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SILK MANUAL, AND 



cursory inspection as he was thus enabled to give, 

 he bethought himself of associating with the cler- 

 gy, and being a man of letters, he succeeded in 

 ingratiating himself with the priest who confessed 

 the family to which the works belonged. He 

 seems to have opened his plans, partly at least, to 

 this person, and it is certain that he found means 

 to obtain his co-operation. According to the 

 scheme which they planned between them, Mr 

 Lombe disguised himself as a poor youth in want 

 of employment. The priest then introduced him 

 to the directors of the works, and gave him a good 

 character for honesty and diligence, and described 

 hioi as inured to greater hardships than might be 

 expected from his appearance, ile was accord- 

 ingly engaged as a fiilatoe-boy, to superintend a 

 spinning engine so called. His rrtean appearance 

 procured him accommodation in the place which 

 his design made the most acceptable to him, — the 

 mill. While otlu-rs slept, he was awake, and dil- 

 igently employed in his arduous and dangerous 

 undertaking. He bad possessed himself of a dark 

 lantern, tinder box, wax candles, and a case of 

 mathematical instruments : in the day time these 

 were secreted in the hole under the stairs where 

 he used to sleep ; and no person ever indicated 

 the least curiosity to ascertain the possessions of 

 so mean a lad. He thus went on nsaking draw- 

 ings of every part of this grand and useful machi- 

 nery ; the priest often inquired after his poor boy 

 at the works, and through his agency Lombe con- 

 veyed his drawings lo Glover and Unwins ; with 

 them models were made from the drawings, and 

 despatched to England piecemeal in bales of silk. 

 These originals are still, we believe, preserved in 

 the Derby mills. 



^ After Lombe had completed his design, he still 

 remained at the mill, waiting until an English ship 

 should be on the |)oint of sailing for England. 

 When this hai)i)encd, he left the works and has- 

 tened on board, liut meanwhile his absence had 

 occasioned suspicion, and an Italian brig was des- 

 patched in pursuit ; but the En;>-!ish vessel happi- 

 ly proved the better sailer of the two, and escaped. 

 It is said that the priest was put to the torture ; 

 but the correspondent of the "Gentleman's Maga- 

 zine," to which we are indebted for most of the 

 facts we have stated, says that after Mr Lombe's 

 return to England, an Italian priest was much in 

 his company ; and he is of opinion that this was 

 either the priest in question, or at least another 

 confederate in the same atlair. Mr Lombe also 

 brought over with him two natives accustomed to 

 the manufacture, for the sake of introducing which 

 he had incurred so much hazard. 



After his return, Mr John Lombe appears to 

 have actively exerted himself in forwarding the 

 works undertaken by him and his brother. Sir 

 '1 honias, at Derby ; but he did not live to witness 



their completion. He died on the premises, on 

 the 16th of November, 1722, in the 29th year of 

 his age. The common account of his death is, 

 that the Italians, exasjierated at the injury done to 

 their trade, sent over to England an artful woman, 

 who associated with the parties in the character of 

 a friend ; and having gained over one of the na- 

 tives who originally accompanied Mr Lombe, ad- 

 ministered a poison to him of which he ultimately 

 died. 



We recur to gir Thomas Lombe's statement, 

 already quoted, for the most authentic particulars 

 respecting the progress of the work. The docu- 

 ment itself is entitled, "A Brief State of the Case 

 relating to the Machine erected at Derby, for ma- 

 king Italian Organzine Siik, which was discovered 

 and brought into England, with the utmost diffi- 

 culty and hazard, and at the sole expense of Sir 

 Thomas Lombe." It commences with stating the 

 capabilities of the machine. "This machine per- 

 forms the work of making Italian organzine silk, 

 which is a manufncture made out of line raw silk, 

 by reducing it to a hard twisted, fine, and even 

 thread. This silk makes the warp, and is abso- 

 lutely tiPcessary to mix with and cover the Turkey 

 and other coarser silks thrown here, which are 

 used for shute ; so that without a constant supply 

 of this fine Italian organzine silk, very little of the 

 said Turkev and other silks could be used, nor 

 could the silk-weaving trade be carried on in Eng- 

 land. This Italian organzine (or thrown) silk has 

 in all times past been bought with our money, 

 ready made (or worked) in Italy, for want of the 

 art of making it here ; whereas now, by working 

 it ourselves out of fine Italian raw silk, the nation 

 .saves nearly one-third part ; and by what we make 

 out of fine China raw silk, above one-half of the 

 price we pay for it ready worked in Italy." The 

 paper goes on to state, that "the machine at Derby 

 has 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual 

 parts, (which work day and night,) all which re- 

 ceive their motion from one large water wheel, 

 and are governed by one regulator ; and it em- 

 ploys 300 persons to attend and supply it with 

 ■work." After stating the difficulties which had 

 been surmounted in introducing this improve- 

 ment, the jiaper thus concludes: "Upon the in- 

 troduction of which [this improvement], his late 

 jnost gracious Majesty granted a patent to the said 

 Sir Thomas Lombe, for the sole making and use 

 of the said engines in England, for the term of 

 fourteen years. Upon which he set about the 

 work and raised a large pile of building upon the 

 river Derwent at Derby, and therein erected the 

 said machine ; but before the whole could be com- 

 pleted several years of the said term were expired. 

 'I hen the King of Sardinia, in whose country we 

 buy the greater part of our supply of organzine 

 silk, being informed of his success, i)rohibited the 



