CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Asa Lees, of the Soho Iron Works, Oldham, in the
County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, and John Clegg, of the same
Place, Foreman, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS
FOR WEAVING."
County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, and Joan
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Place, Foreman, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS
FOR WEAVING."
Sealed the 18th March 1856, and dated the 21st September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Asa Lees and John Clegg
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on
the 21st September 1855.
We, ASA LEES, of the Soho Iron Works, Oldham, in the County of
Lancaster, Machine Maker, and JOHN CLEGG, of the same Place, Foreman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING" to be as follows:-
The nature of our said Invention consists in an improved combination of
machinery for giving motion to the drop boxes of looms, in which four or other
convenient number of shuttles are employed.
The drop box is connected to a lever which is raised or lowered by a tappet
wheel furnished with moveable or fixed tappets, put in motion either in one
direction or the other by an intermittent wheel which is acted upon by pins
projecting from the face of two spur wheels. These wheels revolve in opposite
directions, one of them being driven by a pinion on the crank shaft, and the
other by the same pinion and a carrier wheel, or in any other convenient
manner. These wheels are moved laterally, so as to bring the pins of each

page_text: of them alternately into gear with the intermittent wheel, or in a central
position, so that neither of them act on the intermittent wheel, by means of a
chain acting on an elbow lever, this chain being also driven by pins projecting
from one of the spur wheels acting on an intermittent wheel. By varying the
direction of motion of the tappet wheel, fabrics requiring many changes in the
order of succession in which the shuttles are worked may be produced with
greater facility than heretofore.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Asa Lees and John Clegg in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ASA
LEES, of the Soho Iron Works, Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Machine
Maker, and JOHN CLEGG, of the same Place, Foreman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Asa Lees and John Clegg, Her special license that we, the said Asa
Lees and John Clegg, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Asa Lees and John Clegg, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Asa Lees and John Clegg, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their, or one of our or
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Asa Lees and John Clegg, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following Specification thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
two Sheets of Drawings (that is to say):-

page_text: The nature of our Invention consists in the combination of a chain of
tappets and a tappet wheel or tappet plates, with the machinery for giving
motion to the same, for raising and lowering the drop box of a loom in which
four or other convenient number of shuttles are employed, whereby the shuttles
are brought in a line with the shuttle race in any required succession. We
have in the said Drawings shewn how our Invention may be performed, similar
parts in the different views being marked with similar letters of reference.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a loom with a four-shuttle drop box to which
our improvements are applied; Fig. 2 is a front view; Fig. 3, a back view;
and Fig. 4, a plan view of part of the said loom. a is the crank shaft; b, the
lay swords; c, the lay bottom; d, the drop box, to which motion is given by
the rods e, lower lever f, rod g, and top lever h. The parts above enumerated
and others not shewn in the Drawings are common to looms of this description.
The top lever his raised or allowed to drop so as to vary the position of the
drop box d, by means of the tappet wheel i, provided with adjustable elevators
which can be placed in any order to suit the pattern to be woven.
When
there are four compartments in the drop box, as in this instance, the elevators
are of three heights, and when there are three compartments in the drop box
only two heights of elevators are required, and in like manner for other
numbers of compartments in the drop box. To the tappet wheel i is fixed
the intermittent wheel j, which is made to revolve either in one direction or
the other by the two spur wheels k and 1, both of which are loose on the stud n,
and revolve constantly in opposite directions as long as the loom is at work,
the wheel being driven by the pinion a¹ on the crank shaft a, and the
wheel by means of the carrier pinion m gearing into the pinion a¹; each of the
wheels k and I has a projecting flange and one or two studs for working into
the intermittent wheel j, and the wheels k and are caused to move laterally
on the stud n, so as to bring the studs of either one or the other into operation
with the intermittent wheel j, or into the central position, as shewn in Fig. 3, in
which both of them are inoperative, and consequently the wheels k and I revolve
without changing the position of the drop box. The lateral motion is given
to the wheels k and in the following manner:-To the front of the wheel
is fixed a pin for working the small intermittent wheel o, which revolves on a
stud fixed in the bracket p; to this intermittent wheel o is fixed a drum q, for
the tappet chain r, which has links of three heights, as shewn full size in
Figs. 5 and 6; these links act on a bowl projecting from the lever s, to which
is fixed the rounded piece t. The three-armed lever u, seen best in Figure 3,
is supported by the stud ; the horizontal arm of this lever bears on the piece t,
and the vertical arm is connected to the back of the wheel k, by means of a

page_text: swivel clip taking in a circular groove in the boss of the wheel. The spring v
is for holding the horizontal arm of the lever u in contact with the piece t, and
for drawing the wheels k and I towards the loom side when the chain has
raised the lever s, and the horizontal arm of the lever u. The links of the
chain are put together in any required succession, as in other chains of tappets.
When the bowl of the lever s is supported by one of the middle-sized links of
the chain r, the wheels and are in their central position, that is to say, they
revolve without giving motion to the intermittent wheel j, as shewn in Fig. 3.
When one of the highest links marked " comes against and raises the lever s,
the vertical arm of the lever u moves the wheel towards the intermittent
wheel j consequently when one of the studs in the said wheel takes into a
notch of the intermittent wheel, it is moved in the direction of the arrow in
Fig. 1; but when the bowl of the levers drops on to one of the lowest links
of the chain r, the lever u being acted upon by the spring v, brings the wheel
towards the intermittent wheel which is thus moved partly round in the opposite
direction to that in which it had been moved by the wheel k. When one of the
links, see Fig. 5, comes into operation, the wheels and are moved so as to
reverse the direction of motion of the intermittent wheel j, at the succeeding
pick. By increasing the length of, and varying the relative positions of, the
links in the chain 7, and of the elevators in the tappet wheel i, it is evident
that the shuttles may be brought in any required succession to the level of the
shuttle race, and consequently thrown across the shed of the warp to produce
the pattern desired. We prefer to make the wheels k and with four times as
many teeth as the pinion a', and to make eight slots in the intermittent wheel j,
but these proportions and numbers may be changed according to the peculiar
nature of the pattern to be produced, and to the number of compartments in
the drop box.
On Sheet 2, Fig. 7 is a side elevation of a four-shuttle loom, to which a
modification of our Invention is applied; Fig. 8 is a front view; and Fig. 9,
another side elevation of part of the same. As many of the parts composing
this modification of our Invention are similar to those above described, they
are marked with corresponding letters of reference.
On referring to Fig. 8, it will be seen that the machinery for changing the
position of the drop box, instead of being all at one end of the loom, is in this
instance distributed at both ends, thereby rendering the parts easier of access.
The tappet chain ; which is shown full size in Fig. 10, is made with links
of four different heights; this chain is put in motion by the pinion a' on the
crank shaft a gearing into the wheel 1; this wheel has two studs projecting
from its face, for giving motion to the intermittent wheel o, to which is fixed

page_text: the chain drum q. The tappet chain acts, as in Fig. 1, on a bowl projecting
from the lever s, and the rounded piece t attached to this lever acts on the
elbow lever a, which is furnished with a weight, by which the long arm of
the lever u is held in contact with the piece t. To the vertical arm of the
lever is jointed one end of the link a, the other end of which is forked
and fits in a circular groove in the boss of the wheel k, which is mounted on
the stud n, fixed at the left-hand side of the loom. The wheel : is turned
round by the pinion a² on the crank shaft, and it is provided with two studs
for giving motion alternately, or when required, to the three intermittent
wheels j, j', and; the wheel is fixed to the tappet plate i, the wheel j' is
fixed to the tappet plate ', and the wheel j is fixed to the tappet plate i².
The tappet plates i, i, and 2, act on the bowl of the top lever h, and as
each of the intermittent wheels j, j', and, with their corresponding tappet
plates, can be moved independently of the others, it is evident that by varying
the position of the lever h the drop box d, which is connected to the said
lever as before described in reference to Figs. 1 and 2, can be raised or
lowered so as to bring any compartment or shuttle in a line with the shuttle
race. The mode of operation is as follows:-The Drawing represents the
bottom compartment of the drop box d in a line with the shuttle race, the
lever being held up by the tappet plate i, and the studs in the wheel k
being held beyond the reach of the intermittent wheels j,j, and j, by the
elbow lever u and chain r As soon as the requisite number of picks have
been given by the shuttle in the lowest compartment of the drop box, one of
the links is caused to elevate the weighted end of the lever u, by which
action the rod is drawn in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 8, thereby
moving the wheel k, until the studs projecting from it come in a line with
the intermittent wheel j, which is moved round one-eighth of a revolution
by the stud of the wheel ; consequently, the lever h and drop box d are
at liberty to descend; the bowl then drops on to the tappet ¹ if the
second shuttle is required, or on to the tappet if the third shuttle is
required, or into the space between the tappets if the shuttle in the top com-
partment is required. From the foregoing, it is apparent that the change in
the position of the drop box can be varied in any required order, according
to the relative position of the links of the chain r; consequently, by lengthening
the chain, patterns requiring any number of changes in the position of the
drop box may be produced.
We wish to observe that the arrangement of machinery shewn in Sheet 1,
for raising and lowering the drop box, may be distributed on both ends of the
loom, as shewn in Sheet 2, for the purpose of rendering the parts easier of access.

page_text: Having thus particularly described the nature of our Invention and the
manner of performing the same, we wish it to be understood that we do not
limit ourselves to the details herein set forth, as the same may be varied
without departing from the peculiar character of our Invention; and we
claim,-
First, the combination of a chain of tappets, and a tappet wheel for
changing the position of the drop box, as shewn and described in reference
to Sheet 1.
Secondly, causing the tappet wheel to revolve first in one direction and then
in the other, for the purpose of producing the requisite number of changes
in the position of the drop box, as shown and described in reference to
Sheet 1.
Thirdly, the combination of a chain of tappets and tappet plates, for
changing the position of the drop box, as shewn and described in reference
to Sheet 2.
And, lastly, the mode of combining the intermittent wheels ; and tappet
plates i, when used for changing the position of the drop box, as shewn and
described in reference to Figs. 7 and 8.
In witness whereof, we, the said Asa Lees and John Clegg, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Nineteenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
H. B. BARLOW,
Manchester.
ASA LEES.
(L.S.)
JOHN CLEGG. (L.S.)