn the engine as applied to hand weaving, yet it will be easy to adapt it to
driving by power, by suitably changing the form and material employed for
the framework. Also, I would here observe, that engines with these improve-
ments, when they do not contain more than nine hundred hooks, should have
twelve rows of needles, and for coarser counts, sixteen rows of needles; and
the horizontal division of the engine should form three sets of twenty-six rows
of needles each.
These improvements further comprize the use of iron or steel plates, which
are perforated according to the reduced scale, and which are indispensable for
punching the cards or papers in the improved jacquard engine.
Having thus fully described the nature of this Invention, and the manner
in which the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise details shewn; but what I claim as
novel, and therefore secured by the herein-before in part described Letters
Patent, is,
'
First, the method of causing the needles or wires to recede at the approach
of the cylinder and card, and then releasing the same again to operate upon
the card or its equivalent, substantially as described, and for the purposes set
forth.

page_text: Second, the method of applying the springs near the front end of the needle,
to act by traction, instead of being applied at the hinder end as usual, for the
purposes herein set forth.
Third, the general arrangement of the jacquard engine above described, the
principal features of which are the great reduction in space, and the possibility
of applying paper instead of pasteboard.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sydney Doolan Hamilton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
SYDNEY. D. HAMILTON. (L.S.)