MAN 
MAN 
^freat perfection, and the process of bleach- 
ing is well worthy of attention; but for 
these we lunst refer to their proper h' ads. 
^ In concluding the account of the cotton 
manufacture, it may not be unacceptable 
to give some short relation of the niantier 
in which it is carried on in India, where it 
existed, and produced an extensive com- 
merce, for ages before it was thought of in 
Europe. 
The manner of manufacturing cotton in 
India forms a remarkable contrast to the 
European method. In Europe, a vast ap- 
paratus of machinery is used in every part 
of the process, while in India the simplest 
instruments are made to produce fabrics of 
that exquisite fineness, which it is the boast 
of our manufacturers to imitate, and which 
as yet they can scarcely equal. The cot- 
ton wool in India is prepared for the spin- 
ner without cards, is spun for the weaver 
without wheels, and is woven in looms with- 
out any frajne-work, which the weaver can 
move from one place to another, with as 
much facility as the web itself. 
The operation which our manufacturers 
perform by carding engines, is executed by 
the Indian with nothing more than a bow ; 
the percussions of whose string snapped 
over the cotton wool in repeated vibra- 
tions, raises it to a fine downy fleece; in 
this same way our hatters prepare their furs 
for felting, an operation which may be seen 
in most towns. 
The fine thread, or yarn, from which the 
choicest muslins are made, are spun from 
cotton thus prepared, by the distaff and 
spindle, a mode which it is evident was 
practised by the Romans, Greeks, and 
Egyptians, from their history, their fables, 
and their sculptures, and than which no- 
thing can be more simple ; this yarn is then 
wove on the following loom, tlie account 
of which is abridged from that of an emi- 
nent writer on Indian affairs. 
Indian Loom. The Indian loom consists 
merely of two bamboo-rollers, one for the 
warp, and the other for the wmb, and a pair 
of geer ; the shuttle performs the double 
office of shuttle and batton, and for this 
purpose is made like a large netting nee- 
dle, and of a length somewhat exceeding 
the breadth of the piece. 
This apparatus the weaver carries to 
whatever ti-ee affords a shade most grate- 
ful to him, under which he digs a hole 
large enough to contain his legs, and the 
lower part of the geer; he then stretches 
his warp by fastening his bamboo rollers 
at a due distance from each otlier on the 
turf by wooden pins ; the balances of 
the geer he fastens to some convenient 
branch of the tree over his head ; two loops 
underneath the geer, in which he inserts his 
great toes, serve instead of treadles ; and 
his long shuttle, which performs also the of- 
fice of a batton, draws the W'eft, throws the 
warp, and afterwards strikes it up close to 
the web : in such looms as this are made 
those admirable muslins whose delicate tex- 
ture the European could never equal with 
all his complicated machinery. 
MANUFACTURES may be defined, 
the arts by which natural productions are 
.brought into the state or form in which 
they are consumed or used. The principal 
manufactures are those which fabricate 
the various articles of clothing; as the 
woollen-manufacture, the leather-manufac- 
ture in part, the cotton-manufacture, the 
linen- manufacture, and the silk-manufac- 
ture ; others supply articles of household 
furniture, as the manufactures of glass, 
porcelain, earthenware, and of most of the 
metals in part; the iron-manufacture fur- 
nishes implements of agriculture, and wea- 
pons of war ; and , the paper-manufacture 
supplies a material for communicating ideas 
an^ perpetuating knowledge. Manufac- 
tures had begun to flourish in different 
parts of Europe, long before they were at- 
tempted in Britain; the few articles of this 
description which were in request, being 
obtained in exchange for wool, hides, tin, 
and such other produce as the country in a 
very uncultivated state could supply. In 
133T, it was enacted, that no more 
wool should be exported ; that no one 
should wear any but English cloth; that no 
cloths made beyond seas should be im- 
ported ; that foreign clothworkers might 
come into the King’s dominions, and should 
have such franchises as might suffice them. 
Before this time, the English were little 
more than shepherds, and wool-sellers. The 
progress of improvement since the esta- 
blishment of manufactures in this country, 
lias in most instances been remarkably 
great, particularly of late years, in conse- 
quence of an increased knowlege of the 
properties of various materials, vast im- 
provements in all kinds of machinery, and 
the great capitals invested in most of the 
different branches. The value of British 
manufactures exported to all countries, bn 
an average of six years, ending with 1774, 
was 10,342,0191. ; the American war sus- 
pended fof a time an important market for 
