IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LOOPED OR KNITTED FABRICS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray, of No. 28, Southampton Buildinga, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LOOPED OR KNITTED FABRICS." A
communication from abroad by Otto Viett, of Hamburg, in the German Empire.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Imray at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th October 1881.
JOHN IMRAY, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
LOOPED OR KNITTED FABRICE." [A communication from abroad by Otto Viett, of
Hamburg, in the German Empire.]
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction of machinery for the
purpose of manufacturing eaps commonly known as Scotch caps or bonnets, and
other similar knitted fabrics, the rows or series of loops in which are made to
converge towards the centre or apex by narrowings distributed at intervals over
the whole area of the fabric, In the manner described in the Specification of
William Dalgliesh, Number 684, of 1872, and now well known in the trade. The
Scotch caps which are manufactured at present according to the Specification,
No. 1179, of 1879, filed by William Wild and Thomas Wild, under the Letters Patant
granted to them, sealed the 4th July 1879, and dated 25th March 1879, come
from the knitting frame in the form of a continuous circular seamless fabric of a
somewhat conical form; and in the machines described under said Specification,
No. 11797, the narrowing of the fabric is effected by automatic narrowing appa-
ratus forming part of the machine. The nature and object of this Invention is by
means of modifications on the said machine to adapt it for the purpose of knitting
Scotch caps and similar fabrics not in the form of a continuous circular or conical
seamless fabric, such as is produced by the machine described in the said Specifi-
cation, No. 1179", but in the form of a flat somewhat triangular fabric narrowed
to the apex, and which, when two sides of the triangle are seamed together, will
have a conical form resembling that which is produced without necessity of seaming

page_text: under the said Specification, No. 1179. By the first series of modifications
hereinafter described I convert the machine described in the said Specification,
No. 1179 into a machine capable of working two flat triangular bonnet pieces as
afore described simultaneously, one on each side of the machine; and by the second
series of modifications hereinafter described I convert the machine described in the
Baid Specification, No. 11797, into a machine of a simpler construction capable of
working one such flat triangular bonnet piece on one side of the machine, and
which possesses other advantages hereinafter mentioned.
First Head. The first series of modifications hereinbefore referred to consists in
taking the entire machine, as described in the said Spec, No. 1179”, but sub-
stituting in place of the cam marked No. 3 in Figure 1 of Sheet 1 of the Drawings
annexed to the said Spec, No. 11797, a cam of a different form. The said cam
marked No. 3 is a cam, the configuration and mode of producing a model of which
may be described as follows:-Take a flat circular piece of wood, say, of about
5 inches in diameter, and from the centre of the piece of wood describe a circle
concentric with the circumference of the piece of wood, and at a distance from that
circuinference of about 7/15th of an inch, and from the same centre and at the same
distance of about 7/10th of an inch within the circle first described describe a second
and interior circle; then draw two diameters of the circle formed by the edge of
the wood at right angles to each other, and from the piece of wood cut away the
whole of the annular band formed by the circumference of the wood and the first
circle with the exception of the portion of said annular band within any one single
quadrant; then from the annular band formed by the first and second circles cut
away the quadrantal segment opposite to the quadrantal segment left as above
described of the outer annular band. The portion of wood remaining after the
cutting away of the said parts of the said two annular bands will represent the
form of the said cam No. 3 at present in use. The model of the cam which I
substitute as aforesaid therefor may be obtained as follows:-Take a circular piece
of wood of the same size as before, and from the centre describe a circle at the
same distance from the circumference of the wood as the first of the said circles
herein before described; draw two diameters to the outer circle formed by the
edge of the wood at right angles to each other; cut away from two opposite
quadrants the annular band formed by the circle so described and the circumference
of the wood, and the portion of wood which remains will represent the cam which
I substitute for the said cam No. 3. The said cam No. 3 is made of various sizes
according to the size of the machine in which it is fitted, but the proportions
mentioned in the above description are observed with more or less precision, and
the cam which I propose to substitute for the said cam No. 8 may also vary in
size, but ought to preserve the same proportions of parts or nearly so as are
mentioned in the above directions for forming both cams. Instead of cutting away
in each case, as above directed, the entire segment directed to be removed from the
said annular band, small portions thereof may be left adjoining each end of the
quadrants that are directed to be left projecting for the purpose of leaving a fillet
or a concave surface instead of a sharply augular one, and of making the action of
the cam smoother.
Besides the substitution of the one cam for the other, as before described, the
needle bar on each side of the machine described in the said Spec, No. 117979, will
require to be elongated and to carry an additional number of needles and of springs
and needle guides in order to work one full-sized bonnet on each side of the
machine instead of working only one bonnet, a half on each side, as at present.
In addition to this the lifting, bare marked F, F, in Fig. 3, Sheet 2, annexed to
said Spec, No. 1179", will require to be elongated and the holders of the bars
placed at a correspondingly greater distance from each other. The series of
narrowing blocks will also require to be enlarged so as to correspond with the
enlarged needle bar, and the throw of the yarn-carrier will also require to be
lengthened or increased in a corresponding ratio. The apparatus for depressing the
· needles represented in said Figure 1 annexed to said Spec, No. 11797, by the

page_text: letter e as a double inclined plane mounted upon the bar E, and of which there is
a corresponding duplicate on the other side of the machine, not shown in said
Figure, will also require to be elongated. The bar represented in said Figure 1 by
the letter E at present alides in brackets, two of which are represented in the said
Drawings I wish to explain that it is a matter of indifference whether the said
bar is made so as to slide in the brackets or whether the brackets are made to slide
on the bars. The enlargement of the needle bar will require a greater amount of
power to drive the sliding bar E above mentioned (or the brackets if the brackets
are made to slide), and in order to provide this additional power it may be necessary
to enlarge the wheel or pinion marked ', and instead of having the pinion / and
the pinion in said Figure 1 of the same size, to have the pinion & made as much
larger than the pinion as may be necessary. The said alterations may in certain
cases involve an enlargement of the general scale of the machine or of particular
parts of it other than those mentioned, but it is not necessary to specify these
because any competent mechanic in making the alterations above described will be
able to determine whether or not any enlargement of any other parts is required in
the particular case. The machine modified by the alterations hereinbefore described
is applied to the working of two bonnets, one on each side of the machine, by
casting on the bonnets in the ordinary way and starting the machine in the way
presently employed.
The said machine, modified as above described, may also be applied to the manu-
facture of one bonnet at a time on either of the sides of the machine without any
bonnet being simultaneously made on the other side. In order to effect this two
methods are available. (First). Cast on the bonnet in the same way as if two
bonnets were intended to be made simultaneously; then on the side on which it in
desired that no bonnet shall be made, pass through the series of loops made by the
warping a small wire equal in length to the series of loops, and allow the said wire
to remain in the loops, which will prevent the loops from coming off the needles on
the side on which it is intended to manufacture a bonnet. (Second). Another
method of effecting the same result is to warp on the thread in the same way as
was practised under the said Spec of William Dalgliesh, No. 684", and then
proceed as at present.
Second Head.-The second series above mentioned of modifications on the
machine described in the said Spec, No. 1179, has for object to produce a
machine on which one flat triangular bonnet piece may be wrought on only one
Bide of the machine, and which machine shall be simpler in its construction than
the machine described in said Spee, No. 1179, or the modification thereof
herein before described, and shall possess certain additional advantages hereinafter
mentioned. The said series of modifications are as follows:-My improved
machine consists of the machine described in the said Spec, No. 1179", with the
following differences and alterations, viz., instead of having two needle bars set
back to back, one on each side or face of the machine, as described in said
Spec, No. 1179", there is only one needle bar, and that on one face of the
machine. The said needle bar and the parts or arrangements immediately con-
nected with it, such as the number of needles, needle guides, and springs, will be
enlarged to the capacity of working a full sized bonnet. Instead of two sets of
narrowing apparatus on opposite sides of the machine, as described in the said
Spec, No. 1179", I have only one narrowing apparatus, and that on the same
side of the machine as that upon which I have the needle bar, and this narrowing
apparatus will be enlarged so as to correspond to the enlarged needle bar. Instead
of two yarn-carriers, each of which crosses to the opposite side of the machine, as
described in the said Spec, and travels so as to pay out the yarn in a continuous
circuit, I have only a single yarn-carrier, and that on the same side of the machine
as the needle bar and narrowing apparatus. This yarn holder travels from one end
of the machine to the other backwards and forwards, paying out the yarn to the
needles from one end of the needle bar to the other and back again, but each time
that the yarn carrier arrives at either end of the needles it is made to go to the back

page_text: of the needle bar, so that when the needles rise in the process of narrowing they
will not come in contact with the yarn holder. These alterations in the yarn
holder are effected as follows:-One of the rods marked H, H, in Figure 2 of the
Drawings annexed to the said Spec, No. 1179, with its yarn carrier is omitted
from the machine. The yarn holder of the modified machine is worked by a cam
on the cam shaft, and a connecting rod and lever corresponding to the connecting
rod marked m and the lever marked m¹ in Figure 2 of the Drawings annexed to
the said Spec., No. 1179. I employ instead of cam 3 in Figure 1 of the Drawings
annexed to the said Spec, No. 1179, another cam, the form of which is the same
as that of the cam which I have herein before described as that which I substitute
for the said cam 3 in the modifications of the machine described under the first
head of this Specification. In all other respects the mechanism of and connected.
with the yarn carrier remains the same as in the machine described in said
Spec, No. 11797. The pinions on the shafts H, H, Figure 2, Sheet 1 of the
Drawings annexed to said Spec., No. 11797, are however omitted from the
present modification of the machine as unnecessary. It will be obvious to any
practical framesmith or machinist that the omission of one of the needle bars and
one of the narrowing machines and one half of the yarn-carrying mechanism, as
above described, involves the omission of the subordinate machinery or mechanism
connected with the principal parts so omitted, and it is therefore unnecessary to
specify these in detail.
By modifying the machine in the manner described under head second of this
Spec. I get a machine which is easier to drive, and which is less complex in
its construction than the machine described in said Spec, No. 1179, of which
the machine presently under description may be roughly regarded as one half
enlarged. The machine which I thus obtain has also this further advantage, that
if a bonnet is run off the needles by the accidental breakage of the thread the
bonnet can be put on the needles again and continued to completion, which cannot
be done in the event of a similar accident in knitting the continuous circular
seamless bonnet on the machine described in the said Spec, No. 11797. In this
way there is a very considerable avoidance of waste or loss of material incident to
the said machine as wrought at present. The mode of working the machine under
the modifications described under head second of this Spec is as follows :—
At starting the machine the needles are raised, the carrier travels along the needles,
paying out the thread from one end to the other. The thread is held by. hand, so
as to keep it tight at one end of the needle bar; then a piece of bar or tube
containing a number of hooks equal to the number of spaces betwixt the needles is
inserted, so as to catch the straight thread held by the hand, as before mentioned,
and to draw it between the needles; then this bar or tube is let go, the needles
are depressed, the thread is again paid out by the reverse motion of the carrier
back to its starting point, and this forms the first series of loops. The tube or bar
which has been let go is acted on so as to take up the fabric as it is knitted, and
tighten the thread on the needles, either by. a weight attached thereto or by a
ratchet wheel worked by the machine, and from this point the process goes on by
a repetition of these motions until the fabric is finished. In consequence of the
greater length of the needle bar there will be an enlargement of the pinion l' in
Fig. 1, Sheet 1 of the Drawings annexed to the said Spec, No. 1179, such as
I have hereinbefore described in connection with the said modifications under head
first of this Spec°n.
The improvements hereinbefore described on the said machine described in the
said Spec, No. 1179 of 1879, are intended to be claimed, subject always to the
rights of the proprietors of the said Patents of Dalgliesh, No. 684 of 1872, and of
William Wild and Thomas Wild, No. 1179 of 1879, in so far as the present
Invention may be found to interfere with the rights of the said proprietors
respectively.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed. by
the said John Imray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st March
1882.
JOHN IMRAY, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
LOOPED OR KNITTED FABRICS." A communication from abroad by Otto Viett, of
Hamburg, in the German Empire.
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction of machinery for the
purpose of manufacturing caps commonly known as Scotch caps or bonnets and
other similar knitted fabrics, the rows or series of loops in which are made to
converge towards the centre by narrowings distributed over the whole area in the
manner described in the Specification of William Dalgliesh, No. 684, of 1872. The
Scotch caps which are manufactured at present according to the Specification,
No. 1179, of 1879, filed by William Wild and Thomas Wild, under the Letters
Patent granted to them sealed the 4th July 1879, and dated 25th March 1879,
come from the knitting frame in the form of a continuous circular seamless fabrio
of a somewhat conical form, and in the machines described under said Specification,
No. 1179, of 1879, the narrowing of the fabric is effected by automatic narrowing
apparatus forming part of the machine. The nature and object of this Invention
hereinafter described and claimed is by means of modifications on the machine
described under said Specification, No. 1179, of 1879, to adapt it for the purpose of
knitting Scotch caps and similar fabrics not in the form of a continuous circular or
conical seamless fabric, such as is produced by the said machine, No. 1179, of 1879,
bat in the form of a flat somewhat triangular fabric narrowed to the apex, and
which when two sides of the triangle are secured together will have a conical form
resembling that which is produced without necessity of seaming under the said
Specification, No. 1179, of 1879. By the first series of modifications hereinafter
described I convert the machine described in said Specification, No. 1179, of 1879,
into a machine capable of working two flat triangular bonnet pieces, as before
described, simultaneously, one on each side of the machine; and by the second series
of modifications hereinafter described I convert the machine described in said
Speciffention, No. 1170, of 1879, into a machine of a simpler construction capable
of working one such flat triangular bonnet piece on one side of the machine, and
which possesses other advantages hereinafter mentioned.
First Head The first series of modifications hereinbefare referred to consists in
taking the entire machine, as described in said Specification, No. 1179, of 1879, but
substituting in place of the cam marked No. 3, in Figure 1 of Sheet 1 of the
Drawings annexed to said Specification, No. 1179, of 1879, a cam of a different
form. The said cam, marked No. 3, is a cam the configuration and mode of
producing a model of which may be described as follows:-Take a flat circular
piece of wood of about 5 inches in diameter, and from the centre of the piece of
wood describe a circle concentric with the circumference of the piece of wood, and
at a distance from that circumference of about ✓ the of an inch, and from the same
centre and at the same distance within the circle first described describe a second
and interior circle; then draw two diameters at right angles to each other, and
from the piece of wood cut away the whole of the annular band formed by the
circumference of the wood and the first circle with the exception of any one single
quadrant; then from the annular band formed by the first and second circles out
away the quadrantal segment opposite to the quadrantal segment left of the outer
annular band. The portion of wood remaining after the cutting away of the said
parts will represent the form of the said cam No. 3 at present in use. The model

page_text: of the cam which I substitute as aforesaid therefor may be obtained as follows :—
Take a circular piece of wood of the same size as before, and from the centre
describe a circle at the same distance from the circumference of the wood as the
first of the said circles herein before described; draw two diameters at right angles
to each other; cut away from two opposite quadrants the annular band formed by
the circle so described and the circumference of the wood, and the portion of wood
which remains will represent the cam which I substitute for the said cam No. 3.
The said cam No. 3 is made of various sizes according to the size of the machine in
which it is fitted, but the proportions mentioned in the above description are
observed with more or less precision, and the cam which I propose to substitute for
the said cam No. 3 may also vary in size, but ought to preserve the same
proportions of parts or nearly so. In the above directions for forming both cams,
instead of cutting away, as above described, the entire segments directed to be
removed from the said annular band, small portions thereof may be left adjoining
each end of the quadrants that are directed to be left projecting for the purpose of
retaining in each of the corners or angles which would be produced by the cutting
away of the whole of each of the annular segments a fillet or a concave surface
instead of a sharply angular one, and of thus making the action of the cam
smoother. Besides the substitution of the one cam for the other, as before
described, the needle bar on each side of the machine described in the said
Specification, No. 1179, of 1879, will require to be elongated and to carry an
additional number of needles and of springs and needle guides in order to work
one full-sized bonnet on each side of the machine instead of working only one
bonnet, a half on each side, as at present. In addition to this the lifting bars
marked F, F, in Figure 3, Sheet 2, annexed to said Specification, No. 1179, of 1879,
will require to be elongated and the holders of the bars placed at a correspondingly
greater distance from each side. The series of narrowing blocks will also require
to be enlarged so as to correspond with the enlarged needle bar, and the throw of
the yarn carrier will also require to be lengthened or increased in a corresponding
ratio. The apparatus for depressing the needles, represented in said Figure 1
annexed to said Specification, No. 1179, of 1879, by the letter e as a double
inclined plane mounted upon the bar E, and of which there is a corresponding
duplicate on the other side of the machine, not shewn in said Figure, will also
require to be elongated. The bar represented in said Figure 1 by the letter E at
present slides in brackets, two of which are represented in the said Drawing. I
wish to explain that it is a matter of indifference whether the said bar is made so
as to slide in the brackets or whether the brackets are made to slide on the bar.
The enlargement of the needle bar will require a greater amount of power to drive
the sliding bar E above mentioned, or the brackets, if the brackets are made to
slide, and in order to provide this additional power it may be necessary to enlarge
the wheel or pinion marked ', and instead of having the pinion and the pinion
in said Figure 1 of the same size, to have the pinion made as much larger than
the pinion as may be necessary. The said alterations may in certain cases involve
an enlargement of the general scale of the machine, or of particular parts of it
other than those mentioned, but it is not necessary to specify these because any
competent mechanic in making the alterations above described will be able to
determine whether or not enlargement of any other parts is required in the
particular case. The machine modified by the alterations hereinbefore described is
applied to the working of two bonnets, one on each side of the machine, by casting
on the bonnets in the ordinary way and starting the machine in the way at
present employed.
The said machine, modified as above described, may also be applied to the
manufacture of one bonnet at a time on either of the sides of the machine without
any bonnet being simultaneously made on the other side. In order to effect this
two methods are available. First. Cast on the bonnet in the same way as if two
bonnets were intended to be made simultaneously; then on the side on which it is
desired that no bonnet shall be made, pass through the series of loops made by the

page_text: warping a small wire equal in length to the series of loops and allow the said wire
to remain in the loops, which will prevent the loops from coming off the needles
on the side on which it is intended to manufacture a bonnet. Another method of
effecting the same result is to warp on the thread in the same way as was practised
under the said Specification of Dalgliesh, No. 684 of 1872, and then proceed as at
present.
Second Head. The second series above mentioned of modifications on the
machine described in the said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, has for its object to
produce a machine on which one flat triangular bonnet piece may be wrought on
only one side of the machine, and which machine shall be simpler in its construction
than the machine described in said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, or the
modifications thereof hereinbefore described, and shall possess certain additional
advantages hereinafter mentioned. The said second series of modifications are as
follows:-My improved machine consists of the machine described in the said
Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, with the following differences and alterations,
viz. Instead of having two needle bars set back to back, one on each side or face
of the machine, as described in said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, there is only
one needle bar, and that on one face of the machine. The said needle bar and the
parts immediately connected with it, such as the number of needles, needle guides,
and springs, will be enlarged to the capacity of working a full sized bonnet.
Instead of two sets of narrowing apparatus on opposite sides of the machine, as
described in said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, I have only one narrowing
apparatus, and that on the same side of the machine as that upon which I have
the needle bar, and this narrowing apparatus will be enlarged so as to correspond
to the enlarged needle bar. Instead of two yarn carriers, each of which crosses to
the opposite side of the machine, as described in the said Specification, and travels
so as to pay out the yarn in a continuous circuit, I have only a single yarn carrier,
and that on the same side of the machine as the needle bar and narrowing
apparatus. This yarn holder travels from one end of the machine to the other
backwards and forwards, paying out the yarn to the needles from one end of the
needle bar to the other and back again, but each time that the yarn carrier arrives
at either end of the needles it is made to go to the back of the needle bar, so that
when the needles rise in the process of narrowing they will not come in contact
with the yarn holder. These alterations in the yarn holder are effected as
follows: One of the rods marked H, H, in Figure 2 of the Drawings annexed to
the said Specification, with its yarn carrier is omitted from the machine. The
yarn holder of the modified machine is worked by a cam on the cam shaft, and
a connecting rod and lever corresponding to the connecting rod m and the lever m³,
in Figure 2 of the Drawings annexed to the said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879.
I employ instead of cam 8, in Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed to the said
Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, another cam, the form of which is the same
as that of the cam which I have herein before described as what I substitute
for the said cam 3 in the modifications of the machine described under head
first of this Specification. In all other respects the mechanism of and connected
with the yarn carrier remains the same as in the machine described in said
Specification, No. 1179 of 1879. The pinions on the shafts H, H, Figure 2,
Sheet 1 of said Specification, 1179 of 1879, are however omitted from the
present modification of the machine as unnecessary. It will be obvious to any
practical framesmith or machinist that the omission of one of the needle bars and
one of the narrowing machines, and one half of the yarn carrying mechanism as
above described involves the omission of the subordinate machinery or mechanism
connected with the principal parts so omitted, and it is therefore unnecessary to
specify these in detail. By modifying the machine in the manner described under
head second of this Specification, I get a machine which is easier to drive and
which is less complex in its construction than the machine described in said
Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, of which the machine presently under description
may be roughly regarded as one half enlarged, and the machine which I thus

page_text: obtain has also this further advantage, that if a bonnet is run off the needles by the
accidental breakage of the thread, the bonnet can be put on the needles again and
continued to completion, which cannot be done in the event of a similar accident
in knitting the continuous circular seamless bonnet on the machine described in
the said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879. In this way there is a very considerable
avoidance of waste or loss of material incident to the said machine as wrought at
present. The mode of working the machine under the modifications described
under head second of this Specification is as follows:-At starting the machine the
needles are raised, the carrier travels along the needles, paying out the thread from
one end to the other. The thread is held by hand so as to keep it tight at one end
of the needle bar. Then a piece of bar or tube containing a number of hooks
equal to the number of spaces betwixt the needles is inserted so as to catch the
straight thread held tight by the hand, as before mentioned, and to draw it between
the needles. Then this bar or tube is let go, the needles are depressed, the thread
is again paid out by the reverse motion of the carrier back to its starting point,
and this forms the first series of loops. The tube or bar which has been let go is
acted on so as to take up the fabric as it is knitted, and tighten the thread on the
needles either by a weight attached thereto or by a ratchet wheel worked by the
machine, and from this point the process goes on by a repetition of these motions
until the fabric is finished. In consequence of the greater length of the needle bar
there will be an enlargement of the pinion in Figure 1, Sheet 1 of the Drawings
annexed to said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, such as I have hereinbefore
described in connection with the said modifications under head first of this
Specification.
The improvements herein before described on the said machine described in the
said Specification, No. 1179 of 1879, are intended to be claimed, subject always to
the rights of the proprietors of the said Specifications of Dalgliesh, No. 684 of 1872,
and of William and Thomas Wild, No. 1179 of 1879, in so far as the present
Invention may be found to interfere with the rights of the said proprietors
respectively.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
I claim (but subject always as aforesaid),
First. The machine described under the first head of this Specification, and
which is produced by modifying the machine described in said Specification,
No. 1179 of 1879, and Drawings annexed thereto, in the manner hereinbefore
described under the first head hereof.
Second. The machine described under head second of this Specification, and
which is produced by modifying the machine described in said Specifloation,
No. 1179 of 1879, aud Drawings annexed thereto in the machine herein before
described under the second head -hereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Imray, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty two