68 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF LEICESTER AND DISTRICT 
Despite the difficulty referred to above, of basing the commercial side of 
the industry upon long contracts owing to ever-changing styles, production 
in Leicester still takes place on so large a scale that each season’s novelties, 
after separation into numerous categories, may be subjected to massed 
means of manufacture with the required economies of production. 
Even the most rapid survey of the shoe industry in Leicester would be 
incomplete without some reference to the conditions which prevail in 
the factories and to the men and women who work in them. For in vivid 
contrast to the dark and dirty ‘ up-entry ’ workshops of a generation or 
so ago are the bright and spacious factories of to-day, pure of air, warm, 
well-ventilated and clean. They are filled with ‘ operatives ’ who do not 
merely take a decent interest in their exterior, but display pride in their 
work and a sense of progressive efficiency. 
THE ENGINEERING INDUSTRY. 
Engineering ranks third among the industries of Leicester. In addition 
to supplying and maintaining machinery for the boot and shoe and hosiery 
trades, the engineer in Leicester is responsible for the provision and 
upkeep of plant in many subsidiary industries. The following list will 
serve to show how diverse are his activities : quarrying and road-making 
machinery ; machine tools; woodworking machinery; heating and 
ventilating engineering ; box-making machinery ; hoisting appliances ; 
iron-founding ; constructional engineering ; optical instruments and fine 
measuring machinery ; clocks ; typewriters ; small electrical machinery ; 
printing machinery. 
Leicester produces vast numbers of automatic hosiery machines. The 
evolution of the modern machine, from Lee’s stocking-frame to the 
automatic or ‘ Straight Bar Machine,’ and thence to the early circular 
knitting machine made by Thompson of Leicester and incorporating the 
latch needle of Matthew ‘Townsend, also a Leicester man, is a fascinating 
romance. ‘To every fresh demand of the hosiery makers of the country 
the machine builders of Leicester have responded; indeed, in many 
cases, the machinery inventions have dictated the changes which have 
occurred in the design and production of hosiery wear. 
Leicester can claim to be the birthplace of the elastic web industry, 
its craftsmen having journeyed to the Continent and America to teach 
the technique of elastic web weaving. ‘The recent introduction of wide 
corset web and the use of artificial silk in the manufacture of elastic web 
necessitated both the adaptation of the Lancashire piece-goods loom to 
the industry and the invention of many new types of machines to deal 
with preparatory processes. ‘These adaptations and inventions are, in 
many instances, the work of local engineers. "The whole of the machinery 
necessary for the manufacture of shock-absorbing rings for aircraft was 
designed and produced in the engineering department of a Leicester firm. 
It is interesting to record that Mr. L. Rowland, B.Sc., A.M.Inst.C.E., a 
distinguished Leicester engineer, has been a member of the British 
Standards Committee on Rubber since its inception. Some years ago, 
when a member of the engineering staff at the College of Technology, he 
designed the standard machine used for the testing of rubber. 
