the upper end being turned into a hook. Near the hook end
and attached to the stem by a pin is the spoon-shaped latch,
which closes over the hook as required. Machines fitted with
latch-needles
have grooves in which the stem of the needle works. Cams,
which act on the
needle butts, give
the needles their
individual knitting
action in rotation.
This needle
is self-acting, in
that it is made to
draw its own loop,
sinkers being dispensed
with.
 |
| Fig. 8.—Various Shapes of the Latch Needle. |
 |
| Fig. 9.—Individual Action of the Latch Needle. |
Fig. 9 shows the looping action of this needle. The needles when not knitting have a loop round their shank, thus holding the latch open. When about to knit, they are raised individually and in rotation (by the cams acting on the needle butts) to receive the new loop of yarn.
Down till almost the middle of the 19th century only a flat web could be knitted in the machines in use, and for the finishing of stockings, &c., it was necessary to seam up the selvedges of web shaped on the frame (fashioned work), or to cut and seam them from even web (cut work). The introduction of any device by which seamless garments could be fabricated was obviously a great desideratum, and it is a singular fact that a machine capable of doing this was patented in 1816 by Sir Marc I. Brunel. This frame was the origin of the French-German loop-wheel circular frame of the present day. Brunel’s frame was greatly improved by Peter Claussen of Brussels and was shown at an exhibition in Nottingham in 1845. This frame had horizontal placed needles fixed on a rotating rim. A few years later Moses Mellor of Nottingham transformed this type of frame by altering the position of the needles to perpendicular. This is now known as the English loop-wheel circular frame. After the invention of the latch-needle there was a revolution in the hosiery machine-building industry, new types of machines being invented, fitted to work with latch-needles. Among others there was the latch-needle circular frame, invented by Thomas Thompson, which was the origin of the English latch-needle circular frame, a frame largely used for the production of wide circular fabric.
A circular knitting machine of American origin is the type of machine on which is produced the seamless hosiery of to-day. Like the sewing machine it is largely used in the home as well as in the factory. From this machine all the circular automatic power machines for making plain and rib seamless hose and half hose have been developed. The “flat” or “lamb” type of machine, an American invention, was introduced by J. W. Lamb in 1863. This machine has two needle beds or rows of needles sloping at an angle of nearly 90°.
A great many varieties of this type of machine have been invented for the production of all kinds of plain and fancy hosiery. It is built in small sizes to be wrought by hand or in large power machines. A large variety of sewing, seaming and linking machines are employed in the hosiery industry for the purpose of putting together or joining all kinds of hosiery and knitted goods. These machines have almost entirely superseded the sewing or joining of the garments by hand.
The principle centres in Great Britain of the hosiery industry are Leicester and Nottingham and the surrounding districts. It is also an industry of some extent in the south of Scotland. (T. B.*)
HOSIUS, or Osius (c. 257–359), bishop of Cordova, was born about A.D. 257, probably at Cordova, although from a passage in Zosimus it has sometimes been conjectured that he was believed by that writer to be a native of Egypt. Elected to the see of Cordova before the end of the 3rd century, he narrowly escaped martyrdom in the persecution of Maximian (303-305). In 305 or 306 he attended the council of Illiberis or Elvira (his name appearing second in the list of those present), and upheld its severe canons concerning such points of discipline as the treatment of the lapsed and clerical marriages. In 313 he appears at the court of Constantine, being expressly mentioned by name in a constitution directed by the emperor to Caecilianus of Carthage in that year. In 323 he was the bearer and possibly the writer of Constantine’s letter to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius his deacon, bidding them cease disturbing the peace of the church; and, on the failure of the negotiations in Egypt, it was doubtless with the active concurrence of Hosius that the council of Nicaea was convened in 325. He certainly took part in its proceedings, and was one of the large number of “confessors” present; that he presided is a very doubtful assertion, as also that he was the principal author of the Nicene Creed. Still he powerfully influenced the judgment of the emperor in favour of the orthodox party. After a period of quiet life in his own diocese, Hosius presided in 343 at the fruitless synod of Sardica, which showed itself so hostile to Arianism; and afterwards he spoke and wrote in favour of Athanasius in such a way as to bring upon himself a sentence of banishment to Sirmium (355). From his exile he wrote to Constantius II. his only extant composition, a letter not unjustly characterized by the great French historian Sebastian Tillemont as displaying gravity, dignity, gentleness, wisdom, generosity and in fact all the qualities of a great soul and a great bishop. Subjected to continual pressure the old man, who was near his hundredth year, was weak enough to sign the formula adopted by the second synod of Sirmium in 357, which involved communion with the Arians but not the condemnation of Athanasius. He was then permitted to return to his diocese, where he died in 359.
See S. Tillemont, Mémoires, vii. 300–321 (1700); Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. i.; H. M. Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism (Cambridge, 1882, 2nd ed., 1900); A. W. W. Dale, The Synod of Elvira (London, 1882); and article s.v. in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed., 1900), with bibliography.
HOSIUS, STANISLAUS (1504–1579), Polish cardinal, was
born in Cracow on the 5th of May 1504. He studied law at
Padua and Bologna, and entering the church became in 1549
bishop of Kulm, in 1551 bishop of Ermland, and in 1561 cardinal.
Hosius had Jesuit sympathies and actively opposed the Protestant
reformation, going so far as to desire a repetition of
the St Bartholomew massacre in Poland. Apart from its being
“the property of the Roman Church,” he regarded the Bible
as having no more worth than the fables of Aesop. Hosius
was not distinguished as a theologian, though he drew up the
Confessio fidei christiana catholica adopted by the synod of
Piotrkow in 1557. He was, however, supreme as a diplomatist
and administrator. Besides carrying through many difficult
negotiations, he founded the lyceum of Braunsberg, which
became the centre of the Roman Catholic mission among
Protestants. He died at Capranica near Rome on the 5th
of August 1579.
A collected edition of his works was published at Cologne in 1584. Life by A. Eichhorn (Mainz, 1854), 2 vols.
HOSKINS, JOHN (d. 1664), English miniature painter, the
uncle of Samuel Cooper, who received his artistic education in
Hoskins’s house. His finest miniatures are at Ham House,
Montagu House, Windsor Castle, Amsterdam and in the Pierpont
Morgan collection. Vertue stated that Hoskins had a son, and
Redgrave added that the son painted a portrait of James II.
in 1686 and was paid £10, 5s, although it is not supported
by any reference in the State Papers. Some contemporary
inscriptions on the miniatures at Ham House record them as
the work of “Old Hoskins,” but the fact of the existence
of a younger artist of the same name is settled by a miniature
in the Pierpont Morgan collection, signed by Hoskins, and
bearing an authentic engraved inscription on its contemporary
frame to the effect that it represents the duke of Berwick at
the age of twenty-nine in 1700. The elder Hoskins was buried
on the 22nd of February 1664, in St Paul’s, Covent Garden, and
as there is no doubt of the authenticity of this miniature or of
