More on Franz and Pope Restoration

A member of the Vintage Krankers group on Facebook suggested that testing my "almost-the-right-size" sample needles with the other original 70 needles in the machine might cause a problem, and that I should test the two sample needles by themselves. 

I did.  It works.  

I ordered two sets of 50 needles from Angora Valley and am anxiously waiting for their arrival.   

In the meantime, I'm still trying to find out more about Franz and Pope, the inventors. 

I got really excited when I saw this post on Rootsweb from 2000.  It says "Seek info on Myra (Almira) CAMPBELL who married William FRANZ about Jan 22 She died 20 Feb 1916. Her husband was the inventor of a knitting machine. They lived at 400 E. Mansfield Street in Bucyrus,Crawford Co.,Ohio. Her husband was originally from Leesville, OH. Myra was a seamstress before her marriage. She was born 3 Jan 1844 in PA. Would like family info."

 

I tried to respond to the person, but the email address was rejected by the email domain, Yahoo. 

So, a dead end.  For the moment.

I am curious that if his wife being a seamstress had any bearing on the invention of the knitting machine.  

In the meantime, Agatha Stone from the facebook group sent me a message.  It included "F&P and Bickford are  weirdly connected to the English machines because our akmc had Bickford as its starting point and all our open cam machines like Beehive and Golden Fleece all derive from Creelman money maker which itself derives from world's star which derives from F&P.  The CSM 'family tree' is surprisingly connected a lot which I like 🙂 "   I did not know any of that, but it is so excited that so many inventors used the Franz and Pope machine as a springboard for their ideas.