The latch needle machine is much better for this purpose than the bearded needle frame owing to the simplicity of loop formation and also owing to the facility with which small or thick yarns can be made to give good work on the machine with suitable adjustment of the stitch tensions. It is also used as a means of producing samples of color, as the various colors can be introduced rapidly one after the other on this machine.
This type of frame with the needles stationary, and revolving cams and thread guide has from the first been recognized as the best adapted for knitting gas mantles from ramie. The yarn is working in long lengths on a narrow width circular knitting machine using the latch needle and this fabric is afterwards cut into lengths according to the mantles being produced. Mantles of different sizes can be obtained by using different diameters of machines as supplied by machine builders for this purpose.
In most hardware establishments and department stores one sees woven metal material knitted into fabric on such machines, and intended to be used for cleaning pots and pans in household work. The wire has a sharp edge so as to grip the matter to be removed. Knitting the metal material into looped form enables the product to do its work with the greatest efficiency.
Another side line of the knitting industry is the production of what are known as meat bags, with which the carcasses of frozen and ordinary mutton and beef are covered prior to transport. These bags are usually made on circular knitting machines of large diameter using the latch needle, and as the size of the yarn is fine compared to the set of the needles a gauze-like character is obtained which allows free circulation of air as well as affording a clean method of handling the meat and protecting it in the course of transport on ship, train and truck.
Plain Knitted Tube
Examples are given by the accompanying illustrations of a few products of the narrow fabric branch of the trade. It will be evident at once what an interesting field of application is afforded by this division of the knitting industry. Fig. 1 shows a plain knitted fabric worked in circular form on a knitting machine using the latch needle in which we have 40 needles in the circumference, so that in this tube, front and back, are 40 stitches shown here in flat form.
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
Fig. 3 Fig. 4