Improvements in Means or Apparatus for Regulating the Tension of the Warp Threads in Lace Machines.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Apr., 1887
Complete Left, 6th Jan., 1888
Complete Accepted, 10th Feb., 1888
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for Regulating the Tension
of the Warp Threads in Lace Machines.
I, JOHN JARDINE of Raleigh Street in the town and county of the Town of
Nottingham, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to an improved method of regulating the tension of the warp
threads in machines for making lace.
To make good lace by machinery, a proper and proportional tension should always
be maintained between the two classes of threads employed, viz., bobbin threads and
warp threads.
But in all lace machines the tension on the bobbin thread increases as the bobbin
empties in consequence of the thread having to pull the bobbin round with less and
less leverage as its diameter decreases.
My invention enables the workman to adjust the whole of his warp beams easily,
quickly and with the greatest nicety to the ever changing tension of the emptying
bobbins and to act on them all simultaneously.
In lace machines as hitherto made the tension given to the warp threads is
obtained by a cord being passed round a pulley on the end of each beam, one end of
this cord is fastened to a stud fixed in the beam frame the other end is attached to a
spiral spring having a hook attached thereto at the other end. The hook is screwed
and the end is passed through a perforated plate which is a fixture.
The screw is drawn up by a wing or fly nut until the cord around the pulley at the
end of the beam is tight enough to form a break sufficient to produce the required
tension on the warp threads carried by the beam.
There are sometimes 200 of these small beams as well as one or more main warp
beams carrying warp threads in one lace machine and each beam when an alteration
of tension is required must be adjusted separately by means of the wing or fly nut
acting on the spring and the cord round the beam.
In a twist lace machine the bobbins, being very fine, are soon emptied.
When nearly empty the tension on the bobbin thread is so much greater than when

page_text: the bobbin was full that to make good lace the tension of the threads on the warp
beams should be now increased in correspondence with the increased tension of the
bobbin threads but in machines as heretofore made the workman has no means of
adjusting the whole of his beams simultaneously but must alter them one by one a
process so slow and tiresome that it is generally neglected to the detriment of the
quality of the lace made.
My invention remedies this defect in a lace machine in the following manner.
Instead of using the perforated plate as a fixture, I according to my present
invention make it moveable laterally in a trough shaped frame or in suitable
guides.
One method by which movement may be given to the perforated plate is by means
of two eccentrics on which it rests, these are carried on axles passing through the
frame.
A disc is fixed on one end of each of these axles and each disc carries a stud or
crank pin. A connecting rod joins the two studs or crank pins and consequently the
discs so that they are capable of being moved together nearly half a revolution.
The eccentricity is gradual and sufficient to keep the warp threads always in a
corresponding state of tension with the bobbin threads from full to empty bobbins.
The adjustable plate is held in every position as securely as the fixed one (the
eccentrics being the full width of the plate) by means of a locking apparatus. The
tension on the beams can be adjusted separately when required just the same as with
the fixed plate nothing is lost of the advantages of the fixed plate.
The workman having only to loosen a winged lock nut and turn the locking disc
through a sufficient space shown to him by a graduated plate and a pointer to bring
up the whole of his beams together to the corresponding tension of the bobbins
whether they be full or empty or in any intermediate state. Other methods of giving
motion to such moveable plate may however be adopted.
DL: 1112 JA: 1007
JOHN
JARDINE.
By Harris & Mills,
23, Southampton Buildings,
Agents.

page_text: Of the warp inri
1934
I JOHN JARDINE of Raleigh Street Nottingham, Machinist, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to an improved method of regulating the tension of the warp
threads in machinery for making lace.
To make good lace by machinery a proper and proportional tension should always
be maintained between the two classes of threads employed, viz. :-Bobbin threads
and Warp threads.
But in all Lace machines the tension on the bobbin thread increases as the bobbin
empties, in consequence of the thread having to pull the bobbin round with less and
less leverage as its diameter decreases.
My invention enables the workman to adjust the whole of his warp beams easily,
quickly, and with the greatest nicety, to the ever changing tension of the emptying
bobbins, and to act on them all simultaneously.
In lace machines as hitherto made the tension given to the warp threads is obtained
by a cord being passed round a pulley on the end of each beam, one end of this cord
is fastened to a stud fixed in the beam frame, the other end is attached to a spiral
spring having a book attached thereto at the other end, the hook is screwed and the
end is passed through a perforated plate which is a fixture.
The screw is drawn up by a wing or fly nut until the cord round the pulley at the
end of the beam tight enough to form a brake sufficient to produce the required
tension on the warp threads carried by the beam.
There are frequently two hundred of these small beams, as well as one main warp
beam carrying warp threads in a lace machine, and each beam when an alteration of
tension is required must be adjusted separately by means of the wing or fly nut acting
on the spring and the cord round the beam.
In a Levers Lace machine the bobbins are very fine and in consequence are soon
emptied. When nearly empty the tension on the bobbin thread is so much greater
than when the bobbin was full, that to make good lace the tension of the warp threads
on the beams should be now increased in correspondence with the increased tension of
the bobbin threads, but in machines as hitherto made, the workman has no means
of adjusting the whole of his beams simultaneously, but must alter them one by one, a
process so slow and tiresome that it is generally neglected, to the detriment of the
quality of the lace made.
My invention remedies this defect in a Lace machine in the following manner,
Instead of using the perforated plate as a fixture, I according to my present
invention, make it movable laterally in a trough shaped frame or in suitable guides.
Movement is given to the perforated plate by two eccentrics on which it rests.
These are carried on axles passing through the frame.

page_text: A disc is fixed on one end of each of these axles, and each disc carries a stud or
crank pin.
A connecting rod joins the two studs or crank pins and consequently the discs, so
that they are capable of being moved nearly half a revolution.
The eccentricity is gradual and sufficient to keep the warp threads always in a
corresponding state of tension with the bobbin threads from full to empty bobbins.
The adjustable plate is held in every position as securely as the fixed one the
eccentric being the full width of the plate, it can be locked in any position desired,
and the tension on any beam can be adjusted separately, when required, as well as
with the fixed plate, nothing is lost of the advantages of the fixed plate, the workman
having only to loosen a winged lock nut, and turn the locking disc through a
sufficient space shown to him by a graduated plate and a pointer to bring up the
whole of his beams together to the corresponding tension of the bobbins, whether they
be full or empty or in any intermediate state.
Ine illustrations Numbers 1 and 2 show my invention as automatically worked.
In the provisional specification the description applies to my method worked by
hand only.
But it is evident that the more elaborate drawings showing how it may be worked
automatically, include also the more simple apparatus, which is the foundation of the
automatic one, so that any person at all acquainted with the working of a lace
machine will be able to apply my method, either in the simple form, to be adjusted
from time to time by the workman, or in its automatic form, worked wholly by the
action of the machine, and independant of the workman except when the full bobbins
are entered in the machine. He should then put the wheel back to the lowest part of
the eccentric, which is simply putting the wheel back to the stop formed by the
connecting rod striking the connecting shaft 7 between the two tension plates.
The ratchet wheel shown 17 is first moved from one of the rocking shafts on the
machine, the number of its teeth being determined by the length of the material held
by the bobbins. In an ordinary machine nine point gauge, it is found that to
regulate the tension of the warp beans in proportion to the increased tension of the
bobbins as they are gradually emptied of their contents as worked up into lace, the
eccentrics must lift up both the tension plates about three sixteenths of an inch, and
that by the apparatus as shown and described the ratchet wheel must be moved from
the rocking shaft twenty eight thousand eight hundred times one tooth each time,
and as the movement of each tooth is communicated by the worms and wheels to the
eccentrics, the required lifting of the tension plates of three sixteenths of an inch
between the full and empty bobbins is accomplished imperceptibly, the tension plates
being only lifted the twenty eight thousand eight hundred part of three sixteenths of
an inch for each tooth of the ratchet wheel or each movement of the rocking shaft.
The tension plates marked 1 & 2 are troughs of iron fitted freely into an iron frame O
with sides to keep them steady.
The weight of each tension plate is borne by round rods marked 3 & 4 which are
fast in the outside frame O but work in slots made in the trough shaped tension
plates 1 & 2 so as to permit of an up and down movement of the tension plates, but in
no other direction.
The eccentrics marked 5 & 6 are connected to a shaft 7 which connects the tension
plates one at each end of the machine-made and fitted in precisely the same way.
The top eccentric marked 5 is connected with the bottom eccentric 6 by a
connecting rod 8 worked by the crank pins in the discs marked 9 & 10.
Supposing the machine to have two hundred small beams carrying warp threads
each of the tension plates is pierced with one hundred holes, through each of which a
hook is passed 11 to which is attached a spring and a cord passing round the small
pulley at the end of each beam, the end of the cord is made fast to a pin inserted in

page_text: the frame carrying the beams, not shown. The hook 11 is tapped at the other end
and is adjusted by a wing or fly nut.
If the apparatus be intended to be moved by hand, a handle is screwed into the
edge on the top disc 13 and a small graduated plate carried by a bracket attached to
the frame. The disc 13 has then a curved slot through it, through which a stud is
passed, the stud being carried by the bracket.
The end of the stud is tapped and carries a winged lock nut by which the workman
locks the disc to the bracket after having made by means of the handle the required
adjustment.
A pointer may be fixed over the graduated plate so that the workman may see
exactly how much he is moving the disc and consequently the eccentrics.
But I consider the automatic apparatus will be commonly used worked as follows,
To the rocking shaft 14 or any part of the machine having a suitable motion a
short lever is fixed 15 connected by a link to another lever 16 carrying a click which
moves a ratchet wheel 17 one tooth at each upward motion of the rocking shaft.
The axle of the ratchet wheel carries a worm 18 which gears into another worm
wheel 19 on the axle of which another worm is fixed 20 which gears into a worm
wheel 21 which moves freely on the main shaft 7 which carries the eccentrics.
Close to the worm wheel 21 and on the same shaft is fastened a ratchet wheel 22
which is moved by a click 23 carried by the worm wheel 21.
This ratchet wheel 22 secured to the main shaft 7 is the connection between the
gearing moved by the machine and the main shaft 7 and its eccentrics. So that by
lifting up the click 23 carried by the wheel 21 all connection between the eccentrics
and the machine is cut off, and the workman could either increase or lessen the
tension on the beams by hand should any necessity arise for so doing.
24 is a tie which fastens the frame at the top to the framework of the machine.
The ratchet wheel 17 is fastened spring tight on its axle in such a manner that it is
tight enough to drive when the gearing is free but would turn without driving should
the driving shaft not be turned back when the bobbins are emptied and the connecting
rod jammed against the stop or shaft 7.
Having now fully described the nature of my invention, and the mode in which I
carry the same into effect, I would have it understood that what I claim as my
invention, is
The method of modifying the tension on the whole of the warp beams simultane-
ously at both ends of the machine by making the tension plates movable and acting
on them in the manner shown and described.
Dated this 5th day of January 1888.