BOBBIN NET -BONE. 



319 



land, which it receives on payment of a duty of 

 about 2s. lOd. a Ib. 



The manufacture of bobbin-net dates from only 

 about the middle of the last century. The stock- 

 ing-frame suggested the invention. It was dis- 

 covered, it is said, by mere accident, that by ap- 

 plying to the stocking-frame another machine as an 

 appendage, and which was called the " tickler ma- 

 chine," the stocking-loops could be removed in cer- 

 tain and various directions, so that the work as- 

 sumed somewhat the appearance of lace. The net 

 thus produced was, however, deficient in this essen- 

 tial point, that, when unstiffened, it no longer re- 

 tained the appearance of lace. Notwithstanding 

 this defect, upwards of 20,000 persons were at one 

 time employed in making this net and in ornament- 

 ing it with embroidery. This partial success ap- 

 pears to have acted as a stimulus, and, about the 

 year 1770, many attempts were made to contrive 

 machinery that should more closely imitate the lace 

 made by hand, by twisting and traversing the threads 

 round each other. A machine was at this time 

 brought from Switzerland, and various attempts 

 were made to improve it so as to produce a sort of 

 plat; but this was found to be a slow and imper- 

 fect process, and was soon abandoned. Numerous 

 attempts were then made to produce a more per- 

 fect mechanism. Winding bobbins with teeth and 

 rolling in other rock-teeth, threads wound upon 

 wire, tier upon tier of hooks, revolving wheels 

 on slides, and hundreds of other plans, were at- 

 tempted. By some of these the bobbin-mesh 

 was indeed produced, yet the slowness of the 

 operation, and still more the want of accuracy in 

 the working, prevented the adoption of any one of 

 those inventions. In this state of things, a work- 

 man of Nottingham, employed in making machinery 

 for producing fishing-nets, seized upon a hint fur- 

 nished by a child at play, and discovered by that 

 means a mode of forming the bobbin and carriage 

 now used in the bobbin-net machine. The inven- 

 tion was applied in the first instance to the produc- 

 tion of fishing-nets, and many abortive attempts 

 were made before the principle thus discovered 

 could be applied to the manufacture of bobbin-net 

 lace. It was not until the year 1809 that the first 

 successful machine for this purpose was perfected. 

 The first bobbin-net machine was extremely com- 

 plicated in its contrivance, and for this reason slow 

 in its operation. It had twenty-four motions to 

 the series for twisting the mesh, and four other 

 motions were required to secure the twist from 

 unravelling. The right to this invention was se- 

 cured by patent, and proved to be a most success- 

 ful speculation to those who embarked in it. Be- 

 fore the fourteen years for which the patent was 

 granted had expired, the machine had been so far 

 simplified as to require only thirteen instead of 

 twenty-four motions for completing the mesh, and 

 only two instead of the four motions that had been 

 necessary to secure the twist; and since the inven- 

 tion has become the property of the public by the 

 expiring of the patent, so much ingenuity has been 

 brought to bear upon the construction of the ma- 

 chine, that only six motions are now needed for the 

 production of the mesh, and the two motions then 

 needed for securing the work are now performed 

 simultaneously with the other six. By these 

 means the speed of the machines has been increased 

 twelve-fold, and, in consequence of the greater 

 simplicity of the working, it has been found prac- 

 ticable to propel them by steam and water power. 



The net produced in the original machines was 

 necessarily limited in its width to one yard and a 

 half, but many frames are now in use which make 

 net four yards wide. It has also been found pos- 

 sible, by the aid of machinery, to work various 

 ornaments into the net, and means have also been 

 discovered for working the net into slips of various 

 widths, the original machine having been capable 

 of producing only one plain broad piece. The 

 simplification of the machinery has of course oc- 

 casioned a reduction in the cost of producing the 

 manufacture ; but the profits of the possessors of 

 the patent must, notwithstanding, have been am- 

 ple, since they were enabled to take advantage of 

 the desire of the public to purchase their fabric to 

 such a degree as to sell for five guineas that which 

 may now be purchased for half-a-crown. 



BODMIN; a market-town in the county of 

 Cornwall, 225 miles from London. It is situated 

 near the centre of the county, in a hollow between 

 two hills. Races and assemblies are occasionally 

 held here. Bone lace was formerly made here ir. 

 considerable quantity, but the chief manufacture at 

 present is that of shoes, which are sold in great 

 numbers at the markets and fairs. Woollen cloth 

 and yarn are made, but to no great extent. Satur- 

 day is market-day. Population, in 1841, 5901. 



BONE (a.) Bones have of late years risen into 

 high consideration, on account of the valuable pro- 

 perties which have been discovered to belong to 

 them, for the purposes both of agriculture and 

 chemistry. When crushed in a mill, the powder is 

 found to be of the most fertilizing character as a 

 manure, and from its portability can be applied to 

 elevations and steeps to which heavier manures 

 cannot be carried. " Steeps (says Mr M'Diarmid of 

 Dumfries) which for centuries grew nothing but 

 grass, and grass too of inferior quality, are now 

 covered in regular rotation with turnips, oats, bar- 

 ley, and even wheat, and, allowing for some differ- 

 ence of climate (the effect of which is felt more 

 or less in backward seasons), are all but undistin- 

 guishable from the plains below. Up till 1828 or the 

 following year, thirty-two bushels of crushed bones 

 were considered equal to twenty cubical yards of 

 stable dung, and each respectively the requisite 

 manure for an acre of ground a difference in porta- 

 bility which may be expressed by one to thirty, with- 

 out the slightest exaggeration. If one cubical yard 

 of thoroughly made manure be considered a sufficient 

 load for a horse and cart, twenty such conveyances 

 would be required to transport from town to 

 country the quantity named; and supposing it fairly 

 deposited on the farm, the grand question is, how 

 many horses will find it hard enough work to con- 

 vey the load up hill. Thirty we should consider a 

 moderate number, and when to these we add the 

 labour of two scatterers to each cart, the expense 

 of tolls, extra feeding, and other items, the reader 

 will at once perceive the total impossibility of 

 manuring, on the olden principle, mountain land. 

 The expense, in fact, was so enormous, that the 

 thing was rarely if ever attempted ; while with 

 bones the case is so different, that the horse and 

 cart and man that bring the article from the mill 

 can take it to the place of its destination : and 

 when there, go over an acre of land with greater ease 

 than sixty persons could do with ordinary dung. 

 Nor is this all ; for although thirty-two or thirty-four 

 bushels of bones per acre were very generally used 

 at first, experience has shown that so large a 

 quantity is not at all necessary. Land is always 



