CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Joseph Hughes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd March 1861.-A communication from abroad by the McNary
Knitting Machine Company, of the City and State of New York, U.S.
of America..
I, EDWARD JOSEPH HUGHES, of the City of Manchester, in the County 'of,
Lancaster, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES," being a communication to'
me from abroad by the McNary Knitting Machine Company, of the City,
and State of New York, U.S. of America, to be as follows:-
A hollow conical cylinder carries the needles in perpendicular grooves upon:
its external surface, and is connected with a ring or circular table with which
it revolves upon the frame or table of the machine. Upon the lower part;
of the ring or table is a flange which runs in the grooves of four. blocks,
secured. upon the frame of the machine so as to give it a steady movement..
The needles are of the common form, save that the lower end of each is:
bent outward at a right angle, and inserted through a hole in the end..of.
one of the needle arms which is bent aside for that purpose. The needle!
arms lie in grooves upon the top of the revolving table corresponding nearly to:
the needle grooves in the conical cylinder. They play upon a wire which runs;
around through perforations in them, and at the surface of the revolving

page_text: table, and at, say, one-fourth the distance from the circumference to the
.centre. A ring of the same height with the revolving table encircles it, and
is secured to the table or frame of the machine. Upon the top of this ring
is fastened a flat sheet iron ring, the inner edge of which projects slightly
beyond the other. A notch in the outer ends of the needle arms rides over
this projecting edge. At the proper place the ring has a hollow on the top,
and the sheet iron ring is depressed into it. As the needle arm while
revolving with the table reaches this spot, the outer end is forced downwards,
and the needle with which it is connected is raised, and as the table revolves
further both are restored to their former position. By this motion a new
stitch is formed in the usual way. By having more depressions in the
ring, and sheet iron ring upon it, several threads may be knit at once upon
the same stocking. Above the conical cylinder is the guide rod attached
to a stout arm projecting from the frame of the machine. The guide rod
is riveted to a flat strip of metal which slides back and forth in a groove
in the side of the arm near the end, and may be further secured by a pin
driven into the arm through a slot in the sliding strip. From the arm,
another short arm runs down, on the end of which plays a perpendicular lever.
The lower end of this lever presses with some force upon a flat' band that
encircles the conical cylinder and keeps the needles in their place. The
other end is connected with the sliding strip above mentioned. Whenever
the motion of the machine is reversed the cylinder carries with it the lower
end of the lever, and gives the sliding strip a short movement the other way.
By this means the guide rod is always kept before the needle in action.
The revolving table derives its motion from the cog wheel which works into
cogs upon the outermost and lower corner of the revolving table by removing:
a part of the ring and the rein upon it. The shaft of this cog wheel carries.
two loose cog wheels one above and the other below another cog wheel, by
which both are kept in constant motion, and which is itself carried directly
by the power employed to work the machine. Between the wheels: a sleeve'
slides upon the shaft. On the inner surface of this sleeve is a perpendicular
slot or groove riding over a pin fast in the shaft so that the two. must revolve
together. When this sleeve is raised a cam upon its upper end catches a
cam upon the lower surface of the upper wheel, which thus becomes engaged.
with the shafts, and communicates-motion to it. By.a similar device when
the sleeve is lowered, the lower wheel becomes engaged with the shaft,
the motion of which is thereby reversed, and that of the whole machine with it..
The position of the sleeve is determined by. the elevating arm, a fork or

page_text: eóllar upon one end of which rides in a horizontal groove on the surface of
the sleeve, and the other end is secured by a pivot to a post in the frame.
A short arm projecting from the elevating arm rides in a horizontal groove
upon the top of the grooved cylinder, which is capable of being raised or
lowered, and as it rises or falls the arm follows it and carries the sleeve.
Under the fixed ring, and raised upon a thin block secured to the table of
the frame, revolves a flat sheet iron wheel with the edge cut into teeth.
At every revolution of the table a pin upon its outer edge catches into one
of these teeth, and forces the wheel around the distance of a notch, meanwhile
it is kept in its place by the spring which drops into one of the notches.
While the machine is employed in knitting the leg of the stocking, the
lower wheel is fast to the shaft, and communicates to the body of the machine
a continuous motion, contrary to that of the sun. When the junction for
commencing the heel arrives, a pin upon the wheel catches a cam upon the
long arm, and as one end of it is secured to the frame the pin raises the
other end. This end runs into and raises a perpendicular and elevating
bar, on the upper end of which is an arm that rides in the same groove
upon the grooved cylinder as that upon the elevating arm. If this motion
were sufficient in length and force, it would obviously raise the grooved
cylinder, and with it the arm until the sleeve engaged with the upper wheel,
and the motion of the whole machine would be reversed. In order to effect
this more certainly, on the inside of the elevating bar is a cam in the shape
of a double inclined plane, and when the bar is slightly elevated a pin upon
the outer edge of the wheel, which before glided upon the upper surface of
the cam, now strikes it below the point, and gliding along its under surface
(which is an inclined plane, as before observed) raises the bar with such
force and to such a distance as to effectually engage the sleeve with the
upper wheel, and secure without failure a reverse motion of the machine.
The cam upon the bar is curved so as to correspond with the circumference
of the wheel. It is not firmly attached to the bar, but is secured to it by
a pivot which allows it a slight play. In consequence of this, when the pin upon
the wheel first glides under the lower surface of the cam, and raises the bar
as much as desired, as it proceeds it raises the back part of the cam and
tilts the point downward, not so far that the pin will at once strike over
it when it next comes around, but so far that it will do this when the bar
is very slightly depressed, as herein-after mentioned. A contrary but similar
effect is produced when the pin first glides over the upper surface of the
When the motion of the machine is reversed as described above, the
cam.

page_text: -stitches instead of being carried around the stocking continuously are re-
versed and knit backward over the last row: knit. This back row may be
'carried half or two-thirds around as judged best, the machinery about to
be described being arranged accordingly. Upon the shaft, and below the
.wheel, and a little above the table of the frame,, revolves a sheet iron circle
or wheel, which is cut through from the outer edge to near the centre. One
.of the lips formed by this cut, being the one advancing immediately behind
the other, when the machine has its usual motion, and this wheel is going
with the sun, is bent downward a short distance. The curve must be rather
short, or the stitch then forming may be dropped while the machine is
knitting the leg; the edge of this wheel revolves in a gap below the teeth
in the toothed bar, which is raised to nearly its utmost height and partly
sustained by a spring. At each revolution of the wheel the toothed bar
is raised by it and dropped again when it reaches the notches on the wheel.
But when the motion of the machine is reversed the toothed bar drops down
upon the notched wheel, and as the lower lip of the wheel leaves one notch
between the teeth on the bar, the upper lip enters the notch above it. The
bar is thus carried down the distance of a notch at each revolution of the
wheel until the backward circle of.. stitches is knit as far round as desired.
At this junction a pointer upon the toothed bar, which has been meanwhile
sliding down in a perpendicular groove upon the surface of the grooved
cylinder, strikes the end of the groove (or a pin in it) and depresses the
cylinder. This lowers at the same time, the elevating bar, so that the pin
upon the wheel now strikes above the point of the cam upon the. bar, and
depresses it to such a distance and with such force as effectually to engage
the sleeve with the lower wheel and restore its direct motion to the machine.
The stitches will now be knit over the last part row, and may be continued
as far as thought .best, say, within one stitch of where the previous row was
commenced. If the cam upon the arm were a fixed one, the pin upon the
wheel would be thrown behind it by the first reverse motion of the machine,
and when the direct motion is resumed as last described the pin would
again strike the cam, and reverse the motion before the proper time. This
is prevented. by hanging the cam upon a pivot at its upper corner, and
allowing it to swing backward, so that as the arm is raised the pin upon the
wheel carries the cam backward. When the direct motion of the machine
is resumed, as described above, the lower lip of the wheel will at each revo-
lution enter the notch in the toothed bar below that in which it has just
been moving, and raise the, bar; meanwhile, the pointer, will rise in the

page_text: groove upon the cylinder; it directly encounters a spring lying obliquely
across the groove, which forces it through an oblique groove into an adjoining
perpendicular groove on the left, the cylinder revolving for that purpose.
When the row of stitches then forming has been knit as far as desired, the
pointer strikes the end of the groove (or a pin in it) and raises the cylinder.
This raises the elevating bar; the pin upon the wheel now strikes under
the point of the cam upon the bar, and the motion of the machine is again
reversed. This process is repeated until the heel piece is knit to a point,
the length of each row of stitches being determined by the length of the
groove upon the cylinder in which the pointer is moving at the time. The
pointer when moving downward in any groove is retained in it by a spring
lying between that groove and the one from which the pointer last came,
the spring being secured at the bottom and extending upward above the
oblique groove. It is at the same time not so stiff but that it will admit
the entrance of the pointer when forced in by the oblique spring in the
adjacent groove, and when the heel piece is completed the pointer will be
found moving upward in an open groove without impediment. The machine
will then be engaged of course in its direct and regular motion. The stitches
will be formed around the whole circle, running down one side of the heel
around the part left unwrought while the heel piece was formed, and over
the other side of the heel. By continuing this action the foot of the stocking
will be knit with a straight body until the point for forming the toe is
reached. Another pin upon the wheel now strikes the cam upon the arm,
the motion of the machine is again reversed, and a triangular piece for the
toe is formed upon one-half the foot piece by a process similar to that by
which the heel was formed. When the point of this piece is reached the
pointer will be moving upwards in a long groove, and the stitches will be
formed without interruption down the side of the piece, and over the half
circle left unwrought before. The pointer again strikes the end of the
groove, reverses the motion, and by a like process another piece is knit
for the other half of the toe. When the point of this is reached a pin upon
the cylinder may be used to cast off the power and stop the machine. The
halves of the toe are to be joined by hand, which is all the hand work
required for completing the stocking. It is obvious that the length of the
stocking leg will depend upon the number of teeth upon the wheel before
the first pin that throws up the arm at the commencement of the heel; as
thero must be one tooth for every row of stitches, so also there must be
one tooth upon the wheel behind that pin and before the pin that commences

page_text: the toe for every row of stitches required in the foot of the stocking. Again
the number of rows in the heel piece will be determined in the same way
by the number of grooves in the cylinder between the starting point and
the groove in which the pointer runs out. The number of rows in each
toe piece will be regulated in the same manner by the number of grooves
in the cylinder constructed for that purpose.