Improvements in and Machinery for the Manufacture of Coir Yarn Mats and other similar Fabrics.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Mar., 1889
Complete Specification Left. 23rd Dec. 1889-Accepted, 22nd Mar., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Machinery for the Manufacture of Coir Yarn
Mats and other similar Fabrics.
We EDWARD HODDER of 24 Bodford Street, Bury New Road, Manchester, Manu-
facturer and RICHARD SWAIN of l'iccadilly, Manchester, Mat Manufacturer do hereby
declare the nature of our said invention to be as follows:
This invention has for its object the manufacture of coir yarn mats in a simpler and
cheaper form than heretofore and by the employment of improved machinery
instead of producing the same by hand or by a loom and hand labour as
heretofore.
In performing our invention we employ a loom arrangement for operating the
warp and weft composed of coir yarn and in conjunction with this loom we employ
an arrangement of mechanism for first producing the thrums and then carrying the
same forward alɔng the warps so as to become interwoven with the warp and
weft.
The loom we employ consists of a framework upon the top of which are a series of
rollers over and under which the warps pass to create the necessary drag and then
each warp is led around a pair of small guide pulleys situated one at the top and the
other at the bottom of a suitable heald and then pass to the front of the loom and
between a pair of draw off rollers between which the finished mats are finally passed.
The heakis are operated by a pair of connecting rods the lower extremities of which
are fitted into bowls working in a suitably shaped cam groove so timed as to open
and close the shed at the desired instant.
The thrum mechanism consists of a series of bars of suitable thickness and width
and running parallel, each alternate one being of the same length and provided on
its upper surface with an incline of two or more inches in front of that on the
preceding alternate bar the other alternate bars being each two or more inches
longer than the preceding other alternate ones and so shaped at the ends as to give
an incline in the opposite angle from that on the preceding first mentioned bars.
A bracket the width of the loom provided with fingers descends through suitable
guides to the bottom of this series of bars and bearing on its upper surface a carrier
or carriers which moves or move in a transverse direction for the purpose of carrying
the pile material. The said bracket moves forward and by the fingers passing
through the aforesaid bars and pushing the pile material up and down the alternate
inclines so corrugates such pile material and when it arrives at its destination it is
severed by a knife or knives from the carriers and so allowing the carriers to retreat
to the starting point and then to repeat the operation. The thrums thus formed are
next pushed forward along the machine and over a series of knives to separate them
into pile by a thrum carrier until they are received upon the warps by which instant
the shed begins to open and by the time such thrums have reached the last weft yarn
thrown across the shed has become fully open and a clipper secures the thrums in
position whilst the thrum carrier descends out of the way and when the shuttle is timed
to pass through the open shed.
In this manner we are enabled to manufacture pile fabrics of coir yarn entirely by
machinery and in considerably less time than has hitherto been practicable whether
in manufacturing by hand or by a power loom in conjunction with hand labour.
It will be apparent that the improved mechanism is equally applicable in the
production of other similar manufactures in which pile is required to be
interwoven.
D

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Machinery for the Manufacture of Coir Yarn
Mats and other similar Fabrics.
We EDWARD HODDER of 24 Bedford Street, Bury New Road, Manchester
Manufacturer and RICHARD SWAIN of Piccadilly Manchester, Manufacturer do
hereby declare the nature of our said invention and in what manner the same is to
he performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
This invention has for its object the manufacture of coir-yarn mats in a simpler
and cheaper form than heretofore and by the employment of improved machinery
instead of producing the same by hand or by a loom and hand labor as hitherto.
In performing our invention we employ a loom arrangement for operating the
warp and weft composed of coir-yarn-and in conjunction with this loom we employ
an arrangement of mechanism for first producing the thrums and then carrying
the same forwards on to and along the warps so as to become interwoven with the
warp and weft.
And in order that this our said invention may be the more readily understood and
carried into practical effect we have hereunto annexed a drawing of our improved
machinery for the manufacture of coir-yarn fabric and will now proceed to describe
the same with the assistance of the various Figures and letters of reference marked
thereon.
Fig. 1 is a front view of our improved machine and Fig. 2 is a side sectional view
of Fig. 1 on line a-b.
In all the views a a is the loom frame-work upon the top of which are a series of
rollers bb over and under which the warps cc (which are composed of coir yarn) pass
to create the necessary drag and then such warps are led over a roller c' and down to
a roller c thence forwards towards the front of the loom to a pair of delivery rollers d
between which the finished woven mats or other coir fabric is finally passed.
On their way the warps c are passed through eyelets e at the extremities of cords e¹
(shewn broken off in Fig. 1) attached to the top and bottom heald rods e². These
heald rods (of which there are two sets for the alternate warps as illustrated) extend
across the loom and are carried at their outer extremities by a pair of levers e³, the
shorter arm of one of which is connected by a rod e' to the tappet lever e. The
necessary up and down motion is communicated to the tappet lever to operate
the healds by the tappet came driven by spur gearing from the driving shaft f.
The loom is provided with an ordinary shuttle carrying the necessary coir yarn weft
and which shuttle is thrown across by picking shafts actuated by a tappet upon the
inner face of the fly-wheel.
The picking shaft g at each side of the loom is provided with a tooth or projec-
tion to which is attached one extremity of a strong spiral spring g³ coiled round the
picking shaft g. its other or lower extremity being affixed to the frame side of the loom.
When the shuttle is timed to be thrown across the loom, the tappet comes in contact
with such projection 92 and has the effect of winding up or increasing the tension of
the spring and of bringing the arm or distaff back to its farthest point. It will be
seen that when such tappet is passed, the projection g² is instantly released, the
spring recoils and actuating the picking shaft g causes the shuttle to be thrown across
the loom.
The picking shaft g is lowered out of gear with the tappet f1 except at the instant
of throwing the shuttle and which is effected by the lower extremity of the picking
shaft g resting upon a lever g' actuated by the same tappet which operates the heald
levers.
It now remains to describe the formation of the thrums and how the same are
carried forwards on to the warps. For this purpose we arrange a frame to extend
across the back of the loom and which is provided in its base with a series of vertical

page_text: holes i arranged in line. Across each of these holes is formed a horizontal passage j
to receive the ends of the yarns required to be formed into thrums. These thrum-
yarns (which are by preference three-fold) are drawn off a creel at the back of the
loom, and are pushed into the horizontal passages jj by means of a pair of feeding
rollers to which an intermittent revolving motion is imparted by an eccentric upon
the shaft and by pawl and ratchet mechanism upon the axle of one of the rollers,
only to draw off a sufficient quantity of yarn and then to stop whilst the same is cut
off and formed into thrums.
Immediately behind the feeding rollers is the cniting off knife suspended upon
diagonal links and which is caused to descend and cut off the thrum yarn at the
proper instant by its outer extremity passing through a slot formed at the end of a
lever . This lever in turn is connected to a lever which is oscillated by a bowl at
its extremity taking into a groove formed in one side of a cam wheel 1. The other
side of this same cam wheel is provided with a similar groove for operating a
similar set of levers m, m which are designed to raise and lower a cross-bar o carrying
upon its under side a set of suspended plungers p.
These plungers are chisel shaped at their extremities and project slightly into the
series of holes and each plunger is further provided with a spiral groove upon its
outer surface into which a fixed pin projects from the side of the hole and thus as such
plungers under the lowering action of the cross-bar o are caused to descend into their.
several boles i, i they make half a turn upon their axes. In this manner the thrum
yarns so supplied to the horizontal passages j as aforesaid are pushed downwards by
the chisel shaped plungers and in doing so are formed into the necessary U shape and
as they pass out at the bottom of the holes i are already turned to the proper angle to
be carried forwards by the thrum carriers on to the warps to form the coir pile.
?"
The thrum carriers consist of a set of projections arranged comb-like along the
upper surface of a transverse bar capable of sliding to and fro in the horizontal
guide grooves ².
These thrum carriers as they travel along pass between the fixed tapering guides s
and so push the thrums along such tapering guides until they finally pass off on to
the warps and into contact with the last weft and so become interwoven with the coir-
fabric.
The necessary travelling motion is imparted to the transverse bar by its
extremities being mounted in diagonal grooves formed in the inner faces of the
sliding-carriage which receives its to and fro motion from the oscillating lever s³
and driving wheel 9³.
The horizontal guide-grooves are mounted upon vertical guide rods and are
capable of being lowered along with the thrum carriers by means (of tappet and
lever ) mechanism as illustrated in Fig. 2-so as to release the thrum carriers and
enable them to retire without disturbing the thrums.
We sometimes impart a slight to an fro side motion to the frame by means of the
shorter arm of a lever the other arm of which is connected to the tappet lever rod e
to cause the thrums to pass at each alternate pick or at any desired number of picks
on to say every other or alternate warp and whereby we can obtain a variety of patterns
in the arrangement of the coir pile.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1st. The combination and arrangement and mechanism for the manufacture of coir
mats substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated on the accompanying
drawings.
2nd. In machinery for the manufacture of coir mats and other similar coir fabrics

page_text: the employment of thrum forming mechanism mounted and operating substantially as
and for the purpose hereinbefore described and illustrated on the accompanying
drawings.
Dated this 21st day of December 1889.
JOHN G. WILSON,
Patent Office, 55, Market Street, Manchester, Agent for the Applicants.