An Improved Widened Tubular Knitted Fabric, and Method of Knitting the same.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Oct., 1889-Accepted. 27th Sept., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Widened Tubular Knitted Fabric, and Method of
Knitting the same.
I, CHARLES HENRY YOUNG, of Manchester, in the State of New Hampshire, at
present residing at Rockford, in the State of Illinois, both in the United States of
America, machinist, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for WIDENED
TUBULAR KNIT FABRIC AND THE ART OF KNITTING THE SAME, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
My invention relates to tubular knit fabrics and to the art or process of widening
the same; and to the article or product resulting from the practice of such art.
My invention contemplates the employment of a machine equipped with two rows
or ranks of needles and two yarn guides each employing a yarn, the knitting being
accomplished by simultaneously feeding one yarn to one row or rank of needles, and
the other yarn to the other row or rank, and crossing or twisting the yarns at the ends
of the two ranks of needles.
My improvements are particularly adapted to the production of the sleeves of
shirts, legs of drawers and stockings, bodies of shirts and drawers where quite abrupt
widening of the tubular fabric is necessary in order to make the completed article fit
the limbs or body of the wearer, though the invention may be applied equally well to
the knitting of other tubular fabrics which require shaping or fashioning.
It is the especial purpose of my invention to provide a mode or process whereby
the "eyelet holes," so called, that would otherwise be formed in the fabric by bringing
into operation additional needles may be closed, and the fabric finished, so far as
shaping or fashioning the tubular web is concerned, in the process of knitting,
I accomplish this object by employing a supplementary yarn or yarns at the point
where the widening is performed, which supplementary yarn or yarns are looped or
connected with the loops of the main or holy yarns, and drawn across the wide or
open meshes or eyelet holes that would otherwise be formed at the base of the new
or added wales, thus closing the eyelet holes and completing the web or fabric.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and
figures of reference marked thereon, forming a part of this specification, in which
drawings,
Figure 1 represents, on an exaggerated scale, a portion of a knit fabric embodying
my invention, as when two supplemental threads are employed, the fabric being shown
as unduly distended, along the line where the widening is performed.
Fig. 2 is a diagram hereinafter referred to in explaining the steps followed in the
process of knitting the fabric shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a representation, similar to Fig. 1, of my improved fabric as it will appear
when a single supplemental thread is used.
Fig. 4 is a diagram similar to Fig. 2, serving to illustrate the mode of procedure in
knitting the fabric shown in Fig. 3.
Having reference to Figures 1 and 2, and particularly to the diagram consti-
tuting Fig. 2, let it be supposed that knitting has been "set up" and proceeded with
for one or more courses on the needles a a¹ a² a³, and that it is desired to widen by
bringing into operation two additional needles 1, 2. The supplementary yarns s, t
being looped or otherwise connected with the loops of the main or body yarns at a
proper point, and the needles 1, 2 having been raised, at the time, preferably, when
the yarn guides are toward the end A of the two ranks of needles, yarns is laid into
the hooks of needles 1, a, and yarn into the hooks of needles 2, a', as indicated
by the bent arrows, and said needles 1, 2 are depressed or rendered inactive. Upon

page_text: As
the return of the carriers toward the end B. knitting will be performed on the
needles a a¹ a² a³ as before, needles 1, 2 being held down, the former having in its
hook a loop of supplemental yarns and the latter a loop of supplemental yarn t.
the yarn carriers pass back from the end B to the end A, needles 1, 2 with the
needles a a a² a³ are brought permanently into operation, and the main yarns are fed
thereto in the same manner as to the other needles. Needles 34 may now be raised
or brought into action and yarn t laid into the hooks of needles 31 as yarns was fed
to needles 1 a, and yarns is laid into the hooks of needles 4 2 as yarn t was fed to
needles 2 a¹, and said needles 3 4 are retired, as needles 12 were retired or depressed,
and the operations before described are repeated.
In this way two needles may be brought into operation each time that the yarn
carriers move toward the end A of the two ranks of needles, so that two needles will
be brought into operation in the knitting of each four courses, there being two courses,
or a double course between the points of widening in which no widening takes place,
and widening performed very rapidly or abruptly.
In case it should be undesirable to widen as rapidly as the practice of the mode just
described would effect, the supplemental yarns st may be laid into the last one or two
needles of each rank or row toward the end B, and said supplemental yarns knitted
with the main yarns in the main web and in this way carried from one point of
widening to another.
By the widening process described the supplemental yarns will be made to form the
base of the new or added wales, as represented at d d, Fig. 1, be interlooped or con-
nected with the adjacent wale, one course below the loops d, as indicated at c c and be
drawn across what would otherwise be an eyelet hole E.
It is obvious that the supplemental yarns st might be fed to more than one of the
needles in each rank regularly in action as well as to the new or added needle; and
that said yarns might be fed to the needles in an order or manner opposite to that
described that is, in a direction opposite to the bent arrows-for that the supple-
mental yarns might be fed alone to the needles regularly in action, and not to the new
or added needles when the latter first receive yarn, which added needles would
catch the main yarn, only, the eyelet holes in this case being closed by drawing
the supplemental yarns thereacross; but these variations would not constitute a
departure from the essential features of my invention, which consists in bringing
into operation additional needles, feeding two supplemental yarns thereto and to a
needle or needles already in action, so that the supplemental yarns will be drawn
across the wide meshes or eylet holes which would otherwise be formed at the
base of each new wale.
In Fig. 3 I have shown my improved widened fabric as containing but a single
supplemental yarn or thread along the line of widening, and in practice I frequently
so construct said fabric.
In explanation of this form of my invention, and having reference to Fig. 4, let
it be supposed that knitting has been "set up "and proceeded with for one or more
courses on the needles a a¹ a² a³, and that it is desired to widen by bringing into
operation additional needle 1. This being the case, the supplemental yarn is secured
to the fabric at a proper point, and while the yarn guides are at or toward the end A
of the two ranks or rows of needles, the new needle 1 having been rendered active,
the supplemental yarn z is laid into the hooks of needles a and 1, as indicated by the
arrows, and the added needle 1 is rendered inactive. Upon the carriers moving
toward or to the point B, knitting will be performed upon the needles a a¹ a² a³ as
before, needle 1 remaining inactive, though holding a loop of the supplemental thread
in its hook. As the yarn carriers pass back from the point B toward the point A,
needle I with the needles before mentioned, is permanently brought into action, and
has the main yarn fed to it in the same manner as the other needles.
The next widening will be performed upon the needle 2, in the opposite rank or
row, the needle a being brought into co-operation with needle 2, said needles 2 a¹
being operated for this widening purpose the same as has been described with

page_text: respect to needles a and 1. Subsequent widenings may be accomplished on needles 1
and 3, and 2 and 4, and so on, if need be, to the end B of the two rows or ranks of
needles.
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In this way the supplemental yarn will be made to form the base of the new or
added wale, as at d, be interlooped or connected with the adjacent wale. as at c, and
be drawn across what would otherwise be an eyelet hole" E, substantially as is
done when two supplemental threads are used, as has hereinbefore been explained.
The single supplemental threads may be employed in all of the various ways
described with respect to the two supplemental threads, without departing from the
nature or spirit of the invention.
It is to be further noted that the widening process can be carried on at both
ends A and B of the two ranks or rows of needles, so that a tubular web can be
widened on both sides, or at opposite points, simultaneously.
The supplemental yarn or yarns may be fed to the needles by any known or
suitable means.
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 I
claim is:
1. In the art of widening a tubular knit fabric produced on two rows or ranks of
needles, the improvement consisting in bringing into action a new or additional
needle, feeding a supplemental yarn thereto and to a new needle already in action,
retiring such new or added needle and knitting with the main yarn on the needles
already in action, then bringing into action the new needle holding a loop of the
supplemental yarn, and knitting thereon, and on the needles before in action with the
main yarn, as set forth.
2. A widened tubular knit fabric having a supplemental yarn or yarns looped
or connected with the loops comprising the body of the fabric, said supplemental
yarn or yarns being drawn across the wide meshes or eyelet holes formed at the
base of the new or widening wales, as set forth.
Dated this Sixth day of September A.D. 1889.