THE MANUFACTURE OP LEATHER CLOTH. 



alteration in nutrition was produced by some miasmatic or contagious 

 element. M. Chavannes, who had also studied my vibrating corpuscles 

 and the blood-crystals, and had noticed that this fluid in the healthy 

 caterpillar in the wild state contained none of them, concluded that the 

 normal state of these silkworms might be brought back, by culti- 

 vating them in the same way as nature does with respect to the wild 

 caterpillar — that is, in the open air. Though such conclusions are, no 

 doubt, sound, there is still nothing to prove that such amelioration in 

 the silkworm did not rather arise from the employment of healthy leaves 

 during many generations." 



After the notices on this subject which have already appeared in the 

 Technologist, and particularly after the able and elaborate paper on 

 the silk-producing insects of India, &c, by Mr. Frederic Moore, in the 

 July number of this journal, it is to be hoped that some fresh impulse 

 will be given to the silkworm culture, and to ailanticulture especially, 

 so that a new industry may be organised in England. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER CLOTH. 



The manufacture of leather cloth as a substitute for Morocco leather, 

 was commenced in the year 1849, in the city of Newark, IJ. S. Tire 

 first specimen of it seen in this country, was exhibited in 1851. The 

 Americans have had the merit of producing many labour-saving 

 machines and articles of domestic convenience, and many of them are 

 becoming increasingly known and extensively adopted in this country. 

 It is certain that this article of leather cloth has superseded the use of 

 leather for many purposes to which the old material has hitherto been 

 applied, besides being put to uses for which leather is wholly unsuitable. 

 Messrs. Crockett, the inventors and patentees commenced the manu- 

 facture of leather cloth in England in 1855, and their factory was an old 

 w r orkhouse, situated in one of those dreary, unpicturesque marshes at 

 West Ham, in Essex, a locality somewhat famous for its insalubrious 

 manufactures. The firm was known as the " Crockett International 

 Leather Cloth Company." In 1857 Messrs. Crockett surrendered their 

 business to a company formed under the title of " The Leather Cloth 

 Company, Limited," which purchased the entire European business. 



The new company, with a paid up capital of 90,000^., and having Mr. 

 A. Lorsont as their managing director, began the enterprise with great 

 energy. They erected substantial and extensive premises, which cover 

 ten acres of ground, employing upwards of 200 men. They produce 

 daily 1,000 pieces of 12 yards long and 1-^ yards wide, or 15,000 square 

 yards ; sufficient if laid end to end to reach from their factory to the 

 warehouse in Cannon street west — a distance of seven miles. 



