INDUSTRIES 



upper floor, and then discharged in shoots to 

 a lower floor to be melted in the ' blow-ups ' ; 

 these were cast-iron tanks fitted with me- 

 chanical stirrers and steam pipes for heating 

 the water. The solution, called ' liquor,' was 

 brought to a certain degree of gravity (25 to 

 33 deg. Baume) and then filtered through twilled 

 cotton bags, encased in a meshing of hemp. 

 The syrup was next decolorized by being 

 passed through beds of animal charcoal, in- 

 closed in cisterns to a depth of from 30 ft. to 

 50 ft., the sugar being then discharged into 

 tanks. It was then boiled in vacuum pans, 

 and variously treated afterwards according to 

 the nature of the finished sugar required. To 

 make sugar loaves, small crystals only were 

 formed in the pan, and the granular magma 

 was poured into steam-jacketed open pans, 

 and raised to a temperature of about 180 to 

 190 deg. Fahr., which liquefied the grains. 

 The hot solution was then cast into conical 

 moulds of the shape of the loaves, where it 

 crystallized into a solid mass. A plug at the 

 bottom of the mould was then opened to 

 allow the syrup containing coloured and other 

 impurities to drain away. This process was 

 assisted by pouring into the cone successive 

 doses of saturated syrup, ending with a syrup 

 of pure colourless sugar. The syrup which 

 drained from the loaves was sold as golden 

 syrup ; the liquor which obstinately remained 

 in the interstices being driven out by suction 

 or centrifugal action ; the loaf was then 

 rounded off, papered, and placed in a stove for 

 drying. 



The art of dyeing textile fabrics and 

 leather had been practised from an early 

 period in different parts of England, and 

 much woad from Toulouse, and madder and 

 scarlet dye from Italy, were imported by 

 Florentine and Genoese merchants. So great, 

 however, was the skill of the Continental 

 dyers that much English cloth was from the 

 1 4th to the 1 6th century sent abroad to be 

 dyed and finished. During the Tudor and 

 Stuart periods improved methods of dyeing 

 were introduced into this country. John 

 Baptist Semyn, 29 a Genoese dwelling in 

 Southwark, the king's dyer, was made a 

 denizen in 1533. In the same reign several 

 foreign leather dyers settled in or near 

 London, and James Tybault, who took out 

 letters of denization in 1544, describes him- 

 self as ' a leather dyer after the Spanish dye- 

 ing.' He had been then eighteen years in 

 England. In 1561 Stiata Cavalcaunti, a 

 Florentine, obtained a licence to be the sole 



" W. Page, Denizations and Naturafizatitm 

 (Huguenot Soc.), p. xliii et seq. 



importer of indigo into England, where it 

 was then apparently unknown as a dyeing 

 agent, though it had been employed at a 

 much earlier time in Italy. It did not, how- 

 ever, come into general use, and was quite a 

 novelty in England sixteen years later. 30 In 

 1567 Peter de Croix 31 offered to set up the 

 ' feate of dying and dressing of clothis after 

 the manna of Flaunders.' In a return of 

 aliens 32 in 1568 he is described as a French- 

 man ' who goeth to the Frentche church,' 

 while in a house crowded with refugees in St. 

 Magnus parish we hear of ' Francis Tybbold 

 dyer, borne in Ipar, in Flanders, and goeth to 

 the Dutch churche ; he paith no rent.' With 

 the immigration of Protestant refugees foreign 

 dyers of silk, leather, and cloth increased in 

 numbers in and about the city of London ; 

 but the most important enterprise undertaken 

 by a dyer of foreign origin belongs to the 

 next century when Dr. Johannes Sibertus 

 Kuffler of Leyden, who had married a 

 daughter of the famous Dutch chemist 

 Drebbel, set up a scarlet-dye house at Bow, 

 probably putting to practical use improved 

 methods learnt from his father-in-law. The 

 scarlet he obtained soon became known as 

 ' Bow dye." Further improvements in dye- 

 ing cloth were made by Bauer, a Fleming 

 who came to England in i667. 33 



Gun-making and the manufacture of small 

 arms is an important industry of the county. 

 The Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield 

 was built in 1855-6 at a cost of ^150,000 ; 

 and has a station (Enfield Lock) on the Great 

 Eastern Railway. The buildings form three 

 sides of a quadrangle, and, with the testing 

 ranges, cover an area of about 5 acres. The 

 new magazine rifle is now made instead of 

 the Martini-Henri, and machine-guns and 

 swords are also manufactured. About four 

 thousand rifles can be turned out weekly. At 

 Edmonton are the ammunition works of Ely 

 Brothers, Ltd. This industry is under the 

 control of the Gunmakers' Company, the only 

 livery company whose hall is situated outside 

 the boundaries of the City of London. As 

 compared with the majority of City gilds the 

 Gunmakers' Company is quite a modern in- 

 stitution, not having been incorporated until 

 the reign of Charles I. Under the charter of 

 this sovereign, dated 14 March 1637, power 

 was given to the company to prove and mark 

 all gun-barrels made in London, which the 



"Lansd. MS. 24, fol. 156. 

 " Ibid. 9, fol. 208. 



11 Kirk, Returns of Aliens (Huguenot Soc.), iii, 

 370 et seq. 



13 J. S. Burn, Hist. Foreign Refugees, 259. 



