Improvements in Stockings and Socks, and in the Method of Producing the same.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Nov., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 10th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 22nd Feb., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Stockings and Socks, and in the Method of
Producing the same.
We, JOHN HARRIS COOPER, and JOHN ARTHUR CORAH of the Firm of
Cooper, Corah & Sons, of St. Margaret's Works Leicester, Hosiery Manu-
facturers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has reference to the manufacture of stockings and socks and to
the method of producing the same.
The class of stocking to which our invention relates is, so far as the leg is
concerned, of the fully fashioned type, produced upon straight bar knitting frames
and contracted in width, below the calf, as the knitting proceeds, by narrowings
or transferring the stitches on the selvedge needles to other needles adjacent
thereto and nearer to the centre of the series of needles upon which the full
width of fabric is being made.
As these narrowings are made from time to time the number of needles upon
which loops are being formed is gradually reduced until only so many needles
are left in action and producing loops as will knit a fabric sufficiently narrowed
in width to conform to the ankle or smallest part of the wearer's leg.
The invention, so far as relates to the foot, i.e. the sole or bottom and instep,
are of the so called seamless or tubular kind such as would be produced by the
continuous rotation of cams around a circle of needles, and the heel and toe are
produced by reciprocating the cams around a portion of the circle of needles
reducing the number of needles in action at each course until the narrowest
course is reached, whereupon the needles are again brought into action in the
inverse order to that in which they were rendered inactive, when by the time
the whole of the needles which were forming loops at the commencement of the
heel or toe, have again been brought into action a pouch suitable for the heel
or toe has been made.
The main object of the invention is to produce a stocking having a fully
fashioned, or shaped leg (which is effected by transferring loops as herein described)
and a foot, heel and toe such as belongs to the seamless hosiery and in which the
seams at the sides of the foot incidental to wrought hosiery are avoided and
greater comfort in wear obtained.
Moreover stockings made in accordance with this invention are both better
itting and more comfortable in wear than those which are completely made and
inished either upon the straight bar knitting machine or upon the self-acting
knitting machines of the latch needle type, as by means of our improved manu-
acture the good points of the two stockings are included in the one we produce viz. :
he fully fashioned and self-fitting leg of the wrought hosiery and the seamless
oot, heel and toe, and absence of side seams of the seamless hosiery.
To carry out our invention we employ a straight bar knitting frame which is
referably of the "Cotton's" type upon which the welt and leg are knitted and
he latter shaped and fashioned by narrowings in the well known manner.
Having produced so much of the leg portion of the stocking or sock as will reach
o the bottom of the ankle or thereabouts, the fabric is pressed off the needles and
ransferred to the needles of a machine of the self-acting latch needle type, such
or instance as the "Griswold" machine, for producing seamless hosiery and the

page_text: heel, foot and toe are then knitted in the usual way and the toe and instep
connected together in the ordinary course.
We may produce our improved stocking or sock upon other frames of the
straight bar type than the "Cottons" and upon other machines of the self-acting
type than the "Griswold" these particular machines merely being cited as illus-
trations of the class of machines capable of being used for the purposes of the
present invention, and not as the only machines upon which our improved stocking
or sock is capable of being produced.
Dated this 7th day of November 1895
Improvements in Stockings and Socks, and in the Method of
Producing the same.
We, JoпN HARRIS COOPER, and JOHN ARTHUR CORAH of the Firm of
Cooper, Corah & Sons, of 'St. Margaret's Works Leicester, Hosiery Manu-
facturers, 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 :-
This invention has reference to the manufacture of stockings and socks and to
the method of producing the same.
The class of stocking or sock to which our invention relates is, so far as the leg
is concerned, of the fully fashioned type, produced upon straight bar knitting
frames and contracted in width below the calf, as the knitting proceeds, by
narrowings or transferring the stitches on the selvedge needles to other needles
adjacent thereto and nearer to the centre of the series of needles upon which the
full width of fabric is being made.
As these narrowings are made from time to time the number of needles upon
which loops are being formed is gradually reduced until only so many needles are
left in action and producing loops as will knit a fabric sufficiently narrowed in
width to conform to the ankle or smallest part of the wearer's leg.
The stocking or sock, so far as it relates to the foot, i.e. the sole or bottom and
instep, is of the so called seamless or tubular kind such as would be produced by
the continuous rotation of cams around a circle of needles, and the heel and toe are
produced by reciprocating the cams around a portion of the circle of needles,
reducing the number of needles in action at each course until the narrowest course
is reached, whereupon the needles are again brought into action in the inverse
order to that in which they were reudered inactive, when by the time the whole of
the needles which were forming loops at the commencement of the heel or toe,
have again been brought into action a pouch suitable for the heel or toe has been
made.
The main object of the invention is to produce a stocking or sock having a fully
fashioned or shaped leg (which is effected by transferring loops as herein described)
and a foot, heel and toe such as belongs to the class of seamless hosiery and in
which the seams at the sides of the foot such as are incidental to wrought hosiery
are avoided and greater comfort in wear obtained.
Moreover stockings and socks made in accordance with this invention are both
better fitting and more comfortable in wear than those which are completely made.
and finished either upon the straight bar knitting machine or upon the self-acting
knitting machines of the latch needle type, as by means of our improved manu-
facture the good points of the two stockings are included in the one we produce viz.:
the fully fashioned and self-fitting leg of the wrought hosiery and the seamless
foot, heel and toe, and absence of side seams of the seamless hosiery.
..1

page_text: The manufacture of stockings and socks according to our invention may be
carried out as follows:-
For the production of the leg part of the stocking or sock we prefer to use a
straight bar knitting machine of the bearded needle type, constructed on the well
known "Cotton's" system and furnished with automatically acting narrowing
mechanism for shifting the loops to reduce the width of the fabric at such. courses
and as often as may be required.
The manufacture of the stocking or sock is commenced by making the welt at
the upper part of the leg, the formation of which is well understood and needs no
further description.
The leg is then proceeded with, the usual requisite number of courses being
successively knitted (variable according to whether it is the leg of a stocking or
sock which is in course of production) the operator having previously arranged the
narrowing mechanism of the machine so that narrowings on each selvedge of the
fabric will be made at intervals during the knitting thereof to gradually reduce
the width of the same to adapt it to fit over the narrower part of the leg and ankle
below the calf.
Having knitted so much of the leg portion of the fabric as will reach to the
bottom of the ankle or thereabouts, the operator then presses the fabric off the
needles and transfers it to a machine of the self-acting latch needle type employed
in the production of what is known as seamless hosiery.
Such a machine is well instanced in the "Griswold" circular reversible knitting
machine and is the one we prefer to employ for the purpose.
One or more complete courses may if desired now be knitted to the fabric and
then the heel formed, by placing out of action en-inasse one half or thereabouts of
the full complement of needles and knitting the heel upon the remaining needles,
raising one or more end needles out of action at each course, thereby gradually
reducing the width of the fabric until one half of the heel and the narrowest part
of the fabric is made.
Knitting is then continued, the inactive needles being again brought into action
in the inverse order to that of being raised out of work, until the whole of the
needles upon which the commencement of the knitting of the heel took place have
again come into operation when a pouch for the heel will have been made.
The other remaining half of the needles are now again, en-masse, pat into
working position and continuous circular knitting resumed for a sufficient number
of courses to. form a seamless tubular foot bottom and instep, after which the toe
pouch is produced in the same manner as that described with reference to the heel.
The fabric is then pressed off the needles and the two edges of the toe drawn or
seamed together and the two selvedges of that part of the leg fabric formed on the
straight bar knitting machine similarly united in the well known manner to form
the complete stocking or sock.
We may produce our improved stocking or sock upon other frames of the
straight bar type than the "Cottons" and upon other machines of the self-acting
type than the "Griswold"; these particular machines merely being cited as illus
trations of the class of machines capable of being used for the purposes of the
present invention, and not as the only machines upon which our improved stocking
or sock is capable of being produced.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. A stocking or sock having a fully fashioned or shaped leg and a seamless
tubular foot produced substantially in the manner hereinbefore described.
2. A stocking or sock comprising a leg formed of a shaped or narrowed flat
fabric united at its selvedges, a foot formed of a seamless tubular fabric and heel
and toe pouches knitted substantially in the manner herein before described.

page_text: 3. The improved stocking or sock produced substantially in the manner
described.
4. The method of manufacturing stockings and socks which consists in knitting
the leg upon a straight bar bearded needle knitting machine, and shaping the same
by narrowings at intervals in each selvedge of the fabric as the knitting proceeds,
then transferring the fabric thus produced to a self-acting latch needle knitting
machine, and knitting a seamless tubular fabric foot thereto and heel and toe
pouches, to the said foot substantially in the manner described.
Dated this 9th day of January 1896.
JOHN HARRIS COOPER.
JOHN ARTHUR CORAH.
Witness-
E. N. LEWIS,
Berridge Street Chambers,
Leicester.
Boult & Wade,
Agents for the Applicants.