LACE MANUFACTURE. 



LACE MANUFACTURE. 



70 



scarlet dyeing. The trade in lac has of late years become of some 

 importance. 



LACE MANUFACTURE. All the varieties of lace are easily 

 grouped into two classes, according as they are made by hand or by 

 machine. 



Hand or Pillow Lace. This fabric differs essentially in form and 

 appearance from the products of an ordinary loom. Until about three 

 centuries ago, lace was made by the needle on a piece of fine woven 

 material, the threads of which were drawn aside to form holes' or 

 meshes, held in position by a few stitches. In 1561 Barbara Uttmann, of 

 Annaberg, devised a mode of twisting threads round pins, so as to 

 form a knotted or netted fabric ; this was the real origin of pillow 

 lace, the making of which gradually extended to various European 

 countries. 



The implements used by hand-lace-makers are few in number, 

 and inartificial in character. They consist of a pillow or cushion, a 

 series of bobbins or small cylindrical pieces of wood round which the 

 thread or silk employed is wound, and pins which are stuck into the 

 cushion and around which the threads are twisted. The pattern of the 

 laoe is determined by the disposition of the pins ; and this is regulated 

 by holes pierced in a piece of parchment which is laid upon the 

 cushion. It is not possible to give in writing an intelligible descrip- 

 tion of the processes of lace-making by means of these implements ; 

 but it will be understood that the effect is produced by the twisting 

 together of the threads upon the bobbins, and their being woven 

 among and around the pins. The pattern depends partly upon the 

 order of arrangement preserved in these twistings and weavings, and 

 partly upon the introduction of a thicker thread, called gymp, which is 

 used for the formation of figures, flowers, and other ornaments. 



The finest pillow-lace is made on the continent. It is known in 

 most cases by the names of the towns in which the fabrication is 

 chiefly carried on. The most valuable is Srutseli, of which there 

 are two 'kinds, BrusneU-yround and Wire-tjround. Brussels-ground has a 

 hexagon mesh, formed by plaiting and twisting four threads of flax to 

 a perpendicular thread; whereas Wire-ground consists of silk, the 

 meshes partly straight and partly arched, and the pattern, worked 

 separately, being set on by a needle. Mechlin lace has a hexagon mesh 

 formed of three flax threads twisted and plaited to a perpendicular 

 thread ; the pattern being worked in the net. Valendennea lace has an 

 irregular hexagon mesh, formed of two threads partly twisted and 

 plaited at the top of the mesh ; the pattern is worked on the net. 

 Lisle lace has a diamond-shaped mesh, formed of two threads plaited to 

 a perpendicular. AUncon Uond has a hexagon mesh of two threads ; it 

 is one of the poorest of pillow-laceg. Alenfon point has two threads 

 twisted round a perpendicular, with octagon and square meshes 

 alternately. 



The best Brussels lace excels all others in delicate fineness, and in 

 elegance and variety of design. It is made of flax grown near Hal and 

 at Kebecque ; and the spinning is performed in darkened rooms, with a 

 beam of light admitted only upon the work through a small aperture. 

 The best specimens are produced by the firm* of Tardent-PoUet, and 

 Ducpetiaux, of Brussels. In former days, when Mechlin and Brussels 

 lace often descended as heir-lnoms from mothers to daughters, the 

 manufacture was confined to lace from the finest thread that could be 

 prepared from flax ; and neither time nor expense was spared in that 

 iticm. There is now, however, a great deal of cotton worked up 

 in the Belgian lace of medium and inferior quality. In 1856-7-8, 

 Belgium exported nearly as much cotton lace as flax and silk lace, 

 about a value of 100,00(V. of each, chiefly to France. This cotton-lace, 

 r, is mostly of the character of machine-made bobbin-net ; for 

 real pillow-lace is seldom made of other materials than flax or silk. 



leg the description above given, of the different numbers of 

 threads and forms of mesh, the kinds of foreign lace present other diver- 

 sities, which are being influenced a good deal at the present day by the 

 machine-made net of Nottingham. Formerly the ground for Brussels lace 

 was made in strips from one to three inches wide, which were after- 

 wards joined with such admirable ingenuity as to render the line of 

 junction imperceptible. But the slowness of the process rendered the 

 product very costly ; trimming-lave of four inches in width often brought 

 ten guineas a yard, and veils were from twenty to a hundred guineas 

 each. Now, however, the beautiful net made by machine at Notting- 

 ham is more and more used as a ground in Belgium ; the flowers or 

 designs being made on the pillow, and afterwards attached to the 

 ground by the needle. This appliqut lace is now largely made, and is 

 gradually superseding the real Brussels point insomuch that the 

 imens arc acquiring the antiquarian value which connoisseurs 

 attach to old pictures and old china, depending quite as much on the 

 rarity as on the excellence. Mechlin lace is all made in one piece, 

 without joining ; and its peculiarity consists in a plait-thread surround- 

 ing the flowers, so as to give the appearance of embroidery. 

 Valenciennes lace, since about 1835, has been more largely made at 

 Tpres than at the town whose name it bean ; the dealers now purchase 

 the handiwork of aV least 20,000 persons in and around Ypres. In France 

 it U supposed that 200,000 females are employed in pillow-lace mak- 

 ing, earning on an average about a penny an hour. Not only flax and 

 silk, but cotton, wool, and gold and silver thread, are often worked up 

 in into lace ; cotton is increasing in use, relatively to flax. Caen 

 and Bayeux excel in silk-lace piece goods, such as veils, scarfs, bcrthes, 



mantles, robes, and shawls ; Chantilly in the more elaborate and costly 

 kinds of silk-lace ; Mirecourt in the elegance of designs for very light 

 and open lace in flax-thread ; Alen^on in the costly fineness of the flax- 

 thread used for making the Alencon point ; and Puy in the cheapness 

 of the lace made by 40,000 or 50,000 workers scattered in the neigh- 

 bouring departments. 



In England, pillow-lace making is supposed to have been intro- 

 duced by some refugees from Flanders, about 1626, in or near Buck- 

 inghamshire; and for a long time that county maintained a fair 

 rivalry with France and Flanders. In the counties of Buckingham 

 and Bedford the cottagers are largely employed in this branch of 

 industry. In 1800 the number so employed was estimated at 130,000 ; 

 but the Nottingham machine-lace has since proved a formidable com- 

 petitor. The kind called Honiton-lace is made by placing a perforated 

 pattern upon a pillow, and working the thread round pins in the same 

 way as other pillow-lace ; but the difference is this, that Honiton-lace only 

 consists of flowers and devices, which are afterwards sewn on to net 

 made either by hand or by machine. Seven or eight thousand women 

 and girls are employed in the south-eastern part of Devonshire making 

 Honiton-lace ; and as much as two hundred guineas has been given for 

 a dress of this material. In the Midland counties the pillow-lace 

 makers have had an increased demand for black-lace, thereby in part 

 compensating them for the loss occassioned in other ways. British 

 paint, made near London, is an imitation of Brussels and Honiton-lace. 

 Limerick-lace is somewhat similar in character. This branch of 

 industry was founded in 1829, by Mr. Charles Walker, who settled at 

 Limerick, leased a large building, took over with him several lace- 

 workers from England, and taught the art to Irish peasant girls ; the 

 pupils were quick in learning and clever in manipulation, and a manu- 

 facture has been established, which has greatly benefited the town and 

 neighbourhood. There are now many firms engaged in the trade, one 

 of which employs 500 or 600 hands ; the earnings vary from 3s. to 8s. 

 per week. Tambour-lace, made at Coggeshall and other places, is a sort 

 of medium between lace and embroidery. 



Machine-lace or A'ff. The production of light cross-woven goods, 

 previous to the extraordinary development of the bobbin-net manu- 

 facture at Nottingham, was carried on only to a limited extent. Net 

 was the generic name for these goods ; and according as slight devia- 

 tions were made in the mode of crossing the threads, so were dis- 

 tinctive names given to the material produced; such as whip-net, 

 mail-net, patent-net, drop-net, spider-net, Paris-net, balloon-net, &c. 

 All these varieties were produced at the loom, with warp-threads 

 stretched horizontally, and weft-threads thrown across by means of a 

 shuttle ; and the difference between them depended on the manner in 

 which the warp-threads were made to cross one another, and in which 

 the weft-thread was thrown. 



In 1758 Mr. Strutt's machine for Derby -rib hosiery, or lace- work 

 ankles and insteps to stockings, was the first approach towards a 

 machine for lace-making. Morris's eyelet-hole machine, in 1763, 

 by which open-work mitta and gloves were made, was a still nearer 

 approach. Crane's Vandyck stocking-web machine, in 1768, pro- 

 duced flowered and spider nets ; and Else and Harvey's pin machine, 

 about the same time, was the foundation for the machines ever 

 since used in France and Austria for making tulle and other kinds 

 of silk net. Frost's point machine, in 1777, consisted of a fine 

 gauze stocking frame which, by a few delicate changes, was made to 

 produce a perfect web of lace, in hexagonal looped meshes all weft, 

 without any warp threads. This was soon superseded by another 

 which manufactured what was termed point-net, invented by Lindley, 

 and afterwards improved by Taylor and Flint. The point-net became 

 so highly approved, that there were no fewer than a thousand machines 

 at work at the beginning of the present century. Next succeeded 

 Dawson's warp-machine, which produced u'tirp-net in successful compe- 

 tition with the point-net ; there was warp as well as weft, and the fabric 

 was made to serve both for hosiery and for lace. Still however the 

 net produced did not afford a good imitation of the bobbin-lace or 

 pillow-lace ; and the Nottingham manufacturers threw out every in- 

 ducement for the development of a machine which should produce 

 such an imitation. At length, in 1809, Mr. John Heathcoat, a stocking- 

 weaver of Loughborough, availing himself of an ingenious principle 

 involved in a machine for making fishing-nets, invented a few years 

 before by Robert Brown, of Nottingham, produced and patented the 

 :>. el machine, one of the triumphs of modern ingenuity. From 

 this tune a new field of industry became opened, into which capital 

 and skill rapidly entered. The traverse-warp machine of Brown, the 

 straight-bolt machine of Morley, the pusher-machine of Mart and 

 Clark, the circular-bolt machine of Morley, and the lever-machine 

 of Leavers, were successive improvements on Heathcoat's bobbin-net 

 machine, involving its main principle, but working it out more effec- 

 tually. In all of these the warp is beamed. At first it required fifty 

 movements to make one mesh ; these have now been reduced to six. 

 No less than 40,000 meshes can be made in a minute. 



The main points of difference between the bobbin-net machine and 

 the common loom may be thus stated. In the former the warp-threads 

 are vertical ; in the latter they are horizontal. In the former the wuft 

 is wound on a brass bobbin so thin as to pass between the adjacent 

 threads of the warp ; in the latter it is contained in a shuttle an inch 

 or more in width. In the former the transit of the weft-thread, while 



