IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTENS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Pegg, of Leicester, Elastic Web Manufacturer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTENS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING."
Sealed the 21st August 1860, and dated the 23rd February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Pegg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd February 1860.
I, JOHN PEGG, of Leicester, Elastic Web Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTENS EMPLOYED IN
WEAVING," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a new construction and method of action of the
battens or lays employed in weaving, whereby a shorter shuttle can be used,
more speed obtained; and a greater quantity of work produced in a given time
than heretofóre. I construct the battens or lays in two or more parts, capable
of being moved towards and from each other in a longitudinal direction by
cam or other suitable motions. The movable parts when approaching each
other carry the shuttles forward between the warp threads, and when these
movable parts are at the end of their travel the shuttles have their own
motion communicated to them, and are shot across the warp threads, and
from one movable part to the other, the space across which the shuttles are so
thrown is thus much diminished. The movable parts recede from one another
while another shed is being formed, again advance with the shuttles, and so on.

page_text: I prefer that the battens just described should be fixed, though they may be
made to oscillate. In my battens one or two sets of shuttles may be used, and
the battens may be single or double.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Pegg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
PEGG, of Leicester, Elastic Web Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Pegg, Her special licence that I, the said John Pegg, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Pegg, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTENS
EMPLOYED IN WEAVING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Pegg, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Pegg, do hereby declare
the nature of my said, Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:
My Invention consists in a new construction and method of action of the
battens or lays in weaving, whereby a shorter shuttle may be used, more speed
obtained, and a greater number of pieces produced in a given space than here-
tofore. I construct the battens or lays in two or more parts, capable of being
moved towards and from each other in a longitudinal direction, by cams, or

page_text: racks and pinions, or both, or by any other suitable motions. While the
movable parts are approaching each other the shuttles are carried forward
between the warp threads by the rack-and-pinion motion, and when the
movable parts are at the end of their travel the shuttles are carried through
5 the remaining portion by the continued operation of the rack-and-pinion
.motion, passing from one movable part to the others, the space across which
the shuttles are so thrown is thus much diminished. The movable parts having
completed their approaching motion immediately recede, another shed is then
formed, and the movable parts and shuttles again advance, and so on. I
sometimes prefer that the battens just described should be fixed, though I now
propose to make them oscillate usually. In my battens one or more tiers of
shuttles may be used.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed I have represented the manner in which
carry my Invention into effect, by applying my improvements to an oscillating
batten with two tiers of shuttles.
I
Figure 1 is a front view of part of such a batten; Figure 2 is a transverse
section of the same, enough only being shown to illustrate the parts requisite
to form one web. In the loom itself the shuttles would not project without
support, as shown in the Drawing, Figure 1, but their overhanging ends would
lie upon the pinions of the adjacent movable pieces. Figure 3 is a partial
transverse section illustrating the manner in which motion is imparted to the
moving parts of the batten; and Figure 4 is a partial plan view illustrating the
same. The batten is formed with an upper capping A and a lower capping B,
Figures 1 and 2, between which are fitted the front and back moveable pieces
of the batten, one of which carries one set of the shuttle propelling pinions,
and shuttle slides, and the other of which carries the other set. The front
'inoveable piece slides in the grooves marked C, C, of the cappings, and the
back piece slides in the grooves marked D, D. The back piece is increased
in thickness, or has blocks fixed upon it, upon which blocks the pinion frames
and shuttle slides are screwed, the thickened portion or the blocks being for
the purpose of holding these parts forward to the front of the batten, so that
the shuttles carried by the two moveable pieces may lie and travel in the same
planes. A portion of the back moveable piece, with two of the thickening
blocks t, t, fixed upon it, is shown on a greatly reduced scale in Figure 5. The
central frame E, situated between the front and back moveable pieces of the
batten, carries the reeds, which are let down into their places through slots cut
in the top rail of the aforesaid frame; the blocks before described pass through
the middle portion of the frame E. The moveable parts of the batten are
caused to recede from and approach to each other simultaneously by means of

page_text: the racks a, b, and pinion c, shown in Figures 3 and 4, the pinion c being
caused to rotate by means of a pulley at the upper part of the pinion spindle d,
a strap passing over 'the said pulley leading down to treadles, which are
worked below by cams. It is manifest that as the pinion c is caused to rotate
alternately in opposite directions, the racks a, b, and therefore the back and
front moveable pieces to which they are screwed will be alternately caused to
move together, but in opposite directions. In Figure 1, I have shown one
shuttle S in each moveable piece, and in the section, Figure 2, which is taken
The shuttles are
on the line x, y, of Figure 1, one of these shuttles is seen.
driven by the pinions F, F, which take into teeth G, G, formed in a groove in
the side of the shuttles, and these pinions are driven by means of racks H, H,
to which reciprocating motions are imparted by means of straps connected to
treadles worked by cams; I, I, are face pieces (supposed to be removed in
Figure 1) placed over the racks H, H, and the packing pieces K, K, for the
purpose of confining the racks and keeping dust from the other parts. The
packing pieces K, K, are also caused to form stops for the racks H, H, to
come against at the end of each stroke; L, L, are slides, on which the oppositė
sides of the shuttles move. These slides are slotted at 1, and the warp is
received in the slot 7 when a middle or dead warp is employed.
In employing my improved batten the sheds are formed in the ordinary
way, the shuttles being advanced as soon as the shed is sufficiently opened to
admit of their entrance; but the space through which the shuttles have to
pass is reduced by the two parts of the batten approaching each other,
and the length of the shuttles themselves is of course reduced in the
same proportion. Hence the time occupied by the passage of the shuttle
through the warp is greatly diminished, and consequently a greater number of
revolutions of the loom may be performed in the same period. This advantage
is obtained in addition to that of producing a greater number of pieces in a
given space, as before explained.
hand
In witness whereof, I, the said John Pegg, have hereunto set my
and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, One thousand eight