IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING RIBBONS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Edwards at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 13th September 1883. A communication to
him from abroad by Henry Gallant, of Paris in the Republic of France.
EDMUND EDWARDS, of the firm of Edwards and Co:-Patent Agents and
Engineers, of 40, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING RIBBONS
[A communication to him from abroad by Henry Gallant, of Paris in the Republic
of France]
"
This invention relates to looms in which a number of ribbons are woven
simultaneously, a number of chains or warps being used equal to that of the
ribbons being woven, and it has for its object an improved method of constructing
and arranging parts of such looms so that a single chain or warp can be used for
any number of ribbons,
For this purpose a roller or drum of sufficient length and diameter is arranged
so that it revolves in bearings, a single chain being wound upon it. On the chain
or warp leaving the roller as the latter unwinds, it is divided into as many parts
as there are ribbons to be woven, and a horizontal bar working in guides is
arranged so as to press upon the whole of the divided parts of the chain or warps
as they travel forward in the well known manner usual in such looms.
In order that the bar may remain in its required horizontal position without
either end rising or falling more than the alternate end, which would lead to
irregularities in working and defects in the goods manufactured, a novel
compensating apparatus is used, by which the bar is always brought back to its
proper horizontal position in the following manner.
The several chains or warps described pass over pulleys each of which revolves
in a frame to the lower end of which a weight is suspended, whilst the horizontal
bar rests upon their upper ends, each weight being sufficient to give the tension
necessary to the fabric which is being woven. Two additional weights, one near
each end of the bar, are also suspended by vertical wires or rods which pass through
the bar and are provided with collars or projections which rest upon the upper side
of the latter.
The wires are then continued upward and are connected to the outer ends of
two horizontal balance levers turning upon centres at or near the middle of their

page_text: length, and having at their inner ends wires or chains the lower ends of which are
both connected to a single weight.
By the method of arrangement described, if the horizontal bar has any tendency
to rise at, say, its left end, in so rising it lifts the weight hung below it by means
of the collar upon the rod passing through it and the inner end of the left lever
will consequently descend, letting down the central weight and the alternate lever
the other end of which will rise and will lift its weight raising the collar upon the
rod of the latter from the bar, which being thus released will tend also to rise and
the bar is thus allowed to regain its horizontal position.
The same result will take place in the opposite direction if the right end of the
bar rises.
The compensating apparatus just described is also made use of to ensure the
regular unwinding of the warp from the roller first described notwithstanding the
varying diameter of the latter as more or less of the warp is unwound. For this
purpose, the axis of the roller is provided with a tangent toothed wheel driven by
an endless screw upon an axis or spindle provided with a ratchet wheel and also
with a lever carrying a pall actuating the ratchet wheel.
This lever is raised and lowered at intervals by a projection upon a reciprocating
part of the loom, and it is continued forward so that its outer end rests upon the
central weight already described.
The roller has therefore a slow intermittent unwinding movement as the lever
reciprocates, but as its effective diameter diminishes the length of chain or warp
unwound will be less at each revolution.
. If, therefore the central weight descends, the end of the lever resting upon it
will also be lowered, and the pall will have a longer stroke and take a larger
number of teeth, unwinding the roller more quickly.
If on the contrary the central weight rises the pall will have a shorter stroke
taking fewer teeth, and unwinding the chain more slowly. As the central weight
varies in position in proportion to the feed of the chain or warp, it follows that
the roller will unwind at the proper proportional speed.
If for any reason any shuttle ceases to supply its proper thread the stretch upon
its chain becoming less its counterweight and pulley will descend and leave the
horizontal bar, and the warp being no longer subject to the pressure of the bar will
pass less quickly, and if the thread be replaced in the shuttle at once there will be
no defect in the woven fabric, and the weight and pulley will quickly rise to their
proper place below the bar.
By the novel method of construction and arrangement described, the long and
troublesome preparation of a number of chains or warps is avoided, and facility is
afforded for mechanical warping; sizing may also be effected mechanically;
consequently greater resistance of the thread results, and greater strength of
the fabric; the speed of production is increased, as there are no stoppages;
irregularities in the fabric aro prevented; and weaker threads may be employed
than are ordinarily used.