306 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



in the little villages, on the streamlets running 

 from the hills. Scores of small saw-mills have 

 also been built along the streamlet Merloz, for 

 the fabrication of all sorts of little pretty things 

 in wood. At Oyonnax, a small town on the 

 Ain, we have a big centre for the fabrication of 

 combs, an industry more than 200 years old, 

 which took a new development since the last 

 war through the invention of celluloid. No 

 less than 100 or 120 " masters " employ from 

 two to fifteen workers each, while over 1,200 

 persons work in their houses, making combs 

 out of Irish horn and French celluloid. Wheel- 

 power was formerly rented in small workshops, 

 but electricity, generated by a waterfall, has 

 lately been introduced, and is now distributed 

 in the houses for bringing into motion small 

 motors of from one-quarter to twelve horse- 

 power. And it is remarkable to notice that as 

 soon as electricity gave the possibility to return 

 to domestic work, 300 workers left at once the 

 small workshops and took to work in their 

 houses. Most of these workers have their 

 own cottages and gardens, and they show a 

 very interesting spirit of association. They 

 have also erected four workshops for making 

 cardboard boxes, and their production is valued 

 at 2,000,000 fr. every year.* 



* Ardouin Duinazet, vol. viii., p. 40. 



