IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF REEDS USED IN LOOMS
Year: 1885

page_text: We GEORGE ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH trading under the style of
Ashworth Brothers of the Moss Brook Works Collyhurst Manchester in the
County of Lancaster Engineers do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF REEDS USED IN LOOMS" to
be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the Reeds used in looms in the weaving of textile
fabrics and has for its principal objects to increase their accuracy of formation and
to facilitate their production and repair. We produce the reeds without the use of
the ordinary reed making machine. The reed dents are inserted in holders
alternately with distance pieces, or the dents are formed with thickened ends to
dispense with the said distance pieces. The arranged dents are tightened up by
means of nuts or screws which may or may not be removable. In some cases the
dents are arranged in and soldered to tinned metal or to metal holders or bars.
In one formation the holders consist of steel or metal bars which are grooved to
receive the dents and are temporarily kept at the required distance apart by means
of links or by suitable means. Each bar is screwed at one end or at both ends to
receive a tightening nut. The said distance pieces may be short lengths of flat
reed wire or of flattened steel wire or of thin metal of about the same width as
the reed dents. In some cases we turn over and flatten down each end of the dent
and to facilitate this and to obtain a better result we prefer to nick or indent the
reed by pressure or by cutting or grinding at the two points where the bends are
to occur or we might heat or soften the wire at these parts. When the ends have
been bent over the dents may be rolled or pressed to bring them to an uniform
guage. When so treated separate distance pieces are not required. When the
holders or bars have been filled to the required extent, end retaining pieces are
put into the grooves and nuts on the bars are screwed up against these end pieces
which transmit the pressure to the reeds which can thus be tightened up or com-
pressed together to a suitable degree. If the nuts are to be removed we drive pins
into holes drilled in the bars near each end either before or after the insertion of
the dents or we solder or otherwise secure the end dents. These pins may pass
through or behind the retaining pieces which may or may not extend from one
bar to the other. The reed may be tightened up from one end or from both ends,
L.

page_text: In some cases we propose to make each bar in two parts connected by means of
screws or bolts. When so made the width of the groove can be increased by the
use of packings and also to facilitate the insertion of the dents the bolts or screws
being tightened when the reed is completed. When solder is used we either solder
the dents to the bars in which they are arranged or to strips or casings of tinned
or untioned metal which are temporarily placed in grooved bars or in holder's
which we propose to heat in order to cause the applied solder to run into the
interstices so as to secure the strips or casings to the dents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and in the Production of Reeds Used in Ļooms.
We GEORGE ASHWORTH and ELIJAH ASHWORTH trading under the style of
Ashworth Brothers of the Moss Brook Works, Collyhurst Manchester in the
County of Lancaster Engineers do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF REEDS USED IN LOOMS,"
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying drawings:-
Our Invention relates to the Reeds used in looms in the weaving of textile
fabrics and has for its principal objects to increase their accuracy of formation and
to facilitate their production and repair. We produce the reeds without the use of
the ordinary reed making machine. The reed dents are inserted in holders
alternately with distance pieces, or the dents are formed with thickened ends to
dispense with the said distance pieces. The arranged dents are tightened up by
means of nuts or screws which may or may not be removable. In some cases the.
dents are arranged in and soldered to tinned metal or. to metal holders or bars.
Our Invention will be best understood when described with reference to the
accompanying sheet of drawings which are illustrative of the methods we adopt
when carrying our invention into effect.
In the said drawings Figs. 1 to 6 illustrate a formation wherein the said holders
hereinafter termed bars consist of steel or metal bars grooved to receive the dents,
as illustrated by Fig. 1 which represents a cross section of one of the bars. The
two bars required for a reed are temporarily kept at the proper distance apart with
the grooves facing each other. For this purpose links may be employed and be
removed when the dents are in position or when the reed is completed or the bars
may be permanently connected at one end or may be clamped or held in a frame
during the operation. Each bar is screwed at one end or at each end to receive a

page_text: tightening nut. The dents are arranged with their ends in the grooves in the bars
and are kept at the required distance apart by means of distance pieces which may
be short lengths of reed wire or thin pieces of .metal either straight as indicated in
Fig. 9 or bent receive the dent end as indicated in Fig. 10 or the ends of the dents
may be increased in thickness by turning over a short length at each end. To
facilitate this operation we may indent the wire at the point where it is to be bent
as indicated in Fig. 2. This indentation may be effected by cutting or grinding or
by pressure or by suitable means. The short length from the indentation to, the
end would then be bent up and flattened down as indicated in Fig. 3.
To complete the dents and to bring them to an uniform guage we may roll them
or press them between two true and hard dies or surfaces. In place of the indenting
we may heat the ends of the dent to facilitate the bending. Dents formed as
indicated in Fig. 3 do not require the distance pieces. The dents are inserted with
their ends in the grooves in the two hars until the required number are in place
retaining strips or pieces of greater strength than the dents being inserted at each
end of the series. In Fig. 4 a. a. are the two bars, b. are the dents and c. c are
the end retaining strips. A link such as we may use for temporarily connecting
together the two bars is represented by d. When the holder represented by the
bars a. a. is filled to the required extent and the retaining strip c. has been inserted
a key e formed with a shoulder is placed in the groove in each bar and nuts f. f.
are screwed home upon the ends of the bars so as to force the said keys against
the strip c. until the dents become tightly compacted together. If the nuts are to
be removed we drive pins or rivets g. into holes which are or have been drilled
in the bars auch pins coming immediately behind the strip o. and preventing the
relaxing of the dents after the removal of the nuts. If the said holes have been
drilled previously to the insertion of the dents we tighten up the nuts until the
strip.c. has been forced past the holes so that the pins can be inserted the pins
passing through the bar as indicated in Fig. 5. In some cases or if preferred we
may adapt the strips for the pins to pass through the strips as well as through the
bars. In place of the said pins or rivets we may use screws or other suitable
fasteners or in place of or in addition to such pins or screws we may solder the
retaining pieces to the bars or we may solder a number of the dents extending from
each end of the reed to the bars or we may secure the whole of the dents by means
of solder or we may solder together clusters of dents to form sections of a reed and
insert such sections in the grooved bars or holders. We may screw both ends of
each bar so as to be able to tighten up the reed at both ends. A narrow reed such
as is used in tape or ribbon looms is shown in Fig. 4 for convenience of represen-
tation but it will be understood that the reeds may be made of any required
proportions. Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate a modification in the formation of the bars a.
In this example each bar consists of two parts which may be secured together by
means of screws, bolts or rivets. One part represented by Fig. 6 is rebated. The
other part is a flat strip. When the two parts are secured together a groove or
channel to receive the dents is provided as indicated in Fig. 7. If preferred each
part may be rebated. In this form of bar the width of the groove can be increased
by the use of packings and also to facilitate the insertion of the dents the bolts or
screws being tightened up at the completion of the reed so as to tightly grip the
dents. When these composite bars are used the dents may be tightened up in the
manner described when referring to Fig. 4 or the retaining strips may be forced up
by means of wedges or of screws or by pressure applied by suitable means to the
said retaining pieces. Fig. 8 illustrates another modification. In this example
two grooved bars h are used during the formation of the reed but do not form part
of the completed reed. In the groove of each bar a trough-shaped channel strip i
is placed this channel strip being made of sheet steel or other suitable metal moulded,
rolled or pressed into the required form. The dents are inserted in the channels in
the strips and are tightened up as when operating with the bars a. a. and the
dents are afterwards soldered to the channel strips which then serve to firmly attach
together the dents. To facilitate the running or "sweating in" of the solder so as

page_text: to make a firm connection we heat the channel strip and the ends of the dents until
the solder will run freely into all the interstices, When the soldering is completed
we remove the reed from the bars h.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
2.
1. The reeds produced substantially in the manner set forth and indicated
herein before and in and by the accompanying drawings.
2. A reed composed of dents and distance pieces or of dents thickened at the
ends packed in grooved metal bars and tightened up and secured in such bara
substantially as set forth and indicated.
3. A reed having the dents secured in channels formed in composite bars each
composed of two parts screwed bolted or riveted together substantially as set forth
and indicated.
4. A reed having the dents arranged in order with their ends. in metal troughs
into which solder is run or sweated so as to attach together the dents, substantially
as set forth and indicated.