Improvements in Apparatus for use with Circular Knitting Machines.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for use with Circular Knitting
Machines.
I, ROBERT WILLIAM KING of 63 King Street, Montreal, Canada, Manu-
facturer, 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 :-
This invention has for its object the production of novel apparatus for trans-
ferring the loops of circular knitted fabric on to the needles of a knitting machine
to have a fabric knitted thereto, my apparatus being more especially adapted for
use in connection with the class of knitting machine represented in British Patent
No. 13994 August 2nd 1892.
The machine described in the said Patent has a conical needle bed properly
grooved for the reception of a series of reciprocating latched needles, the said
machine having what is called a topping groove where all the needles may be slid
diagonally toward the centre of the needle bed, so as to place their upper ends in
the same plane to receive the loops, the centre opening of the said bed being
obstructed at such time only by the said needles.
畜
The method of applying loops to the hooks of the needles brought into the
said plane is designated as transferring, and the device used is called a transferrer.
The transferrer used by me because of the position of the needles and their line
of movement is of peculiar construction.
My improved transferrer consists of a holder preferably made as a hollow
cylinder provided at its upper end with a series of quills, (having hook guiding
grooves, the bottoms of said grooves occupying preferably a position in a circle as
large if not larger) open at their ends connected to the holder, so that the hooks
of the needles in the transferring operation may enter at the base and pass out at
the points of the said quills. For the best results and to enable the transferrer to
be operated quickly and without the possibility of a needle hook getting into a
space between the quills, rather than in a groove of a quill, I have provided
between the base of the quills and the main body of the holder a series of pro-
jections called "tricks,"
," each groove between the tricks coinciding with a groove
in a quill, the bodies of the tricks stopping the space between adjacent quills, and
the mouths of the 'grooves between the tricks are opened by bevelling the outer
end of the tricks so that the hooks of the needles may find easy entrance into the
proper grooves of the quills.
Preferably the bottoms of the grooves in the quills will stand in a circle as large
if not larger than the outer wall of the holder, such construction leaving the inner
ends of the quills fully open to receive the needles.
The invention will be clearly understood from the following further description
in reference to the accompanying drawings in which
Figure 1, in section,' represents a needle bed with needles, and with my improved
transferrer in position to apply the loops held by it to the hooks of the needles.
Figure 2 shows the holder with its tricks,
Figure 3 shows a blank for the production of a quill, and
Figure 4 shows a quill bent into shape.
Figure 5 is a section cutting the holder transversely through the tricks, said
figure showing, however, the shanks of the quills.
The needle bed A' having a cylindrical shank' A' and the needles therein, are
and' may be as in'ny said Patent, and in connection with the said bed and needles,
I shall in practice use a suitable conical cylinder or cam 'ring, substantially such as
designated by the letter D¹ in the said Patent, the said cam ring used having a

page_text: topping groove by which to put the hooks of all the needles into what is called
the topping position, or a position in which all the hooks are in the same horizontal
plane.
The transferrer is composed of a holder a, preferably a hollow cylinder,
adapted to be passed up from below through the shank of the needle bed, while
the needles are in topping position, or with their hooks in substantially the same
horizontal plane.
To the upper end of the holder I have added a series of quills 6 made from a
blank substantially such as shown in Fig. 3, the said blank being folded substan-
tially centrally, as represented, to leave a groove open at its base & to let the
hook of a needle when about to engage a loop, enter the open end of the groove
of the quill nearest the holder.
The quills have shanks preferably also grooved, as represented.
32
The shanks may be attached to the holder in any suitable manner, but preferably
the holder will be provided with a series of "tricks or projections c extended
therefrom to leave between them grooves d, into which grooves the shanks of the
quills enter and are therein held firmly by flanging or upsetting a portion of the.
edges of the tricks on to the said shanks, as shown in Figure 5.
The lower or inner ends of the tricks are shown as bevelled or cut away, as at d¹,
to leave wide open spaces for easy entrance therein of the hooks of the needles,
thus enabling the hooks to enter unerringly the grooves of the quills, as the holder
having the loops of a top or cuff suspended on its quills as in Fig. 1, is pulled
through the cylinder in a direction toward the line or plane occupied by the butts
of the needles.
It will also be noticed that I have so applied, as I prefer, the quills that the
bottoms of their grooves occupy a position in a circle coincident with the circum-
ference of the holder, such location of the quills leaving their guiding grooves
entirely unobstructed at their inner ends.
Prior to my invention, I am not aware that a transferrer having quills adapted
to receive the loops of a circularly knitted fabric have ever been left entirely open
or unobstructed at their inner ends, so that a hook of a needle may enter at the
base or inner end of the groove of the quill and pass out of the outer end of the
quill, nor am I aware that a transferrer having quills has ever had its body portion
or holder provided with grooves to receive the hooks of the needles and direct
them unerringly into the grooves of the quills, hence this invention is not limited
to the exact shape shown for the quills, or for the tricks, so long as the quills
have their grooves open at their inner ends for the entrance of the hooks of the
needles.
While I have shown my transferrer as employed in connection with diagonally
arranged needles in a conical bed, yet it will be obvious that it may be used with
any arrangement of needles wherein the hooks of the needles are directed toward
or radiate from a common centre.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is-
1. The use in a knitting machine having a series of needles disposed therein
and occupying a position radial to a common centre, of a transferrer composed of,
a holder provided with a series of quills having their grooves unobstructed at
their inner ends to enable the said quills to be drawn on and past the hooks of the
needles, the said hooks entering the grooves of the quills at their inner ends and
leaving the quills at their outer ends, substantially as described.
2. A transferrer composed of a holder provided with tricks, and a series of
quills having their grooves coincident with the spaces between the tricks, the
grooves between the said tricks serving to lead the hooks of the needles correctly
into the grooves at the inner ends of the quills, substantially as described.
3. A transferrer composed of a holder provided with tricks and a series of

page_text: quills having their grooves coincident with the spaces between the tricks, the
grooves between the said tricks being wide at their mouths to facilitate the ready
entrance of the hooks, substantially as described.
4. The holder provided with tricks extended therefrom to leave open grooves at
both ends of the tricks, and a series of quills grooved from end to end and held iu
the grooves between the said tricks, the bottoms of the grooves of the open quills
standing substantially in the line of the circumference of the holder, substantially
as described.
Dated this 27th day of June 1893.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.