IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Helm, of Padiham, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR
WEAVING."
Scaled the 12th August 1873, and dated the 24th June 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Helm
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th June 1873.
I, WILLIAM HENRY HELM, of Padiham, in the County of Lancaster,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “ ImPROVEMENTS
IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING;" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the method of working the healds in power
looms, and consists principally in dispensing with the tappets and
treadles, and in connecting the front and back healds together at the
bottom by means of straps attached to and passing round rollers fixed

page_text: upon a shaft in a similar manner to those ordinarily employed above the
healds.
Upon the lower heald roller shaft there is keyed an additional roller
to which are attached two chains, cords, or bands, which work at right
angles to the healds (that is horizontally), and are attached by screwed
hooks to a bracket of a cruiform shape.. This bracket slides horizontally
in bearings attached to the loom frame and is provided with a vertical
slot in which works a pin attached to the face of a spur wheel, which is
in gear with a similar wheel of the same diameter keyed upon the
tappet shaft. As the pin is carried round by the spur wheel it slides
the bracket to and fro horizontally, and the chains, cords, or bands
connected to the latter cause the lower heald roller shaft to perform a
revolution first in one direction and then in the other, and thus the
requisite motion is communicated to the healds. The substitution of
this motion for the tappets will be found to produce a steadier movement
of the healds, there will be less shock and strain upon the warp in the
changes for the up to the down motion and vice versa, and the healds
are entirely relieved from the weight of the treadles.
It will be evident that the alternate revolving motion may be com-
municated to the lower heald roller shaft from the tappet shaft by other
equivalent mechanical means if preferred.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Helm in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY HELM, of Padiham, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Henry Helm, Her special
license that I, the said William Henry Helm, my executors, adminis-.
t

page_text: and for the purposes herein-before set forth and described, or by any
equivalent mechanical means.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Helm, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
WILLIAM HENRY HELM. (L.S.)