IMPROVE MENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO CIRCULAR MACHINES FOR MAKING PLAIN OR RIBBED LOOPED FABRICS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Hastings Hill, of the Town and County of the
Town of Nottingham, Hosiery Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO CIRCULAR MACHINES
FOR MAKING PLAIN OR RIBBED LOOPED FABRICS."
Sealed the 15th September 1877, and dated the 11th July 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Hastings Hill at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th July 1877.
DAVID HASTINGS HILL, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
Hosiery Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS APPLI-
CABLE TO CIRCULAR MACHINES FOR MAKING PLAIN OR RIBBED LOOPED FABRICS.".
In carrying out my improvements I employ a bracket attached to the ring or
plate, to which the wheel brackets are secured; the bracket carries or forms bearings
for a verticle spindle; the upper side of a collar of the spindle is provided with
studs which enter into recesses in the lower end of an additional cop tube or spool,
round which the feeding yarn is passed, being supplied from the usual cop or spool.
The lower end of the spindle is provided with a toothed wheel driven by an
intermediate toothed wheel which gears into and is driven by teeth secured to or
forming part of the flange of the circular head. There are holes in the flange in
which the lower end of a rocking lever drops when not held up by the feeding yarn
which passes through or under the bolt; the effect of which is that the yarn is
constantly drawn off the stationery or revolving tube or spool by the additional
tube or spool in the required quantity; but upon the yarn breaking, or a tube or
spool becoming empty, the rocking lever drops into one of the holes in the head
flange and stops the head before there is time to press the work off. The head
being driven by a friction cone the driving power is continued in action until
stopped by the attendant, although the head is stationery.

page_text: Figure 1 shews in plan one set of my improved machinery and apparatus applied
to one head of a circular machine for producing a plain looped fabric; Figure 2 is a
side view of the same; and Figure 3, a view of the inner or stopping end of a
rocking lever hereafter referred to.
The several corresponding parts in each.Figure.are lettered alike.*.
In carrying out my improvenients I either employ a bearing bracket attached to
the ring A to which the wheel brackets are secured, or bearings are formed in the
ring A and bed B for a vertical spindle C, which carries at its upper end a cop tube
or spool C¹. The lower end of the spindle is provided with a toothed wheel D,
which may gear into an intermediate wheel if the circular head is of a diameter to
require it; or it gears into a wheel D' secured to or forming part of the flange of
the head; near to the vertical spindle a bracket E clips the ring A.; the bracket
supports a rocking lever F provided with an eye or loop on its inner end.
The feeding yarns supplied from the usual cop or spool is passed through a hole
in the guide rail G, then round the tube or spool C¹, and under the loop or eye of
the rocking lever previous to being passed through the ordinary thread guide H to
the needles of the machine which, when supplied with bearded needles, as shewn at
Figure 2, is provided with loop-dividing, landing, knocking over, and clearing
wheels, and push-back of the usual construction, but which are not shewn in the
Drawings. The driving wheel I to each head is also constructed and operated in
the usual way, and gears into a wheel K on the pipe of the head, which, instead of
being secured to the head, contains either a well-known friction cone or spring clip, 4
thus enabling the head to be stopped while the driving shaft revolves. The arrows
indicate the direction the head and spool C¹ revolve.
The above-described machinery and apparatus is equally applicable to circular
machines for making ribbed looped fabrics, and likewise to circular machines for
making either plain or ribbed looped fabrics, and carrying latch needles. In either
case the effect is as follows:-The feeding yarn is drawn off the usual cop through
the guide rail G by the continued revolution of the spool C¹ in the required quantity,

page_text: the rocking lever F being held up by the yarn in the position shewn at Figure 2,
quite clear of the toothed wheel D₁ on the flange of the head; but immediately
upon the yarn breaking or coming to an end the inner end of the lever drops into
one or other of the holes in the flange or between the spokes of the wheel D¹, as
shewn by dotted lines at Figure 3, and stops the revolution of the head before there
is time to press the work off, the driving power continuing until stopped by the
attendant, although the head is stationary.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Hastings Hill, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
DAVID HASTINGS HILL. (L.S.)