Stafford v. Morris

161 F. 113, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 5094
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. New York
DecidedApril 11, 1908
DocketNo. 7,059
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 161 F. 113 (Stafford v. Morris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stafford v. Morris, 161 F. 113, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 5094 (N.D.N.Y. 1908).

Opinion

RAY, District Judge.

The defendants above named are users of the knitting machines alleged to infringe, which are made and sold by the H. P. Snyder Manufacturing Company, which company is defending this action. Hence I shall speak of that company as defendant. This will he understood.

The alleged invention relates to improvements in circular-knitting machines, and in the patent it is illustrated as applied to multiple-fed machines; that is, that several threads are shown as being fed at the same time to the needles. The patentees, Walter Stafford and Robert C. Holt, declare that the particular purpose of the invention is to produce a circular rib-knitting machine in which certain of the needles of one set — preferably, for instance, the dial-needles — can be made, some of them, to knit plain, others to cause a luck-stitch to be made, and some to skip the thread delivered from the same feed to such needles successively and at the same revolution of the machine and by which any number of such stitches may he produced at the same point and by which the stitch may be changed from one to another kind or form at any point of the operation. They also say:

“Where we speak of a needle making a ‘tuck stitch’ or ‘welt stitch,’ wo wish to be understood as meaning that the needle is operated at that point in the operation to tuck the Ihread or to skip the thread, though properly the stitch is not completed until combined1 with the succeeding plain stitch formed by that needle, i. e., the needle is operated to take a thread without casting its old loop or to miss the thread without casting its loop instead of casting an old loop over a new loop to form a plain stitch.”

[114]*114The operation of the machine is described with great particularity. The patent has nine claims, six of which are in issue, viz., the second, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth. These read as follows:

“2. In a circular-knitting machine, a dial, long and short needles disposed therein, a cam-plate, cams seated thereon providing an inner and an outer heel-path for the needles, said cam-xilate being constructed in a series of duplicate sectors, a throat-cam provided in each sector and in each path, the said throat-cams being pivoted at one end and provided with a path for needle-heels there-through, means for adjusting each throat-cam to operate in the making of a plain, a tuck, or a welt stitch and to adjust adjacent needles of different form to either of such positions, said adjusting means comprising pattern-chains and operative connections between the pattern-chains and the throat-cams and means for operating the pattern-chains, in combination, substantially as described.”
“5. In a circular-knitting machine, provided with a dial, pattern-chains, means for operating the same, needles of different length and a cam-plate provided with an annular groove for the heels of each set of needles, a plurality of throat-cams, each provided with a needle-heel groove therethrough, disposed in equal sectors of the cam-plate, one of such throat-cams being in the heel-path of each length needle’ and radially adjacent, the said throat-cams being adjustable to dispose adjacent needles to different operative positions to cause a plain, a tuck or a welt stitch to be made by one or more needles in the operation of the machine, means for adjusting the throat-cams comprising operative connections between each and its proper pattern-chain, substantially as described. ,
”6. In a circular-knitting machine, provided with a cylinder, a' dial, pattern devices, means for operating the same and a cam-plate provided! with annular grooves for the heels of different length needles, cams constructed with heel-controlling grooves therethrough, pivotally mounted on the cam-plate in pairs adjacent to the radial line between the center of the cam-plate and the yarn-feed, there being a yarn-feed for each such pair of throat-cams, said yarn-feeds, operative connections between each throat-cam and its proper pattern device to shift each throat-cam separately to dispose the through-passing needles to skip or to take the yarn of the adjacent feed, in combination, substantially as described.
“7. In a circular-rib-knitting machine provided with a cylinder, a dial, a cam-plate provided with inner and outer needle-heel grooves, pattern-chains and means for operating the same, a plurality of throat-cams constructed with grooves therethrough for the passage of needle-heels, the said throat-cams being seated.one in the path of each needle and at different radial distances from the center of the cam-plate, needles arranged with their heels in the inner and outer heel-grooves, operative connections between each throat-cam and its pattern-chain to shift each throat-cam to cause one interpassing needle to ship the yarn from the adjacent feed and a succeeding needle to knit such yarn from the same feed, such needles being of a length to travel some in each of such needle-heel paths, substantially as described.
“8. In a continuous rotary knitting-machine provided with a cylinder and cylinder-needles, pattern wheels and chains and means for operating the same, a dial with different length needles interposed therein, and a cam-plate, the combination of pivotally-mounted throat-cams arranged in pairs on the cam-plate there being one pair for each duplicate sector of the cam-plate, duplicate sectors of the cam-plate, means for adjusting the throat-cams independently of each other to either of their operative positions at any instant in the revolution of the dial to shift the needles passing therethrough to their proper position in the making of a plain, a tuck, or a welt stitch, said means comprising operative connections between the pattern-chains and the throat-cams, in combination, substantially as described.
“9. In a knitting-machine, a plurality of yarn-feeds, a dial, needles of a plurality of forms therein, cams engaging the heels of each form of needle, a plurality of throat-chms for each yarn-feed pivotally mounted to project or retract each needle independently to co-operate in making a plain, a tuck, or welt stitch, operative means to project or retract the throat-cams, said means [115]*115comprising a pattern device and connections therefrom to each throat-cam, in combination, substantially as shown.”

The patentees also expressly state that they do not limit themselves to the illustrations which they have made of their device, nor to the style of machine or number of cams and feeds exhibited as the improvement is capable of various applications and in different forms and positions without departure from the scope and spirit of the invention.

The following from the specifications summarizes quite well the salient features of the invention:

“Each throat-cam can be moved while flic machine is at work by its own separate connection with its own pattern-chain and independently of each of her throat-cam. As each needle comes to each throat-cam it may be projected so that it will east off and make a plain stitch, or it may be projected a lessor distance and a tuck stitch be made, or it may be withdrawn and not take thread and permit the making of a welt stitch.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 F. 113, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 5094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stafford-v-morris-nynd-1908.