WOOL, AND ITS MANUFACTURES.

Τηε word wool is usually employed to designate the pile of the sheep and of some other animals. It may be defined a species of hair, but it is distinguishable from ordinary hair, properly so called, by being much more soft and flexible, and by possessing in a superior degree the property of felting, which we shall hereafter have occasion to describe. It is sometimes difficult to express that with which most people are familiar; and yet, as popular conception is often inadequate and incomplete, further description becomes necessary. This is especially the case with regard to wool. We all seem at first sight to perceive the distinction between wool and hair. In ordinary cases, like light and darkness, they are sufficiently distinguishable. The bristles of the hog stand at a wide distance from the soft pile of the Saxon lamb. Yet, in many intermediate cases, it would be hard to say what is the one and not the other. There are some animal coverings which seem to stand between the two extremes; the hair of some goats and the wool of some sheep seeming entirely to change characters.

Most of the furred animals have, in a state of nature, both hair and wool; the hair long and conspicuous, forming the outer coating of the animal; and the wool short, soft, and down-like, and lying hidden beneath the coarser hair. In the beaver this is very conspicuous. To all outward appearance it is a coarse-haired animal; and it is not until the long hair is plucked that the soft wool used in the manufacture of hats becomes visible. The skin of the racoon, of the wild cat, and even of the otter, coarse as its outer hair appears, produces wool; and the finer fleece of the rabbit, called coney's wool, is well known in commerce.

We also apply the term wool to the fibre of the cotton plant (see Cotton Manufactures), an application which was not unknown to the Mantuan bard:

—nemora Aethiopum molli canentia laná.

In the present article we shall confine ourselves to a description of the wool of the sheep, and its properties; and especially to its manufacture into woollen cloths and worsted stuffs.

The original stock of the several varieties of sheep is said to be the Argali (Ovis amrnon), which is still found wild on the mountains of Siberia and Kamtschatka. This seems to be scarcely distinguishable from the Moufflon ( Ovis aries), or wild sheep of the mountain districts of Sardinia, Corsica, and Asia Minor. But its fleece, which is coarse as well as short, resembles hair rather than wool; and it is not until improved by culture that its covering assumes the woolly character.

The effects of a more temperate climate, of more regular and better pasture, and especially of careful shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, are indeed very remarkable. The coarser hair gradually disappears, and the shorter and finer wool which we have described as investing the skin of various animals, becomes more abundantly developed.

In modifying the physical character of animals by breeding, it is well known that the dam has more influence over the form and other peculiarities of the progeny than the sire; yet, as regards the quality of the wool, the order is reversed, and the sire has been ascertained to act the more conspicuous part. In the first place, the ram more rapidly undergoes the change above mentioned when subjected to man’s care; and in the second, he imparts to the wool of the progeny a greater share of fineness than an improved ewe would do. Thus it has been laid down by those who have had great experience in the breeding and crossing of sheep, that a fine-woolled ram and a coarse-woolled ewe will produce lambs with wool three fourths instead of half as fine as the wool of the sire; whilst a coarse-woolled ram and a fine-woolled ewe will produce lambs with wool only one quarter as fine as that of the sire. To keep up the quality of wool, therefore, the finest-woolled rams must be continually introduced, otherwise deterioration cannot be avoided. This is well understood ip all the wool-growing countries. In Germany very high prices are given for fine-woolled rams; and in Australia, the newest field for wool-growing, the attention of flock-masters is fully alive to the same fact.

The removal of the coarse woolled is an object of equal importance. Even among the best flocks coarse-haired varieties will spring up from mere peculiarities of constitution. This is especially the case in our changeable climate, where the sheep are liable to be affected by sudden changes of temperature. If the removal of such sheep is not at once attended to, the flock will materially deteriorate in a very few generations.

But although deterioration soon becomes obvious, the superior character of a particular breed of sheep will be perceptible in particular localities, even after the lapse of ages; and it is not a little remarkable, that the vestiges of the finer-woolled animals is still to be traced in localities which were formerly the seats of manufacture. Angora, for instance, the ancient Ancyra, still retains the fine-fleeced goat; and the cat and the rabbit of that district still produce a wool remarkable for its fineness, its softness, and its length. The fine-woolled sheep of Tarentum, so much valued by the Greeks and Romans, originally came from Asia Minor, where the traces of similar animals are still to be met with; and the descendants of the same breed, conspicuous even in their degeneracy, form the common stock of Sicily and the southern parts of Italy.

This permanency in the character of the breeds of sheep is doubtless partly owing to food and climate. The effect of pasturage on the fleece is well known. The experiments that have been made in this country have placed it beyond a doubt. The wool of sheep fed in chalky districts will be greatly inferior to that of sheep of similar character pastured on land more congenial to the growth of soft wool; and it is even said, that where flocks have been fed on bad herbage, and their fleeces are harsh, considerable improvement will take place by removing them to better pasture, if it be only for a single month previously to shearing. In that case “the bad effects of any late herbage will be counteracted, and the fleeces of their flocks will handle soft, and increase in weight, and consequently in value.”^[1. Southey’s Treatise on Sheep, 1840, p. 14. ]

“By way of example,” says the author we have just quoted, “we will suppose half a flock of South-Down sheep, reared in the centre of the South Downs (known to be calcareous and chalky land), and the other moiety transferred to some of the rich land found in the neighbourhood of Pevensey Level, near Lewes. The contrast that would be perceptible in the fleeces of these two portions of the same flock when shorn, is inconceivable to those who have not had an opportunity of witnessing the powerful influence of a change in pasture on the wool of sheep.

“Both the temperature of climate, and herbage, have an evident effect on wool, as may be seen in England on that of those flocks pastured within a few miles of the sea-coast, beginning with the Isle of Sheppey, round the coast of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. The wool of flocks which are fed [7:21:920]within ten miles of the sea-coast generally possesses a longer staple, and more pliancy of texture, and consequently it is better adapted to the use of the spinner, than the produce of the same flock pastured farther in the interior on similar soil. This difference I am disposed to impute to the exhalations arising from the sea, which, like the smoke of London, extend inland at least ten miles, thus operating on the herbage as well as on wool.”^[2. Southey’s Treatise on Sheep, p. 14. ]

Of all the varieties of which wool is susceptible, the length of the staple is the most important in its results. Wool is accordingly divided into two classes, short or clothing wool, and long or combing wool, each class being subdivided into a variety of sorts, according to their fineness, and the length and soundness of the staple.

The finest wools are of short staple, so that the worsted spinner has sometimes difficulty in obtaining wools fine enough for the more delicate fabrics; but man’s ingenuity has found a remedy for this, by combing wools of much shorter staple than was formerly deemed possible. In the case of the coarser wools there is no such difficulty, as they are usually of long staple. Wools which unite a high degree of fineness and softness with considerable length of staple, bear a high price.

The sorting of wool is the business of the wool-sorter, a trade which requires the nicest discrimination. Such is the tact which habit gives, that the most skilful sorter can appreciate differences which even the microscope can scarcely detect; and in appreciating the other qualities of the fleece, and weighing and balancing one against the other, a degree of accuracy is attained of which no instrument is capable. Of minute differences of quality, and of the result or balance of all the qualities taken together, the price of wool is perhaps the best measure, and we shall therefore presently advert to it more fully.

The principal qualities which the sorter regards in short or clothing wools may be stated as follows:

1. The fineness of the fibre.

2. Its softness.

3. Soundness of the staple.

4. Colour.

5. Clean state of the fleece.

6. Weight.

1. The fineness of the fibre is of very great importance. Modern machinery is capable of producing a finer thread from coarser wools than formerly, and the thinner and lighter fabrics can be made from it; but unless the wool be also fine, no art can make a fine, compact, and even cloth. This will be readily understood when we come to describe the process by which a surface is produced; a surface which consists wholly of the ultimate fibres of the wool.

Besides the fineness of the fibre, its regularity is of great importance. There are some kinds of wool which are only fine at the lower end near the back of the animal, while the extremity of the wool is coarse and hairy. There is perhaps no wool in which some irregularity is not perceptible, though it is much more conspicuous in some samples than in others, coeteris paribus, the value of two samples will depend on evenness or regularity, and it is for this quality that the wool of the Merino sheep is so remarkable.

In some fleeces of the finer sorts, an admixture of coarse hairs will often be visible; in some cases, long and silvery; in others, short and rigid: these latter are technically called kemps. We do not remember to have seen the cause suggested, but we apprehend that this may merely be a mark of age. In the human eyebrow, for instance, it is well-known that long coarse hairs make their appearance even before the meridian of life; and it is by no means improbable that age may have some connexion with a similar phenomenon in the wool of sheep. When the wool is uniform, it is said to be true grown.

The finest Merino fleeces are usually divided into four sorts; the first three being called by the Spaniards refina, fina, and tercera; the fourth or coarse part, from the head and shanks, not being sent to market. The distinctions of quality in German and other wools will afterwards be specified.

In English fleeces, however, the proportions are different, the finest portion seldom exceeding one third; but our English sorters discriminate qualities much more nicely, making of the whole fleece no less than eight or ten sorts, varying perceptibly from each other in fineness, and known by the following names:
[table]

Some sorters will even select from the prime sort the few remarkably fine locks which they may find, and so make a very superior sort, which they call pick-lock.

It is said that the very nice discrimination which the wool-sorter attains by constant practice is considerably impaired if the practice be discontinued for a short period. It follows that both the buyer and the seller, the manufacturer and the grower, must frequently err in their judgment respecting the comparative qualities of particular samples. Various attempts have accordingly been made to determine the fineness of the fibre by means of instruments; but, admitting that accuracy is attainable by their means—a very doubtful point—their use can never become general, as the art of using instruments would probably be more difficult of attainment by the Leicestershire wool-grower or the Yorkshire manufacturer than the art of sorting wool.

The individuals who have taken the most trouble to ascertain the fineness of wool by means of instruments are Dr Parry, Mr Luccock, and Dr Ure. These instruments consist of a micrometer and a lens; and they differ from each other only in the mode of application and adjustment. The result of these experiments seems to be, that the finest wools are about 1 / 1500 of an inch in diameter, while the coarsest of the combing wools are about 1 / 450 of an inch. Dr Parry’s table of the diameters of clothing wools, which has often been printed, is as follows.
[table]
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Dr Ure in 1837 made a series of experiments on different wools, and published the results. He found that the filaments of the finer qualities varied in diameter from 1 / 1100 to 1 / 1300 of an inch, which agrees pretty nearly with Dr Parry’s table.

2. The softness of the wool is a quality of not less importance than its fineness, the more especially as the perfection of the felting property mainly depends upon it. This quality is easily distinguishable by the touch, both in the raw wool and in the finished cloth, which, when made from soft wool, is itself extremely soft. Such cloth bears a much higher price than cloth equal in other respects, but made from harsher wool.

Of all the European wools, that of Saxony seems to be pre-eminent in point of softness. When England only imported about 2,500,000 lbs. of wool from Germany, “Saxony cloth” bore a very high price in proportion to cloth from all other kinds of wool; but now that Germany affords us nearly 30,000,000 lbs., the supply reaches the demand, and the price is not excessive.

All the European wools yield to that of India in respect of softness. It is grown on sheep of small size, the wool of which is short and soft near the skin, with long coarse wool or hair growing through it, similar to what we have described in the case of the beaver and other furred animals. It should be observed, that it is chiefly upon the softness of the wool that the felting property depends; but as we shall hereafter have occasion to speak more fully of that property, we now proceed to the quality next in order.

3. What is called the soundness, which is only another name for the strength of the staple, is obviously of less importance in clothing wool than in combing wool. Still it is not wholly disregarded in the former, as the durability of the surface of the cloth will mainly depend upon it.

4. The colour of the fleece, that is, its whiteness, is obviously an essential quality, whether for white cloth or for light and bright colours. Indeed even the darkest colours are probably richer, and possess more lustre on a clear white ground, than when the wool is dark or mixed. Black and brown woolled sheep are not uncommon in most of the countries of Europe; but their wool is of less value, and there can be no object in encouraging the breed. The black-faced sheep of Norfolk, which is also to be met with in other English counties and in Scotland, and which produces fine wool, has this defect, that dark fibres are frequently to be met with. In Canada, the whole of the peasantry is clothed in a domestic cloth, called by the inhabitants étoffe du pays, which is made of a mixture of black and white wool.

The Romans were particularly careful in expelling the dark-woolled sheep from their flocks; and we are told by Virgil, that they even examined the tongue and palate of the rams, and if they exhibited any blackness, such sheep were rejected. It is said that a dark soil imparts a tint to wool, which renders it wholly unfit for white or any bright cloths.

5. The cleanness of the wool is another quality which the purchasers cannot disregard, as its influence on weight is so conspicuous. Here however there is a difficulty, which requires a very nice balancing of opposite and conflicting qualities, and which demands explanation. All wools, as they come from the sheep’s back, are more or less greasy to the touch. The cause of this greasiness is the presence of a peculiar kind of potass soap, secreted by the animal, and called by the farmers the yolk. The softness and flexibility of the wool depends almost wholly on the abundance of the yolk; yet as it readily forms a lather with water, and does not add to the value, but only increases the weight of the fleece when shorn, it should be washed out. In Britain this is done before shearing; but this is not sufficient to get rid of the yolk in any sheep, and especially in Merinos.

The grease, although so necessary to the softness of the living fleece, has been found to be injurious to the wool when shorn; as a sort of fermentation takes place, and the fleece is rendered hard and harsh by the very substance which softens it while living.

After this explanation, the reader will perceive that, as far as mere weight is concerned, the grower is interested in washing out as small a quantity of the yolk as possible, while the buyer is interested in having the wool as well washed as possible. Both are interested in the presence of a good yolk originally, as the quality of the wool is thereby improved. Fermentation from imperfect washing is not uncommon. If this proceed to a great extent, the wool is injured; but a moderate degree of fermentation is said to render the wool better suited to manufacture.

6. The weight of the fleece is a quality of the utmost importance to the grower; but it must not be obtained by the sacrifice of fineness or of cleanness. Weight, as we have seen, may arise from the presence of yolk. It may also arise from coarseness; and even where it arises from length of fibre, that is a quality which generally supposes a certain degree of coarseness. An abundant supply of food will sometimes increase the length of the staple; but if this be accompanied by increased coarseness, as it generally is, it is not to be desired. What the grower wants, and what the buyer cannot object to, is that weight of fleece which arises from the closeness of the pile on the back of the animal; a quality which supposes greater fineness, and generally greater softness, though usually accompanied by extreme shortness of staple.

With regard to long wool, or combing wool, as it is indifferently called, the desirable qualities are the same, with the addition of length of staple, which stands at the head of all. Very great length of staple was formerly of more importance than it has been of late, because the mode of combing wools of moderate length was not known. We have seen accounts in old annual registers and magazines, of wool of twelve, sixteen, and even twenty inches staple; but that could only be produced by leaving the sheep two years unshorn. We have however now lying before us wool of eleven inches staple, but it is extremely harsh and coarse. The usual length of combing wool is from three to eight inches; but wool of two inches can now be combed, which admits of the use of very fine and soft wools, provided they be of sound staple, for the production of the finer Merinos, mousselines de laine, and the better sorts of hosiery.

As the comber dispenses with length, soundness of staple becomes extremely important. Without soundness, the short and fine wools would not bear the operation of the comb; with it the skilful comber will now venture upon wools, to comb which would a few years since have been deemed an impossibility.

The other qualities of wool,—colour, i.e. whiteness, cleanness, i . e. freedom from yolk, and weight,—are of as much importance in combing as in clothing wools, subject, of course, to the pre-eminence of the other qualities which we have enumerated.

We now come to consider the sources of supply, that is, the various wool-growing countries whence the large demand of Great Britain has been and is satisfied.

Various estimates have been made of the number of sheep in Great Britain, and of the quantity of wool produced; but the earliest which enjoys any reputation for accuracy is that of Mr Luccock, in his Treatise on English Wool, in 1800. According to his very minute calculation, the quantity of wool produced in England alone in 1800 was 384,000 packs, of 240 lbs. each, or 92,160,000 lbs. It is thought that the number of sheep has not greatly increased since; but Mr Hubbard, who in 1828 submitted to the Lords’
[7:21:922]

Committee some tables on the plan of Mr Luccock’s, arrived at the conclusion that, owing to the increased weight of the fleeces, the quantity of wool produced had at that time increased to 463,169 packs. Taking Scotland and Ireland into account, the total quantity of wool is estimated by Mr M‘Culloch at 520,000 packs, or 124,800,000 lbs. The sheep in Great Britain and Ireland are estimated at 32,000,000.

The following table exhibits the quantity of long and short wool produced in each county of England in 1800 and 1828, according to Luccock and Hubbard.

Number of Sheep and Quantity of Sheep’s Wool produced in England, according to Mr Luccock’s Tables, revised by Mr Hubbard, and made applicable to 1828.
[table]

From the reign of Charles II. until the year 1825, the exportation of British wool was prohibited, under an impression that our wool was superior to all others, and that if we kept it in the country, foreigners would be compelled to come to us for manufactured woollens. During the early part of the last century, numerous pamphlets issued [7:21:923]from the press for and against that mischievous policy; and the offence of running wool prevailed to a great extent. These pamphlets are noticed in Smith’s Memoirs of Wool, and the absurdity of the prohibition is exposed in a manner which certainly anticipated the general current of the political and economical knowledge of that age.

The prevalence of this disposition to export wool in spite of severe laws, affords a proof that our production of wool was in advance of our means of working it up. We were in fact an agricultural nation, and it was not until our spinning machinery was improved, and our skill became rapidly developed, that the tide may be said to have turned.

Towards the end of the last century, as will be seen by the table we shall presently exhibit, England began to be an importer of wool. Laws prohibiting the “running of wool” then became a dead letter; and before 1800, we were annual importers to the extent of 4,000,000 lbs., our whole demand being about 100,000,000 lbs. At this period, however, the landowners began to take the alarm, and a duty, a mischievous duty, of 5s. 3d. per cwt. was imposed on all foreign wool imported into Great Britain. In 1813 the duty was raised to 6s. 8d. per cwt.; and in 1819 Mr Vansittart (Lord Bexley), perhaps the most ignorant and vulgar-minded minister that ever managed, or rather mismanaged, the financial affairs of this realm, raised the duty to 56s. per cwt., or 6d. per lb. The effect of this was simply to deteriorate the quality of British manufacture. To produce the finer cloths, foreign wools were absolutely necessary. When Mr Vansittart imposed this duty, the soft Spanish wools were much used in the clothing districts, and the Saxony wools were coming into use. (See the next table.) The English wools were utterly unfit for the production of our finest cloths; and our exports, in consequence of the virtual prohibition of foreign wools, showed symptoms of decline. In 1824 the duty was reduced to 3d., and at the end of the same year to Id. In July 1825 the duty was further reduced to ½d. on wools under 1s. in price, being continued at 1d. on wools at and over 1s., at which rates the duties have since remained. This reduction has produced the most beneficial effects, not merely on manufactures, but also on the steady price of English wools, which have been much higher on the average since the reduction than they were before, although we have become importers to the extent of half the whole quantity we consumed when Mr Vansittart’s tax was imposed. The reduction of this impolitic duty has in fact been one of the causes by which our manufactures have so rapidly increased since 1826.

Having said thus much of the quantity of English wool consumed in the manufactures, we now come to the history of our foreign importations.

We have already stated, that before the end of the last century, our production, in point of quantity, was greater than the amount of our wants. Importation up to 1803 having been free, some small quantity of foreign wool found its way into this country; but it was only an exchange of one quality for another, and our real demand previous to 1800 was exceedingly small. Our whole importation, in fact, only averaged 4,000,000 lbs., the greater part of which consisted of the fine soft clothing wool of Spain.

The year 1800 exhibited an increase to nearly 9,000,000 lbs., of which 6,000,000 was still received from Spain, and nearly 1,500,000 from Portugal. This went on until the peace, when an increased quantity of Saxon wool came into the English markets. The Merino breed of sheep had been introduced into Saxony by the elector, afterwards king of that state, and with most signal success. During the war, our imports from Germany had never reached 1,000,000; in 1815 they exceeded 3,000,000, and the quantity has since increased, so as to exceed 25,000,000 lbs. on the average of years, while the quantity of Spanish wool has progressively declined. These changes, and the general progress of our importations of foreign wool, will be best exhibited by the following table, giving the importations in periods of five years from 1796 to 1835.

Table showing the principal Sources of Supply of Foreign Wool from 1796 to 1835.

The great change that is now going on, however, consists in the rapid increase in the supply of wool from Australia; a change which the above table exhibits to a certain extent, but which the more detailed comparison we arc about to offer will place in a more conspicuous light.

The first person who became impressed with the peculiar fitness of New South Wales for the growth of wool was Captain John Macarthur, one of the most intelligent and energetic of the early settlers in that colony. He there commenced farming operations in 1793, but his only sheep at that time were Bengal ewes, whose wool is extremely coarse. About two years after, he procured a Merino ram from the Cape, with two ewes of the same breed, and with these he began crossing, and selecting the finest-woolled rams to breed with, so as continually to improve the wool on the principle pointed out in the early part of this article.

In 1802, he brought specimens of his wool to England, which being approved by some experienced cloth manufacturers, he obtained a hearing before the privy council. He obtained an additional grant of land in a very fertile part of the colony, and with three fine-woolled Merino rams and two ewes he returned to the colony to prosecute his favourite plan. It is scarcely necessary to state, that the most extraordinary success has attended the breeding of sheep; and the wool is said to be equal, when perfectly clean, to the Merino wools of Saxony, and would sell for as high a price, but for the little care taken in washing previously to shearing. In fineness, softness, length, and soundness of staple, and in colour, the Australian wools equal those of Germany; but they are in a bad state as to cleanness, though we believe that in this respect more care is evinced than formerly. If washed after shearing, they would arrive in sounder condition, and would command a higher price; but whether they would yield a larger profit, depends on the additional labour which, in the case supposed, it would be necessary to bestow. This is a point sometimes overlooked. Persons unaccustomed to reason upon facts connected with production are apt to think it must be better worth the producer’s while to bring to market a good article, and so command a high price, than an inferior and therefore a low-priced article. But if to raise the value of his wool, say from 2s. to 2s. 6d., the New South Wales flock-master found it necessary to expend additional labour to the value of sevenpence, it is clear the advantage is on the side of the inferior wool.

In 1810 the importation of wool from Australia was only 167 lb., worth not above L.15. In 1820, the quantity had nearly reached 100,000 lbs.; and this year it will most likely exceed 12,000,000 lbs., being equal to our whole importation from every country in the world in 1810. The fol-
[table]
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lowing is an account of the quantity of wool imported into this country from New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land from 1820 to 1839.
[table]
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The great advantage of the growth of wool to a new colony like New South Wales is, that what really amounts to a large resource for her, forms but a small proportion of the whole quantity required in the market which she supplies. Thus the price of the article is not regulated by the cost of production, but by the state of the home-market. The local price may continue many years above the cost of production, and therefore give a great stimulus to supply; and yet the quantity may go on doubling in short periods, without reducing the price. This feature has been pointed out in the New Zealand Journal, a newspaper published in London, and devoted to the affairs of the colony which it represents; and also by the Westminster Review for December, in a paper on colonization.

“In the production of wool,” says the writer in that review, “Australia enjoys an advantage which is somewhat analogous to the rent of the most fertile land in old countries. The demand of the consuming countries greatly exceeding the power of supply possessed by Australia, and no other country being able to produce so cheaply, the price is kept up to the European cost of production. Thus they enjoy a species of monopoly price. This has hitherto been the case with the cotton of America. It is now scarce sixty years since cotton was first exported from America, and this year the production is about 600,000,000 lbs. The following has been its progress in round numbers.
[table]
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“The price of cotton, owing to the large demand created by our continually improving machinery, has generally exceeded the cost of production. This has generally stimulated production, and yet not so rapidly as the demand increased; hence the cotton of America has gone on displacing successive portions of eastern cotton, until the former now occupies all the channels of consumption; and so it will be with Australian wool. The consumption of foreign wool alone is in England 50,000,000 lbs. The greater portion of this will probably be displaced by the wool of the Australian colonies. In like manner, it will gradually cease to be worth while to raise sheep for their wool in many of the countries which now produce it....With this increased facility of production,” continues the reviewer, “it is not impossible that the manufacture of woollens will greatly increase in this country; that England will, in short, enjoy that pre-eminence which she now does in the case of the cotton manufacture, which she undoubtedly partly owes to the cultivation of the raw material in America.”

Our importations from the Cape assume an important place in the following table. The average supply from the Cape during the four years ending with 1830 did not reach 30,000 lbs. annually. From that year a rapid increase has taken place: and if a better system of colonization were pursued at the Cape, so as to make the colony attractive to capitalists, the increase would be as marked as in the Australian colonies. The progress of our imports from the Cape is as follows.
[table]
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Freedom of colonization and commerce is also operating beneficially with respect to the production of wool in the East Indies. In 1820, about 8000 lbs. were imported from thence; from that period to 1833 inclusive, the line in the official tables is blank. In 1834 the quantity imported was 67,763 lbs., in 1835 it was 295,848, and in 1838 it had increased to 1,897,266.

The South American States and Mexico the importations from which, previously to 1833, were insignificant, seldom exceeding 200,000 lbs., now furnish considerable quantities.

In Europe also a quarter of a century of peace has produced very striking effects in the production of wool. Russia, which furnished but little previously to 1825, now supplies upwards of 4,000,000 lbs. From Italy, in like manner, we now import nearly as much as from Spain; while from insular and continental Greece and Turkey together we receive about 2,000,000 lbs.

With these necessary explanations, we submit to the reader the following table from the official returns, which is divided so as to exhibit the sources of supply in a conspicuous manner.

Table of the Importations of Wool in 1835 and 1838.
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The exportation of wool from this country is not extensive. We have for several years supplied Belgium with British wool, and France has been our customer for a small quantity. To the United States our export of wool is almost wholly foreign. The following table exhibits the total quantity exported for the years corresponding with the last table.

An Account of the British and Foreign Wool exported to the countries specified, in the years 1835 and 1838.
[table]
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Thus, then, the result of our wool trade may be stated in round numbers as follows.
[table]

We conclude this part of our article with a statement of the prices of foreign and British wools at the end of June 1841.
[table]

The above prices are those of the qualities ordinarily to be found in the market. Occasionally some exceedingly fine samples are to be met with; they are called “fancy samples,” and of course fetch fancy prices. We have now before us a sample of beautiful Saxon clothing wool of this kind, for which 7s. 6d. was paid by an extensive manufacturer of Leeds at a time that “Saxon first electoral was quoted at perhaps 5s. 6d.” Such fancy wools being neces sarily very limited in quantity, and being always readily bought, do not fluctuate much in price.

The origin of the manufacture of woollens is beyond the reach of tradition; but the keeping of sheep was among the prominent occupations of the oldest nations or tribes of which we have any record. It has been supposed that sheep and goats were originally kept for their milk, and the use of their skins for clothing could not fail to suggest itself to the rudest people. Indeed, among all savage tribes, even at the present day, we find the skins of beasts commonly employed for the above purpose; and among those barbarous nations a little advanced in intelligence, textile fabrics of various materials, and displaying more or less of ingenuity, are manufactured. The arts of spinning and weaving were known to and practised by the Egyptians; but the peculiarity of the woollen manufacture consists in the advantage which is therein taken of the felting property of wool. Pliny tells us that the art of fulling cloth was discovered by Nicias of Megara; but as Megara was founded only about 400 years before the building of Rome, or 1131 years before the Christian era, there is every reason to believe that the art was practised in the east long before his time.

Indeed the accidental matting of wool upon the sheep’s back would naturally suggest the felting process. “Whilst the skins of sheep,” observes Mr Luccock in his Treatise on Wool, “dressed with the wool on, served as clothing, it is obvious that only one useful fleece could be obtained from one animal; and as the fleece is generally cast or falls off once a year, this produce must have been wasted. In a very early period, however, the property which wool possesses of felting was discovered; or, in other words, it was found, that by pressure and moisture, the fibres of wool might be made to adhere together, and produce a compact pliable substance, quite as durable and more convenient than the skins formerly used. This appears to me to be the first effort to produce a woollen manufacture.”

The art of spinning and weaving wool was known in the time of Moses, who wrote in 1450 b. c., or 320 years before the foundation of Megara; and as common use and exposure to weather would, to a certain extent, full an old garment, the fulling of cloth could not long remain unknown.

There is reason to believe that among the Romans the woollen manufacture had attained considerable perfection. We find among the Roman writers many passages drawing the distinction between the piled or napped fabrics and those which were simply woven, the threads being left exposed. The former were called pexoe, and the latter trirae; and we may almost fancy that we discover in the distinction the difference between a fine cloth tunic and a common stuff garment.

From the very complete manner in which the Romans established themselves in Britain—resembling more our modem colonies, which have been described as “complete in all their parts,” than our early American colonies, which were mere masses of labourers—we may infer that the woollen manufacture was introduced by them. Indeed Camden says they had a cloth manufactory at Winchester.

From the time of the Romans until the conquest we have no record of the manufacture of woollens; and even then the notices scattered among the writings of historians are exceedingly scanty. This however is certain, that among the Saxons, and indeed for many centuries after the conquest, the costume of the peasantry was of leather; and there is reason to believe that the “buff jerkin” retained its place as the ordinary dress of the labouring people of England until the time of the commonwealth.

It is generally supposed that the woollen manufacture [7:21:926]was first introduced into this country in the reign of Edward III.; but though it increased considerably during that prince’s reign, there is abundant evidence of its previous existence. Indeed Mr M‘Culloch remarks,^[4. M’Culloch’s Statistical Account of the British Empire, vol. ii. p. 43. ] that “there are notices in the statute-book of ‘ broad cloths two yards within the list,’^[5. Henry III. ] more than one hundred years before the date of the measures adopted by Edward III. for its improvement to which observation we may add, that scattered notices of the manufacture during most of the ten reigns preceding that of Edward III. are to be found.^[6. We may here mention, once for all, that most of the facts respecting the early history of the woollen manufactures are taken from Smith’s Memoirs of Wool, and the works to which he refers. Down to the year 1720, it is perhaps the most accurate record of the subject extant. It is extremely interesting, and is written in a spirit of liberality far beyond the age in which the author lived. ]

It is stated by William of Malmesbury, that some Flemish weavers established themselves in the vicinity of Carlisle in the reign of William the Conqueror; but on some disagreement with the people in the reign of Henry L, they were afterwards removed to Pembrokeshire. In the same reign, cloth-weavers are mentioned in the exchequer accounts; and in the two following reigns they are represented as paying fines to the crown for the privilege of carrying on their trade.^[7. Madox’s History of the Exchequer. ]

In the reign of Edward I. the office of aulnager of cloth was held for some time by one Peroult le Tayleur; but he having forfeited it, the office was conferred, by command of the king, on one Pierre de Edmonton, “if he were fit for it.” These several facts prove the statement of Mr M‘Culloch, that the manufacture existed; but beyond that we really know nothing.

In the fourth year of the reign of Edward III., John Kemp, a Flanders cloth-worker, received a license to establish himself in this country. Accordingly he settled, with a number of dyers and fullers, at Kendal in Westmoreland, where his name appears at this day. “Kendal Green” afterwards became celebrated, as every romance reader knows. It is mentioned by Shakspeare in his play of Henry IV.; and in the reign of Elizabeth the manufacture was in a most flourishing condition.

During the reign of Edward III. the manufacture seems to have spread itself all over the country. (Rymer’s Foedera, vol. i. 195.) Woollen fustians were made at Norwich, baizes at Sudbury, broad cloths in Kent, kerseys in Devon, friezes in Wales, cloths in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Sussex, and Berkshire, coarse cloths in the west riding of Yorkshire, and serges at Colchester in Essex and Taunton in Devon.

There was also during this reign, and indeed previously to it, much legislation in the mistaken spirit of interference so common in that age, and since unhappily continued by the operation of sinister interests, for the purpose of regulating the trade. On the plea of the superiority of English wool, the cloth-makers of London had been forbidden, as early as the reign of Henry II. (1185), to mix Spanish with native wools; but the circumstance at this distant day only proves two things: 1. that the wool of Spain, like that of Germany in modern times, is absolutely necessary for the production of cloth of good quality; and 2. that the class connected with the land were at least as powerful as they are at the present day.

The improvement of the cloth manufacture caused a diminution of the exportation of wool, and a duty was levied on the exportation of cloth. Various acts, which would now be deemed extremely vexatious, but which were then intended to protect the trade, were passed relative to the measurement and fulling of the cloth; and in the year 1357, Blackwell Hall was established by the mayor and common council of London as the cloth-market of the city.

In an exchequer record of the year 1355, published by Misselden in 1623, we find among the exports and imports the following records of the woollen trade.
[table]

This statement is valuable, as shewing that, in the reign of Edward III. we imported fine cloths and exported coarse cloths, as their respective values in the above table shew.^[8. The pound sterling of Edward III. contained three times as much silver as at the present day. ]

During the following reigns the same spirit of undue interference ran through the legislation of the period. In the reign of Henry IV. cloths were ordered to be stamped with a seal of lead. In that of Henry VI. cloth-searchers were appointed for every hundred throughout the kingdom, and the exportation of yarn was strictly prohibited. In the same reign we find evidences of the “reciprocity system,” which has since been revived in the same narrow spirit It was enacted, “that if our woollens were not received in Brabant, Holland, and Zealand, then the merchandise growing or wrought within the dominions of the duke of Bour-goine shall be prohibited in England, under pain of forfeiture;” and in the following reign the importation of woollens was prohibited. These several facts are chiefly valuable for the inferences which we may draw from them touching the growth of the woollen manufacture. The first-named act shews that, early in the fifteenth century, we were enabled to supply with woollens the very countries whence we derived the manufacture; and the last-named act affords evidence that the cloth manufactures in the latter part of the same century had become sufficiently powerful to turn the tide of bad legislation in their own favour.

We have seen that in the reign of Edward III. the high-priced cloths were imported, the manufactures of this country being of a coarser kind; which however were even then produced under sufficient advantage, considered relatively to other nations, to form a considerable article of export. In the reign of Henry VII. however a change had taken place; cloths of considerable fineness must have been produced, for we find that, in the fourth year of that monarch’s reign, a maximum was fixed on the price of fine cloth: “every retailer of fine cloth who should sell a yard of the finest scarlet grained cloth above sixteen shillings” should forfeit 40s. a yard for the same. During this reign the “merchant adventurers,” who dealt much in manufactures selling the same to foreigners, became a powerful body.

In the following reign the woollen trade was generally in a most flourishing state, and the worsted manufacture especially increased rapidly. Some attempts were made by the crown, through the agency of Wolsey, to interfere with the freedom of the merchants; but we find these men entertaining more correct notions than their rulers. Wolsey is said to have threatened that the king would purchase of the manufacturers, open a new mart at Whitehall, and sell to the strangers; but the merchants told the cardinal, that the king might buy as well at Blackwell Hall, and that the strangers would gladlier receive their goods there than at Westminster. In this there is good political economy, and it does not appear that the king ever acted on his threat.

At this time one Jack of Newbury was deemed the [7:21:927]greatest clothier in England. He was the owner of one hundred looms, and is said to have equipped as many men-at-arms for the Scotish wars at his own cost.

York, at this time the next city to London in population and wealth, had long been deemed the great seat of the woollen trade in the northern counties. This branch of manufacture had established itself there in the reign of Edward III., and it seems steadily to have increased from that period. The trade also spread into other parts of the county, and we find many evidences that Halifax had grown into importance. The trade indeed prevailed in Halifax as early as 1414, but it does not appear to have increased until after the year 1443, when the advance was steady until 1540, during which period the number of houses is stated by Wright, in his History of Halifax, to have increased from thirteen to 520. They had even influence enough to procure acts of parliament in their favour, couched in the narrow spirit of the legislation of that day.

Acts of parliament for the regulation of the woollen trade now began to multiply, which, if they prove nothing else, prove the importance which the staple trade had at this time assumed. In the reign of Edward VI. Coventry and Manchester are named as the seats of manufacture; and in that of Philip and Mary a long act was passed regulating the making of woollen cloths, and confining the same to market-towns. Ten or eleven counties, besides North and South Wales, were excepted in the act; but it was deemed so oppressive that it was amended in the first year of the next reign.

At this time it should be observed, that the freedom of trade and industry was wholly unknown. Guilds or corporate bodies monopolized every trade or calling; and even the whole export trade of England was in the hands of three companies, the merchants of the staple, the merchant adventurers, and the merchants of the steelyard, the latter of whom were foreigners. In 1551 the merchants of the steelyard exported 44,000 cloths; and shortly afterwards the merchant adventurers, into whose hands this branch of trade fell, exported 100,000 cloths. The exportation of wool had been for some time diminishing, and we were rapidly becoming a manufacturing nation. Acts indicative of the ignorance which prevailed continued to be passed; but although the state sought to regulate every thing, our manufactures and trade grew in spite of vicious legislation. Some counties and towns, however, were relieved from the oppressive acts of former reigns, and a considerable number of foreign artisans settled in England; but generally the character of legislation was bad, and was indeed only tolerable because that of other countries was either equally bad or worse. The exportation of sheep was prohibited “for divers good causes and considerations and in the following reign the export of “white cloths” was prohibited, in order to give a boon to our dyers; but other countries adopted the same narrow policy, and by prohibiting the importation of British dyed cloths, defeated the intended monopoly. The woollen manufacture now declined apace, and the persecutions and civil disorder during the contest with the Stewarts, that is, from 1620 to 1688, almost annihilated the trade. The exportation of wool was alternately prohibited and permitted, according to the notions of the government. The great prosperity of the woollen trade in Elizabeth’s reign had been coincident with free trade; but as ignorance prevailed throughout all classes, vain attempts to secure monopolies found favour with the public, notwithstanding repeated failures. Oppressions drove the manufacturers out of the kingdom; and it is said that two thousand left the country at one time under Thomas Telham of Warwick, and shortly after more joined them. This was in the year 1665, when the white clothing trade had fallen off from 100,000 cloths to 11,000, without any increase in the exportation of dyed cloths.

The legislation of the commonwealth was just as unwise as that of the Stewarts. The exportation of wool, fullers’ earth, and all the materials of manufacture, was prevented, and it seems never to have entered the minds of the promoters and framers of these laws that other nations could produce these articles; nor was it until about the year 1660 that the superiority of Spanish clothing wool was admitted, when our manufacturers began to mix it with English wool, to the great improvement of the cloth.

To enumerate the various schemes to remedy the depressed state of the woollen manufacture about this period, would occupy more space than we can afford. They will however be found in Smith’s Memoirs of Wool, a work to which we are much indebted. Suffice it to say, that bad legislation continued its work until it had paralyzed the trade.

In the mean time the w∞llen manufacture found its way into Ireland. Some English clothiers had settled at Dublin, Cork, and Kinsale, and a more considerable establishment was formed at Clonmel. Some Frenchmen also set up a manufacture of druggets at Waterford, and the success of these excited the jealousy of the English clothiers, who ascribed the depression of the trade to Irish competition. The farmer also attributed part of his distress to the importation of Irish wools; and, with singular inconsistency, the clandestine export of both English and Irish wools was deemed the cause of the increase of foreign manufactures. These erroneous notions produced another crop of bad legislation, and the result was, that the very evils complained of were actually produced. Nearly all the tracts on trade published at that time, and nearly all of which are briefly noticed in Smith’s Memoirs of Wool, will be found harping on the declining state of trade, and recommending measures calculated to produce the worst of evils. The great complaint was “the running of wool and although the consumption of Spanish wool was annually increasing, because its merits were becoming known, manufacturers, traders, legislators, all seemed to act under an impression that no wool in the world equalled that of Great Britain.

As the consumption of Spanish wool increased, English cloth improved; and, immediately before the Revolution, our manufacturers opposed with some success the rivalry of the French, which had become extremely injurious to British manufactures.

The tranquillity produced by the establishment of the princess Mary and the prince of Orange on the throne was extremely favourable to the woollen manufacturers, more especially as many of them were Protestant dissenters, who had not enjoyed under the domination of the Stewarts that degree of religious liberty which they craved. Towards the end of the century, it was calculated that the total woollens manufactured in this country amounted to L.8,000,600, of which about L.2,000,000 were exported. From 1718 to 1722 it averaged L.3,000,000. For the ten years ending with 1748 the number was L.3,300,000; and for the following five years L.4,200,000, from which time the advance has been progressive down to the present time.

The principal seats of the woollen manufacture are the western counties and the west riding of Yorkshire. From the year 1726 until the year 1821 accounts were kept of the quantity of cloth manufactured in the west riding of Yorkshire, as exhibited by the returns from the several fulling mills made at the Easter quarter-sessions held at Pontefract. The table for every year of the period will be found in Marshall’s Statistical Tables; but for the purpose of bringing the progressive increase of the manufacture before the eye of the reader, apart from all occasional and temporary fluctuations, we have arranged the last fifty years of the table in five periods, giving the total and averages for each period.
[7:21:928]

Statement of the Number of Pieces and Yards of Broad and Narrow cloth milled in the West Biding of Yorkshire from 1772 to 1821, divided into Periods of Ten Years, showing the Totals and Averages during each Period.
[table]

The only account we have of the quantity manufactured manufactures of Gloucestershire, taken from the Assistant in the west of England, is the following official table of the Hand-Loom Commissioners’ Report of that district.

A Return of the Number of Yards of Woollen cloth made in Gloucestershire in each Year from 1822 to 1838 inclusive, so far as it can be supplied by the Records of the Excise Department.
[table]

The broad and narrow cloths of the west riding of York do not comprise much more than one fourth of the woollen and worsted goods produced in that county. They are for the most part the produce of the clothing townships around Leeds, and in part of the villages in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield and Halifax; but they exclude the blankets and heavy woollens of Dewsbury and its neighbourhood, the worsteds of Bradford and Halifax, the “fancy cloths” of Huddersfield and Halifax, and the flannels and baizes of the district of Saddleworth, which have their market at Rochdale in Lancashire. In the neighbourhood of Skipton and Addingham are produced those worsteds which contain a mixture of cotton.

The west of England still enjoys its pre-eminence in the manufacture of superfine cloths, besides which serges, blankets, and flannels, are there produced. Woollen cloths are made principally at Frome, Ilminster, Twerton, and Chard in Somersetshire; at Stroud, Wootton, Chalford, Dursley, Nailsworth, and Stonehouse, in Gloucestershire; at Bradford, Heytesbury, Melksham, Chippenham, Calne, Wilton, in Wiltshire; at Lyme Regis, Up-Lyme, and Dorchester, in Dorsetshire. Kidderminster in Worcestershire is the seat of the carpet manufacture of the west of England; Salisbury and Cullompton of the celebrated Salisbury flannels; Wellington in Somersetshire, and almost every village in Devon, produce serges; Witney in Oxfordshire still manufactures blankets to a considerable extent, and North Wales still sustains its reputation for superior flannels; but in point of cheapness the west of England has been for years giving way to the west riding of York, though the latter owes a considerable portion of its trade as much to its proximity to Liverpool, the great shipping port of the trade of the western world, as to any circumstance more immediately connected with production.

The west of Scotland has long carried on the manufacture of such woollen fabrics as were formerly peculiar to the country; but of late years the manufactures of other articles, such as blankets and fine and coarse broad cloths, have established themselves there with great success. The woollen goods now produced in the south-west of Scotland are, carpets, fine and coarse cloths, blankets, fancy trouser-pieces, tartans, shepherds’ plaids, shawls of various kinds, and mousselines de laine.

Numerous estimates have been attempted of the number of persons employed in the woollen and worsted manufactures of Great Britain, or rather of the proportion of the population supported thereby; but as the data afforded by official returns for making even an approximate estimate are exceedingly imperfect, no reliance upon them can possibly be claimed. There is a note to Marshall’s Statistical Tables, noticing many of the errors which have been committed; but he has himself not escaped errors. He says, “the first Lord Ellenborough, in his place in parliament, once stated that there were upwards of 3,000,000 of persons engaged in and dependent on the woollen manufacture. The Edinburgh Review more recently asserted that there were upwards of 1,000,000 so occupied and dependent. From the statement below his own table, it will [7:21:929]be seen to be doubtful whether, in all its varied operations, more than 250,000, certainly not 300,000, persons are engaged in or dependent on that branch of industry.” (P. 3.) The statement to which Mr Marshall alludes, was made by Mr Law, afterwards Lord Ellenborough, in 1800, when engaged as counsel for the petitioners against the exportation of wool to Ireland. He said there were 1,500,000 persons immediately employed, and that 3,000,000 were collaterally employed; meaning thereby to include machine-makers, carriers, and so forth. No doubt he was then wrong; but at the present day we cannot think the number short of 1,000,000, and when the census of the present year is made, it will be probably found to exceed it. Indeed Mr Marshall’s own table shows a much greater number. He takes the several counties, and separates the agricultural, mining, and manufacturing, from each other. Thus, in the west riding he gives,—coal and iron, 13,997 families; agriculture, 15,331; manufactures, 85,096; all others, 17,767; making the manufacturing families about two thirds of the whole. Now these are nearly all engaged in the woollen trade, for those engaged in the cotton manufacture will be compensated by at least an equal number in Lancashire engaged in the manufacture of baizes, flannels, &c. In like manner, the manufactures other than woollen are insignificant, and will be compensated by woollens manufactured elsewhere. His table then will stand as follows:
[table]

The proper multiple to count families into population is 51, that is, Great Britain in 1831 contained, in round numbers, 3,000,000 families, and 16,000,000 individuals. Hence 143,981 families = 766,899 persons. This does not include the flannel manufacturers of North Wales, the blanket manufacturers of Oxfordshire, and some scattered manufactures in other districts, for which an allowance of 20,000 families is not excessive. We shall then have 163,981 families, and 874,565 persons, directly supported by the woollen manufacture in England and Wales. We have no means of separating the woollen manufactures of Scotland from those engaged in other branches; but we find from the Report of the Assistant Hand-Loom Commissioners for Scotland, that the woollen trade is carried on to a considerable extent in the shires of Lanark, Renfrew, and Ayr; and also, though not so largely, in Dumfries, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Edinburgh, and slightly in Peebles and Bute. We are disposed to estimate the woollen trade somewhere between a fourth and a fifth of that of England. The climate being more severe, there is a much more constant use of woollen among the people than in England. The shepherd’s plaid takes the place of the linen smock-frock of the south, so that the extent of the manufacture must not be judged by the quantity exported. However, to be on the safe side, we will fix it at one fifth of that of England, or 32,800 families, or 174,933 people, dependent on the woollen manufacture, which, added to our previous number, gives 196,781 families, and 1,059,495 people.

But it must be further observed, that this calculation is based on the population returns of 1831, since which time our population, manufactures, and trade, have greatly increased. Between 1821 and 1831, the increase for the whole kingdom was 15½ per cent.; and since then, from improvements in agriculture, and generally productive harvests, it is generally thought that the ratio of increase will be found to be greater. The increase of the manufacturing districts generally was much greater, for the most part exceeding twenty per cent. With the moderate addition of fifteen per cent. for the increase of the woollen manufacture in 1841, as compared with 1831, we have 226,298 families, consisting of 1,218,424 persons, dependent on the woollen manufacture for their subsistence.^[9. Mr M‘Culloch, in his Statistical Account of the British Empire, estimates the number of people employed in 1826 at 334,000. This is not inconsistent with our estimate of 226,298 families in 1841. ] When we consider that our manufactures employ 1,350,239 families, and that the woollen manufacture requires a greater number of manual operations than any other, we are inclined to think our estimate within the truth.

Although the quantity produced, and amount of capital employed, in the manufacture, is a subject of difficulty, and all calculations are mere approximations, more or less remote, according to the care with which the calculations were made, the quantity exported is more accurately ascertained; and the following table conveys the most recent account published.

An Account of the Quantity of Woollen Manufactures exported in the year 1838, shewing the Country to which each Article was sent.
[table]
[7:21:930]

An Account of the Woollen Manufactures exported from Great Britain, distinguishing each Description of Goods, from 1820 to 1838.
[table]

In 1815, Mr Stevenson estimated the whole value of the woollen manufactures of Great Britain at L.18,000,000, and the number of people actually employed at 500,000. Mr M‘Culloch estimates the value in 1827 at L.22,500,000, on the supposition that the manufactured article is worth three times the value of the wool, the quantity of which he estimated at 490,000 packs English, or 117,600,000 lbs.; and 30,000,000 imported, a quantity far within the present amount. Our calculation proceeds on the basis of 226,298 families, earning on an average 17s. 6d. per family, and allowing a consumption of wool worth L.10,000,000, with an allowance of twenty-five per cent. on all outlay for wear and tear, interest, and profit of capital. We then have the following estimate:
[table]

We now come to describe the manufacture of the wool of the sheep in its two great divisions of woollen and worsted manufacture. Before we enter fully into the two processes, it may be well to indicate in what the difference consists. We have already described that peculiar property of wool called the felting property, by which the fibres, when submitted to heat, moisture, and pressure combined, form one almost homogeneous mass. Of this property advantage is taken in almost every article of woollen manufacture, the yarn being softly and loosely spun for the purpose. In the case of worsted, on the other hand, the felting property is neglected, the wool is submitted to the process of combing, which rather impairs, though it does not destroy, the felting property; and the fibres being elongated and laid even, the thread is twisted and spun hard, so as to feel close, hard, and thread-like to the touch, and not soft and loose like the yarn destined for the manufacture of woollen cloths. Keeping this distinction in view, we will first treat of the manufacture of cloths, the most perfect of woollen fabrics; and the following is a catalogue of the processes, which we shall describe seriatim.

1. Sorting the wool.

2. Scouring or washing.

3. Dying (when wool-dyed).

4. Willying or twillying.^[10. These processes are performed by machines. ]

5. Picking or moating.

6. Oiling.

7. Scribbling.^[11. These processes are performed by machines. ]

8. Carding.^[12. These processes are performed by machines. ]

9. Slubbing.^[13. These processes are performed by machines. ] ∙

10. Spinning.^[14. These processes are performed by machines. ]

11. Reeling.^[15. These processes are performed by machines. ]

12. Warping, patenting.

13. Sizing.^[16. These processes are performed by machines. ]

14. Weaving.^[17. These processes are performed by machines. ]

15. Scouring.

16. Dying (when piece-dyed).

17. Burling.

18. Fulling or felting.^[18. These processes are performed by machines. ]

19. Scouring.

20. Drying (tentering).

21. Raising, dressing, or teazling.^[19. These processes are performed by machines. ]

22. Shearing or cutting.^[20. These processes are performed by machines. ]

23. Brushing.^[21. These processes are performed by machines. ]

24. Picking, drawing, and marking.

25. Pressing.^[22. These processes are performed by machines. ]

26. Packing.

The sorting of the wool, and the tact or delicacy of hand and nice discrimination which it requires, have been described in the first division of this article. The sorter is usually attended by a boy to distribute the sorts: so attended, a skilful sorter can sort a pack of German wool in about two days, and a pack of English in one. The wages which a sorter is capable of earning vary from 25s. to L.2, L.2. 10s., and even L.3; but the latter demands a union of skill and rapidity seldom attained.

The proper sort having been selected, the wool is scoured or washed, to free it from the animal grease with which it abounds. This in the west of England invariably, and in Yorkshire generally, is effected as follows. Stale urine, called in the west of England “ley,” is mixed with a small quantity of soap, and heated to about 120°. In this detergent the wool is soaked. 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 it their special business. The small manufacturers send all colours to the dyers. The prices paid for dyeing vary, according[7:21:931] to the colours, from 10d. to ls. 6d. per lb.; that is, 10d. to ls. for woaded medleys, 1s. to 1s. 2d. for wool-dyed blacks, and ls. 2d. to ls. 6d. for blues. Piece-dyed cloths are sent to the dyeing-house after fulling and scouring (see Dyeing).

Delivered at the mill :—the wool (dyed or undyed, as the case may be) is now 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 the willow of the cotton manufacture (as the Scotish call window windy); and even willow is probably a corruption of winnow, winnowing the wool being really the office it performs.

There are various kinds of willying machines in use, but the best appears to be the conical willy, made by Mr Lilly of Manchester. It was first applied to the cleansing of cotton; but it has been tried in Leeds with success, and, we believe, is now used to a considerable extent.

The willy consists of a revolving cone, armed with four rows of iron spikes, strongly fixed to four longitudinal bars, which being fastened to three concentric wheels of different diameters, the common axis of which forms the shaft of the machine, the conical form thereof is at once accounted for. 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 concentric covering of thin sheet-iron, and at the large end is a gridiron 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 and 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 axis disposed parallel to the apron, and immediately over it 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 or 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 wil-lied 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 a 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 pulled with the hands, so as to get rid of any burs, 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-moater. If this be not done, the scribbling machine is injured by any lumps of pitch 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, 400 lbs., in a day.

The process of scribbling differs but little from that of carding; 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 of the wool, 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.

In Plate CLXXVII. (Cotton Manufacture) figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, the carding engine used in the cotton manufacture is shown; but the wool-carding engine is somewhat different, as it consists of one large cylinder or card-drum, surmounted by three pairs of smaller cylinders, called urchins, all of them covered with card-cloths armed with carding wires. The smaller cylinders are of unequal size. The larger of the two is called the worker, and the smaller the cleaner, which revolves at great 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 pair 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, whence 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 doffing knife, which moves rapidly up and down by means of a crank, so that it scrapes the doffer downwards only. In the scribbling process, the wool is wound round a revolving roller, in an endless fleece, having the appearance of a fine blanket. But the carding engines differ from the scribbling machines in the mode in which the doffer is armed, and in the contrivance for receiving the wool from the doffer. The doffer, instead of being uniformly covered with wires, is merely armed with a succession of card-leathers, arranged in longitudinal bands parallel with the axis of the doffer. The effect of this is, that the doffing-knife detaches the wool from the doffer, in the shape of bands or slivers. These, instead of being wound round a roller, fall into the flutes of a fluted cylinder; and as half of this cylinder is covered with a case, called a shell, near enough to the cylinder to touch the slivers as they lie in the flutes or grooves, they are rolled into what are called cardings, and are received upon an apron moving in a direction from the engine.

The several cylinders move at different velocities, not merely in relation to their surface, but in the relative number of revolutions which they perform in a given time. The card-drum is usually three feet in diameter, and makes one hundred revolutions in a minute. The workers are about eight inches in diameter, and make only ten revolutions in a minute; hence the surface of the drum moves forty-five times as fast as the workers. Their surfaces move in the same direction.

The cleaners revolve in the contrary direction, and they card the wool on the drum as well as on the workers. They move very rapidly, namely, 300 revolutions in a minute; but as they are only one ninth of the diameter of the drum, their surface has only one third of the velocity of the surface of the drum.
[7:21:932]

The worker next the doffers is called the fly, from its great velocity. It is furnished with straight teeth, and it does not take the fibres from the card-drum, but merely raises them to the surface, from which they are stripped by the doffer, the surface velocity of which is only one thirtieth of that of the drum. The wool is then scraped off by the dofling-knife, and rolled into cardings, as already described.

These several processes come under the general term preparing. Within the last year, a patent has been taken out by Mr Thomas Walker of Galashiels, for an improved mode of feeding the preparing machinery, which is said to produce a more even yarn than the old methods.

After the wool is thus prepared by the operations of wil-lying, scribbling, and carding, it is in a state to be spun into yarn by machines, which elongate the cardings, rovings, or rollers as they are called in some districts, and at the same time twist them in the required degree. The process of spinning, and the recent improvements in the machinery employed in it, have been carefully described in the articles Cotton Manufacture and Spinning and all that now remains is to describe the mode of spinning yarn proper for the manufacture of woollen cloth. This is effected in two operations. The first, called slubbing, is performed with a machine called a slubbing billy, which is certainly behind the generally improved state of manufacturing machinery; and the second and more complete spinning is effected either with the jenny or the mule.

In the operation of slubbing, the cardings are joined together end to end, elongated to a certain extent, and slightly twisted to give them sufficient cohesion and strength. The “slubbing” thus produced has the appearance of a soft and weak thread.

The annexed figure will give a clear conception of the slubbing billy and its mode of operation. The spindles are arranged on a moveable carriage, which runs along the frame of the billy on friction w heels. The cardings are arranged on an endless apron, in a slanting direction, at the end of the frame, opposite to the carriage. They then pass under a wooden roller, which presses lightly upon them, so as slightly to compress them. In front of this roller will be seen a moveable rail, which, when it rests upon the cardings, prevents their being drawn through the rollers, but when elevated by means of the lever seen underneath, prevents the cardings from being drawn forward by the retiring of the spindle carriage. Immediately over the spindles, it will be observed, is a wire, which, when let down upon the yarns, presses them downwards, and allows them to be wound round the spindles by their revolutions, as the carriage is moved home by the slubber.

We will now suppose the carriage to be at rest, not as seen in the figure, but close to the rail and roller above described. A small wheel on the carriage, by passing under the levers (seen under the roller and raiD, elevates the rail, and permits the cardings to be drawn freely through the roller the moment the slubber moves the carriage towards the extremity of the machine. The cardings are brought from the carding engines by children, and, by a slight lateral rolling motion of the fingers, are joined on to the ends of the cardings already attached to the machine. This is repeated as often as necessary. In order to prevent the undue thickening of the cardings at the junction, each carding is smaller at the ends; and some little tact is required on the part of the piecers, or pieceners, as the children who perform this work are called, to prevent any inequality at the junction. This tact is soon acquired, even by very young children.

The slubber now seizes the rail of the carriage, and draws it slowly out. As the rail in front of the sluhbing roller is elevated by the upward pressure of the lever, the carding is drawn through, without being elongated, about eight inches. At this point the lever is disengaged, and the rail descends upon the cardings and pinches them fast. As no more can be drawn out, the further drawing back of the carriage necessarily elongates the cardings, and by the motion of the spindles a slight twist is at the same time given to them. This is effected by the slubber turning the wheel with his right hand, his left being occupied with the carriage-rail; and the handle, as will be seen, is brought within his reach for the purpose.

It should be observed, that during this part of the operation, from the inclined position of the spindles, the yarn is not wound round them by their revolution, but at every turn it slips off, being merely twisted by the revolutions of the spindles. When the slubber judges the yarn to be sufficiently twisted, he moves the carriage forward, and at the same time brings the faller-wire down upon the whole row of yams; then, by setting the spindles in position, the yarns are wound round them in the form of a double cone. The faller-wire is connected with the carriage-rail by two arms; and as the rail turns on its axis, the slubber is able to raise or depress the wire as he grasps the rail to move the carriage forward, by the motion of his wrist.

The billy, like the jenny, has generally sixty spindles. One carding engine will keep one billy employed, and, with steady work, one slubber should have four pieceners, who consequently have each fifteen cardings to manage. There is no excessive labour in the operation, nor is the attention of the children painfully overstretched; but the evidence given before the Factory Commissioners shews that the children were subject to much cruelty from the slubbers, who are often irregular and intemperate, making up for lost hours by excessive work, and beating the children who work under them for the slightest fault. Dr Ure mentions an invention by Mr Charles Wilson, intended to supersede the slubbing billy in preparing the wool for spinning. It consists of an adaptation of a system of rollers to the carding machine, by which the cardings are sufficiently elongated for the operations of the muleor the jenny. We are not aware that this machine has come into use: if so, it has not been our fortune to meet with it, though our acquaintance with the clothing districts of the west riding of Yorkshire is extensive.

The whole history of the great inventions by which the art of spinning has arrived at its present state of perfection has been already given in the articles Cotton Manufacture and Spinning . The jenny is still used to some extent in Yorkshire, though the mule is fast superseding it. In some of the clothing villages of the west riding, it is the custom of the manufacturers to give out the work in slubbing, and the workman spins and weaves at so much per string of ten feet. In other places the small manufacturers, who have perhaps two, four, or six looms, purchase the wool, and get it scribbled, carded, and slubbed at a mill, then spin and weave it themselves, and after getting it fulled at the mill, carry it to the Leeds cloth-market in an unfinished state. In both these cases the jenny is made use of. These mills are not unfrequently built by subscription by the small manufacturers. A manager is appointed, [7:21:933]the regular price for slubbing, &c., is charged, and the profits are divided at the end of the year. In the larger manufactories at Leeds, the mule is used instead of the jenny. In some of these factories all the operations from sorting the wool to packing the cloth are carried on, whilst in some the weaving is given out. The establishment of Messrs Hirst, Bramley, and Co. is a sample of an admirably regulated factory, where the whole process of cloth-making is carried on; and we are much indebted to those gentlemen for the facilities afforded us in the prosecution of our inquiries. To Messrs Ripley and Ogle we are also similarly indebted.

The operations of warping and weaving, and indeed every thing connected with them, have been fully described in the article Weaving : all that we need mention here is, that the hand-loom is chiefly employed at present, though there seems every probability that Messrs Sharpe and Roberts’s improved power-loom will rapidly supersede the hand-loom. In several factories of Leeds, power-looms are employed to weave the finest and broadest cloths, namely, such as are twelve quarters wide in the loom; and we could discover no greater difficulty than in the weaving of worsted stuffs, to which power has been extensively applied.

The cloth is woven of the width just mentioned, to allow for the shrinking which it undergoes by the processes of scouring and fulling, especially the latter. The outer edges of the cloth have a list border, which receives the tenterhooks in stretching. This list in the west of England is made of goats’ hair, but in Yorkshire it is merely formed of coarse yarn. This, we believe, is all that is necessary to be added to what will be found in the article Weaving.

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 end of which is 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 dried 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, 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 of late 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 are now constructed of iron, with much more accuracy, and work with greater precision. The best of these is the invention of Messrs Willans and Ogle 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-rod 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 fulled surface raised upon it, and the weaving seems less to give a character to the fabric than to impart the requisite degree of strength.^[23. Cloth has recently been produced by the felting process alone, without the aid of weaving. Some machinery has been erected at Leeds, and it is expected to succeed. In France, cloth has been produced by the same invention. The scheme is not new, for as early as 1794, Mr Joseph Booth took out a patent for the production of cloth without wearing; but after being tried at Taunton, at Lewisham in Kent, and at Merton in Surrey, it was abandoned. We trust the present effort will be successful. ] Superfine cloths have four fullings of three hours each, a thick solution of soap being spread between each layer of cloth every time. Scouring is aided by fuller’s earth, that which is found in England being said to be superior to any other.^[24. “Here the Dutchmen found fuller’s earth, a precious treasure, whereof England hath better than all Christendom beside; so that nature may seem to point out our land for the staple of drapery, if the idlenesse of her inhabitants be not the only hindrance thereof."—Fuller’s Church History. ] Rinsing with clear water completes the process, which diminishes the width of the cloth between forty and forty-five per cent., and the length about fifty 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 teazling, by which 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 teazle, a species of thistle (dipsacus fullorum) is employed. This useful plant is cultivated in the clothing countries, and especially in Somersetshire, where they are sold in packs of 20,000, at about L.6 per pack. In periods of scarcity the price has advanced as high as L.22 per pack, followed by a great importation from France, and a consequent glut, reducing the price to L.3. A piece of forty yards consumes 3000. This state of circumstances has induced many to turn their attention to the invention of some metallic substitute, but the thistle teazle still maintains its supremacy.

Formerly the teazle was fixed in a hand frame, and worked by two men in the manner of a large two-handled brush or hand-card; but for many years the gig-mill has been employed, in which the teazles are arranged in a cylinder, and the cloth being stretched on two cloth-beams, one above and one below the teazle cylinder, the cloth moving in a direction contrary to its revolutions, its surface is exposed to the operation of the teazles. In the older [7:21:934]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, like the bars of an immense reel. The mode in which the cloth is stretched on the beams is shown in the annexed diagram, which is a section view of the beams and cylinders, without the frame-work 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 longitudinal teazle-frames can be removed from the cylinder at pleasure, and when the teazles become clogged with wool, they are removed and cleaned with a comb by children.

The most recent invention of a gig-mill with metallic teazles is that of Mr Atkinson; but we have never had the good fortune to see it in operation, nor do we know what success it has been attended with. It does not differ materially from the gig-mill just described. A series of longitudinal teazle-cards takes the place of the teazles; these teazle-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. Dr Ure states that the pile is more perfectly raised by this machine, and the nap of the cloth is much softer. The superiority of the teazle over wires arises from the tendency of the former to break off when they meet with any knot or inequality, which the metallic teazle-cards would tear out. The spring with which Mr Atkinson’s gig-mill is fitted may perhaps correct this.

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 the subject of a patent by Mr Walker of Mill-Shaw, in the township of Beeston, near Leeds. Mr Walker’s improvement consists 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 teazles, as the cloth touches the cylinder for about one fifth of its circumference. It then passes round another roller and ascends to a second pair, round one of which it is wound. The dotted lines in the above figure show this improvement.

When the fibre has thus been torn to the surface, the pile so raised is cropped or sheared. This, like all the other operations of cloth-making, 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 at the lower part of the frame. Two pair 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 the most recent, which has the merit of being extremely simple, and will probably supersede all others. It is the invention of Mr George Oldland of Hilsley 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 far more delicate shears than have hitherto 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 rotary 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. The other 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 teazles both ways. After being sheared, it is subjected to the gig-mill in one direction only, which is called moving. It is afterwards cut and teazled 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 roller-boiling, or patenting. The cloth is tightly wound round rollers, and is immersed in water heated to 180° of Fahrenheit for twenty-four hours, when it is once more stretched upon the tenters and dried. Mr William Hirst of Leeds, a great improver of the cloth-manufacture, finding the long exposure to heat injurious, proposed an alternate and intermitted immersion in hot and cold water, and his method is said to have been attended with great success.

The cloth is now removed to the brushing machine, a system of brushes affixed to 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 the purpose of brushing, the cloth is made into an endless web by stitching the ends together, and the brushing is continued as long as may be deemed necessary.

Before the final brushing, mozing, or finishing, is given to it, however, it is subjected to a further examination before the light and on the surface, and is picked, fine-drawn, and marked. The picking is to remove all blemishes, similar to the process of burling, already described; the fine-drawing is to close any minute hole or break in the fabric; and the marking is the working in, with white or yellow silk, a word indicative of the quality and number of the piece, such as Saxony, extra superfine, and so forth.

The pile is again brushed, and after the final dressing is thus given to it, it is pressed in a hydraulic press. Between each fold of the cloth is placed a polished pressing [7:21:935]board, similar to those used by printers for pressing the sheets of books. Between each piece of cloth, for many are pressed at the same time, are two iron-plates, each one half the width of the cloth. If the cloth is to be hot pressed, an operation not applied to the best cloths, as the patenting supersedes the necessity of this process, these plates are heated; but this only gives a gloss which is a poor substitute for that beautiful face which our finest cloths exhibit. The cloth is now finished, and is packed in bales for market. Sometimes it is cut into ends or half-pieces.

With respect to the worsted manufacture, we need not tax the reader’s attention at any great length, as most of the processes have been described in other articles, to which we shall refer.

The wool employed in the worsted manufacture is the long or combing, as distinguished from the short or clothing wool; and the object of all the preparatory processes is to facilitate the production of a finer and more perfectly spun thread than would be fit for fulled cloth. By the operations of worsted spinning, indeed, the felting property of the wool is greatly impaired, though not wholly destroyed, and the worsted fabric is not homogeneous, like the fulled cloth, but is reticulated like linen and cotton fabrics.

The several processes of a worsted factory are as follows:

1. Sorting,

2. Washing,

3. Drying,

4. Plucking,

5. Combing,

6. Breaking,

7. Drawing,

8. Roving,

9. Spinning,

10. Reeling,

11. Weaving, &c. &c.

For the worsted manufacture, the washing of the wool is very carefully performed with soap and water, the greater part of the moisture being pressed out between rollers. The wool is then carried to the drying room, where it is spread on the floor which is over the boilers of the steamengine, by which a high temperature is kept up.

When the wool is thoroughly dried, it is passed through a machine called a plucker, which consists of a pair of spiked rollers fed by an endless apron. By the revolving spikes of this machine the fibres of the wool are cleansed and straightened; and as the interior is furnished with a fan or blower, the wool is blown out at the opposite end of the machine.

The wool is now ready for the process of combing, which is performed either by the hand or by machinery; but as none of the various combing machines which have been invented has attained that perfection which has been imparted to other automatic contrivances, the finest long wools are invariably combed by hand. This is to be deplored, as the operation is certainly not healthy. Great heat is required to keep the combs in a proper state, and this heat is produced by charcoal.

Each comber has two pair of combs, one pair having two rows of teeth, and the other three rows for the last combing. These teeth are fixed in a wooden stock furnished with a handle, as in the annexed figure. The rows of teeth are one third of an inch apart.

For heating the combs the workman has a peculiar kind of stove, furnished with a hot-plate at top, covered with another plate to confine the heat, there being just space between the two to admit the prongs of the combs. This stove is generally heated with charcoal, but in some factories steam has been applied to the heating of the combs, and we believe it has been attended with success.

The workman has also a post affixed in the combing room, with an iron stem or receiver for the combs, 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 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, 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 upwards, and the comber, taking half the oiled wool in his hands, throws successive portions 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 is also 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 combing.

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 noils, 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.

Several machines have been invented, designed to supersede the hand-combs. That which has been adopted to a considerable extent, and which we had an opportunity of seeing in full operation in the worsted spinning establishment of the late firm of Messrs Hindes and Derham at Leeds, is a foreign invention, but patented in this country by Mr John Platt of Salford, in November 1827, so that it has now stood the test of fourteen years’ trial. It consists of two revolving combs, fixed in a frame, as in the annexed figure, and inclined at an angle of twenty-seven degrees. These wheels are in the ordinary form, with comb-teeth set at the edge of the rim, at right angles to the radii of the wheel. These wheels are made to revolve with great rapidity at first, at such a distance that the extremities of the wool, thrown off by centrifugal force, can alone be combed; but the circular combs are made gradually to approach each other, so as to imitate the hand process, as already described. This motion is effected by mounting the axle of one of the wheels in slides; the traverse movement being effected by means of an endless screw, attached to the under part of the frame. The frame-work of the [7:21:936]wheels is hollow, and steam circulates freely in it, so as to keep up the required degree of temperature.

The circular combs are fed by a boy, who sits on the ground, and throws the wool upon the teeth in the same manner that the comber does on the hand-comb. When one comb is charged, they are thrown into gear by shifting the driving belt on to the proper pulley; and as they revolve with rapidity against each other, gradually approaching, as already described, the whole length of the staple is combed out smooth. They are then thrown out of gear, and one end of the sliver being drawn through rollers, the sliver is pulled off by a boy. The noils being then removed, the machine is charged anew.

After the wool has been combed by one or other of the above means, it is removed to the breaking frame, which opens out any fibres which may have escaped from the combs in a partially felted state. The principal part of the breaking frame consists of two rows of endless comb-chains, of which one pair is exhibited in the annexed figure.

The reader must bear in mind that the frame-work is omitted in the drawing, as not being essential to the due understanding of the process. The wool is introduced between the feed-rollers at a, by means of an endless apron, upon which equal weights of wool are uniformly spread out from time to time. The teeth of the endless combs are arranged alternately, so that those of the upper are midway between those of the under comb-chain. The arrows indicate the direction of the motion, and both move with the same velocity. The two small rollers in the centre are merely to give the chain of combs a due degree of tension. After the wool has passed through the part of the machine here delineated, it is received by two rollers of the same diameter as the feed-rollers. The sliver then passes through a copper trumpet-shaped funnel, and then between another pair of rollers, and falls into a tin can. The respective ve locities of the several parts of the machine are as follows. The velocity of the comb-chain is twice that of the feedrollers, that of the second or receiving rollers (not shewn) twice that of the chain, and that of the last pair a little greater than the second, simply because their diameter is a little more.

The annexed enlarged view of one of the fluted cylinders, around which the endless chain revolves, will better explain the manner in which the comb-chain is formed, and the manner in which it operates. The chain is formed of a series of small rectangular pieces of tin, the half of one overlapping the other. The hinges are formed by little discs of the metal, which are turned up at right angles. The teeth are soldered to each piece of tin; and in the end which overlaps is cut a groove, to admit of the free motion of the teeth as the leaves pass over the cylinders. So long as the chain is clear of the cylinders, the tin leaves lie evenly, one upon the other; but as soon as the chain meets the cylinders, the overlapping ends are lifted, as shown in the diagram, and the wool upon the teeth is cleaned off or disengaged, so as to be ready to be taken up by the second pair of rollers, passed through the funnel between the last pair of rollers, and into the can, as already described.

The sliver is now ready for the drawing frame; but here our task is at an end. The operations of the drawing frame, the roving frame, and the spinning throstle, have been minutely described in the articles Cotton Manufacture and Spinning , and the article Weaving will fill up what is there and here wanting.

A few words must yet be added on the condition of the people employed, and on the future prosperity of the manufacture. The following table is from Mr Miles’s Report on the condition of the hand-loom weavers of the west of England.^[25. Assistant Commissioners’ Reports, part v. p. 374. ] '

Statement of the Average Wages of different classes of Work-people connected with the Manufacture of Woollen cloth in the county of Gloucester, from the year 1808 to 1838, shewing the Decrease per cent. in the Wages of each class.
[table]
[7:21:937]

In the Report of Mr Chapman for the west riding of Yorkshire, there is a detailed statement, from the weavers’ own lips, of the earnings of thirty-three individuals, ranging from 7s. 6d. per week to 26s., varying according to age, strength, industry, and skill. These varying circumstances are stated, and certainly give a better view of the possible and actual earnings of men than any statement of averages. But although an average may be fallacious, it may be serviceable to ascertain at what points in the scale the largest number of cases occurs. We find it stated that

4 earned above 20s. 4 earned from 10s. to 12s.

9 ... from 16s. to 20s. 3 ... under 10s.

13 12s. to 16s.

As the manufacture of the west riding has improved, the quantity of work has much increased without any increase of price, so that the weekly earnings are said greatly to have diminished within the last twenty years. Wages in Yorkshire are paid by the string, a measure of ten feet, being higher according to the set, as it is called, that is, the number of porteths or thirty-eight threads of warp in the width. Thus eighty is deemed a medium set, and has now 22,800 yards of weft in each string, or 5700 picks or shoots; whereas in 1817 the same set had only 12,540 yards, or 3135 picks, the effect of this increased wefting. The necessary consequence of the improvement in the manufacture upon wages is shown in the following table.
[table]

The wages of the several operatives employed in October 1838 in the establishment of Messrs Hindes and Derham were as follows:
[table]
[table]

But the most important feature in the condition of the weavers, as pointed out in Mr Chapman’s Report, is, that in 1800, and for some few years after, money wages were as low, and perhaps lower, than in 1838; that about the year 1804 or 1806, wages advanced; that they continued high until 1815 or 1816, since which time they have declined, but not quite to the point they were at in 1800. The following statement confirms this view.

Weckly Earnings of a skilful Worsted Weaver, from 1787 to 1838.
[table]
[table]
[table]
[table]

The high wages which prevailed from 1804 to 1815 arose entirely out of the improvements in spinning. The quantity of yarn was so great that it was difficult to get weavers, and they were enabled to make their own terms; but the profits of weaving soon increased the supply of weavers. Children were extensively taught to weave; and as, in the case of cotton and worsted, the work is light, the labour of the parent was soon transferred to the child. In the case of woollen cloth, however, this could not take place. Cloth-weaving is emphatically a man’s work; so that the cloth-weaver’s wages are as much as those of the worsted and cotton-weaver put together, the average proportion being as 15s., 9s., and 6s. per week.

But a comparative statement of mere money wages does not inform us respecting the improving, stationary, or retrograde condition of the operative. For that purpose we must ascertain the command he has over the necessaries, comforts, and conveniencies of life. In this the following table will aid us.

A Statement of the Prices of various Articles of Food and Household Stores for the use of Greenwich Hospital, from 1800 to 1835.
[table]

From this table it appears that every article in which the operative’s wages are expended, is considerably cheaper now than at an earlier period; and if we could collect a similar comparative table of the price of clothing, the saving would be more conspicuous. In 1800 a week’s wages would purchase ∙71 of a bushel of wheat, or 17½ lbs. of flesh, or fifteen Chelsea rations; in 1837 a week’s wages would purchase 1∙64 bushels of wheat, or 34 lbs. of flesh, or twenty Chelsea rations, the ration consisting of one day’s food for a man. On so much of the weaver’s earnings as he expends in butter, cheese, salt, candles, &c. there is a saving of about 40 per cent., and on his clothing much more, so that 10s. in 1800 was certainly no more than 6s. 8d. at the present time.

The manufacturer’s moral condition has improved with his physical condition. He is careful to educate his children to the full extent of his means; he evinces self-respect in all the relations of life, and therefore commands the respect of others. The legislature and the government have also of late years done much to elevate and improve his condition. The various provisions for the regulation of factories bring the employer under a system of necessary [7:21:938]superintendence, proved to be necessary by the disclosure of much mismanagement and oppression. Objections may be urged against some of their details, but not to their principle. Children should be under the guardianship of the state; and however bad in principle it may be to interfere with the contract between the employer and employed, that rule must be broken through, or rather does not apply, where one of the parties is morally and legally unable to contract. It is certainly an evil of the factory system that the child is taken from his home, and converted into little better than a portion of the machine which he attends. Under improved regulations however this evil may be remedied, by withdrawing the younger children from the factory, and transferring them to their proper position, the school. This has been half done already; and if the state of opinion of the people themselves demanded such a step, the legislature might take it at once. But a government can never be much in advance of popular opinion, and it is generally behind it. Neither the employers nor the employed saw any thing disgraceful in working the tender infant instead of educating him; and no sound legislation can take place, no efficient public guardianship can be established, until the working people themselves believe that the employment of a child is disgraceful. When that belief becomes universal, as we are convinced it will, the factory age may as easily be limited to fourteen as to eight; but if it were now to be attempted, it would only be to throw the child upon the labour of the hand-loom, to the still further depression of the parents’ already too scanty wages.

In all other respects, machinery has done much for the improvement of the operatives, and that in two ways. First, the better tool gives Setter wages; and, second, cheap production daily gives the working millions an increased command over the necessaries and comforts of life. It has been the fate of every machine to be opposed at its introduction; but as the working classes are almost always honest in their opposition, many of the machines which were most opposed are now most cherished. Nor ought this to excite surprise. The first view of a machine seems to threaten the displacement of labour, and it is only at a second and closer view that the labourer himself finds labour facilitated, production increased, and, in one way or another, fresh labour employed by more than the labour at first displaced; and as all improvements are adopted gradually, it generally happens that the increased employment anticipates the labour displaced. Can any one doubt that this has been the case with regard to the improvements in spinning? It is to these great improvements that we owe our pre-eminence in the cotton manufacture.

The woollen manufacture is certainly in a less organized state. The machinery employed is not so highly improved. The application of power is recent and imperfect; the jenny still performs much work that should be done by the self-acting mule; the whole work of preparing, including slabbing, is susceptible of great improvement. In every branch of the manufacture there is room for more economical arrangements. When the woollen manufacture has attained the perfection of machinery, and, above all, of organization, of which it is susceptible, the result must be a greatly increased trade. In the manufacture of woollens we cannot attain that extraordinary supremacy which we enjoy in the cotton manufacture, because cloth-making is to be found among the occupations of almost every people on the face of the earth. Still we see every prospect of an improved trade; and should increased freedom of commerce be concurrent with improved economy of manufactures, we believe that it is on the woollen and worsted manufacture of the west riding of Yorkshire that the increase would be most conspicuous. (d . l.)