WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



prf (Ture againft the glazed paper, whilft they are io foftened, 

 lays all the fibres flat and fmooth, fo that the cloth has a 

 very glofTy appearance, and feels fmooth, like fatin ; but 

 this high finiAi to the cloth is very objeftionable, becaufe 

 the flighteft ftiower of rain will take it away, and when the 

 drops of rain only wet it in parts, the cloth will become 

 fpotted and disfigured. For this reafon, in prefling fuper- 

 fine cloth, the plates are very flightly warmed, and the 

 cloth has but little glofs given to it. The glazed paper is 

 a thick kind of cartridge, which is prepared by glazing or 

 rubbing it very forcibly with a flint, as it lies upon a hard 

 metal table. This operation is done by a water-mill. 



For coarfer cloths, fome manufafturers glofs them with 

 a large hot iron : it is a hollow box, into which a red-hot 

 heater is introduced. The cloth is fpread out upon a large 

 flat table, and extended by hooks. The iron box is fuf- 

 pended by a tackle from the-ceiling, fo that it can be hoifted 

 over to the middle of the table, and then two men work it 

 backwards and forwards over the whole furface of the 

 cloth, by means of two long poles or handles, which are 

 jointed to it at one end. 



The cloth is now finifhed, and is packed up in bales of 

 twenty or twenty-five pieces, in order to be tranfported. 

 The bale is firft inclofed in paper, and then in canvas, and 

 clofely compreffed by the fcrew-prefs. Some manufafturers 

 ufe the hydroftatic preffes for this purpofe. 



In confidering the proceffes of the woollen manufafture, 

 as they were praftifed forty or fifty years ago, and com- 

 paring them with the prefent praftices, we find great changes 

 and improvements, but they are by no means carried to fo 

 great an extent as in the cotton manufafture. This is owing 

 in a great degree to the circumftance that the manufafture of 

 woollen cloth was rendered very perfeS, as far as the good- 

 nefs and beauty of the cloth was concerned, long before the 

 improved fyftem was begun ; and there were great numbers 

 of experienced and able workmen trained up for each pro- 

 cefs, who by habit and dexterity performed their work as 

 well as it could be done by machinery. The reduftion of 

 labour, or the fubftitution of ordinary hands for experienced 

 workmen, was in this cafe all that machinery of the mod 

 perfeft kind could effeft ; both thefe were advantages to the 

 public and the manufafturer, but were fo direftly oppofite 

 to the inclination and intereft of the able workmen, that we 

 find they have made greater and more efFeftual oppofition to 

 the introduftion of improvements in the woollen than in any 

 other of our great manufaftures. 



At various periods attempts have been made by the work- 

 men to fupprefs machinery, and many mills have been de- 

 ftroyed. In July i8oz, confiderable riots took place in 

 Wiltfhire and Somerfetfliire, in confequence of an attempt 

 to fet up the machines called gig-mills. It was contended 

 that this was the fame machine which was prohibited by an 

 ancient ftatute of Edward VI. The difputes ran fo high, 

 that the attention of parliament was called to the fubjeft of 

 the laws then exifting for the regulation of the woollen ma- 

 nufafture, and a committee was appointed to inveftigate the 

 |)olicy of encouraging or regulating machinery. In confe- 

 quence, all the prohibitions of machinery were fufpended. 

 The report of this committee contains the following re- 

 marks, fome of which are applicable to other manufaftures 

 as well as the woollen. 



The introduftion of the gig-mill and other machines was 

 oppofed from an idea that it would throw a confiderable 

 number of hands out of work ; and it was contended, that it 

 was highly injurious to the quality and texture of the cloth. 

 With refpeft to the aftual effefts of the gig-mill and 

 Ihearing-frame on the cloth, the committee report that deci- 



five evidence has been adduced before them by merchants and 

 manufafturers of the greateft credit and experience, to prove 

 that thefe machines, efpecially the gig-mill, when carefully 

 employed, finifh the cloth in the moit perfeft manner, and 

 that manufafturers refiding in parts of the country where 

 the gig-mill is not ufed, frequently fend their cloths to a 

 diftance to be dreffed by it. 



It alfo appeared in evidence, that alarms fimilar to the 

 prefent had exifted among workmen at the introduftion of 

 feveral of the machines which are now in general ufe. Such 

 alarms have gradually fubfided as prejudice died away ; and 

 the machines are now fully eftabhihed, without, as it appears, 

 impairing the comforts or leffening the numbers of work- 

 men. The committee remark with much fatisfaftion, that 

 in many inilances in which it was apprehended that the intro- 

 duftion of particular machines would throw fuch a number 

 of people out of employment as to occafion great diftrefs, the 

 refult has been very different ; for befides the occupations 

 which the attendance on fuch machines has given rife to, a 

 frefh demand for labour to an immenfe extent has arifen out of 

 the increafed fale of the article, in confequence of the cheap- 

 nefs and fuperior quality of the manufafture. 



They approve the fyftem of patents, by which the in- 

 ventor of any new machine fecures to himfelf the exclufive 

 benefits of his difcovery for fourteen years ; and only, at the 

 end of that term, they are thrown open to the public ; this 

 provides in moft cafes againft the too fudden and general 

 eftabliftiment of any invention, by which a number of 

 workmen might at once be thrown out of employment. 



They next obferve, that if the principles on which the 

 ufe of thefe particular machines is objefted to were once ad- 

 mitted, it would be impoflible to define the limits or to fore- 

 fee the extent of their applications. If the parliament had 

 afted on fuch principles fifty years ago, the woollen manu- 

 fafture could never have attained to near its prefent ex- 

 tent. The rapid and prodigious increafe of late years in all 

 the manufaftures and commerce of this country is univerfally 

 known, as well as the effefts of that increafe on our revenue 

 and national ftrength. In confidering the immediate caufes 

 of that augmentation, it appears to the committee, that it 

 is principally to be afcribed, under the favour of Providence, 

 to the general fpirit of enterprize and induftry among a free 

 and enlightened people, left to the unreftrained exercife of 

 their talents in the employment of a vaft capital, pufhing to 

 the utmoft the principle of the divifion of labour, calling in 

 all the refources of fcientific refearch and mechanical inge- 

 nuity, and, finally, availing themfelves of all the benefits to 

 be derived from vifiting foreign countries, not only for 

 forming new and confirming old commercial conneftions, 

 but for obtaining a perfonal knowledge of the wants, the 

 tafte, the habits, the difcoveries and improvements, the pro- 

 duftions and fabrics, of other civilized nations. Thus 

 bringing home fafts and fuggelUons, perfefting our exifting 

 manufaftures, and adding new ones to our domeftic ftock ; 

 opening, at the fame time, new markets for the produft of 

 our manufafturing and commercial induftry, and quahfying 

 ourfelves for Xupplying them. 



The committee declare it to be their opinion, that by 

 thefe means alone, and above all by the effeft of machinery in 

 improving the quality and cheapening the fabrication of our 

 various articles of export, notwithttanding a continually accu- 

 mulating weight of taxes, and with all the neceffaries and com- 

 forts of life gradually increafing in price, (the effefts of 

 which on the wages of labour could not but be very con- 

 fiderable, ) our commerce and manufaftures havf: alfo been 

 increafing in fuch a degree as to furpafs the moft fanguine 

 calculations of the ablefl political writers who have fpecu- 

 4 Q 2 lated 



