IMPROVE- MENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th May 1870.-A communication from abroad by Mr. Germain,
junior, of 37, Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, France, Manu-
facturer.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of
No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES," a communication to me from abroad by
Mr. Germain, junior, of 37, Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, France,
Manufacturer, to be as follows:-
This loom has the advantage of producing a single mesh web with
great rapidity; further, it permits the manufacture of the simple mesh
web with good selvedge on a circular loom. It may, however, be at
pleasure circular or rectilinear, and receive impulsion from a continuous
circular, an alternate circular, or an alternate rectilineal movement.

page_text: upper plate is fixed a rod which descends on to the frame and carries
the guide thread or thread carrier ("fournisseur") and the presser
("abattage"). Fixed to the loom in the same manner as this rod, but
placed a little more forward, is another one which carries the sinker
(" rentreuse ").
The guide thread consists of a small tube perpendicular on the
needles. The thread slides through this tube, the lower opening of
which is brought as near as possible to the hook of the needles in order
to prevent curving or projections of the thread.
It is a 1
The presser is the same as that of ordinary circular looms.
piece excentric to the frame of the loom, and intended to push the plates
forward to the level of the head of the needles.
The sinker is precisely the same as that of the ordinary circular loom.
WORKING OF THIS ARRANGEMENT.
As with the ordinary circular loom, a piece of the fabric is first set up 1
by hand. The row thus suspended on the needles being pushed to their
lower end the jack ("bascule") is raised and the loom set working.
The guide thread hooks the thread on the needles, and the presser causes
the plates to advance and push the row set up by hand. This row
meeting the needle jack ("bascule ") open, lifts it, closes it, imprisons 2
the following row, and passing over the head of the needle forms the
mesh or loop. The sinker acts in the ordinary manner.
To apply this system to the rectilinear loom it must undergo the
following modifications, which permit the manufacture of fabrics with
good selvedges.
2
1º. The guide thread, the axle of which is the same as that of the
presser, and which must work in front of this piece is made moveable
around it. When it has arrived at the end of its traverse at the spot
where the selvedge is to be made it meets a fixed piece which may be
termed the recoil limit. Under the pressure of this piece the guide 3
thread describes the arc of a circle around its axle, and is thus placed on
the other side of the presser, so that it always works in front of this piece
in both directions of the alternate rectilineal movement.
2º. The presser is no longer a piece of irregular shape, but takes a
prismatic form with projecting angle blunted and obtuse. The bissextrix 3
of this angle is perpendicular to the loom (in a circular loom, the

page_text: bissextrix of this angle is one of the radii of the circle formed by the
loom). This form of presser permits the plates to be pushed without
obstacle in both directions of the rocking or come-and-go motion. On
both sides the presser comes against the piece which keeps it within the
required limits.
3°. The sinker for the good selvedge fabric must also be modified so as
to work under the influence of an alternate rectilineal movement. It
then consists of a piece with two arms moveable on their pivot and
provided at the extremity with a slightly toothed wheel, (one wheel to
each arm). Beneath each of these wheels extends a small cylindrical
metal rod, of about % of an inch in length by about ½ of an inch in
diameter. At the end of the traverse this small rod comes against a
stop similar to that which displaces the guide thread and naturally
placed beneath this latter. Under the pressure of this stop the sinker
pivots and that one of its branches which comes against the stop
recedes from the circumference of the loom, while the other rapidly
approaches it and pushes the fabric towards the lower extremity of the
needle. The same operation is repeated in an inverse sense at the
other end of the traverse.
Fabrics with good selvedges may be produced in the same manner on
a circular loom. The system is the same, only the movement instead of
being alternate rectilineal is changed into an alternate circular one.