IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED FABRICS, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS THEREFOR, PARTS OF WHICH APPARATUS ARE APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th September 1883. Communicated
to him from abroad by Levi E. Salisbury, of Providence, Rhode Island,
United States of America.
"
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
KNITTED FABRICS, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS THEREFOR, PARTS OF WHICH
APPARATUS ARE APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES "
[A communication to him
from abroad by Levi E. Salisbury, of Providence, Rhode Island, United States of
America.]
This invention relates to the manufacture of knitted fabrics and to machinery or
apparatus therefor, parts of which apparatus are applicable for other purposes.
Heretofore the needles of a knitting machine when arranged upon a straight bar
have usually been actuated by cams composed of inclined planes, the rapidity with
which a needle by this means is made to pass from its highest to its lowest point,
depending upon the inclination of the plane, which is limited by reason of the
friction. Likewise a necessary result of the use of cams, of this construction, is
that several needles will be in motion in the same direction, each succeeding needle
being but slightly behind its predecessor, and the thread to be formed into loops,
becoming involved in the hooks of several descending needles, is strained and often
disintegrated and even broken as it is drawn over the partitions between the
needles.
One object of this invention is to manipulate the needles vertically with much
greater rapidity than can be done with the cams referred to, by means of a novel
arrangement of came upon a revolving shaft, whereby each needle may be made to
descend, taking the yarn to its lowest point if desired, before the next succeeding
needle has taken the yarn, so that each needle takes the yarn freely from the
bobbin, and imposes no deleterious strain upon the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide for the employment of a number
of knitting or loop threads at the same time upon a straight bar, each following
the other in close succession, constituting numerous points or sections simultaneously
and continuously in operation, thereby greatly increasing the capacity of the
machine for producing fabric. Heretofore when the knitting has been accomplished
by travelling threads upon a straight bar, but one thread has been employed, so far

page_text: as I am aware, such thread travelling the entire length of the bar, leaving all the
needles behind it idle until the same thread returns.
A further object of this invention is the introduction of a warp into the fabric
by a novel arrangement, and lastly the formation of a new fabric."
The mechanism for actuating the needles consists essentially of one or more
revolving cam shafts provided with pins or lugs, and so placed with reference to
the row of needles in the bar, that the lugs in revolving are brought directly or
indirectly in contact with the jacks or butts of the needles, thereby imparting the
vertical movements to the needles, for example the shaft being placed parallel with
the needle bar, a lug is fixed upon the said shaft in such a manner, that, as the
same revolves, the lug strikes a corresponding projection upon the needle jack and
throws the needle down. A second lug is placed opposite the succeeding needle or
needle jack in such a position upon the shaft, that this second lug will engage its
needle jack at the moment that the preceding needle has reached its lowest point,
or earlier if desired; and following this arrangement with each succeeding needle.
The needles being arranged regularly in the bar and at equal distances from each
other, it is obvious that the lugs will take the form of a spiral around the shaft,
and this spiral in the case of a long needle bar may encircle the shaft several times.
It is also obvious that as the needles are thus thrown down, they may be returned
to their former or raised position by a second shaft similarly constructed. A more
detailed plan, but, upon the same principle of action, will hereinafter be explained
for reciprocating the needles.
Now in case the spiral upon the first mentioned shaft makes more than one
circuit of the shaft, there will be a corresponding number of points along the
needle bar, at which the needles will be similarly actuated at the same time, and
when the shaft has completed a revolution it will be in position to throw down the
same sets of needles which were thus actuated by the first revolution, they having
in the mean time been thrown up by the means already mentioned, or by other
mechanism hereinafter described.
Hence it will be seen that the needles upon the bar are divided into sets or
blocks with reference to their action, the several sets beginning and completing
their work simultaneously, in other words in the case of a bar, of say, ninety six
needles with the spiral completing the circuit of the shaft in going the distance of
twenty four needles, there would be four sets of twenty eight needles cach, each set
beginning to knit at the same time, in this case four threads could be employed at
the same time instead of only one.
I employ two needle bars in order that the thread may return to the point of
beginning, thus enabling the knitting threads to follow each other in a circuit after
the manner of a circular knitting machine, the bars however being straight I deem
it the best arrangement to place the backs of these bars very close together, with
the needles on the front, leaving merely space enough between the bars to give
room for the fabric.
Around the bars I arrange a track in which runs a clain or segmental gear,
composed of blocks linked together and carrying brackets which support the spools
of yarn for the loops, and also thread or yarn guides which deliver the yarn. to the
needles, the said chain being timed in its movement with respect to the reciprocations
of the needles.
The warp is taken into the machine somewhat after the manner of a warp in a
common weaving loom, and the needles in their vertical movements pass between
the warp threads. The warp is passed through guides which control it in a manner
similar to the harness of a loom; the movements of the guides however being
lateral, carrying the warp from side to side of the needles, thus binding the warp
and loop threads together. The lateral movements of the warp threads are made
while the needles are dropped below the threads to be thus shifted.
Many novel devices are employed in carrying out the objects and completing
the construction above briefly set forth which will be more fully hereinafter
describe 1.

page_text: In carrying the said invention into practice I provide standards for the front
and rear ends of the frame work, to which the other parts constituting the machine
are attached.
Working in the said frame is a shaft hereinafter termed the main shaft, which
receives and transmits power through gear wheels to a gear wheel on one end of a
cam shaft and revolves the same. The said gear engages with a second gear wheel
upon a second cam shaft which is driven by it in the opposite direction but at the
same rate of speed as the first cam shaft.
From the gear on the first cam shaft power is transmitted through intermediate
gearing to a pinion which actuates a segmental gear running in a track or
railway.
Any means for communicating power to the said pinion, whether from the first
cam shaft or elsewhere, may be used, provided the motions of the segmental gear
and cam shafts are properly timed as hereinafter explained.
At the other end of one of the cam shafts is a gear wheel, which, by means of an
intermediate gear, communicates with another gear wheel, and the latter engages
with, and drives at an equal rate of speed and in an opposite direction, a third gear
wheel, these two gear wheels are connected with and actuate cam wheels which
govern the motion of the shifting bars by means of cams formed in the said cam
wheels of which there are two sets as hereafter explained. The particular system
of gear wheels just described for communicating power to the cam wheels is not a
necessity. Any system of communicating the power from either cam shaft, or any
other source, is sufficient, so long as it results in revolving the said cam wheels in
proper time with the motions of the cam shafts as will be more fully explained.
On the cam shafts are arranged cams of pointed shape. These cams, which may
be struck out from sheet metal, are keyed upon the shafts, so that the point of one
cam is a little behind the point of the next cain, and following this order throughout
the shaft with the points of all the cams at equal distances apart.
The line connecting the points of the cams so placed describes a spiral around the
shaft.
The pitch or inclination of the spiral is variable at will, but a variation therein
necessitates a variation in the speed of the pinion and segmental gear, and also a
change in the warp shifting device if used.
The pointed cams are set upon and secured in their respective positions to the
cam shafts by a spline or otherwise. The spaces between said cams are occupied
by washers fastened to the shafts in a similar manner. Between the washers and
embracing the cams are parallelograms or cam frames, which have an arm extending
upward and connected with the jacks of the needles. The cams revolving with the
shaft, lift and depress these frames, moving between and guided by the washers;
thus producing the reciprocations of the needle jacks and needles. The cam frames
are slightly thinner t'an the cams, thus allowing them an easy play up and down,
guided laterally by the washers, and endwise by the side of the cam box in
connection with the lower part of the needle bar.
Inside each cam frame is a toe on which the point of the cam strikes. The cam
on continuing its revolution carries the cam frame down till the cam leaves the toe,
and travels freely till it strikes the top of the frame, thence carrying it up to its
first position before it leaves the top preparatory to striking the said toe in its
downward course.
The frame arms at their upper ends are connected with the needle jacks, which
latter are connected with the needles in any convenient manner, producing from
the movements of the cam and frame a reciprocating movement of the needle. By
making the cam strike the toe instead of the bottom of frame, the descent of the
needle is begun earlier in the revolution of the cam and is much accelerated over
the rate of ascent.
If it is desired to make the needle rise at the same rate as it descend, an
additional toe can be put on the other side of the frame or the one indicated can
be taken off. One effect of the toe is to cause the needles to descend rapidly, and

page_text: then to dwell at the bottom during the passage of the cam point through the lower
arc of its circle, so that there may be several needles down at a time and others
slowly rising and not yet above the top of the needle bar, which is of importance
in the use of the warp shifting apparatus, hereinafter explained.
I do not contine myself to this particular system of intermediate mechanism
between the cam and the needles, any form of frame or any convenient means of
using the motion of the cams to reciprocate the needles may be used.
It is obvious that the continual revolution of the shaft will cause a continual
rising and falling of all the needles in regular order, from one end to the other of
the shaft, and that each needle will be in the same position as to height as the
twenty-fourth needle beyond it in either direction, each circuit of the spiral around
the shaft mensuring a group of needles on the needle bar, and the corresponding
needles in each group passing through the same changes at the same time. It will
also be observed, that a single revolution of the cam shaft takes each needle on the
needle bar through a coinplete up and down movement.
Having described the mechanism for actuating the needles, I now proceed to
explain the segmental gear which carries the bobbins and yarn guides along the
front of one needle bar and back on the other to the beginning of the first bar
circling around the ends.
This segmental gear consists of a gear broken into segments which are so placed,
connected, or attached to each other in a railway or fixed track to which they are
confined by their shape or otherwise, that the segments will follow the circuit of
this track, while at a point or points, the teeth of adjacent segments are brought
together in such a manner that they engage appropriately with a spur gear or
pinion. The said segmental gear may be an internal or external one.
The internal segmental gear has attached to each of its segments a bracket
which holds a bobbin, and is provided with a yarn guide for each circuit of the
spiral round the cam shaft. These yarn guides are when the segmental gear is
pursuing a straight course, along the lines of the needles, say three inches apart.
The movement of the guides must be so timed that they shall move along the
line of needles keeping the same relative positions to the active needles as they
rise to take the thread, in other words to move three inches lineally while the cam
shaft is making one revolution.
If the pointed cams are keyed to the cam shafts in a spiral which makes a
circuit of the shaft in more or less than three inches lineal distance on the shaft,
the speed of the pinion and segment gear must be changed to keep the guides,
whose distance apart must also be varied to some degree as the variation in the
pitch of the spiral, always in the same relation to the active needles.
The particular form of the said brackets is immaterial, so long as the bobbins are
provided with a proper support to furnish knitting threads to the yarn guides and
are carried round the machine as needed.
The segmental gear runs in a track which consists essentially of a top and bottom
cap, with an internal groove in each, for tongue pieces of a segment block to run
in; thus guiding the segments in the course of the track. It is open on the outside
and closed on the inside, except at the point where the pinion engages with the
segmental gear.
The segments of this segmental gear may be of any suitable shape and pivotally
linked together by links. But the form and style of connection of segments is
immaterial, provided it be such as will enable the segments to turn on each other
sufficiently to follow the course of the track, and bring the s gments together so
that their teeth match to make a perfect section of an internal gear a. they pass
the pinion. The segmental gear can be made with no links, the segments being
held in their course by the track, they will then have a motion in the same
direction.
The gear can also be driven from the outside, by placing the teeth properly cut
on the outside and changing position of the driving pinion.

page_text: I do not mean to limit this feature of my invention (which I call a segmental
gear, and is so far as I know a novel mechanical contrivance), to its combination
with a knitting machine, as it may be applied to other than knitting machinery,
and with various shapes and lengths of segments and other forms, styles, shapes
and course of track.
The needle bars and needles and details connected with the same are or may be
substantially as in old machines.
The description thus far is of a knitting machine to knit simply without
introducing warp threads into the fabric.
An important part of this invention is the mechanism by which warp threads
are introduced into the fabric, which mechanism I can apply to the machine above
described.
The warp is presented to the machine perpendicularly to the line of the needles,
passing, above the top of the needle bar and below the loop thread guides, into the
fabric, the needles playing between the warp threads and at their lowest point
dropping below the warp threads. The warp passes through guides one to each
thread, and by means of a rack or laterally shifting motion, is carried alternately
from one side to the other of the needles, so that a needle which descends on one
side of a thread rises on the other side of that thread. The warp is thus shifted by
shifting the warp guides either singly or in groups, while the needles, with respect
to which the shift is made, are down below the guides and warp threads. The
loop threads as they are carried along by the thread guides, being taken by the
needles from above the warp, are drawn by the needles in loops down between the
warp threads. A shift of the warp threads, while these needles are below the
warp, brings the needles at their next rise upon the other side of the warp threads
respectively, still holding on to the series of loops just formed. The needles at
their next descent draw new loops through the old ones which are cast off, and a
reverse shift follows.
The effect of this disposition of the warp and filling threads may, perhaps, be
more readily conceived by supposing a number of parallel warp threads, crossed by
a single loop or filling thread laid loosely on top of the warp, and the loose filling
thread being drawn down in loops between the warp threads.
I shall then have accomplished what the needles do in their descent between the
warp threads with the filling thread. If I next swing the bottoins of these loops
laterally, in respect to the direction of the warp, so that each loop bight occupies
the space just previously occupied by the bight of the adjacent loop, and suppose
further, these loops now to be swung slightly forward, I then have the relative
positions which the warp and loop occupy in respect to each other, after the shift
of the warp above referred to; now if a second loop thread be laid across the warp
forward and alongside of the first, and loops from this second thread be drawn
through the previous loops, I have the loops and warp in the same relations that
they are in, when the needles of the machine have taken their second thread, and
drawn it in loops through the first or old set of loops.
A repetition of these movements makes the fabric.
It is evident that a fabric can be made in this manner, whether all the loops, or
only a part of them, are thus bound around the warp, the locking of some of the
loops to the warps being necessary to incorporate the two classes of threads into
fabric.
I will first describe the shifting mechanism by which the loops are tied to the
warp.
For the purpose of making the shifts of warp threads, I attach the warp tubes or
guides either singly, or in groups, to movable plates, having sufficient spaces
between the said plates, so that one plate or a series of plates standing in the same
relation, and requiring to be moved in the same direction in the same time, may be
shifted without disturbing the others.
These plates are fastened upon shifting bars lying parallel to the needle bar, and

page_text: each shifting bar is put in connection with a cam or cam groove, which reciprocates
the bar and produces the shifts required.
The warp guides as before stated extend so as to be between the needles when
the latter are up, and consequently a shift can only occur at certain intervals while
the needles, adjacent to the tubes to be shifted, are below such tubes.
It results from the arrangement of the cams and cam frames connected with the
needles, that several successive needles will be found below the warp tubes at the
same time, as already indicated, and this number is increased by the dwell which
occurs after a cam fraine has been thrown down by the beak of the cam, and before
it begins to rise. I also arrange the warp tubes with respect to the throw of the
needle, so that the needle has some distance to travel and return after it is below
'the bottom of the warp tube; consequently there is no difficulty, if desired, in
making a single shift embrace a number of warp tubes.
I will assume that the spiral makes several circuits of the cam shafts, now when
the shaft commences a revolution the needles will begin to descend at points along
the line equidistant from each other, and where each circuit of the spiral may be
supposed to begin, a loop thread being present at each of such points to be taken
by the needles and travelling along the line of the descending needles. After a
number of the needles in each group of needles actuated by a single circuit of the
spiral have descended, and before the needles first actuated in each group have risen
in their return high enough to interfere with the shift of the warp tubes, such shift
may be made simultaneously for those needles in each group which are thus
prepared for the shift, the shift being accomplished by moving one shifting bar
having attached to it, at the proper intervals, the plates and tubes appropriate to
that shift.
As the revolution of the cam shaft continues a succeeding set of tubes can be
similarly shifted by the movement of a second bar, and so on until all the tubes
have been shifted in the same direction, and a complete revolution of the cam shaft
accomplished. Now upon the completion of such revolution of the shaft, the
several loop threads will have arrived at the head of the next group of needles, and
the warp having been already shifted as described, preparatory to the reception of
these threads, they will he taken into the fabric on the appropriate side of the
warp threads, and locked with the old loops already formed, and as these loop
threads pass along the line of the second groups respectively, the reverse shifts
occur simultaneously in the same order, that is to say, the plates that were first
shifted are the first to return to their former positions.
In order to furnish a warp guide for the space left between the plates to enable a
shift to occur, an outside guide on each plate is raised above the level of the guides
on the plate, and made to overhang this space when opened, and when closed each
raised guide overhangs an outside guide on an adjacent plate.
I sometimes arrange three shifting bars in front of each needle bar, that is to say,
three shifting bars on each side of the machine.
When six shifting bars are used on each side, the bars are arranged in pairs, one
of each pair being actuated by a cam or otherwise, and this bar in turn actuating
its associate bar in the reverse direction, by means of a swivel or lever connection.
I will now assume as heretofore that the line of needles is divided into groups,
each measured by the length on the cam shaft occupied by a circuit of the spiral,
there being as many groups as there are circuits of the spiral. I will next suppose
each group divided into three equal sub-groups. Shifting plates act with reference
to each of such sub-groups.
In a machine of given dimensions, as many needles as there are in one entire
sub-group of needles in each chief group, will always be below the warp tubes on
the shifting plates, and it will occur that each entire sub-group (and as a matter of
fact some more) will in turn be below the warp guides, hence the three shifts can
be made in each group while the cam shaft is making one revolution.
Although the warp is passed between the needles in a right line, and then is
deflected from the ends of the warp guides in the same vertical plane to nearly or

page_text: quite a perpendicular, it is found in practice that in consequence of the shifts and
the binding of the loops, the warp, after fabric has began to form, is always after a
shift inclined laterally from this perpendicular. I have therefore thought it best,
to ensure regularity in the fabric, to arrange the shifts so that a given loop thread
as it passes along the line of needles, shall always find the warp inclined in the
same direction throughout the line, and that the succeeding loop thread shall in
like manner find the opposite inclination of warp.
For this purpose a plate is attached to a given principal bar, the plate for the
corresponding sub-group in the next principal group of needles is attached to the
associate bar, so that the shift of this latter plate will be in the contrary direction
from the first mentioned plate, the same order of attachment being observed
throughout the line of needles; thus, taking the needles for the first-sub-group
in each principal group, one is attached to a principal bar, the next to its associate
bar, the next to the same principal bar, and the next to the same associate bar, and
so on and the sam rule applies to all the other sub-groups, one principal bar and
its associate being appropriated to take care of all the sub-groups of the same order
in each principal group.
That this arrangement of the shifts will present the same inclination of warp to
any given loop thread as it passes from one end to the other of the needle bar, and
the opposite inclination to a preceding or succeeding thread becomes apparent by
supposing the machine to begin to knit, having the warp in the first group inclined
to the left, in the next inclined to the right, in the next to the left and so on; now
the warp in the second group, after the loop thread has passed, will be shifted from
right to left in three successive shifts, and be ready for the loop thread that has
just passed the first group in which the warp was inclined to the left.
I may use a warp beam with the warp thereon, and the warp threads passing
upward from the warp beam and through the warp tubes, and I find this a
convenient arrangement for delivering the warp into the guides, in order that it
may be subjected to the shifts necessary for its incorporation along with the
looping thread into fabric, but it is obviously only one of various arrangements
that might be adopted for that purpose. A considerable number of warps may be
shifted at once, but it is equally or more practicable to shift a less number, or as
has already been indicated to shift them singly, and these shifts may be accomplished
by various devices.
In the description of another part of my invention I have described how the
needles are carried down by cams arranged spirally upon a revolving shaft, and
again raised by the same cams respectively, but as I have stated rapidity of
motion is more necessary in the descent of the needle than in its rise, hence good
results may be had by using the shaft and cams for depressing the needles, and
substituting other means for lifting them more leisurely. In such case the cam
frames may be dispensed with.
In the combination of needle bars and segmental gear to keep up the procession
of loop threads and maintain numerous knitting sections in continuous operation,
I have described one of the most difficult arrangements, inasmuch as it requires
the segmental gear to make a sharp turn completely around the ends of the bars.
If more bars were combined forming a triangle or other figure of more sides,
leaving a narrow space between contiguous ends of the needle bars at the corners,
an easier turn would be afforded the segmental gear.