Figure 1.--

We also do not know much about country trends at this time. It was clearly England which initiated the Industrial revolution that led the way in weaving technology. The Industrial Revolution was indeed centered on textile production. And as in other areas, the English led the way in hosiery production. The Ebglish leadership continued well into the 19th century, despite the fact that traditional weaving methods persisted well after modern textile production methods developed. Manufacturers in other countries such as America had considerable difficulty competing with imported product, mostly hosiery imported from England..

Italy and France

Modern hosiery first appeatred in the Middle Ages in Italy and France. It became a very important pat of medieval dress, primarily because trousrs were not yet invented. Hosiery were produced on hand looms, but we do not yet know much about weaving technology.

England

The Industrial Revolution at first focused primarily on yarn and textiles rather than garments. Hosiery proved to be one of the more complicated garments to mass produce, in part because it had to be more closely modeled to the body than other garments. As a result, English manufacturers in the 19th century were still using a 16th century technology. The English were still using hand- and foot-operated framework knitting machines, a technology invented in 1589. This method over time spread to the Continent and was refined, but the same basic process was still being used in the mid-19th century. The frame was used to made a flat web that could then be shaped to form the various parts covered by hosiery (leg, foot, and heel). The next step was to hand sew the seams together producing the final stocking or sock. The next step of mechanizing the whole process by developing powere machiery proved a difficult hurdle. There were a range of constraints. The availability of low-cost labor ws a factor. This inhibited the huge capital investments required to develop the needed machinery. And there was a substantial vested interested in the old technology. The major English hosiery manufacturers owned thousands of hand frames and profitably rented them to weavers who worked at home. The first seamless hosiery using new circular knitting machinery appeared in the 1850s. This hosiery did not prove popular because they were not fit very well. Some dismissed them as poorly fitted "leg bags." Only slowly in the late 19th century. English hosiery manufacturers had an advantage over other manufacturers necause large, highly efficent steam-powered spinning mills in Lancashire produced low-cost fine cotton thread to both hosiery and other textila and clothibg manufacturers.

America

The Industrial Revolution which began in England during the mid-187th century was not immediately transported to the American colonies. In fact, British policy was to restrict manufacturing in the Colonies. (Ironically when you consider America's development as an industrial power) this was not a major issue in the Revolution that followed. The technology of the Industrial Revolution slowly spread to America. As in England, the first industry affected was textiles. Much od the spread was through immigration. English and other European immigrants brought the technology to America. The early American textile industry developed in England during the early 19th century where it benefitted from water power. Cheap slave-produced southern cotton was another important factor. Hosiery was not an important product of the earky American textile and clothing industry. American investors generally were reluctant to make major investments in hosiery manufacturing because of the competition with inexpensive imports from England. The most important city in the American hosiery industry proved to be Ipswich, Massachusetts. There was in Ipswich during the early 19th century an effort to create a modern lace industry. Lace was widely used in women's clothing and most of that lace was imported. Ipswich investors manage to smuggle lace-making machinery out of England together with some workers (1830s). The objective was to shift the local bobbin lace production to the mechanized embroidered machine-made bobbinets. The effort failed, but it had an significant, but totally unanticipated impact on the American hosiery industry. Many of the English weavers that came to Ipswich were stocking weavers that had only recently been trained on the new lace machinery. After the failure of the lace enterprise, they remained in America and returned to the stockings trade. The two skills were traditionally related as they both involved hand-and footpowered looms. Not all stayed in Ipswich, but several did and continued to work in small hand-frame shops even fter the Civil War. British machinists began to operate in another Ipwich enterprise about 1840, taking advantage of the area's abudant water power. The company essentially duplicated a Leicester operation making woolen and merino blend shirts and drawers. This proved successful and other companies began similar operations. This new knitting machinery became a successful new component to the local cotton and woolen textile mills by the time of the Civil War (1861-65). American manufacturers at the time were experimenting with blends of wool and cotton which was called "merino". (Merino ws als a breed od sheep.) It was used for underwear and hosiery. These garments were nore important than they are today because central heating was still not common in American homes. Wool was best for warmth. It was also more expensive and less comfortable against the skin than cotton. A variety of innovations were developed to use the best features of both wool and cotton. One of the most successful was a kind of two-faced knitting which permitted the the softer cotton thread to create a giving a fleecy surface. The manufactuer of hosiery in the United States was still quite limited. A challenge to the English domination would require major investments by a well estanlished company. And as was the case for many industries, the Civil War proved a turning point, greatly stimulkating industrial growth. The major step taken in mechanizing the production of hosiery in America was taken jusyt after the Civil War. This step was finally taken by the Ipswich Mills (mid-1860s). The company converted an old textile factory which produced cotton textiles to knitting cotton stockings. Here a Boston merchant, Amos Adams Lawrence (1814-86), played a major role. His father had played a leading role in developing the textile industry in Larence, Massachusetts and of course the city was nammed after him. Larence obtained both machinery and workers experienced with the machinery from England. The new operations proved sucesssful and was soon copied by other local entrepreneurs. HBC readers are often struct by the low cost of clothing in the catalog section. This is primarily because mist of the catalog section are entries from the 1890s or later. Actually clothing in the early 1800s was quite expennsive, especially in comparison to actual wages at the time. The combination of modern manufacturing techniques and domestic production resulted in a sharp decline in prices for hosiery in the United States. One study reports that cotton stockings declinmed in price steadily during the 19th century: about 60 cents (1830s), 25-40 cents (mid-1860s), and 12.5 cents (1870s). The rapid industrialization of the United States meant that by the 1880s that American-built manufacturing equipment was available and began to replace the initial English-imported machinery. Improvements in the circular machinery meant that hosiery with well formed heels and toes were being produced by the 1890s when production shifted to seemless stockings. Gradually American manufacturrs began to surpass even English manufactuers who were generally reluctant to replace machiery that still functioned well. Americans were more prone to innovation and had less of an investment in older machiery. This innovation, plant, expansion, access to a large and growing domestic market, and cheap immigrant labor allowed the Ipswich mills by the 1910s to be the largest manufactuerer of hosiery in the world. Production boomed during World War I. The company's sales increased from 2 million pairs of stockings in 1915 to more than 7 million pairs in 1918. The company did not do well, however, in the roaring 1920s. Newly prosperous Americans wanted new producs. Silk became very popular for hosiery. Competitors adapted better to the changing demand, especially for women's stockings. Ipswich Mills which held to more traditional lines went babkrupy even before the Depression (1928).