IMPROVEMENTS IN REEDS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th August 1867.-A communication, from abroad by Laurent Perret,
Merchant, of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REEDS FOR WEAVING," to be as
follows:-
In weaving the reed has great influence on the manufacture and quality of
the fabric; in fact, this important organ serves not only to divide and space
the warp threads, but also to beat up and compress the weft threads intro-
duced in the opening or shed of the warp; thus the warp has a vertical
movement between the teeth of the reed for the purpose of opening the shed
and a horizontal movement during the motion of the batten.
The reeds are formed of a series of parallel plates or teeth spaced at regular
distances apart by interposing a wire between each, wound on two tie rods
which hold the teeth at each extremity; this position of the teeth is definitively
ensured by soldering together the projecting ends. The soldering is effected
by immersing first one end of the reed' and then the other in the solder, but
as the metal can only be maintained in a liquid state at a high temperature
the great heat communicated alternately to either end of the reed causes an
unequal-expansion-of-the teeth, which impairs the uniformity of the reed; on
the other band-the-teeth-if-too-wide apart or too close together can only with
difficulty be readjusted after the reed is mounted. In a reed so constructed

page_text: the teeth always preserve their relative position, and often form an obstacle
to the passage of the warp threads when the latter vary in thickness or are
otherwise imperfect.
According to the present improvements all the requisite strength and
regularity is retained in the reed, while at same time each tooth possesses
such flexibility and elasticity as to permit of the passage of threads of varying
thickness or otherwise imperfect, after which they immediately resume their
original position. The teeth of this improved reed are united at one end by
the ordinary process of tying and soldering, while at the other end they are
simply received in a grooved sheath without soldering and without tying if
needed, the space between each tooth being obtained by means of plates
threaded on a uniting rod. In this manner the teeth will be held at an
invariable distance apart by the said plates, although they are free to move at
their unsoldered end in the grooved sheath. The teeth will thus give way to
anything tending to separate them, after which they will appear as before. A
reed thus constructed has the same strength as an ordinary. one, is more
uniform, and bas à peculiar elasticity which renders it suitable for adoption
in the weaving alike of the roughest materials and those of a less resistant
nature, as it affords a passage for all irregularities in the threads.
In the annexed Drawing, Figure 1 shows a face view of the improved
reed soldered at top only; Figure 2, a transverse section of same with the
grooved sheath at bottom; Figure 3 a similar section with the grooved sheath
above; Figure 4 shows separate views of the plates interposed between the
teeth of the reed. The same letters apply to all the Figures.
A, teeth of the reed; B, B, tie bar; C, C, tie rods serving to space the
teeth of the reed; D, D, plates placed between the teeth at their unsoldered
end which may be connected to the teeth a rod E, as shown or otherwise;
F, soldered end; G, grooved sheath enclosing the ends of the teeth. The
Invention thus consists in forming reeds used in weaving with the teeth
soldered at one end only in the ordinary way while the other end remains
unfixed in order to permit of the teeth giving when required, the teeth being
spaced at their free ends by the aid of the intervening parts herein-before
described. This improvement may be applied either at top or bottoin, or at
both top and bottom of the reed.

page_text: No text detected.