AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING ARRANGE MENT OF MECHANISM FOR SUPPLYING WEFT WITHOUT STOPPAGE TO LOOMS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Maynes, of the City of Manchester,
Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING ARRANGE
MENT OF MECHANISM FOR SUPPLYING WEFT WITHOUT STOPPAGE TO LOOMS."
Sealed the 9th March 1869, and dated the 10th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Maynes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th September 1868.
I, JOHN MAYNES, of the City of Manchester, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING
ARRANGEMENT OF MECHANISM FOR SUPPLYING WEFT WITHOUT STOPPAGE TO LOOMS,"
to be as follows:
: 1
This Invention has for its object improvements applicable to new or
existing over or under pick looms for changing the shuttles, either to
replenish weft or in case of breakage of the weft, so that the weaving
operation may be continued, and the changing of shuttles take place
without stopping the loom, whereby a great saving of time is effected.
Price 8d.1

page_text: Now this Invention consists in an arrangement of mechanism applied
to the loom for changing the shuttles at one and the same end of the
slay, viz., the shuttle carrying the broken or exhausted weft leaves the
shuttle box, and the fresh weft is supplied to the same shuttle box
instantaneously and without reducing the speed of the loom, the essential
advantages of this arrangement being that the outcoming shuttle drives
the picker to the extreme or back end of the lathe or shuttle box so as to
be quite out of the way of the incoming shuttle, and this without the
necessity of having some special mechanism for the purpose, and the
outcoming shuttle is forced out of the shuttle box without the aid of and
quite independant of the picker.
For the purposes of this Invention the weft fork works at the opposite
end of the loom to that at which the ordinary spring lever is fixed for
setting on the loom, and we employ a bar which slides in connection with
a rocking bracket, so that when the weft breaks or fails in supply such
rocking bracket is placed in a vertical position, in order to act upon a
bowl situated at the extremity of an arm branching from a shaft
working at the back of the shuttle box, which causes the front of the
shuttle box to be lowered, at the same time a pawl mounted upon the
sword arm comes in contact with a double lever working upon a fixed
stud, and thus depresses a hinged shell upon which the new shuttle has
previously been laid by the hand of the weaver, meanwhile the shuttle
containing the broken or exhausted weft has been compelled to leave the
shuttle box by the action of two springs, oue working upon the ordinary
swell, and the other acting upon the side of the shuttle between the
swell and the picker, and thus the empty shuttle is deposited into a
trough provided for the purpose, and the incoming shuttle by the action
of the lever causing it to slide sideways aloug, the hinged shelf is now
deposited in its place before the slay begins to recede, when the shuttle
box front rises to its full height instantaneously in consequence of the
sliding bar having receded by the action of a cam upon the tappet shaft
carrying the rocket bracket into an oblique position, so that the slay
passes backwards & forwards over it without touching until another
breakage or absence of weft occurs, when the same operation is repeated.
The changing of shuttles takes place about the front or dead centre of
the crank shaft, and the whole change is effected in a little more than a
quarter of a revolution of the crank shaft.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.
filed by the said John Maynes in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th March 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MAYNES, of the City of Manchester, Engineer, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Maynes, Her special licence
that I, the said John Maynes, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Maynes, my executors,
administratore, 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 "AN IMPROVED SELF.
ACTING ARRANGEMENT OF MECHANISM FOR SUPPLYING WEFT WITHOUT STOPPAGE TO
Looms," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Maynes, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing.
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Maynes, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, aud in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This Invention has for its object improvements applicable to new or
existing over or under pick looms for changing the shuttles, either
to replenish weft or in case of breakage of the weft, so that the
weaving operation may be continued, and the change of shuttles take
place without stopping the loom, whereby a great saving of time is
effected

page_text: Now this Invention cousists in an arrangement of mechanism applied
to the loom for changing the shuttles at one and the same end of the slay,
namely the shuttle carrying the broken or exhausted weft leaves the
shuttle box, and the fresh weft is supplied to the same shuttle box
instantaneously and without reducing the speed of the loom, the essential
advantages of this arrangement being that the outcoming shuttle
drives the picker to the extreme or back end of the lathe or shuttle box
so as to be quite out of the way of the incoming shuttle, and this without
the necessity of having some special mechanism for the purpose, and the
outcoming shuttle is forced out of the shuttle box without the aid of and
quite independent of the picker.
•
For the purposes of this Invention the weft fork works at the opposite
end of the loom to that at which the, ordinary spring lever is fixed for
setting on the loom, and I employ a bar which slides in connection with
a rocking bracket, so that when the weft breaks or fails in supply such
rocking bracket is placed in a vertical position in order to act upon a
bowl situated at the extremity of an arm branching from a shaft working
at the back of the shuttle box, which causes. the front of the shuttle box
to be lowered or pushed forwards towards the breast beam, at the same
time a pawl or bolt mounted upon the sword arm comes in contact with
a double lever working upon a fixed stud, and thus depresses a hinged
shelf upon which the new shuttle has been previously laid by the hand
of the weaver, meanwhile the shuttle containing the broken or exhausted
weft has been compelled to leave the shuttle box by the action of two
springs, one working upon the ordinary swell, and the other acting upon
the side of the shuttle between the swell and the picker or by the
action of the swell, itself, and thus the empty shuttle is deposited into
a trough provided for the purpose and, the incoming shuttle by the
action of the lever causing it to slide sideways along the hinged shelf,
is now deposited in its place before the slay begins to recede, when the
shuttle box front rises to its full height or assumes its original position
instantaneously in consequence of the rocking bracket having fallen into
an oblique position, so that the slay passes backwards and forwards over it
without touching until another breakage or absence of weft occurs, when
the same operation is repeated.
In order that this my said Invention may be the more readily seen
and understood, I have hereunto annexed a Sheet of Drawings illustrating
various. modifications of my improved self-acting weft supplying

page_text: mechanism applied to an ordinary loom.
Similar letters and figures
are used to denote similar parts in all the views.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a loom; Fig. 2 is a sectional
view of the side of such loom seen from the inner side of the left hand
framework; and Fig. 3 is the other or outer side of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a plan
of Figs. 1, 2, and 3. In all the preceding views, namely, Figs. 1, 2, 3,
and 4, the loom is represented with the self-acting weft supplying
mechanism out of gear; but in Fig. 5, which represents the same view as
Fig. 2, the self-acting weft supplying mechanism is seen in the act of
placing a new shuttle in the left-hand shuttle box, the empty shuttle
having fallen into a trough provided for the purpose as herein-after
described; Fig. 6 is a back view, and Fig. 7, a front view of the shuttle
box in which the change of shuttles takes place.
A, A, represents the frame side; B, the breast beam; C, the crank
shaft; D, D, the sword arms; E, the lathe or slay; F and F1, the shuttle
boxes, and G the tappet shaft; H is the weft fork mounted upon the
lever I, upon a stud which also carries the weft fork hammer, and is
situated at the opposite side of the loom to that at which the ordinary
spring lever J is situated for setting on the loom. The lever I (a side view
of which is seen separately at Fig. 1") has a stud or pin fixed in its side
which works against an arm K branching from the rod L which is fixed
under the breast beam or across the front of the loom in bearings in each
side of the framework, and has secured upon its extremity on the outside
of the framework a double lever M, one arm of such lever passes through
the breast beam B so as to act upon the knock-off .lever (N) in connection'
with the spring lever J' used for stopping the loom, and the other arm,
of the lever M' is arranged to be in contact with the end of the bar O
which is linked to the rocking bracket P at one endi and when in
position has its other extremity resting upon the bracket (Q); Ris a link
rod passing through the breast beam B between the lever M'aud the
knock-off lever N, leaving sufficient space for the lever M to work freely
when such rod R is raised and connected at its lower end to the bar O
This link rod is arranged with a wedge-shaped swell'(S)'at its upper end,
which when an absence of weft occurs and the bar O is pushed 'down
off the bracket Q as- herein-after described falls between the knock-off
lever N, and the upper extremity of the lever M; and thus wedges 'them
together, so that should the. weaver not. have. placed. the changing
mechanism in gear again by placing the end of the bar O upon the

page_text: bracket Q and raising the link rod R, the loom will be stopped at the
next occurrence of absence of weft. At the back of the shuttle box F
is situated a shaft T to which an arm or arms U are affixed for lowering
the front of the shuttle box V by the bowl W upon the short arm ✗
fixed upon the same shaft T coming in contact with the upper edge of
the rocking bracket P, and being thereby depressed so as to partially
turn the shaft T in its bearing as the slay E passes over such rocking
bracket when in a vertical position, which rocking bracket may be held
in that position until the slay begins to recede by the catch Y laying
hold of the stud Z, and the proper position of the shaft T is ensured by
the spring a attached at one end to the short arm X, and at the other
to the sword arm 1). 6 is the swell in the shuttle box F which hinges
in which the pin o
or is mounted upon a pin c, the hole in the swell
works being elongated so as to allow that end of the swell to advance a
little when a change of shuttles is required in order to release the shuttle
from the picker d before forcing it out of the shuttle box F, which is
effected by the cranked arme working loose upon the shaft T but held
in position by a cotter pin f which also passes through a drawn or clon-
gated hole g in the boss of such cranked arm so as to allow the shaft T
partially to revolve without affecting the cranked arm e; the sliding
front V of the shuttle box F in lowering comes in contact with a spring
bolt and lowers it at the same time as the slay approaches the front
centre so as to strike against the set screw i at the end of the lever j
mounted upon the short arm of the lever K working upon a stud / on
the framework; the longer arm of the
two studs n fixed on its under side, and
to the back of the breast beam B a shelf
upon its under side so as to keep it up in
to the lever ; q is a trough fixed at the
formed of leather or other suitable material into which the empty shuttle
falls. The double-armed lever k may be mounted on a stud fixed to
the frame side, but it is preferred to mount it on a stud branching from
a spring lever which works upon a stud on the frame side between
the studs s and t, but held against the stud t by the spring u unless by
some accident two shuttles attempt to get into the shuttle box F together,
when the spring u yields, and thus prevents a breakage which might
otherwise take place in some part of the loom.
lever k carries a plate m and
beneath the plate m is hinged
which has a spring P pressing
contact with the plate m affixed
back of the breast beam and

page_text: mechanism. The shuttle containing the fresh weft is placed by the
hand of the weaver upon the hinged shelf o between such shelf and the
plate m and is held between them by the action of the spring p. The
loom now being set in motion, the weft fork H in the case of breakage
or absence of weft acts upon the arm K by means of the lever I, and
thus causes the rod L to turn partially upon. its axis; this gives motion
at the same time to the lever M, the lower arm of which pushes the
bar o off the bracket Q, and thus puts the rocking bracket P in a vertical
position where it may be held by the catch Y laying hold of the stud Z,
or as hereafter described; the rocking bracket P may be actuated as
seen in Fig. 5, in which is a sliding bar having two lugs (w and a) at
one end, between which the bowl y upon the tappet shaft (z) passes so long
as a change of shuttles is not necessary, but such sliding bar v is pushed
towards the tappet shaft z by the lever M, when a change of shuttles is
required, and then the bowl y passes on the outside of the lug w so as to
hold the rocking bracket P (which is connected to the sliding bar by a
stud 1 passing through the slot 2) in a vertical position until the change
of shuttles is effected, when the eccentric 3 on the tappet shaft carries
the bar back again, and thus lowers the rocking bracket into an oblique
position, the rod R being linked to the end 4 of such sliding bar, which
end 4 falls down every time the changing mechanism is brought into
action. The slay E meanwhile advances towards the front centre, and
in doing so the short arm X of the shaft T comes in contact with the
top or upper edge of the rocking bracket P, and thus causes the shaft T
to turn in its bearing, and by means of the arm or arms U to lower the
shuttle box front V which also depresses the spring bolt h. As the slay
proceeds on its way towards the front centre, the picker / is driven to
the end of the shuttle box F, and the cranked arm e pushes against
the swell b, which in its turn presses upon the outcoming shuttle and
releases it from the picker d, and then the swell b is pushed across the
shuttle box, being prevented coming too far by a stop, and thus forces the
shuttle out bodily into the trough a before the incoming shuttle has
approached the slay sufficiently near to be deposited in the empty shuttle
box. (The precise action of the swell 6 in discharging the shuttle is
illustrated in plan in Fig. 8, which shews the swell 6 pushed across the
shuttle box, and the outcoming shuttle just ready to be deposited in the
trough . The outcoming shuttle may be discharged from the shuttle box
by means of springs secured upon the arm e shewn in Fig. 9, a sectional
plan, and Fig. 10, a back view, in which e represents the arm branching

page_text: seen in
from the shaft T, which in this modification is not cranked but shortened,
and has two springs secured upon its extremity, one 9 being carried
through the back of the shuttle box so as to act upon the end of the
outcoming shuttle and release it from the picker, and the other 10
pressing upon the swell 6). By this time the spring bolt h has come in
contact with the set screw i, and caused the longer arm of the lever k to
be depressed, and the hinged shelf o to be lowered towards the approaching
slay, carrying the incoming shuttle forwards until it is received upon the
swell 6, where it is held suspended between such swell and the studs n
upon the plate m until the hinged shelf springs up against the under side
of the plate m and lies quite close to it, for which purpose slots' may be
cut across the hinged shelf to allow the studs to pass through; at this time
the cranked arm e slightly recedes by the bowl on the short arm X
having just passed over the top of the rocking bracket P as
Fig. 5 so as to allow the shuttle to be fully deposited at the bottom of
the shuttle box, the pressure of the finger (5) pressing upon the back
of the swell 6 being taken off by the ordinary frog (6) being made full
or level for the purpose, or a stud on the arm U may be arranged to
come in contact with an arm 7 branching from the tab (8) see Fig. 2, in
order to lift it up as the shuttle box front lowers, and thus the shuttle is
prevented rising with the shuttle box front, in which slots are formed to
allow it to rise to a certain height without coming in contact with the
studs upon the plate m, and thus to retain the shuttle in the shuttle
box until the slay begins to recede, when the shuttle box front V rises
to its full height instantaneously in consequence of the rocking bracket P
having fallen into an oblique position, when the slay passes backwards
and forwards over it without touching until another breakage or absence
of weft occurs, when the same operation is repeated.
In place of lowering the shuttle box front to discharge the outcoming
shuttle, I also arrange to push such front forwards, namely, towards the
breast beam, by means of guide rods connected to arms branching from
the shaft T situated at the back of the shuttle box F, this allows the
swell to push forwards the outcoming shuttle, which is then depressed
into the trough q by ribs on the under side of the hinged shelf o. It
will thus be seen that the change of shuttles takes place about the
front or dead centre of the crank shaft, and at one and the same end of
the slay, and that the loom is stopped self-actingly if the weaver fails to
place a fresh shuttle upon the hinged shelf or neglect to raise the link

page_text: rod R, and put the changing mechanism in gear by placing the bar
upon the bracket in contact with the lower arm.
Although the Drawing represents the self-charging mechanism on the
left-hand side of the loom, it will be readily apparent that it would work
equally on the right-hand side.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this
my said Invention, together with the best means with which I am
acquainted for carrying the same into practical effect, I wish it to be
distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details,
relative proportions, and dimensions herein-before described and illustrated,
as the same may be considerably varied without departing from the
Invention, nor do I lay any claim to the rod or weft fork arrangement
nor to the mechanism for lowering the shuttle box front, but what I do
claim is the use and application to over and under pick looms of
the combination and arrangement of mechanism for discharging the
empty or exhausted shuttle into a trough situated beneath the hinged
shelf, on which the incoming shuttle is placed without requiring any
special mechanism to drive the picker out of the way of the incoming
shuttle, and the combination and arrangement of mechanism for placing
the incoming shuttle on the same shuttle box at or about the front centre
and without reducing the speed of the loom, as herein-before described
and illustrated or any mere modification of the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Maynes, have hereunto set
my hand and affixed my seal, this Ninth day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.