WEAVING INVENTIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1932, Page 8

WEAVING INVENTIONS

FAST OUTPUT CLAIMED.

NEW ZEALAND DISCOVERY

WELLINGTON, June 4. A passenger by the intercolonial steamer for Australia is Mr J. J. Moore, of Melbourne, who is returnin, after having been on a visit of iiiqu.ri on behalf of a syndicate ol leading businessmen into the merits ol a local invention, which it is stated, ipromises to he revolutionary in the weaving df'Various fabrics. Mr Mpor when inteVi'lewed stated that heuhaci purcliheed the Australian' right of the invention. C*

“Tlffe‘'prevalent idea in the produ-n ition of any fabric,” said Mr Moore, “is that you must have ‘a warp and a weft’—that is, a longitudinal yarr running lengthwise in the fabric and a lateral or rectangular yarn giving the usual ‘uncler-and-over’ stitch.’ This he explained, meant that the out put capacity of an ordinary weavin loom was essentially limited to tin speed‘at which the shuttle supplyin these lateral yarns could be made to traverse the entire width of the loom. G luge,' or thickness, of the yarn used naturally entered into the question ol determining the length of fabric produced per minute, but even the‘thickest gauge produced only so many inches per rtyinute of finished fabric, a? compared with the “yards per min ute” production of this Wellington re sklent* s' invention.

Mr Moore explained that the inven tion was expected ,to play an import fjnt part in the manufacture of ju!< importations of which, in Australia jjan into millions of sterling; hut ther were also vast possibilities for it i the matter of . the production of secondary fabrics,, rugs and blankets. I was felt that the production' capacit of this new invention would mean much to Australia, both in interned trade and in the exporting also o ; cheap rugs and blankets to the Orion and the East.

Tt was further explained by Mr. Moore that the invention is oi an entirely novel and unique principle, a system of overhead heanu with needles suspended, acting in conjunction with certain periphery-driven capacity spools. Thdse interlocked certain literal and lock-stitch yarns on to base yarns fed longitudinally in to the machine, the. -particular type of. stitch (of which there would he numerous ones) being determined by several contributing factors, such as oscillating or rotating, bed on which the basei■■■yarns rested beins locked together, and the speed of the travel of the base yarns through the machine. Then, too, coloured yarns would all add to the variety of. patterns produced. v “But the biggest thing,” said Mr Moore, “is that whereas the old type of loom is dependent upon the speed of the lateral shuttle movement, the new invention is limited to approximately an inch and <a half , reciproai movement of needles synchronising with rotary spools to produce tstitches j and as each revolution means a stitcli and the machine will be capable oi hundreds of revolutions, per minute, it is a simple calculation—four stitches per inch of, say, a .jute fabric for woolpacks or sacks and from three hundred to six hundred revolutions per minute will give approximately from two to four yards 0f... fabric per minute in output!” It was learned that although so far only an individual unit'on the principle of the proposed machine ha;! been constructed to prove the practicability of the invention-, a demonstrating model- is now under construction by a Wellington engineering firm. This machine after being demonstrated locally, ks under contract to be exhibited in Melbourne in the course of a few 'months. i