Hosiery Museum, Fort Payne, AL, Nov 11, 2011

This afternoon we visited the Hosiery Museum in Fort Payne.  This quote is from Wikipedia “By the beginning of the 21st century, the hosiery industry in Fort Payne employed over 7,000 people in more than 100 mills. It produced more than half of the socks made in the United States.”  

Short sleeves and short hair were required for safety.

This sock knitting machine was the state of the art machine in the ‘50’s, it could make the Argyle sock all by itself. 

 

This looping machine was used to close the toes of each sock.  Each and every sock needed to be placed on this machine by hand, then the toe would be stitched closed.

This is part of a “Steam Board”, used to shape the socks.