IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS FOR WEAVING ORNA- MENTAL AND PLAIN FABRICS FOR EASTERN AND OTHER MARKETS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Christopher Cross at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 18th September 1878.
CHRISTOPHER CROSS, of Mount Street, Pendleton, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER LOOMS FOR WEAVING ORNA-
MENTAL AND PLAIN FABRICS FOR EASTERN AND OTHER MARKETS, AND IN THE
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
This Invention relates to the manufacture of grey, coloured, and figured wrappers,
dhooties, loongees, saries, turbans, and plain fustian and domestic fabrics, having
portions of headings, central areas, and borders of ornamental combinations in
rectangular form. The first part of my Invention consists in weaving by the
power loom the borders of the above fabrics in such a way as to produce the
appearance of lace, and tambouring within the selvages by employing suitable
figured Alhambra quilt designs in the border warps which shall overlay and
underlay the central calico core in such borders. Or I weave the borders in such a
way as to have checquered selvages of irregular widths across by employing shedding
motions to the loom, which shall cause some portions of the edging yarns to lay
dormant at the bottom of the shed until required to produce the requisite orna-
mental "tie up." In another arrangement I weave the borders in such a way as to
produce fringes of any requisite colourings along one or both selvages of the cloth,
and these fringed effects I accomplish by denting two or more warp ends at some
distance outside the ordinary selvage dents, and by employing a whip thread at
each side near the lease rods, and shedding such whip thread so as to allow the
ordinary shuttle weft to go alternately under and over it, the whip thread being
plucked into the selvage and thus forming fringes along the whole length of the
selvages. When it is desired to have definite lengths of either fringe whip or
Kuttarree whip measured off at the return of each pick of weft, I fix bars parallel
with the warp ends and run thereon a finger and thumb motion which retains and
releases the whip at every stroke of the loom.
To stop the loom when the whip threads break I use a modification of the
ordinary weft fork arrangement, using whip forks in lieu of weft forks placed on a
fixing between the healds and back beam, so that on the absence of whip the whip

page_text: fork hook comes in contact with the vibrating hammer and throws the loom out of
gear. I also cause the stoppage of the loom when a whip thread breaks by passing
the thread through the eyes of light weighted bodkins which act in a similar way
to the stop motions of tape winding and warping machines; or I throw the strap on
to the loose pulley by employing a magnetic battery so as to reverse the electric
current, as in the case of magnetic intermediate frames.
The second part of my improvements consist in weaving the central areas of the
above goods by the power loom, wherein I use a shuttle or shuttles having two or
more cops or bobbins of weft within each shuttle, the cops or bobbins being placed
side by side or end to end of each other and throwing double or multiple weftings
" tie-
at every stroke of the loom, or in the middle areas of these goods I employ a
up " and shedding motion which allows a shuttle box loom to throw check picks of
irregular lengths, sometimes interweaving the warp from selvage to selvage, and at
other picks interweaving in shorter lengths which allows certain warp threads to
lay inert in the borders, but in this case the round in the shuttle box picks must be
co-equal with the round in the shedding picks.
The third part of my improvements consist in weaving by the power loom the
headings or ornamental ends of the above goods by slackening the velocity of the
warp in such parts and by using a dobby or other shedding motion which shall
throw into gear one or more different "tie-ups" one after the other as the pattern
shall require.
"
The draft of the heading tissue must be an exact multiple of the draft of the
' central piece tissue" and the minimum number of shafts or hooks in the heading
tissue must equal the maximum number of shafts or hooks in the central piece
tissue.
Shuttles containing various coloured wefts may be put in by hand in the common
loom or shuttle box; looms throwing in various coloured weftings may be employed
to produce headings of velvet, rib, fustian, or brillianti "tie-ups " as required, and in
the case of velvet "tie-ups" being used in the headings the pile may be cut by the
ordinary fustian cutter's knife and guide.