858,868. Shuttleless looms. TEXTILE DEVELOPMENT & MACHINERY Ltd. July 8, 1958 [Aug. 5, 1957], No. 21803/58. Class 142(2). A pick of weft 644 is taken through the shed from right to left by a carrier 544 and is cut at 902, short of the edge of the fabric, before being beaten up. The preceding pick 642 is cut to such a length that it can be blown into the next shed as far as the point 902; alternatively, it may be held until the next arrival of the carrier at the left hand end of the loom, when it is blown into the shed in which the carrier has just laid a pick. One or more bobbins 108, 646 behind the loom at each end supply weft through stop motion droppers and through healds which present a selected weft to the carrier 544. Shuttle and weft carrier. The weft carrier 544 is taken across the loom by a shuttle 554, Fig. 7, which deposits it in a receiver 557, Fig. 22, at the entrance to the shuttle box. The shuttle has spring loaded jaws 548, 552 to grip the top and bottom of the carrier, and the receiver has two prongs which engage the front and rear of the carrier, the front prong 636 being shaped to fit an arcuate groove 574. The shuttle has a longitudinal channel 582 along its rear side to enable it to pass completely into the shuttle box, leaving the carrier exposed as shown in Fig. 22. The carrier contains grippers and cutters, Fig. 8, consisting of a double-ended hook 560 sliding between a cutter blade 563 and a clamping blade 564 loaded by a spring 566; when a weft thread attached to the selvedge of the fabric is lowered by its heald into the hook 560, the receiver 557 moves outwardly of the shuttle box to press the hook against a plate 696, Fig. 22, mounted on the temple, whereby the hook is pushed into the carrier; the part of the thread coming from the supply is clamped between the hook and the blade 564, Fig. 8, and the part anchored at the selvedge is then cut by the blade 563, which is shorter than the blade 564 to ensure that clamping occurs before cutting. The weft end anchored at the selvedge was pushed, during beat-up, into a slot in the vertical edge of the plate 696 where it is clamped by a leaf spring. As the slay recedes, a nozzle 808, previously pushed forward by the slay against the action of a spring 814, moves rearwardly and pushes the thread out of the slot, whereupon a jet of air from the nozzle turns the thread end into the shed. Cutting weft, Fig. 22. In addition to the weft for the next pick being cut as described above, a blade (not shown), pivoted behind the reed, penetrates between the dents to cut the pick that has just been laid at a point 902 inwardly of the selvedge,-leaving a short length of thread clamped at the end of the carrier which has entered the receiver 557; when the receiver moves endwise to operate the hook 560 as described above, the short length is released from the carrier and is sucked away through a vacuum tube 821. Tensioning weft; stop motion. The weft threads from the bobbins behind the loom pass through electrical warp-stop-motion type droppers. To prevent the loom from being stopped when rearward movement of the slay produces slackness in the thread clamped in the carrier, the stop motion is put out of action by a timing switch. Alternatively, the wefts may be tensioned by springy arms to take up the slack.