721 
W 0 
sorts of the wether-wool, of which three-fourths, if the fleece 
be good, will form the best sort in each. 
There is, however, a fine long combing-wool which is 
required for bombazines and the finer kinds of worsted 
goods; this is most frequently selected from the longer parts 
of clothing fleeces, and admits a division into four or five 
sorts, the finest being equal in hair to that of the head or 
super in clothing-wool; whereas the best sort of the com¬ 
mon heavy combing-wools seldom ranges higher in point of 
fineness than the coarsest sort of clothing-wool above the 
breech locks; viz., the low abb and the livery. 
Short combing or hosiery wool requires a different length 
of staple, according to its fineness: for the better sorts, the 
staple should not be shorter than four or five inches; the 
lower sorts may range as high as eight inches. A greater 
length than this is not desirable for any kind of soft worsted. 
What has been said of the soundness and fineness of staple 
required for long combing-wool, applies equally to the ho¬ 
siery wool, but in this the fineness of the hair and softness 
are of more importance. Most of the fleeces which yield 
fine combing-wool, produce nearly an equal quantity of 
short wool, which is thrown in the same manner as the 
regular clothing sorts. The combing sorts for the hosiery 
are generally called :—Super matching, fine matching, fine 
drawing, altered drawing, brown drawing, saycast. 
The names of these sorts probably derive their origin from 
ancient processes of the manufacture. 
Most of the best sorters throw out the hog combing-wool 
from the best sorts, making a superfine hog for the bomba¬ 
zine trade, hog-wool being less suitable for the hosiery, 
which does not require yarn so finely spun as for hard yarn. 
As a! 1 the different sorts of short combing-wool, together with 
several sorts of clothing-wool, will frequently occur in one 
English fleece, it is obviously the interest of the grower that his 
fleece should produce as great a proportion of the best sorts 
as can be done without materially diminishing the weight. 
The origin of ihe woollen manufacture, like that of many 
other useful arts, is not precisely known. At a very early 
period, domestic sheep were extensively spread over Western 
Asia. The introduction of sheep into Europe is not recorded 
by ancient writers, unless we suppose the expedition of the 
Argonauts to Colchis refers to this event. Sheep were pro¬ 
bably first domesticated for their milk, and afterwards for 
their skins, which must have been the first dress of pastoral 
nations. Sheep and goats, in the early ages of society, were 
nearly of equal value. The Greeks, who ostentatiously refer 
all useful discoveries to their own country, and rank their 
inventors among the gods, have ascribed to Minerva the in¬ 
vention of spinning and weaving. These arts appear, however, 
to have been first practised, at a very early period, in Egypt, 
and applied to the spinning and weaving of flax. At what 
time they were first applied to wool is unknown. Though 
Pliny informs us, that Nicias of Megara discovered the art 
of fulling cloth, the property which wool possessed of felting 
was known in the East at a much earlier period, and pro¬ 
bably gave rise to the first manufacture of woollen goods 
which were not woven, but felted like the substance of hats. 
Whilst the skins of sheep dressed with their wool on served 
as clothing, it is obvious that only one useful fleece could 
be obtained from one animal, and as the fleece is generally 
cast, or falls off - once a year, this produce must have been 
wasted. In a very early period, it was found that by pressure 
and moisture the fibres of wool might be made to adhere 
together, and produce a compact pliable substance, quite as 
durable and more convenient than the skins formerly used. 
This appears to have been the first effort to produce a 
woollen manufacture. It is probable the felting properly 
was discovered by accident, as some fleeces will felt upon the 
sheep’s backs ; among farmers, these are called cotted fleeces. 
When the application of this discovery was first made, the 
knowledge of the art was soon widely spread. The tents of 
the Arabs and Tartars are, at the present day, all made of 
felt from the wool of sheep, mingled with the hair of goats, 
camels, and other quadrupeds, and may be considered as 
remains of the original art of cloth-making, 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1G68. 
O L. 
The art of spinning and weaving threads made from wool 
was, in all probability, derived from the east; they are 
alluded to by Moses as existing nearly fifteen hundred years 
before the Christian era. 
Thus, in addition to the superior pliability and comfort of 
woollen cloth, compared with skins or felts, the taste for it 
must have been widely spread by the art of dyeing. It had 
also the great recommendation to its general adoption, that 
it could be fabricated with ease in every family. The ma¬ 
chinery required for the purpose was extremely simple. The 
distaff and the loom were little more in the hands of the 
first manufacturers, than the spade in those of the husband¬ 
man. The manner in which spinning and weaving were 
performed, is not related until about the third century. Then 
the loom consisted of a frame of wood, in some respect dif¬ 
ferent from the modern one, but well adapted to the same 
purposes. 
The alterations which have been made in it consist, per¬ 
haps, more in the position of the beam, and the mode of 
opening the web for the passage of the shuttle, than in any 
other circumstance. Nor was the earliest mode of spinning 
less perfect, than that which was practised in the most cele¬ 
brated manufacturing countries for many ages afterwards. 
It was performed by means of a rod or staff, about which 
the wool to be spun was carefully wrapt, and held in the 
left-hand, while a rough kind of spindle, quickly twirled be¬ 
twixt the right-hand and the thigh, was suffered to continue 
its motion when suspended by the thread which the artist 
gradually lengthened with his fingers. This least complex 
of spinning-machines is not entirely laid aside even now. 
A few years since it was not uncommon in the county of 
Norfolk, and its continuance in use through so many ages 
is the best proof of its excellence. 
We have little information respecting the woollen manu¬ 
factures of the Greeks and Romans, as distinct from their 
domestic manufactures; but large establishments were neces¬ 
sary for the clothing of distant armies, and for foreign com¬ 
merce. That the Romans had carried the manufacture of 
fine woollen cloth to a high degree of perfection, is proved 
by a variety of circumstances, and particularly by the great 
attention paid to the cultivation of fine-u oolled sheep, and 
by the high prices at which the wool and sheep were sold, 
as appears from the writings of Plmy, Varro, and Columella. 
Pliny describes two kinds of sheep: the one which grew 
coarse long wool, and was on this account called hirtum or 
hirsutum, and from its hardiness and ruder treatment coIo¬ 
nic um or rustic ; the other breed was called molle, from the 
softness of the wool, and gencrosum or noble, from its ex¬ 
cellence ; also pellitum, from its being clothed with skins to 
protect the wool. The race is sometimes also called Taren- 
tinum, Apulum, Calabrum Atticum, and Graecum, from the 
neighbourhood or district in which it chiefly lived ; but 
what is of more importance, as shewing the origin of the 
fine-woolled sheep of Italy, the race is called Asianum; and, 
according to Pliny, a similar race existed in his time at Lao- 
dicea in Syria. The description given of these sheep by 
Pliny, agrees with the present race of Merino sheep. 
That the Romans imported their Tarentine sheep into 
their western colonies, with the art of manufacturing fine 
cloth, we learn from Strabo and Pliny. The former writer, 
who flourished in the reign of Augustus, says, that in Tur- 
detania, in Portugal, then a part of Spain, “ they formerly 
imported many garments, but now their wool was better 
than that of the Coraxi, and so beautiful, that a ram for the 
purpose of breeding was sold for a talent, and that fabrics 
of extraordinary thinness were made of this wool by the Sal- 
tratar.” Probably this was similar to the shawl cloth of 
India, and woven in the same manner, as Pliny calls it 
scutulatus, a term which he applies also to the spider’s web. 
The little attic talent of silver is estimated to equal in value 
216/. of English money, which shews the high estimation 
in which the best wool was held even in the colonies of 
Rome. 
All ranks of people of both sexes among the Romans, 
chiefly wore woollen garments. In the reign of Aurelian, 
7 T 270 years 
