INDUSTRIES 



giving employment to numbers of women in 

 France and the Netherlands.** About 1,100 

 machines were making quillings or plaitings (so 

 called from being used quilled or plaited round 

 the head or shoulders) in i835- 43 In 1836 

 372 machines were making plain net, 1,006 

 quillings, and 784 fancies, or 2,162 in all; 44 

 but the trade suffered greatly from the commer- 

 cial panic of 1837:** By 1840, 80 of the 

 1,863 machines which had been making twist 

 lace in Nottingham and its suburbs had been 

 exported, besides 143 which had been fitted 

 with new interiors ; 485 had been broken up, 

 and 50 new machines had been built. 4 * 



The lace machines, which cost from ^500 

 to 1,000, usually stood in the attics of substan- 

 tial houses, the lower part being let out as shops 

 or lodging-houses. There were only four or five 

 factories where twist machines were worked in 

 numbers, ten or twelve constituting a shop. In 

 1829 the widest machine was that known as 

 a ' twelve-quarter,' which was capable of making 

 a piece of net 3 yds. wide. By 1833 machines 

 called ' twenty-quarters ' were used, which could 

 make a piece 5 yds. wide. The machines were 

 worked by two or three men, who relieved each 

 other during the day. By an agreement in 

 1828-9 tne nours of work were fixed at twelve 

 hours for the power machines, the hand machines 

 being worked continuously. 47 



One type of machine, known as the ' pin ma- 

 chine,' which was largely used in Nottinghamshire 

 between 1 790 and 1795 in the manufacture of 

 a certain kind of fine lace, had passed so entirely 

 into the hands of the French lace-makers by 

 1841 that no trace of it was to be found in the 

 Nottinghamshire markets. 48 



In the autumn of 1833 considerable efforts 

 were set on foot in Nottinghamshire to prevent 

 the exportation of machinery which was being 

 so largely carried on at that date to France, 1 " as 



women ; Phillips, Personal Tour, 175. In 1833 the 

 repute of the Nottingham lace-dressers was such that 

 lace was sent from Devon to be treated by their 

 methods. The lace was first starched, then spread 

 out on long wooden frames, beaten with cane, dried 

 by heat and fans in 10 minutes, and then wrapped 

 up. Dressers' wages averaged at this date from ^s. dd. 

 to 8/. 6a". ; ibid. (C. 2), 23. 



a Rep. Framework Knitters, 1845, p. 160. 



Felkin, op. cit. 350. 



44 Ibid. 343. Ibid. 376. Ibid. 



47 Factory Com. Rep. 1833, (C. l), 35, 36, 7O,etseq. 



48 Rep. Com. Export Machinery, 1841, p. 164. 



** John Heathcoat was the proprietor at this date 

 of a lace-machine-making factory at St. Quentin, 

 which included sixty power machines for spinning 

 and doubling, besides a shop for building machines, 

 the whole being under the superintendence of English 

 workmen. Machines were produced in the workshop 

 at the rate of one a month (Notts. Rev. \ Oct. 1833). 

 As showing the advance of mechanical science, it is of 

 interest in this connexion to mention the fact that 

 the resources of Mr. Jardine's lace-machine factory at 



well as to other parts of the Continent. Agents 

 from Prussia, Switzerland, Saxony, and Bohemia 

 were actively engaged in placing orders for those 

 countries, several machines, with the latest im- 

 provements, being ready packed in the town, 

 whilst orders for over 100 were in abeyance 

 until the views of the trade were known. A 

 general committee being appointed to take mea- 

 sures for the protection of the lace manufacturers 

 and other interested persons, a handbill was cir- 

 culated offering rewards ranging from ^ I to 10 

 for information which should lead to the seizure 

 of bobbin-net machines destined for smuggling 

 out of the country, also for seizure of sets of 

 bobbins and carriages, models of machines, presses, 

 lathes, grinders, or other tools used in the manu- 

 facture, for sets of combs, bolts, guides, hooks, 

 pushers, points, or springs, locker blades, getting- 

 up frames, winding engines, &C. 50 The export 

 was sometimes actually carried on under Trea- 

 sury warrants, the machines in some instances 

 being described as ' machines for spinning tow.' 51 



The method of smuggling was occasionally to 

 take the machines to pieces, and to pack the 

 ' carcass ' and ' insides ' separately, one being 

 frequently exported from one port, and one from 

 another, the machine being put together again 

 on arrival at the destination. 62 In response to a 

 deputation from the Board of Trade, two customs 

 officers, Mr. George Blake and Mr. Robert 

 Chapman, searchers, &c., at the port of London, 

 were sent down to Nottingham for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining information concerning the 

 description of machinery called bobbin-net ma- 

 chinery. These officials, we learn, ' appeared to 

 be men determined to do their duty ' ; one of 

 them was a draughtsman, who proposed during 

 his stay in the town to collect samples of different 

 kinds of bobbins, carriages, combs, bolts, &c., to 

 be forwarded to every port in the kingdom, in 

 order to intercept the smuggled machinery. 53 

 The export, however, seems to have continued, 

 seventy-nine machines being exported, according 

 to the evidence of Mr. Felkin, between 1836 

 and 1840 from Nottinghamshire. 54 



Lace-makers, it would appear, naturally fol- 

 lowed in the wake of the lace-machines to 

 France. At Calais, it was reported in 1845, 

 English hands commanded wages averaging from 

 30*. to 50;., as against 25*. to 30;. in Eng- 

 land. 65 



Nottingham at the present day enable a machine to 

 be completed, if necessary, in one day. 



80 Notts. Rev. 27 Sept. 1833. One of these hand- 

 bills is still in the possession of Mr. John Chapman, 

 author of The Cotton and Commerce of India, &c., by 

 whose courtesy the writer has been enabled to ex- 

 amine it. 



61 Ibid. 20 Sept. 1833. 



41 Rep. Com. Export Machinery, 1841, p. 142. 



" Notts. Rev. 27 Sept. 1833. 



44 Rep. Com. Export Machinery, 1841, p. 142. 



" Ibid. 177. 



H 46 



