IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE OR LOOPED FABRICS ON WARP LACE MACHINES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Smedley and Abraham Smedley, of the
Firm of Messieurs John Smedley and Sons, of the Town and County of
the Town of Nottingham, and of Sandiacre, in the County of Derby,
Tatting and Lace Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE OR LOOPED
FABRICS ON WARP LACE MACHINES."
Sealed the 12th June 1863, and dated the 16th December 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Smedley and
Abraham Smedley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 16th December 1862.
We, WILLIAM SMEDLEY and ABRAHAM SMEDLEY, of the Firm of Messieurs
John Smedley and Sons, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
and of Sandiacre, in the County of Derby, Tatting and Lace Manufacturers,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE OR LOOPED FABRICS
ON WARP LACE MACHINES," to be as follows:-
Our improvements consist in the employment of a stump guide or guides

page_text: in addition to the guide or guides heretofore used in warp lace machines, such
stump guide we employ to each guide in one or more of the common guide
bars at present used in the ordinary warp machine. These stump guides
we attach to a bar or bars additional to those in present use, or we cast the
stumps in leads and screw the leads to a bar or bars, and attach such bar or
bars to a common guide bar or bars in such manner that the two bars will
move simultaneously, such movements being effected either by a wheel or
wheels, or by it or their equivalent or by a jacquard at either end of the
machine, or we may, instead of attaching the stump guides to a separate bar
or bars, attach them to the same bar or bars as carry the common guide, or
we may cast them in leads and screw the leads to the upper or lower side of
the common guide bars, or we sometimes cast both the common guides and
stump guides in the same lead, and screw the leads to one or more guide bars.
We also propose to use both stump guides and common guides, whether they
be made straight or in a bended form, at any required angle, or whether one
of these guides be made straight and the other bent, in either case, however,
they are combined in the following manner:-Each stump guide is somewhat
shorter than the ordinary or common guide, and on one side of the stump
guide is a groove, this groove is made on that side of the hole nearest the bar
to which it is secured, or in the lead in which it is cast; a string lies in the
groove, the end of this string being passed through the hole in the stump
guide, is also attached to the common guide, which has a notch or notches or
a swelling in it near the hole end of the guide, the other end of the string is
secured to a short elastic spring, the string which is attached to the guide and
spring is passed through a sley or sleys and under or over one or more rollers.
The spring has a string attached to the other end, which said string is also
attached to a jacquard.
The guide operates in the following manner:-The card having made a
selection of the wires and the jacquard having lifted the strings, will move the
guides to the right or left as required, by which means we are enabled to lay
the thread of one or more guides to the right or left of one or more of the
.needles as may be required.
:
We use either of the above arrangements in warp machines having either
a stationary or moveable needle bar.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Smedley and Abraham Smedley in. the Great Seal
Patent Office on the. 16th June 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
SMEDLEY and ABRAHAM SMEDLEY, of the Firm of Messieurs John Smedley
and Sons, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, and of
Sandiacre, in the County of Derby, Tatting and Lace Manufacturers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William Smedley and Abraham Smedley, Her special licence that
we, the said William Smedley and Abraham Smedley, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Smedley
and Abraham Smedley, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE OR
LOOPED FABRICS ON WARP LACE MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said William Smedley and Abraham Smedley, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our 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 we, the said William Smedley and Abraham
Smedley, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that
is to say:-
Our improvements relate to the employment of a stump guide or stump
guides in addition to the guide or guides at present used in warp lace machines.

page_text: 1. ...
We employ one such stump guide to each of the guides in present use in
ordinary warp machines (that is to say, the guides carried by one or more of
the common guide bars in such machines), and we attach the stump guides
to an additional bar or bars, that is to say, to a bar or bars employed in
addition to the bars in present use; or we cast the stump guides in leads,
and screw the leads to a bar or bars, which we attach to a common guide
bar or bars in such manner that the two bars will move simultaneously; such
movements are effected by a wheel or wheels, or by equivalent contrivances,
or by a jacquard at either end of the machine. Sometimes instead of attaching
the stump guides to additional bars, we attach them to the same bars as those
which carry the common guides, or sometimes we cast them in leads and
screw the leads to the upper or lower side of the common guide bars, or we
sometimes cast both the common guides and stump guides in the same lead,
and screw the leads to one or more guide bars. Both stump guides and
common guides may be straight or bent at any required angle, or the stump
guides may be made straight and the common guides bent, or vice versa. In
either case, however, they are combined in the following manner:-Each stump
guide is somewhat shorter than the ordinary or common guide, and on one
side of the stump guide is a groove, this groove is made on the side of the
hole nearest the bar to which it is secured or in the lead in which it is cast.
A string lies in the groove; the end of this string is passed through the hole
in the stump guide, and is also attached to the common guide, which has a
notch or notches in it, or a swelling on it near the hole end of the guide, the
other end of the string is secured to a short elastic spring; the string which
is attached to the guide and spring is passed through a sley or sleys, and
under or over one or more rollers. The spring has a string attached to the
other end, which string is also attached to a jacquard.
The guide operates in the following manner:-The card having made a
selection of the wires, and the jacquard having lifted, the strings will move
the guides to the right or left as required, by which means the threads of one
or more guides may be laid to the right or left of one or more of the needles
as may be required.
We use either of the above arrangements in warp machines having either a
stationary or moveable needle bar.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we now proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: Figure 1, Sheet 1, is a sectional view of a portion of a warp machine, the
several parts thereof being shewn the full size.
Figure 2, Sheet 2, is a sectional view of the machine on a scale of half the
full size.
Some of the parts shewn in Figure 1 are also shewn here, as also the arrange-
ment of the warp beams and a portion of the thread spoles from which the
guides are supplied. Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent the wheels which give
the requisite movements to the several bars; Figures 7 and 11 are plans of
two of the sleys herein-after referred to; Figure 8 is a plan of the stump
guide; and Figures 9 and 10, plans of one lead of the bent and straight spring
guide respectively.
The corresponding parts in each Figure are lettered alike. A, A, are stump
guides, which we employ in addition to the guides at present used in warp lace
machines; C are the spring guide bars of the ordinary guides; we apply one
such stump A to each guide carried by one or more of the spring guide
bars C. We attach the stump guides A to an additional bar or bars B, or we
cast the said stump guides in leads, which we screw to the bars C of the
spring guides in such manner that the two bars will move simultaneously; the
stump guide bar B and the spring guide bar C may be secured together at
back by a brace D, or by other convenient means. The movements of the bars
are effected by wheels or equivalent contrivances, or by a jacquard at either
end of the machine. Instead of attaching the stump guides to an additional
bar or bars B, as shewn, we sometimes attach them to the spring guide
bars C, or we cast them in leads, which we screw to the upper or lower side of
the bars C. The stump guides and spring guides may be straight or bent at an
angle, or the stump guides straight and the spring guides bent, or vice versa.
Each stump guide is somewhat shorter than the corresponding spring guide,
and has near the end a hole somewhat larger than the hole in the spring guide.
On one side of the stump guide is a groove on the side of the hole nearest the
bar to which it is secured or to the lead in which it is cast. In this groove lies
a string, one end of which is passed through the. hole in the stump guide to
a nick or nicks, in or on a swelling on the spring guide near the hole end of
the guide, such swelling is shewn on the guides in Figure 9, Sheet 3. The end
of the string which passes through the hole in the stump guide is secured to
the bent or straight guide, and the other end of the string is passed under one
of the rollers E, and up through a sley F attached to a bar secured to the hand

page_text: bar of the machine, above which the other end is secured to one end of a short
elastic spring G; the other end of this spring is secured to a string attached
to a jacquard or equivalent contrivance. The guide operates thus:-The card
having made a selection, and the jacquard having lifted, the strings move the
spring guides to the right or left, according as the strings are passed from the
left or right through the holes in the stump bar, by which means the. threads
of one or more guides may be laid to the right or left of one or more needles
as required; such movements of the guides are in addition to and work with
the movement of the guides effected by the traversing of the bars or by the
wheels or other equivalent contrivances. The guide bar H carries a full set of
guides; one lead of such guides is shewn at Figure 10, Sheet 3. The guide
bar I has one guide to each breadth of fabric to be produced; the threads
passing through these guides form the lacing threads, which connect the several
breadths together. The guides on the bar H are supplied with threads from
the warp beams numbered 1, 2, 3. The warp beam, numbered 4, supplies
threads to the guides on the bar I. The threads from the several beams pass
over the rollers H', H', and through the sley K to the guides in the pillar
bar H, and over the roller H2, to the guides on the bar I. The guides, on the
bars C are supplied with threads which pass over the rollers H³, under the
roller H, through the sley L, from the spoles 0; between the roller H and
sley Leach thread passes through a short link M, attached to a string having
a weight or lever N at the lower end, which pulls down any slackness of thread
that may occur during the movement of the machine; P is the needle, which
may be attached to a fixed or moveable needle bar; Q is the sinker attached
to the sinker bar, and R is the presser bar; the several movements com-
municated to these bars will depend upon the needle bar being fixed or move-
able; the pillar wheel, Figure 3, Sheet 3, moves the bottom guide bar H. The
wheel, Figure 4 moves the bottom spring guide bar C. The wheel, Figure 5,
moves the top spring guide bar C, and the wheel, Figure 6, moves the guide I.
These wheels are all secured upon one spindle, and they revolve simultaneously
yet intermittently, being moved by arms upon the cam shaft at the back of the
machine, which arms work a bevil wheel gearing into a similar wheel upon
the end of the wheel spindle; the cam shaft revolves twice during one revolution
of the wheel spindle.
In the above description we have explained our improvements as working
in combination with two common guide bars, and we have shewn two spring
guide bars, but we sometimes use one spring guide bar working in conjunction
with one or more common guide bars, and sometimes we use more than two

page_text: spring guide bars working in conjunction with one or more common guide bars,
as required.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, we declare that we claim,—
First, the employment of stump guides in the manner described.
Second, the general arrangement and combination of parts constituting the
improved machine herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Smedley, for myself and on behalf
of the said Abraham Smedley, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
GEO. JON. ROBINSON,
Patent Office,
Nottingham.
WILLIAM SMEDLEY. (L.S.)