FRAMES.
The an outcome of the method of knitting by hand, was invented in 1589 by the Rev. William Lee, a native of Woodborough, near Nottingham, England, and a graduate of Cambridge. It uses, as in hand-knitting, only one thread to produce a flexible fabric with an extended superficial area. The thread is curved in definite layers, called "meshes," which resemble two letters S standing symmetrically to each other, and which complete the fabric by intertwining (fi/. 52, fig. 1). The thread, therefore, is not drawn in a straight line, but is disposed in curves in serial order throughout the fabric. On account of the elasticity of the thread its form readily re-establishes itself when drawn out of shape, and thus the fabric, being elastic, is better adapted for close-fitting garments than are other tissues.
The the production of the meshes, needles (fig. 2) with long hooks and thin pieces of tin, called "sinkers," provided with several notches, are required, the number of both corresponding to the number of meshes in the width of the fabric. While in hand-knitting each new mesh is separately formed by drawing the thread, in the form of a loop, through the one previously formed, in working the stocking frame an entire row of meshes is produced at one time after the following preparatory manipulations (fig-. 2): The knitted part of the fabric is drawn back upon the needles by the arches in the sinkers, and the thread, being laid lengthwise over the needles and beneath the ribs of the sinkers, is pressed, in the form of loops, between the needles by depressing each sinker. These loops arc pushed in front under the hooks of the needles, while the previously formed meshes remain behind them. The barbs of the hooks are forced downward into the grooves in the stems of the nee dles by means of a bar, called the "pressure-bar;" so that filially the old meshes can be pushed upon the hooks and from the needles. They remain then suspended in the new loops, thus forming new meshes.
formation of meshes with but one thread is termed " collier "-knitting (from the French con/cr—that is, pushing the sinkers between the needles). By another method of knitting, invented in 1769, not one thread only, but a number of parallel threads—a so-called " chain " or warp—is used, the threads being united by forming meshes. This mode of working is termed " chain"- or " warp"-knitting. The machines for couler-knitting are the hand- or stocking-frame, the flat and the round power-frames. A so-called "French round frame," which con tains the needles lying horizontally and radially upon an annular ring, is shown in Figure 5 (pi. 52). The leads are in separate boxes, the so-called "mailleuses" or mesh-frames. The illustration shows the best exarmples
of these mailleuses (mailleuses obliques).
Lamb's about thirty years another method of forming meshes has been known, in which are used self-acting needles (fig-. 3), the short hooks of which can be closed by placing upon them a movable arm (tongue); so that the pressure-bar is omitted The meshes are formed in the manner of crocheting by the needles passing separately through the old meshes and catching the thread with the hook, drawing it, in the form of loops, to new meshes through the meshes last made. This is the principle employed in Lamb's knitting-machine (fig. 8), an American apparatus invented in 1866, which is now in general use. The self-acting needles lie in two straight parallel rows, widening and narrow ing being accomplished by increasing or diminishing the number of nee dles in action. Their lower ends, bent to a hook, are caught by the grooves formed by three plates (fig. 6) and are raised and lowered, whereby the meshes are separately formed one next to another. With small jointed levers (fig. 6) the position of the groove-plates can be changed so that the needles are more or less depressed and work loose or close. The name " knitting-machine " has been applied to this device because it is possible to produce with it fabrics, especially stockings, in nearly the same manner as by hand-knitting—that is, regular, round, and without seam. This term, however, has been also applied to other machines, working flat, like the hand-frame, provided they can be read ily handled and produce stockings of a regular shape—that is, without cutting. Figure 7 is the guide and tension.
Hinkley's 9) can produce only flat fabrics, like the hand-frame. It is really not a knitting-machine, but a single-thread, chain-stitch sewing-machine, which by means of a sewing-needle draws the thread, in the form of a loop, through the mesh last made, this loop being held by a catch and finally suspended as a new mesh upon a comb. The comb, which corresponds to the row of needles of the hand-frame, contains the new meshes separately alongside one another while going with its teeth past the sewing-needle. Machines for knitting are either hand-machines or power-machines. The first kind have their needles placed either in a straight row or in a circle (fig. 4), or only one needle is used (fig. 9). Power-machines are built either for producing a plain flat strip of fabric or for circular ribbed stuff. A machine for producing the latter fabric is shown in Figure io. Figure 4 exhibits an American stocking-machine with belt and pulleys for operating it by power, but which, minus the power attachment, is usually worked by hand. (E. A. P.)