I.—THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL MANUFACTURES OF WOOL.

WOOL seems to have been the staple material of the primitive weavers of Palestine, Syria, Greece, Italy, and Spain. In the industry of all those "flock-abounding" countries (to use the fine epithet which Pindar applies to Libya—πολυκτηνος), the fleece played a part as characteristic as that of flax in Egypt, of cotton in India, or of silk in Central Asia. The woollen fabrics both of Greece and Italy attained especial excellence. The fame of Attic wool was spread abroad at far distant periods—from that of the ancient author cited by Athenaeus, to that of the Roman poet Liberius, according to whom

"Nihil referit molle ex lamitā Attica, An pecore ex hicorum vestimenta gerat."

The Greeks carried their skill in manufactures to their colony of Byzantium. Thither also, in process of time, came first the products, and then the industrial arts of Persia, of India, and of China. Constantinople became a centre of textile industry of all kinds. But its woollen fabrics were especially famous, both for beauty and variety. From Constantinople these and many other branches of skilful labour were disseminated throughout the newborn Italy. It is noticeable, that in this industrial mission monks bore a distinguished part; as, indeed, they had already done in bringing the arts of China to Constantinople. Early in the thirteenth century, some friars of St Michael (alias Umiliati di S. Michele d'Alessandria they are termed by the historians), established a woollen manufactory in Florence, apparently with processes much superior to those theretofore in use, which was signal success, and became the model of many others; as at Rimini in 1261; at Perugia in 1279; and elsewhere. Within not very many years afterwards there were, says one of the historians of Florence, more than 200 shops of clothworkers (botteghe di tessitori) in that city alone. Villani, writing of a period somewhat later, adds to a like statement of the number of shops, that there were made annually "from 70,000 to 80,000 cloths, worth upwards of 1,200,000 golden florins, more than a third of which sum was for wages." Thirty years earlier (namely about 1310) thereabouts, making 100,000 cloths, but these were coarser fabrics, and of less value, "since we had then no English wool, nor did we know how to work it, as we afterwards learned to do." Early in the following century we have accounts of Mohair tissues, made at Perugia, which found their market at Cagliari. It was destined, however, that the textile industry of wool was only to strike a really deep root in Flanders, in Britain, and in France.

The history of the woollen manufactures of Flanders has an especial interest, but it must needs be passed over. It is to Flanders that Britain owes some of her best instructors in those manufactures, although the craft of woollen weavers has older records in British annals than it has in those of the Netherlands, and even that of cloth-workers has an ancient as well as honourable standing amongst us. The "scarlet cloths of England" figure in the chronicles of Orkney as early as the twelfth century, when a daring Orkney pirate made a successful "scarlet cruise."

The Gilda Tulliariorum is the name of the London companies. Early it possesses a charter of Henry I., which enacts that none but members shall have power to intermeddle with their craft (quod manufactores si introdicerent de eorum ministerio?) within London, Southwark, tares or other places. This charter was confirmed by Henry II. England, and by Edward I.; but in the 14th of Edward II., the privileges claimed under it were brought into question by a writ de quo warranto. The jury found that the powers of the charter had been exceeded, by the framing of new and unauthorized ordinances and by-laws, which had checked the progress of the clothing trades. Thirteen years before the date of the inquiry, say the jurors, there were above 280 burrillers (the burriller or burler is the workman who raises the nap of cloth with the teasle), and now but 80." The company had to moderate its pretensions, but it continued to exercise an important jurisdiction for several centuries.

The company of drapers was not regularly incorporated until 1354, but it was already a community possessing lands, in the twelfth century. Originally, the word "draper" meant not the dealer in cloth but the maker thereof; and the verb "to drapre" covered the whole art of clothmaking. After a time, "clothier" came to be a specific term for the maker, but "draper" was still used both for the maker and the vendor. The term "cloth-worker" indicates the dresser and finisher of the fabric, but does not seem to have been used officially until the time of Henry VIII. The former designation was "cloth-shearer," or, more usually, "shearman." The shearman's company was an offshoot of the drapers, and received a separate incorporation from Edward IV. The Company in 1480. Henry VIII. united the shearman with the fullers, and pany of gave to them, conjointly, the name of "clothworkers" in 1528.

The tailors (now called "merchant tailors") or "fraternity of workers; the scissors" (fraternitas scissorum) date, as a chartered community, and that from the year 1399. Anciently, they made all kinds of apparel, merchant whether of wool or of linen, and also the padding of armour. Tailors. Hence their designation, in several charters, as "linen-armourers." When they became dealers in cloth they were termed "merchant

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1 Pyth. ix. 11. 2 Deip. XII. p. 540. 3 In a passage, cited by Nonius Marcellus, which we quote from Mr Yates' excellent volume, entitled, Textorium Antiquorum, a book which, like many other good books, has one serious defect, that of having remained unfinished. 4 Denina, Delle Rivoluzioni d'Italia, ii. 372. 5 Villani, Istoria Fiorentina, vii. 203.

Ancient tailors; and, from their possession of various tenter-grounds, it has been inferred that they dealt in cloth collectively as well as individually. But the supposition lacks conclusive evidence, and seems on its face improbable. The tenter-grounds may have been provided, either as trading facilities to be enjoyed by the members in common, or as means for exercising that jurisdiction over trading processes, which was originally the distinctive function of the mercantile guilds.

Besides the weavers, drapers, clothworkers, and merchant tallors, there were other chartered companies concerned with the great woollen manufactures of the realm. Of these minor corporations, the dyers, barrellers, and worsted-workers, were the chief. The last named guild belonged at first to Worsted in Norfolk, where the name of their fabrics. In its primary sense, a "worsted fabric" meant a manufacture from wool, combed, not carded. But these incessant changes in machinery which, amongst other striking tendencies, seem to have that of assimilating textile processes, whatever be the raw material, have rendered the old definition insufficient. It must now be said, that "worsted" means a fabric made wholly or partially from wool, which has been either combed, or combed and carded. The mixture in the worsted manufacture of wool with other materials has spread so rapidly, that a worsted fabric may almost be described as essentially a mixed fabric.

Bacon has set his stamp on the mercantile guilds of his own time, by calling them "fraternities in evil." Nowadays, when many of the loudest voices are agreed in asserting, that the "wisdom of our ancestors" must have been foolishness, it seems obvious that to speak of a guild is to speak of a mischievous absurdity, now happily obsolete. Here, however, it will suffice to suggest, that many of the functions of those trade corporations which have played so conspicuous a part in the history of our manufactures, were probably of real importance, and their action of real worth and service in their day. Like other and higher bodies, they degenerated when that day was over.

In 1331, Flemish clothweavers were invited by Edward III., into England, and were established under his protection in the free exercise of their art. Other like invitations were given in 1332, and in 1337. In an act of the latter year (11 Edward III.), there is a clause providing that foreign clothweavers may come safely into the king's dominions. "Happy the yeoman's house," says old Fuller, in his characteristic way, "into which these Dutchmen did enter, bringing industry and wealth along with them. Such who came in strangers, soon after went out bridegrooms, and returned sons-in-law, having married the daughters of their landlords who first entertained them; yes, those yeomen in whose houses they harboured soon proceeded gentlemen, gaining great estates."

This successful importation of foreign artisans excited much discontent amongst the native clothmakers. They broke out into riotous attacks on the new comers, who had to be protected by extraordinary measures. The manufacture spread, but was soon subjected to taxation. An impost was levied of £1. 2d. on every broadcloth exported by English merchants, and of £1. 9d. on every broadcloth exported by strangers; and other imposts of £1. and 1½d. respectively, on every worsted cloth so exported. In 1547, the commons petitioned that these duties might be repealed. They were answered that the king and the lords "will that the custom shall stand; for it is good reason that such a profit be taken off cloths wrought within the realm and carried forth, as of wools of the land; rateable the cloth as the sack."

The tissues first made at Worsted soon became the staple trade of Norwich, which rapidly attained importance as a great seat of manufactures. In 1388 an ordinance was made that no citizen should buy worsted goods of any country weavers, unless they set up their stalls at a certain place called the Worsted College; and wardens of the worsted weavers were appointed to oversee the business. The powers of these wardens were increased in 1442. In 1513 an act of parliament (5 Hen. VIII. c. 4) recites that whereas the cloths which be truly made, shorn, dyed, and calendered, as of old time hath been accustomed, have been one of the goodliest merchandizes... of this realm, and also much used in other realms; and that now of late divers strangers beyond the sea have taken upon them to dry-calender worsteds with gums, oils, &c., to the injury of the said tissues—such dry calendering is to be strictly prohibited within the realm, and wet calendering is to be practised only by persons duly bred thereunto.

Two years later, an Act of Apparel (5 Hen. VIII. c. 6) renewed Progress the prohibition that any person under the degree of a baron should the United Kingdom wear any woollen fabric woven abroad, "except in bonnets." But the new fashions were too strong for the old laws, and the English weavers had to set to work on fabrics of a more attractive kind, after the example of their foreign rivals.

There is a presumption, and no proof, that some of the earliest Dispenses Norfolk weavers of woollens were Flemings. There is clear evidence between that, in the early period of the manufacture, foreigners met with a better welcome there than in London. The Rolls of Parliament clothiers abound with entries relating to the almost constant disputes between the London guilds and the alien weavers, to whom, at their London first settlement, Edward III. had given an exemption from the authority of the guilds. These new strove to bring the newcomers under rule, while the foreigners sought the confirmation of their immunities. In this way the natural progress of the woollen trade in the metropolis was materially checked, and an advantage was given to the clothiers of Norfolk.

Devonshire, too, attained a conspicuous place in the woollen manufacture at an early date. "Hose of fine Toones" occur not infrequently in the chivalric romances, and in other primitive works of our literature. Worcestershire, at a somewhat later date, shared woollen distinction in the same branch of industry. An Act for Clothiers within the Shire of Worcester (25 Hen. VIII. c. 18, 1533) recites that, "in times past," the inhabitants of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster, and Bromsgrove, "made long cloths, short cloths, whites, browns, and blues,... and that of all divers persons in the hamlets, thorpes, and villages adjacent, nothing regarding the upholding of the said city and towns, nor the poor people which had living by the same, have become... husbandmen, and do also occupy the mysteries of clothmaking,... to the great depopulation and ruin of the said towns." It then forbids that any such clothmaking shall be carried on within Worcestershire, except in the towns first named. But Worcester did not recover its old prosperity in the woollen trade. Thirty-five years after the passing of this act, we find it asserted, in a state paper, that "the decay of Worcester cloth hath especially grown by translating their drapery from short and coarse usual cloths which commonly hath vent, into long and chargeable cloths, the utterance whereof dependeth upon the Low Countries, and so is most subject to restraints and prohibitions."

This invasion of urban industry by the insatiable husbandmen—so much deprecated when it began, and so much lamented since it passed away—was repeatedly made the subject of legislative prohibition. An act of 1542 makes, respecting the "friezes and cottons" woven from the wool of Wales, a like statement to that of the act of 1533 regarding the broadcloths of Worcestershire, and proceeds to charge the husbandmen with weaving their wool "after the most false and deceitful manner." But denunciations like these lose much of their force when, in reading the statute-book or the state papers, we find them repeated on almost every occasion of manufacturing rivalry. Whenever a town or a privileged company tries to put a spoke in the wheel of a competitor, its actuating motive, according to its own showing, is never the lust of trading gains, but always the love of trading integrity.

II.—PROGRESS OF THE WOOLLEN AND WORSTED MANUFACTURES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, Berkshire seems to have taken the lead in the English woollen manufacture. John Winchcombe—"Jack of Newbury," as he was popularly called—was indisputably the prince of the clothiers of his time. The hundred looms which worked incessantly in his house, and the hundred journeymen whom he equipped at his charges and led to Flodden, were the admiration of his contemporaries, and are probably the best known incidents of our early manufacturing history. How highly his wares were esteemed abroad as well as at home is curiously shown in a letter addressed by William Damossell, English envoy at Antwerp, to the Lord Protector Somerset in 1549:—"I find wondrous little profit," he writes, "to be had presently, either in cloths or kersies."

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1 Herbert, History of the Twelve Companies of London, ii. 389. 2 We have elsewhere described the barrellers as "barlers," a term still in use in the trade. But it is well to note that Mr Herbert, in his valuable book just quoted, describes the barrellers as "a mystery for impressing as well as making and sealing cloth." 3 "Notes of Conferences," &c., MS., Domestic Papers of the Reign of Elizabeth, xvi. § 6 (State Paper Office). 4 Damossell to Somerset, 25th May 1549, MS. In Flanders Correspondence, vol. xvi. (Rolls House Repository).

Progress in But, as the Protector had just then to provide for the payment of a large debt to the Antwerp money-lenders, and might find it expedient to send to the Antwerp market some English fabrics, "it shall be best," he adds, "to have hither 1000 of Winchcombe's karsics."

In these days the old clothing-towns of Berkshire offer to the glance of the passing traveller but few signs of their ancient manufacturing prosperity. Their present importance depends mainly upon the agriculture of the surrounding district, and they wear a somewhat sleepy look, save on market-days. But observant eyes may yet see two evidences, at least, of their old flourishing condition. Many a substantial and stately mansion, built by a thriving clothier, is now subdivided into a number of humble tenements. And the imperceptible almost silent tell in their turn of the ancient character which once gave them a thriving clothing testified their belief that the wealth they had won was not all their own. Nowhere are these evidences more striking than in the birthplace of old "Jack of Newbury."

The short protectorate of Somerset, stirring as it was, is marked in the history of our woollen manufacture by the settlement, at the cost of the Protector himself, of a colony of foreign clothmakers at Glastonbury. Their establishment, on a site hitherto devoted to very different purposes, was one of his first acts after he had obtained the royal grant of some of the rich possessions of the Benedictines. His fall quickly followed the commencement of the enterprise; but amongst the earliest grants made by the privy council out of his forfeited estates were those of L1,000 (a very large sum for such a purpose in those days), "to provide necessaries for the several mysteries and occupations of the strangers at Glastonbury;" and of certain allotments of land "to thirty-six households of the strangers there." Had it not been for the change of circumstances which followed the accession of Mary, the local results of this infant enterprise would probably have been important.

A new era in the woollen and worsted trades opens with the reign of Elizabeth. On the one hand, they were largely promoted by the liberal encouragement given to the Flemish exiles (see Weaving); on the other, they were for a while hampered by many monopolies and restrictions, growing partly out of errors of policy, but mainly out of the avidity of that crowd of brilliant but leech-like courtiers who basked, indeed, in the queen's smiles, but never lost sight of our homely English proverb as to the right use to be made of sunshine.

The history of the "privileges," "licenses," and "monopolies," by which our woollen and worsted manufactures, like so many other branches of industry, were for a while impeded, would form by no means the least curious chapter in the narrative of the rise and progress of British trade,—a story yet really untold, notwithstanding the many books about it,—and would throw light on many things beside. Here, of course, we can give but the briefest glance at this part of the subject.

Amongst the many unsealed stores of our State Paper Office, is a portion of an extensive correspondence between one John Johnson and some of Elizabeth's ministers, more especially Walsingham, about the means of promoting trade, and of making it as profitable as possible to the promoters. Johnson had a fertile brain, and was perpetually suggesting projects for developing, at one time, the trade in wool; at another, the textile manufactures of the country, whilst intent, at all times, on improving the fortunes of his patrons as well as his own.

At this date, the main trade in the export of English woollens was in the hands of the great company of Merchant Adventurers, and a large proportion of their exports was of cloth undressed. Johnson, as the representative of the Merchants of the Staple (whose interest lay in the utmost possible export of the raw material), having vainly endeavoured to obtain some check to the large powers of the Adventurers—who most was then at Antwerp—set to work to persuade the government to remove the staple of cloth from Antwerp to Ipswich. He told the council that by allowing the Adventurers to export undressed cloth, 10,000 or 12,000 people were set off work beyond seas instead of at home. But he acknowledges that the merchants of the Low Countries gave a much needed example to those of England, where, he says, "the untruth used in making of cloth is not only a great offence to God, but also a great offence and enormity to the common weal" whereas abroad, "their clothing is such as no man can be deceived in the buying, the United and they have thereby drawn the traffic of merchants unto them."

But the project of "an English Antwerp" not meeting with the favourable acceptance of the council, Johnson then entreats Walsingham that the Merchants of the Staple may share with the Adventurers in the licenses to export undressed cloths to the Netherlands and by this, he adds, "every one of your honours before named shall have L600 yearly at the least." Their "honours before named" were William Hackett, Barghley, Sir Christopher Hatton, and the Earl of Bedford, all of whom appear to have been "free of the Staple." In another letter he writes,—also to Walsingham,—that he received your honour's of the last advice, proving thereby your honour's liking of the erecting of a staple of cloths in England, to serve cloths to occupy in their art, but your honour would be certified what profit may grow to her Majesty, and what the Merchants of the Staple will give to him that shall procure the same to be brought to pass." To the first question, he answers, that the customs "will be at least L12,000 more than now." To the second he says, "Now, to give anything for the obtaining of such a matter whereby her Majesty shall have so great profit, I perceive no mean nor way;" but he adds, there will proceed benefit unto you, and to me under your honour, in the executing of the office of trust that of necessity belongeth unto the same." This particular project fell to the ground. The system of exporting woollens partly under the privileges of the incorporated companies, partly by licenses granted to favoured individuals, amongst others, to Leicester, Walsingham, and Barghley (of the working and proceeds of whose licences curious particulars may be seen in the State Paper Office), was continued for many years.

Some indication of the extent, under that system, of the foreign Extent of trade in woollen cloth of English manufacture, will be found in the following summary of the customs paid thereon, in the port trade of London, during the first eighteen years of the reign of Eliza—English both:

| Year | Amount of Customs paid on Woollens | |------|-----------------------------------| | 1558-59 | 30,950 | | 1559-60 | 37,228 | | 1560-61 | 27,694 | | 1561-62 | 25,250 | | 1562-63 | 19,645 | | 1563-64 | 19,195 | | 1564-65 | 43,439 | | 1565-66 | 27,872 | | 1566-67 | 23,319 |

About twenty years later, in a paper ascribed (but on doubtful evidence) to Raleigh, it is stated that, on the average, about 80,000 statement undressed and undyed cloths had been annually exported from the England, during the preceding half century, whereby, concludes woollen writer, "L4,000,000 per annum, for fifty-five years past, has been trade, circa lost to the nation, which sum, had the said cloths been dressed and dyed at home, would have been gained, beside the same enlarging of trade by importing materials for dyeing." Moreover, "Mr. Hayes," "there have been yearly exported in that time, in bayes, northern and Devonshire karsics all white, about 50,000 cloths.... Our bayes are sent white to Amsterdam, where they are dressed, dyed, and shipped for Spain and Portugal. There, they are sold by the name of Flemish hayes, so that we lose the very name of our homebred commodities."

Elizabeth's liberality to her courtiers had been occasionally modified by her shrewdness of judgment, and her amenability to better counsel. The profuseness of her successor when giving the Duke away what was not his own encountered no such obstacles. The of Lennox results of Elizabeth's experience in this direction were open to the James, but he learnt nothing from them. An inquirer into the new drapery of our trade can rarely meet with a more significant document than that entitled, Demands of the Right Hon. Lodovick, Duke of Lennox, Patentee to the King's Majesty of the New Draperies. It contains at once a summary of a leading staple trade of the realm, as it then stood, and a pregnant and typical indication of that Stuart policy, the folly of which was equalled only by its paltriness, and by the tenacity with which it was clung to in the face of all warning.

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1 Register of the Privy Council, 5 Edw. VI, 23rd March and 29th Nov. 1551, vol. I, pp. 519, 650, MS. (Privy Council Office). 2 A brief declaration of the profits, honors, and commodites... by the erecting of the... Staple of Cloths in England, &c., MS., Domestic Papers of Eliz., vol. cliv. § 30 (State Paper Office). 3 Johnson to Walsingham, June 1582, ibid., § 31. See also a Memorial, entitled Ipswich out of England, or Antwerps in England, ibid., lxxviii., § 22. 4 Johnson to Walsingham, Dec. 1582, ibid., civi., § 3. 5 A note of the particular somes yearly received for customes within the ports of London, &c., MS., Dom. Papers, ut sup., civi., § 59. (State Paper Office). 6 Select Observations relating to Trade, &c., § 7.

The demands of this ducal "patentee to the king's majesty" on the United craftsmen, the fluctuations of whose trade had repeatedly and notoriously brought large numbers of people to the brink of starvation, and had more than once already put the government itself into great peril, were of four sorts:—(1.) He demanded on forty-five several varieties of fabrics (including satins, bohaisines, mohairs, and worsteds of all sorts), if exceeding the breadth of 6 inches, fourpence for every 64 lb. by weight, and for the alliage (or measuring) of every 24 yards, halfpenny; (2.) On mixed wares (such as darnex or ditto, cottons, linen, silk, and woollen, plain, figured, and lace), the like rates; (3.) On all narrow wares (such as stayslaces, girdleings, gartering, pithwebs, and Norwich laces), a like rate of fourpence by weight, together with "such alliage as the Court of Exchequer shall please to order, as compensation for the ascertainment of the true contents as between buyer and seller;" (4.) On all stockings, woven or knit, of worsteds, Jersey or woollen yarn, string, creemell, and all other stuffs, the like rate, but without alliage.

Litigation between the patentee and the manufacturers.

The worsted weavers objected that "the king's grant and letters patent are not available by law;" the Darnex weavers, that neither subsidy nor alliage is due by them by the laws of the realm; and a like objection was taken by the stocking-knitters. A long litigation ensued, with the natural consequence of great injury, not only to those who were parties to the various suits, but to the entire trade. The patent had been granted in 1606. The litigation was still in progress in 1619. Its voluminous story may be seen in the papers of Sir Julius Cesar (who was then master of the rolls), now preserved in the British Museum.

Under the Stuarts, and during the Commonwealth, both branches of the woollen trade were almost constantly depressed. There were frequent disputes between the Merchants Adventurers and the "interloping" merchants, of which advantage was repeatedly taken during the civil wars for the raising of loans, to be repaid (at least in part) only by the enlargement or confirmation of privileges for exclusive trading. Under the Restoration, the mechanics of Exeter, Brittany, and Holland again claimed the privilege of the adventurers. They stated that, by the restraints recently put upon them, the woollen trade of Devonshire had greatly fallen off. The reply of the company alleged, that the decline of the woollen and worsted trade was solely owing to the want of vent abroad, and that, of their last year's shipments, they had then lying in their warehouses at Hamburgh, unsold, not less than 14,000 stuffs, besides other fabrics, "to the amount of near 30,000 cloths." To such an extent had the growth of the continental manufactures, together with an unwise policy at home, affected the market for English goods.

Of the relative extent of the home and foreign trades in woollens, no very trustworthy account can be given until the date of the Revolution of 1688. At that period some questions of taxation led to the preparation of an official account of the manufacture and consumption of such woollen and worsted fabrics as were in chief demand. This statement is preserved amongst the Lansdowne MSS., and runs thus:—

An Account of Woollen Manufactures Made, Exported, and Consumed, 25th December 1687 to 25th December 1688.

| Nature of Fabric | Total No. made | No. Exported | No. consumed at Home | |------------------|---------------|--------------|----------------------| | Serge, perpetuanos, sayes, and stuffs (Norwich stuffs excepted) | 682,200 | 390,000 | 292,200 | | Kerseys, single dozens, Pencroftes, single bays, Devons, Dunstables, and Dorsets, Spanish cloths, short cloths, double dozens | 266,686 | 88,210 | 178,476 | | Under the denomination of short cloths | 111,150 | 21,392 | 89,758 | | Long cloths | 48,260 | 29,943 | 18,317 | | Minikens bays | 9,000 | 5,660 | 3,940 | | Colchester bays and double bays | 86,000 | 35,565 | 50,435 | | Total (exclusive of capes, camblets, Norwich stuffs, &c.) | 1,203,896 | 570,770 | 633,126 |

It is stated in a note to this paper, that the estimated yearly value Progress in the woollens exported, taking an average of the preceding twenty United Kingdom years, "doth not exceed two millions sterling." Under the government of William, however, it rapidly increased. Gregory King's estimate of the entire value of the woollen manufactures of England at this time is not very distant from that of this official account; Estimated value of L8,900,000, a statement which has been endorsed by many eminent writers on trade, but which is scarcely reconcilable with the document we have quoted.

We have now reached a date at which Yorkshire begins to Growth of occupy an important position in the history of our subject. It the woollens was still very far from the predominant place it holds in our own manufacturing day, but quite as far from the insignificant one which is so curiously indicated in the preamble to an Act of Philip and Mary, West Riding where we read that certain exceptional immunities ought to be granted to the parish of Halifax, "forasmuch as that parish 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, nor good grass but in rare places, ... and the inhabitants ... live by clothmaking, and the greater part of them neither geteth corn, nor is able to keep a horse to carry wools, nor to buy much wood at once, but hath ever used only to repair to the town of Halifax, and some others nigh thereto, and there to buy upon the wool-driver, ... according to their ability, and to carry the same to their houses, some three, four, five, or six miles off, upon their heads and backs," &c. Defoe, in his Tour through Great Britain, written about 1714, bears testimony to the importance of the Halifax manufacture of kerseys, and speaks of the then recent introduction thither of worsted fabrics. A writer of 1741, after describing the productions of certain manufacturing towns of the south-eastern and midland counties, proceeds to say—"Yorkshire hath rivalled them since, by underselling them, and every man decreasing both their trade, and also lowering their prices; they have also robbed the east and west." "Thenceforward, Yorkshire rapidly became the chief seat both of our worsteds and of our woollens.

Some elaborate accounts which were prepared in 1772, for a Select Committee of the House of Commons, afford a comprehensive view the woollen trade, and the aggregate annual value of the manufactures made in Yorkshire and worsted Lancashire from short wool are stated at L1,869,700, and that of trades made from long wool at L1,404,000; making, together, 1772, L3,273,700. The details are as follows:—

**Table I.—Export and Home Consumption of the Woollen and Worsted Manufactures of Yorkshire, 1772.**

| Nature of Fabrics | Export | Home Consumption | Total | |-------------------|--------|-----------------|-------| | Clothing or short wool | 1,248,741 | 12 | 10 | 620,959 | 2 | 9 | 1,869,700 | 15 | 7 | | Combing or long wool | 1,123,200 | 0 | 0 | 280,800 | 0 | 0 | 1,404,000 | 0 | 0 | | Total | 2,371,949 | 12 | 10 | 901,759 | 2 | 9 | 3,273,700 | 15 | 7 |

**Table II.—Estimated Proportions of Raw Materials and of Labour in the Woollen and Worsted Manufactures of Yorkshire, 1772.**

| Materials | Labour | Total | |-----------|--------|-------| | Clothing or short wool | 623,233 | 11 | 10 | 1,246,467 | 3 | 9 | 1,869,700 | 15 | 7 | | Combing or long wool | 234,000 | 0 | 0 | 1,170,000 | 0 | 0 | 1,404,000 | 0 | 0 | | Total | 857,233 | 11 | 10 | 2,416,467 | 3 | 9 | 3,273,700 | 15 | 7 |

One of the most salient features in these tables is the enormous Relative proportion borne by the value of the labour to that of the raw material used in the worsted manufacture. Whilst the wool carded of wovens, and worked into cloth is trebled in its value, that combed, labour as wovens, and finished into stuffs and mixed fabrics is multiplied six-fold. At the date of the estimate, the worsted manufactures of the two branches...

Progress in Yorkshire were computed to employ 84,000 persons; those of the United Norwich and the wide district connected with it, 72,000; making a total of 156,000 persons, women and children included—earning, however, on the average, but from five to six shillings weekly.

We have seen that the annual export of the fabrics of Yorkshire alone was estimated at £1,772, in round numbers, at £2,372,000. That of the fabrics of the remainder of the kingdom was estimated at £1,659,000, making a total value of £4,330,000. Of these exported fabrics, America took about one-fourth; Spain, Portugal, and the Italian States, each about one-eighth; Holland took somewhat less than a tenth; the various German States, collectively, about one-seventeenth. The East Indies took about the same proportion as Germany.

Thenceforward, the history of our woollen and worsted fabrics is closely connected with the development of the powers of machinery: less so, indeed, than that of some other branches of our textile industry, but still in a very important degree. The more curious inventions affecting the manufactures from wool will be noticed in a subsequent section of this article: here we can only indicate results, and that, of necessity, in but a cursory manner.

In the preceding article (WOOL AND WOOL TRADE), we have noticed the false position in which the manufacturers found themselves in relation to the heavy tax on the importation of foreign wool. Their stubborn insistence on the non-exportation of home-grown wool was a weighty and a just obstacle to their endeavours to remove an impost which lay like an incubus on their own industry. In 1820 and 1821, however, they made vigorous efforts to escape from this pressure. They alleged, in petitions to parliament, that the exports of woollen manufactures had decreased in three years by nearly two millions sterling, and those of worsted and mixed wares by nearly three quarters of a million. The general view of the state of the entire foreign trade, as submitted to the legislature in 1821, ran thus:

| Year | Value of Fabrics made from Short Wool only. | Value of Fabrics made from Long Wool only. | Value of mixed Fabrics. | Total value of Exports. | |------|------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|------------------------|------------------------| | 1819 | £5,229,673 | £2,603,854 | £614,532 | £9,047,959 | | 1820 | £4,364,334 | £2,146,381 | £391,972 | £6,899,687 | | 1821 | £3,742,059 | £2,028,925 | £298,180 | £6,279,164 |

The incidents which attended the repeal of the tax on foreign wool have also been noticed in the preceding article (WOOL AND WOOL TRADE). Under free importation, the trade in worsteds and mixed fabrics improved, but only by slow steps. Many adverse circumstances had to be struggled with both abroad and at home. In 1826, the total United Kingdom export of woollen and worsted stuffs was 1,125,308 pieces; in 1827, 1,258,667 pieces. At this point, that class of exports continued nearly stationary, until 1831, when it advanced to 1,487,404 pieces. In 1832, it reached 1,800,714 pieces, and then declined a little for several subsequent years, when it again made considerable and steady progress. In 1831, the United States was our best customer; Germany came next, and then the East Indies and China. In the main, this continued to be the state of the foreign trade in stuffs for a considerable period.

The export of woollen cloth, on the other hand, had contrasted with the fall off materially. In 1816, the number of pieces exported had been 636,368. In 1826, the number had fallen to 384,508 pieces. It then, under free importation of foreign wool, recovered by degrees, but the amount of export of 1816 has never since been permanently attained.

The enormous difference between the fortunes which have attended the cloth trade and the worsted stuff trade, respectively, will be best exhibited in a tabular shape, and may be brought down to the present period. The comparison will stand thus:

### Comparative Export of Woollen Cloth and of Woollen and Worsted Stuff, 1816–1859.

| Fabrics | 1816 | 1826 | 1846 | 1856 | 1859 | |---------|------|------|------|------|------| | Woollen Cloth, Pieces | 636,368 | 384,508 | 288,580 | 651,246 | 574,240 | | Woollen and worsted Stuff, Pieces | 593,308 | 1,138,588 | 1,748,430 | 2,219,090 | 2,721,941 |

Many causes have combined to bring about this striking contrast. In the worsted manufacture, the machinery and this processes have been largely improved; many new materials, combining beauty with comparative cheapness, have been introduced; and the changes in taste and fashion have been assiduously watched, and ingeniously turned to account. In these respects, British worsted manufacturers have had advantages over their foreign rivals which have not fallen to the lot of the woollen manufacturers.

During the last fourteen years, the declared real value of our aggregate exports of woollen and worsted manufactures of all kinds has increased from £6,335,102 to £12,053,708; whilst that of woollen and worsted yarns has increased from £6,088,270 to £3,164,061. The details are as follows:

### Declared Real Value of British Woollen and Worsted Manufactures Exported, 1846 to 1859.

#### Description

| Description | 1846 | 1847 | 1848 | 1849 | 1850 | 1851 | 1852 | |-------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | I. Cloth of all kinds, Coatings, &c. | £1,605,258 | £1,613,048 | £1,222,167 | £1,814,649 | £2,042,492 | £2,572,181 | £2,983,395 | | II. Mixed Stuffs, Flannels, &c. | £1,741,839 | £2,321,622 | £1,840,038 | £2,113,625 | £2,882,607 | £2,822,961 | £3,015,233 | | III. Worsted Stuffs | £2,745,666 | £2,709,639 | £2,342,911 | £2,827,933 | £2,688,042 | £2,673,003 | £2,733,804 | | IV. Other kinds | £242,339 | £251,659 | £225,712 | £286,516 | £324,549 | £303,038 | £298,452 | | **Total of Woollen Fabrics of all kinds** | £6,335,102 | £6,896,038 | £5,733,828 | £7,342,723 | £8,588,690 | £8,377,183 | £8,730,934 | | Woollen and Worsted Yarns | £908,270 | £1,001,364 | £776,775 | £1,090,223 | £1,451,642 | £1,484,544 | £1,430,140 |

#### Description

| Description | 1853 | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | 1859 | |-------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | I. Cloth of all kinds, Coatings, &c. | £2,923,515 | £3,089,334 | £2,371,324 | £2,702,622 | £3,039,788 | £2,548,394 | £2,903,756 | | II. Mixed Stuffs, Flannels, &c. | £3,641,767 | £3,050,548 | £2,503,984 | £3,220,011 | £3,669,324 | £3,388,313 | £4,220,480 | | III. Worsted Stuffs | £3,105,609 | £2,565,474 | £2,968,451 | £2,833,541 | £3,325,564 | £3,326,731 | £4,208,921 | | IV. Other kinds | £500,291 | £415,403 | £474,615 | £684,254 | £647,699 | £513,506 | £718,551 | | **Total of Woollen Fabrics of all kinds** | £10,172,182 | £9,120,759 | £7,718,374 | £9,500,428 | £10,703,375 | £9,776,944 | £12,053,708 | | Woollen and Worsted Yarns | £1,456,786 | £1,557,612 | £2,026,096 | £2,889,642 | £2,941,500 | £2,966,023 | £3,104,061 |

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1 Statements of the Manufacturers, printed by Bischoff, ii. 16. 2 Statistical Abstracts, published by the Board of Trade, passim.

Progress in Leeds, with its surrounding townships, has for several generations held the first place among our clothing towns. Broadcloth, Kingdom, cloaks, beavers, mohairs, cambricets, and tweeds, are conspicuous in the long list of its fabrics. Huddersfield distinguished itself in the Exhibition of 1851 by fine specimens of double-faced cloth (each face of a different colour) and of fancy trouserings. Stroud in Gloucestershire, with Ealington, Stonehouse, and Minchinhampton, may be regarded as the chief centre of the production of West of England broadcloths. Next in importance are Chippenham, Melksham, and Bradford, all in Wiltshire. Trowbridge, too, has a special reputation for its trouserings.

The unquestioned metropolis of the British worsted trade is Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1837, the number of firms engaged in the manufacture in that parish singly was 220; the number of spindles was computed at 421,860; that of powerlooms at 18,761; and that of the persons employed at upwards of 35,000. The quantity of wool worked up annually in Bradford is more than sixteen times greater than it was in 1810. This large growth becomes the more striking, when it is remembered that in the mixed fabrics, which are the staple productions of Bradford, wool constitutes only the weft, whilst the warps are of cotton or of silk. The entire population of Bradford, taking the township only, numbered 6393 in 1801; in 1851 it had increased to 52,493.

Halifax ranks next to Bradford for the production of worsteds of almost every kind, whether plain or figured. For a considerable period, the heavier sorts of fabrics were chiefly produced here; but what is termed the fancy-trade has, for many years past, become increasingly prominent. At the beginning of the present century, calimancoes were a leading article in the local industry of Halifax, and were followed (1811) by moreses; (1819) by bombazines and Norwich types; (1822) by camlets and taborines; (1824) by damasks; (1826) by French merinoses; (1834) by French figured damasks made of single-worsted warp and fine English or merino weft; (1836) by alpaca figured goods; (1838) by figured oreleans, in which a cotton warp was substituted for the worsted warp of the "French figures." The proportional increase in the consumption of wool during the last half century is much larger at Halifax than at Bradford. In 1810, the quantity which drawback was allowed by the Excise was 491,529 lb.; in 1850 it had increased to 14,423,040 lb., or nearly thirty times the quantity consumed forty years before. At this date, the number of worsted firms within the parish of Halifax was 75; that of spindles, 235,921; that of powerlooms, 4040; and that of the workpeople employed, 16,601. The population of the township, which in 1801 was enumerated as 8886, had increased in 1851 to 25,150.

Next in importance, as seats of the worsted manufacture, rank Keighley, Bingley, and Wakefield, all in the West Riding. Colne, in the north-eastern portion of Lancashire, has attained considerable fame for its production of mousselines-de-laine, and of the fabrics called cobourgs.

Norwich, the cradle of the worsted manufacture, continues to produce certain light and elegant fabrics, which are unrivalled in their kind. Its paramattas, made of silk warp and worsted weft, are especially conspicuous. But its trade is small in comparison with that of the northern towns. Kidderminster for a time vied with Norwich in the production of the once fashionable but now obsolete bombazines. At present carpets are the staple of that town, and the number of looms employed on them exceeds 2000.

In 1857, Mr James estimated that of the whole worsted manufacture of England nearly seven-sevenths are produced in the West Riding (taking goods and yarn together), and another ninth part in Lancashire; the remainder being divided amongst the various fabrics of Norwich and the West of England, and the worsted hosiery of Leicester-shire.

Of the aggregate value of the worsted and woollen manufactures of the country, there have been many and very diverse estimates. The importance of those manufactures, both intrinsically and in comparison with the other great branches of our national industry, has for ages been so great as to be well able to dispense with all exaggeration; yet exaggeration has been common. Almost fifty years ago, their value was stated by Mr Stevenson at L18,000,000—a computation greatly in excess of the truth, yet much more moderate than several which had preceded it. In the last edition of this Encyclopaedia, Mr Chapman estimated the then value at somewhat above L28,000,000. This was probably the nearest approximation to the truth which the information then available admitted, and it was certainly based upon elaborate inquiries; yet Progress also erred on the side of excess.

Mr Baines' estimate of the woollen manufacture, taken singly, as it was placed before the British Association in 1858, stood thus:

**Estimate of the Woollen Cloth Trade of the United Kingdom.**

| Item | Value | |------|-------| | (1) 75,903,666 lb. of Foreign and Colonial carding wool; and averaged at 15d. per lb. | L9,717,492 | | (2) 80,000,000 lb. of British wool | | | (3) 45,000,000 lb. of shoddy and mungo wool (30,000,000 lb. at 2½d. per lb., 15,000,000 lb. at 4½d. per lb.) | 609,370 | | (4) Cotton warps and other like materials | 206,537 | | (5) Dyewares, oil, and soap | 1,500,000 | | (6) Wages (150,000 workpeople, averaging 12s. 6d. per week) | 4,875,900 | | (7) Rent, wear and tear of plant, repairs, coal, interest on capital, and profits | 3,331,680 |

Estimated total: L20,290,079

The third item in this estimate is a significant one. It refers to a branch of the woollen trade which is wholly the growth of the present century. In its early days, the novelty was always spoken of, if not with direct reprobation, at least with reserve and distrust. But when shoddy-weaving began to attain an eminent degree of commercial success, it became the fashion to compliment it as "one of the triumphs of art and civilisation."

By "shoddy" is meant the old wool obtained from the rags of soft fabrics, and by "mungo" that obtained from the rags of hard fabrics. The average price per lb. of the former is 2½d.; that of the latter 6d. These rags are torn into fibre by cylindrical machines; of which there were in 1857, 50 in the town of Batley alone, producing about 12,000,000 lb. of rag-wool in a year. The shoddy manufacture is also the staple trade of Dewsbury, and even at Leeds a sufficient number of machines is employed in it to produce some 4,000,000 lb. yearly, which is termed by one recent writer on the woollen trade of the Leeds district, "adding 400,000 fleecees to the annual stock of wool." This rag-wool is mixed with fresh wool in various proportions, according to the nature of the fabric and the convenience of the manufacturer, and with the inevitable result of adding to the number of the deceits of trade.

"No honest manufacturer," says Mr McCulloch, "will, of course, substitute old for new wool in the manufacture of any sort of goods, without apprising his customer of the fact." But this, he adds, "is all that he is required to do." It is told of some early makers of "Dutch bays," that when, from accidental imperfections, their goods fell below the average quality, the deficiency was carelessly estimated, and those fabrics were exposed for sale at the ordinary prices, but with such coins attached to them as were sufficient to compensate the purchaser. We doubt, however, if the example has been followed in any fashion by the dealers in shoddy goods. The machinery which has given so vigorous an impulse to their trade is a marvel of ingenuity, but it imparts additional point to the old maxim—"Caveat emptor!"

Of the aggregate value of the worsted branch of our woollen manufactures, two estimates have been recently made from index of the annual inquiries. At first sight, their disparity seems considerable, nul value but the difference is chiefly owing (1) to the variations in the price of the wool, and (2) to the rapid growth of the manufacture, even in worsted the brief interval between 1852 and 1857:

**Estimates of the Aggregate Value of the Worsted Manufactures of the United Kingdom.**

I. Forbes' Estimate, 1852.

| Item | Value | |------|-------| | (1) 15,000,000 lb. Colonial and Foreign combing wool at 1s. 9d. | L1,312,500 | | (2) 60,000,000 lb. British do. at 1s. 2d. | 3,500,000 | | (3) Cotton and silk warps, dye-wares, soap, oil, &c. | 1,500,000 | | (4) Wages | 3,000,000 | | (5) Rent, wear and tear of plant, repairs, coal, interest of capital, and profits | 3,187,500 |

Estimated total: L12,500,000

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1 James, History of the Worsted Manufacture, 609, 610. These numbers are based on actual returns from all the townships which compose the parish of Bradford, those of Thornton, Clayton, and Howarth excepted, in respect to which previous returns of the year 1850 were used. 2 James, ut supra, 618. 3 Ibid. 543. 4 McCulloch, Dictionary of Commerce (1859), 1429. 5 Forbes, Lecture before the Society of Arts, ut supra.

Numbers II. James' Estimates, 1857.

(1) 15,000,000 lb. Colonial and Foreign combing wool at 2s. 8d. ........................................ L2,600,000 (2) 85,000,000 lb. British do. at 1s. 8d. ........................................ 7,438,500 (3) Cotton and silk warps, dye-wares, soap, oil, &c. ........................................ 1,700,000 (4) Wages ........................................ 3,061,500 (5) Rent, wear and tear of plant, repairs, coals, interest of capital, and profit ........................................ 3,900,000

Estimated total ........................................ L18,000,000

If we take the estimate of Mr Baines for the woollen branch, and that of Mr James for the worsted branch, which estimates are very nearly identical in date, we obtain an aggregate of L38,000,000; and it has to be borne in mind, that during the last twenty years, the quantity of foreign and colonial wool remaining for home consumption, after deducting the shipments for export, has been more than doubled, in addition to the considerable increase of home-grown wool.

III.—NUMBERS AND CONDITION OF THE WORK-PEOPLE EMPLOYED ON THE MANUFACTURES OF WOOL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The census of 1851 assigns to the woollen and worsted manufactures collectively, 295,568 persons, including in the enumeration wool-staplers, salesmen, drapers, and dealers of all kinds. Probably about 170,000 of these may be assigned to the woollen branch, and 125,000 to the worsted branch.

It is estimated that in the cloth manufacture there are as many people employed out of factories as within them, and that the people actually engaged on the production, as distinguished from the distribution, of cloth of all sorts, amount in the aggregate to 150,000. It has been further estimated upon good evidence, that each of these workers and their families supports from three to four persons, so that the number actually dependent on the woollen manufacture may be taken approximately at 525,000 persons.

In the worsted manufacture, factory labour is predominant, and the number of women and children employed is proportionally in excess. In England alone, the number of worsted factories in 1856 was 511; and that of the work-people employed in them, 86,690. The total number of work-people employed on worsted fabrics may, perhaps, be fairly taken at 120,000, and the number of persons dependent on the workers as averaging five to every two of the latter. By this computation, the whole number of persons dependent on the worsted branch will amount to 300,000, and the aggregate number dependent on both branches together to 825,000.

The same peculiarities in the cloth manufacture which have restricted—speaking comparatively—the introduction of machinery, wages have also tended to lessen those extreme fluctuations in the rate of wages which so conspicuously mark the history of other branches of our textile industry. The period from 1805 to 1815 was, to some extent, an exceptional one in all departments. The improvements in spinning had then enormously increased the production of yarn, and weavers, for a time, were enabled to make their own terms. In worsted-weaving, and, most of all, in cotton-weaving, the labours of women and children soon supplanted that of men; but many kinds of cloth-weaving continue to be emphatically a man's work, and to be paid for accordingly. The following interesting table, exhibiting the rate of wages in the Leeds woollen district from 1795 to 1858, was communicated by Mr Baines to the statistical section of the British Association in 1858. It is based on the wages-books of an eminent firm at Leeds:

Wages in the Leeds Woollen District, 1795 to 1858.

| Description of Work-People | Present Weekly Hours of Labour | How Paid | Amount of Weekly Wages, on the average, in the several Years | |---------------------------|-------------------------------|----------|----------------------------------------------------------| | Sorters (men) | 54 | Piece work | 1855: 24 20 28 22 24 9 29 3 37 31 1 30 6 20 8 22 6 | | Slubbers, do. | 60 | Do. | 1855: 24 20 28 22 24 9 29 3 37 31 1 30 6 20 8 22 6 | | Spinners, do. | 60 | Do. | 1855: 24 20 28 22 24 9 29 3 37 31 1 30 6 20 8 22 6 | | Powerloom weavers (women) | 12 | 9 | 1855: 24 20 28 22 24 9 29 3 37 31 1 30 6 20 8 22 6 | | Handloom do. (men) | 15 | 0 | 1855: 24 20 28 22 24 9 29 3 37 31 1 30 6 20 8 22 6 | | Millers (men) | 62½ | By the week | 18 to 20 | 1855: 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 | | Do. foremen | 62 | Place work | | 1855: 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 | | Dyers (men) | 58½ | By the week | 16 to 18 | 1855: 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 16 to 18 | | Do. foremen | 58 | Do. | 1855: 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 35 to 60 | | Dressers (men) | 64 | Do. | 1855: 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 20 to 21 | | Do. (young men and boys) | 60 | Do. | 1855: 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 6 to 16 | | Do. foremen | 64 | Do. | 1855: 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 25 to 30 |

Another and independent estimate of the wages in the Leeds district, based on returns obtained also in 1858, from the several factories, by Mr Baker, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors, gave an average for every worker employed in spinning and weaving, of 11s. 7½d. weekly; for every worker employed in the finishing processes, of 15s. weekly; and for every worker employed on "shoddy," of 6s. 0½d. weekly. The details are as follows:

Statistics of the Woollen Manufacture of Leeds, 1858.

| No. of Firms | Nature of the Business | Nominal horse-power | No. of Spindles | No. of Gigs | No. of Looms | No. of Bag Machines | No. of Persons employed | Yearly Aggregate | Weekly average for each person employed | |--------------|------------------------|---------------------|----------------|-------------|--------------|---------------------|------------------------|------------------|----------------------------------------| | 68 | Manufacture | 1936 | 8540 | 850 | 952 | ... | 3636 | 110,120 | 11 7½ | | 48 | Finishing | 860 | ... | 850 | ... | 6209 | 254,215 | 15 0 | | | 12 | Shoddy | 128 | ... | ... | 16 | 348 | 5,760 | 6 0 | | | 128 | Total | 2924 | 8640 | 850 | 952 | 16 | 10,193 | 370,095 | |

The average wages, per worker, in nine worsted mills within the same district, were 10s. 5½d. There were at this date (1858) still about 200 hand loom worsted-weavers, earning, like those employed on woollens, about 15s. weekly on the average.

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1 James, History of the Worsted Manufacture, 543. 2 Baines, "On the Woollen Manufacture," &c., Journal of the Statistical Society, ut supra, 25. 3 Baker, "Industry and Sanitary Economy of Leeds," Ibid. 435, 437.

In the Bradford district, the wages of powerloom worsted weavers average 10s. weekly; those of wool-sorters, about 22s. and Worsted Manu-facturers in where, the worst paid class of worsted operatives is the woollencomber, whose employment is also essentially unhealthy; but it is one which machinery is gradually superseding.

On the most important point of sanitary condition, all that can be said to the advantage of the woollen and worsted towns is, that although their improvement is slow, they do improve. By far the worst incidents which attend the manufacturing employment are everywhere remediable ones. It is lamentable to find, in the tables of the Registrar General, that from 1841 to 1850 the rate of mortality in the Bradford district amounted to 25 deaths, and that in Leeds to 30 deaths, annually, out of every 1000 persons. But there is consolation in the certainty that, by very simple and practicable sanitary arrangements, such rates may be largely reduced. What has been achieved already in the amelioration of the condition, both physical and social, of the work-people employed on textiles, under the influence of the various Factory Acts, is of good omen for other improvements to come.

IV.—PROGRESS OF WOOLLEN AND WORSTED MANUFACTURES IN FRANCE.

Prior to the reign of Henry IV., France derived the greater part of its woollen cloth from England, Spain, and the Netherlands. Its own manufactures were petty and enslaved to routine. The clothiers had a sort of hereditary succession, and each of them esteemed it almost a sacred duty to adhere to the processes of his forefathers. To these obstacles the wars of religion added others. It was not until the League was destroyed and the Edict of Nantes promulgated, that manufacturing industry struck a firm root in France. The triumph of intolerance in Spain aided its growth. When Philip III., drove away the poor remnant of the Moors of Granada, the fugitives established themselves at Carcassonne, and other towns of the South of France, and set to work at cloth-making.

Under Louis XIII., and during the minority of his successor, the progress of the infant manufacture was checked. Neither Richelieu nor Mazarin cared much about textile industry. The task of developing its latent powers was reserved for Colbert. He brought Gosse Van Rehais from Holland (1665), established him at Abbeville, and gave him large privileges "for the manufacture of fine cloths, after the manner of those of Spain and of Holland." A few years later, like privileges were given to Ricard, Langlois, and others, of Louviers (1681). From being a poor hamlet, Louviers soon became an important town, and its rise awakened the emulation of Elbeuf. By the middle of the following century, the trade of cloth-making, notwithstanding its share in the evil influences of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and of the wretched misgovernment of Louis XV., had thriven sufficiently to enable Savary des Bruslons to assert, with some show of plausibility, in his Dictionnaire de Commerce, that "the kingdom is now in a condition to dispense entirely with the fine cloths of the English and the Dutch." But it is certain that at this period the prosperity of the woollen manufactories of France was very unequal. The carpets and tapestries of the Savonnerie, of the Gobelins, of Beauvais, and of Aubusson (largely assisted by royal grants and special immunities), commanded universal admiration, but the cloths of Louviers, of Sedan, and of Abbeville, scarcely kept their ground in the markets of the world.

The subsequent history of the woollen trade of France is pregnant with instruction, but the limits of an article like this do not admit of our retracing it, even briefly. It must suffice to observe that, with a short interval under the treaty of 1786, the French manufacturers have been uniformly propped up by a prohibitory tariff against the competition of foreign fabrics. They have had an abundant supply of the raw material from the best sources, and have displayed skill in the manufacture of it so admirable, that for a long period an English tailor made it a point of conscience not to make out his bill without inserting "a coat of French cloth," even when scarcely a single piece of French cloth was imported. And yet, notwithstanding so many intrinsical advantages, the history of the woollen manufactures of France affords conclusive proof of the suicidal nature of a protectionist policy.

The chief centres of the French manufacture are, for cloth of all Chief sorts, Elbeuf; for fine black cloths and fancy fabrics, Sedan and centres of Louviers (where, also, yarn is largely spun for the Elbeuf market); French for common cloths, tablecovers, and the like, Vienne, Nancy, woollen Metz, Orleans, Carcassonne, and the adjacent districts; and, for Industry, worsteds and mixed fabrics, Reims and its neighbourhood, and Limoges.

Of the total value of the French woollen and worsted manufactures, the estimates have been far more discordant than even those estimates which have been put forth respecting the English manufactures of the For example, in an elaborate work on the commerce of France, French published in 1857, they are put at L10,000,000 sterling. In a minute treatise on custom's tariffs, published in 1860, a document is quoted, ture according to which they amount to nearly L40,000,000. Such computations are obviously worthless. The only trustworthy data are those afforded by the tables of exports.

In 1857, the total exports of woollen and worsted fabrics amounted to 179,984,802 francs (L7,199,392), and they are thus made up:—(The arrangement is that of the French Department of Commerce.)

| French Woollens and Worsteds, including tissues of Hair, exported in 1857. | |-----------------------------|------------------| | Tablecovers, &c. | 2,811,124 | | Carpets | 1,039,138 | | Kerseys | 194,040 | | Merinoos | 22,328,673 | | Cloths | 44,373,155 | | Sheds of various kinds | 44,139,719 | | Shawls | 17,724,789 | | Lace | 58,860 | | Woollen caps, &c. (Boumestere) | 4,209,013 | | Ribands and small wares | 1,736,834 | | Mixed fabrics | 40,148,424 | | Cashmere shawls | 424,938 | | Other Cashmere fabrics | 8,190 | | Carpets and tablecovers | 92,505 | | Horsehair tissues | 506,838 | | Other fabrics of Hair | 141,738 |

Total export: 179,984,802

The details of the exports of the year 1853 are not before us, but their total amount had fallen to 138,000,000 francs. In the same year the value of the foreign wool imported into France was L1,000,000, of which somewhat more than one-third was imported from the United Kingdom. The actual value of the French woollen goods exported to the United Kingdom in 1853, was L1,095,041 or 27,376,181 francs.

V.—PROCESSES OF THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE.

In the article Weaving, we had occasion to notice how strikingly the textile industry of Britain, in its early stages, was indebted to foreigners for the chief improvement of its processes. That statement is as applicable to our manufactures of wool as to those of any other textile material. British inventiveness has since discharged the debt with very liberal interest, and can well afford to acknowledge the historical obligation. But there is another acknowledgment exacted of the truthful annualist which cannot be made without some repugnance, yet for making which there are reasons which have a special relevancy to our woollen trade, and to its present circumstances.

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1 Tableau général du Commerce de la France pour l'année 1857, pp. 293-297. 2 Returns of Exports from the United Kingdom to France, printed 6th March 1860, Sessional Paper, No. 137. The early records of our industry abound with allusions to the "untruthful making" of English fabrics. As we have indicated already, some allowance is to be made from testimony, which has often a close relation to questions of commercial rivalry. But there is ample independent evidence which leads to the conviction that some of the earliest efforts of our industrial ingenuity were directed, not to the production of good fabrics, but to the clever dressing up of bad fabrics, so that they might pass for goods.

In the third of those memorable sermons before King Edward VI., which depict the national life of that reign less lucidly than they mirror one of its master-minds, Latimer thus adverted to the practices of the woollen craftsmen of his day—"I hear say there is certain cunning come up in mixing of wares. How say you, were it not a wonder to hear that clothmakers had become apothecaries? If his cloth be 17 yards long, the maker will set him on a rack and stretch him out with ropes, and rack him till the shawls shrink again, while he hath brought him to 18 yards. When they have brought him to that perfection, they have a pretty feast to thicken him again. He makes me a powder for it, and plays the apothecary; they call it 'flock-powder.' They do so incorporate it with the cloth that it is wonderful to consider; truly a good invention! Oh, that so godly wits should be so ill applied! They may well deceive the people, but they cannot deceive God."

As God said to the Jews, "Thy house is mingled with water," so might he have said to us of this land, "Thy cloth is mingled with flock-powder." The contemporary witness of the curious tract, entitled The Request and Suite of a true-hearted Englishman (William Chamberlain), repeats Latimer's warning in words very similar to some of those of the excellent bishop. "We do not," he says, "apply our good wits to the searching out of good knowledge, but to the inventing of subtle deceit." In another paper submitted to the Privy Council in the reign of Elizabeth, the writer gives a minute account of the particular deceits most prevalent in the several cloth-making districts. "Flocks, chalk, and other ointment cast upon cloth is," he says, "especially used in the northern parts, where no true cloths are made. . . . For colours [i.e. deceitful colours], Kent is most infected, but not for stretching. Suffolk for Barbury blues, is equal or worse. The town of Reading doth follow. All the coloured cloth made in the North is worst of all." Schools for putting down these frauds were repeatedly called for. In 1570, one such project was sent to Leicester, and was by him forwarded to Cecil, as tending so much to the necessary reformation of such an enormity. "If it were a while longer will greatly hinder the whole commodity of this realm, standing chiefly on clothing."

Twenty years later, however, similar complaints are as rife as ever. In 1590, for example, the Privy Council Register contains a letter from the Council to the Earl of Huntingdon, which recites, that whereas "there have been great complaints of chopping of flocks and rubbing the same into cloth by the greatest part of the clothiers in the county of York," certain persons are to be appointed in that county "to deface, cut in pieces, or burn all such blocks or boards as have been or are used for chopping of flocks."

But the most effectual remedy proved to be that unforeseen one brought gradually into operation by the foolish policy which continued to drive away from the old seats of the woollen manufacture on the Continent their most skilful artisans. The inventive ingenuity of many of the new comers at length directed them to homestead clothiers into a better channel, and then improvements followed improvements in quick succession. To retrace these in their order would be an interesting task, but the briefest narrative would exceed the limits of an article like this. We must content ourselves with describing the more important processes of the manufacture in its present condition, first enumerating all the processes which are incident to cloth-making, in their usual order.

The first operation of course is that of (1) sorting the wool. Then follows (2) scouring; (3) washing; (4) dyeing; (5) dyeing, when dyed in the wool; (6) willying; (7) teasing; (8) oiling; (9) mooting; (10) scribbling; (11) plucking; (12) carding and slubbing; (13) spinning; (14) reeling; (15) warping; (16) sizing; (17) weaving; (18) scouring; (19) dyeing, when piece-dyed; (20) burling; (21) milling, or fulling; (22) scouring again; (23) drying or tentering; (24) raising, dressing, or teasing; (25) shearing or cutting; (26) boiling; (27) brushing; (28) pressing; (29) shearing again; (30) plying, drawing, and marking; (31) pressing again; (32) steaming; (33) folding or packing. Of these multifarious processes, we mention in detail, though only as seem to need explanation, and have not been sufficiently elucidated in preceding articles. (See, especially, DYING, SPINNING, and WEAVING.)

The scouring of wool, in the West of England invariably, and in Yorkshire generally, is effected as follows. Stale urine, called in the west of England a "ley," is mixed with a small quantity of water, and heated to about 120°. In this detergent the wool is washed. On removal, it is placed in a wire basket, and submitted to the operation of running water, by which the grease and other impurities are washed away. By some manufacturers of Yorkshire the wool is washed with warm soap and water, and, after receiving a second washing in clean water, to free it from the soap, is passed through strong iron rollers, by which the wool is pressed nearly dry. The business of scouring or washing is performed by men; and, by the first process, two are capable of cleaning two packs in a day.

Cloth, other than white cloth, is either "wool-dyed" or "piece-dyed." Of the former, the dyeing is the first process after washing. The larger manufacturers themselves dye all the common colours, such as browns and olives; but the true or woaded colours, such as blue, wool-black, and green, can only be well done by those who make their special business. The small manufacturers send all colours to the dyers. The prices paid for dyeing vary according to the colours. Piece-dyed cloths are sent to the dyeing-house after fulling and scouring. (See DYING.)

Delivered to the mill, the wool (dyed or undyed, as the case may be) is next submitted to the first of a series of machines, all of them admirably adapted to perform their respective parts in the production of the woven fabric. This first machine is called the willy, or the shakewilly in Yorkshire, and the twilly in Gloucestershire. Both seem to be a corrupt mode of pronouncing "willow;" and even willow is probably a corruption of "wimow," meaning the wool being really the office it performs.

There are various kinds of willying machines in use, but the best Willying appears to be the conical willy, first applied to the cleansing of cotton. The willy consists of a revolving cone, armed with four rows of iron spikes, strongly fixed to four longitudinal bars, which are fastened to three concentric wheels of different diameters, the common axis of which forms the shaft of the machine. This cone revolves at the rate of from 300 to 500 revolutions per minute within a casing cylinder, armed with similar spikes, but placed so as to alternate with the spikes on the cone. At the small end of the cone is a conical covering of thin sheet-iron, and at the large end is a gridding plate.

The machine is fed by means of an endless apron, the wool entering at the smaller end, so that when most entangled it is subjected to the least motion. This apron is a great improvement on former machines, which were filled by hand,—an operation attended with danger, and sometimes resulting in accidents. By the revolutions of the cylinder the wool is torn, disentangled, and cleansed; and by the gradually increasing centrifugal force, it is impelled forwards towards the large end of the cone, encountering in its way increased motion, which, however, it is the better able to bear by becoming less entangled at every revolution.

When the wool thus reaches the base of the cone, it is tossed into a chamber, where it is received upon another endless apron, moving in a direction from the machine instead of towards it. Over this apron is a cylindrical wire cage, which revolves on an axle disposed parallel to the apron, and immediately outside it is a revolving fan. Both these are covered and protected by sheet-iron casings, but communicate with the chamber which receives the wool from the cone. When the whole is at work, the fan, drawing the dust out of the chamber, blows it through a chimney pipe, connected with the machine for the purpose. The cage prevents the escape of the wool with the dust, and by its passage over the apron it lays down the wool in a continuous fleece.

The coarser wools, destined for common cloths, are willied more than once; for instance, before as well as after dyeing, and after oiling and before being scribbled. The finer wools do not, however, require this, as the operation of scribbling is sufficient preparation for carding.

In the West of England the wool is beaten with wooden rollers by women, after which it is placed on a wire screen or hurdle, and Moating, pulled with the hands, so as to get rid of any burrs, or pitch, or other dirt which may not have been separated by the willy. In Yorkshire the wool is picked by a boy, called a wool-mooter. If this be not done, the scribbling machine is injured by the lumps of pitch which are so frequently found in wool.

The wool is next oiled for the scribbling machine, three or four pounds of Gallipoli oil being intimately mingled with twenty pounds of wool. A man can oil about twenty score, that is, about 400 lbs. in a day.

The process of scribbling differs but little from that of carding;

Processes of the Woollen Manufacture.

The only difference being that the machine is coarser, and that the wool is delivered in a continuous fleece, instead of narrow bands or slivers. The object of both is further to separate and open out the fibre, and even to tear it asunder. Both processes should, if successfully performed, equalize the quantity of wool in a given length of cardings. In order that the disentangling and separating of the wool may be as complete as possible before it is moved from the scribbling to the carding engine, it is sometimes made to undergo the scribbling process two or even three times.

The wool-carding engine consists of one large cylinder or card-drum, surrounded by other and smaller cylinders, called archins, covered with card-cloth armed with carding-wires (fig. 1). The larger of the two is called the worker, and the smaller the cleaner, which revolves at a greater speed. At one end of the engine is an endless feeding-apron, upon which equal portions, by weight, of the oiled wool is evenly spread by hand. This apron, by its motion towards the engine, delivers the wool through a series of feed-rollers, which distribute it upon the card-drum. From this the wool is gradually stripped, as it were fibre by fibre, by the first worker, whereupon it is received by the first cleaner, and by it again deposited in the card-drum. This is twice repeated, so that the disentanglement and separation of the fibre becomes more and more complete. When it has passed over the last cylinder on to the drum, it is taken from it by a cylinder somewhat larger than the workers, and called a doffer; from which again the wool is scraped off by a doggy-knife, or comb, and is drawn by a pair of rollers, fixed at the side of the frame, through a revolving tube, which imparts an amount of false twist to the sliver. The wool is then returned between a lower pair of rollers to the top machine in front of the engine, which is arranged so as to form a lap 16 inches diameter, and 4 inches wide. When the required length of sliver is wound on, notice is given by a bell, and if not attended to, another movement doffs the lap, so as to ensure each one being of a uniform length.

These narrower laps are placed side by side upon rods, so as to form four rows, as shown in fig. 1, (each row being of the whole width of the engine), which are turned off into the engine by the unlapping-rollers. Each sliver passes through a guide or reed, as it enters the feeding-rollers, to keep it in its proper place. The quantity of sliver thus put up at the feeder end of the machine will last a whole day. The wool having passed through the engine, and been carded in the usual way, is removed from the main cylinder by the condenser-doffer, which is provided with rings of cards and alternate blank spaces, so that the wool which is left upon the cylinder by the top doffer is removed by the lower one. The stripper-rollers take the bands of wool from the doffers, after which they pass between the doubled endless twin rollers, so as in order to receive that degree of false twist which enables them to carry forward to be spun. They then pass between the delivery-rollers to the bobbins, on which they are lapped by the friction of contact with the drum. When the bobbins are filled, they are removed direct to the mule, where they are unlapped in a similar manner.

The intermediate processes, between the scribbling of the wool and the scouring of the woven fabric, have been sufficiently described in the specific articles to which we have already referred.

After the cloth comes from the loom, and before it can undergo any other process, it is necessary to scour it, in order to get rid of the oil and size to which the wool and yarn have been subjected in the preparatory processes. This is performed at the mill, in a somewhat rude machine called the stocks, and consisting of a pair of wooden mallets, worked alternately by a cog-wheel. The cloth is exposed to the stroke of the mallet in an inclined trough, the cloth being curved, so that the tendency of the stroke is to turn the cloth round and round, and different portions are alternately exposed to the operation of the hammers. At first soap or some other detergent is used, but at last a stream of pure water is let in upon it.

It is now carried to the drying-room or tenter-ground, and stretched upon a vertical rail or tenter-hooks, where it is left to dry in the extended state. The lower rail of the tenter-frame is made to slide, so that the cloth may acquire the requisite degree of tension.

The cloth thus cleansed and dyed is delivered over to the burlers, who pick out all irregular threads, hairs, or dirt of whatever kind, which may remain in the fabric. This process is called burling, and to perform it, the cloth is examined both on the surface and through the web against a strong light. In the larger factories a room is assigned to the business of burling; but in the cloth-villages of the West Riding, during the summer months, the process is carried on by the wayside and in lanes, on walls and on hedges.

The cloth is now ready for the operation of the fulling-mill, Milling, which, like the scouring-stocks, is furnished with mallets driven by a cog-wheel; but the milling-trough has a square instead of a circular end, so that the cloth receives the direct blow of the mallets, and is not made to escape from the blow by the operation itself. The stroke of the mallets is extremely heavy, but it does not injure the cloth, on account of the multitude of folds. This greater force, as compared with the scouring-stocks, is produced by the hanging of the hammers. The shafts of the scouring-stocks are nearer to the perpendicular, so as to cause the mallets to move more horizontally, and therefore with less velocity. They are hence called hanging stocks, while those of the fulling-mill are called fulling stocks.

Improvement has found its way into this branch of the cloth-manufacture as well as into others. The old fulling-mill was of wood; but such machines have long been constructed of iron, with much more accuracy, and work with greater precision. The best of these is the invention of Messrs Williams and Ogilve of Leeds. The bed of this machine is hollow, so as to form a steam-chest, connected by a pipe with a boiler, so as to keep up the degree of heat necessary to the perfection of the fulling or felting process. But the great improvement of this machine is a contrivance for altering the form of the trough against which the cloth receives the stroke of the mallet. This consists of a moveable curved plate, traversing on a fixed hinge-road at the bottom of the trough. The upper edge of this curved plate is capable of being advanced towards or withdrawn from the mallets, by means of a screw-rod attached to its back. By this means the directness, and therefore the force of the stroke is altered so as to suit the different qualities of cloth.

To the felting property of wool we have already alluded. By the united operations of beating, heat, and moisture, the minutely jagged surfaces of the fibres of the wool are made intimately to cohere, and form, not a mere woven tissue like cotton, flax, or silk, but a felted homogeneous mass, similar to the paper on which we print. If a piece of cloth be cut, it will not unravel; the tissue is almost lost under the thick felted surface imposed upon it; and the weaving seems less to give a character to the fabric than to impart the requisite degree of strength. Superfine cloths have four fullings of three hours each, a thick solution of soap is spread between each layer of cloth every time. Scouring is aided by fuller's earth, which is found in England being said to be superior to any other. Rinsing with clear water completes the process, which diminishes the width of the cloth between 40 and 45 per cent., and the length about 35 per cent. After every impurity is washed out, the cloth is again stretched upon the tenters until it is completely dry.

The cloth next undergoes the operation of teasing, by which Teasing, the loose fibres of the wool are raised to the surface, so as to form, when duly cut or sheared, the pile or nap. For this purpose the teazel, a species of thistle (Dipsacus fullonum) is employed. This useful plant is cultivated in the clothing-counties, and especially in Somersetshire.

Formerly the teazel was fixed in a hand-frame, and worked by two men in the manner of a two-handled brush or hand-card; but for many years the gig-mill has been employed, in which the teazles are arranged in a circle, and the cloth being stretched on two cloth-beams, one above and one below the teazel cylinder, the cloth moving in a direction contrary to its revolutions, its surface is exposed to the operation of the teazles. In the older gig-mills, the cylinder was completely bristled with the teazles; but in the modern mills they are arranged in longitudinal frames parallel to the axis of the cylinder, with equal spaces between each frame, like the teeth of an immense reel. The mode in which the cloth is stretched on the beams is shown in the annexed diagram (fig. 2), which is a section view of the beams and cylinders, without the framework which supports the machine. The arrows show the direction of the cloth and of the cylinder, on the outer circumference of which are seen the ends of the frames in which the teazles are made fast. It will now be easily understood that, by the rapid revolution of the cylinder, and the slower motion of the cloth in a contrary direction, the loose fibres of the wool are brought to the surface. The longitudi-

Fig. 1.

Processes of the Woollen Manufacture.

The processes of the woollen manufacture can be removed from the cylinder at pleasure, and when the teasles become clogged with wool, they are removed and cleaned with a comb by children.

He teasles, a series of longitudinal teasle-cards take the place of the ordinary teasles; these teasle-cards rest on a spring, which gives them elasticity, and prevents any damage to the cloth. The teeth incline slightly in the direction of the line of motion, and they are cleaned by a wheel similar to the cleaner of a wool-card. In the Exhibition of 1851, an improved gig-mill was shown by Mr E. Hunt, which, by rolling on both sides, finished the teasle dressing process without removing the cloth from the machine, and performed an increased quantity of work.

The mode of winding the cloth from one roller to another has also varied from time to time, still varies in different factories, and has even been made the subject of a patent by Mr Walker of Mill-Shaw, near Leeds. Mr Walker's improvement consisted of five rollers instead of three. Two are immediately over the cylinder. The lower one brings the cloth close to it. The effect of this lower roller is to cause the cloth to be operated upon by a greater number of the rows of teasles, as the cloth touches the cylinder for about one-fifth of its circumference. It then passes round another roller and ascends to a third pair, round one of which it is wound. The dotted lines in the above figure show this improvement.

Shearing.

When the fibre has thus been brought to the surface, the pile so raised is cropped or sheared. This, like all the other operations of clothmaking, was formerly performed by hand, a large pair of shears being employed for the purpose. But the disposition to apply machinery to every process of manufacture was not here neglected; and in the early part of this century a machine was invented, in which the shears were retained, but all their motions were regulated by machinery. The cloth was stretched horizontally on a frame, by means of two cloth beams or rollers situated at each end of the lower part of the frame. Two pairs of shears were then so fixed as to clip the surface of the cloth, being moved by two small cranks. Upon this first machine there have been many improvements; but it will be sufficient to describe one of them, which has the merit of being extremely simple. It is the invention of Mr George Oldland of Hilseley in Gloucestershire, and was patented in 1832. It will be readily understood from the annexed figure, which represents the machine in operation against a piece of cloth. The machine consists of a fixed semicircular rack, within or rather behind which is a cutting edge, called by the inventor a ledger-blade; and a large revolving wheel, armed with eight small cutting discs, which, being in contact with the ledger-blade, form when in motion a series of very delicate shears than had heretofore been applied to the process of cloth-shearing.

It will be observed that each cutting disc has a toothed pinion, working in the semicircular rack, which, as the larger wheel revolves, imparts to the cutting discs an independent rotatory motion, in addition to their revolution with the large wheel. These motions have not inaptly been likened to those of a planet round its axis and its orbit. Another machine in use consists of an iron cylinder, around which is a spiral cutting blade, which is made to revolve with great rapidity, cutting the pile of the cloth immediately in contact beneath it, the cloth being stretched in a longitudinal moving frame.

Superfine cloths are cut and raised several times. In the West of England the first raising is called roughing, in which process the cloth is torn by the teasles both ways. After being sheared, it is subjected to the gig-mill in one direction only, which is called scouring. It is afterwards cut and teasled several times.

In most cases the cloth is subjected to an operation which imparts great lustre to it, and at the same time prevents its spotting when used. This operation is called roll-boiling. Its introduction may be said to have opened a new era in the cloth manufacture. The lustrous and permanent face is imparted by rolling the cloth, before being racked or tentered, round a cylinder, with a moderate degree of tightness, and immersing it in scalding water for two or three hours. It is then taken out and allowed to cool; the operation being repeated several times. This is the essence of dressing. This roll-boiling process was patented by Messrs Daniell and Wilkinson of Tiverton near Bath, in 1824, and was improved by Mr William Hirst of Leeds. It seems, indeed, to be doubtful whether the invention was first used in Gloucestershire or in Yorkshire.

As usually happens in the course of mechanical improvement, the roll-boiling method led to many other improvements. It was found, for example, that the practice of dyeing the cloth in the piece did not work well with the improved fabrics, and thus an impulse was given to the far better method of dyeing in the wool.

There are in use, chiefly, perhaps, among continental manufacturers, shorter methods of obtaining a permanent face than that ceaseless which has just been described. By some, the cloth is rolled tightly obtaining round a hollow perforated cylinder heated by steam. By others, a permanent the cloth is folded, subjected to powerful pressure, and the permanent face, rated with steam throughout its bulk. But neither plan is so good as that of Daniell and Wilkinson, to whom also is owing the improved beaver-clowning process," patented in 1833. This fabric is both plausible and durable. On one side it is coarse and warm; on the other, it is of the finest material that is woven.

The brushing process is effected by a series of brushes affixed to Brushing cylinders. In its passage, the cloth is exposed to steam, which escapes in minute jets from a copper box, extending the whole length of the machine. For this purpose the cloth is made into an endless web by stitching its ends together.

Before the final brushing, "morzing," or finishing, the cloth is Pickling closely examined, picked, fine-drawn, and marked. The picking removes the blemishes; the fine-drawing closes any minute breaks in the fabric; the marking works in with silk the usual trade-marks indicative of quality, number, and the like.

The pile is then again brushed; and after its final dressing it is Pressing subjected to the hydraulic press,—polished pressing-boards, similar to those used for books, being placed between the several folds of the cloth, and two iron plates set one-half the width of the cloth—between the several rows which are pressed at each operation. Certain inferior kinds of cloth, which do not undergo the process of roll-boiling, are hot-pressed by heating these iron plates, so as to produce a deceptive sort of gloss.

VI.—PROCESSES OF THE WORSTED MANUFACTURE.

The processes necessary to the fabrication of worsteds Processes are less multifarious than those of the cloth manufacture. They may be enumerated thus:—(1.) Sorting; (2.) washing; (3.) drying; (4.) plucking; (5.) carding; (6.) combing; (7.) breaking; (8.) drawing; (9.) roving; (10.) spinning; (11.) reeling; (12.) weaving; (13.) dyeing.

In washing wool for the worsted manufacture, the old practice Washing was to squeeze out the moisture by pressure between rollers; but by the patent washing-machine of Messrs Petrie and Taylor this rolling is dispensed with, and the wool is both washed and dried effectually, with great saving of time. The wool is thrown into an iron trough containing soft soap and hot water, and is moved about rapidly by iron rakes. It is then drawn from the trough by a "pecoupline," or cylinder set with iron teeth, and is briskly winnowed, so that it becomes fit at once for the first stage of the combing process.

Combing is of two kinds—by hand-labour and by machine. As Combing we have had occasion to notice already, in referring to the condition of the work-people [above, § iii.], the mechanical process is rapidly gaining ground upon the manual one. The latter nevertheless is still largely used, and both will need description.

In hand-combing each workman has two pairs of combs; one pair (1) Handhaving two rows of teeth, and the other three rows, usually one-third combing, of an inch apart, and set in a wooden stock, as shown in the annexed figure (fig. 3). The combs are heated in a stove, which is furnished with two plates at top, with sufficient space between them to admit the prongs of the combs. A post also is fixed in the combing-room, with an iron stem or receiver for the combs, and with an upturned end which enters the hole in the middle of the handle of the comb, whilst at the other end of the stem is a pin which

Processes enters the hollow end of the handle. The operation of both these pins is to keep the comb sufficiently firm for the workman's purpose. In the annexed figure (fig. 5), a exhibits the pin which enters the end of the handle, and b the upturned end, to which the hole in the middle of the handle of the comb is adapted.

The combing operation is thus performed. The comber first takes a handful of wool of about four ounces, and sprinkles upon it a quantity of oil varying from one fortieth to one sixtieth of the weight of the wool. One of the combs, duly heated, is affixed to the post with the teeth towards, and the comber, taking half the oiled wool in his hands, throws, or, to use his own term, "lashes" successively, vibrations over the teeth of the comb, drawing it through and through, and leaving a portion of the wool on the comb, till the whole is deposited. The comb is now placed with its points in the stove, and the wool hanging down so as to become heated. The other comb then takes the place of the first on the post, and receives the other half of the wool, when it also is removed to the stove. When the combs are sufficiently heated, the comber takes one in each hand. That in the left he holds over his knee, and with that in his right he combs the wool upon the first, passing the teeth of one comb into the wool upon the other, beginning with the extremities of the fibres, and continuing till he reaches the thicker mass of wool, near to the teeth of the comb. Thus the combs gradually approach each other, but without touching, as that would break the fibres, instead of laying them parallel, which is the object of the process.

In order that the wool on both combs may be combed equally, the comber frequently changes hands; but when it is nearly sufficiently combed, he continues to comb off the one comb on to the other, so that nearly all the wool is gathered upon one comb, and hangs down in a long lock. This comb he warms for a short time, and fixes in the post, and proceeds to draw off the fleece in a continuous sliver. A small portion of short wool remains on the combs after the sliver has been drawn off. This is called nolls, and is sold to the cloth-makers. The wool then undergoes a second combing at a lower temperature, and being collected in parcels of ten slivers, is ready for the next operation.

The machines for wool-combing which are actually in use by the worsted trade are various. The specific merits of some of them have won distinctive preference in particular localities, but there is still not a little diversity of opinion on those merits. To describe them severally, in the order of their invention, but with as much brevity as possible, will give the reader the clearest view of the subject which it is in our power to furnish, and will, at the same time, afford some suggestive illustrations of the history of mechanical inventions. For this purpose we avail ourselves of an epitome of the several official specifications given in Mr James's valuable History of the Worsted Manufacture,1 to which we have had occasion to refer already.

Cartwright's combing machine of 1790 was founded on a close imitation of those hand-combing processes which we have already described. In fig. 6 is a table supporting a number of cans out containing two feeders by which the prepared wool is supplied. As the wool passes, a pair of nippers close upon it, and hold it firmly at K. D is a revolving drum, part of the surface of which is armed with combing teeth, which move up and comb the overhanging wool. As the drum revolves, the plain portion of its surface also moves up, presses against the uppermost of the drawing rollers E, gathers up the cleansed wool, and passes it between these rollers; the upper roller is turned by the friction of the drum, and the lower one by the pressure of the upper. As soon as the roller and drum have taken hold of the cleansed wool, the first pair of nippers opens so as to press the fleece up into the teeth of the comb B, and then under those of C. The wool is then held entirely between the two drawing rollers, which are made to travel from the higher to the lower position, at a greater speed than that of

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1 James, ut supra, 564-574.

Processes of the Worsted Manufactures.

Lister and Donisthorpe's machine.

The surface of the drum, by contact with which the rollers are reversed, so as to give the partly combed wool a second combing. The rollers then return to their original position, and repeat their operations. A continuous sliver is formed by each succeeding tuft being so laid as slightly to overlap its predecessor, and is passed into the can by the conducting rollers F. The card rollers GH brush the noll out of the teeth of the drum. It is thrust forward from II by the point of the knife L, and removed by the conducting rollers I.

Lister and Donisthorpe's machine of 1851 is an improvement of Hellmann's. It both increases the quantity of work performed within a given time, and enlarges the range of material to which the comber is applicable, enabling it to deal with fibre of all kinds. In this engine (fig. 10), the feed-rollers A, and the screw-gill A, A conduct the prepared wool into the machine, and the screw-gill also combs the tail-end of each tuft of fibre that is drawn out of it. The nipping instruments C somewhat resemble those described already, but the upper jaw consists of a broad blade with a sharp edge, and the under one of an upright bar with a grooved surface into which the edge of the blade is inserted at every nip. The brush B descends upon the fleco every time that the nippers detach a portion, to prevent its falling back into the teeth. The porter-comb D takes the tuft from the nippers, and deposits it in the teeth of the circular comb E. F is another brush, which presses the tuft down into a proper position for being drawn off. The other processes differ but little from those we have already detailed.

The close resemblances between Lister and Donisthorpe's machine and that of Hellmann, led to a trial very famous in the long annals of "patent cases," and resulted, ultimately, in the purchase by Lister of Hellmann's patent for the sum of £30,000. But this result was only attained after a long series of attempts to deprive the real inventor of his legitimate reward,—a practice which would be deemed eminently discreditable, were it not for its strict consistency with previous example.

In September 1852, Messrs. Preller, Eastwood, and Gamble obtained a patent for improvements in combing machinery, the nature of which is indicated in fig. 11. A A are feed-rollers; B is a reciprocating arm, with a raising comb at its end. This arm traverses, backward and forward, from the feed-rollers through a semicircle, so as to deposit the tufts of wool in and over the teeth of a receiving-comb F; the brush E descending and pressing down the tufts in the usual way. C is a cam, working within the arm B, which causes the taking-comb to be drawn in towards its centre, when it arrives at B B, and thus gives it room to pass without disturbing the action of the receiving-comb. D D D are card cylinders, through the teeth of which the taking-comb lashes the tail-end of its tuft. The tuft is drawn off in a sliver, and the noll removed as in other machines.

Crabtree's patent of 1854 varies the machinery of Preller's, by substituting for the single taking-comb a series of combs arranged at equal distances around the periphery of a drum, and causing each of the series, as it arrives opposite to the receiving or holding comb, to describe a half circle on its own axis, for the deposit of its tuft. And it also places the card cylinders at the top of the machine instead of at the bottom.

Thus A A in fig. 12 are the feed-rollers; B O E and F are the series of taking-combs; H H H are the card-cylinders; G is the receiving-comb, and I is the brush.

One other machine remains to be described, that, namely, of Rambotham and Brown, also patented, in its complete form, in them and 1854. The chief novelty of this machine consists in its filling its Brown's fibre into the teeth of the receiving-comb across the face of the machine, screw-gill, and with the teeth of the one standing at right angles to the teeth of the other. Thus C (fig. 13) is the bed on which the screw-gill D D is made to slide, in order to effect a feed. When it is close up to the end of the slide at A, and just as it is about by reversing its motion to return to B, a catch-comb, not seen in the drawing, but suspended in front of the position A, drops into the end of the fleco projecting from the face of the gill-bar; by its receding motion moves the coil into a better position for reaching the back chambers of the receiving-comb, yet without fastening it as is done by the ordinary taking-comb. The catch-comb then rises out of the wool, and the same gill slides onward, past the outer orbit of the circular receiving-comb E, and delivers its feed into the teeth from one end of the gill-bar to the other. These gill-bars, being inclined to the plane of their motion, distribute the feed over a larger surface of teeth, cause the portions of wool supplied to overlap each other, and so to draw out with greater ease than they would do if supplied at one point from a level bar. The receiving-comb revolves vertically in the direction of the arrow marked on the drawing. Thus, the action of the catch-comb, in the machine of Rambotham and Brown, avoids that injurious pressure of the noll into a hard mass, which results from the action of the ordinary taking-comb in other machines constructed on the same general principle, that, namely, of "lashing" in the wool, instead of "nipping" it.

Long as is this list of combing-machines, others have been added, very recently, by various modifications of the processes we have described. Their relative merits experience only can demonstrate.

For the remaining operations of the worsted manufacture—many of them identical with those employed in the manipulation of cotton—the reader is referred to the articles COTTON MANUFACTURE; DYING; SPINNING; and WEAVING.

(E.E.) WOOLER, a market-town of England, county of Northumberland, on a small affluent of the Till, 45 miles N.N.W. of Newcastle. It stands on a gentle eminence on the eastern declivity of the Cheviot Hills, and was at one time much frequented by invalids. It has a neat parish church, several dissenting places of worship, a grammar school, public library, mechanics' institute, and a dispensary. In the neighbourhood are remains of ancient fortifications, and a pillar commemorative of the defeat of the Scots under Douglas by Earl Percy in 1402. Pop. of parish (1851) 911.

WOOLSTON: Thomas, was born at Northampton in 1669, and educated at Sydney College, Cambridge. He was chosen a fellow, and proceeded to the degree of B.D. His first appearance in the learned world was in 1705, in a work entitled The old Apology for the Truth of the Christian Religion, against the Jews and Gentiles, revised. He afterwards wrote many pieces; but what made the most noise were his six Discourses on the Miracles of Christ, which occasioned a great number of books and pamphlets upon the subject, and raised a prosecution against him. At his trial in Guildhall, before the Lord Chief Justice Raymond, he spoke several times himself, and urged that "he thought it very hard that he should be tried by a set of men who, though otherwise very learned and worthy persons, were no more judges of the subjects on which he wrote than himself was a judge of the most crabbed points of the law." He was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and to pay a fine of L100. He purchased the liberty of the rules of the King's Bench, where he continued after the expiration of the year, being unable to pay the fine. The greatest obstruction to his deliverance from confinement was the obligation of giving security not to offend by any future writings, he being resolved to write again as freely as before. While some supposed him to have written with the settled intention of subverting Christianity under the pretence of defending it, others believed him disordered in his mind; and many circumstances concurred which gave countenance to this opinion. He died January 27, 1738, after an illness of four days, and a few minutes before his death, uttered these words: "This is a struggle which all men must go through, and which I bear not only patiently but with willingness." His body was interred in St George's churchyard, Southwark.