80 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



hooks instead of a shuttle for putting the filling into the warp, which enter 

 the sheds from opposite sides, the one to take the filling thread from a bobbin 

 or one of a series of bobbins conveniently placed on the side of the loom, and 

 carry it half way through the shed, where it is met by the other hook, which 

 takes the thread and retreats, thus drawing the filling entirely through. The 

 filling thus drawn through is double, but the threads are laid evenly side by 

 side, without the possibility of twisting, so that the texture and appearance 

 of the goods remain precisely the same as if the shuttle were employed. All 

 the other points of the invention are more or less subservient to this principal 

 feature. The invention is applicable to nearly all kinds of hand or power 

 looms, either for plain, fancy or figured goods, as well as wide or narrow car- 

 pets. Among the advantages which the hooks possess over the shuttle, are 

 first, in running lighter, and consequently requiring less power. Second, in 

 being less subject to wear and tear the shuttle motion and its appendages 

 being the most expensive part of a loom to keep in order. Third, in obviat- 

 ing the damage likely to occur by the shuttle flying from the loom. Fourth, 

 in seldom requiring the stoppage of the loom, an accident which is not very 

 liable to occur. As there are no shuttles to be filled, the loom would not be 

 required to stop for a whole day, since the bobbin can be renewed at any 

 moment without stopping. 



Mr. William Talbot, of Willimantic, Connecticut, has recently made some 

 valuable improvements on the loom, adapted to facilitate and perfect the 

 weaving of bags, diapers, twills, checks, and cassimeres. The primary idea 

 of the loom is that of the Jacquard and the endless chain modified and com- 

 pacted. The improvement can be so arranged, in a very short period of 

 time, as to weave bags, twilled or plain, of exactly uniform length, or of ex- 

 actly an equal number of picks, day after day, or rather through beam after 

 beam, making a real and strong bottom to each. The cards of the Jacquard 

 and the endless chain are dispensed with by Mr. Talbot, in weaving large 

 patterns. Their places are supplied by two cylinders, the rotary action of one 

 being used in making the body of the bag, and the action of the other being 

 used in making the bottom of the same the action of the one cylinder giving 

 motion to the other cylinder when the first is desired to be motionless, and 

 the second is desired to be in action. Another fact about the loom is, that it 

 Weaves with a shed opening both ways ; not a peculiarity indeed, but a fact 

 which every manufacturer of goods, figured in weaving, may desire to know. 

 We have seen a doom in operation having seventeen harnesses, and the shed 

 was broad open, for the free and easy passage of the shuttle, without any 

 great tension of the warp. The open shed, moreover, is connected with such 

 a particular motion of the harnesses, that when any one or more are either 

 up or down, they have a pause in their motion ; a short pause, indeed, but 

 still of great value in giving time for the shuttle to race through its course. 

 In most looms, when a harness attains its greatest height in weaving, or its 

 lowest point, it is made instantly to move to the opposite point. This im- 

 provement, on the contrary, gives the harness a moment's pause when it is 

 either up or down in its motions. Connected with this fact of a pause hi the 

 motions of the harnesses, while they are at the highest or lowest point, is this 



