WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE 1157 



next occupies a position almost semicircular round the finest sort, commencing at the 

 head, and extending to the belly. The third sort adjoins the second, and is of a some- 

 what triangular shape, the base being on the top of the back. The fourth adjoins the 

 third on one side, the other side of it being the fifth, which covers the rump, and 

 runs down almost straight, 3 or 4 inches wide, to where the wool terminates on the 

 hind-legs. 



The harshness of wools is dependent not solely upon the breed of the animal, or the 

 climate, but is owing to certain peculiarities in the pasture, derived from the soil. It 

 is known, that in sheep fed upon chalky districts, wool is apt to get barsh ; but in 

 those upon a rich loamy soil, it becomes soft and silky. The ardent sun of Spain 

 renders the fleece of the Merino breed harsher than it is in the milder climate of 

 Saxony. The Angora, or Angola, or Angona wool, from Agnolia, 39 53' N. lat., 

 32 52' E. long., owes its beautiful character to the place of its growth. This wool 

 is the same as Mohair. Smearing sheep with a mixture of tar and butter is deemed, 

 in cold countries, favourable to the softness of their wool. 



All wool, in its natural state, contains a quantity of a peculiar potash-soap, secreted 

 by the animal, called in this country the yolk ; which may be washed out 'by water 

 alone, w.ith which it forms a sort of lather. It constitutes from 25 to 50 per cent, of 

 the wool, being most abundant in the Merino breed of sheep ; and, however favour- 

 able to the growth of the wool on the living animal, should be taken out before or 

 soon after it is shorn, lest it injure the fibres by fermentation, and cause them to be- 

 come hard and brittle. After being washed in water, somewhat more than lukewarm, 

 the wool should bo well pressed, and carefully dried. See SUINT. 



Mr. Hicks, of Huddersfield, obtained a patent some years ago for a machine for 

 cleaning wool from burs. It consists of 4 rotatory beaters, which act in succession. 

 The wo'ol having been opened and spread upon a feeding-cloth, is carried by it to the 

 drawing-rollers, and is then delivered to the action of the beater, by which it is carried 

 along a curved grating to the feed-cloth of another beater, so as to be made eventually 

 quite clean. 



WOOI. DTEXHTC. See DYEING. 



WOOXiXiSSiT ZVEABTUFACTTTRE. In this branch of business, a short-stapled 

 soft wool is required capable of being milled or felted, so that in the after-processes a 

 finer finish may be brought upon the cloth. 



"When the wool is brought into the woollen factory, it is first of all washed by men 

 with soap-and-water, who are paid for their labour by the piece, and are each assisted 

 by a boy, who receives the wool as it issues from between the drying squeezers (see 

 BLEACHING). The boy carries off the wool in baskets, and spreads it evenly upon the 

 floor of the drying-room, usually an apartment over the boilers of the steam-engine, 

 which is thus economically heated to the proper temperature. The health of the boys 

 employed in this business is not found to be at all injured. 



The wool, when properly dried, is transferred to a machine called the plucker, 

 which is always superintended by a boy 12 or 14 years of age, being very light work. 

 He lays the tresses of wool pretty evenly upon the feed-apron, or table covered with 

 an endless moving web of canvas, which, as it advances, delivers the ends of the 

 long tufts to a pair of fluted rollers, whence it is introduced into a fanning apparatus, 

 somewhat similar to the willow employed in the cotton manufacture, which see. The 

 filaments nre turned out at the opposite end of this winnowing machine, straightened, 

 cleaned, and ready for the combing operation. According to the old practice of the 

 trade, the wool was carded and combed by hand, but this is now entirely superseded 

 by machinery. . This was far more severe labour than any subservient to machinery, 

 and was carried on in rooms rendered , . 2118 



close and hot by the number of stoves 

 requisite to heat the combs, and so enable 

 them to render the fibres soft, flexible, 

 and elastic. This was a task at which 

 only robust men were engaged. They 

 use three implements : 1, a pair of combs 

 for each person ; 2, a post, to which one 

 of the combs can be fixed ; 3, a comb- 

 pot or small stove for heating the teeth 

 of the combs. Each comb is composed either of two or throe rows of pointed tapering 

 steel teeth, b, Jiff. 2118, disposed in two or three parallel planes, each row being a 

 little longer than the preceding. They are made fast at the roots to a wooden 

 stock or head c, which is covered with horn and has a handle d, fixed into it at right 

 angles to the lines of the teeth. The spaces between these two or three planes of 

 teeth is about one-third of an inch at their bottoms, but somewhat more at their 

 tips. The first combing, ' when the fibres are most entangled, is performed with 



