IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF LJOMS FOR WEAVING BY HAND OR POWER
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ANDREW
HALL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturer, and Jonn
SLACK, the younger, of Chorlton-upon-Medlock, in the same County, Putter-out
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of August,
in the fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto us, our exors, adñiors,
and assigns, His special licence, full power, and sole privilege and autho-
rity, that we, the said Andrew Hall and John Slack, our exors, adñiors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of fourteen years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF LJOMS FOR WEAVING BY HAND OR POWER;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that if we, the said Andrew Hall and John
Slack, should not particulary describe and ascertain the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's Ligh Court of Chancery within six calendar months then next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, then that the said Letters
Patent, and all liberties and advantages thereby granted, should utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Andrew Hall and George Slack, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and the following description; in which Drawings, the same letters
and figures of reference indicate the same parts of the machinery shewn in
cach different Figure.
Our improvements consist in certain arrangements by which we are
enabled to weave two or more pieces of cloth at the same time in the same
loom.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings represents a side sectional elevation of a
loom to which our improvements are applied; Figure 2, a front clevation of
the same, in which some of the well-known parts of the ordinary loom are
delineated for the purpose of shewing the position in which our improvements
are applied; but these well-known parts, together with the action of such
parts in the operation of weaving, are too familiar to need any description.
In Figure 1, A represents the beam on which the warp is wound in
the usual manner; and B, the cloth beam, which receives or takes up the
cloth after it is perfected or woven by the pick or traverse of the shuttle
at each successive stroke or vibration of the lay or slay C, C, through the
warp a, a, in the usual manner. The vibrating lay or slay C, C, moves
either by the action of the hand of the operative or by power, as circum-
stances may require. Above the warp beam A is placed a similar warp beam A',
on which is placed a warp a', a'; this warp passes through another reed
placed under the former, and carried in the same lay or slay c, c, so that
the same stroke of the lay or slay C, C, which drives home the weft in tho
warp marked a, a, at the same time drives home the weft in the warp a', a',
and thereby performs double the amount of work for the same number of
vibrations of the lay or slay C, C. B' is the cloth beam on which the said cloth
produced from the warp a', a', is placed, but in weaving cloths of a coarse
quality we have found no difficulty in taking up the cloth produced from the
warps a, a, and a', a', on the same beam B.
Figure 8 represents a separate view of the lay or slay C, C, for the purpose
of shewing the arrangement and construction of that part of our improvements

page_text: by which the shuttles that carry the weft are picked or shot across the warp
at the same instant of time, and thereby caused to keep time with the regular
vibration of the lay or slay C, C, which subsequently forces home the weft in
both the warps a, a, and a', a'. In this Figure it will be remarked that tho
same picker gives motion to both shuttles, and is formed accordingly to move
on a spindle or small shaft marked e; placed between the two shuttles. The
shuttles are held in separate boxes one above the other, and are provided with
separato race boards on which to run through the two warps a, a, and a', a'.
We have found it convenient to place a small washer of india-rubber or caout-
chouc at each extremity of the spindle or small shaft e, for the purpose of easing
the concussion of the picker when it arrives at the end of its stroke or traverse.
The construction of this picker is shewn separately at Figure 4, where the
parts tinted deep yellow are of iron, the two parts marked b and tinted green
are made of buffalo hide or other elastic and durable substance placed in two
holes in the iron, and are those parts of the picker which strike against the
shuttles; those parts can be renewed at any time without renewing the wholo
of the picker. By this arrangement the expenditure of buffalo hide is greatly
diminished, but in such looms as have an arrangement for retaining the shuttle
after it has traversed the warp, and where the elasticity of the material docs not
cause inconvenience, we recommend india-rubber or caoutchouc in the place
of buffalo hide for its greater durability, and its application to this purpose we
consider an important improvement in the economy of weaving. It. will also
be remarked that, in weaving two or more warps by the action of the same lay
or slay, which arrangement is applicable to horizontal looms of almost every
description, the same heddles are used for the various warps woven at the samo
time, as will be seen by reference to Figure 1, where the same heddles which
carry down the under part of the warp a, a, carry down the under part of the
lower warp
a', a', at the same time. This is effected by constructing the
heddles with two or more loops or eyes, according to the number of cloths, at
the exact distance that the warps are placed from each other, that distance being
such as to admit of a fair and open shed, without any crossing of the separate
or several warps, so that the action of the heddles n carries down an equal
portion of the respective warps at the same time that the heddles m carries up
the other portion. The lay or slay in its vibrations causes the revolutions of
the beams on which the cloth is taken up as it is woven in the following
manner Firmly attached to the rocking tree of the lay or slay, in a
pendant part marked f, through the lower end of which a wire is placed
with a worm end and nut for shortening or lengthening the wire, the other

page_text: end of the wire is fixed to the lower part of a lever g, to the upper part of
which a cord or wire is attached which connects it to the lever h, causing
it to vibrate in unison with the lay or slay. From this lever h is a dependant
catch, which at each stroke or vibration gathers one or more teeth of the
ratchet wheel i, on the axis of which is placed a pinion, which conveys the
motion at a decreased speed through the spur wheels (shewn in the Drawing)
to the cloth beams B and B'.
From the foregoing description of this movement it is clear that the suc-
cessive revolutions of the cloth beam will bear a relative proportion to the
number of vibrations of the lay or slay, and also that the circumference of
the beam, by the accumulation of the cloth placed on its surface, would
cause the rate of taking up the cloth to increase as the work proceeded; this
objection is obviated by the weaver with his thumb depressing the small
lever x, attached to the upper ball of the lay or slay, which, by its connexion
with the band y, which is attached at the other extremity to the stop catch
which holds the ratchet wheel i, thereby suspends the action of the gathering
catch, and arrests the motion of the beams B and B until the weaver finds
it necessary to renew their action.
Having described the nature of our improvements in the construction of
looms for weaving by hand or power, we hereby declare that we do not claim
any of the separate or well-known parts of a loom which have been herein-
before described for the purpose of making our Invention better understood; i
but we do claim as our Invention, the peculiar construction of the picker, and
the construction and use of a double race board, or of a series of race boards,
when required, as herein-before described, by which we are enabled to drive
the several shuttles in use through their respective warps at the same instant
of time, and by means of which, together with the use of one lay or slay
acting horizontally to strike home the weft, we are enabled to effect the
weaving of two or more warps in the same loom one above the other at the
same time.
In witness whereof, we, the said Andrew Hall and John Slack, havo
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
four.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1834, the aforesaid Andrew Hall and John Slack came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.