IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR UNITING KNIT FABRICS
Year: 1883

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th May 1883. Communicated to
him from William Pearson, a person resident at Linwood, Pennsylvania, and
John Wesley Hepworth, a person resident at Philadelphia also in Pennsyl-
vania in the United States of America
"
"
&
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON of 47 Lincolns Inn Fields in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR UNITING KNIT FABRICS
communication to me from abroad by William Pearson a person resident at
Linwood Pennsylvania and John Westley [sic] Hepworth a person resident at
Philadelphia also in Pennsylvania in the United States of America
This Invention relates to machines for uniting or seaming the edges of knit or
other looped fabrics technically called "looping frames"; and it consists first, in
the arrangement of the needle which operates in conjunction with the looper so
as to reciprocate from the base or butt end of the needles upon which the pieces
of fabric to be united are impaled toward their point and secondly in the needle
operating as above described in combination with the tension mechanism and the
looper substantially as hereinafter more fully set forth.
The base or frame of the machine is cast with rigid posts forming boxes or
bearings for the driving shaft One of the said posts has an arm which supports
the box and verticle pintle of the rotating needle disc to be hereinafter described
The driving shaft may be operated either by a crank or by a pulley-Upon the
shaft are keyed an eccentric for operating the "dog" and a combined eccentric and
cam by which the needle bar and looper arm are operated. This last named cam
has a swell on one side and a flange on the opposite side upon which rides a slide
or shoe made with a stud upon which one end of the bent needle bar is pivotted.
The said needle bar has its fulcrum upon a branch arm or pintle which projects
laterally from first mentioned arm the needle bar being made with a sleeve which
is placed over and rocks upon the branch arm or pintle-It is prevented from
slipping off or from lateral displacement by the sleeve or collar of the tension-arm
which is fixed upon the outer end of the branch arm or pintle arm by a screw.
There is also provided a looper arm in one end of which is a sleeve for the
insertion of the looper which is held in place by a jam screw. The looper has a
head suitable for catching and holding the loop of thread carried through the

page_text: fabric by the needle and the arm has a sleeve which is placed upon a rod between
the two posts the sleeve being shorter than the rod so that a vibrating and a
sliding motion may be imparted to it and its arm by means of a combined
eccentric and cam in the following manner :-The said sleeve bas another arm set
at about right angles to the looper arm and provided with a shoe at its upper end
which rides upon the rim of the eccentric against which it is held by a spring.
The eccentric gives a vibrating motion to the shoe and arm and as a swell of the
eccentric reaches the shoe this is pushed to one side causing the looper arm and
looper to be pushed to one side or move crosswise to the needle and pull the thread
from the work as the needle withdraws as will be hereinafter more fully described-
A spring restores the looper to its former position after the swell on the eccentric
has passed the shoe of the looper arm.
3.
The curved needle is suitably secured to the end of the vibrating needle arm
which extends out over the circumference of the annular rotary disc which is
equipped with a fringe of needles. The said annular disc is rotated intermittingly
by the "dog" which engages with a ratchet wheel keyed upon one end of a shaft
below the disc at the other end of which is a pinion which engages with a
circumferential row of teeth or cogs on the under side of the disc There is
provided a pawl which engages with the Ratchet wheel-Other mechanism for
rotating the needle disc may however be employed if desired without deviating
from the nature of the invention as I do not limit myself to any particular means
for imparting an intermittingly-rotary motion to the needle disc
The needles which constitute the fringe around the disc are made with a rill or
'groove extending from the point or outer end of the needle back to the point
where the needle projects from the periphery of the disc; in other words that
part of the needle which is clamped between the raised section of the clamping
plates is solid and not grooved which of course greatly adds to its strength and
rigidity at this point or at its base.
L
Upon the front side of the stationary base facing the rotary disc is a combined
guide and guage plate which is adjustable upon the base-This plate has a
projecting lip which is curved up over the fringe of needles and has a notch for
the purpose hereinafter stated in describing the operation of the machine which
is as follows:-
The work to be seamed is set up upon the impaling pins in substantially the
same manner as knitted work is set up upon the needles of a knitting machine,
there being a pin for every loop through which the needle is to be passed at the
place of such passage. The needle is then threaded the thread passing between
the tension discs at the upper end of the arm tension which is adjusted by means
'of its collar and screw upon the branch arm or pintle in such a manner that the
'thread carried by the needle will slacken as the needle point passes in its forward
stroke or thrust the middle part of the groove of the impaling pins or needles but
become tightened at the beginning and termination of the forward and back
strokes this being effected by the vibrations of the needle arm and the relative
position of the needle arm and tension arm
The reciprocating needle with the thread enters the groove in the impaling
needles from the base or butt end and not from the point as in all other machines
of this class as heretofore constructed. The advantage of this is obvious-Where,
as in other machines the thread needle enters the fabric to be secured from or in
the direction of the point of the needles upon which the work is set up, it is apt
to miss the impaling needle and its loop if either of the needles are bent however
slightly Thus a stitch is dropped and the machine has to be stopped as the
dropping or missing of a single stitch in the row will cause the whole seem to
unravel; but by this improvement the elastic curved needle entering the fabric
from the base or butt end of the needles upon which it is set up is guided with
the thread by the groove in the impaling needle in, under, or over the loop
supported thereon with absolute certainty and if any of the impaling needles
should be bent upward that will not affect the operation of the machine, as they will
.

page_text: still meet the elastic thread needle and mutually straighten each other out while if
they are bent in a downward direction they will be straightened out by coming
into contact with the combined guide and guage plate previous to meeting the
thread-needle so that in either case the loop will be entered or passed and no
stitch dropped. This certainty of operation of the machine is further enhanced
by the arrangement of the tension as hereinbefore described, which provides, by
slackening the thread for a large and loose loop at the moment the needle is ready
to enter it, but tightens up the work as the needle withdraws--As the looper after
forming the loop slides to one side and releases the loop by slipping it over its
head the loop thread is held in place by the notched lip of the guide plate and this
plate it will be seen also serves as a guage by pushing the fabric back from the
points of the needles the corner of the plate where the fabric meets it being
bevelled or rounded to afford an easy entrance of the fabric into the space between
the plate and the rotating disc where the seaming takes place.
In machines as heretofore constructed the thread needle working from the point
of the impaling needles pushes the work back upon the latter towards their base
making it more difficult to slip it off after seaming and often causing bending of
the needles during the operation, objections which are overcome in the present
machine in which the work is seamed nearer the points of the impaling or
supporting needles than at their base so that the work may readily be slipped off
after seaming