IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING A CERTAIN KIND OF CLOTH OR FABRIC
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Samuel Laycock, of Sheffield, in the
County of York, Manufacturer of Hair Seating and Curled Hair, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING A CERTAIN
KIND OF CLOTH OR FABRIC."
Sealed the 13th July 1866, and dated the 8th February 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Samuel Laycock
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th February 1866.
I, WILLIAM SAMUEL LAYCOCK, of Sheffield, in the County of York,
Manufacturer of Hair Seating and Curled Hair, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING A
CERTAIN KIND OF CLOTH OR FABRIC," to be as follows:-
This Invention for weaving cloth, the weft of which is horsehair or
other material consisting of short and separate pieces, consists in an
improved shuttle or selecting and carrying instrument, which will act in
the double capacity of selecting a single hair at a time from a bunch of
hairs, and of depositing the hair so selected in the warp in order that it
may be then beaten up into cloth; and also in a novel arrangement of
clamps, in one of which the thick ends of the hairs are presented to the
action of the shuttle, and in the other of which the thin ends of the hairs
are presented to the action of the shuttle, and these clamps are actuated by

page_text: cams or other media in such a manner that a hair can be taken from each
clamp alternately or in any other order of succession. The shuttle is
furnished at one end with nippers, which when the shuttle is thrust through
and across the open shed of the warp lay hold of one or other of the hairs
which are to form the weft of the fabric, and by the return movement of
the shuttle such hair is drawn into its place in the fabric. The movement
of the shuttle to and fro may be effected by any of the ordinary mechanism
employed for such purposes. The clamps are each formed of convenient
size for receiving a bunch of hairs, such hairs being held in the clamp by
being lightly pressed by the aid of springs or other elastic media between
two slightly elastic surfaces, which while preventing the hairs from falling
from the the clamp, yet allow the hair seized by the nippers of the shuttle
to be drawn out from the bunch. The clamps are mounted at that side of
the loom from which the weft is drawn, being connected to levers or other
suitable contrivances which are acted upon by the cams or other similar
media, so as to bring first one clamp and then the other opposite the shuttle.
The object of thus causing the shuttle to lay hold of one hair by the thick
end and of another by the thin end is to secure the thick end of one hair
being laid in the fabric opposite the thin end of that next to it, the tapering
form of the hairs rendering this arrangement desirable in order to secure as
far as possible equality in the texture of the fabric.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Samuel Laycock in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th August 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SAMUEL LAYCOCK, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Manufacturer
of Hair Seating and Curled Hair, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Samuel Laycock, Her special license that I,
the said William Samuel Laycock, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Samuel Laycock, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,

page_text: and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
aud vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOOMS FOR WEAVING A CERTAIN KIND OF CLOTH OR FABRIC," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Samuel Laycock, 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 William Samuel Laycock, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say):
This Invention is applicable to power looms and in part to hand looms for
weaving horsehair or other cloth or fabric, the warp of which is of cotton or
other fibrous substance, and the weft of which is of horsehair or other
material in short lengths or in separate pieces, and it consists in certain
improved shuttles or selecting and carrying instruments which act in the
double capacity of selecting one hair at a time from a bunch of hair, and of
depositing the hair so selected in the warp in order that it may then be
beaten up into the cloth; and also in a novel arrangement of clamps in
one of which the thick ends of the hairs are presented to the action of the
shuttle, and in the other of which the thin ends of the hairs are presented
to the action of the shuttle, and these clamps are actuated by cams or other
well-known instruments or media in such a manner that a hair can be
taken from each clamp alternately or in any other order of succession.
And in order that the Invention may be fully understood I have
appended to this my Specification a Sheet of Drawings showing the parts
necessary to explain my Invention and the manner in which it is to be
performed.
Fig. 1 is a front view of part of a loom constructed in the manner
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to William Edward
Laycock on the Twenty-second day of November, One thousand eight
bundred and fifty-six, No. 2777, to which my improvements are applicable;
Fig. 2 is a plan of the same. a, a, are the loom sides; is the guide or
race in which the shuttle bar c is moved to and fro by the picking stick d,

page_text: secure the
which is a
lever comes
to the breast
as described in the Specification above referred to. The bunch of horse-
hair from which the single hairs are drawn out one at a time is first placed
by hand in the usual flannel case or bag in the clamp e. To the end of
the shuttle bar c are fixed the two spring catches f and f, shewn full size
in Figs. 3 and 4; to the spring catch is fixed by adjusting screws the
instrument f2 by which the hairs are selected or caught hold of singly
and pressed against a brass or other soft metal plate secured to the spring
catch f. The top of the instrument f is four-sided, and across the top is
cut a fine half round groove, which is only capable of admitting a single
hair, the sides of the groove are cut so as to form a sharp edge on each
side of the groove in the direction in which the hair is held, so as to
exclude all hairs excepting the one selected and caught hold of, when the
spring catches f and fare closed or brought together so as to
hair. To the end of the shuttle bar c is fixed a bracket g, in
stud serving as fulcrum for the lever h, the outer end of this
alternately in contact with the studs i andj, which are fixed
beam or other convenient part of the framing, as shown in Fig. 2. The
inner end of the lever enters between the spring catches fand f¹, to
which are fixed inclined pieces f3 and 4. The guard or bent wire k, also
fixed to the end of the shuttle bar c, is to prevent the spring catches from
injuring the warp in passing through the shed. The mode of operation
is as follows, and the parts are shown in the positions they occupy when
a single horsehair has been drawn through the shed, and when the lever
h has come in contact with the stud; to open the said spring catches and
thereby to release the hair, the lay then advances to beat up the hair into the
cloth, and when the warp threads have been crossed so as to form another
shed the shuttle bar c is carried or passed across the shed so as to bring
the instrument 2 in contact with the ends of horsehair held in the clamp
e; the lever h at this time has been moved into the position shewn in
dotted lines in Fig. 3, by coming in contact with the stud i, thereby
allowing the spring catches f and f¹ to close, and in closing the instrument
f selects and takes hold of a single hair from the bunch and presses it
against the metal plate above referred to. The hair thus selected and
held is now drawn through the shed, and then released by the opening of
the spring catches as before described. These operations are repeated
until nearly all the hairs held in the clamp e have been woven into the
cloth, the loom must then be stopped while another bunch of horsehair
is put into the clamp, after which the loom is again started. In the loom
above described the same instrument is employed for selecting and

page_text: depositing the single horsehairs in the shed, and I will now proceed to
describe a modification of my Invention, in which an instrument similar
to f2 is employed to select the single hairs from a bunch of horsehair, and
a shuttle is required to deposit it in the shed.
Fig. 5 is an elevation, partly in section, of a loom shewing the modifica-
tion above referred to; Fig. 6 is a front view, and Fig. 7 a plan of part of
the same. a, a, are the loom sides; b, the shuttle race; c, the shuttle bar;.
1, the crank shaft in the lay; o, o, the double lay swords; p, the threads
warp
which are taken from the warp beamq, over the roller, through the healds 1,
and through the reed n; the cloth when woven passes over the roller r³, over
the breast beam r³, to the cloth roller 4; all the parts above enumerated are
made in the usual manner or as described in the Specification of the Patent
above referred to, and the bunch of horsehair from which the single hairs
are selected is held vertically in the clamp or holder e. The instrument f³,
shewn detached in Figs. 8, 9, and 10, in rising draws a single horsehair partly
out of the bunch, and this single horsehair is then drawn into the shed by
the shuttle c, shewn partly in Fig. 11, and which is very similar to the
The requisite up-and-
shuttles now employed in weaving horsehair.
down and opening and closing motions may be given to the instrument f³
in the following manner:-To the crank shaft is fixed an eccentric for
giving an oscillating motion to the lever 1, whose fulcrum is at 13, the
longer arm of the lever 12 fits between two nuts on the screwed end of the
spindle t, which is connected by bridles to the plate u, moving as shewn in
Figs. 8 and 9 in a groove in the block u¹, which is secured to the bracket
s above referred to; the plates u² are screwed to the block u', and serve to
give more or less friction to the plate u. The instrument passes through
one arm of the nippers t, and it closes against the end of the set screw t³,
see Fig. 8, screwed into the other arm of the nippers, which are connected
to the end of the spindle t by the toggle links . The end of the spindle
t when the nippers are open, as shewn in Fig. 8, bears against the stud t',
and when the nippers are being raised to draw out a single horsehair from
the bunch the instrument is held against the end of the set screw f.
The shuttle bar c slides in the shuttle race b, see Fig. 7, and it is connected
to the picking stick d; the only difference between this and the shuttles
hitherto employed consists in attaching a light spring c¹ to the nose of the
shuttle, see Fig. 11, which spring yields as the end of the shuttle passes
beyond the horsehair partly raised out of the bunch, and guides the said
horsehair into the groove of the usual pulley c² as soon as the motion of
the shuttle is reversed, and while it is being drawn through the shed.

page_text: The mode of operation is as follows, and the Drawings shew the parts in
the positions they occupy when the instrument f is ready to take hold of
a single horsehair, that is to say, the nippers t¹ are open and stand on each
side of the end of the bunch of horsehair projecting above the clamp e, as
shewn Fig. 8; as the crank shaft revolves the eccentric lowers the left-
hand end of the lever 1, and raises the other end, which is thus moved
until it acts on the upper lock nut without imparting any motion to the
spindle t; as soon as the lever begins to act on the said lock nut the
spindle t is raised until the nippers in closing have caused the instrument
to select a single horsehair and hold it securely against the end of the
set screw the nippers t¹are thus prevented from closing any more,
consequently the remainder of the upward lift of the spindle t carries the
plate u and the selected horsehair with it; at this time the shed has been
opened by the healds as usual in looms used in weaving hair seating or
cloth, and the shuttle has been propelled through it until the end of the
spring chas passed beyond the selected hair, which is held tight by the
instrument until the return stroke of the shuttle has drawn it into the
shed; during these operations the right-hand end of the lever / has been
descending between the two lock nuts on the spindle tuntil it has pressed
on the top of the lower lock nut, which forcing down the said spindle
opens the nippers to release the hair in the shed; as soon as the nippers
are open the end of the spindle t comes against the stud 4, and the
remainder of the down stroke of the lever carries the plate u and nippers
with it, thereby bringing the parts again in the position shewn in Figures
6 and 8, and ready to select another horsehair. The spring 15, see Figs.
5 and 9, acts on the spindle t to keep the nippers closed while the end of
the lever is moving between the lock nuts. The crossing of the warps
to form the shed and the beating up of the horsehair wefts may be
performed in the usual manner, and by supplying the clamp with mixed
hairs, that is 'to say, partly with their thick ends and partly with the thin
ends upwards; the cloth when woven is found sufficiently even; or two
clamps may be employed, one furnished with hairs having the thick ends and
the other with the thin ends upwards. When two clamps are used they
must be brought alternately in line with the shuttle or nippers by a crank
arm or other equivalent means working at half the speed of the crank shaft.
The selecting and carrying apparatus above described, and shown in full size
in Figures 3 and 4 with reference to the power loom, may be also used by
the weaver with the hand loom, in which case the server ordinarily
employed may be dispensed with, also the selecting apparatus above

page_text: described, and shown in full size in Figs. 8, 9, and 10 as applied to power
looms, may be used with hand looms, and in this case also the server
ordinarily employed may be dispensed with.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and described the
manner of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I claim
as my improvements in looms for weaving the cloth or fabric described,-
First, the use of selecting and carrying apparatus combined in one
instrument operating as shewn and described in reference to Figs. 1, 2, 3,
and 4, and capable of being either in the power loom or with the
hand loom.
Secondly, I claim the use of selecting apparatus, such as is shewn and
described in reference to Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, acting in combination
with a shuttle or carrying instrument for depositing the weft in the shed
as described, and capable of being used either in the power loom or with
the hand loom.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Samuel Laycock, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this 18th day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-six.
W. S. LAYCOCK. (L.S.)