CERTAIN NEW AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOмs
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lucius James Knowles, of the State of Massa-
chusetts, of the United States of America, for the Invention of
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Lucius James Knowles at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 13th October 1874, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LUCIUS
JAMES KNOWLES, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United States of
America, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention of "CERTAIN NEW
AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOмs," and have petitioned Her most
Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria to grant unto me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same,
and have made solemn Declaration that I am the first and true Inventor
thereof.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Lucius James Knowles, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention to be as follows, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawing which forms a part of this
Specification, and in which Figure 1 represents a front side view of my
improved loom; Figure 2, a rear side view of it.
Figure 3, an end of the loom upon which the harness mechanism is
mounted; Figure 4, a top or plan view.
Figure 5, views of detached parts of the harness operating mechanism.
រ
Figure 6, a side view of the elevating plate, by means of which all
of the heddles are thrown into one shed, for the purpose hereafter 1
described.
Figure 7, sectional views of the lever holding device, as hereafter
described; and Figure 8, a side view of the levers for operating the
shuttle boxes.
To enable those skilled in the art to which my Invention belongs to 1
make and use the same, I will describe it in detail.
The nature of my said improvements or Invention consists,―
First. In the combination with the harness operating mechanisms of
a loom of mechanism whereby the operator can at will and inde-
pendently of the pattern chain or wheel cause all of the warp threads 2
to fall into one single plane,
Second. The combination with the harness operating mechanism of a
loom of an automatic device for preventing the pattern chain or wheel
from being turned at an improper time.
Third. A lever guard or shield, as hereafter described.
Fourth. In the combination of certain mechanical elements for
operating the shuttle boxes of looms.
2
And fifth. In the combination with one end of an elevated frame of
gear crank connection, vibrating arms, and angle levers, for the purpose
of operating the harnesses of looms in which a pattern chain or wheel 3
is used, as hereafter explained.
Sixth. The combination with the vibrating levers of curved or cir-
cular recesses or depressions, as and for the purposes hereafter set
forth.

page_text: Seventh. The combination with the shaft of the pattern chain or wheel
of a locking arm and bolt, as hereafter described.
Eighth. The combination with the mechanism for operating the
pattern chain, the heddles, and lay of a clutch and forked lever, or
their equivalents, when constructed and applied to effect objects as
herein-after stated.
Ninth. The combination of a crank with the shaft of the harness
elevating cogged wheel.
It often happens that it is necessary to move the harness motion to
find the proper pick when the filling thread has been broken, run out,
or for other causes.
To avoid putting in motion the whole loom mechanism when this
is done I combine with shaft A, which gives motion to the harness
mechanism, a clutch hub A' having a groove a into which the forked
end of lever A" is fitted. The other end of said lever extends through
to the front of the loom, and is arranged within easy reach of the
operator. When therefore the operator desires to turn the harness
mechanism forward, as before stated, the front end of lever A" is
depressed and clutch hub A¹ elevated so that it will be disconnected
with the clutch hub A upon the driving gear below it. Lever A¹
may be held down by any suitable catch. The operator can now turn
forward the harness mechanism by means of power applied to any
suitable part thereof, and that too without turning the mechanism that
operates the lay of the loom.
For the purpose of mending threads, picking out imperfect work,
and for other reasons, it is very desirable to bring all the heddles, and
thereby all the threads, together into one line or plane.
This result is produced in my improved loom by a very simple and
effective device, as follows:-The free ends of the vibratory levers B
rest upon the elevating bar or plate B¹, Figures 5 and 6, which is
provided with two slots b, b, the lower ends of the slots being horizontal,
all as fully shown in Figure 6.
When the operator desires to bring all of the warps of the heddles
into one plane, handle 6' is grasped, and plate B¹ is drawn forward,
when the said plate, together with the free ends of levers B, will be

page_text: raised until the horizontal parts of the slots b, b, rest upon the stationary
guide screws or pins which pass through said slots, and are fast in the
stationary comb B in which the front ends of levers B work. When
in this position plate B₁ will remain until pushed back, thus holding
all of the vibratory levers clear of the pattern wheel B", or pattern 5
chain, when one is used. As a result of this change of the parts
the harness elevating cog wheel C will bring the upper ends of all
the angle levers C₁ forward, where they will remain, all the heddles
being raised to the highest point in line with each other.
When the weaving is to be renewed the operator pushes plate B¹ 1
back to its original place, and the pattern wheel or chain acts again.
It will be understood that by changing the mechanism the line at
which the heddles shall meet may be varied.
There is on the shaft of the wheel C a crank R2, as shown, whose
purpose is to enable an attendant by manual power to actuate or put 1
in operation the harnesses and drop boxes of the loom when the parts
A, A, of the clutch are not in engagement.
The operator often has occasion or desires to move the pattern chain,
and should the change be made when the harness motion is in operation
at certain stages, then a serious derangement of the parts would result, 2
as will be understood by those skilled in the art. To guard against
such improper movement of the pattern chain or wheel a safety locking
device is employed.
A shaft c is fitted to turn in suitable bearings in the elevated part D¹
of the loom frame D, and has attached to its outer end a bent arm c¹2
which is acted upon by a cam d upon the outer end of the shaft of
the harness depressing cogged wheel E, so as to permit the upper
hooked end ď of the arm e fastened to shaft c to swing forward over
the ends of all the vibrating levers B that are to remain down during
the pick for the shed which has been set, consequently the operator 30
cannot turn the pattern chain or wheel until the hooked end d¹ of
arm e has been turned back by the cam, as shown in the Drawing.
When several levers are to be attached to a common fulcrum or
spindle, it is quite convenient to have some arrangement whereby each
or all of the levers can be removed from their fulcrums for repairs 3
or for other
purposes,

page_text: My improvement for accomplishing this purpose is very simple and
yet effective, and it is shown in the Drawing in combination with the
fulcrums of vibrating levers B, and which improvement consists of a
movable cap E¹ with ears f having holes through which the fulcrum
rod fi passes, as shown in the Drawing. The inner surface of the
movable cap E¹ is made to conform to the circular ends of the vibrating
levers B, which it is designed to keep in place while its ears stand
between the ends of the outer levers and the ends of the lever sup-
porting frame F, whereby the ends of said frame can be screwed or
clamped against the ears and ends of the lever cap E¹ by means of
nute when the cap has been once adjusted, and thus hold it in
place without binding the ends of the levers. The ends of the levers
are slotted out upon their under sides, so that they can be dropped
down upon the fulcrum rod, as indicated in Figure 5, after which
the cap E' is turned up over their ends, as shown in the same Figure.
If it is desired to withdraw or take out any one or all of levers B
the operator simply loosens nut e¹ and turns cap E' back, when the
rear ends of the levers can be lifted off of the fulcrum rod. This
it will be noticed is a good and useful improvement for holding a
series of levers in place, and which is susceptible of extensive use.
In the construction of mechanism for operating movable shuttle boxes
much time and money have been spent, and yet this part of a loom is
regarded by manufacturers as far from what it ought to be; and I have
been led, from the practical difficulties which I have met with as a
manufacturer of looms, to combine certain elements heretofore used
by me separately in different looms, in the loom shown in the Drawing,
but under different combinations and arrangements, whereby substantial
and important advantages are obtained, and the loom rendered far more
desirable and useful.
The shuttle box motion is obtained in this loom by a compound
lever G, Figures 2 and 8, the longer part G³ of the lever being
hinged or fulcrumed to the lower end of the other part G" at m (see
dotted lines), while the latter is fulcrumed at n. The upper ends of
both of said levers are operated by means of connecting arms p from
separate gear cranks H, Figure 8, connected with the inner ends of
two of the vibrating levers B. By this arrangement a four-motion
shuttle box can be very successfully operated. For instance, the lower

page_text: end of compound lever G being connected with the shuttle box frame
by cords, or in any other convenient or well-known manner, one of
the boxes being in place, the loom is started, when, after the first
box has been used, lever part G" is drawn forward, when the lower
end of lever part G¹ will be thrown back, and the second shuttle box
raised into position; then the upper end of lever part G¹ is drawn
forward, thereby throwing its lower end still further back; but while
this is being done the upper end of lever part G" is thrown back,
thus "discounting one," as it is called, that is, prevents only one box,
the third being raised into position, whereas the sweep of lever part G¹
would have been sufficient to have raised the fourth box into place
but for the back motion of lever part G". The fourth box is now
raised into position by the upper end of lever part Qu being drawn
forward. It will thus be seen that with two compound levers G con-
nected to crank gears H and vibrating levers B, a four-motion shuttle
box can be operated in a very perfect manner. The pattern wheel Bu
is driven from a gear on the end of the shaft of the depressing wheel E,
taking into gear K loose on shaft I¹ of the pattern wheel, but having
countersinks 2 into which springs a catch bolt in the end of arm L
fast to the end of shaft I¹. By this arrangement the pattern wheel
or chain can be moved without moving the harness motion, since by
withdrawing the spring bolt on the arm L, it together with the pattern
wheel can be revolved without turning gear K. Those skilled in the
art will appreciate this improvement, since they will see that this pattern
chain or wheel can be adjusted readily.
In the operation of the loom patented to me February 24th, 1863,
in the United States of America, there have been found several practical
objections when used in certain kinds of weaving. In the first place,
the arrangement of the cranks, toothed cranked wheels, and lifter, and
depressor wheels was inconvenient for certain classes of work. Then
again, to obtain the necessary variation in the elevation or depression
of the several lines of heddles, the connecting arms had to be con-
nected to the gear cranks in different positions, and consequently they
had to be all marked or numbered, and each crank and its particular
arm had to be placed in a particular position in the loom; this led
to a great deal of trouble, since if the crank pin happened to be a
little out of place, there was. trouble, then when one broke mistakes
were made in selecting or sending for the right one. These difficulties

page_text: 5. The combination with two separate gear cranks H, H, and their
vibrating levers B, B, of the compound levers G, and the connections p, p,
substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
6. The combination with the vibrating arms B and their gear cranks H
of the cogged lifting and depressing wheels C, E, and angle levers C¹,
said parts being constructed and relatively combined with each other
on the elevated frame D¹, as shown and described.
7. In combination with the pattern cylinder B" the levers B having
the curve 1, as and for the purposes set forth.
5
8. The combination with the shaft of the pattern chain or wheel and 10
gear K of the locking arm L and its bolt, substantially as and for the
purposes set forth.
9. In combination with the mechanism for operating the pattern
chain, the heddles and lay, the clutch A¹, A, and the forked lever A",
or their mechanical equivalents when constructed and applied to effect 15
the object herein-before stated.
10. The crank R³ combined with the shaft of the wheel O, for the
set forth.
purpose
In witness whereof, I, the said Lucius James Knowles, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this First day of October, A.D. 20
LUCIUS JAMES KNOWLES. (L.S.)