IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
FITTON, Woollen Manufacturer, and GEORGE COLLIER, Mechanic, both of
Cumberworth Hall, near Wakefield, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of January, in the first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Charles Fitton and George Collier, Her especial license, full power, solo
privilege and authority, that we, the said Charles Fitton and George Collier,
our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles
Fitton and George Collier, our exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said Charles Fitton and George
Collier, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW I, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Charles Fitton and George Collier, do hereby declare the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our Invention of Improvements in Power Loomis relates,-
First, to a mode of beating up the woft by the application of excentrics or
cams in place of the cranks heretofore employed.
Secondly, to attaching the batten or lay to a carriage or frame in place of
using a swinging motion thereto as heretofore practised.
Thirdly, to a mode of suspending the treadles whereby the warp threads
are not so much worn as heretofore.
Fourthly, to a mode of relieving the prominences or projections in the
shuttle boxes in order to the shuttle being thrown across without exerting so
much force as heretofore, and at the same time avoiding the injurious effects
heretofore consequent on the application of somewhat similar apparatus for
like purposes; and,
Fifthly, to a mode of regulating the weight on the warp beam.
And in order to give the best information in our power, we will proceed to
describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a front view; Figure 2, a plan; Figure 9, a transverse
section; Figure 4, a right-hand end view; Figure 5, a left-hand end view;
and Figure 6, part of a back view of a power loom constructed according to
our Invention. In each of these Figures the same letters indicate similar parts
wherever they occur. The construction of looms being well understood, it will
not be necessary to enter at large into the particular action of each part, and
it will only be necessary to explain the variations consequent on applying the
various parts in order to work a loom according to our Invention; and as such
parts are shewn by the Drawing in connection with the ordinary parts of looms,
a workman will not only readily trace the new arrangement of parts, but will
most readily see their relative position and mode of working in respect to the
other parts of looms.
The first part of the Invention relates to applying the cams a and 6. The
cam a being applied for the purpose of beating up the lay or batton, and the
cam b being applied for taking the batton or lay back; and the object of
applying cams in place of the cranks heretofore used is to obtain a beating up

page_text: of the weft more similar to hand-weaving than can be accomplished by the
using of cranks; for it is evident that when cranks are used, the lay, as it
approaches the weft and beats it up, is travelling at a decreasing speed, and
finishes the act of beating up at a time when the crank is in its worst
position and at its lowest speed. Now, it is known that the weaver, in working
with a handloom, when beating up, gives a sharp stroke at the moment of
beating up, and it will be evident, when using cams or excentrics, the beating
up may be effected with a degree of sharpness according to the cut of the
cams a, as will readily understood; and this object may be regulated, even with
the same cams, to different degrees of sharpness of beating up, by having the
parts of the frame hereafter described, against which the cams a work, capable
of being set more or less vertical. The cams a, b, are affixed on the main
axis c of the loom; and in place of the batton or shuttle board being sus-
pended or swinging on swords, as is the most usual practice, we prefer
the batten to be affixed to a carriage d, d, having adjusting plates e, e, and ƒ, ƒ,
for the cams a and b respectively to act against and by which the carriage d, d,
is forced to and fro, the carriage d, d, moving on the guide pulleys and
guides 9, 9, as is clearly shewn in the Drawing; and these pulleys may be pro-
vided with means of adjustment, whereby to enable the direction of the blow
to be varied, and in place of having a horizontal movement, as is shewn in the
Drawing, it may strike at an angle similar to when the batton swings; and
although we prefer the batton to be affixed on the carriage d, it is evident that
the cams a, b, may be used, and the batton or lay suspended or swing to and
fro on swords, as heretofore, having only so much of the carriage d as will
enable the cams or eccentrics a, b, to perform their parts. A, A, are the
treadles which respectively move on an axis B, such axis being carried by the
plate C, which is capable of moving up and down on the guide rods D; hence
the treadle can be thrown off or out of the way of their cams or eccentrics.
By this means only so much of the warp as is required for opening the shed
will be moved, and hence the warp threads will not be so much worn as when
the whole of the warp is moved up and down. The Drawings show the nature
of the cams, the loom being harnessed for weaving four-leaved twill. E is a
rod attached to the plate C, and also to the lever F, the lever F having a
rod G attached thereto, and at the end of the rod G there is a treadle or
stirrup by which the workman, when he wants to raise the plate C, presses the
cam down, and the plate is sustained in its proper position by the spring
catch N, all which is clearly shown in the Drawing. Thus it will be evident
that in case any of the threads of the warp break, and it becomes necessary
to get the warp threads in one plane, or nearly so, the workman, by sliding

page_text: the plate C, will remove the treadles away, from the cams, and when the same
have been pieced up the treadles will be quickly restored to their proper
position by moving the plate C, all which will readily be understood on
examining the Drawing. In most power looms there are used what are called
swells, or projections or prominences, which are connected with suitable
apparatus for throwing the loom out of work in case the shuttle does not enter
correctly into the shuttle box at the end of the race or shuttle board, as is well
understood, but in using the apparatus the shuttle at the time of picking has
to be forced out of the box in which it may happen to be, with a force
sufficient, not only to throw the shuttle across the loom, but further to over-
come the pressure of the springs and apparatus of the swells or prominences,
which is prejudicial; and some attempts have been made to withdraw the
prominences or swells at the moment previous to picking, but without complete
success, for the apparatus employed is such, that in the working of the loom it
is liable to trap the shuttle by throwing the bent levers under the shuttle box over
their tops, when the loom is required for any purpose to be turned back or in
opposite direction to the ordinary movement of the main shaft, or else the bent
levers have been so arranged in respect to the instruments which lift them in
order to relieve or remove the swell or prominences, that the levers can pass
beyond, and in moving forward strike against the instrument and disarrange the
parts; but according to our Invention the instrument used for lifting the bent
levers are plates partly inclined, so that the levers of the batton or lay do not
pass off the plates or lifting surfaces, and in coming forward the levers are
supported by the plates for a greater length of time, and allow of the picking
being better performed, as will be traced on examining the Drawing; 0, 0,
being the bent levers of the swells or prominences in the shuttle boxes, and P
their springs as heretofore; q is a lever at one end of the loom, and is moved
on an axis at r, as is shewn. The lever is acted upon by a tappet s affixed on
the main shaft in such manner as to lift the plate q' at the end of the lever g
at the moment just before the picking takes place, hence the shuttlo may be
tbrown across without impediment of the swell or stop in the box from which
it is driven; and further, by using a length of plate q', the back surfaces being
slightly inclined downward for about two-thirds of its length; by this means,
on the batton or lay going back, the lever o will not pass off the plate; and
further, in place of being suddenly acted on by the instruments as heretoforo
used, the lever is gradually acted on by the plate g', and can in no case throw
the levers over the ordinary stop t, consequently the shuttle cannot be driven
against the warp threads; and further, not passing off the instrument or plate q',
the levers cannot come suddenly against such instrument, and derange the loom,

page_text: Another part of the Invention relates to a mode of regulating the pressure
of the weights on the warp beam, for it will readily be understood that as the
warp threads are drawn off the warp beam the distance from the centre of the
warp beam from whence the threads are drawn will gradually decrease as the
warp is used, and the diameter of the warp beam and warp is reduced, conse-
quently the threads are resisted with a different leverage. Now, in order to
accomodate such difference of leverage, we so arrange apparatus that the
weights may be gradually acted on to compensate for such varying of the
leverage. J is a lever, on which the weight K is capable of sliding, and will
give weight to the cord L, according to the distance the weight K is from the
fulcrum of the lever J; hence, supposing the weight K is at its furthest
distance from the fulcrum, the friction band L will be exerting its greatest
force, but if suitable arrangement of apparatus be worked from any part of
the loom slowly to draw the weight K towards the fulcrum, the effect of the
weight will progressively decrease, and we apply the cord N, which is attached
to the weight K, and is affixed to the drum or pulley M, on to which it can be
wound by a train of wheels and screw motion shown in the Drawing;
O being a screw on the shaft, which throws the shuttle; P, screw wheel; R,
pinion or screw wheel shaft; S, cog-wheel; T, pinion affixed to wheel T, which
takes into and drives the cog wheel V, which has a pinion which drives the
cog wheel W, which is affixed to the pulley M; all which will readily be traced
in the Drawing; and the result will be that the effect of the weight may be
most gradually reduced to any degree that may be required, and thus greater
uniformity produced than heretofore.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
combining and applying the various parts, we would have it understood that
we lay no claim to any of the parts of a loom separately, and some of the
parts may be in some degree varied, but we believe the arrangement shown to
be the best for that purpose, and it will be evident that either of our five
improvements may be used separately, without the necessity of using all of
them in the same loom, which latter is what we prefer; but what we claim as
our Invention is, -
First, the mode of beating up the weft by the application of cams or'
eccentrics, as herein described.
Secondly, the mode of working the batton or lay by a carriage in place of
swords.
-
Thirdly, the mode of suspending the treadles as herein-described.
Fourthly. the mode of relieving the shuttle from the swells or prominences

page_text: Fifthly, the mode of regulating the effect of the weights, as herein
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Fitton & George Collier, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eleventh day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
CHARLES (L.S.) FITTON.
GEORGE (L.B.) COLLIER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid Charles Fitton and George Collier
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.