CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING LACE AND OTHER FABRICS, COMMONLY CALLED WARP MACHINERY
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GAUNTLEY, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Mechanic,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the
Fourth, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of August, in the seventh
year of His reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-six, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Gauntley, His especial license, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Gauntley, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Gaunt-
ley, my executors, admors, (or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING LACE AND OTHER
FABRICS, COMMONLY CALLED WARP MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Gauntley, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of

page_text: 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
Thomas Gauntley, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-
These improvements in warp machinery employed for making lace and
other fabrics consist in the adaptation to that kind of machinery of a series
of thin blades, which I denominate thread carriers, being for the purpose of
lapping the threads upon the bearded needles, and thereby superseding the
necessity of the guides passing between and over the needles, as in the
ordinary modes of working that sort of machinery.
In the accompanying Drawings Figures 1 and 2 represent, in two positions,
a series of these thin blades set in a lead, in the way in which they would
be prepared to be mounted in the machine.
Figure 3 is a section taken transversely through a complete machine, in
which these thread carriers are seen at A, mounted upon a longitudinal bar
B; and Figure 4 is an elevation of the back part of the same machine. In
this and the preceding Figure the thread carriers and the new parts by which
they are worked are represented shaded and coloured, and marked with
capital letters; the other, or old parts of the machinery, are shewn in
outlines only, and are marked by small letters, the several letters of reference
indicating the same parts throughout all the Figures of the Drawing. The
bearded needles are shewn at a, set in leads, and mounted in a horizontal
series upon the needle bar b, as usual; c, c, c, are three series of guides fixed
upon their several bars, which carry and conduct the threads from the warp
beams d, d, d, d, d. The sinkers e, mounted in leads in the ordinary way,
are affixed to the sinker bar f, the centers of which I prefer to place below
the needle bar; the presser bar g is as usual above the needles. All these
parts are constructed nearly in the same way, and operate in a similar
manner to the mechanism of an ordinary warp frame when driven by rotary
power, excepting the parts supporting the guides (technically called the
machine), which parts are by me merely slidden in and out by a cam i acting
against rocking levers j, j, affixed to shaft k, to which the bent levers 1, 1, are
attached that work the guide frame, the up and down vibratary movements
of the guides being, by the adaptation of my improvements, dispenced with.
The thread carriers A are made to rise and fall through the agency of arms

page_text: or levers C, extending forward from a longitudinal bar called the central
rocking bar D. These arms C are connected in front of the warp frame by
axle joints E to the bar B of the thread carriers, and turn on stationary
fulcrum pivots fixed in the framework, which are inserted into the ends of the
central rocking bar D; from the back of this rocking bar an arm or tail
lever F extends, carrying a truck roller G, which truck roller is acted upon
by the periphery of a revolving cam H, H, fixed on the main or back shaft h;
and hence by the rotation of this cam H, the levers F and C are made to
vibrate upon their fulcrum pivots at D, and to raise the thread carriers A at
the required periods for taking hold of the threads extending from the guides
to the needles, and lifting them on to the ends of the needles. The thread
carriers A have also a slight vibratary movement, in the direction from the
ends of the guides c, c, c, toward the needle bar b, for the purpose of forcing
the threads back over the beards of the needles, which operation used to be
performed by the movements of the guides in ordinary warp frames. The
vibratary movement of the thread carriers is effected by the following arrange-
ment of compound levers:-Arms I, extending downward from each end of
the bar B, are connected by axle joints to levers K. These levers are in like
manner connected to arms L extending from a longitudinal rocking shaft M
at the back of the frame, the pivots of which shaft move in bearings in the
end standars. From this rocking shaft near its middle an arm N extends
upwards, which is connected by an axle joint to a lever O; and the reverse
end to this lever O is in a similar way connected to a rocking standard P.
mounted on a bracket Q, Q, fixed to the framework. In the lever O a truck
roller R. is mounted upon a fixed stud or axle, which roller is acted upon by
the periphery of a rotary cam S, fixed on the main shaft h; hence, as this
cam S revolves, such vibratary movements will be given to the bar B, through
the compound levers P, O, N, L, K, I, as will cause the thread carriers A to
perform the required evolutions.
Having now described the construction of my improved machinery, I
proceed to shew the effect of its operation in connection with the ordinary.
parts and movements of a warp frame. The machine being supposed to be
furnished with its complement of threads conducted from the beanis d, d, d, d, d,.
through the guides c, c, c, to the needles a, as is usually done, and all parts
being in working order, I will consider the mechanism as standing in the
position shewn at Figure 3, that is, as it would be technecally expressed "at
he end of a course." Now, in putting the machine in action the bar f will
irst move, advancing the sinkers e for the purpose of bringing forward the
work, that is, the loops which have been formed and passed over the beards

page_text: of the needles by the preceding operations of the machinery, the sinkers will
then descend and cause their hooked nebs to take hold of the guide threads.
The thread carriers A will during the advance of the sinkers rise, and their
longer points enter between the threads extending from the guides to the
needles, which position of the parts is represented in the partial sectional
Figure 5; and when this has taken place the guides are to be shogged, that
is moved latterally by the ordinary means, for the purpose of drawing the
threads aside into oblique positions. The thread carriers still rising, their
shorter points now enter between the threads, but owing to the oblique posi-
tions which the threads have assumed since the shogging of the guides, the
shorter points of the thread carriers will not pass between the same threads
as their respective longer points did, consequently the threads when lifted
by the carriers over the needles will be found to extend diagonally across the
needles. The sinkers e now recede, carrying back the work previously made,
and with it the threads under the needles, and at the same time the thread
carriers rise to their greatest hight, lifting the threads over the heads of the
needles, as shewn in the partial section at Figure 6. The thread carriers
then receede for the purpose of pushing the threads back beyond the beards
of the needles. And in order to afford the quantity of thread required for
forming the loops, the parts called the machine with the guides c, c, c, have
been made to approach toward the needles. These last described positions
of the parts are shewn in the partial section, Figure 7. The movements of
the mechanism, as described in reference to Figure 3, will now cause the
thread carriers A to descend, and in so doing they will force the threads under
the beards of the needles, and then pass down perfectly free from the threads
into the position shewn in Figure 3. During the time that this last movement
of the thread carriers is proceeding, the sinkers e advance a little distance,
and then rise for the purpose of bringing the work forward upon the shafts
of the needles, the presser bar g then descends on to the beards of the needles,
and the operations of forming the stitches or loops of the fabric go on in the
ordinary way. This is the end of the course, and the progress of the next
course, with the movements of the improved parts of the mechanism, is carried
on in the way described above.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Gauntley, party hereto, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.
THO (L.S.) GAUNTLEY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of February,
in the seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth,
the said Thomas Gauntley came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George
the Third.