The Spread Heddle Eye: Open the Ends of a Twisted-Wire Eye So the Warp Cannot Catch

The eye of a wire heddle, formed by twisting two wires together, ends in a sharp angle where the warp yarn can catch in the twist and be chafed or broken. Darius C. Brown of Lowell, Massachusetts, received US 64,944, dated 21 May 1867, for spreading the eye's wires "laterally at the angle or angles of junction, in manner substantially as set forth, so as to tighten the twist at either or both ends of the eye". After the eye is formed on a former, an instrument like a pair of pliers or a glove-stretcher is put into it and opened, which spreads the eye lengthwise, makes the angles at its ends greater, and draws the twist tighter, so "it will be found very difficult, if not impossible, for it to catch or injure a warp-thread or a knot thereof." This rung works out how the angle at the eye's ends decides where a yarn wedges, then twists wire heddles, spreads half of them, and weaves a strip on a rigid heddle loom with both.