IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SEAMING, TURNING OFF, AND WALING HOSIERY GOODS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Ward, of Lower Elm Street, Sneinton,
near Nottingham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR SEAMING, TURNING OFF, AND WALING HOSIERY GOODS."
Sealed the 11th February 1873, and dated the 18th December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Ward at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th December 1872.
I, SAMUEL WARD, of Lower Elm Street, Sneinton, near Nottingham,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR SEAMING, TURNING OFF, AND WALING HOSIERY GOODS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for
seaming, turning off, and waling hosiery goods.
The edges of the fabric which are to be joined by seaming, turning
off, or waling are run on to two bars of grooved or channelled points,

page_text: each point taking a loop of the work. The bars are then brought
bar on to the other, each
This bar with the work
together and the work is transferred from one
point of which then has two loops upon it.
thus arranged is taken to the machine, where the bar is received into
clamps, in which it is held truly in position in respect to the other
working parts of the machine.
.
The operation of seaming, turning off, or waling is then as follows:-
At each motion of the machine a needle similar to a stitching machine
needle and threaded in a similar way inserts itself into the groove in one
of the points on the point bar, and passing beneath the two loops of
the fabric which are held upon the point, the needle carries its thread
through these loops, the needle thread is then caught by a finger. The
finger passes through the loop of the needle thread, then the needle
retires. Before the needle again comes forward the point bar is moved
laterally a distance equal to that between its points, so that the needle
at its next motion takes the next point of the point bar and passes its
thread in the manner already described through the fabric loops thereon,
and the needle also passes through the loop of its own thread, which is
held distended upon the finger. The finger has a motion given to it in
front of the needle, so that it may present the loop upon it to the needle
point, and then when it has done so the finger leaves the old loop
upon the needle and again catches the needle thread before the needle
retires.
The motion of the needle is given by a cam'on a cam shaft, and it is
thus caused to rock to and fro about a fixed stud. On the same cam
shaft is a cam to work the finger, to which it gives a rocking motion,
and at the same time a lateral motion around and along another fixed
stud or axis.
The traverse of the point bar is effected by a screw, which causes the
clamps in which the bar is held to slide in guides along the bed of the
machine. The screw takes its motion from a pawl or driver actuated
by another cam upon the same cam shaft, and working with a ratchet
wheel upon the end of the screw. There may conveniently be two pawls
or drivers and ratchet wheels, which are put to work alternately, and so
set as to drive in opposite directions in order that the traverse may be
first one way and then the other to avoid the loss of time which would
be involved in running the clamps_back.

page_text: The machine is provided with a number of point bars, so that a
constant supply of work may be kept ready for it, so that there need be.
no loss of time beyond that required for unclamping one point bar and
substituting another. The use of movable bars also offers great facility
for the operation of setting the work upon them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Ward in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th June 1873.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
WARD, of Lower Eldon Street, Sneinton, near Nottingham, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give.
and grant unto me, the said Samuel Ward, Her special license that I,
the said Samuel Ward, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Samuel Ward, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SEAMING, TURNING
OFF, AND WALING HOSIERY GOODS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Samuel Ward, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Ward, do hereby declaro
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for
seaming, turning off, and waling hosiery goods.
The edges of the fabric which are to be joined by seaming, turning
off, or waling, are run on to two bars of grooved or channelled points,
each point taking a loop of the work. The bars are then brought
together and the work is transferred from one bar on to the other, each
point of which then has two loops upon it. This bar with the work
thus arranged is taken to the machine where the bar is received into
clamps in which it is held truly in position in respect to the other
working parts of the machine.
The operation of seaming, turning off, or waling is then as follows:-
At each motion of the machine a needle similar to a stitching machine
needle and threaded in a similar way inserts itself into the groove in one
of the points on the point bar, and passing beneath the two loops of the
fabric which are held upon the point, the needle carries its thread
through these loops, the needle thread is then caught by a finger. The
finger passes through the loop of the needle thread, then the needle
retires. Before the needle again comes forward the point bar is moved
laterally a distance equal to that between its points, so that the needle
at its next motion takes the next point of the point bar and passes its
thread in the manner already described through the fabric loops thereon,
and the needle also passes through the loop of its own thread which is
held distended upon the finger. The finger has a motion given to it in
front of the needle, so that it may present the loop upon it to the needle
point, and then when it has done so the finger leaves the old loop
upon the needle and again catches the needle thread before the needle
retires.
The motion of the needle is given by a cam on a cam shaft, and it is
thus caused to rock to and fro about a fixed stud. On the same cam
shaft is a cam to work the finger to which it gives a rocking motion,
and at the same time a lateral motion around and along another fixed
stud or axis.
The traverse of the point bar is effected by a screw which causes the
clamps in which the bar is held to slide in guides along the bed of the
machine. The screw takes its motion from a pawl or driver actuated by
another cam upon the same cam shaft and working with a ratchet wheel
upon the end of the screw. There may conveniently be two pawls or

page_text: drivers and ratchet wheels which are put to work alternately, and so set
as to drive in opposite directions in order that the traverse may be first
one way and then the other to avoid the loss of time which would be
involved in running the clamps back.
The machine is provided with a number of point bars so that a con-
stant supply of work may be kept ready for it, so that there need be no
loss of time beyond that required for unclamping one point bar and sub-
stituting another. The use of movable bars also offers great facility for
the operation of setting the work upon them.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention I will proceed to
describe more fully the manner of performing the same.
At Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings hereunto annexed I have shewn
the apparatus I employ to facilitate the placing of the work on to the
point bar, which is to be placed into the machine in which the seaming,
turning off, or waling is to be completed. One edge of the fabric is first
run on to the points of the point bar a, which whilst this is being performed
occupies the position in which the other point bar 6 is shewn in the
Drawing. The point bar a, with one edge of the work upon it, is then turned
end for end, and placed on supports c, as shewn at position 1 in Figure 1.
The point bar 6 is then placed on to the supports upon which the bar a
previously rested, and the other edge or row of loops of the work which is
to be stitched to the row of loops on the bar a is run on to the points of
the bar b. The bar a is then raised into position 2 in Figure 1, and the
grooves in its points, which are then downwards, are placed over the
points on the bar b, the grooves of which are upwards.
The back part
of the bar a is then again raised into position 3, shewn at Figure 2, and
is then supported by the hinged supports d, which are drawn forwards
so as to come beneath it by the springs ɗ, and the work on the points of
the bar a is by hand pushed towards and just on to the extremities of
the points of the bar b, as shewn at Figure 2. The back portion of the
bar a is then again still further turned upwards, and the work slips off
its points on to the points of the bar b. This bar with the two rows of
loops upon it is then taken to the stitching machine, shewn full size in
section at Figure 3. A front view and plan of this machine are shewn
on a smaller scale at Figures 4 and 5. The two ends of the bar are
placed into grooved supports carried by standards e, and are retained by
set screws e¹, as shewn. The standards are carried by a horizontal slidef,
to which a step-by-step traversing motion can be given by the screw g.

page_text: This screw has fixed on it at one end two ratchet wheels h, ³, the teeth
of which are in opposite directions. Two pawls k, k¹, engage with the
teeth of these wheels, and are both carried by a level 7, upon which is a
roller, acted on by a cam m¹ on the cam shaft m, and held up to it by
a spring not shewn in the Drawing.
Either one or other of the pawls k, k¹, can be thrown out of action to
allow of the screw being driven in either direction desired. The pawl k
can be put out of action by unhooking the spring which holds it up, and
the pawl by simply turning it back. By this means a step-by-step
motion can be given to the slide fin either direction desired; and
at each movement it can be caused to travel a distance equal to the
distance apart at which the points of the point bar are set. n¹ is a
sewing machine needle carried by a swinging arm n, to which a to-and-
fro motion is imparted by a grooved cam n² on the cam shaft m; the
needle is threaded with a thread from the bobbin n³; o is the finger for
taking hold of the thread when a loop of it has been carried by the
needle through the work on the point bar, and for moving such loop of
thread into a position for the needle to pass into it when it again passes
through the work. The finger is carried by a lever o¹, the axis of which
can be caused to slide to and fro on a fixed stud p by means of a cam o³,
and also to rock upon this stud by another cam o³, so
looper towards and from the work on the point bar b. The cams for
giving motion to the needle and to the looper are capable of turning
freely on the cam shaft, and of being slid endwise upon it by a sliding
clutch x, so that they may be caused to engage with clutch surfaces y
on the shaft, and be thereby caused to revolve with it. The sewing
mechanism can thus be thrown out of action without stopping the
rotation of the cam shaft.
as to move the
The action of the sewing mechanism has been herein-before fully
described, so that any further description of it is unnecessary.
Two sewing machines such as above described are combined together
as shewn at Figures 4 and 5, one machine to work when the point
bar is being traversed in one direction, and the other machine when the
bar is traversed in the opposite direction. Two such double machines
are also shewn to be working with one point bar, so that two pieces of
work may be simultaneously operated on. The cam shaft is driven by
an endless cord from the driving axis below it, and the grooved wheel

page_text: on the cam shaft over which the cord runs can be made either fast or
loose upon the shaft by moving it endwise by a sliding clutch z, so as to
bring it up to or away from a disc fixed on the shaft, and so cause a
pin projecting from it either to enter or move out from a notch in this
disc.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise arrangement of the machine above
described; but what I claim as my improvements in machinery for
seaming, turning-off, and waling hosiery goods is,―
1st. The combination with a sewing machine of a straight bar carrying
a row of grooved points, on to which the work may be placed, and which
can be traversed step by step past the needle or needles of the machine
to admit of the needle or needles passing in succession into the loops
on the several points, and so stitching them one to another, substantially
as described.
2nd. The employment of movable straight point bars, on to which
the work is set, and which are then placed into clamps or holders in the
sewing machine for the seaming, turning-off, or waling to be completed,
substantially as described.
3rd. The combined arrangement of a machine for scaming, turning-off,
or waling hosiery goods, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Ward, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
SAMUEL WARD. (L.S.)