Improvements in Jacquard Card Punching Machines.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 17th June, 1892-Accepted, 23rd July, 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Jacquard Card Punching Machines.
I, VALENTIN LACASSE of 4 Hartmannstrasse, Chemnitz, in the Kingdom of
Saxony and German Empire, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to Jacquard card punching machines and its object is
to avoid the present tedious method generally employed in translating the designs
to the cards.
According to the present invention the design is automatically read and the
holes in the cards corresponding therewith are automatically punched without
the intervention of an operator.
In carrying out the invention, the design is drawn or produced upon a metallic
base, which may by way of example consist of metallic foil upon cardboard or
paper, or of thin sheet metal, or of other suitable conductor of electricity. The
design is drawn or produced in any suitable insulating medium, such for example
as a varnish, or a solution of bitumen, and the conducting base is electrically
connected with a battery or other source of electric current.
If now, a metallic
or conducting style be drawn across the design, it will be evident that when the
style is connected to the opposite pole of the battery or source of electric current,
the current will flow when the style passes over the conducting base, and will be
stopped when it passes over the insulated or non-conducting parts. In the circuit
there is also included an electro magnet which is energised by the current and
operates the punch directly or indirectly. In practice there are as many styles
and electro-magnets as there are punches to be operated.
I will more particularly describe my said invention with reference to the
accompanying drawings which represent diagrammatically in what manner it may
be carried into practical effect.
Figure 1 is a general view of the arrangements which may be adopted. P is the
conducting base upon which the design is drawn or produced in an insulating
medium. This plate is represented in plan in Figure 4. The styles Q are carried
in an ebonite or other bar F made of non-conducting material and are severally
connected by suitable conducting wires with the electro-magnets D D¹; they are
also respectively connected through the plate P with one of the poles of the
battery E, to the other pole of which the electro-magnets D D¹ are also connected.
Each of the electro-magnets is provided with an armature C C¹ to which lifting
wires N N¹ are secured. These lifting wires are provided with loops H H' through
which the horizontal needles K K' pass as illustrated by Figure 3. These needles
are held in vertical slots in the plate G and at their front ends are guided between
vertical guides B at the back of the plate A which has a reciprocal motion in a
horizontal direction as indicated by the arrow. The plate A has a hole opposite to
the end of each needle so that every needle which is not lifted enters its corre-
sponding hole on the back stroke of the plate A, whilst every needle which has
been lifted, is pushed backward by the solid part of the back of the plate. The
holes in the cards may be punched by the needles themselves, in which case they
are provided with springs which press them back after the holes have been
punched. These springs are not shewn on the drawings as I prefer not to use
them but to employ the arrangement for punching the holes hereinafter described.
When punching the cards by the usual means, the punches may be operated
through hooks W formed upon the needles K as shewn in plan by Figure 2.
the back stroke of the needles the hook engages with the lifting wire L and pushes
it out of contact with the lifting rail M and the wire consequently is not lifted. If
In

page_text: however, the front end of the needle enters one of the holes in A, the needle is not
moved backwards, and the lifting wire remains in engagement with the lifting
bar (M). The lifting wires are connected with the punches in the usual way by
the cords S S¹
When the apparatus is in operation, such of the styles as are in temporary
contact with the base, have a current established through them, and their corre
sponding electro-magnets being thus energised and their needles lifted, the
punches are put into action. It will be obvious that the arrangement may either
be that the punches will act when the corresponding electro-magnets are energised,
or whenever they are not energised, the action of the magnets in the latter case
being to put the punches out of work, and in the former case to put them in work.
After each stroke of the punches, the pattern plate P is moved forward through
a distance equal to one pick of the weft as represented in the design.
These improvements may be readily applied to existing card punching machines.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is,
1. In apparatus for punching Jacquard cards, a conducting plate on which the
design is produced in insulating material, a series of conducting styles and electro-
magnets, armatures and lifting wires operated by the electro-magnets, horizontal
needles and a reciprocating perforated plate, all constructed arranged and
co-operating substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described and as
illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
2. In a Jacquard punching machine, horizontal needles selectively lifted by
electro-magnets and each having a hook or projection formed thereon for the
purpose of moving the lifting wires out of contact with the lifting rails, such of
the needles as are not lifted remaining stationary whilst those which are lifted
are pushed backward against the lifting wires, substantially as hereinbefore
described and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 16th day of June A.D. 1892.
WILLIAM E. HEYS,
Agent for the Applicant.