■WOOLLEN TBij)B.] AND TllElJi VARIOUS 15 REEDS. [woollen tradi. 



CIIArTKU IV. 



niSTOUY Ol- TIIK WOOI.I.KN TRADK. 



Professor Owex di'Gnes wool aa "a peculiar 

 nunlitieatiou of hair, cliaracterised by lino 

 transverse or oblique lines, I'roni 2,U0O to 

 4,000 in the extent of au inch, indicative of 

 a uiiuutely imbricated, scaly surface — when 

 viewed under tlie microscope— on wliich, and 

 on its curved or twisted form, depends its re- 

 markable felting property." In a state of 

 nature, many animals have a covering botli of 

 wool and hair ; the former underlying the 

 latter ; but a single fleece, whatever its charac- 

 ter, yields many varieties of wool, which seems 

 to have been the staple material of the primi- 

 tive weavers of Palestine, Syria, Greece, Italy, 

 and Spain. Previous to the art of manufac- 

 turing in wool, however, man, to clothe him- 

 self, made use of the sldns of animals; and 

 even in the patriarchal times, we find that the 

 skin of the goat was used by Jacob. At 

 this period, however, or very little later, the 

 fleeces of animals came into use ; for we find 

 that Joseph had a coat of many colours, made 

 him by his father, who would seem not only 

 to have understood the proper application of 

 the fleece, but, also, the art of dyeing it. 

 Still later, we find Job saying to his three 

 friends — "If I have seen any perish for want 

 of clothinj, or any poor without covering, if 

 his loins have not blessed me, and if he were 

 not warmed with the Jleece of my sheep." 

 Here is direct evidence that the fleece of the 

 sheep was novr used for the purposes of cloth- 

 ing. Weaving, in its rudest form, was prob- 

 ably pursued as a domestic employment at 

 this time; for there is no handicral't more 

 ancient, and none more universal. The al- 

 lusions to this art in the Scriptural writings, 

 have made us all familiar with it from our 

 childhood. " My life is cut oflf as by the 

 weaver," says Isaiah. '• My days are swifter 

 than a weaver's shuttle," says Job; and as 

 weaving was, from the remotest antiquity, the 

 occupation with which women engaged them- 

 selves, it has supplied the old epic and lyric 

 poets with many a beautiful figure, and the 



ancient dramatists with some of their most 

 touching incidents. Tl)c antiijuariea who liavo 

 unl'ohied tlie cerements of tlie Egyptian 

 mummy — the travellers who have devoted thera- 

 eelvea to the CTploration of Central Africa — 

 the missionaries who have familiarised us with 

 the habits and traditions of the more than 



! semi-savage South-Sea Islanders — all testify 

 to the antiquity and the universality, in some 

 form or other, of textile industry. It is apart 

 from our province hero to enter upon the 

 history of such an art ; bat it is full of interest 

 as developing the inventive faculties of man, 

 in his onward progress towards a high and 

 refined civilisation. Its history links itself 

 with the colonisation of the Greeks; with the 

 dissemination, throughout the new-born Italy, 

 of the industrial arts of Constantinople ; with 

 the rapid rise of the Italian republics ; and with 

 that — more marvellous still — of the great com- 

 mercial city of the Netherlands. When the 

 textile industry of the Italians and of the 

 Flemings passed over to Prance and to Britain, 

 its development came to bo intimately con- 

 nected with three questions of state policy — 

 namely, the good or ill treatment of aliens ; 

 the liberty or thraldom of religious worship ; 

 and the restriction of the enfranchisement of 

 trade. AVith the mode of handling these three 

 questions by government, the fortunes of 

 weavers have been singularly involved. It is 

 probable, however, that, contemporaneous with, 

 or possibly antecedent to weaving', the process 

 of felting was adopted. If wool be pressed 

 together, or considerably heated in junction, 

 or otherwise be brought in very close contact, 

 it becomes a thick impervious mass, very 

 difllcult, if not impossible, ♦^^o be separated 

 again. This is owing to the structural con- 

 formation of the wool. Though the absolute 



; cause was not known, the fact was understood 

 and described at a very early period. The 

 wool is covered with a complete series of scales, 

 or serrations. These are capable of being 

 opened and compressed ; and felting is no more 



723 



