IMPROVEMENTS IN LOONS BOD WEAVING CARPETS AND OTHER PILE FABRICS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick William Mowbray, of Shipley, near Leeds,
in the County of York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOONS BOD WEAVING CARPETS AND OTHER PILE FABRICS."
Sealed the 13th November 1855, and dated the 21st May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick William Mowbray
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
21st May 1855.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM MOWBRAY, of Shipley, near Leeds, in the County of
York, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING CARPETS AND OTHER PILE FABRICS" to be as
follows:-
The improvements relate partly to the manufacture of carpets and other pile
fabrics in looms in which the wires, or instruments acting as such for the pile
loops to be formed over, are placed in a direction longitudinal of the fabric.
And these improvements consist in so arranging those pile wires or instruments
and parts acting therewith, that they may be capable of working with pile
warps selected and operated by jacquard or other suitable pattern surface.
The pile wires, or instruments acting as such, in place of being held in
combs, as in a former arrangement secured to me by Letters Patent, are bent
downwards at their inner ends (or those ends which are farthest from the
formed fabric) to a distance sufficient to admit of the opening of the shed for

page_text: the weft, and at the end of such turned down part they are set in leads, or
are otherwise fixed, so as to maintain their correct relative position and be
actuated as required.
There is also a supplemental comb similarly spaced to the pile instruments
to receive those pile warps which are raised above the pile instruments after
each selection, when by a sideway movement of these supplemental combs the
warps selected are brought over the spaces between other of the pile wires or
instruments to effect the crossings. There are also instruments acting as
combs on a rotating axis or otherwise, by which the correct spacing of the
pile instruments is preserved. The pile wires or instruments, when strength
is required, are formed at those ends upon which the loops are obtained to the
size desired, but broader or deeper as they recede back.
The improvements also relate to employing guiding instruments in place of the
ordinary healds or harness, for the purpose of governing the movements of warp
threads in weaving pile fabrics, when the pile loops obtained are formed without.
the aid of pile wires extending under a series of such loops, or when the pile
wires employed are laid transversely, or from selvage to selvage of the fabric.
These guiding instruments are formed of thin plate metal with holes or eyes
therein for the passage of the warp threads, and they are arranged in leads or
otherwise, capable of being attached to several bars by which they are actuated
for the shedding; or these guiding instruments may be actuated separately by
jacquard or other pattern surface. Such guiding instruments to warp threads
may be used only to govern the movements of the pile threads, whilst the back
or body warp will be governed by the ordinary healds or barness, or to govern
the whole of the warp threads used.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick William Mowbray in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st November 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WILLIAM MOWBRAY, of Shipley, near Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Iler reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said

page_text: Frederick William Mowbray. Her special licence that 1, the said Frederick
William Mowbray, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Frederick William Mowbray, my 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 LOOMS FOR WEAVING CARPETS AND OTHER PILE FABRICS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick William Mowbray,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Frederick William Mowbray, 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 improvements relate, firstly, to the manufacture of carpets and other
pile fabrics in looms in which the wires, or instruments acting as such for
the pile loops to be formed over, are placed in a direction longitudinal of the
fabric. And these improvements consist in so arranging those pile wires or
instruments and parts acting therewith that they may be capable of working
with pile warps selected and operated to produce the desired pattern to the
surface of the fabric by jacquard or other suitable pattern surface. The pile
wires, or instruments acting as such, in place of being held in combs, as in a
former arrangement secured to me by Letters Patent, are bent downwards at
their inner ends (or those ends which are farthest from the formed fabric) to
a distance sufficient to admit of the opening of the shed for the weft, and at
the end of such turned down part they are set in leads, or are otherwise fixed,
so as to maintain their correct relative position, and when desired be actuated
as required.
There is also a supplemental comb similarly spaced to the pile instruments
to receive those pile warps which are raised above the pile instruments after
each selection, when by a sideway movement of these supplemental combs the
warps selected are brought over the spaces between other of the pile wires or
instruments to effect the crossings. There are also instruments acting as
combs on a rotating axis of otherwise, by which the correct spacing of the pile
instruments is preserved. The pile wires or instruments, when strength is

page_text: worm wheel, which is taken into and driven by the screw wheel ƒ³, affixed
upon the cam or tappet shaft d. The cam or tappet shaft d, according to the
arrangement shown, revolves once to every two revolutions of the crank shaft,
and it carries a cam or tappet for actuating the jacquard apparatus, as also a
hollow axis or tube, upon which is affixed the cams or tappets for working the
leaves of heddles, and this hollow axis or tube has motion given to it by their
being affixed thereon a toothed wheel, which is taken into by a pinion on the
crank shaft, by which it is caused to make with the cams or tappets carried
thereby one revolution to four of the crank shaft; but I do not confine myself
to these arrangements, as they may be varied. g, g, are the pile wires or in-
struments, which it will be seen are at their outer ends g', supported by resting
in the recently formed loops of the fabric, in a similar manner to what was
described in the Specification of a former Patent, granted to me the Twenty-
fourth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one; but according
to my present improvements, the inner or back end 92 of each of the wires g
is formed at an angle to the body of its wire, or is bent downwards, so as to be
supported from below the shed; and these ends ³ aro fixed in leads g³, carried
by the bar or rail g' affixed to the framing, by which arrangement facility is
given for the employment of a number of different colored pile warps to each
wire, as when weaving ordinary Brussels carpets, where the pattern or figure
is produced by the selection by jacquard or other pattern surface of the parti-
cular colored warp to form the next loop, and the pile warp threads are at the
rising for change of shed lifted above the wires or instruments g, and when
thus raised they are received into the combs h. The parts g of the wires g
are thicker at g than at the other parts, as shown, and they serve as combs
for the correct spacing of such pile warps and of the linen or body warps; and
whilst, by the arrangement described in the Specification of my Patent before
referred to, at each crossing of the pile warp over the wires a crossing was
also effected over the linen or body warp, and those pile loops were tied in
alternately on one and then on the other side of each linen or body warp, by
the present arrangement, by the pile warps being actuated by the harness
always between the same linen or body warp threads, although in the forming
of the loops by the passing of the pile warps over the wires, in manner which
I will now explain, a crossing is effected over the wires for the formation of
loops, there will be no crossing over the linca or body warps, and the tyeing
in of the loops will always be between the same linen or body warp threads.
h is a supplemental comb, the plates of which are set in leads h¹, carried by
the bar h, and they are similarly spaced to the wires or pile instruments g.
These combs h are for the purpose of receiving the pile warp threads, which
"

page_text: for the time are selected by the jacquard or other pattern surface used to
form the next loops; and when such selected warp threads have been raised
above the inner ends of the wires 9 into the spaces between the plates of these
combs h, the bar h² has a sideway movement given to it, so as to take those
pile warps over to the spaces between the next adjoining pile wires, when, by
the descent of the harness with those pile warp threads last selected, they will
be crossed over the wires, forming fresh row of loops to be tied in by the
next shoot of weft; and according to the arrangement shown, the shoot of weft
thrown in after the pile is passed over the wires, for the formation of a row of
loops will be laid into a shed formed by the raising only of one half of the
linen or body warp. A beat-up will then take place, and a fresh shed opened
by the raising of the whole of the pile warp, and the same half of the lineu
or body warp raised for the last shoot of weft; when the second shoot of weft
will be thrown in, a beat-up will then take place, and the pile warps selected
for the next loops, being taken into the spaces of the combs h, will, by the
sliding of the bar h² in the opposite direction to that taken for the formation
of the last loops, carry the selected warps again over the wires for the fresh
loops, when the tyeing in will be as before, except that in the opening of the
linen or body warp the half which was raised for the last two picks of weft
will now be depressed, and that half last depressed will now be raised for the
next two picks, and so on alternately. The bar is supported in brackets h³,
one at each side of the loon, with a capability of sliding freely therein, and
the side or endway movement to it is given by means of the wheel h* acting
upon the nib of the lever, which turns upon an axis he carried by the
framing, as shown, whilst the bar h is constantly drawn towards, and so that a
pin h projecting therefrom may press against the lever h³ by a spring h³. The
wheel his affixed to the hollow axis or tube h°, upon which is affixed the star
wheel ho, which is taken into and caused to make a partial rotation at each
rotation of the crank axis by a pin h" in the wheel h's, affixed upon the shaft
or axis h¹³, which turns in bearings, as shown carried by the framing, and has
affixed to it the bevilled pinion h", which is taken into and driven by the
bevilled pinion h, affixed on the end of the crank axis b. i, i, are other instru-
ments, of the character of combs or teeth, which are formed on or affixed to the
axis i', which is capable of rotating in bearings carried by the framing, as shown,
and has affixed upon it the worm wheel, which is taken into and has slow
rotary motion given to it by the screw wheel affixed upon the axis i", which
is capable of rotating in bearings, as shown, and has affixed upon it the worm
wheel, which is taken into and driven by the screw wheel to, also affixed upon
the axis h. The object of these instruments i is, by their passing in between

page_text: the separate wires 9 to assist in preserving their correct spacing, and by their
rotating with the axis to admit of the pile warps passing over and descending
between the wires g, whilst they also serve to conduct each pile thread correctly
between those wires. In some cases, in place of using the instruments i, I
form the lower ends of the parts g¹ of the wires g capable of sliding in combs,
as shown by Figure 4, and separately in parts at Figures 5, 6, and 7, where g³
are the combs, and each part g' has projections 9, 9, which embrace one of
the bars g, and the projections go are so formed on the instruments g, and those
instruments are so placed in the combs 95, that each bar 9" operates upon the
alternate instruments 9; and the bars 97 have an alternate up and down motion
given to them, by which every other of the wires or instruments 9 will at one
movement of the bars g' be raised above the intermediate instruments, and the
intermediate instruments will be raised and the others depressed at the next.
movement of those bars 97. By this arrangement, the combs g³ will serve to
preserve the correct spacing of the instruments g, whilst, by the raising of the
alternate instruments g above those intermediate, the pile warps raised will
simply pass over the lower instruments, and be prevented going too far or
passing over two in place of one of such instruments when actuated sideways
by the combs h by coming against the side of the next instrument whilst thus
raised. In this Figure the pile warps are shown operated by similar instru-
ments to those shown and described in the next part of my improvements.
Figure 8 shows a portion of a loom with parts arranged according to the
second part of my improvements. a, a, are the guiding instruments for
operating the pile warp threads, and they have holes or eyes a' formed in them
for the passage of these pile threads, and also recessed, as shown, from the
holes a', to admit of those pile threads lying in the sides of these guides, and
the pile threads in passing to these guides or instruments a are conducted by
the rollers or bars b and c. The guides a are somewhat similar to those shown
and described in the said former Specification, except that they are formed
longer, so as to serve as guides also to the back or body warp, and thereby
insure the correct spacing of them, as well as of the raising and lowering of the
pile warp between such back or body warp, whilst by the facility thus afforded
of conducting the pile warp threads over in place of between the leaves of
heddles operating the linen or body warp, the pile warp is less liable to injury;
and this part of the improvements is particularly adapted to the manufacture
of pile fabrics when the pile is produced by the aid of wires laid transversely of
-the length of the fabric, or simply by the drawing up of pile warp without the
aid of wires, such as for which a Patent was granted to Mr. Sievier, and which
has for some time been in operation by the Messieurs Bright and Co., carpet

page_text: manufacturers. And I would here state, that, although I have shown only
two bars of these instruments a; other numbers of them may be employed.
They may also be employed to operate the linen or body warp as well as the
pile warp, and in place of being set in leads to be operated simultaneously,
they may be spaced in combs, with a capability of being raised separately by
jacquard or other pattern surface. And although I have described the move-
ments of the loom, according to each part of my improvements, for the pro-
duction of carpets, a person acquainted with such weavings will readily make
such variations as will adapt them to when other pile fabrics are desired to
be produced.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the means
which I adopt in carrying the same into practice, I would have it understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein shown and described,
as variations may be made therein without departing from the peculiar
character of either part of my improvements; but what I do claim is,―.
First, the arranging, combining, and operating parts of looms for weaving
pile fabrics, whereby pile wires may be used longitudinally of the fabric in the
production of the pile loops thereto when the selection for the particular pile
warp for the time required to form the pattern or figure to such fabric is
obtained, as in the manufacture of Brussels carpets, by jacquard or other
pattern surface.
Secondly, I claim the arranging and operating guiding instruments a for
actuating warp threads when weaving pile fabrics, as explained in respect of
the second part of the improvements.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick William Mowbray, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
FREDERICK WILLIAM MOWBRAY. (L.S.)
Witness,
HENRY MOWBRAY.