" AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 473 



development subsequent to, and undoubtedly caused by, the sub- 

 stitution of machine for hand manufacture. The clip of the 

 United States has increased from a few hundred thousand pounds, 

 at the time of the Revolution, to over 300,000,000 pounds, and the 

 product of the continental countries has also increased very 

 greatly in the interval. 



To fully realize the quantity of raw material now consumed in 

 what are commonly known as woolen goods, we must estimate the 

 quantity of waste and substitutes utilized as equal to that of wool ; 

 and thus we have 4,000,000,000 pounds of raw material passing 

 annually through the looms of the world. Hand manufacture 

 knew no such thing as a substitute for wool. The raw material 

 has only been kept abreast of the manufacturing capacity by the 

 discovery of methods for the utilization of these substitutes. 



Something of what the world has gained in quantity has been 

 lost in quality at certain points. It can not be pretended that the 

 utilization of wastes and substitutes does not involve a certain 

 element of deterioration. Nevertheless it is a distinct gain to the 

 world, as is every new development that reduces the waste in any 

 branch of industry. Within a few years a machine has been in- 

 vented, known as the Garnett machine, which enables manufact- 

 urers to comb out all their waste, whether from cards, mules, 

 spinning-frames, or from whatever source tangled and twisted 

 fibers are produced in the various processes of manufacture, and 

 to so restore it that it may be again utilized in connection with 

 the original fiber. The saving thus effected is enormous. The 

 machine, as the illustration shows, is in principle the same as the 

 carding-engine. Its strong, sharp-pointed, steel teeth gradually 

 untwist and teasel out the kink in yarn or thread, restoring the 

 fibers of wool in nearly their original length of staple. 



The fiber of wool has a wonderful capacity of endurance. Once 

 used it may be, and is, used again and again, reproduced, not with 

 all its original virtues, but still with many serviceable qualities, 

 and called, according to its form, shoddy, mungo, waste, wool- 

 extract. The French, by a happy conceit, call this material 

 renaissance ; and it is literally wool born again. By chemical 

 processes the wool in mixed goods is separated from the cotton or 

 other fibers employed for its adulteration, and wonderful machines 

 tear it apart, readjust its fibers, and prepare it again for the 

 spindles. Thus it goes into new garments, of a cheap grade, to be 

 sure, but, if properly prepared, of a serviceable quality. It is 

 customary to speak contemptuously of shoddy and of those engaged 

 in its manufacture and use. But those who do so do not under- 

 stand how important is the part now played by this preparation 

 in the cheapening of the people's clothing and in the well-dressed 

 appearance of the community. Goods into which this material 



vol. xxxix. 33 



