IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN CONNECTION WITH LOOM PICKERS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Kenworthy Dutton
and Joseph Holding at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
2nd September 1881.
EDWARD KENWORTHY DUTTON and JOSEPH HOLDING, both of Manchester, in
the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN CONNECTION WITH LOOM
PICKERS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF."
Our Invention relates to the pickers employed in looms for weaving. We make
such pickers wholly or partly of wood. In some forms the pickers are cut out of
the wood into T or Fshapes, being by preference so proportioned as that the
pickers can be cut out with a minimum of waste. The horizontal limb is bored to
slide upon the spindle, or is bushed with wood which is so bored. In some cases
the bush projects to entirely or partly form the horizontal limb, which we prefer
shall project towards the shuttle. The strap is attached to a projecting pin, which
passes through a slit in the strap, or the strap is secured in a jaw or upon a button
formed on or fixed to the top or back of the picker. In some cases the said bush
is turned with a groove to receive the strap. In other cases the strap passes under
a metal link which takes hold of the back of the picker, or is held by means of a
clamp. In all these cases the strap is not twisted as in the ordinary method of
attachment, but we do not confine ourselves to these methods. In some or in all
cases we apply a packing or facing of leather, hide, or suitable material or materials
to receive the blow of the shuttle; such materials may be nailed, riveted, or other-
wise secured. In some cases the said' material is partly enclosed in a bored or cut
recess and partly used as a covering for the said recess. Circular cupped pieces of
leather may be fixed in an undercut recess. Pickers so made do not require
lubricating so frequently as ordinary pickers, and the wood bearing for the spindle
wears less rapidly. In some cases we form a cavity to receive lubricant into the
pores of the wood. In the cases of pickers fitted with bushes or wood tubes, we
prefer to soak the bushes or tubes in lubricant before use. Ordinary pickers can
be provided with our improved bushes or tubes, and old pickers can thereby be
rendered servicable. In another variety of picker we attach buffers formed of
leather or hide, or partly of such materials and partly of wood or other suitable

page_text: material to a wooden tube to which the strap is attached. The buffer part is
attached to the tube by means of a piece of hide or leather or other suitable
material, which passes over the tube, and which may form the foot or be folded to
form the buffer. In such cases we may form the foot of wood. In some cases,
wherein we provide pickers with tubes to run on the spindles, we arrange for the
tube to be put in from either side so that a picker can be reversed when damaged
on one face. We secure the tubes in the picker body by end riveting, or by means
of metal tubes or rings, or by means of pins or pegs or by other suitable means.
We may interpose springs or elastic washers between the picker bodies, and collars
on the tubes. In one form of picker we use a piston with an elastic backing. In
the cases of pickers made without a facing we sometimes let in wood having the
grain, running at about right angles to the grain in the body, or we may use metal
rivets, ferules, or plates to prevent the wood from splitting.