SOME NEW AND IMPROVED MODES OF MAKING AND SHAPING STOCKINGS AND PIECES, AND ALSO SOME NEW AND IMPROVED KINDS OF STOCKING-STITCH AND WARP- WORK APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BARBER, of Bilborough, in the County of Nottingham, Gentlemen, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth
day of June, in the forty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Barber, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert
Barber, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,.
within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "SOME
NEW AND IMPROVED MODES OF MAKING AND SHAPING STOCKINGS AND PIECES,
AND ALSO SOME NEW AND IMPROVED KINDS OF STOCKING-STITCH AND WARP-
WORK APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES," in such manner as to me, the
said Robert Barber, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should in my
discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that if I, the said Robert Barber, should not. particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within

page_text: one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages what-
soever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as
in and by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Barber, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in tho Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof, and references thereto (that is to say): -
Imprimis, I make some kinds of warp stocking-stitch framework, and some
of the common stocking-stitch framework, and unite them together in the
Also the particular machinery
working, so as to become one manufacture.
which I uso to make the work, and the mode of using it are hereafter
described. First, to make union manufacture, place a stocking frame (say
forty inches wide) in a proper form for working, but you first make some
few alterations in the form and use of it; the sinkers should be wider in the
throat than usual; the band bar should have a false handle put to it, and
the lockers be made longer, that they may be taken hold of to work below the
serving bar ends; 'tis better also to fix the slur wheel, so as to work from
the back rail alone. You now fix up the standards and apparatus described
in No. 9, to the stocking frame wood-work, and observe that the grooved bars
and thread carriers be in a good situation for the carriers to point and leave
their threads over the needles for the sinkers to drop down upon; there are
three thread carriers and gage stops to limit their distances optionally, and a
rack apparatus to draw the slides upon, which are fixed for the stops. For the
pullies and minutie, see the Drawings. But if you make a whole piece, the
limited spaces for the thread carriers may remain, and you may then either
draw the threads by the handles or by guide pullies in the bar ends, and
elsewhere. Unite these cords to the slur-cock cords, and travel them and the
sinkers by traddles; place the double serving bars Nos. 1, 2, and 3, and the
lever or right-hand handle A fixed thereto, properly in a situation to serve the
threads from Nos. 1 and 3 upon the needles. The TT and crank bar, with two
additional long ends, are fixed to the wood-work, and setting in stops as usual
to warp frames. One cramp limiting bar 0, 0, is described, and must be
fixed to the needle bar near the ends.
fixed to the front of the bars, and you fix
also the spring and stop to stay the bars
work the stocking course. To work the union, suppose your preceding work to
The regulating apparatus No. 4 is
the traverse backwards optionally;
are to be suitably fixed whilst you

page_text: be back behind the sinker nobs by the handles, first crossing the bars and the
threads below, and each past two needles, with the thumb of your left hand at
a, and holding that handle, the lever A drives them. Raise up both bars, one
over the other), through and above the needles; recross them, and overcast one
rcedle (the thumb plate a is to be minded to limit the traverse), bring them
down again below the needles, then push the threads past the sinker nobs. Now
pass your stocking-stitch threads across the needles where desired, and then
work the course like common stocking-stitch work. In the before-mentioned
bars and servers, you may either put an equal number of threads to the working.
needles, or half the number. If you apply a single serving bar and apparatus,
and work and serve like my double-looped patent (viz'), serving twice to a
course, and putting the threads forward as before, you will make work much
like the former. N.B.-By mixing and serving the warp threads amongst the
stocking-stitch threads you may make plain, plated, corded, and a great variety
of work.
The next work is a double warp kind of work, made to appear as a stock-
ing-stitch work made with double bars, but with a single serving. Fix
the same kind of apparatus No. 5, and the same serving bars as are before
described and used in the double work fixed to any modern warp frame; then,
supposing the last work to be behind the sinkers, by the lever or handle A
you rack the two bars and threads past each one, two, or three needles, pressing
down one of the plates Z which governs the traverse; then raise up the
servers and threads above the needles with the lever A, recross the threads each
past one needle; your thumb, pressing down on Z, governs the distance; bring
down betwixt the needles, and work the course. N.B.-The two brass rollers
C, C, and weights and cords fixed upon them at the ends of the warp beams
No. 7, govern the tightness of the work.
The third kind is a kind of cross-stitch nett-work or eyelet-hole warp
stocking-stitch, made as follows:-Take a warp frame, fix properly to it
the before-mentioned double serving bars Nos. 1, 2, & 3, united together with
the lever A, termed a handle, properly fixed. The regulator No. 4 is fixed
with the right-hand hole to the kind of half circular tap k on the right
of the middle carrying bar, and the left-hand hole in the regulator to the
back side of the left-hand handle L; with your left thumb press down the
plate T, with the right hand, rack the handle or lever to the right hand;
this drives the top bar to the left hand, and its tab k strikes against the
left gage stop V of the regulator, the low bar passing contrarily, the tab.or
cramped plate strikes the outside gage stop W; you raise the threads and bars.
above the needles, recross the threads, and lay them each over one needle to

page_text: the right and left, bring down betwixt and below the needles, and work tho
course as stocking work. For the next course you begin by recrossing the
threads below the needles (observe this is the contrary way to that you did at
the beginning), you raise the bars and threads above, recross and lay the
threads each over one needle, bring down below the needles. Now observe,
you press down the plate T, and this sets all the gages at liberty, raise up the
bars and threads above the needles, and rack each bar one needle forward to
the dead stops N, N, one on the top side, and the other on the low side of the
carrying bar. The threads being each laid over one needle, bring them down
through the bars betwixt the needles, and work the course; you next begin to
rack the bars and work the courses precisely in contrary directions.
The fourth kind of stocking work: I make the stocking framework and in
part prepare it for shaping the hose in the making, and also making the work to
produce three or more hose at one operation, and optioning to make thick heels
and insteps, and at any parts required. Take the same kind of stocking frame
and place the thread-carrying bar No. 9, in the same form as I do to make
the stocking work first mentioned. There are two racking bars No. 9, to pass
and repass the stops. The wire passes over each thread carrier and slips from
them forward, always leaving every one at its distinct place. Observe there
are to be three slur cocks upon the common slur bar connected by a wire to
pass them on together to their limited homes. The jacks and sinkers are
taken from the frame to make the spaces where the slur cocks stop at, and you
may unite the slur-ceek cords and the thread-carrier cords to draw by the same
traddles, or work them seperately, as appears in the Drawings. To make the
work, suppose the last work behind the sinker nebbs, pass your threads over
the needles, and work the course. You narrow or widen the outsides of the
stockings by hand, and the F, F, F, of the thread carriers G, D, being hung
loose upon sockets, when they are drawn forwards the low ends tip forward
from under the sinkers, either by the sinker kicking them forward at the stops,
or they will be thrown forward by the sloped bolsters. To make thick heels
with the stocking work, place in front of the stocking frame a single serving
bar, and its common apparatus moved in the crank bar No. 6; when the threads
are passed over the needles, and the sinkers upon them throw a single serving
of threads up betwixt and above the needles, shove the threads over one needle
each in a contrary direction to that which the other stocking thread passed;
bring the server and threads forward under the needle beards, then work the
course. N.B. Observe, leave upon any or all of the 9, 9, 9, cylinders all the
threads you apply with the single serving bar. The cylinders have bolts h, h, h
which press into the cavity of the roller occasionally to hold them steady. The

page_text: width of the cylinders is optional, as well as the distinct or seperate use of
them. There are weights and cords upon both ends of the cylinders to steady.
the threads..
If you choose to make common warp work wide enough to cut and shape
into three, four, five, or more hose, my way, when they are got down to:
where the insteps and feet should begin, is to serve twico upon a needle, like
my former patent work, continued to any length you please.
The mode of shaping, and method of making warp or stocking-stitch frame-
work (see the Drawing or specimen, No. 10).-Take a piece of any kind of
framework one yard wide, and two yards long, and so on to any extent; the
seams are cut and made by back-stitching the edges together; or, if you will
pay somewhat more for the making of them, let the cut edges be turned back.
and flat, basted, and pressed with a hot iron, then either scam the edges
together as you do a worsted or cotton hose, or sew round the edges two loops
forward and one back, take hold two loops deep each time. N.B.-A picco
of two yards makes six hose. Observe the description of the piece, No. 11.
This piece is also supposed to be one yard wide and two yards long. The
length and width of the hose are hereby described; the double red lines aro
intended to describe where one or more threads of the servers are to be shifted
to the right and left sides, between which you cut down, and the sides serve to
make a good seam. The single lines are to be cut and seamed like the hose
in No. 10. You may make warp work of one yard wide, by serving and shog-
ing over one needle to the right hand. Shog the threads over, rack the threads
below past two needles, then rack and serve over one needle to the left hand,
and so continue to the extent of your piece; the inside of this piece appears
like a common stocking wale; you may shape these hose across the piece in the
same proportion of the work as you do the others which are made lengthways.
N.B. If you choose to make thick heels, either put two threads into every
server when and where wanted, or apply the mode of double serving, as is
before represented, to use with the stocking-stitch framework. For making the
lengths and widths and all the proportion of any kinds of stockings, I beg to
refer to the examples in Nos. 10 and 11; smaller stockings must be assigned
and made proportionably. N.B.-Most of the waste that would be occa-
sioned by cutting away the outsides of the piece to make the small parts of
the outside hose, by using the roller and the two spole threads, and by
taking off and putting on those threads where wanted, that waste is saved.
In making distinct hose of the common manufacture, you make the
lengths and breadths optional, until you get to the bottoms of the heels,
and then work down at those widths the proper lengths to shape the feet

page_text: from; press down one or two eyes of the needles where you wish to
make gaps, and the seams in those places will be made better for it. When
the common stocking-frame hose are made distinctly, by making slack
courses at the bottom of the heels and over the insteps, they may afterwards be
footed by boys upon the common stocking frame.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Barber, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and five.