CHAPTER III. 



Cbc CQool Industry. 



The manufacture of woolen goods dates back to Bible his- 

 tory. As stated in the introductory chapter of this work, the 

 Romans introduced the arts of weaving and spinning wool and 

 established a factory for the same at Winchester, England, soon 

 after their conquest of that country. Under the Saxon mon- 

 archy following the Roman exodus from Britain, we find that 

 wool spinning became universally followed in all households, 

 and so high was the art esteemed that princesses and noble ladies 

 learned to spin, and from the habit being universally followed 

 by the female members of the families the word spinster for un- 

 married ladies has been handed down to the present time. In 

 the time of the Wars of the Crusades, and even later, we find 

 -that wool reprsented the national wealth, frequently being used 

 to supplement the limited coinage of those times. It was ac- 

 cepted in payment of ransoms and as collateral security for the 

 sinews of war. Later Holland excelled all other countries in the 

 manufacture of woolen goods up to the time of its conquest by 

 Spain. Then the industry suifered from the tyrannical imposts 

 of the governing power, which finally drove the artizans to seek 

 other lands. England afforded many of these exiles protection, 

 and to this source is directly traceable her superiority in the art 

 of woolen manufactures, which to a certain extent she retains 

 up to the present day. 



Wool, unlike hair, grows in a spiral form, is softer and more 

 pliable, due to a fatty secretion issuing from the glands situated 

 in the cutis vera or true skin, which supplies the yolk of the 



