AN IMPROVED * SHEDING MACHINE' OR 'DOBBY' FOR LOOMS FOR WEAVING."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Smith, of Blackburn, in the County of
Lancaster, Foreman Mechanic, for the Invention of " AN IMPROVED
* SHEDING MACHINE' OR 'DOBBY' FOR LOOMS FOR WEAVING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th October 1874.
5
I, EDWARD SMITH, of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, Foreman
Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " AN
IMPROVED SHEDING MACHINE' OR 'DOBBY' FOR LOOMS FOR WEAVING," to be as
follows:-
This machine performs the work of sheding or treading the healds by
means of a number of tappets, assisted and actuated by other parts.
These tappets do not revolve, as is customary, but vibrate, that is to say,
they make a portion of a revolution one way, and return back the same
way to their original position. They are each made with a raised portion,

page_text: serving to actuate jacks, and the jacks are attached to and lift the
healds. The tappets carry a number of hooks, which are drawn against
a stop by light springs. A. lattice consisting of staves and pegs or other
equivalents, arranged according to the pattern to be woven, work in
close proximity to the hooks. When one of the lattice pegs presses one
of the hooks it moves the hook so that the hook portion is caught by a
lifter; this lifter has a reciprocating motion, and it pulls or pushes the
said hook, and communicates motion to the tappet to which the book is
attached. The tappet is thus pulled or pushed through a portion of a
revolution, and its jack is elevated or allowed to fall, according as the
raised portion of the tappet is brought under the jack, or removed. If
removed the heald and jack are drawn down by a spring. A catch pulls
round the lattice at every one or more picks in the ordinary manner, so
as to bring another range of pegs to act upon the hooks, and give any
required change in the treading.
The lifter receives its motion from a lever actuated from the crank or
tappet shaft, or any other convenient part of the loom's motions.
The entire machine, as described, may be placed so as to lift the healds
in the centre, or two machines may be so placed as to lift the healds at
or near the edges of the warp, or anywhere between the centre and
edges, or one machine may be made with a double set of jacks, one-half
of which may actuate the other half, and one-half of which may lift the
healds anywhere between the centre and one edge of the warp, and the
other half of the jacks may lift the healds anywhere between the centre
and the other edge of the warp.
The machine may also be made with a double lift, that is to say, it
may have two lifters, one of which ascends while the other is descending,
and it may have two sets of lattices to act upon the hooks.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc.
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Smith, Her
special licence that I, the said Edward Smth, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward
Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there.
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED SHEDING MACHINE OR DOBBY FOR LOOMS FOR
WEAVING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward
Smith, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Smith, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of
Drawing:-
This machine is intended to be attached to looms for the purpose of
treading or sheding the healds. It performs its office cheifly by means
of a number of vibrating tappets, which elevate or depress jacks or
levers, according to the pattern to be formed. One or more lattices,"
consisting of staves and pegs or other equivalents, act upon a number of
hooks attached to the tappets. Any hook pressed by a peg is brought
under a knife or lifter having a reciprocating motion, and this motion is
communicated to the said hook, and the tappet to which it is attached
is accordingly pushed through a certain part of a revolution. If the
motion communicated to the tappet brings the swell of the tappet to act
upon a jack or lever one end of the said jack is depressed, the other end-
being elevated; if, on the contrary, the motion communicated to the
tappet removes the swell of the tappet from off the jack, that end of the

page_text: jack which was depressed becomes elevated, and that end which was
elevated becomes depressed. The healds are attached to the jacks, and
under the healds are springs or weights, which keep the jacks up in
contact with the tappets. If the swell of a tappet be brought to act ·
upon a jack its heald is lifted, and if the swell be removed the spring or 5
weight draws the heald down.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of the machine, shewn with double
jacks; Fig. 2 is an elevation, and Figure 3 an end view of the same.
A is a vibrating tappet, of which as many are used as there are licalds
to be lifted; H is the shaft upon which the said tappets work; B, B,
are the hooks, two of which are attached to cach tappet; C is the knife
or lifter having a reciprocating motion. If one of the hooks B be pressed
by a peg in the lattice so as to be brought under the knife C, the said
knife catches in the notch of the hook, and by pushing the said hook
causes the tappet to which it is attached to vibrate to one side. At the
same time the hook attached to the other side of the tappet is elevated,
and when this in its turn is pressed down by the knife the tappet vibrates
to the other side; G, G, Figs. 2 & 3, are connecting rods serving to
connect the knife c with the vibrating lever F, which recieves its motion
from a crank on the tappet shaft of the loom; D, D, is a pair of double
jacks, which arrangement allows of the healds being lifted near to the
edges of the cloth; E, E, are the cords attaching the healds to the jacks;
K, K, are the lattices serving to form the pattern. These lattices have
a reciprocating motion given to them by means of the inclined slots in the
brackets L, L, attached to the lifter C. As the lifter rises and falls the
slots cause the lattices to approach and recede from the hooks B. Both
lattices are connected together by means of bevil wheels P, Fig. 3, and
as the lattices are moving outward a catch M takes hold of one of the
pins in the disk N, and pulls the lattices so far round as to bring a fresh
range of pegs to act upon the hooks. R is a grid serving as a guide and
stop to the hooks. The hooks B are so formed and so hinged to the
tappets that their weight causes them to lean or tend to fall towards the
lattices whenever the knife is not pressing upon them, and this dispenses
with the springs which must be employed if the hooks are not so made.
The said hooks are also made with an incline to prevent the hook when
pressed down from falling so far back as to get from under the knife, in

page_text: which case, if the jack was released, the spring connected to the heald
would pull it down suddenly. By however keeping the hook under the
knife the heald can only be drawn down at the same speed as the knife
ascends. The knife has a little more motion than the hooks, so that it
allows the hooks to fall back before the knife begins to descend.
A machine of the above description may be made with double jacks,
as shewn in Drawing, and attached to a loom to lift the healds near
the edges of the cloth; or it may be made with single jacks, and placed
to lift the healds near the centre of the loom, the cords being attached
and carried as found most convenient, or two such machines made with
single jacks may be attached to a loom, each of which machine may lift
the healds near one edge of the cloth.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which it is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not limit myself to the exact arrangement of machine before
described, but I claim as my Invention, the employment of vibrating
tappets for actuating the treading or sheding of the healds.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Smith, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.