IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROVISIONAL SPFICATION
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John William Lamb, Manufacturer, and Samuel
Lowe, Machinist, both of Nottingham, in the County of Not-
tingham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John William Lamb
and Samuel Lowe at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 7th January 1873.
WC, JOHN WILLIAM LAMB, Manufacturer, and SAMUEL LOWE,
Machinist, both of Nottingham, in the County of Nottingham, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR TRANSFERRING KNITTED FABRICS TO CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINERY," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to means for facilitating the junction of ribbed
work with plain work in the circular knitting frame, and it consists in
the use of improved apparatus for laying the ribbed work on to the
needles of the circular knitting frame. Hitherto this has been effected

page_text: by the fingers of the attendant, and it is a tedious operation, and
moreover not suited to the fingers of the workman.
In order to economize the labour of the workman, and to avoid the
necessity for keeping the machinery idle during the periods now
required for transferring the work, we propose to render the transferring
operation automatic. For this purpose we provide for each head two
or more disc wheels or transferring instruments for presenting the work
to the needles. From the periphery of the wheel or transferring
· instrument project a series of points or pins, which together form a ring
of a diameter equal to if not greater than the ring of needles of the
head to which they belong, and which are set to the same gauge as the
needles. An adjustable stud is provided to receive the wheels and hold
it in contact with the rotating head. When thus mounted the pins will
be parallel to and in contact with the needles. The pins are pointed to
facilitate their entrance into the loops of the work, and they are recessed
longitudinally to receive the head and beards of the needles. The wheel
having been charged with a piece of ribbed work and placed on the stud
pin, it is only necessary for the attendant to draw down one selvage of
the work and tuck it under the fixed cam of the head; then by giving
the head a slow rotation the wheel will be caused to rotate therewith
and deliver the work on to the needles. The machine is then ready to
start and knit plain work upon the ribbed piece which has just been
placed upon the needles.
Instead of a transferring wheel we may use a straight or curved bar
for the transferring instrument. In this case instead of an adjustable
stud pin we provide an adjustable dovetail or other guide for holding the
transmitting instrument, and permitting of its automatic traverse as the
head is rotated.
If the contact of the pins of the bar with the needles is not thought
sufficient for traversing the bar we may employ gearing driven from the

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John William Lamb and Samuel Lowe in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 4th July 1873...
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
WILLIAM LAMB, Manufacturer, and SAMUEL LOWE, Machinist, both of.
Nottingham, in the County of Nottingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said John William Lamb and
Samuel Lowe, Her special licence that we, the said John William Lamb
and Samuel Lowe, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John William Lamb and William Lowe, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOK TRANSFERRING KNITTED FABRICS TO CIRCULAR KNITTING
MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
William Lamb and Samuel Lowe, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John William Lamb, on behalf of
myself and of the said Samuel Lowe, do hereby declare the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
In manufacturing shirt sleeves or half hose and kindred work on the
circular knitting frame, it is usual in order to secure the requisite
:

page_text: elasticity for the top of the half hose or the bottom of the knitted sleeves,
to prepare a piece of ribbed work in a suitable machine, and to transfer
this by hand to the needles of the circular knitting machine, in order
that plain work may be knitted thereon.
Now this Invention relates to means for facilitating the junction of
the ribbed work with plain work in the circular knitting frame, and it
consists in the use of improved means for laying the ribbed work on to
the needles of the circular knitting frame. Hitherto this placing of the
ribbed work, which is a tedious operation, has been effected by the
fingers of the attendant.
In order to economise the labor of the workman, and to avoid the
necessity for keeping the machinery idle during the periods now
required for transferring the work by hand, we propose to render the
transferring operation automatic. For this purpose we provide for each
head one or more disc wheels or transferring instruments for presenting
in succession the work to the needles.
In the accompanying Drawings we have shewn in several views so
much of a head of a circular knitting frame as will serve to illustrate the
application of our Invention thereto.
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of the head with the transferring
instrument applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same partly in
section; Fig. 3 is a front view of the transferring instrument detached;
Fig. 4 is a cross section of the transferring instrument, representing it as
being charged with ribbed work, which it is intended shall be transferred
to the needles of the circular knitting frame. This Figure also shews
the transferring instrument as mounted on a spindle which allows of its
being rotated by the girl to whom the duty of charging the instrument
is entrusted. Figures 5, 6, and 7 are views of parts of the transferring
instrument to illustrate its construction.
a, Figures 1 and 3, is a disc wheel fitted with a series of "points" or
pins 6, one of which is shewn detached at Fig. 7. These pins or points
are fitted into grooves and holes formed to receive them (see Fig. 6) in
the periphery of the wheel, and together they form a ring of pins of a
diameter equal to if not greater than the ring of needles of the head to
which they belong. They are set to the same gauge as the needles, and
are secured in position by cap plates c, which are screwed down upon
the pins. An adjustable stud a' (Fig. 1) is provided to receive the

page_text: wheel and hold it in contact with the rotating head. This stud is
clamped to the curved slotted head of the rod e, the opposite end of
which is made to fit into a squared opening in the tubular socket f of
the holder g. This holder is bolted to a bracket piece h, cast on the
table D of the machine. The rod e is adjustable endwise by means of a
nut which works on a screwed termination of the rod ẹ, and interposed
between a shoulder on this rod and the holder g is a spring %, the
tendency of which is to press the transferring wheel or instrument
towards the circular head. This mode of mounting the wheel a permits
of its adjustment both vertically and horizontally with respect to the
needles of the knitting frame. When thus mounted the pins 6 will be
parallel to the needles of the head B, and as the wheel a rotates the
pins & come in contact with the needles of the circular head. The pins
are pointed to facilitate their entrance into the loops of the ribbed work,
and they are recessed longitudinally on their outer sides to receive the
heads and beards of the needles, as shewn at Fig. 6. Mounted within
the circle of the pins 6 near the point of contact of those pins with tho
needles of the circular head to which the instrument is to be applied is a
loop delivering wheel carried on a compound bracket 1, P, screwed
upon the slotted head of the carrying rod e. The bracket & allows of
the adjustment of the inclination of the axis of the wheel l, so that its
blades which are set at an angle with the axis may pass freely through
the spaces between the pins b. One edge of the blades is so shaped as
to tako hold of and carry down the loops of work and press them off the
points of the pins as the pins travel past the wheel 7 and in the spaces
between the blades. The form of blade used is best seen at Fig. 3.
In Figures 1 and 2 A are the needles of the circular head, set in leads
as usual and secured to the head B. This head is mounted loosely on
the central axle C, and it rests upon the fixed table D. Keyed to the
boss of the head is a bevil pinion E which is driven by a bevil wheel F
(Fig. 2) keyed on the longitudinal shaft G, which shaft will serve to
carry any given number of driving wheels F for a series of heads
ranged in a line. It will be unnecessary hero to describe the construction
of the well-known circular knitting frame, no material change in which
is required to render our Invention applicable thereto. We may
however state that H is the thread carrier; I, the loop wheel; K, the
dividing wheel for equalizing the loops; L, the pressing wheel for
pressing down the beards of the needles, and allowing the wheel M to

page_text: lift the loops on to the beards preparatory to the action of the knocking
over wheel N. A segmental support O is secured by pillars to the
table D, and serves not only to carry the sockets for the supporting rods
of the wheels I, K, L, but also the bracket P, to which a stationary
segment-shaped cam Q is made fast. This cam which is placed within
the circle of needles A has at its lower edge an incline upwards towards
its front end, and it serves to press down the work as it is transferred
from the "points" 6 of the wheel a to the needles A by the blades of the
loop delivering wheel 7.
'
For charging the wheel a with ribbed work, we place the wheel in an
inverted position, as shewn at Fig. 4, on a spindle R, which is furnished
with a socket to receive an octagonal extension of the boss of the wheel a.
Thus the wheel is locked on to the spindle, which is however free to turn
in its pillar support S. The wheel being free to turn the application of
the ribbed work to the ring of points b is facilitated, but as the girl
engaged in charging the wheel will require to use both her hands in
arranging the loops upon the points it will be necessary to lock the
wheel so that it shall turn only when it is required to bring round fresh
points in front of the girl. For this purpose, a ring of ratchet teeth ris
formed round the spindle, into which takes a spring catch s made fast to
tho pillar S, and capable of offering a sufficient resistance to the wheel a.
The wheel having been charged with one or more pieces of ribbed work
is removed from the spindle R and placed on the stud pin a¹ (Fig. 1).
The attendant then draws down one selvage of the outermost piece of
ribbed work and places it under the forward end of the fixed cam Q of
the head, the loops being thus brought within reach of the wheel 7. By
giving the head a slow rotation the wheel a will be caused to rotate
therewith, and the wheel will deliver the work loop by loop froms the
pins 6 on to the needles A as they are presented to receive it. This
being done the machine will then be ready to start and knit plain work
upon the ribbed piece which has just been placed upon the needles A,
and thereby unite the two kinds of work into one fabric.
Instead of the transferring wheel a we may use as the transferring
instrument a sector wheel, provided it is furnished with a sufficient
number of pins to carry the work.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements
in Apparatus for Transferring Knitted Fabrics to Circular Knitting

page_text: Machinery," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
we wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent we claim, the use of a transferring instrument as described for
receiving on to its pins or "points" knitted work, and transferring the
samo automatically to the needles of circular knitting machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said John William Lamb, have hercunto
set my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of Junc, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.