IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Brookes, of 73, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING."-A communication from
abroad by Julius Boeddinghaus, of Elberfeld, in the Kingdom of
Prussia.
Sealed the 2nd April 1861, and dated the 14th November 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Brookes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th November 1860.
I, WILLIAM BROOKES, of 73, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING," Communicated
to me from abroad by Julius Boeddinghaus, of Elberfeld, in the Kingdom of
Prussia, to be as follows:-
The improvements relate, first, to means or apparatus for operating the
leaves of healds or heddles to facilitate the obtaining changes of pattern. For
this purpose, , in place of all the jack levers supporting the respective heddles
being connected directly to heddle levers, so as to be at all times actuated in
the motion of such heddle levers, I propose to operate upon only two (though
it may be other number) of the heddles in such manner, whilst the jack levers
of the other heddles will each be connected to a separate rod, having a hook
Price Sd.

page_text: or catch formed capable of being in connection with and operated by a knife
edge or other suitably formed surface upon a sliding plate, which is also formed
with a projection capable of being operated by two or more heddle levers
operated by eccentrics or tappets to give motion to such plate in one direction,
and thence by the hooked rods, for the time in connection therewith, to the
healds desired. The sliding plate is borne in the opposite direction by a spring,
and the hooked rods are moved into position to be operated by the knife-edge
of the sliding plate in the order desired by studs or projections from series
of plates or bars carried by a barrel, to which is given a suitable step by step
motion.
The objects of the improvements is, secondly, when weft fails to throw out the
shuttle in operation, and thereby save the time of its removal by hand. For
this purpose the front of the shuttle box in place of being fixed turns
upon an axis at its outer end, and by preference it is made in two parts,
jointed and elastic at such joint. When weft fails, the weft fork apparatus
acts upon an arm of a rod forming an axis, upon which is fixed another arm,
which then comes in the way to take hold of a knife-edge or projection of a
lever connected to the moveable part of the box to draw it back, by which the
inner end of the box will be closed, and the shuttle which has been working
will be directed into a receiver. At other times a spring or springs keeps the
moveable front and parts operating it in position.
The rod forming an axis also at the same time acts by another arm upon
the regulator.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Brookes in the Great Seal Pateut Office on the 13th
May 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BROOKES, of 73, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Brookes, Her special licence that I, the said William
Brookes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Brookes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter

page_text: during the terin 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING," communicated to me from
abroad by Julius Boeddinghaus, of Elberfeld, in the Kingdom of Prussia, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Brookes, 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 1, the said William Brookes, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
Theimprovements relate, first, to means or apparatus for operating the leaves
of healds or heddles to facilitate the obtaining changes of pattern. For this
purpose, in place of all the jack levers supporting the respective heddles being
connected directly to heddle levers, so as to be at all times actuated in the
motion of such heddle levers, I propose to operate upon only two (though it
may be other number) of the heddles in such manner, whilst the jack levers of
the other heddles will each be connected to a separate rod, having a hook or
catch formed capable of being in connection with and operated by a knife-
edge or other suitably formed surface upon a sliding plate, which is also formed
with a projection capable of being operated by two or more heddle levers,
operated by eccentrics or tappets to give motion to such plate in one direction,
and thence by the hooked rods, for the time in connection therewith, to the healds
desired. The sliding plate is borne in the opposite direction by a spring, and
the hooked rods are moved into position to be operated by the knife-edge of
the sliding plate, in the order desired by studs or projections from series of
plates or bars carried by a barrel, to which is given a suitable step by step
motion.
The object of the improvements is, secondly, when weft fails to throw out
the shuttle in operation, and thereby save the time of its removal by hand.
For this purpose the front of the shuttle box in place of being fixed turns
upon an axis at its outer end, and by preference it is made in two parts, jointed
and elastic at such joint. When weft fails, the weft fork apparatus acts upon
an arm of a rod forming an axis, upon which is fixed another arm, which then
comes in the way to take hold of a knife-edge or projection of a lever connected

page_text: to the moveable part of the box to draw it back, by which the inner end of the
box will be closed, and the shuttle which has been working will be directed
into a receiver. At other times a spring or springs keeps the moveable front
and parts operating it in position. The rod forming an axis also at the same
time acts by another arm upon the regulator.
But that the nature of the improvements, and means of carrying the same
into effect, may be better understood, I will proceed to describe the Drawings
annexed, in the various Figures of which the same letters are employed to
illustrate like parts wherever they occur.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews an end view, and Figure 2 part of a back view of a loom,
with the first part of the improvements adapted to it. Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, and 9, shew some of the parts separately. a, a, is the main framing of the
loom; 6 the crank shaft, and c the cam or tappet shaft, receiving motion from
the crank shaft b, as is well understood. Upon this shaft c are affixed the two
tappets d, d, arranged in their revolution to act on the trucks or bowls el of
the levers e, which turn upon a common centre of motion at e2, and are at their
other ends guided in their motion, as is well understood, by the cradles or
guides f. Each of these levers e, e, is by a rod g connected to an arm or jack
lever h, from a rocking shaft h¹, with arms h2, with straps 3 supporting a leaf
of heddles h4, as is well understood, and each lever e is also in its descending
motion capable of acting on the projecting plate i¹, of the sliding plate i, to
depress it, whilst the plate i is borne with a tendency upwards by means of the
spring 2, the plate i being guided in these motions by projections from the
plate 3, carried by the framing a. The upper end of this plate i is formed
with a knife edge adapted to act upon and draw down the hooked ends j¹ of
any of the rods j, brought in contact with it, and these rods j are guided in
their movements by sliding in the plate 3. The upper end of each of these
rods j is connected to a jack lever or arm h, from an axis h¹, for operating
other leaves of heddles, and whilst the tendency of the rods j is for these hooks
to be drawn away from the knife edge 4 by the springs 2, they are, when
required, moved up to a position for being acted upon by the knife edge 14, by
means of studs or projections k¹ in the order desired upon plates k, connected
together and supported so as to be drawn round by the barrel 2, which turns
upon a fixed stud k³, and upon which is affixed the star wheel k4, taken into
and moved at intervals by the stud wheel 5, affixed on the crank shaft b. By
which it will be seen that two, or it may be other number of lever arms or
jacks "h are connected by their rods y directly to the levers e; other of the
6

page_text: lever arms or "jacks" h have the lower ends of their rods; formed with hooks
j, adapted to be operated upon as determined by the pattern surface employed
by means of the knife edge 14.
Figure 10 shews a sectional view of a loom with adaptations applied thereto
according to the second part of the improvements. Figure 11 shews a plan.
Figures 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, shew other views of these parts;
but as the nature of each view is written thereon they will be readily under-
stood. The object of this part of the Invention is as stated, the adaptation of
mechanical means by which, when weft fails, the shuttle for the time in ope-
ration may be thrown out from the box, in place of its continuing to be
received therein, in order thereby to save the time of the removal thereof by
hand for the introduction of a fresh one.
For this purpose the front of the shuttle box at one end of the loom in
place of being stationary in relation to such box, as is ordinarily the case, is
formed to turn on a centre pin 1, and it is made in two parts / and 4, connected
together a spring plate 12 in such manner that when one part is moved the
other has a tendency to move with it, as though there was no such joint. To
the front end 4 of the plate is affixed a link 15, attached to the upper end of
the lever 16, which turns upon fixed stud 17, carried by a projection from the
batten or "going part," so as to place the front end of the plate / in a position
to throw a shuttle away therefrom when it is thrown towards such box, or hold
it in position to receive a shuttle thrown towards it in the ordinary course of
weaving, and at the other end this lever is formed with a stud 13, adapted to
be taken hold of by a spring hook q³ of an arm g from an axis mo, operated as
hereafter described by the weft stopping apparatus, and as shewn by Figure
12, when from the absence of weft the weft fork at the opposite end of the
loom to which such box is applied has not been acted upon.
Figures 10 and 11 shew the parts in position for a shuttle (as thrown
through the shed in the ordinary course of weaving) being received into the
box enclosed by the front plate l, and so long as the weft fork continues to be
acted upon by the supply of weft springs 18, 18, act to keep the plate lin position
for a shuttle being received into such box. But when, from any cause, weft
fails from the shuttle in use, so that the end (1) of the weft fork m is not acted
time by the presence of weft, the front end (2) thereof will
upon at the
proper
be acted upon by the upper end of the lever n, to cause the arın m³, carrying
the axis m of the weft fork m to be moved forward, and by acting on the arm
mo affixed to the axis me, cause that axis me to move partly round, and thereby
lift the arm q into position for its hooked end q¹ coming against the stud /³, as
shewn by Figure 12, so that when the batten next moves back, as shewn by

page_text: Figures 13 and 14; the point 4 of the plate will be brought close to the
batten, and the shuttle, as thrown from the opposite shuttle box, in place of
being received into the box of which the plate forms the front side, will be
thrown out therefrom; p, p, are inclined surfaces by which the shuttle thus
thrown out is directed into a receiver o, carried by one end of the lever o¹,
which turns upon a fixed stud 02, and at the other end thereof is connected by
the link o³ to the end of an arm o₁, affixed to the part ql.of the arm q upon
which is formed the hook 2, and which part is formed to turn as well as to
slide in the projections 93, 2", of the arm q, so that when a shuttle has been
thrown and received into the receiver o, the part q1, carrying the hook q², may
be turned out of the way of the stud 3 of the lever ", and admit of the front l
by the action of the springs to assuming a position to receive a shuttle again
in the ordinary working. The part q' of the arm q is acted upon by the spring
q to admit of slight yielding when acting to draw the end (4) of the plate?
towards the reed. The axis m" acts by the arm to stop the motion of the
wheels to regulate the taking up.
Me
Having thus described the nature of the improvements, as communicated to
me, I would have it understood that I do not claim the various mechanical
parts separately considered, nor do I confine myself to the precise details shewn
and described, as these may be varied. But what I do claim is,-
First, the adaptation or combination of means for operating leaves of heddles
so as thereby to effect changes of pattern in the weaving substantially as
explained.
Secondly, I claim the adaptation or combination of means substantially as
explained under the second head of Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Brookes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
WILLIAM BROOKES. (L.S.)
Witness,
B. J. B. MILLS,
Clerk to the said William Brookes,
73, Chancery Lane, London.