IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STOCKINGS AND SOCKS to be as follows:-
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
We JOHN HARRIS COOPER of Evington in the County of Leicester and Friars
Causeway, Leicester, Hosiery Manufacturer and WILLIAM JAMES FORD of
Humberstone in the County of Leicester Manufacturer do hereby declare the
nature of our Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STOCKINGS
AND SOCKS to be as follows:-
"
The object of the Invention is to improve the shaping of the leg piece of a
stocking or sock formed upon a circular knitting machine.
We form the leg piece of a stocking or sock upon a circular knitting machine
adapted for producing ribbed work and in which all the needles in the circle of
frame needles are equidistant from the needles on either side of it whilst the
machine needles work to and fro through the spaces between the frame needles.
We form the upper part of the leg piece of ribbed work down to the point at
which it is desired to commence to form narrowings in it to reduce its diameter.
The ribbed work wo make of the kind known as two and one rib that is we liave
two frame needles between successive machine needles. The narrowings we form
in pairs. To form the first pair of narrowings we remove from the ribbing
attachment two adjacent ribbing needles at that point of the circle of needles on
which the back of the leg is being made and transfer the loops of work which are
on theso ribbing needles on to the frame needles which are next to them.
Any desired number of courses of work are then made before making another
narrowing. Two more ribbing needles are then removed in the same way, one
needle at each side of the two needles previously removed and so on until any
desired number of narrowings have been made. In this way the back portion of
the leg piece between the diverging lines of narrowings will be formed of plain
work whilst the front portion of the stocking or sock will be of ribbed work and
the leg of the stocking will gradually be narrowed by the removal at intervals of
two of the ribbing needles so that the diameter of the tubular piece of work which
is being produced will gradually get less and less and at the point where the
shaping of the heel is to commence will consist approximately of one half of plain
work and one half of ribbed work.
The beel is then made on those needles only upon which plain work was being
made whilst the other needles are put out of action and the shaping of the heel is

page_text: effected in the manner now usual when shaping the heels of stockings or socks
upon circular knitting machines which can be worked in either direction.
When the heel has been completed a further length of tubular work is made to
form the foot. In this length of work the underside of the foot will be of plain
work and the upper side of ribbed work. The toe may be formed in any desired
manner either in the same machine or the work may be removed on to a flat
machine to have the toe formed upon it.
The heel the back of the ankle above the heel and any desired portion of the
underside of the foot may be spliced or thickened as described in the Provisional
Specification lodged by us on the 19th of January last N° 1788.
The next stocking or sock made on the machine might be made in the reverse
manner the foot first then the heel and then the leg piece.
CARPMAEL & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.

page_text: We JOHN HARRIS COOPER of Evington in the County of Leicester and Friars
Causeway Leicester Hosiery Manufacturer and WILLIAM JAMES FORD of
Humberstone in the County of Leicester Manufacturer do hereby declare the
nature of our Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STOCKINGS
AND SOCKS
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
"}
The object of the Invention is to improve the shaping of the leg piece of a
stocking or sock formed upon a circular knitting machine.
We form the leg piece of a stocking or sock upon a circular knitting machine
adapted for producing ribbed work and in which all the needles in the circle of
frame needles are equidistant from the needles on either side of it whilst the
machine needles work to and fro through the spaces between the frame needles.
We form the upper part of the leg piece of ribbed work down to the point at
which it is desired to commence to form narrowings in it to reduce its diameter.
The ribbed work we make of the kind known as two and.one rib that is we have
two frame needles between successive machine needles. The narrowings we form
in pairs. To form the first pair of narrowings we remove from the ribbing
attachment two adjacent ribbing needles at that point of the circle of needles on
which the back of the leg is being made and transfer the loops of work which are
on these ribbing needles on to the frame needles which are next to them.
Any desired number of courses of work are then made before making another
narrowing. Two more ribbing needles are then removed in the same way one
needle at each side of the two needles previously removed and so on until any
desired number of narrowings have been made. In this way the back portion of
the leg piece between the diverging lines of narrowings will be formed of plain
work whilst the front portion of the stocking or sock will be of ribbed work and
the leg of the stocking will gradually be narrowed by the removal at intervals of
two of the ribbing needles so that the diameter of the tubular piece of work which
is being produced will gradually get less and less and at the point where the
shaping of the beel is to commence will consist approximately of one half of plain
work and one half of ribbed work.
The heel is then made on those needles only upon which plain work was being
made whilst the other needles are put out of action and the shaping of the heel is
effected in the manner now usual when shaping the heels of stockings or socks
upon circular knitting machines which can be worked in either direction.
When the heel has been completed a further length of tubular work is made to
form the foot. In this length of work the underside of the foot will be of plain
work and the upper side of ribbed work. The toe may be formed in any desired
manner either in the same machine or the work may be removed on to a fint
machine to have the toe formed upon it.
The heel the back of the ankle above the heel and any desired portion of the
underside of the foot may be spliced or thickened as described in the Provisional
Specification lodged by us on the 19th of January last Nº 1788.
The next stocking or sock inade on the machine might be made in the reverse
manner the foot first then the heel and then the leg piece.
Figure 1 shows a side view and
Figure 2 a back view of part of the leg piece of a stocking or sock formed in the
manner above described upon a circular knitting machine-the upper part of the
leg piece is formed of two and one ribbed work down to the point A. At this

page_text: point two adjacent ribbing needles have the loops upon them transferred on to the
next adjacent frame needles, a few more courses of work are then made and two
more ribbing needles have the loops transferred from them on to frame needles,
and this process is continued, as shown by the Drawings, until the desired number
of narrowings have been effected and plain unribbed work is being produced upon
approximately one half of the circle of needles.
The ribbing needles as they are put out of action are either removed from the
machine or are held back out of the way.
After the desired number of narrowings have been made, a further number of
courses of work are produced before commencing to form the heel, the heel is then
made upon those needles only upon which plain work was previously being
produced and is formed in the manner usual upon circular knitting machines which
are capable of producing work in whichever way the machine may be rotated.
This well known way of forming the heel is described in the Specification of a
Patent applied for by us N° 1788 in the present year. Afterwards when the heel
has been completed a further number of courses of work are produced upon the
whole circle of needles so as to form the foot, one half of the circumference of the
piece of work being ribbed work whilst the other half of the circumference which
comes on the under sido of the foot is of plain work. The ribbing needles which
had previously been out of action still remain out of action until the foot piece has
been completed.
If desired a thickening thread may as above stated be laid into the work above
the heel and in the heel itself, and also in the under side of the foot piece, in the
manner described in the Specification above mentioned it might also be laid into a
stocking at the knee.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is
First. The manufacture of the leg piece of a stocking or sock substantially in the
manner above described.
Second. The manufacture upon a circular knitting machine adapted for producing
ribbed work and in which every needle in the circle of needles is equidistant from
the needles on either side of it; of the leg piece of a stocking or sock with the
upper part composed of two and one ribbed work and with successive pairs of
narrowings formed in the lower part-the first pair of narrowings being formed
by the removal of two adjacent ribbing needles at that point of the circle of
needles on which the back of the leg is being made-and the next pair of narrowings
being made by the removal of two more ribbing needles one on either side of the
two previously removed and so on until the desired number of narrowings have
been made.
Third. The manufacture of stockings and socks upon circular knitting machines
of the kind above mentioned with the leg piece shaped in the manner described
and the heel formed upon those needles only upon which plain work is produced
above the heel substantially as described.

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