720 



CHAINWORK. 



CKXXV.'I. 



Fig. 14. 



Tambour- It will now be proper to advert to the means of 

 in - preserving the relative position of the vertical needles 



? TE "** in front to the perforators, and for this reference 

 ' may be made to Fig. 14. Let the cross rail in front 

 of the cloth, which is to support the needles, which 

 retain the loops, be constructed with a groove near- 

 est to the cloth, into which a small wedge may be 

 driven for each needle, as represented at A. Let 

 the needle be cast into a socket of tin, of the form re- 

 presented at B, and a small weight be attached to 

 the oblique tail at C. In the side of this needle let 

 a groove be punched, like that of a common stocking 

 needle. As B must also be a socket upon which the 

 tin may vibrate freely from side to side, and the gra- 

 vity of the oblique weight at C will give the point a 

 constant tendency to incline towards the left hand. 

 The point rising through a groove in the frame at O, 

 its position may be regulated wiih the utmost preci- 

 sion, by tempering the wedge at A, and thus it will 

 be made to fit the perforator with very great nicety. 

 The rising of this needle between the perforator and 

 thread, will thus seize every loop ; and the next con- 

 sideration is to open these loops, so that the perfor- 

 ator may pass fairly through them at next perfora- 

 tion, without danger of missing. This, it is presumed, 

 may easily be effected with great safety, and little 

 danger of error, by the following addition to the ap- 

 paratus. Upon the same centre at B, let there be 

 a second needle, shorter than the former, and also fit- 

 ted with an oblique tail to incline its point towards 

 the left. The point of this short needle D, resting 

 in the groove of the longer needle O. both will rise 

 as one point, and any slight motion to distend them 

 after being raised, will open a loop through which 

 the perforator may pass with the utmost st-curity at 

 the next perforation. 



From this general description the ground work of 

 a machine may be obtained, which, embracing all the 

 advantages, and extending the operations of the tam- 

 bouring machine, avoids its most material defects, 

 complexity and expence. The outlines, rather than 

 a full detail, are given, not from any motive of con- 

 cealment, but of caution, to represent it merely as 

 what it really is, viz. an untried invention. Wipers 

 forms of Figs. 15, 16, and 17, will give all 



15 16 

 ' 



the remaining motions, if fixed on the revolving shaft 

 driven by the operator's hand. 



The following table is precisely similar to that em- 

 ployed in the tambour work, and will serve as a rule 

 for cutting either wheels or spirals, so as to produce 

 every angle of obliquity which can be required in 

 any pattern, however comprehensive or varied. 



Proportional Trigonometrical Table, shewing the Ratio 

 tvhich the Hypothenuse of Any Right Angled Tri- 

 angle bears to the Base and Perpendicular respec- 

 tively, the Measure of the Hypothenuse being uni- 

 formly = 18. 



Hosiery 

 W.rk. 



CHAP. II. 



Manufacture of Hosiery. 



As the tambouring manufacture is produced by Manuf&e- 

 successions of lineal chaining in various directions., the ture of 

 more extensive and useful branch of hosiery or stock- hosiery, 

 ings, may be regarded merely as the extension of the 

 same to the formation of superficies. In the work- 

 ing of plain hosiery, the loops of the chain are pre- 

 cisely the same as in the tambouring ; arid the most 

 simple, although tedious, way of producing this, is 

 by means of four small wires directed by the manual 

 operations of women, or what is usually termed knit- 

 ting. The great time employed in this operation, 

 however, has brought it much into disuse, in all 

 those districts where, from the extension of manu- 

 factures, female labour has become valuable and pro- 

 ductive ; and it is now rarely practised, excepting as 

 the occat.ion.il employment of females, whose sub- 

 sistence does not solely depend on their labour ; and 

 in the northern counties and isles of Scotland, where 

 female labour, from the want of manufactures, is 

 neither much in demand, nor high in price. The 

 northern islands of Shetland and Orkney are indeed 

 almost the only places where knitting is now practi- 

 sed to any extent ; and the very low prices at which 

 these stockings are sold, sufficiently prove, that very 

 little indeed is charged for the labour of knitting 

 them. The art of knitting by means of wires is so 

 entirely of that kind which can only be acquired by 

 repeated trials and patient application, that it would 

 be a fruitless waste of time to endeavour to teach it 

 by description. The great time necessary for knit- 

 ting by wires seems early to have been felt, for the 

 invention of the frame is attributed to a Mr Lee of 

 Cambridge, so far back as the reign of Queen Eliza- 

 beth, and upwards of two hundred years ag. ., at a 

 period when practical mechanics was neither gene- 

 rally understood, nor extensively practised in Britain. 

 Mr Lee, indeed, it is <>aid, found so vrry little encou- 

 ragement, and so many obstacles to the introduction 

 of this machine in his own country, that he emigrated 

 to France, where he found that patronage which he 



