IMPROVE- MENTS IN KNITTING MACHINERY
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henson, of Great Alfred Street, Nottingham,
in the County of Nottingham, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN KNITTING MACHINERY."
Sealed the 19th September 1862, and dated the 24th March 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
March 1862.
: I, WILLIAM HENSON, of Great Alfred Street, Nottingham, in the County of
Nottingham, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINERY," to be as follows:―.
This Invention has for its object improvements in knitting machinery, and
is applicable to that class of knitting machinery wherein the needles are fixed
in a circle or continuous ring.
The improvements consist in so arranging such machinery that the number
of needles in the circle or ring may from time to time be increased or decreased
by causing needles to be introduced into or withdrawn from the circle or ring,
the circle or ring carrying the needles being at the same time proportionably
increased or decreased, so that the needles which are for the time being at
work may be equally spaced. For these purposes the circle or ring on or in

page_text: which the needles are set is made capable of being expanded and contracted
in diameter, so that when a needle is moved out of work the circle may con-
tract to such an extent as not to leave an extra space, but cause the needles
which were on either side of the one which has been moved away to come
towards each other and be similarly spaced with the other needles still
-remaining in the circle or ring; and when a needle is to be introduced into
the circle or ring of needles, it is done in such manner that there shall not be
a crowding of the needles, but that the diameter of the ring or circle shall be
expanded to such an extent as to cause the introduced needle to be similarly
spaced in respect to the needle on either side of it as the other needles are
spaced in respect to each other. In order that the ring or circle in which the
needles are set may be expanded from a smaller to a larger diameter, and be
contracted from a larger to a smaller diameter, it is preferred to employ a
flexible elastic bar made into the form of a circle; the ends of this bar meet,
but they are not fixed to each other, hence when the circle or ring is to be
expanded, the two ends of the bar are to be separated a distance equal to that
required for receiving between them the holder or slide of a needle or needles,
and this opening of the ring or circle is to be repeated, and an additional needle
introduced till the desired increased circumference of the fabric has been pro-
gressively obtained; when it is desired to reduce the circumference of the
work, this is accomplished by successively removing the needles which are on
the moveable slides or holders out of the circle, which will by its elasticity
then close and become of a less and less diameter as the moveable needles
are moved out of the circle. The expanding and contracting ring or circle of
needles may, however, be otherwise formed. It is preferred in working, when
the fabric is to be narrowed, that there should be an instrument or tickler for
each needle that is to be moved out of work at the point where the narrowing
is to take place, which instrument, when the needle opposite to it is about to
be moved out of the circle or ring of needles, takes the loop off such needle,
and transfers it on to another needle, when by the contracting of the circle
and the working of the machine such other needle comes into the position
previously occupied by the needle which has been for a time moved out of the
circle or ring of needles.