Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Mar., 1899
Complete Specification Left. 16th Dec. 1899-Accepted. 17th Feb. 1900
Date of Application, 18th Mar., 1898
Complete Specification Left. 16th Dec., 1899-Accepted, 17th Feb. 1900
I, WILLIAM GEORGE HEYS, of 70, Market Street, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion to be as follows:
This invention has reference to the improvements in straight bar knitting
machines described in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 22307 of 1898.
In the apparatus described in that specification, and in similar apparatus, the
operator is obliged, on the completion of one length and before the commence-
ment of the next, to make a manual movement to ensure the return of the
narrowing devices to their starting position. This has to be done when the
machine is stopped. By these improvements, the devices are returned auto-
matically whilst the machine is making two strokes which is more than ample.
These improvements may be similarly applied either in machines where the
narrowing is effected by a screw and nut or by a bossage ratchet, which latter
consists of a straight ratchet having attached thereto an inclined plate or frame
having a sinuous or bossed edge at an angle with the straight ratchet.
In the screw machine, a ratchet wheel and a grooved pulley are fixed upon
the screw spindle. Two clicks engage with the ratchet wheel at the opposite
onds of the horizontal diameter and they are normally held in engagement by
means of a connecting spiral spring. A weighted cord passes over the periphery
of the grooved pulley to which its upper end is attached. One of the clicks act-
ing as a pawl, is actuated by a cam and effects the rotation of the screw and
consequently the travel of the non-rotating nut thereon. The rotation of the
screw involves the rotation of the grooved pulley also, and the lifting of its
dependent weight. If both of the clicks are, after the completion of one length
of work and the commencement of the next, released from engagement with the
ratchet wheel, the weight depending from the grooved pulley fixed on the screw
spindle will rotate the pulley and will cause the screw shaft to rotate in the
opposite direction and thus compel the return of the nut. This release of the
ratchet wheel is effected according to these improvements by means of an ellip-
tical cam arranged between the two clicks, which cam is operated at the moment
when a length of work is finished, by a projection of the welt wheel acting
through a system of levers to bring the major axis of the cam between the clicks
and thus separate them from each other and from the ratchet wheel. The

page_text: return motion is arrested by a stop on the nut coming into contact with a stop
on the grooved pulley.
At the moment when the clicks are released from the ratchet wheel, small
levers hook themselves upon the conducting bars and compel them to follow
the motion of the nut. These levers, are disengaged when the nut has returned.
After the return of the nut, the elliptical cam is again moved, through the
agency of the welt wheel and levers, so as to present its minor axis between the
clicks. Their connecting spring thereupon pulls them into engagement once
more with the teeth of the ratchet wheel.
In like manner, in machines provided with a bossage ratchet, two clicks are
engaged with the ratchet. They are so arranged that if one of them, the lower,
be forced out of engagement with the ratchet teeth, its motion will disengage
the other also. The disengagement of the clicks is effected by means of a pro-
jection on the welt wheel acting through a system of levers, to throw out of
engagement the lower click. Both clicks being thus released, the bossage ratchet
falls, and the carriage, which is the equivalent of the nut in the screw machine,
is at liberty to be returned by its spring.
11.
1
L
D 1000
improvements in Straight Bar Knitting machines.
I, WILLIAM GEORGE HEYS, of 70, Market Street, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly des-
cribed and ascertained in and by the following statement:--
This invention has reference to the improvements in straight bar knitting
machines described in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 22307 of 1898.
In the apparatus described in that specification, and in similar apparatus, the
operator is obliged, on the completion of one length and before the commence-
ment of the next, to restore the narrowing apparatus to its first position, and
to replace the different thread guide wires. This has to be done when the
machine is stopped. By these improvements the narrowing appliances and the
thread guide wires are returned automatically while the machine makes two
strokes during which no work is done, which is more than ample time. These
operations are performed without the operator's direct intervention.
These improvements, may be similarly applied in machine for ribbed or plain
work, where the narrowing is effected either by means of a screw or of a special
ratchet, which latter consists of a straight ratchet having attached thoreto an
inclined plate or frame having a sinuous or bossed edge at an angle with the
straight ratchet.
I will describe the said invention as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which :-
Figure 1 represents a side view, and
Figure 2, a front view of these improvements as applied in a machine in which
the narrowing is effected by means of a screw.
Figures 3 and 4 are corresponding views with reference to a machine in which
the narrowing is effected by a ratchet,

page_text: In the case illustrated by Figures 1 and 2, the rotation of the narrowing screw
is effected by means of a cam acting upon the dog B, engaging with the ratolet
wheel C, fixed upon the screw spindle h. The movement of the cam thus compels
the non-rotary screw nut R.to move back. When the narrowing is completed,
it is necessary that the screw nut R shall be restored to its primitive position,
in order to be able to commence narrowing again. It is the return of this screw
nut which is in question to be made automatically.
For this purpose, there is fixed upon the screw shaft b, a grooved pulley A,
around which its attached cord c is wound, the cord being kept in a stretched
condition by a weight P. This weight will be varied according to the character
of the work being done.
In consequence of the movements of the dog B, at the same time that the
nut R recedes, the pulley A, rolls up the cord c To prevent the unwinding
of the cord when the dog B is disengaged, a second dog or click D engages with
the teeth of the ratchet wheel C.
An elliptical cam E, is operated from a projection on the welt wheel through
the system FG H, in such a manner that, at the moment when the work is
finished, the cam E has its longer axis between the dogs D B, which are con-
nected by the spiral spring K.
.
In this position, the cam operates the dogs D B, and disengages them from
the ratchet C, which will consequently be pulled round by the weight P. Since
the ratchet wheel, the pulley A, and the screw are connected, it follows that
the motion of the ratchet wheel induces linear motion of the nut R. At the
moment when the cam E disengages the dogs B D, amall levers hook upon the
thread guide wires and compel them to participate in the motion of the nut R.
Two stops, L on the pulley A, and M on the nut R, come into contact at the
determined moment, and hold the narrowing apparatus at the starting point.
At the moment of contact, the small levers holding the thread guide wires are
also disengaged and these wires become free.
The cam then returns to its original position, so that the spiral spring can
now pull the dogs B D into re-engagement with the teeth of the ratchet wheel C,
and the narrowing can be repeated in a new length of fabric.
In the case of the narrowing being controlled by a embossed or sinuous edged
rack or ratchet instead of by a screw, and as is illustrated by Figures 3 and 4,
a cam acts upon the dog B, which by its movement lifts the ratchet rack A.
A second dog holds the ratchet rack during the movement of the dog B.
The ratchet rack A carries in the direction of the length of the machine, a
line of bosses, sinuosities, projections or the like D in an inclined plane. In
other words, the inclined surface of A has a sinuous edge in a plane at right
angles with the rack. A rod C, held by a spring in such a manner as always
to be in contact with the sinuous edge of A. is fixed behind the carriage M.
When the ratchet is lifted, it compels the rod, and consequently the carriage M,
to advance. This carriage corresponds thus with the nut R of Figures 1 and 2.
The narrowing being finished, the operative strikes the lever F which disen-
gages the dog E from the ratchet rack. The movement of disengagement of
the dog E also disengages in like manner the dog B. The ratchet rack being no
longer held, falls, whereupon a spring returns the carriage M and rod C to their
primitive positions. An adjustable stop K, arrests the descent of the ratchet
rack at the desired moment.
With this new system, it becomes necessary to act automatically upon the lever F.
For this purpose, a projection on the welt wheel moves the lever G at the appro-
priate moment and therefore also the connected levers H I, and F, which are
arranged as indicated by Figures 3 and 4. The thread guide wires are pulled by
this movement and become free and ready for the next narrowing.
The restoration of the narrowing apparatus in either arrangement, takes place
during two void strokes of the machine, that is to say strokes during which no
stitches are formed,

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. In straight bar knitting machines, appliances or devices for automatically
restoring the narrowing apparatus to its starting position, constructed arranged
and operating substantially as herein before described and as illustrated by the
accompanying drawings.
2. In straight bar knitting machines, the combination and arrangement with
the narrowing screw h, of a grooved pulley A with cord and weight attached
thereto, the ratchet wheel C, the spring connected dogs D B, the elliptical cam F
between the dogs, and means such as F G H operated from the welt wheel for
turning the cam as required, constructed and arranged substantially as and for
the purpose herein before described and as illustrated by Figures 1 and 2 of the
accompanying drawings.
3. In straight bar knitting machines, the combination and arrangement with
the narrowing ratchet, of the dogs B E, the lever F, and a system of levers con-
nected with and operated from the welt wheel, substantially as and for the
purpose herein before described and as illustrated by Figures 3 and 4 of the
accompanying drawings.