Improvements in Stockings and like Garments.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Apr., 1892—Accepted, 21st May, 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by LEONIDAS M. PRESTON, of Bonham, Fannin
County, Texas, United States of America, Manufacturer.]
Improvements in Stockings and like Garments.
I, OLIVER IMRAY, of No. 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of London, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to stockings and like garments, made in two parts, a leg
part and a foot part which can be connected by sewing or can be disconnected for
the purpose of removing the foot part when it is worn and substituting a new foot
part. Such stockings have been previously proposed but have never come into
general use because the joining edges of the parts were formed with selvedges or
completed by a casting off to form selvedges in the knitting operation, and this
rendered it very troublesome to pick up the loops from the edges in connecting the
two parts. Furthermore, when the parts are united, the junction of the selvedged
edges prescuted a scam comparatively inelastic in the direction of its length or
round the stocking, a feature very objectionable because it interfered with the
elasticity of the stocking near the ankle, where elasticity is most essential in the
putting on or taking off of the stocking.
The objects of this invention are to avoid these objections, which I effect by
making each of the two parts at the joining edge with protruding loops having
their necks fastened by a thread which in no way interferes with the elasticity of
the stocking when the two parts are united by sewing.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a knitted stocking made in two parts according to
my invention, and
Figure 2 is a detail view on an enlarged scale shewing the protruding loops and
one way of tying their necks.
1 indicates the leg part and 2 the foot part, each formed by knitting, the foot
part comprising a part 3 of the ankle. These parts are designed to be connected
by sewing and in order that this may be simply and conveniently done, I form each
of the edges to be united with a row of loops 4, which protrude from the edge as
shewn in Figure 2.
The formation of these loops is readily effected by leaving the last formed loops
of the knitting protruding. But to prevent them from being pulled out or from
being drawn back into the knitted portion, I tie the neck 5 of every loop by a slip
knot 6 of a thread which extends round the edge. The knots are drawn tightly
round the necks of the loops close to the edge of the knitted body, but sufficient
slack is left in the parts 7 of the thread between the knots to provide as much
elasticity at this part as in other parts of the stocking.
The knots may be tied by hand or mechanically but as this forms no part of my
invention I do not describe any particular knot or tie, nor means of effecting it.
The protrusion of the loops is suited for the convenient and rapid entrance of a
needle to unite the parts by the ordinary button hole stitch with coloured silk or
thread if desired for the purpose of ornament. The point of connection of the
two parts being at the ankle, the seam will usually lie below the shoe tops, but even
when it is visible its appearance is not objectionable.
Although I have described my invention as applied to stockings it is obviously
applicable also for tights and any other garments comprising leg and foot parts,

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
A knitted stocking or like garment composed of a leg part and a foot part each
formed at its edge with protruding loops having their necks tied by a thread loose
between the loops so that when the parts are stitched together the elasticity of the
iunction is not interfered with, substantially as described.
ABEL & IMKAI,
Agents for the Applicant.