US2218413A - Surgical hosiery - Google Patents

Description

3 Sheet l A. R. BELL SURGICAL HOSIERY Filed Dec. 20. 1937 Oct. 15

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Oct. 15, 1940. A. R. BELL I 2,218,413

SURGICAL HOS IERY Filed Dec. 20, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Oct. 15, 1940. A. R. BELL 2 ,218,413-

SURGICAL HOS IERY Filed Dec. 20, 1937 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 igl fl WzM Patented Oct. 15, 1940 a UNITED, srATEs PATENT j OFFICE SURGICAL HO SIER-Y Arthur R. Bell, Philadelphia, Pa assignor of twenty-five per cent to Walter J. Horn and twenty-five per cent to Franklin 8. Born, both of Philadelphia, Pa, and twenty-five her to Albert J. Miller, Bala Cynwy ala.

cent

Application December 20, 1931. Serlal No, 180,872

anatomy respectively encircled by or encased I the'ribbed knit fabric having the rubber laid in within the various articles.

Prior to the present invention it has been customary to form surgical appliances of the kinds above noted of ribbed knit fabric, and to lay strands of rubber in each of the courses of stitches of which the fabric is composed with,

the rubber disposed between the stitch wales drawn to one face of the ribbed fabric and the stitch wales drawn to the opposite face of the causes chafing of the skin at the places where the encased portion of the anatomy and the article are required to bend, such as the back of the knee, the frontof the elbow, the instep, etc.

Modern methods of manufacture of rubber filaments, such as are employed in elastic fabrics, have made it possible to produce the rubber filaments with cross sectional areas sufficiently small to permit the filaments to be formed into relatively fine gageknitted stitches.

In order to overcome the bulkiness of the surgical articles, as formed of fabric having the rubber strands laid in the stitch courses, the articles more" recentlyhave been composed of fine rubber filaments covered with silk, cotton,

etc. with the covered rubber 'knittedinto sucwhile the knit-in rubber fabric is of considerably lesser weight and bulk than had been possible prior to the development of the fine rubber filaments.

Furthermore, where the rubber laid-in fabrics were capable of stretching in a coursewise direction only, the knit-in rubberfabrics are capable of stretching in both the coursewise and walewise directions.

In order to reduce the stiffness or harshness of the coursesat the bending portions thereof, to

enable the article to bend more readily at the backof the knee, etc., a practice suchas that disclosed in the patent to James O. Willmott, No. 1,428,465, dated September 5, 1922, was resorted to. This method involves expensive and 5 tedious hand' operations, including the removal of the rubber strands in the bending areas of the fabric, the replacement thereof by soft fibrous textile filaments, and the tying of the ends of the elastic and fibrous filaments together, in the fabric. The result was a soft, readily bendable area which reduced or eliminated the tendency toward chafing.

' With the advent of the lighter articles composed of fine rubber filaments knit into and solel5 1y forming the courses of stitches of which the fabric was composed, it was impossible to remove the rubber in any portion ofthe fabric according to the Willmott practice, therefore, the knit rubber articles prior to the present inventionhave presented thesame objectionable characteristics as originally presented by the ribbed fabric articles having the rubber laid in the courses.

The object of the present invention, therefore,-is to produce a knit-rubber article having a bending area devoid ofrubber, for the purpose of facilitating the bending of the part of the anatomy encased by the article and to eliminate the tendency toward chafing in said portion.

The construction of the article made in accordance with the principles of the present invention, and various applications thereof, will be more fully disclosed hereinafter, reference ber knee band made in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear view, in perspective, of the article shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view'similar. to Fig. 1, showing the knee band as provided with a rubberless top;

Fig. 4 is a view of a surgical stocking including the knee section according to Fig. 1 with additional calf and foot portions;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, showing the article provided with the rubberless top of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 4 and illustrates the upper portion of the article composed of knit-rubber fabric and the lower portion composed of in+laid rubber fabric;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to F18. 1 but showing an elbow or ankleband made in'accorda-nce with the principles of the present invention:

Fig. 8 is a stitch diagram of that area of the fabric designated by the character x, in Fig. 1;

' and prises an elastic filament covered, in the present instance spirally, with a textile filament of silk,-

cotton, wool, etc.

The successively interknit courses of stitches 2 extend from the upper end 4 to the lower end 5 of the article I, with the exception of the portion A which is defined by and included within the lines ab, b-c and c-d. I The portion A is composed of amultiplicity of stitch courses 2a which respectively constitute parts of those of the rubber knit courses 2", 2 which lie between the lines -D, and c--d. The stitches of the part courses 2a, 2a are composed preferably of a relatively soft textile thread or filament 6 which is devoid of rubber.

The juncture line bc is in the form of a suture produced by the stitches adjacent the ends of the part courses 2b, which are formedof the rubber containing yarn 3, and the stitches adjacent the ends of the course portions 20, which are composed of the textilerubberless yarn 6, overlapping each other to the extent of one or more stitch wales, l and 8 respectively, whereby the rubberless portion A -is joinedwith the rubber containing portion B and forms therewith an integrally united and interknit limb encircling band I.

The rubberless portion A of the limb encircling band I, as noted above, is made exclusively of soft, pliable yarn and is readily susceptible to of the article l may be finished in any suitable manner. Preferably these ends are provided with turned hems 9,, and HI respectively, the edges of the turned-over portions of the fabric forming said hems being secured to the body of the article I by elastic sutures ll and I2 which are preferably produced in the manner disclosed in my copending application, Serial No. 164,282, filed September 4, 1937.

The article shown in Fig. 3 is the same as that shown in Fig. l'with the exception that a rub-' ,berless portion A l, composed of successively intion Al is preferably provided with a turned hem 9a formed by securing the edge of the folded fabric to the body of the portion Al by means of an elastic suture lla. The rubberless portion Al is provided in instances where a person desired to support the main rubber bearing portion la against possibility of slipping down, by the use of garters of the suspender type extending down wardly from a girdle, etc.

The article shown in Fig. 4 is substantially the same, in the upper portion lb thereof, as the article shown in Fig. l, and includes a lower calf portion 2l composed of rubber-knit courses 2 which are substantially the same as the rubber-knit courses 2 of the portion l The article also includes a partial foot portion 22 composed of the same sort of rubber-knit courses of stitches. The

foot portion is preferably provided with a turned hem Illa formed with an elastic suture [2a. The portion 23a, lying behind the instep portion 23 of the stocking shown in Fig. 4, is in some instances left open for the accommodation of the heel, however, a rubberless fabric heel 24 may be knit into {the stocking to close the portion 231: thereof, if desired. If the closed heel 24 is employed the same would be composed of rubberless courses of stitches 20 corresponding to therubberless courses 2a of the rubberless portion A of the fabric of Fig. 8, along the lines e-f, )a, which define the normally open area 23a, to the rubber bearing courses of the main body of the article in the same manner as the rubber bearing and rubberless stitches are joined on the lines a-b, and cd of Fig. 1. The closed heel section 24 would be formed by reciprocating kniting, in the usual manner, whereby the usual gore line 25 would be formed where the course portions 2c of one half of the heel are joined to the course portions 20 of the other half of the heel as a result of said reciprocating knitting.

The article shown in Fig. is the same as that shown in Fig. 4 with the addition of the rubberless top portion Al of Fig. 3 attached thereto, and with the heel section 23a. open.

The article shown in Fig. 6 includes a main portion lc which corresponds to the article I of Fig. 1 and with the rubberless top portion Al of C in Fig. 9. The fabric C of the lower portion 2 la of the article is composed of successively knit coursesof stitches 26 formed of fibrous textile yarn such as the yarn 6. The stitches of each course 26, in alternate wales, are drawn to opposite faces of the fabric and thereby form a fabric of the ribbed type. A rubber-bearing yarn 21, either of the covered or bare rubber type, is laid in each of the stitch courses between the oppo-' sitely extending stitches thereof. This rubber laid-in portion 2la is joined to the rubber-knit portion B by an elastic suture 28, formed in the same manner as the elastic sutures ll and I2 of Fig. 1.

The instep portion 23c of the article shown in Fig. 6 is preferably formed with a natural curvature produced in the manner disclosed in the prior patent to Charles E. Southwick, Jr., No. 2,015,608, dated September 24, 1935, or in the manner disclosed in the copending application of Walter J- Horn, Serial No. 95,884, one of the coassignees of the present application.

The article shown in Fig. '7 may be employed either as an elbow band or as an instep or ankle band. It includes a main portion ld composed of knit-rubber courses 2, the same as the courses 2 of Fig. 1. The article also includes a bending portion A2 composed of rubberless courses of stitches 2a, the same as the courses 2a of the rubberless portion A in Fig. 1, said area A2 being defined by the lines al-bl, bl-cl, cldl. The

- upper and lower edges 4 and 5 may be provided with turned hems the same as the turned hems 9 and Ill of the article I disclosed in Fig. 1.

, The articles shown in Figs. 1 to 7 are preferably of a seamless tubular fashioned type capa ble of'production on the Lamb type or similar fiat knitting machine employing two banks of needles in parallel spaced relation to each other with cam andyarn feeding .means operable continuously in one direction to form' a tubular fashioned ter mode of operation is employed in the knitting of the; courses formed partly of the rubber bearing yarn 3 and partly of the rubberless yam 6 in the knitting of the course portions 2b and 2a respectively.

While a seamless fashioned tubular article is preferred circular non-fashioning machines may be employed to form the article as a straight tubular structure, or the structuremay be made as a flat blank on a flat machine and its opposite edges subsequently joined to form the tubular structure, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

It will be understood that the articles disclosed in Figs. 3 to '7 are tubular in form, like the article shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and that Figures 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 illustrate the articles are being flattened and depicting but one side of the article in each instance, and that the opposite side of the article in each instance is a duplicate of the sidedepicted in each of said figures, thus, the rubberless portions A, A2 are laterally balanced in the backs of the leg encircling articles as shown in Fig! 2 and laterally balanced in the fronts of the elbow and ankle encircling articles; and, in each instance, these rubberless areas A, A2 are included within and completely surrounded by knit-rubber fabric B which constitutes the major portion of the article.

The invention in its broader scope may also include a surgical appliance, such as shown in Figs. 1, to 6 wherein the knit-rubber fabric B and the rubberless fabricAwould be formedseparatelyand pending application. While this form of structure may not be as acceptable as the integrally interknit structure above described it would serve itspurpose within the scope of the present invention.

I claim:

1. A surgical appliance for enclircling a human limb at a bendable joint therein, said appliance being composed of plain knit fabric and constructed throughout of successively interknit courses of stitches extending completely around the limb, the courses adapted to embrace the limb at and adjacent said joint being composed in part of rubber bearing yarn and in part of rubberless yarn with said yarns knit together-in stitches common to both yarns at the opposite sides respectively of said joint, and with the course parts composed of the rubber bearing yarn arranged to embrace the convexed surface of said joint when bent and the course parts composed of said rubberless yarn arranged to embrace the concaved surface of said joint when bent.

2. A surgical appliance for encircling a human limb at a bendable joint therein, said appliance being composed of plain knit fabric and constructed throughout of successively 'interknit courses of stitches extending completely-around the limb, the courses adapted to embrace the limb at and adjacent said joint being composed in part of rubber bearing yarn and in part of rubberless yarn with said yarns knit together in stitches common .to both yarns at the opposite sides respectively'of said joint, and with the course parts composed of the rubber bearing yarn arranged to embrace the convexed surface of said joint when bent and the course parts composed of said rubberless yarn arranged to embrace the concaved surface of saidjointwhenbent, and withcomplete limb encircling courses of stitches composed solely of said rubber bearing yarn arranged above and below the courses which are composed partly of .said rubber bearing yarn and partly of said rubberless yarn.

' AR'I'HURRBELL.

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