IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO SHUTTLE BOX OR REVOLVER APPARATUS FOR LOOMS A
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Phillips Thompson of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the County of Lancaster and of
323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for an inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO SHUTTLE BOX OR REVOLVER
APPARATUS FOR LOOMS A communication to me from abroad by Monsieur
Edmond Lepainteur of Paris in the republic of France
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Phillips Thompson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th May 1882.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON of the Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors,
6 Lord Street Liverpool in the county of Lancaster and of 323 High Holborn in
the county. of Middlesex Civil Engineer " IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO
SHUTTLE BOX OR REVOLVER APPARATUS FOR LOOMS a communication to me from
abroad by Monsieur Edmond Lepainteur of Paris in the Republic of France.
In looms at the present time with revolving shuttle boxes it is only possible
even with a special mechanism called a jumping box (boite Sautant) to pass at any
time to any but the next shuttle or the next but one to that actually in use conse-
quently with a box of eight shuttles it is only possible when using number 4 to
pass direct to number 2 3.5 or 6. whereas it may be desirable to pass direct to
1,7 or 8. This passage from one to the other has to be done by hand.
Now the present invention is designed to enable the loom to pass automatically
by a sort of Jacquard card arrangement from any one box to any other. The
apparatus can be applied to the revolvers now in use. The revolver in this
invention possesses a continuous motion always in one direction and is stopped by
the will of the weaver or by the card when the required box is in position in front
of the shuttle thrower The mechanisms causing an arrestation of the revolver
are kept ready to act but prevented from doing so by springs counterweights
friction pieces or slides until liberated by hand or by card as hereafter
described.
In the apparatus which Mr. Lepainteur has described in the communication
forwarded to me the movement is communicated to the revolver by means of a
spiral spring constantly wound up and sufficiently powerful to cause it to put the
revolver in motion while permitting it to be arrested by the mechanism at any
required instant. The winding up of the spring is effected automatically under a
mechanical action, the throwing into and out of gear of which is exactly deter-
mined by the augmentations of volume which this spring takes in in winding.
The arrestations of the revolver are caused by a card machine and needle which
ID ar

page_text: falling into the perforations in the card instantly liberates the stopping
mechanism
The following is a description of the apparatus set forth in the communication
aforesaid.
A shaft carrying the spring aforesaid which will be more accurately described
hereafter actuates by bevel gearings a vertical shaft riding freely in a bearing or
step carried loosely on this horizontal shaft. This vertical shaft carries a bevel
wheel sliding on a feather and kept up by a coiled spring also resting on the bevel
wheel a loose collar carrying the pivot of the "revolver "-
"-or shuttle box shaft-
which carries a bevel wheel gearing into the one on the vertical shaft. By this
means while the lower shaft remains stationary the upper can oscillate with the
shed yet be turned by the other.
Keyed on this upper shaft to which the revolver or shuttle box is also keyed
are a series of scroll cams with a single beak each corresponding in number to the
shuttle cells or boxes in the revolver and having their beaks at equal angles round
the shaft thus if there were eight shuttles there would be eight cams and their
beaks would be at an angular distance of 45 degrees with each other. Opposite
each of these eight cams is a lever with a single beak so arranged that if allowed
to fall against the cam it would arrest its rotation when the beaks of the two pieces
came in contact These levers are all mounted to swing loose on a spindle below.
These levers are kept from interlocking with the cams by stops on apparatus con-
sisting of a spring-held or counterweighted sliding bar with T head carrying a
cam lever and the needle of a card machine in such manner that only the lever
whose corresponding needle enters a perforation in the card shall interlock with its
cam and shall be disengaged by the next movement of the shed when the card
roller moving on the next card allows the same or some other lever to interlock
and thus bring the same or another shuttle into play as the motion of the revolver
is intermittent and of longer duration at one time than another
Special arrange-
ment has to be made to propel the shaft by a spring yet always have that spring
wound up for the next operation but never wound too far.
The following is one way of doing it.
The lower horizontal shaft already described has on it a loose spur wheel with
clutch gearing into a fast spur wheel on driving shaft
This clutch clutches into a similar moveable clutch in a sleeve loose on the shaft
but working solid with a plate as regards rotation also loose on shaft but stationary
as regards longitudinal motion. To this plate is attached one end of the barrel
spring the other end of which is fast to a collar keyed on the shaft.
A spiral spring presses against the plate at the one end and the clutch sleeve
at the other tending to put the clutch into gear and produce thereby a winding
up of the barrel spring and which in turn puts a pressure on the shaft tending to
turn it.
It is important to throw out of gear the winding up of the spring automatically
when the winding is affected. This is effected by a lever keyed on a subsidiary
shaft and its extremity rests in a groove in the clutch sleeve when the spring is
wound. In this groove is placed a projection which sliding against the inclined
plane which terminates the lever, disengages the clutch and thus ends the winding
up. The unwinding of the barrel spring is prevented by another lever on a
separate spindle mounted upon a sliding support catching a projecting pin on the
plate. This lever is provided with an elastic or spring causing it to catch the pin.
When by successive revolutions of the revolver the spring is sufficiently unwound
it swells out so much as to raise another lever keyed on the subsidiary shaft which
raises the clutch lever clear of the projection and allows the clutch to fall into gear
and wind up the spring again until the levers again sinking, the clutch lever comes
into contact with the projection and throws the clutch out of gear.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed-
by the said William Phillips Thompson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th November 1882.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON of the Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors
6 Lord Street Liverpool in the county of Lancaster and of 323 High Holborn in
the county of Middlesex Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO
SHUTTLE-BOX OR REVOLVER APPARATUS FOR LOOMS' a communication to me from
abroad by Monsieur Edmond Lepainteur of Paris in the republic of France
"
The following is a translation of the description of the invention as communicated
to me, the pronoun "I" throughout meaning of course Mr Lepainteur.
"The new shuttle-box, the mechanism of which I am about to describe, gives
industrial results which no other system has hitherto been able to produce, it in
fact permits the weaver to make all imaginable combinations of tints and of
textile materials with an extreme facility; its construction however rests upon
a mechanical principle which differs essentially from that adopted in all other
systems.
"The old mechanical boxes, mounted upon the "revolver" could not move to
front or rear unless impelled by the mechanisms for that purpose, and further one
could only pass from any one box to the preceding or following one. What is
called a "jumping-box" has however been made, which in a revolver of six
divisions can be made to pass in a single movement from the first to the third
division for example, skipping the second, or if the apparatus is turning in the
opposite direction from the first to the fifth division skipping the sixth; but even
with this improved apparatus, the fourth could still not be reached directly by
starting from the first and this defect necessarily increased in importance with
the number of the divisions of the revolver; So that with a revolver of eight
boxes, there were always three divisions which could not be reached directly by
starting from any one division. It is this gap which the new mechanism con-
stituting the object of this invention is designed to fill.
26
It allows of passing with the greatest facility from any one box to any other
box, whatever may be the number of boxes mounted upon a revolver; the great
importance which it presents in the manufacture of certain fabrics will then be
understood, and this so much the more since it can be applied without difficulty to
revolvers actually in use.
"I have said that all the revolvers of ordinary looms remain at rest and only
move when caused to do so by special impelling apparatus which force them to go
to front or rear according to the requirements of the weaver, who at a given
moment wants a thread of some particular colour or a thread from some special
textile material. My new revolver on the contrary possesses a continuous circular
movement always working in the same direction which is communicated to it by
a spring or any other appropriate device, and the mechanisms which act upon it
at the will of the weaver have for their function to suspend its revolution at the
moment when the required shuttle comes opposite the shuttle throwing apparatus
("picker stick ")
My system then consists in communicating to the revolver box a circular
movement always in the same direction, by means of a mechanism which permits
of stopping it at any instant and at any point of its revolution, I have attained
this result by the interposition, between the driving connection with the loom
and the revolver of mechanisms which will yield under a sufficient force, such as
springs, counter-weights, friction pieces, or slides, and which are always maintained
in readiness for action in any desired manner.

page_text: "
In the arrangement represented in the drawings which I am about to describe
in detail the movement is communicated to the revolver by means of a spiral
spring kept constantly wound up so as always to be sufficiently powerful to put the
revolver in motion while permitting it to be stopped at any instant exactly at the
point required by the work. As explained further on, the arrangement for winding
up the spring which I use is such that this operation is effected under the action
of a mechanism, the throwing into and out of gear of which is exactly determined
by the augmentations of volume which this spring takes in unwinding, so that the
winding up is effected automatically when that is necessary in order to keep it
always at a tension sufficient to put the revolver in motion.
"Under these conditions in order to bring about the stoppages of the revolver in
accordance with the different tints which it is required to obtain, I apply to the
apparatus a very simple arrangement of movable cards in front of a needle which
by falling into the perforation in the card, produces the instantaneous stoppage of
the revolver at the desired point
"It is to be further noted that in actual looms, the system is in direct connection
with the shed motion of the loom, with the exception of the controlling device and
the arrangements which determine the throwing into and out of gear of the
mechanism which effects the winding up of the spring
"The annexed drawings permit the method of fixing, and the working of the
various parts of my apparatus to be easily understood." In these Fig. 1 is an
elevation of the apparatus as a whole. Fig 2 is a plan view of the controlling
device. Fig 3 is a side elevation of the mechanism for stopping the shuttle-box.
Fig 4 shows the arrangement for throwing out of gear the winding up mechanism.
Fig 5 represents the spring which actuates the revolver when unwound
Fig 6 represents the device for holding the plate stationary during the winding up
of the spring.
86
The revolver box R is commanded by the spiral spring r by the intermediation
of the following mechanisms. A shaft a carrying a keyed collar 2. to which is
attached one of the ends of the spring r actuates the intermediate vertical shaft a¹
by means of the bevel wheels bb', and the shaft a¹ actuates the shuttle box R by
means of the bevel wheels c c¹, the latter of which c¹ is keyed upon the revolver
shaft a² The following special arrangements must be made in the mounting of
the intermediate shaft a¹ since the revolver R is connected to the shed of the loom
and participates in its reciprocating motion thus oscillating about the "articu-
lation" of the shed (not shown in the drawings) The vertical shaft a' turns in a
step formed by a socket d oscillating freely on the shaft a and kept in position by
the stop ring d¹. The horizontal shaft a² is hollow at the end and turns on a short
pivot a rigidly connected to a sleeve d² which slides freely upon the shaft a¹; this
sliding movement results from the shafts a² and a' oscillating about different axes.
The sleeve d² serves as a stop for the pinion c which is kept up by the spiral
spring which latter rests upon the collar b² fixed upon the shaft a¹ the pinion c
is keyed and turns upon the grooved shaft a¹ along which it can slide with the
sleeve d²
"The side view Fig. shows the interlocking arrangement on the revolver
which permits of presenting in front of the loom any shuttle the stoppage of which
is caused by the perforated cards employed in weaving. Upon the shaft a² of the
revolver box is keyed a drum T formed of as many discs f as there are shuttles;
each disc corresponds to a particular shuttle and causes its stoppage. Each disc f
is so profiled as to present on its periphery a projecting catch f¹ which comes in
contact with the beak f³ on an oscillating lever f³; all these levers f³ are collected
together loose upon a common shaft as which participates in the general oscillating
motion given to the system by the shed. The discs f are collected together in
such a way as to radiate round the shaft a² and cause the projecting catches f¹ to
correspond to the several shuttles of the revolver. Every lever f³ is provided
with a retaining mechanism which maintains all the breaks f' except one away
from the projecting catches f'. This mechanism is mounted on a bar g sliding

page_text: between the guides g¹ g²; this bar has a T head at one end the top portion of
which carries the jointed lever h, and the shank a stop needle The lever his
provided underneath with the raising cam h¹; on the side is fixed a retaining
block hopposite the lever f³ in order to keep said lever from coming in contact
with the projecting catch f¹ when not required by the exigencies of the pattern.
"The bars g receive a general backward motion from the shed which moves all
the levers fs and disengages the one which has retained the disc f during the work
of the corresponding shuttle. It is at the moment when this recoil has disengaged
the disc that the control spring acts through the above described transmitting
mechanism to give to the disc and to the revolver a rapid movement of rotation.
An elastic pull-back j however tends constantly to draw the bars g back to their
first position, and on the return of the shed they would come in contact with their
respective discs f if not retained by the cards k applied to the hollow drum k¹.
The needle i in fact coming against an unperforated card stops the whole of its
mechanism But it is not the same with the mechanism of the shuttle which is
required for use in the fabric, for the corresponding needle i encounters a perforated
card, traverses it and thus allows the pull-back j of the system to act. From the
forward movement thus imparted, there results the raising of the lever h, the
cam h of which passes over the guides g', the lever f³ is released and comes in
contact with the disc f, the projecting catch f¹ of which stops on the beak f³ of
the lever and the effect of this is to present the desired shuttle in position for
weaving. A fresh backward movement is imparted by the shed, and a fresh card
is applied to the drum k¹ in front of the needles i; the perforations of this may
allow the same or any other shuttle to act as required by the pattern to be
produced
"
It is easy to see that the rotation of the revolver drum can be, under the action
of the control spring r after the disengagement of the stop levers, a complete
revolution, and that the stoppage can be made on any disc whatever the order of
its projecting catch in the rotation. It will be understood then that the number of
shuttles, tints or threads, is no longer limited by the exigencies of transmission
"But this rotation of the revolver is produced by the unwinding of the control
spring which ends by becoming exhausted: it is therefore necessary to wind it
up again. The mechanism which I have designed for this object automatically
effects this winding up; it is provided with a clutch which is thrown out of gear
at the desired time and avoids all danger of winding the spring too far
"This winding up arrangement is contrived as follows. The power driving the
loom causes the shaft a to turn by means of the pinion m or by any other device,
and upon this shaft a' is keyed the wheel m¹ which gears into the wheel m² loose
upon the main shaft a This wheel m2 is cut upon one of its faces into teeth
which gear with those of a clutch m³ on a sleeve loose on the shaft a. This sleeve
works solid as regards rotation with a plate P by means of projections on its end
which fit into corresponding slots on the end of the plate sleeve as shown at p²
thus allowing of longitudinal motion this plate P is in contact with the collar
keyed upon the shaft a, and to this collar is fixed one end of the spring r
the other end of which is fastened to a pin g on the plate p. A spiral spring 3
pressing against the plate P engages with the clutch sleeve m³ and consequently
causes the winding up of the spring r; this latter being attached to the pin q at
one end, and to the collar 2 at the other exerts a force tending to turn the
shaft a
"It is important to throw out of gear the winding up of the spring automatically
when the winding is effected. This is done by a lever keyed upon a shaft a³, the
beveled end of which lever rests in a groove on the clutch sleeve m³ when the
spring is wound up. In this groove is placed a projection o which sliding against
the inclined plane which terminates the lever 1, disengages the teeth of the clutch m³
and thus ends the winding up of the spring The turning of the plate p is at this
moment stopped by a bent lever turning upon a spindle n¹ mounted on a sliding
support catching the projecting pin p' of the plate p. This lever is provided with an

page_text: elastic or weighted pull-back 8 which lowers it behind the pin p¹ when this latter
is in the position shown in Fig 6.
For
"When in consequence of successive rotations of the revolver, the spring is
sufficiently unwound it starts its own rewinding by the release of the lever
this purpose there is a lever fixed on the shaft a³ in front of and resting upon
the spring r The spring in unwinding swells out on the side opposite to the pin q
and thus forms a sort of cam (Fig 5) when this cam is sufficiently developed it
raises the lever 12 and consequently also the lever 7 keyed on the same shaft, the
clutch m³ left to itself afresh falls into gear and the winding up is continued till
the lever sinking comes in contact with the projection o.
"It will thus be seen that the rotation of the shuttle box, the winding up of the
spring and its disengagement are effected automatically in a rigorous and certain
manner, whatever may be the number of shuttles employed."
Having now described the invention as communicated to me I wish it to be
understood that what I claim (also in the words of my correspondent) is
1st The above described system of shuttle box or revolver apparatus for looms,
resting upon this entirely new principle which consists in communicating to the
revolver shuttle box a constant circular movement in the same direction, by means
of a non rigid control mechanism, which permits of stopping it at any point of its
revolution, this result being obtained by the interposition between the revolver
shaft and the direct motion of the loom of mechanisms which will yield under a
sufficient strain such as springs counterweights friction pieces or slides etcetera,
etcetera
"2nd. The arrangements collectively and in detail above described and - which
are represented in the accompanying drawings as examples of the above explained
principle that is to say (a) The control of the rotation of the revolver by a spiral
or other spring with automatic gearing and winding up devices. (b) The application
for the control of the apparatus which effects the gearing and winding up of the
spring automatically of the action resulting from the variations in volume which
the said spring assumes according as it is more or less run down (c) The mechanical
arrangements of toothed wheels and clutches, cam sleeves turning sleeves, levers
and stops, as mentioned above and shown in the drawings for carrying out the
system of automatic control of the gearing and winding up of the spring. (d) The
application to the shuttle box shaft of dises with projections or notches for
effecting stoppage at any division of the box by means of levers controlled by
perforated cards (e) The arrangement above described and represented in the
drawings of the vertical shaft controlling the revolver under the action of the
above mentioned spiral spring bearing in mind that the revolver shaft is oscillating
about the "articulation" of the shed, whilst the upper part of the vertical shaft
which controls it oscillates about an axis formed by the shaft on which the spiral
spring is fixed.
"It is to be understood that I reserve the right of varying the forms and
dispositions above mentioned as well as the employment of any other suitable agent
besides the spring described above, to serve as a base for controlling the circular
movement of the revolver
In witness whereof I the said William Phillips Thompson have hereunto
set my hand and seal this twenty second day of November in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.