US1803138A - Knit hosiery - Google Patents

Description

R. W. SCOTT April 28, 1931.

v Filed May 17, 1922 q j r Mr 4r, r? J @fbx/@g Patented Apr, 28, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROBERT W. SCOTT, OF BABYLON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOiR TO SCOTT AND WILLIAMS, INC., i

F NEW YORK, N. Y., A. CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS KNIT HosIERY Application led May 17,

" toe pockets in plain fabric sections, having integral ribbed fabric portions beginning at a different place in the front and in the back of'the stocking or other garment, and hav' ing an im roved demarking structure between the ribbed fabric and the plain fabric; and also having, if desired, parts narrowed and widened appropriately, as by changes in the length or width of thestitch changes in yarn or both; and also having, if desired, an automatically-made integral welt.

The invention also includes the art of making fabrics of the kind mentioned in such a way as to facilitate the manufacture in one operation, and especially to so devise the operations as to permit them to bethe automatic function of a knitting machine having appropriate knitting, tensioning, yarn feed-v ing and control devices for this purpose; for

example, the machine of my application Serial No. 559,506, filed May 9, 1922 (Patent No. 1,641,554, September 6, 1927).

In carrying out my invention I prefer to provide for knitting the` stocking herein shown and described as one preferred example only of fabrics corresponding to the invention in such a way as to begin the stocking at the toe end, and preferably to form each stocking as a separate piece of fabric begun on the bare needles of the machine, and cast off before beginning another stock- In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. l is a diagram elevation of a stocking showing one typical example only of the new 4article of hosiery;

Fig. 2 is a detail showing the stocking foot before looping, as delivered by the machine;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the top of the leg and the welt of the stocking shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged outside or face view 1922. Serial No. 561,634.

diagram of the fabric at vthe junctures of plain and ribbed knitting, for instance at the areas 27a and 27b of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the welt showinga modified product and a modified way of finishing the welt.

Stockings forwinter or sporting wear, or for children, are most satisfactory when made of ribbed fabric, which combines elastic Y properties insuring comfort and a good fit with an excellent appearance. Stockings of the general type referred to have heretofore been made on hand-operated circular orl f straight machines, or by transfers of fabric from one machine to another, or from one set of needles to another set in the same machine, and thereforeby relatively difficult and expensive operations.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 4, these illustrate a preferred product and certain steps in the art or method'of producing it. As shown, the 'stocking 1 comprises a seamless foot having the usual narrowed and widened plain fabric toe t, a plain fabric ring t next to the toe; a plain fabric sole S and ribbed instep p, (which may have any desired number of wales proportionally to the total number of wales anywhere in the product) the usual heel h, and a short section of plain fabric h above the heel.

The leg L is of rib knitting, preferably of uniform pattern such as Q-'and-l or.4and1,

and at the junctures 7" and r2 between ribbed `and plain, a sharp line of demarcation free from holes, of strong fabric and of attractive appearance, is secured by a structure presently explained. The leg is preferably fashioned at the calf by predetermined variation in the length of stitch, and the -upper end of the stocking is provided with a welt W of plain fabric of desired length, ending in a cast-off section W1 of ribbed fabric,

'Fig 3, which may, if desired, be sewed to insure durability on the lines @o3-w3, wl-wz, or both.

In some cases, where a turned welt of `ribbed fabric only is desired, the plain-fabric welt W2, Fig. 5, made by the automatic operation of the machine, may be very short to serve only as a guide for use in applying the inturned upper end of the leg L, at the predetermined length fixed by the machineplaced welt, to the pins of a looper', in order to sew down by the looper seam w a portion of the inturned upper end fw? of the ribbed leg to form the welt. When this is done, the

' upon a circular rib knitting machine by operations which can be automatically conl trolled yto insure uniformity of` product.

p Referring now to Fig. 2, in the preferred operation the stocking is begun, by first forming a selvage s on rthe bare needles, for instance by the method explained in my reissued Patent No. 13,752, June 16, 1914, and

edge'a ainst raveling in the direction inv by then making loopers rounds 1' of plain fabric before beginning the toe t. The selvage -made at the beginning of the loopers rounds is, according to my said patent, a fast which itting proceeds.

, The ribbed. fabric beginning respectively at\the 'structures r1 and r2 includes added wales w1, wz, w3, etc. Fig. 4, which may be produced by causing dial needles to enter 'the spaces between any desired recurrent 'pairs of cylinder needles upon which only the plain fabric sections h, t, S, h1, etc. are

I knit. lTo make the structures r1 and 12 this 35v entrance of needles `to'knit the added wales w1, m2, etc. is in respect -to and` t0 take loops z in .courses 75, r9, into which the loops of u'cked (accumulated-loop) partial courses 1'3, 1-4` are detained to be cast off with the knit o loops 1" of the courses rs. The tucked loops are independent in number, in the parts .of

Ithe course containing them, of the number of vrib wales v1 etc., but preferably are in such number as to occur-always inane or the other v of the wales flanking that containing an initial dial loop z. The-leg of a loopuv17 thus always extends across the eyelet-hole which `would -otherwise be formed.

For forminglthe selvage s, alternate needles of one of the two series, cylinder and dial, are arranoed to be active and inactive, the riaindefbeing ever-active. The tuck stitch inthe demarking structures r1. and r2 jare formed on these occasionally active needles by causing these needles to retain the loops r until after having taken the yarn back-Wale loops" z being drawn in the next following course. i

v I The partial courses of tuck stitchesiin the plain fabric sections at Tl'an'd r preceding the be ning of ribbed/fabric notonly have the e ect of closing the Aeyelet-hole which would otherwise ya pear by the legs r" of the second loop of t e tuck stitches, but these relatively frequent'tuck stitches so placed cause an outwardly raised line at the edge between ribbed and plain fabric of pleasing appearance, serving to set off the ribbed fabric from the plain fabric.

. By causing the instep p of ribbed fabric to be knit side by side with the sole S, the

tubular foot comprised of these two parts of the fabric can be made satisfactorily narrow as compared withv the top of the leg,

although the stocking contains an unchanged number of face wales (cylinder needle wales) throughout. By the described way of knitting, the increased width of the fabric, e. g., for the foot, caused byintroducing intoit the back or dial wales w1 etc. at the part p is deprived of effect to widen the Ifoot byjlimiting the number of wales w1 in the foot to a segment p containing less than half the whole number of face-wales, and corresponding to a portion only of the wales complementary to those inthe heel and toe. For

example, the sole section S may contain 96 c wales, of plain loops; the instep section p may contain 64 face-wales and 18 back wales; the leg may contain 160 face-wales and 40 back Wales, and the heels and toes may be formed on a segment 80 wales wide. A short stitch for the foot and ankle and a longer stitch for the leg L, accompanied, if desired, by change of yarn to a heat/ier yarn, will now produce a narrow vfoot and wide leg.

As heretofore made, so far as I am, aware, stockings having ribbed insteps have been produced only by transfer operations between the needles of the respective series used for ribbed knitting. This is so difficult and expensive an operation, or requires such an expensiveand complex machine for machine production, as to have left the market without any ribbed-leg stockings also having ribbed insteps, except very expensive stockings made by hand, or by manuallygoverned machines.

`The compromise usual in the art is a stockin having a ribbed leg and a plain foot, the ribing'jbeginning vor ending all around the leg at the same point above the heel. These stockings are not satisfactory for wear with low shoes. This invention provides a satisfacto stocking in which the ribbed pattern exten s unaltered over all parts of the stockin exposed in wear.

` v at I claim isz-4 y 1. A tubular knit fabric partly ribbed and partly plain 'having ribbed fabric following lof the next succeeding course, the initiala plam fabric, rtion in the direction of the length of the abric, the ribbed fabric at one circumferential segment ofthe tube beginning' at a different point in the length of the tube from the ribbed fabric in another cir- 2. A knit stocking having a leg and instep of circular-knit rib fabric, and having an integrally formed foot with aplain fabric sole, the plain fabric wales being continuous.

throughout the stocking and containing segmental courses containing tuck stitches, the initial loops of the back-wales of the rib fabric instep and the back of the rib fabric leg being respectively taken'from segments of circular plain-fabric courses next following the tucked segmental courses and near the toe, and above the heel. Y

3. A knit stocking having a leg and instep of circular-knit rib fabric,- and having an inv tegrally formed foot with a plain fabric sole,

the initial loo s of the introduced backwales ofthe ri fabric instep and the back of the rib ,fabric leg being respectively taken from segments df circular plain-fabric courses having therein tuck stitches adapted to mark off the lrib fabric and close the initialloop eyelet-holes.l A

' 4.` A knit stocking having a leg. and instep of circular-knit rib fabric, and having an integrally formed foot with a plain fabric sole, the initlal loops of the back-wales of the rib fabric instep and the back of the rib fabric leg being respectively taken from segments of circular pla' therein tuck stitches a apted to mark oil' the rib fabric and close the initial-loop eyeletholes, the back-wales of the rib fabric` having u fewer initial loops than there are tuck stitches in the preceding plain fabric segment where the said initial loops occur.4

5. A circular-knit seamless stocking having the usual heel and toe, a ribbed instep and a ribbed leg, and a plain fabric sole, the

fabric having the same number of face-wales throughout, the back-wales being initiated in succession to the plain fabric near the toe and above the heel respectively for the ribbed instep and the back of the leg of the stocking, the courses preceding the initial loops containin stitches accumulated by vtucking* in wales anking the initial stitches of the back-wales.

6. A stocking .blank having in succession av l starting selvage, loopers rounds, a narrowed and widened toe ;v a plain-fabric sole and a ribbed-fabric instep side by side; a narrowed and widened heel; and a leg ribbed all around, terminating in a tubular plain fabric welt and following courses of ribbed fab- 50 ric, the initial loops of the back-wales of the ribbed fabric being drawn from segments of courses ofthe plainfabric having loops intei-locked with detained loops from a pre1 ceding course. 7. A stocking partly ribbed and partly vplain having a seamless tubular foot and seamless ribbed tubular leg comprising throughout face wales of knit loops, a part of a course only` at one place inthe length of the stocking next to ribbed fabric containing tuck stitches in said face wales,and a course elsewhere in the length of the stocking next to ribbed fabric containing tuck stitches in said face wales on the other side of the stocking from said part of a course.

8. A stocking having a seamless tubular foot and seamless tubular leg, a part of a course only at one place in the length of the course next to said tucked partial courses being ribbed. Signed by me at New York, New York, this eighth day of Ma 1922.

RO ERT W. SCOTT.

-fabric courses having

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