WOOLLENS. 



103 



For more information, we refer the reader to the 

 various English publications on this subject, which 

 include several able treatises on the question of the 

 wool trade. Various German and French treatises 

 also should be mentioned ; as Wagner's Contribu- 

 tions to the Knowledge and Treatment of Wool 

 and Sheep (2d ed., Berlin, 1821) ; F. B. Weber, 

 On the Raising of tine and noble Wool (Breslau, 

 1822) ; J. M. baron von Ehrenfels, On the Elec- 

 toral Sheep and Electoral Wool (Prague, 1822) ; 

 Christ. Charles Andre, Latest Views on the Rais- 

 ing of Wool and Sheep, taken from three French 

 Writers (Prague, 1825, 4to.) ; Sheep and Wool, 

 by professor Ribbe (Prague, 1825) ; Petri's Whole 

 Subject of Sheep-Breeding, &c. (Vienna, 1825, 2 

 vols., 2d ed.) ; The latest and most interesting 

 Notices respecting a Knowledge of the finer Kinds 

 of Sheep and Wool, by the same (Vienna, 1829) ; 

 On the Wool Trade of Germany in 1829, by Eisner 

 ( 1830) : all of these works are in German : further, 

 Nouveau Traite sur Laine, by viscount Perrault de 

 Jotemps (Paris, 1824); Histoire de I' Introduction 

 des Moutons a Laine fine d'JEspagne dans les divers 

 Etats de V Europe, &c., by M. C. P. Lasteyrie 

 (Paris, 1802) ; Notice sur I' Amelioration des Trou- 

 peaux de Moutons en France, by G. L. Ternaux 

 (Paris, 1827). The reports on the trade in the 

 newly-erected wool markets at Berlin, Breslau, 

 Stettin, Dresden, Leipsic, Nuremberg, &c., pub- 

 lished in the Allgemeine Zeitung, are also of much 

 interest. See the next article. 



WOOLLENS. The fibres of wool, being con- 

 torted and elastic, are drawn out and spun by 

 machinery in some respects similar to that used for 

 cotton, but differing in various particulars. In the 

 preceding article, it is mentioned that there are two 

 sorts of wool which afford the basis of different 

 fabrics, the long wool or worsted, in which the 

 fibres are rendered parallel by the process of comb- 

 ing, the material of which camlets, bombazines, 

 &c., are made, and the short wool, prepared by 

 carding, like cotton, which is used, in different de- 

 grees of fineness, for broadcloths, flannels, and a 

 multitude of other fabrics. This wool, when 

 carded, is formed into small cylindrical rolls, which 

 are joined together, and stretched and spun, by a 

 stubbing or roving machine, and a jenny or mule, in 

 both of which the spindles are mounted on a car- 

 riage, which passes backwards and forwards, so as 

 to stretch the material, at the same time that it is 

 twisted. On account of the roughness of the 

 fibres, it is necessary to cover them witJb oil or 

 grease, to enable them to move freely upn each 

 other during the spinning and weaving. After the 

 cloth is woven, the oily matter is removed by 

 scouring, in order to restore the roughness to the 

 fibres preparatory to the subsequent operation of 

 fulling In articles which are made of long wool, 

 the texture is complete when the stuff issues from 

 the loom. The pieces are subsequently dyed, and 

 a gloss is communicated to them by pressing them 

 between heated metallic surfaces. But in cloths 

 made of short wool, the web, when taken from the 

 loom, is loose and open, and requires to be submit- 

 ted to another operation, called fulling (q. v.), by 

 which the fibres are made to felt, and combine 

 more closely. (See Felting.} By this process, the 

 cloth is reduced in its dimensions, and the beauty 

 and stability of the texture are greatly improved. 

 The tendency to become thickened by fulling, is 

 peculiar to wool and hair, and does not exist in the 

 fibres of cotton or flax. It depends on a certain 



roughness of these animal fibres, which permits mo- 

 tion in one direction, while it retards it in another. 

 It thus promotes entanglements of the fibres whicli 

 serve to shorten and thicken the woven fabric. 

 Before the cloth is sent to the fulling-mill, it is 

 necessary to cleanse it from all the unctuous matter 

 which was applied to prepare the fibres for spinning. 

 The nap or downy surface of broad cloths, is raised 

 by a process, which, while it improves the beauty, 

 tends somewhat to diminish the strength of the 

 texture. It is produced by carding the cloth with 

 a species of burrs, the fruit of the common teasel, 

 (dipsacus fullonum'), which is cultivated for the 

 purpose. This operation extricates a part of the 

 fibres, and lays them in a parallel direction. The 

 nap, composed of these fibres, is then cut off to an 

 even surface, by fhe process of shearing. This is 

 performed in various ways : but, in one of the most 

 common methods, a large spiral blade revolves ra- 

 pidly in contact with another blade, while the cloth 

 is stretched over a bed, or support, just near enough 

 for the projecting filaments to be cut off at a uni- 

 form length, while the main texture remains un- 

 injured. 



Manufacture of Woollens. In England, the art? 

 of spinning wool and manufacturing the yarn into 

 cloth, were undoubtedly introduced by the Romans. 

 The manufacture of broad cloths was established 

 soon after the year 1200, if not previously. But 

 the woollen manufacture of Flanders being, at this 

 period, and long after, in a comparatively advanced 

 state, English wool was exported in large quanti- 

 ties to Bruges and other Flemish cities, whence fine 

 cloths and other products were brought back in 

 exchange. Edward III. invited over Flemish wea- 

 vers, fullers, dyers, and others. Shortly after the 

 first emigration of Flemings, or in 1337, an act 

 was passed, prohibiting the wearing of any cloths 

 made beyond sea, and prohibiting the export of 

 English wool. From that period, the manufacture 

 has always been regarded as of primary importance. 

 During the reign of Charles II., there were many, 

 though unfounded, complaints of the decay of the 

 manufacture ; and by way of encouraging it, an act 

 was passed, ordering that all persons should be 

 buried in woollen shrouds. This act preserved its 

 place in the statute book for more than 130 years. 

 Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Mr 

 Gregory King and Doctor Davenant (Davemmt's 

 Works, Whitworth's ed., vol. ii., p. 233), estimat- 

 ed the value of the wool shorn in England at 

 2,000,000 a year; and they supposed that the 

 value of the wool (including that imported from 

 abroad) was quadrupled in the manufacture, mak- 

 ing the entire value of the woollen articles annu- 

 ally produced in England and Wales, 8,000,000, 

 of which about 2,000,000 were exported. In 

 1700 and 1701, the official value of the woollens 

 exported amounted to about 3,000,000 a year. 

 Owing to the vast increase in the wealth and 

 population of the country, the manufacture must 

 have been very greatly extended during the 

 last century ; but the increase in the amount of 

 the exports has been comparatively inconsider- 

 able. At an average of the six years ending 

 with 1799, the annual official value of the ex- 

 ports was 3,544,160 a year, being an increase of 

 only about 540,000 on the amount exported in 

 1700. The extraordinary increase of the cotton 

 manufacture, soon after 1780, and'the extent to 

 which cotton articles then began to be substituted 

 for those of wool, though it did not occasion any 



