VESTITURE. 473 



forms the coolest clothing in summer ; and cotton, in this respect, 

 comes next to linen : while wool, silk, and fur, being the worst con- 

 ductors of heat, are the best retainers of animal warmth in the winter. 

 The operations of making cloth, are chiefly mechanical ; but those 

 of bleaching and dying it, are strictly chemical, requiring a know- 

 ledge of the properties of dye stuffs, and the theory of colors. The 

 tanning of leather, is also a chemical process ; but the manufacture 

 of garments, including shoes and boots, consists of what are termed 

 mechanical operations. The importance of these subjects to our 

 physical comfort, and their increasing extent, are our reasons for 

 grouping them together, as a branch of Chreotechnics, distinct from 

 other manufactures. 



The arts of sewing, spinning, and weaving, appear to have been 

 invented in the earliest times : the former at the expulsion from Pa- 

 radise ; and the two latter probably in ancient Egypt. Flax, is sup- 

 posed to have grown originally in that country, or in Persia ; and 

 linen cloth was used by the ancient Egyptians for the sole dress of 

 their priests, and for enveloping the dead after embalming. From 

 them its use was learned by the Jews and Phoenicians ; and thence 

 carried into Greece and Italy, long before the Christian Era. Cot- 

 ton, is a native product of India ; and there it was first manufactured 

 into cloth, in remote ages. Cotton fabrics were scarcely known to 

 the Greeks and Romans ; but they were introduced into Spain by the 

 Arabians, about A. D. 912 ; and thence the manufacture spread over 

 modern Europe. Cotton was first manufactured in England, about 

 1641 : but the quantity was small, before the invention of spinning 

 and weaving machinery ; and was much increased by the invention 

 of the saw gin, for cleaning cotton of its seeds, by our countryman, 

 Mr. Whitney, in 1792. 



Wool, was, probably, one of the earliest materials used for cloth- 

 ing ; being originally worn with the skin of the animal, rudely 

 dressed. It was much worn by the Romans ; who introduced its 

 manufacture into England. Silk, was first manufactured in China ; 

 tradition says, by the empress, Si-ling-shi, about 2700 B. C. Silk 

 fabrics were first used in Rome, only a short time before the Chris- 

 tian Era. The culture of silk, was brought from China to Greece, 

 it is said, by Persian monks, about A. D. 550 ; and the manufacture 

 extended thence to Sicily, in the 12th century; and thence to central 

 Europe. 



The most ancient mode of spinning, was by means of a distaff, 

 and spindle ; one or both of them held and turned by the hand. 

 This mode was superseded, in later times, by the one thread spin- 

 ning wheel, still used in spinning linen. The next step, and a great 

 one, in this art, was the invention of the Spinning Jenny, by Mr. 

 Hargreaves, in 1767 ; with which machine, several threads could be 

 spun at the same time. The next invention, that of the Water 

 Spinning Frame, in which the thread is drawn out by rollers, 

 though ascribed by some to Mr. Wyatt, was first made known by 

 Arkwright, who took a patent for it in 1769. Mr. Arkwright after- 

 wards connected the carding with the spinning, in another machine, 

 patented in 1795. The last great invention in spinning, was that of 

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