IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FISHING AND OTHER NETS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Armand Gilbee, of the Firm of L. do
Fontainemoreau, & Co., Patent Agents, 4, South Street, Finsbury,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF FISHING AND OTHER NETS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR."-A communication from abroad by
Maria Procopé, of Stockholm, in the Kingdom of Sweden.
Scaled the 19th August 1873, and dated the 15th February 1873.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Armand Gilbco
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Pctition
and Declaration, on the 15th February 1873, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ARMAND GILBEE, of the Firm of L. de Fontainemoreau, & Co., Patent
Agents, 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF FISHING AND OTHER NETS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR

page_text: APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant
unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns Her Royal Letters
Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that it has
been communicated to me from abroad by Maria Procopé, of Stockholm,
in the Kingdom of Sweden.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Armand Gilbee, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, reference being
had to the Drawing hereto annexed and forming part of this Specifi-
cation, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :—
Many attempts have been made to manufacture fishing and other
similar nets by machinery, but without producing good or practical
results, the knots formed having been defective.
The Invention communicated to me consists in improvements in
machinery or apparatus for making fishing and other similar nets,
whereby this defect is obviated by forming the knot similar to that known
as the "hand knot" (as made when knitting fishing nets by the hand)
by means of the improved machinery or apparatus herein-after described,
the knot being formed by means of a peculiar shuttle motion, and two
threads.
To make the Invention communicated to me better understood, I will
proceed to describe the same by reference to the accompanying Drawing,
in which Figure 1 is a transverse section, and Figure 2, an elevation of
those parts only of a loom for making fishing nets necessary to shew the
improvements. The mechanism for communicating motion to the
various parts of the loom are not shewn in the Drawing, as any suitable
known mechanism may be employed for that purpose.
In Figure 1 A is the warp beam on which the yarn or twine to form
the warp threads of the net is wound; the warp threads are drawn in
red in all the Figures of the Drawing; the warp beam is furnished with
the usual friction arrangement to prevent the yarn or twine being too
easily unwound therefrom; B, roller over which the warp threads pass,
it is furnished with a spring or a weight for regulating the tension of
these threads; when the knots are drawn tight this roller B is partly
turned and has a slight downward motion; C is a bar having one eye

page_text: or loop for each warp thread. This bar has a downward movement when
each half knot is drawn close. D, bar pressing on the weft or shuttle
thread when the eye bar C presses on the warp thread; E, E, are hook
bars having a hook for each thread; these bars move in opposite
directions, so that when one moves to the right the other moves to
the left, thus changing the threads, moving the warp threads (red) to'
the right, and the shuttle threads (blue) to the left, and vice versâ;
G is a roller furnished with a suitable stop arrangement, whereby the
size of the meshes is regulated; H, cylinder or beam on which the
finished net is wound as it is woven; I, I, are the shuttles having an
uninterrupted alternate to-and-fro motion from right to left, and vice'
versa. These shuttles are of a peculiar construction and are herein-
after described. K, hook bar having a hook for each shuttle thread;
when this bar is moved downwards its hooks take hold of the shuttle
threads, as shewn at C, Figure 2, and in dotted lines at Figure 1;
L, L', bars moving on pivots as shewn, and furnished with a hook or
catch for each shuttle; these bars have an alternate up-and-down motion
for releasing or holding the shuttles as required; in the Drawing the
bar L on the right hand is shewn down and holding the shuttle, whilst
the left hand bar I is raised.
To form a complete knot the shuttles are moved forward and back-
wards, while eight different motions have to be made, which I will
proceed to describe by reference to Figuro 2, in which a and i shew
elevations of the parts in the position represented at Figure 1. Firstly,
at 6 is shewn the eye bar O after its upward and lateral movement,
whereby the warp threads are drawn to the right as shewn, while the
shuttles have moved to the left; secondly, the hook bar K moves
downwards, and its hooks take hold of the shuttle threads as seen at c,
Figure. 2, and in dotted lines at Figure 1, the eye bar O remaining
stationary; thirdly, in the position shewn at d the shuttles have moved
to the left, while the hook bar K has drawn the shuttle threads to the
right, and the bar. O has drawn the warp threads to the left, whereby a
loop is formed; fourthly, through this loop the shuttle now passes, and
the bars C and D move downwards to draw close the threads, by which
a half knot is formed, as shewn at e, Figure 2; fifthly, the bar C is now
moved upwards to the left, the shuttle passing to the right, as shewn
at f, Figure 2; sixthly, at g are shewn the shuttle threads which have
been taken hold of by the hooks of the plate K; seventhly, the shuttles

page_text: :
now move to the left, and the hooks K with the shuttle threads move to
the left, while the eye bar C with the warp threads moves to the right,
by which a loop is formed; eighthly, the shuttles are moved to the right
through the loops, and the bars C and D are moved downwards and
draw close the threads by which the second half knot is formed, thus
completing a whole knot. By this means the work is continued
uninterruptedly, except that the machine changes after cach knot,
forming alternately a left handed and a right handed knot, as shewn
at Figures 3 and 4, this difference is produced from, the change in
the working of the machine from the order f, g, h, i, and b, c, d, 1
a, Figure 2.
Figure 8 is a detached view shewing a completo knot, the shuttlo
threads being shewn in blue and the warp threads in red.
I will now describe the improved shuttle, which is shewn in full sizo
at Figures 5, 6, and 7. It is constructed of two plates M, N, connected 1
together by a pin or rivet o, round which one of the plates can be
turned; P, lock or catch arrangement by which the two plates aro
locked together, and which admits of the plates being separated for the
introduction or removal of the bobbin; Q is the bobbin, and R a weak
spring for preventing the bobbin unwinding too quickly; S, tension 2
arrangement for regulating the tension of the thread or twine, or any
other tension arrangement; such as that shewn in Figures 9 and 10
may be employed; T is an arm having a weak flat helical spring at one
end, and furnished with an eye or loop U at the other end through
which the shuttle thread passes. The action of this arm is (on the 2
return of the shuttle to the right) to draw in the thread previously
drawn up. By this construction of shuttle the thread passes from the
bobbin Qthrough the tension arrangement S, through the loop U on
the bar T, and thence through the loop on the edge of the shuttle.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention communicated to 3
me and the manner of performing the same, what I claim is,―
Firstly. The manufacture by machinery of fishing and other liko nets
with a knot similar to that shewn in Figure 8 of the accompanying
Drawing.
Secondly. The arrangement and construction of apparatus for manu- 8
facturing fishing and other nests as herein-before described and
represented in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying Drawing.

page_text: Thirdly. The peculiar construction of shuttle as herein-before
described and represented in Figures 5, 6, and 7, of the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Armand Gilbee, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Fourteenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.