Improvements in Knitting Machines.
Year: 1889

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Knitting Machines.
We, JULIUS SEYFERT and HERMANN DONNER, both residents of Chemnitz in the
Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Our invention relates to improvements in Lamb's knitting machines with self-acting
narrowing mechanism for example to such as are described in the Patent of Beyer
No. 7224 A.D. 1887.
The improvements consist in the application of several thread-carriers for the
purpose of manufacturing split knitted wares as for example stocking-legs with ribbed
full-fashioned heels and ribbed instep. Secondly the improvements consist in a
mechanism for releasing the pressure exercised to the loops of the knitted ware, the
narrowing apparatus is being in force.
The difficulty in knitting such split wares manufactured by means of several threads and
several thread-carriers is the passing from one part of the knitted ware over to the
next.
There must naturally be an interruption or partition in the knitted ware, but in
order to attain a regular appearance of the knitted ware it is necessary that always a
distinct needle forms the last loop of one partition, that is to say the board loops of each
partition must always be formed by the same needles.
This effect is attained by knitting locks provided with a straight leading con-
trivance, in combination with several thread-carriers, moveable in a vertical
direction.
The drawing shows a knitting machine with two thread-carriers with which a
doubly divided knitting-ware is to be manufactured, but of course the number of
the thread-carriers may be augmented as demanded, the effect and the working of
every thread-carrier in respect to the next thread-carrier remains always the same as
that of the first thread-carrier in respect to the second carrier.
Fig. 1 is a front view of a Lamb's knitting machine with two thread-carriers a b,
both at rest in their first position, the locks have begun to move at the right.
Fig. 2 is an upper view of fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is an upper view of a Lamb's knitting machine with two thread-carriers ab,
the first carrier a having finished its movement and the second carrier 6 being about
to start. As may easily be seen both thread-carriers stand opposite to one another in
this movement.
Fig. 4 shows in a front view of a Lamb's knitting machine with two thread-
carriers a b, the first a having finished its way and its thread guide being sunk in
lowest position against the latch needles and the second one 6 having made a part
of its way.
Fig 5 shows an upper view of fig. 4.
Fig. 6 shows an upper view of a Lamb's knitting machine with two thread-
carriers a b, both carriers having finished their way to the right side of the machine,
carrier b being ready for moving downwards towards the needles.
Fig. 7 shows a cross-section of the knitting machine through the line ay of fig. 3;
the standard of the knitting machine being broken away and the locks for moving
he needles being left away for the sake of greater clearness. Both carriers a bare
tanding in equal height, opposite to each other at that height to which they are
aised, when providing the needles with loop across the needle beds.
Fig. 8 shows a cross section of the knitting machine through the line x y of fig. 4;
he standard of the knitting machine being broken away and the locks for moving
he needles being left away for the sake of greater clearness. The first carrier a

page_text: is sunk down on to the needles and only the second carrier 6 is standing in its usual
position.
Fig. 9 shows in an upper view the arrangement of the lock for moving the needles
and the position of several needles in respect to this lock. Fig. 9ª shows a split
knitted ware as manufactured by the illustrated improvements.
It must be supposed that the arrangement of the Lamb's knitting machine is
known. In the drawing A A are the beds of the knitting machine, on which the
needles o rest. They are moved up and down by the locks L L' which are after-
wards to be described. The locks L L rest on the beds A A and are moved in the
usual and well known manner in a horizontal direction to and fro to the right and to
the left.
.
These locks are covered with and attached to frames L L³; L2 bears the catch
levers; I bears the catch levers 7 l'; each lever is provided with a tooth a and an
inclined projection B.
The beds A A of the knitting machine bear the guiding bars firmly attached
to the beds. In these guiding bars rest the slide bars moveable. in a longi-
tudinal direction to 12 and to these slide bars are attached the short plates r
which bear by means of axles v v¹ the levers a a², bb2 forming the thread-carriers.
To the slide bars 77 are firmly attached the block cc' c² c³ each provided with a
projection y. Firmly secured to the guiding bars are the pieces ff which are
provided with the inclined plane §.
The lock L moves the needles on the front side of the machine by means of the
grooves cut in it as well as the lock L¹ the needles on the back side of the machine
and these grooves are arranged in a certain manner; an inclined groove g is com-
bined with the straight groove 9 and with the inclined groove g³, on each side of the
lock.
The thread-carriers a bare moveable on their axles v v₁ and possess second
levers a²² (figs. 7 and 8) which are submitted to the action of springs p₁p they
rest always with their arms a² 62 against the bars p² p³ of the locks L L' which are
provided with the inclined planes p p¹ (figs. 7 and 8).
The working of the described arrangement and combination is the following:
At first an undivided piece is to be knitted of a breadth from s to s³ (figs. 2 and 9*)
and this is effected in the well known manner by making all the needles operate
from s to sand by feeding them from one thread-carrier a. For this purpose the
piece sitting on guide bar must be loosened and taken away; then both levers 12 13
are in connection with their blocks c c¹ (fig. 2) and the lock L being guided from the
left to the right, pushes forward with its lever 13 the block c¹ connected to the slide
bar which bears the piece with thread-carrier a, the latter feeding the latch
needles of the knitting machine with yarn from s to s²; it is assumed that from s to s³
only a knitted ware shall be manufactured and that only in this space latch needles
are brought in the position for receiving loops; this is a well known manner of
knitting an undivided strip, forming no part of our invention.
•
But if it is desired that divided strips attached to the undivided strip are to be
manufactured then our invention comes in force in the following manner.
The piece is firmly attached to the guiding bar r by screws in a position (fig. 2)
according to the breadth of the two strips desired in the knitted ware and now if
the lock L is moved from the left (fig. 2) to the right (fig. 3) the thread-carrier a
feeds the needles from s to s¹ with threads; then the thread carrier a stands opposite
to the second thread-carrier b and has finished its movement to the right, because the
inclined plane ẞ of the lever 13 on the cover L³ has met against the piece of 8 and is
brought out of connection with the projection c¹ y. Now the second thread-carrier b
which has been provided with a thread and which was till this moment at rest
begins to move by means of the action of the lever which pushes forward the
block cy, firmly attached to the slide bar, bearing the piece with thread-carrier b.
The thread led by this carrier b has been laid before the beginning of the movement
(by hand) between the board-needle of the first strip and the first needle of the

page_text: second strip in well known manner and now if this thread-carrier begins to move to
the right the second partition of the knitted ware (s' to s²) separated from the part
(from sto s) formed by the first thread and thread-carrier, is formed by the
second thread and thread-carrier b. Whilst the second thread-carrier is moved
from s (fig. 3) to the position, shown in figs. 4, 5, it is necessary, that the thread-
carrier a sinks down from the position fig. 7 to the position shown in fig. 8. The
reasons for this necessity shall be declared later on, at first the action shall be described.
The sinking down of the thread-carrier a is caused by the inclined plane p attached
to the lock L (figs. 4 and 8). The lever a² pushes against this inclined plane and
lowers the thread-carrier a (fig. 8) so that it stands closely over or between the latch
needles. This situation of the thread-carrier is shown in figs. 4, 5 & 8.
When the locks L L' are moved farther to the right, the thread-carrier a rises
again and the thread-carrier b reaches at last its extreme position to the right fig. 6.
Then the carrier b begins to sink and rises again after having fed the last needle of
the ware s¹ s².
Now the backward stroke of the knitting machine to the left begins and the
thread-carrier lays threads into the needles from s² back to s¹ first, in moving itself
from the position fig. 6 back to the position fig. 3. Now again both thread-carriers a
and 6 stand opposite to each other; the lever of the lock L' and cover L³ pushes
with its inclined plane ẞ against the block ƒ¹ ♪ and is raised and the thread-carrier b
has finished its movement, as far as the needles are concerned; it has manufactured
the second division of the divided knitted ware and now the thread-carrier a begins to
nove; but when moving the thread-carrier b is lowered in the same manner by an
inclined plane p¹ firmly attached to the lock I and acting on the lever 62, as formerly
the thread-carrier a has done. The thread-carrier is moved till it has finished the
first division of the divided knitted ware, and is sunk in its lowest position just before
the board needles caught their thread, when the locks stand at left outside the needles
both guides are raised again.
Now the reasons and the utility for the lowering operation of each thread-carrier
after having finished its movement and after having laid its threads in a part of the
needles, shall be described.
If several thread-carriers for a knitting machine are used, it is necessary that they
stand in a sufficiently high position so that they can move and stand side by side and
opposite to one another and touch neither themselves nor the needles. But if the
thread-carriers stand at such a height, they do not lead the thread so surely as usual
and they cannot provide each needle up to the board-needle with thread with
certainty, if a certain construction of the lock is not applied and if a lowering of the
thread-carrier, which has finished its movement across the bed of the knitting machine
is not provided as clearly to see in fig. 9.
Let it be supposed that 9 be the last needle fed by thread-carrier a for the first division
of the divided knitted ware, and that from 1' 2¹ and so on the needles are to be fed by the
thread-carrier b. In the position shown in fig. 9 the thread-carrier a has finished
its movement to the right and the thread-carrier 6 standing behind a begins to
move.
In this movement the thread-carrier a has fed the needle 5 with thread o' which is
about to shut its hook by its latch in the usual manner. The needles 6, 7 and 8 are
held by the straight groove gl in such a position that their latches are still open. It
is easily to be seen that by this straight groove the forming of the mashes and the
closing of the latch needles takes place at a very great distance (equal to the distance
of four or more needles from one another) from the thread-carrier so that the thread
is guided nearly horizontally. By this we insure a good working and filling of the
needles and the advantage is attained, that, if the thread-carrier a has reached its
extreme position on one side, and if the second thread-carrier 6 begins to move,
time is gained to lower the first thread-carrier without crossing the way of the second
carrier.
In the position fig. 9 the thread-carrier a has reached its extreme position to the
right and now, whilst the thread-carrier 6 standing behind it, begins to move to the

page_text: right, if the carrier a is lowered by the inclined plane p in such a manner that it
stands at last in position as shown in fig. 8; at that time just the board needle 9 of the
first strip closes its head after having taken up the thread.
This needle 9 like all the others is lowered by the groove g² of the lock L, which
is moved to the right, and in the same manner the thread-carrier is lowered, so that
if the last needle 9 (of the first division) has gained the position of the needle 6
(shown in fig. 9) the thread-carrier a stands closely over it and feeds the thread to
this last needle of the first division too, and that is the purpose of the combination,
and this takes place in a moment, where the second thread-carrier b stands already at
a certain distance, so that the lowering thread-carrier does not cross the way of the
other. The purpose of the straight groove in the locks is to postpone the closing of
the latch needles and to gain time for the closing of the last needles of each division and
this in combination with the lowered thread-carrier for feeding with certainty the last
needles of each division, forms the invention.
In the drawing a knitting machine is shown with two thread-carriers; it is natural
that for serving diverse purposes, the machine may work with three, four or five
or more thread-carriers; there is no change in the invention but only a multiplying of the
arrangements. Indeed there is only shown in the drawing one compartment of the
whole machine; in practice there are many locks and many compartments arranged
side by side on the same machine and each of these compartments working as
described, is coupled with the others and works together with them; each one making
a strip of ware and this invention is to be applied to all knitting machines working
with latch needles on one or two beds.
The second improvement is illustrated in figs. 10-13.
The machine is an
automatically narrowing knitting machine, the narrowing described fully in Patent
to Beyer No. 722487. On the narrowing shaft a' is a cam a which with each
revolution of shaft a¹ comes under the roller & or lever c which lever is pivoted to the
machine frame at c'. The lever c is connected at its lower end with the lever h
at h¹ by means of a small arm and the lever h is in its turn fixed to the shaft h².
The shaft contains the drum d for stretching the ware being manufactured and
further the drum d' round which the chain or cord is wound which passes over the
roller d² and bears the weight g, by means of which weight g the ware is continually held
tight.
Beside this drum d¹ there is a ratchet wheel / attached to the shaft h² in which
the ratchet h³ works which is attached to the upper end of lever h. Whilst the cam a
is not under the roller of lever arm c the ratchet h³ is held away from the
ratchet wheel by means of the pin p.
The working of the arrangement is as follows: When the stitches by which the
work is to be narrowed have been taken off the latched needles and the piece is
banging only on those few stitches which are hanging on the covering needles, that
is in the moment before the same are to be placed over the other latched needles as
shown in fig. 12, it is necessary that the ware should be relieved of the strain caused
by the weight g and to effect this result, the cam a which revolves with the narrowing
shaft a', comes at this moment under the roller b or lever c pushing it and with it
lever towards the right in fig. 11 whereby the ratchet h³ is released from pin p and
falls into the ratchet wheel pushing the wheel in the direction of the arrow in fig. 11
thereby counterbalancing the action of weight g and relieving the knitted ware of the
strain. As soon as the stitches have been placed over the latched needles again and
the ware is hanging as shown in Figure 13, the cam a has passed further round the
lever c falls back and the ratchet is drawn out of the ratchet wheelf in consequence
of which the weight comes again into action.
Having now particularly described aud ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :
1.) In straight knitting machines with latch needles and selfacting fashioning
apparatus: a lock provided with inclined grooves having stop g' in combination with

page_text: several thread-carriers, detachable from the lock and moveable downwards towards
the needles, in the manner and for the purpose, substantially as described.
2.) In said knitting machines an arrangement for automatically relieving the
ware at the moment when the narrowing or widening takes place of the strain to
which it must be subjected during the manufacture, substantially and for the purpose
as described.
3.) In said knitting machines with arrangement for narrowing or widening the ware:
the combination of a cam, a rotating with the narrowing shaft a' and operating the
drum to which the knitted ware is attached in such a manner that this drum is to be
turned back, so that the tension exercised on the knitted ware is to be released, in the
manner and for the purpose, substantially as described.
Dated Berlin this 5th day of Jul 1880
JULIUS SEYFERT.
HERMANN DONNER.
By A. Kuhnt & R. Deissler,
38, Alexander Strasse.
JULIUS SEYFERT.
HERMANN DONNER.
By A. Kuhnt & R. Deissler,
38, Alexander Strasse.