IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING COLORS TO YARNS OR THREADS, AND IN WEAVING OR PRODUCING FABRICS WHEN COLORED OR PARTY-COLORED YARNS OR THREADS ARE EMPLOYED
Year: 1851

page_text: WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day
of November (One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one), in the fifteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Richard Whytock, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Richard Whytock, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Richard Whytock, my exors, aduiors, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING COLORS TO YARNS OR THREADS, AND IN
WEAVING OR PRODUCING FABRICS WHEN COLORED OR PARTY-COLORED YARNS OR
THREADS ARE EMPLOYED;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said Richard Whytock, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Whytock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say-
My first improvement consists in a new mode of imparting color to a single
thread or pair of threads intended to form a portion or clement either of the
warp or the woof of a figured web.
I
The ordinary method of coloring such threads is by having them first coiled
round a cylinder; they are then barred across with various colors, with marks
of greater or lesser breadth, by means of a pulley, which passes under the
cylinder. The mode in which this pulley has usually been supplied with colour
has been to pass along with it a box of colour in which the pulley is partially
immersed. This method now so extensively practised in colouring yarns for
tapestry and velvet pile carperts answers very well in several respects, only
when the workers are on piece-work, and give too rapid motion to the apparatus,
the colour is apt to be spilled, or the centrifugal motion of the pulley causes
an excess of color to flow to the edges of the pulley, tending to overload the
yarns with colour. I do not propose to supercede the pulley, which is found
the very best way of imparting the color, but I propose to set aside the
travelling colour box, and the following is the new method I substitute :-
pass the colouring pulley under and in contact with the cylinder, the former
suspended between two endless chains or belts as shewn in the accompanying.
Drawings. Its motion is not back or forwards, as in the usual mode, but
continous, in one direction, the chains or bands passing round two pairs of
wheels, as shewn at Figures I. and II. The pulley, when not in contact with
the cylinder and its coating of yarn, traverses along a roller underneath, and
gets charged from thence with colour; on leaving the roller thus charged, the
pulley on the next stage of its journey discharges its colour upon the cylinder
above, and then again traverses the roller below for a fresh supply, and so on,
the cylinder having during the absence of the pulley made such a shift as to
present the space for the next impression. Besides the shifting of the cylinder
while the pulley is being charged from the colour roller, the latter has to be
shifted while the pulley is absent discharging the colour on the yarn. It is to
be observed that the color roller lays in an oblong box immersed so far in the

page_text: color. The shifting of the cylinder is the same, and effected by the same
means, as are at present practised, and the color roller is shifted by a ratchet
wheel and pinion, as shewn in the Drawing I. and H., so as always to secure a
full charge of colour for the printing pulley. The oblong boxes in which the
rollers are placed rest upon a platform side by side, and when all the stripes
of one color have been imparted to the yarn that box passes, and the next
colour is brought under a clean pulley, where it remains until all the stripes of
that colour also have been obtained.
It will be observed that the length of the axle of the colour pulley extends
beyond the chains or bands that support it. This is in order to allow the
pulley to be borne up by the rods a, a, in order to secure a proper pressure of
the pulley against the cylinder. This pressure is regulated by springs and
adjusting screws, as shewn. On the other hand, the rods b, b, are intended
partially to bear up the pulley, so that it may pass very lightly along the roller
that it may be properly charged, an object which would be defeated by a
heavy pressure. Of course both the edge of the pulley and the roller must be
covered with felt.
Figure 1. is a cross sectional elevation of the new coloring apparatus ;
Figure II. is an end view of the same. For details, A, A, are the wheels
that carry the endless chains; B is the travelling colour pulley, pressed against
the lower part of the cylinder; C, the endless chains; D, one of the long colour
boxes with its roller; E, the travelling platform for passing the boxes. a, a, the
upper bearing rods; b, b, the lower bearing rods; c, c, c, the adjusting screws;
d, d, the levers for supporting lower bearing rods.
The second improvement is the application of parti-colored yarns as weft or
woof in the formation of sprigs or other small objects in various fabrics, such
sprigs as have been formerly introduced by small shuttles of various kinds
with dyed yarns, but which have generally required a shuttle for each colour;
these sprigs being such as can be produced out of woof not passing from
selvage to selvage of the web, but for, the sake of economy or other reasons,
made to range only in proportion to the size of the intended object.
The parti-colored yarns for this purpose may be either coloured upon the
cylinders used for coloring the warps for tapestry, carpets, &c., or with the
improved mode described in the foregoing. The Figure having been delineated
and coloured on ruled paper in the usual manner, it will be necessary to take
the colours from the same in a different order from what would be necessary
in colouring warp threads, that is to say, instead of as in the latter case
reading from the design paper from top to bottom, or on a perpendicular line
of squares, it will be necessary to read the design across line by line, first line

page_text: from left to right, second line from right to left, adapting the reading in this
way to the convolutions of the thread as it is to form the sprig. Farther, as
the threads to be colored for weft or woof will not be shortened much, like
threads coloured for warps in certain fabrics in the process of weaving, the
marks of colour must be more minute, and much thinner colouring pulleys or
other instruments used; and although much aid will be obtained in giving
proper outlines to those sprigs from the harness mounting of the looms great
accuracy will be required in the arrangement of the marks of colour, except
indeed where the density of the warp will suffice to cover any extra breadth of
colour in the weft.
So far this part of my Invention suggests only improvement on the common
method of forming sprigs or small objects in woven fabrics, inasmuch as the
substitution of parti-coloured yarns for dyed or self-coloured yarns. But in
conection with this, I now proceed to the third part of my improvement, which
consists of a new method of impelling the small shuttles, and that whether the
contents of the shuttle shall consist of parti-coloured yarn or of dyed or undyed
yarn. It is well known that when the flight of a weaver's shuttle has to be
limited in these cases to a short space, or to be made to traverse only a
portion of a web, the ordinary fly shuttle will not therefore answer.
production of tapes or narrow ribbons, what is termed the incle principle
answers very well, but for broader ribbons or for introducing sprigs into wider
fabrics it is not so applicable.
For the
There are various contrivances for passing small shuttles to lessen the labour
of passing them as the weaver does from hand to hand, or rather from thumb
to thumb, sometimes what has been termed the swivel lathe; sometimes for
ribbon, a rack and pinion motion; but it is unnecessary to enumerate these
mechanical contrivances, as the principle of my Invention is so widely different
from any thing that has hitherto been tried, and is not confined in its operation
to very small sprigs or figures. My shuttles are made to pass to and fro under
the influence of a magnetic power, incumbered with nothing but the thread
that they have to give out in forming the texture.
Figure 111. is a representation of a frame that may be placed under a
weaver's loom in front of the reed. The shelf B, which consists of a thin
board, will form the shuttle race; it is the upper member of the frame III,
and is brought as close up to the warp in front of the reed as possible, so
that the shuttle will rest upon and travel upon it under the influence of the
magnet, which moves immediately under the shelf described, and as shewn
in the Drawing. When there is to be more than one sprig in the breadth
there must be more magnets, or one for each sprig. This, however, may not

page_text: in all cases be necessary, as the passing of one magnet may be made to move
several shuttles under certain checks. In the Drawing III. shuttles A and
magnets C are shewn. The frame III, which terminates at top in the
shelf B, is made to move on centres near the floor at E, E, as the lathe does at
the top of the loom bearing the reed. When the latter recedes from the work
to admit the passing of the shuttles, the frame III. advances, bearing the mag-
nets, which with the shuttles take their place under the warp. The magnets
are made to traverse upon two stented wires immediately below the shelf, and
are made to pass to and fro on those wires by means of cords drawn over
pulleys. Those cords are made to play by means of levers or treadles acted
upon by the feet of the weaver or otherwise. When slight fabrics are intended,
ordinary or simple magnets will suffice, especially when the woof to be inter-
laced is very small and light; but electro-magnets are to be prefered, as having
greater power, and as admitting of a temporary suspension of the power when
required.
The application of this new power to the ribbon loom is very simple, as
there are spaces between the ribbons where the shuttles can be brought to
rest, and the passage of one magnet would act in succession upon the whole
range of shuttles and again return them all; but for sprigs in solid or con-
tinuous web facility must be given for the withdrawal of the shuttles from the
warp at intervals, so that the intermitting of the power of the magnet becomes
of importance; of course this is effected by detaching one of the wires con-
nected with the battery. The simple battery used is Smee's battery, which
may be placed in another apartment or outside the window.
I do not confine myself to the above arrangements, as a shelf may be pro-
jected from the lower part of the lathe, which would form a shuttle race; or
the frame might be made to move on centres at the upper part of the loom,
and the magnetic power be made to influence the shuttles from above a portion
of the warp, but I certainly prefer the mode described. Reference has been
made to the facility afforded in the ribbon loom by the spaces between the
reeds affording a place of rest for the small shuttles when withdrawn from the
warp; they can have a small shelf on which to rest; but a similar advantage
is attained even in a broad web in the warp of which there are no intervals,
by having small shelves to rise and fall; and this method is practised in aid
of the action of small shuttles, impelled by other well known mechanical
contrivances.
Figures III. is the magnetic shuttle frame. A, A, two small shuttles resting
upon upper shelf B; C, C, two electro-magnets; D, D, two sliding rods on

page_text: which the magnets pass; E, E, centres of motion for frame; a, a, pulleys over
which the cords pass for moving the magnets.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Whytock, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeeth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-two.
J.OKSTOUN, LAIT
REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid Richard Whytock came before
our said Lady the Queen in 1er 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.
Enrolled the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.