94 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NORWICH AND DISTRICT 
Norwich prominently upon the map of the world, so have the present-day 
shoe manufacturers in turn achieved the same object, and at present there 
are unmistakable signs of Norwich winning back some of its ancient 
exporting prosperity. It appears superfluous to say that every good wish 
accompanies this endeavour. 
The high standard of efficiency attained, and the ready adaptability 
of the industry’s operatives to meet the constant innovations and reorganis- 
ation of manufacturing methods demanded from time to time by the stern 
law of progress, is in no small measure due to the technological instructors 
of the Technical College of this city. Students are first taught the hand 
principles of shoe making. 
Our present city authorities are to be congratulated upon the fact that 
they are contemplating extensive development of the college, providing 
the staple industry with greater accommodation and better equipment to 
encourage young persons engaged in the industry to devote a portion of 
their evening leisure to the development of technical knowledge. 
Thus fortified with the background of the past and knowing the pro- 
gressive enterprise of our individual manufacturers, coupled with the 
development of knowledge and technique in the younger generation, the 
industry confidently faces the future, sure of its ability to meet and over- 
come any obstacles which may tend to jeopardise the prosperity of our 
ancient city. 
(c) ENGINEERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 
Norwich as the centre of a large agricultural district has not only 
developed its incentive to produce agricultural machinery, but has ex- 
tended its enterprise in so many directions that its varied productions 
carry the name of the city round the world. 
Principally Norwich may be regarded as the pioneer in the manufacture 
of wire-netting. Charles Barnard, who first entered business in 1826, 
invented the original machine for weaving this product in 1844, and the 
earliest practicable type, dated 1854, now fittingly housed in the Bridewell 
Museum of Industries, was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1930, and 
actually worked by a weaver who had been employed by the original 
firm for over sixty years. 
The fabric was first produced on a pegged roller from wire woven by 
hand, using cotton reels as bobbins ; this, however, was not a commercial 
proposition, and the inventor developed what is known as the ‘ half-wheel’ 
principle (which is still the basis of all looms), by which two slides and a 
rack engage alternately and form the twists. 
The principle was improved upon by Mr. James Garton Bower, who 
ee 
devised special machinery for weaving together two meshes of different 
sizes in one weaving on one machine. The smaller mesh in the lower 
part forms a protection against rabbits and the larger mesh above cheapens 
the fabric. 
Wire-netting from Norwich firms defends Australia from rabbits, South 
Africa from jackals, forms fox farms in Scandinavia, fences innumerable 
