A NEW SYSTEM OF REEDS OR COMBS FOR WEAVING LACE WORKS AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Théodore Emile Lemonnier and
Eugène Malhère at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th
March 1876.
THÉODORE EMILE LEMONNIER, Fabricant of Reeds, and EUGENE MALHÈRE,
Engineer, both of Paris. "A NEW SYSTEM OF REEDS OR COMBS FOR WEAVING
LACE WORKS AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS."
The new system of reed with movable tecth which forms the object of our
Invention is so arranged as to give the power of removing from right to left
together or separately the pins or single teeth, or the groups of pins forming
distinct bodies, and by this means to equalize the folds of warp of variable quan-
tities during the weaving, and without stopping the machine. This moveableness
of the teeth of the comb constitutes the principle of our Invention. It has the
advantage of permitting the manufacture by the loom by mechanical and eco-
nomical means of fabrics presenting interruptions or hollows in any desired design,
such as ribbons with open festoons, garlands, lacings, and other articles of lacework
which hitherto have been only made by hand with long and costly labour.
The application of our system of comb will also render possible the manufacture
upon the ordinary loom of open fabrics, resembling in appearance the meshed or net
fabrics manufactured by special machines, or of new fabrics of an original and
unexpected character.
In carrying out our Invention we adopt pins or groups of pins to displace bars
or moveable rods, capable of receiving a to-and-fro movement in the plane itself of
the reed.
The manner in which the pins to be capable of motion are distributed so that
they will act mutually or in relation to the pins remaining fixed, will vary
according to requirements of the work and the kind of open design to be
produced.
The mechanism employed to transmit the to-and-fro motion to the moveable bars
depends upon the mode of driving adopted, which may be either by the hand of the
workman, by an organ of the machine, or by the jacquard mechanism.
It follows that there are a great number of different arrangements of our combs
with moveable teeth. We proceed to describe one arrangement in detail by way of
example, and to point out some others which enable the manner in which our
Invention is put into practice to be well understood.

page_text: Figures 1, 2, and 3 are respectively a front elevation, a transverse section, and a
vertical section of a reed composed entirely of groups of moveable teeth.
Figures 4 and 5. are a face and a profile elovation of another arrangement of
our reed, and Figure 6 shows in diagram an arrangement of comb with a slide
clack.
In the arrangement shown at Figures 1 and 2 the pins or teeth d, d, are united
by groups of nine teeth; those of the groups 1, 3, 5, are soldered by their ends to
bars A, A, and the teeth in the groups 0, 2, 4, 6, to the bars B, B. These bars aro
prolonged by racks to gear into the same pinions C and D, but at points diame-
trically opposite. These pinions are mounted upon a vertical shaft I actuated by
the ratchet wheel G, upon which acts a spring or detent catch H to maintain the
pins in a certain position. From this arrangement it will be understood that if the
ratchet wheel G be turned the bars are displaced the one to the right and the
other to the left, separating from or approaching to the even and uneven groups
according to the direction imparted by the rotation. In the approaching of the
groups each runs one half of its course. The entire course should be run by the
groups of one scries if those of the other are held fixed.
The arrangements shown at Figures 4 and 5 comprises several series of groups of
pins displacing themselves in relation to groups of immovable pins. Except the
fatter the pins of the reed are soldered, as in the preceding arrangement, to the
rack bars A, A, B, B, C, C, which are distinct for each series and effect movements
of different amplitudes. For this purpose the racks gear with pinions of unequal
diameters mounted upon the same axis or upon independent axes to divide the
actions if necessary. In the example selected but one single fixed group o is shown
towards which the moveable groups 11, 22, 33, approach or recede from the groups
22 going double the distance of the groups 11 and the groups 33 three times, and
so on, and thus the opening and closing of the pins take place simultaneously
throughout all the series.
These explanations render it evident that by multiplying the moveable bars and
pinions, and reducing the groups down to the isolation even of the brooches
themselves, one can arrive at numerous different arrangements which it would be
useless to further specify.
It will be seen by the diagram, Figure 6, that the bars can be replaced by frames
sliding one into another. Across each frame will be fixed a recall screw, upon
which would be mounted a ratchet wheel capable, by means of the jacquard, of
turning the screw in two directions, and thus approach or separate the pins into
groups of pins soldered to the branches of the frame. One can thus obtain the
moveableness of the pins by introducing between them angular wedges, and the
distance of the pins will depend upon the greater or less insertion of the angle.
The employment of wedges will also permit the moveableness of the teeth of the
reed in a plane perpendicular to the latter, that is to say, in the direction of the
warp. By the combination of these two displacements the teeth of the reed can
assume any variable position, and give occasion to multiple effects and open
workings both produced by the deviation of the warp from the weft.