220 



DICKSON ON THE MANUFACTURE 



The 56lbs. sent produced by machinery, of clean lbs. ozs. 



long fibre, unretted, worth £60 per ton 17 7 



Short fibre, unretted, worth £36 per ton - 6 14 



Tow, unretted, worth £30 per ton - 9 2 



Waste, in dressing - - - - 22 9 



Total ... 56 

 The above Flax when prepared by the new liquid I now 

 use is as fine as Dutch Flax at £70 per ton. 



ADVANTAGES OF WEAVING BY POWER LOOMS. 



An anonymous correspondent having assumed the right, 

 through a Belfast newspaper, to condemn power-loom weaving 

 establishments as likely to be ruinous to hand-loom weavers 

 in Ireland, I took up the cause of progress, preferring railway 

 speed to the old four-horse coach practice. As I was the 

 first to introduce into Belfast, a power-loom, on which 

 we wove prime goods in 1838, I was^ induced to send 

 the following letter : — 



To the Editor of the " Banner of Ulster." 



11 Sie, — In your paper of the 3rd instant I observe a letter 

 from ' Amicus Pauperis,' on the subject of power-looms. He 

 represents himself as the mouth-piece of the weavers of 

 Clough and Ballymena, and states that 1 the report of linen- 

 cloth being made by power-looms for 6s. the piece of 52 yards, 

 while hand-loom weavers are obtaining 16s. per piece, has 

 caused considerable anxiety to weavers in that district.' I 

 feel anxious, therefore, from a desire to see the linen-trade of 

 Ireland so extended as to supersede cotton-shirtings, to remove 

 your anonymous correspondent's doubt, and partially to 

 prepare the weavers for what I hope soon to see, viz., a factory 

 for weaving by power-looms on every two square miles of 

 Ulster where the work may be carried on, to the discomfiture 



