A NEW METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE TENSION OF THREADS IN. WEAVING AND OTHER OPERATIONS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with bis Petition, on the 14th
December 1865.-A communication from abroad by Stanislas Vigoureux,
of St. Denis, France.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE TENSION OF
THREADS IN. WEAVING AND OTHER OPERATIONS," to be as follows:-
On examining the warp threads in looms at the position where given off by
the warp beam they are submitted to the crossing for the formation of the
fabric numerous irregularities of tension are observed. These are attributable
to several causes, and the object of this Invention is to remedy them. The
threads in the position referred to are drawn horizontally in opposite directions;
in one direction by the warp beam at the tangential. point, and in the other by
the batten at the point of formation of the .fabric. These two drawings,
consequences of the vertical strains exerted by the heddles for the crossing of
the threads, produce a tension on each thread to which its elasticity. acts as
an equilibrium; but this resistance, which each separate thread offers, is much
diminished by the fact of the great distance of the points of support. .It is
this distance which this Invention. reduces by interposing a new and movable
point of support for the threads between the two points before referred to.
Even the best threads do not possess a regular diameter, but have thicker and
thinner parts, which lessen their resistance; it will thus be seen that this
Invention by diminishing the length of the threads in their active portion

page_text: reduces the number of irregularities in their form, and proportionately increases
their resisting power. The new point of support is movable and free to be
displaced longitudinally in the sense of the threads, so that its position varies
according to the variations of resistance of the threads, and thereby regulates
the resistence automatically.
I proceed to describe the new method and apparatus by the aid of the
annexed Drawing, which represents as much of a loom as is necessary to
explain the Invention. The frame a of the loof carries at one end the warp
beam b, on which the warp threads are wound, and at the other end the cloth
beam c on which the fabric is received; at d and fare heddles which produce
the crossing of the threads, and 9 is the batten which beats home the fabric
at the point where it is formed. I place the new point of support between
the warp roller and the heddles. It is composed of four rollers h, h¹, j, j',
carried by a support / free to oscillate at the point o. The rollers h, h¹, are fixed
to the arm k and support the threads, and the rollers j, j', which are movable
vertically in guides in the arm press upon the threads by virtue of their own
weight. The threads in passing between these rollers produce friction thereon
tangentially and proportional to their tension, and they communicate thereto
a rotary motion on their axes and a shifting movement. It is this movement
which may be called a regulating or equilibrating movement, that the oscillating
arm effects; it diminishes the blows or shocks arising from irregularities in
the traction of the threads, absorbing those which too much accelerate the
drawing of the fabric, and at the same time producing a regular giving off
from the rollers. It compensates for the different tensions of the threads
between the arm k and the warp beam; the total tension spread uniformly
over the threads is towards the warp beam subject to the variations which
produce partial tensions on the threads at the side of the batten, and it
increases by diminishing the amount of inequalities more or less. Thus it is
the whole of the threads in the part situated on the side of the warp beam
which support the variations in tension of each separate thread on the side of
the batten, and it is the oscillating arm furnished with rollers which in its
oscillations by removing the inequalities of movement regulates the giving off
of the threads and of the fabric. This new method and apparatus are
applicable in all cases where warp or weft threads arranged for warping,
printing, or weaving are submitted to variable tension.