Disposition of the carriages

—The two carriages, which are similar, are placed the one to the right, and the other to the left of the frame. The carriage itself is composed merely of a long hollow cylinder of cast iron L , carrying at either end a system of two grooved castors or pulleys L ′, which roll upon the horizontal rails K ; the pulleys are mounted upon a forked piece l′ , with two ends to receive the axes of the pulleys, and the piece l′ is itself bolted to a projecting ear l cast upon the cylinder. This a emblage constitutes properly speaking the carriage, resting in a perfectly stable equilibrium upon the rails K , upon which it may be most easily moved backwards and forwards, carrying its train of needles to be pa ed or drawn through the cloth. M. Heilmann has contrived a mechanism by which the operative without budging from his place may conduct the carriages, and regulate as he pleases the extent of their course, as well as the rapidity of their movements. By turning the axes M ′′ in the one direction or the other, the carriage may be made to approach to, or recede from the web. When one of the carriages has advanced to prick the needles into the stuff, the other is there to receive them; it lays hold of them with its pincers, pulls them through, performs its course by withdrawing to stretch the thread, and close the stitch, then it goes back with the needles to make its pricks in return. During these movements the first carriage remains at its post waiting the return of the second. Thus the two chariots make in succe ion an advance and a return, but they never move together. To effect these movements M. Heilmann has attached to the piece O ′ made fast to the two uprights A C and A D of the frame, a bent lever n o n′ n′ ′ movable round the point o ; the bend n′ carries a toothed wheel O ′, and the extremity n′ ′ a toothed wheel O ′′; the four wheels M M ′ O ′ and O ′′ have the same number of teeth and the same diameter; the two wheels O ′ and O ′′ are fixed in reference to each other, so that it is sufficient to turn the handle N to make the wheel O ′′ revolve, and consequently the wheel O ′; when the lever n o is vertical, the wheel O ′ touches neither the wheel M nor the wheel M ′; but if it be inclined to the one side or the other, it brings the wheel O ′ alternately into geer with the wheel M or the wheel M ′. As the operative has his two hands occupied, the one with the pantograph and the other with the handle of impulsion, he has merely his feet for acting upon the lever n o , and as he has many other things to do, M. Heilmann has adapted before him a system of two pedals, by which he executes with his feet a series of operations no le delicate than those which he executes with his hands. The pedals P are moveable round the axis p , and carry cords p′ wound in an opposite direction upon the pulleys P ′; these pulleys are fixed upon a moveable shaft P ′′, supported upon one side by the prop E ′, and on the other in a piece K ′ attached to the two great uprights of the frame. In depre ing the pedal P (now raised in the figure), the upper part of the shaft P ′′ will turn from the left to the right, and the lever n o will become inclined so as to carry the wheel O ′ upon the wheel M ′, but at the same time the pedal which is now depre ed will be raised, because its cord will be forced to wind itself upon its pulley, as much as the other cord has unwound itself; and thus the apparatus will be ready to act in the opposite direction, when wanted.