IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING SOCKS, STOCKINGS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Inglis Redpath at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th April 1871.
I, SAMUEL INGLIS REDPATH, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the County
of Northumberland, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING SOCKS, STOCKINGS, AND OTHER SIMILAR
ARTICLES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR," to be
as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the form and con-
struction of needles, which are especially applicable to the Lamb
knitting machine, and more particularly for the purpose of knitting
stockings.
Under the existing arrangement and form of needle employed in the
Lamb knitting machines, and when the knitting operation is being
performed, the needles employed cannot be thrown into an idle position
without in the first instance being disengaged from the loop or stitch
which each needle retains at the time, and this becomes a special
disadvantage when the formation of the heel of a stocking is being
effected, through the number of stitches which have to be dropped,

page_text: corresponding to the number of needles which have to be thrown idle
until the length has been knitted which is required for forming the
licel of the stocking; and these stitches which have thus been dropped
have again to be picked up by the hand of the operator, and knitted into
the other parts so as to effect what is termed the closing of the heel.
The principal object of this Invention is to enable one or any of the
needles in use to be thrown into an idle position and still retain the loop
or stitch therein, which is effected through the employment of needles
constructed according to any of the modifications now to be described.
Under the first modification the improvements consist in having each
of the needles situated upon the upper side of a lever, which is placed
in a groove in the needle plate of the machine, and is centred therein
at or near its end which is nearest to the hook end of the needle, whilst
its opposite end projects beyond the outer edge of the needle plate, a
distance sufficient to enable it to be caught by the finger of the attendant,
and depressed or elevated at pleasure. When depressed the butt or head
of the needle which is formed to receive the motion from the actuating
cam is therewith drawn below the surface of the needle plate, in
consequence whereof the actuating cam travels over it, whereby it is
left in an idle state, but still retaining its loop or stitch.
Under another modification the improvements consist in supplying
the needles with a portable butt or head, which when fixed upon the
needle receives and communicates thereto the motion of the actuating
cam, and when removed therefrom the needle remains in an idle state.
Under another modification the ucedles themselves are centred upon
a stud or wire, passing longitudinally through the needle plate, whilst
their outer ends are made to project beyond the edge of the said needle
plate, and are capable of being depressed or elevated in a manner similar
to the lever described in the first modification, and thereby throwing the
needle idle or into operation, as desired.