IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Little at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th January
1864.
I, Charles LITTLE, of Bradford, in the County of York, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN WEAVING," to be as follows:-
The improvements relate, first, to means for giving motion to rotary shuttle
boxes. The series of boxes is capable of revolving in either direction, as
operated by either of a pair of catches, which are attached to and so as to turn on
pins, or studs carried by a frame operated by an eccentric on the crank shaft.
This frame may form part of a vibrating lever, or it may simply slide to and
fro. The frame is formed to embrace the eccentric so as to be moved
thereby and at the same time by one of the sides of it, being held to the
eccentric by spring pressure, yielding is permitted in the event of an undue
obstruction holding the boxes from turning at the proper time. The eccentric
is keyed on the crank shaft by preference with the full side in the same
direction as the crank, so that when the going part is moving from the crank
the eccentric is moving much more slowly in the same direction, and the
excess of speed of the former over the eccentric will cause the catch for the
time in connection with the box to turn it very easily. The selection of the
catches for the order or direction of turning is by a jacquard or pattern
surface.
This part of the Invention also relates to an improved stripping motion for

page_text: circular boxes, which is effected as follows:-A bevil or mitre wheel is fixed
to any convenient part of the crank or tappet shaft of the loom, and gearing
into a corresponding wheel on a shaft extending to the going part, the said
shaft sliding longitudinally in the boss of the bevil wheel supported by
the going part, so as to allow for the reciprocating motion of the going part,
or by fixing a pair of bevil wheels in connection with the tappet shaft, and
driving by means of a cross shaft to the swing rail of the loom an upright
shaft carried by the sword, having a pair of bevil or mitre wheels at the top
gearing with the horizontal shaft or spindle herein-after described. The latter
bevil wheel above referred to gears into a corresponding wheel fastened to a
horizontal shaft or spindle running along the going part to the circular box,
with which it is connected by a reversing motion similar to that used for slide
lathes, a pinion being fixed to the spindle of the circular box, which may be
driven either backward or forward, according as the lever of the reversing
motion is lifted up or down. The lever may be raised or depressed for the
requisite length of time to turn from 1 to 8 or more boxes either backward or
forward by treddles or levers worked by tappets or cams. The desired treddle
or lever being brought into action by the jacquard or pattern surface.
The improvements relate, secondly, to a system of balancing the reciprocating
parts of looms, viz., the going part and swords, and crank arms, by placing
counterbalancing weights on the fly wheel, pulleys, and cranks, thereby
rendering the working of the looms more easy, and allowing them to be
wrought at a greatly increased speed, at the same time obviating to a great
extent the vibration caused by working looms in the upper floors of factories
and other buildings.