1 5 2 HEROES OF IN VENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



bore the following inscription : " In the year 1589, the ingenious 

 William Lee, A.M. of St. John's College, Cambridge, devised 

 this profitable art for stockings (but, being despised, went to 

 France), yet of iron to himself, but to us and to others of gold ; 

 in memory of whom this is here painted." 



In Deering's "Account of Nottingham" we learn that William 

 Lee (whose name is sometimes written Lea) was a native ot 

 Woodborough, a village about seven miles from Nottingham, 

 He was heir to a considerable freehold estate, and a graduate 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge. It is said that he fell in 

 love with a young country girl, who during his visits paid more 

 diligent attention to her work, which was knitting, than to the 

 fond speeches of her lover. He endeavoured, therefore, to 

 invent a machine which might facilitate and for\vard the opera- 

 tion of knitting, and by this means furnish the object of his 

 affections with more leisure to converse with him. Beckmann 

 says : " Love indeed is fertile in inventions, and gave rise, it is 

 said, to the art of painting; but a machine so complex in its 

 parts, and so wonderful in its effects, would seem to require 

 longer and greater reflection, more judgment, and more time 

 and patience than could be expected in a lover. But even if 

 the case should appear problematical, there can be no doubt 

 in regard to the inventor, whom most of the English writers 

 positively assert to have been William Lee." Deering expressly 

 states that Lee made the first loom in the year 1589, the date 

 inscribed on the picture. 



But this is not the only version of the story. Another one 

 states that Lee was expelled from the university for marrying 

 contrary to the statutes. He had no fortune, and his wife was 

 forced to contribute to their joint support by knitting. Lee, 

 while watching the movement of her fingers, conceived the 



