Improvements in Stockings and in the Method of Manufacturing the same.
Year: 1891

page_text: e of Application, 22nd Sept., 1891-Accepted, 12th Dec., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Stockings and in the Method of Manufacturing
the same.
A communication from JOSIAH BUTLER, of Lowell, in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, one of the United States of America, Treasurer, Administrator
of the Estate of Benjamin Franklin Shaw, of Lowell, aforesaid, deceased, the
Inventor of the said Invention.
I, ALFRED GEORGE BROOKES of 55 & 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex, 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:-
The stocking made the subject of this invention is of the so-called seamless class,
i.e. its leg and foot are tubular and its heel and toe made by narrowing on the
needles at one side of a circular bed by gradually dropping or putting needles out of
action until the narrowest course for the heel or toe has been knitted, and then the
machine is made to widen by gradually putting into action the needles put out of
action in narrowing, until a pouch suitable for a heel or toe has been made.
A heel having been knitted, tubular knitting is resumed for the foot, and the toe
is thereafter made in the same manner as the heel, but when finished the work is
run off the needles leaving the stocking to be completed by joining one half the toe
to the upper part of the foot.
This class of stocking is commonly made on a circular machine by rotating the
cam cylinder in the production of the leg and foot, and reciprocating the cam
cylinder for heel and toe work, part of the needles then out of action holding
loops.
The invention which I desire herein to secure by Letters Patent is exhibited in
the tubular part of the stocking as the leg or foot, or both, while the heel and toe
are as common in so-called seamless stockings.
The cam cylinder in a circular machine for the production of my improved
stocking will have only a reciprocating motion, and will be provided with two
diametrically opposite yarn guides, and two sets of cems, one adapted to act on the
needles in one half the needle cylinder and the other on the needles in the other
half of the cylinder.
The needles employed for knitting the fabric to constitute the front of the leg
and the top of the foot may be called "front-needles," while those employed for
knitting the back of the leg, the sole of the foot, and heels and toes, constitute
"back-needles."
With only a series of front-needles and a series of back needles, each series
being supplied with an independent yarn, (which may be of different or like colour),
each from its own yarn-guide, the cam cylinder having only a motion of recipro-
cation for a little over 180°, two independent webs, not a tubular web, would be
knitted, and so make a tubular web of what otherwise would be two flat webs, the
needle cylinder will be supplied between the endmost needles of the series of front-
needles and the endmost needles of the series of back-needles, with needles which I
denominate suture or seaming-needles, such needles acting to receive the two yarns
from the two yarn guides and in their reciprocation interloop the endmost loops
of a semi-course of loops made from one yarn, with the endmost loops of a semi-
course of loops made from the other yarn, the said suture of seaming-needles
uniting the loops of said semi-courses as laid or made on the needles.
The Specification accompanying an application for Letters Patent made by me
dated the 22nd September 1891 No. 16036 shews a circular machine containing

page_text: long and short-needles, and needles having two butts, and by filling the grooves at
one side of the needle cylinder with short-needles and the grooves at the other
side of the needle cylinder with long-needles, and separating the series of long-
needles from the series of short-needles with a two-butted needle, one at each side
of the machine, or at diametrically opposite points of the needle cylinder, and by
placing the needle actuating cams and yarn carriers at diametrically opposite
points and reciprocating the cam cylinder, a tubular fabric may be knitted, said
tubular fabric being produced one half from one yarn and the other half from
another yarn, the loops of the two halves being united by the two-butted or suture
or seaming needles.
°
This latter Patent is cited to point out one form of machine capable of
producing by reciprocal knitting a tubular fabric for the leg or foot of a stocking,
and from independent. yarns, the endmost loops of semi-courses as they are laid
being capable of being united by the suture-needles.
The stocking which would be produced on the machine described in the said
Specification of Letters Patent No. 16036 of 1891 would have the loops of the
different yarns in the tubular parts united in one and the same longitudinal wale.
My improved stocking will not differ materially from the stocking which might
be produced by a machine such as described in the said Specification No. 16036 of
1891, except that the said endmost loops of semi-courses instead of being inter-
looped by one needle, are interlooped by two or more suture or seaming needles.
In the example of this invention herein contained the junction of the said
independent yarn which I shall call front and back yarns, is effected on four
needles, any one of which may be made operative to receive the last or endmost
loop of any semi-course of loops from either yarn used, and in such manner the
junction of the loops of the two yarns along the sides of the tubular part of the
stocking may be made to produce a highly ornamental and attractive appearance,
which adds very materially to the saleability of the stocking, and at the same time
the interloopment of the endmost loops of the semi-courses of loops made from the
separate yarns effects a more durable junction when two or more than two suture
or seaming needles are used at each side of the needle cylinder, for the carrying of
loops from one yarn into a body or field of loops made from another yarn, makes a
more secure suture or junction.
The stocking to be herein described might be knitted by reciprocal knitting on
the machine described in the said Specification No. 16036 of 1891, by so modifying
the same as to enable the needle cylinder to contain a series of four suture or
seaming needles between the endmost needles of the series of long needles and the
endmost needles of the series of short needles, and by providing each suture needle
with one butt, and the said suture needles might be moved by hand when making
each semi-course of loops so as to place its butt in the path of one or the other cam
of the cam cylinder, so that any one of the said suture needles may be situated to
receive the endmost loop of either of the two yarns used, such method enabling the
endmost loops of the semi-courses to be terminated in any one of four knitted
wales.
Fig. 2, in side elevation, represents one-half or side of a seamless stocking
embodying my invention, and
Fig. 1 an enlarged view the endmost loops of about twelve semi-courses, ten
semi-courses being required to shew the interloopment herein to be described, the
other courses being repeats.
Referring to Fig. 1, I have designated four of the longitudinal wales by the
members 14, 15, 16, 17*, each of the said wales being knitted on one of the
four suture needles, there being like wales made by like suture needles at each side
of the stocking.
The wale F to the right of the wale 14× is supposed to be knitted on one of
the series of front needles referred to, while the wale B to the left of needle 16*
is supposed to have been made on the endmost needle of one of the series of back
needles referred to.

page_text: In Fig. 2 I have marked the yarn which enters into the formation of the front
of the stocking as F, and the yarn which enters into the formation of the back
of the stocking as By.
The courses included by the numbers 1 to 10 inclusive are the regular courses,
the eleventh course being a repeat of the first:
In the first course of the particular junction herein shewn the first semi-course
of front yarn finishes its end or terminates in wale 15*, while the endmost loop of
back yarn terminates in the wale 16*.
In the second semi-courses, the front yarn Fy is terminated in wale 17×, and the
back yarn in the wale B made by one of the back needles; in the third semi-
courses the front yarn loop terminates in wale 15*, and the back yarn in the
wale 16x.
In the succeeding seven semi-courses of the ten semi-courses the front yarn
terminates respectively in the wales 16*, 14×, 15*, F, 15×, 16×, 15* and the back
yarn respectively in the wales 17*, 15x, 16x, 14x, 16x, 15x, 17x, as best shewn
in Fig. 1.
The junction in the eleventh course is the same as in the course marked "1st."
By incorporating the endmost loops of the series of semi-courses of front yarn
into the field of loops made from the back yarn, and vice versa, the junction of the
two fabrics knitted upon the front and back needles is not only made in such way
as to make the stocking stronger, but at the same time the stocking is given a
highly ornamental appearance, thus adding materially to its saleability.
The heels and toes of the stocking herein shewn will be knitted on the series of
back needles and suture needles, while the so-called front needles are inactive or
thrown out of operation, as in ordinary circular knitting machines wherein the
heels and toes are made by reciprocal knitting.
The interloopment herein described may be more or less strongly marked in the
stocking by difference in color of the front yarn as compared with the back yarn.
I have shewn the tubular parts of the leg and of the foot as united in like
manner, but I consider that my invention would be contained in a stocking should
the front and back yarns of only the foot, or of only the leg, be united as
represented.
In the production of the wales 14×, 15*, 16×, 17×, as shewn, from the independent
front and back yarns, I have shewn some of the loops longer than others.
This is done by leaving down a needle at one course so that it holds its loop, and
letting it come up and deliver its loop into a second course.
This plan provides for greater elasticity and ornamentation.
As herein shewn nearly every course contains a long loop.
I have shewn my invention as embodied in a stocking wherein the interloopment
of the semi-courses of different yarns is effected in four longitudinal wales, but a
stocking having such interloopment in two or more wales would be within the scope
of this invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is:
1. The herein described so-called seamless stocking, composed of independent
distinct yarns for the front and back of the same, the endmost loops of the semi-
courses of loops of which the stocking is composed, in a tubular part thereof, as
the leg or foot, being terminated in different wales, whereby the endmost loops of
semi-courses of loops made from one yarn are projected into the field of loops made
from the other yarn, as and for the purpose set forth.
2. The herein described method of knitting the tubular part of a so-called
seamless stocking, which consists in terminating and uniting as laid the endmost
loops of semi-courses of loops, made from separate distinct yarns employed, one in
the front and the other in the back of the stocking, in different longitudinal wales

page_text: at the sides of the stocking, thereby obtaining a strong, ornamental junction
substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
Dated the 21st day of September 1891.
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant.