AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 5li5 



persecuted the weavers in the Netherlands, who fled In great numbers 

 to England, and were most graciously received by Queen Elizabeth, who 

 gave them liberty to settle in Norwich and other places. England did not 

 export woollen fabrics until the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Mary. 

 In 1770, she manufactured $20,000,000 worth. Arkwright invented a 

 wool-carder and spinner, which produced a complete revolution in the woollen 

 trade, and enabled the manufacturers to give up hand-spinning, and use the 

 mechanical power of water and steam. Cloths are undoubtedly the most 

 important articles in the manufacture of woollen, and the best are made of 

 Spanish and Saxon wool. The goodness of cloth arises in a great degree 

 from the quality of the wool. Cloth, to be good, should be of a soft and 

 even consistency, and devoid of a satiny appearance, as this generally 

 causes it to become spotted by rain. Cassimere is a twilled cloth, possessing 

 a greater degree of pliability than plain cloth, it is made by placing one 

 third of the warp above, and two below each shoot of the weft. 



Pelisse cloths are twilled. Dreadnaughts are thick cloths with a very 

 long pile. Swanskins are closely woven cloths. Hodden Gray is manu- 

 factured from natural black and white fleeces. 



Linen is a fabric of extreme antiquity — in the time of Pharaoh it was the 

 national manufacture in Egypt. It was exported by the Egyptians in the 

 days of King Solomon. I have a specimen, supposed to be more than 

 three thousand years old. The Greeks, Romans, and Jews were taught its 

 manufacture by the Egyptians ; and it was first only used by them as 

 clothing for royalty. It did not come into common use in England before 

 1252, and was first introduced by the Flemings. At present, the Scotch 

 and Irish looms produce enough for our country and Great Britain. 



Cotton fabrics for dress are wrought very cheaply by machinery, and 

 have superseded to a great extent, not only linen, but silk and wool. 

 Cotton is admirable for sheetings and shirtings, as well as dresses for ladies. 

 The inhabitants of Asia were acquainted with the fabrication of cotton at a 

 very early period. Herodotus speaks of cotton cloths, four hundred and 

 forty-one years before Christ, as the common clothing of the inhabitants of 

 Jndia. Arrian, who lived in the second century, and also Strabo, speak of 

 cotton fabrics. Pliny states that it grew in Upper Egypt, but it was not 

 manufactured anciently by that people, as it is not found encircling their 

 mummies. William de Rubriquis says that cottons were used in 1251 by 

 the inhabitants of Southern Russia, and Marco Polo saw it in China in 

 1367 or '8. It was brought to England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

 who protected and patronized its manufacture, and it is scarcely possible to 

 convey an idea of the variety of cotton fabrics that have issued from the 

 "Weaver's loom from that time to this. 



SILK FABRICS FOR DRESS. 



Civilization must have progressed very far i-ndeod, before man made the 

 discovery that silk could be produced by so insignificant a caterpillar as 

 the silk worm, and that the little yellow balls which were attached to the 



