FIG. 61.—HANDKERCHIEF LOOM. To face pp. 116 and 117.
The other pegs regulate, secondly, the stoppage of the take-up to give a better defined rib; and thirdly to stop the chain itself when necessary. The chain only represents the picks in the heading, and is stopped during the plain weaving of the body. It is started again by an ingenious measuring motion, which by a contrivance of levers starts the chain one pick, after which the catch put out of gear by peg three continues the motion. The makers claim for this motion a high rate of speed, and a low first cost of apparatus.
CHAPTER VII.
FANCY WEAVING BY THE JACQUARD, ITS CONSTRUCTION, CARD CUTTING, WOVEN PILE CLOTHS.
The jacquard machine for shedding is employed in the production of some of the most complicated cotton fabrics that are woven. In its primary principle it is very simple, strangely so when we reflect on its importance in the manufacturing industry, and that by it only are we enabled to make so very ornamental cloths of great extent and beauty. Originally a French invention, the contrivance of Joseph Marie Jacquard, of Lyons, it was introduced into England in the early part of this century and adopted by the silk manufacturers. Its manufacture was early taken up by Lancashire firms, and we find now that in improved forms it is in extensive practical use in the cotton trade at the fancy weaving establishments of Bolton, Ashton, Preston, Glasgow, and other towns.
The Jacquard Machine.
The advantage of this motion is in its enormous capacity or scope of varied working of the ends. When we are aware of the existence of 1200 hook jacquards, the capacity of which is equal to that of 30 dobbies of 40 jacks each, or giving 600 times as many different workings of the ends as a plain tappet, we immediately recognise its value. It is a machine for automatically selecting out of may be thousands of threads the end or ends required to give a desired effect in the cloth. A representation of its simplest form is shown in [Fig. 62].