IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR WORKING THE HEALDS IN LOOMS FOR FANCY WEAVING
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Walker at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd November 1876.
JOHN WALKER, of Ashton-under-Lyne, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanic.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR WORKING THE HEALDS
IN LOOMS FOR FANCY WEAVING."
My Invention consists in an improved combination and arrangement of mechanism
whereby the healds may be worked in looms for fancy weaving, so that what is.
termed a "shed" may be obtained without the use of weights or springs, the pattern
chain or barrel being so arranged that the weaver can almost instantly change from
one pattern or order of shedding or working the healds to another, as arranged and
required. The healds have motion by being connected with levers placed above
and below the warp, the length way of the levers being at a right angle to the warp,
one end of the levers being vertically opposite the middle of the healds, the other
extending over the outside of the looin. The inner end of each lever above the
warp is connected with the upper shaft of the heald, and the lower shaft of the
same heald is connected with the inner end of the lever below the warp, and thus
there is one lever above and another below the warp for each heald, and the upper
and lower lever move together, up or down, as required. Each lever above the
warp has a vertical arm above its fulcrum, so that it forms an inverted T or double
bell-crank lever (L), and jointed to this arm there is a weigh beam lever having a
hook or notch at each end, one end of this weigh beam lever being made heavy so
as to rest upon or sink into spaces fonned in the pattern barrel or chain, so that as
the pattern barrel or chain is rotated one tooth at a time by a ratchet pawl or other
arrangement the weigh beam hook levers will rise or fall. Above the weigh beam
levers there is a shaft parallel to that for the fulcrum of the T levers, which has an
oscillatory movement imparted to it by a lever or arm upon the end of the shaft,
which is connected by a connecting rod with an eccentric crank or cam driven by
the loom. This oscillating shaft imparts simultaneous reciprocating movement in
opposite directions to two rods or bars placed parallel to the oscillating shaft by
means of crank pins and connecting rods or toothed pinions and racks, and these
reciprocating rods or bars come over the hooks or notches in the weigh beam levers,
so that the hook or notch in that end of the weigh beam lever that is elevated
will be caught by one of the rods or bars, and the T lever to which it is connected
will be consequently moved to lift or depress the heald, as the case may be, according.
to the pattern.

page_text: I prefer to make the pattern barrel or chain of one even surface, with holes in it,
where the weighted end of the weigh beam hook lever is to sink, though barrels or
pattern chains with projections may be used. I also make the pattern chain or
barrel so that when in one position it will form one pattern, and when moved
slightly endways on its axis it will form another pattern, by which means the
weaver can readily change the pattern as required by moving the pattern barrel
endways. The pattern barrel is turned by oscillating motion from the arm actuating
the oscillating shaft. The V shed is obtained by my improved combination of
mechanism, because all the healds not required by the pattern to be lifted are caused
by the mechanism to descend to an equal extent.
The weigh beam hook levers may be made in two parts, namely, with the part
containing the notch against which the reciprocating rod or bar acts jointed to the
weighted end of the weigh beam lever, so that the weighted end will be free to
descend while the notched part rests against the reciprocating rod or bar.