US1533544A - Fabric and art of producing same - Google Patents

Description

April 14, 1925.

W. J. FOX

FABRIC AND ART OF PRODUCING SAME Filed Aug. 25. 1923 Q3 D L O Q 5' Patented Apr. 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES 1,533,544 PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM FOX, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNCR TO JAMES B. KEN- DRICK CO.,-INC., OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPOBATIO N F PENN- SYLVANIA.

FABRIC AND ART OF PRODUCING SAME.

Application filed August 25, 1923. Serial No. 659,351.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM J. Fox, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fabrics and Art of Producing Same, of

which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in fabrics and the art of producing the same wherein courses of filling strands are arranged side by side and held in place within the fabric by knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the courses of filling strands.

Such fabrics are made with the courses of filling strands formed or covered strips of rubber rendering the entire fabric very elastic longitudinally of the filling strands; and such fabrics are also made with the courses of fillin strands containing no rubber and 'being, by comparison, substantially nonelastic; and both the elastic and the substantially non-elastic fabrics are extensively used in the manufacture .of abdominal supcourses so that the loops of the last binding porters, corwts and various other surgical appliances and articles of wearing apparel,

At the beginning of the production of a piece of fabric ofthis character the loops of the first binding thread course are related to the first filling strand course and the succeeding binding thread courses so that the loops of the first binding thread course form enclosures which confine the first filling strand therein and form a substantially smooth and finished edge for the fabric. At the ending of the production of the piece of fabric the loops of the last binding thread course are related to the last filling strand course and the preceding binding thread thread course may readily be disengaged or separated from the loops-of the last preceding course; and, thereafter, the loops of the next course toward the beginning of the fabric may be similarly se arated from the course immediately preceding it, and so on down to the beginning of the fabric. This condition permits the enclosures for the last filling strand course readily to be opened, and it also permits the enclosures for the preceding filling strand courses to be opened.

To preventflthis raveling of the fabric at and from itsfinishing edge, prior to' my present invention, it has been the practice to run a thread through the individual loops successively of the last binding thread course, by the aid of a suitable needle or other instrument. This inserted thread would prevent the loops of the last course from leaving the loops of the last preceding course through which they extended.

The object of my present invention is to increase the speed of production. and reduce the cost of manufacture of the fabric by the elimination of the tedious and expensive method of completing the fabric at the ending of the production thereof, as previously described, and by the substitution therefor of a. novel, simple and efficient method or art of completing the fabric resulting in a fabric having an improved and more durable finished edge portion which will not only prevent raveling but which will have a de gree of elasticity longitudinally of the filling strands substantially equal to the remainder of the fabric when the rubber filling strands are employed. 5

\Vith the foregoing and related objects in view-tho. invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of the parts of the fabric and the novel art or method of producing the same hereinafter described and claimed.

'In the accompanying drawings, illustrating theinvention,

Figure 1 is av face viewfofauilpiece of fabric, showingthe condition?thereof at onejstage during the production thereof in accordance with my'invention.

, Figures 2 and'3 are similar views, showing the condition thereof at successive stages during its production.

Figure 4 is a face view of the finished fabric.

Figure 5 is a transverse section the finished fabric.

Referring to the drawings, the main body portion of the fabric comprises courses of filling strands 1 to 9, inclusive, and courses. of knitted binding threads 11 to 19,, nclu sive. The courses of binding threads forn rows of loops which extend longitudinally of the filling strands and which are connected together in a manner to form enclosures which confine the filling strands and holdthem in place within the fabric. The manner in which the rows of loops of thebinding thread.

through courses are connected .to-

gether and associated with the filling strands to permit the filling strands to stretch when rubber is employed therein is clearly shown in the drawings and is well known to persons skilled in this art.

In producing a piece of fabric in accordance with my invention, the loops of the first binding thread course 11 shown at the bottom of the fabric in Fig. 1 are produced by means of the knitting needles of a machine, the first or bottom filling thread course 1 is inserted and the next bin-ding thread course 12 is produced, confining the first filling strand course 1 in enclosures formed by the binding thread loops, all in the usual well known manner, and so on, up through the fabric, the filling strands are inserted and the rows of loops of the binding thread courses are produced until the last filling strand 9 of the ultimately finished fabric is inserted into the enclosures formed by the loops of the binding thread course 19.

At this stage of the procedure a heavier binding thread course 20 is knitted into the fabric without the insertion of a filling strand; and, thereafter, a number of binding thread courses 21, 22, 23 and 24 of a lighter thread, similar to the thread of the binding thread courses of the main body of the fabric are knitted into the fabric, and a filling strand 10 is inserted into enclosures formed by the binding thread course 21 immediately above the binding thread course 20, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The knitting proceeds from the bottom edge to the top edge of the fabric. The knitted binding thread courses 11 to 19, inelusive, are usually formed of one continuous thread whichruns back and forth the full length of the binding thread and filling strandcourses and is stepped iip from one course to the otherat the respective ends of the coursesin alternate succession, and, similarly, the fillin strand courses 1 to 9, inclusive, are formed of one continuous strand which runs back and forth and is stepped up from one course to the next course above it as is well known to. persons skilled in the manufacture of fabrics of the class to which my invention relates.

The heavy binding thread course 20 may be formed of a continuation of the thread forming the previously knitted binding thread courses by re-enforcing the same with an additional thread, or the heavy binding thread course 20 may be formed of a thread which is heavier than and separate and distinctfrom thethread forming the binding thread courses of the main body of the fabric.

The final binding thread courses, 21, 22, 23 and 24 may be formed of a continuous thread which is no heavier than the thread of the binding thread courses of the main body of the fabric; and, when the thread forming the binding thread courses of the main body of the fabric is continued through the heavy thread course 20 the same thread may be continued through the courses 21, 22, 23 and 24 after the production of the heavy course 20 and the removal of the re-enforcement which produced the heavy course.

It will now be observed that the binding thread courses can not be raveled from the bottom edge of the fabric because the loops of the bottom binding thread course 11 extending downwardly from within the loops of the next course 12 above it extend around and embrace the bottom filling strand 1. It will also be observed that the loops of the top binding thread course 24 may be readily pulled from within the loops of the next course 23 beneath it, and so on, down through the entire piece of fabric, each binding thread course may be similarly raveled from the course beneath it.

After a piece of fabric has been produced, as shown in Fig. 1, it will not ravel from its upper edge down to the filling strand 10 with reasonably careful handling; and, in this condition, it is removed from the machine on which it was produced and run through a suitable two-thread, lock-stitch sewing machine which sews a line of elastic stitches 25 through the loops of the heavy binding thread course 20, asshown in Fig. 2. During the production of the line of stitches 25, the two filling strands 9 and 10 serve as guides between which the thread course 20 is located, and they permit the sewing machine operator to run the piece of fabric through the machine with speed and precision. V v

Afterthe row of stitches 25 has been produced, the threads 21, 22,- '23 and 24 and the filling strand 10 are raveled from one an other and fromthe remaining threads and strands by hand, leavingthe iece of fabric in the condition shown in Fig. 3. In this condition of the piece of fabric, the stitches 25 are at least as numerous as the loops of the binding thread course 20, and each loop is caught by at least one stitch. Therefore, the'stitches 25 prevent any and all parts of the binding thread course 20 from being raveled from the preceding course 19, and thus prevent any downward raveling of the piece of fabric from its upper or finishing edge portion.

Following the production of the piece of fabric, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the fabric is run through a suitable over-edge stitching machine, and a line of finishing, overedge stitches 26 are sewed into the finishing edge portion of the fabric, and as the stitches 25 are being formed a filling strand 27 is fed into the same through a suitable guiding eye on the sewing machine. The fabric is now complete, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. When elastic strands are employed in the main The parts of the fabric showm in the drawings have been spread apart or opened forclcarness of illustration, and it will be,

understood that in the actual finished fabric the parts aredrawn up and lie much closer together.

The purpose of employing the heavier or thicker thread'in the course is to cause that portion of the fabric formed by the binding thread course 20 to take enough thread from the sewing machine during theformation of the stitches to produce loose or open stitches and thereby permit the line of stitches to stretch substantially to the same extent that the filling strands may be stretched, when covered rubber filling strands are employed.

The overedge stitches 26 are produced by a common and well known sewing machine employing a needle thread and two-or more looper threads, and the line of stitches 26 produced thereby are as elastic longitudi nally of the filling strands of the-fa-bric as the line of stitches 25 which they enclose.

I claim as my invention 1. A fabric comprising'filling strands arranged side by side, knitted-binding thread courses having rows of connected loop-s extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confinethe filling strands, a supplemental filling strand outwardly of the outermost filling, strand confined by said loops at one edge portion of the fabric, and edge finishing threads sewed into certain of said loops and forming a line of overedge stitches enclosing said supplemental filling strand.

2. A fabric comprising filling strands arranged side by side, knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the filling strands, a supplemental filling strand outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops at one edge portion of the fabric, and edge finishing threads sewed into certain of said loops outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops and forming a line of overedge stitches enclosing said supplemental filling strand.

3. An elastic fabric comprising elastic filling strands arranged side by side, knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the filling strands, a supplemental elastic filling strand outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loop-s at one edge portion of the fabric, and edge finishing threads sewed into certain of said loops and forming a line of overedge stitches enclosing said supplemental filling strand, said line of overedge stitches being longitudinally stretchable and permitting the longitudinal stretching of the filling strands.

.4. An elastic fabric comprising elastic filling strands arranged side by side, knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the filling strands, and threads forming aims of stitches sewed into one of said rows of loops outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops at one edge of the fabric and preventing the opening of the enclosures which confine the filling strands, said stitches being sufficiently full tov permit the line thereof to stretch in a direction longitudinally of the filling strands I substantially equal to the extent to which .the remaining parts of the fabric may be stretched in the same direction.

5. A fabric comp-rising filling strands arranged side by side, knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extendinglongitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the filling strands,

threads forming a line of stitches sewed into one of said rows of loops outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops at one edge of the fabric and preventing the opening of the enclosures which confine the filling strands, a supplemental filling strand adjacent to said line o-fstitches, and edge finishing threads sewed into the fabric and forming overedge stitches enclosing said line of stitches and said supplemental filling strand.

I 6. An elastic fabric comprising elastic filling strands arranged side by side, knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the filling strands, threads forming a. line of stitches sewed into one of said rows of loops outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops at one edge of the fabric and preventing the opening of the enclosures which confined the filling strands, a supplemental, elastic filling strand adjacent to said line of stitches, and edge finishing threads sewed into the fabric and forming overedge stitches enclosing said line ofstitches and said supplemental filling strand, said stitches being sufficiently full to permit the lines thereof to stretch in a direction longitudinally of the filling strands substantially equal to the extent to which the remaining filling strands arranged side by side, knitted binding thread courses having rows of connected loops extending longitudinally of and forming enclosures which confine the filling strands, threads forming a line of stitches sewed into one of said rows of loops outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops at one edge portion of the fabric and preventing the opening of the enclosures which confine the filling strands, the thread forming the row of loops into which said line of stitches is sewed being thicker than the thread forming other loops of the fabric and maintaining said stitches sufiiciently full to permit the line thereof to stretch in a direction longitudinally of the filling strands substantially equal to the extent to which the remaining parts of the fabric may be stretched in the same direc tion.

8. The art of producing fabric whichcon sists in forming rows of connected binding thread loops by lmittingoperations, introducing filling strands during the knitting operations to enclosures formed by the binding thread loops, sewing a line of overedge thread stitches into certain of said loops outwardly of the outermost filling strand confined by said loops at one edge portion of the fabric, and inserting a supplemental filling strand into the overedge, thread stitches during the formation thereof.

9. The art of producing fabric which consists in forming rows of connected binding thread loops by knitting operations, introducing filling strands during the knitting operations to enclosures formed by binding thread loops and spacing two adjacent filling strands by a spacing row of the binding thread loops which connects the rows of loops forming the enclosures for the said two adjacent filling strands, sewing a line of thread stitches into said spacing row of binding thread loops, and removing the rows of binding thread loops formed after the formation of the said spacing row thereof.

10. The art of producing fabric which consists in forming rows of connected binding thread loops by knitting operations, introducing filling strands during the knitting operations to enclosures formed by binding thread loops and spacing two adjacent filling strands by a spacing row of the binding thread loops which connects the rows of loops forming the enclosures for the said two adjacent filling strands and which are formed of a thread of greater thickness than the thickness of the thread forming the previously formed adjacent loops in the body of the fabric, sewing a line of thread stitches into said spacing row of binding thread loops, and removing the rows of binding thread loops formed after the formation of the said spacing row thereof.

11. The art of producing fabric which consists in forming rows of connected binding thread loops by knitting operations, introducing filling strands during the knitting operations to enclosures formed by the binding thread loops, continuing the formation of rows of connected binding thread loops alone after the introduction of a predetermined number of filling strands, the first row of loops formed after the introduction of the last of the filling strands being formed of a thread of greater thickness than the thickness of the thread forming the previously formed adjacent loops in the body of the fabric, sewing a line of thread stitches into said first row of loops, and removing from said first row of loops the binding thread loops formed subsequently thereto.

12. The art of producing fabric which consists in forming rows of connected binding thread loops 'by knitting operations, introducing filling strands during the knitting operations to enclosures formed by the binding thread loops, sewing a line of thread stitches intoa row of binding thread loops between the next adjacent filling strand on one side thereof and the next adjacent row of binding thread loops on the opposite side thereof, removing the said next adjacent row of binding thread loops fromthe loops containing the line of thread stitches, sewing a line of overedge, thread stitches into a row of binding thread loops, and inserting a supplemental filling strand into the overedge,

thread stitches during the formation thereof, said overedge, thread stitches confining the first named line of stitches and said supplemental filling strand therein.

In testimony whereof I affixmy signature hereto.

WILLIAM J. FOX.

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