IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Mark Knowles, James Conlong,
and William Frankland at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 31st March 1870.
We, MARK KNOWLES, of Walpole Street Iron Works, Blackburn, in
the County of Lancaster, Machinist, and JAMES CONLONG, of Hollin
Bank, Blackburn, in the said County, also Machinist, and WILLIAM
FRANKLAND, of Grindleton, in the County of York, Cotton Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," to be as follows:-
:-
The first part of our Invention is applicable to the weaving of those
pile fabrics in which the pile is formed by wires woven in the cloth and
afterwards withdrawn. It consists in an improved manner of inserting
and withdrawing the said wires by means of a revolving screw shaft
driven from some convenient part of the loom's motions, and cut with
both a right and left handed thread, which said threads are made to run
into and join each other at each end of the said shaft so that a pin which
works in the said threads, and which pin is in connection with a carriage,
may, after it has run to one end of the screw by the right-hand thread

page_text: return to the other end of the screw by the left-hand thread, and back
again by the right-hand thread before named, and so on as long as the
screw continues to revolve, the carriage in connection with the said pin
moving with it to and fro in the direction of the screw's length. The
said carriage works on or near the screw shaft and carries the finger for
inserting the wires and the hook for withdrawing them as also the
means of giving motion to the wire rail or sheath for carrying the wires.
The said wire rail we prefer should slide on a plate or two or more rails,
which rails or plate might also serve to guide it in its motion near cach
end of the said wire rail. We attach to it an arm or link, cach of which
is joined to another link not in a straight line but making an angle with
the one to which it is joined. The other end of cach pair of links are
attached to some convenient part of the loom, and a bar joins both pair
of links together at or near the points of the angles or the point where
each link joins its fellow. If the said bar is moved one way it makes
the angles of the links more acute and the wire rail approaches the front
of the loom; if the bar is moved the other way it makes the angles more
obtuse and the wire rail approaches the back of the loom. This bar is
actuated by an arrangement in connection with the carriage before
_named, and this arrangement consists in a friction plate or pad of any
suitable shape and material, and which shall grip or press on the bar to
give a certain amount of friction, to the intent that when the carriage
gets to one end of its motion and commences to return the friction on
the said 'bar causes it to move till it comes against a stop; the friction
then slips along the bar till it comes to the other end and commences to
return, when it again moves the bar to its original position against
another stop, and so on, giving an intermittent motion to the bar.
Besides this motion it is necessary for the bar to have a slow motion
from its most backward position to about half way to its most forward
position, and this we effect by placing the bar not exactly parallel with
the screw shaft but at a small angle thereto, so that a guide in con-
nection with the friction shall as it slides along the bar gradually draw
the bar forward, so that that end which lay the farthest from the screw
shaft may be only the same distance from it as the other was originally.
It will be seen that all motions affecting this bar affect also the wire
rail, and the object of the last-named motion is so that a wire may at the
commencement of being inserted be put in the full open shed and then
be gradually brought up to the position for being woven in. By making
the links longer at one end of the wire rail than the other the said rail

page_text: wire so as to give due time to the wire rail or sheath to be there to
receive it.
The second part of our Invention consists in an improved arrangement
for causing the loom to stop when from any cause the shuttle does not
reach its proper place in the shuttle box. We use the ordinary swells
in the shuttle box, the fingers resting on the said swells, the stop rod to
which the said fingers are attached, and the springs for keeping the said
fingers up to the swells, but as in this Invention the parts before named
have not to undergo the same amount of work or strain they may be
made considerably lighter. The ordinary stop rod prong or prongs we
do not attach to the stop rod as is usual but to the slay or slay swords,
and in such a position that the point or points of the said prong or
prongs shall just slide over the frog or frogs on the loom side or sides,
the said frog or frogs being each made in two or more parts but so that
one part shall be capable of being raised slightly above another of the
parts so as to form or present a notch for the said prong to catch into in
case the shuttle is not in the box at the proper time. If there be a frog
on both sides of the loom we run a shaft across and actuate the lifting
part of cach frog by this shaft so that both parts may lift simultaneously.
The said frog or frogs we either make so that one of the parts is hinged
to and shuts upon the other like a book, or one part may slide under
another like a wedge or slide upward if the lifting part of the frog is
hinged. We make the before-named shaft serve as the hinge pin and
attach the lifting part of the frog to it. If one part of the frog slides on
the other we have a small projection on the shaft to actuate the sliding.
If only one frog is used we have only a short shaft or stud in connection
with the lifting part before named, but in any case we fix on the said
shaft a finger standing vertically or thereabouts and being immediately
in front of a finger placed horizontally or thereabouts on the stop rod,
and so adjusted that when the shuttle is in the box and the slay moves
backward and forward the horizontal finger on the stop rod works just

page_text: above the vertical finger on the frog shaft, but if the shuttle be absent
the stop rod is not actuated as usual, the horizontal finger on the stop
rod comes in contact with the vertical finger on the frog shaft, and the
lifting part of the frog or frogs is raised so as to come in contact with
the prong or prongs before named and the loom is stopped in the
ordinary manner.
The third part of our Invention is applicable to the loom when made
with drop boxes. It consists in an arrangement for putting back the
shuttle to its proper place when it shall have come so far as to project
through the end of the box. In carrying out this arrangement we place
two small bowls or studs a short distance apart, one of them a little
above and the other a little below where the tip of the shuttle might
come when too far; the said bowls or studs are nearly close to the
end of that shuttle box which is level with the race board. If the
shuttle boxes rise and the shuttle is too far through the angular end of the
shuttle presses against the top bowl or stud, and as the boxes continue to
rise the shuttle recedes backward into its box. If the shuttle boxes drop
the angular end of the shuttle presses against the bottom bowl or stud
and the shuttle recedes as before. In conjunction with this arrrange-
ment we use a spring padded with leather at the end for the picker to 1
strike against when pulled back. Instead of the bowls or studs before
named we can use angular or rounded pieces of metal.