456 Proceedings of the British Association* 



Spain, and the Netherlands ; Lee's brother introduced the manufacture 

 into London, where the " Frame-work Knitter's Company" still exists, 

 though it has been long an empty name. Out of 660 frames, in 1669, 

 there were 490 in London, three-fifths of the whole being employed in 

 the manufacture of silk goods. In 1710 there were 100 frames destroyed 

 in London on account of disputes about wages, and in 1714 there were 

 2,500 frames in London, 600 in Leicester, 400 in Nottingham, and about 

 8,600 throughout all England. From this time the trade began to leave 

 London, probably from the vexatious nature of the company's regula- 

 tions ; and in 1753, when the total number of frames in England was 

 14,000, London had fallen to 1,000, while Nottingham had risen to 

 1,500, and Leicester to 1,000. The application of the stocking-frame 

 to the manufacture of imitations of pillow lace, led the way to a great 

 variety of ingenious inventions, and a consequent extension of the 

 trade : in 1782 there were about 20,000 frames in England, of which 

 17,350 were in the midland counties. Though the stocking-makers 

 and lace-makers started from the same point, their fate has been very 

 different ; the manufacturers of stockings are about the worst paid and 

 those of lace among the best paid of the operative classes. Mr. Felkin 

 stated that there are about 42,652 persons engaged in the manufacture 

 of stockings, and as many more employed to wind, seam, and sew up 

 the hose. He denied that as a class they were idle and negligent ; he 

 had known them from boyhood, having worked for his support at their 

 frames, and he knew that they were no worse than hard work and small 

 wages would make any class of the community. To explain the posi- 

 tion of the stocking manufacturers, Mr. Felkin stated that the frames 

 were rarely the property of the workmen, but belonged either to the 

 hosiers or to a class of middlemen, who let them to the operatives. 

 Foreign competition has had little eifect upon this branch of industry, 

 for the amount of the exportation of hosiery has neveV been important. 

 There were only 147,507 dozens exported in 1843, and that was nearly 

 double the amount of the preceding year. Mr. Felkin then referred 

 to some diagrams exhibited in the Section to explain the nature of work- 

 ing the frames ; the operation is one of considerable toil, but does not 

 for ordinary goods require much skill and training ; the employment 

 is injurious to the sight. It is for the most part a domestic branch of 

 industry, and has no connexion with the factory system. The total 

 number of frames in the three midland counties is 39,442 employed and 

 4,598 unemployed. There are 1,572 frames in the rest of England, 265 

 in Ireland, and 2,605 in Scotland ; and taking the whole of Great Bri- 



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