TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 



net machines. These, for the whole body of the lace machinery, maybe thus stated : — 

 900 men employed in 180 shops for making machines, boboins, carriages, points, 

 guides, combs, needles, &c., at average wages of 33s. a week ; 10,300 men and youths 

 at work in 130 larger factories and in lesser machine shops, 1800 of whom may earn 

 16s., 5000 25s., and 3500 first-class Levers' hands 35s. a week on an average. These 

 all work alternate shifts of four and five hours each, in the entire day of 18 hours, 

 during which the engine is going. 4200 boys clearing, winding, threading bobbins, 

 5s. 500 women filling bobbins and overlooking, 12s. 15,000 brown net menders, 

 who usually receive nets from factories, and free them from foul or imeven threads. 

 It is generally supplementary labour to household work, by which 4s. to 8s. may 

 be gamed, averaging 5s. a week. 300 men, warpers, 25s. ; 300 men, moulders, 

 founders, and superintendents of machinery, .3os. ; 60 cai-penters, 30s. ; 360 porters, 

 17s. ; 120 carters, 20s. ; 90 watchmen, &c., 20s. ; 260 steam engineers, 22s. ; 150 

 bleachers, 30s. ; 100 male dressers of lace, 8s. to 30s. ; 900 female dressers, 10s. ; 

 1000 female white menders, 12s. ; 500 female lace-folders, 10s. ; 1000 paper-box 

 makers of both sexes, 7s. ; 450 warehouse women, 13s. ; 250 female overlookers, 

 15s. ; 100 draftsmen and designers, 40s. ; 1300 warehousemen and clerks taking sala- 

 ries. There are employed in each finishing lace warehouse from 6 to 600 females, 

 as the size and nature of the business may require. The number cannot be knovm 

 except by actual census. They are taken from outdoor hands in brown-mending 

 and other employments on lace. The hom'S are 8 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m., and the 

 wages are about 9s. on an average ; overtime is paid for. The kinds of work must 

 be seen to be undei'stood, but are in general more wearisome than heavy. In some 

 of the factories and work-rooms, in lace warehouses, and in dressing-rooms, the 

 heat is sometimes oppressive. In general ventilation is provided for, but hands do 

 not always care to make use of it. There is a far greater number of females em- 

 ployed, sometimes from a too early age, in the houses of "mistresses," often their 

 own mothers, upon drawing, scolloping, carding, &c., processes light and simple 

 enough, upon goods which have been obtained from finishing houses. These young 

 people must exercise care and cleanliness on the goods, or they would be spoilt. 

 When retm-ned to the warehouse the mistress receives a price, out of which she 

 takes a portion for her labour, risk of damage, fire, light, house-room, &c. Some 

 of these persons employ twelve to twenty young gu"ls. The total number cannot 

 be known accurately except by census. It being considered domestic employment, 

 they are not xmder registration or visitation, except upon complaint made on sani- 

 tary groimds. A great improvement has been going on in regard to the age at 

 which these children begin to do this kind of work, and the hours of their daily 

 labour. The change dates from Mr. Grainger's report on this important subject 

 in 1844. The remaining department of female labour in connexion with the ma- 

 chine lace trade is that of embroiderers with hook or needle, Tambom-ers, or lace- 

 runners, once amounting to 150,000, now reduced to a sixth of that number. Their 

 average weekly earnings in 1836 was 4s. ; now it is doubled, and more for the 

 better kinds of work. As fast as the improved machinery produced figured work, 

 nearly finished on the machines ready for sale, the lace-embroiderers were cast aside. 

 About 1840 an emigration set into Nottingham from all the districts within fifty 

 miles, to supply the increasing warehouse and outdoor female labour required in both 

 the lace and hosiery trades. There has thus been added to the alreadv prepondera- 

 ting female population of the place 13,000 within the last 26 years. In these three 

 classes are computed from 90,000 to 100,000 females, which, added to the 38,000 

 above enumerated, makes a total of about 135,000 employed in the lace trade of 

 Nottingham in 1865. The materials worked up cost about £1,715,000 ; the wao-es 

 and profits amounted to £3,415,000 or thereabouts ; and the net returns mav be 

 stated at £5,130,000. — In the hosiery business of Nottingham there were at work 

 in 1865 11,000 narrow hand-machines, employing domestically 7500 men and 3500 

 women and youths, at wages from 6s. to 26s., averaging by the statements of the 

 hands themselves 10s. 6d. weekly ; also 4250 wide hand-machines, likewise domes- 

 tically employing 4250 men, from 10s. to .30s., averaging, according to the work- 

 men's statement, 15s. weekly wages. These 15,250 hand-frames were place in 

 4620 shops in 80 parishes spread over the county of Nottingham. The entire 

 average wages of 42,000 frames in 1844 was about 6s. a week only. These two 

 1866. 9 



