IMPROVEMENTS IN NET-MAKING MACHINES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Archibald St. Clair Ruthven and
Peter Glen at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th December
1878.
ARCHIBALD ST. CLAIR RUTHVEN and PETER GLEN, both of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN NET-MAKING
MACHINES."
This Invention has reference to improvements in and connected with certain of
the mechanical motions of the ordinary well-known vertical net-making or weaving
machines, with one set or row of transverse horizontal stationary hooks behind,
and a movable set in front, actuated on their carrying and actuating bar, by the
usual central hand lever controlled by the "fairleader" guide, or duplex stationary
face groove cam; and having a corresponding number or set of vertical hook fallers
resting on and raised by their lower ends on their transverse carrying bar, actuated
in guides in the lower central part of the frame of the machine; the hooks and the
upper end of each faller being raised simultaneously until the hooks at the upper
end are raised above and between the eyes of the stationary hooks, and the loops
passed round them by the front hooks, just before the long reciprocating side
needles or shuttles are passed through the hooks of the stationary needles and
fallers, with the thread to form each succeeding row of knots and meshes; which
improvements make these machines more automatic and efficient in their action
with much saving of severe labour on the part of the weaver, so that these
machines may now be worked or attended to by boys or girls instead of strong
men or women as heretofore And the nature and novelty of the Invention
consist in dispensing with the usual long treadle and compound lever arrangement
for lifting the said "faller bar" of the vertical "faller hooks," which requires
great power, and consequently a long arcial motion of the long treadle, most
inconvenient for the weaver to actuate; and in substituting therefor an arrange-
ment of two single acting hydraulic or water cylinders and pistons, below the
undersides or ends of the faller bars, the rods of these pistons preferably working

page_text: in holes through the lower web of the bar, with regulating jam nuts or collars
below, to adjust the height or fall of the faller bar with the usual regulating stop
screws in the fixed or slur bar above. The under fixed part of each cylinder below
its 'piston is connected by a double branch pipe to a small three-way piston or
other equivalent inlet and outlet water valve or cock, the spindle of which valve
is connected by a double-armed lever or other equivalent to the lower end of a
connecting-rod, the upper end of which has a lateral pin in it, which slides or
works in the lower part of the central stop groove or fixed tongue of the "fair-
leader"
cam; the valve lever being always raised by the power of a spring, so as to
close the valve against the water pressure and open it to discharge the water from
the underside of the piston and cylinders, and thus leave the pistons and faller bar
in their lowest normal position, but all so that when the hand lever of the front
moving hooks are brought to the proper position for the raising of the faller
hooks, the pin of the hand lever in being pressed down in the said central cam
groove or tongue of the fairleader guide, presses down the connecting rod against
the power of the spring, and so opens the water valve and cylinders to the source
of pressure supply of water, so as to raise the pistons and faller bar, while the lever
handle is held in this position by a simple fixing catch, until all the faller hooks
are raised against the power of their springs, and pushed on to and left on their
carrying or slur bar, until the lateral or side needles and thread are shot or thrown
across the whole set of hooks and loops. When the lever handle is then released
from its catch, and raised so that the spring lever then shuts the valve off from the
water pressure, and opens it to discharge the water from below the pistons, which
then fall with the faller bar by their own weight to their lowest position, ready for
receiving and carrying the faller hooks as soon as the needles have. thrown the
weft and come back to their normal position, and are thrown off their retaining
catch bar by their traversing slur or pushing-off pulley carriage, ready for the loops
being drawn off the faller hooks in their lowest position, after the forming of each
set of knots and meshes, all otherwise as heretofore by the action of the central
hand lever and other treadles. The pressure of water for actuating the cylinders
may be obtained from any cistern, say 30 to 50 feet high, or with a pressure
equivalent to this, according to the diameter of the water cylinders adopted, 4 or 5
inches diameter answering well for this maximum head or pressure of water;
but it will be quite understood that a pressure cistern might be employed, with
small hand or motive pump and an air vessel for giving the required supply and
pressure of water to fill the lower part of the cylinders for each row or set of
meshes woven or netted in this machine.