Development Of Machine Knitting Was Due To Genius Of Curate

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 18, 3 February 1948, Page 7

Development Of Machine Knitting Was Due To Genius Of Curate

Hand-knitting cannot claim an antiquity approaching that of handweaving although certain references suggest that the habit went on in Greek and Roman times, some 2000 years ago. The earliest direct reference to it in Britain was recorded in the 14th Century but this is hardly proof that knitting was not known there very much earlier. Knitting by hand gradually grew to be a profitable industry. This was the position during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the mechanical genius of the Rev. William Lee created the knitting frame, and prepared the way for the industry as it is known today. A young curate of St. John’s College, William Lee, met and fell in love with a young woman who knew the fine art of stocking knitting and they were secretly married. When the college discovered his secret Lee was discharged and with his failure to find other jobs, his wife was soon forced to go back to her knitting of stockings to help support the family. One evening, watching her as she knitted, Lee conceived the idea of imitating the movements of handknitting needles by mechanical means. In 1589 he perfected the first knitting frame, the real foundation of today’s specialised and highly skilled industry. Lee asked Queen Elizabeth to give him a patent so that he could build many machines. The Queen refused and Lee was further forced to take his machine abroad but died before the world recognised the- importance of his discovery. By 1775 however, there were many thousands of knitting machines in operation throughout Britain and Europe.