AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED FABRICS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Barlow Cooley, of Nottingham, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED
FABRICS."
Sealed the 24th April 1857, and dated the 17th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Barlow. Cooley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
17th February 1857.
I, ROBERT BARLOW COOLEY, of Nottingham, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of
knitted fabrics, and the improvement consists in a mode of introducing an
additional thread in knitted fabrics as they are made in knitting machines, in
order to control and lessen the elasticity otherwise possessed by such descrip-
tions of fabrics. For this purpose there is a thread laid alternately between
the succeeding needles of the knitting frame; in order to facilitate the doing
of which it is preferred to employ a wheel with projections, which in its revo-
Intion will bend every alternate needle, and allow a thread to be laid in
between the needles and between the succeeding course of looped work made
on such needles. The additional thread is moved beyond the beards of the
needles and on to the stems thereof by a wheel with inclined teeth or other

page_text: wise. This additional thread is peculiarly applicable when making piled
fabrics or plush on circular or other knitting frames, but the improvement
may be applied when making other knitted fabrics in knitting frames.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Barlow Cooley in the Great Seal Patent Office or
the 17th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BARLOW COOLEY, of Nottingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me
the said Robert Barlow Cooley, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Barlow Cooley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Robert Barlow Cooley, my 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 "AN IN-
PROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED FABRICS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Robert Barlow Cooley, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 Robert Barlow Cooley, do hereby declaro
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of
knitted fabrics, and the improvement consists in a mode of introducing an
additional thread in knitted fabrics as they are made in knitting machines, in
order to control and lessen the elasticity otherwise possessed by such descrip-
tions of fabrics. For this purpose there is a thread laid alternately between

page_text: the succeeding needles of the knitting frame; in order to facilitate the doing
of which it is preferred to employ a wheel with projections, which in its revo-
lution will bend every alternate needle, and allow a thread to be laid in
between the needles and between-the-succeeding courses of looped work made
on such needles. The additional thread is moved beyond the beards of the
needles and on to the stems thereof by a wheel with inclined teeth or other
wise.
'
This additional thread is peculiarly applicable when making piled fabrics or
plush on circular or other knitting frames, but the improvement may bo
applied when making other knitted fabrics in knitting frames.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure I shows a plan, and Figure 2 a vertical section, of so much of an
ordinary circular knitting machine, having my improvements applied thereto,
as will enable me to describe my present improvements; and as the nature and
working of knitting machinery of this description is well understood, it will
only be necessary for me to give a particular description of those parts which
constitute my present improvements to enable a workman acquainted with
this class of machinery fully to understand the nature of my Invention.
a, a, are the needles, which have beards of the ordinary description. The
needles a are mounted on the circular needle bar a', to which rotary motion is
communicated, as is well understood. b and c are the ordinary loop and
dividing wheels, and e and f are the ordinary pressing, lifting, and knocking-
over wheels, all of which parts work to produce a knitted fabric from the
thread A in the usual manner. B is the additional thread, which is introduced
and laid alternately between the succeeding needles of the knitting frame.
The additional thread B passes from the bobbin on which it is wound through
the eye of the fixed guide 9, and partly around the groove in the wheel h,
which is composed of a series of radial blades, as shown separately at Figure 3,
and is caused to rotate with the needle bar by each successive needle entering
between the blades. i is a notched wheel or disc (shown separately at Figure 4),
which acts upon every alternate needlo to press it outwards, so that the addi-
tional thread may pass from the groove in the blades of the wheel h between
the needle which is pressed outwards and the needlo which is not acted upon
by the wheel h. The thread B, after being laid between the needles, and as
it moves forward, is acted upon by the inclined blades of the wheelj (shewn
separately at Figure 5), by which it is moved down the stems of needles

page_text: below the beards, where it remains. until the work is lifted by the wheel c,
when it is knocked over the beards, of the needles with tho work by tho
.wheel f.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately, nor do I confine myself thereto, so long as
the arrangement or combination of mechanical parts is such as to cause an
additional thread or threads to be introduced into knit fabrics as they are pro-
duced in knitting machines, the introduced thread or threads being alternately
under and over succeeding needles.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Barlow Cooley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal,-this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. G. TONGUE.
R. B. COOLEY. (L.B.)