The Cotton Knitting Frame, invented in 1864, is still the basis of the modern flat-bed knitter. The product is a flat web which can be widened or narrowed by transferring the loops from the edge needles to a separate instrument, and then replacing them. In knitting stockings, the shaped legs are made on one machine, then transferred to a heeler, and then to a third machine which knits the feet. The stockings then must be seamed up the back. The largest machines are capable of knitting twenty-four garments at one time. The advantage of this type is that it produces more elastic fabric, but it requires more operatives and more highly skilled labor than the circular machine.
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The Circular Machine
A series of inventions made in Philadelphia from 1867 to 1889 perfected the completely automatic circular machine of which there are now more than seven times as many in use in this country than there are full-fashioned knitters. The seamless machine goes on continuously and manufactures the entire garment at once. Narrowing is done by shortening the loops, and this accounts for the loss of elasticity.
The finishing operations consist of seaming, where necessary, and removing imperfections.
Growth
The growth and importance of the industry is perhaps best realized from the fact that in 1870 there were 5,625 machines in the country, in 1905, 88,374, and now well over one hundred thousand. In 1850 men wore hand-knitted socks and flannel underwear. From 1860 to 1910 the product of the country’s knitting machines rose from $7,300,000 to $200,100,000.
Folding