HOSIERY MANUFACTURE. The prin cipal seat of this manufacture in England is in the three counties of Leicester, Nottingham, and Derby. In the first of these, worsted hosiery forms the principal branch of ,the manufacture, while in Nottinghamshire the material chiefly used is cotton, and in Derby shire silk goods are mostly made.
The stocking-frame, by means of which this manufacture is carried on, is, next to the common warp and weft loom, the oldest ma chine in existence applicable to textile fabrics. It was invented about the close of the 16th century by the Rev. William Lea, of St. John's College, Cambridge, but a considerable time elapsed before the produce of this frame took the place of the trunk hose then worn by all who could afford such an article of dress. For' this reason Mr. Lea settled at Rouen, in Nor mandy, where his manufacture was carried on under the patronage of Henri IV.; but the assassination of the king and the political troubles brought on by that event caused the abandonment of Mr. Lea's establishment, and that gentleman shortly after died in a state of poverty at Paris. From the time of its first invention the stocking-frame has not received any considerable improvement in respect to its principle ; but the details have been improved by a long series of patented in ventions.
The principal seat of the cotton hosiery manufacture abroad is at Chemnitz, in Saxony, where, owing to the low rate of wages, goods are made, with yarns imported from Lanca shire, at prices which have excluded English goods from many foreign markets.
The hosiery or frame-work manufacture is a peculiar kind of interlacing. Instead of being a series of cross threads woven in a loom, it is a series of loops or links, so con nected as to possess both strength and elasti city in a remarkable degree. It is a continuous thread which is thus linked around itself; in a way which bears a good deal of resemblance to many kinds of ladies' netting and crochet work. The article made in the stocking frame is not a stocking, but a piece of knitwork cloth, which is afterwards sown up into the form of a stocking by needle and thread. Hence, there are three kinds of operatives engaged ; the winders, who put the thread into or on the machine; the frame-work knitters, who work the thread up into a knitted fabric ; and the seamers, who make the stockings out of the pieces thus produced. The winders are gene
rally children, who can each wind thread enough for half a dozen machines ; the knit ters are men, women, and youths, who hire both the winders and the seamers ; and the seamers are women. Some of the stocking frames are owned by the frame work knitters ; some are let out to the men by the owners, at so much per week for each frame ; while other persons are the renters of what is termed a shop of frames; containing eight or ten frames ; these, with standing-room to work in, they let to the workmen, at so much per frame per week. The master manufacturer gives out his thread, and the workman returns this thread in the form of stockings, the work be ing paid for at so much per dozen pair.
We have spoken only of hosiery, but many other articles besides stockings are made of this linked fabric. Gloves, waistcoat-pieces, mitts, pantaloons, drawers, braces, webs, com forters, caps, jackets, leggings, and various other articles—are made nearly in the same way, and of the same material. The processes for worsted, cotton, and silk are nearly analo gous; those for silk requiring, however, the greatest care. Some progress has been made towards the manufacture of hosiery by means of steam-power ; but the extreme lowness of wages in this department of labour has hitherto kept it nearly in the position of hand-loom work.
It is pleasing to find that Ireland is gra dually advancing in this as in many other branches of manufacture. At Balbriggan there is a hosiery manufacture, from which specimens of cotton hosiery are to be sent to the Great Exhibition, of a degree of fineness such as has never perhaps been equalled; one dozen pairs of ladies' full sized stockings will weigh only nine ounces. Cotton stockings of a peculiar kind of open work are also manu factured in the same town.
The exports of stockings in 1850 amounted to the following quantities : Cotton . 234,163 dozen pairs.
Silk 4,482 „ Worsted 119,873 „ „