are 1a teeta o ay os a st ~~, TEXTILE MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN. BY GEORGE DODD. LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT & Co., LUDGATE STREET. 1844. eben see ee Pe es London: Printed by W. Crowes and Sons, Stamford Street. 3 CONTENTS. lage INTRODUCTION . eee “ F A 5 CHAPTER I. COTTON AND TPssMANUPACTURE . 2. « « « 8 «= « YB CHAPTER II. BLEACHING, DYEING, AND PRINTING OF COTTONS . 45 CHAPTER III. WOOBEEN: GLOTH MANUPACTURE) ©.) 005 “ce biceps) we 8H CHAPTER IV. WORSTED AND STUFF MANUFACTURES, ... « . « I3 CHAPTER V. WLAX AND LINEN MANUFACTURES ....... « 146 CHAPTER VI. Sheer NEL Eo: MeAINUBACT URE: 6. lois ee) o woe we bee CHAPTER VII. LACE AND BOBBIN-NET MANUFACTURES ... . . .205 THE TEXTILE MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN. INTRODUCTION. Tere are, in this country, nearly two millions of per- sons employed in the manufacture of materials for clothing! The assertion is so startling, that it may well be received with caution on the part of those to whom - the subject is new ; but it rests on grounds too authentic to be slighted. The information collected by the various Government Commissioners, to whom have been intrusted the inquiries into factory regulations, into the condition of the hand-loom weavers, and into other matters bearing on productive industry ; the vast body of details pub- lished in the commercial and statistical works of Mr. M‘Culloch and Mr. Porter; the tables resulting from the recent census of the population—all afford evidence that the number of persons employed in what are con- yeniently termed the ‘ textile manufactures” cannot be far short of that above stated. 6 INTRODUCTION. Nor does this by any means represent the whole extent of the industry applied to the production of dress in this country. By ‘Textile manufactures” are meant those in which filaments of cotton, of flax, of silk, or of wool, are wrought into a form fitted to be used in the making ot garments; into such goods, in fact, as calico, muslin, linen, cambric, satin, silk, broad cloth, merino, bom- bazeen, and the innumerable modifications of these, so well known to most persons. But the production of garments from these materials leads us into a wholly new field of industry. Every county, every town and village in every county, almost every street in every town, ex- hibits its supply of persons who earn a maintenance by the production of articles of dress from these materials. What the number of such persons may amount to cannot, perhaps, be safely conjectured. Many a humble cot- tager, many an artisan’s wife, devotes some of her busily- occupied hours in thus contributing to the fund, scanty and uncertain it may be, by which the whole family is supported. The court milliner who supplies the dazzling attire for a drawing-room or an opera night; the ‘Cwest-end ” tailor, who perhaps drives in his own car- riage to take an order for a coat; the ready-made clothes dealer, who exhibits his carefully brushed and smartly adjusted coats at a price which one would think could scarcely pay for the cloth ; the poor sempstress by whom (for a pittance miserably inadequate to the aching eyes INTRODUCTION. vf and aching head resulting from the employment) the shops are supplied with many of the minor articles of clothing—all are types of large classes of persons, dis- tinct from those employed in the textile manufactures properly so called, and yet swelling the number of those employed in the production of dress. Yet, even here, we fail to obtain an adequate idea of the vast mass of industry so applied. ‘There are other materials for dress besides spun and woven filaments, and other departments of industry for the application of such materials. Bedfordshire and the adjacent counties exhibit their thousands employed in the preparation of straw- plait ; while in nearly every town in England there are females by whom the straw-plait thus prepared is wrought up into hats and bonnets. There are in Ber- mondsey, in Newcastle-under-Lyne, in Liverpool, in Bristol, and other towns, large numbers employed in working up wool, fur, and silk into the form of hats. here are large tanneries in most of the principal towns for the production of leather; and there are tens of thousands constantly employed in working up this leather into boots, shoes, and gloves. ‘There are furriers, plu- massiers, artificial-florists, pin-makers, needle-makers, button-makers, clasp-makers, and a host of other ar- tisans, whose skill and industry are applied to matters relating directly or indirectly to dress. It is not until ve have glanced steadily in all these directions, that we 8 INTRODUCTION. shall be in a condition to appreciate the enormous amount of population, of capital, of skill, of mechanical ingenuity, of energy, of patience, involved in the production of clothing in this country. Like all large subjects, this is capable of division and classification, in such a way that each department may, to a certain extent, be understood by itself. The present volume is an attempt to present in a popular form an outline of the chief features which mark the manufacture of textile fabrics : to take—as the small beginnings from whence great things arise—the sced-pod of the cotton- plant, the seed of the flax-plant, the cocoon or ball of the silk-worm, and the fleece of the sheep; and to trace these through the steps whereby they arrive at a form fit for preparation into articles of clothing. The de- scriptions will not relate to the mode of proceeding at any one or more specified factories, but to the general system of the whole, as ascertained chiefly by personal observation. ‘To some little extent we shall go beyond the mere production of textile goods, for the purpose of noticing the dyeing and printing of cottons, &e. ; but the subjects are so bound up together that they ought not to be dissevered. G28") CHAPTER I. COTTON AND ITS MANUFACTURE. Ir we take the town of Manchester as a centre, and draw around it a circle of ten miles’ radius, we shall find within that circle the seat of the most extraordinary ma- nufacture which the world has yet witnessed: extraor- dinary in relation to the annual amount of property pro- duced, to the effects which that property has wrought on the social features of the district, and to the mechanical inventions whereby the manufacture has been founded. We allude, of course, to the Cotton manufacture. Ata period which may be remembered by persons yet living, the quantity of raw cotton worked up in Britain was three or four millions of pounds annually ; it is now three or four hundred millions. At a period not very much earlier, it employed a spinner one year to produce as. much yarn as he can now produce in about a day. In. 1760, not more than forty thousand persons are supposed to have been employed in this manufacture; there are: now, in all its various branches, considerably above a million. In the same year, there was, perhaps, not a single yard of cotton goods exported ; whereas in recent years the exports of cotton have nearly equalled all our other exports put together. And, lastly, at the present day the population of the manufacturing districts is four times as great as it was at the former period. B 10 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES Should it be asked why this district is so distinguished as the seat of the cotton manufacture, we may perhaps be correct in saying that the circumstance is due to a number of different causes. or instance: five centuries ago, when Edward III. married the daughter of the Earl of Hainault, he invited a number of Flemish clothiers to come to England; and they, settling at Bolton, within the district which we have marked out, there established the processes of spimning and weaving. Again, when the revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove many weavers from France, in 1685, many of these ‘set- ‘tled-at and near Bolton; and although these immigrations ‘relate more to the history of the woollen than to the -eotton manufacture, yet they laid a foundation for the modern improvements in both. Then, again, the phy- -sical character of the district presents marked facilities for such a manufacture: the hilly range separating Lancashire from Yorkshire gives rise to numerous streams, which, before they reach the estuary of the river Mersey, give motive power to water-wheels, and a sup- ply of water to bleach-works and dye-works, such as has no parallel for extent in any other country :—it has been said that the Mersey and the Irwell are the two ‘ hardest worked rivers in the world.” We may also adduce the existence of coal in abundance in the county, and iron in adjacent counties with which there is easy communica- tion, as causes for the setthement of the cotton manu: facture here. We must not forget, too, that Liverpool, ‘one of the most admirably situated ports in the kingdom, is in the immediate vicinity of the cotton districts, serving as a depot both for the imported raw material and for the exported finished goods. Lastly, we might be expected » OF GREAT BRITADN.. . - il to mention the canals and railways which intersect this district in unparalleled abundance ; but these are rather consequences than causes of the location of the manufac- ture. ' We may regard this district as one huge town, almost as one huge factory ; for there is such a connecting link between Manchester as a centre, and Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton, Stayley Bridge, Hyde, Stockport, &c., as branches, that we cannot properly ap- preciate the one without noticing the others. Let us, then, beginning at the centre, take a rapid glance at this wonderful scene of industry. If we take our station in Market Street, Manchester, at the west end of which is the Exchange, we are im- mersed in’ the very heart of the whole system. We have around us the wholesale ‘warehouses’ and _ offices wherein is transacted all the business between the dealers, the manufacturers, the spinners, the bleachers, the calico-printers, &c., whether of Manchester or of any of the surrounding towns. One street especially, viz. Mosley Street, presents a curious index to the whole arrangement. Here almost every house is occupied in the way stated: no manufactures are carried on; no retail shops exhibit the manufactured goods; but every house, and almost every floor of every house, constitutes the business-establishment for some large manufacturing firm. The houses were once small and humble, but the value of room in Manchester has increased so rapidly, that it has been a profitable speculation to rebuild nearly the whole of them in this street on a large and elegant scale. So thoroughly developed has the system become, that it is not found necessary to keep a large stock of B2 12 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES manufactured goods at these places. A bargain is struck, say for ten thousand pieces of calico, as per sample ; and this may be done in a small room, between the manu- facturer and the dealer, while the goods are perhaps at that moment being manufactured at Bolton, or Ashton, or Stockport. Even the kitchens or cellars, as they would be termed in other places, are warehouses or counting-houses, and may be rented, say by a calico- printer, while the ground-floor constitutes the place of business for a fustian manufacturer, the first floor for a spinner, the second for a muslin manufacturer, and so on. The admirable manner in which the wholesale Man- chester business is now conducted, has been the growth of experience. Dr. Aikin, fifty years ago, separated the history of Manchester, as regards the position of its manufacturers, into four epochs, and these will give us some insight into the gradual changes in the agency of a mercantile system. The first epoch he places anterior to about the year 1690, when the manufacturers worked hard merely for a livelihood, without having accumulated any capital ; and Aikin supposes that there were few or no manufacturers who had accumulated so much as 3000/7. or 40007. The second epoch began about the year just named, and lasted, say till 1730. ‘The manufacturers during this epoch began to acquire little fortunes, but worked as hard and lived in as plain a manner as before, increasing their fortunes as well by economy as by mo- derate gains. ‘They began to build modern brick houses in place of those of wood and plaster. ‘They confined their trade to the wholesale dealers of London, Bristol, Norwich, Newcastle, and Chester. Aikin says :—‘‘ An eminent manufacturer of that age used to be in his ware- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 13 house before six in the morning, accompanied by his children and apprentices. At seven they all came in to breakfast, which consisted of one large dish of water- pottage, made of oatmeal, water, and a little salt, boiled thick, and poured into a dish: at the side was a pan or basin of milk, and the master and apprentices, each with a wooden spoon in his hand, without loss of time, dipped into the same dish, and thence into the milk-pan ; and as soon as it was finished they all returned to their work, In George I.’s reign, many country gentlemen began to send their sons apprentices to the Manchester manufac- turers.” Dr. Aikin’s third epoch is from about 1730 to the era of Arkwright’s inventions. ‘The marked feature of this epoch was the manner in which the manufacturers ‘ pushed’ for orders.’ At first the chapmen or dealers used to keep gangs of pack-horses, and to drive them to the principal towns with goods in packs, which they opened and sold to shopkeepers ; lodging what was un- sold in small stores at the inns, and taking back sheep’s wool to the manufacturing district. By degrees, however, turnpike-roads were improved; waggons were laden instead of pack-horses ; and the chapmen only rode out for orders, carrying with them patterns in their bags. In the former epoch, country districts were supplied from the five or six large towns which received goods direct from Manchester, each acting as a centre to the surround- ing counties ; but now the manufacturers began to send their riders to every part of the kingdom, soliciting orders. The fourth epoch was consequent on the introduction of machinery into the manufacture. The trade became so large, that partners in commercial firms went to reside 14 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES in London or on the Continent ; foreigners and London merchants sent agents to reside permanently at Man+ chester ; agents, factors, and brokers were established, some at Liverpool and some at Manchester, to manage the transactions between the Liverpool merchant and the Manchester manufacturer, both in respect to the raw cotton and to the manufactured goods; all the manu- facturers around Manchester agreed to make that town their mart, and to appoint certain days of the week as “market-days ” with each other ; and Manchester became ‘what it has ever since continued, one of the most im- portant towns in the empire. When we depart from the mercantile focus of Man- chester, and walk in any direction towards the suburbs, we come in sight of the cotton-factories, those enormous brick structures which excite such astonishment in the mind of a stranger. There are nearly two hundred of these vast piles in the immediate vicinity of the town. One or two canals pass through Manchester, and the factories are generally situated in convenient proximity to these canals. Pia ‘ : Tian a i me con B ay oo MANN HI (it ype j | <" y | \ . [Bandana Press.] and the bed-plate may then be seen to rise slowly till the cloth comes into contact with an upper horizontal OF GREAT BRITAIN. $1 plate; and such is the power of the machine, that the cloth is pressed between the two plates with a pressure of two or three hundred tons. Then the workman pours some liquor into a cell, or trough, above the upper plate ; and, after allowing it to remain a short time, he draws off the liquor by a small cock, thereby removing the pressure, and allowing ,the lower plate to sink. The cloth is next removed from the press, and is seen to have suffered a remarkable change in appearance ; the _ red surface is now diversified with groups of white spots ; _nay more, every one of the fourteen pieces is similarly afiected, whether lying at the top, the bottom, or the middle of the heap. ‘The red dye, which would have withstood all the wear and tear of ordinary usage and washing, is seen to be completely remoyed from the. spots, leaving them quite white. We naturally look to the two horizontal plates, to see how the liquid has been enabled to act upon the cotton cloth. Both plates are made of lead, about half-an-inch in thickness, and both are perforated exactly in the same way, and with holes of the same size, as the spots to be produced on the cloth. The fourteen thicknesses of cloth have thus a perforated plate above them, and another below, so that any liquid which may be poured on the upper plate can percolate through the holes, then through the fourteen thicknesses of cloth, and, lastly, through the holes in ,the lower plate. But it is easy to conceive, that unless the cloth were pressed very tightly between the plates, some of the liquid would spread laterally beyond the margins of the holes; and it is to prevent this that the immense pressure is exerted. The liquid, which is a solution of bleaching-powder or chlo- E ® 182 TEXTILE MANUEFACTURES ride of lime, being poured on the upper surface of the upper plate, is allowed to remain there a few minutes, during which time it acts on the fourteen thicknesses of cloth at the places where the holes in the plates occur; but the imtense pressure prevents it from spreading laterally to other parts of the cloth. The chloride of lime removes the colour so rapidly, that in about ten or -fifteen minutes all the fourteen thicknesses of cloth are acted on. When one portion of the compound piece of cloth is thus finished, it is wound on the front roller, and another equal portion is unwound from the back roller to be treated in a similar way. Sometimes the spots on a blue or red Bandana hand- kerchief are yellow instead of white. In this case the chloride of lime is still the active agent by which the ground-colour is removed ; but other arrangements are — made whereby a chemical india of colour results. — Two liquids are, in such an instance, poured on the upper plate ; tle one being a solution of chloride of lime, to abstract the ground-colour from the cloth; and_ the other some chemical agent which shall give a yellow colour to the white spots thus produced; or perhaps it may be that the white spots are not actually produced -at all; but that the ground-colour, the colouring agent, -and the chloride, all act simultaneously in the production — of yellow spots at the parts of the cloth not protected by the plates. . In other instances, again, there are both white and yellow spots combined in the same piece of cloth. This arrangement requires the use of very ingeniously con- structed plates. There is, in the first place, in each ‘plate, one series of holes for the white spots, and another OF GREAT BRITAIN. 83 ‘series for the yellow, and then an adjustment, so that there shall be no channels of communication whatever between the one series and the other. By certain little ridges and dividing edges, all the holes of one series are brought ‘into connexion with a cell into which one kind of liquid 4s poured, while those of the other series are similarly placed in connexion with another cell. Into one cell is poured the simple solution which is to produce the white spots: into the other the combined liquid for producing the yellow spots; and the two liquids percolate through -the cloth independent of each other, each one working its own effect in its own peculiar way. In like manuer the lower plate is so partitioned off as to afford separate egress to the two kinds of liquid. The preparation of these plates is an important feature -in the operations. The lead of which they are made, -being cast for the ‘purpose, is brought to as flat and *smooth a surface as possible; and on each piece is drawn or sketched the position of the various holes, cor- respondent to the spots in the pattern. With appropri- -ate tools, fitted for working in lead, the holes are then - cut out completely through the lead; and various little channels are made in that one which is to be the lower - plate, as a means of carrying off the liquid when it has effected its work. The holes in the upper plate are -made to correspond strictly to those in the lower, whether the pattern be simply a group of spots, or have - in addition a border. ‘The nature of the process, it is easy to see, is inconsistent with the production ef any fine or delicate lines in the pattern ; and therefore very little more is attempted than the production of spets and lines or bold scrolls. 1 84 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES Many of the handkerchief and shawl]-pieces are treated in a mode somewhat midway between the usual process of calico-printing, and that of Bandana-work, or, indeed, combining something of the two. For instance, a piece of cloth being dyed some uniform colour, and then printed in certain parts with a chemical agent, is dip- ped in a vat of bleaching liquid, which either instantly discharges the colour from the printed parts, or gives to them a wholly new colour; in either case imparting a pattern. This process is well calculated to surprise a bystander, for the printed part is almost wholly invi- sible until dipped into the discharging vat; and hence what appears to be a piece of plain red or blue cotton comes out of the vat with a beautiful white or yellow pattern upon it. It is curious to observe the diferent tastes of dif- ferent countries in respect to the patterns of handker- — chiefs. Those firms which export this kind of goods largely, classify their pattefns according to their market. The patterns for the home market are generally un- — meaning; curves, zig-zags, stripes, spots—all imagin- — able shapes—are combined together into patterns repre- senting objects which never have existed and never will, but which may yet be pleasing to the eye. The Chi- nese market, on the other hand, requires patterns in which natural objects, such as birds and flowers, are de- picted. The South American States demand the most gorgeous mixture of colours that the dyer and the printer can give: large masses of bright red, blue, and yellow— without any particular reference to the pattern—are called for. For the German market, pictorial subjects are prepared, without much reference to brilliancy of € OF GREAT BRITAIN, 85 colours: copies from celebrated works of art, such as sculptures, paintings, and engravings; together with views of cathedrals, abbeys, castles, and public build- ings generally, are the subjects which please our intel- lectual neighbours of Germany. In this way a sixpenny pocket handkerchief may become a book in which we may read the taste and character of different nations. ae 86) TEXTILE MANUFACTURES CHAPTER TIT. THE WOOLLEN-CLOTH MANUFACTURE. Wuewn Leland, three centuries ago, called Leeds a_ ‘f praty mercat toune, having one paroche church, rea- sonably well builded,” it is evident that he did not re- gard it asa busy centre of manufacturing operations, receiving the produce of the neighbourhood, and dis- tributing it to all quarters of the world. Nor indeed are there any indications that the present ‘clothing metropolis’ was at that time eminent in respect of the woollen manufactures of the West Riding; for it is — mentioned as being subordinate to Halifax, to Wake- field, and to Bradford. And even all these towns taken collectively did not represent the chief seat of this — branch of productive industry ; since the, West of Eng- land was at that time, and continued to be till a com- paratively recent period, the most important clothing — district in England. The changes which the woollen manufacture, as re- spects both localization and mode of management, has been and is now undergoing, are very remarkable. Some years ago the ‘ West of England cloths’ were the test of excellence in this manufacture ; while the productions of Yorkshire were deemed of a coarser and cheaper character. At present, although the western counties OF GREAT. BRITAIN... -. 87 have not deteriorated in their product, the West Riding of Yorkshire has made giant strides, by which equal skill in every department has been attained ; while the commercial advantages resulting from coal-mines, from water-power, from canals and railroads, and from vicl- nage to the eastern port of Hull and the western port of Liverpool, give to the West Riding a power which Gloucestershire and Somersetshire cannot equal. The steam-engine, too, and various machines for facilitating some of the manufacturing processes, have been more readily introduced into the former than into the latter ; a circumstance which, even without’ reference to other points of comparison, is sufficient to account for much of the recent advance in the north. When we look at a map of any district where the woollen manufacture has been long carried on, we find that it usually exhibits a range of hills and valleys, with streams flowing from and between the former into the latter; and a glance at the processes of manufacture shows why this is the case. The water required in voth the preparatory and the finishing processes, and the power required to work the fulling-stocks, rendered the vicinage of a river very important, especially when steam-engines and Artesian wells were hardly known. Dyer, in his poem of ‘the Fleece’—a production more remarkable for the singularity of its object than for the excellence of its poetry, it being a kind of history of wool and the woollen trade ‘done into verse,’—notices in the following lines some of the uses to which a clear stream*was applied by the clothiers of eighty years ago :— «¢ Next, from the slacken’d beam the woof unroll’d, Near some clear-sliding river, Aire or Stroud, | 88 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES Is by the noisy fulling-mill receiv'd ; Where tumbling waters turn enormous wheels, And hammers, rising and descending, learn To imitate the industry of man. O't the wet web is steeped, and often rais’d, Fast-dripping, to the river’s grassy bank ; And sinewy arms of men, with full-strain’d strength, Wring out the latent water.” Whether we go into Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, or Yorkshire, we shall find these streams watering the clothing districts. In Gloucestershire there is a district called the ‘ Bottoms,’ containing about twenty parishes and towns, in which, and in all the villages around, woollen cloths are manufactured in large number ; Stroud being a kind of centre to the whole; and here we find the Stroud-Water and other small streams flowing past these several places towards the Severn. In Wiltshire the chief clothing towns, Bradford, Chip- penham, Melksham, Trowbridge, and Westbury, are all situated either on the Avon itself or on one of the streams flowing into it. In Yorkshire, in like manner, the busy clothing towns of Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Keighley, &c., are situated on the banks of streams which are perhaps more abundantly used as manufacturing aids than any others in England, except the Mersey and the Irwell. We hope to be able, by describing the operations conducted in the large cloth-factories of modern times, to give a general idea of this very interesting branch of manufacture. But there are two matters which must first be glanced at before the true position of such esta- blishments can be understood; viz. the difference be- tween woollen and worsted goods, and the difference between the factory and the domestic systems of working. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 89 As respects the first point, the sheep’s wool employed is separated into two kinds, one of which is long in fibre and the other short; the former being spun and woven much in the same way as cotton or silk goods, while the latter, besides being spun and woven, is felted, fulled, or milled, so as to produce that peculiarity of surface which distinguishes all woollen cloth. ‘These two branches of manufacture are wholly distinct ; different kinds of wool being employed, different machines applied, different factory arrangements made, and different market-halls established. The shalloons, camlets, tabinets, merinos, moreens, duroys, lastings, calimancoes, and a host of other varieties of worsted goods—forming the staple products of Bradford and other towns in the West Rid- ing—-will come under our notice in the next chapter, the object here being confined to woollen manufactures properly so called. As respects the second point, the difference between the modes of conducting the woollen manufacture is very remarkable. ‘There are three systems followed ; the first in the West of England, the second in a large number of villages west and south of Leeds, and the third principally in the towns of Leeds, Halifax, and Huddersfield. In the master-clothier system of the West of England the manufacturer buys his wool from the importer or the wool-stapler, and employs persons to work it up into cloth, giving each separate process to distinct sets of men, who work either at their own houses or at the house of the master-clothier. As each man only performs one process, he acquires great ma- nual dexterity at it; and the excellence of the West of E3 $0 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES England cloth used to be in great part attributed to this subdivision of employment. So high, indeed, was the reputation of the cloths sold at the Stroud and Wiltshire markets, that, before the rapid rise of the Yorkshire manufacture, the Yorkshire clothiers used frequently to travel to the West of England to purchase wool, return to the north to work it up into cloth, and re-convey it for sale to the West of England, as being the most flourishing mart for this commodity. The domestic system of the Yorkshire villages difiers considerably from the above. Formerly the manufacture of cloth for sale was exclu- sively confined to cities, and corporate and market towns, the inhabitants of the villages and hamlets making little more than sufficed for the use of their respective fami- lies. But a numerous body of industrious men gradually rose into importance who resided out of the towns,— ‘foreigners,’ as they are termed in the statutes, or persons dwelling in the small towns of husbandry.’ Many of them were husbandmen or graziers, who made their own wool into cloth with the assistance of their wives and families. The sorting of wool was performed by women. The cloths made out of the towns were generally of a coarse description; and, if we may be- lieve various authorities, the country clothiers were not very strict in maintaining the assize, which fixed the length and breadth of each piece. The condition of some of these manufacturers was humble enough. Many of them were only enabled to buy their wool in small quantities, as ‘eight pennyworth, and twelve penny- worth at a time,’ and therefore could not make their OF GREAT BRITAIN. 9] purchases of the wool-grower. A statute, passed in 1551 and 1552, which prohibited wool being bought except by the persons intending to use it themselves in the manufacture of cloth, did away with the inter- mediate dealers in wool, whose existence was of essen- tial importance to the small clothiers; but it was event- ually found necessary to make some relaxations on’ their account, so that wool might be bought by dealers and sold again in the open market. The clothiers of Halifax were relieved from this inconvenience in 1555, by ‘an act enabling the inhabitants of that town ‘ to buy wool, and retail it to poor folk to work, but not to the rich and wealthy, nor to sell again.’ The preamble of this statute describes, with considerable minuteness, the circumstances of the humbler class of country clothiers, and supplies details of some interest of the manner in which they earried on their trade. It recites that ‘‘ the parish of Halifax and other places thereunto adjoining, being planted in the great wastes and moors, where the fertility of ground is not apt to bring forth any corn or good grass, but in rare places, and by exceeding and great industry of the inhabitants; and the same inhe- bitants altogether do live by cloth-making, and the great part of them neither getteth corn, nor is able to keep a horse to carry wools, nor yet to buy much wool at once, but hath ever used only to repair to the town of Halifax, and some other nigh thereunto, and there to buy upon the wool-driver, some a stone, some two,"and some three or four, according to their ability, and’ to carry the same to their houses, some three, four, five, and six miles off, upon their heads and backs, and so 92 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES to make and convert the same either into yarn or cloth, and to sell the same, and so to buy more wool of the wool-driver; by means of which industry the barren grounds in those parts be now much inhabited, and above five hundred households there newly increased within this forty years past, which now are like to be undone and driven to beggary, by reason of the late statute made that taketh away the wool-driver, so that « they cannot now have their wool by such small portions as they were wont to have.” In the three centuries which have since elapsed, this small or domestic system has suffered many changes, but still retains its more prominent features. Under this sys- tem, as exhibited at the present day, the actual workman is a small manufacturer on his own account, and this was the general system pursued before the application of large capitals to the business. These small manufacturers fre- quently occupy small farms, partly as a means of support, and partly for the convenience of the manufacture. The domestic clothiers have in their houses from one to four looms, on which, and in the processes connected with the spinning of the woollen yarn, they employ them- selves, their wives and children, and sometimes a few workpeople from the neighbourhood. During harvest the females and children frequently go out to work in the fields. In the primitive form of this system the domestic clothiers carried on the whole process of the manufacture, up to the state of undressed cloth; but as the advantages of machinery and of combined capital became apparent, they gradually adopted a curious mean between the factory and the domestic systems. ‘They OF GREAT BRITAIN. §3 erected joint-stock mills by contributions from among themselves, or else independent parties established such mills; and with the aid of these mills, the domestic system now assumes the following form :—the domestic clothier, after purchasing his wool and deciding on the mode in which it shall be worked up, sends it to a mill to be prepared for spinning: it is then brought home for his wife and children to spin, and for him to weave into cloth: it then goes again to the mill to be ‘ fulled ;’ and, after being again returned to the clothier, is by him carried a stage or two further, and then sold in the state of ‘undressed cloth,’ sometimes dyed, and in other cases white. We shall further illustrate some of the features of the domestic system in a future page. The factory system of cloth manufacturing bears a close analogy to that of cotton; it being the growth of steam-power, mechanical invention, and accumulated ca- pital. In the large woollen factories, every step of the process is carried on in one building or one range of buildings, from the sorting of the wool to the pressing of the finished woollen cloth. In this system, as in that of the master-clothiers, the workmen have no pro- perty in the material which they are fabricating, their remuneration being simply in the form of wages for la- bour bestowed ; whereas, in the domestic system, the manufacturer unites the characters of master and work- man in himself, Let us now witness the arrangements and follow the routine of processes in the large woollen-factories. Leeds, on whichever side we approach it, presents marked evidence, by the numerous tall chimneys visible on eyery side, of the extensive manufacturing operations 94. TEXTILE MANUFACTURES carried on. It was estimated in 1838 that there were at that time 106 woollen-mills in the parish of Leeds, employing 9738 hands, 2721 of whom were females; and that there were altogether more than three hundred steam-engines at work in the parish, about half of which were employed in the textile manufactures.* Leeds must necessarily, therefore, present much of the smoke and bustle of our busiest towns. The greater part of these factories are congregated near or on the banks of © the river Aire, which flows through the town frem west to east, and presents every indication of commercial activity. When standing on the principal bridge of | Leeds, leading from Hunslet to the main High Street, called Briggate, a glance around reveals much of the activity here noticed, though the crookedness of the river prevents the array of factories and warehouses on its banks from being visible so plainly as they otherwise would be. But it is not alone in Leeds that these fea- tures are observable. Huddersfield is another great clothing town, and Halifax another; in both of them are exhibited the large assemblages of buildings forming woollen-factories, in most cases comprising an open quadrangle surrounded by buildings. The sorting, the preparing, the spinning, the weaving, the dressing, the finishng—all have their distinct ranges of buildings, though all are connected into one whole. The nature of the processes carried on im these fac- tories may perhaps be best illustrated by selecting a piece of fine blue or black cloth as an example, and fol- * The existence and extent of the textile manufactures in the eastern part of the town are curiously illustrated by the names of a cluster of five small streets there situated—Mill Street, Worsted Street, Spinner Street, Cotton Street, and Silk Street. ~ OF GREAT BRITAIN. 95 lowing it through its various stages of progress; it beimg at the same time understood that all the varieties of woollen cloth result from various modifications of some or all of these processes. First of the erude wool. The wool of English sheep is not now much used for broad-cloth; it bemg more adapted for the production of stufis, camlets, and the different articles commg under the denomination of *worsteds.’ In proportion as the sheep is improved in flesh, so does its wool acquire a quality unsuited for the purposes of the woollen-manufacturer ; and as soon as the import duty on foreign wool was so far lowered as to lead to extensive dealings, our woollen manufac- turers began to use a larger and larger proportion of foreign wool, until at length it forms by far the greater proportion of that employed. Formerly the Spanish wool was regarded as the finest, and all our best cloth was made from it; but the Spanish sheep being intro- duced mto Saxony and other parts of Germany, the German wool has gradually driven most of the Spanish wool out of the English market. More recently, how- ever, Australia has established a new source of supply, and the wool thence obtained, in respect both of quality and price, is so advantageous to the clothier, that every year witnesses an enormous increase in the quantity im- ported. We may perhaps state in a general way, that at present our worsted fabrics are made mostly from English wool, our fimest woollens mostly from German wool, and the large bulk of our woollens mostly from Australian wool. The wool is brought to the factories in packages of various shapes and sizes, some almost a cube of three or 96 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES four feet, some in bags not much less than twelve feet long, and others intermediate between the two forms. Each fleece (comprising the wool from one sheep) of foreign wool weighs from two to two and a half pounds ; the coarser English fleece, adapted for hosiery or the worsted trade, weighing sometimes six or eight pounds. Generally the foreign wools are tied up in small bundles of three or four fleeces each, and these bundles made up into packs. When one of the packs of wool is opened, the locks are found to be all en- tangled together in a confused mass; and they have to — be separated and somewhat loosened before any further process can be commenced. But the workman into whose hands the wool first passes has something more to do than merely separate the locks ; he has to sort the wool into parcels of different qualities, a process in- volving very great nicety. Not only do fleeces differ one from another, but different parts of the same fleece present qualities of wool widely diverse ; and as these different qualities are appropriate to the production of different kinds of cloth, the preparatory sorting is an — important affair. The fingers of the sorter acquire by practice an extraordinary degree of sensitiveness, by which different qualities of fibre, quite unappreciable by others, are at once detected by him. He stands in front of a bench or frame covered with a wire grating, on which he places the wool, and, working nimbly with his two hands, he separates the wool into six, eight, ten, or sometimes as many as fifteen different kinds. It is not mere fineness of fibre which the sorter regards : he takes cognizance of softness, strength, colour, clean- ness, and regularity, and regulates his subdivision by all OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97 of these qualities. It is said that if the wool-sorter be out of practice for any considerable time, his fingers lose the delicacy of touch indispensable to his occu- pation. The dust and loose fibres which are shaken from the wool during the sorting fall through the grat- ing into a receptacle beneath, and are thence removed to be sold as manure. The wool, thus separated into parcels, is scoured or washed in a hot alkaline liquor, as a means of removing some of the grease which it retains from the sheep. With respect to the dyeing, a difference is observable between cotton goods on the one hand, and woollen or worsted goods on the other. Cotton goods are never dyed in the state of cotton wool; the cotton being dyed, if dyed at all, either after spinning or after weaving. But woollen or worsted goods are never made from wool dyed in the state of yarn, that is,’after spinning, but before weaving; the wool being always dyed either in the state of wool, before spinning, or after being woven. This gives rise to the distinction between ‘ wool-dyed’ cloth and ‘ piece-dyed’ cloth, each kind possessing its own peculiar advantages, and each giving employment to a particular market or cloth-hall at Leeds. If the cloth is dyed in the wool, the dyed wool, before under- going any other process, is laid on a table, and women pick out by hand any small fragments of dye-wood or other impurity which may be mixed up with it. The first process, by which the locks of wool are dis- sected, and the fibres loosened one from another, is that which is effected by a machine called a willy, or more equivocally by the name of a ‘devil.’ This willy or devil differs much in shape in different factories; but it 98 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES is always a kind of hollow receptacle, in the inside of which are a number of sharp teeth, which catch into the, locks of wool while revolving within the machine, and tear them open fibre from fibre—analogous, in fact, to: the cotton-willow, described ina former page. In the rooms where this process is carried on, a large heap of” wool may generally be seen lying on the floor, where: a man or boy sprinkles it with oil as a means of ren- dering it softer and more easy to work. Some kinds: of wool require willying more than once; while other kinds are sufficiently fine to be separated by one such — process. We next follow the oiled wool into the buildings con- tainmg the machines which prepare the wool for spin- ning. Here the clatter of wheels, shafts, and other mechanical appliances, reminds us that we have entered upon that class of operations by which the factory system is most strikingly distinguished from the handicraft sys- tem of manufacture. Here machines do the work, and children have the requisite skill for tending the machines, ‘The processes which these machines perform are of three kinds, two of them somewhat analogous in character, but the third totally different from either. Of these three, viz. the seribbling-machine, the carding-machine, and the slubbing-machine, the first. acts in the following way :— There are several cylinders, on the surfaces of which innumerable wires or points are fixed, bent in determi- nate directions. These cylinders are so adjusted with regard one to another, that the teeth of one cylinder,. while rotating, come nearly in contact with those of the cylinder nearest to it. This being the arrangement, a - girl takes the oiled wool by handfuls from a basket, lays ' OF GREAT BRITAIN. — 99. it on an endless apron at one end of the machine, and) ‘spreads it as equally as she can over a given surface.’ By the motion of this apron the wool is carried towards the first cylinder, where it is caught by the teeth, and carried round till brought within the action of the second cylinder, which tears it from the first; and so on from one cylinder to another, the teeth of each cylinder re- moving it from those of the next preceding one. ‘The consequence of this transfer is, that every fibre becomes separated from the adjoining one, and the wool falls from the last cylinder in the state of a light, flocculent, downy layer. 4 Without leaving the room or shop, this downy layer of wool is next transferred to the carding-machine, where it is made to assume a different form. A girl, called the ‘card-filler,’ weighs the wool, and puts a certain weight of it on a given area of the endless or feeding apron. The proportion between weight and’ area depends on the quality of the cloth to be made or. the thickness of the yarn to be spun ; and much nicety is required in laying the wool equally on all parts of the surface, the fingers of the girl acquiring by practice: a delicacy of touch somewhat analogous to that noticed in respect to the wool-sorter. The layer of downy wool, after being laid on the feeding-cloth, is drawn towards a range of cylinders, as in the case of the scribbling ma- chine, and these cylinders are in like manner provided with teeth or wires. The wool is first carded or combed: out till the fibres lie pretty nearly parallel; and a de-. licate band or sheet of this carded wool, about thirty inches long by six inches wide, is detached from the rest,. and rolled up into the form of a pipe or rod, from a 100 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES quarter to half an inch in diameter, and as long as the detached sheet of wool. ‘The mechanical arrangements by which this rolling up of the wool is effected are ex- ceedingly ingenious, and the pipe of wool itself is not less worthy of notice; for we find, on close inspection, that the fibres do not lie longitudinally, but spread out pretty nearly at right angles to the length of the piece. This is a result of the peculiar way in which the roll or pipe is made, and is produced as a means of making the fibres interlace among each other more readily in the process of fulling, no such condition being given to the fibres in the production of yarn for worsted work, where fulling is not required. . Next we come to the slubbing-machine, or slubbing- dilly, as itis more frequently called in the odd language of the workmen. At this machine the pipes or ‘ cardings’ of wool are joimed end to end, and reduced in thickness to an average of perhaps one tenth or twelfth part of an inch. A sloping apron or feeding-cloth forms one end of the machine, which is generally placed near the card- ing-machines; and on this cloth the children place the rolls or ‘ cardings’ of wool, placing them parallel, with one end of each hanging down. ‘The remaining parts of the machine consist of machinery for catching each of these cardings at one end, drawing out a small portion, elongating that small portion to many times its original - length, imparting a slight twist to the portion thus elong- ated, winding the ‘slubbing’ or soft twist on a spindle, and then treating in a similar way another similar portion of each carding. A whole row of cardings is thus worked at the same time; and as each carding is gradually drawn up into the machine, the children attach new cardings OF GREAT BRITAIN. 10! to the ends of the former ones, causing them to cohere slightly by a very light rolling and pressing. In this way the children take care to piece (from which occupa- tion they derive their name of ‘ pieceners’) all the card- ings in turn; so that each bobbing or spindle becomes filled with a continuous line of ‘slubbin,’ one ounce ar wool yielding from one to two hundred yards of slub- bing. The wool has now reached that state when it is ready to be spun into yarn for the weaver. ‘This is done by those large and beautiful contrivances known as ‘ mule- spinning machines,’ by which the slubbing is first drawn out to a state of great tenuity, and then spun into yarn; in the same way as cotton-roving is spun into cotton-yarn, So far as regards the principle involved in this process, it may be regarded as a repetition of the process of slub- bing; for in both cases the wool is attenuated beyond its former state, and then spun or twisted. We have thus traced the wool to the state of spun yarn, and have next to follow its course to the weaver’s hands. Some of the yarn is for warp, or long threads ; the rest for weft, or cross threads; and each kind is spun in a particular way, best calculated for the service which it is to render. Some of the yarn is stiffened by im- mersion in a vessel of warm size made of parchment or leather cuttings. Next succeed the various processes of ‘ winding,’ ‘ warping,’ ‘ beaming,’ ‘ drawing in,’ &c. ; by which the yarn is arranged in the proper position for being used by the weaver, the warp attached to the loom, and the weft attached to the shuttle. Most of these preparatory operations have gradually undergone some im- 102 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES provements or other; the warper, for instance, no longer ‘“* strains the warp Along the garden walk, or highway side, Smoothing each thread ;” ‘(to use Dyer’s description) but uses either a warping-_ frame or a warping-mill to facilitate his proceedings, — | ‘nearly in the same way as the cotton-warpers noticed in- ‘a former chapter. The preparations being completed, the process of weaving is conducted much in the same way as any other kind of fabric, the looms presenting no peculiarity of construction, except in respect to the ‘large size of those required for weaving the broadest cloth. It may seem remarkable, that while steam-power weaying is making such rapid strides im the cotton ‘manufacture, it has hitherto been but little introduced ‘in the weaving of woollen cloth; yet such is the case. ~Cloth-weaving has always been deemed among the higher. branches of that art; insomuch that, other things being equal, a hand-loom cloth-weaver earns more than twice as much wages as a _hand-loom cotton-weaver. ‘This results from the former being es- sentially man’s work, requiring muscular power as well “as manual dexterity ; whereas cotton-weaying can often be done by women and children, thereby lowering the “standard of wages. At the present day some of the woollen factories exhibit weaving by steam-power, some by hand-power, and some by both; while all the manu- facturers on the domestic system of course adopt the ~ system of hand-weaving. In regulating the width of the cloth, attention is paid ~to the remarkable shrinkage which takes place in the ~ after processes. or instance, a piece of cloth to be sixty OF GREAT BRITAIN, | 105 ‘inches wide when finished, must be woven nearly. a hun- dred inches wide; and the length must be adjusted in the same way. A piece of broad-cloth contains from two to four thousand threads in width, according as it may be ‘ 8-quarter,’ ‘ 10-quarter,’ or any other specified width and fineness. When woven, the cloth passes through a series of pro- cesses which illustrate the difference between this branch of manufacture and those relating to cotton, silk, or linen, more remarkably than-anything else. It is scoured or ‘eleansed from the remaining oil which may yet adhere to it, and from the size which had been applied to the yarn before weaving. It is then ‘ milled,’ ‘ fulled,’ or ‘ felted,’ that is, beaten until the fibres of wool become so locked into each other as almost to hide the intersecting warp and weft threads. The ‘ fulling-stocks,’ in which this process is carried on, are hollow receptacles in which an enormous oaken hammer or stock vibrates up and down, each stock being kept in motion by machinery connected with a steam-engine. The cloth is partially opened in the fullng-room ; and after a quantity of liquid soap has been sprinkled on it, it is folded up into a pile and placed in the fulling-stocks. It is then beaten for a period which may to many persons seem extraordinarily long, viz. from two to three entire days, during which it is removed five or six times to have a re-supply of soap. It is only by this long-continued action that the fibres of wool are made thoroughly to interlock ; and by so doing the cloth becomes greatly thickened, shortened, and narrowed. In order that no hairs, dirt, or irregular threads may be fulled into the substance of the cloth, it is handed up to women called ‘ burlers’ before undergoing this process of 104 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES fulling. The burlers stretch out the cloth over a sloping table, and with a kind of tweezers pick out all irregular knots, burs, or hairs. After the scouring, the fulling, and several subsequent processes, the cloth is stretched out and hung up to dry. This used to be done in the tenter-fields, where the tenter-hooks were driven into poles and rails, and the cloth hung on them by the ‘list’ at the edges. But in the factories there are heated rooms in which the cloth is hung up, where it speedily dries. The cloth becomes felted into a close fabric by the {Hand Raising.} OF GREAT BRITAIN. 105 process of fulling; but it is too rough and tmeven at the surface to be used in that state. If the cloth is ‘ piece- dyed,’ it undergoes that process about this stage of the eperations ; but whether so or not, the cloth goes through many finishing processes before being ready for use. The chief of these are raising and cutting. In the pro- cess of raising, the nap of the cloth is roughened up by a brush made either of wires or of teazle-heads, and worked either by hand or by machine. In _ hand-raising, the workman stretches the cloth over a sloping stand, and rubs it hard with a kind of wire-brush, held like a curry- comb. In machine-raising, the wires, or more frequently teazle-heads, are fixed to the surfaces of cylinders in machines called ‘ gig-mills ;’ and the cloth, by passing over these revolving cylinders, has the nap raised up into a very rough surface. There are many modes of effecting this ‘raising,’ but in all the principle is nearly the same. The use of teazle-heads is a remarkable feature in the process ; for no combination of wires has yet been found that will effect the required object so efficiently as the little elastic prickles on the surface of these teazles. They are brought in bundles, and are prepared for use by a man and a boy. The boy cuts off part of the stalks with a pair of scissors, and the man fixes the teazles into oblong iron frames, which frames are afterwards to be fitted to the surfaces of the cylinders. The little elastic hooks become from time to time filled with wool, and require to be cleansed by means of a revolving brush applied to them. . The nap of the cloth being thus raised, it is ‘ cut,’ or ‘ cropped,’ or ‘ sheared,’ so as to produce an even surface. ‘This used formerly to be done by hand, the work- F 106 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES man using shears with very long blades, and working over the whole surface of the cloth with a dexterity which nothing but long practice could impart. But by degrees various machines have been introduced for ef- fecting the same object much more expeditiously, and the hand-shears are now but little used. The most generally employed form of cropping-machine is a spiral cutter working against a long straight blade, the spiral cutter being made to revolve rapidly, and the cloth being drawn between the two. According to the quality of the cloth, the raising and cropping are repeated more than once, so as to produce varying degrees of fineness of surface. ‘There are also a number of minor processes, all calculated to give an im- proved surface to the cloth: such as ‘ boiling’ it, to impart a certain lustre; ‘ burling’ or ‘ picking’ it, to remove little imperfections ; ‘inking’ any little white hairs or fibres which may occur in the dyed cloth; ‘ pressing’ it be- tween hot iron plates and smooth millboard ; ‘ steaming’ and passing the cloth over cylinders covered either with brushes or a kind of plush, &c. We have followed out the routine of processes pretty continuously, as a means of showing the relative connec- tion of the whole in the arrangements of a large cloth- factory ; but we must find a little room to notice some of the remarkable points accompanying the domestic system of manufacture. In some cases a manufacturer—midway as to position between a factory-owner and a domestic clothier—has the wool prepared for spinning in his own establishment, or in a mill, and then gives it out to the cottagers to spin and weave. In other cases, exemplified in many of the OF GREAT BRITAIN. 107 villages west and south of Leeds, the domestic clothier purchases his wool, mixes and assorts it according to the kind of cloth which he wishes to make, and sends it to a mill to be ‘ scribbled,’ ‘ carded,’ and ‘ slubbed.’ If this mill be a ‘ company-mill,’ that is, one owned by an asso- ciation of small manufacturers, the work is conducted by a manager appointed by the owners, each one pays at a certain rate for the work done for him, and at the end of the year the profits are divided. The ‘slubbed’ wool is taken from the mill to the house of the clothier, there to be spun, wound, warped, and beamed, the clothier either working himself or superintending the working of others, according to his circumstances in life. When the cloth is woyen, he sends it to the mill a second time, there to be ‘scoured’ and ‘ fulled;’ and in this state he sells it, leaving the ‘ raising,’ ‘ cropping,’ and ‘finishing,’ toge- ther with the dyeing, if sold in the undyed state, to be done by the purchaser. The mill so used, however, may be the property of another person, who prepares the wool for the clothiers. Such is the case in respect to many mills on the river Aire. In these mills are gene- rally contained all the machines and arrangements for working the wool before the spinning and after the weay- ing; that is, for willying, scribbling, carding, and slub- bing, and afterwards scouring and fulling. The clothiers send their wool dyed or undyed, as they think best, to the mill, where it is prepared for spinning; then the spinning and weaying are done by the clothiers and their families ; and, lastly, the scouring and fulling are done at the mill, preparatory to the sale at the cloth-halls. To these cloth-halls we may next direct our attention. The domestic clothiers do not keep shops or warehouses, F 2 108 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES nor ‘are there agents from the purchasers going from house to house through the villages, nor are there cloth- fairs or markets held in the villages. The clothiers, every Tuesday and Saturday (which are the cloth-market days at Leeds, to which we may here confine our attention) attend at one or other of the two cloth-halls, and there meet the parties who may be disposed to purchase. The original market for woollen cloth was held on Leeds Bridge, a spot selected probably on account of its pub- licity ; but it must have been a strange and most inconve- nient arrangement, with the pack-horses and stalls blocking ap the way. In 1684 the market was removed farther north, to the main street of Briggate. It was held early in the morning, and was closed by the ringing of the bell at the old chapel on the bridge ; and as soon as the goods and benches were removed, the place was oc- cupied by the country linen-drapers and shoemakers. This system continued till 1711, when the first cloth- hall was built. In 1755 a second hall superseded the first; and in 1758 and 1775 were built the two halls which have ever since been used as cloth-markets, and in which more cloth has probably been sold than at any other market-halls in the kingdom, or perhaps in the world. From Dyer’s description, it would appear that a century ago barges on the river Aire, and laden pack- horses, were the means of carrying the cloth to and from market :— , «Trade and business guide the living scene, Roll the full cars adown the winding Aire; Load the slow-sailing barges, pile the pack On the long tinkling train of slow-pac’d steeds.” The ‘Coloured Cloth-hall,” situated near the com- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 109. mercial buildings in the western part of Leeds, is a quadrangular brick building, inclosing an open area 360 feet long by 200 broad. It is divided into six depart- ments, arcades, or streets, which receive distinctive names, such as ‘‘ Change Alley,” ‘ Cheapside,” &c.: Each avenue contains two rows of stalls or stands, each stall measuring two or three feet in width, and marked with. the name of the person who rents or owns it, and who is always a country clothier. There are nearly two thou- sand of these stalls, each stall having behind it an open: space where the clothier may deposit his stock of cloth, and the stall itself consisting simply of a small counter on which the cloth is to be displayed. - Such being the arrangement of the hall, the mode of: conducting the traffic is as follows:—At a determinate hour on the mornings of Tuesdays and Saturdays, varying from half-past eight to half-past nine, according to the season, the hall is opened, and the country clothiers bring the cloth which they have for sale, mostly in carts. This cloth has been dyed in the wool, prepared, spun, woven, and fulled, but not sheared or finished. Each clothier knows his own stand, places himself with his goods be- hind it, and waits for customers. Some of these clothiers are men of considerable property, while others are in comparatively humble circumstances ; but there is a kind. of homely intelligence, an honest plainness, in the ap- pearance of all. So much for the sellers. ‘The buyers are either merchants who have no manufactories of their: own, or persons who combine the characters of merchants and manufacturers. In the latter case, when the undressed cloth is purchased, the buyer finishes it in his own factory, and then consigns it to the woollen-drapers, shippers, or 110 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES factors; but in the former case, the merchant who buys the undressed cloth sends it to a mill or factory to be finished, and then receives it back to his warehouse. The purchasers at the hall are sometimes the merchants themselves, and at other times experienced persons in their establishments who are intrusted with the important office of ‘buyer ;’ but in both cases the mode of pro- ceeding is alike. ‘The buyers go to the hall as soon as business commences, and walk through the ‘ streets’ or avenues, looking at the cloth exposed on the stalls at either side. All the sellers know all the buyers, and each buyer is invited as he passes along to look at some ‘olives,’ or ‘browns,’ or ‘ pilots,’ or ‘6-quarters’ or * 8-quarters ;’? and the buyer decides in a wonderfully short space of time whether it will answer his purpose to purchase or not. ‘‘ Mr. A., just look at these olives!” “ How much ?” ‘ Six-and-eight.” ‘ Too high.” Mr. A. walks on, and perhaps a neighbouring clothier draws his attention to a piece or ‘ end’ of cloth (an ‘end’ being a technical name for about twenty-five yards of cloth). “ What’s this ?” ‘ Five-and-three.” ‘‘ Too low.” The ‘too high,” as may be supposed, relates to the price per yard ; whereas the ‘‘ too low” means that the quality of the cloth is lower than the purchaser requires. An- other seller accosts him with—‘‘ Will this suit you, Mr. A. ?” * Any English in it?” ‘‘ Not much; it is nearly all foreign :”’ a question and answer which exemplify the disfavour into which English wool has fallen in the cloth trade. As the buyer proceeds, three or four clothiers eall to him at once, or perhaps he has an entry in his book which leads him to ask for a particular kind of cloth ; and he then goes from one stall to another till he meets OF GREAT BRITAIN. lll with it. The clothier may ask perhaps two-pence or _ four-pence per yard more than the buyer would like to give; and in such cases a bargain is generally struck at an intermediate price, though the clothier frequently _ adheres resolutely to his original price. When the bar- gain is concluded, which may be for all, or for only a part of the cloth, the purchaser writes with a red pencil a few marks on the corner of the cloth, and walks away. This kind of traffic continues for one hour and a quarter, at which time the hall is closed, after business to the amount of many thousands has been transacted. Immediately on the closing of the ‘‘ Coloured-Cloth Hall,” the ‘‘ White-Cloth Hall,” situated in a more east- ern part of Leeds, is opened ; and the buyers generally proceed from the one to the other, unless the buyers of dyed cloth do not want to purchase any undyed cloth, or vice versa. This White-Cloth Hall is rather smaller than the other, but is arranged on a similar plan, and the business is similarly conducted. ‘The undyed woollen cloth has a yellowish white colour, and is afterwards dyed according to the purposes to which it is to be applied. When the buyer has made his purchases, he proceeds to the warehouse belonging to himself or his employers ; and soon afterwards the clothiers from whom he may have purchased arrive with the cloth. Every ‘ piece’ or ‘end’ is first measured, and the length, width, price, and name of the seller entered in a book by aclerk. The cloth is then taken into another room, and examined from end to end, one person looking at it by a strong light from a window, and another looking through it from be- hind ; and there is a certain scale of allowances agreed on for any defects which may be found. When the mea- 112 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES suring and the inspection are completed, the clothiers at once receive payment, and depart to buy wool for a new supply of cloth. In many of the large firms cloth is not only made throughout in factories, but purchases are also largely made at the cloth-halls. Such are a few of the features presented by the busy ‘clothing districts,’ by which is generally meant the West Riding of Yorkshire, and to a less degree the West of England. OF GREAT BRITAIN. fhe oe CHAPTER IV. THE WORSTED AND STUFF MANUFACTURES. Our present chapter will partake somewhat of a rambling character. As a means of affording a little information concerning the worsted and stuff manufacture, we shall find it desirable to extend our observations beyond the factories themselves, and to glance round the circum- stances and arrangements which give to an entire district the character of one great workshop. It is often only thus that the bearings and mutual dependence of different trades can be properly appreciated. ‘The preceding chapter has enabled us to glance at the general operations connected with the manufacture of felted or fulled wool ; and we will now see what the West Riding of Yorkshire exhibits in respect to the manufacture of worsted goods ; using the term worsted as applying to all wool which is not fulled after being woven. It is very probable that many of the woven fabries now made into dresses, and called by various fanciful names, although really made only of worsted, or of worsted mixed with cotton, may not be generally known as coming under the denomination of worsted goods. The trade-list of a large worsted-factory at Halifax, for example, contains the following enumeration :—‘ 3-4 Lastings, 3-4 Fancy Lastings, 3-4 Crapes, 3-4 Serge, F3 7 114 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES 3-4 Orleans, 6-4 Orleans, Cassinets, 3-4 T wills, 3-4 Lin- ings, 4-4 Dobbies, 6-4 Dobbies, 6-4 French Figures, Alpaca, 3-4 Parisians, 6-4 Parisians, 3-4 Damasks, 6-4 Damasks, 3-4 Camlets, 4-4 Camlets, 5-4 Camlets, 6-4 Camlets, 5-4 Plainback, 6-4 Plainback, 7-4 Plainback, 6-4 Merino, Say Plainback, 5-4 Says, 3-4 Princettes.’ Now all these goods are made either of worsted alone or of worsted mixed with cotton; none of them haying un- dergone that peculiar process of fulling which forms the chief characteristic of woollen goods. There are also numerous forms in which worsted fabrics (or others in which either silk or cotton is combined with worsted) are prepared for sale, not included in the above list ; such are those called ‘ Challis,’ ‘ Mousseline-de-laines,’ ‘ Fancy Waistcoatings,’ ‘ Paramattas,’ ‘Shalloons,’ ‘ Duroys,’ ‘ Taminets,’ ‘ Calimancoes,’ &c. If all the kinds were enumerated, it would probably be found that in some in- stances the fabrics have gone or are going out of date, and that in other instances two names refer to the same material ; thus, ‘ plainback’ is a manufacturer’s appellation for a kind of worsted stuff known by some other name by retail purchasers. There are two kinds of goods, in which worsted is mixed with silk, that afford remarkable in- stances of the tendency in manufactures to become-located in particular districts ; ‘ Poplins’ being an Irish manu- facture, and ‘ Bombazeens’ a Norwich product, and neither of them being made to any considerable extent elsewhere. The rapid extension of the worsted manufacture in this country is very remarkable. So long as efforts were made by English wool-growers to compel the use of English wool in cloth-making—efforts which the legis- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 115 lature for many years sanctioned by legal enactments— the worsted fabrics made were chiefly of a coarse and heavy kind, such as ‘ camlets ;? but when the wool-trade was allowed to flow into its natural channels by the re- moval of restrictions, the value of all the different kinds of wool became appreciated, and each one was appropriated to purposes for which it seemed best fitted : foreign wool be- came mostly in demand for woollen-cloth ; the wool of one kind of English sheep continued in demand for hosiery and heavy worsted goods; a fine long wool from a new breed of English sheep became sought after as a material for fine worsted goods ; and the wool of the Cashmere and Angora goats became imported for similar purposes. ——— —==—=—=—=—= ———— SS SSE ag li il eee (Cans for the Flax-drawings.] ia 164 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES until it presents a uniform width and thickness in every part. Atone time it is exhibited in the form of a narrow band about an inch and a half in width, and this by sub- sequent ‘drawing’ or extension is diminished to a beau- tifully smooth and glossy band an inch in width. All the drawings or extended bands fall into tall cylindrical cans, and are from thence conveyed to other machines, where a similar process is conducted, until at length the most perfect equality of width and thickness is obtained in every part: for unless this equality is produced, no after-process can prevent the yarn from being irregular. We must here speak of the tow which results from the preparatory processes, and of which mention has not yet been made. When the flax is fitted into the clasps and adjusted to the heckling-machines, the heckling-teeth not only comb out the fibres straight and parallel, but also remove irregular, short, or defective fibres, as well as dust and dirt. The dirt falls to the bottom of the ma- chine, and is thence removed ; but the waste fibres cling to the teeth of the heckle, and there remain during the process of heckling. When the clasps are removed in order to be transferred to another machine, the heckle- teeth are seen to be full of flaxen fragments, and these fragments, constituting tow, are, by means of an apparatus _attached to the machine, removed from the teeth in the form of a continuous sliver ; so that while the machine is heckling the fibres of good flax, it is also making a band or riband of the inferior portion, Each machine produces its own portion of tow sliver; but as the flax itselt be- comes finer and finer in proportion to the number of heckling-machines through which it has passed, so do the tow slivers become finer and finer, and they are thus - ee eae a dee v7 OF GREAT BRITAIN, — 165 ’ capable of being classified into six or eight different qua- lities. In the language of the flax-mills, the flax ceases to be called by that name after it has passcd through the heckling-machines ; the good portion is then called ‘ dine,” and the inferior ‘ tow.’ Both of these are afterwards spurs - into yarn, but the yarn so produced has different degrees. of excellence. Other machines are used, by which tow is converted into slivers by carding, analogous to cotton. and wool processes. [Tow-carding. ] 166 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES When the slivers, whether of line or of tow, have been | brought to the desired breadth, thickness, and equality, | they are carried to the ‘roving-machines,’ where they ! are transformed to the state of a soft, small, cylindrical | cord. There are two combined movements whereby this | is effected; the sliver is drawn out or elongated, and it | has a slight twist imparted to it as a means of enabling it | to cohere and to bear the subsequent action of the spin- | ning-machines. | ‘These spinning-machines we have next to notice. | They are on the ‘bobbin-and-fly’ principle; ‘mule- | spinning’ not having, we believe, been introduced in the flax manufacture. Flax, unlike cotton, silk, wool, or | worsted, is spun wet, as a means of obtaining a finer and | smoother yarn; and within the last few years the use of | warm water, instead of cold, has been introduced for this | purpose. The same flax, prepared in the same way, can | be spun to a much higher number, or much greater degree | of fineness, with hot water than cold; and this is doubt- | less one of the improvements to which the recent progress of the flax manufacture may be attributed. “The spindles by which the yarn is spun revolve some thousands of times in a minute, and the wet yarn thus throws off a | continuous spray by the centrifugal force theneby gene-— rated; the girls and young women who attend the machines wear therefore a kind of thick apron to protect themselves from the spray. ‘The water is contained in a kind of oblong trough attached to each machine, and steam is admitted by a small pipe as a means of bringing the water to the required temperature. When the yarn is spun, it is destined either for weay- ing or for thread. If for weaying, the yarn is reeled into OF GREAT BRITAIN. 167 hanks on a hexagonal reel, to be afterwards made up inte bundles of twenty hanks each, containing sixty thousand yards; but if the yarn is to be made into thread, it is carried to other machines, by means of which two yarn- threads are twisted together, and converted into the hard and firm thread used in needlework and lace-making. Here, then, the operations of a flax-mill terminate. If the flax-yarn is woven into any kind of linen or flaxen fabric, that is an additional feature. At most flax-mills the operations cease when the yarn and thread are pro- duced ; and we will, therefore, glance in other directions . to see how the flax is worked up into cloth. Barnsley in Yorkshire, Dundee in Scotland, and Belfast in Ireland, are the three centres of the linen and flax- cloth manufactures, mostly conducted on the domestic or hand-loom system, but in some instances on the factory or power-loom system. The flax fabrics woven in and around Barnsley consist of linen, duck, check, drabbet,. tick, huckaback, diaper, drill, towelling, and a mixture of flax and cotton called ‘ union.” These goods are, gene- rally speaking, not made in large factories; but there are ‘manufacturers’ at Barnsley and some other towns in Yorkshire, who purchase flax-yarn from the spinners, and give it out to hand-loom weavers, who weave it into cloth at their own homes, bring it back to the warehouse of the manufacturer, and receive payment for their labour. In Scotland, Dundee takes precedence in coarse flaxen and hempen goods, and Dunfermline in fine linens, such as shirtings, damasks, and table-linen. Sheeting, bagging, sacking, sail-cloth, and dowlas are made to an immense extent in Dundee, where indeed this kind of manufacture is more prominent than any other, and forms at present 168 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES the staple of the place. Floor-cloth canvas, of the enor- mous width of eight yards, is made at Dundee; and nearly all the floor-cloth manufacturers of London obtain their supply of canvas either from Dundee or from other towns in Scotland. The flax manufacture in other branches has also made such rapid progress, that the Dundee linens and sheetings come into the market at a price which the weavers in other places can scarcely compete with. In 1839 there were about five thousand hand-loom weavers engaged on linen fabrics in Dundee ; and we believe that the power-loocm has not yet been very extensively introduced into the linen-trade, the Dundee mode of conducting the manufacture being very similar to that in Barnsley. . The flax fabrics woven in Ireland are chiefly fine and coarse linens, canvas, sacking, and damask. The mode of conducting the manufacture at present is very different from what it was at the beginning of the present century. At that time each weaver bought or raised and prepared his own materials, from which he made his linen web, and sold it in the public market, or by private contract, to agents or travellers who went round the country making purchases. Those weavers who had more than one loom intrusted them either to other members of their families _or to apprentices or journeymen, under their own personal inspection. ‘The latter were frequently remunerated by what was termed ‘ the fourth pemyy,’ that is, each jour- _meyman received as his wages for weaving a piece of cloth, -the fourth part of the gross sum for which such cloth was .sold. Out of the remaining three-fourths the owner of -the loom derived his profit and the cost of the yarn. “Many weavers, who were small farmers also, had from OF GREAT BRITAIN. 169 three to six or eight looms in their houses. The spinning and various preparatory processes which the flax under- went, were chiefly performed by the female branches of the family ; and the owner, his apprentices and journey- men, worked either at the loom or in the field, according as the season or other circumstances rendered most advantageous. But at the present time the manufacture is conducted on four diiferent systems :—Ist. The weaver works on his own account, holding at the same time a small piece of land: 2ndly. The weaver is a ‘ cottier,’. who works for manufacturers without holding land: 38rdly. The weaver works for manufacturers, and has at the same time a farm: 4thly. The weaver works for manufacturers in a weaving-shop or factory. The last-named of these systems is the one which is now growing more into use ; itis said to be not much relished by the hand-loom weavers, as there is a kind of stringency in factory regu- lations to which they were not before accustomed ; but, on the other hand, it is said the weavers can earn more in a given time than under the old system, besides being freed from many irregularities to which hand-loom weavers are subject. It is, however, in some one of the first three systems that the Irish linen-weavers are to be seen most characteristically. The Irish weavers as a body seem to love freedom and a potato rather than fac- tories and better food. The Assistant Hand-loom Com- missioners state that they visited the cabins of some of the weavers, and found them in the lowest depths of filth, squalor, and wretchedness, but that the inmates were still cheerful and—if such a word may be used—apparently contented. Under the domestic system of weaving, 170 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES where the weaver has to go and buy his yarn, and then go to market to sell his woven cloth, the loss of time is seriously great; but this source of loss is not the only one: the habits and customs of the people lead to a for- midable list of such losses. A weaver on one occasion undertook to prove to Mr. Muggeridge that an Irish weaver’s year contains only two hundred days, and the demonstration would be laughable were there not reason to believe that there is too much truth in it. ‘1 con- fess,” says Mr. Muggeridge (‘ Hand-loom Weavers Report,’ p. 726), ‘‘ that the proposition was new to me, and my informant, with perfect gravity, thus logically and, as he considered, unanswerably demonstrated it :— “You will allow,’ said he, ‘an Irishman has fifty-two Sabbaths on which he should not work?’ ‘ Granted.’ ‘There then is fifty-two days. Not an Irishman in the county Armagh that does not attend at least one market weekly: there go fifty-two more days. Where’s the man, if he be at all respectable, that won’t devote his afternoon or half-day to the wake or funeral of his friend or neighbour ? and it’s a poor neighbourhood that there won’t be one death in a week: there go twenty-six days more. Then, you know, there are our saint-days, and our holy-days, and our birth-days ; and may be Dan will be getting up a precursher ora tithe meeting, or the likes o’ that, which a man is bound to attend for the love of ould Ireland. And now make your reckoning, and see whether a man will have more than two hundred days in a year he can call his own.’”’ When Mr. Otway was making his inquiries at Drog- heda, it happened from some cause or other that the hand-loom linen-weayers were earning less than in any = OF GREAT BRITAIN. 171 other part of Ireland; they did not even seem to know that others were earning more elsewhere. ‘‘ A person ignorant of Irish economy,” says Mr. Otway, ‘‘ would decide that a weaver earning but three shillings and four- pence per week, and having a family of six to support, must starve; but this is not the case, though, poor fellow ! he and his are badly off. With the manure he collects (and in this respect he and all his family are industrious), he is able to plant as much potatoes as will last him from three to four months on ground obtained gratis from some neighbouring farmer, who is glad to give the potato-crop for the sake of the corn-crop which the manure will enable him to obtain next year.” The man’s earnings are applied to eke out the supply of provisions, to pay rent, and to‘procure clothes, while the wife and children fatten a pig, or sell eggs and poultry, or go out begging among the small farmers in the vicinity; so that the means of obtaining subsistence are derived from many different sources. In other parts of Ireland the linen and canvas weavers were earning somewhat better wages ; and there is now going on a gradual transition towards the factory arrangements of the linen trade. 172 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES CHAPTER VI. SILK AND ITS MANUFACTURE. Manvracturtne industry, as well as polite literature, has its classical spots. The birthplace or the residence ofa great inventor, the first factory in any particular department, or the place where the first practical appli- cation of a new invention was made, has, in a busy and commercial country like England, a sort of halo around it: it is a mark and object of men’s attention, in which we can read records of bygone times; and we can form some estimate of the present, by comparing with it the memento thus presented to us of the past. Such a memento is the Old Silk-Mill at Derby. When, standing on the bridge which crosses the Derwent near the northern end of the town, we look down the stream and glance at the long brick building on the right- hand or western bank; and when we are told that this was Lombe’s Silk-Mill, we are tempted to ask, “‘ Is this the real mill? Is this the veritable building erected by John Lombe more than a hundred and twenty years ago, and at which William Hutton went to work in 1730?” We find that it is so; and that it has never ceased to be worked from that day to the present. Nay, the original water-wheel, which was such a marvel at the time of its erection, has been at work until within a very few years ; OF GREAT BRITAIN. 173 and the old dusky-red pile of buildings, with its hundreds of windows, still stands isolated from all other buildings, on the little island which Lombe rented from the Derby Corporation. A silk-mill, in manufacturing phraseology, is the build- ing in which raw silk, as imported, is prepared for the weaver, the stocking-maker, or the seamstress, by spin- ning or twisting, and other processes. A subdivision is sometimes made between a ‘silk-throwing mill’ and a ‘ silk-spinning mill ;’ the former being for the manufacture from good and perfect raw silk, and the latter from waste and inferior silk ; but both are alike dependent on foreign countries for the supply of the raw materials. The silk arrives at the mill in the form of a filament or thread, and it leaves the mill also as a thread; but the difference be- tween the two forms, as to thickness, compactness, and strength, is considerable. We may even go further back, and state that the imported threads are themselves formed of other threads made abroad ; so that in fact we cannot rightly understand the matter without tracing the routine back to the silkworm itself. _ It is pretty generally known to readers in the present day that silk is a secretion from the silkworm, elaborated through two small holes near the head. How the worm is reared ; how it changes its condition with great rapidity ; how it is supported by eating vast quantities of mulberry- leaves ; and how the Italian peasants prepare for the momentous period when the worms are to produce their silk—are matters upon which there is not room here to enter. Suffice it to say, that when the critical time arrives, the little worm seeks a corner or hollow space in which to form its cocoon or nest. Having selected such %~ 174. TEXTILE MANUFACTURES aspot, it attaches long threads of glutinous matter, or silk, from side to side, to form a support for itself; and upon this support it weaves around itself a hollow enve- lope of light tissue-like texture. Within this wall it continues to labour, spinning more and more length of filament from the two holes before mentioned, and laying the thread round the interior of its hollow dwelling, gra- dually thereby increasing the thickness of the enclosing wall. The nest assumes the form of a light egg-shaped ball, very soft and loose on the exterior ; but as the worm progresses with its work towards the centre, the structure becomes more dense and compact, from the plies or re- duplications of the thread being closer together. At length the working ceases, and we have then a si/k cocoon, with the worm imprisoned in its centre; the cocoon being from an inch to an inch and a half long, and of a yellow or orange colour. Now it is important to bear in mind that it is one con- tinuous thread thus produced ; or in fact it is two threads twisted into one. There are two twin-threads spun out from the two orifices ; and the worm, by a peculiar com- bined movement of its mouth and front legs, brings these two together, and agglutinates them by a gummy liquid. The worm, if not interrupted, spins out the whole quantity in one unbroken thread of enormous length, composed of the two twin filaments. This circumstance gives rise to one main difference between the cotton and silk manufactures ; for cotton comes to us in the form of short fibres, which have to be spun—formerly by hand, but now by ma- chinery—into a continuous thread; whereas in the silk manufacture the little insect performs this spinning pro- cess, and presents the material in a continuous form. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 175 But it may next fairly be asked, by what means is the insect removed from its voluntary prison, and how is the continuous thread of silk removed from the cocoons ? This is effected in a singular manner. In Italy, from whence a large quantity of silk is brought, the rearing of the silkworms is the occupation of one class of persons, while the winding of the silk is that of another; and the rearers sell the cocoons to the winders as soon as the en- closed insect is killed. Sometimes the cocoons are ex- posed to the heat of an Italian sun for four or five hours ; or, if the climate be too cold, they are placed in an oven and there kept till vitality is destroyed. In short, the poor little silk-makers are stifled to death in their egg- shaped envelopes, after having produced the material which man has chosen to appropriate to himself. When the insect is killed, the external soft envelope, which is known as floss-silk, is opened, and the hard cocoon is protruded through the opening. This floss-silk is to be afterwards brought to a manufactured state by the pro- cess of silk-spinning, while the cocoon is appropriated to the silk-throwster. The vender of the cocoons separates them into different qualities, to which he applies different names. Thus, the ‘ good cocoons’ are the most perfect; ‘pointed cocoons’ are apt to break in the winding; ‘cocalons’ are large, but of a less compact nature than good cocoons ; ‘ dupions,’ or doublets, have two threads confused one with another ; ‘ soufflons’ are very imperfect cocoons; and so on, each kind being paid for at a certain price, according to the facility with which it will yield a good silken thread. When the winder or reeler has purchased the cocoons from the rearer, a woman proceeds as follows:—Into a 176 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES vessel of warm water a number of cocoons are thrown, and there immersed until the gum, which the insect had used as a kind of cement in forming the cocoon, is so far softened as to permit the thread to come off. ‘The reeler ‘then takes a whisk of fine twigs bound together, and cut off evenly at the ends; and with this she gently presses and stirs the cocoons, till the loose threads are entangled en its points. She next raises her whisk with the threads attached to it, disengages them from it, and draws their ends through her fingers to remove any adhering floss or impurity. Then, supposing the thread which she is about to form is to consist of twenty filaments (the number varying greatly in different circumstances), she collects the threads of twenty cocoons, and passes them through small eyes or loops in a reeling-machine. The first, we will suppose, forms four groups of five each, each group passing through one eye; then two of these groups are combined into a larger group ; and lastly, all of the twenty filaments are brought together in one thread. ‘This com- bined thread is wound upon a hollow frame or reel ; the cocoons, immersed in the warm water, being softened precisely to that state which will admit of their yielding the filaments easily. As fast as any or all of the cocoons become exhausted, others are thrown into the warm water, and their threads united to that of the cocoons previously reeled. It is thus that the silk leaves the form of cocoons, and assumes that of a hank or skein. Of the quantity thus yielded the following may give some notion. Each cocoon yields on an average about three hundred yards of silk; two hundred and fifty average-sized cocoons weigh about a pound; and eleven or twelve pounds of OF GREAT BRITAIN, Vee cocoons give one pound of reeled silk, the other eleven- twelfths being made up of the weight of the chrysalis, or enclosed insect, floss-silk, waste, dirt, &e. From’ these data it has been estimated that the original silk filament, as elaborated by the insect, would require nearly five hundred miles of length to weigh one pound ! The hanks of silk, thus produced from the cocoons by the silk-reelers of Italy, France, Bengal, China, and other countries, are the commodity which arrives in Eng- land under the name of raw silk. That which is im- ported under the name of thrown silk is the article after having been worked in the silk-mills of foreign countries ; and formerly a good deal of this used to be imported into England. But in proportion as the English silk-mills improyed in their processes, the English throwsters were able to outweigh certain advantages which used to attach to the Italian throwsters ; and the result is thus shown—that while at the opening of the present cen- tury the thrown silk imported was half as much in weight as the raw silk, in 1839 it was only one-eighteenth part as much, the advantage in change being altogether on the part of the English throwster. Let us suppose, then, that the silkworm-rearers of Asia and southern Europe have brought into the market cocoons fit for reeling; that the reelers have combined the threads of several cocoons into one, and brought it into the form of hanks; and that these hanks have been imported into England. We shall then be prepared to follow the hanks through the various processes included under the general name of st/k-throwing, by which they are brought into the proper state for warp and weit I 178 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES threads for the weaver, yarn for the silk-stocking maker, sewing-silk, and other purposes. The circumstance just alluded to, viz., the former prevalence of silk-throwing in Italy, is precisely that which led to the origin of the old mill at Derby, and to the subsequent extension and improvement of the manu- facture in various quarters. Hutton gives a very curious account of the matter, from which we may here condense a few particulars. The Italians being the silk-throwsters for England, and the taste of the day having set in favour of silks, a Mr. Crotchet of Derby thought it would be a capital speculation to commence silk-throwing in England. He accordingly prepared a small mill at Derby ; but, to use Hutton’s words, ‘‘ three engines were found necessary for the whole process: he had but one. An untoward trade is a dreadful sink for money; and an imprudent tradesman is one more dreadful. We often see instances where a fortune would last a man much longer, if he lived upon his capital, than if he sent it into trade. Crotchet soon became insolvent.” * It was in the year 1702 that this unsuccessful speculation was set on foot ; and a few years thereafter elapsed before the occur- rences took place which led to the construction of the present mill, the first one really worked in England. John Lombe, a good mechanic, a good draftsman, and a man of tact and energy, went out to Italy with a view of inspecting the machinery employed by the Italians in the process of throwing silk, and of bringing back to England a knowledge of the mode by which the * Knight’s Miscellanies—‘ Life of William Hutton,’ p. 115. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 179 process might be here carried on. As he knew that such an examination would be strictly denied to him, it be- comes a very fair question whether such a project was morally or commercially just. We are, of course, well pleased to see that the silk manufacture has taken deep root in England; and we are prone to laud the inge- nuity of the man who was mainly instrumental in its introduction ; but how far such a project deserves to be imitated, when effected by clandestine means, may one day form an item in the morals of manufactures. How- ever, to proceed. As Lombe could not gain admission to the silk manufactories by open means, he bribed some of the subordinates, and made frequent secret visits. After each visit he noted down upon paper all the particulars of what he had seen, until by degrees he acquired a general knowledge of the whole routine; but his object being discovered, he fled with the utmost precipitation on board a ship, and narrowly escaped assassination. On his arrival in England Lombe determined to fix upon Derby as the scene of his operations; and in the year 1717 he agreed with the corporation of that town for an island or swamp in the river Derwent, five hundred feet long and about fifty wide, at a rent of eight pounds per annum. On this spot he erected the mill which is still existing, at an expense of 30,000/.; it was built wholly upon huge piles of ash, sixteen or twenty feet long, driven close to each other, and covered with a flooring of masonry to form the foundation of the build- ing. ‘The mode in which he is said to have borne the expense of the gradual erection of this ponderous build- ing was very remarkable. He hired various rooms in Tig 180 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES Derby, particularly the Town-hall, where he erected temporary engines, worked by hand ; and the silk which he manufactured at these engines, though sold at a price which enabled him to compete with the Italian throw- sters, yet yielded him so handsome a profit, that he was enabled to advance money by degrees towards the erec- tion of the great mill. In 1718 Lombe procured a patent for his invention for fourteen years, and carried on his proceedings with vigour, aided by two Italians who accompanied him from Italy. But his death soon ensued, under circumstances which Hutton, following the current of popular rumour, thus nar- rates :—‘‘ Alas! he had not pursued this lucrative com- merce more than three or four years, when the Italians, who felt the effects from their want of trade, determined his destruction, and hoped that of his works would fol- low. An artful woman came over in the character of a friend, associated with the parties, and assisted in the business. She attempted to gain both the Italians, and succeeded with one. By these two slow poison was sup- posed, and perhaps justly, to have been administered to John Lombe, who lingered two or three years in agony, and departed. The Italian ran away to his own country ; and madam was interrogated, but nothing transpired, except what strengthened suspicion.” The subtilties of ‘‘ Ttalian poisoning” have been such a favourite theme for romancers and novelists, that this termination of Lombe’s career has been much doubted. There is, how- ever, proof that the Italians were very indignant (and in truth, not without justice) at their trade being thus snatched from them; and the King of Sardinia did all he could to prevent the shipment of raw silk from Italy OF GREAT BRITAIN. 181 to England; for the raw silk procured by the English was by them worked up into thrown silk, thereby dis- pensing with the services of the Italian throwsters. After the death of John Lombe, the mill became the property of his brother William ; but William ‘being of a melancholy turn, he shot himself,” and the property descended to his cousin Thomas, who subsequently be- came Sir Thomas Lombe. ‘The patent expired in 1752, but Sir Thomas petitioned parliament for a renewal of the patent, on the plea that ‘‘the works had taken so long a time in perfecting, and the people in teaching, that there had been none to acquire emolument from the patent.” Hutton asserts that Lombe had already accu- mulated 80,000/., but we know not on what data. Par- liament refused to grant a new privilege, but awarded him 14,0002. as a reward for his ingenuity, on condition that he would cause an exact model of his machinery to be constructed, and placed in the Tower of London, where it might be open to the inspection of all who sought to erect similar machinery. From that period, a hundred and eleven years ago, silk-throwing became a regular and unrestricted occupation in England. We do not know in what department of the silk- throwing processes William Hutton, when a boy, was employed ; but he tel!s us, in his Autobiography, that he went to the Lombe mill in 1730, when about seven years of age. He says, that when his parents thought he ought to begin to work for himself, ‘‘ the silk-mill was proyosed,. One of the clerks remarked to the person who took me there, that the offer was needless, I was too young. However, tne offer was made ; and as hands were wanted in the infant state of this work, I was accepted. It was 182 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES found, upon trial, that nature had not given me length sufficient to reach the engine; for, out of three hundred persons employed at the mill, I was by far the least and the youngest. It is happy for man that his invention supplies the place of want. The superintendents wisely thought if they lengthened one end it would affect both. A pair of high pattens were therefore fabricated, and tied fast about my feet, tomake them steady companions. They were clumsy companions, which I dragged about one year, and with pleasure delivered up.” Derby, ever since Lombe’s time, has been one of the head-quarters of the silk manufacture in England. By degrees, improvements have reached every department of the manufacture; so that at the present day some of the silk-mills present fine examples of factory arrange- ment. Manchester, Macclesfield, Congleton, and Leek are other towns where the manufacture has settled. Spitalfields is connected only with the weaving of silk, not with the spinning or throwing. We will now proceed to speak of the operations con- ducted at these silk-mills. First, then, we have to understand that the hanks of raw yellow silk are brought to the factory in bales or bundles. The appearance of these bales, when opened, is remarkably beautiful, from the glossy richness of the material. The silk has different tints of colour, and dif- ferent delicacy of texture, according to the country whence it has been brought. For instance, the Broussa silk and the Chinese silk are whiter than most of the other kinds. ‘The bales of Bengal silk are made up to a weight of about a hundred and fifty pounds, and consist of hanks or ‘heads’ of small size. ‘The Italian silk is made up OF GREAT BRITAIN. 183 into rather larger bales, and consists of larger hanks. The Persian silk, which is of inferior quality, is in still larger hanks, weighing about a pound each. The various qualities of raw silk are now purchased in the market at from ten to twenty shillmgs per pound. ‘The annexed cut will show the general form of the hanks. [Hanks of Silk.) a, Bengal; 6, Italian; c, Persian; d, Broussa. The processes which these different kinds of silks un- dergo, in their passage through the silk-mill, depend on the purposes to which the silk is to be applied. ‘Thus, 184 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES there is a kind called dumb singles, which consists of silk merely wound and cleaned ; this is used in the weaving of gauze and other thin fabrics. Another manufactured variety, called thrown singles, is silk which has been wound, cleaned, and thrown, and is then used in the weaving of ribands and common silks. Zam is silk which, besides being wound, cleaned, and thrown, is ‘doubled,’ that is, two or more thicknesses of thread are combined into one, and twisted together ; this is used for the weft, or cross threads, of Gros de Naples, velvets, flowered silks, and the best varieties of silk goods. Another kind, called organzine, besides being wound, cleaned, and doubled, is twisted or thrown twice ; the first twist being like the yarns which form a strand, and the second like the strands which form a rope: this forms a hard and compact thread, and is used as the warp, or long threads, for the same kind of goods as those which have tram in the weft. Lastly, sewings are compound threads of silk, wound, cleaned, doubled, and thrown, with es- pecial reference to their ultimate use as sewing-silk. It will thus be seen that the operations to which the silk is submitted differ in complexity, according to the purposes to which it is to be applied. Some are only wound and cleaned; others wound, cleaned, and twisted once; others wound, cleaned, doubled, and twisted once ; others wound, cleaned, twisted, doubled, and twisted again. In point of fact, therefore, the main operations may be classified as winding, cleaning, doubling, and twisting, or throwing ; with a few others subordinate to them. After a slight washing or soaking, comes the process in which the winding-engine is brought into requisition. OF GREAT BRITAIN, 185 This engine, as well as most others employed in the + manufacture, has undergone and is often undergoing im- provement; but the annexed cut will show the general {Winding-machine.] object and action: in every silk-mill there are many of these machines ranged in order, sufficiently far apart to allow the workwomen and girls to pass between them ; and these females may be seen walking to and fro, ad- justing the different parts of the apparatus, removing bobbins when they are filled» with silk, replacing them with other bobbins to be similarly filled, and providing a supply of the material which is to be wound. The term ‘ winding,’ as here applied, refers to the 19 186 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES original skeins or hanks of silk, which are to be wound on bobbins four or five inches in length before the silk can go through the processes of manufacture. Any one who has sat at a domestic fireside, and has seen the process of winding a skein of silk on a small wooden reel, or round a roll of paper, will be prepared in some degree to under- stand how the winding in a silk-mill is effeeted, so far as the change of form in the silk is concerned. It will be recollected that we explained, m a former paragraph, how the silk-reelers of Italy transfer the silk to a hollow framework or reel, as they draw it from the cocoons; and it will be obvious that the circumference of the frame- work will determine the size of the skein or hank pro- duced. Then, in order to wind from the hank, the latter must be stretched out over a support of some kind or other: every one is familiar with the common mode of holding a skein of silk stretched between the two hands during the process of winding; but the manufacturer em- ploys a dumb agent to.perform a similar service. Understanding this, then, we may say that this dumb agent, in the winding-machine, is called a swift—some- what unfittingly perhaps, for its movements are very slow compared with those of the bobbins. It is a hex- agonal frame, or, if we may use such a term, a six-sided’ hoop, whose circumference equals the circumference of the skeins of raw silk. ‘The skeins or hanks, as imported from different countries, are not always the same size, and therefore ‘swifts’ of different diameters are provided. The swifts are also made in a light and elastic manner, so as to adapt themselves readily to small differences of di- mensions. ‘The hanks of silk are opened and separated, and the skeins spread on the circumference of these swifts. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 187 These swifts are ranged in parallel rows of several dozen each, on either side of every winding-engine; so that a common axle, running through the centres of them all, will permit them all to rotate. Next for the bobbins to which the silk is to be trans- ferred. ‘These are ranged in a row above the swifts, one bobbin to each swift ; and all the bobbins revolve together on a horizontal axis. Now when one end of the thread of any given skein is carried up from the swift -to the bobbin above, and attached to it, the rotation of the bob- bin will cause all the silk to be gradually unwound from the swift on to the bobbin. The swift rotates solely by the pulling-force of the silken thread, as the latter becomes wound up, and this rotation causes the silk to be freely given off from the swift. If no further provision were made than is here indicated, the silk would be wound in an irregular heap on the bobbin; but it is made to dis- tribute itself in a parallel and equable layer, by passing through an eye before it reaches the bobbin, which eye is fixed in a bar that oscillates or traverses to and fro sideways, so as to bring the thread successively in front of every different part of the length of the bobbin. The silk, then, has been, we will suppose, wound upon bobbins, and is ready for the subsequent operations. That which is termed cleaning is simply the removal of all impurities or irregularities by which the diameter of the thread may be rendered unequal. Sometimes this is effected in the same machine by which other parts of the process are carried on; while in other factories a separate machine, called the ‘ cleaning-machine,’ is em- ployed. However, the principle is the same in both cases, and consists merely in passing the silken thread 188 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES through a cleft in a piece of steel, so adjusted in size as to allow the thread, in its proper state of thickness, to pass freely through, but to detain and remove all aspe- rities, roughnesses, and irregularities of surface. If the preceding details be borne in mind, it will be understood that the next process will depend on the pur- pose to which the silk is to be applied: whether the thread is to be used as ‘ dumb singles,’ ‘ thrown singles,’ ‘tram,’ ‘organzine,’ or ‘sewings.’ But it will suffice if we deem the ‘twisting’ or ‘ throwing’ to be the next process, as it is, indeed, in most cases. ‘There does not seem to be any very definite distinction among silk-throwsters, between the terms spinning, twisting, and throwing ; or at least, the difference existing is not such as can be understood by general readers. All these terms refer to the formation of a rope-like twist of the silken filaments, for the purpose of strength. In the ‘ filatures,’ or reeling-houses, in Italy, where the threads of many cocoons are united into one compound thread, this thread coheres merely by the glutinous gum which envelopes the threads, and not by an actual twisting of the threads: this twisting is reserved till the silk reaches the throwing-mill. We follow the silk, therefore, to the throwing or twisting room, where machines called ‘ spinning-machines’ are at work. ‘This is an inconvenient confusion of terms, for spinning is properly the combination of a number of short fibres into a continuous thread, such as takes place in the cotton, woollen, and linen manufactures, and also in the silk-spmning from waste silk: in a silk-throwing mill the term spinning ought not in strictness to be ad- mitted at all, since there are no short fibres to be com- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 189 bined into a continuous thread. Be it a ‘ twisting’ ora ‘ spinning’ machine, however, the action is both simple and beautiful. The whole details of such machines would be too complex to be sketched here ; but the annexed cut may show the principle of the working parts. When ay a5) Vii RY EK YY s) y\: x, : ’ ve 7 i: G } ; = fy iiss 2 uP ZF 5 > \ on 1); a A, i LSS : , © otal ‘ps eer; E let [Spinning Machine or Engine.] 190 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES many such machines are seen in a row, the eye is at once struck with the thousands of little spindles and bobbins which are whirling round at a very rapid rate, some yielding the silk which is to be twisted before reaching the others. : There is, to every machine, a set of bobbins whose axes are horizontal, and another set whose axes are ver- tical, and the twisting takes place while the silken thread is passing from the former to the latter. The vertical bobbins do not revolve, but they are placed upon steel spindles which pass through their centres; and these spindles, together with a kind of loop or eye attached to one end, revolve rapidly. The silken thread being passed from the horizontal bobbin through the eye or loop, and fastened to the stationary vertical bobbin, and motion being given to the apparatus, the thread becomes wound on the vertical bobbin by the rotation of the little loop apparatus, called the ‘flyer,’ round this bobbin; and a twist is at the same time imparted to the thread. We have said nothing of the comparative velocity with which the two parts of the apparatus revolve ; but it will be seen that a change in this relation produces a curious effect. If, while the bobbin maintains a uniform rate of movement, the flyer rotates more rapidly, the hardness of twist is increased, or there are more spiral turns in a given length of thread. If, on the other hand, the ve- locity of the flyer decreases while that of the bobbin remains uniform, or that of the flyer remains uniform while that of the bobbin increases, the twist becomes slackened, or there are fewer turns in a given length. The silk-throwster can therefore give any degree of hard- ness or Closeness to the twist, by varying the relative velocities of the two moving parts. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 19] However complex the twisting-machine may seem at first sight, itis but a repetition of similar parts, each ot which acts in the manner just noticed. All the horizontal bobbins are made to rotate by one piece of mechanism, while all the spindles owe their motion to another. The foreman or superintendent of the department regulates the relative velocities which the two movements shall bear to each other, according to the hardness of the twist to be given to the thread; but, when this is adjusted, women and girls attend the machines, replacing the lower bobbins when emptied, and the upper ones when filled, and also joining the ends of broken threads. We may now dismiss the twisting of the single threads, and speak of the doubling, which takes place in the manu- facture of tram, organzine, and sewing-silk. This is a combination of two or more threads into one, to increase the strength and thickness, and may be deemed analo- gous to the combination of the threads from many cocoons into one in the foreign reeling-houses. The number thus combined varies generally from three to twelve, and it is a mere combination or laying together, without twisting. This is effected in two different ways; either by a kind of hand-wheel, something like a spinning-wheel, or by a modern automatic machine of greater complexity ; but it will be more readily understood if we speak of the hand- method only. ‘This method of doubling the silk is carried on by women, each sitting on a low stool, and having before her a small wheel, which she turns with the right hand. Each woman has, fixed up in a small frame near her, as many bobbins as there are to be threads doubled together. From each of these bobbins she takes the loose_end of silk, and, combining them all into one, passes 192 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES them through a kind of loop, and thence attaches them to her wheel. Then, turning the wheel with the right hand, she unwinds all the thread from all the bobbins, and obtains a thicker but untwisted thread therefrom. It generally happens that while some of the women are doubling two threads together,:others are doubling three, others four, and so on, to suit different qualities of goods. The women arrange their simple machines obliquely, one behind another, for economy of space, having the bobbins of single silk placed on upright spindles, on which they can rotate with facility. In the higher class of silk-mills the doubling-machines are moved by steam-power, and have all the elegance of modern spinning-machinery. The doubled threads, whatever be their number, are, as we before observed, merely laid side by side in a pa- rallel group, without any intimate combimation. The combination is the result of the next process, called throwing, by which the two, three, five, or a dozen threads are twisted firmly one round another. The ‘throwing-machine’ (of which merely the principle of action is here sketched) for twisting doubled threads is almost exactly the same in principle as the ‘ spinning- machine’ for twisting singles, although differing in some of the details. In both cases the thread to be twisted is wound on a horizontal bobbin or reel, while the bobbin for receiving it is in a vertical position. In both cases the twist is given by a ‘ flyer’ revolving rapidly round the vertical bobbin, and carrying with it the thread through an eye or loop. In both cases the hardness or closeness of the twist is regulated by the ratio between the velocities of the two parts of the apparatus. But in the one case a single thread is twisted around itself; OF GREAT BRITAIN. 193 [Throwing-machine.] _ while in the other several are twisted round one another, _ like the yarns in a rope; or rather, if we may compare the elementary cocoon filaments of the silk with the ele- _ mentary: hempen fibres of a rope, we may say that, in _ the first stage, the filaments are combined and _ twisted . into ‘singles,’ while the hempen fibres are combined 194 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES and twisted into ‘ yarns;’ and that, in the second stage, the singles are combined and twisted into ‘ warp-threads,’ while the yarns are combined and twisted into ‘strands’ or ‘ropes.’ Nay, the analogy between ropes and thrown silk is yet closer, and may be studied instructively. We find that while the fibres of a yarn are twisted in one direction, the yarns of a rope are twisted in the opposite direction; and the like is observable in the twisting of silk, so far as regards organzine, sewing-silk, and other kinds in which strength is required. The matter may be thus expressed :—‘ For ‘singles,’ after the raw silk has been wound, it is thrown or twisted to the right ; for ‘tram,’ the silk is not twisted immediately after being wound, but the raw silks are doubled, and then twisted to the right; for ‘organzine,’ the raw silk, after beng wound, is twisted to the left, then doubled, and the doubled thread finally twisted to the right. 'This rope- like texture gives great firmness to the organzine; while the lesser amount of twisting in the tram gives it a more floss-like texture, better suited to some purposes than the organzine, There is in some parts of the processes now described a very pretty little contrivance, which has often been noticed as one example among many which our manufac- turés afford of certainty and precision in mechanical operations. It is a piece of mechanism which refuses to work when anything is going wrong; it is a tell-tale, an overseer, a warning, which immediately informs the workwoman that something requires her attention, When the delicate threads of silk are passing from one revolving bobbin to another, if the thread happens to be defective at any particular part, it is likely to break ; and OF GREAT BRITAIN. 195 in many cases a breakage would seriously injure the manufactured article, if not immediately attended to. For instance, if four threads are being doubled into one, and one of the four break, the other three, if not in- stantly stopped, would continue to form a threefold thread, which would not correspond with the fourfold previously made. The contrivance acts by stopping all the bobbins of one group instantly, when any one of the threads breaks. Each thread passes through an eye in the end of a short lever; and, when a thread breaks, the lever loses a temporary support, drops, and by means of a sort of catch or detent stops the movement of the bobbin on which the doubled thread is being wound. The stop- page of the movement instantly attracts the notice of the attendant, who mends the broken thread, and puts the apparatus again into motion. There are some kinds of twisted silk more dense, thick, and strong than the ordinary varieties, prepared by hand-twisting in a mode which bears some analogy to rope-making, and which, to one unaccustomed to the imspection of machinery, exhibits the true na- ture of the twist in a clearer manner. Young active boys are, in this case, employed in running to and fro with untiring industry, carrying or supporting silken threads in their hands; these boys are assisting to form twisted silk, much on the same principle as twine is spun in a rope walk. At one end of a long room or other covered building is a large wheel turned by a handle. On one face of the wheel, near the circum- ference, are about a dozen hooks, ranged in a circle. Several threads of silk, twelve or a lesser number, are fastened to these hooks, and the other ends of the whole twelve are carried to the ,distant end of the room by the 196 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES boys. At that end they are fastened to hooks attached to a machine capable of travelling slowly along the floor. Matters being thus prepared, the handle of the wheel is set in motion, by which the hooks are made to rotate with great rapidity, and the threads fastened on them be- come thereby twisted one around another with great closeness. It bears in fact a very close resemblance— not so much to the spinning of yarn from hempen fibres —as to the twisting of strands or cords from yarns in a rope yard. The silk-twisting is, however, effected with great quickness ; and the boys are engaged in running to and fro, attaching and detaching the remote ends of the silken threads. All the boys at one frame or wheel are under the control or orders of the man who superintends the wheel, and who is responsible for the work produced. All silk is either dyed or bleached at some stage or other of its progress, and this is generally effected im- mediately or soon after the twisting is finished. But before it is dyed, it is made up into convenient hanks, and ‘scoured,’ to remove the gum which may still adhere to the silken filaments. Before this scouring; the silk is harsh to the touch, and is unfit to receive the dye. It is boiled for three or four hours in strong soap and water, by which the gum is dissolved, and the silk rendered soft and glossy. This scouring, together with the waste which occurs in the preceding departments of the manu- facture, reduces the weight of the silk four or five ounces in the pound. The silk is washed in a current of clear water to remove the soap, and it is then seen that, al- though the weight is so much reduced, its bulk is greater than before, and it presents the soft, rich, and delicate gloss which is the characteristic of silk. The processes of silk-throwing, or ‘ throwsting,’ con- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 197 sidered as a general whole, may now be said to be finished, and the silk-thrower has nothing further to do with the material: he supplies the silk in this state to those who wish to use it as warp and weft for weaving, as yarn or thread for hosiery and gloves, as sewing-silk, or to any of the numerous purposes to which thrown silk is applied. A very great diversity is shown in the application of silk to the production of cords, laces, fringes, and other light articles. Most of these are produced by the aid of machines midway in their action between twisting and weaving machines, combining something of both. The rage for cheapness in the present day has led to a curious exercise of ingenuity in this department of manufacture by the invention of a process termed ‘plating,’ which bears the same relation to the real silk manufacture as metal ‘plating’ does to manufactures in silver. It con- sists in putting a coating of silk on a substratum or founda- tion of cotton, by which the more costly material is only used in those parts which meet the eye. ‘The history of our textile manufactures within the last dozen years is full of examples of this kind, in which the manufacturer endeavours, by economizing the more costly materials, to _bring his wares within the purchasing capacity of an in- creased range of customers. ‘The inventive ingenuity called for in these adaptations is often exceedingly great, and it has occasionally happened that new productions which have owed their origin to motives of this kind have created a new market by their beauty as well as their cheapness. One very remarkable article of silk manufacture—re- markable, at least, in respect to one circumstance—is that 198 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES of silk boot-laces with brass fags. The laces themselves are made by a kind of braiding or twisting process, in some degree analogous to that of whip-making. The tags which form the rigid end to each lace are made by two small machines, placed upon low benches, and (Machine for cutting and hollowing tags.] worked by boys. In the first of these machines, here sketched, a boy takes in his hand a strip of brass, whose width equals the intended length of the tag; and plac- ing this in a kind of groove, he brings down a cutting- edge to act upon it, which cuts the brass to the required size. The groove into which the brass is placed is at the same time so formed, that the little piece of brass, as it is cut off, is at the same time bent into an angular or semi- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 199 circular shape. The pieces of brass thus prepared are _ transferred to another bench, where other boys are work- ing on machines which fix the tags to the laces. The {Machine for fixing tags to the laces.) | tags are dropped one by one into a little recess ; and the end of a lace being laid in the hollow of the tag, a lever is brought down with the left hand, by which the tag is made to embrace the lace firmly, enclosing it all round. This is done with astonishing rapidity, and forms a curious instance of the dexterity which is acquired by long practice. No less dexterous is the way in which a 200 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES hole or two are made in each tag, to pin it more effec- tually to the lace. It is not practicable to work up at the silk-throwing mills the whole of the silk imported. The floss-silk forming the outer covering of the cocoons, the defective cocoons, and the waste produced in the filature and throwing of good silk, form a mass of material which can only be brought into useful form ‘at the silh-spinning mills, At these mills, which have increased to an asto- nishing extent within the last few years, and which are situated chiefly in Manchester, this inferior kind of silk is spun into yarn for cheap shawls, handkerchiefs, and other articles, by a process nearly resembling cotton- spinning; thus opening up an entirely new branch of manufacture, and bringing into use a commodity which was formerly almost useless. The weaving of silk goods involves details so nearly allied to those of other textile fabrics, that we need say but little in addition to what has been given in former chapters. In Spitalfields the weavers work in their own houses, and employ the hand-loom for their silk goods. There are no large factories, no power-looms, no steam- engines ; but everything (with the exception of the use of the Jacquard machine) goes on pretty nearly as it did in times past. In Manchester, Derby, and other places, on the contrary, the power-loom has been introduced into the silk-factories, and is applied to the weaving of silk goods in precisely the same way as for cotton or worsted goods. Nothing can exceed in beauty some of the silken fabrics wrought by the Jacquard machine of modern times ; while an instrument called a pantograph has been introduced for producing an exquisite embroidery on OF GREAT BRITAIN. 201 plain silk goods after weaving. At Coventry an entire body of weavers is employed solely in producing ribbons, chiefly of silk, by the agency of various kinds of looms, some of which are very ingeniously constructed. There is one variety of silk goods so beautiful, and pro- duced by such singular arrangements in the weaving, that we must not pass it over without notice: viz., velvet. Velvets are made of cotton as well as of silk; but they are more particularly associated with the latter material. The peculiar softness of velvet is owing to a loose ‘ pile,’ or surface of threads, unlike anything presented by the plain varieties of silk goods. It need perhaps hardly be remarked, that plain silks, as well as most woven fabrics, consist of threads crossing each other at right angles ; the ‘ long-threads’ being technically called the warp, and the ‘ cross-threads’ the shoot or weft. But it is evident at a glance that velvet possesses an additional feature in its construction. ‘The back of the velvet exhibits the warp and shoot with more or less distinctness ; but the face has a short shag, or ‘pile,’ occasioned by the insertion of short pieces of silk thread doubled under the shoot ; these stand upright on the upper surface of the velvet, in such numbers and so crowded together as entirely to conceal the interlacings of the warp and shoot. It is to this ‘pile’ that the velvet owes its characteristic appearance, as well as that remarkable softness to the touch which distinguishes it from all other woven fabrics, and which, while it would be difficult to explain them in any intelli- ‘gible terms, have themselves served for describing other bodies which present appearances or qualities somewhat similar. ‘The beauty of the surface results in a great de- gree from the uniform evenness of the ‘ pile ;? while this K 202 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES evenness depends upon the perfect equality in the length of the threads composing the pile; any irregularities de- traet very considerably from the market value of the goods, and hence the weaver has a motive for extreme care in the prosecution of this branch of manufacture. The insertion of the short threads which form the pile must necessarily be effected in the weaving itself; and this is done in a manner which we proceed to describe. Instead of having only one row of warp-threads, which will be crossed alternately over and under by the shoot, there are éwo sets, one.of which is to form the regular warp, while the other is to constitute the pile; and these two sets are so arranged in the loom \as to be kept separate. ‘The quantity of the pile-thread necessary is very much more than that of the warp-thread; and therefore must be supplied to the leom by a different agency. If the pile-threads were worked in among the shoot in the same way as the warp-threads, the fabric would be simply a kind of double silk, but without any kind of pile; the pile-threads are therefore formed into a series of loops, standing up from the surface of the silk ; and by subsequently cutting these loops with a sharp in- strument, the pile is produced. ‘The loops are formed in a very singular way. After the weaver has thrown the shuttle three times,across, making the shoot interlace three times among the threads of the warp, he inserts a thin straight brass wire at right angles to the length of the piece, or parallel with the shoot. This wire is so placed as to occupy a position through the whole breadth of the fabric, above the warp-threads and below the pile- threads. The treadle is then put to work, the alternate ———s eS lee OF GREAT BRITAIN. 203 threads of the warp raised, and the shuttle again thrown ; by which a shoot-thread is thrown over the pile-threads, and also over one-half of the warp-threads; the wire be- comes thus, as it were, woven into the substance of the fabric. ‘Two more traverses of the shoot are then made, passing alternately under and over the warp-threads in the usual way, but not interfering with the pile-threads. Another wire is then laid in, below all the pile-threads and above all the warp-threads, and this is secured by subsequent shoot-threads, as in the first case. We have thus a very small portion of woven silk, with two brass wires inserted among it; and bya most delicate and difficult operation, these wires are removed by the same operation which produces the raised pile. Each wire is nearly a semicylinder in form, having along its upper surface a carefully constructed groove ; and along this groove the weaver passes the sharp edge of a cutting in- strument called a ¢revat, thereby severing the pile-threads in his progress. It necessarily follows from this operation that two ends of each thread are thus loosened, and these ends, being afterwards brushed up and dressed, constitute a portion of the pile, sufficiently long to hide completely the woven fabric beneath. ‘Two wires are employed, be- cause if one only were used, the pile-threads would be- come disarranged when it was removed. When the liberated wire has been again inserted, and three shoots thrown to secure it, the second line of loops is cut and the second wire removed ; and so on during the weaving of the whole length. The slowness and delicacy of this branch of manufacture may be judged from the fact that forty or fifty insertions of the grooved wire are made in the space of one inch, the loops of the pile being cut an K 2 204 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES equal number of times. In addition to the other compli- cations, the weaver has to use two shoot-threads, and consequently two shuttles ; for the shoot thrown imme- diately after the insertion of the wire is stouter than the two following. Mr. Porter thus speaks of the uninter- mitting carefulness required in the succession of opera- tions on the part of the weaver :—‘‘ The use of the trevat in cutting the pile calls for a certain amount of skilfulness or sleight of hand, only to be fully acquired through care and after long practice, while the minutest deviation from the proper line in performing this part of the process would infallibly injure, if even it did not destroy, the goods; and the movements to be made throughout the entire operation are so numerous, and require such con- stant changing of the hand from one action to another, that the weaver is greatly and unavoidably retarded in his progress. It is considered to amount to a very good day’s work when as much as one yard of plain velvet has been woven. For this the workman is usually paid five times the price charged for weaving gros-de-Naples.” It is at the option of the manufacturer to give to the velvet a greater or less degree of richness, by the close- ness or number of the pile-threads; since the woven fabrie beneath will be more or less completely hidden according to the thickness or fulness of the pile. Some- times striped velvets are made; and these owe their pe~ culiar appearance to some of thepile-threads being left uncut. The number of threads thus left depends on the width of the stripe; and it follows, from the nature of the arrangement, that the stripe runs cross-way of the velvet, or in the direction of the shoot. ee Se ae ee. = OF GREAT BRITAIN. 205 CHAPTER VII. LACE AND BOBBIN-NET MANUFACTURES. Ir the fair ladies who wear veils, ‘ cardinal capes,’ scarfs, collars, borders, quillings, and edgings of British lace, could know the vast amount of inventive skill, of compli- cated machinery, and of patient endurance involved in the production of these articles, they would see how largely the well-being of thousands depends on the fluc- tuations of ‘ fashion,’ and would perhaps marvel how such fabrics could be sold at such a price as the modern market indicates. We shall perhaps be correct in saying that those who, from their sex and the form of their attire, have most concern with lace as a material for ornamental dress, are seldom in a condition to decide whether lace is in our own day made by machinery or by hand ; or how far the two are combined. And there is good reason why this may be the case; for almost every year presents some new adaptation of mechanism, some new order of pro- cesses, by which a pattern is produced that could before only result from the needle of the embroiderer. In some cases the imitation is so exact, that a close inspection is necessary to determine the mode of production ; while in others the machine produces a new pattern altogether, rather than an imitation of an old one worked by hand. 206 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES But before we conduct the reader to the busy lace- making world of Nottingham, where bobbin-net lace may be said to form the staple product, it will be necessary to pay a little attention to that which was formerly called lace, when no such article as bebbin-net had yet been heard of. The connection between it and the modern manufacture is in every way remarkable. The real lace, such as was worn by the dowagers of the last century, is formed principally of flax thread, and is wholly worked by hand, not only in the decorative parts, but in the mesh-work ground itself. The bobbin-net of modern times is made of cotton thread ; the meshes being”. made wholly by machinery; and the figured device Gf any) being effected sometimes by the same machine and at the same time as the ground, and sometimes by a: kind of embroidery or tambour-work. ‘The silk net, such as the material of which black veils are sometimes made, is, as its name imports, made of sik thread, and is formed by machinery very nearly on the same principle as bobbin-net. At what period and in what country this elegant ma- terial was originally first wrought for dress cannot perhaps be easily determined. It has been supposed that Mary de’ Medici was the first who brought lace into France from Venice, where, and in the neighbouring states of Italy, lace seems to have been long previously worn. It is recorded that lace-making was introduced into this country by some refugees from Flanders, who settled near Cranfield, now a village on the west side of Bedfordshire, and adjoining Buckinghamshire; and it has been sup- posed that the first kind so made in England was that which is called Brussels point, the net-work being made ’ OF GREAT BRITAIN. 207 by bone bobbins on a pillow, and the pattern and sprigs being worked with the needle. The working of hand-made or ‘ pillow-lace’ may be E thus briefly described :—The lace-maker sits on a stool or chair, and places a hard cushion on her lap. The de- sired pattern is sketched upon a piece of parchment, which is then laid down upon the cushion; and she in- serts a number of pins through the parchment into the cushion, in places determined by the pattern. She is also provided with a number of small bobbins, on which threads are wound ; fine thread being used for making the meshes or net, and a coarser kind, called gimp or gymp, for working the device. The work is begun at the upper part of the cushion by tying together the threads in pairs, and each pair is attached to one of the pins thrust through the cushion. The threads are then twisted one round another in various ways, according to _ the pattern, the bobbins serving as handles as well as for store of material, and the pins serving as knots or fixed i ' points, or centres, round which the threads may be twisted. The pins inserted in the cushion at the com- mencement are merely to hold the threads; but as each little mesh is made in the progress of the working, other pins are inserted, to prevent the threads from untwisting ; _ and the device on the parchment shows where these in- sertions are to oecur. Such is the simple principle, modified according to the _ pattern about to be produced, on which ‘ pillow-lace’ is _ made; and it is astonishing how many females have been _ dependent for their subsistence’ on this occupation. Throughout the midland counties, especially Bedford, _ Buckingham, and Northampton, almost every town and 208 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES village exhibits this domestic branch of manufacture ; but so greatly has it suffered by the competition of the Not- tingham lace, that it would perhaps be difficult now to say what is the number of persons thus employed. Ina petition presented to Queen Adelaide in 1830, it was stated that a hundred and twenty thousand persons were dependent on the pillow-lace manufacture, and were re- duced to an extremely low rate of earnings ; but it is sup- posed that the number has been since then greatly re- duced. Mr. Slater (in M‘Culloch’s ‘Commercial Dic- tionary’), after speaking of an improved pattern of pillow-lace introduced about the year 1800, says, ‘¢‘ From that time to 1812, the improvement and consequent suc- cess were astonishing and unprecedented. At Honiton, in Devonshire, the manufacture had arrived at that per- fection, was so tasteful in the design, and so delicate and beautiful in the workmanship, as not to be excelled even by the best specimens of Brussels lace. During the late war veils of this lace were sold in London at from twenty to a hundred guineas: they are now (1831) sold at from eight to fifteen guineas. The effects of the com- petition of machinery, however, were about this time felt ; and in 1815 the broad laces began to be superseded. by the new manufacture. The pillow-lace trade has since been gradually dwindling into insignificance.” Here then we come to the point of connection between pillow-lace and machine-lace: we see that the former thirty or forty years back from the present time was in its zenith ; and we have now to watch the steps whereby that system was produced which has exhibited such won- derful results at Nottingham. Nottingham is the centre of the cotton hosiery district, OF GREAT BRITAIN. 209 as Leicester is of the worsted hosiery, and Derby of the silk. In all three varieties, the weaving (if it may be so termed) of the stockings is effected through the instru- mentality of the ‘stocking-frame,’ one of the most sin- gular machines belonging to our textile manufactures ; and it was through the medium of this frame that machi- nery first became applied to the making of a material which should imitate lace. A stocking, it would be seen on a little examination, is formed by a series of loops, in which a long and continuous thread is passed successively through loops or eyes into which it is temporarily thrown ; whereas lace, whether made on the pillow or by machi- nery, results from a twisting of one thread round another. It is said to have been about the year 1770 that one Hammond, a frame-work knitter (which is the technical name for a stocking-maker) at Nottingham, while looking at a piece of pillow-lace in his wife’s cap, bethought him of trying whether he could imitate it by a modified action of his stocking-frame. With what degree of success the attempt was followed is not clearly stated ; but in all pro- bability it was more instrumental in spurring on the in- genuity of others than in effecting the immediate object desired. From that time Nottingham and its vicinity became a scene of remarkable bustle and ingenuity ; nu- merous frame-work knitters being led, by the hope of pecuniary advantage, to study and improve the capabilities of their hosiery-frames. By degrees the retail shops ex- hibited specimens of machine-made lace, so much cheaper than that made by hand, as to give rise to a progressively increased demand ; and Nottingham became the nucleus of an entirely new branch of manufacture. The great improvement, however, which gave to the k 3 210 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES new branch of industry its most extraordinary impulse, resulted from the inventive ingenuity of Mr. Heathcoat. . This gentleman constructed a machine, which, from cer- tain arrangements of its parts, was called a ‘ bobbin frame’ or machine; and hence has resulted the term ‘bobbin-net.? But Mr. Heatheoat, like many other in- genious men who have introduced improvements in manu- factures (among whom Jacquard furnishes a notable in- stance), was treated roughly for his pains by some of the workmen ; and he transferred his capital and skill to Devonshire, where the bobbin-net manufacture soon attained a high degree of importance. Mr. Heathcoat, having obtained a patent for his im- portant improvements about the year 1809, retained the use of it in a great measure in his own hands till about the year 1823; when, the patent expiring, the manu- facture was taken up with an extraordinary degree of activity by many persons at Nottingham. ‘* A temporary prosperity,” says Mr. M‘Cullech, ‘‘ shone upon the trade ; and numerous individuals—clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and others—readily embarked capital in so tempting a speculation. Prices fell in proportion as production in- creased; but the demand was immense; and the Not- tingham lace-frame became the organ of general supply, rivalling and supplanting, in plain nets, the most finished productions of France and the Netherlands.” The earnings of workmen were quite extraordinary. The inhabitants of Nottingham look back to that period as to a sort of golden age, never equalled before or since, when men could earn wages such as would startle those unacquainted with the matter. Dr. Ure remarks, that “Cit was no uncommon thing for an artisan to leave his OF GREAT BRITAIN. yAG usual calling, and, betaking himself to a lace-frame, of which he was part proprietor, realize by working upon it 20s., 30s., nay even 40s. per day. In consequence of such wonderful gains, Nottingham, the birth-place of this: new art, with Loughborough, and the adjoining villages, became the scene of an epidemic mania. Many, though nearly devoid of mechanical genius or the constructive talent, tormented themselves night and day with projects of bobbins, pushers, lockers,’ point-bars, and needles of every various form, till their minds got permanently be- wildered. Several lost their senses altogether; and some, after cherishing visions of wealth, as in the old time of alchemy, finding their schemes abortive, sank into de- spair, and committed suicide.” By degrees the furor subsided, and the bobbin-net ma- nufacture took its place among those which are of national importance, but not pre-eminent for lucrative returns. Competition and superabundant supply, as usual, brought this about. Various manufacturers and machinists have from time to time introduced improvements and modifica- tions of the machine ; and steam-power, which was first applied to this manufacture in 1816, became gradually adopted more and more, till the most extraordinary changes have resulted in the prices of the finished articles. It has been stated that lace, which was sold by Mr. Heathcoat for five guineas a yard soon after the taking out of his patent, can now be equalled at eighteen-pence a yard ; that quill- ings, as made by a newly-constructed machine in 1810, and sold at four shillings and sixpence a yard, can now be not only equalled but excelled for three halfpence a yard ; and that a certain width of net, which brought seventeen pounds per piece twenty years ago, is now sold for seven shillings! There are but few other branches. 912 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES of our manufactures in which equal vicissitudes have oc- curred in the same space of time. The reader will by this time have had ample means for judging how it is that machine-made lace has done so much towards extinguishing the old pillow-lace ; and will be prepared to accompany us in a brief notice of the ma- nufacture. In the first place, then, the cotton-thread ,is procured from the Manchester districts. ‘There are probably a few cotton-mills at hand, but the main bulk of the mate- rial employed is furnished by the great Lancashire and Cheshire firms. Flax-thread is now seldom or never used for machine-made lace, cotton forming the great staple, and to that we may confine our attention. The ‘‘ cotton-yarn agents ”’ are perhaps the first parties in the chain of operations at Nottingham to whom it may be necessary to refer. They come between the Manchester spinner and the Nottingham manufacturer, effecting sales of cotton thread or yarn from the former to the latter. These agents are in some cases lace-agents also, and effect sales of the manufactured articles; indeed they occasion- ally receive a portion of the finished lace as payment for the thread supplied. Then comes the ‘manufacturer.’ A bobbin-net ma- chine is so complex and so costly, that, unlike a common loom, the actual workman can seldom possess one of his own; he must be indebted to another man who possesses capital, for his working implements. In some cases the capitalist has a large building, containing all the require- ments and resources of a regular factory, and where the machines are generally worked by steam-power. In other cases he may have a large number of machines, but instead of working them on his own premises, he lets OF GREAT PRITAIN. 213 them out at so much a day to middle-men called ‘ machine- holders.’ These machine-holders intervene between the machine-owners and the workmen, much in the same way as a householder supplies a link between the house-owner and the lodger ; he pays rent to the owner, and receives it back, with a profit, from those who occupy a subordi- nate position to himself. In such cases as these the ma- chines are worked by hand-power, since steam-power only becomes available in a tolerably large building. Mr. Drinkwater, one of the Factory Commissioners, who visited Nottingham for the purposes of the Commis- sion in 1833, after giving a list of the machine-owners, says :—‘‘ It will be seen by this list that a very large proportion of them are proprietors of a single machine ; in this case the owner generally works it himself, and so far partakes of the character of master and journeyman. Ji is not uncommon to find one of these costly machines, which may have occasioned an outlay of 500/. to 1000/., within a house but little removed above the degree of a cottage; but for the most part they are worked in the attics and upper stories of substantial houses, the lower parts of which are occupied as shops or lodging-houses. The centre of the town is not much filled with them ; but in all the approaches and in the back streets, as well as in the better houses of the lower town, the incessant thumping of the machine is heard.” There are many large bobbin-net factories in and around Nottingham, presenting all the usual appearances of ranges of stories, row after row of windows, tall chim- neys, steam engines, and complex machinery. In some of these establishments various kinds of net and lace, both plain and figured, are made. At others, the machines are employed in the production of fancy net alone, that 214 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES is, such as are intended to imitate the productions of hand-labour ; both in the form of wide pieces, and in that of narrow quillings and borders. In others, again, the machines are wholly employed in making silk edg- ings; a great many widths being made at one time, and then separated by drawing out threads from between them; some of the machines being able to produce ten thousand yards of silk edging per week. So it is throughout Nottingham and its vicinity. Some manufac- turers undertake the fabrication of one kind of net or lace, and some another; but there is a general similarity of proceeding throughout, both in the mode in which the machines act, and in the preparatory and finishing pro- cesses to which the lace is subjected. The reader may now very naturally be desirous of knowing what kind of a machine it is that produces such remarkable results. Here we have to state at once that a thorough comprehension of its action can scarcely by any possibility be acquired from a written description, unless accompanied by a large series of illustrative en- gravings, and studied closely by those who are accus- tomed to investigate the action of machinery. ‘This is, of course, quite beyond the present purpose, which re- lates only to a slight exposition of the general principles involved. Let us ask, then, what is it that the machine has to perform ? It has to entwine threads one around another in such a way as to form meshes or holes, bounded by a cireular, a square, a hexagonal, or an octagonal margin, according to. the pattern. We may make the following supposition :—Let a number of strings be suspended from the ceiling of a room in pairs, so that when the two strings of each pair are twisted round each other by OF GREAT BRITAIN. 215 hand, they may form half as many ropes as there were strings. We will further suppose, that after two or three turns of one string round another, each string is twisted once round one string of an adjoining pair, and then re- turned again to its former companion. By this arrange- ment, each rope would become linked to the adjoining ropes on either side, and the whole would form a kind of net-work, presenting holes or meshes bearing some ana- logy to those of net-lace. Or we may represent it pictorially, thus :—Here we [Strings twisted in the manner of the bobbin-net.] 216 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES have a small number of strings, fixed at one end; and each string has to be passed diagonally round and be- tween the others, so as to form knots, links, loops, or whatever fastenings they may seem most to resemble. The reader, perhaps, could hardly bring the matter home to his own mind more clearly than by selecting a few threads of different colours, fastening them at one end, and twisting them round one another in a certain definite and pre-arranged order: he would find that the meshes produced would bear some slight resemblance to different kinds of net, according to the manner and the order in which the successive threads were brought into the twist. Now it is to effect such convolutions as these that the machine is employed ; and there is certainly much to call for admiration in the successful adaptation of parts to this end. In common weaving, it is well known that the cross threads pass at right angles over and under the long thread, passing over and under each thread alternately, if it be to form a plain material, or passing over several threads consecutively and under one, if it be to forma twill. But in the production of net this crossing is at the same time accompanied by a twist, so that one thread passes completely round another. The net-machines are infinitely more complex. There are several kinds employed by the Nottingham manufac- turers, and known by the names of the ‘ circular-bolt machine,’ the ‘ lever-machine,’ &c., according to certain peculiarities in the mode of action ; but one of these, viz. the ‘ circular bolt,’ which is more used than any of the others, will be sufficient for our purpose. It so far bears an analogy to a common loom that there are warp-threads stretched in a parallel layer, and weft-threads wound on OF GREAT BRITAIN. Q17 bobbins which pass between the warp-threads; but be- yond this point the analogy is very slight indeed. In common weaving, the warp-threads lie horizontal; here they are vertical. In the former case, the bobbins are only few in number; in the latter they amount to hun- dreds, and even thousands. In the former the bobbin passes between and among the warp-threads in the direc- tion of the plane in which the warp lies; in the latter it passes at right angles to that direction. In the former there is only one weft-thread, or one bobbin or shuttle, to many thousand warp-threads ; in the latter, there are as many separate weft-threads and bobbins as there are warp-threads. When we thus speak of ‘ bobbins’ in reference to com- mon weaving, we depart a little from common nomencla- ture; for the name of ‘shuttle’ is given to the little machine which carries the weft-thread: but the analogy of principle is observable, independent of the technical terms employed. ‘The shuttle, in common weaving, is a kind of little boat, containing the weft-thread, wound upon a pir or axis. But the bobbin of a net-machine is a most remarkable contrivance. The cotton is first wound on to a reel, or bobbin, from the form of skeins, by a winding-engine, of which the principle of action is shown in the following page, and thence transferred to the ex- quisite little apparatus of the bobbin-net machine. This apparatus is so minute that the whole of it, including the bobbin on which the cotton weft-thread is wound, and the carriage or frame in which it is placed, is not thicker than the diameter of the meshes in the net to be made. Very frequently the thickness is not more than one-thirtieth of an inch! The bobbin consists of two thin disks of brass, 218 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES [Winding-engine.] about an inch and a half in diameter, laid face to face, with a slight intervening space; and in this minute space the thread is wound, in quantity about fifty or sixty yards to each bobbin. The bobbin is then fitted into a kind of carriage, which conveys it between the threads of the warp, and at the same time allows the thread to be unwound from the bobbin: in short, the carriage is to the bobbin what the little boat of a shuttle is to the pirn on which the weft-thread is wound. No less than three thousand six hundred of such bob- bins as are here described are sometimes used in one machine! Many of the machines are twenty quarters wide—that is, fitted to the manufacture of net five yards. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 219 in width ; and have twenty of these bobbins to the inch. If the arrangements of such a machine be examined, it will be seen that the warp-threads are wound on a beam in the lower part of the machine, from which they ascend to the upper part. The warp is divided into two parcels (somewhat in the same manner as the warp of a common loom by the action of the treadles), and each parcel is susceptible of a reciprocating motion, alternately to the right and left. The weft-threads, wound on the bobbins, are fastened each at one end to the upper part of the machine; and the bobbins are suspended so as to have a backward and forward motion between the warp-threads, like so many clock pendulums, being guided between the warp-threads by a very curious piece of apparatus called a ‘comb.’ The principle of action, then, is this :—After the bobbins have been driven between the respective warp-threads, the warp is shifted a little on one side, so that, when the bobbins return, they pass through open- ings different from those which they traversed in the first instance ; and by this means the weft-thread, unwinding from each bobbin in the course of its movement, becomes twisted round one of the warp-threads. After this has been repeated two or three times, the comb which carries the bobbins is itself shifted to and fro laterally, by which the bobbins are brought opposite to openings between the warp-threads different from those to which they were be- fore opposed. Herein lies the whole principle. According as the front layer of warp, or the hinder layer, or the comb carrying the bobbins, are shifted to and fro late- rally, so does the weft-thread, as it becomes unwound _ from the bobbins, twist round the warp-threads during the passage of the bobbins across; a shifting, in one or 220 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES other of several different ways, being effected immediately after each traverse of the bobbin. After a certain num- ber of twistings have been effected, a series of points be- come inserted between the warp-threads, and temporarily hold up the knotted twists so as to form the meshes of the net. It has been often said, and truly, that the bobbin-net machine is one of the most complicated which the inge- nuity of man has ever devised ; and it may therefore well be supposed that nothing more than the bare principle can be here exhibited. Perhaps it may assist the reader if we carry out our former supposition a little further. Let a series of strings be suspended from the ceiling in two rows, with the lower ends of each row fastened to a horizontal bar; and let a number of small pendulums be suspended between the strings, and enabled to oscillate to and fro between them, ‘Then, if after each traverse of the pendulums between the stretched threads, the rows, one or both, of threads be shifted a little on one side, so that the pendulums may return through openings different from those which they before traversed, we should have a system of movements somewhat analogous to those in the machine; and the strings by which the pendulums were suspended would be found to twist round the stretched vertical strings. If we further sup- pose that each row of strings is capable of being shifted independent of the other, and that the pendulum strings be fastened to a shifting bar near the ceiling, we might imitate in a rough way the series of movements by which net is made. Not only is plain net made by these movements of the machine, but figured net also. In plain nets, all the OF GREAT BRITAIN. 221 bobbins are moved similarly at one time; but in fancy nets, some are stationary, some pass between the warp- threads, some are shifted laterally to the distance of one mesh, some to the distance of two or three meshes ; some move to the right, some to the left; the warp-threads, too, instead of being divided into two parcels only, are divided into several, each of which is susceptible of the lateral movement independent of the others. It is by modifications of these lateral movements that all the numerous varieties of machine-made lace or net are pro- duced ; and if this fact be borne in mind, the principle of the machine becomes to a certain degree explicable. It is by means of levers that the various parcels of warp and bobbin threads are shifted laterally, after each tra- verse of the bobbins ; and the cut in page 222 shows one of the modern contrivances for governing the movements of the levers. This is an application of the Jacquard appa- ratus to the bobbin-net machine. We have already spoken of the mode of making the cards for this apparatus, and in the following page show one method of applying it. Near the end of the bobbin-net machine is fixed the pentagonal bar here represented, each side of which is pierced with as many holes as there are pins or levers above, seen at the top of the cut. A number of oblong pieces of card, from two to five hundred, are connected together in an endless chain, and so arranged as to size, that when one of the cards is laid on one side of the pen- tagon, and the latter made to revolve, the whole series will be brought successively in contact with the pentagon, each one lying temporarily on the flat upper side. LEvery card is pierced with holes, varying in number and dispo- sition according to the pattern of the lace to be produced, 929 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES ¢ [Jacquard Apparatus, } but never more.in number than the pins or levers above ; and these holes are so cut as to coincide exactly with those in the pentagon. Suppose, then, the pentagon ‘to have an up and down motion, so as to be brought in con- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 923 taet with the pins, what would result? Wherever a hole occurs in the card, it permits the pin opposite to it to penetrate into the pentagon ; but where a blank occurs, by the card not being perforated opposite to a particular pin, the pin cannot enter the pentagon, but is driven upwards. Now the warp and bobbin threads, and other apparatus of the machine, are so connected with these pins, that when one of the pins is driven upwards, some part of the thread apparatus is shifted laterally ; and it hence follows that the disposition of the holes in the cards determines the order and number of the shiftings of the threads. It bears a strong analogy to the action of a barrel-organ or a musical snufi-box, where the number and disposition of the pins on the barrel determine the pipes and the springs which shall be sounded. The number of cards employed depends on the number of successive movements requisite to form one complete spe- cimen of the pattern. Whether the article be plain broad net, fancy broad net, sprigged net, plait net, wire-ground net, quilling net, or edging, the movements of the machine by which it is made depend pretty much on the same principles, and may therefore all be alluded to in connection. But in noticing the subsequent processes, it will be desirable to take some one kind asa standard; and for this pur- pose it will be well to select a specimen of ‘ piece-goods,” such as a collar or a cape, in which all the figures are worked by hand on a piece of plain net. After a piece of plain net has left the machine, it undergoes the process of ‘ gassing,’ or singeing, for the removal of the hairy filaments from the cotton. ‘There are some firms in Nottingham‘which confine their atten- 924 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES tion to this operation only. The gassing-machine is a very beautiful contrivance, in which the manufactured article is drawn between two rollers, and exposed, as it passes, to the action of a large number of minute blazes of gas, which remove the little adherent filaments without scorching or burning the net. Supposing, as we do, the specimen to be a piece of plain net which is to be embroidered by hand, the net next receives a slight printing, with some coloured pig- ment, of the pattern which is to be worked upon it. There are in Nottingham a small number of artists (for so they are, or ought to be) who design patterns for the lace-workers, and cut them out on wooden blocks, pre- cisely as those for the floor-cloth manufacture. This is evidently an employment in which taste and a know- ledge of the forms of natural objects are required ; one, in fact, which the establishment of a School of Design is especially calculated to assist. The lace is generally carried to the house of the ‘designer and stamper,’ who stamps the pattern very slightly on it. In the instance of a cape or collar, or any article of definite shape, the stamp gives the shape and size of the article, as well as the figures with which it is to be decorated. When the stamper has imprinted on the net the out- lines of the device, a ‘ pattern-setter’ decides on the manner in which the pattern shall be filled up. For instance, if a leaf form part of the pattern, the stamper only gives the outline of the leaf, and it rests with the pattern-setter to determine how the needle of the em- broideress shall fill up the device. We must next transfer our attention to one of the humble homes of the numerous and lowly-paid ‘ lace- OF GREAT BRITAIN. 225 runners,’ The term embroidery does not seem to be much used in connection with the Nottingham lace-trade, most of those who work on net with the needle being termed ‘lace-runners.? Each workwoman has a frame, on which the net is stretched out horizontally, at a height of about three feet from the ground. She sits on a stool or chair, places her left hand under the stretched net, to keep it in a right position for working, and with her right hand works the pattern with needle and thread in every part where the stamper has imprinted a device. The needle is inserted between and among the meshes of the net, and stitches of greater or less length taken, until there is a body of thread laid in sufficient to mark the device conspicuously. ‘This working round of the outline is called ‘running,’ while the filling-up of the interior parts is termed either ‘ fining’ or ‘ open-working,’ according as the original meshes of the net are brought to a smaller or a larger size by the action of the needle. How, by the work of the needle, the meshes of the net may be made larger or smaller, will be easily compre- hended by the one sex, and must be taken for granted by the other. It is sad work to see how continuously these poor females must labour before they can earn a small pit- tance. Little do those who see in the attractive shop- windows of London the beautiful veils and capes which Nottingham now produces, imagine how much wearisome and ill-paid labour has been concerned in their produc- tion. ‘The earnings of the lace-runners do not, on an average, much exceed a half-penny an hour; for the weekly earnings for long days’ work are seldom much above three shillings, and are sometimes below it. L 926 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES The mode in which this embroidery business is trans- acted is often thus:—A person takes from a manufac- turer as much work as twenty, or perhaps fifty, females can embroider ; and she devotes as many rooms as her house can afford to the reception of the workers, who pay to her a trifling sum (out of their trifling earnings) for the use of the room. They alk receive their work from the person who rents the house, who pays them for their labour, deducting a rent for the frame-room, and a further trifle for some other item. To eke out their earnings, the women in one room often have their meals in common, making up, for a few pence, a hash or stew sufficient to dine seven or eight. There they sit, for twelve or fourteen hours a day, with the head stooping over their work, plying the needle, and driving off dull thoughts as well as they may by singing (for there is said to be much singing among the Nottingham workpeople), It is not unfrequent for them to say :—‘‘ If the great ladies of London knew how much work we have to do to their veils and capes for a shilling, they would pay better.”” But, poor things, these embroiderers do not know how complex, in such a country as England, are the circumstances which regulate the wages of labour : they would perhaps find that in reality the ‘ great ladies of London” have but little direct influence on the rate of the seamstresses’ earnings. Inquiries, which have recently occupied much public attention, have shown that it is not only in lace-embroidery that seamstresses have to bestow many hours of labour for a very insufficient re- muneration. Some of the articles in lace are decorated by ‘tam- bouring’ instead of ‘lace-running.’ ‘This is done in OF GREAT BRITAIN. aay . frames similar to the others, and by females in a similar rank of life; but a very small hook. is used instead of a needle, by which a thread is wound as a kind of chain about and among the threads of the net. After the lace-runners have worked the collar, cape, veil, or other net-lace article, it is taken back to the manufacturer, who then employs ‘ lace-menders’ to ex- amine every piece, and mend, with needle and thread, every defective mesh in the net, whether produced in the machine or by any subsequent accident. ‘This is done so skilfully, and the form of the mesh so closely imitated, that the mended part can scarcely be detected except by a practised eye. The females engaged at ‘ lace-mending’ earn much higher wages than the lace-runners, on account of the greater skill required. The bleaching is an important part of the net manu- facture, and is carried on by several firms in the neigh- -bourhood of Nottingham. ‘The net, after going through the greater part of the processes, has acquired a tint nearly as dark as brown holland; and it is the office of the bleacher to give it the snowy whiteness which adds sso much to the beauty of the material. This bleaching is effected by a series of processes, such as scouring, -exposure to the action of bleaching liquid, drying, &c. Usually the bleached article is wrung or pressed, and then hung up in a hot room to dry; but a curious mode -of applying centrifugal power is sometimes adopted. In this method the net is wrapped round in a kind of coil, between two concentric copper cylinders, the inner one of which is perforated with holes. The apparatus is then made to rotate with extraordinary velocity, so great even as a thousand times in a minute ; and the cenizifugal force Ine 2238 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES thus engendered drives out the water from the damp net through the holes in the cylinder, thus leaving the mate- rial nearly dry. If the net or lace is to be black, instead of white, it is dyed instead of bleached. After being again examined to see whether any further mending is required, the net next goes to be ‘ dressed,’ and this takes us to the work-rooms of another class of persons. The ‘lace-dressing rooms’ of Nottingham are sometimes two hundred feet in length. Long frames ex- tend from end to end of the shop or room, capable of being adjusted to any width by a screw, and provided with a row of pins round the edge. The net or lace is first dipped in a mixture of gum, paste, and water, wrung out, and stretched upon the frame by means of the pins or studs. While on the frame it is rubbed well with flannels, to equalize the action of the stiffening material in different parts, and then left to dry im a warm room. It is to the nature of the solution used that the different kinds of net and lace owe their different degrees of stiffness. If the manufactured article be a cape, a collar, or a veil, it is not till the present stage in the proceedings that it is cut from the piece. The stamping, the em- broidering, the gassing, the bleaching, the dressing—all are done while the piece is yet whole, several yards in length ; but when it approaches thus far towards com- pletion, the material is cut up, according to the size and shape given by the stamp, and a ‘ pearl edge,’ or some-. thing similar, is sewn on by hand round every edge. After a process of rolling, pressing, ticketing, &c., the article is finished. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 229 The kind of article which we have selected as a speci- men or standard comprises within the range of its manu- facture nearly all the processes involved in the other branches of the lace-trade ; and will therefore serve to give an idea of them all. As regards the question, to what degree hand-labour is employed upon the different varieties, the following will be a kind of summing-up. Tn a ‘ plain net’ the whole fabric is made at the machine. In ‘ sprigged net,’ the groundwork and a portion of every sprig are made at the machine, and the outline of every sprig is then worked by hand. In ‘ fancy broad-net’ the device as well as the groundwork are made at the ma- chine. In ‘plait-net’ the same thing is observable, and also in ‘ tatting-net.’ In ‘edging’ and lace for borders the device is now very generally worked by the machine, but in some varieties it is partly put in by hand. In ‘ piece-goods,’ such as capes, collars, and veils, the device is almost wholly worked by hand, a very small proportion being effected by the Jacquard appendage to the lace- machine. As an exemplification of the manner in which the machine and the hand imitate each other’s produc- tions, we give in the following page representations of two specimens, one of which (a) was wholly worked at the machine, and the other (0) wholly figured by hand on a machine-made net, excepting the ‘pearl edge,’ which, after being made at the machine, was sewn on by hand. We stated, in a former part of this chapter, that the machine-holder, whether owner or not, buys thread from the Manchester cotton-spinner, and then works it up into net or lace. He does not do anything further to the material, but sells it at once, either to other manufac- turers, or to agents and dealers. These other manufac- 230 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES RIN SLOVAK Dk FanSite es B, SOQ 6 see a Pes [Specimen of Run Lace.]} turers carry the material through all the subsequent ope- rations, employing and paying for the services of the gassers, the bleachers, the dyers, the dressers, the stamp- ers, the menders, and the embroiderers. Some of these manufacturers only undertake the finishing of the plain ‘goods, while others confine themselves to the fancy or embroidery department. Some are ‘ cap-manufacturers ;’ OF GREAT BRITAIN. 231 that is, they procure the lace from the machine-workers, dress and finish it, cut it up, and employ a number of women to make it into caps. Lastly, agents, sent by the great wholesale houses from London and elsewhere, visit Nottingham periodically, and make their purchases in lace and net ; for Nottingham is the market for this com- modity, whether made there or elsewhere. This may suffice as a brief sketch of a manufacture which may be said to have had no existence in the be- ginning of the present century, and of which Mr. Felkin (the greatest authority in all matters relating to the bobbin-net trade) made the following estimate in 1831 : he calculated that the capital employed in Manchester in spinning thread for the bobbin-net manufacturers amounted to nearly a million sterling; and that the capital employed by the latter in various ways exceeded two millions sterling; that the number of persons em- ployed in spinning, making, winding, embroidering, mending, &ec. for the bobbin-net work, amounted to more than two hundred thousand; that the raw mate- rial (cotton and silk) used was worth about 150,000/. annually, in the state as imported; that this value was increased to 540,000/. when spun into thread; and that the final value, when manufactured into net, and ready for sale, was nearly two millions sterling per annum, or, including the wages of the embroiderers em- ployed in different parts of England, more than three millions sterling! These results are certainly extra- ordinary, and could have been but little anticipated by the inventors of the machine, sanguine as they might be. 232 TEXTILE MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN. Such, then, are the broad features which distinguish the textile manufactures. Such are the operations which give life and bustle to the districts of the north ; which have caused the erection of four or five thousand fac- tories ; which have called forth the skill and energies of machinists and engine-makers, which give employment to half a million persons within the factories, and two or three times as many out of them. And all for what ?— merely for the manufacture of materials afterwards to be applied to the purposes of clothing! It is true that our own population is not the only one thus provided for. Every part of the world, to a greater or less extent, exhi-. bits some or other of these products of our national in- dustry. The South American looks eagerly for the gaudy-coloured cottons of England ; and the Asiatic, the African, the Polynesian——so far as fiscal and legislative arrangements will permit—find by degrees that the textile productions of this country, despite the hazard and ex- pense of a long voyage, are fitted to become the materials for part, at least, of their customary dress. We need not travel out of our way to claim for England the character of being the great workshop for the whole world. The world is large enough for all; and we may sufficiently admire and marvel at what this small corner of Europe has achieved, without depreciating the achievements of other countries. THE END. / London: Printed by Wirtt1am CLowss and Sons, Stamford Street. ie Gj) 3a fig re ONES as eae. Apu. 0