IMPROVEMENTS IN CIRCULAR FRAMES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RIBBED FABRICS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hadden, Henry Hadden, Frederick John
Hadden, and Charles Staunton Hadden, of the Town of Nottingham,
Hosiers and Co-partners, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CIRCULAR
FRAMES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RIBBED FABRICS."
Sealed the 16th May 1856, and dated the 19th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hadden, Henry
Hadden, Frederick John Hadden, and Charles Staunton Hadden at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
19th December 1855.
We, JOHN HADDEN, HENRY HADDEN, FREDERICK JOHN HADDEN, and CHARLES
STAUNTON HADDEN, of the Town of Nottingham, Hosiers and Co-partners, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CIRCULAR
FRAMES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RIBBED FABRICS" to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in holding or suspending the needles which are
employed in circular frames to produce the rib in ribbed fabrics upon the free
ends of rods or levers, and in causing such needles to advance and recede by
being pressed against a cam fixed upon a spindle, around and outside of which
these needles are placed.
Our Invention also consists in the employment on the free ends of the levers

page_text: aforesaid of those particular needles for which Matthew Townsend and David
Moulden obtained Letters Patent for Great Britain and Ireland, the 18th day
of February 1849.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Hadden, Henry Hadden, Frederick John Hadden, and
Charles Staunton Hadden in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th
June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
HADDEN, HENRY HADDEN, FREDERICK JOHN HADDEN, and CHARLES STAUNTON
HADDEN, of the Town of Nottingam, Hosiers and Co-partners, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Hadden, Henry Hadden, Frederick John Hadden, and Charles
Staunton Hadden, Her special licence that we, the said John Hadden, Henry
Hadden, Frederick John Hadden, and Charles Staunton Hadden, our execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Hadden,
Henry Hadden, Frederick John Hadden, and Charles Staunton Hadden,
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 CIRCULAR FRAMES
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RIBBED FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said John Hadden, Henry Hadden, Frederick John Hadden, and
Charles Staunton Hadden, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly 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 immedi-
ately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Hadden, Henry Hadden, Frede-
rick John Hadden, and Charles Staunton Hadden, do 'hereby declare the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the 'same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is
to say)-
Our Invention consists in holding or suspending the needles which are
employed in circular frames to produce the rib in ribbed fabrics upon the free
ends of rods or levers, and in causing such needles to advance and recede by
being pressed against a cam fixed upon a spindle, around and outside of which
these needles are placed.
Our Invention also consists in the employment on the free end of the levers
aforesaid of those particular needles for which one Matthew Townsend and
one David Moulden obtained Letters Patent for Great Britain and Ireland,
the Thirteenth day of February, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
The manner in which our Invention is carried into effect is shewn in the
accompanying Drawings.
Figure 1 is an external elevation of a circular knitting frame complete, with
our improvements for producing ribbed work adapted thereto. For the sake
of clearness we shall hereafter allude to those parts in which our Invention lies
as the machine, while the remaining parts, which consist of the vertical needles,
loop wheel, presser wheel, and means of communicating motion thereto, will
be alluded to as the frame, the whole of the parts and working of which are
of the ordinary and well-known description. For the sake of clearness we
describe the frame and machine as working with the spindle of the machine
and the needles of the frame in a vertical position, and, therefore, with the
needles of the machine in a horizontal position; but the frame and machine
may be also worked in any other convenient position, the same relative posi-
tions of the parts to each other being maintained, as shewn in the Drawings
annexed. Figure 2 is a plan of the machine detached; Figure 3, a vertical
section; through the centre thereof; and Figure 4, a plan of part of the machine
detached from the remaining portions thereof.
A is a support for carrying the machine; it terminates in an eye, through
which the spindle around which the machine revolves is inserted; a is a collar
on the spindle for preventing it falling through the eye; and a, a tightening
screw passing through the side of the eye, for preventing the spindle from
revolving. C, Figure 4, is a cam, keyed or otherwise fixed to the spindle;
D is a hollow shaft-upon the spindle B, with collars b, b', which support, the
horizontal circular disc E and the slotted ring F; the under side of the collar
6 has an annular projection round the centre thereof, which rests upon the
stationary cam C. The disc E is formed with slots c, c,,round the rim, and an

page_text: annular groove d, d, in the upper face. G, G, are the levers for holding the
machine needles. One lever with its needle is shewn detached at Figure 5.
d' is a pin inserted through an eye in the upper part of the lever; and h, a
needle, which may be an ordinary knitting-frame needle, or one of Townsend
and Moulden's patent needles, cast or otherwise fixed in the lower part thereof,
and projecting therefrom. The slots in the disc E and ring F are in the same
vertical line; the levers are inserted into them, and the pins d', d', are dropped
upon the groove in the upper face of the disc E; the pins forming fulcrums,
upon which the levers are free to move to and fro, and by which they are
suspended. J is a stationary curved plate fixed on the spindle B, for the
purpose of pushing the loops off from the machine needles. The hollow shaft D,
with its collars 6, 61, the disc E, and ring F, together with the levers G, G, and
their needles II, H, are free to revolve upon and around the fixed spindle; and
in order to cause them to follow the path of the stationary cam there are
presser plates K, K, bolted to the support A, and an elastic ring or band L is
made to surround the levers. During the revolution of the frame the greater
part of the machine needles are engaged between the frame needles, conse-
quently, they carry round the machine needles, levers, and parts which support
them, and the machine needles following the path of the cam partake of the
necessary in and out motions to form a rib upon the fabric being produced on
the knitting frame. The feeding of the thread, the formation of the loops, and
the knocking-off the work being all performed in the ordinary manner, and
well understood by parties in the habit of working circular knitting frames,
render a description of these operations by us unnecessary.
In first starting
one of our machines the cam should be fixed in such a position that the most
protruding part thereof shall come opposite to the presser of the frame needles.
When using Townsend and Moulden's patent needles in the machine no presser
bar is necessary; but with ordinary knitting needles we employ one or moro
presser bars, plates, or wheels, in order to press down the barbs to get off the
work. By increasing or diminishing the number of machine needles, the ribs
will be increased or diminished accordingly.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim as our "Im-
provements in Circular Frames for the Manufacture of Ribbed Fabrics,"―
First, the adaptation thereto of needles for forming the ribs, suspended in
such manner as to be caused to travel round and be forced against a cam or
other equivalent in order to receive the necessary in and out motions, all as
herein-before described.

page_text: Second, the general construction and method of action of the parts herein-
before alluded to as the "machine."
And, third, the employment in circular frames, acting in the manner herein-
before described, of Townsend and Moulden's patent needles for the forming
of ribs upon knitted fabrics.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Hadden, Henry Hadden,
Frederick John Hadden, and Charles, Staunton Hadden, have here-
unto set our hands and seals, the Seventeenth day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
JOHN HADDEN.
(L.S.)
HENRY HADDEN. (L.S.)
FRED. J. HADDEN. (L.s.)
CHAS S. HADDEN. (L.S.)