Improvements in Automatic Knitting Machines.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Nov., 1894-Accepted, 5th Jan., 1895
Improvements in Automatic Knitting Machines.
We, LOUIS NAPOLEON DEVON WILLIAMS and ROBERT WALTER SCOTT
both of 2077 E. Cumberland Street in the City and County of Philadelphia, State
of Pennsylvania, United States of America, Knitting Machine Manufacturers, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
Our invention relates to certain improvements in knitting machines for which
Letters Patent were granted to us dated January 26th 1891 numbered 1417, the
objects of our present invention being to permit of the operation of the said machines
at higher speed than heretofore during the rotating movement and to provide for
automatically varying the length of stitch produced.
The first of these objects we attain by throwing the mechanism for vibrating
the presser plates out of operation during the rotation of the machine for round
and round knitting and the second object we attain by the employment of certain
mechanism hereinafter described for raising and lowering the needle cylinder
without interfering with the operation of the machine.
We will describe our invention with reference to the accompanying drawings:
Fig. 1 of which is a plan or top view of sufficient of the machine to illustrate our
present improvements:
Fig. 2 is a side view looking in the direction of the arrow r;
Fig. 3 is a side view looking in the direction of the arrow y; and
Fig. 4 is a view illustrating another means than that shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3,
for throwing out of action the mechanism for vibrating the presser plates.
The machine, in its general construction, is similar to that forming the subject of
our above recited Letters Patent, hence in the drawings we have not illustrated
the complete machine, but only such parts of the same as are necessary to convey
a proper understanding of the improvements to which our present invention
relates.
The shaft which drives the cam cylinder of the machine is represented at 41,
this shaft having, as usual, a crank wheel or pin to which is connected one end of a
bar 42, the opposite end of the said rod being connected to the depending weighted
arm 43 of the rock shaft 21 which carries the vibrating frame 12, the latter, as in
the former machine, carrying the adjustable presser plates for acting upon the
needles of the machine, and pressing them down into operative position after they
have been raised to inoperative position by the cams of the cam box.
In the present instance, however, instead of providing a permanent connection
between the bar 42 and the arm 43, we form a notch 44 in the bar 42 for engaging
with a pin 45 on the arm 43, so that if the bar 42 is lifted until its notch is free
from engagement with the pin, the vibration of the frame 12 will be discontinued.
Such lifting of the bar 42 is effected by means of a lever 46 mounted on the base
of the machine and acted upon by a cam surface 47 on the arm 62 which is
employed for acting upon certain of the lever mechanism carried by the cam box 10
of the machine.
The arm 62 is elevated by reason of its connection with one of the pawls 24 when
the machine is changing from to and fro to round and round knitting, and this

page_text: effects the simultaneous lifting of the bar 42 so as to free its notch from engage-
ment with the pin 45 and thus stop the vibration of the frame 12.
If desired the arm 62 may be held in an elevated position during the entire time
that round and round knitting is being carried on, but as it may be advisable in
some cases to drop the arm 62 before the completion of the round and round
movements, we connect to the back of the frame 12 a spring 79 which as soon as
the pin 45 is free from the notch 44 of the bar 42, draws the frame 12 upward until
a stop lug 90 on the same strikes a set screw 91 on an upright rod 92 of the fixed
structure of the machine, the pin 45 then occupying a position below the lowermost
position assumed by the notch 44 in the movement of the bar 42.
In order to bring the pin 45 again into position for engaging with the notch 44
when it is desired to resume the vibration of the frame 12 on the resumption of
to and fro knitting, the lug 90 has a pin 93 which is acted upon by a cam 94 carried
by that one of the pawls 24 which is connected to the arm 53, the latter being
lifted by the pattern mechanism when it is desired to change from round and round
to to-and-fro knitting. The cam 94 thus acts upon the pin 93 so as to lower
the upper portion of the frame 12 and lift the pin 45 again into range of the
notch 44, the latter being permitted to engage with the pin owing to the fact
that the lever 46 has been previously withdrawn by reason of the dropping of the
arm 62.
By thus throwing the vibrating presser plate frame out of action during round
and round knitting we are enabled to run the machine at a much higher rate of
speed during such round and round knitting than was possible in the machine
previously patented, for in the said patented machine the speed of rotation as well
as that of the to and fro movements of the cam box was limited by the speed at
which the frame 12 could be vibrated, whereas in the present arrangement the
rotating movements of the cam box are not so limited and the said cam box can,
during round and round knitting, be run at a very much higher rate of speed than
during to and fro knitting when the vibrating frame 12 is in action.
The main feature of this part of our invention therefore, consists in stopping the
vibration of the frame 12 during round and round knitting, and we do not limit
ourselves to the particular mechanism which may be employed for effecting this
result as the mechanism may be modified in various ways without departing from
the main feature of the invention. In Fig. 4 for instance, we have shewn one such
modification, the bar 42 in this case having a rack formed upon the upper edge for
engagement with a pinion 100 which is so mounted upon the shaft 21 as to turn
loosely thereon, but is prevented from moving longitudinally on the shaft.
Fitted to slide upon and rotate with the shaft 21 is a clutch sleeve 101 having
teeth for engaging with notches in the hub of the pinion 100, the longitudinal
movement of the sleeve 101 being controlled by a lever 102 which is actuated by a
spring 103 to throw the clutch sleeve 101 out of engagement with the hub of the
pinion 100, and by the arm 53 to throw the said clutch sleeve into engagement with
the hub of the pinion.
As the arm 53 is lifted, therefore, when the machine starts to and fro knitting,
the pinion 100 will be clutched to the shaft 21 so as to start the vibrations of the
frame 12, but when the arm 53 drops, in changing from to and fro to round and
round knitting, the pinion 100 will be unclutched from the shaft 21 and the
vibration of the frame 12 will be discontinued.
It will be evident that instead of using the arm 62 for operating the lever 46 or
the arm 53 for operating the lever 102, special meaus operated by the pattern
chain of the machine or by a special pattern chain may, if desired, be employed.
On the shaft 41 is a cam 80, shown partly by dotted lines in Figure 2, and this
cam acts upon a lever 81 which has two pawls 82 and 83 the pawl 82 engaging
with the ratchet wheel on the drum which carries the main pattern chain of the
machine, while the pawl 83 engages with a ratchet wheel 85 on a drum which
carries a pattern chain 86, the latter acting on a depending arm 87 which is con-
nected by a link 88 to the arm 89 of a needle cylinder adjusting device similar to

page_text: that set forth in the Specification of Letters Patent dated June 12th 1894
No. 11,421 the purpose of this device being to raise or lower the needle cylinder at
intervals so as to provide for drawing longer or shorter stitches.
In the former machine the ratchet wheel on the pattern chain shaft or drum
was operated by a pawl receiving motion from a rock shaft 21, but as the latter
shaft in the present machine is motionless during a considerable part of the time
it becomes necessary to operate the pattern chain drum from the shaft which
drives the cam box.
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 :-
1. In automatic knitting machines means for throwing the vibrating presser plate
frame of the machine out of action during round and round knitting substantially
as hereinbefore described.
2. In automatic knitting machines of the kind hereinbefore mentioned the
reciprocating bar 42 having a notch therein for engagement with a pin on the
depending arm of the vibrating presser plate frame and means for lifting the said
notched bar out of engagement with the pin when the machine is changing from
to and fro to round and round knitting and dropping it into engagement with
the pin when the machine changes from round and round to to-and-fro knitting
substantially as herein before described.
3. In combination with the subject matter of the preceding claiming clause of
means for moving the vibrating presser plate frame after the notched operating
bar has been lifted out of engagement with the pin on the arm of the said
vibrating frame, so as to carry the said pin out of range of the notch, and
afterwards restore the frame into position for the pin to again engage with the
notch substantially as herein before described.
4. In automatic knitting machines means for operating the pattern chain drum
of the machine from the shaft which drives the cam box, so that the movements of
the said pattern chain drum are independent of those of the vibrating presser plate
frame, substantially as hereinbefore described.
5. In automatic knitting machines mechanism under control of a special pattern
chain for raising and lowering the needle cylinder of the machine substantially as
hereinbefore described.
Dated this 10th day of November 1891
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.