The first
records of knitted fabrics came from the Coptic Egyptians in the 5th
century AD. Knitting arrived in Europe in the 1400’s. Knitted garments were
used to provide practical clothing for warmth, protection and ease of movement,
starting with coverings for the extremities –head, feet and hands –and then for
the body. Henry the VIII was the first English monarch to wear knitted
stockings. Up until this point all knitted garments were produced by labour
intensive hand knitting.
In 1589,
William Lee came out with his hand knitting frame, which was capable of
producing 16 stitches in the same time needed by a skilled hand knitter for
just one stitch. Hills (1989) has given an excellent account of the development
of William Lee’s knitting machine. Earlier Hurd (1954) had dealt with the
development of the knitting machine up to 1954 from that invented by William
Lee.
In 1758,
Jedediah Strutt of Derby and Belper patented the "Derby rib frame."
This would have been the first conversion from a single bed to a double bed
frame and started a great period of inspiration for development for the
knitting frames. Samuel Betts combined the tuck pressor with this rib frame to
develop his tickler bar. The tickler bar actually removed and transferred
stitches to make "holes." Sounds like our "lace carriages"
of today. Lace is has been and is a popular fabric.
In 1798,
Monsieur Decroix developed a machine in which the needles were arranged into a
crona, which was made to rotate to move the needles one after another through
the knitting stages. Thus circular knitting machine was born.
In 1804 at the
urging of Lyon silk merchant Gabriel Detilleu, Joseph Marie Jacquard studied
Vaucanson’s loom, which was stored at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in
Paris. By 1805 Jacquard had eliminated the paper strip from Vaucanson’s
mechanism and returned to using Falcon’s chain of punched cards.
In the year
1847, Mathew Townsend invented the latch needle. this needle led to easier
stitch formation, simplification of the mechanism, increase in production
speeds and reduction of costs.
In 1850, the
circular knitting machine was developed from the English circular knitting
frame. Initially, it was equipped with stationary beard needles that could be
moved individually; in fact this was the characteristics for circular knitting
machine.
In the year
1852, Theodar Groz started his workshop in Ebingen in the Swabian Alb and Ernst
Beckert started making needles in Chemnitz. Needle development is occurred
then. There are 50,000 needles types in Groz-Beckert.
D. Griswold
Obtained a patent in 1878 for a circular knitting machine which was capable of
producing plain or ribbed fabric tube in any desired distribution. the vertical
cylinder needles combined with horizontal dial needles could move in radical
slots. This invention led to small and large rib machines.
In 1910. the
firm Robert Walter Scott in Philadelphia was granted a patent for ‘interlock’
fabrics. The interlock fabric is double faced fabric composed of two crossed
double knit fabrics.
The first
double cylinder, small circular knitting machine with a double horn needle and
skiders (needle pushers) was built in England by the firm Wildr in 1918. this
purl knitting machine works with a rotating cylinder and needle transfer, and
was used for producing the world famous “Derby Socks” with their wide purl ribs
in 1918.
Another land
marks was the development of circular knitting machines for fabrication of
colored patterned fabrics in 1920. This was done with the help of yarn stripers
and needle section via pattern wheels and punched tapes made from steel or
paper. The so-called Jacquared Device was linked to the pulling sinkers by
harness threads.
In 1935,
Mayor and Cie started making the circular knitting machines and introduced mass
line production. It is pertinent to mention that this company made the circular
sinker wheel machine in 1906.
After 1946,
significant developments were made in circular knitting machines and increase
in number of feeders led to higher production. New technologies such as the
replacement of old pinion feed wheel units by new yarn delivery devices like
tape feeders and measuring meters with yarn reserve for smooth fabrics and knit
patterns as well as storage feeders for jacquards were developed. These devices
have led to effective control of yarn delivery.
In 1963, the
first electronic needle selection was demonstrated by Morat. In 1967, OVJA 36,
a more successful circular knitting machine was exhibited in International
Textile Machinery Exhibition (ITME).
After 20 years, in 1987, Mayer and Cie started the production
of the RELANIT, a plain circular knitting machine having a relative movement between
needles and sinkers. The other manufacturers of multi-feeder knitting machines are
Pai-Lung, Terrot, Albi, Camber, Jumerca, Monarch and Orizio.
Flat bed knitting machines were the ones that were used primarily
for knitting. After the appearance of the circular knitting machine in the world
of knitting, the use of flat bed knitting machines came to a limit or a decrease.
Reference:
Comments
Post a Comment