Stocking frame
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A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knittin
Stocking frame at Ruddington Framework Knitters' Museum
Six stages in the knitting machine cycle
Stocking frame
Detailed close up of multi coloured knitting stitches
Luddites
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The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who protested the usage of certain types of automated machinery owing to their concerns over worker pay, labour savings,
Stocking frame
…of stocking frames provoked social tensions. The British government passed the Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788 in response to widespread Luddite unrest and the destruction of knitting machinery by displaced workers. Following William Lee’s move to France in the early 1600s, stocking frame…
The Leader of the Luddites, 1812. Hand-coloured etching