Dubied Machines

A. Well, when we started of course, everything was on hand machines. Dubied M.R.s were the hand flat machine that was used virtually throughout the industry. Hand operated, completely. No jacquard facilities on them, just plain. And then we had hand pearl machines. Again, exactly the same. They would make pearl fabrics, but no jacquard, no patterning. Any patterning you wanted to do, particularly on the M.R.s, you did by hand-transferring of stitches, one stitch from one needle to the next, you manually did it. And I remember seeing one of our knitters who was very experienced, and the speed at which she could transfer stitches, either from the front bed to the back bed or sideways, had to be seen to be believed. It was just like lightning. Incredibly fast, and never missed a stitch, absolutely straight off. Incredible.

Q. It sounds like quite a long process to the uninitiated.

A. It's a long process if you, if you're doing it by hand, yes it is. And then of course we started to buy, after the war, well, we did buy just before the war, we bought some automatic machines. And then after the war we bought from Germany A.J.U.M.s, Stol A.J.U.M.s.  

Source: East Midlands Oral History Archive (Ref: R Kempton)