US38988A - Improvement in machine knitting-needles - Google Patents

Description

l NITHD STATES PATENT OFFICE..

THOMAS SANDS, OF GILFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINE KNlTTlNG-YNEEDLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,988, dated June 23, 1863; antedated February 23, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAs SANDS, of Gilford,in the county of Belknap and State of New Hampshire, have invented an Improvement in Machine Knitting-Needles, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had'v to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon.

Figure I represents a common needle before it is bent; Fig. II, a common needle after it is bent; Fig. II I, the improved needle before it is bent; Fig. IV, the improved needle after it is bent.

My improvement relates to the steel needles that are used in machines for knitting hosiery and all fabrics in which a needle having an elastic or iieXible hook is made use of to form a knitted or tambour stitch. l have been led to this improvement by the kuowledge of the fact that great numbers of needles are broken, the average ior tive months past being two hundred per day in a manutactory where'three thousand seven hundred and thirty-four needles are in use. The position of the break is almost always at the bend or short turn where the hook or barb joins the shank, for it is this point that is bent and restored to its natural position every time that the barb is pressed in .against the shank to allow the needle to pass through the meshes of the yarnthat is to say, at every stitch. This constant bending at one point, usually dJ-ffnet more than one-tenth ot' an inch in length,

soon destroys the ber of the steel, the needle is broken, and a new one substituted.

My improvement consists in this: I change the position of the point where curvature takes place when the barb is moved toward or away from the shank, by making the steel at the bend of the hook rigid and causingthe flexure to take place upon nearly the whole length of the barb and upon half an inch or more (according to the size of the needle) of the lower part of the shank, as more fully shown in the drawings. It will be observed that the common needle, Fig. I, has a uniform taper from B to O. Thus no more strength is given to the-bend of the needle at B, Fig. II, than to any other part, and consequently it breaks at this point. In my improved needle, Fig. III, aswell or prominence, qE, is made at a distance from the point F about equal to the length of the barb or hook E F', Fig. IV. The thickness or size at the point E is suflicient to make the needle iniiexible at the bend and throw all ot1 the motion into a part of the shank and into the whole ot` the length of the barb that lies between the enlarged bend and the point of the needle or part which enters the eye when the barb is closedV down. As the needle is rigid at the bend or lower end, it cannot break `at that point, and when the barb moves in or out, to carry or let go the thread, this motion is distributed over a great length (on both shank and barb) as compared with the short bend in the common needle, and consequently' the steel retains its elasticity for a long time.

Experiment with my needles for live months in the establishment above referred to shows that the breakage is forty-eight per day instead of two hundred, making an annual saving of about forty-six thousand needles.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A machine knittingneedle that is rigid or inflexible at the bend and ilexible either upon the barb or upon the shank, or upon both barb and shank, substantially as herein described.

THOMAS SANDS. In presence of- S. T. THOMAS, THOMAS H. BELT.

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