US149811A - tiffany - Google Patents

Description

A2 Sheetsf--Sheet 1.

` E. TIFFANY'. l Knitting-Machine Needle-Cylinders.

lNo.l49,8H.

PatentedAprl 14, 1874.

2 Sheets--Sheet 2.

ZYLeSSGS. Ink-anion @FFI-cn.

nti frinnnnv, Bnnruiverou, VERMONT. i

11M PROVE-M ENT fILN K-N-wTrNe-ivmemNIE-NEEDLE cvLlN'D ERS.

4Spcrlieation forming pait of Letters vlfa'felt-No. 149,81 l dated April 14, 1874-; Aapplication iiled Ma'yl, T873.

To all ,whom it mag/concern:

Beit known that I, 'ELI TIFFANY, of Bennington, inthe county of Bennington and State of Vermont, have invented an Improved Knittin g-M'achine; and I do hereby'declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description'of my invention suflicient to enable those 4skilled in the art to practice it.

`The invention relates particularly to the organization of a machine for knitting tubular cord or small tubular work, the machine being particularly intended as a toy, or for the use of children, although vmore or less applicable to the manufacture of cord for utilitarian purposes.

In my machine I use a bed-plate, preferably made with a clamp device for attachment to the edge of ya table, and at one end of this plate I tix a vertical tube, of lead or soft metal, havingin its outer surface aseries of radial grooves, in which the shanks of the needles play, the tube being shouldered, and having a spring encompassing it above the shoulder to hold the needles in place as they slide, and beingbushed with brass or other composition of harder metal than that of the grooved needle-tube for a guide through which the-work is to be drawn, and being encompassed by a rotary yarn-carrier and guide and needle-operator, at the foot of which is a pulley resting upon the plate, and belted to a drivin g-pulley at the opposite end ofthe plate.

In constructing the needle-tube and uniting it to the bed-plate, I cast the tube of soft metal, and with the bore to a general and uniformly cylindric shape from end to end. The upper end I cast around a projecting guidetube, the cylinder being, moreover, cast with a series of needle-shank grooves extending radially into it. The needle-shanks slide in these grooves, and, to confine them in position for their slide movements, the cast cylinder is turned down at the upper part to form a shoulder to receive a ligature spring, while at its bottom part the cylinder is turned down, to enter a socket cast in the bed for its reception, and to form a shoulder to set upon the bed.

The invention consists in a knitting-machine having a needle-shank tube thus formed and unitedto its bed. v

The drawing represents a machine embodying Iny construction. l

Figure l shows the machine in pla-n. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of it. Fig. -3 is a crosssection through the center of the tube. Fig. d shows the needle-tube in elevation above the base-plate.

a denotes the base-plate; b, the arm, and c the screw by which the plate is clamped to a table. Near one end of the plate rises the tube d, in which are formed the vertical and radial grooves e. The upper part of the tube is made smaller than the main part, and

around the smaller part j', and upon or just above the shoulder g, is an annular spring, h, encompassing the needle-shanks, and keeping them in place as they reciprocate vertically. The needles i are ordinary latch-needles, each having a hook, 7c, and a latch, l, and the shanks of these needles play in the grooves e. 'Ihe tube d is hushed with the composition tube m, and through this tube is drawn the work formed upon and by the needles. Encompassing the tube and its grooves is-the rotating thread-carrier and guide mand through this tubular guide is cut the cam-groove o, into which extend the butts of the needles, rotation of the tube fn successively effecting the alternate rise and fall of the respective nee# dles. At the bottom of this tube is the grooved pulley p, formed as a part of the tube, and this pulley is belted by a band, q, with another and driving pulley, l", rotation of the pulley fr effecting the rotation of the pulley p and the resulting action of the needles. s Vdenotes the yarn-spool pin or spindle; t t', the guidingeyes, through which the yarn passes from the spool to the needles. u is an arm, having a guide-eye, c, through which and the eye w a core of yarns or strands, a', may pass, to be inclosedin the tubular structure or fabric formed by the needles. y denotes theweight,bywhich the work is drawn down as the loops are successively formed and interlocked. The eye t is placed with such relation to the paths` of movement of the needles that the yarn is laid over the open needle-latch, and is kept over such latch. without possibility of slipping benea-th it. When the needle slides down, the loop around its shank extends from the top edge of the tube m, and as the latch reaches it it throws up the latch, and the hook then draws the yarn (to form a new loop) down through the first loop, the first loop slipping over the latch and hook, and being drawn into the tube by the weight or tension upon the work. As the needle next rises to again receive the yarn laid into its hook, the loop within the hook, stretched over the edge of the tube m, is met by the latch, and the latch is thereby opened, being thrown open and held down by the loop, and leaving'the hook ready to receive the yarn thrown into it, or against the needle-shank.

By this construction no special devices are needed to open or close the latches or needlehooks, the strain of the yarn, the position at which the yarn is thrown across the needleshanks, and the position of the top of the tube m, insuring the opening and closing of the latches at the proper times.

When the tube is to be knit around the core or central yarns, the end of said core is simply presented to the mouth of the tube against the yarn, when it will be drawn in by the stitches, progressing as the knitting progresses.

The construction of the tube will be understood from inspection of Figs. 5, 6, 7, and 8. Fig. 5 shows the tube as rst cast; Fig. 6, its form when reduced; Fig. 7, a cross-section of it on the line x; Fig. 8, a section on the line y y. The tube is rst cast the uniform cylindrical form, and with the radial grooves, as seen in Figs. 5 and 7 it being also cast around the guide-tubem, as shown in Fig. 8. The tube, having been thus cast, is turned down at each end, as seen in Figs. 6 and 8, its shouldered bottom end entering the bed, and its upper end receiving the spring h, as shown in Fig. 3.

I claim- The knitting-machine needle-shank cylinder or tube d, cast with the grooves e and upon the guide-tube m, and then turned down at the ends to be applied to the bed, and to receive the needle-holding rin Vitnesses: ELI TIFFANY.

CHARLES Coornn, FRANK TIFFANY.

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