IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frank Wirth, of the Firm of Wirth and Com-
pany, Patent Agency, at Frankfort-on-the Main (Germany), for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES."-A communi-
cation from Adolf Angst, residing at Zurich (Switzerland).
Sealed the 16th October 1874, and dated the 21st April 1874.
VI что
COMMISSIOmers of Patents, with His fetition, on the
21st April 1874.
1, FRANK WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent
Agency, at Frankfort-on-the-Main (Germany), do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES,"
a communication from Adolf Angst, a person resident at Zurich (Switzer-
land), to be as follows:-
1, FRANK WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent
Agency, at Frankfort-on-the-Main (Germany), do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES,"
a communication from Adolf Angst, a person resident at Zurich (Switzer-
land), to be as follows:-

page_text: needles at present in use, spring needles, that is, needles with open nooks
without locking plates.
Secondly. In a new and peculiar lock moving between two rails.
Thirdly. In improved needle pressers and parts for acting on them.
Fourthly. In an improved thread guide and mode of giving it alternate
or reiprocating motion.
And, Fifthly. In an improved mode of making the needle beds.
In the grooves of the inclined needle beds simple hook needles move
to and fro, the movement being produced by a moveable lock plate
placed on cach of the needle beds, which lock plate performs similar
operations to that in Lamb's machine, but is differently constructed and
guided, thero being two lock plates instead of one, both guided in dove-
tailed or vee shaped guides, and the lock plates moved to and fro by
cranks and connecting rods.
The thread of the yarn to be knitted, after passing through ordinary
guides or eyelets and kept at its proper tension, has its end drawn or
passed through a small tube placed in the middle of a support uniting
the two lock plates, the upper end of the tube lying in a curve of a slide
situated above it, the slide being so constructed that whilst working to
and from it shall lead or move the small tube or thread layer or leader
on one or other side of the needle beds.
The needle pressers work on rods or axles, and are acted upon by cams
or levers on the support, uniting the two lock plates, and acted upon by
springs. The needles raised by the movement of the lock catch the thread
conducted to them and go down, thereby forming a loop or knot, and at
the following upward movement this loop is pushed backwards on the
needle, which again catches the thread and then goes down, after which
the pressers placed above the needles come into action and press the
tongues of the needles into the opposite spaces, so that the noose lying
on the needle passes above the tongue and needle head, and thus the.
newly taken thread forms a mesh.
The needle beds do not consist each of one piece in which the needle
layers are inclosed, but of separated stamped plates, which are united

page_text: and soldered in connection with small wires passing through them or in
any other suitable manner, and this mode of making the beds can bo
employed in circular knitting machines as well as in the Lamb machino
and similar ones.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frank Wirth in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st October 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANK
WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Agency, at Frank-
fort-on-the-Main (Germany), send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand cight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Frank Wirth, Her special licence, that I, the said
Frank Wirth, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Frank Wirth, 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 Islo
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES,” a com-
munication from Adolf Angst, a person resident at Zurich (Switzerland),
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frank Wirth,
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
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frank Wirth, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the

page_text: which the pressers placed above the needles come into action and press
the tongues of the needles into the opposite spaces, so that the noose
lying on the needle passes above the tongue and needle head, and thus
the newly taken thread forms a mesh.
The needle beds do not consist each of one piece in which the needle
layers are enclosed, but of separated stamped plates, which are united
and soldered in connection with small wires passing through them or in
any other suitable manner, and this mode of making the beds can be
employed in circular knitting machines as well as in the Lamb machine
and similar ones.
On the accompaning Sheet of Drawings, Fig. 1 is an elevation of the
machine; Fig. 2, a plan; Figs. 3 and 4, lateral sections and views;
Fig. 5, the lock plates.
A, A, represent the needle beds; a, a, bottom of the needle beds;
B, B', needle pressers; b, b, side wall of the needle beds; C, support
uniting the lock plates; c, c, axles of the needle pressers; D, D', and
d, d', press arrangement; E, the thread guide; F, guiding slide of the
same; G, G¹, lock; g, g¹, supports for the leading slide F; H, crank
shaft; I, support; K, crank; L, drawing rod; M, latch; P, thread
stretching; Q, foundation or base; R, R¹, levers for pushing up and
down the needle beds; S, S', are lock guiding rails.
By these improvements the ordinary knitting machine used till now
receive a different shape and become more convenient, but the handling
is the same.
In the rods of the inclined needle beds A, A, simplo hook
3 needles go to and fro. This movement is produced by the movable
lock G, G', placed on each of the needle beds. This lock operates
similarly to that of Lamb's machine, but is otherwise constructed, and
has another guidance.
The lock plates, Fig. 5, not consisting of one piece as in Lamb's, are
dovetailed, as shown, and receive their guidance by correspondingly
shaped rails S, S¹, situated above the needle beds. The lock plates are
moved by turning the crank K which is resting on a support I beside
the ground plate, and united with the lock plate by a drawing rod-L..
The thread of the yarn to be knitted is lead to the needles in the
5 following manner :-After they have been threaded in the manner repre-

page_text: Sixth. The employment of the improvement, shewn in Figs. 3 and 5,
to knitting machines with clack needles.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frank Wirth, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
.