'PROVEMENTS IN WEAVING HARNESS CURTAINS, BLINDS, AND SIMILAR FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Wilson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
December 1874.
I, JAMES WILSON, of Newmilns, in the County of Ayr, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
'PROVEMENTS IN WEAVING HARNESS CURTAINS, BLINDS, AND SIMILAR FABRICS,
AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREFOR," to be as follows, that is to
say:-
This Invention which relates to improvements in weaving harness
curtains, blinds, screens, and similar light fabrics, consists in an
improved method of weaving the flowering or figuring upon the
ordinary ground of such fabrics, and also in a novel method of producing
the shedding of the warp threads.
The flowering or figuring upon the said fabrics as woven by my
Invention presents an even, regular, and close superficial texture in
contradistinction to the open and irregular appearance of flowering or
figuring as effected by the ordinary methods.
Instead of employing "heddles" or ❝ healds as heretofore for the
manipulation of the warp threads when producing the ground of such

page_text: fabrics, I employ two perforated boards extending across the warp,
and through the perforations in these boards a series of strings or cords
(connected to the vertical needles of the jacquard machine) are passed.
"Mails" are situated upon the said strings or cords beneath the
aforesaid perforated boards, through which "mails" the threads of 5
the warp aro passed in the ordinary manner. At a point above the
perforated boards the aforesaid strings or cords are provided with a
stop, or they may be knotted so as to present an obstruction that will
not pass through the perforations in the boards. .
The perforated boards are operated by the loom through an arrange- 1
ment of cams and levers, or any other suitable mechanism whereby
they are caused to rise and fall at the proper intervals so as to effect
the necessary shedding of the warp for the production of the ground.
By thus dispensing with the use of "heddles" or "healds"
space is
economized so as to allow for an independently operated "mail,” and 1
attachment being provided for each thread of the warp, whereby an
independent shedding of the threads composing the warp is effected,
and a different shed prosented to cach stroke of the ground shuttle.
These warp threads, which at times become incorporated with and form
part of the flowering or figuring, are shed at suitable intervals (so as to
allow of the "shot" of the "rove" or figuring shuttle) by the action
of a double-acting jacquard machine, the vertical needles of which are
attached as aforesaid to the strings or cords whereon the "mails” aṛọ
situated, through which the warp threads pass, and the cards or card
barrel being perforated or pegged according to the pattern, the hori-
zontal and consequently the vertical needles are so actuated as to present
a different shed of the warp, to each stroke of the "rovo" or figuring
shuttle, whereby a closer and more regular texture is given to the
flowering or figuring than has been hitherto obtained by the ordinary
methods of weaving the herein-boforo referred to fabrics.
In the course of the work where the ground shot forms part of the
flowering or figuring the ground shuttle is passed through a shed
similar to that through which the "rovo" or figuring shuttle is
shot.