INDUSTRIES 



points without giving a frayed edge), taping, 

 spotting, &c. 71 



The Levers machine, which is the most im- 

 portant machine in use in the lace trade, is 

 concerned with the manufacture of a number of 

 strips of lace of the same pattern which are 

 made at once in the breadth of the machine, the 

 threads used in the making moving simultaneously. 

 These threads do not come off separate spools, as 

 in the case of the curtain machine, but are divided 

 into groups, each group coming off a roller, which 

 resembles a miniature weaver's beam. Each group 

 passes through holes in a thin bar running along 

 the whole breadth of the lace. The pattern is 

 put in by these bars, which are directly con- 

 trolled by Jacquards, whose action determines 

 which bar shall shift the threads it holds across 

 the warp, also how far a bar shall move. The 

 threads are held up by points, and fastened into 

 place by the bobbins that swing through the 

 warp. 78 



On the curtain machine there are, besides the 

 warp threads, numbers of other threads, which 

 come off a separate spool, these being used in 

 making the pattern. The movements of the 

 rods or wires are controlled by a series of per- 

 forated cards, as in the warp net machine. The 

 bobbins swing between the warp threads, but 

 there is no traversing motion. 73 



Payment in the lace trade is by the ' rack,' 

 that is, a certain number of motions, each swing 

 of the bobbins constituting one motion ; the 

 standard rack is 1,440 motions in the curtain 

 branch, and in the Levers branch i,92O. 74 



The wages of lace-makers in the Nottingham 

 trade are governed by price lists varying with 

 the machine in use. Warp lace makers, who 

 are chiefly employed in the outside districts, are 

 subject to a uniform list also. The hours worked 

 in the lace trade are somewhat unusual. The 

 machines are generally started at 4 a.m., and 

 run until midnight, except on Saturdays, when 

 they stop at 2 p.m. Two men, working in 

 alternate shifts of about five hours each, take 

 charge of one or two machines, a working day 

 therefore amounting to about gj hours on five 



days in the week and five on Saturdays. The 

 week's output of the machines is divided between 

 the two men. A four years' apprenticeship is 

 served by a lace-making learner, who is definitely 

 attached to a teacher, the wages earned by the 

 machines being divided in the Levers and curtain 

 branches into two halves, one half going to the 

 teacher and a continually increasing fraction of 

 the other half being paid to the learner, the 

 balance being divided equally between the 

 teacher and the employer. In the plain net 

 branch the whole balance goes to the teacher. 76 

 The method of payment in this branch is by 

 the 'rack,' namely, 240 holes along the length 

 of the lace. Payment varies in the trade accord- 

 ing to the breadth of the lace made, which is 

 always measured in ' quarters ' of 9 in., and with 

 the closeness of the warp threads measured by 

 the number of points to the inch. 76 According 

 to the latest reports lace-makers in the Levers 

 branch earn from 40*. to 50*. per week, plain 

 net workers earning from 32*. to 44*." 



Auxiliary lace-workers attached to the Levers 

 machine are engaged in winding (putting silk or 

 cotton on bobbins, a number being wound at 

 once) ; threading (putting the bobbins in the 

 carriages, and arranging the thread in position) ; 

 pressing (to make the bobbins take up less room); 

 and jacking off (removing the superfluous threads 

 from the bobbins). 78 



Mechanics attached to the lace trade are 

 needle-makers and carriage straighteners, the 

 former being employed in making the special 

 class of needles used in this as well as in the 

 hosiery and clothing trades, the leading varieties 

 being known as plain, long beards, twizzle 

 beards, and circular, Cotton's patents and coverer 

 points. The latest price list in this connexion 

 only affects about twenty men.' 9 



Carriage straighteners are mechanics whose 

 duty it is to straighten the carriages in which 

 the bobbins are held in the process of lace- 

 making. The rate of payment in this industry 

 is per 100 : m Levers 91., mechlin 8;., curtain 

 71. 6^., rolling lockers 4*. 6d., rotary 3;. 6^/., 

 grooved mules 5*., and pushers 45. 6c/. 



MALTING AND BREWING 



The malting and brewing trades are of great which had more than a local reputation, 2 ' turning 



antiquity in the county, the conversion of the to greater account ' than its former industries of 



' prodigious crops ' of barley of the vale of Bel- cloth and wool. 3 Although here as elsewhere in 



voir into the 'powerful and pleasant liquor' 1 the kingdom the domestic character of the brewing 



" Rep. Trade, 1900, p. 169. 

 "Ibid. 147. "Ibid. 145 



" Ibid. 76 Ibid. 



" Rep. Cost of Living, 1908, p. 35 1 . 

 " Rep. Trade, 1900, Ixxxii, 73. 

 60 Ibid. 79. 



1 ' As they brew very good liquor here,' writes De- 

 71 Ibid. 147. foe, 'so they make the best malt and the most of it of 

 any town in this part of England, which they draw a 

 78 Ibid. 149. great profit from." Defoe, Tour, iii, 19 ; Lysons, Mag. 

 Brit, iv, 1 8. ' Thornton Soc. Trans. ii, 41. 



3 Mag. Brit. loc. cit. ; Deering, Nottinghamia, 92. 



363 



