6HAINWORK. 



Common 

 tambour 

 frame. 



Tambour- ceeds the period of thirty years ; and in the early 

 if'*'- instances, it was chiefly under, the direction of foreign. 



** '""""'' ers. As the art, which is very simple in its princi- 

 ple, but requires a great degree of manual dexte- 

 rity and practice, became more extensively used, 

 means 'to obviate two inconveniences attending the 

 tambour, or drum tent-, were first employed. 



It was found convenient, where a piece of cloth 

 was broad, and a pattern close and tedious, to em- 

 ploy a number of hands upon the same piece, in or- 

 der that it might be quickly finished and brought 

 to market. Hence the invention of the common 

 tambour frame, now universally used in those dis- 

 tricts of Britain where the manufacture is practised, 

 took its rise. This tent, or frame, is excessively sim- 

 ple, consisting merely of two parallel rollers placed 

 horizontally in a wooden standard, and furnished 

 wUh ratchet wheels and catches, to preserve or aug- 

 ment, when necessary, the tension of the cloth. 

 When the cloth is ^ or 54< inches broad, six girls 

 may be employed upon the s;ime piece without 

 impeding each other while at work, and by divi- 

 ding the cloth, which is stretched between the rol- 

 lers, at one time, either into equal portions, or ac- 

 cording to the capability of the respective workers, 

 it must be evident that a very powerful spirit of 

 emulation will be excited, which will very far over- 

 balance any disadvantage arising from delay, in any 

 of them detaining the others while finishing her par- 

 ticular portion. 



The operation consists in drawing the loop of 

 a thread successively through the other loop, so 

 long as the work is continued, and as all those 

 loops would be undone in a moment, merely by 

 pulling the end of the thread which has been used, 

 it becomes necessary to make the end fast, either 

 when a thread is exhausted, or a figure finished. 

 The appearance of the chain will be found by in- 



CXXXVI1. specting Fig. 5, Plate CXXXVII. 



&ig. 5. To apply tambouring to ornamental purposes, the 



variegation of these chains is all that is necessary ; 

 but the judicious application of this to actual prac- 

 tice, is the great excellence of those who are esteem- 

 ed most dextrous at their business. From this the 

 whole art may evidently reduce itself to two heads, 

 viz. chaining, and directing the chain. The first of 

 these is that property which brings the art of tam- 

 bouring within the general scope of this article. 

 The second is that particular application of chain- 

 ing, which fits it for the special purpose to which 

 it is to be peculiarly applied. The chaining part of 

 the operation is in every particular analogous to the 

 principle of the stocking manufacture, excepting that 

 we may fairly consider hosiery as a superficies, and 

 tambouring as a succession of lines, drawn in such 

 directions as to constitute a superficies of that form 

 which we require, and that this latter superficies 

 only partially covers another, which forms the plane 

 upon which it is placed, for the purpose of orna- 

 ment. 



As an article of manufacture, considered as a source 

 of national or individual wealth, the tambour manu- 

 facture may be regarded in three points of vit w. 



1st, As it becomes a source of employment to the 

 poor and laborious classes of the community, and 

 how far either general or individual comfort may be 

 promoted by the cuJtivatioa of the artj and, conse- 



quently, how far, in a moral point of view, it may Tambour- 

 have been either beneficial or injurious to society. "*8> 



Qdly, If considered merely as an article of innocent s "*~Y~* ->/ 

 luxury, what proportion of the population of Britain 

 may be fairly directed to it, without prejudice to 

 the exercise of relative duties more important and 

 indispenaible ? 



It has been computed that the tambouring of 

 muslins, when at its greatest extension, employed 

 at least 20,000 females, either wholly or partially. 

 Of these females, many lived in the vicinity of Glas- 

 gow, the chief seat of the manufacture, and otheri 

 were scattered through almost every part of Scot- 

 land, and supplied with work and money by agents 

 employed by those manufactures who found it their 

 interest toembarkextensivelyin the business. Whether 

 the diversion of even the occasional industry of 20,000 

 females from all the common duties of life, for the 

 purpose of ornamenting a few rags, which would 

 hardly bear the alkaline deterioration produced by 

 half a dozen of washings, was a proper direction of 

 the energies of a country, may be very fairly ques- 

 tioned. Even in the most remote parts of Scotland, 

 while the business was general, the effects were pre- 

 judicial both to the morals and the comforts of the 

 people. In Glasgow, they were to the last degree 

 deplorable; a tambourer of ordinary dexterity could, 

 in general, earn five or six shillings a week, by con- 

 stant application. By those vicissitudes of price 

 which the almost constant fluctuations of the mer- 

 cantile system produce, a great deal more could 

 sometimes be obtained. To the labouring artizan, 

 who could with difficulty procure the necessaries, 

 and but seldom the comforts, of life, the possession 

 of a few daughters became really a source of wealth ; 

 every thing therefore was, in most instances, sacri- 

 ficed to the tambouring. At five years of age when 

 it was* found that a child could handle a needle, and 

 perhaps earn a shilling or two in a week, ev^ry idea 

 of education was instantly abandoned. A female 

 child was rendered incompetent to the performance 

 of any one social duty, that she might bring a shil- 

 ling or two more home upon Saturday. The chil- 

 dren finding their pecuniary value, soon began to 

 think that the application, as well as the earning, of 

 money, came immediately within their proper cog- 

 nizance. The consequence was natural; theft and 

 prostitution followed so closely upon the heels of 

 misdirected industry, that many never saw the age 

 of 20 years ! The picture could be much more high- 

 ly coloured, but it would become nauseous and dis- 

 gusting. The outline is faithfully drawn from long 

 observation, and could be confirmed by viewing the 

 untimely graves of many thousands ! Were the pic- 

 ture coloured, it would be unfit for human view ! 



It would be a ridiculous affectation of morality, 

 which could hardly gain credit, to say, that these 

 were the chief objects which directed the attention 

 of the author of this article to the invention of the 

 machinery, by which this direction, or mis-direction, 

 of human labour might be at least in a great de- 

 gree superseded. But although this might have, in 

 some degree, resulted, or may still perhaps result, 

 from the use of the machinery, if the demand for 

 tambour work continues, the immediate stimulus, as 

 in all commercial pursuits, was directed by per- 

 sonal interest. By restoring a number of efficient 



