IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STOCKINGS AND Socks
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Harris Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st July 1880. A communication from
abroad by Leon Couturat, of the * Company Couturat et Cie.," of Paris, France,
Manufacturers.
HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN KNITTING MACHINES TO BE
EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STOCKINGS AND Socks." A communication
from abroad by Lèon Couturat, of the " Company Couturat et Cie.," of Paris, France,
Manufacturers.
To manufacture the toe portions of stockings and socks by automatic means in
the rectangular or rectilinear machines heretofore constructed for the purpose,
racks have been combined with hinged pawls, and recently these portions have
been made by the employment or means of a helicoidal screw.
These means serve
to impart to the devices, hereinafter termed points, for carrying the stitches from
one needle to another a forward and backward movement, producing what is
termed the diminutions or narrowing necessary for the manufacture of the said toe
portions of the stockings and socks. These means are generally complicated, and
are more or less defective with regard to regularity of action.
In carrying this Invention (which is applicable to the manufacture of both the
toe and sole portions of stockings or socks) into practice, and to obviate the above
named objections, I employ at each end of the machine, which is rectangular or
rectilinear, two square threaded screws suited to the kind of knitting machine on
which they are employed, one of the said screws being a left handed screw to
produce a forward movement, and the other a right handed screw for producing a
back or rearward movement, directly actuating the bars carrying the aforesaid
points.
I am thus enabled to greatly simplify the machine and ensure its proper
operation, whilst obviating the necessity of employing a great number of spiral
springs, and the complicated movements usual in the ordinary knitting machines,
which movements constantly impede the action of the said machines.
The two square threaded screws actuate the bar carrying the points in the
following manner, that is to say-One of the said screws carries between two
supports or bearings fixed on a suitable bar or plate a nut, which controls the
Duine 5.77

page_text: movement of a carriage upon which is mounted the other or second screw. Upon
the latter I arrange another nut, which controls the movements of the bar carrying
the points. The first screw has movement imparted to it by a toothed lever
acting upon a ratchet wheel; this lever receives its movement from a cam fixed
upon a shaft provided with excentrics. The said movement causes the points to
advance the distance of two needles at a time.
The second screw has motion imparted to it by means of a lifting or raising
lever, acting upon an arm or plate provided with a pawl which engages with a
ratchet or toothed wheel to effect the backward movement of a needle.
The said forward and backward movements take place up to the moment the
raising lever passes on one side of the said arm or plate, and stops the backward
movement to allow the forward movement to continue from one pair to another
pair of needles, until the closing or completion of the point of the toc.
To make the point portion of tho toe it has been usual to place upon the
small point carriers which exist in all toe forming machines long and flexible
points, which when making the said point of the toe engage with each pair of
needles on a supporting device, and arrest the action until the closing is
completed.
To replace this system, which is frequently defective, I arrange upon the small
point carrier short and rigid points only, and isolate the needles by means of a
jointed or hinged piece upon which is fixed a lever entering bearings upon the
needle bar.
At each diminution or narrowing of the point of the toe the extremity of the
said lever rests upon one of the corners or angles of a bar, which effecting the
motion of translation at the moment of diminution or narrowing, causes the
aforesaid lever to fall into such a position as to cause the rear or back needles to
open and prevent the points from taking hold of the stitch.
The motion of translation of the aforesaid bar operates with the combined
movements of the machine at each diminution or narrowing, until the closing or
completion of the point of the toe is reached.