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The knitting needle is the improvement of the sewing needle. Its history starts in the Stone Age, when primitive man made needles from stone, wood, and the bones of animals and fish.

These first needles were used simply to open holes on the materials that had to be connected.

The first metal needles were manufactured in China, and were imported to Europe by the Moors in the Middle Age.

Listed below in chronological order are the companies who produced needles until the early 19th century in Europe.

The production was of course made completely by hand at first, and for the production of one single needle there existed up to 20 stages.

1156: Bordesley Abbey (Redditch).

1533 - 1603: During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the German Elias Grouse taught needle production to the English.

1730: Forge Mill in Redditch.

1852: Theodor Groz in Ebingen, Swabia.

1856: Matthew Towsend received a patent for the Latch Needle.

1859: Anton Haase.

1871: Ernst Becker in Eibenberg, Saxony.

1881: Durant invented the Double Hook Needle.

1890: Ebersbach+Kuehn.

1916: Redditch Hosiery Needles Limited. Photo+comments of Redditch needles packages.

1937: Theodor Groz+Sons and Ernst Becker become Groz-Beckert. Photo+comments of package of needles from the destroyed factory of Groz-Beckert in Chemnitz.

1942: Join of the companies Anton Haase and Ebersbach+Kuehn, who restarted production in Leinzell in 1947, with the name Haase+Kuehn. Photo+comments of Haase+Kuehn package of needles, dated 1947.

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