KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS 



KNOTGRASS 



EMBLEM 



ding 



red; unmarked 

 spaces - white " 



time the Order was undisturbed there, but it 

 ceased to be a military or political body. The 

 Pope was commissioned to choose its grand 

 master, and it became essentially a religious 

 Order, returning to its earliest functions, that 

 of hospital service. Records of the Knights 

 dating back to the twelfth century are pre- 

 served in Malta. 



KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, a fraternal and 

 benevolent organization to which male mem- 

 bers of the Roman Catholic Church are eligi- 

 ble. It was founded in 1882 in New Haven, 

 Conn., with the object of furnishing financial 

 aid to its members 

 and their beneficiaries 

 and of establishing 

 and promoting social 

 and intellectual fel- 

 lowship. The society 

 is governed by a su- 

 preme council, the 

 members of which are 

 elected by the various 

 state councils. The 

 headquarters of the 

 association are at 

 New Haven, Conn., ing, 

 with branches in 

 every state in the Union, in every Canadian 

 province, in Cuba, Porto Rica, Newfoundland, 

 the Philippine Islands and Alaska. On July 1, 

 1916, there were 368,135 members. In the War 

 of the Nations the organization did notable 

 work in France in behalf of the soldiers of the 

 allies. 



I KNIGHTS OF LABOR, a national labor 

 organization of the United States, organized in 

 1869 at Philadelphia, by a disbanded union of 

 garment-cutters: It was intended to afford pro- 

 tection to the working classes. At first, every- 

 thing about it except its symbol, a line of five 

 stars, was kept secret because of the failure 

 of other such unions and because many em- 

 ployers were opposed to organized labor. Any- 

 one over sixteen, with the exception of law- 

 yers, liquor-dealers, bankers and gamblers, was 

 admitted. In seventeen years its membership 

 had grown to 700,000, which, because of serious 

 disagreements within the union, has diminished 

 probably to less than 100,000. See LABOR OR- 

 GANIZATIONS. 



KNITTING MACHINE, nit 'ing ma sheen', 

 a mechanical device for knitting hosiery and 

 underwear. The most common form now in 

 use is circular ; the needles are arranged in rows 

 on a rounded frame, and a round web is pro- 



duced. The needles have a straight up and 

 down motion, produced by cams; each needle 

 has a hook at the end, with which it draws 

 down the thread and makes a loop. As a 

 stocking or other garment is being knitted, the 

 web extends downward through the circular 

 opening between the needles and has a weight 

 attached to its lower end to keep it in position. 

 The adjustment of these machines has been 

 brought to a remarkable state of perfection, 

 and when operated by power four of them 

 can be tended by one boy. The first knitting 

 machine was invented by William Lee, an 

 \Englishman, in 1589. Early in the eighteenth 

 century an improved form was introduced into 

 the United States; the great economical value 

 of such a machine is clearly shown by the 

 inventive genius of Americans, who within the 

 nineteenth century secured nearly 2,000 patents 

 covering improvements in it. In 1831 power 

 was first applied to knitting machines, at Al- 

 v bany, N. Y. Formerly they were everywhere 

 run by hand power. 



/ KNOT, not, a mile at sea, equal to about 1.15 

 land, or statute, miles. Thus if a submarine 

 makes twenty knots an hour at the surface 

 it moves as fast as an automobile going twenty- 

 three miles an hour; if it makes eleven knots 

 submerged, its speed equals that of an auto- 

 mobile traveling twelve and two-thirds miles 

 an hour. The knot used by the United States 

 navy is 6,080.27 feet, "the one-sixtieth part of 

 the length of a degree on the great circle (cir- 

 cumference) of a sphere whose surface is equal 

 to the surface of the earth." The British 

 admiralty uses a knot of 6,080 feet. 

 \ In the rope to which the old-fashioned ship's 

 log was attached, .pieces of string were inserted ; 

 one piece marked the first knot, two pieces 

 the second, and so on- The knots were usually 

 forty-seven feet three inches apart; if at the 

 end of twenty-eight seconds, which is the same 

 fraction of an hour that forty-seven feet three 

 inches is of 6,080 feet, the log had pulled out 

 five knots, the ship was moving five knots an 

 hour. 



KNOTGRASS, not 'grass, KNOTWEED or 

 DOOR-MAT, a trailing weed belonging to the 

 buckwheat family. It is one of the most 

 widely distributed plants in the world. Knot- 

 grass grows low on the ground, in trampled 

 places or in cultivated fields, and bears trailing, 

 many-branched stems which form a thick mat. 

 Clusters of two or three small flowers of pale 

 greenish-pink grow between the upper surfaces 

 of the leaves and the stems. 



