AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING NEEDLE FOR KNITTING MACHINES
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Eugene Durand, of Paris, Boulevard de Strasbourg, 59,
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING NEEDLE FOR
KNITTING MACHINES."
Sealed the 31st May 1878, and dated the 21st December 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Eugene Durand at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st December 1877.
EUGENE DURAND, of Paris, Boulevard de Strasbourg, 59, Manufacturer.
IMPROVED SELF-ACTING NEEDLE FOR KNITTING MACHINES"
" AN
According to the ordinary construction of self-acting knitting needles the eye is
formed by a hooked part of the needle and a small catch lever pivotted on the needle,
which lever in its forward position closes the eye to hold a loop of thread, and in its
backward position leaves the eye open at the side to receive or deliver a loop, being
itself then sunk in the body of the needle. This construction is delicate and
expensive, and it is difficult to apply it on a small scale, so as to produce a needle
suitable for fine work. Moreover in changing the number of meshes the catch must
be lifted by hand for the introduction of the thread.
My Invention relates to a construction of knitting needle intended to avoid these
defects in the following manner :-I make the main body of the needle with its
ordinary hooked end, but I form a longitudinal groove or chase along the face of the
needle, and sunk in this chase I fit a sliding rod or bar pointed at the front end,
so that when it is slid forward, its point coming up to the hook of the main
body closes the eye, and when it is slid backwards it leaves the eye open at the
side
The sliding movement may be imparted either to the sliding rod whilst the main
body of the needle is stationary, or to the main body of the needle while the rod
is stationary, or to both alternately, so that the needle may be made double acting.
Near the pointed end of the sliding rod I provide a longitudinal chase sunk
in the face of the rod to permit the insertion of a pin or hook for taking off a mesh.

page_text: In order that the action of my improved needle may be more clearly understood,
I have shewn in Fig. 10 a section, and in Fig. 11 a plan of part of a machine which
may be advantageously employed for working a set of such needles.
As all the needles of the machine are alike in their construction and operation, I
have shewn only one of them, the positions of others on each side being indicated by
the broken lines in Fig. 11. I have supposed the machine to be one of the circular
kind in which these lines radiate, but a similar method of working may obviously be
applied to parallel needles.
Figs. 12 and 13 shew two of the different positions of the needle in the sequence
of its movements, and Fig. 14 shews several of the adjacent meshes as they would
appear in front view. The body A of each needle is fixed to a slide C, and the slide B
of the needle is fixed to another slide D. Both these slides work in chases e, f,
formed in the fixed ring flanges E, F. They are pushed forwards by cam pieces G, H,
on a revolving ring, and they are drawn back by springs K, K. The needle eye
passes through a hole in the outer flange I, in front of which is the guard ring J.
As shewn in Fig. 10 the body A of the needle being advanced, and the slide B being
retracted, the thiead to form a new mesh is laid in the hook of the needle in front
of the previous mesh o. The slide B being then advanced closes the eye as shown
in Fig. 12. Both A and B being now retracted, as shewn in Fig. 13, the new mesh
is drawn through the old one, which drops. The body A being now advanced
while B remains behind, the needle is again in the condition shewn in Fig. 10, and
the sequence of operations is repeated.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I claim the use of a self-acting knitting needle, the
eye of which is opened and closed by a slide moving longitudinally in a chase or
groove sunk in the body of the needle, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Eugene Durand, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
23, Boulevard de Strasbourg,
Paris.
EUGENE DURAND. (L.S.)