IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LOOPED OR KNITTED FABRICS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Thornton, Albert Thornton, William Thornton,
and Henry Thornton, each and all of the Town and County of the Town
of Nottingham, Mechanical Designers, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Thornton, Albert
Thornton, William Thornton, and Henry Thornton at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 10th October 1855.
We, JOHN THORNTON, ALBERT THORNTON, WILLIAM THORNTON, and HENRY
THORNTON, each and all of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
Mechanical Designers, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LOOPED OR KNITTED
FABRICS" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of a peculiar combination of mechanical parts into a
machine for manufacturing looped or knitted fabrics; for which purpose two
cylinders are used, each grooved on its circumference with as many grooves as
there are needles or looping instruments. These cylinders are caused to
revolve simultaneously end to end, but at a short distance apart, in such
manner as to admit of the needles or looping instruments being slid from the
grooves of one cylinder into the grooves of the other cylinder. In these
grooves are slid needles or hooked instruments suitable for making looped
fabrics, each having a beard or hook at each end, so that the work is alter-
nately made at the two ends of the needles or looping instruments. The
needles or looping instruments are slid to and fro from cylinder to cylinder by

page_text: means of fixed inclines or guides, the work being forced over the heads of the
needles or looping instruments when such instruments are moved into the
grooves.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Thornton, Albert Thornton, William Thornton, and
Henry Thornton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
THORNTON, ALBERT THORNTON, WILLIAM THORNTON, and HENRY THORNTON,
each and all of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Mechanical
Designers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Thornton, Albert Thornton, William Thornton, and Henry Thornton,
Her special licence that we, the said John Thornton, Albert Thornton,
William Thornton, and Henry Thornton, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Thornton, Albert Thornton,
William Thornton, and Henry Thornton, our 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 Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LOOPED OR KNITTED
FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
Thornton, Albert Thornton, William Thornton, and Henry Thornton, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Thornton, Albert Thornton,
William Thornton, and Henry Thornton, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be parti-
cularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say-

page_text: This Invention consists of a peculiar combination of mechanical parts into a
machine for manufacturing looped or knitted fabrics; for which purpose two
cylinders are used, each grooved on its circumference with as many grooves as
there are needles or looping instruments. These cylinders are caused to
revolve simultaneously end to end, but at a short distance apart, in such
manner as to admit of the needles or looping instruments being slid from the
In these
grooves of one cylinder into the grooves of the other cylinder.
grooves are slid needles or hooked instruments suitable for making looped
fabrics, each having a beard or hook at each end, so that the work is alter-
nately made at the two ends of the needles or looping instruments. The
needles or looping instruments are slid to and fro from cylinder to cylinder by
means of fixed inclines or guides, the work being forced over the heads of the
needles or looping instruments when such instruments are moved into the
grooves.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed to describe
more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
.
Figure 1 shows a side view, and Figure.2 a plan, of a machine constructed
according to our Invention. Figure 3 is an end view on a larger scale of one
of the cylinders A, D, and parts working therewith, showing the respective
positions of the sinking and pressing wheels. A, A, are two cylinders, each
having grooves formed on its circumference D, D, the cylinders A, A, (the
inner ends of which are placed a short distance apart), are supported and
revolve simultaneously in suitable bearings B, B. Motion is communicated to
the cylinders A, D, by the toothed wheels C, C, fixed on the axis C', taking
into the toothed wheels C² fixed on the tubes or cylinders A, A, D, D. The
axis C' receives motion by means of the crank handle C, or in any other con-
venient manner. In the grooves formed on the revolving cylinders A, A, at
D, D, needles or looping instruments are slid, one of which is shown separately
at Figure 4. As the cylinders A, D, revolve simultaneously coincidently end
to end at a short distance apart, the needles or looping instruments are caused
to slide from the grooves of one cylinder into the grooves of the other cylinder
by means of the stationary inclines or drivers E, E, F, F, (fixed or placed
over the grooves). The points of these inclines or. guides E, E, enter under
the beards of the needles or hooks as they revolve with the cylinder, causing
them to slide from the grooves of one cylinder A, D, into the opposite grooves
in the other cylinder A, D, and as the needles move from one cylinder to the
other, the loops are formed by the loop wheels G, G, sinking the thread from

page_text: the thread layers G', G', between the needles. The beards of the needles are
then pressed by the presser wheels H, H, and the work previously formed is
knocked over the heads of the needles or hooks by the further movement of the
needles into the grooves. The ends of the needles or hooks in their further
revolution with the cylinders A, D, come in contact with the inclines or drivers
F, F, which drive them back into the opposite cylinder, where they are taken
by the point of the incline E on that side, and moved into the opposite grooves;
the operation of forming the loops and knocking over the work being repeated,
as before described, in respect to the opposite end of the needle. It will be
seen that by this arrangement the needles or instruments traverse their whole
length first into one cylinder and then into the other, and that the work is
formed at each end of the needles or other suitable loop-forming instruments
alternately. The thread layers and the sinking and pressing wheels being
of the ordinary construction, no further description of them will be required.
The work is conducted and drawn through one of the cylinders A by having
a cord and weight attached thereto, or otherwise, and passed over a pulley, as
is well understood.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not claim the
making or using of needles with hooks or beards at both their ends, nor do we
claim the presser or sinker wheels herein described. But what we claim is,
the combined use of the apparatus A, D, A, D, end to end, and also causing
double-ended needles or instruments, which move or slide in grooves, to be
actuated by inclines or guides placed over the grooves in which the needles
slide.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Thornton, Albert Thornton,
William Thornton, and Henry Thornton, have hereunto set our
hands and seals, this Seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.