INDUSTRIES 



had made some time before, he then made some 

 machines of iron on the same principle. 



Mr. Tansley, in the paper to which reference 

 has previously been made, claims the invention 

 of the splitter for some French prisoners at 

 Yaxley Barracks, near Stilton, in 1803-6, 

 who first made it in bone. 



It was about 2 in. long, brought to a point, 

 behind which a set of cutters was arranged in a circle. 

 The point entered the straw pipe separating it into 

 so many equal-sized splints. Some were arranged to 

 cut a straw into four parts, others five, and so on up 

 to nine. This instrument was soon imitated, and 

 being of such surprising agility, numbers were speedily 

 made, and fetched as much as from one to two guineas 

 each. A blacksmith of Dunstable, named Janes, made 

 them in iron, and turned the end downwards at right 

 angles with the stem, the cutters being placed imme- 

 diately above the point. ... A few years afterwards, 

 about 1 8 1 5, others were made like wheels and inserted 

 in a frame, the points projecting in front of each. 

 By this arrangement four or five splitters could be 

 fixed in one frame. 



To this invention may be attributed the 

 success which, in after times, has attended the 

 manufacture of straw plait in England.^ 



When straw-plaiting was a thriving industry, 

 north Hertfordshire farmers who laid them- 

 selves out for the trade saw to it that their 

 wheat was reaped carefully by hand, as the 

 breaking action of the machine would have 

 ruined the stems.^ In the next process the 

 flags or leaf growths were separated from the 

 straw, which was then cut into equal lengths 

 between the joints, the most usual length 

 employed being about 9 in. The straw was 

 then tied up into bundles ^^^ for the markets, 

 where the plaiters bought it. 



The sphtting was in the early 19th century 

 done originally by bone ' engines,' but these 

 were afterwards replaced by brass splitters or 

 iron sphtters in wooden handles. The earlier 

 bone engines were made from the shank-bone 

 of an ox. The hardest part was sawn into 

 small cubes, and from these the engines were 

 chiselled. In the centre was a sharply-pointed 



21 Austin, op. cit. 16. 



^2 I. Chalkley Gould, loc. cit. 



22* Mr. G. E. BuUen states that there has recently 

 been brought to his notice at Redbourn a somewhat 

 elaborate and unusual 'straw sorter.' It consists of 

 a woodwork frame, at the top of which were placed 

 sections of wire gauze with mesh of varying diameter. 

 The several sections were kept separate below by 

 means of pieces of fabric, the compartments thus 

 formed communicating with a removable trough again 

 divided into compartments. Apparently the operator 

 took hold of a bundle of cut straws and started to 

 shake it loosely over the mesh of finest diameter, 

 repeating the operation throughout the whole series 

 of ' sorters ' until the bundle was disposed of. In this 

 way the various divisions of the trough became filled 

 with straws of equal diameter. 



cone from which, a little below, radiated the 

 ' cogs ' or cutting edges. These engines were 

 then fitted into wooden handles, or, as we have 

 already seen, inserted in a frame. Their use 

 was as follows : the plaiter thrust the straw 

 over the cone and pressed it against the edges 

 of the cogs, thus dividing it into as many splints 

 as cogs. The splints now required flattening, 

 and this was effected by wetting them and 

 passing them under a hand-roller or between 

 the rollers of a mill. This latter was made with 

 two rollers of beechwood, the pressure being 

 regulated by a screw above acting on loose 

 chucks, which pressed upon the axle of the 

 upper roller. 



The plaiter often held the splints thus 

 prepared in her mouth, and taking them one 

 after another as required rapidly plaited them, 

 fresh splints being added to the plait till some 

 twenty yards had been made. The projecting 

 sphnt-ends were then cut off, and the plait 

 was again flattened by the mill or simple roller. 

 Occasionally, to produce a whipcord edge to 

 the plait, the upper roller of the mill was made 

 with a slight rebate or groove on one end. 

 When the bleaching ^ was done by the plaiters 

 themselves the process was extremely simple. 

 The bleaching box was of wood a foot or two 

 square with a few bars within at about half the 

 height of the box. On these the plait was laid 

 while a little sulphur was placed beneath on a 

 pan of Uve charcoal or glowing embers. After 

 two hours' exposure to the fumes the plait 

 could be removed thoroughly bleached and 

 ready for sale. 



In 1823 ' the small but bustling market town 

 of Redbourn ' owed much of its prosperity to 

 the plait trade. From this centre plait was 

 carried to Dunstable, St. Albans and Luton.^* 

 About 1830 Hertfordshire straw was actually 

 sent to Switzerland, where it was plaited and 

 returned to England and there sold, notwdth- 

 standing the import duty of \']s. ^d. a lb., for 

 5J-. per lb. less than the plait produced in 

 England. 



The population returns of 1 83 1 point to no 

 diminution in the trade. A great number of 

 females were engaged in the industry in Berk- 

 hampstead and a number of women and boys 

 in St. Albans.25 In 1861, 603 men and 8,598 

 women were employed in straw plaiting, 147 

 men and 1,874 women in hat and bonnet- 

 making.2' Each of the plaiting districts pro- 

 duced a peculiar plait. Thus Hitchin was 

 known for its ' broad twist ' and all kindj of 

 medium twist plait, also for ' plain improved,' 



^' Occasionally the bleaching was done before the 

 plaiting. 



^ Pigot, Diet. Herts. (1823), 360. 

 " Pop. Ret. 1 83 1, p. 246. 

 2^ Austin, op. cit. 8. 



253 



