IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING CERTAIN CLASSES OF FABRICS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Bernhardt and Charles
Chapman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th April.
1879.
GEORGE BERNHARDT, of the Firm of John C. Milns & Co. of Stand Lane Mills
Radcliffe, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers, and
CHARLES CHAPMAN, Overlooker to the said Firm. " IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR
WEAVING CERTAIN CLASSES OF FABRICS."
"
Hitherto a certain class of fabrics have been woven by tappets in a changing
shuttle box loom, the body of the fabric being formed by a certain order of " sheds
in a uniform manner, and then at intervals one or more "shoots" of weft of different
color or material have been woven in upon the surface of the fabric, from which
peculiarity these fabrics have been termed "throw ups," as the weft so woven in is
apparently upon the surface of the main body of the fabric, but these classes of
fabrics when produced by tappets (which make the best cloth) are of limited
extent in the design as to the "throw ups," owing to the limited number of
different "sheds" which can be formed in one "repeat" or revolution of a tappet
shaft.
The object of our Invention is to enable the weaving of the above and other
similar fabrics in tappet and changing shuttle box looms, but with a greater extent
and variety of the pattern than has hitherto been possible in such looms, and our
Invention consists in the following arrangements and combinations of the
mechanism:
"
The tappets which we prefer to use are double acting, being what are termed
box tappets" they act to positively elevate and depress the healds.
The tappets are arranged to produce the sheds for the body of the fabric when,
say, white weft is used, and there are tappets arranged "in the round," which
bring down the greater part of the warp threads when the "throw up" or colored
or ornamental weft shoots are to be put in, and we arrange the mechanism of the
loom so that we can, according to the design or pattern to be produced, prevent
the loom from putting in these ornamental weft shoots, and from "taking up
every time the tappet shaft comes round to these sheds, except when the weft
shoots to be thrown in, so that in effect we cause the loom to pass over those sheds
without weaving (though the loom is in continuous motion) except when the
ornamental weft shoots are required.
"
This is done by the pattern chain or mechanism for actuating the shuttle boxes
by arranging the chain tappet to bring the shuttle boxes to one or the other extreme

page_text: of their lifting or oscillatory movement, in which extreme there will be either no
shuttle or an empty shuttle; consequently, there will be no weft put in, and the
shuttle box is connected by levers and rods with mechanism to lift the "taking
up" paul when the shuttle box is in this extreme position, and also prevent the
weft fork from acting; or the chain tappets or their equivalents are or may be
made by levers and connected mechanism to put the picking motion and "taking
up "motion out of gear and prevent the action of the "weft fork" when the weft
is not to be put in, by which latter arrangement only as many shuttle boxes are
required as there are different wefts to be used in the fabric, while by the former
arrangement there must be always one shuttle box to spare at one or the other
extreme to represent the blank shuttle.
In place of stopping the picking and take up the mechanism is or may be
arranged to stop the entire loom except the tappet shaft and shaft driving the
pattern chain; this is or may be done by a clutch box and levers, or by traversing
the driving belt on to a third pulley used in addition to the ordinary fast and loose
pulley.
Novel effects are or may be produced in the cloth by arrangements above described
by preventing the loom from picking or putting in the weft, but allowing the "take
up" to continue.
Our Invention above described may also be applied to looms in which the healds
are worked by dobby mechanism, but the advantages are not so great as in tappet
looms.