THE TECHNOLOGIST. [May 1, 1865. 



4bU KASHMIR SHAWLS FROM THE EAST. 



industry no country has made so great progress in the last ten years 

 as the United Kingdom. Shawls are truly high art weaving, and our 

 Scotch manufacturers, one and all, show a marked improvement, which, 

 if continued, must rival the Paris productions. The late Exhibition 

 proved that in some instances their prices are the same, if not less than 

 the French or Austrian manufacturers. It would be desirable (to avoid 

 apparent sameness) if each country could form its own school ; each 

 might derive his style of design from the " Indian," for it possesses 

 a continuance of novelties both in colouring and new type of 

 patterns. 



Shawl industry gives extensive labour to many classes ; the greatest 

 improvements in the Jacquards are, however, due to the shawl manu- 

 facturers. In the production of a shawl a great variety of labour is 

 requisite, each stage requiring different operatives. There is the process 

 of washing, carding, spinning, bundling, carting, singeing, cropping, 

 clipping, picking, pressing, and weaving ; the preparation of the web 

 for staining, and the beaming and entering the web, and winding the 

 pirns, all are separate departments. In designing also, there is the 

 same division of labour, such as needling, cutting, and lacing the cards. 

 It is the same in dyeing, a process which usually takes upwards of a 

 day and a half, some colours requiring even a longer time. 



The manufacture of shawls is throughout very intricate. The warp 

 contains a very fine thread of silk twisted with a thread of wool, wool 

 alone being insufficient to bear the strain upon it in the working. The 

 warp is stained according to the pattern and the colour of the centre. 

 When the fringe is variegated and the dyer dyes red, all the rest of the 

 web is enclosed and tightly clasped, so that the red dye may not reach 

 it; the small part to be dyed being left loosely hanging from the 

 machine, and it is thus dipped into the dyeing vat. 



In giving these details, the purpose is to explain the extensive labour 

 attending the production of a woven shawL More than twenty manu- 

 facturers are engaged in shawl weaving in the United Kingdom. The 

 weaving of the cheapest shawl takes about half a day, while one of a 

 first-class production, as manufactured by Messrs. Kerr, Scott, and 

 Kilner — a square — will occupy a clever weaver four weeks, and a long 

 shawl double this period. The prices of weaving vary from one-third 

 to three-fourths the value of its cost. 



The value of the shawl production in Scotland cannot so easily be 

 ascertained ; but it is very large, though the shawls are chiefly of a 

 cheaper description, ranging from 7s. 6c/. to 51. per square, and 11. to 

 157. for long shawls. 



We have dwelt somewhat at length upon the productions of France 

 and England, because of the greater development of the manufactures 

 in these countries, where it had been first introduced, but of late years, 

 Austria, the States of the Zollverein, and Belgium have been setting 

 their looms upon similar productions ; and with such excellent 



