IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINERY
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Driffel Poulter and Edward
Attenborough at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th April
1880.
FREDERICK DRIFFELL POULTER, of Basinghall Street, in the City of London,
Warehouseman, and EDWARD ATTENBOROUGH, of Nottingham, in the County of the
Town of Nottingham, Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINERY."
Our improvements in knitting machinery relates, firstly, to means for introducing
into the McNary straight machine a finer gauge than is attainable with the uso
of thread guide tubes, and, secondly, to a modification of the construction of
the parts employed for pulling over the work.
In attaining our first object we use thread guides similar to thoso ordinarily
employed in warp knitting machines, which from being flat are capable of entering
between the needles. Instead however of setting these thread guides so as to move
parallel to the needles we set them at right angles thereto, casting them in leads
which are made fast to the thread guide bar. This bar we mount, as heretofore,
on the presser bar, from which it will receive the requisite step by step endway
motions, it being capable as before of being set to the right or left in advance of
the presser bar. To the thread guide bar we now give an additional backward and
forward motion to allow of the thread guides passing between the needles, and
laying their threads upon the sterns and under the beards thereof during the
descent of the needles. This entrance of the thread guides into the line of needles
is essential when working with a fine gauge, as otherwise a thread would be liable
to be caught under two beards in place of one, and consequently defective work
would ensue.
The setting of the thread guides and needles at right angles to each
other or thereabouts provides against the threads in rear of the guides being
caught by the beards of the needles, which result would be unavoidable if the
guides worked round the needles as in the ordinary warp machines.
The endway motion of the presser bar and guide bar derived from the switch
wheel is modified in amount by advancing the pivot of the oscillating segment rack
lever towards the presser bar to suit the additional number of needles introduced
into the machine. The shifting end wise of the thread guide bar on the presser bar
is effected as usual, and in order to give an independent forward and backward
motion to the thread guide bar it is formed with lugs, which carry pins standing
parallel to the bar, which pins are embraced by the forked arms of a divided rock

page_text: shaft. This rock shaft is worked by cams on the cam shaft, bearing upon bowles
carried by arms of the rock shaft, and thus at the required moments the thread
guides are advanced up to and withdrawn from the line of needles. The 'advance
of the thread guides will take place while the needles are descending, and
immediately before the beards have reached the plane of the thread guides.
In attaining our second object (the simplification of the construction of the
machine) we substitute for the elastic wiper gripping rolls, arranged and operated
in the following manner:
Mounted on the front end of the table of the machine is a pair of horizontal
rollers which are geered together, and are intended to receive the work from the
-needles as it is knitted. These rollers are driven from a switch wheel, which
receives its motion from the main shaft direct, and upon these rollers a third and
grooved roller rides. The work is led under this third roller, which is driven by
friction of contact, and thus the requisite strain is put upon the work for pulling
over the loops and delivering the work out of the machine.
The rollers it will be understood receive an intermittent axial motion, so that
they act only when the needles are at or near their lowest position.