CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING CARPETS AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WOOD, of Wilton, in the County of Wilts, Carpet Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Wood, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Wood, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said William Wood, my executors, administrators,
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 Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING CARPETS AND OTHER FABRICS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Wood, by an
instrument 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 enrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of 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
William Wood, 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):-
My Invention applies to looms used for weaving certain descriptions of
carpets, rugs, figured velvets, coach lace, and all kinds of fabrics, in which
certain colored figuring warp threads or yarns are used to form a raised face
or figure on the fabric by looping up such figuring yarns by means of wires,
as is common in all looms used for weaving Brussels carpets and other
descriptions of carpeting. The particular improvements which I have invented
consist in the mode or method of weighting the bobbins which contain the
coloured warp threads or figuring yarns above referred to, and also in the
method of mounting the said bobbins on their axes in the bobbin frames. I
would remark in the first place, that in ordinary carpet looms furnished with
the necessary Jacquard apparatus, the usual plan of weighting the bobbins is
to attach a cord (having a weight at its lower end) to the periphery of a
groove, formed at the end of each bobbin, which cord, as the drag or tension
caused by the action of the loom takes place, the bobbin is made to turn on its
axis, and the weighted cord becomes coiled round the groove; and when the
thread or yarn is slackened also by the action of the loom, the weight at the
end of the cord pulls the bobbin round the reverse way or back again, and
thus takes up the slack, as it is generally termed, of the yarn. Now in this
arrangement, although the diameter of the worsted or yarn coiled round the
bobbin is gradually decreasing as the carpet or other fabric is being made,
yet the diameter of the groove on the pulley to which the weighted cord is
attached remains the same, and consequently there will be a greater and
gradually increasing strain upon the yarn as it becomes used up, and the
giving out and taking up of the slack cannot be performed in a regular and
proper manner. Now, the object of my improvements is to equalize as much
as possible the drag or tension during the whole time the thread or yarn on
the bobbin lasts, or is being used, so that, as the diameter of the yarn wound
upon the bobbin decreases, the strain or drag of the weight shall be decreased
also; that is, the leverage or radius of the part upon which the cord of the drag
weight is wound shall decrease in proportion. I effect this object by adapting
or applying the drag cord to the surface of the yarn coiled upon the bobbin

page_text: itself, instead of to the pulley or groove as in the old method. The yarn or
thread from the bobbin is passed through a ring attached to the upper end of
the drag cord, and the drag of the weight is thus brought into direct connection
with the yarn. But, in order that my Invention may be more fully understood,
I have represented in the accompanying Drawing several views of my
improvements, and also views of the old method, by inspecting which the
advantages derivable from the use of my Invention will be more clearly scen
and understood. Similar letters of reference denote corresponding parts
throughout all the Figures.
Fig. 1 represents a partial plan view of an arrangement of bobbins
constructed according to my Invention.
Fig. 2 is a side view taken partially in section of the same.
Figs. 3, 4, and 5, are sectional views of one of the improved bobbins,
detached and upon an enlarged scale. These Figures are intended to shew
the different positions of the weight when the greatest tension or strain is on
the yarn, and also when the slack has been let go after forming a loop.
Fig. 6 represents a front view of one of the improved bobbins, and upon
the same scale as Figs. 3, 4, and 5.
Fig. 7 is a front view of one of the old bobbins with the groove or pulley
at its end, and Fig. 8 is a section of the same taken through the groove in
the line Y, Z. In the old bobbin the weight has always the same leverage
as shewn in Fig. 8, whether the bobbin be full or the yarn nearly expended;
and, as the leverage of the yarn on the bobbin is continually altering, the
weight never acts with an equal tension; consequently, when the bobbin is
full of worsted or of the largest diameter, and at the greatest leverage or
radius draws up the bullet or weight too easily, the effect of this is a waste
of worsted rough work, and a loss of time in springing the slack threads
back;
and on the contrary, when the yarn on the bobbins is worked low, or
nearly expended, the weaver cannot work so fast, and he has to exert much
more strength, for he has to lift the weights at the end of the same radius
the same as he had when the bobbins were full, although the leverage with
which he had to overcome the weight of the bullets has become reduced
to one third, owing to the decrease in the quantity of the yarn on the bobbins.
In Figs. 1 and 2, a, a, a, a, represent the bobbins supplied with yarn, and
5 mounted each on its own axis in frames b, b, b, b, made for that purpose.
Thus each bobbin acts by itself, and cannot interfere with any of the
surrounding ones. The bearings on which the axles of the bobbins are
mounted are thin plates of iron or other metal, attached in any convenient
manner to strips of wood, or other material, consequently the amount of

page_text: friction offered to the axles of the bobbins against their bearings must be very
small. The figuring yarns or threads are passed from the coil on the bobbins
through metal rings d, d, and returned to the Jacquard apparatus, or to the
loom in the usual manner; the ring d is attached to one end of a cord e to
the other end of which is a pendant weight f. When a bobbin is not at work
the ring is gradually drawn towards the middle of the front of the bobbin,
and is thus in a position to pull hard, the friction being caused by the weighted
cord being coiled around the surface of the coiled yarn, and by this effect the
work will be made much clearer at the back, and when the worsted from the
bobbins is drawn up in the Jacquard or pattern the additional tension is
released, and allows the wire to be easily and fully covered. Another advan-
tage derivable from the use of my improvements is, being able to put a greater
quantity of worsted into a given space than in the old way. As by the improved
method the weight is not drawn over the bobbins, and the wide groove shewn
in Fig. 7 is dispensed with, the bobbins can, therefore, be brought close together,
as shewn in the Plan and sectional views Figures 1 and 2; this effects a saving
of the space in the frame occupied by the bobbins. In the old loom the
length occupied is about nine feet, whilst by my improved plan the same
quantity of worsted can be put into five feet length of the ordinary width, and,
what is more desirable, a larger bobbin may be used, so that at least twice
as much yarn as is usual may be wound on the same round.
Having now described my improvements I wish it to be understood that,
although I have only shewn one method in which I apply the weighted cord
to bring back the slack thread, by riding or sliding on the coiled yarn or
other material on the bobbin, instead of on the wood or other substance of
the bobbin itself, yet, I am aware that it may be applied in a somewhat
different manner.
I therefore claim as the Invention secured to me in the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, the application of the weighted
cord e, or any other weighted cord, strap, or chain, directly to the coil of yarn
on the bobbin, by means of which the leverage against which the weight pulls
becomes gradually decreased in proportion as the yarn or thread on the
bobbin becomes worked up, or the diameter or radius of the coiled yarn
reduced; and, secondly, I claim the peculiar method of mounting the bobbins
with their separate axis in their metal frames or bearings as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wood, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.
WILLIAM (L.S.) WOOD.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fourth day of March,
in the year above written, the aforesaid William Wood came before our Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year above
written.