874 EEPOET — 1893. 



Another machine was developed out of the plain net machine for making lac o 

 curtains. 



A number of small details of machines were exhibited showing the relative 

 differences of the old and the new. 



3. On Knitting Machinery. Bij Chas. R. Woodward. 



The paper opens with historical references to the early forms of machinery for 

 knitting, and shows what enormous strides have been made in improving their 

 mechanical design and construction, what great progress in loop-forming capacity — 

 advancing from 500 to 500,000 loops per minute— and how large and varied is the 

 present scope of the trade, embracing, as it does, not only all forms of knitted 

 underwear, but also stockinette cloth, astrachaus, Cardigan jackets, Tam-o'- 

 Shanter caps, down to bags in which to import foreign mutton. The new era in 

 the making of stockings is next specially dwelt on and the main reasons given for 

 the return to domestic machinery, among which are its cheapness, the low rate of 

 wages for which country people will work, the fact that the goods require so little 

 finishing that manufacturers have no factory expenses, and that much more com- 

 fortable socks and stockings are produced on these machines than on earlier types. 

 The attempts recently made to successfully compete with the domestic machinery 

 are next mentioned, the cosmopolitan spirit of jS ottingham machinists shown in 

 their introducing American machines into England, chief among which machines 

 are the ' Shaw,' ' Scott & Williams,' and ' Aiken ' machines, on which one girl will 

 knit from fifty to eighty dozen pairs of half-hose per week, but which, unlike their 

 rivals, are confined to the making of plain, i.e., not ribbed fabrics. The_ probable 

 lines of future development, though somewhat difficult to forecast, are indicated, 

 and may be summarised thus : — Machinery which will work either by foot-pedals 

 or steam power, and in which the narrowing, widening, changing of ribs, and 

 forming of heels, toes, &c., will be manipulated by hand in a similar manner to 

 that in which a typewriter is worked. 



4. On Lace and Hosiery Machinery. By Professor W. Robinson. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15. 

 The foUovsdng Reports and Papers were read : — 



1. Third Report on the Bevelopment of Graphic Methods in Mechanical 

 Science. By Professor H. S. Hble Shaw, M.Innt.G.E.—See Reports, 

 p. 573. 



2. Report on Determining the Dryness of Steam in Boiler Trials. 

 See Reports, p. 572. 



3. 0)1 Thermal Storage hy Utilisation of Town Refuse. By C. C. Keep. 



4. On the Disposal of Refuse. By William Warner, A.M.I.C.E. 



The treatment of refuse upon scientific principles was commenced by Mr. Alfred 

 Fryer eighteen years ago. 



Dry house refuse, mixed refuse, excrementitious matter, and sewage refuse 

 treatment had been in the experimental stage for some time, but no one had shown 



