The Auto Knitter - A Conversation with George Fricke

by Elsie McCarthy

McCarthy: Tell us about your involvement with the AutoKnitter.

Fricke: The Auto Knitter was first made in Buffalo, where my maternal grandfather, F.G.O. Ehle, may have been involved. It was then manufactured in Brooklyn for a while as Ainslie ‑ EM. I do not know when the US firm folded but after the company folded, the Canadian firm continued making the Auto Knitter until well after WW II. The machines enjoyed success among the French Canadians, but sales of the machines gradually fell off, and by the 1970s the little firm, owned by a sister-brother partnership, did little more than repair machines and sell parts.

During the depression of the '30s, in Harmony, ME, a family of McCarthys tired of wood cutting and decided to improve family finances by selling the heavy wool socks they made on the Auto Knitter for their own use. It worked, and they established a family business that lasted several years. At one time their business involved well over 50 people. The Bartlett mill, under the ownership of Harry Bartlett, furnished support, advice, and yarns to the McCarthys. Like many small businesses, it could not stand success and eventually fell apart.

One of the sons, Ralph McCarthy, still lived in Harmony when I took over the Bartlett Yarns mill in late '73. He counted on the mill to supply a wool yarn suitable for use in machine knitting. Ralph and I became friends and I sold socks for him through the mill store. I became interested in the machines, and eventually traced the remaining commercial interests to the little firm in Canada. Due to age and illness, the sister‑partner was more than willing to quit the business, and I was able to buy all her stock of parts. As there was no longer any protection for the name in either country, I was able to use the Auto Knitter name and logo. With Ralph McCarthy's help, I decided to try to bring these old machines back.

Ralph had told me that there had been many problems with new machines: sometimes they would order as many as five machines, and then interchange parts to get one or two that really worked. Warping of die-cast parts caused much of this, and poor machining of steel parts.

When I first set up the company, I had many small parts, but few if any of the major parts such as cylinders, from Canada. We had to start from scratch on all the major castings. We arranged to have the two important parts (which were not in the newly acquired invention) made of cast aluminum, and then machined, instead of die cast. We had here in Harmony a very fine machine shop, owned by Kerry Bogan, another good friend. The three of us, Ralph, Kerry and 1, put our heads together, analyzed the problems with the old machines, and developed some new ways and better materials. As a result, the machines we made were far superior than those made a generation ago. We formed Harmony Knitters, Inc., and hired Ralph to assemble and test each machine.

When we first started assembling machines, Ralph did the work, but our problem was we still had some of the old original Auto Knitter parts from Canada, and these were often out of spec. These problems we did not immediately recognize, and some of the earlier machines were, if I may use a pun, somewhat cranky. However, Ralph was such a good knitter, that he could make them work. Eventually, Ralph left us, and my son‑in‑law, Richard Youngken, did the final assembly and testing, and our customers then had much less trouble, especially when we started using all new parts and none of the old Canadian parts. Eventually I moved out of Harmony to the Maine Coast, and we sold the company in mid‑1984, just about the time Richard Youngken left us, to Kerry Bogan, who, with his wife Norma, continued to manufacture the machines.

After Richard Youngken started assembling and testing, and then when the Bogans took over Harmony Knitters, the dependability and ease of use increased tremendously. There are, in my estimation, two critical points in using the current Auto Knitter: tensions, and turning heel and toe. Tensions are extremely sensitive ‑ they vary with the yarn used, as we all know, but also, believe it or not, the weather! As far as heel and toe work, getting the feel for the right kind of pull on the work cannot, I believe, be explained or taught in the manual. People tend to become discouraged too easily, and must be willing to keep at it until things come naturally.

Richard Youngken reminds me that our real early machines were actually off‑white. Little by little we improved the machines, and this was especially noticeable as we ran out of Canadian parts and started to make our own. When I say make our own, the parts were speced out by Kerry Bogan, ordered by me as Harmony Knitters, then turned over to Kerry for finishing and assembly. Harmony Knitters then tested and shipped. As soon as we were really established, we changed to the black body. Looking back, I must admit that once Ralph left us and Rich took over the adjustment and testing, we started shipping a better machine, more ready for use. It was at the time that Kerry bought the company that the machine was changed to the green bodies.

I don't remember much about the labels. Rich's personal machine was simply taken out of stock in '84 without a label. My machine is a green one, from 1986, and the label is silver background with blue and gray stripe. The first two numbers of the serial indicated the year of manufacture.

As to the ease and dependability of use, let's put it this way: cream or off-white machines were sometimes hard to operate; blacks were generally OK; greens were excellent!

One of the factors, which helped bring back sock knitting, was the improvement in sock yarns developed while I operated Bartlettyarns, Inc. We produced nothing but wool yarns, spun on the old‑fashioned mule. Today, the mule a Bartlettyarns is the only one commercially operating in the USR. By the way, the mill is possibly the oldest spinning mill in the country, dating back to 1821! Mule‑spun yarn has a softer hand than modern frame‑spun yarns, and Bartlett yarns are made from medium grades of wool with some of the lanolin left in during the scouring process. If properly washed with non‑alkaline detergent, this natural oil remains with the wool, and helps to reduce felting and shrinking. I have several pairs of socks made from "our" yarn on "our" sock machine that have been washed over 180 times over a 15‑gear period without any felting or shrinking!

It's nice to know all the history of the Auto Knitter, at least in its second incarnation. I turned all Company records over to Kerry at time of the sale, and I know not what has become of them. History is fine, but I believe more in going forward with existing information, and working towards the future. In this regard, I devoutly hope that you and your friends will be able to eventually take over the manufacture of the Auto Knitter, and I repeat my offer of all assistance within my power to help make it work.

George Fricke, Harmony, Maine Correspondence with E. McCarthy, 1997 ‑1999