CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR MACHINERY FOR MAKING LACE, COMMONLY CALLED BOBBIN NET
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BLACKWELL and THOMAS ALCOCK, both of Claines, in the County of Worcester,
Machine Makers, and Lace or Bobbin Net Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing dato at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of January, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Blackwell and Thomas Alcock, His special licence, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said John Blackwell and Thomas Alcock, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Blackwell and
Thomas Alcock, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR MACHINERY FOR MAKING
LACE, COMMONLY CALLED BOBBIN NET;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that we, the said John Blackwell and Thomas Alcock, or
one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next

page_text: and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Blackwell and Thomas Alcock, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, is
particularly described and ascertained by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our Improvements in Machinery for Making Bobbin Net Lace apply to
that particular kind or construction of machines commonly called or known by
the name of the Lever's principle, and which machines are by us intended to be
worked by the agency of a revolving shaft driven by the hand of the workman,
or by any other suitable rotatory power. These improvements consist in the
following contrivances (viz.) :-
First, a new method of working the landing bars of the machine by means
of certain vibrating levers and connecting rods, actuated by a revolving cam
or eccentric roller, or a sort of zigzag groove formed in the face of a wheel or
revolving plate. And,
Secondly, a new method of working the dividing bars or pusher bars by
means of compound levers, on the lazy tongs principle, which are actuated by
a revolving cam connected to the driving part of the machine; which objects
will be fully understood by every person conversant with the construction and
operation of the Lever's machines.
To render these contrivances perfectly evident, we subjoin Drawings to the
Specification, exhibiting our Inventions in several Figures, shewing tho
connection of the new and the old parts, and the manner in which they act
together.
Figure I. is a front elevation of a Lever's machine with the improvement
adapted thereto. Figure II. is an end elevation of the same. Figure III.
is a vertical section, taken transversely through the machine at about two feet.
from the right-hand end, the several letters of reference indicating the
same parts of the machine in all the Figures.
a, a, are two short axles mounted on standards on the front posts of the
wood frame toward the ends of the machine. To these axles, which are
concentric with each other, the driving handle is attached, and by the rotation
of these short axles all the movements of the machine are effected. At the
outer extremity of each of the axles a, a, a, a toothed wheel b, b, is affixed,
which respectively take into larger toothed wheels c, c, upon the ends of the

page_text: main shaft d, d, which extends horizontally the whole length of the machine;
it is therefore by the connection of this toothed gear that the main shaft d, d,
is driven. Towards the right-hand end of the main shaft, near its extremity,
the wheel c with the eccentric or zigzag groove is affixed, for the purpose of
working the landing bars, as above said. This wheel is best seen in the end
view, Figure II. Contiguous to the zigzag wheel a vertical lever f is mounted
upon a fulcrum pivot g, which enables it to vibrate. In the side of this lever
a pin is fixed, which carries a friction roller h that works in the eccentric or
zigzag groove of the wheel e, and consequently, as the wheel goes round, the
lever f vibrates to and fro. At the upper extremity of the lever f a short rod i
connects the said lever to the crank arm j, fixed on the end of a horizontal
shaft k, which extends nearly half way along the back part of the machine.
At the reverse end of the shaft k another crank arm is fixed, which by
means of a rod m is connected to the back landing barn (that and the front
landing bar being connected together by the ordinary goose-necked tacklo).
Hence it will be perceived that the vibrations of the lever factuated by the
zigzag grooved wheel c, give those successive movements to the landing bars
which in ordinary Lever's machines are effected by the workman raising the
handles affixed to the front landing bars, the object and effect of which is so
well understood that we need not further explain it. Upon the main shaft d,
near the center of the machine, the cam or eccentric roller o is fixed, on the
periphery of which a tooth z entending from the under part of a lever pis
intended to work as the cam goes round; this is for the purpose of moving
the pusher bars, which divide the bobbin carriages after every fourth stroke of
the landing bars, an operation which in ordinary Lever's machines is performed
by the foot of the workman pressed upon the treadle below. From the acting
extremity of the lever p two rods or arms 9, 9, extend, and at their upper
ends are jointed to bent levers r, r, r, r, which have their fulcrums s, s, on the
same axles as the pusher bars t, t; the pusher bars necessarily rise and fall with
the landing bars, as in ordinary Lever's machines, but it is only after every
fourth stroke of the landing bars that the pushers are to be brought into
operation. This is effected when the elevated part of the cam o comes round,
as shewn in Figure III., at which time the lever p is raised, and with it the
rods 9, 9, which expand the joints at the tails of the bent levers r, r, and cause
their upper ends at u, u, to press against the backs of the pusher bars and
force the pushers in, by which means the carriages are divided. This takes
place at the time that the landing bars are finishing their fourth stroke. The
particular form in which we recommend the cam o to be made is shewn in
Figure III.
When the tooth of the lever p has risen to the highest point

page_text: of the cam o, it passes down the first short inclined plane for the purpose of
bringing the ends u, u, of the levers r, r, gently into contact with the pusher
bars, in order to avoid concussion; and when the ends of the levers have been
thus brought into contact with the pusher bars as the tooth travels upon
the small concentric segment of the cam o, the joints of the levers q, r, remain
nearly stationary, and the pushers are pressed in to divide the carriages by the
closing of the landing bars. At this time the two catch bars v, v, falling
into the ears of the bobbin carriages for the purpose of locking them,
as it is commonly called, it is necessary to ease the descent, in order
to prevent concussion, which we do by the employment of a small
apparatus acting under each of the catch bars, shewn as at w, w,
Figure III., which resembles a pair of pliers or the bills of a duck. The
lower chap is fixed to its standard; the upper one opens upon a joint having a
lever tail with a helical spring acting to keep the chaps open. One of each
of these apparatus are mounted upon each of the pusher bars, and when the
pushers are pressed into to divide the carriages, the nose of each of these pliers
are carried under the catch bars, and when the catch bars fall as above said,
the upper chaps of the open bills receive them and allow of their descending
gently by the resistance of the springs, and then by resting upon the closed
bills are prevented from falling upon the pushers, which lie under them; when
the bills w, w, have by these means become closed, the time has arrived for the
tooth to pass down the second inclined plane of the cam o, which causes the
joints of the levers q, r, to descend and allow of the pusher bars drawing out
from under the catch bars, which is effected by helical springs adapted to each
of the pusher bars in the same way as the back pusher bar is drawn back in
the ordinary Lever's machine. It is necessary that the landing bars should be
stationary at the time that the pushers are drawn from under the catch bars,
and in order to effect this a portion of the cam or zigzag groove of the wheel e
is removed or cut away, as shewn at x in Figure II., which allows the wheel
to turn through a small part of its rotation without moving the lever f; this
point of the cam or zigzag wheel e is made shorter than the other three, in
order that the landing bars at that time may only go in as far as the locking
place in the ordinary Lever's machine. The working of the point bars is effected
by the rotation of the small toothed wheel at the left-hand end of the main
shaft d which drives a large wheel on the back horizontal shaft y; this shaft
has two wipers acting against the ends of the picker levers, which lift the tail
poles of the point bars, as shewn in the section Figure III., but this part of
the machine we do not claim; our Invention consisting in the new method or
mechanism for working the landing bars and the pusher bars as above described,

page_text: which method and mechanism we believe to be perfectly new, and never before
employed or adapted to a lace machine constructed upon the Lever's principle.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Blackwell and Thomas Alcock,
have hereunto set our hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.