US38265A - Improvement in looms - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;O v

O. O. SMITH, OF SALEM, ASSIGNOR TO A. N. CLARK, OF BOSTON, MASS.

IMPROVEMENT IN LOOMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,265, dated April 21, 1863.

To all whom, t may concern/ Beit known that I, O. O. SMITH, of Salem, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Looms for Weaving Fabrics and I do hereby declare that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have set forth thenature and principles of my said improvements by which my invention may be distinguished from others of a similar class, together with such parts asIclaim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in looms, (a part of which is especially adapted to the weaving of elastic fabrics 5) and it consists, first, in a novel arrangement of devices, the purpose of which is to overcome or take up the slack of the warp-threads, caused by their being raised and lowered in the harness, and thus preserve a uniform tension upon the same, the advantages ot' which are evident and need not be herein specified, second, in a peculiar combination of rollers between which the rubber threads are passed when weaving elastic fabrics, and by means of which they are held constantly to their proper tension and, third, in a new arrangement of mechanical devices for operating the shuttles, as will be hereinafter more particularly described. p

In the accompanying drawings my improvements in looms are represented, and of which Figure l is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 2, a central longitudinal vertical section Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are detail views, respectively, of those parts of the looms in which my improvements are made.

As the general operation of the loom is the same as is ordinary and well known to all eX- perienced in loom machinery, and as my improvements are limited to particular parts of the loom, I shall therefore confine my description mainly to those parts. e

c c in the accompanying drawings represent the frame-work of the loom; b b, the harness, which is raised and lowered in the usual manner; c c, the shuttle-frame, d d, the feedrollers for the warp-threads ff, andfrom which the threads f f pass, as represented by red lines in the drawings, through the harnessb b and reed g of the shuttle-frame to the clothbeam h, upon which they are wound as fast a interwoven with the Woof-threads.

In order to overcome the slack in the warpthreads, caused by their being raised and lowered in the harness b b, the said threads are passed from their feed-roller d around a roller, t', of a swinging frame, j, turning upon a center at k of the frame-work c a. Bearing upon the inside surface of the said frame j are springs l l, the recoil and force of which serve to always keep a uniform tension uponthe said threads during the whole operation of weaving, as is apparent without further description. These springs l Z,it is evident, may be made adjustable, and thereby any desired tension upon the warp-threads can be not only obtained but always maintained, as described.

m m are the rubber threads, (represented by blue lines in the drawings,) and u n the feedroller of the same.

In the weaving of elastic fabrics-that is, those fabrics containing both rubber and cotton or other fibrous threads-it is necessary, in order to give the desired elasticity to thecloth, that the rubber threads should be continually held while being interwoven with the weft at a certain and uniform tension. To produce this tension in a uniform manner upon all the threads much difficulty has heretofore been experienced, owing to various causes, the principal one of which was that the holding or nipping devices used have not been such as could adjust themselves to the varying thicknesses of the threads, which variations, as is evident, although ever so slight, still would serve to prevent the accomplishment of the desired result.

It may be observed here that the difficulty of maintaining a uniform tension upon rubber threads by the ordinary methods is much greater than in inelastic ones, as Vthe extreme sensitiveness of rubber threads renders them liable to be unequally stretched, whenever any disturbing cause occurs-for instance,such as the accumulation of dust between the feeding and holding rollers, in want of parallelism in their peripheries occasioned by wear, Src. In my improvements, however, this difficulty is entirely obviated, and the rubber threads are held at a uniform tension, throughout the Waele time occupied in weaving, by means of the following arrangement of nippers an d holding devices, viz:

o is a rubber or elastic roller, and p p an inelastic roller. Between these twoA rollers o and p the rubber threads, before passing to the harness and cloth beam of the loom, are passed, and thesaid rollers are then so adjusted with regard to each, by means of setorews or otherwise, as to cause a continual pinching or biting of the said threads as they are fed along by the revolution of the roller p, by any proper devices, to the shuttles of the loom, and thus produce the desired tension upon the said threads.

By the use of the elastic or rubber roller o, in connection with the metallic or inelastic roller p, it will be seen that the elastic threads while passing between the two will be embedded, as it were, to a greater or lesserdegree in the rubber, thereby securingthe equal holding ofthe threads at all times, notwithstanding any variations, however` slight, in their thicknesses, or any other disturbing cause that may occur between the two rollers o and p.

qq are the shuttles, placed in ways or'grooves q q' of an ordinary sl1uttle-frame,c, this frame o being swung back and forth upon its shaft by the usual devices employed in looms. In one side ot each shuttle g a rack-bar, s, is placed, engaging the toothed pinions t t, Src., ofthe shuttle-frame r. With these pinions t t, Sto., sliding rack-bar u a of the frame 0 engages, the said bars being placed parallel, and respectively in the upper and loweredges, and connected together by cords a, passing over pulleys y y in each corner of the lsaid frame. Attached to the lower rack-bar, u', upon the under side thereof, and moving in a groove, ir, ot the frame, is a projeetiomz. In the groove zc of the said projection z' a stud or pin, a', in the upper end ot' a vertical lever, bf, is placed. the said lever turning upon a fulcrum, o', in the lower porxion of the shuttlei'rame. To the lower end of the lever b one end of straps or cords d d is attached. The

opposite ends thereof, passing under guiderollers e e of the frame-work aa, are attached to the outer ends of two horizontal levers, f f', turning on fulcrums at g g of the framework a a. These levers ff, between their fulcrums and their outer ends, respectively, bear and travel upon the edge or periphery of twocam-wheels, h h', attached to and so arranged with regard to each other upon the drawing-shaft K of the looln that by the revolution thereof thetwo levers f f will be made to'rise or lower, turning upon their fulcrums at the proper times, and thereby, through the arrangemt nt of the connecting devices above described, cause the shuttle q q, at the proper time, to be moved back and forth across theV warp-threads of the loom. l

It will be seen by inspection of the drawings and by the description above ot' the arrangement of the pinions t t, rack-bars u u in the sliuttleframe, that the shuttles in the two parallel horizontal grooves qg thereof, when made to move back and forth in their frame, as described, travel in opposite directions to each other.

What I claim as my invent-ion, and desire to have secured tome by Letters Patent, is-

1. The swinging frame j, arranged and operating substantially as hereinabove described, and for the purpose of taking up the slack in the warp-threads.

2. The elastic and non-elastic nipping and feeding-rollers, operating together and upon the elastic threads passing between them, substantially as hereinabove described.

3. The peculiar arrangement of devices herein described, for operatin g the shuttles ofthe loom, the same consisting of the rack-bars u u', pinions t t, &c., and vertical lever, b,connect ed with and receiving motion from the drivingshaft of the loom, substantially as set forth.

O. C. SMITH. Witnesses:

JosEPi-I GAvErT, AIBERT W.v BROWN.

Images