Rib stocking-frame

—This frame, which, next to the common frame, is most extensively in use, is employed for working those striped or ribbed stockings, which are very common in all the different materials of which hosiery is formed. In principle it does not differ from the common frame, and not greatly in construction. The preceding general description will nearly apply to this machine with equal propriety as to the former: that part, however, by which the ribs or stripes are formed, is entirely an addition, and to the application of this additional machinery it may be proper to pay the chief attention, referring chiefly to fig. 558. , which is a front elevation. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0653.png:Position of bars This figure has been already referred to for the illustration of those parts of the machinery which are common to both, and those parts therefore require no recapitulation. The principle of weaving ribbed hosiery po e es considerable affinity to that which subsists in the weaving of that kind of cloth which is distinguished by the name of tweeling, for the formation of stripes, with some variation arising merely from the different nature of the fabric. In cloth weaving, two different kinds of yarn intersecting each other at right angles, are employed; in hosiery only one is used. In the tweeling of cloth, striped as dimity, in the cotton or kerseymere, and in the woollen manufacture, reversing of the loops, a second set of needles is placed upon a vertical frame, so that the bends of the hooks may be nearly under those of the common needles. These needles are cast into tin moulds, pretty similar to the former, but more oblique or bevelled towards the point, so as to prevent obstructions in working them. They are also screwed to a bar of iron, generally lighter than the other, and secured by means of plates: this bar is not fixed, but has a pivot in each end, by means of which the bar may have a kind of oscillatory motion on these pivots. Two frames of iron support this bar; that in which it oscillates being nearly vertical, but inclined a little towards the other needles. Fig. 562. , which is a profile elevation, will serve to illustrate the relative position of each bar to the other. The lower or horizontal frame, the ends only of which can be seen in fig. 558. under a a , appears in profile in fig. 562. , where it is distinguished by d . The vertical frame at a is attached to this by two centre screws, which serve as joints for it to move in. On the top of this frame is the rib-needle bar at f , in figs. 552. and 562. , and one needle is represented in fig. 562. at f . At g is a small pre er, to shut the barbs of the rib-needles, in the same manner as the large one does those of the frame. At h is one of the frame needles, to show the relative position of the one set to the other. The whole of the rib-bar is not fitted with needles like the other; for here needles are only placed where ribs or stripes are to be formed, the intervals being filled up with blank leads, that is to say, with sockets of the same shape as the others, but without needles; being merely designed to fill the bar and preserve the intervals. Two small handles depend from the needle bar, by which the oscillatory motion upon the upper centres is given. The rising and sinking motion is communicated to this machine by chains which are attached to iron sliders below, and which are wrought by the hosier’s heel when nece ary. The pre ure takes place partly by the action of the small pre er, and partly by the motion of the needles in descending, A small iron slider is placed behind the rib-needles, which rises as they descend, and serves to free the loops perfectly from each other. In the weaving of ribbed hosiery, the plain and rib courses are wrought alternately. When the plain are finished, the rib-needles are raised between the others, but no additional stuff is supplied. The rib-needles intersecting the plain ones, merely lay hold of the last thread, and, by again bringing it through that which was on the rib-needle before, give it an additional looping, which reverses the line of chaining, and raises the rib above the plain intervals, which have only received a single knitting. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0654.png:Hot-flue