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JACQUARD WEAVING AND DESIGNING
JACQUARD
WEAVING AND DESIGNING
BY
T. F. BELL
NATIONAL SCHOLAR IN DESIGN (1875-8) AND THIRD GRADE CERTIFICATED ART MASTER, SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT, S. K.: MEDALLIST IN HONOURS AND CERTIFICATED TEACHER IN ‘LINEN MANUFACTURING,’ AND IN ‘WEAVING AND PATTERN DESIGNING,’ CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
1895
All rights reserved
PREFACE
The contents of the following pages have been derived from a long course of art and technical training, together with a lengthened practical experience in textile manufacturing and designing; during which time I received much valuable assistance from many kind friends—especially Mr. B. Ashenhurst, when master of the Belfast Technical School, and his brother, of Bradford; also Mr. John Mitchell, of Belfast and Glasgow—which I thankfully acknowledge.
To supply a treatise that would be alike suitable to the manufacturer, the workman, and the student would be a difficult matter. To explain each point so fully that it would be clear to every person would make it wearisome to those having a knowledge of the subject. I have therefore endeavoured to keep the descriptions as concise as is compatible with a fairly clear explanation, which I hope will be considered the wisest plan to adopt; and, while quite aware of the many shortcomings of the work, I venture to hope that it will prove a valuable assistance to those wishing to improve their knowledge of jacquard weaving and designing.
T. F. BELL. Belfast, 1894.
It affords me much satisfaction to add a few words of introduction to this work of my friend Mr. Bell. I cannot pretend to criticise his explanation of technical processes, but, from an examination of the proof-sheets, I am convinced that the book will be found an invaluable aid to students of both art and technical schools. We already possess numerous text-books on designing as an art, as also on the technical processes of weaving, &c., and on the materials of manufacture. Mr. Bell has aimed at bringing the technical and artistic sides of the subject together in a practical form, and has thus provided us with a valuable handbook.
Though we have a Government Department of Science and Art, a knowledge of both branches is seldom united in the same individual. The artist is too often deficient in the science of his craft; while the man of science not unfrequently shows contempt for art. The author of this volume is peculiarly qualified for the task he has set himself, being a practical manufacturer as well as a designer of long experience, and thoroughly learned in the science of his subject. His book will supply a long-felt need.
GEORGE TROWBRIDGE,
Head-Master Government School of Art, Belfast.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
I.
INTRODUCTION
1II.
JACQUARD MACHINES
27III.
FULL-HARNESS MOUNTINGS
69IV.
DESIGNING AND DRAUGHTING
110V.
CARD-CUTTING AND LACING
139VI.
SPECIAL JACQUARDS AND HARNESSES
155VII.
GAUZE
196VIII.
DOUBLE CLOTH
233IX.
TAPESTRY AND PILE WORK
255X.
CARPETS
264XI.
LAPPETS AND SWIVELS
294INDEX
301CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER II
JACQUARD MACHINES
CHAPTER III
FULL-HARNESS MOUNTINGS
CHAPTER IV
DESIGNING AND DRAUGHTING
CHAPTER V
CARD-CUTTING AND LACING
CHAPTER VI
SPECIAL JACQUARDS AND HARNESSES
CHAPTER VII
GAUZE
CHAPTER VIII
DOUBLE CLOTH
CHAPTER IX
TAPESTRY AND PILE WORK
CHAPTER X
CARPETS
CHAPTER XI
LAPPETS AND SWIVELS
INDEX
JACQUARD WEAVING AND DESIGNING
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Though the term ‘jacquard weaving’ is properly applied to work done by the jacquard machine, it will here be taken to apply to all harness weaving, or work that extends beyond the range of shafts, or leaves of heddles.
The question arises, When is the limit to the number of shafts that ought to be used reached? It apparently used to be when no more could be got into the loom, as up to ninety-six shafts were used; and this seems to be quite enough for any weaver to get the yarn through, or for any loom to hold, but it must be remembered that at present the appliances are much more suited to the work than they formerly were; and now, except in woollen or worsted goods, where it is desirable to use shafts on account of their firmness in comparison with that of a harness, from twelve to sixteen shafts are as many as it is generally thought desirable to have in a power loom. I have seen thirty-five shafts, all in one tier or set, working diaper very conveniently in a hand loom, and more than double that number of leaves working worsted in a power loom; but whether the latter was desirable, or not, I must leave to the judgment of the manufacturer who possessed it.
Many ingenious inventions have been made for the purpose of simplifying the working of a large number of shafts, but as a description of them would be out of place here, we may pass on to the draw loom, which appears to be the first form of harness of which we have an accurate description. How the cloths of Babylon were woven, in which
Men’s figured counterfeits so like have been
That if the party’s self had been in place,
Yet Art would vie with Nature for the grace—
is not known, though in Gilroy’s report of Arphaxad’s description of his loom to Deioces, king of the Medes, it is stated to have been accomplished by means of carved blocks of wood acting on needles, which wrought the harness or heddles and thus formed the pattern; but as Gilroy has admitted that the introduction to his work on weaving is a pure invention of his own, for the purpose of making it appear that the Ancients were acquainted with motions similar to those on our modern looms, or as a ‘take-off on those who angle hourly to surprise, and bait their hooks with prejudice and lies,’ we need not dwell further on the subject. In any case, figured cloths must have attained considerable excellence in very early ages. The curtains of the Tabernacle were embroidered with figures, and the veil of the Temple was, according to Josephus, embroidered with all sorts of flowers, and interwoven with various ornamental figures, the door curtain being embroidered with blue and purple and scarlet. The ephod of the High Priest was similarly embroidered.
Fig. 1
The Egyptians worked coloured patterns in the loom so rich that they vied with the Babylonian cloths, which were embroidered with the needle. The method of working is unknown, but cloths taken from the tombs in Egypt, which may be seen in South Kensington Museum and in the Gobelins tapestry manufactory, Paris, appear to be made on a principle similar to that of the Gobelins tapestry; the warp is of flax and the weft of coloured wool: and the looms depicted on the catacombs in Egypt are very similar in appearance to tapestry looms.
Embroidering was practised in Egypt prior to the Exodus of the Israelites; and gold and silver threads or wires were used both for embroidering and weaving, being known nearly 4,000 years.
The Babylonish garment taken by Achan, whose sin brought much woe upon the Israelites, is said, by Josephus, to have been a Royal garment woven entirely of gold; but it might only have been embroidered with gold, and was probably wrought in the plain of Shinar, as it was not till long after that Babylon was celebrated for its manufactures.
Pliny says that weaving cloth with gold thread was invented by Attalus, an Asiatic king, and that the Babylonians were most noted for their skill in weaving coloured cloths. This was in Homer’s time, about 900 B.C., when weaving and embroidering appear to have attained great excellence, and to have been very gorgeous. At that time the labour of the loom was considered an accomplishment, which ladies and even princesses tried to excel in.
As before stated, the draw loom is the first form of machine for figured weaving of which we have any record. It is not known where it was invented, but it probably passed from China to Western Asia with the silk manufacture. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans do not appear to have known it. The Chinese have still in use a draw loom in which the drawboy stands on the top and draws up the parcels of twines which have been previously arranged for him. After being established in Damascus (hence the name damask), the draw loom passed on to Europe, where the Chinese method of working was used till 1604, when M. Simblot, in France, connected to the neck a separate series of cords, called the ‘Simple’ (perhaps a corruption of his name), so that the drawboy could work when standing at the side of the loom. It is said to have been introduced into England in 1567. The next improvement was to dispense with the drawboy’s services, and for this purpose a patent was taken out in 1687, by Joseph Mason, for ‘a draw boy engine by which a weaver may performe the whole worke of weaving such stuffe as the greatest weaving trade in Norwich doth now depend upon without the help of a draught boy.’ In 1779 William Cheape patented a plan to dispense with the drawboy by having the ‘simple’ above his head, and drawing it down with knots which were held in notches, as described in Fig. 2.
Before beginning to describe the draw loom it may be better first to describe what it is required to do.
Its principal use appears to have been for the weaving of damask, which is one of the simplest forms of figured weaving. Reduce a damask texture to its elementary form, and it consists of twilling, or, more correctly, turned or reversed twilling. If we take a common dice pattern woven with shafts, it will easily be seen that one dice is formed by a warp twill, and the next one by a weft twill, or that the dices are formed by warp and weft twills alternately.
Fig. 2
Now, what forms the pattern? The yarn may be all of one colour, the threads may be so closely set together as to make them individually invisible, or to appear as a plain surface, and yet the dices come out distinctly in two shades of colour. The play of light on the longitudinal and latitudinal threads produces this effect. The dices formed by the latitudinal or horizontal threads will always appear darker than the yarn in the cloth when the latter is placed between the observer and the light, whether these threads be warp or weft, as there is a certain amount of shade on each of them, and of shadow cast by them, whereas the longitudinal or vertical threads are illuminated, without any shade or shadow, and appear lighter than the yarn did before being woven; and this is the reason why a good side light is the best for showing up the pattern on damask, it developing the above to the utmost. In a good material the difference of shade between the ground and figure is very considerable, but in some thin, coarse goods it is hardly visible, requiring them to be held in a favourable light to show the distinction: the pattern will appear light on a darker ground, or the reverse of this, according as the surface threads forming it run across the light or in the direction of it.
This is the reason of the pattern appearing on the cloth; then it is the business of the designer to regulate what form it is to partake of, by preparing a suitable design; and according to instructions furnished to him by the design, it is the duty of the drawboy to raise the warp by regulating the cording of his harness, and drawing it so as to reverse the twill from a weft one to a warp one wherever the figure is to be formed on the cloth, and to do so in such order as to produce the pattern required.
The draw-loom mounting consists of two parts—the drawboy mounting, or the harness with its tail and simples, to be wrought by the drawboy; and the shaft mounting, which is required to form the texture of the cloth, or to interlace the warp and weft through both ground and figures; the harness only interlaces them at the edges of the pattern, or causes either warp or weft to be above, to form the figure en bloc, but without interlacing them together.
It is therefore a ‘compound mounting,’ and is known as a ‘presser’ or ‘pressure’ harness. For simplicity’s sake let us suppose the principle of the drawboy to be applied to shafts or healds, and take a simple figure, as Fig. 1.
For it there are 5 parts, or it could be wrought with 5 leaves of heddles with a straight draught. Fig. 2 shows the mounting; A A is the back mounting, which in this case is a shaft mounting, but would be a harness for a more extensive pattern. B, B are the pressure heddles or front mounting. These are 5 in number, as the ground or texture is taken as a 5-end satin or twill, C is the pulley box with the tail cords, D, D, passing over the pulleys, and tied to the wall or to the loom framing as at E. The knobs F hang over the weaver’s head, and are attached by cords H, passing through a hole board G, to the tail cords, D, D. There are heads on the cords H, and the holes in the hole board are made thus
Fig. 3 gives the draw-loom harness; A, A is the carriage, or the rails that support the harness, which rests on the capes or side rails of the loom. Supported by the carriage is the pulley box P, which is a frame fitted with small pulleys, and must be sloped at such an angle as will allow the tail cords to sink when opening the sheds without obstructing the pulleys underneath them. The neck twines extend from the figures 1 to 8 to the knots above the hole board D D. The cords which connect the neck twines to the mails E, E are called sleepers, and those which connect the mails with the leads F, F are called hangers. The hole board is made of hardwood perforated with holes, which run from front to back in diagonal rows from right to left; it should be a little finer than the set of the reed, to allow for empty holes that are sometimes caused by the tie of the harness ending with broken rows of hooks in some or all of the repeats. In Scotland, for this reason, when the reed is set on 37 in., the cumber board, or hole board, is set on 36 in.
Fig. 3
B, B are the tail cords, attached to the neck of the harness at one end, and at the other end all of them are fastened to the tail stick M, by means of which they are secured to the roof of the house. There must be a tail cord for each part of the harness; here only eight are shown for the front row of the harness, and if there were eights rows of harness in the hole board, 64 tail cords would be required, and the complete harness would be made up of several repetitions of the 64 neck twines; four of these repetitions are here given for the first row of the hole board. Of course there might be 400 to 600 tail cords in a full mounting.
From each tail cord descends a vertical cord to the ground, as shown at G, G. These are the simple cords, which, taken collectively, are termed the ‘Simple.’ It is on these cords that the pattern is read, or, rather, tied up. The simple cords are gathered together, according to the pattern, by passing twines round them and forming the twines into lashes or leashes, as shown at I, I. Heads of stronger cord, to which the lashes are attached, are shown at N, N. The leashes or lashes are made of cotton yarn No. 48, from six to eighteen plies of which are moderately twisted together so that the twine will not curl; the heavy twine is used for coarse work, where only a small number of lashes is necessary. The length of the lashes is from 8 to 12 in., according to the breadth of the simple. The heads are about 4-1/2 in. long, of good cord, as foot twine, which is used finer or coarser according as more or less heads are required. The heads are made with a noose on them that will run up or down on the gut cord L, which is a strong cord, generally extending from the ground to the roof of the house. K, K are the bridles connected with the lashes, and used to draw them down in succession as they are wanted by the drawboy. When there are a great number of lashes, two gut cords are used, as shown at No. 1 (Fig. 3), and the lashes are looped alternately on each and bridled accordingly. In coloured work, where three or four draws are required for each weft line of the pattern—that is, one draw for each colour—it is usual to have two gut cords with cross bridles from the one to the other which will slide up and down on them. On these, cross bridles the heads of the lashes are fastened, about 1 in. apart, so that the drawboy can take them in succession and draw the shed for each colour.
The method of preparing and mounting the draw-loom harness is much the same as that now in use for jacquard harnesses, and, as it is entirely out of use, it is unnecessary to describe it.
In order to make the neck twines draw evenly, rollers are placed between each set of cords at the points 1, 2, 3, &c.; these rollers keep the cords straight and make them all rise the same height at the mails, which they would not do unless they all sloped to the hole board at the same angle.
READING OR LASHING THE PATTERN
Fig. 4
The pattern, painted on design paper, same as for pressure-harness damask, is fixed upon a lashing frame, as shown in Fig. 4, and the lower ends of the simples are passed over it and fastened to the crossbar B. The simple cords are held in position over the design by the comb C, C, which must be of such a fineness as to make each simple cord stand directly opposite that space of the pattern to which it corresponds, one simple cord being placed between each pair of teeth of the comb. It will thus be seen that there must be a simple cord for each vertical line on the pattern, or rather for each vertical space between the black lines. In the same way, there must be a head of lashes for each horizontal space, or line, as it is usually called, and which would answer to a card for the jacquard or dobby. The straight-edge E E is made so that it will slide up and down in the frame, to mark the line on the design paper that is to be next read by the lasher. Now refer to the line of the pattern above the straight-edge, and it will be seen that the first square or check to the left is blank, and it is accordingly passed over by the lasher; the second and third checks are painted, and as the simple cords corresponding to them have to be drawn to form the pattern, the lasher twists one end of his lash over the pin G, and takes a turn of it round the second and third simples, again passing it round the pin G. The fourth check, being blank, is passed over, and a turn or tack of the lash twine is taken round the fifth, sixth, and seventh simples, as the checks on the design paper opposite these are painted. The reading and lashing proceeds in this way till the line is finished, as shown in the figure; then the two ends of the lash twine are tied together round the pin G, which is then taken out, and the loop made round it by the lash twine is twisted round and formed into a snitch for the purpose of fastening it to the head. The lash is now pushed down behind the board H, to make room for another; the straight-edge is then shifted to the next line, and the lashing proceeded with as before. If too many painted squares of the design paper come together, all the simple cords corresponding to them must not be looped or lashed together, but can be taken in two or more loops or tacks, never taking more than six or seven simple cords into one tack of the lash twine.
It will be observed that the board H is rounded at the back; this is for the purpose of having all the simples at an equal distance from the pin G when they are tacked up by the lash twine, and consequently a more regular shed will be produced when they are drawn in the process of weaving.
The method of fastening the head to the lash is to loop the cord for the head, which should be double, round the gut cord, then knot the two ends of it together, and take this knot through the snitch formed on the end of the lash, and when the snitch is drawn tight the knot prevents the head from slipping out.
In weaving with the draw loom two persons are required—the weaver, who works over the ground treadles, throws the shuttle, beats up the weft, &c.; and the drawboy, who takes the lashes in succession as he draws them down by the bridle, and by pulling out the simples raises the harness and holds it in this position till the weaver has worked as many shots as are required to be given to each draught.
When some thousands of twines were required for the harness, and with a simple of three or four hundred cords, the weight and friction made it very severe work for the drawboy. To assist him a fork, as shown at V, No. 2, Fig. 3, was used. It was made to run to and fro on a carriage, so that when the simples were drawn forward by the lashes, one spike of the fork could be run in behind those drawn forward, while the other spike was in front of them. When the fork was depressed, till the handle T came to the position shown by the dotted lines, it drew down the simple cords, and they could easily be held in that position till a change of draught was required.
Fig. 5
When the mounting of the draw loom was very extensive, it was necessary to employ from two to ten pulley-boxes and as many drawboys, so that it is not surprising that many endeavours were made to work without the aid of a drawboy. One of these machines, known as the ‘Parrot’ or ‘Pecker,’ is shown in Fig. 5. It is wrought by the treadles T, which are attached to the marches M, and these are connected by the pulley P, on the rocking shaft R, by a cord which passes over and is fastened to it. When one of the treadles is pressed down the pulley rocks and turns the shaft to one side, and when the other treadle is pressed down the shaft will rock to the other side. The parrot or pecker K is movable on the rocking shaft—that is, it can slide along it—but it must rock from one side to the other with the shaft. The cords C, C are passed through holes in the boards B, B, for the purpose of keeping them in position, and they have knots or beads on them at m, m, and weights, W, W, at their ends to keep them in tension. Fastened to the cords C, C is another set of cords, S, connected with the tail cords of the draw-loom harness, and so corded or arranged as to draw those tail cords required to be sunk to raise the harness to form the pattern. As the shaft R is rocked from side to side by depressing the treadles in succession, it carries with it the pecker K, and the groove or notch at the point of the pecker, shown clearly in Nos. 2 and 6, coming into contact with the knots or beads on the cords, draws them down alternately, first at one side of the machine and then at the other, until the pecker, as it slides along the rocking shaft, has passed over all the cords; it is then released and drawn back to its original position by means of the weight D, attached to it by the cord e. At the end of the rocking shaft is a ratchet wheel, N. The cord e passes from the pecker through the segmental hole in the pulley P, as shown in No. 4, and is fastened to a boss, O, on the inner side of the ratchet wheel. This wheel receives its motion from a catch, as shown at E, No. 5, which is simply a pin fixed in a slotted piece of wood. The pin y forms the catch, and the slot acts as a guide, which passes over the edge of the ratchet wheel, and keeps the catch in position. The catch is attached to the marches and works vertically. It is raised by the treadles, and when released is drawn down by the weight attached to it, the wire y catching one of the teeth of the ratchet and moving it round. There are two pins, z and t, in the ratchet, as shown in No. 3, and it is according to their distance apart that the length of traverse of the pecker is determined. The bar q, shown in No. 3 attached to the pulley V, which is loose on the axle, is raised by the stud t, as the ratchet wheel is advanced tooth by tooth, till it comes into contact with the catch S, and raises it; this allows the ratchet wheel to be reversed by the weight D on the end of the cord e till the stud z comes round and draws away the bar, which allows the catch to fall into position again and stops the pecker where the pattern is to begin. Thus, the distance between the studs z and t must be arranged to suit the number of cords the pecker has to pass, or to give the number of threads in the pattern. The teeth of the ratchet wheel and traverse of the catch must be of such a pitch that as each tooth is moved round the pulley will be turned the exact distance required to move the pecker from one cord to the next one. No. 2, Fig. 5, is an elevation of a ‘parrot’ arranged for a single row of cords, as these machines were first made. There was only one treadle, as shown in section at M, No. 2, and the pecker only rocked to one side. Either this or the double machine could be used for a shaft mounting where a large number of treads are necessary. The cords C pass over pulleys, and are fastened to long coupers or levers with their fulcrum at the side of the loom, and to these the shafts are hung from jacks or otherwise. These machines were made to work very exactly. In the double machine the pecker would travel over three or four hundred cords in consecutive order.
To avoid confusion the beads are not shown on the front cords in No. 1.
CROSS’S COUNTERPOISE HARNESS
About the year 1816 Mr. James Cross, of Paisley, invented a machine to do away with the drawboys.
Fig. 6
This machine is fully described by Murphy and Gilroy in their works on weaving. Only the general principle of it will be given here, as an introduction to the jacquard. The detail of drawing the lashes and treading, though ingenious, is not of any practical importance now, and it requires rather a lengthy description to explain it. The harness F is the same as in the common draw loom till it reaches the tail cords, where the counterpoise apparatus commences. The framing B B (Fig. 6) of this machine is supported by the carriage A A, which rests on the capes or top rails of the loom. In this frame are two boards, C and D, perforated with holes corresponding in number with the tie of the harness or cords in the simple. The top board is called the suspension board, and is mortised into the bar E. From this board the harness hangs, the neck being taken up through the holes in it, and fastened above them. The lower board, D, which is mortised into the bar G, is called the neck board, or directing board, as it keeps the harness in its proper place. H and K are two other boards, perforated as shown in Fig. 7, mortised into the sliding bars I and L respectively; these are called the trap boards, M, M and N, M are four bars, called pushers, which are fastened to the sliding bars I and L as well as to the pulleys P, P, and when the pulleys are oscillated by means of a treadle the sliding bars will be moved up and down. The knot cords or tail cords O, O are fastened to the suspension board C, and pass through the two trap boards, then through the neck board, and are tied to the harness. Only two of these cords are shown tied to the harness, to avoid confusion. These knot cords have knots or beads on them as shown, and the round holes in the trap boards H and K, as shown in Fig. 7, must be sufficiently large (about 1/4 in. in diameter) to allow the knots or beads to pass freely through. There are notches or saw-cuts at the sides of the holes to admit the cords, but support the knots. T, T1 is the simple, extending horizontally through the knot cords. It is fastened to the ceiling beyond T, and to the frame of the machine beyond T1. S is a half-leaf of heddles for the purpose of supporting the simple cords. Each simple cord is tied to a knot cord, and beyond T1 the simple is lashed according to the pattern. In working the machine the lashes are drawn by means of hooked levers, wrought by a treadle connected with the pulley V, and those simple cords that are drawn down pull the knot cords into the notches or saw-cuts in the trap boards, so that when the trap board is raised the harness fastened to those knot cords that are drawn into the saw-cuts will also be raised. R is a set of cords with weights on their ends for the purpose of drawing the knot cords out of the saw-cuts as soon as the simple is released by the lashes. The two trap boards rise and fall alternately, and this is why the machine is called a counterpoise.
Fig. 7
Some time after an improvement was made upon this machine which was known as
THE COMB DRAW LOOM
Fig. 8
This machine appears to have been invented in both Scotland and Ireland, as Gilroy describes it as an invention of Dr. McLaughlin, of Ballyshannon, County Donegal; and Murphy describes a similar machine invented by Mr. Bonnar, of Dunfermline. The machine is shown in Fig. 8. A, A are the posts of the loom, and B B the top rail; C C is the framing of the machine. The harness G, G is suspended from the suspension board D, and passes through the guide board E and the cumber board F. The upper portion of the harness is composed of tail or knot cords, as in Cross’s machine. From each of the tail cords a simple cord, H, extends horizontally over the weaver’s head, and is fastened to the board I. The lashes K hang from the simples over the weaver’s head, and have a knob on the end of each, so that the weaver can catch them and draw his own draught.
Fig. 9
The lash cords have a knot or bead on them, so that when drawn they can be held in the cuts of the board L, also shown in plan at L (Fig. 9). M, N (Fig. 8) is a side view of the comb and handle, or lever, shown in plan at M, N (Fig. 9). S is a cord or chain attached to the end of the lever M, and passing down to a treadle. When the weaver draws one of the knobs, the tail cords connected with the simples in this lash are drawn between the teeth of the comb, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 8. He then depresses the treadle, which raises the comb, and the harness along with it; he holds the treadle down with his left foot, and works over the ground treadles with his right one. The comb is recovered or counterbalanced by the cord O, which passes from the comb through the board P, and has a weight, R, suspended on it. D (Fig. 9) is a plan of the boards D, E, F and I (Fig. 8).
THE BARREL OR CYLINDER LOOM
This machine was introduced by Mr. Thomas Morton, of Kilmarnock. The harness and tail or knot cords are arranged similarly to those in the comb draw loom; but instead of the simple cords for drawing out the tail cords, each tail cord in the barrel loom passes through a slide, or horizontal wire. The points of these slides are acted upon by the pattern cylinder or barrel, and those held back press out their tail cords from the others, and the knots on these tail cords are caught by the teeth on the comb or roller, and the harness raised.
The pattern is arranged upon the barrel much in the same way as a tune is arranged on the cylinder of a barrel organ or musical box. A section of the barrel is shown at A (Fig. 10), with wire staples driven into it to form the pattern.
Fig. 10
Each of these staples represents so many lines of the design paper, or so many lashes or draughts. The pattern is ruled out and painted on the barrel, and staples are driven into it so as to cover the painted squares of the pattern. The barrel is so arranged on the loom that exactly the space of one line of the design paper is turned round for each draught, and the slides are drawn back by cords attached from their ends to a roller when the shift of the barrel is being made. B is a section of the comb; it is a cylinder with teeth, C, like a parrot’s beak fixed to it. The teeth are made of this shape to hold the knot cords when they are caught by them, and they rise or fall as the roller is rocked upwards or downwards by a treadle.
Whilst these improvements on the draw loom were being made in this country for the purpose of producing a convenient method of harness weaving, the French were endeavouring to obtain the same result, but on a different principle, and their method has proved successful.
In 1725 M. Bouchon employed a band of pierced paper, pressed by hand against a row of horizontal needles, so as to push back those which were opposite the blank spaces, and thus bring loops on the extremities of vertical wires into connection with a comb-like rack below, which, being depressed, drew down the wires, pushed on the pins in it, and raised the harness.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11 is a sketch of a model of this loom in the Conservatoire des Arts, Paris. A is the pulley-box with two rows of pulleys in it; B the tail cords; C the simples, tied to rings on their upper ends, which run on the tail cords at B; the other ends of the simples pass over a small roller at D to prevent them rubbing against the side of the loom, then down through the hole board F, under which they are tied to wire hooks or loops, as shown under A (Fig. 11a). Next these wires pass through the needle box G, also shown at B, Fig. 11a, and down to the comb H (Fig. 11), and C (Fig. 11a). The perforated paper is rolled on the roller E, and passing downwards, is pressed against the needles with a hand bar, as shown at L, Fig. 11b. The roller K is for rolling up the paper as it passes down from the upper roller.
Fig. 11b is a back view of the mounting. A shows where the simples are connected with the tail cords P; B shows the connection of the tail cords with the harness; C is the cumber board; D the mails and E the leads. F and K are the two rollers for the paper, H the needle box, and I the comb. This was the first attempt at forming the pattern by means of perforated paper acting upon needles and wires.
In 1728 M. Falcon adopted a chain of perforated cards in lieu of the perforated paper, and placed his horizontal wires or needles in several rows or ranks, thereby admitting the use of a greater number of them in a moderate space. He also used a square prism or cylinder, as it is called, for the cards to pass over.
Fig. 11a
Fig. 11b
Fig. 12 is a sketch from a model of his loom, also in the Conservatoire des Arts. The principle of it is much the same as the preceding. A is the pulley box for four rows of pulleys, B the connection of the simple with the tail cords, C the hole board for the simple to pass through and also the support for the cylinder H, D is the needle box, E the comb or griffe, F the levers for drawing down the griffe, and G the treadle. The cards are laced in a chain and pass over the cylinders I and H, but they are pressed against the needles by a hand bar, similar to that used by Bouchon. There are two racks or receptacles for holding the cards, as shown. The cylinders H and I are simply used as rollers to support the cards, and not for pressing them against the needles, as in the jacquard.
Fig. 12
Figs. 12a and 12b give detailed views of the hooks, etc., for drawing the harness: the letters in both refer to the same parts as are marked with similar letters in Fig. 12. The simples B are tied to loops on the hooks under the hole board C. In Fig. 12b it will be clearly seen how the needles in four rows act upon the hooks. The griffe consists of four round iron rods or wires set in the frame E, Fig. 12a, which can be drawn down by the treadle G, connected with the levers F by the cords 3 and 4. One of the levers has its fulcrum at one side and the other has it at the opposite side, and the points of the levers are tied to the griffe frame by the cords 1 and 2. The griffe, when sunk, is brought back to its place again by weights hanging on cords running over pulleys. It may be seen that the hooks hang in front of the rods or bars of the griffe; therefore, those hooks will be pushed on the griffe whose needles come against the solid portions of the cards, thus acting similarly to Bouchon’s machine. The hand bar for pressing the cards against the needles is shown at F. The needles can pass through the slot in it, and, when a card is pressed against the needles, the bar can be fastened with hooks for the purpose, so that the operator is free to depress the treadle. There are no springs on the needles, but a clap board comes behind them, which is pressed in by means of a cord passing over each end of it and fastened to a spiral spring. There are ten leaves of heddles in front of the harness. They are plain clasped heddles, and apparently act as five, the front five being raised by the top levers connected with the treadles, as shown in Fig. 11, and the back five are held up by a set of levers at each side, with weights on the ends of them, similarly to those now used for hand-loom damasks, and tied to the treadles below, so that sinking a treadle would cause one of the back leaves to sink and one of the front ones to rise. Only the harness mechanism of Falcon’s loom is given in Fig. 12, the front portion being similar to that of Bouchon, or to any hand loom.
Fig. 12a
Fig. 12b
In 1746 the accomplished mechanician, Vaucanson, altogether dispensed with the cumbrous tail cords and simple of the draw loom, and made the draw-boy machine completely self-acting by placing the hooks upright on the top of the loom, and hanging the harness from them. This loom may be seen in the Conservatoire des Arts, as well as a model of it on the same scale as those already mentioned—viz., one-third the size. The machine for drawing the harness is exactly like a small jacquard, with two rows of hooks and two rows of needles, as shown in Fig. 13. Instead of a square cylinder and cards, the pattern is punched on a band of paper, which passes over a round or true cylinder. This cylinder is fitted with a rack wheel, so that a tooth can be passed for each change of pattern, the cylinder moving out and turning one tooth, then pressing in against the cards again. The diameter of the cylinder is about twelve inches. The hooks are raised with a griffe, similar to that in a jacquard, which is fastened to a lever connected to a treadle below. This treadle, and four others for working the heddles, is wrought by tappets, made of wood, on a shaft running along the side of the loom and turned by a wince handle in front. Altogether, the loom is a nice mechanical contrivance, and a great step in advance of its predecessors.
Fig. 13
Joseph Marie Jacquard, a working mechanic of Lyons, having invented a fishing net loom, turned his attention to improving the means of drawing the harness in looms for figured weaving, about 1790. A model of a machine by him, dated 1790, to dispense with the drawing of the harness, is in the Conservatoire des Arts. It is made with cords and rollers, and has no resemblance to the machine bearing his name. He was brought to Paris to repair Vaucanson’s loom about 1804, and it appears to be then that he combined the best qualities of the machines of his predecessors, and produced the jacquard, a model of which, dated 1804, is in the Conservatoire des Arts. This is very much like our present jacquard, but with four rows of hooks and needles made similar to those of Vaucanson, Fig. 13. He dispensed with Vaucanson’s cylinder and band of paper, and used instead a square prism with a chain of cards passing over it. The cylinder (or prism) he set in a frame or carriage, made to run on four wheels or pulleys on the top of the frame of the loom. The carriage is drawn out by depressing a treadle, and brought back again to press the cylinder against the needles, by means of weights tied to cords running over pulleys. The griffe is raised by means of two levers, one at each side; one end of each is connected with the griffe, and the others to a crossbar at the bottom of the loom, and this crossbar is fastened from its centre to a treadle. In all these looms the cards or paper hang at the side of the loom, the mounting being on the principle known as the London tie. Jacquard was born in 1752, and died in 1834. Vaucanson died in 1782.
FRENCH DRAW LOOM
Shortly after the introduction of Cross’s counterpoise harness, a machine was imported from France, which is shown in Fig. 14, and described in Murphy’s ‘Art of Weaving’ as a French draw loom. This machine far surpassed any attempts at the improvements at the draw loom that had hitherto appeared, in simplicity of construction and operation. From the neck upwards the harness is similar in construction to Cross’s counterpoise, having the knot cords arranged in the same manner, but with only one trap board. Instead of the cumbrous tail, the knot cords are acted upon by wires or needles, on each of which is a loop, through which one of the knot cords passes. D is the cylinder or barrel, perforated with holes, as in the common jacquard cylinder, and C, C shows the chain of cards for forming the pattern; E is the lever for raising the trap board, to which it is connected by means of pieces of iron at each side, with a bar across between them, to the centre of which the lever is connected with a piece of wire. O O are crossbars of wood, with holes in their centres, through which run pieces of strong iron wire, which are fixed into the trap board at each end to keep it steady while in operation. There is no spring box for the needles as is now used in the jacquard, but into the crossbar or frame F is inserted a flat piece of wood moving on springs, which yields to the pressure of the needles that are forced back by the barrel, and recovers them again when the barrel is withdrawn. The lever E is drawn down by the cord H, attached to a treadle, when the trap board is to be raised, and the barrel is drawn back by the cord G, which is attached to another treadle. The barrel is pressed against the needles by springs, and when it is relieved by the treadle and is moving inwards, it is turned by one of the catches shown in Fig. 14a. Either of these catches can be brought into action, so as to turn the barrel either way, by raising or lowering them with a cord. When at rest the knot cords stand in the notches or saw cuts of the trap board, but when the cards are pressed against the needles, except where there are holes in the cards, the needles are pressed back and the cords are pushed out of the notches so that the knots stand above the holes in the trap board, and pass through them when the board is raised by depressing the treadle connected with the lever E. The trap board is shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 14
Fig. 14a
Whether this machine was Jacquard’s invention or not, I have not been able to ascertain; but Gilroy states that Jacquard’s first machines were made with cords and trap boards, like Cross’s counterpoise machine. It is also recorded that William Jennings, of Bethnal Green, invented a machine, similar to the above, about 1830, as an improvement on the jacquard, on account of its simplicity, as the latter appears to have given the weavers some trouble, and notice was taken of his machine by the Society of Arts.
Fig. 15
Machines similar to the above are still in use for hand-loom work, and answer very well. They have also been used for power looms, but the cords do not stand the friction long. As at present made about Glasgow, the cylinders of these machines work on slide rods, and receive their motion from the rising of the trap board, same as the cylinders in jacquards are sometimes wrought by the rising of the griffe with what is known as the ‘swan neck’ motion. The spring board at the ends of the needles is held back by a spring and drawn in by the cylinder frame as it moves outwards, which brings all the needles forward, and the cords into the saw cuts in the trap board, or comb as it is frequently called. The knots on the cords for these machines are made as at B, Fig. 15, which, when drawn tight, are as shown at A. The cord is a good twisted cord, such as whipcord, and the holes in the trapboard are about 3/16 in. in diameter, which the knots on the cords must pass freely through. The upper ends of the cords pass through a perforated board on the top of the machine, and another cord is drawn through loops on their ends, which prevents them from being drawn through the holes.
CHAPTER II
JACQUARD MACHINES
The jacquard machine was introduced into England about 1818 and came into general use from 1824 to 1832. It was introduced into Scotland about 1824. Fig. 16 is a representation of the early form of jacquard, and of course intended for hand-loom work. Although the present machines for power-loom work are very different in make, nearly all the working parts as here used are to be found in different machines at present working, or still being made, though the best machine makers have adopted newer and better principles for fast working and withstanding wear and tear. Fig. 16a is a view of the interior of the machine. The working of the machine will be explained further on; only those parts that will not be given in the new machines will now be noticed. The griffe or frame for raising the hooks is lifted by the straps A, A, Fig. 16, which are attached to the pulleys B, B, and a cord C over a pulley on the same shaft as B, B, is attached to a treadle beneath the loom. As the weaver presses down this treadle the griffe is raised, and when the treadle is released the griffe falls of its own weight. The cylinder is moved out and in by the pulley E, fastened on the bent iron bar, attached to the frame which carries the cylinder, when the griffe rises and falls. D, D is a frame which lies in the turned-up portion of the hooks; only a few hooks are shown, and the outer bars of the frame. There should be a bar in the frame for each row of hooks. This frame rises up and down with the hooks, the turn on the ends of which must be of such length that when the frame is raised by the hooks lifted by the griffe, it will not be raised out of the turns on those that are left down. This frame is for the purpose of preventing the hooks from turning round, so that the turns on the upper end of them, as shown at A, A, Fig. 16a, cannot get out of position to be caught by the blades or crossbars of the griffe. The lower ends of the hooks rest on a perforated board as shown in Fig. 16a, and tail cords are looped on them and pass through the perforated board as shown. To these cords is fastened the neck of the harness. Machines with these perforated boards and frames to keep the hooks in position are still (1890) being made in Yorkshire. In Fig. 16a is shown a section through the spring box B. This box contains a spiral spring for each of the horizontal needles, the ends of which press against the springs, which allow them to yield or move back as the cards press on their points; but recover them again when the card is moved away by the cylinder. Similar spring-boxes are now used.
Fig. 16
It might be interesting to describe the various changes and attempted improvements that have been made on the original jacquard, but it would take up too much space, and many of them are of more historical than practical importance; some of them will be mentioned that may be interesting from a mechanical point of view, in connection with the descriptions of the machines, even though they have only been partially successful. Though a very different machine from what it originally was, the principle of the jacquard remains the same, and is not likely to be altered or superseded till a revolution takes place in the process of weaving.
Fig. 16a
A jacquard machine is simply a shedding motion by which a great variety of sheds can be formed; the larger the machine, or the greater the number of hooks it contains, the greater is the variety of shedding that can be produced by it.
If a jacquard is made small, with, say, from 16 to 48 hooks, it is called a dobby or shedding motion, and is used for working shaft mountings; but the ordinary jacquard machines have from 200 to 600 hooks, which have long cords, called the harness, connected to them, no shafts being required, as each hook has only a few cords tied to it, which can be raised independently of the others. The fewer the cords that are tied to each hook, the greater is the variety of shedding that can be made on the same number of warp threads, till, when there is but one cord to the hook, any thread or any number of threads can be raised independently of any of the others.
Jacquards may be divided into four classes—viz. single-acting, double-acting lift, double acting with double cylinders, and twilling jacquards; and besides these there are several other varieties made for special purposes. The single-acting is the real jacquard, and much the simplest machine. It has the disadvantage which all single-acting shedding motions have—viz. that one shed must be closed before the following one begins to open. This is on account of the same lifter having to open each shed; it must bring down the set of hooks that are raised, and then raise the next set.
This constitutes the true jacquard lift; and while it makes a clear shed, and is desirable for some purposes, it is generally considered the most imperfect form of shedding—that is, so far as the making of a good cloth is concerned. It is not suitable for making a heavy, well-covered cloth, nor for working at a high speed, 120 to 140 picks per minute being a very good speed to drive it.
A single-acting jacquard is a very simple machine, and when properly made should give very little trouble in working, particularly if the motions are properly set in relation to each other, and if such methods of working are adopted as will cause the least wear and tear on it.
In whatever way jacquards are made, the principle of working is much the same. There are a number of upright hooks set in a frame; attached to each hook is a horizontal wire or needle, one end of which is pressed upon by a spring, which keeps both it and the hook steady and in position, while the other end, or point, passes through a perforated plate, beyond which it projects about half an inch (see Fig. 16a). To lift the hooks there is a set of bars or knives arranged in a frame, just below the heads of the hooks; this frame is called the ‘griffe’ or ‘brander,’ and if raised would draw all the hooks up with it. What hooks will be lifted for each shed is regulated by perforated cards being pressed against the points of the needles. A perforation in the card allows the point of a needle to pass through and the hook to be raised; but where there is no perforation the card comes against the point of the needle, pressing it back, and holding the head of the hook clear of the blade of the griffe, so that the griffe will pass without raising the hook. It will thus be seen that any variety of shedding can be made by punching the cards to suit it. Fig. 17 shows one of the best makes of single-acting jacquards. One of the best methods of driving is shown in this and the following figure. The griffe is raised by means of the lever G, which is sometimes supported on a beam fastened to the roof or pillars of the shed, or it may be supported by an upright fastened on the frame of the loom. A portion of this upright is shown in Fig. 17, and as well as being fastened to the loom frame, it should be stayed to the top of the machine. One end of the lever is fastened by a link connection to the centre of the bar across the griffe frame, care being taken that the connection is so made as to draw up the griffe vertically, and not have any strain on the slide rods or spindles that are used for keeping the griffe horizontal when rising.
Fig. 17
The other end of the lever is connected to a crank on the crank-shaft of the loom by a rod, E (Fig. 17); also shown at A (Fig. 18), where the crank is also given.
Fig. 18
In hand-loom machines the griffe is frequently pushed up from below instead of being drawn up from the top as is shown in Fig. 17. The method of doing this is similar to that given for lifting the griffes of twilling jacquards.
F (Fig. 17) is called the cylinder or barrel, evidently taking its name from the round cylinders or barrels used in the old machines, but is in reality a square prism. It is made of wood, and perforated on each side with a set of holes—a hole for each needle in the machine; its use is to draw round the chain of cards and press each one against the needles, or horizontal wires, in the machine. In order to keep the cards firmly on the cylinder, flat steel springs are sometimes used, as shown, attached to the top rail of the frame which holds the cylinder; and there are also steel wires which pass down in front of the cylinder over the ends of the cards. These springs are useful when only a small number of cards is used and the machine driven quickly; with a large set of cards, where there is plenty of drag on them from their own weight, they are not necessary, and but seldom used; but they are in common use in the Yorkshire districts.
It will be seen from the illustrations (Figs. 17 and 18) that the cylinder hangs in a frame suspended from the top of the machine; this is called the swing or batten motion, to distinguish it from the horizontal or sliding motion which is shown at Fig. 20 (No. 1) and in Fig. 27. The swing motion is the simpler of the two, and is cleaner, requiring less oil; but the sliding motion is steadier, and does not swing the cards so much, consequently is more suitable when the cylinder has to travel quickly. The swing motion also requires the machine to be higher; with a slide motion the frame is usually cut off a little above the griffe.
The cylinder has to travel out and in when the machine is working, so that it may be turned round and bring a fresh card against the needles for each shot. There are many methods of accomplishing this, which may be divided into two classes—viz. independent motions, or those which are driven from the loom independently of the machine; and self acting motions, or those which drive the cylinder out and in through the rising and falling of the griffe. The latter are the simpler, but the former are much better, causing less wear and tear on both the cards and machine, as will be explained further on.
It will be seen in Fig. 18 that as the cylinder travels out it will be caught by the hook K1, and turned round; the head or lantern of the cylinder is made of iron, as shown, so that the hook, or shears, will take a firm catch on it. To prevent the cylinder from turning more than one card at once, and to keep it steady so that it will always come in fair against the needles, it is held firm by a hammer pressed on it by a spring. This pressure is applied in different ways, one of which may be clearly seen in Fig. 17, and another in Fig. 27. When taking out the cylinder, or wanting to run it round quickly to draw over a number of cards, the hammers can be held up by a hook or sliding catch, which should be fitted to the machine for the purpose.
One of the best independent motions for driving the cylinder is shown in Fig. 17; and that shown in Fig. 18 is also a very good one for small machines, perhaps the most convenient that is made; but the former is much stronger. In Fig. 17 a connecting-arm from the frame of the cylinder is attached to the lever B. The connecting-arm should have a slotted joint, so that it can be made shorter or longer, if required, for the purpose of regulating the pressure of the cylinder on the needles.
The lever B is on a horizontal shaft, bracketed to the frame of the loom, or to the beams on which the machine rests; or some machines have bearings attached to their framing for it. There is, of course, a lever, as B, and a connecting-arm at each side of the machine. There is another lever on the end of the shaft, at right angles to B, which is connected with an eccentric on the crank-shaft of the loom by a rod, C, in the same way as the rod C is connected with the eccentric in Fig. 18. The eccentric can be set to bring the cylinder against the needles at any required time, independent of the lifting motion of the machine, which cannot be done when the self-acting motions are used. The larger the eccentric, the greater dwell the cylinder will have against needles. The method of working the cylinder in Fig. 18 is somewhat similar, and can easily be seen; but it will be observed that a good deal of pressure will be put upon the studs on which the cylinder frame, or batten, hangs, particularly when the cylinder is being pressed in, as this is effected by drawing down the lever L; however, in a light machine this does not matter much.
Fig. 19
The principal feature in this motion is the escapement apparatus for the purpose of disengaging the cylinder from its connection with the driving eccentric when it is required to turn some of the cards back. Fig. 19 (Nos. 1 and 2) shows this arrangement. The motion is not quite the same as that given in Fig. 18, but is on the same principle, and one may be easily understood from the other. In Fig. 18 the latch G comes out of the notch in the quadrant F, when the handle E is pressed close; the handle is on the lever D, having its fulcrum on the shaft N, and the quadrant F is connected to the eccentric rod C. The quadrant is loose on the shaft, and the lever is fast on it. Fig. 19 is a more convenient motion. The two halves of the handle A are held apart by the spring H, and this, through the hook B on the inner end of the handle, presses the latch or catch on the slide D into the notch on the quadrant C. The quadrant and handle are one piece, and are fast on the shaft E, and a lever F on this shaft is connected to the batten of the machine, in the same manner as shown by D and B in Fig. 18. When there are two or more machines, one of these levers would be required for each. The lever K is loose on the shaft E, and the rod G connects it with the eccentric, same as is shown by the rod C in Fig. 18. In No. 2, Fig. 19, the quadrant is left out to show clearly how the hook B acts on the slide D, and also to show the lever K on the shaft. The two halves of the handle, being pressed out by the spring, keep D in position, firmly pressed inwards; but when the handle is pressed the hook B presses the slide D outwards, leaving the quadrant free to pass up or down; and by pulling down the cord H (Fig. 18), which raises the shears K and K1, the cards can easily be turned back by working the handle up and down, as the under shears will catch the cylinder and turn it the reverse way. The weaver must be careful not to jerk the motion and throw the cards off the cylinder or damage them; but a very little practice will enable anyone to turn them back quite easily and quickly. This motion answers very well for one, or perhaps two, small machines; for a 400 or 600 machine, or any smaller size working spottings, &c., it is very convenient, but when large mountings are required, as in 800 to 2400 machines, it is quite too weak for the work; even if made strong enough it would not be satisfactory, as the strength of spring that would be required to bear the strain and keep the catch in the notch would make it a very difficult matter to use the motion for reversing the cylinder. For heavy machinery the method of working the cylinder shown in Fig. 17 is far preferable, and separate motions for turning back the cards can be fixed on the machine. These will be explained further on.
Instead of the eccentric and crank for driving the cylinder and raising the griffe being as they are shown in Fig. 18, though a plan frequently in use, it is neater, and perhaps better, to have the eccentric at the back of the fly-wheel, and the fly-wheel either cast with one half solid, or have a plate fastened across two or more of the spokes, to which the connecting-rod can be attached with a bolt fastened in a slot. The amount of lift can be increased or diminished, either by shifting the top of the connecting-rod along the lever G (Fig. 17), or by increasing or reducing the throw of the crank at the fly-wheel.
Fig. 19a
Self-acting motions actuate the cylinder through the rising and falling of the griffe without requiring any special connection from the loom. One of the most convenient of these is that frequently used on hand-loom machines, and known as the S iron or swan-neck motion. It is shown in Fig. 19a (No. 1), and another form of it on a swing cylinder motion is shown in Fig 16. D is the swan-neck or S iron. In the groove in it a roller stud on the griffe frame travels, sliding in and out the cylinder A as the griffe falls and rises. E is the slide bar, which may be flat or round; if round, there must be some means of keeping it from turning in its bearings, which is generally accomplished by having a crossbar bolted across the two slide bars behind the machine.
No. 2, Fig. 19a, is a motion for the same purpose, but consists of a series of levers; and No. 3 is an arrangement of a similar nature. B is the fulcrum of the levers, or fast pin by which they are connected to the machine. C shows the attachment of the levers to the slide rod of the machine. A is the connection with the cylinder frame. As the griffe rises or falls it will easily be seen that the cylinder will be driven out or in.
The connecting-bar H is in two parts, slotted and bolted together at H to admit of regulating the position of the cylinder.
No. 4 is a motion on a different principle; it is a French motion. It will readily be seen that the cylinder is driven out and in by the toothed wheel, which is wrought by a rack on the slide rod E. This slide rod works outside the framing of the machine, as is common in the French machines. One point must be observed about these motions—viz. that they must have a certain amount of dwell at the bottom of the stroke, or when the cylinder is in. The reason of this dwell will be explained further on, but the method of obtaining it may be given here. In the swan-neck motion (No. 1), any desired dwell can easily be obtained at either top or bottom by the length of the slot that is in a vertical direction, as when the stud is passing through this portion of the slot no motion is given to the cylinder. In the lever motions Nos. 2 and 3, as well as in No. 4, the dwell is got by the levers or arms passing the centres; in Nos. 2 and 4 it is by the lever or arm H passing the back centre, which may be considered as a crank; and in No. 3 it is the short lever C passing the centre that gives the dwell.
Fig. 20
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Fig. 20 is a view of the interior of a single-acting jacquard machine with the framework removed; only one row of hooks and needles are given, to avoid confusion. The blades or knives of the griffe, with a support running across their centres, are shown at B. A is the face-plate or needle board, sometimes made of iron, but better to be of hard wood. C is the spring-box, the detail of which is given in Fig. 24. E, E1 are the hooks, and F, F1 the needles. D is the grating through which the hooks pass, and are supported by it. It will be seen that the hooks and needles are arranged in rows of eight: a 400 machine would have 50 or 51 of these rows in it; 500 machines are usually arranged in rows of 10, and 600 machines in rows of 12. The hooks should be set perfectly upright or vertical, and should be close up against the knives, but not pressing against them. There should be a provision made for shifting both the grating and the knives, so as to admit of both them and the hooks being properly set in relation to each other; but if set correctly by the maker, which they should be, no alteration is necessary. A (Fig. 21) is a side view of four hooks and needles, with the ends of the knives of the griffe shown at a, a, a, a. When the machine is working the needles are acted upon by perforated cards cut from the pattern. Suppose we take plain cloth—that is, a pattern in which each half of the warp, or every alternate thread, is raised and sunk alternately; then, if the first card acts on all the odd numbers of the needles, and the second card on all the even numbers, this repeated would make plain cloth. Whenever a hook of the jacquard is to be raised a hole is cut in the card for the needle connected with that hook, and a card with all the even numbers of holes cut in it will cause the griffe to raise all the even-numbered hooks. Refer to b (Fig. 21), where the second and fourth holes are cut in the card. If the card is pressed against the needles, as at c, the first and third needles will be pressed back, and will push the first and third hooks back from their position—shown by the dotted lines—to the position in which they are shown in B (Fig. 21); but the second and fourth hooks are not moved, as their needles pass through the holes in the card. If the griffe is now raised, the blades or knives will pass the first and third hooks, but will lift the second and fourth; and if the odd numbers of holes are cut on the next card, the first and third hooks will be lifted when it is pressed against the needles, as shown at C (Fig. 21), thus making the cross-shed; and this explains the principle of working any pattern by the jacquard without taking into consideration the intricacies of mounting, &c. In C (Fig. 21), it will be seen that if the knives d, d were upright instead of slanting, they would come down on the heads of the hooks that are under them, but, being slanted, their lower edges pass the heads of the hooks, and press them away as the griffe descends. Sometimes, even with slanting knives, if there is much vibration in the hooks, or if the loom ‘bangs off,’ some of the hooks are liable to get under the knives and be ‘crowned,’ or bent down. To avoid this deep blades are often used, principally in double-acting machines, so that the lower edges of the blades will not pass the bottom hook, as shown at D (Fig. 21). This prevents any danger of crowning, but it darkens the machine a little—that is, makes it more difficult to see down into it if any of the wires require to be examined; it also requires the heads of the hooks to be somewhat higher above the heads of the needles than is necessary with the narrow blades. Another principle has been tried—viz. that of making the heads of the hooks as shown in Fig. 22, and using narrow blades. This effects its object well, but there is too much friction of the knives against the hooks, and the latter are liable to wear out too quickly. A good machine with firmly set hooks should work very well without these protections if it is steadily placed above the loom, and it is better not to be resting on the loom framing, if convenient to have it so. It will be seen from the foregoing explanation that the proper time, or, rather, the necessary time, for the cylinder to press against the needles is just after the griffe begins to rise. When the griffe is down the top edges of the knives should be 3/16in. or 1/4in. lower than the turned points of the hooks, and before this edge rises up to the hooks those that are not to be lifted should be full back, or the cylinder should be close in, having the front of the head of the hooks 3/16in. or 1/4in. behind the blades. The cylinder should have a short dwell in this position; and if it has a longer dwell it may assist to reduce the friction of the heads of the hooks against the knives; but if it has too great a dwell it may have to travel out and in too quickly to make up for the lost time, which will probably not be compensated for by the advantage of the increase in the dwell. Now, when the cylinder is driven with an independent motion, as in Figs. 17 and 18, it is easy to set the eccentric so that it can be brought in at any required time; but when a self-acting motion is used, it is plain that if the cylinder must press against the needles when the blades of the griffe are passing the heads of the hooks in rising, it must also press against them in the same position when the griffe is falling, unless some special escapement motion could be devised to avoid it, and this is where the dwell is required, and where the evil effect of the motion takes place; and it is worse in a double-lift machine with one cylinder, as the heads of the hooks in it are larger, or have a longer turn on them. A little consideration will suffice to show that when the brander or griffe is falling, say, with one-half of the hooks hanging on its knives, and the cylinder is brought in against the needles before the hooks are quite down, as it must be, it will either cause the hooks to be shot off the knives, or will put a considerable strain on them, as well as upon the needles and cards. It is for this reason that these motions are objectionable, particularly in power-loom work, where the speed is high and the hooks are strong. In hand-loom work it is not so objectionable, as there is more spring in the wires, and the heads of the hooks need not be too large, and, besides, the speed is less and the wear and tear not so great; but, even with this, if a hand-loom machine that has been in use for some time be examined, it will be seen that the points of the hooks are considerably worn, and that the edges of the knives are hollowed out like a coarse saw by the friction of the hooks on them. This latter will partly arise from the lifting of the hooks.
Fig. 23
In the old Jacquard, given in Figs. 15 and 16, the hooks are shown resting on a perforated board, and it was mentioned that in order to prevent them from turning round a frame lay in the turned-up portion of the hooks. The grating in Fig. 20, through which the turned-up bottoms of the hooks pass, readily accomplishes this object. Sometimes flattened hooks are used, as in C (Fig. 23), with the needles twisted once or twice round the hooks; this makes a firm arrangement, but if anything goes wrong with a hook it is not easy to get it clear of the needle. When the needles were made with a full twist or loop on them, as at B, the same was the case; they are now usually made as at A, and if arranged in the machine as in Fig. 20, there is no danger of the hooks sliding out of the recess in the needle, and if a hook gets bent or broken, it can be taken out and replaced by a new one without disturbing the needles.
Fig. 16 shows how the needles press against the springs in the spring-box, which is much the same as that at present in use. Fig. 24 is the present arrangement. No. 1 gives a plan of the end of a needle, B. C C is the horizontal wire which supports it as shown in section at C C in No. 2. D (No. 1) is a section of the vertical wire shown at D D (No. 2), which passes through the loops or eyes on the ends of the needles, and keeps the springs from shooting them too far forward. A (No. 2) is a wire which passes down at the outside of the box over the ends of a row of springs, so that by drawing out this wire any of the springs can be drawn out without taking off the spring-box, as the springs pass through the box. The springs should be strong enough to keep the hooks and needles steady, but if unnecessarily strong they give the card and cylinder unnecessary work.
Fig. 24
In some machines there is no spring-box. The hooks are made double, as shown in Fig. 25, and rods, as a, a, run along between the rows of hooks; the spring of the double wire keeps the hooks steady. There is a clap-board used, similar to that in the French draw loom, (Fig. 13), which is pressed against the needles with springs; this board is connected with the face-plate by a bar at each end, forming a frame. The needles do not project much through the face-plate, but when the cylinder is pressed against it, it slides back on the needles, and presses the clap-board back, which also allows those needles to go back which the card presses against. The needles are not looped on the hooks, but have a turned catch in front of them as shown. The bottom of the hook rests on a hole board, C, through which the tail cords pass; and through the hooks at D are wires fixed in a frame which rises and falls when the hooks are raised, and keeps them from turning round, same as explained in Fig. 15. Machines of this description are at present being made in France, and work with a rising and falling shed, which will be hereafter explained (see Fig. 30).
Fig. 25 Fig. 26 Fig. 27
In working, the card cylinder must be so set that it will come forward fair on the needles—that is, that when it comes forward the points of the needles will enter fair into the centres of the holes in it. For the purpose of setting it there must be provision made in the fittings so that it can be moved laterally or vertically. In the swing motion the frame can be moved laterally by means of the two screw studs on which it hangs. C, Fig. 27, shows the bearing on which the stud of the cylinder revolves. This bearing can be raised up or down in the frame R—a side view of which is given at S—by slackening the bolt B with the wing nut A, and adjusting the bearing with the set screw D or E.
A method commonly adopted by tacklers or tuners to see that the needles are perfectly fair in the centres of the holes in the cylinder, is to rub their fingers on some dirty oil, and touch over the points of the needles with it. They then bring in the cylinder against the needles with a card on it, in which about half of the holes are cut. The points of the needles mark the card where there are no holes, and it can easily be seen whether the mark is in the centre of where a hole should be, or not.
One of the best bearings and attachments for a cylinder with a horizontal slide motion is given in Fig. 26. D is the bearing for the cylinder E, and C the bolts for setting it. F F is the bracket which holds the hammer and bearings, which can be set in position on the slide bar B by the bolt A. I is the hammer held down by the spring H attached to the rod G.
The cards are kept in position on the cylinder by pegs or studs, originally made of wood, and driven into the cylinder. Now they are made of brass, and set in a slotted bracket, so that they can be shifted in order to have the holes in the cards corresponding exactly with those in the cylinder. The pegs should also be set on springs, so that if a card gets off them, and between them and the needle plate, they will yield or sink into the cylinder, and not break the card. In all good machines they are made in this way.
When the motion for driving the cylinder is not fitted with an escapement for the purpose of turning back the cards, it is necessary for the convenience of the weaver to have a motion on the machine for the purpose.
Fig. 28
Figs. 28 and 29 show two varieties of these motions. A is the cylinder head; C, the catch for reversing the cylinder; F, the spring for returning the catch to its position; E, a cord which hangs down, with a knob on the end of it, in a convenient position for the weaver to catch and work the motion. In Fig. 28 the motion is on the opposite side of the machine to the shears, but might be on either side, and the weaver has to raise the shears to turn the cylinder, which she can easily do by catching the knob for raising the shears in one hand, and working the reversing motion with the other. The cylinder must be full out for this motion to turn it properly, and this prevents the weaver from tearing the cards on the needles, as she might easily do by trying to turn the cylinder when it is too close in. In Fig. 29, B is the shears for turning the cylinder, and both it and the pushing catch, C, pass through a keeper or bracket, D, on the side of the machine. There is a rise on C a little back from the point, and when the cord E is pulled down C is shot forward by the lever, which has its fulcrum at G, and in going forward the rise on it comes into contact with the bend in the shears, and raises them up so that it can turn the cylinder when it catches on the head of it. Both these are good and convenient motions. For the latter the cylinder should be about half-way out when the cards are being turned back.
Fig. 29
Sometimes the cylinder may not be completely turned by the shears when the machine is working, by reason of the cards catching, or if the shears are too long, or it may arise from other causes. In this case the cylinder would come in with one corner against the needles, and be pressed heavily against the needle plate. Some of the levers would probably be broken, or the cylinder might be shot out of its bearings and fall, breaking the yarn, or perhaps injuring the weaver. To avoid this, small snecks, as at H, Figs. 28 and 29, are set so that when the cylinder is square it will pass over them; but if turned angularly its lower edge will catch on the point of the sneck, as the cylinder is coming in, and turn it square. The sneck is held up with a spring so as to allow the cylinder in turning to depress it. Sometimes the sneck, as at H, is liable to cause broken shots; for if the weaver turns back the loom, and the cylinder moves out sufficiently far to be turned to its angular position, and remains there, it will, in coming in, be turned square by the sneck, and thus a card would be passed over without a pick being put in for it. This is sometimes remedied by putting the sneck above the cylinder, instead of below it, which would turn it the reverse way; but this might come wrong at other times. The better plan is to keep it below, and let the weaver get to understand what she is doing, as it is not very difficult to learn.
The setting of a jacquard machine for working consists in adjusting the cylinder motion so as to bring in the cylinder at the proper time, and press it sufficiently close against the face-plate to keep the hooks clear of the knives of the griffe, without pressing it too close; and regulating the lifting of the griffe to suit the time for shedding, and to give the size of shed required. The shed must be open for the shuttle to pass through; the time for picking is when the cranks of the crank-shaft of the loom are at the bottom centre, therefore the shed should be almost fully open at this time. The lifting of the griffe can be made a little earlier or later to suit circumstances, but very little alteration can be made, as it takes a full revolution of the crank to raise and lower the griffe. Further consideration will be given to jacquard shedding after double-acting machines have been explained.
The motion for working the cylinder, if an independent one, should be rigid and strong; for if there is any spring in it, though the cylinder may be brought in sufficiently close when there is much cutting on the card, if a blank card or one with very little cutting on it comes on, the extra pressure on the needles, especially with a large machine, may prevent it from getting in sufficiently close to clear the hooks from the griffe. With self-acting motions there may sometimes be some trouble in this way, as the weight of the griffe may not be sufficient to press in the cylinder. In this case the griffe may be weighted, or may be allowed to drop quicker, or the lifting rod and lever may be made to assist in pressing it down somewhat.
Before starting the machine the needles should be examined to see that they are all free, and that they will spring out easily after being pressed back. The griffe should be perfectly horizontal and all the knives properly set; the holes in the cards and cylinder should exactly correspond, and when the cylinder comes in the needles should be fair in the centre of the holes; if not, the cylinder must be set as described (see description of Figs. 26 and 27).
The driving of heavy single-acting jacquards will be further considered under Twilling Jacquards.
When any of the hooks or needles in a jacquard get bent or broken, they can easily be straightened, or taken out and replaced by others. By putting a thin blade of iron or wood down through the needles alongside of the hook to be replaced, and springing open the passage, the old hook may be drawn out and a new one put into its place. The tail cord must, of course, be cut off the bottom of the hook, and a new one tied on. For changing a needle take off the spring-box and draw up the pin which fastens the row of needles at the back; then the needles in this row may be taken out till the defective one is reached, and the row made up again; or, the old one may be renewed without taking any of the others out. A flat blade is used to slide through the hooks and keep clear the place for the needle to be put in.
Card Frames.—The cards for jacquard work are usually hung on a frame as O, Fig. 18, wires sufficiently long to catch on both sides of the frame being tied to the lacing of the cards. The number of cards between each wire may vary to suit the space and the quantity of cards. Sixteen to twenty suit very well, the former for small and the latter for larger sets, and for very small sets twelve or fourteen might be more convenient. The frame may be made of round iron rod, or of flat or bar iron, and should be of the shape shown in the sketch, and not semicircular, as is usually the case, which presses the cards together in the centre; almost flat at the bottom, with just enough of a slope to make the cards slide back, is much the best. Of course, for a few cards it does not matter much what shape it is. P (Fig. 18) is the frame for the rollers over which the cards travel to the cylinder. They should be so sloped as to make the cards travel up nicely with sufficient drag on them, and not too much; on this depends a good deal the proper working of the cards, particularly when the machine is running at a high speed, and when springs are not used to steady them on the cylinder. It is usual to have a roller below the cylinder, attached to the frame which holds the cylinder, and the falling cards pass over it. Sometimes the cards, when falling, are shaken, so that some of the wires may not catch on the frame, but pass through it, or the ends of some of the wires may be bent and cause the same result; if the weaver neglects to put these up on the frame before the cards work round to those that have fallen, the wire may catch on it and prevent the cylinder from turning, or, perhaps, pull it out. Sometimes a crank or bend is made in the frame at the outer end, so that the wires can pass up through it without catching. The frame should just be sufficiently wide to enable the cards to pass freely through it with, say, one-eighth of an inch clearance at each side; then, if three or four inches at the outer end is cranked, or set out so as to be a little wider between the two bars than the length of the wires, they will pass up through without catching. Frames of the shape described are, of course, only suitable when the cards are to be wrought forwards—that is, with the cards falling between the cylinder and the machine; but if they require to be wrought both backwards and forwards, as is sometimes the case, the card frame must be made more of a semicircular shape, and the rollers must be set so as to give a sufficient fall to the cards, and keep them firm on the cylinder.
As has already been said, the nature of the shedding of a single-acting jacquard is objectionable for speed in working, for ease on the yarn, and for heavy work, or for well-covered work. The jacquard harness is levelled so that the yarn is all sunk, and the shed is entirely a rising one; it can easily be understood that when the griffe rises to open one shed, it must again fall before it can begin to rise to form the next shed. Now, mostly all tappet motions, and a great many dobbies or shedding motions, either have the yarn springing up and down from the centre, or have one portion rising and the other portion falling at the same time, so that in them the second shed could be open at the same time that the griffe in the single-acting jacquard had fallen to begin to rise the second shed; but as this would be much too soon, they can take a greater time to accomplish the work, and thus have a much slower and steadier motion.
It has been attempted to work the single-acting jacquard on the centre-shedding principle, and machines are at present being made in France of this class. It is only necessary to let the board on which the upright hooks rest fall at the same time that the griffe is rising in order to accomplish what is required, and the method of working is good, and would suit well in dobbies where the heddles can be taken firmly down. But in the jacquard the drawback is in the harness: the constant rising and falling causes a vibration in it, and does not admit of nearly so firm work as when the rising shed alone is used.
Fig. 30
One of these machines is shown in Fig. 30; they are a very compact and neatly made machine, and contain a much greater number of hooks than one of the English machines. Fig. 26 gives one of the hooks in this machine, and the way in which it acts is there explained. It will be seen that the frame for the cylinder is inverted; F is the face-plate or needle board as it rests when the cylinder is not pressing against it, being held in this position by the spring H pressing on a stud on the bar I, which extends from the face-plate to the clap-board G. The cylinder frame is driven by a rod, C, connected with a lever. E, E1 are two racks on the ends of the hole board on which the hooks rest, and D, D are two levers with quadrant racks on each end, which work into the racks E and E1, and also into the racks on the slide bar a1. This slide bar is fastened to the griffe A A, which is raised by a connecting-rod from a horizontal lever to the stud a. As the griffe is raised one end of the racked levers, D, is also raised, and the other end sinks, taking down the hole board by pressing on the racks E and E1. The hole board is fixed so that it will easily slide up and down. If the griffe is raised two inches, the hole board falls rather more than one inch.
This is a very good motion, perhaps could not be surpassed for the purpose, but, as I said before, has the objection which all similar contrivances for the purpose must have—viz., causing too much vibration in the harness. All the cords constantly dancing up and down causes an unsteadiness and swinging that is not to be found in the ordinary jacquard harness. These machines have sixteen rows of needles in them, which are much closer set together than those in this country, and give a large number of hooks in a small-sized machine, which is a great advantage when extensive patterns are required. In this machine the half-card contains 440 holes, or 880 holes to the full or double card. The pitch is shown at A, Fig. 31, which represents the end of one of these cards, and a piece of one of the usual 8-row cards as here used is shown at B for contrast, the black dots in both cases representing holes.
These machines have not been adopted here, nor is it likely that they will be, although they are said to work well in France. They have been tried here, and the difficulty lay in setting the cards properly so as to act correctly on the needles, and keeping them so for any length of time. The least contraction or expansion of the paper, or any irregularity in the cutting, any bend in the points of the needles, or, in fact, anything but perfect exactness, interferes with the working: there is too great compactness in the machine, and in the ordinary wear and tear of work a little allowance is necessary for success. Considering that these are working, it would appear that the pitch and size of the holes in our cards are unnecessarily large, except where small machines answer and saving of space is no consideration; in that case the extra paper required for the cards might be more than compensated for by the strength of the machine, and the saving of trouble in attending to it.
Fig. 31
The method already mentioned of getting over the disadvantage of the single-acting jacquard is not likely to gain general favour, and is not required, as it is surpassed by the double-acting jacquard, or that in which there are two griffes, one rising when the other is falling, forming a counterpoise as well, making the shed more after the principle of ordinary tappet shedding. In a loom fitted with a single-acting jacquard, if there is much weight to be lifted, it will turn round the loom so that it will rest in no position but with the griffe down, and this is frequently of so much annoyance to the weaver as to necessitate a counterpoise being applied to balance it. Sometimes weights are used, and sometimes springs. With the double-acting lift nothing is required, and this was first used in Cross’s counterpoise harness (about 1816).
Fig. 32
Fig. 33
In the double-lift machine there are double the number of hooks that there would be in a single-lift machine of the same size, but the same number of needles; each needle is connected with two hooks, as shown in Fig. 32, which gives one row of hooks and needles for an 8-row or 400 machine. There are two griffes, one working above the other, as shown at A and B, Fig. 33. E, E is the top griffe in both; C, C is the bottom griffe, shown complete at A, but at B the side-bar of the frame is omitted, leaving only the knives to show how they fall in between those of the bottom griffe; D, D1 are the two slide rods or spindles which keep the griffes steady in their traverse. There must be a sufficient space between the frame C of the lower griffe and that of the upper griffe, E, to allow of the required draw being given to form the sheds without them coming into contact. In these machines, although there are 16 hooks in the row, they only act as eight, so far as forming the pattern is concerned, as two hooks are governed by one needle; the additional hooks are solely for the purpose of obtaining a rising and falling shed. Each pair of hooks is connected together at the bottom by a piece of strong cotton cord, called the tail cord or tug cord, as shown in Fig. 35. The griffes are raised by two levers arranged side by side, and similar to the one shown in Fig. 17. These levers are wrought by rods connecting them to a double crank, or sometimes to a tappet, on the tappet shaft of the loom. The common form of crank is shown at A, Fig. 34. B is the tappet shaft, and on the end of it is fastened a disc. A second disc, which carries the double crank, G, is bolted against this one, and can be shifted to whatever position is required to give the tread at the correct time. The cylinder is driven from an eccentric on the crank-shaft as before described. One of the griffes rises for each shot, the other falling at the same time; but the cylinder must come in for every shot, and it is here that the principal fault in this machine lies. Not only has the cylinder to travel at a high speed, but when one griffe is at its highest position, it has to press against the needles, so as to clear away those hooks that are not to be lifted by the lower griffe, which should now be beginning to rise; and in consequence of the needles being attached to two hooks, one belonging to the upper griffe, and the other to the lower one, it follows that those needles that are pressed in by the cards have to spring back the hooks connected with them that are raised by the upper griffe, which is a severe strain on both needles and cards. To prevent the hooks being pushed off the upper griffe, they must have larger turns on them than would otherwise be necessary.
Fig. 34
Fig. 35 shows how the raised hooks can be allowed to yield to the pressure of the needles. A, B, C, D are four hooks connected with two needles, 1 and 2. When the hook A is raised, if B, which raises the same warp—as will be seen by the connection of the tail cords with the harness at E—is not to be raised for the next shot, the needle 1 is pressed back by the card, and presses the hook B back from its knife as shown, the dotted line being its original position; the A hook, being connected with the same needle, must also be sprung back, but its head cannot get back, as it is held on the blade of the griffe, so that the wire would require to spring, if some escape were not made for it. The lower ends of the hooks are made V-shape in the grating, so that when raised, if pressed on by the needles, they can move forward as shown, the dotted line showing the original position of the hook A. When the hooks fall, they fill the slots in the grating, and are thus kept steady. G shows the tail cords as connected with the harness when both hooks are down; E shows them when one hook is up and the other down, and if the hook B was raised for the next shot, the tail cord on it would be tightening up as that on A would be falling, and the harness attached to them would be caught up a second time from the middle position, thus forming centre shedding with any portion of the harness that is raised several times in succession. With plain-texture cards the upper and lower portions of the shed would pass each other in the centre when the sheds are being reversed, all the even numbers of hooks being on one griffe, and all the odd numbers on the other.
Fig. 35
Fig. 36
The tail cord consists of two pieces of cotton cord, one fastened to each hook of a pair, then the two ends are together tied to the bunch of neck twines that are to hang from these hooks, as shown in Fig. 35, and at A, Fig. 36. When one hook is raised and the tail cord drawn up with it, the other portion of the tail cord, which is tied to the other hook, is slackened—as shown at A, Fig. 36—which causes a certain amount of friction on them. Also, when one hook of the pair is falling with the descending griffe, and the other hook rising, the pluck occasioned thereby on the cords, when the hooks are passing at the centre, has a tendency to wear and break them. Although this does not occur when the lingoes are of a moderate weight (18 to 25 per lb.), and when only a few neck twines are tied to each tail, yet when a large number of neck twines (say 20) are tied to each tail, with weighty lingoes, as may frequently be the case in weaving small patterns on woollen and worsted goods, the breakage of the tail cords is a common source of complaint, which not only gives the trouble of renewing them, but is liable to cause defects in the cloth, by the weaver not observing the breakage for some time, as one hook of the pair may be raising the neck twines—that is, in case of the tail cord to only one of the hooks breaking. To remedy this Messrs. Hancock, Rennie, and Hudson have this year (1890) introduced a patent link connection for joining the tail to the hooks, which only requires one cord, or double cord, to be used, instead of two as before. This is shown in Fig. 36 at B. When one hook is raised and the other down, the link is in the position shown at C. The old method is shown at A. When one hook is rising and the other falling, the partial turning of the link causes a loss of time equal to about a quarter of an inch of lift, and this eases the sudden pluck on the tail cord. When both hooks are down there is also a loss of a quarter of an inch in the lift when one hook begins to rise, caused by the turning of the link.
Fig. 37
Fig. 38
This patent works very well, but, except when heavy weights are on the hooks, is not likely to supersede the older methods. These links are fitted to machines by makers in Manchester and Bradford.
Before the form of griffe shown in Fig. 33 was adopted the hooks were made of two heights, as shown in Fig. 37, and one griffe wrought above the other, instead of the one set of blades or knives passing through each other; but this method was given up on account of the vibration of the long hooks, which made it uncertain whether they would remain on the knives or keep clear of them when required. Fig. 37 shows this arrangement of hooks for a double-cylinder machine; for a single-cylinder machine with two griffes the heights of the hooks would be similar, but the heads would all be turned in the same direction, and the knives sloped to suit this, as is done when the hooks are all of the one height; each needle would be connected to a short hook and a long one. The short hooks give much more certain work, and can have the cylinder set so as to press back the hooks only as much as is required, whereas with long and short hooks allowance had to be made for the uncertainty of the vibration and the difference in the length of the two sets of hooks.
Fig. 38 is a view of one of the best makes of double-lift jacquards with a single cylinder.
The machine is made by Devoge & Co., of Manchester, but is not here given as being specially recommended in preference to others; it is only given as an illustration. Those wanting to buy a machine had better see what are in the market, and select what they consider most suitable to their work and price. This applies to all the machinery given in these articles. There is rarely a best machine for all purposes.
Fig. 39
These machines are much in use, and can be run at a high speed, say 160, or even 180, and by many are preferred to the double-cylinder machines, as there is no danger of one cylinder getting before the other, and the cards are all laced in one set; besides, it may be more convenient for working, as some arrange their machines so that the cards for one loom hang to the back, and those of the next to the front. When these machines are to work at a high speed, the slide-motion cylinder will probably be found the most satisfactory. Fig. 39 illustrates one of these machines with slide cylinder motion and the levers for driving it, the connections being as before given. The levers for raising the griffes are also shown, but here go to the back, whereas they are usually at the side.
The most perfect jacquard machine in the market is undoubtedly the
DOUBLE-ACTING JACQUARD WITH TWO CYLINDERS
Fig. 40
The only drawback to this machine is, except what may be said against the method of shedding, the liability of one cylinder to be turned out of time, or get a shot or two before the other, so as to put the cards off their proper rotation; but this is only a difficulty in the hands of inexperienced weavers; nevertheless it exists. The effect will be to spoil the pattern on the cloth, giving the twill a mixed or broken-up appearance. There are motions in use for stopping the loom, unless the cards come in rotation, but many prefer to work without them. Fig. 40 is a view of a two-cylinder machine made by Messrs. Devoge & Co., with swing-motion cylinders, which are, perhaps, the best motions for these machines, as they do not require to travel quickly. A very good speed for the machines to work at is 160 to 180 or 200 picks per minute, and the cylinders would only travel at half this speed. The cylinders should be driven by an eccentric, same as given for the single-acting machines, but instead of being on the crank shaft, it should be on the tappet shaft, which runs at half the speed; and as the two cylinder frames are connected together, when the one is going out the other is coming in, so that one eccentric making a revolution for two beats of the slay will drive both cylinders. Sometimes the eccentric is on the tappet shaft, inside the framing of the loom, and is connected with the top lever, as shown in Fig. 34 (B). C is the eccentric, D the fulcrum of a short lever attached to it, and E the upright rod attached to an arm or lever on a horizontal shaft supported by the machine, or on the top of the loom. A lever from this shaft on each side of the machine drives the cylinders. The eccentric may be on the end of the tappet shaft, same as it is shown on the crank shaft in Fig. 18; but it might not always be convenient to have it here, and perhaps the most desirable way to have it at any time is to have a pinion on the crank shaft with, say, twenty teeth in it, and a stud wheel alongside with forty teeth gearing into it. On this stud the eccentric can be fixed, and will give a very steady and convenient method of driving. The griffes are raised in the same way as for the double-lift jacquard with one cylinder. (See Fig. 34 (A)).
Fig. 41
Fig. 42
Fig. 41 shows the arrangement of a row of hooks and needles for a double-cylinder machine. The top needle of the upper set and the bottom needle of the under set are attached to two adjoining hooks, which are connected together with the same tail cord. This arrangement is to enable the cards when working at both sides to act on the correct hooks, which will be better understood by referring to the description of lacing cards for these machines. In Fig. 41 it will be observed that all the hooks are vertical. Sometimes the hooks are slanted a little, as in Fig. 42, to give more space between the hooks at the top, without increasing the width of the machine, and there is a slight difference in the arrangement of the hooks and needles, as is shown. Both work very well.
Fig. 43 shows a two-cylinder machine, by Messrs. Devoge & Co., with a slide motion for the cylinders, which would be driven in the same way as the swing motion.
It has been said that the shedding of a single-acting jacquard is of the worst description for general weaving. That of the double-acting machine is by no means perfect either; some prefer the single-to the double-acting for making fine damask. Jacquard shedding cannot be regulated in the same way as tappets or the best shedding motions can. In tappets the dwell can be regulated to suit the cloth required, and the time of the shedding can be made early or late as desired. In jacquards this cannot be done to anything like the same extent. The shed must always be open in time for the pick, and the pick should begin when the cranks are about the bottom centre, a little earlier or later, as desired. The jacquard must have the shed open at this time, and must keep it open till the shuttle passes through.
It has been said that the usual method of raising the griffe or griffes is by a crank (or a stud in the wheel, which is practically a crank) on the crank shaft for a single-acting machine, and by a double crank on the tappet shaft for a double-acting machine. Now, a crank gives a continuous eccentric motion with a slight dwell when it is at both top and bottom centres. Sometimes a tappet is used to raise the griffes instead of a crank, and of course any required dwell can be made on a tappet; but then it must suit the jacquard, and the greater the dwell, the less time is occupied in the rising and falling of the harness. If the harness is plucked up or dropped down too quickly, the result is a dancing or unsteadiness of the cords, and in a double-lift machine there will be a considerable plucking when the hooks that are rising take up the cords that are falling. In order to keep the cords as steady and free from vibration as possible, if there is any swinging in the weights or lingoes, it is a common practice to put a frame round these, with wires run through it at whatever distance apart is thought desirable, so as to partition them off in bunches and keep them from swaying about.
Fig. 43
The smoother and slower the harness can be raised and lowered, the better. Therefore, to get a high working speed, the time or the portion of a revolution of the crank shaft given to the rise and fall must be as great as possible, so that very little could be gained by using a tappet. If a tappet is to be used, a box tappet will be required, or is more satisfactory for a single-acting machine, in order to make the griffe in falling follow the tappet and avoid any plucking or jerking; sometimes a fork lever, with the tappet or wiper working between the prongs of the fork, is used for the same purpose. For a double-acting machine double wiper tappets, acting on levers or treadles, are sometimes used, the griffes falling of their own weight; the tappets are nearly round eccentrics, or like plain tappets with a very short dwell, not more than one-fourth of a revolution of the crank shaft. It may therefore be considered that the harness should always be moving either up or down, with a small pause when the griffes are at the top and bottom, to admit of an easy turn and to allow the shuttle time for its passage through the shed. With the crank drive the shed will require to be opened a little wider than if the dwell was as great as it should be, especially in wide looms, in order to let the shuttle get through freely; but it would be more desirable, and a saving of strain on the yarn, to have the dwell greater, and not open the shed any wider than is necessary to admit the shuttle.
Speaking generally, the usual rule for the time of shedding may be said to be to let the shed be closed when the cranks of the loom are at the top centre, or perhaps one-sixteenth of a revolution farther forward, and let the shed be full open when the cranks are about the bottom centre. It therefore follows that the single-acting jacquard must open the shed in a little less than half a revolution of the crank shaft, and close it in the same time; but the double-acting machine takes nearly a full revolution (three-quarters, or a little more, should do) to either rise or let fall one of the griffes. It will be evident that there is a considerable difference in the nature of the shedding. A single-acting machine requires the weft to be beaten up on a closed shed (the time of the crank in coming from the top to the front centre being taken up with rising the griffe from the bottom up to catch the hooks), whereas in a double-acting machine the case is different; though the shed is closed at the same place, or in the same position of the cranks, the griffes are in an entirely different position. The closed shed with the single-acting jacquard is when the griffe is down, but with the double-acting machine it is when the two griffes are on a level—that is, halfway up. Of course, more or less of the yarn may be at the bottom position, so that there may be no closed shed, or in no position of the griffes may the yarn be all on a level, unless none of the hooks are on either of the griffes, or if one griffe has all the hooks on it. When the single-acting machine begins to open the shed, the driving-crank of the griffe is upright or at the top centre, and in the position to give the slowest motion to the griffe; whereas for the double machine the lifting cranks are horizontal when the shed is closed, and in the position to give the griffes the quickest motion; therefore, when the lay gets to the fell of the cloth in a single-acting machine, the shed is still close, whereas with a double-acting machine it is fully half open. From this it follows that, to get a close covered cloth, the double-acting machine is the better, as the weft is beaten up in a crossed shed; but to get a clean-surfaced fabric, with the weft lying straight between the two portions of the warp, the single-acting jacquard is better. It is for this reason that the single-acting machine is preferred by many workmen for making fine damask, which does not require much covering to give it a good appearance, and there is less chance of having cut weft and of looping when striking on the open shed. Of course the weft may be cut in a hard fabric by the reed having to strike too heavily against it, and in this case striking on a crossed shed might prevent the cutting, by the weft going on easier.
In hand-loom linen damask the shot is struck up when the shed is about half closed; the warp is held so firm in the loom that there is no spring in it, and the weft does not rebound. A cleaner surface is thus made on the cloth than if the weft was struck up in a closed or cross shed.
In a single-acting machine the faults in the cloth are more readily seen than with a double-acting one, as, in case of a hook missing the knife, in a single machine it would show in a short time, whereas in a double-lift machine one hook of the pair might be missing the knife and the other taking it, so that it might be some time before it would be observed. One of the tail cords breaking might have a similar effect.
The foregoing gives a general description of working the jacquard; but no hard-and-fast lines can be laid down—a little variation may be necessary at any time, to suit circumstances and the class of work.
JACQUARD STOP MOTION
When working with two cylinders, one may happen to be turned at a time when it should not, and thus put the cards out of rotation. Many attempts have been made to overcome this difficulty by stopping the loom when the cards get out of the proper order, but none of the methods adopted have ever gained much favour. Recently a new motion has been patented, and is being applied to machines by Messrs. Devoge & Co., of Manchester. It is called the ‘Devoge jacquard stop motion.’
Fig. 44
Fig. 44 shows how it may be applied to a machine. The hooks A and B and the needles E and F are those here used to work the motion. They may be at either side of the machine, but should be at the side of the belt handle. One hook must belong to the front cylinder needles, and the other to the back ones. The hook A requires a lingo attached to it to draw it down after being lifted. The hook B is attached to a lever connected to the side of the loom, so that when one end is raised a hammer on the other end pushes off the belt handle (a lever and bracket are supplied for the purpose). C C1 is a wire bell-crank lever with a turn or loop on it at D to act as a spring. The fulcrum is at L, on a piece of iron bolted to the edge of the machine; the lower end of this lever passes through an eye in the hook A at C1, and the upper end passes through an eye in the needle E. There is a spring on the point of the needle E, between the face-plate and the eye, which the lever goes through, and which holds the needle back as shown.
Each time the hook A is raised the lever presses forward the needle E, and with it the hook B, which would then be raised by the lower griffe, unless the card pressed the needle back again and pushed it off. Thus, by having a hole cut in the cards for the needle F, and none for the needle E, the hook B would never be raised; but if a hole is cut for E in a card following one in which a hole was cut for F, the hook B would be raised and the loom stopped. It is, therefore, only necessary to arrange the cutting of the cards to allow the loom to work when they are following each other in rotation; but as soon as one card gets out of order the loom should be stopped, though, perhaps, not till it has run for a few shots. Thus—
Number of cards—
Cut the large dots for the needle E.
Cut the large dots for the needle F.
This gives a repeat of twelve cards; but any number to suit may be used. Thus—
Number of cards—
Cut the large dots for the needle E.
Number of cards—
Cut the large dots for the needle F.
This gives a repeat of sixteen cards. The even numbers of cards go to the front or top cylinder, and the odd numbers to the low cylinder, and it may be seen that a hole in an even-numbered card following one in an odd-numbered card will not stop the loom; but a hole in an odd number following one in an even number will stop the loom, as it is the hook B rising after A that stops it; therefore any suitable rotation of cutting may be adopted, and the stoppage can take place either at short or long intervals, as desired, the principle being to raise the hook A two or three times, and push the hook B back again by having no hole cut for the needle E. Then leave A down for three or four shots, and cut holes for E, which have no effect unless the cards get out of rotation, and one of those with a hole cut to raise the hook A comes before one with a hole cut for the needle E, when B will be raised and the loom stopped. This is a good arrangement, and works very well.
Another motion for a similar purpose, invented by the writer, is shown in Fig. 45. It is based on the following principle: Suppose a cord is taken from any two hooks of the jacquard, and passed round a pulley on the ‘hound tail’ or long lever of the weft fork motion; if the cord is left slack, so that raising one of the hooks will just tighten it, then raising both hooks together will lift the lever, and can be made to stop the loom. The difficulty to be got over is that one of the hooks must belong to one griffe, and the other to the other one, in order to make the motion act with the two sets of cards. As the two griffes pass each other at the centre, or at the half-lift, this must be taken as the full lift, the cord must be stopped here, and not drawn any farther; for the remaining portion of the lift the hooks must draw a spring. This can be easily arranged by having loops on the cord passing round wires in the cumber board, or by having the two ends of the cord passing through a small hole board, and having knots or beads on them, beneath it. Other methods may also be adopted.
One of the most desirable arrangements is shown in the figure: A, A are the two hooks; B, B are two small springs by which the two levers, C, C are attached to the hooks with cords; D is the frame for holding the levers, and is fastened to the top rail of the loom, under the jacquard, or in any convenient place. It will be observed that the front bar of the frame passes above the levers, so that it will prevent them rising above the half-draw of the hooks, in which position they are shown. E, E are two cords connected with a jack or tumbler, F, on the end of a bell-crank lever, G H L, having its fulcrum at H, which may be on the same stud as the weft fork lever, or in any convenient place.
Fig. 45
The weight of F and G keeps the cords in tension, and the point L of the lever is set behind the lever on the loom which carries the weft fork, at such a distance from it that when one of the cords E is drawn it does not act on it; but when both hooks are raised, drawing up the two cords, the point L of the lever presses against the weft fork lever, pushing off the belt handle and stopping the loom.
The lever G H L may act directly on the belt handle, if desired; in this case it would be fixed outside the loom framing. The cards are cut on the same principle as for the last motion, but the same holes will do in both sets of cards, as the two needles are acted upon by the same number of holes in both back and front sets; that is, for two hooks coming beside each other.
The following order of cutting will answer:—
Number of cards—
Cut the large dots on the number of cards given, and of course they must be cut to suit the needles connected with the hooks used.
The above gives a continuous working of the motion, but it would be sufficient for it to work at intervals having 8 or 10 shots between them, as—
Number of cards—
This will not allow the loom to run for more than 20 shots after the cards get out of order.
Some other motions are in use, but these are simpler.
Before describing twilling machines or any special make of jacquards, it may perhaps be better to explain the mounting of ordinary machines, according to the usual methods adopted in some of the leading districts.
CHAPTER III
FULL-HARNESS MOUNTINGS
The mountings that will be alluded to in this section are all intended for ‘full harness’; that is, the ordinary method of jacquard weaving when applied to such fabrics as damask, dress goods, and, in many cases, to double cloths, handkerchiefs, &c.
Full harness, or, as it is termed in some hand-loom districts, shot and draft, to distinguish it from the ‘pressure harness’ system, holds the first place amongst mountings, as by it can be done what cannot be done by any other method, and everything can be done by it that can be done by any harness, or combination of harness or heddles; though it does not follow that it would be desirable to adopt it in every case. In a full harness each thread in any part of the tie can be lifted independently of the others; in wide fabrics, or in order to reduce expense in narrow ones, recourse is had to gathering or repeating the tie, and like threads in each repeat must be lifted together; but in a single tie any one thread can be lifted independently of any other. In full harness there is one thread of warp drawn into each mail or eye of the harness, and one shot is given to each change of card. Other descriptions of harnesses are known as ‘half harness,’ ‘split harness,’ ‘pressure harness,’ ‘gauze harness,’ double-cloth and quilt harnesses, &c.
Half harness is the term applied to that description of harness in which the half of the warp (every alternate thread) is drawn into the harness, and the other half passes through it loosely. This is mostly to be found in the manufacture of gauze or leno curtains, and is wrought with a shaft mounting in front of the harness.
Split harness is applied when two threads are governed by each hook of the jacquard, and the ground of the cloth is wrought by some other means, as shafts through the harness. This is to be found in the silk trade.
Pressure harness is when several threads of warp are drawn into each mail, and when the harness is drawn it remains stationary for several shots of ground texture, for which the sheds are sprung or pressed open by heddles.
Gauze harness is a harness fitted up with doups for weaving leno and gauze, and is mostly full harness.
Double-cloth and quilt harnesses are for weaving these fabrics.
Mounting, or gaiting, is a term that may be taken to apply to the building of the harness and the preparing of everything in connection with it. The form of ‘tie’ to be adopted will depend to a great extent on the nature of the fabric to be made, and to the style of pattern which is to be applied to it. For instance, dress goods may be required, and the pattern may consist of small sprigs or objects repeated over the surface of the cloth, forming a simple repeating pattern. Again, handkerchiefs, napkins, or table-covers may be wanted, which will require a bordered ‘tie,’ and may have both single and double mounting in them. Sometimes the manufacturer mounts his looms to what he considers a desirable ‘tie’ (or arrangement of cords) to admit of having a good variety of patterns wrought on it for whatever class of goods he is likely to make, and then he has the patterns made to suit the tie or mounting. Sometimes patterns are procured which will give the best possible effect on the least possible machinery, or the least number of hooks of the jacquard, and the mounting is then arranged to suit the pattern. On this method often a very considerable saving of machinery can be effected by turning over or gathering the harness; or, by arranging a variety of turns over, or gathers, and repeats, a very diversified effect can be obtained with a small number of hooks, as those accustomed to the larger forms of shaft mountings will readily understand. Thus, if we take 100 hooks of the jacquard as equal to 100 shafts, it will easily be understood that a large variety of beautiful patterns can be produced with either a straight or zigzag draft, though they will be mostly of a set or conventional type. The objection to mounting a loom in this way is, that if a change of pattern to a free or running style is required, it is necessary to cut down the harness and remount it, probably requiring new machinery as well. It may, however, suit to adopt both methods; that is, to have a few looms for working conventional patterns on small jacquards, say 200 hooks, and others mounted for free patterns requiring, say, 400 or 600 hooks in the machine. Of course this entirely depends on the nature of the orders likely to be received, and manufacturers must use their own judgment, in which, however, they are more likely to err on the narrow than on the liberal side of the question, the result being cramped and stiff patterns, with a probable loss instead of gain. Two styles of mounting harness are in general use—one, known as the ‘London tie,’ being used in Spitalfields by the silk weavers; the other is called the ‘Norwich tie,’ as it was there adopted in the early days of weaving. About 1830 the Norwich style was adopted in London, as the weavers’ houses were too low to admit of the jacquards being set high enough to suit the London method, which, having a quarter-twist in the harness, requires more height than is necessary for the Norwich system, in which the harness passes direct from the jacquard to the cumber board in flat rows without any twist.
The Harness.—When about to mount a loom the first process is to prepare the harness. A harness is built up of several parts, the methods of preparing and building varying in different districts. A few of the best methods will be given. Fig. 46, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, show a complete cord of the harness in three methods of preparing it—A (Nos. 1 and 2) are the tail or tug cords looped to the hooks of the jacquard; these cords are only necessary on double-lift machines, and are usually put on by the machine-makers. They are made of twisted cotton, and are soft and pliable. L shows the knot, known as the ‘tug knot,’ by which the tail cords are looped on the hooks. B, B are two methods of knotting the neck or body of the harness to the tail cords; that in No. 1 is the usual method. C, C are the hecks, or guide reeds, through which the harness passes. G, G are the lingoes, or leads, formerly made of strips of lead, but now of wire. From the lingo to the mail or eye, F, through which the warp passes, is a double cord called the bottom piece, or hanger. From the mail, passing through the cumber board or harness reed E, is another piece of double cord, called the top or mid-piece, or the ‘sleeper’; to this is looped or tied the neck twine in various ways, two methods of which are shown at D d d1 (No. 1) and at D (No. 2); No. 3 shows levelling below the cumber board, with two methods for tying H and H1. M is the snitch knot, which is much used for fastening cords that require careful adjusting. Sometimes it is a matter of choice to adopt any method of mounting, and sometimes one plan may suit circumstances better than another.
Fig. 46
Preparing Lingoes.—A prepared lingo is shown at No. 4, Fig. 46, this work being generally done by little boys or girls, or by old women. One of the commonest methods of preparing them is as follows:—Having prepared the mails, which are small eyelets of brass, copper, or steel of the shape shown at F, sometimes with round holes in the centre and sometimes with elliptical or long shaped ones, they are put into a dish or pan; a boy takes a piece of wire and strings a number of them on it. The wire is then fastened on a rack, or in any convenient place, by both ends, in a horizontal position. A bunch of small pieces of twine is tied up in a convenient place; these are to form the hangers, or to connect the lingoes with the mails. Having the lingoes conveniently placed, and being provided with a pair of shears, the boy sets to work. Taking a piece of twine, and pulling it through an end hole of a mail, he doubles it evenly, and, lifting a lingo, puts both ends through the eye in it, and casts on a knot, as shown at N (No. 4). The loop on the twine there shown requires to be pushed up over the top of the lingo, then drawn tight, and the ends clipped off. This mail is then pushed along the wire, and the others proceeded with. The pieces of twine for forming the hangers, as well as the sleepers, are prepared by warping them off spools round two pins, and then cutting them across. Of course the pins must be set apart at such a distance as will suit the length of the sleepers and hangers required. The usual length of the hanger (when doubled) is 7 or 8 in., and that of the sleeper or mid-piece when it passes through the cumber board, as in Nos. 1 and 2, Fig. 46, and as shown at No. 4, is 15 or 16 in. When a quantity of lingoes are hung on the mails, the top cords or sleepers may be put through the top holes in the mails, and tied with a weaver’s knot, the ends being neatly clipped off.
Fig. 47
A quicker method of preparing lingoes is as follows:—Two upright pieces of iron, as A, A, Fig. 47, are fastened on a board, or on a bench or table. A cut is made in each of these, so as to hold a piece of flat wire such as is used for coarse reeds. This wire is pointed at one end, so that by taking a handful of mails they can easily be gathered up on it. It is then placed in position, as shown at B; the mails, D, are shown on it, and C is a spool containing twine for the hangers. By rubbing the end of this twine with wax, so as to stiffen it, and gathering all the mails on the wire evenly together, the end of the twine may be run through the holes in all of them at once. This end is fastened, and with a hook, as shown at F, the twine can be drawn through the mails, beginning at the one farthest away from the spool, and passing from one to the other in succession, looping the twine round the pin E, which should be at such a distance from the mails as is required to make the hangers the proper length. If many mails are to be threaded at once there should be two or three pins as E, so as to avoid too much slope from them to the mails, which would increase the length of the hangers. The twine can be cut when the mails on the wire are completed, and the other ends of the mails turned round and treated similarly for the sleepers; but the pegs will require to be shifted, so as to get the required length of twine. When finished, these can be cut also, and the wire tied up in a convenient place, so that the lingoes may be hung on, as before described. The sleepers can then be knotted, if required to be.
After the lingoes are thus prepared the twine is frequently varnished, and sometimes twisted so as to prevent that of the hangers from rising up through the hole of the mail and getting in between the two halves of the yarn when the shed is crossing. This frequently happens if anything prevents the lingo from dropping. A common method of twisting them is for a boy to give them a coat of flour-paste or a light coat of varnish, then, having them hung on a rod which passes through the loops of the sleepers, he takes a handful of the lingoes, and, placing them on his knee, rolls them round with his hand till they are sufficiently twisted, then lets them hang down, and proceeds with another handful.
When the paste or varnish on these is set they can be well varnished. About two inches at the top of the sleepers must be left without varnish, to leave it soft and pliable for tying the neck to; the knots on all the sleepers must be brought up to about the point before they are twisted or varnished. When the lingoes are thus prepared and dry they can be tied in bunches, to be used as required.
Some do not varnish the twines till the harness is all mounted, and then varnish it all over. Others do not varnish at all. In this case the hangers are not twisted, and for light open sets of harness they need not be twisted at any time.
LINGOES OR LEADS
For pressure harness work the weights for drawing down the harness were originally made of lead, about the length and thickness of a thin pencil, but tapering to the lower end. The weight varied with the number of ends to the mail, the strength of the yarn, and the weight of the cloth to be made, ranging from 10 to 18 per lb., or lighter if for fine hand-loom work. For a linen damask as formerly made, with 6 or 8 threads in the mail, a very heavy lead was required, even in the hand loom, whilst a fine cotton two-thread harness would do with a comparatively light lingo. Strips of lead cut from sheets were used for lighter weights; these were then reduced to the proper size for drawing them through holes in steel plates. Now, lingoes for power looms are made of wire, and for ordinary damask or full harness work should range from 25 to 40 to the lb.; for heavier work, such as linen towels, worsteds, &c., 16 or 18 per lb., according to the weight of the fabric, are required. Lighter ones answer for hand looms: Murphy mentions as light as 110 per lb. for the centres of shawls, but 35 to 60 per lb. will be more frequently found. 25’s to 30’s are a good size for power looms; 12 in. long for 25’s or 30’s, 14 in. for 16’s or 18’s, and 16 in. for 10’s or 12’s are good lengths.
When there is a great slope in the border twines of a harness, it is often necessary to put heavier lingoes on it than on the centre, to keep the warp down. Of course, the less weight that has to be lifted is always a saving of power, and easier on the harness; therefore it is better to have two sizes of lingoes than to have them all weighty enough for the borders.
HARNESS TWINE
The size of harness twine used varies greatly; some prefer a fine, and others a heavy, twine. For the sleepers and hangers, 4 ply of 22’s or 5 ply of 30’s linen yarn is a very good medium size, and 4 ply of 14’s or 5 ply of 18’s or 20’s is a very good size for the neck or body of the harness.
Sometimes, for heavy damask, cable cord is used for the body of the harness, and is a good wearing cord; it is especially suited when the neck cords are fastened to the sleepers below the cumber board. This cord is made of good flax yarn; 5 ply of 30’s are twisted together, and three of these cords are then twisted together, or 3 ply of 18’s afterwards made 3 ply. A better size for medium work is 5 ply of 35’s made 3 ply, or 3 ply of 20’s or 22’s made 3 ply. Heavy harness twine requires to have heavier lingoes, particularly on those parts of the harness that are much slanted, in order to have the same effect on them that they would have on light twine. Some go to the opposite extreme, and use very light twine, such as 4 ply of 30’s, which is only fit for very light work in a narrow loom, where there will be but little friction on the cumber board, and where no heck is required. Lighter twine will suit better for a hand loom than for a power loom; 4 ply of 30’s for the harness of a hand loom, with lingoes of 50 or 60 to the lb., would do very well for a light cotton warp.
SETTING THE JACQUARD
The proper position for the jacquard, when only one is required on the loom, is so that the centre hook in it will be above the centre hole of the cumber board. This can easily be found by tying a plumb line to the centre hook of the machine and moving it, if necessary, till the plummet rests over the centre of the cumber board. In case the cumber board is not fixed in position, that of the jacquard may be found by having the plumb line to pass about half an inch more than the half breadth of the harness at the cumber board behind the top rail of the lay when it is full back, and it should also be at equal distances from each side of the loom. When more than one jacquard is required, they should be arranged evenly over the cumber board, and as close together as possible.
Sometimes the jacquard may be set farther forward or back to suit circumstances, such as getting card space, the only disadvantage being that there will be more slanting of the cords at one side than the other, and more friction on them in the cumber board, also more drag on the hooks on this side if no heck is used, and if a heck is used the cords will have to bear the friction on it. The more direct the cords of the harness can be, the better, and the above setting of the jacquard should be adhered to when possible, but it is not absolutely necessary for working to have it so.
It is always well to have the jacquards so arranged that they can be raised or lowered a little by having them resting on bars, which can be raised or lowered with screws. This is in case the harness is levelled higher or lower than might afterwards be desired; but if the breast beam of the loom, with the lay and back rail, can be raised or lowered, it will suit the same purpose, and it is better not to move the machine once it is fixed and the harness tied up.
The height the jacquard is to be above the loom must in many cases be regulated by circumstances; for instance, the height of the roof, or if the beams of the roof interfere with the working of it; sometimes the machines rest on the framing of the loom—that is, if the loom is made for a jacquard—and sometimes plain looms are used, and the machines rest on beams supported from columns, or from the roof of the house. This latter is the best plan, as it keeps the jacquard free from the shaking of the loom, which is particularly useful in the case of looms fitted with the knock-off motion. A good height for a jacquard, independent of circumstances, is to have 8 ft. or 8 ft. 6 in. from the mails to the bottoms of the hooks for a 10/4 loom—that is, one with about 100 in. reed space; 7 ft. to 7 ft. 6 in. for an 8/4 (82 in. reed space), and 5 ft. 6 in. to 6 ft. for a 4/4 (40 in. or 42 in. reed space), are very good heights. 5 ft. 6 in. is about right for a narrow harness, say 20 in. to 27 in. wide; 6 ft. would do for 80 in. wide, and 7 ft. or 7 ft. 6 in. for 90 in. wide, if necessary.
HECKS OR GUIDE REEDS
A heck is a frame of hard wood with wires across it, a wire for each row of hooks in the machine, from back to front. It should be made to suit the machine, so that when the harness passes from the hooks between the wires, it will go vertically down, and have no slant in it. In narrow hecks, there is usually one cross-stay to support the wires, but for broader machines there should be at least two. The wire should be iron, as brass soon cuts with the friction of the cords, and then in turn cuts the cords. For a single-acting machine the wires should be loose, so that they can roll with the cords; but for a double-acting machine this would be of no advantage, as a portion of the cords are falling when the remainder are rising. If the machine is very wide, or has to be set forward or back on the loom, there should be cross rollers of hard wood above the wires, at right angles to them, to prevent the bottoms of the hooks from being drawn either backwards or forwards, which might push their heads on or off the griffe knives.
Sometimes glass rollers are used in the silk trade for this purpose, with mountings of the London tie, and while they are very smooth and polish the twines, they get too hot if used in warm power-loom factories working at a high speed. Hecks are not required for very narrow harnesses, as the cords do not diverge much from the vertical, and the friction on the heck being saved, the cords wear much longer.
In a wide harness it is impossible to draw an even shed without a heck, although in some districts they are hardly known, and the more any portion of the harness diverges from the vertical, the more irregular will the shed be.
Fig. 48
Suppose we take an extreme case of a loom having three or four jacquards on it, the harness to be 96 in. wide, and the pattern to be for a table-cover; then, if we deduct 2 ft. from the width of the harness, it is possible some of the border twines may have to slant across 6 ft., or 72 in. Now make a triangle as No. 1, Fig. 48. Let the base, A B, be 72 in., and take it as the level of the cumber board. Take the vertical side, A C, as the height of the harness to the heck, viz., 84 in. Now calculate the length of the hypotenuse B C by squaring 84 and 72 and finding the square root of the sum, and it will be found to be 110·63 in. Again: Make another triangle, as No. 2, with base 72 in.; vertical side 3-1/2 in. longer than that of the former triangles, viz., 87·5 in. (this 3-1/2 in. is to represent the draw or lift of the harness). Calculate the length of the hypotenuse as before, and it will be found to be 113·31 in. From this deduct 110·63 in., the length of B C in No. 1, and the remainder, 2·68 in., equals the height that the cord B C has been raised, while the cord A C, which is vertical, has been raised 3-1/2 in.; and if we take into consideration that the side draw of the sloping cords, as B C, will pull the tail cord a little to one side and rise the vertical cords a little higher, while the sloping ones remain proportionately lower, 1 in. may be safely taken as the difference of the height that the two cords, B C and A C, would be raised by the jacquard, and all the other cords in the harness would vary, being less than this in proportion to their divergence from the straight or vertical line. It can thus be seen how the shed would require to be opened to let the shuttle through, and the irregular strain that would be on the yarn; and for any cloth that requires a fine surface, any irregularity of strain on the warp has a deleterious effect, very well known by experienced overlookers.
Some consider that the London style of harness is more suitable for working without a heck than the Norwich style, and adopt it to avoid using one, as it is severe on the harness twines. Some raise the machines very high to avoid using them, but for particular work with border ties they must be used to give a proper working harness. With the London mounting rollers should be, and are, used when there is no heck. These rollers are set as a coarse heck in a frame under the machine, and lie lengthways under it, just as they would do when used above a heck. The heck should be about 3 in. below the knots which fasten the tail cords to the neck twines. Some have the tugs, or tail cords, coming down through the heck; in this case the heck only takes the strain off the hooks of the machine, and has no effect on the shed, though sometimes this is mitigated by having more than one tug or tail cord, and the neck twines that slant in different directions are tied to different tail cords. The only point in favour of this is that it saves some trouble in tying broken harness twines when they begin to wear away by their friction on the heck.
PREPARING THE NECK OF THE HARNESS
The twine for the neck, as well as that for the other portions of the harness, is usually wound on spools, and when the neck is to be prepared it is warped from these spools to the length required, either on a hand warping mill or round two pins fastened in a wall or on a bench, as far apart as the length of the harness; three or four spools are put on pins, and the ends from them are taken and wound round the pins fixed for warping them on. When warped the twines may be cut at one end, and can either be tied in a bunch or stretched on a board and tied down on it, so that they may be kept straight and admit of any number of them being pulled out as they are wanted.
In some methods of mounting the neck twines are first tied to the tail cords; perhaps this is the plan most commonly adopted with double-acting machines. Sometimes they are tied to the sleepers first, and fastening them to the tail cords is the last process. This is called ‘beeting’ the harness. When single-acting machines are made with the hooks resting on a perforated board, they have tugs on the hooks; but when the wire hooks pass down through a perforated grating, tugs are unnecessary, and the neck twines are fastened to the hooks. When fastened to the hooks, or even when fastened to the tail cords, and a heck is not to be used, the neck twines should be formed into heads, either before they are tied up or afterwards, as may be desired. The reason of this is, that when a number of neck twines are tied to a hook or tail cord, and the hook is raised by the machine when working, the twines will be slanting in different directions, and when coming down again would be liable to catch on the knots of those that were not raised; and the head is for the purpose of keeping them together, so that they cannot separate for a short way down. One method of doing this is, after the bunch of neck twines is tied to a tail cord or hook, to take one of the twines and knot it round the others about 3-1/2 in. below the tail cord, and the same may be done with a second twine, if there are many in the parcel.
Sometimes the neck twines are all prepared in heads, and the following is a convenient method of doing so:—Fasten four flat pins of wood, as A, B, C, D, Fig. 49, on a board as F, or on the edge of a bench or table. C and D are firmly fastened, but A and B can be turned round to the position shown by the dotted lines when the screws holding them are slackened. The distance from C to D must be the length required for the neck twines. E is the twine coming from a spool on a wire. The pin A is pushed round to the position shown by the dotted line, and the twine is warped round C, B, D, passing over B and under C, so as to form a lease. When a sufficient quantity is warped, the crossing of the lease is pushed up towards C, and the pin A turned round into the centre of the twines, taking the place of B, which is turned back. The use of the two pins is to allow room for warping, C and A being too close together. The distance from the outside of C to that of A should be the length the head is required to be (about 3-1/2 in. or 4 in.). The twines may now be cut at D, and a piece of cord looped round them and tied to D, so as to hold them steady, but allow them to be drawn out as required. The number of twines for each head can now be drawn out and tied round the two pins C and A, and when a number are done they can be slipped off the pins and put on cords or rods; the lease keeps the heads in order, and the bunch can be hung up at the loom, and each head be taken in rotation by the mounter. The number of twines for each head is regulated by the tie of the harness.
Fig. 49
Suppose a double-acting machine is to be mounted with the harness similar to that shown in No. 1, Fig. 46. The tail cords are usually put on the machine by the makers, but if they are worn out, or if new cords are required, putting them on is the first process. This can be done when the machine is on the ground, and the neck may also be tied to the tail cords before the machine is put on the loom. Some mounters prefer one method, and some the other, and the one which most conveniently suits the circumstances may be used. When the neck is attached to the machine before putting it on the loom, it is usual to turn it on its side on blocks or on a table. If the machine is on the loom, a board is tied up to make a seat for the mounter, and the bunch of neck twines is fixed convenient to his reach; or he may have a boy to draw them out for him, and hand him the number he requires. Beginning at the first hook, he takes a pair of tail cords, and having drawn them down straight and stretched them firmly, he loops the neck twines on them in the way shown in Fig. 46, and draws the knot fast. The distance from the bottom of the hooks to the neck twines should be 11 in. or 12 in. The first of these in each row is measured, and the mounter can then regulate the others so as to have all the knots in a line.
The number of neck twines that are to be tied to each hook is regulated by the tie of the harness. For each time that any repeat or portion of a pattern is to be repeated on the cloth there must be a twine attached to those hooks of the machine that are to work this repeat. For instance, if a 400 machine is used, and the pattern consists of a simple repeat on these 400 hooks, and this has to be repeated six times on the cloth, then six neck twines must be tied to each hook of the machine. Again: The pattern might be made for a 400 machine, 200 hooks to be repeated six times, 100 four times, and 100 three times; then six twines would be tied to the first 200 hooks, four to the second set of hooks (100), and three to the third set (100), and any mounting would be regulated in a similar manner.
Full particulars of ties will be given further on.
If all the hooks in the machine are not required, any number of rows or portions of rows can be left idle at one end, or at both ends if desired, or even at the back or front.
When all the neck twines are tied up, the next process is to draw them through the heck, which should be fastened firmly 2 in. or 3 in. below the knots connecting the tail cords and neck.
The jacquard is supposed to have been levelled and set in its proper position on the loom, and firmly fastened there, and the same may now be done with the cumber board.
CUMBER BOARDS AND HARNESS REEDS
These are both for the same purpose—viz., that of regulating the space which the harness is to occupy—and both answer the purpose equally well, generally speaking. The reed being stronger is, perhaps, more suitable for coarse work; and the cumber board, giving a more evenly distributed harness, is perhaps preferable for fine work. Be that as it may, both suit for any medium work, though some workmen are all against the reeds, and others all against the boards. Harness reeds are strong-made reeds of cane or iron, of the depth and fineness to suit the harness. Bridges are fixed in them about 6 in. apart, with perforations for stiff wire to be run through; as many wires as are required to suit the number of rows of the harness. A wire should be outside the harness at both sides, to prevent it rubbing against the ribs of the reed. The wires are made straight, drawn tight, and fastened at each end to holes in the yoke of the reed. The reed is set in a frame of wood or iron, so that it can be bolted to brackets on the loom.
Cumber or comber boards, also called hole boards, are made in various ways. Sometimes they are of wood about 3/4 in. thick, and bored in a piece. These boards are strong enough to bolt to brackets on the frame of the loom. Sometimes they are thin, about 1/4 in. thick, bored in the same way, and framed. The wood used is beech, sycamore, and sometimes walnut. The objection to these boards, particularly the thin ones, is that if the wood is not very well seasoned they are liable to warp and split. A great many prefer to use what are called ‘slips’—that is, small pieces of wood of the depth required for the harness, and about 1-1/2 in. long or broad. The length, or long way of a cumber board or harness reed, is frequently called the width or breadth, same as weaver’s reeds, as this is the width of the loom. The cross-way, or from back to front, would, in the same way, be the depth. These slips are made of boxwood, beech, or other clean hard wood. Some prefer beech or sycamore to boxwood. The twines cut into them all in time, but the hardness of the boxwood causes a very fine cut to be made in it, which cuts the twine. The others will not cut the twine so readily, and by the time the wood is cut too much the harness would require to be renewed as well as the cumber board. These slips are made about 1/4 in. or 5/16 in. thick, and are set in a grooved frame. The usual way of arranging the holes in a board is shown at A (Fig. 50), which is for an 8-row harness. B shows a patent method, devised for the purpose of giving more space between any two holes in each horizontal row. The arrangement of the holes is in 4-shaft satin order, and gives double the space between the holes of each horizontal line that A does, and of course it would take so much longer for the twines to cut through; but this would only be an advantage if the holes were set very close together, as otherwise the harness would be considerably off the level before the twines had cut from one hole into another. In any case, the irregularity of the holes will likely prevent it from ever taking the place of the older method shown at A, though it may be desirable sometimes.
Fig. 50
The cumber board is fastened on two brackets—one at each side of the loom—and should be perfectly level and firm. It should be so far advanced as to allow the harness to pass within half an inch of the handrail of the lay when full back, and should be from 8 in. to 10 in. above the mails, the lower the better, as it keeps them steady; but the height may have to be regulated by the swords of the lay, as they must be clear of it, and in some looms they are higher than in others. When the cumber board is levelled and fastened, it should not be moved after the harness is tied up, as any change in its position must alter the level of some portion of the harness. This cannot in every case be adhered to, as in some cases it may be necessary to move it. In a small harness a good deal of shifting can be made that could not be attempted in a large or intricate one. In many places the harnesses are built in a separate room, or by the machine maker, and sent to the manufacturer; but practical experience with particular work will teach anyone that it is most desirable to have everything about the harness as level and true as possible, and it takes a good deal of care to effect this, even without any shifting.
SLABSTOCKS AND LEVELLING FRAMES
‘Slabstock’ is a name given to the board used for fastening the mails on before they are levelled. It is about 6 in. deep and 1 in. thick, and should be as long, or longer, than the loom is broad, according to the way it is to be fixed in the loom, which is usually by being bolted to brackets fastened on the sides of it.
Fig. 51
There is a groove or rebate in the top edge of it for holding the mails, as shown in Fig. 51 at A and B. Sometimes the grooves are at both sides, as shown at A1. All the mails required for the harness are put on the one slabstock, which is set directly under the cumber board when the harness is being levelled.
Fig. 52
A levelling frame is better than a slabstock; it is for the same purpose—that of keeping the mails firm and level when being tied to the neck twines. It consists of two flat bars of iron, C, C (Fig. 52), which can be bolted together in the form of a frame by the use of two stays, one at each end, and by the same screws be bolted to slotted brackets, A A, B B, fastened to the frame of the loom. Sometimes two hanging brackets, as D, are used, fastened from the top or heddle-bearer of the loom. The levelling bars, C, C, rest in these brackets, and can be fixed firm in them with a pin or cotter. If there is any yield or spring in the brackets, they can be stayed from the front of the loom as well, as the frame should be made very firm. The distance between the two bars should be 4 in. or 4-1/2 in., which will suit any harness; if only narrow harnesses, as 8-row, are required, it may be an inch narrower. The length of the frame must suit the breadth of the loom. It should be perfectly straight and level on the upper edges, and should have two rows of holes bored in it, about 2 in. apart, for pins and skewers to pass through above and below the wires on which the mails are strung, so as to keep them firm.
LEVELLING THE SLABSTOCK OR FRAME
Levelling a harness, or rather levelling the mails of the harness, is the most important part of the mounting, as, if the mails are not levelled as true as a straight-edge, good work need not be expected from the loom. The position in which they are levelled, in relation to the breast beam and back rail, will depend upon the nature of the cloth to be made, to a certain extent; but as a general rule, for ordinary work, the eyes of the mails should be half the depth of the shed required to be drawn below the level of the breast beam for hand loom work, and a little more than that for power-loom work. This is to have the top and bottom portions of the shed of an even tension, and to make both sides of the cloth equally good. The position of the back roll can be altered a little afterwards, if it is required to slacken either the top or bottom portions of the shed. Raising the back roll throws up the weft pattern to the under side of the cloth, and sinking the back roll gives the upper surface of the cloth a finer appearance, by tightening the top portion of the shed. A 3-1/2-in. draw of the harness is sufficient for power-loom work, and perhaps less would sometimes be preferable. Levelling the harness mails 1-3/4 in. for light work, and 2 in. for heavy work, below the breast beam should be a good average standard for a 3-1/2 in. draft of harness. The levelling frame or slabstock is levelled to this height by means of a spirit level and straight-edge, making allowance for whatever spring there may be in the harness after it is tied, and the wires drawn out of the mails. This can only be ascertained by experience, and depends principally on the tension the mounter puts on the twines when tying them; it will also depend upon whether the harness twines have any spring in them or not, but they should be well stretched before being used, to avoid this. A mounter who ties slackly will generally make a more level harness than one who ties tightly. About 1/8 in. may be allowed for the mails to rise if the cords are slackly tied, and if tightly tied 1/4 in. may have to be allowed, and sometimes more than this.
Sometimes the level is taken by placing a straight-edge on the race of the lay, when the cranks are at the back centre; then the under edge of the straight-edge should give the position for the tops of the mails on the slabstock, when it is fixed in its position in the loom. In levelling by this method the race must first be set at the proper height, and it must also be properly bevelled. From 1/2 in. to 3/4 in. below the breast beam is a good level at which to have the race, when the cranks are at the top centre, the latter for a low harness. The angle, or bevel, of the race may not at all times suit for levelling in this way. If not, the race should be made correct when possible; if it cannot be corrected, the harness must be levelled a little lower and the back rail kept down for working. A loom with the race bevelled for plain work is not suited for damask; the angle between the race and reed should, for damask, be about 93°, whereas for plain 87° would be more suitable.
TYING UP THE HARNESS
Having the neck attached to the tail cords and the levelling frame and cumber board fixed in position, the next operation is to get the prepared lingoes placed in the loom, whether on the levelling frame or slabstock. Suppose the levelling frame to be used. According to the number of rows in the harness or cumber board, pieces of reed wire are procured, one for each row, and as many lingoes are strung on each of these as will be required for each row of the harness, by running the wires through the mails. These wires are then placed in the frame and secured by skewers being put through the frame above and below them. The frame is then levelled and firmly bolted to the loom. The sleepers or mid-pieces of the lingoes are next drawn up through the cumber board, one through each hole required to be used, any surplus holes being previously marked out to suit the tie of the harness, which will be afterwards explained. When all are drawn through, the tying of the neck twines to the sleepers may be proceeded with.
This must be done in accordance with the tie of the harness. Thus, if there are four cords tied on the first hook of the machine, these must be taken down to the lingoes in the proper place in the cumber board, which may be seen by examining the particulars of the mountings, to be given further on. One method of fastening the neck to the sleepers is shown in No. 1, Fig. 46, at D, d, d1. The twine is put through the loop of the sleeper at d1 (or better to have a snitch on the sleeper, unless the knots are to be varnished afterwards), then a loop is thrown on at d, and the end tied at D, and clipped close. This method suits very well when the harness is liable to be altered, for if the knots are brushed over with paste they hold sufficiently firm, and can be loosed again at any time, if necessary. If varnished, it also answers equally well for any coarse harness; but if it is fine and much crossed, especially if the twines are strong or coarse, the knots are liable to catch on each other and raise more warp than should be when the loom is working.
A second plan is shown in No. 2, Fig. 46. In this case there are no sleepers on the lingoes; they are put on the levelling frame or slabstock without them, the mails and lingoes being connected by the hangers; the levelling frame is set in the loom as before, and the neck twines must be long enough to go down through the cumber board, through the top hole of the mail, and up again through the cumber board to where they are tied. The mounter, when about to tie them, takes one of the twines and casts a single knot on it, leaving the loop open, then puts the end of it through a hole in the cumber board and through a mail, and with a small wire hook draws it up again through the same hole in the cumber board, and through the open knot or loop he made on it, at the same time; then, turning round the awl or piercer in the other end of the handle of the hook, he puts it through the knot and runs it up about 6 in. above the cumber board, draws it tight, and casts another knot above it with the end of the twine, as shown at D, No. 2, Fig. 46. This makes a neat harness, and when a mounter gets accustomed to it he can proceed very expeditiously. This method is used in England; the former is Scotch. The instrument used for drawing the twines through the cumber board consists of a wooden handle, in one end of which is a hook or barbed wire, same as is used for drawing the warp through mails, and in the other end is a round awl or piece of steel wire, tapered to a blunt point, which is used for running up the loop or knots so as to have them all about the same distance above the cumber board.
Beeting is another Scotch method of mounting. The harness may be beeted either above or below the cumber board; beeting above it was the old method, and single slabstock was used, as shown in Fig. 51 at A. When preparing it for the loom, the lingoes and mails are connected by the hangers in the usual way, and hung on the slabstock with the mails in the groove in it, as shown at B, Fig. 51. A piece of flat wire (reed wire) is run through the eyes of the mails, as many as are required for the whole harness, and is then tied down by cords fastened round it and the slabstock, at short distances apart. The slabstock is now put into a frame, or rack, with a rail as high above it as is required for the length of the sleepers. A spool of twine is fixed on a wire pin at the side of the frame, and with a needle, or otherwise, the end of the twine is run through a number of the mails and fastened. With a hook the sleepers can be reeled up to pins in the rail above the slabstock, on the same principle that they are done in Fig. 47. When the sleepers are all finished they can be slipped off the pins and cut.
The slabstock is next fixed in the loom and levelled with the upper edge of the rebate or groove touching the under edge of a straight-edge placed on the race of the lay when it is full back (for power looms).
The sleepers are then drawn up through the cumber board without their ends being knotted; they should be long enough to reach about 8 in. above it, and say 7 in. below, making 15 in. for their entire length.
Now, to beet the harness: Say there are two beeters, standing on the ground, with a supply of neck twines convenient to them; they pick up the sleepers from the first set of holes in the cumber board—that is, those that are to be connected with the first hook in the machine—and, having tied neck twines to them, hand them to the harness tyer, who is up at the machine. He takes the lot of twines and draws them all to an even tension, then, having drawn down the tail cords firmly and evenly, knots the neck twines to them.
One method of knotting the neck to the tail is to have the tail cords tied together so as to form loops; then, having straightened both the neck and tail cords, lay the neck against the loop of the tail, and take both firmly between the finger and thumb of the left hand, being careful not to let them slip, and casting a knot, as at C or D, Fig. 51, round the tail, with the ends of the neck draw it fast. In order to have all the tail cords plumb and the knots of a uniform height, the harness tyer sometimes has a cord tied across the top of the loom frame, at each end of the machine, at the height the knots are to be. On these he lays a straight-edge, marked as a guide for where the tail cords are to hang, so that he can regulate those of one row and have them plumb, and the knots even; when one row is finished, he moves the straight-edge to the next, and goes on with it. A newer method of beating is to prepare the lingoes with sleepers and hangers, the sleepers to be about 5-1/2 in. long. The slabstock A1, Fig. 51, is used, or the other if preferred.
The mails are put upon flat wires as before, but instead of all going on one wire, half the number is put on each of two wires, and one of them is placed at each side of the slabstock, where it can be fastened with small staples. To facilitate getting the mails on the wires, when reeling the sleepers on the pin, as in Fig. 47, a lease can be made on the loops by giving them a twist when putting them over the pin.
A piece of twine can be fastened in this case, and the loops afterwards cut. The mails can then be taken off in order, and run on the wire for the slabstock. When the mails are fixed on the slabstock it may be laid on the ground, or set in a frame, and the neck twines tied to the sleepers; and when all are tied, they can be drawn through the cumber board or harness reed. Afterwards, all are taken and fixed in the loom. The cumber board must be set so high above the knots on the sleepers that they will not come into contact with it when the shed is opened (that would be 4 in. or 4-1/2 in. above it). The neck twines are then tied to the tail cords as before.
This makes a very good harness, and has the advantage of having no knots on the neck twines above the cumber board, which is very important in an intricate harness with the cords close together, as the knots when varnished are liable to catch on each other, or on twines slanting across them, and lift them as they are being drawn up. When a harness is mounted in this way it is not easy to make any alteration on it, or to re-level any portion of it if necessary. If the sleepers are tied in loops, same as used in No 1, Fig. 46, they can be connected to the neck twines by having the latter double and putting both ends of the neck through a snitch on the sleeper, or the neck twines may be double and the two ends of the sleeper when untied may be put through a snitch on the looped end of the neck twine and tied; in this way they could be altered or adjusted afterwards if necessary, but if they had to be varnished the knots would be rather rough.
The following method of mounting is adopted in the damask hand-loom districts of the North of Ireland, and is used for particular power-loom work as well. It is a slower process than the preceding, but cannot be surpassed for getting a level harness, and the mails can be regulated as desired—that is, to have the back rows getting gradually a little higher than the front ones, which can only be accomplished in the preceding methods by tying them a little tighter, or by having the frame sloped a little.
The lingoes may be prepared as before, with the sleepers 5 in. long when tied and clipped. The neck twines are put down through the cumber board and knotted loosely in bunches underneath.
The levelling frame is set in the loom, the top edge of it being at the level that the eyes of the mails in the front row are to be hung.
No wires are required. The lingoes are taken in bunches and put astride on the frame as required, and boys fasten them up to the neck twines by throwing on a snitch and running them up to somewhere about the height they will be wanted when level; in doing so the knots on the sleepers must be kept up as close to the snitch as is convenient for tying them, as, if left too low, they would interfere with the warp in shedding. When all the lingoes are hung inside the levelling frame—or they may be hung first, and the levelling frame put up afterwards and levelled—the mounter may begin to level the mails.
He uses a fine piece of waxed cord with a small weight at each end, which he lays across the levelling frame as a guide, and levels each row from back to front in succession. The front mail may hang with the top of its eye level with the cord, and the others rise a little higher, till the back one is perhaps, with the bottom hole, level with the levelling cord, or 1/8 in. higher than the front one. The levelling can easily be accomplished by sliding the snitch up or down the neck twines; and when the correct height for the mail is got, the neck twine is tied as at H, No. 3, Fig. 46, when it is to be varnished, or as at H1 when it need not be varnished; in the latter case cable cord is used for the neck, and it is split at the end, when drawn through the snitch, and then knotted.
VARNISHING A HARNESS
Varnishing is for the twofold purpose of making the harness twines wear better, and keeping them from being affected by the atmosphere.
Sometimes the harness is only partly varnished, particularly when it is liable to be changed in a short time, and then it can be loosed down and used again.
If it is to remain for a length of time—that is, for steady work—it should be varnished all over, but care should be taken to get a good varnish, as some of them destroy the twines, and others come off and are useless.
The common varnishes are made principally from shellac, beeswax, and turpentine, and can be procured at any heddle-maker’s. Sometimes white wax dissolved in turpentine is used to rub the twine at the cumber board, for fine harnesses for silk and other light work, the remainder being left unvarnished. Sometimes the neck of the harness and the sleepers are varnished, and the knots above the cumber board are brushed with paste, as each row is tied, to keep them from slipping.
Perhaps the best varnish is boiled oil, which, when well dried, gets very smooth after working for some time, and keeps the twines soft and pliable. It takes some time to dry, and does not suit well for using in a dusty place, but answers very well when the harness is built in a room for the purpose, and is afterwards taken to the loom.
Sometimes a very small quantity of beeswax or white wax is added to the oil to give it more firmness, and sometimes driers are used to make it dry more quickly; but it is better to do without driers, as they harden the twines and are injurious. Varnish should not be disturbed till quite dry, as, if the twines are separated and the loom started when it is soft, the outer surface will rub up and make a rough harness. The twines are separated by running a wire skewer between each cross-row. French chalk dusted down through the harness assists in smoothing it, and prevents too much friction when it is being started to work.
TO ARRANGE THE TIE OF A HARNESS
What is known as the tie of a harness is the arrangement or manner in which the harness twines are connected to the hooks of the jacquard—i.e. the number of twines that are tied to each hook, and the position they are to occupy in the cumber board. Ties for ordinary damask work may be divided into three classes—viz. straight, or single; lay over, or repeating; and gathered, or centred.
Straight or Single Tie.—This tie is only required when there is no repetition of any portion of the pattern, as in silk markers, and occasionally in handkerchiefs, d’oyleys, tablecloths, &c. Only one harness twine is tied to each hook of the jacquard, and there must be as many hooks as there are threads of warp. The twines are tied to the jacquard and taken down through the cumber board in regular order from first to last, and the warp is drawn into the mails in the same order. Any pattern that it is possible to put on the cloth can be wrought with this method of mounting.
Lay Over or Repeating Tie.—This is, perhaps, the commonest tie, and is used for all such patterns as Fig. 53, where one small portion, as that enclosed by the dotted lines, will, when repeated several times, cover the entire surface of the cloth.
Fig. 53
Gathered or Centred Tie.—This tie can be used when both halves of any figure or border, &c., are alike when turned over; it will only require half the number of hooks to work a figure or border, when gathered or centred, that would be required for a single pattern.
All other ties are combinations of these.
Fig. 53 shows a pattern for a lay over, or repeating tie, such as might be used for dress goods, handkerchiefs, &c. The complete extent of the pattern is enclosed by the dotted line; this is called one ‘repeat’ of the pattern, because this portion repeated over the cloth makes up the entire figuring on it. To ascertain how this may be woven, or what number of hooks of the jacquard will be required to weave it, the number of threads contained in 1 in., or other given space, of the cloth required must be known. If the pattern is to be on the cloth say 2 in. × 2-3/8 in., and there are to be 100 threads of warp and 120 threads of weft per inch, then 200 hooks of the jacquard and 240 cards would be required to weave it, each hook representing one thread of warp, and each card representing one shot of weft.
Fig. 54
Figs. 54 and 55 show mountings on jacquards with 208 hooks in each, the former tied on the Norwich principle, and the latter in the London style. In both cases only 200 hooks are used, the remaining eight hooks being left idle for selvages, if required. These mountings are made for four repeats of the pattern, which would only make 8 in. of cloth; but there may be any number of repeats, say 13, to make 27 in. of cloth or 28-1/2 in. of warp in the loom, with, say, 92 threads per inch. There must be a harness twine for each repeat of the pattern tied to each hook of the machine; when four repeats are used, four twines are tied to each hook, as in Figs. 54 and 55. The harness reed or cumber board, G, must be of the same set or fineness as the weaver’s reed (if finer, it can be used by passing over the surplus holes). It is divided into four portions, leaving 200 holes for each repeat, and the twines are, in Fig. 54, taken straight down from the hooks to the holes in it, as can easily be seen. In this figure the cross-rows of the cumber board at the first of each repeat are shown filled; but in mounting, the back row, taken from the hooks A to B, would be filled first. In Fig. 55 the reverse is the case, the cross-rows, as shown, being the first filled; this is owing to the twist in the harness, as the machine is sitting so that the cards will hang over the side of the loom. The letters A, B, C, and D in both figures denote the same corners of the machines, showing that in Fig. 55 there is a quarter twist in the harness. In Fig. 54, the dotted lines from the 200th hook show the last cord of each repeat; L is the first cord of the last cross-row, and E and F are the same in Fig. 55. In these figures only the skeleton of the mounting is given; it must, of course, be filled up as the first rows which are given.
Fig. 55
For this description of mounting the yarn is drawn into the mails in regular order, beginning at No. 1, and proceeding with the numbers as given. In this case the back hook to the left-hand corner must be taken as the first hook of the machine, and the cards cut to suit this. Sometimes the first hook to the front left-hand corner is considered the first hook, but if so it must be remembered when cutting the cards. Sometimes the mounting is begun at the right-hand side, but in any case it is only necessary to see that the draft of the yarn and cutting of the cards correspond with the order of mounting; the result of the work should be the same in all cases.
Fig. 56
Fig. 56 shows a pattern for a gathered border with a repeating centre, which is a very common style of design. It will be seen that the two halves of the border, A and B, are alike, if taken from the centre outwards; or if one-half of the border were traced on tracing paper, it would, if turned over, form the other half. For this reason it is also called a ‘turn-over’ border. In the same way, if two cords are tied to each hook of the jacquard for the border, and those to the first hook taken down to the cumber board for the two outside threads of the border (that is, one to the right and the other to the left), then those from the next hook taken to the two next outer holes, and so on, coming from the outsides to the centre, the first half of the pattern would be repeated by the mounting in exactly the same way as by turning over the tracing paper.
Fig. 57
Fig. 57 shows a mounting for a gathered border and four repeats of the centre. Eighty hooks are taken for the border, which are repeated four times in the cumber board, as at 80a, 80b, 80c, and 80d, and 120 hooks are allowed for the centre repeat (see also Fig. 58). This mounting is made up for a 200 machine with 208 hooks, the extra eight hooks being left for working the selvages. Only the front row of the harness is shown, but they are all alike. By following the cords from the hooks to the cumber board, it can be easily seen how they are taken through it. The first eight hooks are left idle, for the selvage to be fixed to if required. The next ten rows = 80 hooks, are for the border; these 80 hooks, with one twine on each, taken down through the cumber board at 80a, would work the first half of the border, as A. The other half of the border, B, can be wrought by the same hooks, with another set of twines tied to them, and taken through the cumber board at 80b; but the twine from the first hook must be crossed over to the right-hand side of the border, being the 160th twine in the cumber board; the twine from the second hook is the 159th in the cumber board, and so on, coming in towards the centre to meet the first set of twines; hence the name, ‘centred tie.’
Fig. 58
The border must also be repeated on the other side, and two more sets of twines must be tied to the same hooks (four to each hook in all), which are taken down through the cumber board at 80c and 80d, to work the two halves of the border marked G and H, Fig. 58. The next 15 rows of hooks = 120, work the repeat of the centre pattern, C, Figs. 56 and 58; and as this is repeated four times, at C, D, E, and F, Fig. 58, there must be four twines tied to each of the 120 hooks, which are taken down through the four divisions of the cumber board marked 120; one twine from each hook being taken through each division, beginning at the left and working to the right side, alike in them all, as this portion is a simple repeating tie. Fig. 58 gives a portion of the pattern in Fig. 56 completed across, as it would be on the cloth by the mounting in Fig. 57; the cumber board is laid across the top of the pattern and marked, showing, in conjunction with the mounting, Fig. 57, how the harness repeats the pattern so that a large surface can be figured with a small machine by adopting a suitable tie.
When drawing the warp into the harness, wherever there is a gather in the tie, or a turn in the harness, there must be a turn in the draft also; not that there is any real change in the draft, but when the harness is turned in the direction it is drawn through the cumber board, the draft must also be changed to follow the mails in regular order. Fig. 59 shows a draft for a gathered border, with 48 hooks for the border and three repeats of the centre. It will be seen that the first half of both borders A and B and the three repeats of the centre are drawn in the same direction, but that the two turned-over portions of the borders C and D are drawn in the reverse direction. The numbers on Figs. 62 and 62a may assist in explaining this, the border A in 62 and B in 62a being taken; in these it will be seen from the numbers, which are those of the harness twines, that 1 to 8 in border A (Fig. 62) run in the reverse direction of 1 to 8 in border A (62a), and both are from the same hooks.
Fig. 59
Fig. 60
When two borders are to be woven on any piece of cloth, though the pattern for each border may be single in itself, as Fig. 60 (which is single except the two outlying lines, A and C), they will to each other form a gathered tie, provided they have to be turned in the same way to the centre of the cloth—that is, if the inside of one border on one side is to be the inside of the other border on the other side. In such a pattern as Fig. 60 it would not matter much if the inside of one border was the outside of the other, as the border is much alike either way, and if wrought in this way the twill on the cloth would not be reversed, as is always the case in a turned-over border. In many patterns this would not do, and it is therefore necessary to gather the tie and turn the twill. Fig. 61 shows how, in the London style of tying, the harness can be turned so that a turn in the draft is not necessary, but this will not alter the reverse twill on the cloth. It will be seen that one of each of the two cords tied to the eight hooks goes to one border, and the other to the opposite border, but instead of both going to the same row of the cumber board, the cord from the first hook goes to the back row in one border, and to the front row in the other. All the cords follow in this way, which has the same effect as turning the draft, as would require to be done in the Norwich mountings, and could also be done on this principle. Fig. 62 shows the draft of the two borders for Fig. 61 mounting, A and B being a plan of the warp passing through the mails. The numbers refer to the hooks of the jacquard. C and D are the two innermost threads of the borders, both on the 48th hook of the machine. Fig. 62a shows how the draft would be if the cords were not brought from front to back of the cumber board, as the numbers will show. No. 1 shows where the cords from the first hook pass through the cumber board. Fig. 62a gives the right-hand border only, the left-hand one remaining the same as in Fig. 62.
Fig. 61
Fig. 62
Fig. 62a
In Fig. 60, the two bars A and C could be wrought from the same hooks, and, unless they might be required to be different from each other on another pattern to work on the same loom, it would be unnecessary to allow machinery for the two; either the outer or inner one could be tied up, and the other repeated from it, but the one that is tied up must be painted on the design paper.
Fig. 63
Fig. 63 shows the front view of a mounting for weaving a pattern such as that given on Fig. 60, one machine being used for the border, and another for the centre. Usually the border machine would be to the left-hand side, to correspond with the pattern; but in Fig. 63 it will be observed that No. 1 machine is to the right-hand side, and that it works the borders. It does not matter which machine is used for border or centre; the mounter can use the one he considers most suitable for the borders, and the pattern may be painted and the cards cut without any consideration of this, it being only necessary to put the border cards to the border machine, and those for the centre to the centre machine. The only consideration is to avoid any unnecessary slanting of the harness twines, which the present arrangement does; and it also keeps the turned portion of the harness (that for the right-hand border) separate from the twines of the centre, thus avoiding any unnecessary friction.
TO MARK OUT A CUMBER BOARD
Fig. 64
Cumber boards may be either the exact fineness of the harness, or any set finer; they are better to be a little finer, to allow for any broken rows at the beginning or end of any of the repeats. When the cumber board is finer than the harness, the surplus rows are left idle. A convenient plan of marking off a cumber board is as follows:—Let the pattern be as Fig. 60—that is, with a border at each side and the centre to be repeated several times to make up the width of the cloth. Let 24 cords be required for the selvage, 172 cords for the border, and 128 for a repeat of the centre; there are to be four repeats of the centre. Now mark off on the cumber board whatever width the harness is to stand, which should be the same or rather wider than the warp occupies in the reed, and let it be so as to have the harness in the centre of the loom. Suppose Fig. 64 to give the width of cumber board required. The selvages are wrought from 6 hooks, and there are 8 hooks in each row of a 400 jacquard; therefore 4 rows of the cumber board will be required for each selvage. Mark these off by drawing the lines A and B on the cumber board. Now find out the width the borders are each to occupy, by calculating how wide the yarn will be in the reed, and mark them off by the lines C and G; then mark off the width of each repeat by the lines D, E, and F. Counting the number of holes marked off for the margin, it will be found that there are 32; but as the selvage is on six hooks, the two back holes of each row of the cumber board are marked out, as shown, not being required. The portion marked off for the borders contains 23 rows on each side, whereas only 21-1/2 are required for 172 cords. As the centre repeat is on even rows, and it is usual to leave broken rows to the left-hand side of the painting, the first 4 hooks of the border portion of the machine will be idle; therefore the 4 back holes of the cumber board for both borders are marked out; this still leaves a row too much, which may be marked out at any place. For the repeats, 128 cords, 16 rows are required, and the surplus rows are marked out, as shown. This mounting is supposed to be on a 400 machine, leaving 100 hooks idle to the left-hand side of the mounting, then using 1 row for the selvages, and the remaining 38 rows for the pattern, all but the half of the first row, which is not required.
Fig. 65
In marking out a cumber board for a lay-over, or repeating pattern—if, say, 108 hooks are required for each repeat, which makes 13-1/2 rows of an 8-row machine—if the broken row is to the left-hand side of the painting, and the harness mounted from left to right, then the first four holes of the first row of each repeat of the pattern are marked out in the cumber board to be left empty, as shown in Fig. 65. When mounting, no attention would be paid to the cords on the half-row of the machine till the first four rows along the cumber board have been filled, the mounter beginning with the back cord on the first full row of the machine, which is the fifth hook of the tie. Three rows for the selvage, which is on four hooks at the front of the harness, are shown at S, Fig. 65.
The front of a jacquard is generally considered by workmen to be the cylinder side. Of course, when there is a cylinder on each side there is neither front nor back to it. Sometimes it is very confusing talking of the front and back, one considering it to mean the front of the harness, or front of the loom, and another taking it to be the front or cylinder side of the jacquard, which is usually at the back of the loom for Norwich ties. Of course, the front of the loom is where the weaver stands, or where the cloth is made, and the front of the harness is towards the front of the loom. It simplifies matters greatly by not minding the back or front of the machine, but speaking of every part of the harness, &c., towards the front of the loom as the front of it.
Fig. 66
It frequently happens that figured stripes are required, running up plain or fancy textured goods, either forming borders to the outer edges, or merely ornamental stripes, say 3 or 4 inches from the edges of the cloth, as in towels, toilet-covers, &c. For this class of work it is generally most advisable to work the stripes with a small jacquard, and the plain or fancy texture of the body of the cloth with a shaft mounting. Fig. 66 shows a mounting of this class; the shafts can be wrought by tappets in the usual way, and small cumber boards, as A, A1, are fastened to the top rail of the loom for the harness to pass through. It is usual to keep the harness behind the heddles, and it is levelled in the usual way. The yarn may or may not be on the same beam for both portions, according to whether the take-up, or shrinkage, will be the same for both portions or not. Sometimes the shrinkage may be regulated to be alike in both by using different counts of yarn, or drawing it thicker into the reed; but perhaps in most cases two beams would be desirable, unless the texture is much alike for both the stripes and body of the cloth.
The lease rods for the yarn in the harness will not, probably, do to be the same as those for the body yarn, as the action of the heddles will be different from that of the harness. If the same rods will not suit, it is easy to have a pair for each warp, those for the harness being farthest back. Stripes of this description are frequently made in towels, glass-cloths, &c., for clubs or hotels, with the name of the company woven into them. A gathered tie is mostly used for these mountings, except when letters are required to be woven, in which case a gathered tie is not suitable. (See Letters and Monograms.)
TO VARY THE SET OF THE HARNESS
It may often be that in weaving figured piece-goods it would be an advantage to have a harness that would weave different degrees of fineness, so that the loom could be utilised for one when the other is not required. For weaving small quantities, for samples or special orders, this is often an advantage.
The usual method of procedure is to draw the warp into a finer or coarser reed if only a slight difference is required, and to pay no attention to the strive in the warp between the harness and reed. The better the quality of the warp, the greater the strive may be, but from 1 in. to 2 in. at each side is as far as it can safely be run when the harness is wider than the yarn in the reed; and if the reed is coarser than the harness, 1 in. at each side will probably be the maximum limit.
When changes of this kind are liable to take place, the cumber board should not be too low down, nor should the mails hang too close to the back of the slay; with the cumber board high and the harness a little back the strive will not tell so severely on the warp. When the cumber board is made of boxwood slips, they can be spread out a little in the frame, but when there is much of a slant in the harness this would take the mails off the level; though this can sometimes be counteracted a little by raising the cumber board slightly higher at one end than at the other.
The best plan when much of a change is required is to pass over the surplus rows of mails in the harness, as in harness work, as well as in shaft mountings, the mounting may be used for any coarser set of warp than it is built for—of course, if the width is suitable. This would necessitate the warp, or at least a part of it, being drawn out of the harness, and also requires a new set of cards for the new pattern, or for the same pattern on a new set of cloth. The surplus mails may be cast out in rows across the loom if many are to be rejected, or in rows across the harness (from back to front) if found more suitable, or when a small number of mails are to be left idle. Suppose for an 8-row harness, 400 machine, with 6 repeats = 2400 mails on 30 in., or 80 threads per inch, and it is required to weave a piece of cloth on this having 74 threads per inch. Drawing the yarn into a coarser reed, and, if only 30 in. wide is required, throwing off the surplus yarn at each side, would probably be the simplest method; but if the cloth to be woven is to have 60 threads per inch, every four throw of mails across the harness, or one-fourth of the harness, might be left idle, or the two back rows of the harness may be left empty. In the latter case the pattern could be painted on 6-row design paper as if for a 6-row machine, and in the former case the number of designs across the painting would be reduced by one-fourth, the card-cutter taking care that he omitted those rows on the card that have been thrown idle on the machine.
In order to reduce this trouble and expense to a minimum Messrs. Devoge & Co. have patented an expanding harness which is intended to admit of cloths of different degrees of fineness being woven without any trouble but a little setting of the cumber board and re-reeding the warp. The method of doing so is as follows:—There are two cumber-board frames, one above the other, as shown in the sketch Fig. 67; these frames are filled with slips which can be moved along when desired. The harness can be set for two degrees of fineness of warp, as is shown in the sketch. The slips in the upper frame, B, are set midway above the two positions for a slip in the lower frame indicated by the letters a and a1. The black lines show the position of the cords when weaving the finer set. The only change required to be made is to shift the lower slip, a, to the position a1, and to re-reed the warp; other changes can be made on the same principle, or by altering both sets of slips in relation to each other. When the slips are moved in the frames, they can be kept in position by interposing blank slips between them.
Fig. 67
The same cards will suit in this case for several sets of cloth, if required. Of course it is plain that the friction on the harness twines working through the two cumber boards must be greatly increased from that of the ordinary method of working; but for light work, and when the harness is not required to last long, it may prove very serviceable when frequent changes are required, as it furnishes a ready means of accomplishing the desired object, which cannot be done without cost in some direction. For wide looms or intricate mountings it will not be of much service. In the Figure only one hook of the jacquard is given, for simplicity, but the harness would be filled up in the usual manner. If the harness is built with long mails having several eyes in them, the second cumber board is not required; the slips can be shifted and the warp levelled by drawing it through suitable holes in the mails.
CHAPTER IV
DESIGNING AND DRAUGHTING
Designing is the composing, drawing, and colouring, if necessary, of the sketches for jacquard patterns, and in some cases planning the texture of the cloth; and draughting (or drafting) is the term usually applied to the painting of the patterns upon design paper.
A designer should be a first-class draughtsman, and have a thorough knowledge of the various styles of ornament; he should also be well practised in drawing floral forms from Nature, without which there is generally a stiffness and want of freedom in his style of work. For coloured work, such as carpets, &c., skilful colouring is the most essential point. No drawing will atone for bad colouring; at the same time, good colouring should not be wasted on bad drawing.
A designer may draught his own patterns, and if he is an experienced draughtsman with a good knowledge of weaving, perhaps this is the most successful method of working; but if the greater portion of his time is to be taken up with draughting, his talent as a designer will be, to a great extent, lost, and he will probably deteriorate; besides, he will not have the same opportunity for getting up a variety of designs that he would have if he had nothing else to attend to. A designer for any class of work should have a knowledge of the technicalities of the material for which he is designing a pattern; at the same time, a very slight knowledge is essentially requisite, provided the sketch be given into proper hands to be worked out. It must be remembered, however, that in this case a sketch may often have to be taken only as an idea for a pattern, and not be handed by the manufacturer to the draughtsman with directions to make a truthful reproduction of it on the cloth. A draughtsman may be a skilful designer as well, or he may be a skilful draughtsman and have very little powers of designing. When he is a designer, the most successful method of getting a variety of patterns would be for the manufacturer to purchase sketches for ideas and hand them over to his designer, who will be considered to have a thorough knowledge of the practical work, to prepare them to suit the fabrics for which they are intended, perhaps completely altering them, making two or three out of one, or combining two or more to make one pattern if necessary—in fact, using them as material to work from. They may then be handed over to the draughtsmen, or be sent to a designing establishment for draughting and cutting. In case the manufacturer has no designer in his place, but only a draughtsman, the sketches must be bought prepared to suit his fabrics, or it would be better to have the complete work done, in many cases, at a designing establishment. Of course, in draughting, as in all classes of work, a great deal of the less important portions may be done by junior hands, but a knowledge of drawing is required, if only to guide the eye, by them all, except the twillers.
Sometimes designers accustomed to selling sketches get them up in a very deceptive manner in order to deceive manufacturers or their agents, who may have very little knowledge of the work; but this can easily be checked by submitting them to a practical designer before purchasing them.
A design that may be very suitable for one class of cloth may be equally unsuitable for another class, and in many cases fashion regulates the suitability quite independently of its artistic merits. For coloured work, designs should be of such forms as lend themselves to the disposing of colours, no style being more suitable than Persian; whereas in plain work, as damask, the flow of line or the variation of the forms, assisted by portions of fancy shading or twilling, must give the complete effect. Again, different degrees of fineness of cloth will suit for different designs; of course, any pattern that can be put on a coarse cloth can also be put on a fine one, but many patterns are very suitable for fine work that could not be put on a very coarse fabric. When it comes to fine coloured silks, anything that the artist can paint can be fairly represented, as may be seen in the work from the Coventry silk marker looms, so that any design can be put upon cloth; but the question is, Is the cloth suitable for the design?
Fig. 68
Fig. 68 shows a piece of 8 × 9 design or point paper; 8 × 9 meaning that each of the large squares, or designs, contains 72 small checks or squares, 8 in breadth and 9 in length, but the 9 should occupy the same space as the 8. Ten by ten appears to have been the standard design, as patterns are still counted by the 100 designs, each containing 100 checks, or 100 checks in length and the same in breadth: and in some places machines are known as so-many-design machines; thus, a 400 jacquard is called a 40-design machine.
When each design contains as many checks in length as it does in breadth, the paper is intended for work that is to have equal quantities of warp and weft threads in it; thus 8 × 8, 10 × 10, 12 × 12 paper would all suit for cloth with, say, 80 threads of warp and 80 picks of weft per inch, the difference being that 8 × 8 is intended for a jacquard with 8 needles in the row, and 10 × 10 and 12 × 12 for 10 and 12 row machines respectively. It is not necessary to have different papers to suit, as one could be used for all, and after the pattern is painted it could be ruled in rows to suit the machine, but it is much more convenient to get the correct size of paper.
If 80 threads of warp required to have 100 picks per inch, then to find the size of the paper state as 80: 100:: the number of needles in one row of the machine to the number of cards in each design, giving 8 × 10, 10 × 12-1/2, or 12 × 15; but 10 × 12, or 12 × 14 would have to be used for the last two, as a half could not be made, and 12 × 15 is an unusual size. Either would do by drawing out the design a little when enlarging it for the point paper. Square paper might also be used by counting off the number of checks required, and drawing an elongated pattern to cover them; but it is more desirable to have suitable paper for work that is at all particular, and in case of such as 12 × 15 paper, 8 × 10 is the same proportion, and could be used for it, the squares afterwards being ruled in 12’s for the card-cutter.
Each upright space on the design paper, between the lines, represents a thread of warp or one hook of the jacquard, and each space between the horizontal lines represents a pick, or shot, of weft, or one card of the pattern; so that a painted pattern is a magnified view of the texture of the cloth, in common jacquard work.
Fig. 69
Fig. 70
Fig. 69 is a small sketch for a border with spot filling, which is shown on design or point paper in Fig. 70. The paper is 8 × 8; the first four checks are used for a selvage, and the pattern is on 12-1/2 designs or 100 threads of warp, and 22 designs or 176 cards would be required for the weft, the pattern being made about three times the size on the design paper that it is on the sketch. The design paper has 16 checks per inch, consequently the cloth would have about 48 threads to the inch to make the pattern appear as the sketch. If the cloth were finer, say with 72 threads per inch, then 150 checks on the design paper would be required for the pattern, which means that 150 hooks of the jacquard would be required for working it. Whatever width the sketch occupies (one repeat of the pattern), multiply this by the number of threads of warp per inch to be in the cloth required, and the product will be the number of hooks required for the jacquard, and the number of checks or spaces required on the design for the warp. The number of cards is found similarly from the weft of the cloth. If, on the other hand, a pattern is to be made for a jacquard, and it is required to find what size of pattern will work on it, divide the number of hooks in the jacquard by the number of threads per inch in the cloth required, and the quotient will be the size of the pattern warp-ways, in inches. The length or weft-way of the pattern can then be arranged to suit the number of cards, or the pattern can be made any length to suit the style of design. Fig. 71 is a pattern of the same style as Fig. 69, and it might be wanted to use it instead of Fig. 69 for cloth of the same make, say 40 to 45 threads per inch. This could not be done, as it could not be put on the design paper, but it would suit very well if intended for cloth with 80 to 100 threads per inch, which would admit of its being sufficiently enlarged (say four times the size of the sketch) to be correctly represented by the checks. Fig. 69 would be better on cloth having 50 to 60 threads per inch, coarser sets requiring larger forms.
Fig. 71
In preparing a design for point paper, the sketch is usually first made out and selected by competent judges as suitable for the fabric required, as well as for the taste of the market in which the goods are to be sold. When selected it has to be enlarged to suit the size it is to cover on the point paper. Sometimes the enlargement is made on another piece of paper, and is then transferred to the point paper; this is perhaps one of the best methods of proceeding, but it is not so quick as if the enlargement were made upon the point paper direct. It is usual to rule squares on both the sketch and design paper, which bear to each other the same proportion that the size of the sketch does to the size of the design paper required to be covered. This guides the draughtsman, as everything in the small squares on the sketch should be put into the corresponding large squares on the enlarging paper or point paper.
A pantagraph is sometimes useful, and proportional compasses are a great assistance if very correct enlargements are required. When a careful outline of the pattern is made upon the design paper, it is then painted. Some painters dot round the outlines, and in large forms leave them to be filled in by assistants; others paint in solid as they go along. Vermilion and scarlet and crimson lakes are the paints mostly used. The first is easily washed out, but the lakes are more transparent, and admit of the checks on the paper being clearly seen through it, which is a benefit to both twiller and card-cutter. Scarlet lake, with from a half to a quarter its quantity of crimson lake mixed with it, makes a very good paint. The ordinary water-colour cakes are the best paints to use, but powdered colour is sometimes preferred on account of its cheapness. In Fig. 70 the painting is all black, with white twilling on the flowering.
Simple flat ornamental forms, if of sufficient size, are not difficult to put on the design paper, but more intricate forms and shaded effects require a considerable amount of skill, and are tedious, unless to an experienced hand, the difficulty being to get the checks on the design paper to express the figures in the best possible manner, and frequently it is necessary to slightly alter the forms to make them come nicely on the paper.
When the sketch has to be enlarged to, say, three or four times its size, a slight inaccuracy in the painting will have but little effect, as it will be reduced on the cloth. At the same time, advantage should not be taken of this to employ inferior hands at the work, as, the more correct the painting, the more correct will be the pattern on the cloth, although it be reduced in size; and a ragged-edged painting will never have a clear, defined appearance on the cloth. It is in coarse coloured work, such as carpets, that the accuracy of the painting is of the utmost importance, as the pattern on the cloth is as large as, or may be much larger than, it is on the design paper; therefore all inaccuracies are magnified, and no forms that do not come satisfactory on the squares of the paper will have a good appearance on the cloth, so that to a great extent the design must be made to suit the paper. When the pattern is all painted on the design paper, both the ground and pattern for ordinary full-harness work have to be dotted over with the texture of the cloth. This is called twilling. In Fig. 70 the texture is a 5-end satin on both ground and flower. For twilling the ground the same colour is used as the flower or figured portion is painted with, and for the figured portion black is mostly used, sometimes white. The twilling dots on the figure mean blanks, as if these checks were left without any colour on them, or as the ground, and they are passed over by the card-cutter when the cards are being cut.
In twilling care must be taken not to run the dots up against the edges of the flowering so as to injure the form of the figures. In some cases, as at any flat portion, such as a horizontal or vertical line, or any portion of one, this cannot be avoided, but the red dots on the ground should here fall in against the black dots on the figure. It is necessary to begin one set of dots against the other set to carry this out as far as possible, and in some cases, when they will not join, the dots are set out of their places to make them come together. The two dots coming together bind the threads and keep the last thread of the ground on one side, and of the figure on the opposite side—according as it is the weft or warp that is forming the line—from hanging loose or sliding out from the others. The direction of the twill on the ground or flower may vary so as to suit the twill used, and whether a satin or sateen effect is required. Various kinds of twills are frequently used to give effect, but too great an irregularity of texture should be avoided, though a plain ground, with an 8-or 10-end satin for the flowering, may be used for handkerchiefs with a good effect; for heavier work a 5-end satin ground and an 8-end satin figuring may be used, but for firm, strong cloth an 8-end satin for both ground and figure is much better, letting either warp or weft predominate largely in the cloth.
Fig. 72 shows how a leaf or any piece of ornament may be shaded; care should always be taken not to let the texture be too close at any part in the shaded portion so as to make hard pieces in the cloth, as would be the case if a plain texture were used in a firm cloth.
Fig. 72
Fig. 73 shows how a flower and bud should be painted so as to give a natural, or rather semi-natural, representation. The shading should be made to express the form as well as possible; a variety may also be made in the twilling on the flower, as may be seen on the front petal, where a straight twill is used; this makes the cloth richer and the petal come out fuller. This pattern is rather small on the design paper to come well on the cloth; it would be better twice as large, as it may be seen that in many cases single lines of the design paper have to be used for divisions, and for full-harness work it is generally better to have at least two lines, representing two threads.
Fig. 73
This painting, omitting the twilling, would suit for a pressure harness, with each line of the design paper representing two or three threads of both warp and weft. No twilling is required on a pressure-harness pattern, as the texture is wrought by the front mounting; otherwise the pattern is the same, bearing in mind that as each check represents two or three threads, it will not be reduced on the cloth as a full-harness pattern would. The twilling of this pattern is the 8-leaf satin, which is generally used for fine damask, giving a much richer effect than the 5-leaf satin.
It will perhaps be well to make some reference as to the desirability of using these natural forms for designs, though it would be useless to enter into the oft-disputed point of whether it is correct or in good taste to attempt to imitate natural forms upon cloth, or whether even shaded or rounded forms should be treated upon a flat surface. To the latter I would answer without hesitation, by all means do so, but make the appearance satisfactory and keep them in good taste; and this can be done if the subject treated is duly considered.
The former, it must be admitted, is rather pandering to the popular taste than following the dictates of decorative art. One thing is certain, that the ‘million’ are better satisfied with floral forms than any other class of ornament, and the more loosely treated these are, or the further they are from ornament, the more pleasing they are to those uninitiated in the beauty of line, wanting which no ornamental forms can be pleasing to those educated in art. However, these natural forms suggest Nature, and their admirers have so little idea of Nature’s beauties that they do not see the defects in the attempted representations. At the same time, it must not be understood that a pleasing design, or one in good taste, cannot be composed of natural forms—quite the contrary; for small, simple patterns, principally for light fabrics, they are perhaps more suitable than any other ornament, giving lightness and gracefulness of appearance, as may frequently be seen from the designs on the better class of dress goods, whether woven or printed; but the natural treatment must be kept subservient to the flow of the design. Generally, a moderately flat treatment without any strong attempts at light and shade is most successful, the treatment consisting of a graceful arrangement of forms drawn from nature. Everyone knows the beauty and grace of the Japanese designs; but this is not simply because they are natural forms: it is the arrangement of the forms that gives the effect. Very effective patterns can be made for dadoes of coloured curtains from natural objects, as here they can have the upright forms suited to them; but for coloured work, generally speaking, and for carpets in particular, natural forms, unless treated flatly and conventionally, are rarely either pleasing or in good taste. With them it is difficult to obtain that intermingling of colours, be they bright or dull, that produces a neutral bloom and a satisfactory result. Another important point in a pattern, and often overlooked, or not understood, is that, unless the pattern, as a whole, is satisfactory, no variety or beauty of detail can make it a good design. The general character or lines of the pattern must first be made satisfactory, after which the detail may be made as interesting as possible, provided it does not injure the general effect, and is not incongruous to the nature of the design. As to whether flat surfaces should be treated with shaded ornament or not is a point that will always be in dispute, but it may be asked why should a designer be hampered with such restrictions? If he can produce a satisfactory pattern by using either flat or shaded ornament, or both, why not let him do so? The criterion should be whether the result is satisfactory or not. Of course such barbarous work as representing leopards or tigers prowling over carpets or hearthrugs, or even decorating them with the more homely duck or drake nestling, or waddling through water, cannot be too strongly condemned, highly though they were once appreciated, and though they still find favour with many: even shading forms or objects in such a manner as will produce a feeling of weakness, insecurity, or danger, can never be upheld—that is, such a practice as shading ribbons flowing over carpets or hearthrugs like snares, and buttoned down at certain points; or making the surface of the carpet appear very irregular, which has often been done, and is often seen in coloured tile pavements. Of course these remarks refer more or less to any fabric, but a little relief in a curtain would not be nearly so objectionable as on a carpet, so that almost everything turns upon whether the result produced is satisfactory or not—of course, to those competent to judge, and who are not overcome by biassed prejudices. Natural or semi-natural floral ornament will rarely be injured by a little shading, whether on a white or coloured fabric, but it should not be overdone—a moderate amount of shading or a half-flat treatment generally giving a more pleasing effect. Conventional floral ornament is, perhaps, best treated flatly, or with a very little shading on some portions that require a little relief. A richer and purer effect in colour can be got with flat than with shaded colours.
Fig. 74
Fig. 74 is an example of a small floral pattern of a class much used for dress goods, either woven or printed, and gives a very pleasing effect. One repeat of the pattern is bounded by the lines a b c d, or the whole might be taken as one repeat, and instead of having a row of pears on a line, have a pear and some other fruit alternately, and the same with the apples. This pattern is a semi-natural floral treatment, and if on a larger scale a little more shading on the fruit and a few turned-over leaves or half-open flowers would not injure it, but would add to its richness.
Fig. 75 is a sort of floral ornamental, or flatly and symmetrically treated floral pattern, somewhat after the Persian style, and though some would consider it stiff in comparison with the previous one, it has a very pleasing effect, and could be used the size indicated for dress goods, &c., or if enlarged to two or three times the size it would make a very good curtain pattern. Small sprigs of flowers, grasses, grain, &c., scattered about over the surface of the cloth make generally a favourite style of pattern.
So far the patterns given are such as would require the designer to have a good knowledge of drawing and of ornamental and floral forms, and many consider that a designer must be a draughtsman; but such is not the case.
Fig. 75
Large quantities of patterns are made that do not necessarily require the designer to have any knowledge of drawing; this is called ‘small pattern’ or ‘texture’ designing.
A designer of this class should have a thorough knowledge of weaving and of the effect which the patterns on design paper will produce on the cloth. He must, of course, have a taste for the arrangement of forms, and can produce considerable variety by a judicious arrangement of fancy threads through the cloth, particularly in worsted or woollen goods. The following examples will show how great a variety of patterns can be produced without any knowledge of drawing. But a knowledge of drawing will be a great assistance, as it trains the eye to correctness of form. Fig. 76 is a pattern for dress goods; it may be made of cotton only, or with a cotton warp and worsted weft, and a good effect is produced by having the warp a different colour from the weft, say a gold cotton warp and a brown or giraffe worsted weft. Warp 60 to 80 threads per inch, and weft about the same. This is a pattern of the bird-eye class, and a very large range can be made in this style, both bold and effective, or fine and neat, as may be desired. The smaller patterns may, of course, be woven with shafts, but larger ones require a jacquard.
Fig. 77 is another pattern, of the flushed stripe class, also suited for dress goods; this is a silk handkerchief pattern for 90 threads and 96 picks per inch; 60/2 China silk for warp, and 60’s single China silk for weft. If the small dots on the pattern are cut on the cards, a finer and closer pattern will be produced than if the black squares only are cut, but of course it would be less effective unless on a coarser fabric.
Fig. 76
Fig. 77
Fig. 78 is a pattern that would suit for dress goods if woven similarly to Fig. 76; and if woven much coarser, say 25 to 30 threads per inch, it is suited for quiltings. Great variety can be made in this style of quilts, particularly when floral and other forms are interspersed through the texture, and also when the honeycomb texture is employed, an example of which is given in Fig. 79 in combination with diaper or bird-eye figures; only a portion of this pattern is given, but it shows all that is required. In either pure white, or with a warp of one colour and a weft of another colour, these patterns are very effective when made from good twist yarn and coarsely set in the reed; the flushing might be over twice as many threads as is shown in the patterns, and then more threads of warp and weft be used. It is perhaps to the woollen and worsted trades we must turn to find the greatest variety of patterns of the description we are now dealing with. True, the greater portion of them can be wrought on shafts, and perhaps a greater number of shafts are used in these trades than in any other branch of textile work, as shafts produce a firmer cloth than a harness; but when large fancy patterns are required, recourse must be had to the jacquard. Fig. 80 is an example of a fancy twill stripe which could be wrought on 48 shafts if desired, but might also be wrought on a small jacquard with greater simplicity, unless very heavy cloth is required. Patterns of this description require considerable skill in designing, and are in some cases more difficult as they increase in size. It may be seen that the pattern or figure is composed of different textures, and to make a perfect cloth the various textures should all work together at an even tightness, or so that there will be an equal amount of take-up of shrinkage of the warp for each. When checks or large patterns are to be formed this is most essential, but in smaller patterns it can in a great measure be remedied by letting the various textures follow each other, so that if one tightens a little another will make a corresponding slackness, and all together will balance each other. Another important point is to join the edges of the various textures together so that there will be no break, or floats of warp and weft greater or less than in the textures themselves. In some cases tight and loose textures are wrought together to give a special effect, and figures may be formed by the close texture pressing the looser threads together.
Fig. 78
Fig. 79
Another class of pattern by which a very good effect can be obtained by very simple means, is the hair line or tricot style. Fig. 81 is a dice pattern on this principle. The texture is plain cloth throughout, and the effect of pattern is obtained by using two colours of warp and weft, say black and white, and by arranging the draught and treading so that the black weft will pass over the black warp and the white weft over the white warp on one dice, and the reverse of this for the next one, a horizontal and vertical lined effect will be produced, giving a subdued pattern. The dark checks on the design paper are the tricot or horizontal line effect; the grey checks the vertical lines or hair line effect. It will be seen at the edge of each dice how the colours are changed in both warp and weft by the two dots coming together. The crosses along the bottom and to the left side of the design show the dark threads and dark picks coming alternately with the white ones.
Fig. 82 is a small figure pattern arranged in this manner, the reversing of the colours being done by the jacquard, as may be seen from the dots on the design. Almost any figure may be treated in this manner, but simple patterns, not too irregular or broken in outline, will perhaps be found most successful.
Fig. 80
These fabrics may be made in either woollen, worsted, or cotton for dress goods. About 36 threads of warp per inch of 2/30’s worsted, and 32 threads of weft per inch, is a good setting for them; and in any mild contrasts of yarns, such as two shades of grey, they are very pleasing.
Fig. 81
Fig. 82
Coming now a step further towards the damask or figure patterns, we have still great scope for variety, without much, if any, knowledge of drawing being required from the designer. This consists of spotting small geometrical figures over the cloth, the body or ground of which may be plain, twill, or any texture desired. Fig. 83 is a pattern of this description with a plain ground. The figures are arranged in satinette or 4-end satin order. Of course, the ground might be a twill if desired, and the figures may be of any form that ingenuity can suggest. They may be solid, and a twilled texture used to bind them if the flushes of warp or weft are too great, and part of the figure might be warp flush and part weft flush; in fact any variety that the designer can arrange to produce a good effect on the cloth, which, if the warp and weft are of different colours, may be made very effective. Any arrangement for the figures may be used if suited to the size of the figure and the space they have to occupy to suit the repeat of the pattern. The 4-end satin gives two figures on one diagonal, and two on the other diagonal alternately; one figure on each diagonal may be used, and also three figures on each with equally good effect, subject, of course, to some extent to the size and form of the figures. Five and eight-thread satin arrangements are two of the best that can be used if a greater number of figures are required in each repeat of the pattern. To arrange a pattern in satin order, the usual way is to rule the repeat into as many squares in length and breadth as there are threads in the satin to be used. Thus, for a 5-thread satin, rule the repeat into five squares in length and the same in breadth, or twenty-five squares in all, then place one of the figures into each of five of these squares, the order being that of the 5-end satin twill. A draughtsman would either sketch these figures on the design paper, or sketch one of them on a piece of plain paper, trace it, and transfer it to the different positions it would occupy on the design paper, and then paint each of them independently. But a designer, without a knowledge of drawing, would mark out the spaces on the design paper for each figure, and, having made one of the figures the required shape on the checks or small squares, would copy the others from this. In Fig. 83 let 2a be the first figure formed, it being started in the second square upwards and first row. Now, the second figure can be similarly begun in 4-thread satin order, which would bring it to square No. 2, and it is begun in the same position in this square that the first one was begun in square No. 2a. The third figure falls to the third square from 3a and 3, but as this figure is turned round for variety, the point for beginning it at figures 1 and 2 must be marked, and an imaginary square run round it, and it must be kept in its position in the square, or the centre of the figure may be found by counting the checks in either of the first or second figures and this figure wrought from the centre; or, again, as the figure is six checks greater in length than in breadth, it must be set three checks to one side, and the top point should rise three checks higher up above the large square of the design paper on which it should be started; but with a plain ground it is sometimes necessary to move the figures one check out of position to allow the plain to fall in regularly all round them. This figure is set one check down. Fig. 4 is copied from Fig. 3, and is in the same position. With a twilled ground or irregular figures, it will not matter if the ground does not fall in quite regularly round them.
Fig. 83
Fig. 84
If it was required to make a pattern similar to Fig. 83, but with five figures instead of four, and preserve the same density of ground structure round them, it could be calculated as follows:—Fig. 83 is on 44 checks broad and 44 long. Now 44 × 44 = 1936, and on this there are four figures, then 1936 ÷ 4 = 484. As five figures are required 484 × 5 = 2420 checks for design. If there are to be as many checks across the design as up it, find the square root of 2420 for the number of checks, as [sqrt]2420 = 50 nearly. If the pattern is not to be square, the proportion may be found for each side by making two calculations, one for the greater number of checks squared, and the other for the lesser number of checks squared, and extracting the square roots for the two sides of the required pattern; or, suppose the warp to be to the weft in the proportion of 10 to 12, then state, as 12 is to 10, so is 50 to 42, the number of checks across the bottom of the pattern; and as 10: 12:: 50 to 60, the number of checks in the length of the pattern, and 42 x 60 = 2520, which is nearly the same as 50 squared = 2500 for a square pattern. But if this is for adding extra weft to the cloth, the size of the pattern would be reduced, which might bring the figures too close together and would alter the shape of them; in this case the addition should be made to the number of checks in length, making the pattern 50 broad and 60 long, or to contain 3000 checks, and the length of the figures should be increased in proportion. Of course this will produce a finer cloth. Fig. 84 is a pattern arranged with five figures on it.
A great variety of patterns may also be formed by arranging dice or squares in various ways, some of which, as may be seen on the Indian fabrics, make very pretty patterns. It will thus be seen that there is plenty of scope for the ingenuity of a textile designer without his being of necessity a draughtsman; but a knowledge of drawing will generally be of assistance to him. For the more elaborate patterns, the designer does not require to have the same knowledge of manufacturing that is required for these small patterns.
Fig. 85
Twilling.—It has already been shown how the patterns are bound or twilled to form the texture of the cloth for ordinary repeating patterns on a straight over-tie; but when a turn-over or gathered tie is used, the twilling of one half of the gathered portion will, on the cloth, be the reverse, or run in the reverse direction to that of the other portion, and this is often a disadvantage to this description of tie, as one half of the border or pattern, whatever it may be, will look coarser than the other. It frequently happens that to avoid the stiffness of a clean turn-over pattern, which must always have a clear cutting line through the centre of it, so that, if cut up, one half would, if turned over, be exactly the same as the other, a portion of single, or a turning portion, is placed in between the two turned-over portions, which in many cases adds very considerably to the effect of the pattern, though it is often almost useless. Fig. 85 is a pattern of the turn-over type, and, but for the interlacing of the bands in the centre, might be wrought with a simple gathered tie. For this pattern the portion marked B would require to be single, and A turned over to C. Perhaps it is in floral patterns that this form of tie is of most service. When a single tie takes up too much machinery, and a double over or gathered tie would make the pattern too stiff, a small portion of single introduced, as at B, is of great service to the designer in making a pleasing pattern.
Fig. 86
When twilling a pattern of this description, the portion marked A would be twilled straight across, and this twilling would be continued to the centre of B, as shown in Fig. 86, which gives the idea, the spots in the centre being taken as the single portion. The portion marked C is repeated from the first part A by the harness, and does not require to be put on the painting; in the figure it is shown (in different type) as it would fall on the cloth. It may be seen that the twilling dots on the last line of A and the first line of C are alike, and that every pair of lines corresponds, moving from these to the edges of the pattern. Now a turn must be made in the twill in the single portion so as to make it join correctly with C, and this should be done in such a manner as to prevent it from showing plainly on the cloth, or having too long floats on some of the threads while others are too closely bound. This must be done by setting the dots out of their places on a few lines in the centre, so as to make the join produce as even a texture as possible. Advantage should always be taken of any portions of the pattern that come on this part, such as the spots in Fig. 86, to turn the twill round the edges of them. By following the dots on the design paper, it will be seen how they are brought in at the join. Any twill may be broken similarly, but a different number of threads in the single will alter the arranging of the dots to join the two twills together; however, when the principle is understood, it can easily be worked out.
LETTERS, MOTTOES, ETC.
A turned-over mounting or gathered tie will reverse any ornament, but while for borders it makes the ornament come correctly, it prevents letters or words from falling in as they should be read. Thus, if the word CLUB were woven at one side of a cloth, as at A, and the harness mounted as a gathered repeat so as to turn over a similar border to the other side, the letters would fall as at B, making them read correctly to the under side of the cloth instead of to the upper side. Instead of making a gathered tie, it would be better to make a plain repeating tie for the second border, making the word CLUB on both borders as either A or B, according as they are to read correctly on the under or upper side of the cloth; but if it is desired to make the letters read correctly from both sides or edges of the cloth, as at C, it is plain that there must be hooks in the jacquard to work each border independently, as one is not a repeat of the other. Of course letters on damask will only read correctly on either the face or back of the cloth, not on both. The same principle holds good when putting names across the cloth, or for coats of arms and mottoes in the centre, as is frequently done in quilts, tablecloths, &c., but in this case it would be the cards that would do the work. Suppose the word
Fig. 87
In hand-loom districts, where old makes of machines are used, it is common to have 400, 500, or 600 needles to the machine, and the cards can be turned on the cylinders if required, and are also wrought backwards or forwards to suit. By cutting the cards from the painting in the reverse order—that is, beginning at the end of the painting and reading and fingering backwards—cards from a painting of a first centre could be cut to suit for a second centre, as it has exactly the same effect as turning over the card; but all the rows of needles must be used except any left at the first, and these and any selvage must be brought to the end of the painting when cutting the second set of cards, so as to get them to the first end of the card. The cutting begins, as is usual, at the numbered end of the card. Repainting the centre to suit is the safest way to avoid mistakes.
Fig. 88
When a name is running up the side of the cloth, lacing or working the cards backwards will reverse the reading of the letters from one side to the other, but not when they are running across the cloth. If the loom is mounted with the cards hanging to the front instead of to the back, the letters would also be turned from one side of the cloth to the other, and to be correct they would have to be painted or cut the reverse, unless the machine or mounting was built to suit.
CHAPTER V
CARD-CUTTING AND LACING
The mountings which have been given are of two descriptions—the Norwich, with the straight harness, and the London or twisted harness, with the cards hanging to either side of the loom, as the machine can be turned either way to suit. For the Norwich ties the cards are supposed to hang to the back of the loom, but it often happens that there is not space between the looms to admit of all the cards being hung at the back, and it is usual for one loom to have the cards to the back and the next one to the front. When the cards hang to the front of the loom the mounting is tied up so that when finished it will be the same as if mounted for the cards to hang at the back; and afterwards turned round so that the back will be at the front. In case the back left-hand corner twine is the first cord of the harness with the cards at the back, the front right-hand twine would be the first if the cards are at the front, and the drawing in of the yarn must begin at it. If the loom is mounted in this way, and the yarn drawn in from the opposite side, as if the cards were to hang at the back, the result will be a toothed or broken-up appearance round the edges of the pattern. The same cards will do for either mounting, but the pattern and twill will be reversed on the cloth—that is, they will run from left to right on the one, and from right to left on the other. The effect produced on letters was mentioned when speaking of them.
It was mentioned that jacquards are usually made with 51 rows of hooks or needles, of 8, 10, or 12 in the row, being for 400, 500, and 600 machines respectively, which are those most used; 200 and 300 machines are used for small mountings, but they may be considered as half 400 and 600 machines. Sometimes the machines are made of any size required—that is, with any desired number of rows of holes in the needle boards. The objection to this is that the cards cannot be copied on the ordinary repeating machines; but piano card-cutting machines can be made with the index to suit for cutting any length of card. When using 400, 500, or 600 machines, or the double sizes, 800, 1000, or 1200, and more than one is required for the mounting, a second must be used, such as an 8 and a 4, or a 12 and a 6; a 12 and a 5 would not do so well, as the 12 has 12 needles in the row and a 5 has but 10. It would be better to use a 12 and a 6 and leave 100 hooks idle, if only 1700 are required. If a 12 and a 5 is to be used it may be done by having the cumber board made 12 in the row, but made finer in the proportion of 12 to 10; then, where the 12-row harness is to pass through it, every sixth row of holes can be left empty, and it will be all right for the 10-row harness from the 500 machine.
Designs are painted upon the point paper for the purpose of enabling them to be transferred to the cards, which act on the needles of the jacquard, and cause the proper warp threads to be raised. The pattern is put upon the cards by punching holes in them, one hole being punched for each check on the design paper that is filled in with colour, or it may be the reverse of this, or otherwise, according to circumstances. The common method is to cut the red, and leave the ground or unpainted portion, and the black, which stands for ground. There is a card for each line of the design paper for damask patterns; the holes in the cards represent the dots on these lines, if each line was cut off and cut into separate designs or larger squares, then these squares set up lengthways and laid together. Take the pattern, Fig. 70, and cut the first line from left to right. The card is shown at Fig. 89 at A. Turn the pattern upside down and examine the first line to the right-hand side. The two first checks are empty; two holes in the card or two punches of the piano machine are passed over; the next three checks are painted, for these three holes are cut in the card, and the remaining three checks in the design being empty are passed over. The next design has the second and seventh checks filled and these are cut on the card, and so on with the others. The two small holes at each end of the card are for the lacing twine, and the large one at each end for the peg on the cylinder of the jacquard. The intersections of the fine lines on the card show where the holes fall when required to be cut.
This card would be for a 200 machine, the empty or unused needles being left at the first half of the card; 26 rows of 8 needles to the card. The card B given in this figure is the first of the heavy cutting, No. 17 on the pattern. Reading from the pattern as before, pass 2, cut 2, pass one which is black, cut 3, and so on, cutting the red and passing the black or twilling dots whether they be white, black, blue, yellow, or green; they are only there for convenience, to avoid the trouble of leaving the spaces empty when painting the pattern at first, it being simpler to dot them over afterwards.
Fig. 89
The cards are numbered at the selvage end, which goes to the sneck side of the jacquard when working. The design may be read from left to right, but the usual method is to turn it upside down, and read from right to left, which comes to the same thing, beginning to cut from the numbered end of the card. Some begin to cut at the other end of the card, and read from right to left on the design without turning it, which is still the same. If the loom is mounted or the yarn drawn in, beginning with the front row of the harness instead of with the back row to the left-hand side, the cards should be read the reverse way from the design paper; or, what would be the same, turn them over after cutting them. This changes the top row of holes in the cards to the bottom, or from the back to the front of the cumber board. In case of the loom being mounted from back to front, and the yarn being drawn into the harness beginning with the front row in the cumber board, the cards, if cut in the ordinary way, would give the pattern a broken or toothed appearance. Turning the cards upside down would remedy this, but would only answer if each part of the mounting consisted of full rows of needles, for, if any part began or ended on a broken row, turning the card would take the holes in it for this part row away from the needles: that is, say if the harness was connected with four needles at the top of the row and the card cut for these, the holes would fall on the four needles at the bottom of the row, if the card was turned upside down. The cards should be numbered on the side which is uppermost when they are being cut, and this side should come against the needles if the work is properly carried out.
Fig. 90
The old method of cutting cards was for one to take the pattern and call out the holes to be punched, and they were punched out by a second person, a perforated plate over the card being sometimes used as a guide to place the holes in their correct positions. A better method was found in the punching plates shown in Fig. 90. A and B are two plates hinged together. B No. 2 shows the full upper plate. The card is placed on the lower plate, and the upper one closed down on it. Punches are then filled by hand into the holes in the upper plate according as the pattern is read from the design; then the plates are passed through a roller press, which pushes the punches through the card. With small machines this suited very well; but the filling in of the punches was tedious for larger machines, and shortly after the introduction of the jacquard by Mr. S. Wilson, in 1821, he introduced a method for filling the plate with punches to correspond with each line of the design paper, as follows:—Over, or in front of, the design a set of upright cords is placed, as in reading the patterns on the simple of the draw-loom. On these cords the pattern is picked, and weft threads drawn in, one for each line of the design paper, for plain damask. When all the design is finished the threads compose one repeat of the pattern in a loosely-woven cloth. The upright cords or leashes pass through eyes in a set of needles, arranged like those in a jacquard machine and each weft thread put in, when picking the pattern, shows which of the leashes are to be drawn. As each set of leashes is drawn the needles connected with them come into contact with a set of punches arranged in a frame or plate, and push them into a punching plate, which is then placed over the card, as in Fig. 90, and passed through a roller press. This method of picking the pattern for card-cutting is still in use, and an improved method of using the plates and rollers is still found very convenient for many purposes, such as copying cards and small patterns, &c. (See Copying Machines.)
Fig. 91
Card cutting is now almost entirely done by ‘piano machines.’ They take the name of piano from the pins or keys which are arranged for the cutter’s fingers, and to distinguish them from an older machine, which is similar in make, but in it the pins or keys which act as locks on the punches are wrought with cords instead of by the fingers. The cord machine is similar in make to the piano machine; but the cutter usually sits at one side, and has the board or stand for the pattern facing him. The treadles are also turned sideways; but the cord is put in at the end, as in the piano machine. Fig. 91 shows how the cords are arranged. AA are the cords, 12 in number, which the cutter draws. BB are another set from the former ones to the keys, passing under pulleys at C. D is the punch-box. The keys have springs on them, which press them in over the heads of the punches; but at the top of the cords are indiarubber springs, fastened to the crossbar E on the frame which supports the cords, and these springs are strong enough to draw out the keys. When any of the cords AA are drawn down the cords BB connected with them are slackened, and the keys spring in over the punches, locking them, and punching holes when the treadle is pressed down.
The cords BB can be connected from the right-hand side of AA to the right-hand side of the punch keys, and run from right to left, or they may be the reverse of this, according to the way the cutter reads the pattern. Sometimes piano machines are fitted to work with cords to suit the cutter. In this case there is only one set of cords, as AA, set behind the punch block, and the cutter sits at the end of the machine. Instead of springs, weighted levers, or tumblers, may be used at the top of the cords on the bar E. When springs are used the bar should be lowered when the cutter is not working, by slackening the set screws at GG, so as to relieve the strain on the springs. When working the cord machine the cutter uses only one hand to draw the cords; but on the piano machine he uses both hands, and can proceed quicker with the cutting.
Fig. 92 is a view of Devoge’s piano cutting machine. In these machines one cross row of the card is punched at each tread; the cutter sits in front of the machine, with the design fastened on the frame before him, as shown in the figure. The straight-edge, or ruler, across the design is for the purpose of guiding the cutter’s eye along the line of the design paper that he is cutting from, and he screws it up or down a line, as the case may be, for every card he cuts. He keeps one foot on each treadle and his fingers on the keys in the punch block, the arrangement of which is shown in Fig. 93, and presses in a key to correspond with each dot on the line of the design paper on one design, or large square, for each tramp.
The numbered end of the card is put into the clip on the index carriage, and the guide for the card set to suit the width of the card used, so that the punch will cut the holes in the centre of the card. The lacing and cylinder peg holes are first cut, by pressing in the keys E for the peg hole, and for the lacing 2 and 7 for an 8-row card, 1 and 8 for a 10-row, and a and c for a 12-row. Any blank designs, or rows of the card, are now passed over, by running back the index carriage, if the design does not occupy the full length of the card, it being the usual custom to leave all empty rows to the selvage or numbered end of the card, though it may in some cases be advisable to be otherwise. The selvage, if any, is usually cut first, and then the pattern.
Fig. 92
Pressing down the right foot treadle, when any of the keys are pushed in, punches holes in the card with the punches locked, and the left foot treadle, which works alternately with the other, is for moving the index carriage, which shifts the card from one row of holes that have been punched to the next one, so as to place it in position for the punches. In Fig. 93 the black dots represent the heads of the punches, 12 in number. The keys 1 to 8 are used for cutting an 8-row card; when any key is pressed in it passes over the head of its corresponding punch, and locks it, so that when the cutter presses down the treadle and the punch block is brought down on the card, the locked punch is pressed through it, while those not locked rise up. The keys a and c added to the 8 suit for cutting 10-row cards, and b and d added to these suit for 12-row cards. The four keys a b and c d can be pressed in with the two thumbs. E is the key for the peg hole.
A good cutter can cut from 100 to 150 cards per hour, but this is laborious for constant work. Sometimes the cutting machines are driven by power, but as yet (1894) this is not general.
Fig. 93
Messrs. Devoge & Co. can attach an arrangement to their machines so that they can be driven with a belt. The punch block is wrought by a lever driven by an eccentric, and is kept constantly rising and falling; the cutter fingers the pins so as to keep time with the punch block, and should he wish to stop, or should anything go wrong, he can stop the card at once by raising one treadle and pressing down the other, which throws the motion for shifting the index carriage out of gear, and the card stands stationary, and although the punch block continues to work it takes no effect when the punches are not locked by the keys. The machine works very smoothly, with very little noise, and with a little practice any boy or girl accustomed to card cutting can easily become acquainted with working it. The index of the piano machine is generally made for 51 rows of holes in the cards, 400, 500, and 600 machines being those generally employed: 51 rows of 8 = 408 needles; 51 rows of 10 = 510 needles; and 51 rows of 12 = 612 needles, which, with a few odd needles on the 25-row side, represent the number of needles in a 400, 500, and 600 machine. If larger machines with longer cords are required, the index of the cutting machine must be altered to suit them.
Card paper should be of such a quality as will not be easily affected by the atmosphere. When cards are for small machines, and are only required to work for a short time, an inferior paper will do for them, and save expense; but for large patterns which are intended to work for years it will come cheaper in the end to get a good quality of paper—in fact, the best that can be made. Specially prepared oil-saturated paper is made for the purpose of preventing the atmosphere taking too much effect on it. For hand looms, sometimes the cards are painted with red lead, and sometimes with shellac varnish, or shellac (best red) dissolved in methylated spirits.
Cards are made of different weights of paper; some prefer them thin, and others thick. A moderately thin, tough paper is the best. About 16 to 18 cards to 1 lb., for 400 cards, is a good medium weight.
After the cards are cut they have to be laced into a chain to revolve round the jacquard cylinder on the loom. The usual method of lacing is to have a frame with pegs or studs set in it at a distance apart to suit the size of the jacquard cylinder. The cards are spread on this frame as shown at A, Fig. 94, and laced with a steel needle, thicker in the centre than at the ends; it is about 2-1/2 in. long, and has an eye in the centre, through which a piece of fine twine is tied in a loop, and the lacing tape can easily be drawn through this. The cards at A are numbered 1, 3, 5, but all the numbers would follow in rotation if the jacquard had only one cylinder; if a double-cylinder machine, half the cards would be laced forward, as at A, and the other half (the even numbers) backward, as at B. The odd numbers usually go to the back of the loom, and the even ones to the front.
Several kinds of cord and tape are used for lacing cards, but two plies of round cotton cord, well soaped or waxed, is usually the most satisfactory for wear.
When lacing cards, the lacings should be crossed over, each one passing from left to right of the other in turn, at each hole and between the cards. This is important, to keep the cards straight.
The cards should be tightly laced, as the lacing is almost certain to stretch a little; so that they are better for being rather tight for the cylinder at first, otherwise they are liable to become too slack after a little wear, and if such is the case they will not fall properly on the cylinder pegs. This and other causes—such as irregular expansion or contraction of the cards, badly cut cards, and a long draw on the cards—occasion considerable wear on the peg holes, and now eyelets are being tried in them to avoid the breaking-up of the holes; but it is probable that good paper and careful work will prove a more suitable remedy. The card should not be deeper than the face of the cylinder; better a trifle less, to allow for the lacing to pass between them, and then if laced as tightly as possible they will still be pliable and work freely. Cards are usually numbered with pen and ink, but the numbers may be stamped on with an indiarubber stamping machine similar to that used for paging books.
Fig. 94
Lacing Machines.—The Singer Sewing Machine Company brought out a machine some years ago for lacing cards, and it performs its work very well, though many object to it, as it stitches a lacing tape along the cards, instead of lacing them in the usual way. The machine is a 3-or 4-head sewing machine, according as three or four rows of lacing are to be used on the cards. The lacing is a tape; one tape is laid below the cards at each row of lacing, and another above, and both are stitched together through the cards.
Another machine was invented by Count Sparre more recently which laced or sewed the cards through the ordinary lacing holes, much in the same manner as hand lacing, except that the lacings are looped on each other through the holes instead of passing up and down through alternate holes.
A still later one, by Messrs. Reid & Fisher, of Dunfermline, and Mr. Parkinson, of Bradford, has further improvements; this machine is now working very satisfactorily. Other machines have since followed.
Copying or Repeating Machines.—There are several varieties of machines for copying or repeating a set of cards after they have been cut by the piano machine, and it often happens that this is required in case of several looms being put on the same pattern; or it may be that a set of cards for one loom is made up of two or three parts repeated several times.
One of the simplest of the repeaters is a small treadle machine in which the card is repeated by rows, the holes of the cut card acting upon needles that push in the pins above the punches, which are similar to those in the piano machine; and each row is punched by depressing a treadle. This is a slow method of repeating, but suits for small factories where it is not worth while having a more expensive machine. Any boy or girl can repeat the cards, instead of requiring a card-cutter to read them.
A more useful machine is the railway press repeater; it is taken from the old method of cutting described on page 142. The cards to be repeated are placed on a cylinder the same as that used in the jacquard, and pass down over the ends of long needles similar to the jacquard needles, but arranged in a box, and with long helical springs on them. In a thick plate, or box, in front of the needles is a set of punches, and the stamping plate rests in front of the punch box, close up against it. By means of a treadle the needle box can be drawn forward, and where there are holes in the card to be copied the needles pass through them, and, pressing on the punches, push them from the box into the stamping plate. The punches have heads on them that will not pass through the stamping plate, but will go into the holes in the box or frame, and when they are pushed into the plate it can be drawn away and turned over so as to prevent them from falling out. The plate is then placed on a box-plate made to hold the card to be cut, and somewhat similar to that shown in Fig 90. The box or hinged plates are set on a slide frame with rollers to travel on, and at the end of the frame is a strong roller press. The plates can easily be run forward to the press, and the card punched by running them under the roller; it may then be taken out, and as many impressions from the plate cut as are required. When finished, the stamping plate is taken back to the punch box and placed against it as before; then, with a comb, or block of wood, set with pins, all the needles are pushed out of the plate into the punch box. Another card can be brought before the needles, and the plate filled as before.
Fig. 95
Fig. 96
This machine is very useful for copying damaged cards, even when a repeater as those about to be described is at hand. A damaged card can be held between the needles and punches, and the plate filled, same as when copying a set.
Figs. 95, 97, and 98 show the principle of working three of the best-known repeating machines, which will copy a set of cards at the rate of from 40 to 60 per minute. Fig. 95 shows the arrangement of the punches in Nuttall’s patent repeater. The punches are shown at A, and the stoppers or keys at B; the cards to be punched pass in between the blocks C and D. B1 shows the shape of one of the stoppers which, when over a punch, locks it, and causes a hole to be cut in the card. The stoppers all stand over the punches when at rest; the cards to be copied are hung on a cylinder, and act on a set of horizontal needles, g (Fig. 96); these needles have upright wires, m, n, passing through eyes in them, and also through eyes in the stoppers b. The upright wires act as levers, working on centres, m; and when one of the horizontal needles g is pushed back by the card to be copied, the corresponding stopper b is drawn from above the punch a, which allows it to rise when the card to be cut is raised up against it by the block D (Fig. 95), between which and the punch block c the cards to be cut pass, so that no hole is punched in the card; but where there are holes in the card to be copied, the needles g are not pressed back, and the stoppers are allowed to remain over the punches, locking them, and causing holes to be cut in the card pressed up against them.
Fig. 97
This machine has been superseded by one in which upright rods act as stays on the punches. These rods stand on the punches, which have concave tops on them; the upper ends of the rods rest under the bars of a grid, or rebated plate, shown in section at P (Fig. 95). When in this position the punches are all locked. A set of needles are connected with these rods, and when the card to be copied presses on them, those that are pushed back move the top of the rods connected with them from under the bars to the spaces between them, which allows the rods to rise up with the punches when the card to be cut is pressed up.
Fig. 98
The principle of a repeating machine made by Mr. McMurdo, of Manchester, is shown in Fig. 97. The cards to be copied hang on the card frame of a jacquard, as shown at C. From the hooks of the jacquard to the punches A are wires in the form of a single harness. The blank cards D pass in over the block B, which is stationary. Enlarged front and side views of a punch are given at G and H. At 1, 2, and 3 are shown the notches cut in the punch, through which the slide bars E and F pass. These slides are also shown at E1 and F1. The bar E is stationary, acting as a stay for keeping the punches in the box, and the notches in them, at 1, are long enough to let them slide up and down on the bar. The slide F is drawn out before the jacquard is drawn, and pushed in again afterwards; if any of the punches are raised by the jacquard, the notch 3 will be raised to the position of the notch 2, and the slide bar will pass through the lower notch, thus holding the punch up, and when the punch block is pressed down, holes will be cut in the card where the punches are locked in the upper notch. When the punch block is being sunk to punch the cards, it is necessary to have a spring in the wires that connect the punches to the jacquard hooks, and this is effected by having the wires made with a sliding joint and a small spiral spring on them, as shown at L.
The principle of Devoge’s repeater is shown in Fig. 98. This is one of the oldest machines in the market, and there are various opinions as to whether it is excelled by any of the others, or not. It is somewhat on the principle of the French repeating machines, being wrought by a jacquard and harness, E, to which a second harness or set of cards, F, is attached, and passes over pulleys to the punches A. When the harness E is drawn by the jacquard, the cords F are slackened, allowing the punches to drop, and they are locked in the punch box by the slide bar, H. The cards to be copied are shown at D, and those to be cut pass through at C. The punch block is stationary, and the block B rises against the punches with the card on it.
The blank cards require to be laced to make them ready for the repeaters, and also to have the peg holes cut in them; blocks are provided for the purpose of cutting the lace and peg holes. An enlarged view of a punch is shown at P.
WIRING CARDS
After the cards are laced, if intended to be wrought on power looms in the usual way, they require to be ‘wired’—that is, to have pieces of straight stiff wire, about 2 in. longer than the cards, tied across them to the lacing, so that they may be hung on the racks or frames prepared for them on the looms. The wires should project 1 in., or rather more, at each end of the cards; they should be tied to the under side of the cards, so as not to come against the jacquard cylinder, and it also bears them better, being under the lacing. A piece of waxed twine is mostly used for tying them on.
The distance between the wires depends upon the number of cards, and the height they are when on the loom. For a small set, a wire to every fourteen or sixteen cards is a very good distance apart, but for a large set a wire to every twenty or twenty-four cards will be sufficient in order to give a longer drop and take up less lateral space.
CHAPTER VI
SPECIAL JACQUARDS AND HARNESSES
CROSS-BORDER JACQUARDS
A difficulty has always existed in working cross borders on handkerchiefs, cloths, &c., so as to avoid having to shift or change the cards, and also to do without the expense of getting a complete set of cards cut for the whole cloth. It may be also that different patterns are required on the cloth, such as cross bands of small figures, and if, say, twenty cards would make a repeat of one figure, and it was required to weave, say, 100 repeats of this, and then change to, say, fifty repeats of some other figure, the same difficulty would arise as with cross borders. When there is only a short distance between the changes of pattern, it will generally be found more profitable, all things considered, to have the complete set of cards cut, so as to require no changing, particularly if the pattern will run for a length of time; but when the patterns or cloths are long, the cards become very expensive, and even if it would be desirable to get a complete set for the full cloth, it may be that there would not be space on the looms to hold them, over 15,000 cards being sometimes required to weave a complete tablecloth.
Many methods have been adopted to remedy the inconvenience and to save expense. A few of them will be given, but it must be left to manufacturers to judge whether they would prove an advantage to them or not.
For weaving cloths or curtains it is a common practice to have the cross-border cards and one repeat of the centre pattern cut. The card rack is made as in No. 2 (Fig. 99).
When either the border or centre cards are working, they are put into the hollow part of the rack or card frame, as at F, and the other set is hung on the flat rest of the frame, at either D or E. When a change is to be made, a card-shifter has to go up and change from one set to the other, lifting the set that had been working out of the hollow of the frame, and putting it back or forward on the rest D or E, and bringing the set which is to work down into the place of those removed. This, of course, is expensive, gives a great deal of trouble, and is severe on the cards; at the same time, in many cases it is found to answer as well as any method yet adopted, particularly where space is a consideration, and when two or more sets of cards are used, in case of two or more machines.
Fig. 99
A better plan is to have a sliding-card frame, as shown in No. 1 of the same figure. A is the frame for the rollers over which the cards travel, B, B are two bars on which the card frame C, with the roller frame A attached, travels. The card frame is only shown in end view. Two of these must be for each set of cards, and the whole frame must be fastened together complete for all the cards required, so that it will all slide on the bars B, B. Suppose there are two machines working there must be four card racks; on two of these the centre cards are hung, and on the other two the border cards. Either set can be placed opposite the cylinders of the jacquard, and wrought as long as is required; then they must be taken off the cylinders, the card frame shifted till the other set of cards comes into their place, when they can be put on the cylinders and wrought over. This is a very good plan for working long cloths, but takes up a good deal of space, and for more than two machines might in many cases be unsuitable.
Fig. 100
Another method is to have two sets of card irons, one above the other; the border cards are hung on the lower frame, and the centre cards on the upper one. The centre cards will work in the usual way, and when the border is to be wrought the cards for it are taken round the centre set, which, of course, are taken off the cylinder. The rollers must be made to shift so as to direct the cards properly into their respective frames; the top frame is smaller than the bottom one, and farther out from the machine. If hooks and eyes are sewn on the first and last cards of these sets, the weaver can hook them together when a fresh pattern is required, so that the one set will carry the other round the cylinder. Then, by drawing a cord, the rollers should change position so as to direct the falling cards into the proper frame. The card irons are of the usual shape, and the distance between the upper and lower ones may be regulated by circumstances.
Another simple method is to have the card frame made with a double curve in it, as shown in Fig. 100. One set of cards hang in each of these curves, as at A and B. The set in the curve A can be wrought over as long as required; then these cards can be taken off the cylinder and the set at B put over it. One thing must be observed: that the frame and rollers be so placed that the cards can be guided into the receptacle B, and to do this there must be a considerable fall for the cards, so that for a loom with a low framing this might not be feasible. Otherwise, it is a simple method of arranging two small lots of cards, and if one lot is much larger than the other, let A be a narrow curve, and the small lot of cards hang in it, which will lessen the slant of the cards falling to B.
Although such arrangements as the foregoing are required where there is much machinery used, it is evident that for frequent changes they would take up quite too much time. Several machines have been made for the purpose of changing from one set of cards to another without having to move the cards. The principle of these machines is to have two cylinders, one at each side; one set of cards is placed on one cylinder, and the other set on the other cylinder, so that by working one or other cylinder, as required, either border or centre may be woven. No. 1 (Fig. 101) shows a plan that was tried some time ago, but did not work satisfactorily. The needles passed through a needle board at each side of the machine, as at A and B, and had small spiral springs fastened on them inside the needle boards. The border cards could be put on the cylinder at A, and the centre cards on that at B. The cylinder at A could be wrought as a single-acting machine till a change of pattern was required; then the cylinder at B could be brought into action, and that at A remain stationary and clear of the needles. The heads of the hooks were made heart-shape, as shown, and the blades of the griffe could revolve into the position shown by the dotted lines, so as to suit the working of the cylinder at B; this was effected by the weaver pulling a cord. This machine was given up, as it was difficult to keep it in order.
Another method is shown at No. 2 (Fig. 101), where there are two griffes—one at F, and the other at G; one cylinder works at E, and the other at D. Only one set of springs is required on the needles—behind the needle board E—as the spring of the hooks is sufficient to act in the opposite direction. When the cylinder D is working the lower griffe is stationary, and when the cylinder E is working the upper griffe is stationary. The cylinders and griffes are brought into action as required by suitable mechanism. This machine has not been considered sufficiently successful to make it worthy of being persevered with.
Fig. 101
Fig. 102
The principle of Davenport & Crossley’s border jacquard is shown in Fig. 102. The upright hooks are as in an ordinary machine. Four of the needles are shown at b, and are made in the ordinary way, with the exception of the eyes in them for the small upright needles d to pass through. These needles d are connected with a set of horizontal ones, as shown at a, and act as levers between them and the needles b, the bars behind them serving as fulcrums; so that when the needles a are pressed back by the cards, the needles b are also drawn back through the medium of the uprights d. The cards least in action are put on the cylinder for the needles a, and the others act on the needles b. The cylinders can be brought in or out of action by the motion shown at A, B, C, D, E, F, G. A and B are the cylinders, working on swing motions; C A, D B, are connecting-rods for giving motion to the cylinders; either of these can be brought into action as required. G is a rocking lever carrying a stud on each end, which work in the slots C and D; these slots are shown at D1 where the notch at one side of them will be clearly seen. When the stud on the bar G gets into this notch, the cylinder will be driven out and in, but when not in the notch the stud can slide along the slot, allowing the cylinder to remain stationary. By pulling the cord H either cylinder can be wrought as required through the connections shown, one of the connecting-rods being raised and the other lowered. F, E are the levers for driving the rocking bar G. This machine works very well, though the principle of its construction is not all that could be desired, and it requires a considerable space. It can be made a double-lift machine by having two hooks to each needle and two griffes as in the ordinary double-lift, single-cylinder machine.
Fig. 103
The principle of Devoge’s border jacquard is shown in Fig. 103. C C is the rocking bar, for driving the cylinders, working on the centre D. It is driven by the levers F, G, and the connecting-rod E. The notches A and B fall over the studs on the cylinder frame, and can either be let down or raised, as required, by the cords K, L and the levers H, I. The machine is an ordinary double-cylinder one, and either griffe can be wrought to suit the cylinder that is in action. This machine can be used as an ordinary double-acting one, as a single-acting one raising both griffes together and bringing in both cylinders together, or as a border machine working one griffe and one cylinder at the same time.
Another method, similar to the above, is to have a double-cylinder machine with the cylinders wrought by the griffes, then have a stud on the crank-shaft wheel for raising one griffe, as for an ordinary single-acting jacquard, and the two connecting-rods from the griffes made so that either will work on it. A hook or catch can be put in any convenient place, so that when one connecting-rod is on the stud the other can be hooked out of the way. The rods can be made to slide on to the stud easily, and be fastened with a pin, so that the weaver can readily change from one to the other.
OPEN-SHED JACQUARDS
To obviate the vibration of the harness as much as possible, as well as to economise the wear and tear of it and to minimise the friction on the warp threads, especially in weaving patterns requiring heavy lifts, such as warp-faced patterns, Messrs. Priestley & Co., of Bradford, patented an open-shed jacquard, the principle of which is shown in Fig. 104. It did not, however, prove successful, as the tacklers found some difficulty in working it.
The machine is an ordinary double-lift jacquard with one cylinder, and works in the ordinary way. The hooks are made as in Fig. 104, where it may be observed there is a turn or catch on the lower portion of the hook, at A. Above these catches is a set of bars, b, like a stationary griffe, and when the hooks are raised by the upper griffe, in the ordinary way, they spring over these lower bars and rest on them when the griffe begins to fall. All the hooks raised would thus remain up, were it not that the cylinder, pressing in for the second griffe (the machine being double-acting), which begins to rise as the upper one begins to fall, presses back those hooks that are not to be raised for the following shot, and as they are held by the griffe above, they spring back at the bottom, and, clearing the bars b, come down with the falling griffe. In this way the hooks, when once raised, remain up till pressed off by the card, so that in the case of working a warp stripe with an 8-leaf satin binding the hooks would only fall for every seventh pick.
Fig. 104
Fig. 105
Another machine has since been tried, but did not work satisfactorily. In this machine the lifting hooks are formed with loops or hooks, in addition to the top hooks. The hooks are lifted in the ordinary way by the griffes; and upper knives, made to reciprocate horizontally, catch the raised hooks and support them. By suitably timing the motions of the card cylinder the hooks may be kept up as long as required by being transferred from one set of knives to the other. The shape of the hooks and needles is shown in Fig. 105. The needles may be as at b or b1. This machine acts as an ordinary double-lift jacquard, but has only one set of needles, which pass through needle boards at each side of the machine, and are acted upon by two card cylinders. No springs are required, the hooks acting as springs to keep the needles in position. The cylinders are driven by a tappet, and can be held against the needles as long as required; one cylinder must press on them when the griffes are passing, so as to prevent those hooks which are descending from being taken up by the ascending griffe. There are two griffes; three of the knives of the one are shown at 1, 3, 5, and three of the other at 2, 4, 6. When these knives lift the hooks by the lower loops or hooks on them, they deposit them on to a set of knives, a, a, a, a, in an upper grid or grating, which has a lateral or horizontal motion.
The lower knives raise the tops of the hooks slightly above these upper knives, so as to clear them, and the upper grid is then moved sideways, taking the knives from under one set of heads of the hooks and placing them under another set. Each time the griffe rises all the hooks not acted upon by the cards will be deposited on the upper grating, and will be transferred from one knife to another at each lift, till the card acting upon the needles keeps them clear of the upper grating and allows them to fall with the descending griffe. In this machine the tugs or tail cords, as used with double-lift machines, are not required, the double hooks serving for two single ones. Other efforts have been made in this direction, but the plan of using small pulleys on the tail cords, between the pairs of hooks, to which the neck twines are hung, is the only one worth mention. The same principle will be found for working the shafts in Fig. 115, and is more suitable for a few shafts than for 400 to 600 hooks, or pairs of hooks.
THE VERDÔL JACQUARD
Everyone accustomed to work large patterns on jacquards, especially on power looms, must have found the inconvenience resulting from a large set of cards. The space taken up, the time and trouble required for changing them, to say nothing of the cost, have been sufficiently felt, but have hitherto had to be borne with as a matter of necessity.
For working fine tablecloths with from 150 to 180 picks per inch, or for curtains where from 3 to 6 cards are required for each weft line of the design, and when from 2 to 4 jacquards are used, the inconvenience and cost of a set of cards ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 are very considerable. The small jacquards described at Fig. 30 make a great saving in the space taken up by the cards, as well as in the quantity of card paper used; but it has been thought that a still greater saving could be effected.
Fig. 106
M. Verdôl, of Paris, has for a length of time been endeavouring to perfect a system of substituting a continuous roll of perforated paper for the cards, and has succeeded in doing so, though it is doubtful if he will be so far successful as to supersede our present method of working. These machines were taken up by Benson’s Patent Jacquard Company, of Belfast, in the year 1876, but did not then give satisfaction, the greatest obstacle in the way being the effect of the atmosphere on the paper; and as the needles are very closely set together, it was found impracticable to keep the paper set so as to act correctly on them. This difficulty is now claimed to be overcome by having procured paper which is said to be less liable to be affected by the atmosphere than the brass plates of the machine. Several of these machines have been tried in Scotland, but it will take some time to prove them thoroughly and get the workmen accustomed to them, as they are much finer than the jacquards in general use.
The Verdôl machine consists of a small jacquard, the ordinary French make of machine, which is usually made with 440 and 880 hooks for the single and double machines respectively. In addition there is a frame or box attached to the front of the machine, against the needle board, containing another set of horizontal and vertical needles or wires, which act upon the ordinary needles of the jacquard, according as they are acted upon by the perforated paper. Fig. 106, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, shows the principle of the machine. B, B show the needles, and D, D the uprights or hooks of the ordinary jacquard; only four of each are given, but sixteen are used. N is the face-plate or needle board, and O is the clap-board used for bringing back the needles, which have no springs on them; but the hooks are turned up double, and the back or turned-up portion of them, coming against horizontal wires or bars, shown in section above the needles, acts as a spring to keep them steady. This portion of the machine is a complete jacquard of the ordinary French make. In addition to this there is the apparatus on which the perforated paper acts, and which communicates this action to the jacquard. It consists of a box or frame containing two sets of wires—one set horizontal, as A A, about 6 in. long, and terminated at one end by a small head, as shown separately at A1, which are called hitting wires. The other set is vertical, as C C, of fine wire, having a loop on one end, by which they are suspended in a frame, and a loop in the centre, which passes round the horizontal wires. These are called the vertical needles or feelers; one of them is shown separately at C1. The points or lower ends of these needles pass through a horizontal brass plate, G, called a guide-bar. The hitting wires pass through a guide-plate, M, placed so that their heads will come exactly against the points of the needles in the jacquard, as shown in the figure. The other ends of the hitting wires lie loosely in the loops of the vertical needles, C. Underneath the guide-bar G is the curved brass plate I, which is in lieu of a cylinder. Between the cylinder and the guide-bar G the perforated roll of paper I I passes; there is just sufficient room between them for it to pass freely through, as it is moved forward by the stud wheel K. The paper may pass from one cylinder or reel to another, or may hang in folds in the same way as cards usually hang. At the points of the hitting wires is a grid or pushing frame, H, with an iron angle-bar across above each row of wires, as shown in section in No. 1 at H. There is a clap-board above the small vertical needles, which is shown raised at E in No. 1, and down in No. 2; this is raised and lowered with these needles, and serves to bring them all down when raised. E1 shows the way in which these needles are hung in the frame that supports them. When the machine is working the frame H has a horizontal traverse coming against the ends of the hitting wires when they are pressed up by the card on the cylinder, and, pressing them against the needles of the jacquard, push them back as an ordinary card cylinder would. It may be seen in No. 1 that two of the feelers are down and two are pressed up, as they would be if two holes were cut in the paper and two uncut; the two that are up raise the hitting wires connected with them, and it will be observed that this raises the points of the hitting wires so as to come against the angle-iron of the grid H when it is coming forward; whereas the two hitting wires that are not raised will pass through, and not be pushed back. This enables the card paper to act on the needles of the jacquard in the same way as if coming directly on them, as cards do. The cylinder has a slight vertical motion, rising about 1/8 in. The needles, when the cylinder is down, do not pass through the plate G; it is perforated through and raised by the cylinder ascending. When the frame H is pressed forward the clap-board O is pressed back.
The card paper is of a special make, thin and tough, and is strengthened along both sides and in the centre by strips of paper pasted along it where the stud holes fall. No. 3 shows the motion by which the clap board E is raised and lowered by the sliding of the cranked bar F between the two studs 2. No. 4 shows the size and pitch of the holes in the hard paper. These are traced from the paper, and lie diagonally, two rows of 8 making one row of 16 hooks in the jacquard.
These machines are working in large numbers in France, and appear to give more satisfaction there than here, partly because they are better known, and the French workmen are better adapted to handle the small parts belonging to them. A coarser machine is more suited for the ordinary workmen to be found in the factories of this country. But it is strange if a machine of a pitch about half-way between the French jacquards and ours would not be better than either; not taking up so much room as ours, and not so minute as the French. However, in many cases the machines we have in use are none too large to give sufficient latitude for the errors often found cropping up in work, none of which should occur, of course, though they often do, through carelessness or otherwise. For instance, the card cylinder may be a little off the pitch, and the cards may be affected by damp, or may not be correctly cut to suit the cylinder; the points of the needles may be a little bent by the cylinder, or by the carelessness of the weaver when turning back her cards, and the cylinder may not be set quite fair for the needles. Mr. McMurdo, of Manchester, has made a very nice machine of the same pitch as the French ones, with 1,296 hooks, 16 row cards. It works as a double-acting machine with two cylinders and two griffes, but only one set of needles acting on the two sets of hooks. Two of the hooks are shown in Fig. 107; each needle clasps two hooks and passes through a needle board at each side of the machine. There is no spring on the needle, the hooks forming the spring, the tops of the hooks coming against the cross-rods at A A. Otherwise, this machine works in the usual way, and is very compact where a large number of hooks are required in a small space.
Fig. 107
The card-cutting machine used for the French system of work is a very elaborate contrivance, being more like a jacquard loom than any of our card-cutting machines, at least in so far as the harness is concerned. The principle of it is seen in Fig. 108. a shows the set of cords by which the punches are wrought. The method of preparing the pattern to attach to these cords has been referred to before, but will be repeated again further on. These cords pass over the pulleys B and down through a reed to the lingoes C, which keep them in tension. Another set of cords pass from these over the pulleys D and down to the punches F. When any of the cords at A are drawn the punches connected with them are dropped, as raising the lingoes lets the cords pass over the pulleys D. When a punch is let fall, it is caught by one of the angle-irons of the grid G, which is pressed forwards when a card is to be cut. The card paper is on the roller JH, and passes down in front of the punches at I, which, when pressed forward, punch the paper between them and the block K. Any punches that are held up pass through the grid over the angle-iron bars. Only four punches are given, but sixteen are used in the machine; they are here drawn out of scale to show them more clearly. This portion constitutes the cutting machine; it is worked by two persons, one behind, to draw the cords, and another in front, to punch the paper by depressing a treadle each time a draw is made. In addition to cutting from the pattern the paper can be cut from other sets of cards, as in a repeating machine—cut either on the English or French system. N is the French machine, and a set of cards can be put on it and copied, the cords O acting on the punches; English-cut cards can be put on the machine at L and copied, the cords M acting on the punches. Of course, when one portion of the machine is working, the other parts remain idle, and it might be better to have them separate if much work is wanted.
The pattern is prepared for this machine by hand, working one repeat of it as follows:—The design, painted on point paper, is placed on a frame in an upright position, and over each line on it is stretched a vertical cord, which is taken as warp. The picker then takes a bobbin of weft and inserts it under every cord that passes over a painted dot on the first weft line of the pattern, keeping it in front of all the cords that pass over blank spaces, just in the same order as a shuttle would pass through if the shed were to be opened by a jacquard. When this is done the next line of the design paper is picked similarly, and so on, till a complete repeat of the design is loosely woven with cords, which are made of well-twisted harness twine. This process is somewhat similar to reading the pattern for the draw loom, which see. For coloured work a shot would require to be worked in for each colour on any weft line, the same as it is to be woven. When this is prepared, it is taken to the cutting machine and the warp tied to the cords A, the weft showing the warp ends to be drawn for each card.
Fig. 108
HALF HARNESS AND MUSLIN HARNESSES
So far we have been speaking entirely of ‘full-harness’ work. Though the principle of mounting is much the same in all classes of harnesses, there are certain deviations peculiar to each.
One drawback to the full harness is the amount of machinery required to give a large extent of pattern, an upright hook and a needle being required for each thread in one repeat of the pattern. In a half harness only half the amount of machinery is required on the same fineness of cloth to give an equal extent of pattern; but it is only for a few classes of goods that this method of working is suitable, leno curtains and muslins being the principal. Leno curtains will be mentioned under gauzework, as they are wrought with a gauze mounting, but on the half-harness principle. Figured muslin curtains, with a plain ground and coloured flowering, are called ‘crêtes,’ or ‘crête curtains’; these are now generally wrought in a full harness. Figured muslins are much of the same class of cloth, but are not figured with colour and tint for the half harness, known as the ‘common spotting harness,’ or ‘book harness.’ For working them the harness is mounted in the ordinary manner, but only half as many cords are required for it as there are threads of warp. Only half of the warp is drawn into the harness, the other half—every alternate end—passing through it, and being drawn into a plain leaf of heddles, which is hung close in front of the harness. In fine work two leaves of heddles may be used as one, to prevent crowding.
The ground of the cloth is a plain texture, and was formerly wrought by having two leaves of long-eyed heddles in front of the harness, into which all the warp was drawn, this probably being more convenient for the hand-loom weaver; and besides, a more even plain ground can be made with the heddles than with the harness and one leaf of heddles. Two shots of ground, or fine weft, are given to one shot of figuring, or coarse weft, usually cotton rove; but to avoid using a pick-and-pick loom when working by power, the coarse shot may be made by throwing two finer ones into the same shed. In power looms the ground is wrought by raising the plain leaf of heddles and all the harness alternately, and the figuring shed is formed by drawing the harness with a card acting on the machine. The pattern is painted solid, without any twilling or binding on either ground or flower, so that the figuring shot will be in a plain shed for the flower, but will be loose or unbound over the ground, and is afterwards cut off in a cropping machine.
Fig. 109
The plain shed, into which the thick weft is thrown, must also contain the shot of thin weft thrown in either before or after it, according as the figuring shed follows the plain shed made by raising the harness or the heddles; for supposing the heddle shaft to be raised and a ground shot thrown in, then the shed reversed by raising the harness and another ground shot thrown in, then the figure shed formed by raising 50 or 100 hooks of the harness, this opens portion of the last shed, and the figure weft will be thrown in along with the last shot of ground. When both wefts are white this is of but little consequence, but when using coloured wefts for the figure the ground weft would be liable to show along with them and injure the pattern. This was originally overcome by adopting the ‘paper harness’ from the shaft mounting for weaving paper spots. In this mounting two sets of shafts and two harnesses are used, one behind the other. Half of the warp—all the odd numbers of threads—was drawn on the back harness, and the other half—all the even numbers—on the front harness; this would be sufficient to make the cloth, but a pair of leaves of long-eyed heddles were used for working the ground, acting as pressers. On this method of working, a ground and a figuring shot are thrown in alternately, as either half of the warp can be raised by the harness for the figuring shed, and a richer spot is thus given; but still, the rove or figuring shot would fall into the same shed as the ground shot, which may be seen by examining the two spots given in Fig. 109, A being wrought on the common spot or half-harness mounting, and B on the paper-spot mounting. The grey shots are the ground, and the black ones the figure. However, in the paper-spot mounting it is not necessary to throw the rove into a plain shed; any suitable twill may be used for binding the figure, and will give a much richer effect on one side of the cloth than plain, and tie down the ground shot, which will go into a plain shed.
This principle of mounting is now done away with, as it has no advantage over the ordinary full-harness mounting, which can also have a pair of presser leaves of heddles in front for working the ground, if desired; but they are unnecessary in a power loom, except when a very level ground is required.
A twilled or flushed figure may be formed with the common half harness, but only having half the warp for binding causes it to be loose and ragged round the edges.
To work a large pattern, perhaps the most economical way, at least in the hand loom, is to use a pressure harness with two threads in the mail, and with four presser heddle leaves in front. The number of leaves regulates the twill on the figure. The cloth may be woven pick-and-pick, ground and figure, or 2 picks ground to 1 of figure. When the harness is drawn for the figure all the heddles must be sunk but one leaf, and sinking the two front and two back leaves alternately, raising the back ones when the front ones are sunk, and vice versa, will form plain cloth with the draft 1, 2, 3, and 4 over the leaves. A 4-leaf twilled figure can be made with this mounting, but still it will not have the advantage of the full harness, in which the figure can be varied in twill, and bound round the edges.
SPLIT HARNESS
The term ‘split harness’ is sometimes applied to the pressure harness when wrought with two threads in the mail, this constituting a splitful of warp, so that each cord of the harness controls a splitful of warp; but this is only the finest description of pressure harness.
Fig. 110
The split harness, or ‘shaft monture,’ was invented in the silk district of Bethnal Green, shortly after the introduction of the jacquard, for weaving rich silks which have about 400 threads of warp per inch, but much less weft—perhaps about one-fifth of that number of threads. The harness is wrought with the ordinary jacquard, but there are two mails and lingoes attached to each neck cord, as shown in Fig. 110. A, A are the neck twines, B is the cumber board, and D the mails. If this mounting were wrought with the jacquard only, it would produce the same effect upon the cloth as if two threads were drawn into each mail of an ordinary harness. This would, of course, take away the fine appearance of the cloth. To avoid this a set of shafts, C, C, are passed through loops in the twine above the mails, and are attached to a set of hooks in front of the jacquard, or at each side of it, or may be wrought by a separate dobby. Twenty-four shafts are mostly used, and are usually flat enamelled iron bars. These shafts are for working the ground of the cloth, and can raise each row of mails separately, as shown at No. 1 leash, thus splitting the pairs of threads that are connected with each hook of the jacquard. One or more of these shafts, according to the texture required for the ground, are raised at the same time that the jacquard draws the figuring shed. No ground texture is put on the pattern for the cards, but the figure must be twilled, or have the binding marks cut on the cards for it. The binding of the figure will be in pairs of threads—that is, two threads of warp must sink together under a weft shot, though on the design these two threads will appear as one, as they are wrought by the same hook of the machine. On account of the number of warp threads, rising and sinking in pairs will not much affect the appearance of the figure; though it must be coarser than if the threads were bound separately, and will also have a rougher or more ragged outline; but to get a large figure with so much warp would necessitate a great amount of machinery if the threads were drawn into separate mails with one to each cord of the harness.
This method of working is surpassed by the twilling machines now in use (see Twilling Jacquards), though they are more intricate, and would not suit well for a hand loom, as they are heavy to draw.
PRESSURE HARNESS
This is the old draw-loom system of working, and, old as it is, is still in use on our modern hand and power looms on the finest description of damasks, and is not likely to be surpassed for making a good piece of cloth. Much firmer than a harness, and producing the largest possible pattern with the least possible cards, mounting, and machinery it took up its position in the days of the drawboy, and has held its own, with the aid of the jacquard, against all the inventions of modern times. The principal advantage of this system of working is that a much larger pattern can be produced with the same quantity of cards, mounting, and machinery, than by any other means; but the pattern wrought by a pressure harness will not compare with one wrought by a full harness for fineness of outline or detail. When weaving large tablecloths with 100 or 120 threads of warp per inch, and from 50 to 72, or even 90 in. in the single pattern—that is, when the pattern is all, or nearly all, single—the amount of machinery that would be required to work it on a full harness could not be crowded on a loom, the French system being the only one by which it might be attempted; and even then the difficulty of keeping the machinery and cards in perfect working order would be very great, not to mention the cost of mounting, patterns, cards, &c. The quantity of harness and machinery is reduced in a pressure harness by drawing two or more warp threads into each mail in the harness. Suppose we take 60 in. of cloth with 100 threads per inch = 6,000 threads, and allow 3 threads to each mail in the harness, or each hook of the jacquard, 2,000 hooks, or four 500 jacquards, would be required to work the pattern. As many as six 600 jacquards are sometimes required on this description of work when very fine; but three or four 500 or 600 machines are more commonly used on either hand or power looms. To work one of these finest patterns in a full harness 10,800 hooks would be required—say, six 600 machines with 3 threads to each mail = 10,800; and almost double this number of cards, even with working them backwards and forwards, would be necessary.
In early times, when the drawboy took the place of the jacquard, 6, 8, or 10 threads were put to each mail, or went to what would now be one hook of the jacquard; and patterns were not usually so extensive as they are now, so that the cords of the harness were greatly reduced in number, but with a proportionately coarser effect of pattern. The difference between a pattern wrought with a full harness and one wrought with the pressure or any of the twilling harnesses, is that the outline is clear and defined in the full harness, and the detail and points of the figures can be turned on a single thread, whereas in the others the edges of the figures will be jagged or in steps, and the points must turn on whatever number of threads are lifted together. The pattern on the cloth must therefore have somewhat of the rough, square effect of the design on point paper, though, of course, reduced in size, but will be worse in this respect—viz. that whereas the edges of the figure on the point paper are clear and well defined, on the cloth they are not so, the rough edges to some extent blending the figure into the ground, and not giving the clean, sharp effect of a full-harness pattern. Shaded effects are also coarse on a pressure harness, but can be made effective if broadly treated. Cloth with 100 or 120 threads per inch does very well to have three threads to the mail, and from 80 to 100 threads per inch suits very well for two to the mail. Any coarser set than 80 threads per inch requires to be woven in a full harness to produce good work, and for superior work nothing less than 100 threads per inch should have two threads to the mail, though 80 per inch does very well.
When several threads are put to the mail, it is also usual to put several picks to each card. The fewer picks, the finer will be the pattern; but a good method of regulating this is to make the checks formed on the cloth square, a little more or less according to the fineness of the pattern required. Thus, if the cloth is wefted square, or a little over that—say, 100 warp by 100 to 110 weft threads per inch—paint the design on, say, 8 × 8 or 8 × 9 paper, and give as many shots to the cards as there are threads in the mail. If the cloth is to be wefted one-half over square (100 × 150) the same pattern will still do, but with half as many more shots to the card than there are threads in the mail. If there are two threads in the mail there will be three picks to the card, but if there are three threads to the mail there must be four picks to one card and five to the next one. This would be for a pattern on 8 × 8, or square paper. If painted on 8 × 9 paper, which would give an extra card to every eight, and if the weft must not be increased, then four or five picks must be taken off the number given to the eight cards and put to the ninth one, for four cards with four picks to each and four with five picks to each = 36 picks, and thirty-six picks put to nine cards would allow four picks to each. This would make the edges of the pattern a little finer; and if the design was painted on 8 × 10 paper it would be finer still, as there would be more cards to a given number of picks.
In this way any alteration required can be made on the number of picks per inch given to cloth woven on a pressure or twilling harness, without distorting the pattern by varying the number of picks given to each card to suit the shotting. Neither is it necessary to have the same number of threads in each mail; the warp might be mailed 2’s and 3’s or 3’s and 4’s, but the more regular they are, the better. If the fineness of the cloth requires to be altered, it may be woven in the same harness without any alteration by varying the number of threads in the mails. For instance, a warp of ninety threads per inch mailed 3’s and one with 120 threads per inch mailed 4’s would work in the same harness. Similarly, the same set of cards would suit for making different widths of cloth by making the harness narrower in the cumber board and altering the mailing so as to keep the cloth the same set, or it may be made a finer set and not alter the mailing. In either case the pattern would be reduced in size.
Fig. 111 shows a portion of a pressure-harness mounting which is similar to that of the draw loom. It is mounted in the same manner as described for full harness, only that the warp must be divided by the number of threads to be drawn into each mail in order to find the quantity of harness required. The kinds of mails used are shown at A and B, Fig. 111; it does not do to have more than two threads drawn into each eye of the mail, as they are liable to twist round each other; two will separate easily, but a greater number will not. Ordinary full-harness mails answer very well for a two-thread harness. The mails are levelled in the same position as for full-harness work, viz. about 1-1/2 in. below the level of the back and front beams for hand-loom work, and a little lower for power looms. The lingoes are heavier than those required for a full harness; the weight depends upon the strength of the yarn and the number of threads in the mail; 10 to 12 to 1 lb. are used in power looms for linen damask with two threads in the mail, having about eighty to one hundred threads of warp per inch. For hand looms they are usually made of lead, thicker and shorter than the wire lingoes, and called ‘leads’; 11 to 15 per lb. suits for three- or four-thread harnesses. Light cotton work, such as muslin curtains, only requires lingoes of about sixty or seventy to 1 lb. for hand looms, but from twenty-five to thirty per lb. are used in power looms for two-thread harnesses.
Fig. 111
The principle of working the pressure harness is best explained by the diaper mounting shown in Fig. 2, where a back set of heddles takes the place of the harness, and a set of ground leaves of long-eyed heddles stands in front of the back ones. After the yarn is drawn into the harness or back mounting in the usual way, it must be drawn into the front or presser heddles, using, generally, a straight draught for a satin ground. If Figs. 2 and 111 are examined, it will be seen that when the shed is opened by the harness or back mounting, the heddles in front sink part of the raised warp and raise part of the sunk warp. The mounting raises all the warp of the figuring portion on each card or line of the design paper, and leaves down all the ground warp, so that it is necessary to have the heddles in front to bind the warp and weft, or form the texture of the cloth. For an 8-leaf satin eight shafts are required; one of these must be raised and another sunk for each shot, so as to raise the binding threads of the sunk warp and sink those of the raised warp, the harness forming the outline of the pattern, or raising the warp of it in a mass. The other six leaves of heddles stand in a middle position, and the long eyes allow the warp drawn by the harness to rise. When the machine is drawn it is held up till as many shots as are to be given to the card are thrown in, but the shed formed by the heddles must be changed for each shot. In working bars up the cloth one card would be sufficient, and when the machine is drawn it would be held so, and the cloth wrought with the heddles; of course, no machine would be required in this case, one leaf of heddles with the stripes of warp drawn into it would be sufficient for the back mounting. For dices two leaves of heddles would be sufficient for the back mounting, the warp of one dice to be drawn on one leaf, and that of the other on the other leaf; then one leaf would be raised and held up till one dice was wrought, when it would be lowered, and the other one raised and held up for the other dice. For fancy dices and diapers the plan of mounting in Fig. 2 is very suitable and simple, but for a variety of figuring or flowering the jacquard is necessary.
It will be seen that the presser heddles have three positions, viz. a sunk, a raised, and a middle position. The length of the eyes is to allow the harness to open the shed when the heddles are stationary, or in their middle position. They must be a little longer than is required to open the shed at the back leaf of the heddles; for a 2-in. shed a 2-1/4-in. to 2-1/2-in. eye is used. When the heddles are stationary the lower loop of the eye should be fully 1/8 in. under the sunk warp, and there should be the same clearance at the top when the shed is drawn; some allow more. The shed for a pressure harness is usually very small in front of the reed, and requires a very small shuttle to be used, from 1/2 in. to 1 in. deep being the usual sizes. The depth of the shed that can be made depends principally on the elasticity of the yarn. With a linen warp a very small shed can be made, as the yarn has but little elasticity, and if overstrained will hang slack. For it the distance between the harness and the back shaft of the front mounting should be 10 in. to 12 in., and there should be a stretch of 27 in. to 34 in. behind the harness. The draw of the harness may then be 3 in. to 3-1/2 in., and the shed at the back shaft will be 1-3/4 in. to 2 in.; this will allow a shuttle of 3/4 in. to 7/8 in. deep to be used. For hand looms the shed is about 1-1/4 in. at the back shaft, and a shuttle of 1/2 in. deep is employed. The shed must be made very clear and regular, and the smaller it can be kept, the better. With a good cotton warp 7 in. is a sufficient distance to have between the harness and heddles, and will admit of a larger shed being formed; but it is not desirable to have too large a shed, as there is a considerable strain on the yarn, and a small, clear shed is more satisfactory. This would be assisted by bringing the harness as close as possible to the heddles.
One drawback to this method of working is the distance which separates the harness from the fell of the cloth, or even from the reed; and if there is any obstruction to the warp rising or falling, such as roughness in the heddles or reed, or lumps on the yarn, it will not, unless very tight, fall into its proper place, and the shuttle may pass over or under it when it should not do so, giving a picked or darned effect to the cloth; slack threads may cause the same.
The warp must be kept as tight as possible, and all the threads should be at a uniform tension, the heddles straining each thread alike; the harness should be as close to the heddles as the yarn will permit it to be. The space occupied by the harness, heddles, and traverse of lay should be no greater than is necessary; then, with a small but clear shed satisfactory work can be produced. When drawing a warp into the harness, a boy or girl sits behind, and hands the threads to the drawer-in, who takes them into the mails with a wire hook, and then either hands them to a second drawer-in sitting in front of the heddles, to be drawn into them, or passes them over and under a pair of rods tied across the harness so as to form a lease as she draws them in; and when she has all drawn into the harness, she begins to draw them into the heddles, a straight draught being mostly used for a twill or satin.
Fig. 112
The front mounting of a damask hand loom is shown in Fig. 112. A, A are the shafts, four in number, but eight are generally used for an 8-leaf satin; B, B are the jacks; C the lams, which require to be one more in number than the leaves of heddles; D the treadles; E, E1 the upper marches or jacks; F, F1 two sets of coupers or levers, with their fulcrums at f, and loaded at the outer ends with the weights G. Under the ends of these levers is a bar N, to which the weights draw them, and keep the heddles up to their middle position. The cords I are not fastened to the heddles, but pass down through them to the lams C. The cords L connect the coupers with the heddle shafts. Each lam has two cords tied to it, except the two outer ones—i.e. the first and last one—which together act as one, to avoid crossing the cords. One of the cords I is tied to each lam, and also one from the jacks B; but the first and last lams have only one cord tied to each of them, one having the cord I, and the other that from B. Both these lams are connected with one treadle, and the others are each connected with a treadle. Of course, the cording is made in the usual way, agreeably to the pattern, two methods of twilling being shown in Fig. 113. When the weaver presses down a treadle, one leaf of heddles is raised by the cord I connected from one of the levers E, E1 to one of the marches or lams C, and one leaf is at the same time sunk by the cord connected from one of the jacks B to the lam connected to the treadle. The other treadles act similarly when corded for a twill or satin.
Fig. 113
The cording generally used for an 8-shaft satin is shown at A, Fig. 113. Sometimes the twill is run in the reverse direction. In either case it will be observed that the twill on both ground and figure run in the same direction, which makes one a sateen, or coarse twill, and the other a satin, or fine twill. In order to have both twills alike they require to be run in the opposite direction on the cloth, as shown at B, which will give a fine twill on both ground and figure, on both sides of the cloth, with single yarn. This does not hold good with every twill. When weaving, the weaver presses down the treadle which is connected with the jacquard (another treadle being required for this purpose) with his left foot, then works over the twilling treadles with his right foot, holding down the machine treadle till he gives as many shots to the cards as are required. When the card is to be changed the weaver lets down the machine and draws another shed, striking up the weft again without throwing in a shot or taking his right foot off the treadle. This clears up the shed, and makes the yarn steady before he springs another shed with the presser leaves, giving a regularity and firmness to the work which it is impossible to get otherwise, but which has to be done without in the power loom. The weft is struck up on the open shot, or before the heddles have closed the shed. Sometimes a sort of dobby is used below the lams, which enables the weaver to work the heddles with one treadle. In power looms a similar principle of front mounting is sometimes adopted, substituting a wyper tappet for the weaver’s foot; but a better plan, as it avoids having the cords passing through the yarn and heddles, is to have a box tappet, on the Woodcroft style, made with solid plates, and struck to give the rising and falling motion. The connections from the tappet to the heddle shafts are made in the same way as the ordinary Woodcroft tappet. The jacquard may either be a single or double-lift one. Some prefer the one, some the other. The single-lift is more easily fitted up, especially if the number of shots to the card varies. When the shots on each card are alike, perhaps the steadiest method of lifting the machine is to have a box tappet struck one up and three down, or one up and two down, according to the number of shots on the card. This tappet acts on a bowl on a treadle, to which the rod for raising the machine is connected. For a double-acting machine there must be two treadles and tappets acting alternately. The cylinder can be driven from the rising and falling of the machine with a swan-neck or lever motion, or may be driven from an eccentric on the loom with a pinion on the crank shaft turning it one to three or four shots, as may be desired. When the shotting to the card is irregular there are several methods adopted for lifting the machine griffes, one of the best of which is shown in Fig. 114 for a single-lift machine.
A is the treadle to which the connecting-rod from the machine is fastened by a bolt through the slot at H, or the slot may be in any desirable place. B is a rack in which the end of the lever works, which keeps the treadle bowl steady to the tappet. E is the tappet on the tappet shaft of the loom, and is made so as to act at every shot. D is the fulcrum of the lever, and C is the stand, which is bolted to the ground and fastened to the side of the loom. This portion of the motion working alone would raise the griffe for every shot, the same as would be required for a full-harness, single-acting jacquard; but when the griffe is raised by the tappet E, it can be held up as long as is desired by letting the bell-crank catch F fall in over it as shown. When the treadle A is in this position the tappet merely touches the bowl, depressing it about 1/8 in., so as to clear it off the catch; this is to allow the catch to be easily pushed off when it is required to let the treadle up, or to drop the griffe. The catch is moved by the cam or tappet G acting on the bell-crank F. This tappet can be driven by a pinion on the crank shaft or by a catch on the slay. It may be a tappet struck to suit, or a barrel with a set of lags or pins on it, so that the machine griffe may be raised and lowered in any order that is desired.
Fig. 114
An ingenious method of working the heddles of a pressure harness by the jacquard was invented in Bethnal Green shortly after the introduction of the original machine. It was used for weaving the richest silk damask, which had 400 threads of warp per inch and about one-fifth that number of weft shots, so that five threads of warp might be drawn into each mail without making the pattern appear any coarser in the warp than in the weft. A sketch of this mounting is given in Fig 115. A shows the hooks for working the heddles, and B those for working the harness. Eight hooks are given for working four leaves of heddles. It will be seen that a cord from two hooks passes round one of the pulleys C, and each of the heddle shafts is attached to one of these pulleys. These hooks may be raised by the griffe of the jacquard, which would require to rise and fall for every shot, or the griffe may be held up for the number of shots to the card, and the hooks for working the shafts may be wrought by a small dobby. When one of each pair of the hooks A is raised, the heddle shaft connected with it is raised to the middle position, as shown by the pulleys 1 and 2, and the leaves connected with them. If neither of the hooks is raised for any shaft, it will remain sunk, as shown in No. 3; and if both the hooks are raised, the leaf will be raised to its top position, as No. 4. The leaves are drawn down by weights or springs.
Fig. 115
TWILLING JACQUARDS
Fig. 116
As has been stated before, one of the drawbacks to a pressure harness is the strain which the warp has to undergo when forming the shed. This necessitates having a good warp, which adds to the cost of the cloth, and in low-class goods this consideration may hinder the sale. Many methods have been adopted for working the ground of the cloth without using a pressure mounting. Some of these are explained under ‘half harness’ and ‘split harness,’ but none of these methods would produce cloth like the pressure harness. A twilling jacquard to act similar to the pressure harness, but without using the front mounting, or by dispensing with the leaves of heddles, was patented by Mr. Shields, of Perth, in 1859. This machine underwent several improvements, and now there are two varieties of it in use, one known as the Irish or Bessbrook machine, being patented by Mr. Barcroft, of the Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited, county Armagh; the other as the Scotch machine, the improvements being made by Mr. Shields and others. The principal difference between the two machines is that the blades or knives of the griffe have a horizontal or sliding motion in the Scotch machine to enable them to get clear of the heads of the hooks, whereas in the Bessbrook machine they turn out of the way or partly revolve. A full description of the Bessbrook machine is here given. Fig. 116 is a view of the framing of the machine. K is the cylinder, which may be wrought by the swan-neck motion, as shown, but it is better to be wrought by a separate motion from the loom. D is a cord attached to the handle of the shears for reversing the cylinder; E is a brass bushing through which a shaft passes for raising the griffe. The shedding of this machine is exactly the same as that of an ordinary single-acting jacquard. The griffe rises and falls for every shot; the cylinder travels out and in, but does not turn till two or three or whatever number of impressions required are given by each card. To prevent the cylinder turning it is only necessary to raise the shears so that they will not catch it. This is done by means of the tappet A, shown in Figs. 116 and 117. The roller H on the shears rests on the tappet, which is turned by means of the rack wheel, which is fast on it, and the lever L, which is loose on the stud. This lever is pushed backwards and drawn forwards by the rod I, which is connected to an arm, either on the shaft for raising the griffe, or on one for working the cylinder, and the catch on the lever takes a tooth of the ratchet wheel at each draw, so that with four divisions on the tappet, and 12 teeth in the ratchet, three shots would be given to each card. If it is required to work the cylinder the reverse way, it is only necessary to tie the cord D on the end of the shears to a spiral spring made fast to any convenient part of the loom, then the roller C will be acted upon by the underside of the tappet, and the under hook of the shears will turn the cylinder when required. B is a spring acting as a pawl to keep the ratchet from moving backwards, and there is also a spring shown over the catch which moves it forward; both these springs serve to keep the tappet steady. There are two sets of hooks and needles in this machine—the ordinary set for working the harness, as shown at A (Fig. 118), and a set of twilling hooks, one row at each side of the machine, which are much stronger than the others. The ends of the twilling hooks are hooked round bars, which pass through the loops at the lower ends of the ordinary hooks, as shown at C (Fig. 118). These bars are kept in their places by a grid D, which is between the ordinary hooks and the twilling hooks. Each of the needles of the jacquard is connected with two or more of the ordinary hooks, as shown at A. The twilling hooks have also needles on them, but they are only for the purpose of keeping them in their places, and are not acted upon by the cards. The springs of these needles are on the ends next the cards, or at the back of the faceplate or needle, as shown at E. The centre support for the knives of the griffe is shown at F, with an end view of two knives G G. The ends of the knives enter the griffe frame at each side, so as to allow them to oscillate or partly revolve. This motion is given to them by a set of bars or flat needles, as shown at A (Fig. 119). A single needle is given at A1. These needles have each the notch in them over the top edge of two or more of the knives, and are acted upon by a barrel C with studs in it, set to the twill. This barrel rises and falls with the griffe, and is turned from one row of pegs or studs to the next one each time the griffe falls by the head or lantern on it coming down on a finger, as shown at A (Fig 120). B in the same figure is a strong spring to keep the barrel steady and make it turn the correct distance.
Fig. 117
The number of knives in the griffe must be regulated to suit the twill to be put on the cloth; they must be a multiple of the twill, and this to some extent regulates the number of needles that must be in each upright row. For example, an 8-leaf twill may have 16 or 24 knives, which would be twice or three times over the twill. If there are 8 rows of needles to 16 knives, or 16 rows of hooks, that would be 2 hooks to each needle, or if there are 24 rows of hooks there must be 3 hooks to the needle; but if only 2 hooks to the needle are required, there must be 12 rows of needles to 24 rows of hooks. The same principle holds good for a 5-leaf, or any twill. Eight or 12 rows of needles would not be suitable for a 5-leaf twill, neither would 10 rows of needles be suitable for an 8-leaf twill, if the same number of hooks have to be connected with each needle; but 10 rows of needles with 20 rows of hooks or 20 knives will answer for a 5-leaf twill with 2 hooks to the needle, or would answer for an 8-leaf twill with 24 rows of hooks, 4 of the needles to have 3 hooks to each, and 6 of them to have 2 hooks to each.
Fig. 118
Each of the twilling needles, A, Fig. 119, must be connected with as many of the knives as there are repeats of the twill; thus, for 24 with an 8-leaf twill, the 1st, 9th, and 17th knives would be acted upon by the one needle, and so on with the others.
Now as to the action of the machine. When the pattern card presses upon the needles the griffe begins to rise, and when rising it must lift all the hooks required for the pattern except 1/8th part of them which must be left down (in an 8-leaf twill) to form the binding or texture of the cloth. In addition to this, 1/8th part of the ground warp must be raised for the weft to pass under it and form the ground texture. This is all accomplished by the one rising of the griffe. When the griffe is down, one of the twilling needles, A, Fig. 119, is pressed back by a peg or stud in the barrel, which causes the knives connected with this needle to turn out of the way of the heads of the hooks, so that when the griffe is rising these knives will pass clear of them, leaving every eighth row of hooks down to form the binding of the raised or pattern warp. In the Scotch machines the knives slide back instead of revolving. As shown at H, Fig. 118, there are projecting pieces of brass fastened on the knives between the twilling hooks. These hooks stand clear of the knives, but when the latter revolve the projections on them push the hooks forward to the next knife, which lifts them when the griffe is rising. The hooks draw up the bars to which their lower ends are looped, and raise the rows of ordinary hooks through which the bars pass, thus forming the twill on the ground in the same way, but in the reverse direction, that the knives passing clear of the adjoining rows of hooks form the twill on the figure.
Fig. 119
Fig. 120
The working of the texture requires the griffe to fall for every shot, which would be otherwise unnecessary, and the card must come in against the needles each time to push off the hooks that are not to be raised. This causes wear and tear, which cannot be avoided with this machine, but they work very well, though they are not by any means perfect. There is a good deal of friction on the needles, which causes them to wear quickly; but being so much easier on the warp than the pressure harness, and more easily managed, they are extensively used for large patterns in the fine linen damask trade. They will not make so firm a cloth as the pressure harness, and have the objection that all twills formed with the harness have when there is a gathered tie—viz. that a portion of the cloth will have the twill running in one direction and a portion in the reverse direction.
Like all single-acting jacquards, these machines have no counterpoise in themselves, and being very heavy require one added to assist the loom to raise them. Sometimes this is accomplished by means of a carriage spring placed on a beam or on the top rail of the loom frame; and an arm from the shaft, which raises the griffe resting on the spring, will form a sufficient counterpoise, the spring being made as strong as is required for the purpose. Unless the springs, which are made similar to those used for carriages, are nicely tempered, and the different pieces made so as to slide freely on each other, they are liable to snap when the loom is running quickly. The griffe is generally driven from the fly-wheel on the crankshaft in the same manner as for ordinary single-acting jacquards. It is, however, a better plan to drive it from a crank on a stud wheel gearing into the tappet-shaft wheel. This does away with the necessity for a counterpoise unless the machinery is very heavy, in which case a few strong spiral springs will suffice. The horizontal shaft for raising the griffe, or griffes if two or more machines are used, must be very strong, so as not to twist with the tortuous strain, which is very great. Three of these machines, with 500 or 600 needles to each, are required for tablecloth mountings when tied up for centred patterns—one machine to work the border, one the centre, and one the portion between the border and the centre; or two machines to work the double portion, and one the single portion. Fig. 121 gives a view of a mounting tied up in this way, Nos. 1 and 2 machines being double mounting and No. 3 single.
Fig. 121
The Karl Wein Jacquard.—This machine is a twilling jacquard on the same principle as that last described, but performs its work in a more scientific manner. It was patented by Messrs. J. Tschörner and K. Wein, Kesmark, Hungary, and was first introduced into this country at the Glasgow Exhibition of 1888.
The following is a description of the machine exhibited there: The principal feature of this machine is perhaps that each knife acts independently in a grid, and is wrought by a tappet at the side of the loom, so that any row of hooks can be raised or lowered at pleasure, and this without any change of card. Fig. 122 gives an end view of the framing, showing the upper and lower grids in which the knives or lifters slide. An end view of four of the lifters is given at A, 1 and 3 belonging to the top set, which work in the upper grid, and 2 and 4 to the bottom set, which work in the lower grid.
Fig. 122
A perspective view of eight of these lifters is given at B C, Fig. 123, with upright slide bars D attached to them, which slide in the rack or frame E. These bars are for the purpose of making the lifters rise steadily and horizontally, as (which may be seen) they are not all lifted at their centre. Only one connection is fair in the centre, which would no doubt be an objection with a heavy harness to lift; but this arrangement is made to suit for the machine sitting across the loom, for a London tie, and some method of making vertical connections from the levers to the lifters is necessary. The above does very well for a narrow harness if light.
Fig. 123
Fig. 124
If the machine was fixed on the loom for a Norwich tie, or with the cards to hang over the back, then the connections from the levers might all be at the centres of the lifters and the bars D would only be required to steady them. The levers for raising the lifters are shown at F, with their fulcrum at I. G is a spring, one of which is attached to each lever to keep it down, as the tappet has not a positive rising and sinking motion, only raising the levers and allowing their own weight and the draw of the springs to recover them. One of the connecting rods from the lever to the tappet is shown at I. Fig. 124 gives the principle of this tappet. A is the lever or treadle with its fulcrum at A; the connecting rod B connects the point of it to one of the top levers F (Fig. 123), and C is a bowl at the other end of it which travels on the tappet plate D. The tappet is made up of 17 plates struck to suit; 16 of these are for working the lifters and 1 for the cylinder; it sits at the side of the loom like a Woodcroft tappet. For an 8-end satin twill 16 levers are required, 8 for the bottom set of lifters and 8 for the top set. Fig. 123a shows two lifters B1 and C1 with hooks and needles. A hook and a needle on a larger scale are shown in Fig. 125. The hooks are flat pieces of iron cut to the shape shown, with small projecting pieces, as a, riveted to them, by which they can rest on the bottom lifting knives, as at C1 (Fig. 123a), so that when any of these knives are lifted a row of hooks will be raised by them. As before explained in reference to the Bessbrook machine, it is necessary when the pattern card presses on the needles for all the knives except one to act, and also for one of the bottom lifters to rise to form the texture of the cloth; the same must be in this machine, and can easily be regulated by the tappet, which should hold up the warp required for the pattern and work the ground texture as well. This is done in the following manner: Suppose there are 16 lifters, 8 top and 8 bottom ones. When the card presses on the needles, 7 of the top and 1 of the bottom lifters should be raised by the tappet, and the top lifter, which is left down, should be raised so far as to catch the heads of those hooks in the row belonging to it that are not pushed back by the card. For the next shot this lifter is raised and another one let down, but it is not let down far enough for the hooks to get off it, stopping at the same height that the first one was raised to, which is easily regulated by the tappet. If there are 3 shots to the card, another similar change takes place; then for the fourth shot all the lifters are dropped, the cylinder presses in, and all but one of the top lifters and one of the lower ones are again raised, and the twill proceeded with as before. It will thus be seen that the shedding for the twill acts as in a double-acting jacquard, but the lift at the change of card is similar to that of a single-acting jacquard. Of course the tappet must be struck to change the lifters according to the twill required on the cloth. In the Bessbrook machine there could be 16, 24, or 32 rows of hooks to 8 rows of needles by having 2, 3, or 4 hooks to each needle, or the number of hooks to each needle might vary and any number of needles might be used. There must be a knife for each row of hooks, but all the knives belong to the one griffe. In the Karl Wein machine there must be 2 lifters for each row of hooks, and 16 of them are enough to have for convenience. In the machine exhibited, 16 hooks, or 2 rows of 8, were attached to 6 needles, 4 needles having 3 hooks to each and 2 needles 2 hooks to each, as shown at B (Fig. 125), the thick vertical lines representing 1 row of hooks, and the thin lines the next row. There were 6 rows of needles in the needle board, and the point of each needle was cranked as shown at C; each row of holes for the needles in the needle board, or face-plate, stood between 2 rows of hooks: the first 3 needles were connected with 1 row of hooks and the second 3 with the next row, the cranks of the first and second set of needles being turned in the opposite direction so as to enable them to fall in with the rows of hooks. Of course there might as well have been 8 rows of needles with 2 hooks to each, or 4 needles to each row of hooks.
Fig. 125
If necessary to use more than one machine, some arrangement would require to be made for lifting them. It might be done by using a double set of levers with connecting rods similar to those used for twilling looms.
The twilling of the ground might be wrought by a griffe and hooks as in the Bessbrook machine, thus doing away with seven treadles and seven tappet plates, but this would make the twilling a single-acting shedding motion.
Since this was written the machine has been altered so as to make it more suitable to the requirements of the work in this country, but does not appear to gain favour, and this class of weaving is not very extensively used.