No. 1. represents the carriages in the front comb or bar, the odd carriage being at the left end. The back line of carriages is first moved on to the back bar I, the odd carriage, as seen in No. 1., having been left behind, there being no carriage opposite to drive it over to the other comb or bar. The carriages then stand as in No. 2. The bar I now shifts to the left, as shown in No. 3.; the front carriages then go over into the back bar or comb, as is represented by No. 4. The bar I now shifts to the right, and gives the position No. 5. The front carriages are then driven over to the front bar, and leave the odd carriage on the back bar at the right end, for the same reason as before described, and the carriages stand as shown in No. 6. The bar I next shifts to the left, and the carriages stand as in No. 7. (the odd carriage being thereby on the back bar to the left.) The back carriages now come over to the front bar, and stand as in No. 8. The back bar or comb I shifts to the right as seen in No. 9., which completes the traverse. The whole carriages with their bobbins have now changed their position, as will be seen by comparing No. 9. with No. 1. The odd carriage, No. 1.
has advanced one step to the right, and has become one of the front tier; one of the back tier or line
has advanced one step to the left, and has become the odd carriage; and one of the front ones
has gone over to the back line. The bobbins and carriages throughout the whole width of the machine have thus crossed each other’s course, and completed the mesh of net.
The carriages with their bobbins are driven a certain way from the one comb to the other, by the pressure of two long bars (one for each) placed above the level of the comb, until they come into such a position that their projecting heels or catches i i, [fig. 611.], are moved off by two other long flat bars below, called the locker plates, and thereby carried completely over the interval between the two combs.
There are six different systems of bobbin-net machines. 1. Heathcoate’s patent machine. 2. Brown’s traverse warp. 3. Morley’s straight bolt. 4. Clarke’s pusher principle, single tier. 5. Leaver’s machine, single tier. 6. Morley’s circular bolt. All the others are mere variations in the construction of some of their parts. It is a remarkable fact, highly honourable to the mechanical judgment of Mr. Morley of Derby, that no machines except those upon his circular bolt principle, have been found capable of working successfully by mechanical power.
The circular bolt machine (comb with curved teeth) was used by Mr. Morley, for making narrow breadths or edgings of lace immediately after its first invention, and it has been regularly used by the trade for that purpose ever since, in consequence of the inventor having declined to secure the monopoly of it to himself by patent. At that time the locker bars for driving across the carriages had only one plate or blade. A machine so mounted is now called “the single locker circular bolt.” In the year 1824, Mr. Morley added another plate to each of the locker bars, which was a great improvement on the machines for making plain net, but an obstruction to the making of narrow breadths upon them. This machine is now distinguished from the former by the term “double locker.”[31]