IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Archibald Turner at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd October
1863.
I, ARCHIBALD TURNER, of Leicester, Elastic Web Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS
FOR WEAVING," to be as follows:-
My Invention of "Improvements in Looms for Weaving" relates to a
novel arrangement of machinery, whereby the use of shuttles for throwing he
weft thread or shoot is dispensed with.
In ordinary looms the weft thread or shoot is wound on a quill and placed
in a shuttle, which is thrown from side to side of the fabric through the
shed or opening formed by the warp threads, and the weft thread or shoot is
thereby laid across or deposited in the shed.
The present Invention has for its object to dispense with this shuttle
arrangement, and in place thereof the weft thread or shoot is wound upon a
large bobbin, spool, or reel, which will contain enough material to last for a
week or ten days, and is placed in any convenient part of the machine, so
that the thread may be drawn off as the weaving operation proceeds.
The weft thread is conducted from the bobbin or spool through a clamping
apparatus, hereafter more particularly referred to, and also through an
adjustable tension eye for the purpose of regulating the strain on the weft
thread and the amount of thread that is drawn off the bobbin for each shoot. :
The clamping apparatus is adjustable so that the clamp is capable of being

page_text: closed at any time required. In combination with this clamping apparatus
I employ an adjustable tension eye, as already mentioned; this tension eye is
fixed on an arm which is pivoted to the framework or some other convenient
part of the machine, so that it may be turned on the pivot as a centre. A
graduated sector may be adapted to this arm, if desired, so that the attendant
may at once set the tension eye to any desired point according to the length
or quantity of weft thread it may be desired to draw or measure off from the
spool or bobbin. This tension eye may either be set at a given point, so as
always to take up an uniform quantity of thread, or it may be made to move
periodically or intermittently, so as to take up varying quantities, and thereby
produce an ornamental edging to the fabric. By means of this adjustable
tension eye the quantity of thread drawn off from the bobbin for each shoot
may be measured with the greatest accuracy, and therefore the width of the
fabric may be regulated to a nicety, as the apparatus may be adjusted to suit
any description of work. The thread, after passing through the tension eye,
is conducted to the rear end of a thread carrier, whereby the weft thread is
introduced or passed into the shed. The thread carrier consists of an arm or
wire long enough to extend across the shed, and has a groove made along its
side to receive the thread, which is also passed through an eye at the other
end of the thread carrier; this end of the thread carrier is bent round into a
hook shape, so as to cause the thread to form a loop at the end of the carrier.
This thread carrier is mounted on a reciprocating bar or rod extending across
the machine, and actuated by a cam or other suitable mechanism, whereby it
receives a to-and-fro motion which will cause the thread carrier to pass in and
out of the shed. Besides this reciprocating motion, the carrier bar has a
slight rocking motion on its axis; this motion is imparted to it by a stationary
cam piece, against the edge of which an arm keyed on to the thread carrier
bar bears as it is reciprocated to and fro. This rocking motion of the thread
carrier bar is for the purpose of directing the thread carrier into the shed in
the most suitable manner for forming a good selvage. It will now be under-
stood that the thread carrier will carry a thread from the large spool or
bobbin above into the shed in which it will leave the weft or shoot, which is
secured therein by another thread which may be called the seaming or selvage
thread. This thread is contained in a small shuttle mounted in a vibrating
arm, and is made to move up and down in a vertical direction through the
loop that is formed by the weft thread at the hooked end of the thread
carrier. This seaming or selvage thread, by passing through the looped end
of the weft thread or shoot, will prevent the latter from being drawn out, but
the tension thereon is capable of being so regulated and arranged, that at

page_text: every alternate shoot the weft thread is left slack, by leaving the clamping
apparatus open so as to admit of the thread being pulled round the outermost
warp thread or strand, so as to form a good and round selvage in elastic
fabrics. At the next shoot the clamp will be closed on the weft thread so as
to hold it tight, and thereby tighten the selvage between the first and second
rubber strands in elastic fabrics, and cause the two weft threads to be seamed
together by the shuttle thread; on the other side or edge of the fabric the
selvage will be made in the ordinary manner by the change of the shed.
making plain fabrics, the loop at the end of the weft thread or shoot must not
be left loose, but the tension must be so regulated that the seaming thread
will lie along the edge or selvage of the fabric in nearly a straight line instead
of being pulled over and round the outermost warp thread or strand, and
thereby forming a round selvage, as is required in elastic fabrics.
In
The motions for delivering the warp from the warp beam, for taking up the
work on the work beam, for forming the shed, and for working the slay or
batten, may be of the kinds usually adopted for such purposes, or any other
arrangement that may be found convenient may be employed for the purpose.
The shuttle which carries the thread for securing the weft thread or shoot is
mounted in a vibrating arm, which comes forward to pass the thread through
the loop of the shoot, but retreats when the slay or batten comes forward to
beat up. The shuttle is moved vertically up and down by means of a kind of
rocking peg motion which is mounted at the end of the vibrating arm. For
some descriptions of fabrics I propose and find it convenient to use two
thread carriers and shoots and two shuttles with binding threads; these two
thread carriers and their appendages may either be made to work alternately
from opposite sides of the fabric, or they may be made to work both from the
same side of the fabric.
It will be evident that by using weft threads or shoots of different colours
in the two carriers, one side of the fabric may be made of one colour and the
other side of a different colour; this will produce the same appearance on the
fabric as is now effected by the use of two shuttles.