“KNITTED CLOTH.”

Hokitika Guardian, 7 May 1923, Page 4

“KNITTED CLOTH.”

MAKING THE LOOM LOOK ANTIQUATED. YA R D-A-f.I J N UTE l'R ODUCTIOX. (‘‘Manchester Guardian.”) A small group of exports in the hosiery trade have discovered how to manufacture on a knitting machine certain kinds of cloth at least ton times faster and many times cheaper than on a loom. 'Already a number of Nottingham hosiery firms are putting the claims of the discoverers to the test, and are getting remarkable results. This new competitor of the loom is a circular knitting machine of unusual size. It turns out at an almost ineredible rate a close, firm textured fabric which, when finished, is indistinguishable from the product of the loom.

For a long time the hosiery trade la d concentrated on making a garment which ill its twin qualities of elasticity and lightness would he pre-eminently suitable for underwear. Having chased the product of the looms from the underwear market the hosiery manufacturers turned their attention to outer garments like overcoats and ladies’ coats and jackets made in knitted material. For two years the coarser fabrics <f the heather mixture variety have been .successfully tested, and lately it ha - been shown that with liner textures of the • Melton class remnrknhle results can he obtained by the use of knitting machines; and when the goods are finished in the same wav rs woven doth they give a firm texture and stand the te-t ol ordinary wear. They are dyed in the piece. It is in the matter of productivity that these new knitting machines make the present pewer-L.-om st'cm is nntiliiated as its hand or fort operated ancestor. It has for years hern the complaint of tile invent r that the weaving loom has reached its limit in regard to production because of the principles oil which it i ; constructed, and many elfin ts have been made to invent a t ii'ruhir lot:m. This ideal, I am told by Professor Davis of the University College here, has been achieved by the knitting machine which 1 have mentioned. ONE GIRL-TWO MAC HINES.

It is called the 80-feed circular latch needle f:ami is mane hy the Nottingham firm of George Bhic-khi;: n and Sons. At a low estimate it will |.rodu:e a tabrir at the rate of one yard a minute for geueial clothing purport's. A

girl ran watch two machines. The fabric which is made hy this knittini machine, pr< I:ably the largest hy fat in the wetld the Aiiierii-im.s have buill machines i p t i -10-feeds- is of doublt width. with a very tight stitch, tin when suitni i,v milled. .‘twiner. rai.-t-i and cropped pir«eiits a very dressy up. pe rranre. Tim hosiery trade section of the Nottingham Uiamher of C'ommetve is taking the matter tip on a t-ommereial fi -is. and already a ntimher of films are in taui-h with the miirktd. lb. n 1 ei'ore the l.uihling i-f this 80lecii. mav'ine ill? knitting nuriiin.'.weie competing in a sum 11 v. ay with the loon's. For several years one Nottingham firm has been making heather mixture men's overcomings fm winter wear, and lias been able to sell tlu-m at a lower price than the woven lain ic. After two years of wear these knitted i ! t' s are said to show no len-doni-v l.i .eg or bag. or lose their shape in any nay. It that is so it may not la- h.ng- before the knitting nine!)itics a re i-ht.’iiig mi tin* market a cloth with m; Ii 1 11.• stretch in it that ii can be used for men's suits. At prt'.-cm another Nottingham ii.m i\ making m a huge u-ale flannel trouser- from c knitted fahrie. Speed of pr duel ion is not the only advantage v.I j:-h the new multi-feel machine I'ax over tlm loom, as the cloth which it iliannl'aetures d ms not need, as the--11*-* inr-li.ict of the loom any warp pre l.u raMon. any chawing in, any sieving, or auv tying up. The result is that the cloth is nude at a labour cost of n i i-iic-t i n : !' ii | eim.v per y'lld. A SATUtK OF ( JRCUMSTANCE It i- ireuie.l that 1 lie good fortune of this ilia-ovary should luvc fallen ni a a untie v, liit-h lias no lack of talers rod no ni-empl-yed. while the lee ■ intlusiry, in doleful hllene-s, looks eg Tin-re are fart ries which lur two y (irs have not made an inch of lace. Fashion, lit--1 of all, is against them. Women, it is said, no lunger wear ii jilt'd uiul-er; bulling: they have nih.pted the b. v. luminous but lighter mi l meet- hygnie j-rodueis oi 11.-t* hosiery people. It was the ‘‘h-iblde’’ and then the short shirt, they say, which drove the petticoat out < f the woman's watbro 1 e. (ieriiimiy, Nottingham's best pre-war customer is ‘dead'’; Austria, a former market. is also ‘ dead” : and Russia is anoilier casualty of the otoUiimit- cnipti-m. On.- firm v.-hivb heFoie tlm war had dbiii) m counts with I’l-sia has nunc to-day. Frame h - inert'.wed li r tardf against ;\b tiing.-ha-a lave bv four and a half times, and

America has raised her duty cn lacs front sixty to ninety per cent ad valorem. Faced with stub a w.nk p: expect, the late industry must either tv oms lveom-ilcd to a farther long starvation wait for orders or seek flesh outlets. This cloth-knitting machine may piovide a profitable outlet. Strictly speaking, the new industry would seem to he an adjunct of the hosiery trade, but a number of lace firms are reported to he considering very seriously the question of putting tlreir idle hand to work upon it.