IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Raper, of Dudley Hill, near Bradford, in
the County of York, Machinist, Mason Pearson, Overlooker, and
Daniel Mills, Designer, both of Bradford, aforesaid, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING."
Sealed the 14th April 1870, and dated the 16th October 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Raper, Mason
Pearson, and Daniel Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 16th October 1869.
We, JAMES RAPER, of Dudley Hill, near Bradford, in the County of
York, Machinist, MASON PEARSON, Overlooker, and DANIEL MILLS,
Designer, both of Bradford, aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to looms to be used for what is technically
known as "swivel weaving," that is, the production of figures generally
in silk of a different color at certain intervals on the face of woven

page_text: fabrics, and the object is to produce such figures at less distances apart
than is practicable by the ordinary means employed for this purpose.
Heretofore the shuttles and spools of weft therein have been arranged
longitudinally with the weft or across the fabric, whereby the figures or
their distance apart is regulated by the length of the shuttle and the
space sufficient for the warp threads required to be raised to form the
figure. Now by our Invention we arrange the shuttles and their spools
longitudinally with the warp or across the weft, so that we are enabled
to place them nearer together than by the ordinary means. Also it was
necessary to have some means of taking up the slack of the thread or
yarn produced by the back motion of the lathe or batten receding from
the woven or formed fabric or the place of beat up, which was usually
effected by a recoil spring either in the spool or so applied as to effect
the object, but which was costly, frequently requiring repairs. Now by
this arrangement the shuttles are made of suitable lengths, so that the
thread or yarn will be carried by the points of the said shuttles over
the fabric sufficiently to take up the slack and thereby dispense with
springs.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Raper, Mason Pearson, and Daniel Mills
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
RAPER, of Dudley Hill, near Bradford, in the County of York, Machinist,
MASON PEARSON, Overlooker, and DANIEL MILLS, Designer, both of
Bradford, aforesaid, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said James Raper, Mason Pearson, and
Daniel Mills, Her special licence that we, the said James Raper, Mason
Pearson, and Daniel Mills, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said James Raper, Mason Pearson, and Daniel
Mills, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times. there-

page_text: after 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said James Raper, Mason Pearson, and Daniel Mills,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,
or their, or one of our or 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 we, the said James Raper, Mason Pearson, and
Daniel Mills, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying
Sheet of Drawings (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to looms to be used for what is technically
known as "swivel weaving," that is, the production of figures generally
in silk of a different color at certain intervals on the face of woven
fabrics, and the object is to produce such figures at less distances apart
than is practicable by the ordinary means employed for this purpose.
Heretofore the shuttles and spools of weft therein have been arranged
longitudinally with the weft or across the fabric, whereby the figures or
their distance apart is regulated by the length of the shuttle and the
space sufficient for the warp threads required to be raised to form the
figure. Now by our Invention we arrange the shuttles and their spools
longitudinally with the warp or across the weft, so that we are enabled
Also it was
to place them nearer together than by the ordinary means.
necessary to have some means of taking up the slack of the thread or
yarn produced by the back motion of the lathe or batten receding from
the woven or formed fabric or the place of beat up, which was usually
effected by a recoil spring either in the spool or so applied as to effect
the object, but which was costly and frequently requiring repairs. Now
by this arrangement the shuttles are made of suitable length, that the
thread or yarn will be carried by the points of the said shuttles over
the fabric sufficiently to take up the slack and thereby dispense with
springs.

page_text: In order that the Invention may be clearly understood we have herein
given reference to an accompanying Sheet of Drawings of so much of an
ordinary power loom as will be necessary to shew the application of our
said Invention, in all the Figures of which the same letters of reference
indicate similar parts.
Fig. 1 represents a portion of an end elevation of a loom, and Fig. 2 a
portion of the front elevation of such loom; Fig. 3 is a front elevation
of our improved arrangement of the shuttles and their mountings or
framework upon which they are carried and operated when in use; and
Fig. 4 is a plan view, and Fig. 5 is a cross section of the same.
A, A, A, A, are a series of shuttles with their spools of yarn B, B, B, B,
placed on pikes or pins in the shuttles in the usual manner. These
shuttles are of a peculiar construction, as will be seen from the Figures 4
and 5, and in them the spools B do not revolve on the pikes or pins,
but the pattern thread is drawn off endwise, as shewn in Figures 4 and 5.
The shuttles are formed at one end to fit into a suitably formed groove C
in the rail D, so as to slide therein, and each shuttle is also formed with
a short rack into which gear the toothed wheels E, which are carried on
studs fixed in the rail D, and these wheels also gear with a long rack G,
which is mounted on studs H fixed in the rail D passing through
slots I in the rack, so as to be capable of sliding or being moved endwise
thereon when motion is given to it, and it will be observed that any
motion of the rack G will be given to the shuttles through the medium
of the spur wheels. The pitch of the teeth in the racks and wheels is
so arranged as to agree with the distances apart or required from one
shuttle to another, and the short racks to which the shuttles A, A, A, A,
ȧre fixed by means of the pikes or pins are also arranged that when slide
motion is given to them in either direction they are taken by the next
adjoining wheels before being liberated from those they are now in
with, so that they are always maintained in their relative positions, as
shewn at Fig. 6. It will be seen that the weft threads from theso
bobbins B, B, B, B, (Figs. 4 and 5) are passed through holes in the ends of
the shuttles, and through a small brush or pad of plush cloth a to act as
a brake or retarder, and that the said shuttle will pass over the woven
cloth or fabric at the beat up, or when the reed comes up to the edge
of the formed cloth, whereby the slack of the yarn produced by the
gear

page_text: receding of the batten or slayboard will be taken up by the shuttles
passing over the cloth, and that springs used for drawing up the slack
of the yarn are entirely dispensed with. This frame D with the shuttles
is placed in front of the reed on a loom, as shewn at Fig. 2, and so sup-
ported and arranged that the said frame can be raised at the proper time
for the ordinary ground shuttle to be picked and then lowered, so that
the herein-before described shuttles A are brought down nearly upon the
warp threads from the low portion of the shed, a series of the ends or
threads of the warp being raised, which pass between the said shuttles
and from the upper portion of the shed. A sliding motion is then given
to the rack G, which propels the whole series of shuttles A through the
shed the distance of from the place of one to that of the next shuttle,
when the frame is raised, lifting the shuttles A out of the way of the
ground shuttle. The warp threads are then changed, and a ground weft
thread is picked or thrown in; then the batten carrying the reed
operates to beat it up to the edge of the formed cloth as usual. The
rack is then moved in the opposite direction, when the shuttles A again
pass through the shed, and the batten and reed operate to beat it up,
and so on, the shuttles A. being raised out of the way for the ground
shuttle with its weft to be picked, and then lowered for throwing in the
figure weft as and when required.
The means of operating this rack backward and forward, and the
lifting and lowering of the frame or rail which carries the same and the
shuttles A, may be effected in various ways, and does not form part of
our Invention; but the means we have found to answer is that repre-
sented in Fig. 1, in which are represented two levers x and y, each
having a cord or chain attached to it, and these two cords or chains after
passing over pullies are attached one to each end of the rack. These
levers are operated by a tappet or cam W on the crank shaft of the
loom, and such tappet or cam is brought into action by jacquard or other
such indicating apparatus at the time required. A tappet or cam t on
the low shafts of the loom and a spiral spring guides the foot rod
so that its foot may press on either of the pins on the levers x or y
according as the rack is to be moved in the one direction or the other.
During the time these shuttles A are in action the ground shuttle is not
in action, nor are the shuttles A in action when the ground shuttle is
producing the ground fabric by means of a jacquard or other such
indicating apparatus. The raising and lowering of the frame may also
2"
q,

page_text: be effected by levers and tappets from the low shaft or crank shaft, or
any moving part of the loom, but the above-described means we have
found to answer very well for the purpose.
It will now be seen that by this arrangement of shuttles longitudinally
with the warp threads the shuttles can be placed nearer together, con-
sequently the figures can be produced at less distances apart than if the
said shuttles were arranged across the warp or longitudinally with weft
as has been usual, and yet they may be moved any desirable distance
each way. It will also be observed that a loom made and arranged
according to our Invention is adapted for the weaving of ribbons, tapes,
or any other narrow fabrics. When used for the weaving of ribbons,
tapes, or narrow fabrics the ground shuttle is taken out and the fabrics
are produced by the shuttles A.
Having thus described the nature of this our said Invention, and
shewn by Drawings how the same is to be performed or carried into
practice, we would have it understood that we do not claim the pro-
pelling of a series of shuttles by means of a rack and toothed wheels;
but what we do claim as of our Invention is, the improved loom herein-
before described, in which shuttles of the construction herein-before
described are arranged longitudinally with the warp to be propelled by
rack and one toothed wheel to each shuttle, and which toothed wheels
are so constructed and arranged that each of the said toothed wheels
will gear into the next shuttle before liberating the preceding one in
which it is in gear, whereby any desirable extent of movement may be
given to the said shuttles at whatever distance apart they may be placed
in the groove of the rail.
In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Mills, for and on behalf of
myself and the said James Raper and Mason Pearson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
D. MILLS. (L.S.)
D. MILLS. (L.S.)