MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 81 



other fact, that this improvement secures such a compensation of motion, as to 

 require but a moiety more power to run it than is needed in the lighter and 

 plainer looms. One or more harnesses up-balance an equal number which are 

 down ; and very little power is needed to make them change places, so per- 

 fectly is compensation secured. This peculiarity stands connected with 

 another, which is, that the loom, while moved with little power and noise, 

 can safely and properly be made to move with very great speed. "We have 

 seen it going at the speed of 130 picks to the minute, and we know that it 

 can be tended with the ease of the common loom. Plow, Loom, and Anvil. 



Weaving Looms. A patent has been granted to James Ballough, Eng., for 

 preventing broken warp threads becoming entangled in the shed of a loom. 

 He employs an extra leaf of healds placed behind the ordinary harness, and 

 gives to this leaf a motion backward and forward between the yarn, making 

 them act like a comb to throw back any ends of broken yarn from being 

 carried forward to obstruct the proper shedding of the warp. 



Improved Shuttles. Two patents for improvements in shuttles have recently 

 been granted, one to E. P. Marble, of New "Worcester, Mass., and the other 

 to Laroy Litchfield of Southb ridge, Mass. The two are entirely dissimilar in 

 character, although they relate to the same instrument the simple shuttle. 



The patent of Mr. Litchfield embraces a novel method of applying a spring 

 to keep the shuttle-cop in place, and which admits of the repeated raising and 

 replacing of the spindle to renew the yarn, without causing such wear as to 

 throw the spindle out of place. It also embraces a regulating screw, to bring 

 the spindle at once to a proper position in the shuttle. A spring catch is also 

 employed in such a manner as to confine the bobbin (when one is used), so 

 that without changing the position of the spindle, or rendering it unsteady, a 

 large or small bobbin may be secured to the shuttle. 



The invention of Mr. Marble relates to an improved mode of applying the 

 spring catch that is employed to confine the bobbin in shuttles, by which it 

 adapts itself to varying sizes of the heads of the bobbins, and whereby it is 

 drawn square off the bobbin heads with the spindle, so as not to drag upon 

 and split the heads a fault common to shuttles now hi use. The improve- 

 ment also enables the catch to be conveniently applied to the cop-shuttle, to 

 confine the tube of the cop, or the cop itself if spun without a tin tube.' The 

 catch to confine the cop is made with a small notch to receive the collar of 

 the tin tube, and it has a point to catch and confine the cops which are macle 

 with paper tubes. Scientific American. 



Pickers for Power-looms. Thomas Holliwell and Joseph Barker, of York, 

 Eng., manufacturers, have taken out a patent for preserving pickers and pick- 

 er-sticks, and for preventing caps coming off the shuttle during the process of 

 weaving. The invention consists in the use of a spring of steel or whalebone 

 fixed behind the back end of the shuttle-box, such spring being attached at 

 one end to a raw hide, and it has a hole in the other end passing around the 

 sirspindle of the shuttle-box. The raw hide forms a buffer bringing the shuttle 

 gradually to a state of rest, and preventing it going too far into the bos, and 

 it also assists in returning it for the next shot. 



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