A MACHINE FOR KNITTING WITHOUT THE USE OF JACKS OR SINKERS
Year: 1779

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
EATON, of Nottingham, in the County of Nottingham, Hosier, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the nineteenth year of His-reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Eaton, my exors, admors, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that
I, the said Samuel- Eaton, my exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them,
by, myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputys, servants or
agents, from time to time and at all times hereafter during the continuance of
the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and might lawfully make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great Britain called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A MACHINE FOR KNITTING WITHOUT THE USE OF JACKS OR SINKERS," in such
manner as I, the said Samuel Eaton, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
any of them, should in my or their discretion see meet; in which said recited
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Samuel Eaton, should
not particularly describe and ascertain 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 to be inrolled in His Majesty's

page_text: High Court of Chancery within four months next immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent should become void, as
in and by the said Letters Patent, and the Statute in that case made, relation
being thereunto respectively had, may more at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the proviso in the said Let-
ters Patent contained, and in pursuance of the Statute in that case made
and provided, I, the said Samuel Eaton, do hereby declare that my said
Invention and Machine is composed, made, performed, and worked in manner
herein-after mentioned, that is to say:-
This machine for knitting has neither jacks nor sinkers, and is of a par-
ticular construction, with a view of making stockings and other knit goods
in a much sounder and neater manner than heretofore, and performs the
work by the alternate moving of needles. It stands on a frame of wood. On
the side is a small wheel which works a sliding barr, that lets the needles
which performs the knitting go back alternately. The needles are fastened
into iron sliders, the tails of which are seperately connected with steel springs
by means of brass wires, which draw the needles back; as the moving of the
sliding bar sets them at liberty, the needles slide back betwixt the needle
barr and presser bar that is fixed over it, and which, taking the stuff that is
carried over the needles by a guider, makes the loops, and pressing as they
pass alternately from the stitches. By this alternate movement of the needles
from right to left a course is made; the needles are then brought forwards
all together by means of a leaver, and the sliding bar returns into its place
at the back of the needles by means of a counter-weight. This, performed
in the same manner from left to right, produces another course, and by a
repetition of these movements the whole work is performed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Eaton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine.

page_text: AND BE IT REMBRED, that on the Twenty-second day of November, in
the year of our Lord 1779, the aforesaid Samuel Eaton came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Indenture aforesaid,
and all and every every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Indenture aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor
of the Statutes made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and
Queen W and Mary of England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth year
of the reign of His Maty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of November, in the year of our Lord