540 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" The number of new mechanical contrivances to which this branch 

 of manufacture has given rise is altogether unparalleled in any other 

 department of the arts." It was in 1764, a little more than a hundred 

 years ago, that pillow-made net was first imitated by machinery. It 

 was called frame-looped net, and was made by using one thread, as in 

 hosiery, and, like hosiery, the lace would ravel when this thread was 

 broken. The machine was, in fact, a modification of the stocking- 

 frame. It was so much improved fi'om time to time that net with 

 six-sided meshes could be made, which, when stiffened, looked like 

 cushion-net, but when damp it would shrink like crape. 



Another machine was devised for making lace, called the warp- 

 frame. The lace made by it, like the former, consisted of looped 

 stitches, but a solid web was produced, which could be cut and sewed 

 like cloth. In 1795 lace open-work was made by this machine, and 

 soon afterward durable and cheap figured laces, in endless variety. 

 " The lightest gossamer blond silk laces, cotton tattings and edgings, 

 antimacassars and d'oyleys, threaded and pearled, are finished in this 

 loom, and are the pioneers of higher-priced lace articles throughout 

 the world. In 1810 there were four hundred warp-looms at work 

 making the lace called Mechlin-net, and using cotton yarn costing fif- 

 teen guineas the pound." 



But the most important step ever taken in the making of lace was 

 the invention of the bobbin-net machine. Until this invention ma- 

 chine-lace was, for the most part, only a kind of knitting that had to 

 be gummed and stifiened to give it the solidity of net. The great prob- 

 lem of the time was how to imitate pillow-made net by machinery. 

 Numerous attempts to do this were made by smiths, weavers, and 

 lace-makers. Much inventive talent was vainly spent, and many men 

 of genius fell into poverty through their prolonged and unrequited 

 efibrts to construct the required machine. Insanity and self-destruc- 

 tion had ended the careers of some, and disappointment and misfortune 

 befell them all, until at last the idea of such a machine was regarded 

 as visionary it was classed with the perpetual motion. 



John Heathcote, the inventor of the bobbin-net machine, was born 

 in 1783. In youth he was remarkable for his quick acquisition of 

 knowledge, his thoughtful intelligence, and quiet deportment. He 

 was early placed at the hosiery manufacture, and at the age of sixteen 

 he conceived the idea of constructing a machine to make lace. In 

 1804 he was at work as a journeyman at Nottingham, and is thus de- 

 scribed by his employer : " Heathcote showed that he had already at- 

 tained to a thorough knowledge of mechanical contrivances ; was in- 

 ventive and persevering ; undaunted by difficulties or mistakes and 

 consequent ill-success ; patient, self-denying, and very taciturn. But 

 he expressed surprising confidence that, by the application of mechani- 

 cal principles to the construction of a twist-net machine, his eflTorts 

 would be ci'owned with success." Being determined to construct a 



