Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

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