MANUFACTURES.
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• o describe in words what is so commonly practised andso well known, although no longer for any thing morethan mere amusement; for the Art of stocking weaving-enables the workman to produce his article so quickly,that knitting, as a means of profitable employment, hasbeen long laid aside, except in such places as are far re-mote from the localities of other manufactures, whichgenerally furnish to women and children a much moreactive and desirable occupation.
Stocking frame or stocking loom. —It is observed byBeckmann, in his History of Inventions, that the stock-ing loom is worthy of particular admiration, as it wasnot, like many great discoveries, the result of accident, butthe reward of well-applied talent and genius. It is an ex-ceedinglycomplicated machine, consisting,accordingto thequality of the article, of many hundreds, even thousands,of moving parts, which in an instant almost can make ahundred or two hundred meshes, without requiring muchskill or labour on the part of the workman. It is alsoremarkable that it so soon followed the Art of knitting,and that but little improvement was made on the ori-ginal machine for a period of about 170 years. Thereis also another peculiarity attending the invention of thestocking loom, viz., that there seems to be comparativelylittle or no dispute concerning its original author, orthe period of its introduction, this honour being al-most universally given to William Lee, in the year1589.
It appears by Beckmann, History of Inventions,'mb iv., that, under the administration of Cromwell, thestocking knitters of London presented a petition in whichthey required permission to establish a guild. In the pe-tition they gave the Protector an account of the rise, pro-gress, and importance of their Art or trade ; and there canbe no doubt that this document, which is well written,contains the oldest authentic information in regard to this'hyention, which was then scarcely fifty years old. Onthis account every thing must have been fresh in thememory of those by whom it was drawn up, every cir-cumstance could then be easily examined, and the pe-titioners must have been sensible that any misrepresen-tation they might make could be readily contradicted.-Am account of this pelition is given by Deering in hisdescription of Nottingham , where the loom was firstemployed, and where it has since enriched many families,a[ id irom which place the use of it has spread through-cut almost every part of England and of Europe . Fromthese details of Deering it appears that the real inventorwas William Lee, whose name in the petition was spelledI a > a native of Wo. dborough, in Nottinghamshire , a vil-a ge about seven miles distant from Nottingham . He was-,® lr t° a considerable freehold estate and a graduate of
• John s College, Cambridge. It is reported that, beingenamoured of a country girl, who during his visits paidmore attention to her work (which was knitting) than
® r lover, he endeavoured to find out a machine which'ght facilitate and forward the operation, and by these. eans a dbrd more leisure to the object of his affectionsccnverse with him. In the Stocking Weavers’ Hall inon on is an old picture, in which Lee is representedjointing out his loom to a female knhter who is standing158Q ail< ^ ^elow I s an inscription with the date
"• The inventor instructed his brother James in theuse of the loom, and took apprentices and assistants,vit i whom he carried on business for some years at Cal-veiton, a village five miles distant from Nottingham ,rum which circumstance this village has been erroneously
considered as the place cf his birth,work to Queen Elizabeth, and requested of her somesupport or remuneration; he, however, obtained neither,but was impeded rather than assisted in his under-taking. Under these circumstances, Lee accepted aninvitation from Henry IV. of France , who had heard ofthis invention, and promised to give a handsome pre-sent to the author. He therefore carried nine journey-men and several looms to Rouen , in Normandy , wherehe worked with great approbation ; but the King beingassassinated, and internal commotions taking place, Leefell into great distress and died soon after in Paris .Two only of his people remained in France , who wereliving when the above-mentioned petition was presentedto Cromwell; the other seven returned to England, andthese, with a person named Aston, who was one of Lee’sapprentices, laid the foundation of the stocking manu-facture in Nottingham , London , and other parts of Eng-land. The number of masters increased so much inLondon in the course of fifty years that they wished tobe united into one guild, as above stated, which, how-ever, for some reasons not known, was refused bvCromwell; but in 1663 they received Letters Patent,which gave them certain privileges to the extent of tenmiles round London .
In the year 1614, the Venetian Ambassador persuadedan apprentice, Henry Mead, by a promise of a present offive hundred pounds, to go with a loom to Venice for astated time, and to teach the use of it in that State.Mead met with a favourable reception in the city, andwas much admired ; but the loom becoming deranged,and no person in Venice being able to repair it, whenthe time of his agreement was expired he returned toEngland. The Venetians had not sufficient resolutionto continue the attempt, and sent the damaged loom,together with some bad imitations of it, to England,where they were sold for a mere trifle.
This account, which is contained in the petition abovereferred to, is contradicted by some Italian authors; itis, however, very consistent with the known difficulty ofmaking and repairing the stocking frame even to thepresent day. The number of moving parts is so great,and the compass of their action so small, that the slight-est bending of the needles, or the slightest derange-ment, renders the whole machine unserviceable ; a cir-cumstance which has given rise to a class of workmencalled setters-np, whose business is to put in order anyframe which, by accident or ill usage, has been deranged :these are not the frame smiths, but have about the samerelation to them that the tuners of the piano-forte haveto the makers of that instrument.
The Italian writers, however, deny this statement,and maintain that the Ambassador above referredto brought two stocking weavers to Venice , that heplaced under them four apprentices, and when thesetwo went back to England he sent with them a boy whoreturned to Venice well instructed m the Art, and whocontinued to carry on business there with great success ;and that Giambaptista Carli of Gerona, a smith whoworked in steel, saw the loom at Venice , which hadbeen made after the model of those brought from Eng-land and sold to Francesco Alprum of Udino; that, hia short time, he made other frames ; and that a o-reatmany stockings were manufactured there and sent forsale, chiefly to Austria . But in consequence of thepoverty thus brought upon the Venetian stocking knit-ters, an order was issued that Carli should make tn>