542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sand in the same time. This industry is said to surpass all others in 

 the complex ingenuity of its machinery. 



One of the machines used in its production is said by Dr. Ure to 

 be as much beyond the most curious chronometer in multiplicity of 

 mechanical device as that is beyond a common I'oasting-jack. 



In 1811, when prices had fallen, a Vandal association at Lough- 

 borough paraded the streets at night with their faces covered, and 

 armed with swords and pistols, and, entering the workshops, they 

 broke the machines with hammers ; twenty-seven machines were de- 

 stroyed in Heathcote's factory. In 1816 fifty-five more were destroyed 



Fig. 14. 



by the same society. Of the eight men who conspired in the attack 

 on Heathcote's factory, six were convicted and hung and two trans- 

 ported for life. Heathcote's loss was estimated at |50,000, which the 

 authorities ofiered to make up to him if he would reexpend the money 

 in the county. This he refused to do, and the result was that he left 

 Loughborough and settled at Tiverton, where he remained until his 

 death in 1861. Heathcote employed his mechanical skill with un- 

 wearied energy in improving the lace-manufacture. From 1824 to 

 1843 he was constantly busy with inventions, and he represented Tiv- 

 erton in Parliament from 1834 to 1859. 



" Bobbin-net and lace are cleaned from the loose fibres of the cot- 

 ton by the ingenious process of gassing, as it is called, invented by 

 the late Mr. Samuel Hall, of Nottingham. A flame of gas is drawn 

 through the laee by means of a vacuum above. The sheet of lace 

 passes to the flame opaque and obscured by loose fibre, and issues 

 from it bright and clear, not to be distinguished from lace made of 

 the purest linen thread, and perfectly uninjured by the flame." The 

 progressive value of a square yard of plain cotton bobbin-net is thus 

 stated: In 1809, |25 ; 1813, $10; 1815, $V.50; 1818, $5; 1821, $3; 

 1824, |2; 1827, |1; 1830, 50 cents; 1833, 32 cents; 1836, 20 cents; 

 1842, 12 cents; 1850, 8 cents; 1856, 6 cents; 1862, 6 cents. 



In 1823, when Heathcote's patent expired, water and steam power 

 had already beg^in to take the place of hand-labor, and lace-machines 

 rapidly increased in numbers. Men of all ranks and professions, cler- 

 gymen, lawyers, and doctors, embarked capital in the business, and 



