HOSIERY. The docking frame, which is the great implement of this business, though it appears at first sight to be a complicated machine, consists merely of a repetition of parts easily understood, with a moderate degree of attention, provided an accurate conception is first formed of the nature of the hosiery fa bric. This texture is totally different from the rectangular decussation which constitutes cloth, as the slightest inspee tion of a stocking will show ; for this instead of having two distinct systems of thread, like the warp and the weft, which are woven together, by crossing each other at right angles, the whole piece is composed of a single thread united or looped together in a peculiar manner, which, is called stocking-stitch, and sometimes chain-work.
A single thread is formed into a num ber of loops or waves, by arranging it over a number of parallel needles ; these are retained or kept in the form of loops or waves, by being drawn or looped through similar loops or waves formed by the thread of the preceding course of the work. The fabric thus formed by the union of a number of loops is easily unravelled, because the stability of the whole piece depends upon the ultimate fastening of the first end of the thread; and if this is undone, the loops formed by that end will open, and release the subsequent loops, one at a time, until the whole is unravelled, and drawn out into the single thread from which it was made. In the same manner, if a thread in a stocking-piece fails, or breaks at any part, or drops a stitch, as it is called, it immediately produces a hole, and the extension of the rest can only be pre vented by fastening the end. It should be observed that there are many differ ent fabrics of stocking-stitch for various kinds of ornamental hosiery, and as each requires a different kind of frame or machine to produce it, we should greatly exceed our limits to enter into a detailed description of them all. The species we have described is the common stocking stitch used for plain hosiery, and is form ed by the machine called the common stocking-frame, which is the ground work of all the others. The operation consists in drawing the loop of a thread successively through a series of other loops, so long as the work is continued.
There is a great variety of different frames in use for producing various or namental kinds of hosiery.
Rib stocking frame. This frame, which, next to the common frame, is most ex tensively in use, is employed for work ing those striped or ribbed stockings, which are very common in all the dif ferent 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 thus ma chine with equal propriety as to the for mer ; that part, however, by which the ribs or stripes are formed, is entirely an addition.
This frame 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 ing ribbed hosiery possesses ble affinity to that which subsists in the of that kind of cloth which is distinguished by the name of t,weeling, for the formation of stripes, with some variation arising merely from the ferent nature of the fabric. In cloth
weaving, two different kinds of yarn, tersecting each other at right angles, are employed; in hosiery only one is used. In the tweeling of cloth, striped as ty, in the cotton or kerseyraere, and in the woollen manufacture, the stripes are produced by reversing these yarns. In hosiery, where only one kind of yarn is used, a similar effect is produced by versing the loops. To effect this ing 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 cured 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 cillatory motion on these pivots. The two frames of iron support this bar ; that in which it oscillates being nearly vertical, but ed a little towards the other needles. This figure, which is a profile elevation, will serve to illustrate the relative position of each bar to the other. The vertical flame at a is attached to the horizontal frame d, by two centre screws, which serve as joints for it to move in. On the top of this frame is the rib-needle Var at f, and one needle is represented atf. At g is a small presser, to shut the barbs of the rib-needles, in the same manner as the large one does those of the frame. At is 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 pre serve the intervals. Two small handles depend from the needle-bar, by which the oscillatory motion upon upper centres is given.- The rising and Sinking motion is conimunicated to this machine by chains which are attached to iron sliders below, and which are wrought by the hosier's heel when necessary. The pressure takes place'partly by the action of the small presser, 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 alter nately. When the plain are finished, the rib-needles are raised between the others, hut no additional stuff is sup plied. The 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 re verses the line of chaining, and raises the rib above the plain intervals, which have only received a single knitting.