Creelman Brothers Sock Machines 1874 to1926

"Creelman Brothers" The source for many of today's sock machines.

A New machine

for Hard Times

!A summer of financial decline on Wall Street.  Stock prices collapse in a panic!

!Hundreds of banks close.  Millions of unemployed men roaming the streets!

   Children abandoned to live amid the crime and filth of the street!

This is not another headline for the market collapse of 2008 but the year of 1893 when the first "Money-Maker" sock machine hit the market.

 

 

   The "Money Maker" was a special sock machine designed by the Creelman Brothers for use in the home. "Its production began in 1893 and it originally sold for $10."   To put that in perspective the average 1892 weekly wage in the US was but $9.42.

"In addition to the ten dollar model, the Creelman factory also made more expensive versions for sale at $18.25 and $25.00.  On these models Creelman's gave coupons for $2.00 off the price of the machine if the buyer paid cash." 

   "Creelman claimed that their machines were designed for use in the home and were so simple to use that "a child or a blind person could use them."

Riding the Wave of Mechanization

    Located less than 10 miles from the shores of Lake Ontario Canada the Creelman brothers set up shop. It was the early years of factory mechanization in the small township of Georgetown when Richard & Robertson Creelman arrived on the seen. Their first machine was the "STAR" which was always intended for use in the Victorian knitting mills of the mid 1870's & 80's. During the 1880 there was the World Star, and the "New Star" and New "K" or cone ribber machine a take off on the very successful Tuttle sock machine, the first to have a way to mechanize ribbing. Soon to follow in was the "Banner" and attachments that added belt drives.  By 1913 the Creelman factory had also developed a line of 6 home knitting machines ranging in price from $20 to $26. These included:  the Money Maker,  Money Maker - A,  Improved Money Maker,  New Improved Money Maker, the Dollar & the Klondyke.

Fire, Bullets and Business

   Before the reality of the home machine was realized  there were many struggles.

  Just five years after the second and larger machine shop opened in 1881, the building was partially destroyed by fire.  In 1886 such losses would mean the end of most factories but not for Richard and Robertson Creelman.

There was at least $9,000 of fire, water and smoke damage to the offices and machine shop. There was no way around it, reconstruction was going to be expensive.  But the brothers found a way. Within just a few months the brothers were prepared to move the entire business, machine shop and all to Ingersoll for a bonus of $5000 and a $12,000 loan at 5% interest. An interest rate that would be considered good in today's business environment.

Yet another serious set back came just a short time later when a suspicious accident ended with an errant gun shot wound to the palm of Richard's hand.  The story was that he had accidentally shot himself, and with the small black powder hand guns of the day that is quite possible. But there were also rumors of a more sinister kind as talk swirled around a beautiful young maiden and a duel done under the influence of hard drink. A custom long made illegal but still in vogue among young French Quebec men of the day. Such romantic notions often enter a story to make historical figures more human. But Richard would have been about 35 and likely past the age of such exploits but his actions soon after do suggest there was much more to the story than meets the eye.

With what must been a hand racked with pain, Richard quickly left Canada and boarded a ship for Europe. Though it was reasonable to assume he was seeking the best medical knowledge of the day his life abroad lasted for several years.  While sailing the seas he continued to build the business and opened offices in Belgium. After that he traveled the world by ship to open new markets. This quickly paid off, as the factory began reporting orders from across Europe, South & Central America as well as New Zealand. By his return to Canada around 1890 his partnership with his brother had ended. 

As Reported by the Toronto Daily Mail: 1893

"Creelman Brothers were pioneer knitting machine manufacturers in Canada. They have seen nine competitors fail…….. and now have the most complete knitting machine plant on this continent. This firm attributes its success to its ability to design original, practicable, and patentable, improvements of superior merit. Its facilities for turning out valuable machines at the lowest possible price has enabled it to not only hold its trade, but secure a large foreign trade in spite of all competition." 

   "In the latter the firm claims to have solved the question of how to build a cheap and practical machine, which it is putting on the market this year for the first time at ten dollars, a price low beyond precedent. It is called the money-maker, and will prove itself a friend to many a weary mother and is eminently worthy of its suggestive name"  

The Parts of the Money Maker

   The unique open cam system of the "Money Maker" would be one of the first low cost sock machines to enter the homes of working class America.  This would be the start of the open cam systems that would be seen in the Auto Knitter and other sock machines still to come.

 

 

The open V- shape of the shell is what separated the first Money Makers from other Creelman made machines. The cam shell's spring loaded V-cam seen in detail above was less costly to produce than the more numerous and intricate parts of the closed cams system found in the New "K" machine. Another unique characteristic of the "MM" was the smaller crank. An idea that was seen later in the Gearhart sock machine and is thought by some to reduce the weight but it also reduced the speed one could crank out socks in the home.  As a result the home cranker was not likely to be of any real competition to the still productive knitting mills of the day.  As these lighter machines dominated the market, later  versions of the "Money Maker" would return to the full size crank wheel.

As these parts sheets for the " Money Maker series shows, the primary base, gear ring, ribber assembly and accessories  greatly  resembles what we know today as the Creelman Brother's Money Maker - A but is  better known to most of us as the P.T. Legare one of our most common antique sock machines available today.  The closed cam system of the basic 18 lb model 400 PT Legare or MM-A, evolved from the hefty 45 lb or more "New Star" and New "K" machines.  This cam system had proved itself to be largely trouble free in their decades of use in the knitting mills of the Victorian age. Soon the lighter and less costly sock machines were quickly adopted by the small cottage industries which made good use of the durable P.T. Legare. Many of our antique PT Legare machines have cranked 1000s of socks during their first years of use.

The contribution of the Legare Catalog house.

There is a great deal of confusion over the sock machines with any of the various Legare company labels. But this is one of the few parts of sock machine history that is really very simple.  Regardless of the machine, the Legare or P.T. Legare label comes from  a retail catalogue company in Canada that was still selling goods well into the 1950s.  This catalogue company sold farm machinery and products for the homes of Canada.  This is a business model that is very similar to Sears in the US.  And just like Sears they had agreements to sell the products from many manufacturers and it was Creelman, not Legare, that made all the 400 series sock machines that were sold as one of the Money Maker series or the

P. T. Legare in North America. But that is not to say that all the sock machines sold by the Legare company were made by Creelman.

The durability of the P.T. Legare 400 is a testament to the sturdy cast iron sock machines made by the Creelman factory.  The renewability of these machines is amazing.  With power cleaning and a new baked on enamel to ward of rust,  many of the old 400 series of machines be they the MM-A or the P.T. Legare will continue the Creelman legacy well into the 21 century.

Hand & Belt Drive

For nearly 50 years, sock machines were individually cranked by women, men and steam to produce socks with teams of workers running rows of machines in knitting mills.  By 1920's the tide had turned and the use of individual machines slowly came to an end. The age of mechanized sock machines was replaced by the automated sock production of 5 socks or more at a time, relying on the power of electricity instead of the power of people or steam. 

In 1926 the aging founder, Richard Creelman and his son Clifford put the factory up for sale, splitting off the different parts of needle making from the manufacturing of the home and factory machines.

Richard Creelman passed-over in 1932 at the age of 80.

Sock machines for the home, using the Creelman design  was then taken up by the Verdun machine shop.

There the Legare and Verdun 47 along with the unique Verdun Automatic continued  evolving the Creelman circular sock machine designs.  This continued for another decade before changes in farm and home sent most of our old sock machines back in their boxes waiting to be re-discovered by a new generation of devoted crankers and collectors.

This blog includes information collected from multiple interviews with CSM users & collectors as well as residents of the area around Georgetown Canada in the 1990's,  my personal copy of the Creelman Brothers parts, manual and advertising publications as well as the historical accounts recorded in the Georgetown Independent,of October 2, 1985