The illustration, Fig. 9, shows a jacquard known as the Single Action Machine. The chief feature of this machine is that the same griffe lifts the hooks for every shed, so the griffe must descend before the next shed can be lifted. This allows all the yarn to be lifted from the bottom shed. The single action machine is convenient and well adapted to work when a high speed is not required; ninety to one hundred thirty picks per minute being the most suitable speeds.

In the silk industry the single action machine is extensively used as there is no danger of the cards becoming crossed. This is a very valuable feature as wrong picks are often placed in the cloth by a double cylinder machine through the skipping of the cards.

Construction. The single action is the original idea and is the simplest machine. Fig. 10 shows a sectional view of a 400-hook single machine. The meaning of the term 400-hook is as follows: There are four hundred hooks and four hundred needles in the machine which are in rows of eight hooks and eight needles. It also means that there are four hundred harness threads to one repeat of the maximum pattern that can be woven by the machine. Nearly all machines have a few extra hooks (from 16 to 26) which are often classed with the regular number of hooks, but are chiefly used for extra work, such as selvedge, extra harnesses, etc. A pattern of less than four hundred to a repeat can be woven, by casting out some of the hooks.

Referring to Fig. 10, B is the needle board or plate, through which the points of the needles E protrude three-eighths or one-half inch. C is the griffe which is composed of eight blades; H is the spring box, containing four hundred brass springs which are placed against the back or loop ends of the needles, one spring for each needle. G is the grate through which the hooks F pass.

Needle Plate. In some cases the needle plate is made of wood and in others it is made of metal, but the former is undoubtedly the more economical from every standpoint. Particularly is this shown in the single cylinder machines where the cylinder travels at a faster rate of speed than a double cylinder machine, consequently there is more movement and a larger amount of friction between the needle and needle board or plate, which results in rapidly wearing out the points of the needles if a metal plate is used. Worn needle points cause a large amount of trouble, for in single cylinder machines the cylinder has a tendency to half-turn when the lay is pushed back by hand, and when the cylinder returns to the needle points the corner of the cylinder presses against them and invariably bends a number of the points down on to the plate. This prevents some of the hooks which ought to be lifted from being lifted, and causes some hooks to be lifted which ought to be down.

A composition of powdered black lead and French chalk was used to prevent the needle points from wearing out, but it was discarded because the dust was constantly dropping into the harnesses and yarn, and also was very disagreeable for the weaver.

A needle board or plate for a 400-machine, has 416 holes, arranged in 52 rows with 8 holes in a row. The rows are divided by a groove into 26 rows on each side. There are also grooves at each end of the needle board. The grooves are for the lacings which hold the cards together.

The lacing naturally makes the card occupy more space at the ends and center, because it passes along the upper and under sides of the card, and if there were no grooves in the needle board, the needles would have to be made longer so as to allow the points to protrude farther out from the needle board; or when the card was in contact with the needle points, the hooks would not be pressed back far enough to prevent them from being lifted. The grooves are also a great saving on the lacing of the cards, for if it came in close contact with the needle board every time the cylinder was drawn in, the lacing would soon be cut, and this often causes the breakage of cards.

The reason for the extra rows of needles, is to allow the selvedge to be worked by that row of hooks; also because a jacquard sometimes has patterns added that require additional harness at the front and back of the comber board, and the extra needles are used for the working of the extra harness.

A spring box is seldom used on American machines to hold the springs that press back the needles, but where the spring box is dispensed with, a longer loop is made on the back end of the needle (see Fig. 11) and the spring is placed on the loop, with the cotter, which holds the needles. The spring box, however, is most certainly of value if it is made to fit squarely in the framework of the machine. The springs are kept cleaner and consequently will give good results; and if a spring should break, it can be replaced more readily in a spring box than if it were on the end of a needle. There is, however, one disadvantage in using the spring box, for when the hole, through which the bolt, which holds the box in position, passes, has become worn, some of the needles will be pressing against the edge of the spring instead of the center, unless care is taken in fixing on the box. This causes the needles to stick in the box, preventing the hooks from working as they ought to do.

When placing hooks and needles in a machine, one row of eight needles is placed in first; that is, the needles are passed through the bars that extend across the machine from side to side, and into the holes in the needle board. On the bars the loop of the needle rests, the bars keeping each 52 needles separate. The first needle is the one that has the half circle, through which the hook passes, nearest the needle board at the top (see Fig. 10), and the others are graded down until the eighth is placed in. This will be the bottom needle with the half circle nearest the spring box H.

When the cotter has been placed through the loop of the needles, the hooks are placed in among the needles. The first hook is pressed through the half circle of the needle and passes on the outside of the others, which keeps the hook in position. The second is placed through the half circle of the second needle, but passes on the outside of the first needle and on the outside of the lower needles. This rule is followed out until the eighth hook is placed in position.

The grate through which the hooks pass is sometimes made with extra rows of holes, and is also made so that it can be moved around to help in the setting of the hooks. For this reason, it is best, after placing in one row of hooks, to notice if they are straight in the grate. If they are not straight, and cannot be made straight by moving the grate, the next row of holes must be used. If the hooks are not straight, even though they may work freely, the needles, hooks and grate will be worn out in a very short time.

The hook that passes through the first needle is considered the first thread in the pattern, although when standing in front of a single action machine, it is the last thread. In a machine that has the needle board divided into twenty-six rows at one side of the middle, and twenty-five at the other side, the twenty-six rows are always at the left-hand side of the machine, looking at the point of the needles. (So that the number end of the cards will be at the left hand side of the machine, looking at the top needle board.) When all the needles and hooks have been placed in the machine, the frame, in which the bars that support the top of the needle are fixed, must be made perfectly straight with the needle board. If they are not straight with each other, there is endless trouble with the machine. In the first place, the loop of the needle presses down the spring when the needle is forced back by the card, instead of pressing the spring back straight in the box. This will cause the springs to wear out sooner and they will often stick, preventing the hooks from being lifted.

In the second place, the needle points will not be straight in the needle board. This causes the hole in the board to be worn crooked, also, the dust and oil that get into the back portion of the board has a greater tendency to bind the needles when they are not straight. The holes in the needle board at the back are counter sunk, which allows the needles to be placed in more readily when the machine is being fixed up, or when a broken needle has to be replaced.

When the hooks and needles have been fixed, the grate, needle board and needle frame adjusted, the spring box is attached and every needle is tested and made to work freely. After this is done, the griffe is placed in the machine. It is absolutely necessary that the griffe be made to lift straight, and each blade or knife must be in exact position relative to the hooks, or there will be a number of the hooks either “crowned” or not lifted when they ought to be. The griffe is made so that each side can be moved either forward or backward, but it is sometimes necessary to bend one or two blades of the griffe so as to have them straight with the hooks. Figs. 12, 13 and 14 show crooked hooks and needles.

When the griffe is set, the top of the blade ought to be just touching the hook. If the hook is pressing too hard against the blade, either the needle point must extend farther out from the needle board, or the cylinder has to press hard against the needle board when the hooks have to be pressed off the griffe. Either case is detrimental to the machine. In the first instance, the cylinder requires to pass farther out from the needle board, to allow the cards to clear the needle points when the cylinder is being turned, or there is a possibility of the edge of the card catching on the needle points, preventing the cylinder from turning, and causing misspicks. In the second instance, if the cylinder presses too hard against the needle board, the lacing is often cut, and the needles have a tendency to pierce the card where it is blank.

Having set all the inner parts of the machine, the next in order is the tying on of the neck cords. Carelessness in the setting of the inner parts so far mentioned cannot afterwards be rectified, and means the loss of years of work from the machine besides having endless trouble during the time it is working.

The Outer Workings of the Machine. There are five distinct methods of operating the movable parts of the machine: First, top or overhead lever lift and independent batten or swing cylinder motion; second, overhead lever and spindle cylinder motion; third, overhead lever and independent slide cylinder motion; fourth, bottom or cradle lever lift, and independent spindle cylinder motion; and fifth, bottom or cradle lever lift and spindle cylinder motion.

The first method is illustrated by Fig. 15. It consists of a lever at the top of the machine, or in some instances suspended from the beam that supports the ceiling. The inner end of the lever is connected by a link to the crossbar of the griffe. This must be fixed exactly in the center of the crossbar so as to give a straight lift to the griffe. To the outer end of the lever, a long driving rod is attached. The bottom end of the driving rod is placed on a stud attached to the hand wheel, which is fixed on the crank shaft of the boom when the machine is a single lift. The overhead lever is from thirty-six to forty inches long, according to the width of the loom. On the thirty-six inch lever the inner end, which is attached to the crossbar from the link to the supporting stud, fixed in the bracket attached to the framework of the machine, is about ten and one-half inches long, and the longer end, which is attached to the lifting rod, is twenty-four to twenty-five and two-thirds inches long. The throw from the center of shaft to the stud fixed to the hand wheel is four inches. This gives an eight inch stroke on the hand wheel.

Allowing for the fall of the griffe below the bend of the hook the movement will give about a three-inch shed in the harnesses. The batten or swing cylinder movement is shown in detail in Fig. 16. It is composed of five distinct parts as follows:

(a) Two small arms are fixed at the top of the machine, one at each side. Two pointed set screws with lock nuts are set in the arms and the batten or swing is supported on these points.

(b) The batten, which is in the form of a square iron frame.

(c) Two cups set in the batten frame, which support the cylinder. The cups are made of iron or brass and are held in place by a bolt with thumb screw on the outside of the frame of the batten. Set into the bottom of the batten frame and pressing upwards against the cups, are two set screws whose purpose is to raise or lower the cylinder.

(d) The cylinder. This is a square prism with a number of holes bored on each side to correspond with the needles in the machine. On each of the four sides of the cylinder and near each end there is a small brass peg (shown in Fig. 17) for the purpose of holding the card in the correct position on the cylinder. (The perforations in the cards should be over the holes in the cylinder). The pegs are set so they can be adjusted to the right or left. At the ends of the cylinder square iron castings with rounded edges are fixed. (e) A spring hammer, the flat end of which rests on the casting on the end of the cylinder. What might be termed the handle of the hammer passes through the lower cross rail of the bottom frames and through the top frame. A spring is placed between the two rails and around the handle of the hammer. The object of the hammer is to keep the cylinder perfectly level so that the cylinder will strike the board level.

Flat springs also are attached to the inside of the batten, the lower end of the spring pressing the card to the cylinder. It is impossible to overestimate the value of these springs, especially on single cylinder machines, for it would be almost impossible to work without them. Their great value is shown when the cylinder is leaving the needle board by preventing the card from swinging on to the points of the needles, and also preventing the cards from slipping off the pegs as the cylinder is drawn over by the catch. The catch is fixed to the framework of the machine, and rests on the square casting fixed to the end of the cylinder. As the cylinder moves out, the catch comes in contact with the rounded edges of the square and in this manner the cylinder is turned. There is also another catch fixed underneath, but it is not in contact with the cylinder, and is adjusted so that it can be raised up in contact and the top catch raised from contact with the cylinder. This permits the cylinder to be turned back when a lost pick has to be found.

At each side of the batten frame toward the lower end, an arm is fixed. To these arms rods that extend downward are attached, and each rod is fixed to an arm that is set-screwed on a shaft supported by brackets fixed to the arch of the loom. At the end of this shaft another arm is fixed and is connected to the eccentric rod that is attached to the clamp that encircles the cam or eccentric. The cam is for the purpose of imparting motion to the batten. The cam generally used to operate the batten is about three and one-half inches from center of movement to extreme outside length of cam. The cylinder is moved out from the needle board from two to three inches.

For the saving of cards, a great deal depends upon the movement that is imparted to the cylinder. The less movement that can be given to the cylinder, the better; that is, of course, when obtaining the results required. The cylinder ought to be about one-quarter inch from the needle points when commencing to turn. Sometimes it is necessary to have the cylinder a little farther out, especially when the cards have been stored in a damp place and become warped so that they do not lie flat on the cylinder. In this case, unless the cylinder is a little farther out from the needle points when commencing to turn, the edge of the card will catch on the needle points. This will throw the cards off the pegs and cause a pick-out. If the distance traveled by the cylinder is too short, it causes too sharp a turning of the cylinder, which has a tendency to jump the cards from the pegs; and if the cylinder moves out too far, there is too much friction on the working parts, as the larger distance has to be traveled in the same space of time as the shorter distance.

When setting the batten frame by either the set screws or the arms to which the set screws are attached, the principal point is that the cylinder must be flat against the needle board, both at the top and bottom of the board, and have the needle points as near the center of the holes in the cylinder as possible. It is particularly desirable that all points be square and straight with the batten motion, because the batten, moving from a top connection, performs an arc movement, and if the cylinder does not lie flat against the needle board, some of the hooks will not be pressed far enough off the griffe, or the points of the needles will come in contact with the sides or bottom of the holes in the cylinder and in that case, hooks will be down when they ought to be lifted. Fig. 18 shows the cylinder set crooked with the needle board.

The set screw support for the batten frame is a very objectional feature as will readily be seen, for the frame resting and working on two points is a great strain and some part of the screw soon becomes worn. This, of course, lowers the cylinder. When the cylinder is adjusted by turning the set screw, the frame is not only raised higher but is moved to the right or left, which throws the cylinder out of place, thus making double the amount of work to adjust it.

The method of supporting a batten frame on an iron bar is by far the best, as by this arrangement, the cylinder can be directly adjusted. The illustration given in Fig. 19, shows this method of supporting the cylinder.

In the second method of operating the movable parts (see Fig. 20) the top motion remains the same as in the first, but the method of operating the cylinder is different. Fixed to each side of the square iron frame that supports the cylinder, is an iron spindle, which passes through two brackets which act as slides for the spindle and are fixed to the frame of the machine. Attached to this cylinder spindle is a two-inch cranked slotted arm. Attached to the spindle of the griffe is a small extension on which an iron roller is placed. This iron roller sets in the slot of the cranked arm; the slot arm being about seven inches long. The seven inches is divided into three parts, the top and lower portions being perpendicular, to allow a rest for the cylinder when it is out from the needle board, and also when it is in contact with the needle board. As the griffe is lifted, the roller passing up the slot of the cranked arm forces out the cylinder. The distance the cylinder is moved cannot be changed to any great extent, neither can the time of the cylinder be changed, so that when a warped set of cards is being used, there is always the tendency for the cards to catch on the needle points.

In the third movement (see Fig. 21), the top motion is the same as the first and second, but the cylinder movement is distinct. A flat, iron casting which acts as a slide, is placed on each side of the machine. These slides are supported by small iron rollers, which are placed in brackets fixed to the frame of the machine. At the end of the slide, a brass cup for the cylinder and the spring hammer is fixed. A stud is attached to the slide. The rod connected to the clamp of the cam (or what is called the eccentric rod) extends upwards and is attached to an arm that is set-screwed on a shaft, but extends upwards. This movement is one of the best. The brackets that support the rollers are adjustable but seldom in the life of a harness do they require adjusting, for if the rollers are well oiled they last many years, because the friction is at the lowest possible point.

In the fourth movement a square cradle lever is placed in brackets near the feet of the machine, and connected to the top of the griffe spindle by means of an arm attached to the end of the cradle lever. This is shown in the double-lift machine, Fig. 22. There is an arm at each side of the machine that is connected to the cradle lever. To the outer end of the lever the long lifting rod is attached. The length of the square lever is generally twenty-eight inches from fulcrum to connection of long lifting rod, and ten inches on the shorter end. This gives about a four-inch lift to the griffe. The cylinder is driven by an independent spindle motion. An iron spindle is attached to the frame that supports the cylinder. The spindle passes through two slide brackets fixed to the sides of the machine. Between the two brackets and set-screwed on the spindle is an extension with a stud attached to the top of it. On this stud, the connecting arm from the lever is placed. The lever is supported at the top of the same bracket that supports the square lifting lever. To the outer end of the lever the eccentric rod is attached, but instead of using a cam to give motion to the cylinder, one part of a double crank is used, the other portion is used for lifting the griffe.

The fifth method is the same as the fourth with the exception that the cylinder is operated by the slotted crank arm same as in the second method.