THE London JOURNAL AND REPERTORY OF Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures. CONJOINED SERIES. No. LXXI. Recent Patents. To MILES BERRY, of Chancery-lane, in the county of Middlesex, civil-engineer and mechanical draftsman, for a certain improvement or improvements in power looms for weaving, being a communication from a foreigner Aresiding abroad.-[Sealed 5th December, 1835.] THESE improvements in power looms for weaving, consist in the adaptation of certain parts and appendages to a power loom, for the purpose of enabling such looms to weave bristles, horse-hair, whalebone, reeds, straw, cane, or other materials of limited lengths, as weft or shoot, with warps of silk, cotton, flax, wool, or other fibrous strands or threads for the production of webs for various useful purposes. Plate XI., fig. 1, is a front elevation of a loom, capable of being worked by rotary power, to which the improved parts are attached. Fig. 2, is a horizontal view VOL. XI. 2 M of the same, as seen from above; fig. 3, is an end elevation; fig. 4, a transverse section taken through about the middle of the machine, parallel to fig. 3; and fig. 5, represents the back part of the lathe: A, is the driving shaft, carrying the toothed wheels by which the working parts of the mechanism are actuated; B, is the warp beam; c, is the work beam; D, the headles; E, the slay; F, the pecker lever, worked by excentrics on the lower shaft G upon the same shaft, are also the excentrics for working the headle levers, or treadles H. These, and the other ordinary parts of a power loom, shown in the drawing, are well understood, and therefore require no further explanation. The new parts or appendages to the loom, are the boxes or receptacles for containing the lengths of bristles, or hairs, or other materials to be brought into the web as weft, or occasional weft or shoot; the forceps or nippers, for drawing such lengths of bristles, &c., from the boxes, and placing them between the sheds of the warp; the arms or levers, and tappets for moving these forceps, and the mechanism for suspending the throw of the shuttle at certain intervals. For In order to illustrate these improvements, I will proceed to explain their application to the weaving of a fabric suited to the making of cravat-stiffeners, or stocks for the neck, having thread warps, with occasional bristles introduced into the fabric with the weft. this and similar purposes, where the fabric to be produced is required to be only of narrow width, the warps, reed, headles, and other corresponding parts, are of narrow extent, as shown in the drawing. The boxes containing the bristles are shown at a, a, attached to the back of the slay; they are about six inches long, three-eighths of an inch wide, and four inches deep. The bristles are placed straight in the boxes, in the direction of the shuttle race, their ends protruding a short distance out at the open ends of the boxes, next the selvages of the warp, as shown at fig. 5, and they are pressed and kept close together by a thin leaden weight placed edgewise upon them in each box, so that the forceps may readily take hold of the ends of the bristles, and draw them out singly from the boxes, and deposit them in the web as the weaving operation goes on. The forceps or nippers b, b, (one pair of which are shown upon an enlarged scale at fig. 6,) are also placed at the back of the slay, and each slides laterally in a groove of a brass plate connected thereto, as will be perceived by reference to the back view of the slay, fig. 5. The forceps, sliding in their grooves, are projected across, behind the reed, into the bristle boxes at the opposite sides, by the operation of levers or arms c, c, which are jointed to other levers d, d, seen in figs. 2, and 3. These levers d, each turn upon a fulcrum pin in a bracket arın at e. On the end of each lever d, there is a small roller or stud which, as the slay vibrates, is carried up and down in the straight groove f, of the raceboard, and thereby keeps the lever d, from moving the forceps, which is the case when the weft thread is projected through the shreds of the warp by the shuttle only; but when the bristles are to be drawn into the shreds of the warp, the moveable piece g, turning upon a pin h, set in the race-board, is slidden on one side, as shown by dots in fig. 2, closing the straight groove f, and opening the curved groove i. The stud at the end of the lever d, now, by the backward movement of the lathe, passes along the curved groove i, and in so doing causes the lever d, to project the forceps through the shreds of the warp behind the reed. The shifting of the piece g, on the race-board is effected by a projecting stud k, affixed at the end of a lever 1, seen in figs. 1, and 3. This stud k, is, by a spring, kept against the face of a lateral cam wheel m, which has elevations and indentations corresponding to the required movements of the forceps b, b. One of the cam wheels m, is fixed at each side of the machine upon a shaft j, for the purpose of producing the action of the forceps from both ends of the lathe. If the two wheels m, are so fixed upon their shaft, that the elevations upon the face of both wheels correspond, then both the forceps will be made to advance and pass each other between the shreds of the warp, fetching a bristle at the same time; but if the elevations of the two wheels are set at intervening points, equally distant from each other, then the forceps will advance alternately on cach side every other beat of the lathe. These variations as to the number of bristles to be introduced into the web compared to the ordinary thread, shoot, or filling, is entirely under the control of the workman, and will depend upon the kind of work to be produced; and for the purpose of facilitating these varieties, other cam wheels, as m*, having different elevations, may be employed, by slightly shifting the position of the stud k. In order that a different portion of the packet of bristles may be presented to the sliding forceps b, b, every time that they are projected through the shreds of the warp, the boxes a, a, are moved up and down by means of rods n, n, attached to the under parts of the boxes, the lower ends of which rods respectively carry an anti-friction roller, bearing upon the peripheries of excentric cams or heart wheels o, o, fixed upon a small shaft mounted at the back of the legs or swords of the lathe, as shown at fig. 5. These heart wheels or cams o, o, are made to revolve through the agency of a ratchet wheel p, fixed on the same shaft, which ratchet wheel is acted upon by a click q, attached to a cross rail on the frame of the loom, as shown in fig. 4; the vibrating movements of the lathe causing the click, at every stroke of the lathe, to drive the ratchet wheel p, one tooth forward, and thus, by the gradual rotary movements of the cams, to raise and depress the rods n, n, and hence to give a slow up and down movement to the boxes a, a, for the purpose above stated. The nebs of the forceps close by a spring r, see fig. 6, forming the tail of one of the chaps; and they are opened by a tumbling piece s, turning on a pin under the tail of the lower chap, as shown in the detached fig. 6, the nebs being guarded by a plate behind. When the forceps are projected across the shuttle race the nebs are open, the tumbling pieces s, having been placed erect, as in fig. 6, by striking as the forceps receded against a stud or small finger t, fixed at the back of the slay, as shown in fig. 5; but when the open nebs of the forceps have entered the bristle box, another finger v, also fixed at the back of the slay, forces the tumbling piece s, from under the tail of the forceps, as shown by dots in fig. 6, and thereby allows the nebs to close and hold fast the bristle. The receding of the forceps now causes the bristle held in the chaps to be drawn between the open shreds of the warp; and when the forceps have nearly reached the end of their sliding movement, the tail or extremity of the lower chap strikes against a stud u, |