"212 Mr. Gill on the New Improvements in the [Sept- 



Total in June 45-72 



, July 23-87 



August 9-34 



Sept 24-87 



Total for the four months 103-80 



Oct. 1 0-20 



Total 104-00 



Article X. 



On New Improvements in the Manufacture of superfine Woollen 

 Cloth. By Thomas Gill, Esq. 



(To the Editors of the Annals of Philosophy.) 



No. 11, Covent Garden Chambers, 

 GENTLEMEN, August 14, 1818. 



On a recent journey into Gloucestershire, through some of 

 the clothing districts, I was so much gratified by the new 

 improvements made in the important arts of shearing and dress- 

 ing the superfine cloths manufactured from Saxon wool, that I 

 cannot resist the desire of making them more generally known 

 through your Annals. 



The greatest improvement that has been made in the cropping 

 of cloth, since the shears were caused to be worked by machi- 

 nery, is one just completed by Messrs. Lewis and Davis, of 

 Brimscombe, near Stroudwater, in which a revolving blade 

 acting against a fixed or ledger blade makes from 1000 to 1500 

 cuts per minute, a rapidity hitherto unequalled, and with the 

 still more important result, that the blades instead of losing their 

 edges mutually sharpen each other by use, and pass over the 

 cloth from list to list with a speed which is astonishing, and a 

 delicacy of touch and evenness of cut unrivalled, and which indeed 

 seems likely to effect an entire change in the slow process now 

 in common use. Mr. Stephen Price, engineer of Stroud, has 

 likewise made an improvement in shears on a similar principle, 

 but has been prevented by indisposition from bringing it into 

 use. Mr. Adey, of Uley, has also made a considerable improve- 

 ment in the machine shears. 



Owing to the wetness of the late seasons, teazles have become 

 so rotten, scarce, and dear, that it has become an important 

 object to find substitutes for them ; and various attempts have 

 accordingly been made, some of which seem likely nearly, if 

 not entirely, to supersede the use of them. 



Among these, several patents have been taken out for the 

 employment of wire brushes, with delicate sharp pointed hooks, 



