CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LOOM FOR WEAVING BORDERS OR STRIPES OF DIFFERENT COLOURS ON SHAWLS OR ANY GOODS MADE OF COTTON, SILK, OR WORSTED, OR ANY MIXTURES OF THE SAME
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ATKINS, of the City of Norwich, Shawl Manufacturer, sond greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
June, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said William Atkins, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full.
power, sole privilege and authority that I, the said William Atkins, my exors,
admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LOOM FOR WEAVING BORDERS OR STRIPES OF DIFFERENT
COLOURS ON SHAWLS OR ANY GOODS MADE OF COTTON, SILK, OR WORSTED, OR
ANY MIXTURES OF THE SAME;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said William Atkins, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by tho
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Atkins, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
the annexed Drawings, and the following description thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: The usual method of making borders has been to raise a sattin or some
other work different to the ground to shew the different colour on each side of
any square article, but then the two ends of that article cannot be sattin, but
only wove with the same colour as the sattin in a plain way; consequently, the
article must be an imperfect one, not having the border all round alike; it was
t'erefore, in a measure, laid aside, and a new method made use of to make
the article compleat, which was very easily accomplished, but at the expense
of great loss of time, as it is now generally made by two persons in one loom,
one person to pass the shuttle through one border, while the principal weaver
manages the other two shuttles, as if brookheading one shoot at a time only.
The intent of my new Invention (and which I believe never before was
suggested, and generally believed could not be done) is as follows:-The boards
which the slea works are made with double boxes on each side A, A, with
separate spindles and pickers, the uppermost boxes to receive the ground
shuttle for the center work, and the lower boxes to receive the two shuttles for
the two borders. Between the two borders are two upright pieces of wood C, C,
which are moveable on the cantlet of the boards for a narrow or broad border;
on these are fixed two center boxes D; D, with pickers and spindles inside to
receive the two border shuttles at one time, by raising the handle E- up, and
returning them again by drawing it down; which motion is made by cords
passing under the pullies F, F, and passing to the pickers G, G, and. com-
municating to E; tho pickers throw the shuttles to D, D, and when the E is
drawn down, the pickers in the boxes D, D, return the two shuttles by means
of cords passing over two pullics on the sides of the boards H, H, and over two
pullies I, I, on the center of the beam J, J, supported by two center
standards C, C, communicating to the handle E; four shoots may be woven
of the groundwork, and then by drawing down the cord K, raise the lower
boxes and weave four shoots of the border, and so on alternately. But
what has been thought the most difficult, and what is the most material part
of this Invention, is the movement of the middle boxes making way for the
ground shuttle to pass through across the whole work from the upper
boxes A, A, which I have made easy. As there are separate treadles to
weave the border, and also separate ones for the ground, I have, by means of
a lever communicating to the ground treadles by cords, to raise the middle
boxes by the foot, so that when the ground warp opens to receive the shuttle
the boxes rise at the same time to make way for it. It is done by cords
fastened to the middle boxes, and passing over pullics N to the lever or
pakin L, which rise and draw the two boxes up when the ground treadles are
trod on. The ground shuttle is thrown in the common way by the stick M;

page_text: as might also the other shuttles by an additional stick, but find the handle E
to answer best, and less cumberous to the weaver. The upright spring O also
raises the boxes, when the boards fall on the work, and prevent the boxes
injuring the cloth by rubbing. Note, whenever pickers, or buffaloes, or
spindles, are introduced between the borders of any shawls or handkerchiefs
to weave the borders, it must be an infringement on the Patent, as no such
thing has before been invented. I have introduced the whole of the loom in
the Drawing, but the construction of the loom has nothing to do with the boards,
as looms are put to work various ways by different persons. P, iron plates
(fixed on the sides of the standard) with grooves for S to work in, which S is
also iron (though wood perhaps might be made to answer), fastened to the
sides of the boxes. R shews the inside of the boxes D, with its spindle and
picker.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Atkins, have hereunto set my
Inrolled the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seven.