45 6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cloth is damp, warm water and soaps being used to facilitate it. 



There appears to be no limit to the felting capacity of wool or the 



shrinkage which may accompany it. 



By the most primitive methods the fulling was done in tubs 



under the pressure of the feet, a tedious process, requiring several 



days. In the early days of 

 mechanical manufacture the 

 cloths, after boiling or scour- 

 ing to remove the oil, were 

 folded in laps, hammered, re- 

 folded, and again hammered 

 five or six times, until the 

 fibers had matted and shrunk 

 to the desired size. At a later 

 period there followed a primi- 

 tive method of automatic full- 

 ing, in a milling trough, with 

 " stocks," which were two 

 heavy wooden mallets, lifted 

 in succession by cogs fixed on 

 the axis of a water -wheel. 

 These hammers would make 

 from thirty to forty blows a 

 minute, and the process was 

 repeated four or five times, 

 with intermediate soapings 

 and rinsings, occupying a day 

 to complete it. 



The fulling-mill with roll- 

 ers is an American invention, 

 that of John Dyer, whose pat- 

 ent bears date lSo'3. The in- 

 vention of the double crank- 

 shaft fulling-mill was also 

 of American origin, Levi Os- 

 borne's first machine, made 

 in 1S04, being the first of a se- 

 ries of valuable machines on 

 that principle. By the use of 

 the new methods of fulling, 

 the cloth, after saturation with 

 soap and water, is passed be- 

 tween two vertical rollers in a 



twisted condition, the pressure applied causing it to shrink in the 



direction of the weft. As the cloth passes through these rollers 



its progress is interrupted at intervals, and it is held in a trough 



o 

 S5 



2 

 w 



H 



< 

 o 



< 



O 



CO 



c3 



