knitting gauge

The number of loops contained in three inches of breadth. knitting-machine, s. Mech .: An apparatus for mechanically knitting jerseys, stockings, and other knitted goods. There are many kinds of machine, one of the best known, which is on what is known as the circular system, being described as follows: A bed-plate having a vertically projecting and grooved needle-guiding cylinder or bed is secured to a table or other suitable support. On the bed-plate is a loose ring. provided with a thread-guide for conducting the thread to the needles, and about the needle-cylinder is a revolving cylinder, having an annular groove interrupted by a cam portion, and provided with adjustable cams, which govern the downward motion of the needles, and consequently the length of the loops, and raise the needles; and two of these latter cams are needed to provide for reversing the machine for knitting the heel or a flat web. The 2442 cam-cylinder is moved by a bevel gear connected to a driving-crank, and when moved continuously in one direction knits a circular web; and this web may be narrowed as desired, to fashion the leg, by removing needles, and placing their loops on adjacent needles. One needle receives the thread within its hook, and is subsequently moved by the cam-cylinder so as to form the thread so taken into a loop. When the heel is to be formed, a portion of the needles are drawn up, thus retaining their loops, and the number of needles left in action correspond with the width of the heel to be formed. The cam-cylinder is now to be reciprocated in opposite directions, and in order to keep the thread guide in advance of the descending needles sufficiently far, so that the thread will be caught, pins are inserted in the bed-plate, and engage the heel of the thread-carrier, and stop it just before the cam-cylinder is stopped.