CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OR ADDITIONS TO MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING. STOCKING FABRIC
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME I, NATHAN
BAILEY, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester, Frame Smith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the First day of August, in the Seventh year of His
reign, and in the year os our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six,
did for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me the said
Nathan Bailey, his especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Nathan Bailey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Nathan Bailey, my executors, admors, or assigns should
at any time agree with and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OR ADDITIONS TO
MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING. STOCKING FABRIC ;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me the said Nathan Bailey, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery, within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: ANCW
1, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1 the sal
Nathan Bailey do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and th
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
My improvements in or additions to machinery for manufacturing stocking
fabrics, consists in certain apparatus to be attached to the ordinary construction
of stocking frames, for the purpose of carrying the thread longitudinally over
the bearded needles by means of mechanism, instead of performing that opera
tion by the hand of the workman as heretofore. In the wide stocking frames
commonly used by the manufacturers of the present day, several stockings or
gloves or distinct widths of such fabrics, are made at one operation or move
ment of the machinery; but it is necessary in some description of goods,
occasionally as the work goes on, to vary the distance or number of needles
over which the thread of each stocking or distinct piece of work is thrown, for
the purpose of producing the shapes; that is, widening and narrowing the
fabric, as in the formation of the calf and the small of the leg of the stocking.
This, however, is attended with great difficulty and delay, when several stockings
are made at one time in the ordinary machines, as each thread has to be
thrown separately by hand, and it is particularly to obviate this inconvenience
that my improved apparatus or mechanical thread carrier is adapted.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of my improved
mechanism, supposed to be attached to a stocking frame, the latter of which
is but partially shewn in the Figure; Fig. 2 is a horizontal view of the same,
and Fig. 3 is a transverse elevation taken partly in section; A, A, A, A, A,
are parts of the framing of the ordinary machine; B, B, B, the bearded
needles, fixed in the frame in three sets, for the purpose of making three
distinct stockings or other pieces of work; C, C, C, are the sinkers mounted
on the sinker bar; D, D, the carriage with the jack bar is shewn at E, E, E,
and the presser bar at F, F, affixed to the arms G, G. These are all parts of
the ordinary stocking frame, which is so well understood by workmen, and
also its manner of operating to produce the fabric, that it will be unnecessary
for me to shew more of its construction or to describe its evolutions, as they
form no part of my Invention. Figure 4 represents one of my improved thread
carriers detached from the machine, and drawn full size: so many of these
thread carriers as there are to be stockings or distinct breadths of work
produced in one machine, are to be applied as at a, a, a, by attachment
to a horizontal sliding rod b, b; these thread carriers are guided in their

page_text: longitudinal movements by a fixed horizontal rod c, c, parallel to the former,
upon which they slide to and fro, both rods being mounted in a rocking
frame d, d, the form and position of which will be seen in Figures 1' and 3;
this rocking frame is supported by jointed arms e, e, moving upon studs
fixed in the side standards of the new frame work f, f, and is connected
by lateral links g, g, to the carriage E, so that as the carriage with the
jacks moves outwards by the ordinary evolutions of the machinery, the
frame d is made to vibrate for the purpose of withdrawing the thread carriers
a from the sinkers C, when the sinkers advance to bring the loops to the
ends of the bearded needles. The rod 6 with the thread carriers is moved to
and fro by means of another sliding rod h, h, mounted on the top rail i, i.
This last-mentioned rod having an arm k affixed to it, which as the rod h slides
along comes in contact with the side of a bent arm l, extending upwards from
the lower sliding rod b. These parts I call the driving apparatus. This
driving apparatus is put in motion by means of cords attached to the ends of
the sliding rod h, which cords pass over guide pullies m, m, m, m, and are
connected at their reverse ends to the slur wheel H below, the slur wheel
It
being actuated by the treadles under the machine in the ordinary way.
will now be perceived, that if threads from suspended bobbins are brought
down and passed through the respective thread carriers a, as shewn at j, in
Figure 3, that by the action of the treadles upon the slur wheel the cords will
be made to draw the sliding rod h along the top rail i and cause the rod to
conduct the thread carriers a with the threads over the upper surfaces of the
bearded needles; this being understood, it is now necessary to shew by what
means the traverse of each thread carrier is limited to the extent of the work
that is made to conduct the thread over the required number of needles, and
no farther, according to the regulated breadth of the work. To the upper
part of the rod h two small pieces or fingers n, n, are firmly fixed by screws,
which fingers, as the rod h slides along, are intended to act alternately upon
one of the apparatus which call the depressors o, o. These depressors each
consist of a straight bar at top, supported by vertical pins set in the under side
of the bar and passed through sockets p, p, fixed to the stationary rail i. The
bar o is kept in its elevated position, as seen toward the left hand in Fig. 1,
by slight springs acting under it, but is depressed, as shewn toward the right
hand in the said Figure, by the finger n passing over it. It will be observed
that the outer end of each bar o is bent downward forming a small inclined
plane at q. This inclined plane enables the finger n as it moves along to
mount up to the top surface of the bar o, and by so doing to depress the bar o,
as shewn toward the right hand of Fig. 1. At the ends of the bars o, o, pendant.

page_text: arms r, r, are affixed, the lower parts of which act upon brackets 8, s, connected
to the rocking frame d, d. Hence as the finger n slides along the baroit dépresses
that bar and causes it, by means of the arms r, r, depressing the brackets 8, 8,
to move the rocking frame into the position shewn at Fig. 3, and thereby raise
the thread carriers a, a, a, above the bearded needles B. The progress of the
bar h sliding along the rail i, as before described, causes the thread carriers
a, a, a, to bring the threads over the upper parts of the series of bearded
needles, and when the finger n has passed to the end of the slider plate on the
bar o it slips off the bar, and allows the depressor immediately to rise, which
releases the rocking frame d when the bent arm / falls from the driver, and
the thread carriers drop down between the needles, thus limiting the extent or
breadth to which the work is to be produced upon the needles. In order. to
prevent the bar with the thread carriers from accidentally passing on too far
by the momentum when the machinery is in rapid action, stops are placed at
t, t, upon the rocking frame, which are formed by sliding bolts adjustable to the
required breadth of the work, and these are held fast in their positions each
by a spring lever u, a tooth in the end of which falls into a rack on the upper
side of the stop bolt. And further, there is another safety stop or catch 11
jointed on the end of the bar b, its longer end bearing upon the fixed rod 2
attached to the framing i; the lower end of this catch has a tooth or ratchet,
which takes into the teeth or notches on the piece 3 attached to the rocking
frame d; this catch keeps the bar 6 from rebounding after it has passed across
the frame, the tooth of the catch slipping into the notches. On the return of
the sliding bar h the other finger n acts in a similar way upon the left hand
depressor, raising the thread guides a as before and carrying them to the
required extent over the needles, and then letting them fall as described in the
former instance. In order to produce the narrowings, that is to reduce the
width of the work, the length of the slider plate on the upper surface of the
bar o must be made capable of contraction; this I effect by sliding it in a
groove in the upper side of the bar o, as shewn at v, v, in Fig. 2. Having
slidden the plate v to the extent corresponding with the intended width of the
work, I make the slider fast in that situation by a spring lever w which has a
tooth or catch dropping into one of the notches of the rack on the edge of
the bar o; and when I wish to narrow the work I slide the plate v with
its catch lever one or more notches backward in order that the finger n may
escape from the bar earlier, and drop the thread carrier one or more needles
short of the preceding course. I will here observe that, in order to allow the
fingers n to slide under the bars o on their return, each inclined plane g is
formed by a small jointed flap which rises as the finger passes under it.

page_text: Having by a succession of operations produced certain lengths of work, say.
the lengths of the legs of stockings down to the ankles, it will then be
necessary to separate the continuations of each of these pieces of works into.
distinct portions with selvages, for the formation of the insteps and the two
parts of the heel. This
effect by the introduction of two additional hori-
zontal sliding rods 61 and 63, each having thread carriers a' and a² affixed to
them, and those I mount in the machine and act upon them in the way before
described in reference to the sliding rod b, in Figures 1, 2, and 3. Figure 5.
represents a horizontal view of the top part of the rocking frame with the
first-described sliding rod b, and its thread carriers a, a, a, mounted thereon,
and also the additional sliding rods and 6 with their thread carriers a¹, a', a¹,
and a, a, a, connected to the rocking frame by hooked bearings x, x, x, and
guide pins y, y, (see Fig. 2,) the rod 62 being confined in its situation by a
clasp lever fixed at the left end of the rod. In this case a T-head or trans-
verse piece is fixed on the end of the driver k, as shewn by dots in Figure 2, for
the purpose of striking against the bent arm l, as the rod h moves along the bar
i, and there are adjustable sliding stop bolts u¹ and u³ for regulating the extent
of action of these additional rods b' and 6. These additional parts of the
apparatus being attached and adjusted to the required width of the insteps and
heel parts, the machine is put in motion as before, when, by the sliding of the
rod h the thread carriers a with the rod 6 will be first moved along for
producing the insteps, and when advanced a proper distance the bent arm
will come in contact with stops on the rods 61 and 68, and the three rods will
then all move together, conducting the thread carriers over the several series.
of needles. As, however, the distances are considerably reduced which the
thread carriers have now to travel in making these narrow breadths, the fingers
n are not to be passed along the whole extent of the bars o, o, therefore by
sliding the adjustable plates v, v; a recess in the edge of each plate will be
brought opposite to a recess z in each of the bars o, which will allow the
finger n to fall through when it arrives there, and by that means suspend the
operation. In order to make or work the feet of stockings which have
been produced by the means above described, I remove one of the sliding
bolts b, and lock together the other two sliding rods 6 and b', and having
attached six stocking pieces to the bearded needles in the ordinary way, I am
enabled to produce the footing to these six stockings at one operation by the
same means or mode of working the machinery as that described in forming
the legs and feet.
Lastly, I wish it to be understood that I lay no claim to any part of the
construction or mode of working the stocking frame for the production of

page_text: several pieces of stocking goods in one machine. But I claim as my Inven-
tion, and as the subject of the improvements secured to me under the above
in part recited Letters Patent, the mechanism to be attached to a stocking
frame for conducting the threads by machinery, instead of throwing them by
hand, consisting of the thread carriers attached to sliding rods, with suitable
stops and adjustable pieces for regulating and determining the extent of their
movements in connexion with the necessary mechanism for actuating the
same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nathan Bailey, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.