IMPROVEMENTS IN WEAVERS' HEDDLES AND IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th July 1881. A communication from
abroad by Louis Borgognon, of Basle, Switzerland.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN WEAVERS' HEDDLES AND IN
MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME." A communication from abroad by
Louis Borgognon, of Basle, Switzerland.
This Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of plaited heddles,
such as are used to form the weaving harness in the manufacture of silk ribbons,
and the said Invention also relates to an improved machine for the manufacture of
such beddles.
Heddles made according to this Invention offer the following advantages over
the knotted heddles hitherto used, viz., they require less space, and the warp does
not chafe against knots.
Plaited heddles as hitherto manufactured are not durable, partly by reason of the
inferior quality of the raw material of which they are ordinarily made, but chiefly
because of the insufficiency of the yarn in the eye or mail at the centre of the
heddle. The object of this Invention is to remedy this serious defect; and in
carrying the same into practice I employ a machine constructed as follows, that is
to say:-
I provide two vertical shafts connected by toothed wheels of equal size. On each
side of these shafts are fixed two discs, which carry spindles with bobbins. These
discs have an uneven number of lateral incisions (seven for instance) made in their
periphery, in which incisions the spindles are so placed as to be enabled to pass
from one disc to the other by means of the hereinafter described devices. The
incisions meet in the manner of toothed gearing, and serve for the reception of three
spindles for each disc when there are seven incisions. Upon another vertical shaft
a switch of peculiar form is arranged, whose point so directs each advancing spindle
that it passes to one of the discs. The spindle then abuts against a shoulder on
the switch and causes the switch so to turn that its point is shifted to the
other side, and the next following spindle passes to the other disc; the last
mentioned spindle then causes the switch to return into the first position. These

page_text: parts are so arranged that if there is an equal number of spindles upon both discs,
the spindles will always remain on the same disc, that is to say, the yarn will only
be doubled.
For the purpose of plaiting I provide upon the one disc a secondary
spindle which does not carry yarn. It is of the same thickness as the other
spindles, except in one part, where it is made quite thin. When the doubling
takes place as above mentioned, this spindle must not have any effect upon the
switch, therefore the recess or thin part thereof must be so placed that the thicker
part of the said secondary spindle freely passes the switch. For this purpose a
recess is made on the switch, extending through half the thickness thereof, and the
thicker part of the secondary spindle, which is placed towards the switch when the
doubling is to take place, passes over the switch so that it remains stationary, and
the next spindle follows the same path as the secondary spindle. When the
plaiting is to take place, the vertical shaft carrying the switch is lifted together with
the latter, the thicker part of the secondary spindle pushes the switch aside, and
the spindle following the secondary spindle passes to the other side, which is
repeated with all spindles whilst the aforesaid vertical shaft remains raised. When
the plaiting is to cease the vertical shaft is allowed to descend; but as the recess of
the switch is only on one side of the same, it is obvious that every spindle is thereby
passed back again to the disc it originally occupied, as the spindle following the
secondary spindle is directed to the other disc; this being of importance by reason
of the spindles belonging to the disc at one side carrying bobbins with roving
having a twist to the right, and those on the other disc roving with a left handed
twist..
Upon a horizontal shaft driven by a worm and a worm wheel, there is fixed a cam-
disc with suitable indentations upon which one arm of a two armed lever rests, whose
other arm carries the vertical shaft upon which the switch is mounted. As often as
the arm of the aforesaid lever falls into one of the indentations of the cam-disc, the
shaft carrying the switch is raised together with the latter, and plaiting will take
place as above described, but is at once changed into doubling again when the
lever-arm returns to the outer periphery of the cam-disc.
It is obvious that the indentations of the cam disc will be so placed as to produce
the plaiting of the heddle where the same is requisite. Bevel wheels drive a feed
roller whose periphery has to be exactly equal to the length of the heddle which is
to be manufactured.
I also provide a pressure roller, a reel for the finished heddle, and a pulley for
operating the spindles.
To make the eye or mail of the heddle stronger and more durable, more yarn
must be given thereto as also to the plaiting at the lower part of the heddles, so
that the loop may not break when the sheds are opened. For this purpose two of
the bevel wheels which drive the spindles are arranged as follows, viz., one of said
wheels has ninety eight (98) teeth, whilst the other is divided for one hundred and
six (100) teeth, of which however at two places eight (8) are omitted, so that the
wheel with 98 teeth which acts directly upon the spindles and is driven by the
other wheel, stops during a part of the revolution of the other wheel, whereby the
thread becomes much stouter in the parts formed during such periods.