Knitting machine

“ By use of the attachment, as the specifications state, 'yarn-guides can be accurately controlled to lay a yarn over a distance less than the full length of a course being knitted, as for reinforcing or for so-called split-seam work wherein sections of fabric are connected by suture seams.' The attachment, it is stated, may be used for 'fashioning designs, as clocks, upon hosiery.'
Flat knitting machines are adaptable to use in the manufacture of full-fashioned garments such as stockings, underwear, or sweaters. ”

“ Hand machines are moderately priced so that to start a knitting factory with such a plant is not a really formidable proposition, quite a respectable equipment being procurable for a few hundred pounds; many a prosperous firm owes its initial successes to the adoption of the flat knitter and from this they have been able to launch larger schemes of development in the knitting business. With new starters in this trade to-day the flat knitting machine nearly always figures prominently when there is lack of capital, and on this basis quite a sound foundation may be laid. ”

“ Even with the double spindle synchronously operated instead of the single spindle of the Gotham it was substantially the device claimed by Schletter. In converting a full-fashioned knitting machine into a different type of straight knitting machine which did not fashion the main fabric, Nusbaum embodied in it a device for accurately controlling yarn guides for laying a secondary yarn less than the length of the course being knitted, which was capable of producing designs having re-entrant angles. ”

“ A machine of this sort is capable of turning out a great length of material in a short time, and the fabric has the fine ribbed character seen in ordinary knitted goods. The article is soft, full, and elastic, but lacks the strength and firmness of woven fabrics. Stockinette cloths, sweaters, some underwear, and hosiery are products of the knitting machine, and the knitting mills are important consumers of noils and low-grade wools. ”

“ Seamless hose are not, strictly speaking, entirely seamless, inasmuch as all stockings made on a circular knitting machine must have a seam somewhere. There must be a beginning and an ending. In the case of the stocking the ending is at the toe, and the opening left can only be closed with a seam. In some mills this opening is automatically stitched together on special machines; in others, girls do it by hand with needle and thread. Neither by machine nor handwork can the opening be closed with exactly the same stitch as that made by the needles of the power knitter. ”

“ One of the most easily understood forms of this type of motion is incorporated in the well-known Griswold type of circular knitting machine used still in considerable numbers in one or other of its modifications for the footwear trade. An illustration of this class of knitting machine is shown in section in Fig. 50, which is so arranged as to give a side view of the cylinder which makes the plain work and the dial as used for rib work. The machine is constructed in a circle which for men's half-hose is about 10041⁄4 in. ”

“ In making a fabric on a double jacquard machine which shows the design on one side only, it is good practice to put four cards on the front cylinder properly cut to put alternate needles into operation on alternate courses, in order to prevent putting more courses on the front plate than on the back. Or to explain it in another way, the needle in the back plate that makes the white part of the design knit only on the rounds on which the white thread carrier is used, and the needles that make the black parts operate only when the carrier with the black yarn is in use. ”

“ The Cotton Knitting Frame, invented in 1864, is still the basis of the modern flat-bed knitter. The product is a flat web which can be widened or narrowed by transferring the loops from the edge needles to a separate instrument, and then replacing them. In knitting stockings, the shaped legs are made on one machine, then transferred to a heeler, and then to a third machine which knits the feet. The stockings then must be seamed up the back. The largest machines are capable of knitting twenty-four garments at one time. ”

“ All flat machines of this type have two needle plates, but for our purpose of knitting jersey fabric we need but one, therefore we will imagine that there are two in Fig. 16 but the back one having no needles in it cannot do any knitting. The needles, as will be noted in Fig. 16, are placed in tricks or slots of which there may be any number from 21⁄2 up to 18 in one inch, according to the size of the yarn to be used. The needles should fit in the slots close enough so that they will not have any chance to tip sidewise, yet they must move easily endwise. ”

“ In machine knitting of every kind there must be a needle for every loop, and therein lies the fundamental difference between machine and hand knitting. Latch needles, however, are constructed entirely different from the straight plain hand needles. Fig. 14 shows the construction of the latch needle. It will be noted by looking at the latches on the three needles that they swing freely on a pin or rivet lengthwise of the needle, but have no movement sidewise. ”

“ Among other knitting machines in modern use are the drawers machine; machines for hose and half-hose with apparatus for making the instep, finishing off the toe, splicing or thickening the heels, etc.; machines for producing the bottoms or soles of hose separately, and also the instep separately; circular stocking machines for producing a tubular web afterwards cut into suitable lengths for all varieties of hose; circular sleeve machines, circular body machines, as well as circular web machines for making both body and sleeves of undershirts, jerseys, sweaters, etc. ”

“ Needles are operated at a rate of speed that would make 500 or more stitches per minute per needle if the machine would keep them in continuous operation, but in practical work they make from 50 to 200 stitches per minute according to the size of the machine as more time is consumed as a rule in the movements of the machine between the stitches than is used in the actual knitting operation. ”

“ In the knitting operation the chief essential is accuracy of loop formation and regularity of stitch right along the entire width of loops in the course. If at any point the thread is drawn slightly tighter than the normal, this tightening is at once apparent in the formation of the loops and a grave defect occurs which on account of its minuteness is impossible to remedy in after operations. In the knitting operation correct tension of thread is indispensable to good quality fabric, and this again depends on an absolutely uniform feed of yarn to the needles of the machine. ”

“ The Germans are famous knitters. "The peasant women of the Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, &c., knit a great deal. They are seldom, if ever, without the materials for this occupation. On the way to and from market, and at other times, knitting forms their almost constant employment." A knitting machine has been invented in Seneca, N. Y., that is said to knit a perfect stocking in less than five minutes. Aiken's knitting machines are very popular. We have thought ladies would do well to try them, and devote themselves to making up hosiery. We doubt not but it would pay very well. ”

“ Within the last twenty years this art has been so greatly improved, especially in the hosiery line, that the automatic machine of to-day passes through the entire operation of knitting the article, finishing it off, and starting afresh without other aid than a supply of yarn. Moreover, the machine now to be considered practical must be so constructed that it will continue thus to operate without repairs or loss of time from month to month; and its daily output will average more than the old hand machines could accomplish in a week. By hand knitting one hundred loops could be formed per minute ”

“ Knitted goods have the peculiarity of great elasticity in consequence of this formation of the fabric, and for that reason find a special application in all garments which are required to snugly conform to irregular outlines, such as stockings for the feet, gloves for the hands, and underwear for the body.
Weaving, braiding, and netting are very old arts, but the art of knitting is comparatively modern. It is believed to have originated about [431] the year 1500 in Scotland. In 1589 William Lee, of England, is credited with making the first knitting machine. ”

“ Among the earlier knitting machines, the straight reciprocating type was most in evidence, and of which the Lamb machine was a popular form. The increased speed and capacity of the circular machine have, however, caused it to largely supersede the others. In the circular machine a circular series of vertical parallel needles slide in grooves in a cylinder, and are raised and lowered successively by an external rotating cylinder which has on the inner side cams that act upon the needles. The Branson 15⁄16 Automatic Knitter, shown in Fig. ”

“ For 250 years or more after the invention of the knitting machine, knitted fabrics were in a general way supposed to be fit only for hosiery. Then some enterprising knitter woke up to the fact that knitted fabric was the ideal fabric for underclothing to be worn next to the body, and there was developed a great industry in knitted underwear. ”

“ Another point of difference is that the purl stitch machine has one set of needles for both plates, with a hook and latch on both ends of each needle and no butts to operate them, while the ordinary machine has a set of needles for each plate with a hook and latch on one end only with a butt on the other end to operate it. ”

“ With this arrangement of the jacks, and without any further manipulation, the machine would knit a straight vertical stripe of five needles purl stitch and five needles plain jersey stitch. If, however, we rack the back needle over one needle every round when the carriage is at the left end of the machine, and all the needles are in the front plate, for five rounds we would have these stripes running diagonally instead of vertically, and the distance they would run to the right or left, depending on which way we racked, would depend on how many times we racked in one direction. ”

“ This type of frame with the needles stationary, and revolving cams and thread guide has from the first been recognized as the best adapted for knitting gas mantles from ramie. The yarn is working in long lengths on a narrow width circular knitting machine using the latch needle and this fabric is afterwards cut into lengths according to the mantles being produced. Mantles of different sizes can be obtained by using different diameters of machines as supplied by machine builders for this purpose. ”

“ You can knot on lengths of wool of other colors and make very pretty reins with them. You can, if you like, work with two differently colored threads, all the time using one color for the loops you lift, over a wrap thread of another color, alternating as you work round and round your circle. This is really [46] just the way a knitting-machine works, very much simplified. ”

“ The rack will show on the side that casts the stitches off the needles. It is customary to hold 36the stitch or tuck on the back plate, therefore the rack shows on the front side of the fabric, or the side toward the operator of the machine.
Operation of Racking It is understood, of course, that on a flat machine there must always be an end needle on one plate or the other. Usually the knitter sets up his machine with one plate carrying the end needle on one side of the work and the other plate carrying the other end needle. ”

“ If there is no change to be made in the middle of the garment the knitter may avoid it by either one of two means; either by using a stop like B, which will reverse the movement of the cylinder without starting the main chain, or by using a stop like E, which starts the main chain at the same time it reverses the movement of the cylinder, but in this event he must put in the main chain two extra links with a stud attached for stopping the chain immediately after starting without acting upon any of its automatic mechanism. ”

“ Weaving has a section Weaving Machinery (Vol. 28, p. 443) . An account of the special machinery and appliances used in the manufacture of woollens is included in Professor Barker’s illustrated article Wool, Worsted and Woollen Manufactures (Vol. 28, p. 805) . In Hosiery (Vol. 13, p. 788) we learn about framework knitting and warp-knitting machines. It is recorded that up to the middle of the 19th century only a flat web could be knitted, and that a circular knitting machine of American origin is the type of machine on which is produced the seamless hosiery of to-day. ”

“ The card cylinder and cards are practically the same as used on the purl stitch machine and explained in a former chapter, but obviously the application must be somewhat different owing to the different construction and manner of operating the needles in this machine. Inasmuch as there are two sets of needles opposed one to the other, and each set forms the stitches which show on their respective sides of the fabric, it is possible and customary to make the designs in solid colors, differing in this respect from the links and links or purl stitch machine. ”

“ The needle is perhaps the most delicate part of the frame and constant attention has to be given to these if perfect knitting has to be produced. Large firms find it to their advantage to engage an operative for this special work alone, he inspects all frames and his trained eye can soon detect the slightest fault of needle alignment and he replaces faulty needles by casting new ones. The pliaring of needles, as it is called, is an important part of the work of a modern knitting factory, and care to these machine parts is at once reflected in the quality of the fabric produced on the frames. ”