AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING HEALDS TO BE USED IN THE WEAVING OF COTTON, LAHEN, SILK, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER CLOTHS
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
OSBALDESTON, of Shire Brow, within Blackburn, in the County Palatine of
Lancaster, Calico Weaver, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing dato
at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of November, in the fifth year of llis
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Osbaldeston, His especial licence that I, the said John Osbaldeston,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Osbaldeston,
my exors, admors, 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 expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF MAKING HEALDS TO BE USED IN THE WEAVING OF COTTON, LAHEN, SILK,
WOOLLEN, AND OTHER CLOTHS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said John Osbaldeston, 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 per-
formed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Osbaldeston, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in constructing healds with metal bars or dents to serve the purpose of
those parts which in the healds used for cotton weaving are called shanks, but
which parts are called by other names in the various healds used for different
kinds of weaving. And, in further compliance with the said proviso, I do
hereby describe the manner in which I perform my said Invention, by the
following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed,
and the figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a heald made according to my improved method. A, A,
are two staves; B, B, B, B, are brass edges, which I call guides, more particularly
explained hereafter, and which serve to support the small eyes marked r, which
eyes support the rods marked S, and which rods support or retain in their
proper places the bars herein-before mentioned as serving the purpose of
shanks, and which in this Figure are marked H. It should here be observed
that only a few of the said bars are shown, in order more fully to explain the
Invention; these bars are flat and made of thin brass, with a hole at each end
to pass the rods S through, and a hole in the middle, which serves the purpose
of the ring in ordinary ring healds; this hole is formed or pierced in such a
manner that when the bar is held edgeways a hole is seen in the middle of the
bar, through which a warp thread may be passed when the heald is about to
be formed. Supposing there are (as in the Figure now under description)
six of the eyes marked r to each stave, and that it is required to have four
hundred and ninety bars in the heald, the screw nuts P should be removed,
and the rods S should be drawn out at the opposite end of the stave till the
points e, e, of the two rods arrive respectively at the places marked f, f.
Seventy of the bars should then be threaded at each end by the rods, and then
one of the eyes r slided down over the end of each rod; and upon the ends of
the bars seventy more bars should then be threaded as before, the rods being
pushed forward to meet them, and then another eye r as before, and so on till
the whole number of bars required are threaded, when the rod ends are again
pushed forward to e, e, and secured, as shown in this Figure by the screw
nuts P. By this arrangement it will be seen that the weight of the bars will
be equally distributed among the eyes marked r, and as these eyes are so
contrived as to slide along the stave to any distance, it will follow of course
that when the bars are once properly threaded in equal portions between each

page_text: eye they may be spread out and arranged at pleasure afterwards by the person
who is to use the heald.
Figure 2 is a section of a heald made on my improved method, and of the
full size. A, A, are the staves, and B, B, B, B, the four brass edges of the
stave, which I call guides, r, r, are the eyes. This Figure clearly shows how
the said eyes are supported by and yet slide along and between these guides.
Lis the hole for the warp threads to be passed through.
Figure 3 is a representation of the said last-mentioned hole, showing the
peculiar manner in which it is bored, in order to have the appearance herein-
before described; when the bar is held edgeways to the view of this Figure
it is sufficient to observe by way of explaining it that a is convex and c is
concave.
Figure 4 represents part of a heald, showing one series of bars properly and
regularly arranged on the rods S, S, between two eyes r, r, as they would
appear when prepared for use. It should be here observed that the edges of
the bars should be worked perfectly smooth and round, as also those of the
holes L, through which the warp threads pass, or the threads will be liable to
be cut.
D
Now, whereas I have used brass, iron, and wood, as represented by the
colors yellow, blue, and brown in the Drawing annexed, in the manufacture of
my said healds, but the application of these particular substances to the par-
ticular parts as described by the said colors forms no part of my said Inven-
tion, nor is the number or size of the bars necessarily limited in any way; but
healds for all kinds of weaving where healds are required, constructed with
metal bars or rods such as are herein-before described, arranged as aforesaid,
and to serve the purpose of those parts which in the healds used for cotton
weaving are called shanks, being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used in that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, or Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the
same, and that I do verily believe this, my said Specification, doth comply in
all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore I do hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Osbaldeston, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.
JOHN OSBALDESTON. (Ls.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1820, the aforesaid John Osbaldeston came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord Oue
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.