MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 91 



IMPROVED KNITTING-MACHINE. 



A very ingenious knitting-machine, or loom, has recently been invented 

 by J. B. & W. Aiken, of Franklin, N. H. It resembles a large ring, having a 

 revolving top plate, and a number of under hooks, moving back and forth 

 towards and from the central opening, to receive the thread or yarn from a 

 rotary ring-traveller, to form the loops, interlace them, and then throw them 

 off in the form of a long knit tube hanging down in the centre. To produce 

 a ribbed knit fabric, two sets of needles are required, the one set working 

 vertically through, and transverse to the loops formed by the other set ; one 

 set of needles only are required for plain work. A large machine for knitting 

 shirts has five feed bobbins, and a stop motion for each, so that the break 

 of a thread at once stops it. It is a most ingenious loom, and will knit fifty 

 yards in one day. 



A stocking-loom occupies no more space than a common sewing-machine ; 

 but one is required for knitting the legs, and another the feet. The work of 

 the former is taken off in the form of a long tube; this is cut in proper 

 lengths, put on the footing-machine, which weaves a single square piece to 

 the leg, and this is closed by crotchet work, by hand, to form the foot. One 

 girl can attend eight looms, and produce 100 dozen pairs of stockings in a 

 factory every day. They are the most perfect machines for this purpose we 

 have yet examined, and no less than five patents are embraced in their opera- 

 tion and construction. The cost of a machine to knit ribbed stocking-legs, 

 is S200; one for feet, $100; a family machine, for plain work, $50. 



BOOTHE'S IMPROVED GRAIN-CLEANER. 



Ordinary smut-machines are built of wood, and are open ; the necessary 

 consequence is that they have to be confined in a close room on account of 

 the dust thrown out, and that they catch fire very easily from over-heated 

 journals. Several large mills have been lost from this cause, and the rate of 

 insurance is, on this account, often extremely high. This new grain-cleaner 

 has been devised to avoid dust and danger of fire; it is entirely metallic, and 

 is all encased. On a vertical shaft, a cylinder, or drum, about two feet in 

 diameter and four feet long, is keyed, and made to revolve at a velocity of 

 550 revolutions per minute. On the periphery of the drum projecting flat 

 arms, denominated "beaters," are screwed in parallel circular rows. They 

 extend a few inches outside, forming an angle of forty degrees with a tan- 

 gent to the drum, and their external surface, measuring three inches by four 

 inches, is deeply corrugated by vertical grooves a quarter of an inch deep 

 and wide. Around this drum is a stationary cylindrical envelop of such a 

 diameter as to leave scarcely an inch of free space between itself and the 

 ends of the beaters. This envelop is corrugated circularly; the hollow of 

 each corrugation is opposite one row of beaters. This circular envelop is 

 closed below by a curved bottom terminating in a pipe at the centre, and is 

 closed at the top by the case of a horizontal fan blower, which is placed 

 above it ; the fans of the blower revolve with the shaft of the machine. 

 There is also a suction-pipe leading from the pipe at the bottom of the ma- 

 chine to the fan blower. To operate, the grain is introduced at the top, 

 between the drum and the cylindrical casing. Before it has had time to fall 

 an inch, it is caught on the inclined face of a beater, and thrown out by cen- 



