History of the stocking knitting machine
The first English stocking factories with stocking knitting machines were founded in 1853 and 1854.
In 1857 Arthur Paget developed an automatic knitting chair in Loughborough for those struggling to survive . It was the "descendant" of the hand-held rolling chair, which William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham invented in 1589. He also invented the needle points shaped into small hooks to take up thread. The hand ball chair could only make one stocking at a time, but it was already knitting six times faster than it could be done by hand. The new knitting chair was supposed to enable the owner to prevail against competitors from England. The Paget chair was operated with the help of a crank. Only one stocking could be made on the first Paget chairs. The strength of the Paget system, however, lay in the division of labor. This made the production of regular knitted stockings much cheaper.
In 1869, CG Mosig improved the Paget chairs, which were driven by water or steam power, by simultaneously producing up to four knitted stockings. Although they were efficient, they were complicated to set up and use. Further improvements were made by the French Linard Hubert in 1868. He introduced the "French reduction" (rejuvenation) - the foot section could now be produced automatically. Until well into the 1950s, fine stockings and cotton stockings were found that were reduced in this way.
In 1875 the company Brauer und Ludwig in Chemnitz received patents for the production of multicolored stripes and simple pressed patterns. In 1875 the manufacturer Poron Frères in Troyes received a patent for the production of ribbed stockings with so-called patent edges. 1860–1864 William Cotton (England) constructed the cotton machine and received a patent for his knitting machine with vertical needle bar and power drive . The invention of the cotton machine was of far-reaching importance for large-scale operations, as up to 36 stocking lengths could be produced on it at the same time, automatically reducing (dhinclusive foot part) and thus making them suitable for mass production.
In 1922 a device and a method for inserting a rubber thread into knitted edging was created. In 1925 the Hilscher company in Chemnitz manufactured the flat-edging machine for the production of ribbed ribbons for ribbed (right and left stitches alternating) hosiery. Goods produced in this way have great transverse elasticity and can be stretched up to 100% depending on the design. In 1927, the Société Générale de Bonneterie in Troyes invented a device for making ribbed stockings on cotton machines. In 1938, the mechanical uncovering of sinker meshes on the cotton machines made it possible to produce complex and fine structural patterns, so-called pineapple patterns.
With the advent of fully automatic circular knitting machines for the production of seamless women's fine stockings around 1952, the cotton machines previously used for the production of fine stockings were gradually replaced. Flat knitting machines still play an important role for other fabrics (bed sheets to gauze knitted fabrics) today. The fine stockings, which were seamless due to the circular knitting machines, were for a long time a sign of wealth among the ladies of society, with whom they liked to stand out from the "common people", who often could not afford circular knitted fine-knitted stockings. Today flat and circular knitted fabrics are of great importance in stockings (compression stockings, compression clothing) in the health sector. Here, in some cases, individually made-to-measure stockings are used with success as an aid for vein and / or cardiac output weaknesses as well as for scar compression after burn injuries.
Individual stocking factories
historical stocking factories were