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1 Knitting Machines
These are of two general types, namely, either flat bed or circular machines and can be plain, using one set of needles, or rib, using two sets of needles. Warp knitting machines are flat.
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2 Knitting Needle
This is the indispensable unit in all knitting machines. Two types are used, (1) the bearded needle which requires an auxiliary device for closing the beard prior to casting off the old loop, and (2) the latch needle which has a small latch pivoted on a tiny pin for closing the hook. -
3 Knitting Yarns
The range of cotton knitting yarns is from 1's to 70's or their equivalent in doubled yarns. The usual grades are " Standard," " Soft Twisted," " Lisle Yarn," and " Hard Lisle." The table following may be taken as a quick guide to these yarns: -
Also see Hosiery Yarns. -
4 Knitting Silk
Thick strong twist, made by twisting together two or three untwisted raw silk threads to the left, and then combining two or three of the composite threads with a right-hand twist. The yarn has a soft handle. -
5 Cable Knitting
A knitting stitch also known as Chain Stitch. It forms a raised cable in the centre of the work surrounded with purled knitting. -
6 Purl Knitting
A knit goods trade term for framework knitting in which loops are formed in reverse direction giving a fabric with both sides looking alike. -
7 Double Knitting
Same as Reinforcing. -
8 Pearl Knitting
The knit goods trade term for those fabrics having all loops of one row lying in one direction and in the next row in the opposite direction. -
9 Slazy Knitting
A fault in knit goods shown by uneven and wiry loops appearing in parts. It is caused by silk yarn of a hard nature that has not absorbed the necessary moisture, so that when the sinkers leave the loops for the brief space of time usual at each course, it jumps from between the needles and thus breaks up the evenness of the loops. -
10 stick to the knitting
Gen Mgtan exhortation to organizations to concentrate on the activities, products, and services that are key to their core business and consequently to their success. Stick to the knitting was popularized by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in their book In Search of Excellence (1984). -
11 Lee, Revd William
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]d. c. 1615[br]English inventor of the first knitting machine, called the stocking frame.[br]It would seem that most of the stories about Lee's invention of the stocking frame cannot be verified by any contemporary evidence, and the first written accounts do not appear until the second half of the seventeenth century. The claim that he was Master of Arts from St John's College, Cambridge, was first made in 1607 but cannot be checked because the records have not survived. The date for the invention of the knitting machine as being 1589 was made at the same time, but again there is no supporting evidence. There is no evidence that Lee was Vicar of Calverton, nor that he was in Holy Orders at all. Likewise there is no evidence for the existence of the woman, whether she was girlfriend, fiancée or wife, who is said to have inspired the invention, and claims regarding the involvement of Queen Elizabeth I and her refusal to grant a patent because the stockings were wool and not silk are also without contemporary foundation. Yet the first known reference shows that Lee was the inventor of the knitting machine, for the partnership agreement between him and George Brooke dated 6 June 1600 states that "William Lee hath invented a very speedy manner of making works usually wrought by knitting needles as stockings, waistcoats and such like". This agreement was to last for twenty-two years, but terminated prematurely when Brooke was executed for high treason in 1603. Lee continued to try and exploit his invention, for in 1605 he described himself as "Master of Arts" when he petitioned the Court of Aldermen of the City of London as the first inventor of an engine to make silk stockings. In 1609 the Weavers' Company of London recorded Lee as "a weaver of silk stockings by engine". These petitions suggest that he was having difficulty in establishing his invention, which may be why in 1612 there is a record of him in Rouen, France, where he hoped to have better fortune. If he had been invited there by Henry IV, his hopes were dashed by the assassination of the king soon afterwards. He was to supply four knitting machines, and there is further evidence that he was in France in 1615, but it is thought that he died in that country soon afterwards.The machine Lee invented was probably the most complex of its day, partly because the need to use silk meant that the needles were very fine. Henson (1970) in 1831 took five pages in his book to describe knitting on a stocking frame which had over 2,066 pieces. To knit a row of stitches took eleven separate stages, and great care and watchfulness were required to ensure that all the loops were equal and regular. This shows how complex the machines were and points to Lee's great achievement in actually making one. The basic principles of its operation remained unaltered throughout its extraordinarily long life, and a few still remained in use commercially in the early 1990s.[br]Further ReadingJ.T.Millington and S.D.Chapman (eds), 1989, Four Centuries of Machine Knitting, Commemorating William Lee's Invention of the Stocking Frame in 1589, Leicester (N.Harte examines the surviving evidence for the life of William Lee and this must be considered as the most up-to-date biographical information).Dictionary of National Biography (this contains only the old stories).Earlier important books covering Lee's life and invention are G.Henson, 1970, History of the Framework Knitters, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1831); and W.Felkin, 1967, History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1867).M.Palmer, 1984, Framework Knitting, Aylesbury (a simple account of the mechanism of the stocking frame).R.L.Hills, "William Lee and his knitting machine", Journal of the Textile Institute 80(2) (a more detailed account).M.Grass and A.Grass, 1967, Stockings for a Queen. The Life of William Lee, the Elizabethan Inventor, London.RLH -
12 Townsend, Matthew
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. Leicester (?), Englandd. after 1867 USA[br]English inventor of the latch needle for making seamless hose, and developer of ribbed knitting on circular machines.[br]Townsend, who described himself in his first patent as a framework knitter and afterwards as a hosier of Leicester, took out a patent in 1847 for the application of a "machine like that of a point net frame to an ordinary stocking-frame". He described needles and hooks of a peculiar shape which were able to take the work off the knitting machine, reverse the loops and return them again so that ribbed knitting could be made on circular machines. These became popular for knitting stockings which, although not fully fashioned, had sufficient strength to fit the leg. In 1854 he took out a patent for making round hose with heels and toes fashioned on other machines. In yet another patent, in 1856, he described a method of raising looped pile on knitted fabrics for making "terry" towelling fabrics. He could use different coloured yarns in the fabric that were controlled by a Jacquard mechanism. It was in the same year, 1856, in a further patent that he described his tumbler or latch needles as well as the making of figured patterns in knitting on both sides of the fabric with a Jacquard mechanism. The latch needles were self-acting, being made to move up and down or backwards and forwards by the action of cams set in the cylindrical body of the machine. Normally the needle worked in a vertical or inclined position with the previous loop on the shank below the latch. Weft yarn was placed in the hook of the needle. The needle was drawn down between fixed plates which formed a new loop with the weft. At the same time, the original loop already on the shank of the needle moved along the shank and closed the latch so that it could pass over the newly formed loop in the needle hook and fall over the end of the needle incorporating the new loop on its way to make the next row of stitches. The latch needle obviated the need for loop wheels and pressers and thus simplified the knitting mechanism. Townsend's invention was the forerunner of an entirely new generation of knitting machines, but it was many years before its full potential was realized, the bearded needle of William Lee being preferred because the hinge of the latch could not be made as fine as the bearded needle.Townsend was in the first rank of skilful manufacturers of fancy Leicester hosiery and had a good practical knowledge of the machinery used in his trade. Having patented his needles, he seems not to have succeeded in getting them into very profitable or extensive use, possibly because he fixed the royalty too high. His invention proved to be most useful and profitable in the hands of others, for it gave great impetus to the trade in seamless hose. For various reasons he discontinued his business in Leicester. He emigrated to the USA, where, after some initial setbacks, he began to reap the rewards of his skill.[br]Bibliography1847, British patent no. 11,899 (knitting machine). 1854, British patent no. 1,523 (seamless hose).1856, British patent no. 1,157 ("terry" towelling fabrics).1856, British patent no. 1,858 (latch needles and double-sided patterns on fabrics).Further ReadingF.A.Wells, 1935, The British Hosiery and Knitwear Industry, London (mentions Townsend briefly).W.Felkin, 1967, History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1867) (a better account of Townsend).RLH -
13 Dawson, William
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. mid-eighteenth centuryd. c.1805 London, England[br]English inventor of the notched wheel for making patterns on early warp knitting machines.[br]William Dawson, a Leicester framework knitter, made an important addition to William Lee's knitting machine with his invention of the notched wheel in 1791. Lee's machine could make only plain knitting; to be able to knit patterns, there had to be some means of mechanically selecting and operating, independently of all the others, any individual thread, needle, lever or bar at work in the machine. This was partly achieved when Dawson devised a wheel that was irregularly notched on its edge and which, when rotated, pushed sprung bars, which in turn operated on the needles or other parts of the recently invented warp knitting machines. He seems to have first applied the idea for the knitting of military sashes, but then found it could be adapted to plait stay laces with great rapidity. With the financial assistance of two Leicester manufacturers and with his own good mechanical ability, Dawson found a way of cutting his wheels. However, the two financiers withdrew their support because he did not finish the design on time, although he was able to find a friend in a Nottingham architect, Mr Gregory, who helped him to obtain the patent. A number of his machines were set up in Nottingham but, like many other geniuses, he squandered his money away. When the patent expired, he asked Lord Chancellor Eldon to have it renewed: he moved his workshop to London, where Eldon inspected his machine, but the patent was not extended and in consequence Dawson committed suicide.[br]Bibliography1791, British patent no. 1,820 (notched wheel for knitting machine).Further ReadingW.Felkin, 1867, History of Machine-Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture (covers Dawson's invention).W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (provides an outline history of the development of knitting machines).RLH -
14 Strutt, Jedediah
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 26 July 1726 South Normanton, near Alfreton, Derbyshire, Englandd. 7 May 1797 Derby, England[br]English inventor of a machine for making ribbed knitting.[br]Jedediah Strutt was the second of three sons of William, a small farmer and maltster at South Normanton, near Alfreton, Derbyshire, where the only industry was a little framework knitting. At the age of 14 Jedediah was apprenticed to Ralph Massey, a wheelwright near Derby, and lodged with the Woollats, whose daughter Elizabeth he later married in 1755. He moved to Leicester and in 1754 started farming at Blackwell, where an uncle had died and left him the stock on his farm. It was here that he made his knitting invention.William Lee's knitting machine remained in virtually the same form as he left it until the middle of the eighteenth century. The knitting industry moved away from London into the Midlands and in 1730 a Nottingham workman, using Indian spun yarn, produced the first pair of cotton hose ever made by mechanical means. This industry developed quickly and by 1750 was providing employment for 1,200 frameworkers using both wool and cotton in the Nottingham and Derby areas. It was against this background that Jedediah Strutt obtained patents for his Derby rib machine in 1758 and 1759.The machine was a highly ingenious mechanism, which when placed in front of an ordinary stocking frame enabled the fashionable ribbed stockings to be made by machine instead of by hand. To develop this invention, he formed a partnership first with his brother-in-law, William Woollat, and two leading Derby hosiers, John Bloodworth and Thomas Stamford. This partnership was dissolved in 1762 and another was formed with Woollat and the Nottingham hosier Samuel Need. Strutt's invention was followed by a succession of innovations which enabled framework knitters to produce almost every kind of mesh on their machines. In 1764 the stocking frame was adapted to the making of eyelet holes, and this later lead to the production of lace. In 1767 velvet was made on these frames, and two years later brocade. In this way Strutt's original invention opened up a new era for knitting. Although all these later improvements were not his, he was able to make a fortune from his invention. In 1762 he was made a freeman of Nottingham, but by then he was living in Derby. His business at Derby was concerned mainly with silk hose and he had a silk mill there.It was partly his need for cotton yarn and partly his wealth which led him into partnership with Richard Arkwright, John Smalley and David Thornley to exploit Arkwright's patent for spinning cotton by rollers. Together with Samuel Need, they financed the Arkwright partnership in 1770 to develop the horse-powered mill in Nottingham and then the water-powered mill at Cromford. Strutt gave advice to Arkwright about improving the machinery and helped to hold the partnership together when Arkwright fell out with his first partners. Strutt was also involved, in London, where he had a house, with the parliamentary proceedings over the passing of the Calico Act in 1774, which opened up the trade in British-manufactured all-cotton cloth.In 1776 Strutt financed the construction of his own mill at Helper, about seven miles (11 km) further down the Derwent valley below Cromford. This was followed by another at Milford, a little lower on the river. Strutt was also a partner with Arkwright and others in the mill at Birkacre, near Chorley in Lancashire. The Strutt mills were developed into large complexes for cotton spinning and many experiments were later carried out in them, both in textile machinery and in fireproof construction for the mills themselves. They were also important training schools for engineers.Elizabeth Strutt died in 1774 and Jedediah never married again. The family seem to have lived frugally in spite of their wealth, probably influenced by their Nonconformist background. He had built a house near the mills at Milford, but it was in his Derby house that Jedediah died in 1797. By the time of his death, his son William had long been involved with the business and became a more important cotton spinner than Jedediah.[br]Bibliography1758. British patent no. 722 (Derby rib machine). 1759. British patent no. 734 (Derby rib machine).Further ReadingFor the involvement of Strutt in Arkwright's spinning ventures, there are two books, the earlier of which is R.S.Fitton and A.P.Wadsworth, 1958, The Strutts and the Arkwrights, 1758–1830, Manchester, which has most of the details about Strutt's life. This has been followed by R.S.Fitton, 1989, The Arkwrights, Spinners of Fortune, Manchester.R.L.Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (for a general background to the textile industry of the period).W.Felkin, 1967, History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1867) (covers Strutt's knitting inventions).RLH -
15 Hosiery Yarns
(See knitting). All yarns used for knitting are termed hosiery yarns in Leicester, but in America only yarns actually used for knitted footwear come under this term. These yarns are much softer than required for weaving. Miscellaneous Yarns - Goat wools, such as llama and alpaca are employed in spinning. yarns for the knitting trade. Vicuna and camel yarns are used to a limited extent. Ramie yarn is specially employed for knitting gas mantle fabrics. Soft spun flax yams have been used for making underwear fabric. Chenille and other manufactured threads are used to a small extent in warp knitting. Composite yarns, such as union yarns - spun from a mixture of wool and cotton fibres; cordon yarns - cotton and worsted singles, doubled together; wool and rayon or spun silk, cotton and rayon or spun silk are largely used to produce self or two-colour effects. Fancy yarns, such as slub yams, voiles, and curled and loop yarns are also employed. Hosiery Yarns (Cotton) include condenser, hosiery, condenser lisle thread, mercerised and sewing cottons. Condenser yarns are spun in coarse counts from low-grade cotton, Indian and American. They are carded, condensed and mule spun, and possess little twist. Hosiery cotton yarns vary considerably in counts and qualities, practically all varieties of Indian, American and Egyptian being used in varying proportions to obtain suitable mixture for quality and price. Cheaper yarns are carded and mule spun. American and Egyptian cotton yarns are combed mainly with the object of removing seed particles. High-class Egyptian and Sea Islands cotton yarns are super-combed. The chief features of a hosiery cotton yam should be: (1) Regularity; (2) cleanliness; (3) fullness. Regularity prevents the making of cloudy fabric, showing thick and thin places. Cleanliness is essential, as the seed particles clog the eyelet hole in the yam guides and cause breakages. Fullness is desirable to cover the loop interstices. Elasticity and pliability are quite as essential as tensile strength. Yams are usually soft spun and if two-fold soft doubled, average twists in two-fold being 2/10's 61/2T., 2/20's 81/2T., 2/30's 10T., 2/40's 16T., 2/80's 20T. Softer twist less 25 to 30 per cent of average (T= turns per inch). Lisle thread is a comparatively hard-twisted and doubly-gassed thread in which there are no projecting fibres. It is always of a two-fold character, and the doubling twist varies from 24 to 34 turns per inch in 2/60's. It is used largely in the manufacture of ladies' hose tops and feet and for lace hosiery. Mercerised yams are used largely in the fancy trade, a comparatively soft twist again being employed. Sewing cottons for seaming, linking and making-up are specially prepared in two to six cord open and reverse twist. Woollen and Worsted Yarns include lamb's wool, wheeling, skein yarns, gala yams (woollens), worsted, crossbreds, fingering, cashmere, dry spun botany (see under each name). Worsted and crossbred yarns of various qualities are used. These yams are spun softly with " hosiery twist." The drawing may be open, cone or French, and the spinning may take place on cap, ring or flyer frames. The chief essentials of hosiery yarn are softness of fibre, fullness, minimum of twist consistent with the requisite tensile strength, regularity, pliability and elasticity. Cashmere Yarns, as used in the knitted goods industry, are spun from short, loose and weak wools as well as from better qualities by French drawing and mule spinning. A small proportion of real cashmere is used for outer garments. In recent years nylon yarns have been largely employed. -
16 Full-Fashioned Hose
A knitting term used to denote stockings which are knitted in flat form and shaped during the knitting process. The sides of the piece are joined by seaming down the back of the leg and the heel and along the foot of the stocking. Short side wings or sections of the heel and toe are joined by looping. The welt at the top of the stocking is double to take the strain of garters, while the heel, sole and toe are reinforced or knitted thicker to withstand the greater wear these parts are subjected to in use. The gauge of full-fashioned knitting machines is now much finer than formerly, 45 gauge, that is 45 needles on 11/2-in. being largely used.Dictionary of the English textile terms > Full-Fashioned Hose
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17 Cotton, William
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 1819 Seagrave, Leicestershire, Englandd. after 1878[br]English inventor of a power-driven flat-bed knitting machine.[br]Cotton was originally employed in Loughborough and became one of the first specialized hosiery-machine builders. After the introduction of the latch needle by Matthew Townsend in 1856, knitting frames developed rapidly. The circular frame was easier to work automatically, but attempts to apply power to the flat frame, which could produce fully fashioned work, culminated in 1863 with William Cotton's machine. In that year he invented a machine that could make a dozen or more stockings or hose simultaneously and knit fashioned garments of all kinds. The difficulty was to reduce automatically the number of stitches in the courses where the hose or garment narrowed to give it shape. Cotton had early opportunities to apply himself to the improvement of hosiery machines while employed in the patent shop of Cartwright \& Warner of Loughborough, where some of the first rotaries were made. He remained with the firm for twenty years, during which time sixty or seventy of these machines were turned out. Cotton then established a factory for the manufacture of warp fabrics, and it was here that he began to work on his ideas. He had no knowledge of the principles of engineering or drawing, so his method of making sketches and then getting his ideas roughed out involved much useless labour. After twelve years, in 1863, a patent was issued for the machine that became the basis of the Cotton's Patent type. This was a flat frame driven by rotary mechanism and remarkable for its adaptability. At first he built his machine upright, like a cottage piano, but after much thought and experimentation he conceived the idea of turning the upper part down flat so that the needles were in a vertical position instead of being horizontal, and the work was carried off horizontally instead of vertically. His first machine produced four identical pieces simultaneously, but this number was soon increased. Cotton was induced by the success of his invention to begin machine building as a separate business and thus established one of the first of a class of engineering firms that sprung up as an adjunct to the new hosiery manufacture. He employed only a dozen men and turned out six machines in the first year, entering into an agreement with Hine \& Mundella for their exclusive use. This was later extended to the firm of I. \& R.Morley. In 1878, Cotton began to build on his own account, and the business steadily increased until it employed some 200 workers and had an output of 100 machines a year.[br]Bibliography1863, British patent no. 1,901 (flat-frame knitting machine).Further ReadingF.A.Wells, 1935, The British Hosiery and Knitwear Industry: Its History and Organisation, London (based on an article in the Knitters' Circular (Feb. 1898).A brief account of the background to Cotton's invention can be found in T.K.Derry and T.I. Williams, 1960, A Short History of Technology from the Earliest Times to AD 1900, Oxford; C. Singer (ed.), 1958, A History of Technology, Vol. V, Oxford: Clarendon Press.F.Moy Thomas, 1900, I. \& R.Morley. A Record of a Hundred Years, London (mentions cotton's first machines).RLH -
18 Brioche Stitch
A variety of knitting, also known as Patent Knitting, and is used in making warm garments. The name originated because the stitch was first used to make cushions shaped like the French cake brioche. -
19 Ice Wool
Fine two-fold worsted knitting yarn used for shawls; in all colours. ———————— A thick, fluffy wool yarn, mostly used for knitting comforters and other fancy articles. It is made of two-fold yarns, very soft spun and has a high gloss finish. Also known as Eis wool. -
20 Healds
This is a term applied to looped cords which are furnished with an eye in the centre and employed in looms for controlling the up and down movements of the warp threads. In the majority of cases there is a separate heald eye for each warp thread, and those healds which lift in the same manner are threaded on the same stave except in those cases where that would make the healds too crowded. In such cases the healds are divided on two or three shafts which may be tied together to lift as one if weaving conditions permit. Healds are formed by a knitting machine which is set to form the required number of heald eyes per inch on each stave, or in the case of spaced healds with the heald eyes arranged in the desired order on the stave. The yarns used may be cotton or worsted (see Hea'd Yarns). In knitted healds the eye is usually formed from the same yarn as the rest of the heald, but healds can be made with metal eyes. Metal healds are made of twisted wire galvanised or treated to be rustless, and formed with an eye in the centre for the warp thread and elongated upper and lower eyes for threading on flat steel bars that are secured to the heald staves proper at the top and bottom. Such healds are usually of the sliding type and eliminate the need for healds knit to pattern. Wire healds are also combined with knitting to give a prescribed number of eyes per inch.
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