Improvements in Shedding Motions for Looms.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Dec., 1886
Specification Accepted, 18th Feb., 1887.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Shedding Motions for Looms.
We ROBERT ELLISON LESTER, of 132 Green Street, New York, U.S.A., Merchant,
and JOHANNES AUGUST STANISLAW BIERNATZKI, of Hamburg, Germany, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of our Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHEDDING
MOTIONS FOR LOOMS" 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 improvements in looms and more especially to looms for
weaving narrow ware. The chief object of our present invention is to increase the
Scope or capacity of the machine and enable the pattern to be altered at will, without
having to make the said machine of too great height or size.
Whereas in the British Patent 5774 of 1885, only one raceway could be employed,
we have now invented such arrangement of cams that two or more sets of cams or
cam courses can be used and we are furthermore not confined to the use of flanged
cams with interchangeable sections, as cams with cut grooves can be employed to
like advantage.
Besides being able to use two or more sets of cam courses and vertical shafts we
are also able to make these said sets of cam courses interchangeable.
According to the construction as represented and described in the Patent 5774 of
1883, it was a very laborious, time-consuming operation to alter the interchangeable
sections of the cam course when the style or kind of work was required to be altered
and made it necessary that the mechanic should stand still during the whole time
requisite for this alteration. Another disadvantage of the old system (5774 of 1883)
is that the number of heddle frames is too limited, for the reason that the cam course,
being arranged in the centre of the machine, only a certain number of cams could be
employed without so increasing the height of the loom that it would be out of the
reach of the workman.

page_text: Now in order to be able to readily alter the arrrangement of the cam courses for
various kinds of weaving, and the consequent position of the heddle frames, we prefer
to use cams with appropriate grooves, which are fixed to sleeves or hollow cylinders,
which latter can be readily placed on or removed from the shafts or the cams can of
course be fixed direct to the shaft. By employing such series of cams a reserve set
can be adjusted to the new kind of work and inserted in the loom so that the operation
of the same need not to be interrupted more than a few minutes. If the cams are
fixed direct to the shaft the latter can be made readily interchangeable. If the shafts
are carried in suitable bearings it will only be necessary to free them from the gearing,
turn the same to one side and remove the entire series of cams with or without the
shaft, and as more than one shaft is used the variation of the pattern to be produced
in the ware is almost unlimited and can be furthermore facilitated by applying variable.
gearing, as the gear wheels can readily be exchanged and thus the speed of one or more
of the shafts, and the cams attached to the same, varied at will and consequently also
the movement of the heddle frames.
The movement of the heddle frames is attained by their treadles or levers being
connected to suitable spindles which are carried in suitable bearings and are provided
at their ends with suitable cranks and friction rollers, the latter of which gear into the
grooves of the cams and transmit the movement of the same to the heddle frames
which are raised and lowered according to the position of the cam.
The more cams employed the greater will be the number of heddle frames which
can be operated and consequently the greater will be the variety of patterns which
can he produced and also the width of the ware.
The accompanying perspective clevation represents a loom with two sets of cams
and two shafts for operating the harness of the loom although it will be evident that
the number of cams and cam shafts can be increased without departing from the
nature of our invention.
a, a, are two shafts which are so arranged in appropriate bearings that they can
be readily turned outwards out of gear with the other parts to facilitate the removal
of the one set and placing on of a second set of cams which are preferably arranged on
sleeves or hollow cylinders which are connected in suitable manner to the shafts but so
that the said sleeves and the cams attached to the same can be readily interchanged
when the shafts a, a', are freed from the gearing. The shafts a, a¹, and the cams on
the same are set in motion by means of the bevel wheels c', or their equivalents
which receive their motion from gearing attached to the main driving shaft d. The
friction rollers of the cranks e, gear into the grooves 6, of the cams b, and serve by means
of their spindles to operate the treadles f, and through these the heddle frames y and
thus produce the shed for the passage of the shuttle."
For complicated patterns we prefer to connect the one half of the heddle frames
with the one set of cams and the other half with the second set of cams.
The drawing shows nine cams arranged on each shaft; the number of cams which
can be arranged on one shaft being limited by the height of the table, so that if a
large number of heddle frames are desired, we prefer to increase the number of shafts
and sets of cams. As before mentioned the cams can be applied to the shafts direct,
instead of being fixed to a sleeve or hollow cylinder.
In order to prevent the yarn from breaking the cams can be so set that the heddle
frames will not rise simultaneously but at extremely short intervals one after the other
but so as not to interfere with the formation of the shed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :-
1. In looms, the arrangement, application and employment of two or more shafts
carrying each a set of grooved cams forming a cam course for operating the treadles

page_text: and heddle frames substantially as described in the foregoing specification and shown
in the accompanying drawing.
2. In looms, the arrangement, application and employment of series of grooved cams
forming cam courses on sleeves or hollow cylinders, which latter are interchangeably
attached to the vertical shafts substantially as described in the foregoing specification
and shown in the accompanying drawing.
3. In looms, the arrangement, application and employment of series of grooved
cams fixed direct to the vertical shafts or cut in the same, the said shafts being so
arranged that the cams alone or the cams and shafts can be readily interchanged,
substantially as described in the foregoing specification and shown in the accompanying
drawing.
ALLISON BROS.,
Agents for the Applicants.