WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



•weft of carded wool, but which being unmilled, or finiftied in 

 a different manner, receive different names. Blankets are ma- 

 ; nufaftiired on the card, but from wool that poffeffes a greater 

 - length of ftaple, and which therefore admits of a deeper pile, 

 being raifed on the furface. The yarn is fpun thicker, and left 

 as foTt as pofTible, in order that it may form a full cover or pile. 

 Fine blankets are made much ftouter and heavier than coarfe 

 ones ; they are both fcoured in the mill, but are fcarcely 

 fuffered to undergo the fulling procefs. Thick cloths with 

 a long pile, called dufHelds, fearnoughts, and bear-flcins, are 

 manufaftured on the fame principle as blankets, but they 

 are milled much thicker and dyed, and alfo raifed to a deeper 

 pile. Flannels and very light cloths, fuch as Bath coatings, 

 are ufually fpun fmall, in proportion to the quality of the 

 wool. In weaving plain cloths, the chain or warp is equally 

 divided by the gears, one half of the threads being above 

 and the other half below, and they crofs each other every 

 time the thread of the weft is thrown through by the fhuttle. 

 In weaving kerfeymeres or caffimeres, on the contrary, the 

 warp is unequally divided, to produce what is called the 

 twill, or tweel, (fee Weaving,) one-third being always 

 above and two-thirds below the fhuttle as it palfes. It is 

 owing to this arrangement of the warp, that it forms a llant- 

 JBg or diagonal rib acrofs the body of the cloth, which is 

 the diftinguifhing charaftcr of this kind of woollens. See 

 Draught of Looms. 



Caffimeres are ufually fet in the loom from thirty-four to 

 |thirty-fix inches wide, and milled to twenty-feven inches. 

 ! Forty pounds of wool from the bag will make rather more 

 than fixty yards of conimon milled fine caffimeres; the 

 'double milled ones make lefs in proportion to the degree of 

 i milling they receive. 



Swandowns and toilinets are made with a cotton warp ; 

 the weft is woollen or worfted yarn of various colours, ac- 

 . cording to the patterns required. Woollen cords have alfo 

 the warp of ootton and the weft of woollen ; they are woven 

 and cut precifely in the fame manner as cotton cords. See 

 Fustian. 



Serges are made with the warp of worfted and the weft 



of coarfe woollen yam, and are twilled. Thefe goods have 



^been for a very long time manufaftured extenlively in De- 



vonlhire, and are principally purchafed by the Eaft India 



.company for the China trade. 



I Carpets have worfted warps and woollen wefts. See 

 I Carpet and We^^ving. 



I From the moft remote period of the wooUen manufafture 

 I until the latter end of the laft century, or about the year 1 780, 

 \ very few, if any, mechanical improvements had been intro- 

 duced into it. During the whole time the various proceffes 

 ; were carried on nearly in the fame manner, but with greater 

 I or lefs (kill, and were employed upon materials more or lefs 

 i valuable. The carding and fpinning of wool, and the 

 1 weaving and finifhing of cloth, in the early part of the reign 

 ! of George III., were effefted by the fame machines as in 

 I the time of Edward III., which probably were fimilar to 

 I thofe of the ancient Romans, but more rude in their con- 

 ! ttruftion. In an art which had feen fo many centuries roll 

 I on without any change, it did not appear poflible to the 

 i manufafturer that any improvement could be effeAed ; and 

 had not the genius of Hargreaves and Arkwright changed 

 entirely the modes of carding and fpinning cotton, the woollen 

 manufacture would probably have remained at this day 

 what it was in the earlieft ages of civihzed fociety. That 

 it would have been better for general fociety if it had fo 

 remained we readily admit ; but after the improved modes 

 of working cotton were difcovered, this was impoflible. 

 The fpinning jenny, which was the fame as that employed in 



the cotton manufafture, but fomewhat larger, was introduced 

 into Yorkftiire from Lancafliire about the year 1780, but 

 did not become general till about three years afterwards. 

 In the firft jennies, not more, than eighteen or twenty threads 

 could be fpun, and the mode of winding the thread upon 

 the fpindle was very imperfeft. The carding was ftill 

 effefted by the hand, and the flubbing or roving was pre- 

 pared on the common fpinning-wheel. For fome time con- 

 fiderable difficulty was experienced in carding by machinery, 

 particularly in clearing the wool from the card ; and a flight 

 change in the conftruftion of the machine was found necef- 

 fary to prepare the wool for the flubbing-billy, of which 

 an account will be given in the defcription of the carding- 

 machine. Soon after this, the carding and fpinning of 

 wool and yarn by machinery became general through the 

 manufafturing diftrifts of the Weft Riding of Yorkfhire, 

 and large mills were erefted, in which the carding and fcrib- 

 bling machines were turned by a water-wheel, and the roving 

 or flubbing performed on the billy. The wool carded at 

 thefe mills was fent to the fmaller manufafturers in the ftate 

 of flubbing, and the farther procefs of fpinning was effedled 

 on jennies in their own premifes. Before the year 1787, the 

 old proceffes of carding by the hand, and fpinning on tiie 

 wheel, were entirely difcontinued in Yorkfhire ; but it was 

 fome years after before the new proceffes were generally 

 introduced in the weft of England, and thus, as we have 

 before ftated, the woollen trade became more concentrated 

 in Yorkftiire, where cloths could be manufaftured at lefs 

 expence. About this time, machinery began to be applied 

 to the combing and fpinning of long combing-wool, to make 

 virorfted yarn. See Worsted Spinning. 



In confequence of the great increafe of trade in York- 

 fhire, it was found difficult to obtain fituations for mills 

 to be turned by water, and the application of the fteam- 

 engine to woollen machinery became very general. The 

 abundance of fuel was highly advantageous to the York- 

 fhire manufaftui-er ; and it was found to be equally cheap to 

 work the machines by fteam as by water, where any con- 

 fiderable rent was paid for the water. The motion of the 

 improved fleam-engine was alfo rendered as regular as a 

 water-wheel, and the great inconvenience and lofs from the 

 interruption of the works by frofts or continued droughts 

 were thereby avoided. 



The fmaller manufafturers in Yorkftiire were at firft 

 benefited by the introduftion of machinery, but in a little 

 time large capitaliils began to engage in the woollen trade, 

 and performing all the proceffes with their own machinery, 

 they were enabled to work cheaper and underfell the fmaller 

 makers. The facility alfo with which wool could now be 

 worked up kept the markets always well ftocked with goods, 

 and prevented the manufnfturers from taking the advantage 

 of a temporary fcarcity or a briljc demand, which they had 

 formerly done, an overftocked market always reducing the 

 profits. 



Soon after the year 1800, the number of fmall manufac- 

 turers began rapidly to decrcafe many of them, being ruined 

 by the change which had taken place, and compelled to 

 become workmen in the faftories of the large capitalifts. 



The gig-mill and the fhearing-machine were not intro- 

 duced into Yorkftiire until they had been feveral years em- 

 ployed in the weft of England, owing to the refiftance 

 made to them by the working cloth-dreffers or croppers in 

 the north. 



The nianufafture of worfted is properly a branch of the 

 woollen manufadlure, and noticed as fuch in our hiftory of 

 its progrefs in England ; yet the mode of manufafture, both 

 in preparing the worfled yarn and finiftiing the goods, being 



entirely 



