Improvements in Overhead Sewing Machines for Knitted Goods.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Feb., 1888
Specification Accepted, 2nd Mar., 1888
[Communicated from abroad by BRUNO RUDOLPH, of 34 Haide Strasse, Berlin,
Germany, Manufacturer.]
Improvements in Overhead Sewing Machines for Knitted Goods.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL of No. 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in
the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent 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 relates to an improved construction of overhead sewing machines
for knitted goods, having for its purpose to produce either by a single thread or by
two threads, a soft flat overhead stitch serving to replace the hard raised single
thread chain stitch heretofore produced by sewing machines in which the knitted
goods are carried on a needle ring or wheel. For this purpose the ordinary ring or
wheel with hollow or grooved needles employed in such machines is combined with
an overhead sewing machine with two threads for knitted goods such as is described
in Patent No. 5330 of 1884, without affecting in any way the formation of the
stitches, the mechanism for actuating the needle, the looper and the loop holder also
remaining unchanged, as I will proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying
drawings in which Fig. 1 shews a sectional side view Fig. 2 a sectional plan, and
Fig. 3 a front view of the machine; Fig. 4 shews a sectional underside plan of the
needle wheel, and Figs. 5 and 6 shew respectively an enlarged side view and section
of the needle wheel and gear connected therewith.
The needle N Fig. 1 carried by the slide a receives its horizontal to and fro motion
from the excentric B Fig. 2 on the driving shaft A; the looper C has its vertical
spindle carried in the arm E of framing D, and is actuated by a toothed segment g
gearing with a pinion on its spindle and mounted on a lever arm F pivotted at H
and having a roller gearing with a cam groove I on shaft. A, so that the rotation of
the latter imparts a horizontal to and fro motion to the looper C.
The bar of the loop holder I receives its up and down motion in guides on the
arm E from the lever arm O having a rollers Figs. and 2 working in a cam
groove P. The action of these parts is well known, and they are only referred to here
for the sake of clearness.

page_text: The machine can also be made to work with only the needle thread, the thread of
the loop holder being dispensed with.
The needle wheel K carrying the knitted goods to be sewn, is mounted at the front
of the machine on a pink carried by the framing, and receives an intermittent rotary
motion through the cam groove S on the shaft A, and the lever T pivotted at t, one
end of which carries a roller s¹ gearing with the cam groove S, while the other end
is connected at u to the sliding rod U whose free end has a hook or pawl u¹ gearing
with the ratchet wheel M.
This wheel is fixed on a spindle m carrying a pinion V gearing with the toothed
ring W on the underside of the needle wheel K.
From this arrangement it will be seen that at each revolution of the shaft A the
ratchet wheel M will be advanced one tooth, whereby the needle wheel K is turned
through a distance corresponding to the distance from needle to needle that is to say,
the distance of one stitch.
The spring over the ratchet wheel M carries a pawl f which. gears with the
ratchet teeth and thus holds the wheel M and consequently the needle wheel K
stationary in the correct position while the sewing needle is passing through the
meshes of the fabrics.
The vertical pillar carries the rotatable dise R which serves to hold the knitted
fabrics at a point below the hollow needles during the sewing, by pressing them against
the part of the wheel K.
This pressure is effected by the action of a spring f³ on a pivotted arm that carries
the lower end of the pillar as shewn at Fig. 1, and by which the disc R is con-
sequently made capable of being moved to and from the wheel K.
Instead of arranging the disc R in a horizontal position as shewn, it can also be
arranged inclined. It is simply rotated by its frictional contact with the wheel K.
The action of the machine is as follows. The edges of the two fabrics to be sewn
together are separately hung at the height of either the whole or the half mesh upon
the hollow needles of the wheel K, and being held thereon by the disc R, the sewing
need le N in sliding forward in the groove of the hollow needle after the wheel K has
advanced one stitch, takes up the two meshes hung thereon and sews the same together
with an overhead stitch by the aid of the looper C and loop holder L.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
The combination of a machine for overhead sewing of the kind herein referred to
with a hollow or grooved needle ring or wheel on which the knitted fabrics to be
sewn are hung at the height of the whole or the half mesh so that the horizontally
advancing needle in entering the groove of the hollow needle after the wheel has
advanced one stitch takes up the two meshes and sews them together with an overhead
stitch substantially as herein described.
Daise this 1st day of Fahnuone 1000