IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WEAVING HAIR CLOTH
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Boyd and William Henderson, both of
Castle-Cary, in the County of Somerset, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WEAVING HAIR CLOTH."
** IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WEAVING HAIR CLOTH."
Sealed the 26th March 1872, and dated the 26th January 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Boyd and
William Henderson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th January 1872.
We, JOHN BOYD and WILLIAM HENDERSON, both of Castle-Cary, in
the County of Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR WEAVING HAIR CLOTH," to
be as follows :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for
weaving hair cloth.
In weaving the fabric the warp threads are worked by means of
several leaves of heddles which raise them to open sheds in the order

page_text: required to receive the hair weft. Each leaf of heddles is carried in a
sliding frame, and these frames are arranged one in front of the other in
the loom. Each frame has a cross bar passing from side to side of it
under the warp threads, and there are two cams, one under and the
other over this series of cross bars. The lower cam has as many rises.
upon it as there are leaves of heddles (omitting two leaves which work
the selvage of the fabric), and it is turned step by step so as to bring up
each rise in succession, and each as it comes up presses upon one of the
cross bars, thus lifting the corresponding leaf of heddles. The upper
cam acts on the cross bars in the contrary direction, allowing only one
leaf of heddles at a time to rise and keeping the others down.
The leaves of heddles which make the selvage rise and fall alternately,
they are worked by crank pins on pinions which make one revolution in
the time in which the main shaft of the loom makes two revolutions,
and they are driven by a toothed wheel on the same axis as the upper
cam; this toothed wheel is as many times larger than the pinion as there
are rises on the cam. The batten is actuated by a toggle or rule jointed
links. The centre joint is connected by a rod with a lever actuated by a
cam which has one rise and one fall upon it, and revolves once to beat
up twice. The reed is jointed to the batten, and is supported by a
spring which yields when the hair weft is sufficiently pressed home, and
an arm in connection with the reed gives motion to a rod which drives
the let-off roller, thus the delivery of the warp is controlled although
not entirely produced by the yielding of the reed. The warp is lapped
around a grooved roller so that as the roller revolves the warp threads
are wound forward and delivered, and the roller takes its motion from a
driving train which is controlled by the reed as already mentioned.
The horsehair weft is contained in a box from which it is drawn by
nippers. The nippers pass through the shed of the warp threads, enter
the end of the bundle of hair, and closing, seize a single hair, which in
retiring they draw into the shed. The nippers are attached to a hori-
zontal bar which is supported by radius rods at either end. Between
the two radius rods there is a crank, and a connecting rod passes from
the crank to one of the radius rods, and so the bar which carries the
nippers is moved to and fro in a direction across the warp, the nippers
traversing the shed. The motion of the nippers is rapid whilst they
are in the shed, but whilst the beat up is taking place the motion is.

page_text: slow. The jaws of the nippers are provided with springs to close them,
and they are opened by a wedge. The wedge is provided with a stem,
and this is connected with a lever. When the nippers are out of the
shed the lever comes against an incline which throws the wedge forwards
and opens the jaws. A catch retains the lever and wedge. When the
nippers have passed through the shed of the warp threads, and the
points of the jaws are amongst the ends of the hairs, the catch is dis-
engaged by another incline and the jaws close and take a hair which in
returning they place in the shed. The lower jaw of the nippers is
concave at the end to collect the hair, and it has a convex ridge imme-
diately in rear, but at a lower level. The upper jaw is narrow, and there
is a small nick in its face. When the nippers close, the upper jaw
descends through the few ends presented to it by the lower jaw; one
of them drops into its nick, whilst the others escape on either side. The
hair which enters this nick is carried down and nipped against the
convex ridge in the lower jaw, whilst the other hairs in the lower jaw
escape being nipped, and remain on either side of the upper jaw.. The
nippers then retire and draw the hair which they hold into the shed.
They leave go of the hair as soon as they are clear of the outer
selvage.
The hair box is provided with a partition, and a bundle of hair is laid
on each side of the partition, but the bundle on one side has the points
of the hairs to the selvage and the other bundle the thicker ends or
"butts.". The box vibrates, and the nippers take alternately from either
side of the partition. As each hair is being drawn out of the bundle a .
finger descends and rests upon it with a light pressure. Thus when the
nippers have taken a hair the finger is supported, but if there should be
no hair held in the nippers then the finger being unsupported drops and
the parts connected with the finger lift a pawl, which at other times by
acting on a ratchet wheel moves round the cams for giving motion to
the harness, as already described. When these cams arc in this way
prevented from acting the nippers pass a second time through the same
shed of the warp threads.
The feeling finger when it drops also acts on the pawl or equivalent
instrument by which the reed acts on the driving train of the let-off
rollers, so that when the nippers fail to take a hair the beat up takes
place, but there is no corresponding-let off or unwinding of the warp
..threads..

page_text: In some cases, in place of causing nippers to pass through the shed to
draw the hair into it, we cause them to draw out the ends of the hair
only a short distance from the bundle, and then a hook which is passed
through the shed, catches the hair, and whilst the nippers still keep hold
draws it through the shed. This arrangement admits of several nippers
being employed.
=
A feeling finger is provided in connection with each finger, and if the
nippers have failed to secure a hair they are caused to return a second
time to the bundle, and so as many times as is necessary to ensure that
the nippers shall be provided with a hair when they come to the position
in which the hair is caught by the hook.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Boyd and William Henderson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 26th July 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BOYD and WILLIAM HENDERSON, both of Castle-Cary, in the County of
Somerset, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said John Boyd and William Henderson,
Her special license that we, the said John Boyd and William
Henderson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said John Boyd and William Henderson, our 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
MACHINERY FOR WEAVING HAIR CLOTH," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Boyd and William Henderson, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our

page_text: or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us
or them, 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 John Boyd, on behalf of myself
and the said William Henderson, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for
weaving hair cloth.
In weaving the fabric the warp threads are worked by means of
several leaves of heddles which raise them to open sheds in the order
required to receive the hair weft. Each leaf of heddles is carried in a
sliding frame, and these frames are arranged one in front of the other in
the loom. Each frame has a cross bar passing from side to side of it
under the warp threads, and there are two cams, one under and the
other over this series of cross bars. The lower cam has as many rises
upon it as there are leaves of heddles (omitting two leaves which work
the selvage of the fabric), and it is turned step by step so as to bring up
each rise in succession, and each as it comes up presses upon one of the
cross bars, thus lifting the corresponding leaf of heddles. The upper
cam acts on the cross bars in the contrary direction allowing only one
leaf of heddles at a time to rise, and keeping the others down.
The leaves of heddles which make the selvage rise and fall alternately,
they are worked by crank pins on pinions which make one revolution
in the time in which the main shaft of the loom makes two revolutions,
and they are driven by a toothed wheel on the same axis as the lower
The batten is actuated by a toggle or rule jointed links. The
centre joint is connected by a rod with a lever actuated by a cam which
has one rise and one fall upon it, and revolves once to beat up twice.
cam.
-
The horsehair weft is contained in a box from which it is drawn by
nippers. The nippers pass through the shed of the warp threads, enter
the end of the bundle of hair dan closing seize a single hair, which in

page_text: retiring they draw into the shed. The nippers are attached to a hori-
zontal bar which is moved to and fro by a radius rod. There is a crank
with a connecting rod passing from the crank to the radius rod, and so
the bar which carries the nippers is moved to and fro in a direction
across the warp, the nippers traversing the shed. The motion of the
nippers is rapid whilst they are in the shed, but whilst the beat up is
taking place the motion is slow. The jaws of the nippers are provided
with springs to close them, and they are opened by a wedge. The
wedge is provided with a stem, and this is connected with a lever.
When the nippers are out of the shed the lever comes against an incline
which throws the wedge forwards and opens the jaws. A catch retains

page_text: The feeling finger when it drops also acts on the pawl or equivalent
instrument by which the batten acts on the driving train of the let off
rollers, so that when the nippers fail to take a hair the beat up takes
place, but there is no corresponding let off or unwinding of the warp
threads.

page_text: cam e; a catch drops into it after each motion of the cams and holds
them till the time for the next motion arrives.
The arrangement of the catch is shewn at Figure 5, it is lifted by a
pin or small cam not shewn, which is mounted on the axis h. k, k,
are two pinions gearing with the wheel e¹, they rotate once in two
revolutions of the main shaft g, and by links k¹, k¹, they are connected
with the leaves of heddles d and & respectively.
.
and
The horsehair which forms the weft of the cloth is put into the loom
in two bundles, the inner end of one of these bundles is seen at / in
Figure 2, the remainder of the bundle is not shewn, it lies upon a board
or tray 1* (a part only of which is shewn) extending from the left-hand
side of the loom; Figure 6 is a plan of the hair holders, and here the
end of the other bundle is also seen. Each hair holder consists of two
plates and . The plate 12 although readily removable is when in the
loom fixed to the board or tray *; it has formed upon it two lugs **,
12+,
and the hairs lies between them; the plate is formed thus
the edge of its shorter limb rests on the top of the lugs 12 which are
hollowed to receive it. The opposite edge of the plate beats upon the
bundle of hair and presses it against the opposing edge of the plate 1²,
the pressure being exerted by a spring 13* rivetted to the plate ³; this
spring is shaped like an ordinary lock spring, and it is compressed by
the pin ** which is inserted through holes in other lugs formed for it
upon the plate P. By removing this pin the parts of the hair holder are
readily separated, and this is done to put in the hair. One of the
holders holds the hairs by the butts and the other by the points, and the
hair is taken from them alternately in weaving the fabric.
Figure 7 is a side view of one of the hair holders. The board or
tray * is clamped upon a plate m in the proper position to present the
hair to the nippers which draw it into the shed.
The plate m (as is. shewn at Figure 8, which is a side view of the
plate and the parts with which it is connected) is mounted upon
centres m* on the forked arm m³, and it can rock on these centres to
present different parts of the bundles to the nippers; the plate m receives
this motion from a link m², connecting it with a lever m³, which is jointed
to the arm mat m³*, and which rests upon a cam m²; this cam is caused
slowly to rotate around the arm m¹ by a ratchet wheel m** driven by a
pawl mounted on the frame of the loom. The arm m¹ is caused by

page_text: means herein-after described to rock upon the stud mix in order that the
hair nippers may take alternately from the two bundles of hair, and as
it so rocks the stationary pawl produces the rotation of the ratchet
wheel m*, and thus a tipping motion is given to the hair holders, and
so at every motion fresh parts of the bundles of hair are presented to
the nippers. The ratchet wheel m** with its pawl is shewn separately at
Figure 9.
The nipping apparatus for drawing the hairs into the shed is seen at
Figure 10, which is a front view; n is a bar which at n¹ slides in guides
fixed upon the main frame a (see also Figure 10*), and at n³ it is jointed
to a lever o which is suspended from the main frame by a link o'. The
lever o forms part with the rods o², o³, and o¹ of a jointed parallelogram.
The rod o' is jointed to the main frame at o²*, and the rods o³ and o' are
connected by a rod o³ with the crank pin h³ upon a disc carried by the
axis h. Thus by the rotation of the crank each time that a shed is
opened the nipper p which is fixed upon the bar n is
through it and then to return bringing a hair with it.
rod o being nearly of the same length as the throw of
motion of the nippers is very slow during half of the
crank when the nippers are out of the shed.
caused to pass
The connecting
the crank the
rotation of the
Figure 11 is a plan of the nipper to a larger scale. p³, p², are the
nipper jaws jointed together at p*, and provided with springs p³ tending
constantly to close them, but the wedge p¹ keeps them open until they
enter amongst the ends of the hair. The wedge p' is connected with
the lever ps which as the nipper comes to the end of its course in either
direction comes against an incline fixed upon the frame. These inclines
q', q², cause the wedge to open the jaws when the nipper is out of the
shed, and to shut them as soon as it has passed through the shed and is
in a position to take the hair. There is a spring catch pe which locks
the lever p³ when the jaws of the nipper are open, and which is freed by
coming against a stop on the frame immediately before the nippers are
closed. p is a blade fixed on one side of the nipper; it is also shewn in
Figure 12; it enters first amongst the bundle of hair, presses a portion
of the hair to one side, leaving that immediately in front of the nipper
somewhat freer than it otherwise would be.
The point of the jaw p² is hollowed, as is shewn in Figures 13, which
are transverse sections of the jaws, and is of a size to hold two or three
hairs. The hairs are not nipped. at this part of the nippers, but the

page_text: jaw p¹ displaces to one or other side all the hairs but those which are
lodged in the hollow of the jaw p². The nipping parts of the jaws are
immediately in rear of these parts, and they are so narrow that two
hairs cannot be side by side in the nip of the jaws. The nipping part
of the jaw p² may have a shallow longitudinal nick in it, but it may also
be flat. At the nipping parts the jaws have stops upon them which
when the jaws shut meet and so preserve the end of the hair which is
held by the nippers from being crushed. The lower stop may be
concave on the face, and the upper stop convex, as is shewn in Figures 13,
so as to insure the nipping parts closing truly.
In some cases we form the nipping parts of the upper jaw of two
spring blades, meeting at the point where the nip takes place and
separated above this point, as is shewn at Figures 14, in this way we
prevent two hairs being nipped one over the other, which otherwise
occasionally happens. With this arrangement if a second hair lies
upon the lower jaw of the nipper it is squeezed through between the
two spring blades, the points of which form the upper nipping surface,
and so the superfluous hair escapes. p³ is a small roller which steadies
the nipper p; as the nipper enters the shed the warp threads pass between
it and the rollers. Thus as already explained the nipper enters the shed
with the jaws open, then when the nipping parts have just entered
amongst the ends of the hair the incline q¹ causes them to close, they
then recede drawing a hair into the shed, and when it is properly laid
the incline q² opens the jaws and the hair is dropped, and it is beaten
into the fabric by the batten r which is hung from the top of the frame
at r; p is a fixed brush to keep the nippers clear; and s² are toggle
jointed links which work the batten; the link &¹ is jointed to the frame,
and the link to the batten. The link & receives motion from a con-
necting rods attached to a lever s which at s** is jointed to the frame
of the loom, and it has a bowl upon it entering the groove of the cam t.
The axis of the cam t is driven from the main shaft by spur gear, and
it makes one revolution for two revolutions of the main shaft. The
link s¹ by means of a short arm gives motion to a rod m³ which gives to
the arm m¹ a vibrating motion as already described.
';
A link from the rod m¹ works the scissor-like cutters u which are
mounted on the frame immediately in front of the bundles of hair, these
cutters when the beat up takes place divide any hairs which may project
from the bundle; the blades are sharp on both edges, and cut in passing

page_text: each other in either direction. The batten as it vibrates gives motion
by means of a rod v to the lever v¹ with its centre on the frame at v¹×.
From the lower end of the lever v¹ the rod v³ extends to the nipping
pawl v³ carried by the lever v4 on the axis of the wheel or disc vs (also
shewn in Figure 15) so that every forward motion of the batten causes
the wheel or disc to turn partly round; v is a worm on the axis of
the wheel or disc v³, and it drives a worm wheel on the axis of the warp
beam b, and so unwinds the warp threads.
shifts the rod v
the warp roller
The speed of unwounding is governed by the roller 7 resting upon the
warp beam, it is carried by a lever v8, which by a rod
downwards nearer to the centre of the lever v' as
diminishes in size in consequence of the unwinding of the warp
.threads.
When the nipper p fails to draw a hair into the shed of the warp
threads the unwounding of the warp has to be stopped; this is provided
for by forming a slot in the rod v.in which the end of the lever v² is
able to travel freely without moving the rod when the pawl 2* is
lifted. This is effected by a finger w jointed to the frame at w*, and
linked by a link w¹ with the feeler w³. This feeler turns on a fixed
centre at wx, and its point when left free falls in consequence of the
weight of the parts with which it is connected. The feeler w² is
supported until the nipper p commences to retire by rocking lever w³
with a fixed centre at w³*, at this time a stud on the main shaft g moves
the lever wo out of the way, and the feeler w³ descends until it is sup-
ported by the hair which the nipper p is drawing out of the bundle,
and if the nipper has failed to take a hair the feeler descends lower, and
then it causes the finger w to lift the pawl v2x, and so the motion which
otherwise would be given to the warp beam is held off. From the
fecler w² a rod x descends to another finger x¹ turning on a fixed centre
at xx, and this finger when actuated by the feeler w³, in consequence of
there being no hair in the shed lifts the pawl, which causes the
rotation of the shedding cams e and f.
To wind up the fabric upon the cloth beam c there is a spur wheel on
its axis gearing with a pinion on an axis y on which a disc y¹ is fixed.
Against the disc y¹ another disc y³, which is loose on the axis, is firmly
pressed by a spring y³ (as is shewn in Figure 16). Worm teeth are
formed in the periphery of the disc y², and a worm y' gears with them;
y is a belt pulley on the axis of the worm; it is driven by a belt passing

page_text: round it and also around a belt pulley, not shewn in the Drawing, which
is fixed upon the horizontal axis h.
.
The motion thus given to the worm y' is always sufficient to keep the
cloth tightly wound up, and any excess of motion only causes the
disc y* to rub upon the surface of the disc y¹.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we
claim the arrangement of machinery for weaving hair cloth with nippers
which enter amongst the ends of the hairs in the direction in which the
hairs are laid, and seize them one by one and draw them into the shed,
substantially as described.
We also claim the arrangement of the hairs in two bundles, from
which the nippers take the hairs by the heads and points alternately, the
bundles being moved to and fro, substantially as described.
We also claim the arrangement of cams and parts for opening the
sheds of the warp threads, substantially as described. ·
We also claim the construction of the nippers and the arrangement of
the apparatus for actuating the same, substantially as described.
We also claim the general arrangement of machinery for weaving hair
cloth, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Boyd, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
JOHN BOYD. (L.S.)