MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. 



as it passes to its end ; from whence a 

 slight motion of the hand in the opposite 

 direction impels it back again to its first 

 position, after the thread shot in has been 

 beaten up close to the web, and the warp 

 been opened again, ready to receive an- 

 other course. 



The apparatus described is now in ge- 

 neral use, in most other manufactures, 

 and is found to be particularly advanta- 

 geous in weaving broad cloths, carpets, 

 and other goods of great breadth, which 

 formerly required two men to each loom, 

 merely to throw the shuttle. 



In places where it is not yet introduced, 

 it evidently would be an object of huma- 

 nity to induce the weavers to use it, on 

 account of the beneficial effects it has on 

 their health. 



Bunting. When the webs are taken 

 from the looms, they are covered with an 

 irregular down or knap, from the projec- 

 tion of the short fibres of the cotton 

 wool, which is removed by passing the 

 webs over a red-hot iron plate, that burns 

 it off. 



The apparatus for this operation con- 

 sists of an iron semi-cylinder, set hori- 

 zontally in brick-work, having a fire-place 

 under it, with an iron door, through 

 which fuel may be introduced ; at each 

 side of this is placed a light wooden roll- 

 er of rail-work, turning freely on an iron 

 axis by a winch ; from the same uprights 

 which support these rollers, are suspend- 

 ed light frames at each side, which turn 

 on pivots in their centres, by depressing 

 the further ends of which, the cords 

 next the stove raise up a rail, which runs 

 across near the iron semi-cylinder, and 

 which mostly consists of a slight iron 

 tod. 



After the fire placed beneath the iron 

 burner has made it red hot, the web, 

 whose surface is to be burned, is rolled 

 up on one of these cylinders, and the end 

 of it is passed over the lifters and hot 

 iron, to the other cylinder ; a man stands 

 at each cylinder, and the instant the one 

 at the empty cylinder begins to turn, the 

 lifters are lowered, so as to let the web 

 come in contact with the red-hot iron ; 

 by which means its whole surface is 

 drawn over the iron, with that degree of 

 velocity which is just sufficient to burn 

 off the loose filaments, without injuring 

 its fabric. The very finest muslins un- 

 dergo this operation, and though they are 

 so thin, that the least deviation from the 

 pi'oper velocity, in passing them over the 

 iron, causes them to be burned through, 

 yet there very seldom happens any acci- 

 dent to them, which shews that this pro- 

 YOL. IV. 



cess is more hazardous in appearance than 

 reality. 



After burning, the webs are all bleach- 

 ed, to remove the dark colour given them 

 by the fire ; and when of a proper white- 

 ness, those which are designed for dye- 

 ing or printing are sent to the respective 

 artists in those lines, and the rest are 

 made up for sale as they are. 



The operation of printing has arrived 

 to great perfection, and the process of 

 bleaching is well worthy of attention; 

 but for these we must refer to their pro- 

 per heads. 



In concluding the account of the cotton 

 manufacture, it may not be unacceptable 

 to give some short relation of the manner 

 in which it is carried on in India, where 

 it existed, and produced an extensive 

 commerce, for ages before it was thought 

 of in Europe. 



The manner of manufacturing cotton 

 in India forms a remarkable contrast to 

 the European method. In Europe, a vast 

 apparatus of machinery is used in every 

 part of the process, while in India the 

 simplest instruments are made to pro- 

 duce fabrics of that exquisite fineness, 

 which it is the boast of our manufactur- 

 ers to imitate, and which fts yet they can 

 scarcely equal. The cotton wool in India 

 is prepared for the spinner without cards, 

 is spun for the weaver without wheels, 

 and is woven in looms without any frame- 

 work, which the weaver can move from 

 one pkce to another, with as much faci- 

 lity as the web itself. 



The operation which our manufacturers 

 perform by carding engines, is executed by 

 the Indian with nothing more than a bow; 

 the percussions of whose string snapped 

 over the cotton wool in repeated vibra- 

 tions, raise's it to a fine dow r ny fleece ; in 

 this same way our hatters prepare then- 

 furs for felting, an operation which may 

 be seen in most towns. 



The fine thread, or yarn, from which 

 the choicest muslins are made, are spur, 

 from cotton thus prepared, by the distaff 

 and spindle, a mode which it is evident 

 was practised by the Romans, Greeks, 

 and Egyptians, from their history, their 

 fables, and their sculptures, and than 

 which nothing can be more simple ; this 

 yarn is then wove on the following loom, 

 the account of which is abridged from 

 that of an eminent writer on Indian af- 

 fairs. 



India?i. Loom. The Indian loom consists 

 merely of two bamboo-rollers, one for the 

 warp,"and the other for the web, and a 

 pair of geer ; the shuttle perforn^s the 

 double office of shuttle and batton, and 

 Hh 



