Patent GB-189730213-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Circular Knitting Machines.
Inventor: THOMPSON WILLIAM PHILLIPS
Filed: 1897-12-21
Granted: 1898-02-26
Abstract: 30,213. Thompson, W. P., [Paxton, J. B., and O'Neill, E. I.]. Dec. 21. Circular knitting-machines, partly automatic. On first starting a stocking, a belt-shifting lever is put to the right, shifting the belt from the loose pulley 47 to the fast pulley 46, causing the cam cylinder, or the needle cylinder, as the case may be, to rotate. The lever 88 is held to the right by a spring 96 and a bent rod 90, Figs. 1 and 1<a>, allows a rod 91 to fall which allows a pawl 84 to drop into gear with fast and loose ratchet-wheels 82, 83 and so drive the pattern-chain shaft. The loose wheel is cut with a deep tooth in every six, thus allowing a short chain to be used. When the lever 88 is to the right, a clutch fixed to a sprocket-wheel, continually reciprocated by means of a chain and. crank-wheel on another shaft, is disengaged from the fast pulley 46. Rotation continues till a lug 80<b> on the chain 81 strikes an arm 119, and through an eccentric and intermediate mechanism lowers the needle cylinder and tightens the loops to form the ankle. Another lug on the chain 81, when the ankle is finished, releases a catch and allows a spring to move the belt shipper and cause the belt to move to the loose pulley, and the machine to stop. The needle-cylinder is then raised by hand, and the operator pushes in a cam 8, Fig. 8, which is a development of the cam cylinder, and by a partial turn raises the instep needles out of action. The operator then moves the segment 15 to the left, against the action of a spring 22, into the position shown in Fig. 8 ; the inclines 18, 19 acting on pins 20 lower the needle elevators 11 into action and the needle depressors out of action. The lever 88 is now put to the left, and the clutch connects the fast pulley 46 to the sprocket-wheel and the machine reciprocates ; the pawl 84 is lifted out of action by the rod 90 ; and the pattern-wheel shaft is now operated by a ratchet 42<a> and pawl 44 which depends - from a latch lever 97 on the lever 88, and which is brought into gear with an eccentric by the motion of the lever 88, which is held to the left by the catch lever 97 engaging a notch in the shaft 92. When the narrowing is completed, a lug on the pattern chain 39 releases a catch and the segment 15 is moved by the spring 22, and the needle lifters are thrown out of action and the needle depressors into action. When widening is finished, a lug on the chain 39 releases the latch lever 97, and the spring 96 moves the lever 88 to the right and the belt goes to the loose pulley and the machine stops. The operator now moves a sliding or pivoted cam 106, 107", Figs. 11 and 12, inwards against a spring, and by a partial revolution brings down the instep needles ;. the cam is locked in position till all the needles have passed, owing to its motion not being radial. The belt shipper is put to the right, and the machine rotates and knits the foot. The neelle depressors have spring guards 124, which yield slightly when the depressors meet the needles and so prevent rebound. The sinkers 128 are pivoted in a groove 130, and have extensions 132 to engage the cams carried in the rotating ring 135. A spring ring 133 allows the sinkers to yield when engaging the stitches, so that, when thick or knotty places in the yarn occur, there will be no undue resistance. A cam 127 on the thread carrier post brings all the elevated fashioning-needles to one level