Improvements in the Manufacture of Knitted Stockings.
Year: 1893

page_text: ate of Application, 12th Jan., 1893-Accepted, 4th Mar., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Knitted Stockings.
We, ROBERT WALTER SCOTT and LOUIS NAPOLEON DEVON WILLIAMS-
both of 2077 East Cumberland Street in the City of Philadelphia, State of
Pennsylvania, United States of America do hereby declare the nature of our
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly-
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
The object of this invention is to facilitate the manufacture of stockings having
long legs and seamless feet, that is to say, feet having the toe and heel portions.
shaped by narrowing and widening in what are known as seamless machines. .
This object is attained by making the leg portion of the stocking upon an
ordinary circular latch needle machine intended for the production of plain tubular
web, and after the proper length of tube has been produced upon the needles of
the cylinder of the said machine, removing the cylinder with the work upon it and
applying the same to another latch-needle machine of the seamless type (such, for
instance as those described in the Specifications of Letters Patent No. 1240 of
1890 and No. 1417 of 1891) by which the foot portion of the stocking with its
seamless heel and toe pocket is produced, or, if desired, the operations may be
reversed, that is to say, the cylinder of the seamless machine after having had
formed upon it the foot with its seamless toe and heel pockets can be removed
from the machine and applied to an ordinary circular latch needle machine by
which the leg tube is knitted.
By this means the leg tube can be knitted at a much more rapid rate than tubular-
web can be produced on the seamless machine which forms the foot with its heel
and toe pockets, for the circular machine which makes the leg may have a number
of feeders so as to produce a number of courses of stitches for each rotation,
whereas the seamless machine upon which the foot is produced is limited to a single-
feeder, at least during the time when the toe and heel pockets are being formed,.
moreover, stripes, fancy stitches, or reinforced portions can be produced in the leg
tube of the stocking by reason of the number of feeders employed in the circular
machine upon which the said leg tube is produced and because of the facility for
introducing reinforcing or splicing threads in the said machine.
In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 represents a sectional view of the
cylinder of a circular knitting machine with the leg tube a formed thereon and
Figure 2 is a similar view of the same cylinder after the foot tube b and its.
seamless heel pocket d and toe pocket have been formed.
In practice series of automatic seamless machines for making the foot portions
with their heels and toes may be situated adjacent to a power driven circular
machine or more than one such machine upon which the leg tubes are to be
produced, and as soon as the proper length of tube is finished in the said circular
machine or machines the cylinder is removed either by the same operator who
attends to the seamless machines, or by a special operator, and placed in position
for rendy insertion into one of the seamless machines as soon as the completion of
the foot therein has been effected and the web has been cast off the cylinder being.
removed from the seamless machine and inserted in the circular machine.
By means of this invention the leg portions of the stockings can be made of
single or inferior strands or yarns and of any degree of tightness or slackness and
the foot can be of double or heavier strands or yarns and of a degree of slackness.
or tightness different from that of the leg.
It has been proposed to form a leg tube for a stocking upon one machine and
after the completion of the tube to cast it off of the needles of the said machine
and apply the loops around the end of the tube to the needles of another machine:

page_text: upon which the foot of the stocking is to be formed, but this invention is distinct
from the said plan in that there is no casting off of the tube from one machine or
running of the stitches of the same onto the needles of another machine, the
transfer being effected by transferring the cylinder with the work upon it, an
operation, which, it is manifest, can be performed in much less time and with much
less expenditure of labour than are expended in the plau above referred to. More-
over, a leg tube having a series of threads forming a series of courses of stitches
in each round cannot be readily transferred onto the needles of a seamless machine
for forming the foot because such leg tube would not present a continuous course
of stitches around the end for application to the needles of such seamless machine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is
The described manufacture of stockings having feet with seamless heel and toe
portions the said manufacture consisting in forming the leg tube upon an ordinary
circular latch-needle machine, and the foot portion with its seamless heel and toe
pockets upon a circular latch-needle seamless machine, and transferring the cylinder
of one machine, with the work upon it to the other machine for the completion of
the stocking, substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 19th dox of Tan 1902
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.