US1626049A - Method of knitting hosiery - Google Patents

Description

1,626,049 April 26 1927 G. MURPHY ET AL METHOD 0F KNITTING HOSIERY Filed Nov. 21. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet l April 26 1927 G. MURPHY ET AL IBTHOD 0F KNITTING HOSIERY Filed Nov. 21. 1921 2 Sheets-$116817 2 gzZ.

Patented pr. 26, 1927.

UNTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GILBERT MURPHY AND WALTER A. SIMONE, OF FRANKLIN, NEW' HALIISHIRE, AS-

SIGNOBS TO ACME KNIITING MACHINE 6a NEEDLE COMPANY, OF FRANKLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, A CORPORATION OF NEW HAMSI-IIRE.

METHOD OF KNITTING HOSIERY.

Application led November 21, 1921.

ln knitting certain styles of hosiery, more particularly that known as sport hosiery, it is customory to rib the leg and instep and to knit the bottom of the foot plain. The advantage of this arrangement is that the plain knit fabric is more comfortable to the bottom of the foot than a ribbed fabric would be, while the presence of the ribbed fabric in the instep portion of the foot affords additional elasticity in this part of the stocking.

It is the general object of the present invent-ion to improve the structure of hosiery of this character and also the method ot' knitting it, with a view especially to producing both a more comfortable stocking and also reducing the manufacturing cost. The invention aims particularly to increase the elasticity of the ribbed instep portion of a stocking, and also to facilitate the looping or seaming of the toe portion of the stocking.

The nature of the invention will be readily understood from the following de- 3-3, Fig. 2, showing diagrammatically the nature of the fabric.

rlhe stocking shown in the drawings can be knit either by hand or by machinery, but inasmuch as practically all hosiery is now produced by machinery, the present process will first be described as it would preferably be practiced by hosiery knitting machines. A great variety of machines could be used in carrying out this process, but we prefer to use the machine shown and described in our pending application Serial No. 460,957, filed April 13, 1921. This application shows and describes an automatic hosiery knitting machine in which either plain or ribbed fabric may be knit, as desired, and

Serial No. 516,563.

in which the knitting operation may be changed either automatically or at will from one style of knitting to the other.

The knitting operation may be started at either end of the stocking. Assuming, however, that it is started at the toe, several courses of plain circular fabric are first knit, and the narrowing and widening operations are next performed to form the toe pocket 2 by reciprocating knitting in the usual manner. Circular knitting is then resumed for several courses, the plain fabric still being produced. Up to this time all the knitting has been performed on the cylinder needles, but approximately onehalf thc dial needles are now brought into action, either by hand or by automatic mechanism, these needles being located at the side of the machine where the instep portion and the front of the leg of the stock` ing are formed. The dial and cylinder needles, therefore, cooperate to produce a ribbed fabric 3 in the upper half of the foot, while the needles in the other half of the cylinder continue to knit a plain fabric which forms the bottom t of the foot. The ribbing operation is begun approximately on the line 5, Fig. l, which is several courses back of the course indicated by the line G on which the toe portion of the stocking later will be seamed or looped in the usual manner.

The knitting operation is continued in the manner just described until the region indicated by the line 7, Fig. 1, is reached, when the narrowing and widening operations are again repeated to form the heel pocket or pouch 8 by reciprocating knitting.

The operations previously described are resumed after the heel has been completed until the desired length of plain fabric has been knit above the heel pocket and the point is reached at which itis desired to have the ribbed fabric extend entirely around the leg. This point is indicated in Fig. l at 9. At this time the needles in the other half of the dial, which up to this point have been inactive, are brought into operation to cooperate with the cylinder needles and form a ribbed fabric in the back of the leg. A. ribbed fabric now is formed around the entire leg portion of the stocking and the ribbing operation is continued until a leg of the required length has Cil is te been produced. At this time the top of the leg may be welted in the usual inanner or marked with loose courses for the purpose of facilitating the severing of the stocke ing. The dial needles are then thrown out of action, and the kniting of the plain fabric in front of the toe portion of the nez-:t stocking is begun. These operations are repeated, thus forming a string of connected stockings, which string later is severed at the welt or loose courses to forni individual stockings. The plain toe portion of eachv individual stocking is then looped or seained on the line 6, Fig. l, in the well known manner. lt will be obvious to those skilled in this art that during this operation the section of circular knit fabric in front of the line G, Fig. l, is triinined oli' or ravelled out, and that the seaining or looping operation joins the free edge of the toe pocket 2 to the forward edge of the upper part of the plain section of circular fabric between the lines 5 and 6, as shown in Fig. 2.

lt has been customary heretofore in knitting stockings of this general typ-e to continue the ribbing operation throughout the upper part of the foot, the ribbing needles in the part of the inachine producing this half of the stocking always being in operation. This has required the looping of a plain fabric to 'a ribbed fabric, which is dithcult and requires special care and skill. By terminatingthe ribbing in the instep of the stocking, however, at a point behind the line G, Fig. l, on which the looping operation is to be performed, and knitting a plain fabric for a few courses back of this line, the looping or seaining operation at the toe portion of the stocking is greatly facilitated, since it is merely necessary to join together the loops of two plain knit sections of fabric. lt is niuch easier for the operator to plac the loops of plain fabric on the points of the looping or sefaining machin-e than to perform this operation with a ribbed fabric. Not only is this operation facilitated, but the seam fornied is thinner than the seam produced by joining a plain fabric to a ribbed fabric, and consequently, a inorc comfortable stocking` is produced. Many persons lind the ordinary line of seainingg,` objectionable, and the reduction in the thickness of the seam which is effected by this invention substantially improves this portion of the stocking from the standpoint of comfort.

A further feature in which the present stocking is unique is in having a greater number of stitches per unit of distance circuinferentially of the stocking throughout the ribbed portion than in the plain portion of the foot. That is, the ribbed fabric 8 has a. greater nuniber of stitches per inch circuniferentially thereof than does the plain fabric Leashes 4. This is best illustrated in Fig. 3, from which it will be seen that the ribbed fabric contains fifty percent more stitches per inch than does the plain fabric. According' to all the prior processes of making stockings of this character of which we have been able to learn, the saine number of stitches have been used in the ribbed portion of the fabric as in the plain portion, the ribbin T being produced by transferring needles rroin the cyl inder to the dial or lo another cylinder. The present process has the advantage, therefore, of producinga far more elastic ribbed instep than has been produced by prior processes.

ln changing` frorn plain knitting to ribbing at the courses 5 and 9 we preferably knit two courses Without allowing the dial needles to cast od their stitches or loops. rlhis fornis tucked courses at the junction be tween the two styles of knitting which serve to reduce 'Very materially the sizes of the holes or eyelets l2 that are fornied by the change from one style of knitting lo the other.

The process of knitting the stocking by hand will be clear from the above description. lt will also be understood that while we prefer to begin the knitting of the stocking at the toe, as above described, it is entirely possible to begin the knitting operation at the opposite end ot the stocking, although this procedure is not as convenient in niitting stockings'by machinery since it is necessary to transfer stitches or loops when the nuinber of needles is reduced in changing froni ribbing' to plain knitting.

l-laving thus described our invention, what we desire to claiin as new is:

That iinproveinent in the art of knitting' seamless stockings which consists in inanipu lating a circular series of needle and a thread to knit short section of plain tubular fabric, nent knitting a plain toe pocket on a portion of said needles, then knitting a short section of plain circular fabric irnniediately behind said toepocket on all of said needles, then introducing an additional set of needles to cooperate with approximately half of the needles of said circular series to knit a ribbed fabric in the upper part of the foot of the stocking while the remaining needles of said series knit a. plain fabric in the lower part of said foot, next knitting a heel pocket, then knitting the leg of the stocking, and, at any desired point in the knit-ting of the leg, introducing another set of needles to cooperate with all the needles formerly in operation to knit a circular ribbed legl fabric. l

ln testimony whereof we have hereunto signed our naines to this specification.

GILBERT MURPHY. WALTER A. SMOND.

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