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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/philosophyofmanuOOurea 
 
THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF MANUFACTURES: 
 
 OR, 
 
 AN EXPOSITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SCIENTIFIC, MORAL, AND COMMERCIAL ECONOMY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FACTORY SYSTEM 
 
 OF 
 
 #reat Srttam* 
 
 By ANDREW URE, m.d, f.r.s, 
 
 M.G.S., M.A.S. Lon., M. Acad. N.S. Philad., 
 S. Pharm. Soc. North Germany, 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 CHARLES KNIGHT, LUDGATE- STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXXV. 
 
COA/'S 
 
 TS 
 
 MS 
 U? 
 
 IS3S 
 
 LONDON : 
 Printed by William Clowes and Sons, 
 Stamford Street. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Fage 
 
 Preface . vii 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
 General Principles of Manufactures, 
 Chapter I. 
 
 General View of Manufacturing Industry .... I 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Arrangement and Connexion of Manufactures . . .55 
 Chapter III. 
 
 Topography and Statistics of the Factory System . . .67 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 Scientific Economy of the Factory System. 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Examination of the Textile Fibres, — Cotton, Wool, Flax, and 
 
 Silk . 81 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Nature, &c of a Cotton Factory . . . . . ,105 
 Chapter III. 
 
 Worsted Manufacture — General Observations on Wool . . 124 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 Nature and Operations of a Woollen-Factory. — Of the Short 
 
 Wool or Cloth Manufacture 160 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 Nature and Operations of a Flax-Factory .... 207 
 
 a 3 
 
 <£~0 o 
 
vi 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 Nature and Operations of a Silk-Factory .... 229 
 
 BOOK THE THIRD. 
 
 Moral Economy of the Factory System. 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Condition of our Factory Operatives, as to Personal Comforts, 
 compared to that of other Labouring Classes; or the Quantity 
 and Quality of their Work considered, relatively to the means 
 of Enjoyment which it can procure. — History of the Discon- 
 
 tents, Prejudices, and Legislation on this subject . . . 277 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Health of Factory Inmates 374 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 State of Knowledge and Religion in the Factories . . . 404 
 
 BOOK THE FOURTH. 
 Commercial Economy of the Factory System • . . 430 
 
 Note A 467 
 
 „ B . . . . 470 
 
 C 471 
 
 9 f D 472 
 
 Appendix — Relative Ages, Sexes, and Wages of Factory Work- 
 people ......... 473 
 
 General Statistical Table of the Textile Manufactures, subject 
 to the Factories Regulation Act . . . . . 48 1 
 
 ggp- In the wages-column of table, page 373, the figures have 
 been printed with horizontal lines, as vulgar fractions, instead of 
 oblique lines, as shillings and pence. It should read lis., 10s., 5*. 8d., 
 4*. 5tf., 4s., 3s. 6d., 2s. 6d. 
 
 Errata. — Page 291, line 7, for "Of" read "On." 
 
 „ 383, line 7, for " wires " read " wings." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The present is distinguished from every preceding 
 age by an universal ardour of enterprise in arts and 
 manufactures. Nations convinced at length that war 
 is always a losing game, have converted their swords 
 and muskets into factory implements, and now con- 
 tend with each other in the bloodless but still formid- 
 able strife of trade. They no longer send troops to 
 fight on distant fields, but fabrics to drive before them 
 those of their old adversaries in arms, and to take pos- 
 session of a foreign mart. To impair the resources of 
 a rival at home, by underselling his wares abroad, is 
 the new belligerent system, in pursuance of which every 
 nerve and sinew of the people are put upon the strain. 
 
 Great Britain may certainly continue to uphold her 
 envied supremacy, sustained by her coal, iron, capital, 
 and skill, if, acting on the Baconian axiom, " Know- 
 ledge is Power," she shall diligently promote moral 
 and professional culture among all ranks of her pro- 
 ductive population. Were the principles of the manu- 
 factures exactly analyzed, and expounded in a simple 
 manner, they would diffuse a steady light to conduct 
 the masters, managers, and operatives, in the straight 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE . 
 
 paths of improvements and prevent them from pursuing 
 such dangerous phantoms as flit along in the monthly 
 patent - lists. Each department of our useful arts 
 stands in need of a guide-book to facilitate its study, 
 to indicate its imperfections, and to suggest the most 
 probable means of correcting them. It is known that 
 the manufactures of France have derived great advan- 
 tage from the illustrated systems of instruction pub- 
 lished under the auspices of its government and patri- 
 otic societies. 
 
 The present volume, introductory to a series of 
 works in more ample detail, is submitted to the public 
 as a specimen of the manner in which the author con- 
 ceives technological subjects should be discussed. 
 
 Having been employed in a public seminary for a 
 quarter of a century, in expounding to practical men, 
 as well as to youth, the applications of mechanical and 
 chemical science to the arts, he felt it his duty, on 
 being solicited from time to time by his pupils, now 
 spread over the kingdom as proprietors and managers 
 of factories, to prepare for publication a systematic 
 account of their principles and processes. With this 
 view he resolved to make afresh such a survey of some 
 of the great manufacturing establishments, to which 
 he had liberal access, as might qualify him to dis- 
 charge the task in a creditable manner. This tour of 
 verification would have been executed at a much 
 earlier date, so as to have enabled him, ere now, to 
 have redeemed his pledges both publicly and pri- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 vately given, but for an interruption of unexpected 
 magnitude. 
 
 The Right Honourable the Lords of the Com- 
 mittee of the Privy Council for Trade and Plantations 
 requested him, about three years ago, to undertake a 
 series of experiments on the refining of sugar, in order 
 to ascertain the relation of the drawbacks on exporta- 
 tion of refined loaves to the duties paid upon the raw 
 article. Under an impression that these researches 
 might be set sufficiently in train, in the space of two or 
 three months, to lead to the desired information in the 
 hands of experienced operatives, he undertook their ar- 
 rangement; but encountered so many difficulties from 
 the delicacy of the material operated upon, and other 
 circumstances stated in his official report printed by 
 order of the House of Commons, that he did not get en- 
 tirely extricated from them till nearly two years were ex- 
 pired, nor till he had suffered considerably from anxiety 
 of mind and bodily fatigue. Being advised by his me- 
 dical friends to try the effects of travelling, with light 
 intellectual exercise, he left London in the latter end of 
 last summer, and spent several months in wandering 
 through the factory districts of Lancashire, Cheshire, 
 Derbyshire, &c, with the happiest results to his health ; 
 having everywhere experienced the utmost kindness 
 and liberality from the mill-proprietors. Neither they^ 
 nor the great mechanical engineers who construct their 
 buildings and machinery, use any mystery or reserve 
 towards a visiter actuated by legitimate feelings and 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 principles; but, on the contrary, most readily show 
 and explain the curiously-productive inventions which 
 surround them. 
 
 The few individuals who betray jealousy of intelli- 
 gent inspection are usually vain persons, who, having 
 purloined a few hints from ingenious neighbours, work 
 upon them in secret, shut out every stranger from their 
 mill, get consequently insulated and excluded in return, 
 and thus, receiving no external illumination, become 
 progressively adumbrated ; till, after a few years of 
 exclusive operation, they find themselves undersold in 
 the market, and deprived of their oldest or best cus- 
 tomers by the inferiority of their goods. Were it not 
 invidious, the author could point out several examples 
 of clever people, having thus outmanoeuvred them- 
 selves, in trying to steal a march upon their friends 
 in the dark. Mystifiers of this stamp are guilty of 
 the silly blunder of estimating their own intrinsic re- 
 sources above those of all the world beside. It is, 
 however, not more for the advantage of the kingdom, 
 than for that of every individual manufacturer in it, 
 to receive light from all quarters, and to cause it by 
 reflection to irradiate the sphere around him. 
 
 In tracing the progression of the British system 
 of industry, according to which every process pecu- 
 liarly nice, and therefore liable to injury from the 
 ignorance and waywardness of workmen, is withdrawn 
 from handicraft control, and placed under the guid- 
 ance of self-acting machinery, the author has made it 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 his business to study the descriptions of most of the 
 patents of that nature obtained in Great Britain, 
 France, and America, during the last twenty years, — 
 a task in which he has been assisted by Messrs. 
 Newton and Berry, of Chancery-lane, gentlemen de- 
 servedly esteemed for the soundness of the specifica- 
 tions which they professionally prepare for patentees. 
 
 To James Cook, Esq., of Mincing-lane, he is in- 
 debted for the extensive assortment of samples of raw 
 cotton, wool, flax, and silk, which have formed the 
 principal subjects of his microscopic researches upon 
 textile fibres, as also for much valuable information on 
 the statistics of trade. 
 
 Nor ought he to leave unacknowledged the polite 
 readiness of S. M. Phillipps, Esq., Under Secretary of 
 State, and of Mr. Porter, of the Board of Trade, to 
 aid his formation of a census of the factory population, 
 and his inquiries into the commerce of the kingdom. 
 
 In delivering this general Treatise on Manufacturing 
 Industry into the hands of the public, the author is 
 not unconscious of defects, both in its matter and 
 arrangement ; for most of which, however, an apology 
 may be found, in the vague and contradictory opinions 
 entertained by experienced manufacturers on many 
 departments of their business. Those of his readers 
 who have most deeply considered the difficulties of 
 his undertaking will not be the least indulgent. 
 
 The body of facts distributed throughout the volume 
 have been most carefully verified, and will, it is pre- 
 
xii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 sumed, bear the strictest scrutiny, though a desire 
 to keep the volume at such a price as would bring its 
 purchase within the reach of working-men has pre- 
 cluded the multiplication of notes of reference to 
 authorities. The main portion of these, indeed, would 
 have been to the reports of Parliamentary Commit- 
 tees ; many great folios of which have been diligently 
 consulted in quest of authentic information — though 
 sometimes to little purpose — in consequence of the 
 judgments of even honest men being strangely per- 
 verted by passion, prejudice, and self-interest. 
 
 The engravings at pages 48, 49, 120, 162, 271, 273, 
 afford specimens of the original drawings of machines 
 made under the author's eye, for illustrating modern 
 manufactures ; the complete series of which, when pub- 
 lished in his forthcoming works on the cotton trade, 
 dyeing, calico-printing, &c, will, it is hoped, constitute 
 an interesting gallery of practical science. 
 
 London^ June 1835. 
 
 # 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 General View of Manufacturing Industry. 
 
 Manufacture is a word, which, in the vicissitude of 
 language, has come to signify the reverse of its intrinsic 
 meaning, for it now denotes every extensive product 
 of art, which is made by machinery, with little or no aid 
 of the human hand ; so that the most perfect manu- 
 facture is that which dispenses entirely with manual 
 labour. The philosophy of manufactures is therefore 
 an exposition of the general principles, on which pro- 
 ductive industry should be conducted by self-acting 
 machines. The end of a manufacture is to modify the 
 texture, form, or composition of natural objects by me- 
 chanical or chemical forces, acting either separately, 
 combined, or in succession. Hence the automatic arts 
 subservient to general commerce may be distinguished 
 into Mechanical and Chemical, according as they mo- 
 dify the external form or the internal constitution of 
 their subject matter. An indefinite variety of objects 
 may be subjected to each system of action, but they 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 may be all conveniently classified into animal, vege- 
 table, and mineral. 
 
 A mechanical manufacture being commonly occu- 
 pied with one substance, which it conducts through 
 metamorphoses in regular succession, may be made 
 nearly automatic ; whereas a chemical manufacture 
 depends on the play of delicate affinities between two 
 or more substances, which it has to subject to heat 
 and mixture under circumstances somewhat uncertain, 
 and must therefore remain, to a corresponding extent, a 
 manual operation. The best example of pure chemis- 
 try on self-acting principles which I have seen, was in 
 a manufacture of sulphuric acid, where the sulphur 
 being kindled and properly set in train with the nitre, 
 atmospheric air, and water, carried on the process 
 through a labyrinth of compartments, and supplied the 
 requisite heat of concentration, till it brought forth a 
 finished commercial product. The finest model of an 
 automatic manufacture of mixed chemistry is the five- 
 coloured calico machine, which continuously, and spon- 
 taneously, so to speak, prints beautiful webs of cloth 
 with admirable precision and speed. It is in a cotton 
 mill, however, that the perfection of automatic industry 
 is to be seen ; it is there that the elemental powers 
 have been made to animate millions of complex organs, 
 infusing into forms of wood, iron, and brass an intelli- 
 gent agency. And as the philosophy of the fine arts, 
 poetry, painting, and music may be best studied in 
 their individual master-pieces, so may the philosophy 
 of manufactures in this its noblest creation. 
 
 There are four distinct classes of textile fibres, cot- 
 ton, wool, tlax, and silk, which constitute the subjects 
 of four, or, more correctly speaking, five distinct classes 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 of factories ; first, the cotton factories ; second, the wool- 
 len ; third, the worsted ; fourth, the flax, hempen, or 
 linen ; and fifth, the silk. These five factories have 
 each peculiarities proceeding from the peculiarities of 
 its raw material and of its fabrics ; but they all possess 
 certain family features, for they all employ torsion to 
 convert the loose slender fibres of vegetable or animal 
 origin into firm coherent threads, and, with the excep- 
 tion of silk, they all employ extension also to attenuate 
 and equalize these threads, technically styled yarn. 
 Even one kind of silk which occurs in entangled tufts, 
 called floss, is spun like cotton, by the simultaneous 
 action of stretching and twisting. 
 
 The above-named five orders of factories are, through- 
 out this kingdom, set in motion by steam-engines or 
 water-wheels ; they all give employment to multitudes 
 of children or adolescents ; and they have therefore 
 been subjected to certain legislative provisions, defined 
 in the Factories Regulation Act, passed by Parliament 
 on the 29th August, 1833. 
 
 It is probable that 614,200 work-people are con- 
 stantly engaged within the factories of the United 
 Kingdom: of which number 561,900 belong to Eng- 
 land and Wales ; 46,825 to Scotland ; and 5,475 to Ire- 
 land.* Fully five-tenths of them are under twenty-one 
 years of age, and three tenths of these young persons are 
 females. It must be remembered, however, that besides 
 these 614,200 inmates of factories, a vast population 
 
 * The above numbers for Scotland and Ireland are taken from Mr. 
 Leonard Horner's excellent Report as Factory Inspector; the number 
 for England is computed on the recognized datum that it is twelve 
 times greater for the cotton trade than that of Scotland. For the last 
 official details see the Appendix. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 derives a livelihood from the manufactures of cotton, 
 wool, flax, and silk, such as the hand-weavers, the 
 calico-printers and dyers, the frame-work knitters, the 
 lace-maters, lace-runners, muslin-sewers, &c. &c. 
 
 It appears from the Parliamentary Returns of 1831, 
 that in Great Britain, out of a total population of 
 16,539,318 persons, there are of 
 Agricultural Labourers and Labour- 
 
 ing Occupiers 1,055,982, and of 
 
 Manufacturing Labourers 404,317 
 
 Whence there are 1000 agricultural to 383 strictly 
 manufacturing labourers. 
 Persons employed in retail trade, or 
 
 in handicraft, as masters or work- 
 men 1,159,867 
 
 Total adult persons employed in arts 
 
 and trades 1,564,184, being 
 
 about fifty per cent, more than those engaged in agri- 
 culture. 
 
 The capitalists, bankers, professional 
 
 and other educated men amount to 214,390 
 
 Labourers non-agricultural to .618,712 
 
 If we include in the agricultural de- 
 partment, the occupiers employin g 
 labourers (few of whom, however, 
 
 work), we shall have to add 187,075 
 
 to the above number 1,055,057 
 
 The total sum of Agriculturists is 1,243,057, being 
 only 80 per cent, of the adult males employed in manu- 
 factures, arts, and trades. 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 5 
 
 When we take into account the vastly greater propor- 
 tion of young persons constantly occupied with factory 
 labour, than of those occupied with agricultural labour, 
 we shall then be led to conclude that at least double 
 the amount of personal industry is engaged in the arts, 
 manufactures, and trade, to what is engaged in agricul- 
 ture. Considerably upwards of one-tenth of the popu- 
 lation of this island is actually employed in manu- 
 factures ; and probably little more than one-fifteenth 
 in agriculture. This conclusion ought to lead our legis- 
 lative landlords to treat the manufacturing interests 
 with greater respect than they have usually been accus- 
 tomed to do. If we consider, moreover, how much 
 greater a mass of productive industry a male adult is 
 equivalent to, in power-driven manufactures, than in 
 agriculture, the balance in favour of the former will be 
 greatly enhanced. 
 
 France, which has for upwards of a century and a half 
 tried every scheme of public premium to become a great 
 manufacturing country, has a much less proportion 
 than one employed in trade for two employed in agri- 
 culture. M. Charles Dupin, indeed, has been led by 
 his researches into the comparative industry of France 
 and of the United Kingdom, to conclude that the 
 agricultural produce of our country amounted in value 
 to 240 millions sterling, and that of his own to 180 
 millions sterling, being the ratio of three to two; 
 and that our manufacturing power is inferior to that 
 of France in the proportion of sixty-three to seventy- 
 two ; or as seven to eight. There can be no doubt 
 that his agricultural estimate underrates France, as 
 much as his manufacturing estimate underrates Great 
 Britain. 
 
6 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 This island is pre-eminent among civilized nations 
 for the prodigious development of its factory wealth, 
 and has been therefore long viewed with a jealous ad- 
 miration by foreign powers. This very pre-eminence, 
 however, has been contemplated in a very different light 
 by many influential members of our own community, 
 and has been even denounced by them as the certain 
 origin of innumerable evils to the people, and of revo- 
 lutionary convulsions to the state. If the affairs of the 
 kingdom be wisely administered, I believe such allega- 
 tions and fears will prove to be groundless, and to pro- 
 ceed more from the envy of one ancient and powerful 
 order of the commonwealth, towards another sud- 
 denly grown into political importance than from the 
 nature of thing's. 
 
 In the recent discussions concerning our factories, 
 no circumstance is so deserving of remark, as the gross 
 ignorance evinced by our leading legislators and econo- 
 mists, gentlemen well informed in other respects, rela- 
 tive to the nature of those stupendous manufactures 
 which have so long provided the rulers of the kingdom 
 with the resources of war, and a great body of the 
 people with comfortable subsistence ; which have, in 
 fact, made this island the arbiter of many nations, and 
 the benefactor of the globe itself.* Till this ignorance 
 be dispelled, no sound legislation need be expected on 
 manufacturing subjects. To effect this purpose is a 
 principal, but not the sole aim of the present volume, 
 
 * Even the eminent statesman lately selected by his Sovereign to 
 wield the destinies of this commercial empire — Sir Robert Peel, who 
 derives his family consequence from the cotton trade, seems to be but 
 little conversant with its nature and condition. — See Dr. Carbutt's 
 observations on the subject, next page. 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 7 
 
 for it is intended also to convey specific information to 
 the classes directly concerned in the manufactures, as 
 well as general knowledge to the community at large, 
 and particularly to young persons about to make the 
 choice of a profession. 
 
 The blessings which physico-mechanical science has 
 bestowed on society, and the means it has still in store for 
 ameliorating the lot of mankind, have been too little 
 dwelt upon ; while, on the other hand, it has been accused 
 of lending itself to the rich capitalists as an instrument 
 for harassing the poor, and of exacting, from the opera- 
 tive an accelerated rate of work. It has been said, for 
 example, that the steam-engine now drives the power- 
 looms with such velocity as to urge on their attendant 
 weavers at the same rapid pace ; but that the hand- 
 weaver, not being subjected to this restless agent, can 
 throw his shuttle and move his treddles at his conveni- 
 ence. There is, however, this difference in the two cases, 
 that in the factory, every member of the loom is so ad- 
 justed, that the driving force leaves the attendant nearly 
 nothing at all to do, certainly no muscular fatigue to 
 sustain, while it procures for him good, unfailing wages, 
 besides a healthy workshop gratis : whereas the non- 
 factory weaver, having everything to execute by mus- 
 cular exertion, finds the labour irksome, makes in con- 
 sequence innumerable short pauses, separately of little 
 account, but great when added together ; earns there- 
 fore proportionally low wages, while he loses his health 
 by poor diet and the dampness of his hovel. Dr. Car- 
 butt of Manchester says, <f With regard to Sir Robert 
 Peel's assertion a few evenings ago, that the hand-loom 
 weavers are mostly small farmers, nothing can be a 
 greater mistake ; they live, or rather they just keep life 
 
8 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 together,, in the most miserable manner, in the cellars 
 and garrets of the town, working sixteen or eighteen 
 hours for the merest pittance."* 
 
 The constant aim and effect of scientific improve- 
 ment in manufactures are philanthropic, as they tend to 
 relieve the workmen either from niceties of adjustment 
 which exhaust his mind and fatigue his eyes, or from 
 painful repetition of effort which distort or wear out 
 his frame. At every step of each manufacturing pro- 
 cess described in this volume, the humanity of science 
 will be manifest. New illustrations of this truth ap- 
 pear almost every day, of which a remarkable one has 
 just come to my knowledge. In the woollen-cloth trade 
 there is a process between carding and spinning the 
 wool, called slabbing, which converts the spongy rolls, 
 turned off from the cards, into a continuous length of 
 fine porous cord. Now, though carding and spinning 
 lie within the domain of automatic science, yet stub- 
 bing is a handicraft operation, depending on the skill 
 of the slubber, and participating therefore in all his 
 irregularities. If he be a steady, temperate man, he 
 will conduct his business regularly, without needing to 
 harass his juvenile assistants, who join together the 
 series of card rolls, and thus feed his machine ; but if 
 he be addicted to liquor, and passionate, he has it in 
 his power to exercise a fearful despotism over the 
 young pieceners, in violation of the proprietor's benevo- 
 lent regulations. This class of operatives, who, though 
 inmates of factories, are not, properly speaking, factory 
 workers, being independent of the moving power, have 
 been the principal source of the obloquy so unsparingly 
 
 * Letter of 3rd of May, 1833, to Dr. Hawkins in his Medical Report, 
 Factory Commission, p. 282. 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 9 
 
 cast on the cotton and other factories, in which no such 
 capricious practices or cruelties exist. The wool slub- 
 ber, when behind hand with his work, after a visit to 
 the beer-shop, resumes his task with violence, and 
 drives his machine at a speed beyond the power of 
 the pieceners to accompany ; and if he finds them de- 
 ficient in the least point, he does not hesitate to lift up 
 the long wooden rod from his slubbing-frame, called a 
 billy-roller, and beat them unmercifully. I rejoice to 
 find that science now promises to rescue this branch of 
 the business from handicraft caprice, and to place it, 
 like the rest, under the safeguard of automatic mecha- 
 nism. The details of this recent invention will be 
 given in describing the woollen manufacture. 
 
 The processes that may be employed, to give to por- 
 tions of inert matter, precise movements resembling 
 those of organized beings, are innumerable, as they 
 consist of an indefinite number and variety of cords, 
 pulleys, toothed-wheels, nails, screws, levers, inclined- 
 planes, as well as agencies of air, water, fire, light, &c, 
 combined in endless modes to produce a desired effect. 
 Ingenuity has been long exercised on such combi- 
 nations, chiefly for public amusement or mystifica- 
 tion, without any object of utility. In ancient times 
 the statue of Memnon was celebrated for emitting har- 
 monious sounds at sun-rise, and acted probably by 
 concealed organ-pipes. The flying pigeon of Archytas 
 was more manifestly an automatic mechanism, as it 
 performed all the motions of an animal ; and likewise 
 the Android of Albert the Great, which opened a door 
 when any one knocked, and muttered certain sounds, 
 as if speaking to the visiter. The brass heads, or con- 
 versible busts of Abbe Mical, were probably a simple 
 
 b 3 
 
10 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 acoustic experiment on the transmission of sounds 
 through tubes, like the Invisible Girl. More recently 
 the flute-player of Vaucanson has puzzled the world. 
 It presented the appearance of a human figure of the 
 ordinary size, seated on a piece of rock, supported on 
 a pedestal four feet and a half high. By the move- 
 ments of its lips, fingers, and tongue, it modified the 
 tones of the flute, and executed twelve different airs on 
 the instrument. Vaucanson constructed also a drum- 
 mer, which played on a flute with a three-holed mouth- 
 piece, no less than twenty airs. Standing upright on 
 a pedestal, dressed like a dancing shepherd, holding its 
 flageolet in one hand, and a rod in the other, it beat 
 the drum at one time in single taps, and at another in 
 a long roll, as accompaniments to the flageolet tune. 
 This automaton seemed to be truly the animated leader 
 of the pleasures of a ball, skilful in augmenting or di- 
 minishing the breathing sounds of its instrument, with 
 equal precision and taste. 
 
 . The duck of the same celebrated mechanician, not 
 only imitated the different movements of this animal, 
 drinking, gobbling, swallowing, &c, but also repre- 
 sented faithfully the structure of the internal viscera 
 for the digestion of the food. The play of every part 
 necessary to discharge these functions was imitated to 
 the life; for the duck drank, dabbled in the water, 
 stretched out its neck to take grain when offered to it 
 in the hand, drew back its head again to swallow it, 
 doubled the quickness of the masticating movements 
 in passing the grain into the stomach, like the living 
 duck, which always swallows its food very hastily. The 
 grain was then ground in the gizzard, as preparatory 
 to digestion ; and finally subjected to excrementitious 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 11 
 
 actions. Its wings, neck, head, and whole frame, were 
 imitated bone by bone, and arranged in their natural 
 form and order. When once wound up, the duck went 
 through all its vital evolutions without needing to be 
 touched. These machines were purchased by Professor 
 Bayreuss, of Helmstadt. 
 
 The chess-player of M. Maelzel, now under exhibi- 
 tion at Paris, and formerly shown in this country, has 
 been often described. It imitates very remarkably a 
 living being, endowed with all the resources of intelli- 
 gence, for executing the combinations of profound study. 
 
 Raisin's automaton harpsichord was found to con- 
 tain an infant performer. 
 
 Self-acting inventions like the preceding, however 
 admirable as exercises of mechanical science, do nothing 
 towards the supply of the physical necessities of so- 
 ciety. Man stands in daily want of food, fuel, clothing, 
 and shelter; and is bound to devote the powers of 
 body and mind, of nature and art, in the first place to 
 provide for himself and his dependents a sufficiency 
 of these necessaries, without which there can be no 
 comfort, nor leisure for the cultivation of the taste 
 and intellect. To the production of food and domestic 
 accommodation, not many automatic inventions have 
 been applied, or seem to be extensively applicable; 
 though, for modifying them to the purposes of luxury, 
 many curious contrivances have been made. Machines, 
 more or less automatic, are embodied in the coal-mines 
 of Great Britain ; but such combinations have been 
 mainly directed, in this as well as other countries, to the 
 materials of clothing. These chiefly consist of flexible 
 fibres of vegetable or animal origin, twisted into smooth, 
 tenacious threads, which are then woven into cloth by 
 
12 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 being decussated in a loom. Of the animal kingdom, 
 silk, wool, and hair, are the principal textile products. 
 The vegetable tribes furnish cotton, flax, hemp, besides 
 several other fibrous substances of inferior importance. 
 
 Wool, flax, hemp, and silk, have been very gene- 
 rally worked up among the nations of Europe, both 
 in ancient and modern times ; but cotton attire was, 
 till sixty years ago, confined very much to Hindostan, 
 and some other districts of Asia. No textile filaments 
 however are, by their facility of production as well 
 as their structure, so well adapted as those of cotton 
 to furnish articles of clothing, combining comfort with 
 beauty and convenience in an eminent degree. Hence 
 we can understand how cotton fabrics, in their end- 
 less variety of textures and styles, plain, figured, and 
 coloured, have within the short period of one human 
 life, grown into an enormous manufacture, have become 
 an object of the first desire to mankind all over the 
 globe, and of zealous industry to the most civilized 
 states. This business has received its great automatic 
 development in England, though it was cultivated to a 
 considerable extent on handicraft principles in France 
 a century ago, and warmly encouraged by the govern- 
 ment of that country, both as to the growth of the ma- 
 terial and its conversion into cloth. The failure of the 
 French however to establish a factory system prior to 
 the English is a very remarkable fact, and proves 
 clearly that mechanical invention, for which the former 
 nation have long been justly celebrated, is not of itself 
 sufficient to found a successful manufacture. 
 
 We have adverted to the mechanisms of Vaucanson. 
 This inventive artisan directed his attention also to 
 productive machines. He constructed one for winding 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 13 
 
 silk so long ago as 1749 ; one for doubling and twisting 
 it in 1751 ; a tapestry loom in 1758; another for wind- 
 ing silk in 1770; a machine for laminating stuffs 
 in 1757, and a plan of mounting silk-mills in 1776. 
 There can be no doubt as to the value of these inven- 
 tions, as they were described with merited eulogiums 
 in the above named years by the Academy of Paris. 
 In 1776 he published an account of the Indian mode 
 of weaving fine muslins in the wet state, showing that 
 his attention had been turned likewise to the cotton 
 trade. 
 
 The term Factory, in technology, designates the 
 combined operation of many orders of work-people, 
 adult and young, in tending with assiduous skill a 
 system of productive machines continuously impelled 
 by a central power. This definition includes such 
 organizations as cotton-mills, flax-mills, silk-mills, 
 woollen-mills, and certain engineering works ; but it 
 excludes those in which the mechanisms do not form a 
 connected series, nor are dependent on one prime 
 mover. Of the latter class, examples occur in iron- 
 works, dye-works, soap-works, brass-foundries, &c. 
 Some authors, indeed, have comprehended under the 
 title factory, all extensive establishments wherein a 
 number of people co-operate towards a common pur- 
 pose of art ; and would therefore rank breweries, dis- 
 tilleries, as well as the workshops of carpenters, turners, 
 coopers, &c, under the factory system. But I con- 
 ceive that this title, in its strictest sense, involves the 
 idea of a vast automaton, composed of various mecha- 
 nical and intellectual organs, acting in uninterrupted 
 concert for the production of a common object, all of 
 them being subordinated to a self-regulated moving 
 
14 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 force. If the marshalling of human beings in syste- 
 matic order for the execution of any technical enter- 
 prise were allowed to constitute a factory, this term 
 might embrace every department of civil and military 
 engineering; a latitude of application quite inadmissible. 
 
 In its precise acceptation, the Factory system is of 
 recent origin, and may claim England for its birth- 
 place. The mills for throwing silk, or making organ- 
 zine, which were mounted centuries ago in several of 
 the Italian states, and furtively transferred to this 
 country by Sir Thomas Lombe in 1718, contained 
 indeed certain elements of a factory, and probably sug- 
 gested some hints of those grander and more complex 
 combinations of self-acting machines, which were first 
 embodied half a century later in our cotton manufac- 
 ture by Richard Arkwright, assisted by gentlemen of 
 Derby, well acquainted with its celebrated silk esta- 
 blishment. But the spinning of an entangled flock of 
 fibres into a smooth thread, which constitutes the main 
 operation with cotton, is in silk superfluous; being 
 already performed by the unerring instinct of a worm, 
 which leaves to human art the simple task of doubling 
 and twisting its regular filaments. The apparatus re- 
 quisite for this purpose is more elementary, and calls 
 for few of those gradations of machinery which are 
 needed in the carding, drawing, roving, and spinning 
 processes of a cotton-mill. 
 
 When the first water-frames for spinning cotton were 
 erected at Cromford, in the romantic valley of the 
 Derwent, about sixty years ago, mankind were little 
 aware of the mighty revolution which the new system 
 of labour was, destined by Providence to achieve, not 
 only in the structure of British society, but in the for- 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 15 
 
 tunes of the world at large. Arkwright alone had the 
 sagacity to discern, and the boldness to predict in 
 glowing language, how vastly productive human in- 
 dustry would become, when no longer proportioned in 
 its results to muscular effort, which is by its nature 
 fitful and capricious, but when made to consist in the 
 task of guiding the work of mechanical fingers and 
 arms, regularly impelled with great velocity by some 
 indefatigable physical power. What his judgment so 
 clearly led him to perceive, his energy of will enabled 
 him to realize with such rapidity and success, as would 
 have done honour to the most influential individuals, 
 but were truly wonderful in that obscure and indigent 
 artisan. The main difficulty did not, to my apprehen- 
 sion, lie so much in the invention of a proper self- 
 acting mechanism for drawing out and twisting cotton 
 into a continuous thread, as in the distribution of the 
 different members of the apparatus into one co-opera- 
 tive body, in impelling each organ with its appropriate 
 delicacy and speed, and above all, in training human 
 beings to renounce their desultory habits of work, and 
 to identify themselves with the unvarying regularity of 
 the complex automaton. To devise and administer a 
 successful code of factory discipline, suited to the neces- 
 sities of factory diligence, was the Herculean enterprise, 
 the noble achievement of Arkwright. Even at the 
 present day, when the system is perfectly organized, 
 and its labour lightened to the utmost, it is found 
 nearly impossible to convert persons past the age of 
 puberty, whether drawn from rural or from handicraft 
 occupations, into useful factory hands. After strug- 
 gling for a while to conquer their listless or restive 
 habits, they either renounce the employment sponta- 
 
16 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 neously, or are dismissed by the overlookers on account 
 of inattention. 
 
 If the factory Briareus could have been created 
 by mechanical genius alone, it should have come into 
 being thirty years sooner ; for upwards of ninety years 
 have now elapsed since John Wyatt, of Birmingham, 
 not only invented the series of fluted rollers, (the 
 spinning fingers usually ascribed to Arkwright,) but 
 obtained a patent for the invention, and erected ¥ a 
 spinning engine without hands" in his native town*. 
 The details of this remarkable circumstance, recently 
 snatched from oblivion, will be given in our Treatise on 
 the Cotton Manufactures. Wyatt was a man of good 
 education, in a respectable walk of life, much esteemed 
 by his superiors, and therefore favourably placed, in a 
 mechanical point of view, for maturing his admirable 
 scheme. But he was of a gentle and passive spirit, 
 little qualified to cope with the hardships of a new 
 manufacturing enterprise. It required, in fact, a man 
 of a Napoleon nerve and ambition, to subdue the re- 
 fractory tempers of work-people accustomed to irregular 
 paroxysms of diligence, and to urge on his multifarious 
 and intricate constructions in the face of prejudice, 
 passion, and envy. Such was Arkwright, who, suffer- 
 ing nothing to stay or turn aside his progress, arrived 
 gloriously at the goal, and has for ever affixed his name 
 to a great era in the annals of mankind, an era which 
 has laid open unbounded prospects of wealth and com- 
 fort to the industrious, however much they may have 
 been occasionally clouded by ignorance and folly. 
 
 Prior to this period, manufactures were every- 
 where feeble and fluctuating in their development; 
 shooting forth luxuriantly for a season, and again 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 17 
 
 withering almost to the roots, like annual plants. 
 Their perennial growth now began in England, and 
 attracted capita] in copious streams to irrigate the rich 
 domains of industry. When this new career com- 
 menced, about the year 1770, the annual consumption 
 of cotton in British manufactures was under four mil- 
 lions of pounds weight, and that of the whole of 
 Christendom was probably not more than ten millions. 
 Last year the consumption in Great Britain and Ire- 
 land was about two hundred and seventy millions of 
 pounds, and that of Europe and the United States to- 
 gether four hundred and eighty millions. This pro- 
 digious increase is, without doubt, almost entirely due 
 to the factory system founded and upreared by the in- 
 trepid native of Preston. If then this system be not 
 merely an inevitable step in the social progression of 
 the world, but the one which gives a commanding sta- 
 tion and influence to the people who most resolutely 
 take it, it does not become any man, far less a denizen of 
 this favoured land, to vilify the author of a benefaction, 
 which, wisely administered, may become the best tem- 
 poral gift of Providence to the poor, a blessing des- 
 tined to mitigate, and in some measure to repeal, the 
 primeval curse pronounced on the labour of man, " in 
 the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Ark- 
 wright well deserves to live in honoured remembrance 
 among those ancient master-spirits, who persuaded their 
 roaming companions to exchange the precarious toils 
 of the chase, for the settled comforts of agriculture. 
 
 In my recent tour, continued during several months, 
 through the manufacturing districts, I have seen tens 
 of thousands of old, young, and middle-aged of both 
 sexes, many of them too feeble to get their daily bread 
 
18 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 by any of the former modes of industry, earning 
 abundant food, raiment, and domestic accommodation, 
 without perspiring at a single pore, screened mean- 
 while from the summer's sun and the winter's frost, in 
 apartments more airy and salubrious than those of the 
 metropolis, in which our legislative and fashionable 
 aristocracies assemble. In those spacious halls * the 
 benignant power of steam summons around him his 
 myriads of willing menials, and assigns to each the 
 regulated task, substituting for painful muscular effort 
 on their part, the energies of his own gigantic arm, and 
 demanding in return only attention and dexterity to 
 correct such little aberrations as casually occur in his 
 workmanship. The gentle docility of this moving 
 force qualifies it for impelling the tiny bobbins of 
 the lace-machine with a precision and speed inimitable 
 by the most dexterous hands, directed by the sharpest 
 eyes. Hence, under its auspices, and in obedience to 
 Arkwright's polity, magnificent edifices, surpassing far 
 in number, value, usefulness, and ingenuity of construc- 
 tion, the boasted monuments of Asiatic, Egyptian, and 
 Roman despotism, have, within the short period of fifty 
 years, risen up in this kingdom, to show to what ex- 
 tent, capita], industry, and science may augment the 
 resources of a state, while they meliorate the condition 
 of its citizens. Such is the factory system, replete with 
 prodigies in mechanics and political economy, which 
 promises, in its future growth, to become the great mi- 
 nister of civilization to the terraqueous globe, enabling 
 this country, as its heart, to diffuse along with its com- 
 merce, the life-blood of science and religion to myriads 
 
 f See the engraving at the end of the volume. 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 19 
 
 of people still lying * in the region and shadow of 
 death.' 9 
 
 When Adarn Smith wrote his immortal elements 
 of economics,, automatic machinery being hardly 
 known, he was properly led to regard the division of 
 labour as the grand principle of manufacturing im- 
 provement ; and he showed, in the example of pin- 
 making, how each handicraftsman, being thereby 
 enabled to perfect himself by practice in one point, 
 became a quicker and cheaper workman. In each 
 branch of manufacture he saw that some parts were, on 
 that principle, of easy execution, like the cutting of 
 pin wires into uniform lengths, and some were compa- 
 ratively difficult, like the formation and fixation of 
 their heads ; and therefore he concluded that to each 
 a workman of appropriate value and cost was naturally 
 assigned. This appropriation forms the very essence 
 of the division of labour, and has been constantly made 
 since the origin of society. The ploughman, with 
 powerful hand and skilful eye, has been always hired 
 at high wages to form the furrow, and the ploughboy 
 at low wages, to lead the team. But what was in Dr. 
 Smith's time a topic of useful illustration, cannot now 
 be used without risk of misleading the public mind as to 
 the right principle of manufacturing industry. In fact, 
 the division, or rather adaptation of labour to the diffe- 
 rent talents of men, is little thought of in factory em- 
 ployment . On the contrary, wherever a process requires 
 peculiar dexterity and steadiness of hand, it is with- 
 drawn as soon as possible from the cunning workman, 
 who is prone to irregularities of many kinds, and it is 
 placed in charge of a peculiar mechanism, so self-re- 
 gulating, that a child may superintend it. Thus, — to 
 
20 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 take an example from the spinning of cotton — the 
 first operation in delicacy and importance, is that of 
 laying the fibres truly parallel in the spongy slivers, 
 and the next is that of drawing these out into slender 
 spongy cords, called rovings, with the least possible 
 twist; both being perfectly uniform throughout their 
 total length. To execute either of these processes 
 tolerably by a hand-wheel, would require a degree of 
 skill not to be met with in one artisan out of a 
 hundred. But fine yarn could not be made in 
 factory-spinning except by taking these steps, nor was 
 it ever made by machinery till Arkwright's sagacity 
 contrived them. Moderately good yarn may be spun 
 indeed on the hand-wheel without any drawings at all, 
 and with even indifferent rovings, because the thread, 
 under the two-fold action of twisting and extension, 
 has a tendency to equalize itself. 
 
 The principle of the factory system then is, to substi- 
 tute mechanical science for hand skill, and the partition 
 of a process into its essential constituents, for the divi- 
 sion or graduation of labour among artisans. On the 
 handicraft plan, labour more or less skilled, was usually 
 the most expensive element of production — Materiam 
 superabat opus; but on the automatic plan, skilled 
 labour gets progressively superseded, and will, even- 
 tually, be replaced by mere overlookers of machines. 
 
 By the infirmity of human nature it happens, that the 
 more skilful the workman, the more self-willed and in- 
 tractable he is apt to become, and, of course, the less 
 fit a component of a mechanical system, in which, by 
 occasional irregularities, he may do great damage to 
 the whole. The grand object therefore of the modern 
 manufacturer is, through the union of capital and 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 21 
 
 science,, to reduce the task of his work-people to the 
 exercise of vigilance and dexterity, — faculties, when 
 concentred to one process, speedily brought to per- 
 fection in the young. In the infancy of mechani- 
 cal engineering, a machine-factory displayed the 
 division of labour in manifold gradations — the file, 
 the drill, the lathe, having each its different work- 
 men in the order of skill : but the dexterous hands of 
 the filer and driller are now superseded by the planing, 
 the key- groove cutting, and the drilling-machines ; 
 and those of the iron and brass turners, by the self-act- 
 ing slide-lathe. Mr. Anthony Strutt, who conducts the 
 mechanical department of the great cotton factories of 
 Belper and Milford, has so thoroughly departed from the 
 old routine of the schools, that he will employ no man 
 who has learned his craft by regular apprenticeship ; 
 but in contempt, as it were, of the division of labour 
 principle, he sets a ploughboy to turn a shaft of per- 
 haps several tons weight, and never has reason to 
 repent his preference, because he infuses into the turn- 
 ing apparatus a precision of action, equal, if not su- 
 perior, to the skill of the most experienced journeyman. 
 
 An eminent mechanician in Manchester told me, that 
 he does not choose to make any steam-engines at pre- 
 sent, because with his existing means, he would need 
 to resort to the old principle of the division of labour, 
 so fruitful of jealousies and strikes among workmen ; 
 but he intends to prosecute that branch of business 
 whenever he has prepared suitable arrangements on 
 the equalization of labour, or automatic plan. On 
 the graduation system, a man must serve an ap- 
 prenticeship of many years before his hand and eye 
 become skilled enough for certain mechanical feats; 
 
22 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 but on the system of decomposing a process into its con- 
 stituents, and embodying each part in an automatic 
 machine, a person of common care and capacity may 
 be entrusted with any of the said elementary parts after 
 a short probation, and may be transferred from one to 
 another, on any emergency, at the discretion of the 
 master. Such translations are utterly at variance with 
 the old practice of the division of labour, which fixed 
 one man to shaping the head of a pin, and another to 
 sharpening its point, with most irksome and spirit- 
 wasting uniformity, for a whole life. 
 
 It was indeed a subject of regret to observe how 
 frequently the workman's eminence, in any craft, 
 had to be purchased by the sacrifice of his health 
 and comfort. To one unvaried operation, which 
 required unremitting dexterity and diligence, his 
 hand and eye were constantly on the strain, or if 
 they were suffered to swerve from their task for a 
 time, considerable loss ensued, either to the employer, 
 or the operative, according as the work was done by 
 the day or by the piece. But on the equalization plan 
 of self-acting machines, the operative needs to call his 
 faculties only into agreeable exercise ; he is seldom 
 harassed with anxiety or fatigue, and may find many 
 leisure moments for either amusement or meditation, 
 without detriment to his master's interests or his own. 
 As his business consists in tending the work of a well 
 regulated mechanism, he can learn it in a short period ; 
 and when he transfers his services from one machine to 
 another, he varies his task, and enlarges 'his views, by 
 thinking on those general combinations which result 
 from his and his companions' labours. Thus, that 
 cramping of the faculties, that narrowing of the mind, 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 23 
 
 that stunting of the frame, which were ascribed, and 
 not unjustly, by moral writers, to the division of labour, 
 cannot, in common circumstances, occur under the 
 equable distribution of industry. How superior in vigour 
 and intelligence are the factory mechanics in Lanca- 
 shire, where the latter system of labour prevails, to the 
 - handicraft artisans of London, who, to a great extent, 
 continue slaves to the former ! The one set is familiar 
 with almost every physico-mechanical combination, 
 while the other seldom knows anything beyond the 
 pin-head sphere of his daily task. 
 
 It is, in fact, the constant aim and tendency of every 
 improvement in machinery to supersede human labour 
 altogether, or to diminish its cost, by substituting the 
 industry of women and children for that of men ; or 
 that of ordinary labourers, for trained artisans. In 
 most of the water-twist, or throstle cotton mills, the 
 spinning is entirely managed by females of sixteen 
 years and upwards. The effect of substituting the 
 self-acting mule for the common mule, is to discharge 
 the greater part of the men spinners, and to retain 
 adolescents and children. The proprietor of a factory 
 near Stockport states, in evidence to the commissioners, 
 that by such substitution, he would save 50/. a week in 
 wages, in consequence of dispensing with nearly forty 
 male spinners, at about 25s. of wages each. This ten- 
 dency to employ merely children with watchful eyes 
 and nimble fingers, instead of journeymen of long ex- 
 perience, shows how the scholastic dogma of the divi- 
 sion of labour into degrees of skill has been exploded 
 by our enlightened manufacturers. 
 
 They are, in truth, much better acquainted with the 
 general economy of the arts, and better qualified to 
 
24 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 analyse them into their real principles, than the re- 
 cluse academician can possibly be, who from a few ob- 
 solete data, traces out imaginary results, or conjures 
 up difficulties seldom encountered in practice. He 
 may fancy, for example, that in a great establishment, 
 where several hundred people are employed in produc- 
 ing fine goods, much time and expense must be in- 
 curred in verifying the quality and quantity of the 
 work done by each individual. But this verification 
 forms an integral step in the train of operations, and 
 therefore constitutes no appreciable part of the cost 
 of the manufactured article. Thus, for example, the 
 reeling of yarn into hanks measures its length ; the 
 weighing of a few miscellaneous hanks determines the 
 grist of the whole ; and the taker -in of work rapidly 
 ascertains its soundness. For examining the quality of 
 the very fine yarns used in lace-making, he is aided 
 by machines which register rapidly the uniformity of 
 its cohesive strength, and the exact volume which one 
 hundred yards of it occupy. The lace-maker again, 
 on his part, verifies the grist of all the thread he pur- 
 chases, in the necessary act of filling the circular 
 grooves of his tiny bobbins, preparatory to their enter- 
 ing into his machine. 
 
 The university man, pre-occupied with theoretical 
 formula, of little practical bearing, is too apt to under- 
 value the science of the factory, though, with candour 
 and patience, he would find it replete with useful ap- 
 plications of the most beautiful dynamical and statical 
 problems. In physics, too, he would there see many 
 theorems bearing golden fruit, which had been long 
 barren in college ground. The phenomena of heat, 
 in particular, are investigated in their multifarious re- 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 25 
 
 lations to matter, solid, liquid, and aeriform. The 
 measure of temperature on every scale is familiar to 
 the manufacturer, as well as the distribution of calo- 
 ric, and its habitudes with different bodies. The pro- 
 duction of vapours ; the relation of their elastic force to 
 their temperature; the modes of using them as instru- 
 ments of power, and sources of heat ; their most effect- 
 ive condensation ; their hygrometric agency ; may all 
 be better studied in a week's residence in Lancashire, 
 than in a session of any university in Europe. And 
 as to exact mechanical science, no school can compete 
 with a modern cotton-mill. 
 
 When a certain elevation of temperature is made to 
 give pliancy to the fibres of cotton or wool, the philo- 
 sophical spinner sees the influence of caloric in impart- 
 ing ductility and elasticity to bodies. The thermometer 
 to indicate the temperature, and the hygrometer the 
 humidity of the air, give him an insight into the con- 
 stitution of nature unknown to the bulk of mankind. 
 Of the different dilatations of different solids by incre- 
 ments of temperature, he has daily experience in the 
 elongation of the immense systems of steam-pipes 
 w hich heat his mill apartments, often extending three 
 hundred feet in a straight line. On this scale, the 
 amount of the expansion, and contraction, needs no 
 micrometer to measure it, for it is visible to the eye, 
 and may be determined by a carpenter's rule. 
 
 When fire-proof factories of iron and brick were first 
 built, the columns which supported the successive 
 floors, being hollow, were intended to admit steam, 
 and to be the channels of communicating heat to the 
 apartments. It was soon found, however, that the 
 lengthening and shortening of a columnar range eighty 
 
 vol. i. c 
 
26 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 or ninety feet high, by alternations of temperature, 
 equal to 170° F., were so considerable, as to impair the 
 stability of the most solid edifice, since metal changes 
 its dimensions by heat with irresistible force. This 
 project of frugality being therefore abandoned, horizon- 
 tal steam-pipes were suspended near the ceiling, by 
 swinging rods of iron, which terminated at one end in 
 a curved copper tube, for allowing the water of con- 
 densation to escape, and possessed of such pliancy as 
 to give free play to the expansion and contraction. 
 Ingenious expedients have been proposed for causing 
 the lengthening of the main pipes to regulate the 
 admission of steam into them, and to exclude it as 
 soon as the temperature of the range had reached the 
 proper pitch. An invention of this kind was made the 
 subject of a patent many years ago, but it never came 
 into general use, on account of certain irregularities in 
 its performance. It was found very difficult so to 
 adjust the lever mechanism of the valve, as to prevent 
 its intercepting the flow of the steam whenever a certain 
 portion of the long pipe was heated, long before the 
 steam had reached the remoter end. Hence its uniform 
 distribution was rendered precarious. Mill engineers 
 have therefore satisfied themselves with insulating the 
 steam-pipe ramifications from the building, leaving the 
 circulation of the steam to be tempered by an ordi- 
 nary stop-cock. The instrument, for which I have 
 obtained a patent, under the name of the heat- governor, 
 or thermostat, would furnish the factory proprietors 
 with a self-acting means of regulating the temperature 
 of their apartments, and of promoting their ventilation. 
 
 In an analysis of manufacturing industry, the gene- 
 ral functions of machines, and the effects of their im- 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 27 
 
 provements, ought to be well considered. Machines are 
 of three kinds : — 
 
 1 . Machines concerned in the production of power. 
 
 2. Machines concerned in the transmission and re- 
 gulation of power. 
 
 3. Machines concerned in the application of power, 
 to modify the various forms of matter into objects of 
 commerce. 
 
 I. Machines engaged in producing power operate 
 by counteracting gravity, inertia, or cohesion. The 
 steam engine, by the expansive agency of vapour, 
 raises and depresses its ponderous piston, and thereby 
 moves its massive beams and geering. The hydraulic 
 wheel produces similar effects by the natural flow or 
 fall of water from a higher to a lower level ; and the 
 windmill by the currents of the atmosphere. Blasting 
 of rocks, in mining, exhibits elastic power overcoming 
 cohesion. 
 
 II. The machines engaged in transmitting and regu- 
 lating power are, toothed wheels, fly wheels of various 
 kinds, valve governors, shafts, and other geering of mills. 
 
 III. The machines engaged in applying power to 
 modify the forms of matter appear, at first sight, to be 
 so multifarious as to set systematic arrangement at 
 defiance. An outline of their connexions and depen- 
 dencies has been attempted in the next chapter. 
 
 The philosophy of manufactures is well displayed in 
 the economy of power. The value of steam-impelled la- 
 bour may be inferred from the following statement of 
 facts, communicated to me by an eminent engineer, edu- 
 cated in the school of Bolton and Watt : — A manufac- 
 turer in Manchester works a 60-horse Bolton and W att's 
 steam-engine, at a power of 120 horses during the 
 
 c2 
 
28 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 day, and 60 horses during the night; thus extorting 
 from it an impelling force three times greater than he 
 contracted or paid for. One steam horse-power is 
 equivalent to 33,000 pounds avoirdupois, raised one 
 foot high per minute ; but an animal horse-power is 
 equivalent to only 22,000 pounds raised one foot high 
 per minute, or, in other terms, to drag a canal boat 
 220 feet per minute, with a force of 100 pounds acting 
 on a spring : therefore a steam horse-power is equiva- 
 lent in working efficiency to one living horse, and one- 
 half the labour of another. But a horse can work at 
 its full efficiency only eight hours out of the twenty- 
 four, whereas a steam-engine needs no period of repose ; 
 and therefore, to make the animal power equal to the 
 physical power, a relay of 1 \ fresh horses must be found 
 three times in the twenty-four hours, which amounts 
 to 4j horses daily. Hence, a common 60-horse steam- 
 engine does the work of 4^- times 60 horses, or of 270 
 horses. But the above 60-horse steam-engine does 
 one-half more work in 24 hours, or that of 405 living 
 horses ! The keep of a horse cannot be estimated at 
 less than Is. 2d. per day ; and therefore that of 405 
 horses would be about 24Z. daily, or 7500Z. sterling 
 in a year of 313 days. As 80 pounds of coals, or 
 one bushel, will produce steam equivalent to the power 
 of one horse in a steam-engine during eight hours' 
 work, sixty bushels, worth about 30.5. at Manchester, 
 will maintain a 60-horse engine in fuel during eight 
 effective hours, and 200 bushels, worth 100s., the 
 above hard-worked engine, during twenty-four hours. 
 Hence, the expense per annum is 1565Z. sterling, 
 being little more than one-fifth of that of living 
 horses. As to prime cost and superintendence, the 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 29 
 
 animal power would be greatly more expensive than 
 the steam power. There are many engines made by 
 Bolton and Watt, forty years ago, which have continued 
 in constant w r ork all that time with very slight repairs. 
 What a multitude of valuable horses would have been 
 worn out in doing the service of these machines ! and 
 what a vast quantity of grain would they have con- 
 sumed ! Had British industry not been aided by 
 Watt's invention, it must have gone on with a re- 
 tarding pace, in consequence of the increasing cost 
 of motive power, and would, long ere now, have ex- 
 perienced, in the price of horses, and scarcity of water- 
 falls, an insurmountable barrier to further advancement, 
 could horses, even at the low prices to which their 
 rival, steam, has kept them, be employed to drive a 
 cotton mill at the present day, they would devour all 
 the profits of the manufacturer. 
 
 Steam-engines furnish the means not only of their 
 support but of their multiplication. They create 
 a vast demand for fuel ; and, while they lend their 
 powerful arms to drain the pits and to raise the coals, 
 they call into employment multitudes of miners, en- 
 gineers, ship-builders, and sailors, and cause the con- 
 struction of canals and railways : and, while they 
 enable these rich fields of industry to be cultivated 
 to the utmost, they leave thousands of fine arable 
 fields free for the production of food to man, which 
 must have been otherwise allotted to the food of 
 horses. Steam-engines moreover, by the cheapness 
 and steadiness of their action, fabricate cheap goods, 
 and procure in their exchange a liberal supply of the 
 necessaries and comforts of life, produced in foreign 
 lands. 
 
30 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 Improvements in machinery have a three-fold 
 bearing : — 
 
 1st. They make it possible to fabricate some articles 
 which, but for them, could not be fabricated at all. 
 
 2d. They enable an operative to turn out a greater 
 quantity of work than he could before, — time, labour, 
 and quality of work remaining constant. 
 
 3d. They effect a substitution of labour compara- 
 tively unskilled, for that which is more skilled. 
 
 The introduction of new machines into any manufac- 
 ture, with the effect of superseding hand labour, is 
 tempered by the system of patents, which maintains 
 them for a certain time at a monopoly price, and 
 thereby obstructs their rapid multiplication. Did we 
 admit the principles on which the use of particular 
 self-acting mechanisms is objected to by workmen, we 
 should not be able, in any case, to define the limits of 
 their application. Had parliament acted on such prin- 
 ciples sixty years ago, none of our manufactures could 
 have attained to their present state of profitable employ- 
 ment to either masters or men. The immediate causes 
 of their vast augmentation may be ascribed, under the 
 blessing of Providence, to the general spirit of industry 
 and enterprize among a free and an enlightened people, 
 left to the unrestrained exercise of their talents in the 
 employment of a vast capital, pushing to the utmost 
 the principle of the analysis of labour, summoning to 
 their service all the resources of scientific research and 
 mechanical ingenuity ; and finally, availing themselves 
 of all the benefits to be derived from visiting foreign 
 countries, not only in order to form new and confirm 
 old commercial connexions, but to obtain an intimate 
 knowledge of the wants, the tastes, the habits, the dis- 
 
/ 
 
 MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 31 
 
 coveries and improvement s, the productions, and fabrics 
 of other civilized nations. Thus we bring home facts 
 and suggestions ; thus we perfect our old establish- 
 ments, and add new branches to our domestic stock; 
 opening, at the same time, new markets for the sale of 
 our manufacturing and commercial industry, and qua- 
 lifying ourselves for supplying them in the best and 
 most economical manner. By these means alone, and, 
 above all, by the effect of machinery in improving the 
 quality, and cheapening the fabrication of our various 
 articles of export, notwithstanding an immense load of 
 taxes, and a higher price of grain, our commerce and 
 manufactures have also increased in such a degree, as 
 to surpass the most sanguine calculations of the ablest 
 political economists who have speculated on the pro- 
 spects of mankind. We should never cease to bear in 
 mind, that we are surrounded by powerful nations, com- 
 posed of a people equally industrious, and more sober 
 than ourselves, who, released from the turmoil of war, 
 are intent on cultivating the productive arts of peace, and 
 of pushing their commerce and navigation ; whose 
 eagerness of competition is stimulated by the view of 
 the rich prizes w T hich we have already won. 
 
 The attempts "continually made to carry our imple- 
 ments and machines into foreign countries, and to tempt 
 our artisans to settle and superintend them there, evince 
 the high value set by other nations on our mechanical 
 substitutes for hand labour ; and as they cannot be di- 
 rectly counteracted, they should be rendered, as far as 
 possible, unavailing, by introducing such successive 
 improvements at home as may always keep us foremost 
 in the career of construction. It would be therefore 
 no less disastrous to the operative, than to the capi- 
 
32 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 talist, were any extraneous obstacles thrown in their 
 way, since any good machine suppressed, or rejected, 
 in this country, would infallibly be received with open 
 arms by some of our neighbours, and most readily by 
 our mechanical rivals in France, Belgium, Germany, 
 and the United States. 
 
 Mill architecture is a science of recent origin, which 
 even at this day is little understood beyond the 
 factory precincts. It had been ably begun by Mr. 
 Watt, but, till it fell into the hands of Messrs. Fair- 
 bairn and Lillie, the eminent engineers of Manches- 
 ter, it was too subject to the whims of the several in- 
 dividuals, often utterly ignorant of statics or dynamics, 
 or the laws of equilibrium and impulse, who had capi- 
 tal to lay out in building a mill. Each had his own 
 set of caprices and prejudices, which he sought to em- 
 body in his edifice, little aware how much the diffe- 
 rent orders of machines depended for the productiveness 
 and precision of their performance, on the right mag- 
 nitudes, proportions, and adjustments of the main- 
 shafting and wheel- geering. These are, in fact, the 
 grand nerves and arteries which transmit vitality and 
 volition, so to speak, with due steadiness, delicacy, and 
 speed, to the automatic organs. Hence, if they be 
 ill-made or ill-distributed, nothing can go well, as 
 happens to a man labouring under aneurismal and 
 nervous affections. 
 
 About three years ago, the above-named engineers 
 dissolved a partnership celebrated over the world; 
 since which time each has expanded his energies, and 
 distinguished himself in a peculiar line of work. I 
 shall have occasion hereafter to describe several of 
 Mr. Lillie's excellent mechanical constructions. Mr. 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 33. 
 
 Fairbairn has entered largely into the line of a factory 
 architect, for which his three-fold great workshops 
 are admirably adapted. The capitalist has merely to 
 state the extent of his resources, the nature of his 
 manufacture, its intended site, and facilities of posi- 
 tion in reference to water or coal, when he will be 
 furnished with designs, estimates, and offers on the 
 most economical terms, consistent with excellence, 
 according to a plan, combining elegance of external 
 aspect, with solidity, convenience, and refinement in the 
 internal structure. As engineer he becomes responsible 
 for the masonry, carpentry, and other work of the build- 
 ing, for the erection of a sufficient power, whether of a 
 steam-engine or water-wheel, to drive every machine 
 it is to contain, and for the mounting of all the shafts 
 and great wheels by which the power of the first 
 mover is distributed. The frontispiece of this volume 
 exhibits a perspective view of a magnificent fac- 
 tory, lately finished by Mr. Fairbairn, and now at work 
 under its spirited proprietor, Mr. Orrell. It is beauti- 
 fully situated in the environs of Stockport, on a branch 
 of the Mersey, the great river feeder of the cotton trade 
 of England. In beauty of architectural design, it will 
 yield to no analogous edifice, and may, indeed, bear a 
 comparison in respect of grandeur, elegance, and sim- 
 plicity, with many aristocratic mansions. The length 
 of the apartments in each floor of the body of the 
 house is three hundred feet, the breadth fifty feet, and 
 the height of each floor twelve feet. Each window 
 consists of two casements, extending from its top to its 
 sill, one of which, nearly as large as a common win- 
 dow, may be thrown entirely open for admitting fresh 
 air, independent of the mechanical ventilation. I have 
 
 c 3- 
 
34 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 been favoured, through the liberality of the architect 
 and proprietor of this pattern structure, with an analy- 
 tical section and ground plan of it, by which I shall be 
 enabled, in the treatise on the cotton trade, to place 
 before my readers a view of the w T hole anatomy of the 
 mill, in the following order. 
 
 1. Its two-fold heart, or twin steam-engines, one of 
 which makes its maximum effort, while the other 
 makes its minimum, to secure perfect equability of 
 impulsion through all the ramifications of its shafts, 
 and to prevent arterial throbbing or tremor, formerly 
 so common, and so injurious to the work of delicate 
 machines. 
 
 2. The great bevel wheel-geering, which transmits 
 the power of the engine in rectangular directions, either 
 transversely or vertically, and with any modification 
 of speed. 
 
 3. The horizontal and upright shafts, with their 
 several pulleys. 
 
 4. The distribution of the straps, or belts, that con- 
 vey the power from these revolving shafts and pulleys. 
 
 5. The respective positions of the various productive 
 organs in their respective floors, such as the prepara- 
 tion machines, throstles, mules, power-looms, dressing 
 machines, warping mills, &c. &c. 
 
 The recent innovations in proportioning the sizes, 
 regulating the connections, and adjusting the move- 
 ments of the system of shaft- geering, form a fine feature 
 in the philosophy of manufactures. Thus not only an 
 improvement has been made in the regularity of impul- 
 sion, but a considerable increase of power from the 
 same prime-mover has been obtained; amounting, in 
 some cases, of old mills remounted by Messrs. Fair- 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 35 
 
 bairn and Lillie, to fully twenty per cent. The dura- 
 bility of shafts so exquisitely turned and polished, is 
 another great advantage. The spinning factory of 
 Messrs. Ashw T orth, at Egerton, which has been at work 
 for several years, exhibits an elegant pattern of the 
 engineering just described : for it has some subordinate 
 shafts, hardly thicker than the human wrist, which 
 convey the power of ten horses, and revolve with great 
 speed, without the slightest noise or vibration. The 
 prime-mover of the whole is a gigantic water-wheel of 
 sixty feet diameter, and one hundred horses' power. 
 I have frequently been at a loss, in walking through 
 several of the millwright factories, to know whether the 
 polished shafts that drive the automatic lathes and 
 planing machines, were at rest or in motion, so truly 
 and silently did they revolve. 
 
 The method of increased velocities in* the driv- 
 ing arms or shafts of factories is, undoubtedly, one 
 of the most remarkable improvements in practical 
 dynamics. It diminishes greatly the inertia of the 
 mass to be moved, by giving to much lighter shafts 
 and w T heels the same momentum, and it permits the 
 pulleys or drums, which immediately impel the ma- 
 chines by straps, to be reduced to a size much nearer 
 to that of the steam pulleys fixed on the main axes of 
 these machines. About thirty years ago the velocities 
 of the main shafts, proceeding from the moving power,, 
 whether of steam or water, amounted to no more than 
 from thirty to forty revolutions per minute, and of the 
 smaller and remoter shafts, to only forty or fifty. At 
 the same period the drums were heavy tubs, and 
 from thirty to upwards of sixty inches in diameter. 
 This improved system is under deep obligations for its 
 
36 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 actual state of perfection to the above-named en- 
 gineers, though it had commenced, as we have stated^ 
 before their time. In the mills mounted by these gen- 
 tlemen it is interesting to see slender shafts, like 
 small sinewy arms, rapidly transmitting vast power 
 through all the ramifications of a great factory. 
 
 The following details will place this matter in the 
 clearest light : — A mill propelled by a steam-engine 
 of fifty horses' power was formerly geered with 
 shafts, having an average transverse section of thirty- 
 six square inches, or varying in size from four to eight 
 inches square. An engine of like power at the present 
 day will, in consequence of the increased velocities 
 above described, work with cylindrical shafts not 
 exceeding five and a half, and often only three inches 
 in diameter ; possessing therefore an average area of 
 only fifteen square inches, instead of thirty-six. The 
 horizontal shafts that run under the ceilings of the dif- 
 ferent working rooms are two inches, and seldom exceed 
 two and a quarter in diameter. Hence the mass 
 of geering has been reduced fully one-half. But the 
 shafts now make from one hundred and twenty, to one 
 hundred and fifty revolutions in a minute, and, occa- 
 sionally, as where throstles are turned, so many as 
 two hundred in the same time. Thus we see the 
 requisite momentum is gained with a light shaft, 
 while the friction is proportionally diminished, and 
 the driving drum revolves with a velocity in accordance 
 with the accelerated pace of the modern machines. 
 The several speeds will be given in discussing their 
 respective subjects. 
 
 The philosophy of manufactures investigates, in the 
 next place, the most economical and energetic modes 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 37 
 
 of applying the motive force to the various working 
 organs; the carding-engines, the drawing -heads, the 
 roving-frames, the throstles, the mules, the power- 
 looms, the dressing-machines, &c. 
 
 The British capitalist is vigorously seconded by the 
 British engineer, and need not, like the Continental ad- 
 venturer, leave his funds long dormant, after an opportu- 
 nity of placing them profitably in factory enterprise oc- 
 curs. One mill-wright establishment in Manchester 
 turns out from three hundred to four hundred yards of 
 shaft-geering every week, finely finished, at a very mo- 
 derate price, because almost every tool is now more or 
 less automatic, and performs its work more cheaply 
 and with greater precision than the hand could pos- 
 sibly do. Where many counterparts or similar pieces 
 enter into spinning apparatus, they are all made so 
 perfectly identical in form and size, by the self-acting 
 tools, such as the planing and key-groove cutting ma- 
 chines, that any one of them will at once fit into the 
 position of any of its fellows, in the general frame. 
 
 For these and other admirable automatic instru- 
 ments, which have so greatly facilitated the construc- 
 tion and repair of factory machines, and which are to 
 be found at present in all our considerable cotton 
 mills, this country is under the greatest obligations to 
 Messrs. Sharp, Roberts, and Co. of Manchester. By 
 such aids, fine-cotton spinners are enabled to mount 
 their mules and the subservient frames within their 
 own premises, with peculiarities of construction suited 
 to their style of work; and many of them re-model more 
 or less the apparatus made in the machine-shops. 
 Thus the bobbin and fly-frames of Messrs. Cocker 
 and Higgins, so justly admired, require occasionally to 
 
38 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 be modified in certain minutiae,, essential to fine 
 work, before being used by certain manufacturers. It 
 is this skill in machine mounting or adjusting, com- 
 bined with tact in spinning, which gives to our fac- 
 tories not merely their existing superiority over foreign 
 rivalry, but the best security for its permanence. In- 
 deed, the concentration of mechanical talent and acti- 
 vity in the districts of Manchester and Leeds is inde- 
 scribable by the pen, and must be studied confidentially 
 behind the scenes, in order to be duly understood or 
 appreciated. 
 
 The following anecdote will illustrate this position. 
 A manufacturer at Stockport, whose name I shall 
 suppress, being, not long ago, about to mount two 
 hundred power-looms in his mill, fancied he might 
 save a pound sterling in the price of each, by 
 having them made by a neighbour machine-maker, 
 instead of obtaining them from Messrs. Sharp and 
 Roberts, in Manchester, the principal constructors of 
 power-looms. In order to give his fabricator every 
 chance of success, the economist surreptitiously pro- 
 cured iron patterns cast from one of the looms of 
 that company, which in its perfect state (see the en- 
 graving at the end of this volume) costs no more than 
 £9. 1 5s. His two hundred looms were accordingly con- 
 structed at Stockport, supposed to be fac-similes of those 
 regularly made in Manchester, and they were set to 
 work. Hardly a day passed, however, without one part 
 or another breaking down, insomuch that the crank or 
 tappet-wheels had to be replaced three times, in almost 
 every loom, in the course of twelve months. The fa- 
 bric of the cloth was also indifferent. The proprietor, 
 perplexed beyond measure, inquired of a neighbour 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 who worked similar power-looms, made by the Man- 
 chester mechanicians, whether his wheels likewise went 
 to pieces every other day, and learned to his mortifi- 
 cation, that not one of them had broken in the course 
 of working, but that the four or five spare ones, origin- 
 ally sent from Manchester along with his two hundred 
 and thirty-six power-looms, were unused and quite at 
 his service. The old proverb of ' penny wise and pound 
 foolish 1 never had a better illustration. His weaving 
 factory had been most irregular and unproductive, 
 while that of his neighbour had been uniformly pros- 
 perous. Being now heartily sick and ashamed of his 
 fac-simile copies, he took measures in secret to have 
 them replaced, as soon as possible, by Sharp and 
 Roberts's substantial machines. 
 
 The astonishing expedition with which a great 
 Cotton Factory, comprehending spinning and weav- 
 ing, can be erected in Lancashire, arises from the 
 vast collections of patterns of every variety, from 
 those of gigantic steam-engines, water-wheels, iron- 
 girders, and joists, down to the smallest member of a 
 throstle or loom, in possession of the engineers, mill- 
 wrights, and machine-makers. In the course of last 
 year, Mr. Fairbairn equipped water-wheels equivalent 
 to 700 horses' power, and steam-engines to 400 horses' 
 power, from his engineer factory alone, independent 
 of his mill-w T right and steam-boiler establishment. 
 Hence, whenever capital comes forward to take ad- 
 vantage of an improved demand for goods, the means 
 of fructifying it are provided with such rapidity, that 
 it may realize its own amount in profit, ere an analo- 
 gous factory could be set a-going in France, Belgium, 
 or Germany. 
 
40 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 The facilities resulting from the employment of 
 self-acting tools have not only improved the accuracy, 
 and accelerated the construction of the machinery of a 
 mill, but have also lowered its cost and increased its 
 mobility, in a remarkable degree. At present, a throstle 
 frame made in the best manner may be had complete 
 at the rate of 9«s\ 6d. per spindle ; and a self-actor at 
 about 8s. per spindle, including the patent licence for the 
 latter. The spindles in cotton factories move with so 
 little friction that one horse power drives 500 on the fine 
 hand-mule, 300 on the self-actor mule, and 180 on the 
 throstle ; which power includes all the subsidiary pre- 
 paration machines, as carding, roving, &c. A power 
 of three horses is adequate to drive 30 large looms with 
 their dressing machine. 
 
 The fine bobbin and fly-roving frame, is now so 
 greatly improved, that it can do a certain part of the 
 work formerly done by the stretching mule ; and per- 
 forms as much for 9s. as the other did for 50s. 
 
 The dressing machine does at present 200 pieces of 
 thirty yards each in a week, = 6000 yards, and costs 
 in wages to the dresser 50s. This branch of the trade 
 having in consequence of the high wages been, like the 
 mule spinning, continually disturbed by unions and 
 strikes, has led to the invention of a self-acting 
 machine which will dress at least 6000 yards of 
 warp in two days, under the superintendence of a 
 labourer at 3s. a- day ; that is, at a cost in wages 
 of 6s. This mechanism is at the same time greatly 
 simpler and cheaper than the former, and will soon 
 come into general use for coarse calicoes. It affords an 
 instructive warning to workmen to beware of strikes, 
 by proving how surely science, at the call of capital, 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 41 
 
 will defeat every unjustifiable union which the labour- 
 ers may form. 
 
 It is one of the most important truths resulting from 
 the analysis of manufacturing industry, that unions are 
 conspiracies of workmen against the interests of their 
 own order, and never fail to end in the suicide of the 
 body corporate which forms them ; an event the more 
 speedy, the more coercive or the better organized the 
 union is. The very name of union makes capital res- 
 tive, and puts ingenuity on the alert to defeat its 
 objects. When the stream of labour is suffered to 
 glide on quietly within its banks, all goes well ; when 
 forcibly dammed up, it becomes unprofitably stagnant 
 for a time, and then brings on a disastrous inundation. 
 Were it not for unions, the vicissitudes of employment, 
 and the substitution of automatic for hand work, 
 would seldom be so abrupt as to distress the operative.* 
 
 Some may imagine that the present work, which 
 purposes to give a minute analysis and description of 
 the several processes of manufacture, may prove in- 
 jurious to the trade of this country, by putting foreigners 
 in possession of much useful knowledge, now hardly 
 within their reach. To this I reply, that knowledge 
 is available just in proportion to the capacity and 
 means of the persons who acquire it. Every invention 
 and improvement relative to cotton fabrics is primarily 
 attracted to Manchester as the surest and most pro- 
 ductive scene of its development, where it can be most 
 profitable to the inventor, because most profitable to 
 the trade concentred there. Lancashire is the fertile 
 and well-laboured soil in which the seed of factory 
 
 * The full discussion of this toj)ic belongs to Book III. 
 
42 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 knowledge will bring forth fruit one hundred fold, 
 whereas abroad it can yield little more than a tenfold 
 return. However well informed the mill proprietors 
 of Great Britain may be, and they unquestionably may 
 bear a comparison in talent as in wealth with the 
 landed aristocracy in any part of the world, still they 
 may profit extremely by the methodical study of the 
 elements of their prosperity. Many of the machines 
 at present employed by them involve the most elegant 
 applications of both physical and mechanical science ; 
 such indeed as if duly studied would enable them to 
 understand the operative part of their business as clearly 
 as the commercial, and thus protect them from those 
 hazardous innovations which crafty projectors are per- 
 petually pressing upon their adoption. Prodigious 
 sums are wastefully expended every year by gentlemen 
 manufacturers in this way, which would be saved by 
 a more thorough acquaintance with those principles of 
 science and art which I shall endeavour to expound. 
 
 Several individuals who have embarked vast for- 
 tunes in factories are to a very great extent the victims 
 at least, if not the dupes, of scheming managers, who 
 are ever ready to display their perverse ingenuity by 
 the substitution of some intricate trap, for a simpler 
 but less showy mechanism. I have known not a few 
 cases, where a complete system of good machines, ca- 
 pable of doing excellent work, has been capriciously 
 turned out of a cotton factory and replaced by another 
 of greater expense, but of less productive powers, and 
 less suited to the style of work, than the old one if 
 skilfully managed. These substitutions are continual 
 in many establishments. They interfere most essen- 
 tially, and often unnecessarily, with the going of the 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 43 
 
 mill, and are referrible almost always to injudicious 
 choice at first, and capricious alterations afterwards, — 
 circumstances over which the proprietor, from ignorance 
 of the structure of a good machine, cannot always ven- 
 ture to exercise the proper control. There are no 
 doubt many mill-managers perfectly fitted by judg- 
 ment, knowledge, and integrity to second the sound 
 commercial views of the mill-owner, and to advance 
 the business with a profitable career. These practical 
 men form the soul of our factory system. But with 
 a wrong-headed, plausible manager, the proprietor is 
 sure to be led such a mechanical dance as will bewil- 
 der him completely, unless he has acquired a clear in- 
 sight into the arcana of the business by deliberate 
 study of the composition and performance of each ma- 
 chine in his factory. It may be supposed that this 
 species of education can be most easily acquired in 
 the midst of the machinery itself. But this is a mis- 
 take which experience speedily proves. 
 
 There exists in most cotton-spinning factories a 
 beautiful piece of mechanism called the bobbin and 
 fly frame, regulated by a principle of self-acting equa- 
 tions, which would do honour to the genius of Brunei. 
 In venturing to affirm that very few mill-owners un- 
 derstand the structure of this machine, I do not draw T 
 the inference presumptuously from the difficulty which 
 I myself encountered in comprehending the automa- 
 tic adjustments of its parts ; but from meeting with 
 several masters of the Manchester mills who were in- 
 competent to explain the train of its motions, however 
 obligingly they undertook the task. In fact one scienti- 
 fic gentleman, a complete master of that mechanism and 
 of every other used in the trade, who kindly acted on 
 
44 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 many occasions as Mentor in my factory researches, as- 
 sured me that his father, a very talented cotton-spin- 
 ner, as the country well knows, never can retain a clear 
 comprehension of certain differential adjustments in 
 the above machine for a week after it has been ex- 
 plained to him. Some of its movements being neces- 
 sarily inclosed, and of a curious nature, can be best 
 studied in an analytical drawing, where the whole con- 
 catenated motions are brought at once under the stu- 
 dent's eye. Such complex mechanisms, indeed, like 
 the topography of an irregular city, are most readily 
 comprehended by inspection of a plan, in which the 
 mutual bearings and connexions of the parts are ana- 
 lytically shown. The representations which I shall 
 have the honour of presenting to the public were made 
 by a talented draughtsman, who accompanied and 
 lived with me in the factory districts, and they were 
 submitted to some of the most eminent engineers and 
 machine-makers of Manchester, from whom they re- 
 ceived unqualified praise for accuracy as well as 
 elegance of execution. 
 
 I shall conclude this general view by stating, that 
 the moving power, besides performing its proper fac- 
 tory tasks of carding, roving, spinning, weaving, &c, 
 does a vast deal of miscellaneous drudgery. It 
 raises the coals from their bin in the boiler-yard by a 
 sloping series of buckets, like those of a dredging ma- 
 chine for deepening rivers, and delivers them on an 
 elevated railway platform into a waggon — through the 
 drop-bottom of which they are duly distributed among 
 the range of hoppers attached to Stanley's ingenious 
 furnace-feeding machines, and are thereby strewn into 
 the fires in proportion to the demand for steam to work 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 45 
 
 or warm the mill. In this way the fire-man is entirely 
 freed from muscular effort, so that he can tend with ease 
 many great steam-boilers, and is not liable through 
 ignorance or negligence to mismanage the heat, or 
 dissipate the fuel in such black clouds as lower over 
 a London brewery. It is no uncommon thing in Man- 
 chester to see engine-boilers equivalent to the force of 
 from 200 to 300 horses generating their steam without 
 any sensible smoke. 
 
 But there is another office more truly menial as- 
 signed to the engine, that of transporting any of the 
 work-people upwards or downwards to any floor of 
 the factory, to which their business may call them at 
 any time, and this with equal celerity and safety. To 
 ascend and descend rapidly through several flights of 
 stairs is no trifling source of fatigue, as domestic ser- 
 vants in some fashionable houses well know. Masters of 
 mills, with the twofold motive of benevolence and eco- 
 nomy, have long ago taken measures to supersede this 
 painful exertion, by the construction of moveable plat- 
 forms, inclosed in upright tunnels placed in convenient 
 parts of their many-storied buildings. This apparatus 
 is called a hoist or a teagle, and is usually of such size 
 and stability, as to allow half a dozen of persons, old 
 and young, to travel at once from any one floor to any 
 other. The motion is perfectly smooth and agreeable, 
 as I have often experienced ; and is so entirely under 
 control, as to cease at any desired instant opposite to 
 any of the issue-doors in the side of the tunnel. 
 
 The muscular force expended in mounting stairs 
 was made the subject of experiment by M. Cou- 
 lomb. Amontons had previously found that an active 
 man, weighing 150 lbs. English, was completely ex- 
 
46 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 hausted in ascending, by steps, sixty-five feet in thirty- 
 two seconds. The full work of a man is obtained by his 
 going up stairs at the rate of forty-five feet in one mi- 
 nute. A man weighing 160 lbs. can ascend by stairs 
 three feet per second for a space of fifteen or twenty 
 seconds ; and if he be supposed going up stairs for a 
 day, he actually raises 450 lbs. to the height of 3281 
 feet ; or 1,476,450 lbs. one foot high. If the day be 
 reckoned at ten hours, or 600 minutes, he will raise 
 2460 lbs. one foot high in a minute, which is only one- 
 thirteenth of Watt's estimate of a horse's power =32000 
 lbs. raised one foot high per minute. With a winch a 
 man does, according to Coulomb, only five-eighths as 
 much work as in going up stairs. If the above obser- 
 vations be nearly correct, they prove the expenditure 
 of power in ascending stairs to be great. Coulomb 
 says that this mode of action is the most advantageous 
 for the muscular force of man, though he rates its 
 amount at little more than one-half of Smeaton's esti- 
 mate of an English labourer's force. 
 
 The mechanism of the teagle will be understood by 
 the following description and drawing taken from one 
 ^ of the most improved forms made by Frost of Derby, 
 who in concert with the late William Strutt, Esq., had 
 the merit of inventing this very elegant automatic 
 machine. 
 
 The teagle (tackle?) or hoist, consists of three 
 principal parts. 
 
 1. The perpendicular shaft or pit, having a hori- 
 zontal section, of about five or six feet square, placed 
 in the most convenient part of the building, and ex- 
 tending from the ground-floor to the top story. 
 
 2. The ascending and descending platform, sus- 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 47 
 
 pended by ropes from pulleys, and moved up and 
 down by machinery. It is a strong frame- work of 
 timber, about six feet high, boxed up on three sides 
 with deals, leaving the front side open, in correspon- 
 dence with a series of doors on the several floors of the 
 factory. The power required for hoisting is mode- 
 rated by over-balancing the platform with two counter- 
 weights, together about a hundred weight heavier than 
 itself, which ascend and descend equably with the de- 
 scent and ascent of the platform ; and which, as well 
 as the platform, are suspended by ropes from the oppo- 
 site sides of the shaft to secure a steady vertical motion. 
 Two large planks are fixed upright upon the opposite 
 walls of the shaft, as guides to the platform, and two 
 smaller ones as guides to the counter-weights, the 
 latter being sunk groovewise into the building. 
 
 3. The third part of the teagle is the machinery 
 capable of being set in train with the moving power. 
 
 Fig. 1 shows a longitudinal view of the working geer, 
 and a section of the pit with the platform raised to the 
 top story, opposite the door of the uppermost floor. 
 Fig. 2 is a plan of the whole with the platform de- 
 scending. Fig. 3 is a cross section through a curious 
 part of the mechanism. 
 
 I shall give first a popular explanation of the prin- 
 ciple on which the hoist operates. 
 
 Every observant visiter of a factory must have no- 
 ticed that the endless strap or belt which descends 
 from the driving shaft to the steam pulley on the end 
 of a carding, spinning, or weaving organ, (see the 
 loom-factory view at the end of the volume,) some- 
 times has its two pieces running parallel to each other, 
 as in that view, and sometimes has them crossed 
 
48 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 Fig, 1.— The Teagle. 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 49 
 
50 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 over each other. The first arrangement, called the 
 open strap, communicates motion in the one direction, 
 while the other arrangement communicates motion in 
 the opposite direction. Suppose now, that there is a 
 fast pulley on the axis of any machine, and close to it, 
 on either side, a similar pulley loose on the same 
 axis ; of which one is driven by an open strap, and the 
 other by a crossed or close one. If the one strap be 
 shifted upon the fast pulley, it will drive the machine 
 in one direction, but if the other strap be shifted upon 
 it, it will drive the machine in the opposite direction ; 
 that is, the machine according as it is driven by the 
 open or close strap may be made to work upwards 
 or downwards at pleasure, as in raising or lowering 
 weights, &c. 
 
 When both belts are shifted upon the loose pulleys, 
 the machine has no hold of the load, and would there- 
 fore allow it to fall by the influence of gravity, were 
 there not some restraining power. This restraint is 
 exercised by a brake, which presses strongly on the 
 circumference of a wheel in train with the machinery, 
 and fixes the whole by a force of friction proportional 
 to the weight acting on the brake. Now, to move the 
 load up or down, the brake must be removed at the 
 same instant that the appropriate strap is shifted upon 
 the fast pulley of the machine. The same contrivance 
 which replaces the strap on the loose pulley, replaces 
 the pressure of the brake on the friction-wheel. 
 
 Before describing minutely the structure of the hoist, 
 it is proper to mention that all movements produced 
 by straps ought to be pretty rapid, since, when slow, 
 they are apt to permit a slipping of the bands on the 
 surface of the driving-drums or pulleys. As, there- 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 51 
 
 fore, in this way, the pulley-shaft of the teagle would 
 require too great a speed, for being connected directly 
 with the hoisting rope, it transfers its motion, by means 
 of a pinion and a wheel, to a second shaft, which 
 travels at such a rate as to cause the platform to rise 
 or fall through two feet in the second. 
 
 A A (figs. 1 and 2) are the opposite walls of the ver- 
 tical tunnel, which support at top the beams of the ma- 
 chinery. B is one of the doors leading to an apartment 
 of the mill : C is the platform or hoisting box : D, one 
 of the counterweights, both connected to the ends of the 
 two ropes E E, which run in grooves over the hoisting 
 pulley F, and thence over the guide pulleys G and 
 H. The counterweight D cannot be seen in its proper 
 place in this figure, but has its cord discontinuous, to 
 show the shortening, in order to bring the weight into 
 sight. When the platform is at the top, its counter- 
 weight must obviously be at the bottom of the tunnel. 
 
 F and K are the steam or impelling pulleys, fre- 
 quently called riggers (outriggers? as they stand out 
 from the side of the machine, like outrigger-sails in a 
 ship) by engineers. They are moved by two straps 
 proceeding from the principal turning-shaft in that 
 part of the factory. Instead of having one fast pulley 
 common to both straps, as mentioned, for simplicity 
 sake, in our general description, two are used in this 
 teagle, and are to be seen distinctly at a 6, in the hori- 
 zontal plan (fig. 2), though concealed in the view (fig. 
 1), by the wheels at K and F. 
 
 The first of these, near K, is for the crossed, and the 
 second, near I, is for the open strap. The adjoining 
 loose pulleys c, and d 5 have double the breadth of the 
 fast ones, in order that both straps may have room to 
 
 d2 
 
52 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF 
 
 run on their loose pulleys at the same time, so that by 
 shifting them both to the right or to the left, only the 
 one of them will run on the fast pulley, while the 
 other will move upon the spare half of the loose pul- 
 ley. L is the large brake wheel, against the under 
 semi-circumference of which the leather belt L' may 
 be made to press, by means presently to be explained. 
 The dotted little circle at K (fig. 1), shows the form of 
 a small pinion M (fig. 2), which is placed on the other 
 end of the axis of the brake, and works in the teeth of 
 the wheel N, so as to drive it round, and thereby to 
 turn the hoisting pulley F. O O are two iron uprights 
 standing upon the beams which support the bearings 
 of the above-mentioned shafts. In fig. 3, an end view 
 is shown of such an upright frame, or a cross section 
 
 L' 
 
 through the beams. One use of these frames is to 
 guide the brake-belt L' in moving up and down for 
 giving friction to, or removing it from, the brake- 
 wheel L. The ends of that belt consist of two pieces 
 of strong leather sewed together, and rivetted to two 
 screw bolts (seen in the middle of fig. 3), which may 
 be attached to two bars of iron ee, sliding between 
 flanges on the frames O O, figs. 1 and 2. With the 
 top ends of these slide-pieces e e, are connected the 
 levers / / (of which one is seen in fig. 3, and both 
 in fig. 2), carrying weights for lifting up the belts 
 
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 53 
 
 against the brake-wheel, when the machine is out of 
 geer : g g is a square iron frame suspended by two rods 
 h h on each of the large wooden frames O O. This iron 
 frame, to which are fixed the guides i i for moving the 
 straps, may therefore be shifted to the right or left, 
 in order to produce the reversals of motion required. 
 At the same time, however, that they are moved in 
 one of these directions, the frame g g presses the two 
 crank levers I /, and acts, of course, upon the slide- 
 pieces e e which hold the brake- strap, and by depressing 
 it, set the brake-wheel free. By bringing back the 
 swinging frame g g into its first position, the levers I I 
 cease to press upon the slide-pieces e e, so that the 
 weights of the levers / / are again able to draw down 
 and detach the brake L'. 
 
 It is proper now to state how a person ascending on 
 the platform may push the frame e e into a position 
 suitable to his purpose, and may keep it in that 
 position. 
 
 P is a slender shaft, upon which there is a rope pul- 
 ley Q, directly over the middle part of the tunnel, 
 and in the line, in which the endless rope R (fig. 1) 
 goes through the floor of the platform down to the bot- 
 tom of the pit, in order to pass under a tightening 
 pulley. On the same slender shaft are two arms m m, 
 united, by two connecting rods nn, to the swinging 
 frame e e. By pulling one of the ropes R at any part 
 of its length to which the platform may have arrived, 
 the shaft P will be made to turn round through an arc 
 of 90 degrees, whereby the projecting arms m m will 
 be brought into a straight line with the connecting 
 rods, which move the frame e e (fig. 3), and thus 
 cause the performance of the already-described move- 
 
54 GENERAL VIEW OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 ments. The position of the arms m m, and the con- 
 necting rods nn (shown in fig. 2), in one line will 
 prevent the frame e e from moving out of the posture 
 it was brought into, till by pulling at the other rope 
 R, the shaft P revolves back again through 90 degrees, 
 and restores its arms m m to the perpendicular direc- 
 tion. 
 
 At a certain point of the top and bottom part of the 
 rope RR are affixed balls, which strike against two 
 rings fixed to the platform, when this has arrived 
 either at its uppermost or undermost position. By 
 these means the platform pulls the rope R and sets 
 itself at rest, so as to prevent every possible accident. 
 When it is required to stop at any intermediate point, 
 the person ascending or descending pulls one of the 
 ropes, marked in the factory teagle with A and D 
 (ascend and descend), and which he learns to do with 
 such nicety that he very seldom errs more than an 
 inch or two in planting the bottom of the platform on 
 a level with the desired spot. 
 
 The ropes R R require to be pulled through a 
 space of from twelve to fifteen inches before they pro- 
 duce the required change of motion ; and hence they 
 cannot be affected by any casual twitch. 
 
55 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Arrangement and Connexion of Manufactures. 
 
 The object of manufactures is to modify the pro- 
 ductions of nature into articles of necessity, conveni- 
 ence, or luxury, by the most economical and unerring 
 means. They have all three principles of action, or 
 three organic systems ; the mechanical, the moral, and 
 the commercial, which may not unaptly be compared 
 to the muscular, the nervous, and the sanguiferous 
 systems of an animal. They have also three interests 
 to subserve, that of the operative, the master, and the 
 state, and must seek their perfection in the due deve- 
 lopment and administration of each. The mechanical 
 being should always be subordinated to the moral 
 constitution, and both should co-operate to the com- 
 mercial efficiency. Three distinct powers concur to 
 their vitality, — labour, science, capital; the first des- 
 tined to move, the second to direct, arid the third to 
 sustain. When the whole are in harmony, they form 
 a body qualified to discharge its manifold functions 
 by an intrinsic self-governing agency, like those of 
 organic life. 
 
 Manufactures are divisible into two great classes, 
 according as they change the external form, or the 
 internal constitution of their raw material. Hence the 
 distinction of mechanical and chemical arts. Each 
 class may be subdivided into three families, according 
 
56 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND CONNEXION 
 
 as it operates on mineral, vegetable, or animal sub- 
 stances, thus presenting to the student three orders of 
 manufactures, which possess many interesting natural 
 affinities. 
 
 Iron will afford the means of illustrating these rela- 
 tions. The ore of the metal is detected and valued by 
 chemical research ; but it is dug, and brought to the 
 market, by mechanical agency. The chemist con- 
 ducts the process of smelting it into cast iron, as well 
 as the conversion of the crude metal into malleable 
 iron and steel, aided by the ministry of the engineer. 
 For the purposes of art, iron is deprived of its metallic 
 state, and acquires many new forms and qualities, by 
 new combinations of its elementary particles. Its 
 various oxides, sulphurets, salts, &c, therefore belong 
 to chemical manufactures. The mechanical group 
 comprehends the operations of the foundry, the forge, 
 the rolling-mill, the slitting-mill, the flatting-mill, &c. 
 
 The general classification of the mechanical manu- 
 factures may be made either in the order of their 
 respective subjects, as these are arranged by the 
 natural historian, in the mineral, vegetable, and animal 
 kingdoms, or according to the nature of the mechanical 
 and physical actions exercised on these subjects. On 
 the former plan, analogous arts would often be neces- 
 sarily disjoined, in consequence of the disjoined origin 
 of their materials, however similar their principles and 
 processes might be. Thus the woollen and cotton ma- 
 nufactures, though closely allied, would need to be se- 
 parately considered under the two distinct departments 
 of the animal and vegetable world. The true philo- 
 sophical principle of classifying the mechanical manu- 
 factures, is to arrange them in the order of the general 
 
OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 properties of matter, which it is their object to modify. 
 The several properties on which mechanical and phy- 
 sical forces are made to act, in order to change the 
 forms of bodies for the uses of life, are the following : — 
 
 1. Divisibility ; 2. Impenetrability, or repnlsive- 
 ness ; 3. Permeability , or porosity ; 4. Cohesiveness ; 
 5. Ductility; 6. Malleability ; 7. Inertia; 8. Gra- 
 vitation; 9. Elasticity ; 10. Softness ; 11. Tenacity; 
 12. Fusibility ; 13. Crystallizability. 
 
 I. Divisibility. — To this head may be referred the 
 following processes of Art. 1. Pulverizing dry sub- 
 stances ; 2. Triturating solid substances, with liquids, 
 into a pasty consistence ; 3. Boring ; 4. Sawing ; 
 5. Rasping and chipping ; 6. Tearing ; 7. Abrading 
 surfaces; 8. Splitting; 9. Planing; 10. Turning sur- 
 faces ; 11. Shearing surfaces; 12. Granulating and 
 shot casting; 13. Distilling; 14. Subliming ; 15. Ex- 
 ploding, or blasting for mining purposes ; 16. Com- 
 minution of earths and soils. 
 
 1. Pulverization. — This operation is performed by 
 various machines, according to the nature of the sub- 
 stance to be pulverized ; such as corn-mills, flour- 
 mills, drug-mills ; manganese, chrome ore, and other 
 mills for pulverizing mineral substances ; dye-mills^ 
 stamp-mills, and other crushing machinery, &c. 
 
 2. Trituration. — To this head belong colour or 
 paint mills, flint and other pottery mills, and commi- 
 nuting processes ; certain drug-mills ; patio, and other 
 amalgamation w r orks, &c. 
 
 3. Boring. — Here the action of the cutter and drill 
 is employed to form cylindrical cavities for steam- 
 engines, hydraulic-presses, pump-barrels, cannon, gun- 
 barrels ; mine and artesian well-boring, &c. 
 
 D O 
 
58 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND CONNEXION 
 
 4. Sawing comprehends every species of mill for 
 cutting off flat plates of timber, stone, metal, &c; such 
 as saw-mills of every kind, marble-mills, stone-cutting 
 works, &c. 
 
 5. Hasping and chipping. — Under these titles would 
 fall masonry or stone-hewing, the mechanical part of 
 statuary ; rasping- mills for logwood, beet-root ; and 
 machines for chipping the teeth of wheel patterns, &c. 
 
 6. Tearing. — To this head may be referred paper- 
 making, as well as flax heckling, for tearing off its 
 parenchymatous matter, threshing-machines, &c. 
 
 7. Abrasion of surfaces. — This process will com- 
 prehend all filing and polishing operations, such as 
 grinding and polishing of metals, of glass, marble, &c. 
 Mirror and lens making belong to this class, as well 
 as cutlery grinding of every kind. 
 
 8. Splitting. — Here would be considered the art of 
 splitting skins for cards and parchment; splitting tim- 
 ber for laths, whalebone, and other fibrous sub- 
 stances, &c. 
 
 9. Planing. — Planing machines, now so beneficially 
 used hi the working of metals for machinery of every 
 kind, as well as for flooring, and other planks of wood, 
 fall under this division, as well as the key-groove 
 cutting-machines, and many others. 
 
 10. Turning. — Every species of turning lathe in 
 which a cutting edge is applied to surfaces in a state 
 of rapid revolution, belongs to this process. 
 
 1 1 . Shearing. — This process includes that beautiful 
 branch of manufacture, by which woollen cloth, after 
 being w r oven, is finished, with a soft smooth surface. 
 It is performed on the principle of shaving, by moving 
 a slightly inclined, or nearly horizontal blade, close to 
 
OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 59 
 
 the downy surface. As mowing machines operate 
 in a similar way, they may be considered under this 
 head. 
 
 12. Granulating and shot casting. — In these pro- 
 cesses, the property of divisibility is acted on by the 
 solvent power of heat, which, skilfully made use of, 
 saves the labour of grinding a fusible solid. The 
 melted mass being nearly void of cohesion, is separable 
 like water into a shower of drops, which congeal in the 
 course of their descent from the top of the shot-towers 
 into the water-cistern at their base. The refiner of 
 gold and silver, and the alloy er in general, granulate 
 their melted metal, by pouring it on a bundle of moist 
 twigs, or by trituration in a cold mortar. 
 
 13. Distilling. — Here again the force of caloric 
 divides matter, whether solid or liquid, into separate 
 substances, in the order of their expansiveness by that 
 physical agent. All the varieties of stills belong to 
 this head, all the mechanical processes of the rectifier 
 and compounder of alcohol, the manufacturers of coal 
 gas and pyroligneous acid, &c. 
 
 14. Subliming. — The same physical influence is here 
 employed to divide and comminute, by separating the 
 more volatile parts of bodies, which, in the aeriform 
 state of repulsiveness among their particles being sud- 
 denly cooled, precipitate in an impalpable powder. 
 
 15. Exploding, or blasting. — The property of divi- 
 sibility is, in this case, acted upon and made effective, 
 by the sudden generation of elastic fluid i&f such force 
 as to overcome the cohesion of the solid mass. Under 
 this head might perhaps be considered the simple ac- 
 tion of ignition in effecting the disintegration of rocks 
 for mining purposes. 
 
60 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND CONNEXION 
 
 16. Comminuting or disintegrating earths and soils, 
 i — Tillage, with the spade, pickaxe, plough, harrow, &c. 
 
 To till the ground, or break the stubborn glebe 
 with the furrow, is merely a division of its parts, to 
 render the earthy substances friable, in order that the 
 roots of plants may insinuate themselves more easily 
 into it, that the rains and dews may penetrate more 
 readily to these roots, that any excess of water may 
 more freely exhale ; and lastly, that the air of the 
 atmosphere may get access to the vegetable mould of 
 the soil, and convert it into soluble vegetable food, on 
 principles developed by chemistry. The proper com- 
 minution of the soil by the plough and the harrow is 
 serviceable also in destroying weeds, in bringing up to 
 the surface fresh layers of earth, incorporating with it 
 manure and other improvers, and in giving a slope to 
 the ground favourable to its drainage. The importance 
 of the pulverizing process is so well known, that tillage 
 and agriculture have been long used as synonymous 
 terms. All its processes act on the divisibility of the 
 soil in three ways : 1. By the spade ; 2. by the pick- 
 axe and hoe ; 3. by the plough, with its wedge-shaped 
 share, which cuts obliquely through the clod, and 
 turns it over to one side. Spade tillage suits best for 
 a soil which is uniform in texture, deep, compact, 
 level, and not very stony or moist. That of the pick- 
 axe, or mattock, is most proper for land that is stony, 
 dry, difficult to penetrate, and uneven, or sloping, in its 
 surface. The plough, though a less perfect pulverizing 
 agent, is more expeditious, economical, and "generally 
 applicable to grounds, excepting to steep declivities. 
 The best form of ploughshare for dividing the soil is 
 an interesting problem in mechanical philosophy. 
 
OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 61 
 
 II. Impenetrability. — This property gives rise to 
 works for separating, by compression, the liquid from 
 the solid parts of bodies, in virtue of the impenetrability 
 of matter. Under this class are comprehended oil-mills, 
 sugar-mills, beet-root presses, cocoa-nut lard-mills, all 
 of which operate either by the flat pressure of a hy- 
 draulic or screw press, or by the pressure of surfaces 
 rolling on each other; the object being to extract in- 
 compressible liquid matter from the interstitial pores 
 of a solid. Die presses for coining, and transferring 
 engravings from hard steel to soft steel or copper, may 
 be arranged either under impenetrability or con- 
 densability. 
 
 III. Permeability. — This property admits of one 
 or more matters to pass through or impregnate the 
 interstices of solids. Filtering apparatus for sugar 
 refiners, for purifying oils, and many other liquids, by 
 means of bibulous paper, sand, stones, with or without 
 external pressure, as well as dyeing, calico-printing, 
 letter-press, copper-plate, and lithographic printing, 
 belong to this head. { 
 
 IV. Cohesion, ductility, malleability, lamina- 
 bility. — These are kindred properties, and are the 
 foundations of kindred works, such as wire-drawing, 
 and tube-drawing apparatus, rolling-mills, flatting- 
 mills, tilting-mills, laminating-mills, gold and silver 
 leaf-beating, &c. 
 
 V. Inertia, gravitation. — In reference to these 
 properties, the raising, lowering, and removing weights 
 come to be considered. These effects are produced 
 by cranes, capstans, windlasses, gins for raising coals, 
 and other minerals ; pulleys, wheels, and axles ; 
 inclined planes for joining different canal levels ; 
 
62 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND CONNEXION 
 
 pumps,, for lifting water ; dredging machines ; car- 
 riages of every kind. The equilibrium of architecture 
 and of ship-building may be treat ed here. 
 
 VI. Elasticity, softness, and tenacity.— These 
 three properties are combined in the constitution of tor- 
 tile fibres used for making webs of various kinds, and 
 give rise to the arts of spinning, knitting, and weaving 
 mineral, vegetable, and animal filaments ; the princi- 
 pal of which are the manufactures of cotton, wool, 
 flax, and silk. Rope-making and wire-working belong 
 also to this head. Under tortility must likewise be 
 considered the processes of fulling, felting, and the 
 manufacture of hats. 
 
 VII. Fusibility. — To this property belong foun- 
 dries of the different metals, and the mechanical part 
 of glass-making, as well as casting figures in plaster, 
 wax, &c. 
 
 VIII. Crystalizability. — This property includes 
 the various physical principles of the manufactures 
 of saline substances, such as salt-works, nitre-works, 
 alum- works, &c. 
 
 The sixth of the above divisions comprehends 
 the mechanical arts most interesting to man. Here 
 he has exercised his best talents in producing raiment 
 of every variety for his comfort and decoration ; and 
 here, accordingly, he has organized systems of in- 
 dustry no less remarkable for their magnitude than 
 for their perfection. In certain parts of the clothing 
 manufactures moreover automatic machinery has been 
 so extensively substituted for the labours of intelli- 
 gence, that the superintendence of young persons has 
 come to supersede the costly toil of adults to such an 
 extent, that the vast multitudes of children thus em- 
 
OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 63 
 
 ployed have, of late years, attracted the earnest consi- 
 deration of the public, and have, in consequence, led 
 the legislature to frame a code of factory laws for their 
 protection. These relate solely to the arts of spinning 
 and weaving by power, as exercised in cotton-mills, 
 woollen-mills, flax-mills, and silk-mills. 
 
 Chemical Manufactures. 
 
 Those arts which involve the operation of chemical 
 affinities, and consequently a change in the constitution 
 of their subject matter, may be distributed into three 
 groups, according to the kingdom of nature to which 
 they belong; the mineral, the vegetable, and the 
 animal. ' 
 
 Class I. The chemical manufactures employed on 
 mineral, or more accurately speaking, inorganic mat- 
 ter, may be arranged conveniently under four heads : — 
 1. Those which operate on metallic bodies; 2. On 
 earthy and stony substances ; 3. On combustibles; 
 4. On saline substances. 
 
 Class II. The chemical manufactures which modify 
 vegetable substances may be distributed according to 
 the chemical analogies of these substances ; as starch, 
 sugar, oils, essences, &c. 
 
 Class III. The chemical manufactures which modify 
 animal substances may likewise be distributed accord- 
 ing to the chemical analogies of their respective ob- 
 jects ; as gelatin or glue, albumen, skin, horn, &c. 
 
 Class I. Order 1. Arts and manufactures of metallic 
 substances : — 
 
 1. Extraction, purification, alloying of the precious 
 metals, gold, silver, &c, and their different chemical 
 preparations. 
 
64 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND CONNEXION 
 
 2. The arts of smelting copper, and making its 
 alloys, its saline, and other preparations. 
 
 3. The arts of smelting iron, and making its alloys, 
 its saline, and other preparations. 
 
 4. The arts of smelting lead, &c. 
 
 5. The arts of smelting tin, &c. 
 
 6. The arts of smelting mercury, &c. 
 
 7. The arts of smelting zinc, &c. 
 
 8. The arts of smelting bismuth, &c. 
 
 9. The arts of smelting antimony, &c. 
 
 10. The arts of smelting cobalt, &c. 
 
 11. The arts of smelting nickel, &c. 
 
 12. The arts of smelting manganese, &c. 
 
 13. The arts of smelting arsenic, &c. 
 
 14. The arts of smelting chromium, &c. 
 
 15. The arts of extracting the other metals, cad- 
 mium, bismuth, rhodium, &c. 
 
 Class I. Order 2. Arts and manufactures of earthy 
 and stony substances. 
 
 1. Those which operate on calcareous substances; 
 such as limestones, gypsum, fluor-spar, &c. Mortars. 
 
 2. Those which operate on argillaceous earth or 
 clay ; as the manufactures of pottery, porcelain, &c. 
 
 3. Those which operate on siliceous matter. Manu- 
 facture of glass. 
 
 Class I. Order 3. Arts and manufactures of com- 
 bustible substances. 
 
 1. Sulphur. Manufacture of sulphuric acid. 
 
 2. Coal. Manufacture of coal gas, and its various 
 products. 
 
 3. Amber, petroleum, bitumen, asphaltum. 
 
 Class I. Order 4. Arts and manufactures of mineral 
 saline substances. 
 
OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 65 
 
 h Rock., or sea-salt; salt works of various kinds; 
 manufacture of muriatic acid, and of chlorine. Art of 
 bleaching. 
 
 2. Alum — its manufacture. 
 
 3. Natron, or soda — its manufacture. 
 
 4. Potash — its manufacture. 
 
 5. Sal-ammoniac — its manufacture. 
 
 6. Nitre — its manufacture; that of gunpowder, 
 nitric acid, &c. 
 
 7. Borax — its manufacture. 
 
 8. Sulphate of magnesia — its manufacture. 
 
 Class II. The chemical manufactures of vegetable 
 substances. 
 
 Order 1. The art of extracting and refining sugar. 
 
 2. The art of extracting and purifying starch. 
 
 3. The art of making artificial gum. 
 
 4. Extraction and purification of fixed oils, drying 
 and unctuous oils, such as linseed-oil, castor-oil, nut- 
 oil, &c, oil of olives, of almonds, of the palm, of the 
 cocoa-nut, &c. Manufacture of oil soaps, 
 
 5. Extraction and purification of volatile oils, such 
 as oil of turpentine, citron, anise, cinnamon, laven- 
 der, &c. Art of the perfumer. 
 
 6. Art of purifying and bleaching wax. 
 
 7. Extraction and purification of resinous bodies, 
 such as common rosin, lac, mastic, &c. Manufacture 
 of varnishes and sealing-wax. 
 
 8. Extraction of caoutchouc; caoutchoucine. Manu- 
 facture of water-proof cloth. 
 
 9. Preparation of extracts for the apothecary ; ex- 
 tract of nut-galls. Manufacture of ink. 
 
 10. Extraction of the colouring matters of plants, 
 
66 ARRANGEMENT AND CONNEXION, &C. 
 
 as of madder, safflower, archil, logwood, weld, indigo, 
 &c. Arts -of dyeing and calico-printing. 
 
 11. Art of fermenting vegetable juices and extracts 
 into wine, beer, &c. Breweries, distilleries, &c. 
 
 12. Art of fermenting vegetable juices and extracts 
 into vinegar. 
 
 13. Art of fermenting dough into bread. Baking. 
 
 14. Decomposition of wood by fire in close vessels. 
 Pyroxilic acid, spirit, and naphtha. 
 
 15. Preparation of composts by the putrid decom- 
 position of vegetable substances. Agriculture as a 
 chemical art. 
 
 Class III. — The chemical manufactures of animal 
 substances are, — 
 
 1. The art of extracting and purifying gelatin ; or 
 the manufactures of glue, size, isinglas, &c. 
 
 2. The art of extracting butter from milk. Manu- 
 facture of cheeses. 
 
 3. The art of converting skin into leather, or tanning. 
 
 4. The art of the tallow-chandler. Purification of 
 spermaceti. 
 
 5. The manufacture of tallow and other soaps. 
 
 6. Preparation of animal pigments — carmine from 
 cochineal. 
 
 7. The art of curing animal food. 
 
 8. Decomposition of animal substances by fire. 
 Manufacture of sal-ammoniac, and of Prussian blue. 
 
 The preceding table presents merely the more 
 general objects and subdivisions. 
 
67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Topography and Statistics of the Factory System. 
 
 The topography of the textile manufactures is a most 
 interesting subject of philosophical research. It in- 
 vestigates the causes why one district is occupied 
 chiefly with cotton fabrics, a second with flax, a third 
 with wool, and a fourth with silk. The reason of the 
 predominance of factory over agricultural employment 
 in any province of this island is more obvious, and 
 may be generally traced to the abundance of motive 
 power, in the form of fuel or water-courses. 
 
 Some circumstances of ancient date, now little known, 
 have had a share in determining the locality of par- 
 ticular manufactures. Where the soil is too thin to be 
 productive to the plough, it is converted into sheep 
 walks, as in the north-eastern parts of Scotland, and 
 thereby gives birth to the woollen trade, first in a 
 handicraft way, and afterwards by machinery. The 
 convenience of harbours for intercourse with foreign 
 countries, rich in certain raw materials, naturally de- 
 termines their importation and also their manufacture, 
 provided the population of the neighbourhood be nu- 
 merous, active, and possessed of natural resources in 
 fire and water power. Thus the eastern counties of 
 Scotland having long carried on a shipping trade with 
 the opposite coast of Europe, where flax is much cul- 
 
68 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS 
 
 tivated, have been led to import it largely, and to work 
 it up on a corresponding scale. On the other hand, 
 cotton being imported chiefly from the West Indies 
 and United States into the two great western ports of 
 the island, Liverpool and Glasgow, in the neighbour- 
 hood of districts abounding in rivers and coal mines, 
 naturally occasioned the development of the cotton 
 manufactures of Lancashire, Lanarkshire, and Ren- 
 frewshire. What cause excluded them from Bristol ? 
 
 The worsted trade of England has been remarkably 
 developed in Leicester, the centre of the district where 
 the long-woolled breed of sheep has been reared with 
 greatest success. The softer and shorter stapled fleece 
 of the sheep reared in the south-western counties of 
 England naturally suggested the establishment of the 
 fine woollen-cloth manufacture in Gloucestershire, 
 Somersetshire, and Wiltshire. The peculiar facilities 
 for steam and water power enjoyed by Yorkshire have 
 favoured the rapid extension, within a few years, of the 
 same manufacture in several parts of that county. As 
 soon, however, as machinery becomes generally preva- 
 lent in any district, and possesses ample resources in 
 motive agents for its unlimited application, it will at- 
 tract to that district a great many manufactures in ad- 
 dition to the indigenous, and may, in fact, by the in- 
 fluence of such advantages, deprive other districts of 
 their original staple trade. The silk-weaving of Eng- 
 land sprung up in the cheap end of its metropolis, be- 
 cause it had to seek customers for its expensive or- 
 namental fabrics among the luxurious population of the 
 court ; and there it continued for a century, flourishing 
 and fading in alternate vicissitudes, though progressive 
 on the whole, till it has found in the self-acting power 
 
OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 69 
 
 machinery of the cotton-factory districts an attractive 
 influence injurious to the monopoly of Spitalfields. 
 
 The mechanical skill which Leeds long exercised in 
 the coarse woollen fabrics has been latterly directed 
 by some of its intelligent manufacturers to flax-spin- 
 ning, and has given to this branch a remarkably rapid 
 development. 
 
 Sometimes political events or local disturbances 
 turn the current of manufactures out of their native 
 beds into distant and unthought-of channels. The in- 
 quisitorial cruelties of the duke of Alva, and the revo- 
 cation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., violently 
 transplanted from the Netherlands and France a great 
 many thriving trades into the other countries of Europe. 
 The bobbin-net lace manufacture was the foster-child 
 of Nottingham, Loughborough, and some of the vil- 
 lages placed betwixt them, where it was growing up 
 into a vigorous manhood, till it was frightened from its 
 native home by the frame-breakers, who succeeded the 
 Luddites in their riotous career. Its patronizing capi- 
 talists were forced to make a tour through the remote 
 provinces of Wales, and the south-west of England, on 
 purpose to seek a quiet retirement, where they might 
 set down their ingenious industry aloof from lawless 
 ruffians. Thus the lace business suddenly emigrated 
 to Tiverton, Barnstaple, Taunton, and Chard, places 
 farther beyond London to the south, than its birth- 
 place Nottingham was to the north. 
 
 The following table exhibits the topographical dis- 
 tribution of the manufactures among the counties of 
 Great Britain. In former times, when the textile ma- 
 nufactures were handicraft occupations, they were esta- 
 blished,, as I have said, in reference to the near supply 
 
70 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS 
 
 of the raw materials, and to streams of pure water for 
 scouring, bleaching, or turning a little mill. Since the 
 introduction of machinery driven by steam-power, and 
 the extension of inland navigation for the cheap trans- 
 port of coals and goods, manufacturers have taken a 
 wider range in selecting their seats, and have been 
 guided in this respect as much by the convenience of 
 a good mart for home sale and exportation, as by any 
 other consideration. From this cause, Manchester and 
 Glasgow have attracted them in extraordinary numbers. 
 There is, however, something apparently capricious, 
 or at least difficult to account for in this business. If 
 cheap fuel, an abundant population, and a commodious 
 sea-port, be the circumstances most favourable to the 
 erection of manufactures, it may be asked, why have 
 they not led to their establishment in the neighbour- 
 hood of Edinburgh, where these three conditions 
 concur ? Much may be ascribed to the countervailing 
 influence of a previously organized emporium. Thus, 
 with the exception of a few large factories at Aberdeen, 
 and one at Stanley, near Perth, the Scotch cotton ma- 
 nufacture is almost entirely confined to the Glasgow 
 district. The energy of two or three capitalists will 
 sometimes determine the rise of a manufacture round 
 their residence, though apparently not the most con- 
 genial soil for its growth. To this circumstance is 
 probably owing the factory enterprise of Aberdeen, at 
 a distance from coals, and the non-factory character of 
 Edinburgh, built on the border of a great coal-field. 
 As railways multiply, they will multiply the sites of 
 manufactures, and lead to their establishment in many 
 inland districts where the population is redundant in 
 reference to rustic occupation, and ready to dispose of 
 its labour at a low rate. 
 
OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 71 
 
 The local fixation of a manufacture is a remarkable 
 circumstance. It has been found by the Glasgow 
 people impossible to transfer to themselves with all 
 the knowledge and opportunities they possess the pe- 
 culiar fabrics of Manchester ; and vice versa, the 
 Manchester pepple have made many efforts to natu- 
 ralize the muslin trade of Glasgow and Paisley, but 
 never with any advantage, so that the warehousemen 
 of the one town continue to get their supplies recipro- 
 cally from the other. 
 
 It is not pretended that the same quality of goods 
 could not be made indifferently at either of these era- 
 poria, but it could not be made at the same average 
 cost. Each of them endeavours, perhaps too much, 
 to outstrip the other in the race of reducing prices ; 
 but both have greatly benefited by the general cause 
 of that reduction, namely, the fall in the price of the 
 raw material and of the machinery. 
 
 American cotton-wool, which three years after the 
 peace was 18d. a pound, is now about 7d., and other 
 cottons in proportion. Now, in respect of a very 
 common article, supposing the price of the cotton- 
 wool 7cZ. the price of the cloth would be from 13d. to 
 I4ld. a pound. The throstle twist, which has been so 
 largely exported of late years, is made with almost no 
 manual labour ; and though it be low priced, it still 
 remunerates the skilful manufacturer of good capital. 
 And notwithstanding the competition of the cotton 
 trade in foreign countries, the export of twist from us to 
 them has materially increased. This increase may be 
 attributed to the very low price at which we can sell it. 
 Another advantage we possess is the cheapness as well 
 as excellence of our machinery. A machine which would 
 
72 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS 
 
 cost only 30Z. in Manchester, would cost 541. in the 
 United States ; and a dozen of spindles which would cost 
 only 4s. in the former place, would cost 14s. 6d. in the 
 latter. Hence the cotton manufacture of Russia is 
 hitherto confined to the Emperors establishments a 
 pet mill, carried on without reference to profit or loss. 
 Along with the fall of the raw material, if we consider 
 the improvement of machinery and of the workmen's 
 skill in using it, we shall understand how business can 
 be carried on still with profit, though with a much 
 smaller one than at the period of the peace. 
 
 The factory system extends no farther north than 
 Aberdeen, in which city it has been applied on a con- 
 siderable scale in several mills, in some to worsted, and 
 in others to flax and cotton, by the enterprising spirit of 
 the inhabitants, in a locality favoured by two powerful 
 streams and a convenient harbour. In coming south- 
 wards, numerous flax-mills occur along the whole line of 
 the eastern coast ; at Bervie, Montrose, Brechin, Dundee, 
 Arbroath, Cupar, Kirkland, Dysart, Kircaldy, King- 
 horn, Dunfermline, Perth, Blairgowrie ; of which nearly 
 forty of different magnitudes are referred to by the 
 Factory Commissioners. At Bannockburn and Stir- 
 ling, are a few woollen-mills. The Stanley mills, near 
 Perth, and the Deanston mills, near Doune, are two 
 great cotton works belonging to Glasgow houses, which 
 were planted in these remote localities on account of 
 their supply of water-power, and an industrious popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The next great factory district is Glasgow, and its 
 dependent stations at New Lanark, Paisley, the water 
 of Leven, Kilbarchan, Johnstone, Lochwinnoch, 
 Rothesay in the isle of Bute, and Old Kilpatrick in 
 
OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 73 
 
 Dumbartonshire, which are almost entirely occupied 
 with cotton fabrics, with the exception of Paisley, par- 
 tially employed in the manufacture of fancy silk goods. 
 To the south of the river Forth, the flax-spinning mill 
 of Mr. Craig, at Preston Holme, ten miles from Edin- 
 burgh, deserves to be noticed on account of its salu- 
 brious arrangements. 
 
 With the exception of Carlisle and its immediate 
 neighbourhood, factories are but thinly spread over the 
 four northern counties of England, the total amount 
 being only fifty-two, exclusive of Kendal, where there 
 is a considerable number occupied chiefly with woollen 
 fabrics. In the remarks on the population of the dif- 
 ferent counties of England a general view is given of 
 the nature and extent of their respective manufactures. 
 
 Few factories are yet established in Ireland, except 
 at Belfast, where several considerable cotton-mills have 
 been for many years in activity, and some large flax-, 
 mills have been recently erected. A few manufactures 
 exist in the vicinity of Dublin, particularly in the 
 calico-printing department. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 E 
 
74 
 
 POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES 
 
 POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES OF GREAT 
 [BRITAIN, DISTINGUISHING THE AGRICULTURAL FROM 
 THE MANUFACTURING LABOURERS. 
 
 County. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Agricul 
 tural 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Manu- 
 factur- 
 ing 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Bedford . . 
 Berks . 
 
 94,483 
 145,389 
 
 12,062 
 15,260 
 
 38 
 521 
 
 Bucks . 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Chester 
 
 146,529 
 143,955 
 334,391 
 
 17,196 
 16,964 
 19,153 
 
 369 
 39 
 13,305 
 
 Cornwall . 
 Cumberland . 
 
 300,938 
 169,681 
 
 19,856 
 11,849 
 
 107 
 
 3,214 
 
 Derby . . . 
 
 237,170 
 
 14,850 
 
 8,863 
 
 Devon . 
 
 494,478 
 
 38,667 
 
 1,221 
 
 Dorset 
 
 159,252 
 
 15,023 
 
 722 
 
 Durham . 
 
 253,910 
 
 9,100 
 
 2,547 
 
 Essex • • • 
 
 317,507 
 
 38,622 
 
 871 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 387,019 
 
 22,773 
 
 5,992 
 
 Hereford . 
 Hertford . 
 Huntingdon . 
 Kent . . . 
 
 111,211 
 
 143,341 
 53,192 
 479,155 
 
 13,892 
 15,099 
 
 0,004 
 
 38,265 
 
 63 
 290 
 
 476 
 
 Lancaster . 
 
 1,336,854 
 
 30,663 
 
 97,517 
 
 Leicester . 
 
 197,003 
 
 12,687 
 
 12,240 
 
 Lincoln 
 Middlesex . . 
 
 317,465 
 1,358,330 
 
 38,371 
 11,866 
 
 167 
 11,064 
 
 Monmouth 
 Norfolk • • 
 
 98,130 
 399,054 
 
 5,988 
 40,184 
 
 3,293 
 4,740 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Paper-makers 68 ; strawplatters. 
 Ditto, 220 ; sail-cloth ; 100 in silk 
 
 manufacture. 
 Ditto, 76 ; a few sacking. 
 
 Hundred of Macclesfield — 6,000 
 males in cottons ; 1,000 in silk j 
 5,500 in cotton and silk mixed ; 
 a few in worsted manufactories. 
 
 Paper-makers 23. 
 
 Cotton trade, about 2,000 males ; 
 calicoes and ginghams, 300 ; 
 woollens 170. 
 
 Cotton and silk, 1,700 adult males ; 
 frame-work and twist, 1,400; cot- 
 ton and silk hosiery, 1,200 ; calico 
 and ginghams, 600 ; lace 450 ; 
 tape 60; paper 40; 1,400 mis- 
 cellaneous manufactures. 
 
 Woollen, 700 adult males ; lace- 
 making with mechanics, 90. 
 
 Twine and sail-cloth from hemp, 
 400; woollen 80; silk 40. 
 
 Stuffs and carpeting, 550; glass- 
 bottles 500; weaving linen and 
 flax-dressing, 350 j woollens 70; 
 sail-cloth 52. 
 
 Silk manufacture 500 ; silk-ma- 
 chine makers 59. 
 
 Clothiers, 4,500 adult males; hats 
 600 ; stockings 300 ; lace 44 ; pins 
 150 ; tin-plates 70. 
 
 Hats and gloves at Leominster, 40. 
 
 Silk, 180 ; machine-makers, 49. 
 
 Paper, 30. 
 
 Calico-printers, 164; hop-bagging, 
 88. 
 
 Males 97.000, in cotton and silk ma- 
 nufactures ; woollen and worsted, 
 blankets and flannels, 2,700 ; 
 hats 850. 
 
 Stockings 10,000; lace-making 750; 
 linen, carpet, aud silk-weavers, 
 40 each. 
 
 Worsted and carpets, 28. 
 
 Silk at Spitalfields, 5,000 adult 
 males. 
 
 Iron and tin works. 
 
 Bombazines at Norwich 3,752 5 
 and elsewhere 574 ; hempen and 
 linen 100 ; winding and weaving 
 silk, 60. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 75 
 
 County. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural 
 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Manu- 
 factur- 
 
 Labour- 
 ' ers. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Northampton . 
 
 179,336 
 
 18,892 
 
 582 
 
 Northumberld 
 
 222,912 
 
 11,709 
 
 1,252 
 
 Nottingham . 
 
 225,327 
 
 14,213 
 
 14,260 
 
 Oxford . . 
 
 152,156 
 
 16,456 
 
 711 
 
 Rutland . . 
 Salop . 
 
 19,385 
 222,938 
 
 2,334 
 19,435 
 
 12 
 
 1,353 
 
 Somerset . 
 
 404,200 
 
 31,838 
 
 4,350 
 
 Southampton 1 
 or Hampshire [ 
 Stafford . . 
 
 314,280 
 410,512 
 
 25,909 
 20,471 
 
 292 
 26,755 
 
 Suffolk . . 
 Surrey 
 
 296,317 
 486,334 
 
 34,161 
 17,488 
 
 676 
 2,065 
 
 Sussex 
 Warwick . 
 
 272,340 
 336,610 
 
 27,455 
 16,786 
 
 109 
 11,375 
 
 Westmoreland . 
 
 55,041 
 
 5,159 
 
 1,074 
 
 Wilts . . . 
 
 240,156 
 
 25,947 
 
 3,497 
 
 Worcester . 
 
 211,365 
 
 15,850 
 
 8,024 
 
 Shoemakers 2,600 ; silk shag and 
 plush, 260 ; frame-work knitters 
 200; carpets 80. 
 
 Glass, coal, machinery, wool- 
 combers, 22. 
 
 Stockings and lace, 13600 adult 
 males; linen-weavers 69. 
 
 Blankets at Witney, 200, and else- 
 where 71 ; plush and girth mak- 
 ing, 165 : gloves 57. 
 
 Iron smelting and pottery; car- 
 peting 90; and flannels. 
 
 Woollen-cloth — at Frome, 730 
 males; Tiverton, near Bath, 284; 
 Lyncombe and Widcombe, 565 ; 
 Wellington, 258 ; several in other 
 places ; in whole 2,184 adult 
 males. Sail-cloth 300 ; silk and 
 lace at Chard, Bruton, Taunton, 
 &c, 608; woollen-cloth, &c. at 
 Shepton Mallet, ] 09 v ; flax manu- 
 facture 79; gloves 600; paper 
 
 Iron, hardwares, potteries. A little 
 cotton spinning at Burton-on- 
 Trent. 
 
 Mixed silk and worsted stuff's, 320. 
 Hatters in Southwark, including 
 
 hosiers, 476 ; total in the county, 
 
 1,407. 
 Paper 60. 
 
 Ribbons, 4,500 adult males, (one- 
 half in the city of Coventry); 
 weaving linen 100 ; needles 350 ; 
 Birmingham wares 10,000. 
 
 Cotton checks, kerseys, linsey, 
 blankets, &c. at Kendal, between 
 500 and 600. Worsted and wool- 
 lens elsewhere to a moderate 
 extent. 
 
 Fine broadcloth and kerseymere at 
 Trowbridge, 1,000; at Bradford, 
 600 ; besides fully 1,400 in the 
 parish of Westbury and in other 
 places, making in all 3,000 adult 
 males. Carpets at Wilton, 40. 
 
 Hardware, carpets, china, gloves ;: 
 iron-works, gun-barrels, fish- 
 hooks, salt ; at Kidderminster. 
 2,300 in carpet making ; Worces- 
 ter 1,000 men, and many more 
 women in glove-making ; china- 
 ware 50. 
 
 E 2 
 
76 POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES 
 
 County. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Agricul 
 tural 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Manu- 
 factur- 
 
 ing 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 YORK. 
 
 East Riding . 
 
 City & Ainsty. 
 North Riding . 
 
 West Riding . 
 
 168,891 
 
 35,362 
 190,756 
 
 976,350 
 
 14,388 
 
 1,437 
 18,980 
 
 35,138 
 
 175 
 
 211 
 1,005 
 
 74,669 
 
 Ropes and sail-cloth, at Kingston- 
 
 upon-Hull, 100. 
 Linen manufacture, 200. 
 Domestic weavers numerous, but 
 
 scattered; sailcloth at Whitby» 
 
 90. 
 
 Woollen cloth greatly increased 
 during the war which terminated 
 in 1815. In consequence of the 
 introduction of machinery like 
 that invented for the cot ton trade, 
 much of the west-country cloth- 
 ing trade was transferred to this 
 county. In the three wapentakes 
 of Agbrigg, Morley.and Skyrack, 
 are found 17,000, 22,000, and 
 29,000 males, twenty years old 
 thus employed ; in all 68,000. 
 The limit of the county of Lan- 
 caster defines pretty exactly the 
 demarcation line of the woollen 
 and cotton trade in this part of 
 the kingdom. Halifax 12,000; 
 Leeds 9,400; Bradford 7,900; 
 Almondbury parish 4,500 ; wors- 
 ted and silk at Huddersfield, 
 3,700; Kirk-Burton 2,400; Cal- 
 verley 2,100. At Saddleworth, 
 the frontier towns, &c. 1,300 in 
 woollen ; and 1,500 in the cotton 
 manufactories. In linen and 
 thread, at Leeds, 500 ; at Barns- 
 ley 1,300; wapentake of Claro, 
 1,000 ; in linen and cotton fabrics 
 at Stamcliife and Ewcross, 2,300 ; 
 in woollen and linen promiscu- 
 ously in Strafforth and Staincross 
 wapentakes, 1,000 ; linen-weavers 
 100 at Ripon liberty. Iron and 
 hardware at Rotherham, Shef- 
 field, Bradfield, and Ecclesfield. 
 Carpets at Dewsbury. 
 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Total persons, 13,091,005: — Agricultural labourers, 744,407 
 Labouring occupiers . 94.833 
 
 839,290 
 
 Manufacturing labourers, 314,106 :— - Other labourers, 500,950 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 77 
 
 WALES. 
 
 County. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural 
 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Maim- 
 ing 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Anglesey 
 
 48,325 
 
 5,406 
 
 120 
 
 Brecon • , 
 
 47,763 
 
 3,978 
 
 551 
 
 Cardigan . 
 
 64,780 
 
 6,684 
 
 246 
 
 Carmarthen . 
 
 100,740 
 
 10,014 
 
 292 
 
 Carnarvon 
 
 66,448 
 
 6,597 
 
 143 
 
 Denbigh • 
 
 83,629 
 
 8,089 
 
 235 
 
 Flint . . . 
 
 60,012 
 
 5,038 
 
 630 
 
 Glamorgan 
 
 126,612 
 
 7,123 
 
 1,993 
 
 Merioneth . 
 
 35,315 
 
 3,847 
 
 194 
 
 Montgomery . 
 
 66,482 
 
 7,357 
 
 1,630 
 
 Pembroke . 
 
 81,425 
 
 7,939 
 
 131 
 
 Radnor 
 
 24,651 
 
 3,362 
 
 42 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Weaving domestic woollens, 120 
 males. 
 
 Ditto 80; iron- works, 470. 
 Domestic woollens and flannels, 
 240. 
 
 Ditto ditto, 260. 
 Ditto ditto, 100. 
 Ditto ditto, 200. 
 At Holywell, in silk and woollen 
 
 goods, and in paper, 256. At 
 
 Mold, in cottons, 230; weavers 
 
 scattered, 40. 
 Iron-works as at Merthyr-Tidvil ; 
 
 weavers of woollens, scattered, 
 
 168. 
 
 Flannel and other weavers, 200. 
 A great many weavers of domestic 
 
 woollens and flannels, of which 
 
 ],169 adult males are noted in 
 
 the return. 
 Weavers as above, 130. 
 Ditto not enumerated ; wool-sorters 
 
 14. 
 
 SUMMARY OF WALES. 
 
 Total persons, 806,182: — Agricultural labourers, 55,468 
 Labouring occupiers.. 19,966 
 
 75,434 
 
 Manufacturing labourers, 6,218: — Other labourers, 31,571. 
 
78 
 
 POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 County. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural 
 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Manu- 
 factur- 
 ing 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Aberdeen . 
 
 1 77 
 
 1/ / ,00/ 
 
 
 9 9Q4 
 
 Argyll. . . 
 Ayr . . • 
 
 100,973 
 145^055 
 
 11,533 
 6^583 
 
 816 
 8,311 
 
 Banff . ■ . 
 
 48,604 
 
 4,904 
 
 240 
 
 Berwick • • 
 
 34,048 
 
 2,040 
 
 399 
 
 Bute . 
 
 14,151 
 
 815 
 
 215 
 
 Caithness . 
 Clackmannan . 
 
 34,529 
 14,729 
 
 3,786 
 443 
 
 88 
 259 
 
 Dumbarton 
 
 33,211 
 
 1,347 
 
 1,998 
 
 Dumfries . 
 
 73,770 
 
 4,866 
 
 1,602 
 
 Edinburgh . 
 
 219 345 
 
 3,911 
 
 1,267 
 
 Elgin . . 
 Fife . . . 
 
 34,231 
 128,839 
 
 2,844 
 5,047 
 
 199 
 7,729 
 
 Forfar • • 
 
 139.606 
 
 5,565 
 
 8,574 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 In linen, cotton, and woollen manu- 
 factures, 1,600 in the city of 
 Aberdeen. In the county, 700 
 weavers of woollen and linen, 
 many of them for domestic use. 
 
 Domestic weavers ; a few. 
 
 On silk, woollen, cotton, and linen 
 fabrics, 8,3(10 males are em- 
 ployed; at Kilmarnock, in the 
 carpet and bonnet manufactures, 
 &c. 1,300; at Girvan, in weaving 
 muslins, &c. 1,100; at Maybole 
 600; at Loudon 500; at Beith 
 400 ; at Catrine cotton -factory 
 and neighbourhood, 300. 
 
 In woollen and linen manufacture, 
 240 ; chiefly for domestic use. 
 
 Flax-dressing and weaving linen 
 380. 
 
 In cotton-spinning and weaving 
 for the Glasgow market, 200. 
 
 Cotton-weavers 200 ■ a few woollen- 
 weavers. 
 
 About 2,000 engaged in the cotton 
 manufactures as spinners, weav- 
 ers, calico-printers, &c. 
 
 Cotton manufacture ; 1 ,500 weavers 
 for the wholesale markets. 
 
 Preparation of flax, weaving linen 
 and woollen-cloth, 200 men ; sail- 
 cloth and nets, 100; paper, 60 
 and upwards. Shawl weavers 
 and manufacturers of fancy ar- 
 ticles, 800. 
 
 Linen & woollen-weavers, 200. 
 
 Flax, tow, and hemp manufactures 
 much cultivated. At Dunferm- 
 line nearly 2,700 in weaving da- 
 masks ; at Dysart nearly 700 ; 
 and in other places considerable 
 numbers, amounting in the whole 
 to 7,500 adult males. 
 
 At Dundee, the capital of the linen 
 trade, 3,300 males employed in 
 it ; at Arbroath upwards of 1,200 ; 
 at Forfar 900 ; at Kerriemuir 
 nearly 600 ; at Brechin upwards 
 of 400; at Liff upwards of 320. 
 Canvass and strong linens are the 
 staple manufacture, and furnish 
 employment to 8,000 men in this 
 county ; to which number may 
 be added 500 weavers of linens 
 and woollens for domestic use. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 79 
 
 County. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural 
 
 Labour- 
 ers. 
 
 Manu- 
 factur- 
 ing 
 Labour- 
 .. ers. 
 
 Haddington . 
 Inverness . 
 Kincardine 
 
 36,145 
 94,797 
 31,431 
 
 2,960 
 11,455 
 2,963 
 
 194 
 344 
 726 
 
 Kinross 
 
 9,072 
 
 530 
 
 562 
 
 Kircudbright . 
 
 40,590 
 
 3,138 
 
 529 
 
 Lanark 
 
 316,819 
 
 5,152 
 
 26,677 
 
 Linlithgow 
 
 23,291 
 
 1,131 
 
 560 
 
 Nairn 
 
 Shetland J 
 Peebles 
 
 9,354 
 58,239 
 10,578 
 
 757 
 7,246 
 887 
 
 54 
 170 
 173 
 
 Perth . . . 
 
 142,894 
 
 9,565 
 
 4,942 
 
 Renfrew . 
 
 133,443 
 
 2,547 
 
 9,617 
 
 Ross &Cromarty 
 Roxburgh . 
 
 74,820 
 43,663 
 
 9,218 
 3,372 
 
 383 
 1,076 
 
 Selkirk . . 
 Stirling 
 
 6,833 
 72,621 
 
 535 
 3,412 
 
 154 
 3,376 
 
 Sutherland 
 Wigtown . 
 
 25,518 
 36,258 
 
 9,520 
 3,156 
 
 50 
 416 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Domestic weavers, 150. 
 Ditto, ditto, 340. 
 
 In weaving dowlas, household 
 linens, and a few woollens, 700 
 men are employed. 
 
 Cotton-weavers 500 ; and a few in 
 woollens and linens. 
 
 A number of scattered weavers of 
 cotton goods for Glasgow manu- 
 facturers. 
 
 This county embraces every de- 
 partment of the cotton manufac- 
 ture, and has upwards of 7,000 
 weavers in its different small 
 towns. In Glasgow 19,91 3 males 
 are engaged in manufactures, 
 chiefly of cotton goods. 
 
 Cotton-weavers 500 ; chiefly for 
 Glasgow houses. 
 
 Weavers of cloth for family use. 
 
 Ditto ditto. 
 
 In weaving cotton, flax, and wool, 
 170 adult males. 
 
 Cotton- weaving, 900 in the town of 
 Perth. At Dunblane '200, and 
 at Dunning 156 in woollens ; at 
 Errol upwards of 200 on linens ; 
 besides about 1,700 in other 
 places, chiefly in the cotton ma- 
 nufacture ; in the whole upwards 
 of 3.000 males so employed. 
 
 This is second in Scotland only to 
 the county of Lanark for cotton 
 manufactures ; and perhaps it is 
 the first for silk. In the town of 
 Paisley, 6,000 males are thus em- 
 ployed ; and 3,000 in other places. 
 
 320 "home-cloth" weavers. 
 
 Weavers and stocking makers, 
 1,000; several of them employed 
 on carpets and other woollen 
 articles. 
 
 Weavers, chiefly of woollens, 150. 
 
 Woollen and cotton fabrics. At St . 
 Neman's more than 500 men in 
 weaving tartan or plaid, and 
 carpets; at Stirling, 315 ; in cot- 
 tons, at Campsie, 450; and cot- 
 ton weavers at Kilsyth, 424 ; flax- 
 dressers in various places; in all 
 about 2,250 in textile manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 50 weavers of " home-cloth." 
 Woollen, cotton, and linen-weavers 
 400. 
 
80 POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES, &C. 
 
 * SUMMARY OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 Total persons, 2,365,114:— Agricultural labourers, 87,292 j 
 Labouring occupiers 53,966 
 
 141,258 
 
 Manufacturing labourers, 83,993: — Other labourers, 76,191. 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Total persons, 16,539,318: — Agricultural labourers, 887,167: — Occupiers 
 not employing labourers, 168,815: — Total agricultural labourers, 
 1,055,982 :— Manufacturing Labourers, 404,317. 
 
 Persons employed in retail trade, or in handicrafts, as masters or 
 workmen, 1,159,867. 
 
 Total adult males employed in arts and trades, 1,564,184, being about 
 fifty per cent, more than those engaged in agriculture. 
 
81 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Examination of the Textile Fibres, — Cotton, Wool, 
 Flax, and Silk. 
 
 Man has been properly defined a tool-using animal. 
 This faculty was first exercised in agriculture ; for we 
 read that Adam was set to his penal task of tilling the 
 ground immediately on his expulsion from Eden. He 
 was then clothed in coats of skins. We have no au- 
 thentic notice in sacred or profane history when tools 
 were first employed in making cloth ; but there can be 
 little doubt that fibres of wool were twisted and woven, 
 under the tuition of their benignant Creator, by the 
 family of Jabal, the antediluvian shepherd, as we find 
 raiment familiarly spoken of immediately after the 
 flood. This valuable art was transmitted by the pos- 
 terity of Noah to the oriental nations, and was soon 
 carried to high perfection in Egypt and India, but 
 seems to have been lost by many of the migrating 
 tribes in their pilgrimages to the north and the west. 
 
 The early inhabitants of Greece were dressed in 
 skins. Their posterity had an obscure tradition that 
 their forefathers had been taught the art of spinning 
 by a divine instructress, which, with their usual fancy, 
 they afterwards embodied in a mythological legend. 
 In these primeval times, indeed, so few generations 
 had intervened since the days of Noah, "the just man 
 and perfect who walked with God," that the sentiment 
 of heavenly communion prevailed among most nations, 
 
 e 3 
 
82 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 and was particularly cherished by the sensitive and 
 intellectual inhabitants of Greece. It was Ceres who 
 showed them how to cultivate grain, Bacchus to plant 
 a vineyard, and Pomona to graft fruit trees ; each in- 
 struction being deemed divine. Minerva was wor- 
 shipped for the sake of sundry benefactions. In the 
 fruit of the olive tree, she furnished bland oil to season 
 their corn or fish as well as to trim the student's lamp ; 
 and in the distaff and the loom she taught the art of 
 converting loose flocks of wool into elegant and 
 durable garments. 
 
 These implements were the favourite attributes of 
 the tutelary power of Athens, and constituted in the 
 eyes of its ingenious citizens her chief claim to a seat 
 on Olympus. According to Homer, spinning and 
 weaving appear to have been held in the highest reve- 
 rence in the heroic ages ; they were not vulgarized by 
 common hands, but were the proud prerogatives of 
 queens and princesses. Nor need we wonder at the 
 honours paid to the loom by a people ill supplied with 
 the conveniences of life, however heroic their conduct 
 and sentiments might be ; for if an English maiden 
 were now set down among the simple-minded inhabi- 
 tants of some lonely Australian isle with a spinning 
 wheel and knitting frame, she would doubtless be 
 hailed as a celestial visitant. 
 
 We above all others ought to respect the artisans of 
 such invaluable industry, however lowly their modern 
 place in artificial society. To mock the humble toil 
 and obscure destiny which pre-eminently contribute 
 to the grandeur of Great Britain would be a despica- 
 ble pride. The few among our ancestors who in the 
 time of Julius Caesar aspired to the luxury of dress, 
 wrapped themselves in the hides of beasts killed in 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 83 
 
 the chase ; and it was only after being subdued by him 
 and his successors, that they learned the mystery of 
 working w T ool into a robe to cover their calico skins. 
 The Romans, by imparting such valuable instruction 
 to the shivering" tenants of the forest and morass, came 
 to be regarded by our forefathers as benignant patrons, 
 whose departure in the decline of the empire was de- 
 precated and deplored by them in the most affectionate 
 manner. 
 
 The textile fibres, cotton, wool, silk, flax, and hemp, 
 differ considerably from each other in structure ; the first 
 three consist of definite and entire filaments not divi- 
 sible without decomposition; the last two consist of 
 fibrils bundled together in parallel directions, which 
 are easily separable into much more minute filaments. 
 These bundles are bound by parenchymatous rings, 
 from which they are freed in the operations of heck- 
 ling, spinning, and bleaching. Weak alkaline leys 
 dissolve these rings without acting on the linen fibres. 
 
 The downy filaments of cotton are cylindrical 
 tubes in the growing state, but get more or less flat- 
 tened in the maturation and drying of the wool. They 
 are shut at both ends. Their flattened diameter varies 
 from 5-^0 to -roW °f an inch, according to their quality, 
 as will be fully described in the treatise on the cotton 
 manufacture. 
 
 In October, 1833, 1 paid a visit to Paris chiefly with 
 the view of investigating the botanical relations of the 
 different cottons of commerce, and learning what pro- 
 gress was making in the application of the microscope 
 to organic chemistry. I had the good fortune to pro- 
 cure at that time an achromatic microscope of extraordi- 
 nary power and distinctness, made by Georges Ober- 
 haiiser, a German optician resident in that city, and I 
 
84 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 directed it immediately to the examination of cotton 
 and flax fibres. In December or January following, I 
 made known the results of my observations to several 
 of my scientific friends at the Royal Society, and being 
 requested by Mr. Pettigrew to submit mummy cloth 
 to my microscope, I accordingly did so, and commu- 
 nicated to him the following statement, which was 
 published in March, 1834, in a foot note to page 91 
 of his interesting History of Egyptian Mummies : 
 
 " Dr. Ure has been so good as to make known to 
 me that which I conceive to be the most satisfactory test 
 of the absolute nature of flax and cotton, and in the 
 course of his microscopic researches on the structure of 
 textile fibres, he has succeeded in determining their 
 distinctive characters. From a most precise and ac- 
 curate examination of these substances, he has been 
 able to draw the following statement : — 
 
 " ' The filaments of flax have a glassy lustre when 
 viewed by daylight in a good microscope, and a cylin- 
 drical form, which is very rarely flattened. Their dia- 
 meter is about the two-thousandth part of an inch; 
 they break transversely with a smooth surface like a 
 tube of glass cut with a file. A line of light dis- 
 tinguishes their axis, with a deep shading on one side 
 only, or on both sides according to the direction in 
 w 7 hich the incident rays fall on the filaments. 
 
 " e The filaments of cotton are almost never true 
 cylinders, but are more or less flattened or tortuous ; 
 so that when viewed under the microscope they ap- 
 pear in one part like a riband from the one thousandth 
 to the twelve-hundredth part of an inch broad, and in 
 another like a sharp edge or narrow line. They have 
 a pearly translucency in the middle space, with a dark 
 narrow border at each side like a hem. When broken 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 85 
 
 across, the fracture is fibrous or pointed. Mummy 
 cloth, tried by these criteria in the microscope, appears 
 to be composed, both in its warp and woof yarns, of flax 
 and not of cotton. A great variety of the swathing 
 fillets have been examined with an excellent achroma- 
 tic microscope, and they have all evinced the absence 
 of cotton filaments. ' " 
 
 A few months after the date of this publication, on 
 showing my very excellent friend, James Thomson, Esq. 
 of Clitheroe, F.R.S., then in London, the appearance of 
 cotton fibres in my microscope, he informed me that the 
 subject of mummy cloth, with which I had been lately 
 occupied, had several years before engaged his atten- 
 tion. He has since published an ingenious paper on 
 the subject with sketches of cotton and flax fibres, 
 taken from the microscope by Mr. Bauer, who repre- 
 sents flax as uniformly marked at regular distances in 
 each filament with channelled articulations at right 
 angles to its axis ; and cotton as consisting of two 
 cylindrical cords, connected by a thin membrane, which 
 are twisted spirally about each other. It appears to 
 me that the cotton has been viewed by him when 
 impasted in Canada balsam or some similar varnish, 
 whereby its fibres have derived certain peculiarities of 
 appearance, which are not visible when they are viewed 
 in less powerful refracting media. 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Flax, as represented by Mr. Bauer, 
 
 V *' 
 
86 
 
 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Cotton, as represented by Mr. Bauer. 
 
 The figures of flax as seen in my microscope with a 
 magnifying power of 300 are exceedingly distinct, and 
 yet they never exhibit rectangularly placed, cane-like 
 furrowed joints ; they show occasionally, indeed, cross 
 lines, at variable angles to the axis, but at irregular in- 
 tervals, though frequently they show no cross lines at 
 all, even when the filaments are impasted in balsam. 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 Sea Island Cotton, as viewed by me, in balsam. 
 
 When fibres of cotton are viewed in the balsam, they 
 appear very different in the microscope, from what they 
 do when viewed alone or immersed in a film of water, 
 in consequence of the small difference between their 
 refractive .power and that of the medium. All the 
 beautiful veining of the riband surface in these circum- 
 stances disappears, and of course none of it is repre- 
 sented by Mr. Bauer. The thin shrivelled edges of 
 the ribands also look as if they were enlarged into 
 cylindrical cords. In fact the distinctive marks of the 
 different commercial samples of cotton — the Sea Island, 
 the Upland, the New Orleans, the Surat, &c, which 
 constitute the valuable objects of this kind of research, 
 are in that way entirely lost and confounded. 
 
Fig. 7-— Smyrna Cotton, shown on the micrometer lines, in glass, T J_ of an inch 
 apart. — One million of these squares are contained in one square inch. 
 Fig. 8. — Surat Cotton— both are irregular riband-form. 
 
88 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 When viewed in their dry state or moistened with 
 water, the Sea Island and the Smyrna cottons are seen 
 to be remarkably dissimilar (compare fig. 7 and fig. 8) ; 
 but when viewed, as Mr. Bauer seems to have done, in 
 balsam, they are hardly distinguishable. Unless great 
 attention be bestowed on the refractive influence of the 
 media in which objects are placed for examination, the 
 microscope is sure to become the source of numberless 
 illusions and false judgments, as M. Raspail has abun- 
 dantly shown in his Chimie Organique. I have found 
 liquid albumen (white of egg) a good medium for 
 many objects, as it serves to show the outlines dis- 
 tinctly without distorting them.* — -See note A. 
 
 Some modern inquirers pique themselves on their 
 power of vision with a single lens microscope; but 
 
 * During my late visit to Manchester, I had an opportunity of exhibit- 
 ing to several skilful spinners the powers of my achromatic microscope 
 to distinguish the different qualities of cotton-wool, and of satisfying 
 their minds that such an instrument would prove a valuable guide in 
 the purchase of cotton. Accordingly many manufacturers expressed 
 their intention to become possessed of a similar microscope. I may 
 here relate an instance of the importance of such scientific researches 
 in the ordinary business of life. Cassava and arrow-root are two species 
 of fecula, nearly similar in appearance, use, and chemical properties ; 
 but they differ in their origin, in the place of production, and import 
 duty; cassava being from foreign colonies, and therefore liable to 
 a rate of 20s. per cwt., while arrow-root, being from our own colonies, 
 is admitted at the rate of Is. per cwt. *A few months ago I was pro- 
 fessionally called upon to give an opinion on an article, entered under 
 the name of arrow-root, which was suspected, from the port it was shipped 
 at, to be cassava. I placed a little of it under the microscope, and 
 demonstrated by ocular proof to an Hon. Commissioner, and to one of 
 the surveyors -general of H. M. Customs, that it was cassava, because 
 it consisted of minute spherical particles in clusters, while I showed 
 them in the same way that arrow-root consisted of separate truncated 
 ovoid particles of nearly double the size. The evidence was irresistibly 
 clear. 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
90 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 they will hardly pretend to decypher by its means the 
 minute cross lines of flax or of wool. If such an in- 
 strument,, when used with no common perspicacity and 
 patience, led Lewenhoeck to describe the filaments of 
 cotton as being all triangular, with fine sharp edges, 
 and therefore very irritating when applied to ulcers, 
 to what errors may it not give birth, with common 
 hands and eyes ! When I find a microscopic observer 
 so justly celebrated as Mr. Bauer, representing both 
 the fibres of flax and cotton under forms which I 
 cannot help regarding as erroneous, I must own that 
 my faith in minute philosophy is impaired. I offer 
 this remark with the less hesitation, as I have verified 
 the results derived from my own instrument with re- 
 gard to cotton, by a comparison with those obtained 
 from an excellent achromatic microscope by Tully be- 
 longing to Mr. Bauerbank, as well as by a very fine 
 one constructed by Mr. Powell of Somers Town. I 
 entertain no doubt that Plcessl's microscope is of the 
 most perfect kind, though it is probably not superior to 
 Powell's, nor of Mr. Bauer s general skill in observa- 
 tion ; but I conceive the nature of the medium in which 
 his objects were placed for inspection, has affected their 
 forms very considerably, by refracting or diffracting 
 the light by which they were viewed. 
 
 Wool and silk, however, may be viewed with most 
 advantage impasted in Canada balsam slightly thinned 
 with oil of turpentine, for water does not assimilate 
 well with their fibres, iior with their refracting power. 
 
 The filaments of wool so seen in a powerful achro- 
 matic microscope have somewhat of the appearance of 
 a snake, with the edges of its scales turned out a little 
 from the surface, so as to make the profile line of the 
 
Fig. 11. — Australian Merino Wool. — Mr. Mc.Arthur's breed. 
 Fig. 12.— a, Leicestershire Wool ; b, finest Saxony ; c ditto Spanish. 
 
92 
 
 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 sides look like a fine saw, with the teeth sloping in the 
 direction from the roots to the points. Each fibre of 
 wool seems to consist of serrated rin^s imbricated over 
 each other, like the joints of equisetum. The teeth 
 differ in size and prominence in different wools, as well 
 as the annular spaces between them — the latter being 
 in general from w Vf to o- °f an mcn J while the dia- 
 meter of the filament itself may vary from Txr Vo- to -nrVo- • 
 The transverse lines resemble a little the wrinkles of 
 an earth worm, but they are less regular in their 
 course. Were a number of thimbles with uneven 
 edges to be inserted in each other, a cylinder would 
 result not dissimilar in outline from a filament of 
 Spanish merino wool, — the fleece in which this texture 
 is best developed. In the finest Saxony wool, the ar- 
 ticulated appearance is also prominent, and of course 
 the serrated profile of the edges. They are, likewise, 
 well marked in Mr. M< Arthur's best long combing 
 wool. In the Leicestershire long staple, the serrations 
 are very minute, and the cross markings indistinct. 
 
 When the filament of wool is viewed in its dry state 
 in a good microscope, it shows sometimes warty ex- 
 crescences, but not (see fig. 13) the articulated texture, 
 on account of the refraction and diffraction of light ; 
 though, when it is immersed in a thin stratum of 
 turpentine, varnish, or oil, it exhibits these serra- 
 tions most distinctly ; but the warts vanish in the 
 medium. This examination cannot be well made 
 with even a good compound microscope of the or- 
 dinary construction ; it requires for its satisfactory 
 completion an achromatic instrument with a linear 
 magnifying power of nearly 300. The felting property 
 depends on the serrated mechanism, but is not 
 
Fig. 13. — Wool, as seen alone. 
 Fig. 14, — Flax, as seen alone. 
 
94 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 proportional to its development. The imbrications of 
 the fibres lay hold on each other, as clicks do on 
 ratchet teeth, so that when the wool is alternately 
 compressed and relaxed in mass, they cause an intri- 
 cate loco-motion among the filaments, urging them 
 onwards till they become compacted into a solid tissue, 
 called felt. In some specimens, the markings cross 
 each other obliquely, with an appearance somewhat 
 like the imbricated scales of pine-tops. 
 
 The cocoon-silk threads are twin tubes laid parallel 
 in the act of spinning by the worm, and glued with 
 more or less uniformity together by the varnish which 
 covers their whole surface. Each filament of this 
 thread varies in diameter from T sVo- 1° ttW of an inch, 
 the average breadth of the pair being toVtp but it is 
 variable in different silks. The Fossombrone, worth 
 from 22s. to 24s. per pound, consists of four cocoon 
 threads, or of eight ultimate filaments, each of which 
 is about -2-oVo- of an inch, and the compound cord is 
 equal to about r ^ T . The white Italian Bergam has its 
 ultimate filaments so fine as TT Vo- of an inch. Differ- 
 ent raw silks or singles appear in the microscope to 
 vary considerably in the closeness and parallelism of 
 the threads, a circumstance dependent partly on the 
 quality of the cocoons and partly on the skill used in 
 reeling them. 
 
 East Indian Comerolly single is loose in texture, 
 consists of sixteen ultimate filaments, each about -a-oVo- 
 of an inch, and the cord at its most compact part has 
 a diameter of of an inch. 
 
 Turkey (Brutia) has a flaxen appearance, and consists 
 of ten ultimate filaments, which form a cord of 3 -o- of 
 an inch. 
 
Fig. 15— Flax, viewed by me in balsam. 
 Fig. 16.— a, hair of seal; 6, hair of tiger-caterpillar; c, twin filaments of silk— all 
 in balsam. 
 
96 
 
 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 I have tried various modes of measuring microscopic 
 objects, and give the preference, for very accurate pur- 
 poses, to Troughton's eye-piece with parallel wires 
 moved by a screw furnished with a graduated head. 
 When this eye-piece is attached to my achromatic 
 microscope, it enables a practised observer to measure 
 easily the hundred-thousandth part of an inch. When 
 a rougher estimate only is wanted, then Tully's slip of 
 glass divided by the diamond into parallel lines r fo' 6 
 of an inch asunder, of which I possess an admirable 
 specimen, is a most convenient micrometer. It gives cor- 
 rect results to g^- w of an inch with an experienced eye. 
 I concur in opinion with our distinguished naturalist 
 Robert Brown, Esq., F.R.S., that micrometer measure- 
 ments taken from the spectral image as seen projected 
 upon a plane in the line of sight beyond or beneath 
 the microscope, are apt to lead to great fallacies, from 
 the effect of parallax. This method was extensively 
 tried by me before employing the above two graduated 
 instruments, but the discrepancies it occasioned in re- 
 petitions of the experiment on the same object, were so 
 considerable as to make me give it up. Many of Ras- 
 pail's measurements of the particles of different kinds 
 of starch are erroneous from a similar cause. 
 
 The chemical composition of textile fibres was made 
 the subject of experiments by me in the spring of 
 1822, and was described in my paper on the ultimate 
 analysis of vegetable and animal substances, read be- 
 fore the Royal Society on June 27, and published in 
 the Philosophical Transactions for that year. The 
 constituents in 100 parts were as follows : 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 97 
 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Azote. 
 
 
 , ,4211 
 
 506 
 
 52-83 
 
 
 
 , 42-81 
 
 5-50 
 
 51-70 
 
 
 Silk 
 
 50-69 
 
 3-94 
 
 3404 
 
 11-33 
 
 
 , , .53-7 
 
 2-80 
 
 31-2 
 
 12-3 
 
 Flax possesses nearly the same chemical constitu- 
 tion as sugar, for which reason it may be easily convert- 
 ed into sugar by trituration with sulphuric acid, and 
 saturation of the acid with chalk. 
 
 Silk and wool are characterized like other animal 
 matter, by the presence of azote in their composition. 
 
 Cotton when burned leaves one part in the hundred 
 of incombustible ashes, consisting of 0.6 of soluble 
 salts, chiefly carbonate of potash, with some muriate 
 and sulphate of potash ; and 0.4 of insoluble matter, 
 phosphate and carbonate of lime, with phosphate of 
 magnesia and red oxide of iron. The clean fleece of 
 carded cotton was burned in a vessel of pure silver, 
 and analyzed in vessels of platina and glass, so that 
 the iron is a native element. 
 
 To ascertain with precision the specific gravity of tex- 
 tile fibres is a more troublesome experiment than would 
 at first sight appear, and the point has for this reason 
 probably been left hitherto undetermined. Having 
 bestowed some pains upon the subject, and having con- 
 trived a simple method susceptible of giving exact re- 
 sults, I shall here state it in detail. I take a taper-necked 
 phial, capable of holding nearly 2000 grains of dis- 
 tilled matter, poise it when so filled, mark the line of the 
 neck where the water stands, and then pour out exactly 
 200 grains of the water. I next weigh out 300 grains 
 of the textile substance, lay them on a clean tray, and 
 proceed slowly to introduce them into the phial, in 
 
 F 
 
98 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 small quantities at a time, pressing each portion down 
 with a wire so as thoroughly to wet it and to extrude 
 every particle of the entangled air. Whenever so 
 much fibrous matter has been introduced as to raise 
 the water-line to its primitive mark on the neck, there 
 has obviously been added a volume of the matter equal 
 to that of 200 grains of water, and the additional 
 weight communicated to the phial being divided by 
 two, will therefore be the quotient, expressing the spe- 
 cific gravity of the substance compared to water reck- 
 oned 100. From the spongy nature of cotton, wool, 
 flax, and silk, much water is absorbed into their pores, 
 and this is provided for in the 1800 grains, or there- 
 aboutSj which are purposely left in the phial at the be- 
 ginning of the experiment. If the raw filaments of cotton, 
 wool, flax, or silk are made the subjects of this experi- 
 ment, they are apt to retain so many minute particles 
 of air, as to cause fallacious results. Thus, after the 
 labour of several hours in filling the vacant space of 
 the phial with woollen fibres, and in churning them, so 
 to speak, under water to expel the air adhering to 
 them, I have found it impossible to introduce 200 
 grains of wool, and I might thence have concluded 
 that 206 grains of wool occupy a greater space than 
 260 grains of water. But if we take shreds of flannel 
 which having been freed from grease by washing, are 
 readily moistened, we then find that 252 grains of 
 it may be introduced into the space of 200 grains of 
 water, and we are entitled to affirm, that the true spe- 
 cific gravity of wool is 126 compared to water 100; or 
 1.260 by the ordinary notation. By a similar pro- 
 cedure I have found the specific gravity of cotton to 
 be from 1.47 to 1.50; of linen, 1.50; of silk, 1.30; 
 of mummy cloth, 1.50. 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 99 
 
 It was stated that a definite weight (300 grains) 
 of each substance was weighed out at the com- 
 mencement of each experiment; a precaution taken 
 for the purpose of verifying the result; since that 
 weight, minus the weight of the residuary portion,, 
 ought to be equal to the increase of weight in the 
 phial. If these two quantities differed, the experi- 
 ment was considered to be inexact, and to require 
 repetition, x As a bale of linen goods is heavier than a 
 bale of cotton goods of the same size, it might be sup- 
 posed that flax is a denser substance than cotton ; but 
 it should be considered that cotton is more elastic, 
 and therefore less compact under similar pressure. It 
 is only by weighing each matter, under immersion in 
 a liquid, that its true density can be learned. 
 
 From the small difference found by experiment 
 between the specific gravity of flax and cotton, and 
 from the greater difficulty of displacing the air from 
 the latter than from the former, I am inclined to 
 think that the density of both may be considered to 
 be equal. It is not improbable also that the specific 
 gravity of silk and wool may also be the same. Thus 
 the vegetable textile fibres would have equal densities, 
 as well as the animal. Were timber fibres made the 
 subjects of similar accurate experiments, there is little 
 doubt that they would prove to be of like density with 
 flax. The porosity of wood causes a fallacious esti- 
 mate to be made of the density of its substance. 
 
 Wool appears rough on the surface when viewed in 
 air, and of a diameter varying from toVo- to -reVo- of an 
 inch. There are few fibres smaller than the latter in the 
 best Spanish, Saxon^ or Australian wool that 1 have 
 examined. The low-priced English wools are not only 
 
 f2 
 
iOO 
 
 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 harsh from the texture of the fibre itself, but from nu- 
 merous warty excrescences which stick out all along its 
 side. The finest wool of Mr. M 'Arthurs growth, at 
 4s. per lb. has a glassy transparency, and is quite free 
 from warts, even when viewed without varnish, like 
 the best Saxon and Spanish wools. It is more uni- 
 form also in the size and shape of its cylinders than 
 either of the two others. The average diameter of 
 the Australian is -rgVo* an( l m on ty a few is it -j^y^ of an 
 inch. The Saxon at 5<s\ has several of r^wrl but others 
 so large as I t - 0 ^ ; and the Spanish at 3s. 6d. has the 
 average diameter of the Australian, but not uni- 
 formly so, varying from to ttVo-- Some of it 
 appears warty when viewed in the microscope*. 
 
 The smaller filaments of flax readily separate from 
 each other when the fibres are delicately washed with 
 hot water or a weak alkaline ley, or when a thread of 
 white linen cloth is dissected by a needle point ; they 
 have an average diameter of -^Vo of an inch ; some 
 however do not exceed ^ oT . Different species of flax 
 decompose into these minute fibrils with different de- 
 grees of facility; and thereby create different grades 
 of value for the fine spinner. These filaments have a 
 vitreous lustre similar to a capillary glass tube. They 
 seem to be smooth, uniform, and free from joints when 
 viewed in air, as represented in Fig. 13. 
 
 Fig. 7 of textile fibres represents Smyrna cotton, an 
 irregular ribbon varying in breadth from T ^ 0 to rY \w 
 of an inch. The straight lines seen crossing at right 
 angles are those cut on Tully's glass micrometer, and 
 
 * These samples of wools were obtained for me from the great wool- 
 brokers Messrs. Loughnan and Hughes of Basinghall Street, through 
 the favour of James Cook, Esq. of Mincing Lane. 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 101 
 
 are exactly T oVir of an inch asunder. Fig. 8 represents 
 the fibres of Surat cotton, also very irregular, ribbon- 
 like, and very variable in size. Fig. 9 exhibits the 
 fibres of the gossypium religiosum, of which threads 
 are spun for the Brahmins to wear round their necks. 
 I was indebted to Colonel Sykes for the specimen 
 taken from his interesting herbarium of Indian plants. 
 The cotton is extremely fine, but so filmy and frail as 
 to require great pains to spin it. Fig. 10 shows a good 
 specimen of Sea Island cotton, distinguished like all 
 cottons of fine staple, by a semi-cylindrical and spiral 
 structure ; it is nearly uniform in the breadth of the 
 filaments. The characters of the several varieties 
 belong to the cotton manufacture. When cotton fila- 
 ments are examined by a high power in a non-achro- 
 matic microscope, the bends of the semi-cylindrical 
 ribbons look like empty spaces, and give the whole 
 fibre the appearance of being a series of links. 
 
 The relative tenacities or strengths of several textile 
 fibres has been experimentally found by suspending 
 weights to threads or cords of them of a certain diame- 
 ter. The following results were obtained: — Flax 1000; 
 Hemp 1390; New Zealand Flax, 1996; Silk 2894. 
 
 The strength of cotton and wool has not been well 
 ascertained, but it is much inferior to that of the pre- 
 ceding filaments. The New Zealand flax, which forms 
 so strong a rope, is broken easily by angular flexure, 
 and therefore does not form a durable canvass. 
 
 On the different Modes of numbering Filaments, Yarns, 
 and Threads, employed in Clothing Manufactories. 
 
 The examination of a thread is not limited to its form 
 or texture, but comprehends its colour, softness, hard- 
 
102 
 
 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 ness, and strength. The measure of its strength is the 
 weight requisite to break it, when suspended at one 
 end, and loaded with a weight at the other. It has 
 been found, that when the thread is cylindrical, or 
 nearly so, it breaks under the same weight, whatever 
 be its length. A convenient manner of making this 
 measurement, is to tie the one end of the thread to the 
 last link of a chain laid along a table, and to raise the 
 other end till so many links are lifted off the table, as 
 to effect the rupture of the thread. The weight, or 
 number of links so lifted, will be equivalent to the 
 strength of the thread. An ingenious mechanism, 
 which registers the weights thus broken in the succes- 
 sive trials of the different portions of a thread, has 
 been invented by Henry Houldsworth, Esq., of Man- 
 chester, which enables him to verify, with great readi- 
 ness, the tenacity of his fine cotton yarn. 
 
 In Cotton yarns, the rule of numbering is very 
 simple, being the number of hanks, each eight hundred 
 and forty yards long, requisite to form one pound in 
 weight. Thus No. 40, written 40s., denotes yarns of 
 which forty hanks weigh one pound. In France, a royal 
 ordonnance, in 1819, directs that the number of cotton 
 yarn should be reckoned by the number of kilometres 
 contained in the weight of half a kilogramme. M. Mo- 
 lard, of the Academy of Sciences, was charged to ex- 
 plain this law by a table of instructions for comparing 
 the old system of counts with the new. It is a matter 
 of indifference whether the number of yarn be repre- 
 sented by the amount of given lengths of it in a pound, 
 or in a half kilogramme, for the two weights are nearly 
 the same ; but the French have taken a unit of length 
 inconveniently great, for showing moderate differences 
 
EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 103 
 
 of fineness. Their unit is upwards of thirteen hundred 
 yards, while ours is only eight hundred and forty. 
 
 In the woollen manufacture, the French have esta- 
 blished another system of numbering. At Sedan, 
 the number of woollen-cloth yarn, indicates the number 
 of hanks contained in a pound, poids de marc. The 
 hank contains twenty-two macques, the macque twenty- 
 two turns of the asple, and the asple 1,543 metres; 
 whence it appears that the hank contains 1,493.6 
 metres. The ordinary numbers are 4, 54, 6i, 8. 
 
 Any one of these numbers^ 8 for example, indicates 
 that 8 hanks of yarn, No. 8, weigh one pound (livre de 
 marc), which is agreeable to the English plan. 
 
 Long-wool yarns are numbered on the same prin- 
 ciple ; but their hank is shorter, being only 731 metres 
 long, or somewhat less than one half the length of their 
 hank of woollen cloth yarn. 
 
 FLAX-YARN. 
 
 The French reckon flax-yarn by the quarter, which 
 contains 12^ portees ; the portee contains 16 threads, 
 each 16 ells long ; whence it appears that the length 
 of the quarter is 3,800 metres. The weight of the 
 quarter denotes the fineness of the yarn. The English 
 reckon by the number of hanks in a pound ; 640 yards 
 being a hank. 
 
 SILK-YARN. 
 
 The standard, or titre of silk measurement in Lyons, 
 is expressed in deniers, or grains of the Montpellier 
 pound weight, which contains 414.65 grammes, or 
 6,417.6 grains English. The unit of length is 400 
 ells, or 475 metres = 520 yards E. ; and the thread 
 
104 EXAMINATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES. 
 
 for trial being wound into a skein of this length, denotes 
 by its weight in such grains the titre of the silk. The 
 numbers most in use at Lyons, are : — 
 
 Ordinary organzine,, of from 25 to 30 deniers. 
 
 Fine ditto . . . 18 ditto. 
 
 Finest thrown silk for tulle 10 ditto. 
 
 Matteau, or paquet of white 
 tram of two threads of 
 
 grege silk ... 24 26 ditto. 
 
 Grege silk is formed with four cocoon filaments. 
 
 The grain, or denier of Montpellier, according to 
 Molard, weighs 45 milligrammes ; and the pound 
 contains 9216 grains. Hence the denier of Lyons 
 would seem to be to the English grain used by gold- 
 smiths, as 693 to 1000. I have found, however, by 
 trial, that the denier in use among the silk manufac- 
 turers of London is equal to 0.83 of an English grain ; 
 or that 100 deniers weigh 83 grains. 
 
 In numbering cotton by the English method, as well 
 as flax and silk by the French, the length of the thread 
 is constant, and the weight denotes the number. For 
 wool; the French plan is to take a constant weight of 
 yarn, and reckon the number by its length. 
 
105 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Nature, fyc. of a Cotton Factory. 
 
 The art of spinning may be traced to the most remote 
 antiquity, especially that by the distaff; and it is 
 claimed as an honourable discovery by many nations. 
 The Egyptians ascribe it to Isis, the Chinese to their 
 emperor Yao, the Lydians to Arachne, the Greeks to 
 Minerva, the Peruvians to Mamacella the wife of 
 Manco Capac their first sovereign. The Greek and 
 Roman authors attribute to their own nations respec- 
 tively the invention of the spindle, as well as the art 
 of weaving. Many writers of different countries give 
 the honour of spinning to the fair sex ; and the ancients* 
 in particular, regarded this occupation as unworthy of 
 men. It was under the infatuation of love that Her- 
 cules degraded himself by spinning at the feet of Om- 
 phale. Modern opinions have undergone a complete 
 revolution with regard to this species of industry. A 
 man is no longer deemed to be deserving of contempt 
 for exercising the functions of a spinner ; but what a 
 superior result does he produce to that produced by 
 Hercules ! The Grecian demi-god, with all his talent, 
 spun but a single thread at a time, while a Manchester 
 operative spins nearly 2000. This art consists, philo- 
 sophically speaking, in forming a flexible cylinder of 
 greater or less diameter, and of indeterminate length, out 
 of fine fibrils of vegetable or animal origin, arranged as 
 
 f3 
 
106 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 equably as possible, alongside and at the ends of each 
 other, so that when twisted together,, they may form an 
 uniform continuous thread. Hence with very short 
 filaments, like those of wool, cotton, and cachemire, a 
 thread of the greatest length may be formed by torsion, 
 possessed of nearly the sum of the cohesive forces of 
 its elementary parts. Its size, or number, is measured 
 by the area of the section perpendicular to its length; 
 and this size is known to be variable or untrue, 
 when equal lengths have different weights. Persons 
 accustomed to deal in yarn can discover defects of this 
 kind by mere inspection; but for accurate purposes 
 they generally weigh a certain length of it. Its 
 strength is easily estimated by the w r eight sustained by 
 it ; and this, as already stated, does not depend on the 
 length of the specimen tried. 
 
 There is nothing in the history of commerce which 
 can be compared with the wonderful progression of our 
 cotton trade. Fifty years ago, the manufacture of 
 woollens was the great staple of the country. In the 
 year 1780, the whole export of manufactured cotton 
 goods, of every description, amounted in value to only 
 355,000Z. In 1785, two years after the American 
 war, and when the commerce of this country had in 
 some measure recovered from the difficulties under 
 which it necessarily laboured during that conflict, the 
 whole extent of our cotton exports, of every description, 
 amounted to no more than 864,000Z. ; whilst, at the 
 same period, the exports of woollen manufactured 
 goods amounted to considerably more than four mil- 
 lions : the proportion between the two commodities 
 being at that time in the proportion of one to five. 
 From the last year up to 1822, incredible as it may 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 107 
 
 almost appear, the exports alone of manufactured 
 cotton goods rose, by the official estimate, to the enor- 
 mous amount of 33,337,000/., being forty times greater 
 than it was in the year 1785. But with respect to the 
 woollen, the great staple trade of the country in former 
 times, the exports in 1822 did not amount to more than 
 6,000,000/., being not so much as one-fifth of those of 
 cotton. Here we see what pre-eminent advantages 
 arise from the principle of allowing capital to run in 
 an open and unrestrained channel. The official value 
 is no doubt higher than the real, but it is equally so for 
 both branches. Mr. Huskisson stated in the House of 
 Commons, on March 8, 1824, that according to the 
 best information he had been able to obtain on the 
 subject — and he said he had taken some pains to ac- 
 quire it — he believed he was not overstating the fact, 
 when he affirmed that the real value of cotton goods 
 consumed at home within the last year amounted to 
 32,000,000/. sterling. Of these thirty-two millions' 
 worth of goods, not more than six millions were invested 
 in the raw material ; and the remaining twenty-six mil- 
 lions went to the profits of the capitalist, and the income 
 of the persons employed in the manufacture. 
 
 A great truth is here taught to the rulers of mankind. 
 When they remove the restrictions and burdens from 
 any particular branch of industry, they afford relief not 
 only to the amount of the tax remitted, but lay the 
 foundation for commercial enterprise, to an extent of 
 benefit impossible to foresee. We may ask any man 
 who has attentively considered the resources of this 
 country, whether, if the restrictions had not been 
 removed from the manufacture of cotton, this country 
 could possibly have made the gigantic exertions which 
 
10S NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 it put forth during the late long war with the world, or 
 could now pay the interest of the debt contracted in 
 carrying on that war? We may also ask, whether the 
 number of persons employed in this manufacture, to 
 the amount probably of a million and a half, whose 
 wants are supplied in return for their labour, does not 
 afford more real encouragement to the agriculture of 
 the country, than any regulation for keeping up arti- 
 ficial prices could possibly effect ? It is to the increas- 
 ing wealth of the manufacturing population, and the 
 progress of creative industry, and not to artificial regu- 
 lations for creating high prices, that this country must 
 look not only for relief from her present burdens, but 
 for the power of making fresh exertions whenever her 
 position may demand them. The relief claimed for 
 agriculture, by the landed aristocracy, cannot be given 
 by any artificial measures, either to it or any other 
 mode of occupation. It can flow only from the undis- 
 turbed and increasing industry of the people*. 
 
 The most remarkable feature in the history of the 
 cotton manufacture is the impetus which it has given 
 to invention, the numerous valuable discoveries which 
 it has brought forth, the ingenuity which it has called 
 into action, the lights it has reflected, and the aids it 
 has lent to the woollen, linen, and silk trades : the ten- 
 dency and effect of all which have been to produce 
 British goods at the lowest possible rate, and of a qua- 
 lity suited to every market, domestic and foreign. Each 
 of these improvements, each corporeal transformation, 
 so to speak, was attended at the time with some incon- 
 venience to those engaged in the business, who were 
 not in harmony with the movement; but the result has 
 * Mr. Huskinson's Parliamentary speeches. 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 109 
 
 been, that not only has much more capital been bene- 
 ficially invested in buildings and machinery, but a 
 greater number of hands has been employed to occupy 
 them, in proportion as the prospects of fresh resources 
 were laid open to the manufacturer. 
 
 The details of the cotton trade, including a proper 
 analysis of its operations, demand much ampler space 
 than the limits of this volume allow ; but such an out- 
 line of them may be given as will fill up our general 
 view of the factory system. The perspective picture 
 which fronts the title-page represents a cotton factory, 
 recently erected at Stockport, on the most improved 
 plan, and it will serve perfectly to illustrate the 
 arrangement of the machines and concatenation of the 
 processes. 
 
 The building consists of a main body, and two 
 lateral wings; the former being three hundred feet 
 long, and fifty feet wide ; the latter projecting fifty-eight 
 feet in front of the body. There are seven stories, 
 including the attics. The moving power consists of 
 two eighty-horse steam-engines, working rectangularly 
 together, which are mounted with their great geering- 
 wheels on the ground-floor, at the end of the body 
 opposite the spectators right hand, and are separated 
 by a strong wall from the rest of the building. This 
 wall is perforated for the passage of the main hori- 
 zontal shaft, which, by means of great bevil wheels, 
 turns the main upright shaft, supported at its lower 
 end in an immense pier of masonry, of which the 
 largest stone weighs nearly five tons. The velocity of 
 the piston in each of these unison engines is two hun- 
 dred and forty feet per minute ; which, by the balance 
 beam, and main wheel, is made to give to the first 
 
110 
 
 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 horizontal shaft 44.3 revolutions, and to the main up- 
 right shaft 58.84 revolutions per minute. As the one 
 engine works with its maximum force, when the other 
 works with its minimum, the two together cause an 
 uniformity of impulsive power to pervade every arm 
 throughout the factory, devoid of those vibratory 
 alternations so injurious to delicate and finely-poised 
 mechanisms. The engines make sixteen strokes per 
 minute, of seven feet and six-tenths each, and perform 
 their task with chronometric ease and punctuality. 
 
 The boilers for supplying steam to the engines, and 
 to the warming-pipes of the building, are erected in an 
 exterior building at the right-hand end of the mill ; 
 and transmit the smoke of their furnaces through a 
 subterraneous tunnel to the monumental -looking 
 chimney on the picturesque knoll, shown in the draw- 
 ing. By this means, a powerful furnace draught is 
 obtained, corresponding to a height of fully three hun- 
 dred feet. 
 
 As this mill spins warp yarn by throstles, weft 
 yarn by mules, and weaves up both by power-looms, 
 it exhibits in the collocation of its members an instruc- 
 tive specimen of the philosophy of manufactures. 
 Both systems of spinning, namely, the continuous or 
 by throstles, and the discontinuous or by mules, 
 require the cotton to be prepared on the same system 
 of machines ; and therefore they must be both arranged 
 subordinately to the preparation rooms. This arrange- 
 ment has been considered in the true spirit of manu- 
 facturing economy by the engineer. 
 
 As the looms require the utmost stability, and 
 an atmosphere rather humid than dry, they are placed 
 on the ground-floor of the body of the building, as 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. Ill 
 
 also in a shed behind it, to the number of about one 
 thousand. The throstle-frames occupy the first and 
 second stories of the main building; the mules, the 
 fourth and fifth stories ; each of these four apartments 
 forming a noble gallery, three hundred feet long by 
 fifty wide, and twelve feet high. The third story is 
 the preparation gallery, intermediate between the 
 throstles and mules, as it is destined to supply both 
 with materials. Towards one end of this floor are 
 distributed the carding-engines ; towards the middle, 
 the drawing-machines for arranging the cotton fibres 
 in parallel lines, and forming them into uniform 
 slivers, or soft narrow ribands ; and towards the other 
 end, the bobbin and fly frames, or roving-machines, 
 for converting the said slivers into slender porous 
 cords, called rovings. These rovings are carried down- 
 stairs to be spun into warp-yarn on the throstles, and 
 upstairs to be spun into w T eft (or sometimes warp) 
 varn on the mules. 
 
 The engine occupies an elevation of three stories at 
 the right hand end of the mill. The stories imme- 
 diately over it are devoted to the cleaning and lapping 
 the cotton for the cards. Here are, 1. the willows for 
 winnowing out the coarser impurities ; 2. the blowing 
 machine for thoroughly opening out the cotton into 
 clean individual fibres ; and 3. the lapping machine, for 
 converting these fibres into a broad soft fleece like wad- 
 ding, and coiling the fleece into cylindrical rolls. These 
 laps are carried to the contiguous carding-engines, and 
 applied* to their feed-aprons. The winding-machines, 
 and a few mules, occupy the remaining apartments in 
 the right wing. The attic story of the main building 
 is appropriated to the machines for warping and dress- 
 
112 
 
 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 ing the yarn for the power-looms. The other wing of 
 the mill is occupied with the counting-house, store- 
 rooms, and apartments for winding the cotton on the 
 large bobbins used for the warping-frame. 
 
 A staircase is placed in the corner of each wing, 
 which has a horse-shoe shape, in order to furnish, in 
 its interior, the tunnel space of the teagle or hoist 
 apparatus, for raising and lowering the workpeople 
 and the goods from one floor to another. 
 
 The plan and sections of this finished model of mill 
 architecture are replete with the finest lessons of prac- 
 tical mechanics. They will be represented in accurate 
 engravings, and explained with suitable details in our 
 treatise on the cotton trade. 
 
 It will not be inexpedient, however, to describe here 
 the American saw T -gin, the ingenious invention of 
 Whitney, which has had so great a share in reducing 
 the price of cotton wool, as also the processes of card- 
 ing and drawing in some measure common to all the 
 textile manufactures. The saw-gin has never, to my 
 knowledge, been fully figured or explained in any 
 work in our language, though if rightly made and 
 applied, it would prove highly useful to our commerce 
 in cleaning the cottons of Hindostan. The attempts 
 made with it there have hitherto proved abortive from 
 want of knowledge and skill. 
 
 The French Minister of Marine, with the view of 
 encouraging the growth of cotton in Senegal, caused 
 experiments to be made in Paris with a Carolina saw- 
 gin imported from New York. In the first experi- 
 ment, twenty-eight pounds of Senegal seed-cotton, 
 in its native state, were used. The filaments of this 
 species adhere loosely to the seeds. The machine was set 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 113 
 
 in motion, first by one man, and then by two men, for 
 three-quarters of an hour, and it yielded a product of 
 eight pounds of picked cotton, and nineteen pounds and 
 a half of seeds. Half a pound of cotton fibres seem to 
 have been dispersed through the apartment, causing an 
 apparent waste, which would not be felt on the great 
 scale. The second experiment was made on a Georgian 
 cotton, w T hich sticks strongly to the seeds. Two work- 
 men cleared out, in a quarter of an hour, seven pounds 
 of native cotton, and obtained five pounds of seeds, and 
 nearly two pounds of cotton wool. The cotton, as it 
 left the machine, appeared in a sound state, and so 
 well opened, that it might have been carded without 
 previous blowing or batting. The commissioners 
 thought, however, that the saw-teeth of the gin, in 
 tearing the fibres from the seeds, broke several of 
 them, and thus injured the staple. The experienced 
 American ginner avoids this evil. 
 
 From these experiments, it would appear, that two 
 men, working ten hours a day, would obtain one hun- 
 dred and six pounds of wool from the first kind of 
 seed- cotton, and only ninety from the second. It 
 may be remarked, also, that while one workman turns 
 the machine, another can feed in the crude cotton, and 
 gather the ginned wool into bags. The commissioners, 
 thinking favourably of this machine, recommended its 
 introduction into the French colonies. 
 
 The principal parts of the saw-gin are two cylinders, 
 of different diameters, F H (figure 17), mounted in a 
 wooden frame A, which are turned by means of a 
 handle, fixed on the axis of a fly-wheel. Its endless 
 band turns a large pulley on the other end of the saw- 
 cylinder F, and a smaller one on the other end of the 
 
114 
 
 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 brush-cylinder H, causing the latter to revolve most 
 rapidly. On the wooden cylinder F, ten inches in 
 diameter, are mounted, at the distance of three-quarters 
 of an inch apart, fifty, sixty, or even a greater number of 
 circular saws like I, of one foot diameter, which fit very 
 exactly into grooves, cut an inch deep into the cylinder. 
 Each saw is formed of two segments of a circle, made 
 preferably of hammered sheet iron. The teeth should 
 be very sharp. Opposite the interstices of the saws 
 are flat bars of iron which form a parallel grating, 
 of such a curvature, that the shoulder of the oblique- 
 shaped tooth passes first, and then the point ; whereby 
 a tooth when bent resets itself, by rubbing against 
 these grate-bars, instead of being broken off, as would 
 happen, if the point of the saw entered first between 
 them. Care must be taken to keep the saws turning 
 in the middle of their proper intervals ; for when they 
 rub against the bars, they tear the cotton to pieces. 
 The hollo w r cylinder or drum H is furnished with 
 brushes c c, the hair ends of which ought to touch the 
 saw-teeth, and carry off the cotton adhering to them. 
 It turns in an opposite direction to the cylinder F, and 
 with greater velocity. 
 
 The cotton, with its seeds, is thrown into the hopper 
 L. The saw-discs I, as they turn, meet the cotton, catch 
 its fibres with their teeth, and drag them within the 
 grating, while the stripped seeds, which cannot enter, 
 on account of the proximity of the bars to one another, 
 fall on the inclined board M, by passing through the 
 bottom N of the hopper, the aperture of which is regu- 
 lated by an adjusting screw. The teeth, filled with 
 the wool, after passing through the grating, meet the 
 brushes c of the cylinder H, and deliver up their cot- 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 115 
 
 ton to it, which then falls on the inclined board O, and 
 thence into the magazine P. A cover Q incloses the 
 cylinders and the hopper, which may be turned up on 
 its two hinges, for giving the machine a charge, and 
 then let down before setting it in action. The axes of 
 the cylinders should be fitted well into their collar- 
 bearings, to prevent any lateral swagging, which would 
 injure their operation. The dotted lines in the figure 
 indicate the cover in its raised position. 
 
 Fig. 17.— Whitney's Saw-gin. 
 
116 
 
 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 Cards are instruments which serve to open up the 
 filaments of cotton and sheep s wool, preparatory 
 to their being spun. The fineness and equability of the 
 spinning process, as well as the beauty of the stuff 
 made from the yarn, depend very much on the regu- 
 larity and perfection of the carding operation. In 
 fact, an indifferent w r eaver will more easily turn off 
 a piece of fine cloth, with well-made yarn, than a 
 dexterous weaver could with that which has been ill 
 prepared for spinning. Cards are made of bands of 
 leather, pierced with a great many holes, having bent 
 pieces of iron wire, called teeth, fixed into them. 
 Each bit of wire bears two teeth. The leather, thus 
 bristled, is then lapped round a cylinder, and fixed 
 firmly to it by pins. The teeth should be uniform in 
 size and shape, equally distributed, and stand at equal 
 angles of inclination to the curved surface, conditions 
 I which cannot be expected from hand-work. 
 
 To judge of the difficulties of such manipulation, 
 fig. 1 and fig. 2 need only be inspected. The wire 
 must, first of all, be bent at right angles, at a and b ; 
 then each branch must receive a second bend, at c 
 and d, at a determinate obtuse angle, w T hich must be 
 invariable for the same system of cards. It is indis- 
 pensable that these two angles ace, bdf,he mathema- 
 tically equal, not only for the two conjoined points, 
 but for the whole series of teeth ; for if one of them 
 slope more or less than its neighbour, it will lay hold 
 of more or less cotton or wool, and render the carding 
 irregular. 
 
 The perfect regularity of the teeth is an important 
 matter, but it is not alone sufficient to constitute a 
 good card. The teeth must be implanted, by pairs, in 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 117 
 
 its leather, and kept close to it by the cross part a b. 
 The leather must therefore be pierced with twin holes 
 for each double tooth, at the distance a b, but in such 
 a way that the inclination of these holes, in reference 
 to the plane of the leather, be invariably the same; 
 for otherwise the length of the teeth would vary with 
 the angle of inclination, and spoil the card. A third 
 condition, indispensable for obtaining the required 
 regularity, is to have the leather of uniform thickness 
 throughout its whole surface; for were it not so, in vain 
 might the teeth have equal lengths, and be implanted at 
 equal angles, as the difference of thickness in the leather 
 would make them unequal, and cause them to operate 
 in a most defective way. Hence machines have been 
 contrived, — first, for splitting leather with extreme 
 precision into equal layers ; secondly, for piercing it 
 with equal regularity ; and thirdly, for cutting, bend- 
 ing, and fixing the wire teeth. 
 
 The card-making machine of Mr. Dyer, at Man- 
 chester, is one of the most complete automatons to 
 which manufactures have given birth. It splits the 
 leather, pierces it, forms the teeth, and implants them, 
 with precision and rapidity. Curious strangers, who 
 are permitted to inspect it, through the liberality of 
 the proprietor, never fail to express delight and 
 astonishment at its operation. 
 
 The drawing-frame is a mqst essential constituent 
 of the spinning system, executing a task much too de- 
 licate and irksome for handicraft labour, and therefore 
 does the highest honour to its inventor, Sir Richard 
 Arkwright. It equalizes the riband delivered from 
 the finishing card, and reduces it to one of smaller 
 dimensions called a sliver, w r hich it effects by uniting 
 
118 
 
 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 many ribands into one, at the same time that it lays 
 the fibres in parallel lines and attenuates the whole 
 by a regular process of extension. The twin-roller 
 mechanism, which was perfected at least, if not in- 
 vented by Arkwright, derives its best illustration from 
 the drawing-frame. This talented individual saw so 
 clearly the great part which this machine played in 
 cotton-spinning, that when bad yarn made its appear- 
 ance in any one of his mills, he swore a loud oath, 
 according to the vile fashion of the time, and ordered 
 his people to look to their drawings, convinced that if 
 they were right, every thing else would go well. It 
 is only those who have deliberately studied the intri- 
 cate train of operations in a spinning-factory who are 
 qualified to appreciate the merit of so admirable a 
 systematist as Arkwright ; and they know the value 
 of his drawing-frame far better than his invidious de- 
 tractors. 
 
 The drawing of the sliver into parallel lines of fila- 
 ments is effected by the joint action of upper and 
 under rollers ; the former being- smooth and covered 
 with leather; the latter being fluted lengthwise. Of 
 such twin rollers, there are usually three in the same 
 horizontal plane ; of which the three under-rollers are 
 driven by wheel- work with either two or three suc- 
 cessive velocities, and carry round their incumbent 
 weighted rollers by the effect of friction. 
 
 Fig. 18 represents a section of the working"parts of 
 one drawing-head ; and fig. 19 shows how the top 
 rollers are pressed upon the under ones. B is the 
 strong roller-beam, on which are fixed several such 
 drawing-heads ; a, 6, c, are the under-rollers, and a!, 
 
 c', their respective top-rollers ; the former turning 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY 
 
 119 
 
 in brasses, on iron bearings d. The front-roller bear- 
 ing c is fixed, but the bearings of the two other rollers 
 may be shifted in grooves so as to cause the rollers to 
 approach to, or recede from, each other, until the ad- 
 justment proper for the staple of the particular cotton 
 is hit ; and then the bearings are secured in that 
 position by the clamp-screw d, acting on the edges of 
 the slots in the sliding-bearers. This is a recent and 
 valuable improvement in the construction of the draw- 
 ing-machine ; prior to which these two bearings were 
 so connected as to move together, and to be adjustable 
 only in common to the front one ; whereas, on the new 
 plan, each of the intervals between the three rollers 
 may be increased or diminished at pleasure. The slot- 
 piece d, adjusts the roller a, and a similar slot-piece, 
 behind or on the other end, adjusts the roller b. The 
 top-rollers are equal in length to the two fluted portions 
 of the under-rollers ; and they turn with their ends in 
 bearings which are adjustable in like manner with the 
 bearings of the under-rollers, as shown in the figure. 
 In the middle of each of the top-roller pieces a', b' , c\ 
 there is a smooth neck, on which the brass-collets e, f y 
 (fig. 19) rest, whence proceed the wires h, h!, suspend- 
 ing the weights g, g, (fig. 18.) In general, the two 
 back rollers a, &, which move most slowly, are pressed 
 dow r n by a weight common to both, while the front 
 roller is pressed down by a separate one. The three 
 top-rollers are covered with a mahogany bar i, faced 
 underneath with flannel, to wipe off any fibres which 
 may adhere to the top-rollers. A similar bar I (fig. 
 19) about an inch thick and of the length of one head, 
 also faced with flannel, is made to press upwards, by a 
 slight weight m, against the two front under-rollers b, 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 121 
 
 and c, to wipe them clean. In fig. -18, G represents a 
 smooth curved brass or tin plate, along the surface of 
 which the several slivers n, n, from their respective 
 cylinder cans, placed at the back of the machine, are 
 conducted to the rollers, being kept apart by pins, not 
 visible in this view ; whereby from three to six slivers 
 may be brought together and united on one fluted 
 portion of the rollers. This multiple sliver in passing 
 between the triple roller series, especially by the action 
 of the front pair, is drawn out into a much elongated and 
 very thin sliver ; of which two are generally brought to- 
 gether in the funnel I, and delivered by the two smooth 
 rollers K and K', into a can standing in the direction 
 of the arrow in the front of the machine. Sometimes 
 one of these slivers, just delivered, is returned over the 
 smooth roller K', and united with the slivers which 
 enter the funnel of the adjoining drawing of the same 
 head. The smooth roller K lies in bearings of the 
 frame M, attached to the roller-beam B, which frame 
 supports the funnel I. The top roller K' presses on 
 the other by its own weight only, and is turned from 
 the under one by toothed wheels on their ends, not 
 seen in this view. This pair of long smooth rollers 
 collects into one sliver the cotton fibres, which were 
 spread between the drawing rollers a, b, c ; wherefore 
 it must travel with the same surface velocity as the 
 front roller c does. 
 
 Since the surface of the front roller c must move very 
 considerably quicker than that of the others, it is made 
 somewhat larger, being from an inch and a quarter to 
 an inch and three-eighths in diameter, while the others 
 are only one inch ; whereby it does not require a driv- 
 ing train of toothed wheel-work too much differing 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
122 
 
 NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 
 
 in size from the rest. The surface velocity of the front 
 roller c, is to that of the back roller a, in the propor- 
 tion of from four to one, to six to one ; and may be 
 varied by changing the wheels on the ends of their 
 axes, according to the degree of attenuation required 
 in the sliver. The two back rollers a and b differ in- 
 considerably in their surface speed, generally not more 
 than one-tenth, the middle roller 6 serving chiefly as a 
 guide to conduct the fibres smoothly to the front 
 roller. 
 
 It is the business of the attendant to mend or piece 
 the feeding slivers n, n, whenever any of them fail or 
 are broken, and to stop the machine, by sliding the 
 drawing strap upon the loose pulley, whenever the de- 
 livery is in fault. 
 
 The first drawing-head unites eight card-ends into 
 one, for the purpose of equalizing and extending the 
 riband as well as laying its constituent fibres in pa- 
 rallel lines. The second and third drawing-heads go 
 more slowly, they derive their supply of slivers from 
 the first, and usually associate four of the slivers de- 
 livered by it into one. When a third drawing is given, 
 seven of the last slivers are united ; and when a fourth, 
 fifth, and sixth are used, as sometimes for fine spin- 
 ning, the doublings amount altogether to the product 
 of 8x4x7x6x6x6 = 42,384. In spinning 
 coarse yarns, such as 40s., three successive doublings, 
 as they are termed, are reckoned sufficient : at the first, 
 six slivers are incorporated into one ; at the second, six 
 into one ; and at the third, nine into one — forming alto- 
 gether the union of 324 slivers into the final sliver. In 
 the subsequent preparation-machine, called the coarse 
 bobbin and fly-frame, one pair of the drawing slivers 
 
NATURE OF A COTTON FACTORY. 123 
 
 is associated into one roving, thus constituting a 
 total doubling of the fibres 648 times, before they are 
 taken to the mule or the throstle. In fine spinning, 
 the doubling of the fibres is sometimes 70,000 fold — 
 for the purpose of producing perfect uniformity in the 
 finished yarn. From these facts, some idea may be 
 formed of the important part which Arkwright's draw- 
 ing-frame performs in a cotton-mill. 
 
 g2 
 
124 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Worsted Manufacture — General Observations on 
 Wool. 
 
 Wool is the filamentous substance which covers the 
 skins of sheep, and some other animals, as the beaver, 
 the ostrich, the llama, the goats of Thibet, of Cache- 
 mir, &c. These varieties of wool serve for the manu- 
 facture of various stuffs and fabrics used for raiment 
 and other purposes, under the name of broad cloths, 
 kerseymeres, baizes, flannels, worsted stuffs, merinos, 
 castorine, vigontines, cachemires, &c. Sheep's wool 
 alone possesses the fulling or felting property. 
 
 Wools have been distinguished in commerce into 
 two classes ; fleece wools and dead wools. The first 
 are obtained from the annual shearing of sheep ; the 
 last are those cut from dead animals, and are charac- 
 terized by their harshness, weakness, and incapacity of 
 taking a good dye, especially if the animal has perished 
 from a malignant disease. In general, the best wools 
 are those shorn towards the end of June or the beorin- 
 ning of July. Hence, on the sixth of this month, the 
 celebrated sheep-shearing fete of Mr. Coke, of Holk- 
 ham, is held. 
 
 Sheep's wool is greatly modified by the breeding of 
 the animal; for it is a coarse hairy substance, mixed 
 with a soft down close to the skin, on the wild argali, to 
 which genus all the varieties of the domestic sheep have 
 
WORSTED MANUFACTURE, ETC. 
 
 125 
 
 been traced*. That animal, and others with a similar coat, 
 when placed in a temperate climate under the fostering 
 care of man, lose their long rank hair, and retain the 
 soft wool. Attention to the cultivation of fine wool has 
 been long paid in many countries, and has produced the 
 highly-valued merino species. It has been ascertained 
 that the female has more influence than the male on the 
 bodily form of an animal ; but that the male, in sheep 
 particularly, gives the peculiar character to the fleece. 
 The produce of a breed from a coarse-woolled ewe and 
 a fine-woolled ram will give a fleece approaching 
 half-way to that of the male ; and a breed from this 
 progeny with a fine-woolled ram will yield a fleece 
 differing by only one-fourth from that of the sire. By 
 proceeding in the opposite ratio, the wool would 
 rapidly degenerate into its primitive coarseness. Great 
 care must therefore be taken to exclude from a breeding 
 flock any accidental varieties of coarse-woolled rams. 
 
 Wools differ from each other in value, not only 
 according to the coarseness and fineness, but also the 
 length of their filaments. Long wool, called also 
 combing wool, differs as materially in a manufacturing 
 point of view from short or clothing wool, as flax does 
 from cotton. Long wool varies in length from three 
 to eight or ten inches : it is treated on a comb with 
 long steel teeth, which open the fibres and arrange 
 them horizontally like locks of flax, and such wool, 
 when woven, is unfit for felting. Short wool varies in 
 length from three to four inches ; if longer, it is cut or 
 broken to adapt it to the subsequent operations of 
 carding and felting, in which the fibres are convoluted 
 and matted together. 
 
 * See note B at the end of the volume. 
 
126 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 Among the long or combing wools, the shorter varie- 
 ties are used principally for hosiery, and are spun into 
 softer yarn than the longer varieties. The longer are 
 manufactured into hard yarns for worsted pieces, such 
 as waistcoats, carpets, bombazines, crapes, poplins, &c. 
 
 With regard to broad cloth, the finer, shorter, and 
 to a certain degree softer the filaments of wool, the 
 better the goods they make, because they accommo- 
 date themselves better to the fulling operation. 
 
 Short-stapled, or cloth-wool, is valued by the fine- 
 ness, softness, soundness, density, uniformity, and 
 whiteness of its fibres. These qualities are estimated 
 with considerable accuracy by the cloth-manufacturer, 
 wool-sorter, and wool-dealer, experienced by multiplied 
 trials in discerning with the touch minute differences 
 quite imperceptible to common observers, and not 
 appreciable by the microscope. In the first chapter 
 of this book, I have described certain methods of 
 measuring the diameters of the fibres of wool with a 
 microscope, provided with a micrometric glass plate, 
 divided accurately by Tully into thousandth parts of 
 an inch. The fibres are stretched gently across the 
 graduated slip of glass, and kept in their place by a 
 similar slip of glass laid over them, which is then fixed 
 to the other by a slender clamp at each end. For very 
 nice measurements Troughton's micrometer eye-piece, 
 with parallel wires moved by a fine screw and graduated 
 head, may be attached to the instrument. Thus 
 equipped, it is capable of measuring pretty exactly 
 the one hundred thousandth part of an inch. 
 
 The finest Saxon wool, at 5s. per pound, consists of 
 filaments of tiVo °f an i nca m diameter. 
 
 A second Saxon wool, at 3s. per pound, measured 
 xtVo-j and was warty when viewed alone. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 127 
 
 Spanish wool at 3s. 6d. varied in the diameter of 
 its filaments from 13L V 0 to ttVtt- 
 I A E 1 
 
 A wool marked, j Lot 12, varied from yfg- to 
 
 t^q-o, and was harsh to the feel. 
 
 The fibres of wool, viewed naked in a good achromatic 
 microscope, have somewhat of a pearly lustre, and are 
 covered with little rugosities, like pig's skin. The finer 
 wools, viewed in balsam, show an annular arrange- 
 ment. They are all tubular. The chief use of the 
 microscopic observations of wool would seem to be 
 the determination of the inequalities of size and form 
 in one parcel. In good wools, the diameters of the 
 filaments appear to be pretty uniform, and to be less 
 than T oVo- of an inch. 
 
 Four qualities are distinguishable in the fleece of the 
 s ame animal. The finest is upon the spine from the neck 
 to within six inches of the tail, including one-third of 
 the breadth of the back or saddle. This kind is called by 
 the Spaniards floretta. The second quality covers the 
 flanks, and extends from the thighs to the shoulders. The 
 third covers the neck and the rump ; and the fourth 
 lies upon the lower part of the neck and the breast down 
 to the feet, as also upon a part of the shoulders, and the 
 thighs to the bottom of the hind quarters. The Spa- 
 niards call this portion cayda. The sorting of these 
 four qualities takes place immediately after the shear- 
 ing, by tearing asunder the several portions, and 
 throwing each into a particular bin. 
 
 Dividing Saxon wool into 20 parts, the assort- 
 ment is— 
 
 2 from 6s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. 
 6 3 6 4 6 
 
123 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 6 from 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. 
 
 6 18 2 6 
 
 The Austrian is a little lower. 
 
 The highest price of the best Saxony wool is 7s. or 
 Ss. ; but little of that quality is imported. One shil- 
 ling a-pound, however, is of little consequence for the 
 best qualities of broad cloths. It comes in washed 
 in a superior manner. 
 
 The hardness of some of the English wools does not 
 depend entirely on the race, or the climate, but on 
 certain peculiarities in the soil which affect the pas- 
 ture. The fleece of sheep fed on chalky districts is 
 generally harsh ; that of those fed on rich loamy argil- 
 laceous soil is distinguished for its softness. The 
 Saxony sheep, being exposed to a less ardent sun 
 than the Spanish, yield a softer fleece. The sheep 
 pastured on the Cheviot hills in Cumberland, though 
 not of the finest-woolled English breed, yield fleeces 
 of remarkable softness, and have been refined still 
 more by artificial means, particularly by smearing the 
 sheep with an unguent, composed of tar and butter, 
 immediately after shearing them. The felting property 
 of wool is in some measure proportional to its soft- 
 ness, and depends conjointly on the annular and other 
 rugosities of the filaments observable by means of a 
 good microscope, and on their elasticity. In conse- 
 quence of this structure, when they are pressed and 
 rolled together, they become convoluted, and entangled 
 by mutual friction. Heat and moisture favour the 
 flexure and curling of the wool, which are essential to 
 the matted texture. For this process, only the curling 
 fibres are fitted, which continually change their direc- 
 tions in the fulling movements, and thereby interlace 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 129 
 
 themselves round other fibres. The furs of the hare, 
 the rabbit, and the castor, being naturally straight, 
 cannot be employed alone for felting, till they have 
 acquired a curling texture at their points, by the ap- 
 plication of nitrate of mercury, — an artifice called 
 secret age. 
 
 The best, length of staple for the clothing or fulling 
 species of wool is from two to three inches. But 
 Saxony wool, though four or five inches long, admits 
 from its tenderness of being easily broken down by 
 carding to the proper shortness, and is preferable, on 
 account of its variable lengths, for making kerseymeres, 
 pelisse-cloths, shawls, and such fabrics as require fine 
 yarn. 
 
 The grease, or yolk of the fleece, is a species of soap 
 secreted by the sheep, and consists of oil, with a little 
 potash. Hence it serves to facilitate the scouring of 
 wool by means of water alone, with which it forms a 
 kind of sud or emulsion. It is most abundant in those 
 breeds which grow the softest fleeces, and on the part 
 of the back covered with the finest wool. This yolk, 
 however, though favourable to the growing fleece, be- 
 comes injurious to it after it is shorn, and ought to be 
 immediately removed, otherwise it will produce a fer- 
 mentation in the wool heap, and render it hard and 
 brittle, a change which takes place most rapidly in hot 
 weather. Sometimes the fleece is washed with cold 
 water on the animals before shearing ; but when it is 
 thick, as in the merino breed, it is washed after it is 
 shorn, either with cold or hot water, the latter being 
 most effectual, and is afterwards squeezed in a press to 
 accelerate its drying. Wool loses, in this process, from 
 thirty to forty-five per cent, of its weight. A Merino 
 
 g3 
 
130 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 sheep frequently yields from three to four pounds of 
 pure wool, while the finest English fleece rarely weighs 
 more than two pounds in the foul state, or a pound 
 and a half when cleaned. 
 
 Long wool, called also carding wool, requires length 
 and soundness in its staple, in order to admit of being 
 spun in a way suitable for worsted fabrics. The fine- 
 ness of the fibres, of the first consequence in the clothing 
 wool, is of subordinate importance in the combing 
 variety. There are two kinds of long wool : the one 
 used in the manufacture of hard yarn for worsted pieces, 
 the other in that of soft yarn for hosiery ; the former 
 being eight inches at least in length, the latter about 
 four or five. 
 
 The rich pastures of England and of Belgium seem 
 to be more favourable to the growth of long combing 
 wool than any other country of the world hitherto 
 tried ; and they suit very well with the Lincolnshire 
 and Leicestershire breeds of sheep. The average 
 weight of a fleece being about eight pounds, renders 
 the growth of such wool an object of importance to the 
 farmer. For the general purposes of the worsted 
 manufacture, this long-stapled fleece leaves nothing 
 further to be sought after in British trade, and makes 
 it an object of desire to other nations. 
 
 Of the origin of the worsted manufacture little is 
 known, or the period when the comb was introduced in 
 the treatment of long wools. 
 
 The long-woolled sheep of England are of four 
 breeds : the Dishley, or new Leicestershire ; the 
 Lincolnshire; that of Tees Water, and of Dart- 
 moor. 
 
 The Dishley wool has a staple about a foot in 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 131 
 
 length : it is very fine, and weighs eight pounds on an 
 average of each fleece. 
 
 It is supposed that this peculiar product of our agri- 
 cultural industry employs fifteen thousand looms, and 
 is worked up into worsted goods worth three millions 
 sterling. 
 
 The goats of Thibet, which furnish the fine shawl 
 wool, grow it in the form of a soft down at the roots of 
 their long coarse hair. The Angora goat also grows an 
 extremely fine silky hair, often worked up along with 
 silk into a peculiar style of goods. 
 
 The imported wools are almost entirely worked on 
 the card; the finer kinds to be manufactured into 
 cloth, the coarser into carpets. Of late years, a wool 
 of the merino fleece has been grown to great advantage 
 in New South Wales, and imported in great quantities. 
 It is fully equal to the best Spanish merino. 
 
 The wool of the lamb is generally softer than 
 that of the sheep from the same flock ; and as it has 
 the felting quality in a high degree, is much used in the 
 hat manufacture. The wool of dead lamb-skins pos- 
 sesses less of the felting property, and is employed for 
 flannels, and lamb's-wool hosiery. 
 
 Our races of short- woolled sheep are principally the 
 Dorsetshire, Herefordshire, and Southdown. 
 
 We know little concerning the woollen manufactures 
 of the Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans ; but we may 
 conclude that the latter nation had carried this im- 
 portant art to high perfection, from the great pains 
 bestowed by them on the improvement of the breed of 
 sheep, the high prices at which the fine-fleeced animals 
 were sold, and from the large supplies of clothing sent 
 to their armies. Woollen garments formed almost ex- 
 
132 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 clusively the attire of the Romans,, male and female, 
 of every rank. After the downfall of their empire, the 
 cloth manufacture, which had been with all the other 
 arts of civilized life involved in a temporary ruin, began 
 first to revive about the middle of the tenth century in 
 the Low Countries, where it continued to bestow pecu- 
 liar opulence, freedom, and consideration on the people 
 for several hundred years. 
 
 In the middle ages Spain seems to have abounded 
 in fine-woolled sheep, of the Tarentine breed, which it 
 originally derived from its ancient Roman masters. 
 So far back as 1243, the woollen cloth of Barcelona 
 and Lerida is spoken of with admiration, and as being 
 in high esteem at the gay court of Seville in the reign 
 of Peter the Cruel. Innumerable flocks existed in Spain 
 in the time of Charles V., of which so many as 30,000 
 belonged to one shepherd, and served to supply foreign 
 nations with the softest wool. The finest wools then 
 went to the Italian States, to the amount of many thou- 
 sand sacks annually, at from forty to fifty gold ducats 
 each ; that is, from 10?. to 121. of our present money. 
 A coarser wool was exported to the Netherlands. The 
 French were next in order to the Italians in manufac- 
 turing fine cloth, which they consumed partly at home, 
 and exported to Turkey. In 1646, Nicholas Cadeau 
 obtained a patent of twenty years for making, at Sedan, 
 black and coloured cloths of the finest Spanish wool, 
 like those of Holland ; and thus laid the foundation of 
 a local manufacture which has been famous ever since. 
 Prior to their great revolution, the French excelled all 
 the rest of Europe in the fabric, finish, colours, and 
 softness of superfine broad-cloth. 
 
 Winchester, according to Camden, was the seat of a 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 133 
 
 cloth manufacture, under the rule of the Romans in 
 Great Britain. But on their departure the arts also 
 took flight, and left the English, for upwards of one 
 thousand years, to clothe themselves in skins. Even 
 George Fox, the founder of the Quakers in the reign 
 of Charles I., travelled as a missionary through the 
 country, buttoned up in a leathern doublet with sleeves, 
 instead of a cloth coat ; this being the common dress 
 at the time of labouring mechanics, to which class 
 this gifted individual belonged. History affords 
 very scanty materials respecting the woollen manufac- 
 tures of England prior to Edward III. That wise 
 prince gave a new impulse to them by affording liberal 
 protection to foreign merchants and artisans, who had 
 been previously proscribed or molested by absurd enact- 
 ments and prejudices. About this period Thomas Blan- 
 ket and others set up looms in their houses at Bristol for 
 weaving woollen stuffs, but were so harassed by the 
 impositions of the mayor and bailiffs, that they were 
 obliged to solicit letters from the king to permit them 
 to exercise their calling without impediment, calumny, 
 or exaction. In the year 1357, Blackwell Hall was 
 appointed by the mayor and common council of Lon- 
 don for a market, which was to receive the cloth goods 
 exposed to sale. The statutes, in the following reigns, 
 concerning the woollen manufacture, show that the 
 manufacturers had now become a jealous body, de- 
 sirous of imposing restrictions on the making and sale 
 of goods to suit their own narrow interests. • 
 
 During the reign of Henry VI., the exportation of 
 woollen yarn was prohibited. Two cloth-searchers were 
 appointed for every hundred throughout the realm, with 
 authority to inspect and seal all cloth, even that made 
 
134 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 in private families, which was sent to the fulling- 
 mill, and to levy a penny on each piece. In the same 
 reign, a reciprocity law ordained that u if our woollens 
 were not received in Brabant, Holland, and Zealand, 
 then the merchandize growing or wrought within the 
 dominions of the Duke of Burgoine shall be prohibited 
 in England, under pain of forfeiture." It would hence 
 appear that we were beginning to supply these coun- 
 tries with the kind of goods which we had been taught 
 by their weavers to work only a century before. 
 
 About the year 1482, hats, made by felting wool, 
 were introduced, instead of the caps in universal use 
 before ; but the hatters continued a small body in com- 
 parison of the cappers for a long time thereafter. 
 
 Among the sapient acts of the good old times may be 
 mentioned the ordinance of Henry VII., declaring 
 66 that every retailer who should sell a yard of the 
 finest scarlet-grained cloth above sixteen shillings, or 
 a yard of any other coloured cloth above eleven shil- 
 lings, was to forfeit forty shillings a yard for the 
 same. " In the year 1493, this prince quarrelled with 
 the archduke Philip, and thereby caused " an inter- 
 ruption of trade between the English and Flemish, 
 which began to pinch the merchants of both nations 
 very sore," in the wise language of Lord Bacon. 
 
 Multitudes of eminent manufacturers were driven 
 from the Netherlands to England by the Duke of 
 Alva's persecution of the Protestants, where they were 
 graciously received by Queen Elizabeth, and obtained 
 liberty to settle at Norwich, Colchester, Sandwich, 
 Maidstone, and Southampton. These refugees con- 
 tributed to improve our manufactures of worsted and 
 light woollen goods, and to introduce the manufacture 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 135 
 
 of linens and silks, and probably extended the frame- 
 knitting business. Elizabeth passed an act to relieve 
 the counties of Somerset, Gloucester, and Wiltshire 
 from the old oppressive statutes, which confined the 
 making of cloth to corporate towns. 
 1 Alderman Cockayne and other London merchants 
 had sufficient influence with James L (whose king- 
 craft, like that of his predecessor, delighted in granting 
 monopolies) to obtain the prohibition of the export of 
 white cloths, and the exclusive privilege of dressing 
 and dyeing cloths. In consequence of this preposterous 
 act, the Germans and Dutch immediately prohibited 
 the importation of dyed cloths from England, and 
 thereby gave so great a check to our export trade in 
 woollens, that in a few years it fell to one-third of its 
 former amount. The wool was also depreciated by 
 this measure from 70 to 80 per cent. After having 
 inflicted much misery on the country by this disgrace- 
 ful piece of legislation, the government at length took 
 off the restrictions, and left the export of white cloth 
 free. 
 
 The first act of parliament which absolutely pre- 
 vented the exportation of wool by making it a felony, 
 which could not be set aside by a royal license, ,is the 
 12th of Charles II., which was passed soon after the 
 Restoration. To escape from this and other legislative 
 shackles, Thomas Telham of Warwickshire, and two 
 thousand manufacturers, left the kingdom, in the 
 year 1665, and established woollen manufactures in the 
 Palatinate, under the wise patronage of the Elector. 
 They were soon thereafter reinforced by a band of 
 manufacturers from Herefordshire. 
 
 It deserves particular notice, that during the pre- 
 
136 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 valence of monopolies and protections, from the reign 
 of Elizabeth to the year 1668, the woollen manu- 
 facture remained quite stationary in England, while 
 it was making remarkable advances, both in quality 
 and extent, in the neighbouring nations. In that year, 
 however, Brewer with about fifty Walloons, came over to 
 England, and received royal encouragement in the work- 
 ing and dyeing of fine cloths from Spanish wool alone, 
 without admixture of inferior wool, — arts unknown to 
 this nation before, and indeed declared to be impossible. 
 They produced them 40 per cent, under their former , 
 price. The backwardness of England in this import- 
 ant branch of trade has been accounted for by Huet 
 as follows : — " It was owing to the municipal laws of 
 England, and its usages towards strangers ; who, be- 
 sides being doubly rated at the custom-house, were ex- 
 cluded from all companies or fraternities of trade ; and 
 were not allowed to carry on manufactures as masters 
 or partners, unless such as the natives were unac- 
 quainted with ; so that none of the Flemish master 
 manufacturers of fine cloth went thither, theirs being a 
 mystery not accounted new, though very much superior 
 to the cloth-working then known in England. It was 
 only those who worked in new kinds of worsteds, 
 serges, damasks, or stockings, who went thither." 
 
 In the year 1662, the Company of Merchant Adven- 
 turers declared, in a public memorial, that the white- 
 clothing trade had abated from 100,000 pieces to 
 11,000 ! Such was the baneful result of impolitic le- 
 gislation. An extremely foolish act of the lord-mayor 
 and common-council of London was passed in 1678, 
 " for the regulating the cloth markets of the city, and 
 for preventing foreigners buying and selling ! " 6< Fo- 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 137 
 
 reigners 1 ' is here a term of most exclusive import, as it 
 denotes all persons not free of the corporation. This 
 emanation of selfish fatuity prohibits the sale of all 
 woollen cloths sent to London, except at three specified 
 halls, amerces them in certain duties, and forbids 
 their removal for three weeks, unless they were mean- 
 time sold to some draper or other freeman of the city. 
 The door-keepers were to attend strictly at the halls, 
 and turn out all foreigners and aliens coming to pur- 
 chase cloth. They further ordained, that every free- 
 man of the city who should introduce such a stranger 
 into the halls should forfeit, for the first offence, five 
 pounds — for the second, ten — and for the third, fifteen 
 pounds ! 
 
 That the commercial senate of the metropolis should 
 pursue a policy so idiotic as to expel purchasers from 
 their public markets, would be incredible at the pre- 
 sent time, did we not hear strange sophistry still em- 
 ployed by certain city sages in favour of the most 
 absurd systems of monopoly. 
 
 , The American war gave a disastrous interruption to 
 our old staple manufacture, and caused the price of wool 
 to fall, towards its close, lower than ever it had been even 
 when money was more valuable. A tod of twenty-eight 
 pounds of the best Lincolnshire wool, for combing, 
 fetched no more than nine shillings, and of the inferior 
 kinds only six shillings, that is, from threepence to 
 fourpence per pound weight. 
 
 It does not appear that for upwards of a century 
 and a half any very essential alteration or improve- 
 ment had been made in the processes of manufac- 
 ture, either for woollen or worsted fabrics, beyond 
 the variations of colours and patterns, accommodated 
 
138 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 to the caprices of fashion. But fortunately for our 
 clothiers, the ingenious mechanical inventions and ar- 
 rangements of Arkwright, for the carding and spinning 
 of cotton-wool, were soon modified to suit the two staples 
 of sheep's wool, and produced an entire revolution in the 
 woollen and worsted trade. Since this memorable 
 era, the manufactures of heavy woollens and coarse 
 worsted goods having been vitalized by mechanical 
 power, have gradually expanded themselves in 
 Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Gloucestershire, where, 
 from the cheapness of living, the industrious spirit of 
 the inhabitants, the abundance of coal and water- 
 streams, they enjoy immense advantages over what 
 they had possessed in mere hand-labour in the mid- 
 land and western counties, where fuel is scarce. In 
 the year 1738, the total number of pieces of broad and 
 narrow cloths made in the West Riding of Yorkshire 
 was under fifty-seven thousand. In 1817 it amounted 
 to upwards of four hundred and eighty-three thousand, 
 having increased nearly nine-fold, though our whole 
 woollen exports were only doubled in the same interval. 
 We thus see how the districts which were most forward 
 in adapting mechanical inventions to the woollen trade 
 have gained the ascendancy in the manufacture over 
 the ancient localities. About the year 1782, the quan- 
 tity of British wool unsold, in the hands of the farmers, 
 was nearly equal to three years annual growths, — a 
 quantity too large to have been consumed by our 
 manufacturers, had not the introduction of machinery 
 enabled them to work it up with much greater facility 
 than in former times, when few masters used more 
 than one pack per week each, instead of one hundred, 
 a not unusual quantity now. Mr. John Brooke, of 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 139 
 
 Dewsbury, manufactures weekly about 110 packs of 
 wool, in carpets and blankets, chiefly of the short- 
 stapled foreign wool of moderate quality, because it is 
 cheaper than the British. Under what a debt of 
 gratitude have the agricultural interests been laid to 
 the mechanical arts in this single branch of industry. 
 How narrow must the mind of that landholder be 
 who denounces and seeks to shackle factory labour. 
 
 In carpets, worsted yarn is used for the warps, and 
 woollen yarn for the wefts. In Wilton carpeting, there 
 is both a linen warp and a worsted warp. 
 
 Mr. Francis, of Heytesbury, Wiltshire, says, speak- 
 ing of his own establishment in the year 1828, "the 
 total quantity of our manufacture per week is 15,000 
 yards, and we are obliged to use entirely foreign wool, 
 because the cloth made from the mixture of foreign and 
 English sells so much less freely, and bears a less 
 profit. The English clothing wool has altered for the 
 worse in its quality for the last ten years. There is a 
 difference of Is. a yard between cloths made of the two 
 wools at the same price. The English wool also wastes 
 5 lbs. in the score, and the other only 2 J lbs., by loss 
 of animal grease." 
 
 m I could not make an article that would be mer- 
 chantable at all, except of foreign wool. I am of 
 opinion that the French cloth is not superior to ours 
 in the manufacture or the dyeing. The great impor- 
 tation of foreign wool has, in my opinion, aided the 
 price of British wool; it has aided it in some instances 
 by a mixture with it. We could not have executed 
 the whole of an order unless we had had the two. We 
 export eight parts of British to one of foreign in our 
 own works. There is very little demand at home now 
 
140 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 for British wool in clothing; but there is for it in blan- 
 kets, bear-skins, and such articles*." 
 
 Hence, by the plan of mixture, much low English 
 wools are consumed in our cloth manufacture, that 
 would otherwise find no market at all. 
 
 The Prussians manufacture cloths with much ad- 
 dress, and are our most powerful rivals. 
 
 The following interesting particulars are extracted 
 from the Lords' Committee's Report on Wool, in 18*28. 
 
 " A yard of army clothing costs about 4s. ; and 
 weighs, in its finished state, one pound ten ounces. 
 Five pounds' sterling worth of wool is worked into 
 twelve pounds and ten shillings worth of cloth. The 
 cost of manufacturing finer cloth for gentlemen from 
 their own wool, is 9.9. a yard. 
 
 " Nap coatings at about 3s. weigh 14 ounces, and 
 consume about 24 ounces of wool at 9cL per pound, 
 per yard. 
 
 " Duffils weigh per yard one pound ten ounces, and 
 consume 2\ lbs. of wool, of low quality mixed with 
 noils. 
 
 " Common worsted stuffs, made from long combing 
 wool, cost 15s. or 16s. a piece of 28 yards. Merino 
 gown and shawl pieces of 28 yards, cost about 34s. 
 The former weigh about 2 \ ounces per yard ; and con- 
 sume about four times that weight of fleece-wool. 
 
 u About an ounce of indigo is requisite to dye a 
 yard of army cloth; and to complete the blue dye, 
 or the red with madder, costs 7d. per yard f. 
 
 " In consequence of the reduction of the duty on 
 
 * Mr. B. Gott, of Leeds.— Committee of the Lords on Wool, 1828, 
 p. 280. 
 
 f Mr. John Varley, Committee on Wool Trade, 1828. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 141 
 
 foreign wool from 6d. to Id. per lb. in 1824, and the 
 speculating mania in 1825, the importation of German 
 wool in these years glutted the market to such a degree 
 that our short-stapled wool fell from Is. 3c/. to 7d., 
 and the long-stapled from Is. 2d. to lOd. In 1828 
 the prices began to rally, so that in 1833 Southdown 
 wools fetched Is. 2d. ; our combing wools Is. 4d.; and 
 German wools, which had been so low as Is. 6cZ., rose 
 to 2s. 6d. Wools above 3s., however, have not ad- 
 vanced in price. The rise in foreign wools was owing, 
 in a great measure, to the increase of the manufactures 
 on the continent, especially in Belgium, and to the 
 successful competition of the goods of the latter with 
 the English in the Grecian Archipelago. 
 
 " Such has been the improvement in the course of 
 the last twenty years in the quality of our best broad- 
 cloths, that if a piece of Sheppard's celebrated imperial 
 cloth were now brought into the market it would not 
 sell. The processes of art are better understood, and 
 are carried on with superior machinery, as will pre- 
 sently be shown. The cropping or shearing-machine 
 was contrived by a gentleman of the name of Lewis, in 
 Gloucestershire, the idea of it having been suggested 
 by the sight of an American invention for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 " There is no wool which spins so well as the improved 
 Australian does, in consequence of the length of its 
 staple, and its softness ; and it has increased so much 
 in quantity of late, that in the course of fifteen years it 
 will probably suffice for the supply of all the import 
 wool to our manufactures, to the exclusion of the 
 Spanish and German wools*. It is also better for 
 * Mr. Henry Hughes, Committee on Manufactures of 1833, p. 78. 
 
 4 • 
 
142 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 combing purposes than any other description, and is at 
 present altogether consumed in the finest worsted 
 goods, such as merinos and cassinets. Some of it 
 has fetched so high a price as 3s. 9d. a pound in the 
 fleece. The German fleeces seldom sell here at more 
 than 2s. Qd. or 2s. 9d. ; but the finest usually come in 
 an assorted state, and fetch 6s. 6d. per lb. The sad 
 disclosures made by the Committee of the House of 
 •Lords in 1827, deterred the foreign wool growers from 
 sending it here, and caused the prices to rise in this 
 country." 
 
 Table of Imports of Wool into Great Britain in pounds 
 weight. 
 
 Year. 
 
 German. 
 
 Spanish. 
 
 Australian. 
 
 Russian. 
 
 Sundry 
 Tarts. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1820 
 
 5,637,503 
 
 3,635,267 
 
 99,415 
 
 75,614 
 
 341,221 
 
 9,789,020 
 
 1821 
 
 9,187,429 
 
 7,091,018 
 
 175,443 
 
 67,447 
 
 111,001 
 
 16,632,028 
 
 1822 
 
 12,436,503 
 
 6,120,500 
 
 138,498 
 
 180,937 
 
 195,926 
 
 19,072,364 
 
 1823 
 
 13,211,041 
 
 5,451,221 
 
 475.261 
 
 198,101 
 
 40,505 
 
 19,378,129 
 
 1824 
 
 16,093,736 
 
 5,520,671 
 
 382,907 
 
 260,618 
 
 300,290 
 
 22,558,222 
 
 1825 
 
 30,426,682 
 
 9,179,470 
 
 323,995 
 
 1,992,101 
 
 1,873,033 
 
 43,795,281 
 
 1826' 
 
 10,947,644 
 
 2,171,739 
 
 1,063,302 
 
 697,410 
 
 1,040,972 
 
 15,964,067 
 
 1827 
 
 22,745,012 
 
 4,368,631 
 
 512,758 
 
 607,511 
 
 888,535 
 
 29,122,447 
 
 1828 
 
 22,171,200 
 
 4,480,000 
 
 1,431,800 
 
 Including Russian 
 and Sundries. 
 
 28,083,000 
 
 1829 
 
 15,412.800 
 
 4,069,856 
 
 2,783,000 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 22,265,656 
 
 1830 
 
 28,250,400 
 
 2,479,904 
 
 1,815,800 
 3,782,800 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 35,546,104 
 
 1831 
 
 24,312,800 
 
 5,079.200 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 33,174,000 
 
 1832 
 
 22,074,000 
 
 3,065,216 
 
 3,002,800 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 28,142,016 
 
 On the above table it should be remarked that up 
 to 1828 the numbers for the Australian, Russian, and 
 sundries are exact ; but after that year the numbers 
 for the Australian, &c. are certainly too low, the bales 
 being computed to weigh only 200 pounds, while the 
 Russian, which form a part of them, weigh 560 pounds. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 143 
 
 The packs of German and Spanish are calculated 
 correctly, the former at 400 pounds average weight, 
 the latter at 224 pounds. The table was given by Mr. 
 H. Hughes to the Committee on Manufactures of 
 1833, and has been reduced as to the latter numbers 
 by myself from the only data that are given, but 
 which are partially incorrect. 
 
 The following table gives the quantity of wool im- 
 ported from Australia alone in pounds weight, on the 
 authority of Mr. Henry Hughes : 
 
 Year, j 
 
 T82Tj 
 1827 j 
 1828 
 1829 
 
 1830 ; 
 
 1831 ! 
 
 New 
 South Wales. 
 
 320,683 
 967,814 
 913,322 
 973,330 
 1.134,134 
 
 Van Dieman's 
 Land. 
 
 192.075 
 528,845 
 925,320 
 993,975 
 1,359,203 
 
 Total. 
 Australia. 
 
 497 
 5.531 
 2,564 
 6,865 
 9,193 
 11,596 
 
 England grows about 995,000 packs of wool, and 
 imports 96,000 bags, a year. 
 
 The Worsted or Long Wool Manufacture, 
 
 The reason why a long-stapled, strong, and firm, 
 though somewhat coarse wool, is best adapted for 
 worsted stuffs, is because they require a fine smooth 
 yarn, which shall have little or no tendency to shrink, 
 curl, and felt, when made into cloth. Hence the 
 fibres must not be entangled and crossed by carding, 
 but, on the contrary, be disposed as nearly as possible 
 in parallel lines, by a peculiar combing operation. 
 The yarn thereby producible will be comparatively 
 level, slender, and hard, fit for warping and wefting 
 into finer and more compact goods. 
 
144 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 The first process to which the long wool is subjected, 
 in a worsted factory, is washing, which is performed 
 exclusively by men, with soap and water. They are 
 paid by quantity, each man being attended by a boy, 
 who receives the wool as it issues from between the 
 two rollers in front of the washer, which squeeze out 
 the greatest part of the moisture. The wool is then 
 carried by the boy, in large baskets, to the drying- 
 room, where it is spread upon the floor. The drying- 
 room is generally placed over the boilers of the steam- 
 engine, and is thus kept at a high temperature. The 
 time during which the boy is exposed to this heat is 
 inconsiderable. 
 
 After drying, the wool is removed to a machine 
 called the plucker, which is always attended by a child, 
 generally a boy of ten, twelve, or fourteen years. His 
 business is to lay the tufts of wool pretty evenly, in an 
 endless web, on an apron, which, as it travels forward, 
 delivers the wool to a pair of spiked rollers, by which 
 it is carried to the interior apparatus, which is some- 
 what similar to the willow employed in the cotton fac- 
 tories, and thence it is blown out at the opposite side. 
 The use of this mechanism is to clean and straighten 
 the fibres of the wool, and to prepare it for the next ma- 
 chine, the comb-card. In the old routine of the trade, 
 and still for the finest description of work, the wool is 
 not carded in the factory, but is given out to the wool- 
 combers, who comb it by hand. This is very hard 
 work, and is generally carried on in rooms which are 
 close and hot, from their containing several stoves for 
 keeping the combs at the high temperature, requisite 
 to increase the pliancy and ductility of the filaments. 
 Boys^ are not set to learn this trade at an early age. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 145 
 
 Three implements are in common use for combing 
 long wool: — 1. a pair of combs for each workman; 
 2. a post, to which either of the combs can be fixed; 
 and 3. a comb-pot or small stove, for heating the teeth 
 of the combs. Each comb is composed of two rows of 
 tapering pointed steel teeth, c and b, disposed in two 
 parallel planes ; of which one row is longer than the 
 other. They are fixed into a wooden stock or head c, 
 which is covered with horn, and has a handle d fixed 
 into it, perpendicular to the planes of the teeth-range. 
 The space between these planes is only one-third of an 
 inch at the bottom of the teeth. The combs used for 
 
 Fig. 20.— Long Wool Comb. 
 
 the last combing have three rows of teeth. In the 
 workshop a post, fig. 21, is fixed, in order to support the 
 combs occasionally during the process. An iron stem 
 g is fixed into it, which has an upturned point, for pass- 
 ing through a hole of the handle of the comb, while it 
 has a staple pin h at its inner end, for entering into 
 the hollow extremity of the handle, and by the two fix- 
 tures holding it fast to the post. The stove consists of 
 a flat iron plate, heated by a fire, or by steam, and 
 surmounted by another plate, for confining the heat. 
 Into a small space, left between the two plates, the 
 teeth of the combs are introduced. 
 
 VOL- T. 
 
 H 
 
146 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 Fig. 21.— Comb Post. 
 
 In combing the wool, the workman separates it into 
 handfuls, of about four ounces each, sprinkles it with 
 oil, and rolls it up in his hands, to smear it uniformly. 
 The proportion of oil varies from a fortieth to a six- 
 teenth of the weight of the wool. Having fastened a 
 heated comb to the post, with its teeth upwards, the 
 workman takes one-half of that quantity of wool in his 
 hand, and, throwing it over the points of the comb, 
 draws it through them, and so repeatedly, a portion of 
 wool remaining each time in the comb. When all the 
 wool is gathered on the teeth, the comb is placed with 
 its points in the stove, and the wool hanging on the 
 outside receives a portion of the heat. The other 
 comb, now hot, is fixed to the post, and filled, in its 
 turn, with the other half of the four ounces of wool, 
 and is then removed to the stove, like the first. 
 
 When both combs are properly warmed, the comber 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 147 
 
 holds one of them, with his left hand, over his knee, as 
 he is seated on a low stool, and with the other comb, 
 held in his right hand, he combs the wool upon the 
 first, by introducing the points of the teeth of one 
 comb into the wool contained in the other, and draw- 
 ing them through it. This is repeated till the fibres 
 are laid parallel. He always begins by introducing 
 the points of the teeth of one comb first into the ex- 
 tremity of the fleece contained in the teeth of the other 
 comb, and he then advances deeper at each succeeding 
 stroke, till, eventually, he works the combs as closely 
 together as possible without bringing their teeth into 
 collision; otherwise he could not draw the comb 
 through the wool without breaking its fibres, or tearing 
 the wool out of the teeth of the comb. The short 
 wool which remains on the teeth of the comb at 
 last, because it does not reach the place where the 
 comber grasps it, is called noyl, and is unfit for worsted 
 spinning ; it amounts to about an eighth of the new 
 wool by weight. 
 
 The wool which is drawn off from the comb forms 
 a continuous sliver or band, with straight parallel 
 fibres, but is still not ready for the spinning-machine, 
 till combed again at a somewhat lower temperature. 
 When the process is complete, the wool is formed into 
 parcels containing ten or eleven slivers each. 
 
 A great many self-acting machines have been con- 
 trived for performing the wool-combing operations. 
 As the limits of this work do not allow me to give an 
 historical account of them, I shall content myself with 
 describing, briefly, one of the latest. It was made the 
 subject of a patent by Mr. John Piatt, of Salford, in 
 November, 1827, being an invention communicated to 
 
 h2 
 
148 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 him by a foreigner residing abroad. This machine is 
 intended to comb wool by means of two revolving combs 
 or heckles. Figure 22 is a horizontal representation of 
 the machine. It consists of a square frame of iron a a, 
 
 Fig. 22.— Piatt's Wool- Combing Machine. 
 
 mounted upon legs, as exhibited in the end elevation, 
 Fig. 23. b and c are two axles, upon each of which 
 one of the circular combs d d is mounted. These 
 axles, h and c, are not placed in horizontal posi- 
 
 Fig, 23.— Piatt's Wool-Combing Machine. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 149 
 
 tions, but are inclined at acute angles to the horizon, 
 and in directions crossing each other. The two circu- 
 lar combs, which are fixed upon these axles, conse- 
 quently revolve in planes considerably inclined to the 
 perpendicular, as well as to each other. These combs 
 are made in the form of oixlinary wheels, with arms, of 
 which the nave is attached to the axle by screws. The 
 points or teeth are set in the edge of the rim, at right 
 angles to the axis of the wheel, and are made to 
 revolve in opposite directions by means of a crossed 
 or twisted strap e e running over a pulley f on each 
 axle ; these being driven by a band and rigger, or 
 power-pulley, on the end of the axle b. 
 
 As the comb-wheels go round, they are made to ap- 
 proach each other slowly. This approach is caused 
 by mounting the bearings of the axle c in slots, 
 which allow of their sliding, and enable that axle and 
 its circular comb to be brought towards the circular 
 comb on the axle b. This traverse movement is ef 
 fected by an endless screw and toothed- wheel, or snail- 
 work, connected to the under part of the frame, 
 as shewn at the centre of fig. 23. This mechanism 
 gradually moves the axle c in a lateral direction, while 
 the twisted strap e, which connects the two axles, and 
 drives c, by the rotation of b, is kept at its proper ten- 
 sion, as the circular combs approach each other, by 
 means of a heavy roller h, which hangs on a jointed 
 lever i, fig. 22. 
 
 In putting this comb in operation, the proper 
 quantity of wool, in its entangled state, is to be stuck 
 between the teeth, and when the wheels are set in 
 rapid rotatory motion, the loose ends of the fleece will, 
 by the centrifugal force, be thrown out in the direction 
 
150 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 of radii, and will catch against the points of the teeth 
 of the other revolving comb, whereby the fibres will be 
 drawn out and straightened. The operation is to 
 commence when the comb-wheels are at their greatest 
 distance apart. As they slowly approach each other, 
 the ends or fibres of the wool will be laid hold of by 
 the teeth-points, at progressively increasing depths, 
 until the wheels come near together, by which time the 
 whole length of the staple will have been combed out 
 smooth, and will be then drawn from the comb, by 
 throwing the driving-belt, as usual, on a loose pulley 
 (not shown here). The noy Is, or short refuse wool, 
 which remains entangled among the teeth, being re- 
 moved, the machine is charged for another operation. 
 
 Large machines of this kind are now at work in 
 Leeds. In one of them the comb-wheels are ten feet 
 in diameter, and are furnished with hollow iron 
 spokes filled with steam, which keep the whole appa- 
 ratus at a proper combing heat. These wheels are 
 made to revolve slowly, while a boy, seated on the 
 ground, dresses one of them with wool. They are 
 then made to revolve with great rapidity, by shifting 
 the driving-belt on the proper pulley, during which re- 
 volution they gradually approach each other. This 
 being a work of simple superintendence, and not of ef- 
 fort and skill, like the hand-combing business^ is now 
 discharged by young children ; and shows, in a strik- 
 ing point of view, the effect of automatic mechanism, 
 in embodying handicraft dexterity and intelligence in 
 a machine, and thereby substituting cheap and docile 
 labour for what is dear, and sometimes refractory. 
 Such machines will probably, ere long, supersede the 
 hand-comb altogether. Care should be had to keep 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 151 
 
 the joints steam-tight, so as to prevent wetting the 
 children employed at the machine, and to give due 
 ventilation : for hot air, if pure, is not insalubrious. 
 
 The breaking frame is the next machine in the 
 worsted manufacture, and is, in fact, a continuous 
 form of comb or card, called by the French the defeu- 
 treur, from its opening out any felted fibres. Fig. 24 
 represents a vertical section of a breaking comb, for 
 the purpose of explaining the principles of its action. 
 A B is a frame for carrying the machines, of which 
 there are usually four alongside of one another, 
 each from four to six inches broad. E is the front 
 or feeding pair of rollers, three inches in diameter, 
 the upper one bearing by a weight suspended to its 
 axis on the under. F is the continuous lower comb, 
 moving in the direction marked by the arrow a. G, 
 the upper comb, going with the same velocity as the 
 lower, in the direction indicated by the arrow b. The 
 rows of teeth slope gently forwards, and alternate 
 with the teeth of the other comb; thus the row of 
 the one corresponds to the middle of the two other 
 rows. H are fluted cylinders, which cause the rota- 
 tion of the endless chain of combs. I, counter cylin- 
 ders, fluted in like manner. The forked bearings in 
 which these turn are so mounted as to permit the 
 comb-chain to be stretched. K, small tension-cylin- 
 ders, for giving a proper direction to each comb. L, 
 the second pair of rollers, which takes the wool from 
 the combs. These rollers are like the first, made of 
 wood, and of the same diameter. The under one of 
 this pair is kept clean by a brush. On its axis the fast 
 and loose power pulleys are fixed, which give motion 
 to the whole machine. The upper roller is furnished 
 
152 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE 
 
 with wiper-wings; that is, its surface is covered with 
 a series of small leaves of parchment, held by one of 
 their edges with little clamps, or keys, in grooves cut 
 lengthwise on their surface. The same cylinder is 
 firmly pressed down on the lower one by a loaded 
 steelyard. 
 
 The speed of the first pair of rollers is to that of the 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 153 
 
 second, as one to four, and the velocity of the comb- 
 train is the geometrical mean between them, or two. 
 Too great a velocity in these parts would be apt to knot 
 and felt the wool ; and it must not therefore exceed 
 above five or six inches in a second. M is a copper 
 funnel, or trumpet mouth, for conducting the sliver de- 
 livered by the second rollers. N, the third pair of 
 rollers, turning with a little more velocity than the 
 second pair, only in consequence of having a diameter 
 a little greater. 
 
 The comb of this continuous machine is formed 
 of a series of small rectangular pieces of tin-plate, 
 hinged together, the half of one overlapping that of 
 the other like slates on a roof, as is shown in figure 
 25 in double size. These pieces are struck out by a 
 punch, which leaves at their four corners little discs a,a, 
 which are afterwards bent back to aright angle by a 
 
 Fig. 25.— Machine for Wool Combing. 
 
 H 3 
 
154 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE- — 
 
 pair of plyers, and which serve to make the hinge joints, 
 as is plainly shown in the figure. While the chain is 
 advancing in a straight line, the teeth m, m, soldered 
 to the lower tin-plate present the whole of their projec- 
 tion, minus the thickness of the upper plate, which is 
 here cleft ; but in proportion as these plates come upon 
 the fluted cylinders H, fig. 25, which drive them, the 
 plates cease to lie flat on each other, and become in- 
 clined by the curvature of the cylinders. The part 
 cut through for the passage of the teeth recedes, or 
 turns out of the way, and thereby passes by the extre- 
 mities of the teeth m, m ; thus getting disengaged from 
 the fibres of the wool, and allowing them to be imme- 
 diately seized by the second pair of rollers. In this 
 way each piece of tin-plate acts both as a tooth and a 
 disengaging bar. It is obvious that the upper and the 
 lower combs, during their parallel progress, by means 
 of their alternate rows of teeth passing between each 
 other, like the fingers of our two hands, perform a 
 double combing at a single stroke upon the cardings 
 introduced in pairs at the feeding rollers. The rectan- 
 gular figure (fig. 26) represents the whole breadth of 
 
 n — a — m-i 
 
 Fig. 26. — Hinge-pieces. 
 
 the tin piece, and the successive points where the teeth 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 
 
 155 
 
 are fixed into it, as well as the simple hinge me- 
 chanism. 
 
 The sliver delivered by the roller N, fig. 24, pro- 
 ceeds next to a large bobbin or cylinder, round which it 
 is lapped, till the whole combing is entirely wound up. 
 It is again passed through another chain-comb like 
 the preceding, furnished with finer and closer-set 
 teeth; and in this process the sliver is doubled, to 
 give greater uniformity to the fleece. 
 
 The person who attends this machine, invariably a 
 young boy or girl, is called the feeder. His business 
 is to weigh the wool, and spread it in definite quanti- 
 ties on a travelling apron, which feeds the first pair of 
 rollers. The attention of the feeder is necessarily in- 
 variable while the engine is at work, as the uniformity 
 of the thread finally produced depends, in no small 
 degree, on his accuracy. The film of wool, or open 
 drawing, on its delivery from the last pair of rollers, 
 is collected through a funnel mouth, and either lapped 
 on a cylinder or received in a tin can, and broken off 
 when the can is full. An empty can is then set in the 
 place of the full one. 
 
 The machines for reducing, and at the same time 
 equalizing, by doubling the open drawings of long 
 wool, are constructed on the same principle as the 
 drawing frame of a cotton-mill, only the distance 
 between the first and last pair of rollers is much greater, 
 on account of the greater length of the wool-staple. 
 The drawing operation is performed by the first pair of 
 rollers moving more slowly than the last pair, whereby 
 the soft woolly riband is extended in length propor- 
 tionally to that difference of velocity. 
 
 Hitherto, no degree of torsion has been given to the 
 
156 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 slender fillet; but a little twist must now be intro- 
 duced to preserve its cohesion, in its progression 
 towards the state of a fine thread. 
 
 The following description of a roving apparatus for 
 long wool will communicate a tolerably distinct idea 
 of the process. 
 
 Fig. 27.— Worsted Roving. 
 
 A and B represent the sections of two pairs of rollers, 
 the lower ones being made of iron, and fluted ; the 
 upper being of wood, covered with leather. Pressure 
 is exercised by the upper on the under ones by means 
 of the weights C D, suspended by curved rods from 
 the ends of the axes of the upper rollers. The roller 
 B moves faster than the roller A, in the proportion of 
 2^ or 3 to 1, according to the nature of the wool. 
 The roller A rests on a moveable bearer, which permits 
 it to be placed nearer to, or farther from, the roller B. 
 E is a cylinder mounted with pins, which revolves 
 very slowly on its axis, and delivers to the roller A, 
 moving with a treble surface velocity, the open draw- 
 ings of wool supplied by the feeding roller F. G is a 
 spindle, having one leg of its forked flyer tubular, 
 through which the roving passes in its way to the 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 157 
 
 bobbin. The spindle turns very slowly, so as to give 
 no more twist to the filaments than may be necessary 
 to secure the formation of an uniform soft cord during 
 their extension. The up and down motion of the 
 bobbin is given by an eccentric acting on the copping- 
 rail, in a way which will be fully explained in treating 
 of the cotton manufacture. 
 
 Fig. 28. — Worsted Spinning. 
 
 Fig. 28 is intended to explain the general manner 
 of spinning long wool into a finer thread. Here 
 are three pairs of drawing rollers, A, B, C ; the first 
 two of which are supported on moveable bearings, or 
 brass bushes, which allow of their being separated, 
 more or less, from one another, and also from the 
 roller C, to suit the staple of the wool. The ratio of 
 the speed of the first and last pair of rollers is as one 
 to four. The roller B serves merely to bear up the 
 fine roving ; its velocity is therefore a mean between 
 that of the other two. The bobbins filled with rovings 
 made on the previously described machine, are ar- 
 ranged at D, behind the back-drawing roller A, in a 
 creel-frame, so that three rovings together may pass 
 
158 
 
 WORSTED MANUFACTURE — 
 
 through the funnel or eyelet E, placed opposite the 
 middle of this roller. The roving is never reduced to 
 its ultimate fineness by passing through two or three 
 such machines, but it passes successively through five 
 or six of them, receiving not only extension, but an 
 equalizing combination every time. At last, the fine 
 yarn is formed by a spinning frame, or throstle, 
 which may contain 254 spindles on each side, fur- 
 nished with a four-fold set of drawing rollers. A 
 popular conception of these may be obtained by in- 
 specting fig. 29. The back and the front pairs of 
 rollers A B alone are loaded by a suspended weighted 
 lever D. The upper rollers of the two middle pairs 
 E F are of lead, and press merely by their own weight. 
 The ratio of the velocities of the extreme pairs of 
 rollers is here as one is to six, eight, or ten, according 
 to the fineness of the roving, and the number of yarn 
 wanted. In this final spinning there is no doubling 
 operation ; but single bobbins are set on skewers in the 
 reel in correspondence with the single spindles on the 
 copping rail. The number of doublings in the process 
 of drawing and roving long wool, may amount in 
 certain cases to several thousand. 
 
 
 
 F 
 
 D 
 
 E 
 
 
 
 Fig. 29.— Worsted Throstle. 
 
 The spindles should revolve very quickly in the 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON WOOL. 159 
 
 spinning frame, in order to give the requisite degree of 
 twist to the worsted. The hardest twisted worsted is 
 called tammy warp ; and when its fineness is such as 
 to contain twenty-four hanks to the pound weight, the 
 twist is about ten or twelve turns in every inch length. 
 The least twist is given to the hosiery worsted yarn, 
 which runs from eighteen to twenty-four hanks to the 
 pound weight. The twist is only from five to six turns 
 per inch. The degree of twist is regulated by the size 
 of the wharves or whorls upon the spindles, and the 
 speed of the front rollers, as will be fully explained in 
 treating of cotton, in the spinning of which, on the fine 
 mule, extraordinary nicety of adjustment is required. 
 
 A hank of worsted yarn contains five hundred and 
 sixty yards ; and it is divided into seven leys of eighty 
 yards each. Some count hanks of eight hundred and 
 forty yards, like those of cotton yarn. 
 
 The roving frames have much fewer spindles than 
 the fine spinning frame ; some of them are two spindle, 
 some of them four spindle, others six spindle-frames, 
 &c, which all repeat, however, the similar process of 
 doubling threads and passing under drawing rollers, 
 so as to give successive draughts to the spongy cords, 
 and to maintain their perfect equality of texture. 
 Girls, from sixteen to twenty and upwards, are gene- 
 rally employed at drawing, roving, and spinning 
 frames. At the former two they earn from 6s. to 7 s. 
 each weekly ; at the last, from 9s. to 10s. 
 
160 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 Of the Short Wool, or Cloth Manufacture. 
 
 In the structure and mechanical properties of its fila- 
 ments, short or carding-wool resembles cotton very 
 closely, and is therefore, throughout the spinning de- 
 partment at least, the object of similar machinery 
 and manipulation. The great contractility and elas- 
 ticity of the animal fibres, however, give to the cloth 
 made of them a susceptibility for peculiar treatment 
 by what is called the fulling, felting, and teasling 
 operations. 
 
 The wool-mill or willy (called willow, in the cotton 
 manufacture, probably a corruption of winnow) is the 
 first machine to which clothing- wool is subjected. 
 It opens up and cleans from sandy and other loose 
 impurities the matted fleeces supplied by the wool- 
 stapler. The most improved willy is the conical one, 
 as now constructed by Mr. Lilly of Manchester, for 
 opening out the staple of cotton as it comes from the 
 bags. By the favour of this distinguished engineer, 
 I shall be enabled to exhibit a correct delineation of 
 all the essential parts of this very effective automatic 
 apparatus. In the former willows used in cotton- 
 mills, the cotton was introduced to the revolving spiked 
 apparatus and removed by hand, not without risk of 
 injury to the operator. Here, however, no such dan- 
 
NATURE OF A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 161 
 
 ger exists,, for the wool, whether of the sheep or the 
 cotton-plant, is continuously fed in at the one end by- 
 means of a travelling exterior apron, and given out by 
 a similar mechanism at the other end. This facility of 
 spontaneous circulation and discharge is derived from 
 the conical form of the revolving drum. 
 
 The wool entering near the summit of the cone is at 
 first subjected to the minimum rotatory impulsion of 
 the machine, and is thenceforth continually solicited 
 onwards, in the direction of the base, in obedience to 
 the increasing centrifugal force. This cone is studded 
 with rows of iron pins, and it revolves within a con- 
 centric case, studded with similar pins arranged alter- 
 nately, so as to permit the former to pass through 
 their intervals. When the wool has arrived by a 
 spiral circulation near the base of the cone, it is 
 deposited upon an endless apron, by whose motion 
 it is turned out upon the floor of the apartment in 
 a disentangled state. Fig. 30 exhibits a top view 
 of this willow, with part of the casing and frame re- 
 moved to show the interior structure. The cone A 
 consists of a strong iron-shaft a, surmounted with 
 three cast-iron rings, one at each end and one in the 
 middle for supporting the sheet-iron mantle which 
 forms the surface of the cone. Along this surface 
 four equidistant iron-bars are fixed parallel to the 
 axis, each of which receives a row of strong iron pins 
 b, fixed perpendicularly by nuts and screws ; corre- 
 sponding with the intervals of these pins, are fixed 
 also by nuts and screws a row of pins d, d on each 
 side of the casing-frame. The top of the cone is 
 covered in by a concentric envelop of thin sheet-iron, 
 and its bottom is formed of a gridiron-plate also con- 
 
162 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 163 
 
 centric. In the top casing near the narrow end there 
 is an oblong opening C having a frame D attached to 
 it, which carries an endless apron E. On this table 
 or travelling apron the wool is spread by hand. The 
 table consists of parallel slips of sheet-iron three- 
 quarters of an inch broad, with interstices between 
 them of half an inch, rivetted at their ends upon two 
 endless leather straps. These travel upon pulleys 
 fixed on two shafts parallel to the iron slips, the one 
 of the shafts being moved by wheel-work and the other 
 being adjustable by set screws which act on the bear- 
 ings of the shaft so as to tighten the strap. 
 
 At the wider end of the machine there is a chamber 
 F into which the wool is tossed out of the cone, after 
 performing its spiral revolutions, and is then received 
 on an endless apron like the former, as shown in the 
 figure. About an inch above the surface of this 
 apron, a cylindrical wire-cage revolves on an axis 
 parallel to the apron. It is enclosed in a casing of 
 sheet-iron, which communicates at its side with the 
 chamber F. Over this casing, within the frame-work 
 of the machine, a fan is placed, enclosed in a similar 
 case, which sucks out the dust through the wire or 
 squirrel cage in the chamber F below it, and blows 
 it out through a large pipe connected with an orifice 
 not visible in this view. The wire-cage and the 
 fan are placed in communication by a flat tin-plate 
 cover or lid, which embraces the openings at one end 
 of the axis of these two cylinders. The opposite ends 
 of the fan and case are left open to draw the dust 
 out of the room, and to ventilate it. The wire- 
 cage not only prevents the fibres of cotton or wool 
 from being wafted away with the lighter dust, but it 
 
164 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 lays them down in a fleece by its rotation on the 
 travelling apron. Two other figures are requisite for 
 exhibiting the working geer of the machine, but these 
 are reserved for the more minute details illustrative of 
 the cotton manufacture. 
 
 The machine is here represented on the greatest 
 scale, and is drawn correctly three-fourths of an inch 
 to a foot. I saw one of them in action, which was 
 capable of cleaning 3000 pounds weight of cotton-wool 
 in twelve hours. The wool slowly fed in by the apron 
 E is disentangled by the revolving spikes of the cone, 
 aided by the cenlrifugal movement; and discharges 
 at once its heavier impurities, such as twigs, dirt, and 
 stones, through the perforated bottom, and the lighter 
 ones through the cylindrical cage under the draught 
 of the fan, into a large pipe, and thence into a se- 
 parate dust-room of the factory. The cleaned fibres 
 thereafter come forth on the apron at w in the direc- 
 tion of the arrow. The best speed of the revolving 
 cone is about 500 turns per minute. 
 
 Sheep's wool for coarse goods is passed several 
 times through the willow, first to break the mats of 
 the raw wool and to render it light ; then a second 
 time after it is dyed ; a third time to mix the different 
 sorts together, and a fourth time with the view of 
 incorporating the oil thoroughly with the woollen 
 fibres. 
 
 Blowing and lapping machines of curious structure 
 are universally employed for cleaning and opening 
 cotton after it has passed through the willow, before 
 submitting it to the cards. But these refined me- 
 chanisms do not seem to have been introduced into the 
 general run of the woollen manufacture, though they 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 165 
 
 will probably be adopted to a certain extent when 
 their nature and merits become better known ; a result 
 which may in some measure be promoted by the de- 
 lineations and descriptions of them prepared for the 
 second portion of the present work. 
 
 Scribbling is merely a rude species of carding the 
 oiled wool, and is the next process in the woollen 
 manufacture. The scribbling machine delivers its 
 wool in the form of a broad thin fleece or lap, and 
 therefore corresponds exactly to the breaker-cards in 
 a cotton-mill. This lap is then presented to the cards 
 properly called, which work it again, and deliver it 
 in a narrow band or sliver. A view and description of 
 one of these machines will therefore serve to explain 
 the structure and operation of both. Carding opens up 
 and separates the woolly filaments, renders the fleece 
 lighter, more equable, and homogeneous ; it occasion- 
 ally breaks the fibres in disentangling their con- 
 nexions, multiplies their fibrils, and by giving them a 
 bristling and downy texture, renders them more 
 disposed to agglomerate in the fulling process. 
 
 By carding, wool expands greatly in its dimensions ; 
 the short broken filaments get crossed in every possible 
 direction and are ready to lay hold of one another; 
 constituting the most favourable conditions for being 
 fulled. As the fibres of wool are more tortuous, 
 elastic, and stifFer than those of cotton, they require 
 in their carding apparatus not merely a main cylin- 
 der with card teeth, but a series of smaller ones riding 
 upon and embracing it, for alternately taking off and 
 returning the wool, so as to open it sufficiently with- 
 out breaking it to pieces, and to lay the fibres at 
 every imaginable angle to each other. Yarn made of 
 
166 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 wool thus carded becomes susceptible of entering 
 into a coherent combination, and forms at once a 
 more ductile and more substantial thread, than yarn 
 from wool which has been carded by hand. 
 
 The wool-carding engine represented in fig. 31 
 consists of several smaller cylinders covered with card 
 cloth grouped round a larger cylinder A similarly 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 167 
 
 covered, which is about thirty- six inches in diame- 
 ter, and thirty-two inches long. The wool is first 
 laid down and spread evenly by hand upon an endless 
 apron a, stretched between two rollers 6, 6, which by 
 their rotation gradually move forwards the cloth and 
 introduce the flocks of wool upon it between the pair of 
 feed-rollers c, c, by which it is seized and distributed 
 upon the first cylinder-card B, and from it transferred 
 to the card-drum A. The drum is surmounted by 
 three other pairs of cylinders of smaller diameters, 
 which take successive shares in the carding operation. 
 Each pair of cylinders consists of a worker C, and a 
 cleaner D, somewhat less in size than its fellow^ and 
 iurning in the reverse direction of the drum. The 
 fjfeeth of the first w or her strip the wool from the sur- 
 face of the drum, and then give it up to the cleaner, 
 which, revolving with much greater rapidity, returns it 
 to the drum-card. Hereupon the second working 
 cylinder takes possession of the wool thus deposited, 
 and turns it over to its attendant cleaner, whence it is 
 again given up to the drum, and thus in continual suc- 
 cession. It is therefore by this repeated transfer from 
 one cylinder-card or urchin to another, and by a con- 
 tinual drawing out between the teeth of the different 
 orders of cards, that the filaments become separated 
 and expanded. Pulled about, turned, and returned 
 in every way, they get mixed and confounded together 
 at one moment, to be disentangled at another, in order 
 to form a light and homogeneous fleece. The teeth of 
 the several cylinders do not come into actual contact, 
 but they work so closely that they strip each other, 
 time-about, of every adhering filament in regular 
 succession. 
 
168 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 When the fibres have been thus thoroughly teazed 
 out by three and sometimes four pairs of urchin cylin- 
 ders, they are finally taken off the main drum by the 
 stripping-cylinder E, called the doffer, which is of a 
 smaller size and turns more slowly. The wool is 
 taken off the doffer by a steel comb F, or doffing- 
 knife, moved rapidly up and down by a crank, so as 
 to give a shaving stroke to the surface of the card only 
 in its descent, and thus to take off the card-teeth a 
 continuous fleecy web of extreme tenuity. In the 
 scribbling process this fleece is wound upon the sur- 
 face of a revolving roller into the form of a lap. 
 
 In this lap, however, the fibres of the wool are 
 seldom sufficiently disentangled. Several little knots, 
 and convoluted flocks may be perceived which thiB 
 primary carding has not been able to undo. A second 
 operation is therefore performed on the same wool by 
 the same machine, and if necessary even a third. 
 
 The finisher or roll-carding-engine differs from the 
 scribbler in several particulars. The doffing-cylinder, 
 instead of having its surface completely covered with 
 card-fillets in a spiral form, has merely a succession 
 of oblong card-leathers fixed on it at intervals, parallel 
 to the axis, so that the wool is detached from the 
 doffer by the comb, in the shape of thin narrow bands 
 of fleece, nearly as long as the cylinder. Each of 
 these fleecy stripes is formed afterwards into a roll, by 
 being rubbed round in succession by a fluted cylin- 
 der called the roller-bowl, encased at its lower and 
 back part within a segment of a hollow cylinder 
 called the shell. The fleece, being slowly rolled about 
 in the small space between these two cylinders, takes 
 naturally a cylindrical shape, and is turned out in 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 169 
 
 rolls called cardings, upon an endless cloth placed 
 in front of and beneath the fluted cylinder. This 
 finisher carding-engine is furnished with finer teeth 
 than the scribbler. All the parts of the carding-ma- 
 chines derive their movements from a main axis, driven 
 by a power pulley, as will be fully shown in analyzing 
 the structure of cotton carding-engines. The wool 
 card-drum makes about one hundred revolutions per 
 minute ; but the cotton-cards revolve far more rapidly. 
 The surface of the working cylinders moves in the 
 same direction as that of the drum, but much more 
 slowly; the proportion being such that the workers 
 make only one turn for every ten turns of the drum ; 
 and as they are about eight inches in diameter, their 
 surface moves forty-five times less quickly than that 
 of the drum. 
 
 The cleaners are so placed as to card the wool both 
 on the workers and on the drum : they revolve very 
 quickly, and take the wool from the workers, so as to 
 clean it effectually; but their surface does not move so 
 rapidly as that of the drum ; for though they make 
 three turns for every one of the drum, as they are only 
 four inches in diameter, their surface moves about 
 three times more slowly than that of the drum. 
 
 The last working-cylinder is called the fly, on 
 account of its extreme velocity. Its surface turns in 
 the same direction as that of the drum, but nearly one 
 and a half times faster, its diameter being ten inches, 
 and that of the driving-pulley, on its end, only three 
 and a half inches. The fly is not set so near the drum 
 as to be capable of taking the fibres from it, but only 
 to teaze them out among the teeth of the cards, and to 
 raise them on the surface of the drum, to prepare them 
 
 vol. r. i 
 
170 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 for being easily stripped by the next cylinder — the 
 doffer. For this reason the fly is furnished with straight 
 teeth. The doffer turns very slowly, having a surface 
 velocity of only one-thirtieth of that of the drum. It 
 is fourteen inches in diameter, and receives motion from 
 the same toothed wheel- work as the working cylinders. 
 It is covered with rectangular pieces of card leather, 
 about four inches broad. In the scribbler it is 
 covered spirally with fillet cards, and the fleece taken 
 from it either falls down into a bin, or is wound upon 
 a wooden cylinder, about twenty-eight inches in dia- 
 meter, turning with such a surface velocity as to coil 
 on the lap no faster than it is taken off by the doffer- 
 knife, for fear of stretching or tearing it. The doffer-? 
 knife is made to move up and down in an elliptic curve 
 of about two inches in its longer axis, so as to strike 
 and comb out the fibres from the card-teeth of the re- 
 volving cylinder. The teeth of the comb are about 
 one-eighth of an inch long, and one-sixteenth of an 
 inch apart. 
 
 On comparing the ancient plan of flat hand or stock 
 cards with that of modern carding-engines, the advan- 
 tages of the latter will be seen to consist not merely in 
 economy of power and time, but also in a superior 
 distribution of the woolly filaments. In fact, the 
 workman carding by hand operates always in the same 
 direction, and does not sufficiently intermingle the 
 fibres, but brings them generally back to their primitive 
 position ; thereby giving the wool a less cohesive tex- 
 ture, and rendering it less fit for making strong yarns. 
 By the use of carding cylinders the yarn becomes 
 stronger, more readily woven, requires less dressing in 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 171 
 
 the warp, and the cloth made of it is therefore more 
 easily scoured. 
 
 The scribbled wool is weighed, and a proper weight 
 of it being taken to the finisher carding-engine, is 
 spread over a certain length of the feeding cloth, so as 
 to supply the wool to the feeding rollers with the 
 utmost regularity. The proper weight is found out 
 experimentally, and in correspondence to the quality 
 of yarn required. The car dings are also weighed 
 from time to time, to see that each contains the proper 
 quantity of wool. They ought to be regular in tex- 
 ture and in size, to be converted into good rovings. 
 
 The Slubbing Machine, or Billy, performs the next 
 operation. It reduces the cardings by drawing them 
 out in length; joins them in a continuous spongy 
 cord, giving thern at the same time a slight twist, to 
 maintain their cohesion and uniformity; and thus 
 forms what is called a slubbing or roving — a soft thread 
 to be thereafter spun, on the mule-jenny, into yarn fit 
 for the loom. This operation was formerly done by 
 hand, on a spinning-wheel similar to the common one 
 for spinning wool, but of a smaller size. Machines 
 were then contrived by which a number of cardings 
 could be drawn out together ; but the aid of the hands 
 was required for joining the cardings of wool together 
 in succession, which occasioned much loss of time and 
 labour, and was therefore superseded by a special 
 mechanism. Under the name of Billy this machine 
 excited great interest during the recent investigations 
 into the employments of factory children, and it there- 
 fore merits a particular description. Such slubbing is 
 unknown in the worsted or long-wool as well as in the 
 
 i 2 
 
172 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 cotton manufacture. It deserves to be noticed, more- 
 over, as having been, in general, a non-automatic pro- 
 cess, left very much at the mercy of the chief work- 
 man, to stand by or desert at his pleasure ; and there- 
 fore it should bring no discredit on steam-driven 
 machinery, since, were it so impelled, it would not be 
 susceptible of causing that over-work to ita juvenile 
 attendants, with which it has been so loudly and not 
 unjustly charged, — evils arising from the culpable 
 irregularities of the adult slubber. 
 
 Fig. 31 is a perspective view of the slubbing-ma- 
 chine in common use. A A is the wooden frame ; 
 within which is the movable carriage D D, which 
 runs upon the lower side rails at a a, on friction 
 wheels 1, 2, to make it move easily backwards and for- 
 wards from one end of the frame to the other. The 
 carriage contains a number of steel spindles, marked 
 3, 3, which receive a rapid motion from a long cylinder 
 F, by means of separate cords passing round the 
 pulley or whorl of each spindle. The cylinder F is a 
 long drum of tin-plate, six inches in diameter, covered 
 with paper, which extends across the whole breadth of 
 the carriage. The spindles are placed in a frame so 
 as to stand nearly upright, at about four inches 
 apart: their lower ends are pointed conically, and 
 turn in brass sockets called steps, and are retained in 
 their position by a smaller collar of brass for each, 
 which embraces the spindle about the middle of its 
 length. The upper half of each spindle projects 
 above the frame. The drum lies horizontally before the 
 spindles, withits centre a little lower than the line of the 
 whorls. The drum receives motion by a pulley at one 
 end, with an endless band, from a wheel E, made like 
 
174 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 the large domestic wheel formerly used in spinning 
 wool by hand; and of similar dimensions. The wheel 
 is placed on the outside of the main frame of the ma- 
 chine, having its axle supported by upright standards, 
 erected from the carriage D. The wheel is turned by 
 the spinner, placed at Q, with his right hand applied 
 to a winch (as plainly shown in the drawing), which 
 gives motion to the drum, and thereby causes the 
 spindles to revolve with great velocity. 
 
 Each spindle receives a soft cord or slubbing, which 
 comes through beneath a wooden roller C C, at one 
 end of the frame. This is the so much talked-of Billy - 
 roller. The cords thence proceed to the row of spin- 
 dles standing in the carriage, so that they are ex- 
 tended in nearly a horizontal direction. By the alter- 
 nate movement of the carriage, the spindles are made 
 to advance to, or recede from, the roller C, so as to 
 extend any required length of slubbing. 
 
 The cardings of wool which are to be spun into 
 slubbings are laid straight, side by side, upon an end- 
 less cloth, which is strained in a slanting position 
 between two horizontal rollers, of which one B is 
 shown in the figure. One carding is allotted to each 
 spindle, and the number of spindles may vary from 
 fifty to one hundred in one machine. The roller C 
 rests on the cardings which move along the cloth, and, 
 as it must press slightly, it is made of light wood. 
 Immediately in front of this roller there is a horizontal 
 wooden rail G, or long bar, with another beneath it, 
 fixed horizontally across the frame. The carding is 
 conducted between these two rails, the upper or move- 
 able one being raised to let it through. When this 
 bar is again let down, it pinches the carding fast ; and 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 175 
 
 hence this cloven mechanism is called the clasp. It is 
 precisely the clove originally used by Hargreave in his 
 cotton-jenny. The upper or movable rail G is 
 guided between sliders, and a wire 7 descends from 
 it to a lever 6. When the carriage D is wheeled close 
 home to the end of the machine, a wheel 5 lifts up the 
 end 6 of the lever, and this, by the wire 7, raises the 
 upper rail G so as to open the clasp, and release all 
 the cardings. In this state of things, if the carriage 
 be drawn back from the clasp-bar, it will necessarily 
 pull the cardings forward on their inclined plane. 
 There is a small catch which receives the upper bar G 
 of the clasp, and keeps it from falling till the carriage 
 has receded to a certain distance, and has drawn out 
 about eight inches in length of the cardings : a stop 
 on the carriage then comes against the catch and 
 withdraws it, so as to allow the upper rail to fall 
 and pinch the carding, while the carriage continues 
 to recede, drawing out or stretching that portion of 
 the roll which is between the clasp and the spindle. 
 Meanwhile the wheel has been turned to keep the 
 spindles in motion, and to give the proper twist to the 
 cardings in proportion as they are extended, in order 
 to prevent them from breaking. 
 
 It might be supposed that the slubbing threads 
 would be apt to coil round the spindles, but as they 
 proceed in a sloping direction from the clasp, they 
 merely receive a twisting motion, always slipping over 
 the points of the spindles without being wound upon 
 them. Whenever the slubber has given a due degree 
 of twist to the threads, he prepares to wind it upon the 
 spindles in a conical shape, by pressing down with his 
 left hand the faller-wire 8, so as to bear it away from 
 
176 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 the points of the spindles and place it opposite to their 
 middle part. He now causes the spindles to revolve, 
 and at the same time pushes in the carriage slowly, so 
 as to wind the slubbing upon the spindle into a conical 
 cop. 
 
 The wire 8 is made to regulate the winding on of 
 the whole row of slubbings at once, and is placed at 
 the proper depression for this purpose by its connexion 
 with the horizontal rail 4, which turns on pivots 
 at its ends, in brasses fixed on the standards which rise 
 from the carriage D. By turning this rail on its 
 pivots the wire 8 is raised or lowered to any desired 
 degree. The slubber seizing the rail 4 in his left 
 hand thereby draws the carriage out; but on its return 
 he depresses the faller-wire at the same time that he 
 pushes the carriage before him. 
 
 As the cardings are exceedingly tender, they would 
 readily draw out or break if they were dragged up the 
 inclined plane. To save the necessity of this traction, 
 a cord is applied round a groove in the middle part of 
 the upper roller, and after passing over proper pulleys, 
 as shown in the figure, it has a weight suspended at 
 the one end, and another, but smaller, at the other; the 
 small weight serves merely to keep the rope stretched, 
 but the large weight tends to turn the rollers with their 
 endless cloth or apron round in such a direction as to 
 bring forward the cardings without putting any strain 
 upon them. Every time that the carriage is pushed 
 home, the large weight gets wound up by a piece of 
 wood, which projects from the carriage, seizing a knot 
 in the cord at the part which lies horizontally : this 
 pushes the cord back a certain distance, so as to draw 
 up the great weight; but the endless cloth cannot 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 177 
 
 return backwards, by reason of a ratchet and click 
 at the end of one of its rollers : the rope therefore slips 
 round upon the roller. When the carriage retires, 
 the greater weight turns the roller, and advances the 
 endless apron, so as to deliver the cardings at the same 
 rate as the carriage, by coming out, takes them up ; 
 but when the proper quantity is delivered, the knot in 
 the rope arrives at a fixed stop, which does not permit 
 it to move any farther ; and at the same instant the 
 roller 5 quits the lever 6, and allows the upper rail G 
 of the clasp to fall, and pinch the carding fast : the 
 wheel E being then put in motion makes the spindles 
 revolve, and the carriage being drawn out extends the 
 slubbings, while under the influence of twisting. In 
 winding up the slubbings the operative must take care 
 to push in the carriage, and to turn the wheel round 
 at such rates that the spindles will not take up faster 
 than the carriage moves on its rail-way, or he would 
 injure the slubbings. 
 
 A child attends the machine, who brings the card- 
 ings from the card-engine, and places them upon the 
 inclined cloth between C and B ; and he must be care- 
 ful to join on fresh ones to the ends of those nearly 
 exhausted. Slubbings intended for warp-yarn must be 
 more twisted than those for weft ; but they must also 
 receive a degree of torsion relative to the quality of the 
 wool and the cloth to be made with it. In general, it 
 may be stated that no more twist is given to the slub- 
 bings than is indispensable to make them draw out to 
 the required tenuity without breaking. This twist 
 forms no part of that of the yarn, for the slubbing 
 will be twisted in the contrary direction, when it is 
 spun thereafter in the jenny. Instead of these hand- 
 
 i3 
 
178 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 machines, automatic stretching machines, like the 
 stretching mules used in cotton manufactories, have 
 been recently introduced into the woollen trade with the 
 effect of making better work, and superseding the irre- 
 gularities of the slubber, which operated sometimes 
 most injuriously on his young assistants, as I shall 
 hereafter describe. 
 
 The cardings, as fast as they fall from the carding- 
 machine, are taken up by the children, called piece- 
 ners, from the nature of their work, being to piece or 
 join those porous rolls together, to fit them for being 
 drawn into a continuous thread. One slubber with 
 one billy machine, containing on an average sixty 
 spindles, is appointed to each carding-engine, and has 
 in well-regulated factories four pieceners attached to 
 him. These billies are, as we have shown, not driven 
 by the steam-engine, and are worked within the factory 
 merely because the card-engines are there. Hence 
 the speed and continuance of their labour are entirely 
 at the option of the slubbers. The billy is placed 
 immediately opposite the carding-engine. 
 
 The business of the children is to take the cardings 
 and lay them on the sloping billy-board, joining their 
 ends by rolling them together for a moment with the 
 palm of the hand. Each piecener having fifteen ends 
 to piece, collects several cardings at once, which he lays 
 over his left arm, and walks alongside of the billy, 
 joining each end successively with his right hand. The 
 part of the billy which contains the spindle-carriage is 
 movable in a direction from the billy-board through 
 what is called the billy -gate, a space of several feet. 
 The slubbers drawings and windings on succeed 
 each other at the rate of four or five in a minute ; but 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 179 
 
 as at each drawing part only of the carding is pulled 
 forwards, each child has ample time to piece his fifteen 
 ends. He must take care not to stretch the cardings 
 in lifting them up, and to join them evenly and effec- 
 tually. If any fault is committed in this respect, it 
 produces what the workman calls (i flies " on the slub- 
 bing, or they are said to be "ratched cardings." If 
 the child has neglected to join on every one of the 
 ends by the time that the former cardings are drawn 
 through, the ends are said to be " let up ; *' and when 
 this happens, it occasions of course delay in the work. 
 
 Much of the cruelty complained of in factories takes 
 place between the slubber and his pieceners. It is 
 usual for the slubber to be provided with a strap, and 
 if his young assistants let the ends up, or make an 
 extraordinary number of w ratched cardings," he calls 
 the delinquents round to the billy-gate at Q and straps 
 them. The degree of the punishment depends of 
 course more on the temper of the man than on the 
 rules of the establishment. If he strikes the children 
 with the billy-roller, which is easily removable from 
 the frame, he will probably do it by reaching at them 
 across the billy. But a practice prevails not unfre- 
 quently among the slubbers, by which, in fact, the 
 children seem to suffer more at their hands than in 
 consequence of working over-hours. The slubber, as 
 already stated, being in his labour independent of the 
 steam-engine or water-wheel, works his billy or not at 
 his pleasure, as in general it is quite unconnected 
 with the rest of the machinery. If he is disposed to 
 leave his business for the pot-house at arbitrary inter- 
 vals, as many handicraft tradesmen are too apt to do, 
 for half an hour, an hour, or more, a great accumu- 
 
180 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 lation of cardings from the power-driven carding- 
 engine will ensue in his absence. The children pile 
 these on the floor in heaps called stacks, of which they 
 will sometimes have six or seven, containing from 
 twenty dozen to forty dozen cardings in each stack. 
 A rule is talked of for throwing the cards out of geer 
 after six stacks are collected ; but it can seldom be 
 enforced against hands engaged in tyrannical unions. 
 On the slubber's return from his voluntary absence, he 
 usually sets to work much more violently than com- 
 mon, to clear his drinking score and to make up for 
 lost time, as he is paid by the piece, or the great as he 
 terms it. On such occasions the children are tasked 
 to severe exertion, and are often capriciously punished 
 by this independent workman for unavoidable faults of 
 his own creation ; for the children have not only to 
 continue piling up the cardings incessantly thrown off 
 by the carding-engine, but also to piecen their slub- 
 bing ends with double rapidity. Children are pre- 
 ferable as pieceners, not simply from the cheapness of 
 their labour, and the mobility of their muscles, but 
 from their size, as they can work without constraint at 
 the billy-board, which must be kept low for the con- 
 venience of the slubber, and could not be properly 
 served by taller persons without painful and injurious 
 stooping. 
 
 It is obvious that this branch of the woollen manu- 
 facture permits the ill-treatment of children in con- 
 sequence of its being detached from the steam-engine, 
 being so far not a factory but a domestic employment, 
 and therefore subject to the caprice of individual 
 operatives. It is given in evidence that "the slubbers 
 generally are a morose, ill-tempered set. Their pay 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 181 
 
 depends on the children's work. The slubbers are 
 often off drinking, and then they must work harder to 
 get the cardings up. I have seen that often. Mr. 
 Gamble (the proprietor of the factory) is one of the 
 most humane men that ever lived, by all that I hear, 
 and he will not allow the slubbers to touch the chil- 
 dren on any pretence ; if they will not attend to their 
 work he turns them away*." It is, however, unhap- 
 pily, of such consequence to poor parents to eke out 
 their own earnings with that of their children, that 
 they are often too willing to wink at their ill-usage by 
 the slubbers who hire them, and to stifle their com- 
 plaints. These operatives are described as unamiable, 
 refractory spirits, requiring over-lookers of a deter- 
 mined temper to keep them in order, and they are 
 often the fathers or guardians of their piecenersf. 
 
 The invention which forms the subject of Mr. Charles 
 Wilson s patent, specified last December, is intended 
 to supersede the necessity of employing the machine 
 called the slubbing-billy, in preparing wool for spin- 
 ning, and consists in the adaptation of certain pieces of 
 mechanism as auxiliaries to an engine for scribbling 
 or carding wool. 
 
 The wool having been scribbled in the ordinary way 
 and deposited in loose untwisted bands in a series of 
 receiving cans, as commonly practised, the first feature 
 of the invention applies to the manner of feeding or con- 
 ducting those bands from the cans into a second scrib- 
 bling or carding-engine, which is done by leading those 
 bands of sliver over a series of horizontal rollers 
 mounted in a frame at the feeding-end of the engine, 
 and by the rotation of these rollers, passing the bands 
 
 * First Report of Factory Commissioners, C. 1, p. 10. f Ibid. 
 
182 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 severally through distinct guides or eyes, and between 
 rollers and partitions, in order that the bands of wool 
 may not be indiscriminately mixed on the carding- 
 cylinder, but that they may be carded in the same 
 form for the purpose of being taken off at the doffer- 
 end of the engine again in bands, and so conducted 
 forward and wound in bands, as slubbings, on bobbins 
 ready for the subsequent operations of mule or throstle- 
 spinning. 
 
 The second feature is the adaptation of a cylinder 
 with bands or ribs of cards round it, and intervening 
 blanks, which cylinder is employed as a stripper in 
 place of a dofSng-comb, to take off or strip the slivers 
 of wool from the dofBng-cylinder in the same form in 
 which they were fed into the engine at the reverse end. 
 
 The fibres of wool are to be removed from the 
 points of the cards of this cylinder by a fluted roller 
 turning in contact with it, by which means the slivers 
 again assume the form of bands of slubbing, and are 
 then passed between a pair of rollers to compress them. 
 They are then conducted between two straps, or a 
 doubled endless band, travelling in opposite directions, 
 in order to give a slight degree of twist to the fibres of 
 the wool ; and after this the slubbings are passed be- 
 tween another pair of rollers, turning somewhat faster 
 than the former pair, for the purpose of drawing out the 
 fibres and slightly elongating the bands of slubbing. 
 
 The slubbings are next wound or lapped upon a 
 roller or long bobbin, which is made to turn upon its 
 axis by the friction of its contact with the surfaces 
 of two revolving rollers below, driven by the geering- 
 wheels of the engine; and this lapping-roller has a 
 short lateral movement to and fro in its carriage, for 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 182 
 
 the purpose of causing the several bands of slubbing 
 to be wound in a slight degree spirally, or in helical 
 curves round the bobbin. 
 
 The claims of the patentee are, first, to the mode of 
 feeding the slivers into the carding-engine immediately 
 from a series of cans, and of passing it in distinct 
 bands over guide-rollers into the engine : second, to 
 the adaptation of a cylinder with bands of cards for 
 stripping or taking off the slivers from the doffer- 
 cylinder ; and third, to the employment of a second 
 pair of rollers for the purpose of drawing or slightly 
 elongating the slubbings. 
 
 The woollen-yarn spinners claim for their branch of 
 the manufacture which follows the slubbing the cha- 
 racter of a completely healthy occupation, and not 
 without justice; for although the dirty and greasy 
 appearance of the operatives at the jennies and mules, 
 and the strong effluvia of animal oil perceptible in 
 some mills, convey at first a different impression to a 
 stranger, neither the men, nor the few children who 
 are required, are found to suffer from the nature of 
 the occupation, and many are said to receive benefit 
 from it. 
 
 The wool slubbings or rovings are spun into yarn of 
 the requisite fineness either by the jenny or the mule. 
 The latter being, properly speaking, a machine be- 
 longing to the cotton manufacture, must be reserved 
 for that department of our work. The following 
 description will render the nature of the process 
 tolerably clear. 
 
 Fig. 32 represents a mechanism intermediate between 
 the jenny and the mule. It has only one pair of rollers 
 A ; the under one is fluted iron, and the upper one 
 
184 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 wood, with an iron axis, which is made to press down- 
 wards by springs acting at B. These rollers, by means 
 of a peculiar mechanism driven by the main axis of 
 the machine, deliver at each movement of the carriage, 
 the length of roving requisite for one stretch, as has 
 been explained in describing the slubbing frame. 
 The carriage C is constructed exactly as in the 
 mule jenny; the spindles, which travel with it, receive 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 185 
 
 their motion from the vertical drums P. The spinner 
 is saved from the care and exertion of bringing out the 
 carriage, that operation being performed by the 
 moving power on automatic principles, as in the cotton- 
 mule ; but he executes the winding of the yarn on the 
 spindles, by pushing the carriage back to the roller 
 beam, and depressing the faller-wire G at a proper 
 inclination for forming a regular cop. For every 
 kind of cloth two qualities of yarn are required ; the 
 first hard twisted and strong, to form the warp or the 
 chain, and the second of a softer and more elastic tex- 
 ture, to form the woof or weft ; and these are always 
 carefully distinguished. 
 
 In the woollen manufacture, as the cloth suffers, by 
 the operation of the fulling-mill, a shrinkage of its 
 breadth to well nigh one-half, it must at first be woven 
 of nearly double its intended width when finished. 
 Superfine six-quarter broad-cloths must therefore be 
 turned out of the loom twelve-quarters wide. For 
 making such broad webs by one weaver, the fly-shuttle 
 of John Kay was a precious invention ; prior to which 
 two men were employed to throw the shuttle from one 
 to the other. The minutiae of warping and weaving 
 apparatus will be fully explained in treating of the 
 cotton trade. Hitherto power-looms have been spa- 
 ringly introduced into the manufacture of cloth ; but 
 some have been recently constructed by Messrs. Sharp 
 and Roberts, which work extremely well, and with 
 very little friction. I saw one of them weaving a 
 twelve-quarter cloth with the same precision and faci- 
 lity as their common power- looms weave calicoes and 
 fustians. 
 
 At each side of the woollen warps, a few threads of 
 
186 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 Strong coarse yarn are placed, to form the lists or sel- 
 vages of the cloth, which strengthen it, and serve to 
 receive the hooks for stretching it by in the tenter- 
 frames after milling. The piece of cloth must be 
 cleansed from the oil with which the wool was embued 
 in the carding operation, before it can be fulled. The 
 scouring process is performed by a pair of stocks, 
 driven by machinery, in a mill similar to the fulling-mill. 
 The stocks are two large wooden mallets, suspended 
 with the handles or helves in an inclined position, and 
 lifted in succession by cogs fixed on the axis of a water- 
 wheel. When the cogs escape from the raised mallets, 
 they allow the heavy heads to fall by their own weight, 
 like the bobs of a pendulum swinging to their centres, 
 and to strike the piece of cloth contained in a wooden 
 trough, by an action extremely like kicking with the 
 toes. The slant ends of the hammers not only beat 
 and compress the piece of cloth, but turn it continually 
 round, by sliding under it upon the sloping bottom of 
 the trough. The back of the trough being curved, per- 
 mits the cloth to turn upwards before each successive 
 kick, and to move somewhat round in tumbling down 
 again on the alternate recession of the stock. As a 
 large bulk of cloth is scoured at a time, only the bottom 
 of the heap receives the blow, but being heaved about 
 by the wedge-like beak of the mallet acting against 
 the slanting base and back of the trough, that bottom 
 part is continually changed, so as to bring the whole 
 mass in a short time under the operation. The cloth 
 takes, in fact, a circulating movement, and thus ex- 
 poses itself spontaneously, so to speak, to a most 
 effectual rubbing, tossing, and beating process. When 
 the cloth is sufficiently scoured, first by water with a 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 187 
 
 little soap or other detergent matter, and then by pure 
 water alone, it is taken out of the trough, and extended 
 with its edge upright, on a vertical frame, called the 
 tenter, where it is left to dry in a stretched state. 
 
 Burling is the name of a process, in which the dried 
 cloth is examined minutely in every part, freed from 
 knots or uneven threads, and repaired by sewing any 
 little rents, or inserting sound yarns in the place of 
 defective ones. The fulling operation which follows 
 entangles the fibres of the repaired spots in such a 
 manner, as to conceal the defects, and give the whole 
 a uniform appearance. 
 
 In the fulling-mill, both the stocks and trough are 
 differently shaped from those just described, though 
 the mallets are suspended and driven in the same way. 
 The milling-trough is so formed, that the cloth cannot 
 escape by sliding up from the blows of the hammer, 
 because the face of it opposed to the beak of the mallet 
 is nearly flat, and at right angles to the direction of 
 the blow, whereby the cloth is exposed to percussive 
 pressure between the mallet and the back of the box. 
 The hammers are made to strike very heavy blows, 
 but without wearing the woollen texture, because they 
 always impinge flatly against many folds of cloth. 
 The helves of the fulling-mallets are placed in a po- 
 sition different from those of the scouring-stocks, in 
 order to make them fall more directly at every stroke. 
 Hence they are called falling-stocks, while the scourers 
 are called hanging-stocks, because the handles being 
 nearer the perpendicular, cause the mallets to move 
 more horizontally, and impinge more lightly on the 
 cloth. The stocks should make from thirty to forty 
 blows per minute, in a well- constructed fulling-mill. 
 
188 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 According to Smeaton, the power of four horses is re- 
 quired to work one pair of stocks for fulling bays ; and 
 it would take probably more power to full broad-cloths. 
 
 In fulling or milling a piece of cloth sixty-two yards 
 long, six pounds of soap are dissolved in a little water,, 
 and a handful of the solution is spread upon every 
 yard. The piece is now put into the trough, and 
 worked for three hours, being frequently turned to 
 expose fresh surfaces to the blows of the stocks. The 
 fibres of the wool are thus compacted together, sliding 
 more easily among each other in consequence of the 
 lubrication of the soap, till the whole become matted 
 into one mass. After three hours' milling, the cloth is 
 taken out of the trough, soaped as before, and then 
 subjected to the stocks for three hours more. This 
 process is repeated four times in the course of twelve 
 hours, and is succeeded by a rinsing operation, a stream 
 of clear water being admitted into the trough to wash 
 out the soap. The piece of cloth is now found to be 
 reduced to a breadth of about sixty inches from one 
 hundred, and a length of forty yards from sixty-three. 
 
 The asperities on the surfaces of woollen fibres, and 
 their great elasticity, render them difficult to card, 
 spin, and weave ; and require them in manufacture to 
 be lubricated with oil to the amount of nearly one- 
 fourth part of their weight. In the process of scouring 
 by the stocks, this oil is washed out with the aid of 
 crude alkaline matter, fullers' -earth, and occasionally a 
 little soap. After milling, the stuff partakes at once 
 of the nature of a woven tissue and of a felt. On this 
 account the cut edges of broad cloth are not apt to 
 unravel their yarns, and need not be hemmed like 
 those of cotton, linen, and silk goods. 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 189 
 
 An ingenious improvement on the old fulling-mill 
 was patented in 1826, by Messrs. Willan and Ogle, 
 cloth manufacturers, Leeds, in which the standard and 
 bed of the stocks are made of iron instead of wood* 
 and a steam case is placed under the bed to heat the 
 cloth during the operation. 
 
 Fig. 33.— Willan and Ogle's Fulling Mill. 
 
 Figure 33 is a section of the machine : a is a cast- 
 iron hollow pillar, 6 the bed of the stocks of iron 
 polished smooth,, c the lever or handle of the mallet or 
 beater d. The cloth is laid on the bed b at the bottom, 
 and subjected at once to a stream of water, and to the 
 blows of the beater. The bed at e is hollow and forms 
 a steam-chest, connected by a pipe with a boiler, the 
 heat from which is said greatly to facilitate and 
 improve the cleansing and fulling processes. The 
 smoothness of the metal of the stock-bed prevents the 
 nap from being worn off the cloth during its frequent 
 turning over by the wedge of the beater, and thus 
 preserves its beauty. The tendency of the cloth to 
 
190 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 turn over in the mill depends in a great measure upon 
 the form of the breast of the stock against which it is 
 driven by the mallet. In the present machine there is 
 a contrivance by which that form may be modified in 
 order to suit different fabrics of cloth. The curved 
 breastplate / is movable round a cylindrical hinge- 
 rod seen in section, which runs across the bottom of 
 the trough. This breastplate is acted upon by a 
 screw-rod g attached to its back, and may by this 
 means be pushed forwards or backwards to any desired 
 inclination. The spur-wheel h works both to its 
 right and left into the teeth of a similar spur-wheel, 
 each of which wheels has for an axis a screw-rod similar 
 to g, so that all the three moving together push for- 
 ward or draw back simultaneously the three rods, and 
 furnish firm stays to the breastplate. At the upper 
 part of the plate there are guide-pins which pass 
 through concentric curved slots. 
 
 The foundation of men's hats, upon the outside of 
 'which the beaver down or other fine fur is laid, to 
 produce a nap, is usually made of wool felted together 
 by hand, and formed first into conical caps, which are 
 afterwards stretched and moulded upon blocks to the 
 desired shape. There have, however, been various 
 kinds of machinery employed of late years for setting 
 up hat bodies, by coiling loose filaments of wool into 
 the fdrm of conical caps, and causing them to cross 
 each, other in the winding on, for the purpose of tak- 
 ing hold of each other, so as to produce a matted or 
 laid texture, when exposed to heat with friction, or the 
 felting process. An ingenious contrivance of this 
 nature was made the subject of a patent by Mr. Bor- 
 rodaile in 1825, which, with improvements, was pa- 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 191 
 
 tented again by Mr. Williams, in 1826. It consists, 
 first, of an apparatus to be attached to a carding-en- 
 gine, by means of which the slivers or porous ribands 
 of wool are taken off the doffing-cylinder of the card- 
 ing-engine, and wound in different directions, for the 
 purpose of becoming matted together, upon blocks of 
 various figures, suited to the size of the intended hat 
 or cap ; and secondly, in an apparatus having heated 
 plates and rollers, upon which the matted caps are 
 pressed and rolled, to harden them previous to felting. 
 
 Fig. 34.— Williams's Hat Felter. 
 
 The wood-cut (fig. 34) shows in plan the sliver as 
 delivered from the carding-cylinder, winding on cones 
 which turn upon horizontal axes, and also traversing a 
 little to-and-fro, in order to distribute the fleecy^riband 
 crosswise along their sides, and likewise over their 
 hemispherical ends. These cones are made to vary in 
 their rotatory speed according to the diameter of that 
 part of the block which is receiving the sliver, other- 
 
192 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 wise the slivers would not be wound on with uniform 
 tension. This variation of velocity is produced by con- 
 necting these blocks, by straps, with a pair of driving- 
 cones reversely mounted, and of a corresponding shape, 
 the straps being made to traverse backwards and for- 
 wards on the surfaces of the cones. Two heavy conical 
 rollers are seen at iv iv bearing on the peripheries of 
 the blocks, but turning loosely upon their axles by the 
 friction of contact, for the purpose of compressing the 
 slivers of wool on the blocks. When they have been 
 coated with a sufficient quantity of the woolly fleece, 
 the smaller end of the pressing-roller is to be raised, to 
 allow the cap to be removed from the block. Another 
 set of bodies is then begun. The caps, thus formed, 
 are folded in wet cloths, and placed on steam-hot 
 plates, where they are rolled by a machine, or the 
 hand, under pressure, for the purpose of being condensed. 
 They are now to be felted, either in the usual way 
 by hand, or in a fulling-mill, from which they are 
 taken out occasionally, and passed between rollers,, to 
 render the felt more perfect. 
 
 Tentering. When the fulling is finished, the cloth 
 is stretched once more on the tenter-frame, and left in 
 the open air till it is dry. 
 
 Teasling. The object of this operation is to raise 
 up the loose fibres of the woollen yarn into a nap upon 
 the surface of the cloth, by scratching it either with 
 thistle-heads called teasels, or with teasling cards or 
 brushes made of wires. The natural teasels are the 
 balls which contain the seed of the plant called dip- 
 sacus fullorum ; the scales which form the balls pro- 
 ject on all sides, and end in sharp elastic points, that 
 turn downwards like hooks. On the hand-work plan, 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 193 
 
 a number of teasels were put into a small frame, having 
 crossed handles, eight or ten inches long. Being 
 filled with the thistle heads, it formed a tool not un- 
 like a horse curry-comb. It was used by two men, 
 who seizing the teasel-frame by the handles, scrubbed 
 the face of the cloth hung in a vertical position from 
 two horizontal rails fixed to the ceiling of the work- 
 shop. The first time of dressing the cloth they wetted 
 it with water, and worked it, first three times over by 
 strokes in the direction of the warp, and next in that 
 of the weft, so as to raise up all the loose fibres from 
 the felt, and prepare it for shearing. In large manu- 
 factories this dressing operation is performed by what 
 is' called a gig-mill, which originally consisted of a 
 cylinder bristled over with the thistle heads, and turned 
 rapidly round while the cloth was drawn over it in 
 variable directions. When the hooks of the teasels got 
 filled with flocks of wool, they were taken out of the 
 cylinder and cleaned by children with a small comb. 
 The quantity of teasels required being very consider- 
 able, caused them to be much cultivated in the cloth 
 districts; notwithstanding which they became exces- 
 sively dear in some seasons, from occasional failure of 
 the crops. Moisture also softens their points and im- 
 pairs their teasling powers ; an effect which needs to 
 be counteracted by taking them out and drying them 
 from time to time. Many contrivances have therefore 
 been made for substituting metallic teasels of a perma- 
 nent nature, mounted in self-acting machines, for the 
 thistle balls. The following figure and description 
 will convey an idea of their structure and use. It 
 ought to be observed, however, that for the fine fabrics 
 a shearing process in the dry state must alternate with 
 vol. i. K 
 
194 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 a teasling one in the wet ; on which account the cloth 
 must be drained and stove-dried between the two ope- 
 rations. 
 
 In Mr. Atkinson's improved machine (see figures 
 35, 36,) for raising woollen-cloths, commonly called a 
 gig-mill, the teasel boards or frames are attached to 
 the gig-barrel by a peculiar fastening, which enables 
 the patentee to introduce springs between the frames 
 and the barrel, and thereby to allow a degree of elas- 
 ticity to their operation, when acting upon the surface 
 of the cloth, in raising the pile or brushing the nap. 
 
 Fig. 35.— Atkinson's and Walker's Gig Mills united. 
 
 1 a a 
 Fig, 36.— Teasel. 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 195 
 
 Fig. 35 exhibits a section taken transversely of a gig- 
 mill; in which several of the teasel cards are removed 
 for the purpose of showing the place of the springs 
 that are to act beneath them. Fig. 36 represents one 
 of the boards attached to the barrel upon an enlarged 
 scale. The ordinary gig-barrel is figured at a, a, fig. 
 35. In fig. 36, b, b, are thin pieces of steel fixed by 
 screws to the surface of the barrel, and bent upwards 
 to constitute springs that shall support the teasel- 
 boards when mounted on the barrel ; c, c, are iron- 
 pins set radially into the barrel near each end, and 
 fastened by screw-nuts below; d is the teasel-board 
 readily mounted by passing the pins c, c, through the 
 holes near the ends of the boards, such holes being 
 lined with smooth brass bushes, and the boards being 
 secured to the pins by the screw-nuts e, e. The pins 
 are made somewhat smaller than the holes, so that the 
 board may slide easily up and down upon them ; but 
 as it is pressed upwards by the springs b, b, it is kept 
 in close contact with the nuts, unless forced down by 
 some incumbent impulse. It is obvious that by this 
 elastic contrivance, the pressure caused by the tension 
 of the cloth, as the gig-barrel revolves, is relieved, and 
 any injury likely thereby to result to the cloth is pre- 
 vented. The pile is also said to be more perfectly 
 raised and with a softer nap. The brush at /, fig. 35, 
 keeps the teeth of the teasels clean. 
 
 I have, for the sake of completing the illustration in 
 the best manner, introduced into the same figure, cer- 
 tain additions recently made to the common gig-mills, 
 by Mr. S. Walker of Millshaw, near Leeds, for which 
 he has also obtained a patent. Mr. Walker's improve- 
 ments consist in the novel arrangements of the rollers 
 
 k2 
 
196 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 and the parts connected with them, which conduct the 
 cloth over the teasel-cylinder, and keep it smoothly 
 distended during the process of raising the pile : h is 
 the roller upon which the cloth is originally wound ; 
 i is a guide roller driven by wheel-work on the end of 
 its axle, on the surface of which the cloth from b is 
 always made to bear, and is therefore drawn onward 
 by friction ; 1 k is a third roller, round which the cloth 
 is lapped in proportion as it is given off from the first 
 roller h ; Z is similar to k, and is driven by wheel-work 
 on its axle, and hence by friction turns k which bears 
 upon it. The tension or stretching-roller g, has its 
 axle mounted in the segment-racks m, as usual, and it 
 is raised or depressed by turning the shaft of the 
 pinion n. 
 
 In order to put the gig in action, rotatory motion is 
 given to the teasel cylinder in one direction by wheel- 
 work on its end, whereby the roller k is made to 
 revolve and to draw the cloth from the roller h, over 
 and under the roller i, thence over the surface of the 
 gig-cylinder towards the tension roller g, under and 
 round it, and over /, till all the cloth has been coiled 
 round k. In order to take the cloth back again 
 through the machine for the purpose of being further 
 operated upon by the teasels, the clutch of one of the 
 driving wheels is unlocked, so as to loosen it, while 
 the clutch of another is pushed in, whereby the roller 
 h becomes active in winding on the cloth, and the 
 roller k passive in giving it off. This alternate circu- 
 lation of the web from the roller h, to the roller k, and 
 back again, may be continued until the pile of the 
 cloth has been sufficiently raised. The first of these 
 patents was enrolled in August, and the second in 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 197 
 
 September, 1832. The two conjoined appear to con- 
 stitute an excellent self-acting apparatus. 
 
 Shearing, or Cropping, is the next operation. This 
 shaves the surface into a level nap, and was originally 
 done by hand-shears, applied to the cloth stretched 
 across a stuffed table, but it is now perfectly executed 
 by automatic apparatus. The first introduction of 
 shearing-machines in 1802, was viewed with such 
 jealousy by the operatives, as to occasion very serious 
 riots in some districts, especially in Wiltshire and So- 
 mersetshire, and to attract the attention of parliament. 
 The committee of its members appointed to investigate 
 the matter, reported, that decisive evidence had been 
 adduced before them by merchants and manufacturers 
 of the greatest credit and experience, to prove that 
 these machines, when carefully employed, finish the 
 cloth in the most perfect manner, and that manufac- 
 turers residing in parts of the country where the gig- 
 mill is not used, frequently sent their cloths to a dis- 
 tance to be dressed by it ; that similar alarms had 
 been created among workmen at the introduction of 
 other machines, now admitted to be most beneficial to 
 the trade and to everybody engaged in it ; for besides 
 the occupations created by attendance on such ma- 
 chines, a greatly increased demand for labour had 
 resulted from the extended sale of goods, in consequence 
 of their greater cheapness and superior quality. 
 
 The wood-cut, (figure 37) represents in a plan or 
 ground view, a machine for shearing cloth, for which 
 a patent was obtained by Mr. George Oldland, of 
 Hillsley, in Gloucestershire, in March, 1832. He 
 employs disc-formed cutters b, b, b, working against a 
 thin bar of steel called a ledger blade, a, a, a, of a semi- 
 
198 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 Fig. 37.— Oldland's Cloth Shearing Machine. 
 
 circular form, which cutters traverse or travel round 
 against the edge of the blade, in such a way as to pro- 
 duce a shaving operation on the projecting filaments 
 or pile that had been raised by the teasling machine on 
 the face of the cloth. 
 
 The cutters b, b, b, are mounted upon perpendicular 
 spindles in their centres, attached by loops to the cir- 
 cumference of the large working wheel c c ; and each 
 cutter spindle carries near its bottom a toothed pinion, 
 which on the wheel c going round, takes into the semi- 
 circular rack d, d, d, and thereby gives each disc-cutter 
 a quick rotatory motion on its centre as it moves along 
 the semi-circle, like that of the earth on its axis while 
 it revolves round the sun. The great wheel e, the 
 ledger blade a, and the rack d, are supported by suit- 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 199 
 
 able means in the upper part of the framing of the 
 machine ; and the wheel itself is driven round by a 
 band and pulley, as is shown in the figure. 
 
 The disc-cutters are here placed so as to act against 
 the concave edge of the ledger-blade ; but they may 
 for certain purposes be constructed to act against its 
 convex edge, by a little variation in the relative dimen- 
 sions of the parts. The cloth must be laid on a bed 
 made to suit the form of the ledger-blade, and must be 
 kept stretched to its proper tension by means of a 
 counter-bed or guard on the upper surface of the cloth, 
 not visible in this view. This shearing-machine may 
 be brought into action upon the surface of the cloth, 
 either by carrying the cutter and ledger-blade ma- 
 chinery over it along the length of the piece, or the 
 cloth may be conducted progressively under the cutter 
 and ledger-blade kept stationary ; either action being 
 equally easy in a forward or backward direction. 
 
 In the specification of his patent, Mr. Oldland de- 
 scribes also a plan of introducing currents of air to act 
 upon cloth in its passage through an ordinary gig-mill, 
 dressing or brushing-machine, in order to promote the 
 evaporation of the water contained in the cloth, and to 
 cause the nap to be laid by such mode of drying. 
 
 The cloth is now ready for the brush-machine, in 
 order to smooth down the woolly nap, after which it 
 receives the finish or lustre. This last process has 
 been long practised by superior machines in England. 
 Hence English broad-cloths became distinguished not 
 only for their soundness, but also by their beautiful 
 aspect ; advantages due to the perfection of our spin- 
 ning-machines, to the moderate degree of twist of the 
 warp yarns, to the wider space between the dents of the 
 
200 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 reed in the loom, and to the general regularity of the 
 weaving. When they are taken from the loom, they 
 are immersed in water to remove the dressing paste of 
 the warp, are rinsed, and then instead of being hung 
 up to dry, they are subjected to a brushing-machine, 
 with brushes made of boar and swine's bristles mixed 
 with wires. By the application of steam to the wet 
 cloth in this process, the dressing is thoroughly cleared 
 away, and the fibres of the warp are laid smooth and 
 flat. The cloth thus gets more readily condensed in 
 the fulling-mill, and the shearing may be also more 
 conveniently executed. It is again passed through the 
 brushing-machine, a practice which is repeated ac- 
 cording to the judgment of the operator; and lastly, 
 it is submitted to dry brushing. 
 
 Machines have been made which will conduct in a few 
 minutes one piece of cloth over two revolving brushes, 
 and through a calender press. In its passage the cloth 
 is exposed to steam, discharged in numerous jets from 
 a flat copper box pierced with little holes. When the 
 dye is very fast, the cloth may be passed repeatedly 
 through the machines, even to the twentieth time, with- 
 out being affected; but when its dye is delicate, it 
 must be less frequently exposed to this process. At 
 the beginning of the process, the body of the cloth is 
 laid in a box below, while its end is introduced between 
 rollers, to give the web the requisite degree of tension. 
 The current of steam is supplied from the copper box, 
 which extends across the breadth of the machine. The 
 cloth is then led between the cylinder brushes, on 
 which it is pressed by a roller. It proceeds to pass 
 between two calender rollers, and thence it falls upon 
 an inclined board, in its way to the box. As the ends 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 201 
 
 of the piece are usually stitched together, the cloth 
 continues the same revolution till its finish is com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The perforated copper-box extending across the 
 whole breadth of the machine, receives steam by a 
 pipe connected with the boiler, and discharges the 
 condensed water into a cistern placed beneath. 
 
 The roller for holding the cloth against the brushes 
 may be made to press with more or less force, by 
 being raised or lowered in a slit of a prop, and by 
 clamping it at any height by a screw near its base. 
 
 The polishing rollers or calender serve to smooth 
 the woolly surface; they are made of wood covered 
 with canvass or linen. They rest on iron bearings, 
 and are made fast at their two ends by plates of iron 
 furnished with clamping screws. They revolve by 
 the friction communicated by the passage of the cloth. 
 
 In treating cloth by this apparatus, steam ought to 
 be freely used. Experience proves that from fifteen to 
 twenty cubic feet of steam of atmospheric density are 
 required per minute; and when a single pipe is deemed 
 insufficient to supply this quantity, two or more pipes 
 perforated with holes are laid horizontally across the 
 machine as substitutes for the copper-box. 
 
 Pressing is the last finish of cloth to give it a 
 smooth level surface. The piece is folded backwards 
 and forwards in yard lengths, so ^as to form a thick 
 package on the board of a screw or hydraulic press. 
 Between every fold sheets of glazed paper are placed 
 to prevent the contiguous surfaces of cloth from coming 
 into contact ; and at the end of every twenty yards, 
 three hot iron plates are inserted between the folds, 
 the plates being laid side by side, so as to occupy the 
 
 k3 
 
202 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 whole surface of the folds. Thin sheets of iron not 
 heated are also inserted above and below the hot plates 
 to moderate the heat. When the packs of cloth are 
 properly folded and piled in sufficient number in the 
 press, they are subjected to a severe compression, and 
 left under its influence till the plates get cold. The 
 cloth is now taken out and folded again, so that the 
 creases of the former folds may come opposite to the 
 flat faces of the paper, and be removed by a second 
 pressure. In finishing superfine cloths, however, a 
 very slight pressure is given with iron-plates but mo- 
 derately warmed. The satiny lustre and smoothness 
 given by strong compression with much heat is objec- 
 tionable, as it renders the surface apt to become 
 spotted and disfigured by rain. 
 
 No female children are employed in the finishing of 
 cloth, and very few boys. The business to which 
 children are first put in this business is carping; 
 that is, preparing thistle-teasels for the workman, who 
 fits them into the rods and handles for dressing the 
 cloth. The little carpers sit at this easy work, and 
 are generally hired and paid by the operative dresser. 
 
 The next employment in the cloth manufacture for 
 which boys are fit, is preeming ; that is, cleaning the 
 teasel-rods and handles, to which is sometimes added 
 the task of carrying the rods to and from the drying- 
 house. In large establishments, however, this task is 
 usually discharged by men. Preeming is much harder 
 and more disagreeable work than carping; for it 
 requires the carrying of the rods into the dry-house, 
 and consequent exposure to sudden and violent changes 
 of temperature, the heat in the dry-house being some- 
 times raised so high as 110 Q or 120^ Fahr., in order 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 203 
 
 to dry the tentered cloth within it. After the preem- 
 ing period, the lads are put either to the gig-machines, 
 or to the lewises in the cutting or shearing-room. 
 The older gigs were large cylinders set round with 
 rods, in which the teasels were fixed for raising the 
 pile on the cloth. The business of those who mind 
 the gigs is to watch and fold the cloth as it runs 
 round the rollers in front of them ; while a constant 
 jet of water is made to play upon the cloth during the 
 process, which keeps the workshops in a wet and dis- 
 agreeable state. The labour of removing pieces forty 
 yards long must also be considerable. 
 
 In the cutting-rooms the old machines for shearing the 
 cloth are principally of two kinds — shears and lewises. 
 The management of the former is beyond the strength 
 of boys, as the cutting edge is kept close to the cloth 
 by heavy weights, which must be shifted by the work- 
 man at each successive portion of the surface operated 
 upon. The lewis is a cutting instrument of a more 
 complicated mechanism, and is generally managed by 
 a man and a boy ; the latter being employed princi- 
 pally to fold the cloth that has been cut, and assist the 
 workman in fixing another length on the frame of the 
 machine, across which the box, containing within it the 
 cutting-edge, is made to travel. The hardest work in 
 the cloth-finishing business seems to be that of the 
 hand-raisers, who bring out a nap on the cloth spread 
 before them on an inclined plane, by scrubbing it with 
 teasels fixed in hand-frames. 
 
 In the course of finishing, the cloth passes several 
 times to and from the raising and cutting- rooms. The 
 only branches of it which exercise female industry are 
 the brushing and burling. The burlers have the cloth 
 
204 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 spread out before them, and pick out any roughnesses 
 or extraneous substances that have been left by the 
 weaver, or introduced into the cloth during any of the 
 subsequent processes. Generally, young women, from 
 seventeen to eighteen and upwards, are engaged in this 
 department. Machines for burling, called epinceteuses, 
 have been, many years ago, introduced by the French 
 into their fine-cloth manufactories. Their complexity 
 and limited use preclude their being described in the 
 present work. An elaborate account of one of them 
 is given in the Bulletin de la Societe d' Encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 Between the loom and the gig-machine the cloth is 
 scoured and fulled, as already explained. 
 
 The following is the nomenclature of the operatives 
 engaged in our woollen manufacture : — Wool-sorters, 
 pickers, willyers (winnowers), carders, scribblers, piece- 
 ners, slubbers, spinners, warpers, sizers, weavers, scour- 
 ers, dyers, burlers, fullers or millers, boilers, giggers, 
 dryers, croppers, singers, glossers, pressers, brushers, 
 and steamers. The last set superintend the finishing of 
 cloths, in presses, under the influence of strong steam. 
 The hand-raisers earn 22s. per week; and though 
 they have harder work than the raisers at the gigs, 
 they receive less wages than the latter, who receive 
 extra pay to secure punctuality of attendance on the 
 machine. 
 
 Notwithstanding the pecuniary aid which the 
 Minister Colbert granted to M. Cadot to establish a 
 manufacture of broad-cloth at Sedan, under the direc- 
 tion of Dutch artisans, the proprietor was on the eve 
 of bankruptcy, in consequence of his great expenditure 
 in training a body of workmen, and of the sacrifices 
 
A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 205 
 
 he was forced to make, in competing with a similar 
 manufacture at Leyden. The public treasury being 
 exhausted by war, Colbert could advance no money to 
 relieve his friend in distress, but he persuaded Lewis 
 XIV. to wear a green- striped coat of the light Pagnan 
 fabric, and to declare in presence of his court, before 
 setting out for the chase, that he considered that kind of 
 dress very beautiful. Immediately the courtiers about 
 his person, and all their dependent courtlings in the 
 country, became so solicitous to get similar coats, that 
 they bought up an immense quantity of cloth (which 
 the Minister knew to be lying by in store), at such 
 an exorbitant price, as not only to put in activity the 
 works of Sedan, but to cause the erection of a similar 
 manufactory at Rheims, where an analogous stuff was 
 for a long- time made, under the name of Silesia?i. 
 
 The French are still of opinion that their broad- 
 cloth fabrics of Sedan and Louviers surpass those of 
 all Europe in beauty and perfection. At the former 
 place, piece-goods, especially blacks, are admirably 
 dyed ; and at the latter, the wool is dyed in a superior 
 style, especially for blues. 
 
 It is a principle universally admitted that the finer, 
 the shorter, and even tenderer the staple of wool, the 
 better fitted it is to produce a fine, soft, glossy, and 
 silky-looking cloth, of good wear. The reason is, that 
 the shorter the filaments are, and the more points they 
 present in a given volume or weight, the better 
 adapted they are to interlace with each other, — a pro- 
 perty indispensable to the fulling process. In fact, the 
 slenderer they are, the more compact may they be- 
 come, or more of them may be condensed in a given 
 space, and the finer and firmer yarns may they be 
 
206 
 
 NATURE OF A WOOLLEN FACTORY. 
 
 spun into. Prom the union of fineness and shortness 
 in the staple, the operation of teasling, which is per- 
 formed after fulling, causes a great number of little 
 filaments to be pressed together into a small surface, 
 and to form a fabric soft and elastic to the touch, 
 brilliant to the eye, and not apt to become threadbare 
 by use. 
 
 Blankets could not be made with British wool alone, 
 so as to sell in the export market ; they would be too 
 costly. They must contain two-thirds of the low-priced 
 wools of Russia, Germany, Italy, and the Levant. 
 
 Prior to 1824, some English manufacturers of good 
 broad-cloths from 7 s. to 25^. per yard, for the home 
 trade, worked entirely with British wools from Sussex, 
 Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hampshire ; but since that time 
 they have used nothing but foreign wool, from Ger- 
 many chiefly, and some from Spain. English wool, 
 in consequence of the deterioration of its quality, 
 became unfit for the finer descriptions of goods. " We 
 kept to English wool," says Mr. John Brooke of 
 Horley, Huddersfield, " longer than any house in our 
 neighbourhood, on account of our large connexion for 
 its purchase; but we found that our neighbours were 
 sending out better cloths than we were. Up to 1813 
 English wool alone was found to answer ; from that 
 time to 1824 a mixture of foreign was required; and 
 since 1824, foreign alone has become necessary. 
 Last year (1827) we got home from fifty to sixty 
 packs of the best wool to be found in Sussex, and it 
 was so coarse that we could use it only in the edging 
 of cloths or listing. The description of English 
 wool we used at that time (1814) is not produced at 
 present.'' 
 
207 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Nature and Operations of a Flax Factory. 
 
 Flax is the bark or fibrous covering of the stem of 
 the well-known plant called by the botanists linum, 
 because it constitutes the material of linen cloth. 
 The spinning filaments are separated from the paren- 
 chymatous matter either by steeping the plant in 
 water, or by exposing it for some time to the action of 
 the air and weather. The former, which is the com- 
 monest or safest method, is called water -retting, the 
 latter is called dew-retting. Both act by exerting a 
 slight degree of fermentation in the substance which 
 attaches the flaxy filaments to the vegetable vessels 
 and membranes. The crude flax is dried by being 
 spread on the grass, and is then subjected to the 
 action of an instrument called the brake, which breaks 
 and separates the boon or core from the true textile 
 flax. 
 
 The hackle or heckle is an essential implement 
 used in the manufacture of flax for dividing, cleaning, 
 and straightening its fibres. It is a strong comb 
 comprised of several rows of iron or steel pins, several 
 inches long, fixed upright in a square block of wood 
 as a base, across the pointed summits of which the 
 strick or lock of flax is thrown, and drawn through 
 the teeth either by hand or mechanical power. As 
 considerable force as well as art are requisite to heckle 
 
208 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 well, without injuring the flax, the block must be 
 made fast to a bench, in front of the workman, when 
 the operation is a manual one. Coarser and wider- 
 toothed heckles are used first, and then others pro- 
 gressively closer-toothed, as the fibres become finer, 
 by separation. 
 
 Many automatic heckles have been invented of late 
 years. That for which Mr. Joshua Wordsworth, ma- 
 chine-maker of Leeds, specified a patent in June, 
 1834, is one of the most recent and ingenious. Figures 
 38 and 39 represent this machine in a horizontal plan, 
 and in an end view. A A, are two large barrels or 
 drums, bearing on their surfaces longitudinal brass ribs 
 a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, bristled with heckle points. The 
 barrels have these ribs fixed at small distances apart 
 
 Fig. 33.— Plan of Wordsworth's Flax-heckling Machine. 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 209 
 
 round their surfaces, and present their heckle points 
 radially from their axes, being themselves mounted 
 upon axles supported by pedestals at their ends. 
 B B are two horizontal wheels or pulleys, turning 
 upon vertical shafts, which pulleys conduct an endless 
 chain, C, C, C, C, carrying the holders or mechanical 
 hands, which suspend and apply to the points, the 
 stricks of flax to be heckled. At one end of the axle 
 of each barrel a toothed wheel, D D, is fixed, con- 
 nected with other wheels through which the whole 
 machine is driven, and the heckle-barrels, A A, are 
 made to revolve in opposite directions to each other, 
 as shown by the arrow in fig. 38. 
 
 The stricks of flax intended to be operated upon are 
 severally confined between pairs of clamps k, fig. 39, 
 fastened together, which clamps or hands, with the 
 stricks, are then suspended in their respective holders 
 H H, attached to the endless chain C ; the lower 
 portions of the flax hanging down for the purpose of 
 being acted upon by the rotatory heckles on the bar- 
 rels, while the upper portions are turned up in loops, 
 and confined by spring levers attached to each carrier. 
 
210 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 The several holders of the clamps consist of a 
 forked frame, with hooks at the lower parts of their 
 arms, which receive the ends of the clamps k, that 
 grasp the strick of flax. From the upper part of each 
 forked frame a perpendicular pin extends, which pin, 
 when inserted into the sockets I, Z, Z, in front of the 
 chain, form axles for the frames to turn upon at 
 certain periods of the operation. 
 
 On the upper end of each pin a small arm m is fixed, 
 standing at right angles to the face of the forked 
 frame of the holder H. As the endless-chain carries 
 onwards the holders, these arms come in contact at 
 certain points with stationary pins or wipers n n, 
 fixed to the guide-rails o, on which the chain C slides; 
 and these wipers acting against the arms as they pass, 
 cause the holders to be turned round at those periods, 
 for the purpose of bringing the reverse side of the 
 strick of flax on to the heckle-points. 
 
 Let it now be supposed that all the hands or 
 holders connected to the endless-chain have been fur- 
 nished with stricks of flax, and that the barrels A A 
 are set a-going ; they will communicate rotatory 
 motion to the pulley B, will make it drive the chain 
 C forwards, and thus conduct the several stricks of 
 flax progressively along the barrel. 
 
 When each successive handful of flax is brought to 
 the part z, fig. 38 the lock comes into contact with the 
 revolving-barrel, striking first upon the series of coarse 
 heckles a a, which project from the inclined surface 
 of the conical end of the barrel, so as to let only the 
 lower ends of each strick be combed out. As the 
 holder advances along its chain-way it comes over 
 a more prominent part of the barrel, and lets the 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 211 
 
 strick fall nearer its middle on the heckle- teeth, till it 
 ultimately brings the whole length of the suspended 
 strick upon the heckle. By this progressive heckling, 
 from the dangling tips to the roots of the strick at the 
 holder, so to speak, the long fibres are not torn 
 asunder, and therefore a smaller quantity of tow is 
 produced than by the ordinary modes of heckling. 
 
 After the strick has been carried by the travelling 
 chain past the first inclined plane at the conical end a, 
 fig. 38, it comes next upon the cylindrical portion b of the 
 barrel, also furnished with coarse heckle-points, which 
 penetrate and comb down the whole pendant lock of 
 the flax. But in order that both sides of the strick 
 may be equally combed, the holder is made to turn on 
 its pivot by an arm of the lever m coming against 
 the stationary pin or wiper n 3 as shown at p in the 
 ground-plan. 
 
 The under part of the guide-rail o, upon which the 
 chain slides, is at this part cut away, for the purpose 
 of allowing the holder to turn round in a horizontal 
 plane ; while a projecting pin, at the under side of the 
 guide-rail, acts against the side of the carrier-frame as 
 the chain goes on, forcing it into a position parallel with 
 the chain. The other side of the strick of flax is by 
 these means brought on to the heckles of the second 
 barrel, first at its inclined surface or conical end c; 
 and as the chain advances with the holders, the 
 pendent stricks are successively made to pass over 
 and be combed by heckles of increasing fineness d, e,f 9 
 on the cylindrical portion of the revolving barrel, 
 until having arrived at the second wiper n, the holder g 
 is turned round as before, and brings the reverse side 
 
212 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 of the strick, or that part operated upon by the heckles 
 a and b, progressively on to the heckles of increasing 
 fineness g, h and i. When they have passed the last 
 series of the heckle-barrels, the holders have com- 
 pleted their work, and are to be successively removed 
 from the machine. 
 
 The clamps of the holder being now opened by the 
 attendant, the stricks of flax are removed, and these re- 
 placed between the clamps in an inverted position, the 
 combed ends being turned up, and the uncombed 
 being made to hang down upon the heckle-barrel. 
 
 It should be remarked that, as different kinds 
 of flax may require different degrees of heckling, this 
 adaptation may be made by varying the comparative 
 speeds of the travelling-holders and the heckle-barrels, 
 by changing the wheels and pinions on the ends of 
 the said barrels. 
 
 In the above process the tow taken off from the 
 stricks by the heckle-points would adhere to the 
 barrel between the ribs, and clog the heckles, were it 
 not constantly removed by several brushes, or blocks 
 with bristles, fixed longitudinally to the revolving- 
 cylinders Q Q, fig. 39. These brush-barrels are shaped 
 to suit the contour of the heckle-barrels, and are 
 caused to revolve in opposite directions to them, with 
 sufficient speed to enable the brushes to pass through 
 between the points of the heckles, and thereby ^to re- 
 move the tow or loose vegetable matter. The tow so 
 collected is transferred from the brushes to wire-cards, 
 covering the surfaces of the cylinders S S, which also 
 are made to revolve on horizontal axes, fig. 39, but very 
 slowly. The tow is finally taken off these card-cylin- 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 213 
 
 ders by a doffing-knife X, as in common carding-en- 
 gines supported by levers Y Y, vibrating upon ful- 
 crum pivots at tv, fig. 39. 
 
 This machine is replete with automatic contrivances, 
 which co-operate in a very simple manner towards the 
 accomplishment of a delicate operation ; and when 
 properly made and tended, it promises to do excellent 
 work in a flax-mill. 
 
 A system of machines for scutching and heckling 
 flax was specified by patent for Mr. T. M. Evans, as 
 the invention of a foreigner, in July, 1833, which also 
 contains many ingenious devices. It is intended to do 
 its work within wooden cases, to prevent the annoyance 
 from dust so plentifully thrown out in every stage 
 of flax-dressing. Not having seen this machine in 
 action, I cannot venture to give an opinion of its 
 efficacy when so encased. Some method might be 
 adopted of encasing the main parts of Mr. Words- 
 worth's apparatus, so as to carry off by fans the greater 
 part of the flying particles. 
 
 In ordinary mills, the flax, as imported, is deli- 
 vered to the hand-hecklers, who roughly separate 
 the fibres by drawing the bunches through the spikes 
 of the bench-heckle as already described. This is a 
 dusty process so far as it goes, but much less than when 
 it was the only mode of heckling, and is at any rate 
 never performed by children. From the hand-openers 
 the flax is carried to the heckling-machines. Young 
 boys, called machine-minders, with occasionally a few 
 girls, tend them, fixing the stricks in the holders, and 
 moving them at the proper time from the coarser to 
 the finer heckle, taking them out and inverting them, as 
 in Mr. Wordsworth's self-acting heckle, and replacing 
 
214 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 them when finished by fresh stricks. The locks of 
 flax are screwed into the holders by a boy called the 
 screwer, generally younger than his companion the ma- 
 chine-minder ; and his labour appeared, to a most in- 
 telligent factory commissioner*, to be, beyond com- 
 parison, the most fatiguing that he had seen children 
 subjected to, independently of the noxious atmosphere, 
 loaded as it is with particles of flax incessantly de- 
 tached and scattered by the whirling of the machines. 
 The screwer seems not to have, with the common 
 heckling-machine, an instant's cessation from labour; 
 bunch after bunch is thrown down before him to fix 
 and unfix — actions performed by him with incredible 
 rapidity. If he does not do his business properly, he 
 mars the work of the machine-minder — generally a 
 * bigger boy, and is apt to suffer the usual punishment, in- 
 flicted by the stronger work-people on the weaker, who 
 happen to obstruct their labour, and their gain, — annoy- 
 ance or oppression in some shape or other. If the 
 difference of age and strength were the same between 
 the machine-minder and the screwer, as between the 
 slubber and piecener, in wool- spinning, there is little 
 doubt that the ill-treatment which is in our factories 
 now almost exclusively the reproach of the slubber, 
 would find its parallel in a flax-mill. It appears 
 to me that Mr. Wordsworth has intended that his 
 machine should reduce the minder and the screwer to 
 one person, and if he succeeds in his purpose he will 
 be no less meritorious as a philanthropist than as a 
 mechanic. 
 
 The machine-minder is by no means an idle boy ; 
 
 * John Elliot Drinkwater, Esq. 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 215 
 
 for,, according to the usual mechanical arrangements, 
 he has to move his strick, when it has received its due 
 proportion of heckling in one position, — a circumstance 
 announced in most cases by the tinkle of a bell — and 
 has also to collect, from between the rows of revolving 
 spikes, the tow or short fibrous matter combed off 
 from the flaxen locks. Though the boys soon become 
 expert at this business, a great many of them examined 
 by the commissioners, had been wounded, sometimes 
 severely so, during their noviciate. Here again, Mr. 
 Wordsworth has shown how automatic invention is no 
 less economical than humane, by attaching to his ma- 
 chine, as we have described above, brushes, cards, and 
 doffer-combs, for removing the tow without manual 
 intervention. 
 
 The tow is collected and carried to the card- room, ^ 
 a place more disagreeable with dust, in most flax-mills, 
 than even the heckling-rooms. Great part of this evil 
 seems to arise from not having the cards sufficiently 
 enclosed. Were arrangements adopted for cleaning 
 the tow by a blowing-machine, with dust suction-pipes, 
 and for carding it by an improved engine, such as will 
 be exhibited and explained in detail in our treatise on 
 the cotton trade, the present nuisance might be almost 
 entirely obviated. 
 
 The heckled flax, called line, when freed from the 
 tow, is carried away to be sorted, according to its 
 fibre, into various degrees of fineness ; a task performed 
 by young men called line-sorters. It is now at the 
 same stage as long wool when delivered by the combers 
 or combing-machine ; and although both must be 
 roved and spun upon similar principles, each requires 
 peculiar modifications in its machinery Girls, termed 
 
216 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 line-spreaders,, are employed to unite the locks of line 
 into one sliver, exactly like the breakers in the 
 worsted factories. It is thus prepared for roving and 
 spinning. 
 
 Mr. Wordsworth has the merit of having contrived 
 also an ingenious machine for roving and spinning flax 
 on automatic principles, for which he obtained a 
 patent, specified in January, 1833. The improvement 
 which he claims, consists in a novel mechanism adapted 
 to the travelling-comb called the gill, to enable its 
 points to continue longer in action than in the ordinary 
 construction of flax-machines, and to cause them to be 
 withdrawn from the fibres at the end of the stroke, 
 without the possibility of their tearing down the fibres 
 with them. The manner of effecting these objects will 
 be seen by reference to the two annexed wood-cuts. 
 
 Fig. 40,— Wordsworth's Flax-roving Machine. 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 217 
 
 Fig. 40 is a longitudinal section taken through the 
 middle of the machine; and fig. 41 is an improved 
 
 d d 
 
 Fig. 41. — Wordsworth's Flax-gill. 
 
 gill detached, consisting of a row of heckle-teeth a, 
 set in a metal bar, seen in dotted lines, with its double- 
 jointed levers d, c, and carriage-frame 6. When the 
 heckles are in action on the line, their points are raised 
 as in the figure, but they are sunk within the frame b 
 by pressure applied to their jointed levers, in order to 
 withdraw them from the flax. These two positions of 
 the heckles are produced in consequence of the knobs 
 or parts d, that project from the jointed levers c, 
 acting against the edges of guide bars, as will be 
 presently pointed out. 
 
 The several heckles so constructed, are made to 
 work in the machine, by attaching each end of their 
 respective frames b, to a travelling endless chain e 9 
 shown in the deep shade of the elliptic part. These 
 two endless chains pass over fluted guide-rollers/ (like 
 those more obviously seen in the worsted-breaker p. 
 151), and over horizontal bars at g. These chains, with 
 their heckle-mounting, are driven through the machine 
 by revolving spur-wheels, the teeth of which take into 
 the spaces between the cylindrical parts of the several 
 heckle-carriages &, and thereby carry the heckles 
 onwards. 
 
 If flax be passed into this machine by a feeding- 
 cloth, called here a creeper, from its slow movement, 
 
 VOL. I. l 
 
2.18 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 through a guide k, and be conducted first under and 
 then over the feeding-rollers Z, m, n, and over the 
 heckles a, to the drawing-rollers o and p, and thence 
 to the twist winding flyer and bobbin beneath, or to a 
 receiving can, the fibres will be opened in their pro- 
 gress, and combed by the points of the heckles enter- 
 ing into and separating them ; the lock being drawn 
 with a different speed from that of the heckles. 
 
 It will be seen that the knobs d, fig. 41 which pro- 
 ject from the jointed levers c, as they travel along the 
 machine, bear against the outer edges of the two fixed 
 guide-bars q q, that extend along the top of the ma- 
 chine in a parallel direction above the heckles, and 
 by that pressure keep the heckle points raised as in 
 fig. 41. But when the endless chains e, which support 
 and conduct the carriage-frames of the heckles, have 
 adyanced the heckle points to within a very little dis- 
 tance of the drawing-rollers o, p, then the knob d, at 
 each end of the heckle-bar, passes the confining ends 
 of the guide-bars q q, and lets them immediately come 
 in contact with two inclined planes r (one of them 
 seen near p), and get thereby pushed, so as to depress 
 the levers c, consequently to sink the heckle-bar a 
 with its teeth within the carriage-frame b, and to 
 withdraw them completely, in almost a perpendicular 
 direction, from the fibrous material, 
 
 The heckles thus sunk, pass onwards in their bear- 
 ing-frames with the travelling endless chains along the 
 under part of the machine, and w T hen they arrive at 
 the back part of it, and begin to remount, the guide- 
 bars q q being at their commencement slightly bent, 
 conduct the knobs d, till they are forced back into their 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 219 
 
 primitive positions, and thus press up again the heckle- 
 points into prominent action, the moment they come to 
 the upper part of the chain-way. 
 
 This ingenious mode of depressing the heckle-teeth 
 a into their hollow frames b, like the sliding of a comb 
 into its case, prevents the line of flax from being torn 
 down under the machine, as frequently happens in gill- 
 machines of the ordinary construction as represented 
 in the wool-breaker p. 151. The plan also of mount- 
 ing the heckles, and carrying them along the chain- 
 way by the guidance of parallel bars q q above, and 
 inclined planes r r when they dip, allows the heckle- 
 points to be brought much nearer to the drawing- 
 rollers o, p, in consequence of the metal bars which 
 hold the points falling below the central line of the 
 endless chain e, as may be seen in the figure. Thus 
 likewise means are provided of drawing and roving 
 various qualities of flax, hemp, long wool, &c, and 
 fibrous substances of a much shorter staple than 
 them. 
 
 In spinning the rovings of the flax line into fine 
 yarn, it is necessary to pass them through a trough of 
 water, placed at the back of the spindles, in conse- 
 quence of which a dewy spray is continually thrown off 
 in the front of the frame from the yarn, as it is rapidly 
 twirled by the fly s of the spindles. And as another 
 spinning- frame is placed at no great distance, the 
 spinner is exposed to this small rain both in his front 
 and rear ; whereby he may, without certain precautions, 
 have his clothes thoroughly soaked through in a few 
 hours, especially if stationed between two frames set 
 close to each other. The propriety, therefore, of sepa- 
 rating each pair of frames to a suitable distance is 
 
 l 2 
 
220 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 obvious, and has been properly insisted on by many 
 visiters, more especially the factory commissioners and 
 inspectors. It is, in fact, an instructive instance of 
 avarice overreaching itself, by crowding machines into 
 a space too small for them to be advantageously worked 
 in ; — -a circumstance scarcely ever observed by me in 
 any of the numerous cotton-mills which I entered. 
 
 The ill effects of this condensation are felt in two 
 ways; first, in the exposure of the hands to discomfort, 
 and the danger of being laid hold of and injured by 
 the revolving w T heels, and secondly, in the pollution of 
 the air by a crowd of persons breathing in a small 
 space. Perhaps the simplest form in which an enact- 
 ment might be made by Parliament to redress this evil, 
 would be to proportion the number of persons allowed 
 to work in a room to the number of cubic feet contained 
 within its walls ; a principle acted upon in the law re- 
 gulating the number of passengers per ton to the 
 vessels which carry emigrants to our colonies. Annexed 
 to evidence collected by Mr. Drinkwater, is a rough 
 estimate, which shows that in some flax factories only 
 twenty-five cubic feet are assigned as the space occu- 
 pied by a spinning frame of one hundred spindles. In 
 the two carding-rooms, the space occupied by the 
 machinery would be greater than in spinning-rooms. 
 A regulation which has reference merely to the height 
 of the room, without considering its cubical contents, 
 in comparison with the number of people who work in 
 it, is insufficient. At any rate, both humanity and 
 policy should make the adoption of such ventilating 
 fans as Messrs. Fairburn and Lillie construct for 
 purifying the air of cotton-factories, imperative on 
 every proprietor of a flax-mill. They cost only four 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 221 
 
 or five pounds each, and are infallible specifics against 
 in-door malaria in all conceivable circumstances. See 
 Book III. Chap. 3. 
 
 It is my duty to state, that the proprietors of many 
 flax-mills have not taken sufficient care to box off the 
 dangerous parts of their machinery. <c This remark/' 
 says Mr. Drinkwater, " of course admits individual ex- 
 ceptions, though the number is very small of those 
 mills in which, in my opinion, enough has been done 
 in this way *," Since the appointment of the factory 
 inspectors, indeed, extensive improvements have been 
 made in this respect, as it gives them authority to 
 require every reasonable precaution to be taken against 
 the liability of unguarded machines to inflict injury on 
 the work-people, and particularly the children, natu- 
 rally heedless and daring from inexperience. <( There 
 can be no doubt," subjoins Mr. Drinkwater, " that 
 many, perhaps most of the accidents that occur in fac- 
 tories (of which, however, the number appears to me 
 to have been greatly exaggerated), were, strictly speak- 
 ing, the fault of the children themselves f ." 
 
 ie I have not found the slightest ground for believing 
 the statement, and I have more than usual difficulty 
 in understanding how it could be believed by those 
 who have made it, that any number of these accidents 
 (in a general view of the question) has been occa- 
 sioned by the fatigue of the children, arising from 
 overwork. That such a thing may possibly have oc- 
 curred, I am of course not prepared to deny ; that it 
 is a usual cause of accidents, I believe to be incorrect. 
 
 " Independently of the frames and other machinery 
 
 * First Report of Factory Commissioners, C. 1, p. 166. 
 f Ibid. p. 167. 
 
222 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 being set too close to each other, so as to make tne 
 alleys too narrow, there is often either too little or too 
 much room left between the frames, &c, which stand 
 side by side; that is, in the intervals which are occu- 
 pied by the straps, fast and loose pulleys, coupling 
 geer, &c. Many of these intervals are not meant for 
 passages, and yet are sufficiently wide to induce the 
 children, not without considerable danger, to use them. 
 It has occurred to myself to be pulled back by a child 
 as I was about to pass inadvertently through one of 
 these passages, where I then saw I should have in- 
 curred much risk of an accident. Some very serious 
 accidents happen in this manner, especially in the 
 carding-rooms, where the machinery is of a larger and 
 coarser description." * All such sources of danger are, 
 it is to be hoped, now in process of being removed. 
 
 Flax has been for a long period spun wet in the mills, 
 a method no doubt copied from the practice of house- 
 wives moistening their yarn with their saliva at the do- 
 mestic wheel. Withinafew yearsthe important improve- 
 ment has been introduced, of substituting hot for cold 
 water, in the troughs through which the fibres in the 
 act of spinning pass. By this means a much finer, 
 smoother, and more uniform thread can be spun than 
 in the old way. The flax formerly spun to twelve 
 pounds a bundle, is with hot water spun to six. The 
 inconvenience of the spray thrown from the yarn on 
 the flyers remains ; aggravated by increased heat and 
 dampness of the room, where this hot process goes on. 
 Being a new expedient, it receives daily changes and 
 ameliorations. When first employed, the troughs of 
 
 * First part Factory Commission Report. — C. 1, p. 167. 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 223 
 
 hot water were quite open ; they are now usually 
 covered in, so as almost entirely to obviate the objec- 
 tions to which they were previously liable. With the 
 covers has been also introduced a new method of 
 piecening or joining on any end, which may have been 
 run down, namely, by splicing it to the adjoining 
 roving, whereby it is carried through the water without 
 imposing a necessity on the spinner to put her hand 
 into the water at all. In some places she uses a wire, 
 for the purpose of drawing through the end of the 
 roving to mend a broken yarn. 
 
 This may be considered the inherent evil of flax- 
 spinning, — the spray thrown off by the wet yarn, as it 
 whirls about with the flyer of the spindles. A work- 
 ing dress, indeed, is generally worn by the spinners ; 
 but unless it be made of stuff impermeable to water, 
 like Macintosh's cloth, it will soon become uncomfort- 
 able, and cause injury to health by keeping the body 
 continually in a hot bath. In some mills, water-proof 
 cloth and leather aprons have actually been introduced; 
 which are the only practicable remedy, for the free space 
 which must be left round the spindles for the spinner 
 to see them play, is incompatible with any kind of 
 guard or parapluie. 
 
 There was, before the late Factory Bill passed, a 
 class of very young children employed in the flax- 
 mills, under the name of little doffers, forming gene- 
 rally a troop of from four to ten in each spinning- 
 room, who, the moment they perceived the bobbins of 
 any frame or side of a frame exhausted of roving, ran 
 together and furnished it with full ones as quickly as 
 possible. They were not numerous in all, but they 
 had an occupation requiring great activity and atten- 
 
224 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 tion. It was practised also in the fine-spinning rooms, 
 which are perfectly free from dust ; and as it involved 
 a kneeling and stooping position, seemed peculiarly 
 appropriate to children, and is still done by them at a 
 somewhat more advanced acre. 
 
 The adjoining figure will serve to explain the me- 
 
 Fig. 43.— Wet Flax Spinning. 
 
 chanism by which the fine-spinning of flax is per- 
 formed. The front pair of drawing rollers represented 
 at F, was at one time moistened by letting water 
 trickle upon it, from a vessel B, furnished with a stop- 
 cock placed a little above, or by immersing one-half 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 225 
 
 of the under roller in the water-trough as at A. The 
 roller-pair C, which receives the fine rovings from 
 bobbins placed on skewers or upright pins in the 
 creel behind, is so mounted as to be fixed at any- 
 desired distance from the front rollers F. This dis- 
 tance should be always a little more than the ave- 
 rage length of the filaments of the line ; for if it were 
 equal to it, they would be seized at both ends by the 
 two pairs of rollers which move with different velo- 
 cities, and would be torn asunder, instead of being 
 drawn out alongside of each other. The front rollers 
 indeed move in many such machines four times faster 
 than the back pair. The rest of this flax-spinning 
 apparatus resembles in every respect the throstle- 
 frame of the cotton-spinner. The thread as it escapes 
 from the front rollers gets twisted by the spindle 
 and flyer, and wound up in constant progression on 
 the bobbin, the motion of the latter being retarded 
 either by a washer of leather beneath its lower end, 
 or sometimes, as shown in the figure, by a weighted 
 lever H, suspended from a cord, which embraces the 
 pulley-groove turned on the lower end of the bobbin. 
 The friction of this cord on the pulley, which may- 
 be varied by changing the length of leverage at which 
 the weight acts, gives the bobbin the requisite retarda- 
 tion for winding up the yarn. 
 
 The bobbin G, at the same time that it has this re- 
 tarded movement of revolution on its axis, has another 
 motion up and down on the spindle I, to present 
 itself at different points to the thread, and to cause 
 the equal distribution of this over the surface of the 
 bobbin-barrel. This latter motion is given by a 
 double eccentric L, which by turning slowly on its 
 
 l3 
 
226 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 axis, makes the balance-lever M oscillate, and there- 
 by raises or depresses the bobbin-rail with its row 
 of spindles. N is a section of the long tin drum, 
 which extends the whole breadth of the frame, and 
 communicates its rotatory motion, derived from the 
 steam pulley, to the spindles, by the intervention of 
 the endless cotton cords O, as also to the fluted rollers 
 C, F, and to the axis of the heart-shaped or eccentric 
 wheel L, working in an endless screw. 
 
 The ratio of the velocity of the rollers of supply C, 
 with the front or delivering rollers F, and with the 
 spindles, is proportional to the fineness of the yarn. 
 For low numbers, the draught is usually four-fold. 
 The speed of the spindles also varies with the 
 quality of the yarn, according as it is intended for 
 warp or weft; the former requiring more twist than 
 the latter ; but never so much as to cause it to snarl 
 into a knot when left free to turn on itself. 
 
 Tow is carded by an engine perfectly similar to 
 that already represented for carding short wool; is 
 roved by a roving machine on the bobbin and fly 
 principle used in the cotton manufacture, and is spun 
 on a throstle-spinning frame, either with or without 
 the application of moisture. 
 
 After the above description of the automatic system 
 of flax-spinning, it may not be uninteresting to con- 
 template its origin in the self-acting household wheel. 
 
 Fig. 44 represents the domestic flax-wheel into which 
 a certain self-regulating action has been introduced by 
 Mr. Spence. A B is the bottom square board, sup- 
 ported on four feet, and carrying the two standards 
 C E, D F, which bear towards the middle of their 
 height, the crank axis P V of the wheel G H (seen 
 
A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 227 
 
 Fig. 44. — Self- acting Flax-wheel. 
 
 edgewise), and towards their upper ends the spindle, 
 with its bobbin C D, which turns in leather-lined 
 holes. I is a pulley or whorl fixed on the spindle, in 
 the same vertical plane as the wheel G H. K is a 
 bobbin set loosely on the spindle, one of the heads of 
 which has a neck like the pulley, but of a diameter 
 one-fourth smaller. The same endless cord goes 
 round them both, which causes the bobbin to revolve 
 one-fourth faster than the spindle. L is the winglet, 
 which in turning along with the spindle, has the power 
 of making it traverse and distribute the thread evenly 
 over the surface of the bobbin. For this purpose, the 
 lever N jointed at the point O, and embracing fork- 
 wise the head of the winglet, receives a see-saw move- 
 
228 
 
 NATURE OF A FLAX FACTORY. 
 
 merit, by means of the eccentric M , attached to the 
 toothed wheel, acted on by the worm-screw Q. A 
 spring R keeps the lever steadily in contact with the 
 eccentric or heart-shaped wheel. 
 
 The head of the spindle shown at C, and the 
 winglet, are perforated, and receive through the holes 
 in them the thread in its passage to the bobbin, round 
 which it is lapped, in consequence of the above-men- 
 tioned difference of velocity between the spindle and 
 the bobbin. S is the pedal, like the foot-board of a 
 lathe, for turning the wheel. T is the distaff or rock 
 for holding the flax intended to be spun. 
 
/ 
 
 229 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Nature and Operations of a Silk Factory. 
 
 The silk-worm is a precious insect, which was first 
 rendered serviceable to man in China, about 2700 
 years before the Christian era. From that country 
 the art of rearing it passed into India and Persia. It 
 was only at the beginning of the sixteenth century that 
 two monks brought some eggs of the silk-worm to 
 Constantinople, and promulgated some information 
 on the growth of the caterpillars. This knowledge 
 became, under the Emperor Justinian, productive 
 of a new source of wealth to the European nations. 
 From Greece, it spread into Sicily and Italy ; but did 
 not reach France till after the reign of Charles VI II., 
 when the white mulberry-tree, and a few silk-worms, 
 were introduced into Dauphiny by some noblemen 
 on their return from the conquest of Naples. No 
 considerable result took place till, in 1564, Traucat, a 
 common gardener of Nismes, laid the first foundation 
 of a nursery of white mulberry-trees, with such success 
 as to enable them to be propagated within a few years 
 over all the southern provinces of France. 
 
 This insect, like all its analogous species, is subject 
 to four metamorphoses. It is first of all an egg, 
 which the warmth of spring brings forth in the form 
 of a caterpillar ; and this, as it enlarges, progressively 
 casts its skin three or four times, according to the 
 variety of the insect. This caterpillar at the end of 
 
230 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 twenty-five or thirty days, having attained maturity 
 of size, ceases to eat for the remainder of its life, 
 merely discharges its excrementitious matter by spin- 
 ning a cocoon or ovoid nest round itself, as a defence 
 from enemies and external impressions, within which 
 it is changed into a chrysalis or nymph; a sort of 
 mummy state, in which the swaddled insect lies appa- 
 rently dead for fifteen or twenty days. At length it 
 bursts through its shrouds and comes abroad into the 
 world provided with wings, antennae, and feet. The 
 male and the female, a couple of butterflies, now go 
 together, under the generic name of bombyx mori, 
 and terminate their brief union by death, after an 
 average existence of two months. 
 
 The eggs or grains of the silk-worm are covered 
 with a liquid, which glues them to the piece of cloth 
 or paper on which the female is made to lay them ; 
 and they may be freed from it by dipping them in 
 cold water, and afterwards drying them. They 
 should be preserved at the temperature of from 54° to 
 59° Fahr. When the heats of April begin to be felt, 
 they must not be suffered to act on the eggs, because 
 they would bring on incubation before the first shoots 
 of the mulberry have come forth to supply food to the 
 young caterpillars. This period should be kept back 
 also, because it is proper to hatch almost all the eggs 
 together, or at least in successive broods corresponding 
 to the extent of the breeding establishment. The eggs 
 are tied up in flat packets, containing about an ounce 
 in weight or a little more, which are hung to the 
 girdles of the women in the south of France during 
 the day, and placed under their pillows at night. 
 They must be inspected from time to time when 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 231 
 
 so treated ; or they may be laid in a stove-room, and 
 exposed to a warmth gradually increasing till it 
 reaches the temperature of 86 Q F., at which it must 
 be kept stationary. Nature finishes the work of incu- 
 bation in eight or ten days. The teeming seed is now 
 covered with a sheet of paper pierced with holes, 
 about one-twelfth of an inch in diameter, through 
 which the young worms creep upwards instinctively to 
 get at the mulberry leaves previously placed above. 
 
 Whenever the leaves become loaded with worms, 
 they are transferred to plates of wicker-work covered 
 with grey paper. This transfer is repeated twice every 
 day. In the course of from forty-eight to seventy-two 
 hours the whole of the eggs should be hatched. The 
 nursery for breeding the worms is called maynaniere, 
 and ought to be a well-aired apartment, free from damp, 
 cold, and excess of heat, from rats and other destruc- 
 tive vermin. For breeding twenty-one ounces avoir- 
 dupois of seed, the chamber should be thirty-three 
 feet wide by eighty feet long, and be provided with 
 fire-places for heating and ventilating it. The window 
 casements should be glazed. The temperature must 
 not be allowed to fall under 66° F. ; it may be raised 
 to 92° F. or even higher ; but from 68 Q to 86° F. is 
 the ordinary range. A current of air should be ad- 
 mitted to purify the atmosphere from the fetid emana- 
 tions of the caterpillars, their excrements, and the 
 decayed leaves. Light is nowise unfavourable, con- 
 trary to the opinions of many persons ; but may be 
 regarded as in some respects advantageous. 
 
 The scaffolding of the shelves on which the worms 
 are reared consists of as many pairs of standards, con- 
 nected by horizontal bars, as the space requires, the 
 
232 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 distance between the uprights being six feet. These 
 are fixed at their ends to the floor and the ceiling. 
 On the cross-bars, wickers, tablets, or mats are laid. 
 The first range may be eighteen inches from the floor ; 
 the second fifteen inches above that, and so successively 
 to the top shelf. A spare room should be set apart 
 as an hospital for the diseased worms. 
 
 A few osier mats may suffice while the worms are 
 young, but more are required in proportion as they grow 
 larger, to prevent their getting piled on each other. 
 The supply of leaves must be proportional to the age 
 of the brood, and ought to be increased when nothing 
 but their ribs are left. The very young should be fed 
 with leaves minced small, and should not be troubled 
 with the removal of the litter which is trifling. At a 
 future stage it must be removed with delicacy, to give 
 the worms more air, on the new wicker frames, without 
 however parting them too far. Before each moulting, 
 the worm has a keen appetite, but during that process 
 it loses it entirely, and falls into a languid state, from 
 which it immediately revives on casting its skin. 
 
 The pieces of paper are withdrawn from the bottom 
 of the wicker frames to permit a freer transmission of 
 air between their interstices, whenever the worms have 
 become large enough not to fall through them. After 
 the second moulting, they are half an inch long, and 
 may then be transported from the smaller apartment, 
 in which they are hatched, into the larger one, where 
 they are to be reared to maturity. They must be 
 well cleansed from the litter on this occasion, laid 
 upon fresh leaves, and supplied w r ith a succession 
 of them, cut in pieces, every six hours. To change or 
 make their bed, a net-work is laid over the wicker 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 233 
 
 tablet, and covered with leaves, when the worms creep 
 up upon them, and may then be lifted with the net, so 
 as to allow the litter to be cleared away, and the sick to 
 be removed without touching the sound ones with the 
 hand. They are then laid down again, with their nets, 
 or they may be replaced on the wicker-work, by mov- 
 ing the leaves which they are gnawing. The breed- 
 ing-room should be freed from the offal most carefully, 
 and kept extremely clean and dry. After the third 
 moult, the worms may be fed with entire leaves ; for 
 they are then extremely voracious, and must not 
 be stinted in their diet. The same remark is still 
 more applicable to the period after the fourth moult. 
 The heat should now be limited to 68 g or 70 Q Fahr. 
 
 In every period of their existence the silk-worms 
 are liable to a variety of diseases, under which they 
 derive benefit from the exposure of portions of 
 chloride of lime in their nurseries. When they have 
 reached the fifth stage, they cease to eat | they 
 void their excrements, diminish in bulk, become some- 
 what semi-transparent, abandon the leaves, try to 
 crawl on the upright posts, and to conceal themselves 
 in corners. These symptoms indicate the development 
 of the spinning instinct. Twigs of heath, broom, green 
 oak, or privet, are now to be laid in parallel rows on 
 the wicker tablets, in the form of little alleys, eighteen 
 inches wide, with their little ramifications interwoven 
 above. The worms of two tablets are to be collected 
 on one, and freed from all their litter. Little coils 
 of paper, of wood shavings, tufts of couch grass, are 
 placed alongside of the diligent worms first, and, after 
 awhile, of the lazier ones. The creature sets itself 
 to construct its cocoon, throwing about its thread in 
 
234 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 different directions, forming the floss, filoselle, or 
 outer open net-work. But it soon begins its regular 
 operation of winding round-about, in nearly parallel 
 lines, a fine thread into an egg-shaped form, in the 
 centre of which the caterpillar sits at work. 
 
 The matter of the silk is liquid in the body of the 
 worm, but it hardens in the air. The twin filaments, 
 which the animal always spins through its double 
 tubular mouth, are agglutinated by that liquid cement. 
 The same matter may be extracted in a lump from 
 the body of the worm, and drawn out artificially into 
 a thin transparent web, or into threads of variable 
 diameters. The cocoons are completed in the course 
 of three or four days, after which they must be re- 
 moved from the branches and sorted, the finest being 
 reserved for seed-worms. Out of these cocoons, at the 
 natural age of eighteen or twenty days, the butterfly is 
 developed : it perforates the cocoons, by knocking its 
 head forcibly against one end of its tomb, which it has 
 previously softened with moisture, to facilitate its tear- 
 ing the filaments asunder with its claws. These 
 butterflies or aurelias are collected, and placed on an 
 old piece of soft cloth of any kind, where they couple 
 and lay their eggs. 
 
 The cocoons which are to be unwound must not be 
 allowed to remain with the worms ten or twelve days 
 alive within them ; for if the chrysalis has time to 
 come out, the cocoon would get cut through, and be 
 useless. The animal must be therefore killed by suf- 
 focation, which is effected either by exposing the 
 cocoons for five days to the sunshine, by placing them 
 in a hot oven, or in the steam of boiling water. A 
 heat of 202? F. is sufficient for destroying their 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 235 
 
 vitality,, and this may be best given through the me- 
 dium of hot water, surrounding tin eases filled with 
 the cocoons. 
 
 It has been ascertained that fifteen parts by weight 
 of mulberry leaves furnish one part of cocoons, and 
 that one hundred of cocoons furnish eight of reeled 
 silk. Under favourable circumstances, one ounce of 
 seed-eggs will produce eighty pounds of cocoons, and 
 even more. One pound of cocoons is required to 
 yield one ounce of eggs. The silk of a cocoon weighs 
 two and a half grains, and affords a length of thread 
 equal to from 750 to 1160 feet. 
 
 The coils are agglutinated by a species of gum, 
 from which they must be loosened with hot water, to 
 allow the thread to be unwound to its end. This 
 operation is called the winding of silk. 
 
 The cocoons are placed in a flat basin of copper 
 filled with water, heated by means either of a stove or 
 a steam-pipe. The filaments of several cocoons are 
 usually wound off together into a compound thread ; 
 and they are freed from any slight adhesions by a 
 little pointed brush dexterously applied by the winder, 
 in their progress to the reel. 
 
 There are three kinds of raw silk, organzine, tram, 
 and floss. Organzine is used for the warp of silk 
 goods, requires the best quality of silk, usually con- 
 tains from six to eight filaments in one thread, and it 
 receives a considerable twist to make it strong and 
 free from flocky points. The tram is made from in- 
 ferior silk, and consists of ten or twelve filaments 
 slightly twisted together. 
 
 Raw silk threads consist sometimes of three cocoon 
 filaments and sometimes of thirty, which are compacted 
 
236 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 in various degrees. Each cocoon filament gradually 
 diminishes in size and strength from the circumference 
 towards the centre of the cocoon, because since the 
 worm takes no food from the moment it begin spin- 
 ning, it consequently becomes gradually feebler in its 
 progress, and exhausts the material of its silk. The 
 winder must attend to this attenuation of the filaments, 
 and make up for it as occasion may require by the 
 addition of fresh cocoons. The water employed for 
 softening the cocoons should be pure, and especially free 
 from calcareous salts, otherwise it might have an in- 
 durating influence on the gummy varnish, instead of 
 softening and removing it. On the skill of the winder 
 the quality of the silk very particularly depends. 
 
 Silk is a very hygrometric substance, and will absorb 
 as much as ten per cent, of moisture. This property 
 has been sometimes fraudulently employed to increase 
 the weight of silks offered for sale. In case of sus- 
 picion, weighed portions of^the silk should be enclosed 
 in a wire-cloth cage, and exposed to a gentle stove- 
 heat ; when they will show by their loss of weight the 
 extent of the fraud. 
 
 The French raw silk brought to market obtains on 
 an average from twenty to thirty sous (10d!. to Is. 3d.) 
 per pound more than the Italian of the same fineness. 
 The silk district of France lies on the two sides of the 
 Rhone from Lyons, the northernmost point, and in- 
 cludes thirteen departments of the kingdom. The 
 white mulberry-tree is injured by grafting. Only one 
 crop is gathered from it in France each year. A dry, 
 upland, and not very rich soil is advantageous to its 
 growth. 
 
 There are two species of silk-worms reared at 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 237 
 
 present ; that which casts its skin three times, which 
 is a small worm common in Lombardy, and is the one 
 preferred by Dandolo, because it completes its task in 
 four days less ; and that which moults four times and 
 is the worm originally bred in Europe. The second 
 kind of worm lives from thirty-five to thirty-seven 
 days, according to temperature ; the first four days 
 less. The worm in the course of its existence increases 
 in weight 30,000 times from the egg ; and its develop- 
 ment is watched by many of the peasants who edu- 
 cate them w T ith scientific care, with the aid of the 
 barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer, instruments 
 familiar to the French people, in consequence of their 
 gratuitous schools of science, though hardly known 
 even by name to the English. 
 
 One test of the excellence of the chrysalis for afford- 
 ing seed or eggs, is the hardness of the ends of the 
 cocoons. 
 
 The silk crop, as it may be called, is completed in 
 about six weeks from the end of April, when the 
 hatching season begins ; it is therefore the most rapid 
 of natural productions, and requires little advance of 
 capital for the purchase of the mere leaf. In pur- 
 chasing the cocoons and in reeling off the silk, indeed, 
 capital may be often laid out with advantage. As 
 there is a large proportion of the public revenue raised 
 in France from the general land tax, there is no tax 
 on mulberry-trees as there is in Italy. 
 
 Bonafons gives the following curious table of the 
 progress of the worms hatched from one ounce of 
 eggs, from birth to the time of spinning. In the first 
 age, they consume seven pounds of leaves ; in the 
 second, twenty-one ; in the third, sixty-nine pounds 
 
238 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 twelve ounces; in the fourth, 210 pounds; and in the 
 fifth, or after casting* their skins the fourth time, 1281 
 pounds. The progression in the consumption of food 
 is not uniform in detail, though it is so upon the whole. 
 Thus, on the third day after their birth, they eat three 
 pounds ; on the fourth, only one pound six ounces ; on 
 the fifth day, when the sloughing process begins for 
 shifting their skins, they consume only six ounces. 
 On the first day of their second age, they make up for 
 their previous abstinence by consuming four pounds 
 eight ounces; on its third day seven and a half 
 pounds ; on the fourth day they labour under the 
 moulting sickness^ and eat only two and a quarter 
 pounds. On the first day of the third age, they con- 
 sume six and three-quarter pounds ; on the second 
 day, twenty-one and a half pounds ; on the third, 
 twenty-two and a half ; then twelve and a half, and 
 on the fifth, six and a half. The hazardous period 
 is at the changing of the third and fourth coats ; for 
 on the sixth day of the third age, and the seventh 
 day of the fourth age, they eat absolutely nothing. 
 But on the first day of the fourth age, they consume 
 twenty-three and a quarter pounds ; on the first of the 
 fifth they consume forty-two ; and on the sixth day of 
 the latter, attaining their maximum appetite, they eat 
 223 pounds ; from which time they become daily less 
 voracious, till on the 10th day of this age they eat only 
 fifty-six pounds. The space occupied on the trellices 
 by the worms which was at their birth only nine feet, 
 has now become 239 feet. The quantity of silk pro- 
 duced is, generally speaking, proportional to the 
 quantity of food they consume. 
 
 The China silk-worm which produces a very superior 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 239 
 
 silk was brought into France about twenty-eight years 
 ag0 ' 
 
 The speed of the spindles in spinning silk, was in 
 1832, 3000 revolutions per minute, in the best mills 
 of the south of England (Somersetshire). According 
 to Mr. Ward of Brut on, a mill may be rented in Italy 
 for 60/. a year, capable of throwing four cwt. a 
 week ; whereas such a mill in England would cost in 
 building 8000/. or 10,000/., which at 5 per cent, would 
 be 400/. per annum, besides nearly as much for coals, 
 if it were moved by steam-power. 
 
 Silk is better cleaned however in our mills than 
 in the Italian. 
 
 Much of the Bengal silk is put into looms at Man- 
 chester in the single state. There may therefore be a 
 great increase of Bengal, China, and Turkey raw silks 
 without much increase in the silk-throwster's business. 
 
 The average produce of silk in Italy for the years 
 1829, 1830, 1831, according to John B. Heath, Esq., 
 a very competent authority, was from 5,000,000 to 
 6,000,000 of English pounds; of which the Tyrol, 
 Friuli, and Lombardy furnished 3,000,000 lbs. ; the 
 Roman States, Naples, and Sicily 600,000 lbs. ; and 
 Piedmont 1,250,000; and this quantity is very capa- 
 ble of increase. From the Lombardy States, the 
 export in 1831 was 335,000 lbs. to Berlin and Vienna; 
 120,000 to Russia; 200,000 to Switzerland; to the 
 Rhenish manufactories 500,000; to England 2,250,000; 
 making altogether 3,405,000 lbs. exported. 
 
 France employs about 700,000 lbs. or three- 
 fifths of the organzine silk thrown in Piedmont, and 
 England the remaining two-fifths very nearly. The 
 duty on foreign raw silks in France is about 8d. the 
 
240 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 English pound; except on India silk, which is only 
 2^d. per lb. The prices of the best French silks 
 are generally ten per cent, higher than those of similar 
 Italian silks. In Zurich, where thrown silk is im- 
 ported free of duty, there were only 1000 looms in 
 1792, and there are 12,000 at present. 
 
 Those who have of late years sent the thrown silk 
 from Italy to England have in general lost by the 
 throwing process. u Comparing the English with the 
 Italian throwster, I should say, the English has per- 
 haps the better chance of the two in the selection of 
 silk, because when the English throwster wishes to 
 make a purchase, he has the produce of all the dif- 
 ferent countries of Italy before him to make his selec- 
 tion ; the Italian has only the silk of his own country 
 before him, as Fossombrone, Naples, &c, and not that 
 of the other States. I do not understand what is 
 meant in Mr. Brock well's evidence by local advan- 
 tages, nor do I see on what ground it can be that 
 the foreign throwster has the advantage, as has been 
 stated, of 3s. 6d. over the English throwster. I do 
 not see that he has any*." 
 
 The late failures among the English throwsters 
 may be ascribed to their want of sufficient capitals in 
 a trade so susceptible of variation from the caprices of 
 fashion, and from the fluctuations of the money 
 market. As long as it is a remunerating trade they 
 can go on, but the moment a check comes, they fail, 
 from being unable to support the business till a re- 
 action comes round. Many persons in fact set up 
 mills without having the least means of resisting the 
 pressure of tradef . 
 
 * John B. Heath, Esq., Select Committee on Silk Trade, 1832, 
 p. 306. f Ibid. 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 241 
 
 The temperature of the air, and general state of the 
 weather, have a great effect on the filature and spin- 
 ning of silk ; and they are both favourable in Piedmont. 
 In the throwing department great pains have been 
 taken by the government of that country in the proper 
 examination of the organzine, with a view of pre- 
 serving its character. 
 
 At Lyons, in 1832, the cost of throwing organzine 
 of twenty to twenty-two deniers was 4s. 4\d. the 
 English pound, waste 10 per cent, included. 
 
 At Bergamo, which is a principal place for throw- 
 ing silk, the cocoons are bought in open market and 
 by private contract, three or four months before the 
 crop is ready. Some purchasers advance one-third of 
 the price to the producers, and then they send the 
 cocoons to the reelers. The landlord of the grounds 
 where the mulberry-trees are grown from seed, sup- 
 plies leaves and cocoon eggs to the silk-worm 
 rearers. It requires five or six years to bring the 
 mulberry-tree to perfection; and leaves cannot be 
 gathered before it is three years ingrafted. The 
 leaves of a seven years old tree are worth Is. per 
 annum, and of one thirty years old, 30s. There is a 
 sort of partnership between the landlord and the 
 labourer in this business; and one-half of the profits 
 goes to each. A rubo of cocoons requires for their 
 production 100 rubos of leaves. The crop is over 
 in June, when the reeling begins and goes on till 
 September, or even October, if the season be favour- 
 able. 
 
 The expense of reeling silk from three to four 
 cocoons, is from six to seven Italian livres ; and from 
 four to five cocoons, six livres the pound. That of the 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
242 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 three to four cocoons, will be twenty to twenty-four 
 deniers ; the four to five, will be twenty-four to twenty- 
 eight; and the five to six, twenty-six to thirty-two, 
 according to the quality of the cocoons. The Italian 
 livre is worth *l\d. English. The woman employed at 
 the boiler receives one livre and five sous per day, 
 with bed and board ; and the girl who turns the reel 
 gets thirteen sous per day, also with board and lodg- 
 ing. In June, July, and August, they work sixteen 
 hours a day, and then they do a rubo or ten pounds 
 weight of cocoons, which yield about two pounds of 
 raw silk. Later in the year, when the days are 
 shorter, they do little more than half a rubo; and 
 receive two-thirds the former wages. The whole 
 expenses, inclusive of rent, taxes, repairs, &c, will 
 amount to from six to seven livres on each rubo ; the 
 livre containing twenty sous ; being about 2s, 6d. or 
 2s. lOd. the English pound. The charges for throw- 
 ing tram, including winding, doubling, twisting, and 
 waste, is Is. 3d. the Italian pound of twelve ounces ; 
 but there is 3 per cent, of waste. That would be 2s. 
 the English pound, independently of the duty on 
 export, amounting to 3\d. the Italian pound. 
 
 The cost of throwing organzine is Is. lO^d. the 
 Italian pound, besides 5 per cent, of waste; or 3s. 6%d. 
 in English weight, including the export duty of nine 
 sous on coming out of Lombardy. The number of 
 deniers of that silk may be taken on an average at 
 from twenty-four to twenty-eight deniers. This is the 
 average charge to the person sending the raw silk to 
 the throwster. The throwsters work only eight or nine 
 months in the year. The charges in Piedmont for 
 throwing are ten or fifteen sous more than in Lorn- 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 243 
 
 bardy, because the exportation of raw silk is not allowed 
 there, and it must be put into the throwster's hands 
 almost on his own terms. It is better thrown however 
 in Piedmont, in consequence of the government regula- 
 tions. The throwing-mills do not work all the year 
 round, because the raw silks find better prices in Eng- 
 land and France. In fact there are not mills enough 
 to throw half the silk produced in Italy. The ad- 
 vantage to the throwster in working the silk fresh 
 from the cocoons is inconsiderable. 
 
 Mills to throw from 10,000 to 12,000 pounds 
 (Italian) per annum, may, it seems, be rented at from 
 60/. to 90/. sterling, on a lease of nine years ; and 
 they are worked by water. The people, who are 
 almost all females, are prejudiced against machinery, 
 and do the principal part of the work by hand. Their 
 board costs 8d. a day. The winders have no machinery 
 except the swifts, one set of which costs no more than 
 30^. The working of such mills rent-free is a folly. 
 
 A girl will double in the factories twenty pounds 
 per week ; and is paid ten sous for every pound, or nearly 
 Is. a day, working fourteen hours. The twisting and 
 throwing processes are done by men with the assist- 
 ance of a few boys; one man usually turning off a 
 little less than twenty pounds each week, somewhat 
 less in winter than in summer. He receives thirteen 
 sous per pound, or 8s. 1 Jo?, a week, working from four- 
 teen to sixteen hours daily. The men work by the 
 piece, and have no board. Each performs the dis- 
 tinct operations of twisting and throwing twenty pounds, 
 the doubling which is an intermediate process, being 
 performed by other hands. The silk is brought into 
 the mill after having been wound in private houses ; it 
 
 m 2 
 
244 
 
 MATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 is first twisted, then doubled, and lastly thrown. The 
 proprietor of the silk pays the expense of the carriage 
 from the filatures to the mill, and back again ; but it 
 is trifling. The persons engaged in this trade in Italy 
 vary as to their wealth : if they are thriving, as some 
 say, why do they not multiply their mills ? 
 
 A bale of organzine of 240 lbs. English, pays in 
 England a duty of 42?., and 71. 14s. more in charges 
 of transport from Italy. The whole costs, including 
 brokerage, amount to 25 per cent, on the value of 
 organzine; and 13 per cent, on that of tram. There 
 is a difference of 12 per cent, on the charges, including 
 duty, on thrown silkim ported into this country, more 
 than on raw. 
 
 The throwing in Lombardy is not likely to be in- 
 creased, because it is ill-done, and gives no profit. 
 Besides, the raw silk always bears a higher relative price 
 than the thrown does in Italy, because it is fit for any 
 market ; but when once thrown it can be sold only for 
 certain purposes. For this reason, raw silk is cheaper 
 now in London than in Italy*. The silk-looms at 
 Milan and Como do not exceed 2000 in number, and 
 they are used chiefly as a cloak to introduce, by 
 smuggling, the French and English manufactures, 
 which are prohibited in Lombardy. 
 
 Mr. R. Baggally, a partner of a great house en- 
 gaged in the trade of ribbons and broad silks, says, 
 "that in 1829, out of every 100Z. worth of sarsnet 
 ribbon that they sold, 521. 10s. were English, and 
 47 L 10s. Swiss; and that in 1832, 92?. 7s. 6d. worth 
 were English, and 71. lis. 6d. Swiss." In May of the 
 latter year, they were ordering no Swiss at all, as they 
 
 * Mr. Francesco Cum*.— Committee on Silk Trade, 1832, p. 410. 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 245 
 
 thought they could da better at home in consequence 
 of the fall of prices at Coventry. The English rib- 
 bons are not only 20 per cent, cheaper, but much 
 better than they formerly were. The French ribbons 
 are inferior to the Swiss. The duty on importation is 
 fully 25 per cent. " Independently of duty, I believe 
 that we can purchase lutestrings and satins cheaper in 
 Coventry than in France*." In mechanical execution, 
 the English equal the French, but not in the fashion 
 and the style of the articles. The English colours 
 however are decidedly more permanent than the 
 French. 
 
 In our single-hand ribbon-loom, the weaver can 
 make but a piece and a half a week ; while in the 
 engine-loom he can make six pieces. Five shillings a 
 piece was paid the engine-loom weavers in the winter 
 of 1831-2 ; but these looms were not common, on ac- 
 count of the prejudices of the workmen. As to broad 
 silks, Mr. Baggally says, he can buy as good gros de 
 Naples in Manchester as he can in Lyons, at the same 
 price ; that is, for the great bulk of the consumption 
 from 2s. to 3*9. 8d. per yard. " I think that Spital- 
 fields would have gone on increasing ; but that they 
 have given their trade away to Manchester f." 
 
 The silks made at Macclesfield are bandannas, 
 black handkerchiefs, Persian sarsnets, gros de Naples ; 
 with which the French goods come into no competition 
 whatever. Spun silk may be purchased at Maccles- 
 field for 3s. a pound woven into bandannas, and receives 
 a bounty on exportation of 3s. 6d. The Spitalfields 
 velvets are improved so much in fineness and in pre- 
 
 * Mr. R. Baggally.— Committee cn Silk Trade, 1832, p. 414. 
 f Id. Ibid. 
 
246 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 serving their colours, that many persons will not now 
 buy foreign velvets. German velvets would be preferred 
 by some, were it not for the duty, which is so high as 
 46 per cent, on broad articles, and 62 on ribbon 
 velvets. The rate of smuggling insurance was, in 
 1832, 17 i per cent., leaving a great inducement to the 
 contraband trader. The smuggler could not be in- 
 demnified at a lower per centage. 
 
 The purchases of silk goods by the house of James 
 Morrison and Co., amounting to several millions 
 value, show, that up to 1829 the proportion of 
 French articles to English increased, and that since 
 1829 it has decreased in the ratio of forty-four to fif- 
 teen. On their latest purchases of silk goods to the 
 amount of 1,000,000/. sterling, 4J per cent, only were 
 French. In broad silks, this house has made no 
 French purchases for a considerable time past, because 
 they could not sell them, in consequence of the great 
 improvement in the English manufacture. They have 
 not lately imported velvet ribbons from the Continent, 
 because they can buy English ones cheaper. 
 
 The silk trade of Great Britain at present may be 
 valued at 7,000,000/. sterling; the silk importations 
 from France through our Custom-house, amount to from 
 450,000/. to 500,000/., and by smuggling, to 250,000/. 
 or 300,000/. more, making in all from 750,000/. to 
 800,000/. If the silk manufacturers' invoices through- 
 out this kingdom for one year were added together, 
 their selling price to the warehousemen would be from 
 6,000,000/. to 7,000,000/. The ribbon manufacture 
 of England amounts to from 800,000/. to 1,000,000/. 
 annually; and that of France to 1,300,000/. The pur- 
 chases of English silk goods by the house of James 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 247 
 
 Morrison and Co., have increased very much of late 
 years. 
 
 The value of the 4,200,000 pounds weight of raw 
 silk manufactured in France has been estimated at 
 140,000,000 francs, or 5,600,000/. sterling ; of which 
 - goods equal to 110,000,000 francs, or 4,400,000/., are 
 exported, and only 1,200,000/. worth retained for 
 internal use ; being probably not more than one-fifth 
 of the home consumption of the United Kingdom. 
 
 The declared value of all our exported manufactured 
 silks last year, was only 636,419/. If this sum be 
 deducted from our total manufacture, 7,000,000/., the 
 remainder 6,363,581/. will denote the value of the 
 silk goods retained for use — a value which may, in 
 round numbers, be fairly rated at six millions sterling. 
 Thus it would appear that the female inhabitants of 
 this country can afford to spend five times more money 
 upon the luxury of dress than those of France, who 
 are one-half more numerous, and not less vain. This 
 fact affords a striking proof of the relative aisance, or 
 / means of comfort enjoyed in the two countries. 
 
 To make organzine, the thread of raw silk is first 
 twisted, and two of these threads are then united by 
 twisting. In the process of making tram, the original 
 single thread is not twisted at all, but two of them in 
 their simple state are softly twisted together. Thus, 
 in organzine, there is a compound torsion for giving 
 firmness to warp threads, and in tram there is a single 
 torsion, of only such a degree as to make the thread 
 bear the tension of throwing it by the shuttle across 
 the web. In warp, there are sixteen twists on the 
 single thread, and from twelve to fourteen on the 
 double. On looking through tram suspended in a 
 
248 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 good light, its want of 1wist in the component threads 
 is very visible. 
 
 There is a peculiar kind of silk called Marabout, 
 often with three threads, made from white Novi raw 
 silk. Being white as it comes from the worm, it takes 
 the purest and most delicate shades of colour at once^ 
 without the discharge of its gum. That silk is first 
 thrown into tram, and then sent to the dyer. When 
 dyed, the throwster re-winds and re-throws it, and 
 thereby converts it into marabout, a thread twisted 
 hard like whip-cord. The cost of the raw Novi silk 
 is 19-s. 6c?. a pound; of throwing it into tram, 2s. Gd. ; 
 of dyeing, 2s. ; of re-winding and re-twisting it after 
 it is dyed, about 5s.; of waste, 2s., or 10 per cent.; 
 the total of which sums is 31s., being the price of a 
 pound of marabout in 1832. 
 
 When raw T silk can be bought in Italy for 17 s. 6c?., 
 it can be bought in the thrown state for 3s. 9c/. more. 
 The best raw silk is generally thrown in Italy, and 
 the worst is usually sent to this country. The Italian 
 throwster has, some say, a decided advantage over the 
 English in the power of selecting his raw silks in the 
 first market. The difference in the quality of raw 
 silk will make a difference of 9c/. or 1*. in the expense 
 of throwing. This is denied by other authorities. 
 
 The Fossombrone silk is of very good quality, and 
 is that which comes all in the raw state to this country, 
 because that district in Italy has no throwing-mills. 
 
 Organzine has its pair of threads twisted together 
 the opposite way from the twist of the separate threads. 
 It is only a finishing degree of twist which marabout 
 receives after dyeing. When organzine costs 3s. 6c/. 
 to throw, the marabout costs 7s. 6c/., and tram 2s. 6c/. 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 249 
 
 Machinery which will throw 100 lbs. of the fine 
 Italian silk, will throw two or three hundred of the 
 coarser kinds. The protection now given by law in 
 France against the Italian throwster is lOJc?., and 
 that in England is 3.9. 6d., which is reckoned equal to 
 
 ^our whole expense of throwing one pound. 
 
 w In 1832, Mr. V. Royle, who gives work to from 
 4000 to 5000 persons, stated in evidence to the com- 
 mittee on the silk trade, that the number of looms then 
 employed in Manchester on silk and mixed silk goods 
 was about 12,000, of which two- thirds were silk alone. 
 "In 1819," says he, "there were not above fifty looms 
 in that town for weaving broad silks for garments ; 
 and if Mr. Huskisson had not in 1824 brought about 
 a change of system by lowering the import duty on 
 raw silk, which w T as then 5s. 6d. a pound, there would 
 not have been now any silk trade for the Spitalfields 
 people to quarrel about." This statement is disputed. 
 
 There was then a power equal to 342 horses en- 
 gaged in the silk throwing - mills of Manchester. 
 Value of the whole at least 200,000/. He thinks the 
 appointment of that committee had injured the trade, 
 by making the shopkeepers afraid to make purchases 
 of goods for fear of a fall in price. The worst silk- 
 mill is in his opinion worth more in old materials 
 than all the reeds and harness in Spitalfields. In a 
 mill which costs 4000/., one thousand pounds are 
 paid to the king for taxes in the building materials ; 
 bricks, wood, and glass. The wages of work-people 
 in the silk throwing-mills of Italy are about one-half 
 of the wages in Manchester, but the difference is 
 fully balanced by the protecting duty of 2s. 10^. per 
 pound, deducting the debenture, and by our very 
 superior machinery. m 5 
 
250 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 In 1830, an Italian silk throwster came to Man- 
 chester with a correct plan of his mill, and purchased 
 several frames of the first description, which were sent 
 after him to Lombardy; but I question very much 
 whether he will work them to advantage. 
 
 After the reduction of the duty upon thrown silk, in, 
 1825, to 5s., the quantity imported next year fell to 
 289,000 lbs., from the former average for ten years of 
 400,000; and in 1829, it fell to 172,000. These 
 facts show the use of competition in quickening the 
 industry of nations. The total quantity of silk pro- 
 duced in all Italy, is stated by Mr. Brockwell to be 
 no less than 7,000,000 of English pounds, of which 
 5,500,000 are thrown in Italy. The Italian raw silk 
 seems to be going lower in the rate of imports into 
 this country. On an average, about 1,250,000 lbs. 
 of it come into England, and 250,000 into France 
 and Switzerland. To Vienna and Italy 2,000,000 of 
 thrown silk may be apportioned ; to France about 
 1,000,000, and England 500,000. In 1831, we con- 
 sumed 428,475 lbs. of organzine, and 90,770 of tram 
 silk. There has been a large increase in our im- 
 portation of foreign tram silk ; the duty upon it being 
 only 2s. per pound. 
 
 The French silk trade is at present labouring under 
 very considerable disadvantages ; chiefly from the 
 withering influence of their general prohibitory system. 
 There is first a heavy tax on raw silk, to protect the 
 home grower of silk; there is an enormously heavy 
 tax upon iron to bolster up their tottering iron-masters ; 
 hence the price of wood also has been raised, and both 
 causes have increased the cost of their machinery ; 
 and in the great towns, the local taxation is very 
 heavy, so that all manufactures for which taste and 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 251 
 
 long experience do not give some peculiar facilities, 
 are upon the decline. The weight of silk imported for 
 the consumption of France was, in 1829, 1,021,867 
 lbs. ; in 1830, 700,866; and in 1831, only 524,780. 
 
 The amount of the silk manufacture of France in 
 1832, was estimated at 140 millions of francs, of which 
 110 millions are exported, and 30 millions consumed 
 in the country, and the general calculation is, that 80 
 millions of that amount consist in raw material. If 20 
 francs per pound be taken as the average value of that 
 material, four millions of pounds will represent its 
 total weight; from which, deducting one million of 
 pounds imported, there remain three millions for the 
 produce of the silk-worm of France. 
 
 There are 70,000 silk-looms in France, working up 
 annually an average weight of 60 pounds ; the pro- 
 duct of the two numbers multiplied together gives 
 4,200,000, in confirmation of the preceding estimate. 
 
 The silk of Cevennes, in France, is perhaps the 
 finest in the world. One kind of it fetches 18,?. 5d. 
 the English pound; and another 19s. Id. at Lyons. 
 There is a little still finer^ which brings 21. sterling. 
 The estimate of silk worked up per English loom in a 
 year, is above 60 lbs. ; but the labour in this country 
 is steadier than in France. Four hundred thousand 
 pounds of silk of superior quality were grown in 
 Cevennes in 1832, and this quantity has been much on 
 the increase ; as among all employments of capital, 
 none is so productive as the mulberry-tree. It was 
 yielding at the above period, from 15 to 20 per cent, 
 profit to the intelligent agriculturist. 
 
 An ounce of silk-worm eggs in France is worth two 
 francs and a half, and it will require for its develop- 
 
252 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 merit and growth into cocoons, 1500 weight of mul- 
 berry-leaves, the average cost of which is about three 
 francs per cwt. in a good year. One ounce of eggs 
 will produce 100 pounds of cocoons, of the value of a 
 franc and a quarter per pound, or in whole 125 francs. 
 These 100 pounds of cocoons will yield eight pounds 
 of silk, at a medium price of 18 francs. The average 
 rate at which women reel off the cocoons is 25 pounds 
 per day, or two pounds of silk ; for which they re- 
 ceive in wages from 30 to 40 sous; that is, from 15^. 
 to 20d. One hundred pounds of the coarser silk co- 
 coons will give one-tenth, taking in the whole silk 
 district. One mulberry-tree will afford about one cwt. 
 of leaves ; though there are trees which have produced 
 30 cwt. The cost of cultivation is reckoned at one 
 franc a hundred weight, which leaves a large profit in 
 selling them to the peasants who " educate" the worms. 
 Some purchase the eggs, and cultivate themselves the 
 mulberry-trees. The cost of a mulberry-tree varies 
 from 6d. to 10d., and it is planted out at four years of 
 age. The peasantry will generally contract to plant 
 them out at 8d. the tree ; they begin to strip them in 
 the fifth year, and find an increasing produce up to 
 the twentieth year. 
 
 Price of Cocoons and Raw Silk of Cevennes at the period of Harvest 
 during 10 Years. 
 
 Price per Alais lb. Price per Alaislb. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Cocoons. 
 
 Haw silk. 
 
 1822 . 
 
 . 170 francs. 
 
 . 31 francs. 
 
 1823 . 
 
 . 1-50 . . . 
 
 . . 22-25 
 
 1824 . 
 
 . 1-40 . . . 
 
 
 1825 . 
 
 
 
 1826 . 
 
 . 1/0 . . . 
 
 
 1828 . 
 
 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 253 
 
 1829 
 1830 
 1831 
 
 1-45 
 1-40 
 1-35 
 
 23-00J 
 22-50 
 20 50 
 
 The Cevennes silk is reckoned to afford 1 lb. from 
 13 lbs. of cocoons, reeled at from four to five cocoons 
 per thread, and to cost in winding or reeling 3 francs 
 50 cents. The Alais pound is about 92-hundredths of 
 the English avoirdupois pound. 
 
 The fineness of silk is ascertained by winding off 
 400 ells, equal to 475 metres, round a cylinder one ell 
 in circumference, and weighing that length. The 
 weight is expressed in grains, 24 of which constitute 
 one denier; 24 deniers make one ounce ; and 16 
 ounces one pound, poids de marc, which is the Lyons 
 mode of selling silk. The weight of one thread of 
 400 ells, is about 2\ grains, when five threads are 
 reeled together. Before sales are effected in France, 
 the silk is submitted to a temperature of about 78° 
 Fahr. in a stove for twenty-four hours, or till it loses 
 less than 2 J per cent, in a day. On the certificate of 
 weight from this drying-office, called the Condition, 
 the invoices are made out. I believe that no such ex- 
 periments take place in this country ; but in France 
 they are objects of extreme attention, and are quite 
 essential to protect the manufacturer against frauds. 
 All the silk submitted to the Condition, however, 
 must be worked up into French fabrics *. 
 
 The great development of the silk manufacture in 
 France is mainly owing to its being the least pro- 
 tected interest in that kingdom. Its spontaneous 
 growth, being fostered by the native taste of the people, 
 has given it stability at home and a steady demand 
 
 * See note C, at the end of the volume. 
 
254 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 over the whole world. As foreign silks are admitted 
 at a moderate duty, they continually stimulate to 
 fresh improvements and suggest endless variations 
 of style. The opinion generally entertained of the 
 superiority of such French silks as are figured, and 
 which depend for their beauty on tasteful arrange- 
 ments, is no more a prejudice of mankind, than the 
 feeling in favour of the works of Raphael and Titian. 
 In the manufacturing texture, the prepossession how- 
 ever is in favour of Great Britain, on account of our 
 superior machinery. Taste descends to the lowest 
 classes of the community in France, in remarkable 
 contrast with the neglect of it among the lower orders 
 of our countrymen. Taste is, in fact, an abundant 
 and cheap commodity across the Channel, it is rare 
 and costly on this side of it ; a circumstance due very 
 much to the pains taken by the French government 
 for a century and a half to encourage the Fine Arts, 
 and to exhibit specimens of them freely to the people, 
 in public buildings, all over the kingdom. Gratuitous 
 schools of design also are established at Paris, Lyons, 
 and many of their principal towns. Taste is dis- 
 played both in the forms and grouping of the figures, 
 and the disposition of the colours. The artist creates 
 objects of taste with a brush and a few pigments, 
 independently of the quality of the canvass or ground 
 on which he lays them. The canvass may be equally 
 good in England and in France, but when enriched 
 by figures, it derives its value from the tastefulness of 
 the decorations. 
 
 The amount of protection by duties in France may 
 be estimated at from 15 to 17 per cent, on foreign 
 manufactured silks. The protective duty in this 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 255 
 
 country was calculated to be 30 per cent.; but it is 
 effectively 35 at least, according to Mr. Dillon's evi- 
 dence before the Silk Committee of 1832. One of the 
 leading manufacturers of Lyons informed Dr. Bowring, 
 that the importation of foreign silks was a great source 
 of the prosperity of their home manufacture ; that, for 
 instance, a number of foreign crapes being sold at a 
 low rate, and carried into general consumption, had 
 induced the Lyonnese to take up the crape trade in 
 earnest, and to make it now one of their most im- 
 portant branches. The silk manufacture in France is 
 the only one which stands on its own legs, an excep- 
 tion to the vicious system of protection, so prevalent 
 in that country, and hence it is the only one at this 
 time which is not in considerable distress, — a hopeless 
 distress, to which there is no parallel in any of our 
 manufactures. The silk is, in fact, the only manufac- 
 ture which grows under the salutary breeze of com- 
 petition with the foreigner ; and it is indebted for 
 many of its improvements to the invention of other 
 countries. The bar-loom, when it was introduced some 
 years ago for weaving ribbons, would have remained 
 neglected but for the pressure of Swiss competition. 
 
 The history of the introduction of the Jacquard-loom 
 is a most instructive lesson on the advantage of free 
 intercourse and rivalship between different countries. 
 The inventor of that beautiful mechanism was origin- 
 ally an obscure straw-hat manufacturer, who had 
 never turned his mind to automatic mechanics, till 
 he had an opportunity by the peace of Amiens of 
 seeing in an English newspaper the offer of a reward 
 by our Society of Arts, to any man who should w r eave 
 a net by machinery. He forthwith roused his dor- 
 
256 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 mant faculties and produced a net by mechanism ; but 
 not finding the means of encouragement in the state 
 of his country, he threw it aside for some time and 
 eventually gave it to a friend, as a matter of little 
 moment. The net, however, got by some means into 
 the hands of the public authorities, and was sent to 
 Paris. After a considerable period, when J acquard 
 had ceased to think of his invention, the prefect of the 
 department sent for him, and said, « You have directed 
 your attention to the making of net by machinery ?" 
 He did not immediately recollect it, but the net 
 being produced recalled everything to his mind. 
 On being desired by the prefect to make the machine 
 which had led to that result, J acquard asked three 
 weeks'' time for the purpose. He then returned with 
 it, and requested the prefect to strike with his foot, on 
 a part of the machine, whereby a mesh was added to 
 the net. On its bein£ sent to Paris, an order was 
 issued for the arrest of its constructor, by Napoleon, in 
 his usual sudden and arbitrary way. He was placed 
 immediately in charge of a gendarme, and was not 
 allowed to go to his house to provide himself with 
 necessaries for his journey. Arrived in the metropolis, 
 he was placed in the Conservatoire des Arts, and 
 required to make the machine there in presence of in- 
 spectors ; an order with which he accordingly complied. 
 
 On his being presented to Bonaparte and Carnot, 
 the former addressed him with an air of incredulity, in 
 the following coarse language : — (C Are you the man 
 who pretend to do what God Almighty cannot do, to tie 
 a knot in a stretched string ?" He then produced the 
 machine and exhibited its mode of operation. He was 
 afterwards called upon to examine a loom on which 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 257 
 
 from 20,000 to 30,000 francs had been expended for 
 making fabrics for Bonaparte's use. He undertook 
 to do, by a simple mechanism, what had been at- 
 tempted in vain by a very complicated one ; and 
 taking as his pattern a model-machine of Vaucanson, 
 he produced the famous Jacquard-loom. He returned 
 to his native town, rewarded with a pension of 1000 
 crowns ; but experienced the utmost difficulty to in- 
 troduce his machine among the silk -weavers, and was 
 three times exposed to imminent danger of assassina- 
 tion. The Coiiseil des PrucC hommes, who are the 
 official conservators of the trade of Lyons, broke up 
 his loom in the public place, sold the iron and wood 
 for old materials, and denounced him as an object of 
 universal hatred and ignominy. Nor was it till the 
 French people were beginning to feel the force of 
 foreign competition that they had recourse to this 
 admirable aid of their countryman ; since which time 
 they have found it to be the only real protection and 
 prop of their trade. 
 
 The bar-loom was a Swiss invention brought into 
 the neighbourhood of St. Etienne by two brothers. 
 They were persecuted for their pains by the ribbon- 
 weavers of the old school, and driven forth into the 
 extremity of misery. The last of them died not long 
 ago in an hospital, a victim of neglect and annoyance. 
 Of late years, however, this loom has become a 
 favourite mechanism, and is in almost universal use 
 among the weavers of the very district where it was 
 long an object of execration. 
 
 The silk-trade of France labours, as we have said, 
 under a disadvantage in the construction of its ma- 
 chinery, from the false protective system so prevalent in 
 
258 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 that country; whereby it pays a duty of from 15 to 33 per 
 cent, on its importation, to protect the machine-maker ; 
 who in his turn has to pay for the protected French 
 iron 150 per cent, more than he could for the English; 
 and in like manner more for his timber, to protect the 
 wood-grower. The towns of France are subject to 
 oppressive taxes which fall peculiarly on the labourers ; 
 such as town dues on food, drink, and fuel. Hence, the 
 weavers of Lyons and St. Etienne are now in process of 
 migrating to the mountains, at no little inconvenience to 
 trade. Many of the intelligent manufacturers of these 
 towns are also under considerable alarm at the progress 
 which the silk manufacture, with all our advantages of 
 machinery and commerce, is now making in England. 
 The total number of looms at Lyons, was, in 1832, 
 25,000, of which one-half was within the walls, and 
 one-half without. The importation of English silks 
 into France increased six fold between the years 1828 
 and 1830; amounting, in the first year, to the value of 
 119,570 francs, and in the last to 643,720 francs. 
 It consisted chiefly of bandanna handkerchiefs, not of 
 oriental make, but woven in this country. 
 
 It is in the production of the patterns of silk goods, 
 that the French have a decided advantage over the 
 British ; — they probably have little or none after the 
 design is put into the loom. The modes in which 
 taste is cultivated at Lyons deserve particular study 
 and imitation in this country. Among the weavers of 
 the place, the children, and everybody connected with 
 devising patterns, much attention is devoted to every 
 thing any way connected with the beautiful either 
 in figure or colour. Weavers may be seen in their 
 holiday leisure gathering flowers, and grouping them 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 259 
 
 in the most engaging combinations. They are con- 
 tinually suggesting new designs to their employers; 
 and are thus the fruitful source of elegant patterns. 
 
 There is hardly any considerable house in Lyons, in 
 which there is not a partner who owes his place in it 
 to his success as an artist. The town of Lyons is so 
 conscious of the value of such studies, that it con- 
 tributes 20,000 francs per annum to the government 
 establishment of the School of Arts, which takes 
 charge of every youth who shows an aptitude for draw- 
 ing, or imitative design of any kind, applicable to 
 manufactures. Hence all the eminent painters, 
 sculptors, even botanists and florists of Lyons, become 
 eventually associated with the staple trade, and devote 
 to it their happiest conceptions. In the principal 
 school, that of St. Peter's, there are about one hundred 
 and eighty students, every one of whom receives from 
 the town a gratuitous education in art for five years ; 
 comprehending delineations in anatomy, botany, 
 architecture, and loom-pattern drawing. A botanical 
 garden is attached to the school. The government 
 allows 3100 francs a-year to the school of Lyons. 
 The school supplies the scholars with every thing but 
 the materials, and allows them to reap the benefit of 
 their works. Their professor of painting is a man of 
 distinguished talent, well known to connoisseurs. 
 
 The French manufacturer justly considers that his 
 pattern is the principal element of his success in trade ; 
 for the mere handiwork of weaving is a simple affair, 
 with the improved Jacquard loom. He therefore visits 
 the school, and picks out the boy who promises, by taste 
 and invention, to suit his purpose the best. He invites 
 him to his home, boards him, and gives him a small 
 
260 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 salary, to be gradually advanced. One gentleman 
 told Dr. Bowring that he had three such youths in his 
 employment; to the youngest of whom he gave 1000 
 francs, or 40/. per annum. After three or four years, 
 if the young artist's success be remarkable, he may 
 have his salary raised to double or treble that sum ; 
 and when his reputation is once established, he is sure 
 of the offer of a partnership. Such is the general 
 history of many of the school-boys of Lyons. Even 
 the French weaver, who earns only 15c?. or 20d. a-day, 
 prides himself upon his knowledge of design : he will 
 turn over several hundred patterns in his possession, 
 and descant on their relative merits, seldom erring far in 
 predicting the success of any new style. By this dis- 
 position, the minds of the silk-weavers in France 
 become elevated and refined, instead of being stultified 
 in gin-shops, as those of the English too frequently 
 are. In flower patterns, the French designs are remark- 
 ably free from incongruities, being copied from nature 
 with scientific precision. They supply taste to the 
 whole w T orld in proportion to the extent of their expor- 
 tations, which amount to one hundred and ten millions 
 out of one hundred and forty. In the Lyons' school, 
 collections of silk fabrics may be studied, extending 
 over a period of four thousand years, with explanations 
 of the modes in which every pattern was produced, 
 from the rude silks of the Egyptian mummies to the 
 figured webs of the last year. 
 
 There are also weaving- schools, containing from 
 sixty to eighty scholars. In these a pattern being ex- 
 hibited, they are required to exercise their invention 
 immediately as to the best means of producing the 
 design on a piece of silk goods. The master re- 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 261 
 
 moves such difficulties as are occasionally encountered, 
 and leads them on to successful accomplishment of 
 the task. 
 
 Within a few years, a large legacy has been left 
 by General Martin, for the purpose of establishing 
 another institution similar to the school of St. Peter. 
 
 Their superiority in art is turned to good account in 
 many other French manufactures. Notwithstanding 
 the double price of the raw material in France, their 
 fancy articles in iron and steel are exported in large 
 quantities. Their bronze figures have made their way 
 into all parts of the world, alongside of their silk 
 goods ; both being equally productions of fine taste, 
 and therefore yielding profitable returns. 
 
 The establishment at Lyons, which takes charge of 
 the interests of its trade, called the u Conseil des Prud* 
 hommes," noticed above, is of a very useful nature. 
 When a manufacturer has invented a new pattern, he 
 deposits a specimen of it, sealed, in the archives of that 
 body, on which he pays from two to ten francs, according 
 to the desired duration of his copy-right. The Conseil 
 can seize all pirated imitation goods, fine the offender, 
 and even imprison him for ten days. There is found to 
 be practically very little difficulty in a man's vindicating 
 his patent-right before this equitable tribunal, which 
 is one of the most popular and best organized institu- 
 tions of France. It originated in a decree of Bona- 
 parte, in 1806, for the reconstruction throughout the 
 kingdom of the old manufacturing tribunals called the 
 <( mattre gardes" It is composed at Lyons of nine 
 master manufacturers and eight weavers, one of the 
 former being the president ; each party being elected 
 by the general votes of its own body respectively, 
 
262 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 every weaver who possesses four looms being entitled 
 to vote. This court decides all questions connected 
 with the manufacturing interests of its particular dis- 
 trict. Their proceedings are distinguished for tem- 
 perance and sagacity. The men,, who represent the 
 operatives, display sound sense, and join in the discus- 
 sions of the open court with equal propriety as their 
 employers. All questions between masters and men, 
 between men and apprentices, and, in fact, all which 
 bear in any way on the silk trade, are referred to the 
 Conseil des Prud'hommes. Their disposition seems 
 always to be conciliatory. They examine parties, sum- 
 mon witnesses, with the power of compelling their 
 attendance, and give awards, from which there is 
 no appeal, in reference to any sum less than one 
 hundred francs. The number of appeals from this 
 tribunal is very few. 
 
 Throughout the silk district of France the throwing- 
 mills are very small, not many of them turning off 
 more than 1000 pounds weight of organ zine per 
 annum, or involving so much capital as 5000Z. The 
 French manufacturers conceive that they are now 
 behind the English in the economy of this part of 
 the trade, and do not throw so well. Their machinery 
 is certainly very rude compared to what may be seen 
 in our modern Manchester and Derby mills. The 
 average price of throwing organzine, where the 
 throwster is not answerable for loss, is 7 fr. ; of tram, 
 from 4 fr. to 5 fr. (per kilo. ?) Where the throwster is 
 accountable for loss, the price is from 10 to 11 fr. for 
 the former, and from 6 to 7 fr. for the latter. But 
 some is thrown much cheaper, as consisting of coarser 
 filaments; the organzine being 3^ francs. 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 263 
 
 In weaving common satin, the average production of 
 a single loom is from three to four ells in a day, of from 
 sixteen to eighteen hours' labour. In consequence of the 
 silk trade of Lyons being one of orders, and not one of 
 stocks, it is extremely fluctuating, the operatives being 
 at one time out of employment, and at another called 
 upon to work twenty hours in a day. The average 
 wages for one style of work, to men and women, is 
 Is. 9d. : another average, taken from four hundred to 
 five hundred, gives from fr. to 4 fr. to a man per 
 day, for shawl weaving. The Lyonnese weaver pays, 
 in taxes on his person, food, and rental, about 54 fr. 
 per annum. He begins his day's labour at from five 
 to six o'clock in the morning, and ends it at eight in 
 the evening. His average expenditure at the auberge, 
 for breakfast, dinner, supper, and half a litre of wine, 
 is 30 sous, or Is. 3d. ; and if a young man, he spends 
 the surplus of his wages in dress and public amuse- 
 ments. There are about as many women as men 
 employed ; a practice first introduced by Bonaparte's 
 conscription laws, which has continued to the present 
 day. 
 
 The principal subject of unpleasant discussion 
 with the manufacturer is the mounting of new pat- 
 terns, by which the workman suffers from the mania 
 of creating new designs. It is an oppressive burthen 
 to the master of a loom-shop, on whom it altogether 
 falls. The cartoons are furnished by the manufacturer, 
 and the workman stitches them together. The jour- 
 neyman frequently boards with the master weaver, at 
 the rate of from 45 to 50 francs per month. One quarter 
 of a litre, or half an English pint, of wine is allowed 
 daily to the apprentices by the Conseil des Prud' 
 
264 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 hommes. The meals last half-an-hour each, in a day's 
 labour of from sixteen to eighteen hours. In certain 
 common articles, the journeyman (called companion) 
 receives two-thirds of the weaving price, which is so 
 low that not more than one franc and a half is earned 
 daily, for a produce of six ells. Such low goods are, 
 however, generally woven by women and children. 
 The daily expenses of a weaver may be rated as 
 follows : — 
 
 Bread, 2 livs., at 4 sous - 40 centimes. 
 Meat - 50 
 
 Wine, I litre - 10 
 
 Oil, fire, light - - V* 7| 
 Washing, and other charges - 10 
 
 1 fr. 18 cent., 
 
 or very nearly Is. S^d. In consequence of the low 
 wages and great expense of living at Lyons, many of the 
 weavers have lately resumed their original agricultural 
 employments. Three-fourths of the masters and com- 
 panions are in debt. In case of war, all the younger 
 weavers would betake themselves to arms, and abandon 
 a trade which gives them no prospect of improvement*. 
 
 It appears that there has been a constant depreciation 
 of the wages of silk weaving in France, from the year 
 1810 down to the present time. The average expense of 
 changing each pattern in a loom is 25 francs, and it 
 falls chiefly on the weaver, rendering him very often the 
 victim of ignorance of the state of trade and of want of 
 taste in the manufacturer. For shawls of great beauty 
 and variety of design, the expense of new mounting may 
 
 * Letters of Falconnet and Charnier, two leading operative weavers 
 of Lyons, to Dr. Bowring, Committee on Silk Trade, pp. 556, 557. 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 265 
 
 amount to 1000 francs, but in such a case it is neces- 
 sarily defrayed by the manufacturer. When this ex- 
 pense exceeds 100 francs there is generally an under- 
 standing between the master and the weaver as to the 
 way in which it is to be paid ; and if no specific agree- 
 ment has been made, it must be settled by the 
 Conseil des Prud'hommes. 
 
 THE MACHINERY OF THE SILK FILATURE. 
 
 Reeling of the Silk from the Cocoons, 
 
 Fig. 1 and 2 represent in plan and longitudinal 
 view the reeling apparatus used in France. 
 
 a. The oblong water basin, heated by steam or a 
 stove, commonly divided by transverse partitions, con- 
 taining sometimes twenty cocoons, five in a group. 
 
 b. Hooked wires or eyelets to guide several fila- 
 ments and keep them asunder. 
 
 Fig. 46.— Cocoon Filature. — Section of Reel. 
 VOL. I. N 
 
266 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 c. Points where the threads run across each other 
 to clean their surfaces. 
 
 d. Spiral groove,, with a pin to give the traverse 
 motion to the thread, in order to spread it over the 
 reel e. 
 
 f. Pulleys, which transmit by cords the rotatory 
 movement of the cylinder d to the reel e. 
 
 g. Friction-lever for tightening or slackening the 
 endless cord, in setting on or stopping the winding 
 operation. There is usually a series of such reels in 
 one apartment driven by one moving power ; but each 
 of them, as shown, can be stopped at pleasure. 
 
 These filatures are very simple, often domestic, 
 apparatus ; but the throwing-mills for doubling and 
 twisting silk are most elaborate constructions. Ever 
 since they were re-modelled by Messrs. Fairbairn and 
 Lillie, upon the cotton-throstle plan, they are incom- 
 parably superior in convenience, precision, and speed 
 of performance, to what they formerly were in this 
 country, and still are upon the continent. When these 
 mechanicians took the silk-mill in hand, the spindles 
 moved at the rate of only 1200 revolutions per 
 minute : they forthwith raised it to 3000 — a velocity 
 since increased to 4500 by Mr. Ritson, a cotton-mill 
 mechanic, in whose favour they resigned this branch 
 of engineering. The representations inserted in the fol- 
 lowing pages are parts of a complete series of drawings 
 made under my inspection, from the latest and most 
 improved silk-throwing machinery erected by him. 
 
 Among the shoals of British aristocracy who migrate 
 to the south every season, surely some might be 
 curious enough to consider the industry of the silk- 
 worm, the species of employments to which it gives 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 267 
 
 rise, and to observe how deeply the lords of the soil of 
 Italy are indebted for their incomes to the growth 
 of silk, and its conversion into organzine in the throw- 
 ing-mill. What prosperity they may see realized 
 there on a petty scale, by one branch of manufacture, 
 they might see and do profit by at home, though often 
 without acknowledgment, in a hundred more extensive 
 branches. But the point to which they ought pecu- 
 liarly to direct their attention, is the state of the people 
 engaged in manufactures abroad, compared to their 
 state in their own factory districts 5 and if they made 
 the comparison with tolerable candour, they would be 
 more careful in future of calumniating the British 
 manufacturers, and of enacting laws for cramping 
 their complicated arrangements. The elegance and 
 comforts of an Italian silk-mill may be judged of 
 from the following description of one by a talented 
 modern traveller. 
 
 " There were vast groves of mulberry trees between 
 Verona and Padua ; and we visited some of the silk- 
 mills, in which the united strength of men invariably 
 performed those operations which in England are 
 accomplished by steam or water. I saw in a huge 
 horizontal wheel, about a dozen of these poor crea- 
 tures labouring so hard, that my very heart ached to 
 see them, and I begged that the machine might be 
 stopped that I might speak to them ; but when it was 
 stopped, and I beheld their half-savage, half-stupified, 
 I had almost said, Yidlt-brutified countenances, I could 
 not utter a single word — but gave them something 
 and turned away*." 
 
 The first operation which raw silk undergoes in the 
 * Mrs. Jamieson, Diary of an Ennuyee, p. 82. 
 
 n2 
 
268 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 factory, is its transfer from the skeins of the importer, 
 upon bobbins in diagonal lines, so that the ends of the 
 threads may be readily found in case of breakage. The 
 bobbins are wooden cylinders of such thickness as not 
 to injure the filaments by sudden flexure, which smaller 
 cylinders would do, and to be able to receive a consi- 
 derable length of thread without materially increasing 
 their diameter, and of course their surface velocity in 
 revolving. 
 
 Fig. 47 is an end view of one side of a winding- 
 machine, called the engine, to show how the motion 
 is communicated to it ; the other half, being similar, 
 is omitted. It consists of a long wooden table A, for 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 269 
 
 laying out the skeins upon, supported by strong slant- 
 ing legs, as at B, on which are the bearings of the 
 light iron reels C. These are called swifts, because, 
 though they turn slowly round with the revolving 
 bobbins, yet they do their work quickly compared with 
 hand- winding machines. At every eighth or tenth leg 
 there is a projecting piece D, which carries at its end 
 a horizontal bar of wood a, called the knee-rail, for 
 protecting the swifts from the knees of the work- 
 people. The swifts have a stout axis of wood b, tra- 
 versed by a central iron pin, round which they revolve, 
 in the bearings of the legs B. On the middle of each 
 swift shaft b, is hung a loose ring (not visible in this 
 view), to which a light weight is hung, for communi- 
 cating friction to the reel, and preventing it from turn- 
 ing round, unless as it is drawn with a gentle force by 
 the thread in its winding upon the bobbin. 
 
 The bevel wheel 2 is fixed to the end of the lon°- 
 driving shaft, seen magnified at E (fig. 48), on which 
 are fixed a series of light wheels g (fig. 48), called 
 stars, which bear the bobbin-pulleys, and turn them 
 round by friction. To the table A are screwed the 
 light cast-iron slot-bearings I (figs. 47 and 48), for 
 receiving the ends of the horizontal iron spindles, on 
 
 Fig. 48.— Bobbin Mechanism of the Silk Engine. 
 
270 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 which the bobbins are mounted for revolving. G is a 
 wooden bar seen in cross section, which rests on every 
 tenth or twelfth leg B of the engine, and carries on its 
 edge a slender glass rod Jc, over which the silk threads 
 glide smoothly from the swifts to the bobbins. At H 
 is the guide rod, endued with a lateral or traverse 
 motion, in slots or notches of the arms which carry the 
 bar G. On the rod H are fitted the guides I (fig. 48), 
 which consist of two upright blades of iron, with their 
 edges approximated, so as to form a narrow slit 
 between them adjustable in its width by a screw. 
 This slit-piece is called the cleaner, as it serves to 
 scrape the surface of the threads, to remove any loosely 
 adhering roughnesses, or to stop altogether their 
 winding-on when a knot occurs. The upright lever O, 
 with a ball at its top, is the geering-rod, which being 
 turned a little one way or other, moves the clutch n or 
 locking apparatus, so as to attach the main shaft E, 
 and its range of bobbins, to the driving power, or 
 to detach it at pleasure. 
 
 2. Doubling engine. In the doubling of silk, where 
 two or three threads are wound parallelly together upon 
 one bobbin, an ingenious contrivance is employed to 
 stop the winding-on, whenever one of the threads 
 happens to break. Fig. 49 shows the mechanism in 
 section, and fig. 50 in plan; for one-half of the 
 doubling engine. A is one of the end frames, which 
 are connected at their tops by the bar-beam a, a plank 
 which extends the whole length of the machine. At 
 B are the creels for laying the bobbins b b, with their 
 ends in slots. D is the end of the horizontal iron shaft 
 which runs through the engine, and carries a series of 
 light wheels c, which bear the winding-on bobbins E, 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 271 
 
 Fig. 49. — Mechanism of Silk Doubling- Mill. — Section. 
 
 Fig. 50. — Mechanism of Silk Doubling-Mill. — Plan. 
 
 and turn them by friction at d, as in the winding- 
 engine already described. G is the guide bar, to which 
 are fixed the cleaner slit-pieces g ; hh, fig. 50, are two 
 polished steel rods, between which the faller eyes n n 
 (figs. 49 and 50) work. I is the lever board, which 
 bears the lever k Z, with the fallers n n, for stopping the 
 winding-on in case of breakage of a thread. On this 
 board, the light brass props or fulcrums i i are fixed, 
 one corresponding to each creel-bobbin. The slight 
 
272 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 balance levers k I swing on a wire axis, which passes 
 through these props; their arms being formed as 
 shown at k k f , fig. 50. The arm I is the heavier of the 
 two, and naturally rests on the ridge bar m of the lever 
 board I. n nn, are three wires resting at one of their 
 ends on the fulcrum axis ii, and hanging each at their 
 other hooked end (seen under H in fig. 49) to one of 
 the silk threads, where it passes over the steel rods h h. 
 These wires are guided in their up and down play 
 with the motions of the thread, by a plate o, furnished 
 with a vertical slit. Hence, whenever one of the 
 threads chances to break on its way to the winding 
 bobbin E, the wire n, which was suspended by its hook 
 to that thread between the steel rods in the line of h h 
 (fig. 49), falls upon the arm k of the balance-lever k I, 
 weighs down the arm k, raises of course the other arm Z, 
 and thrusts its end into one of the three notches of the 
 ratchet wheel / (seen in its place in fig. 50, and sepa- 
 rately in fig. 51). Thus the winding bobbin is held 
 
 Fig. 51. 
 
 fast till the attendant having pieced the ends of the 
 thread, and hung up again the faller wire n, causes 
 the lever I to take the horizontal position. If the 
 attendant had meanwhile moved the winding bobbin 
 out of that slot-bearing, which lets its pulley d rest on 
 the star-w T heel c, into the adjoining slot-bearing, seen 
 in fig. 50, where it remains motionless, she must now 
 restore it to its revolving position. 
 
 3. The machine for twisting the single threads of silk 
 either before the doubling, or after the doubling, is called 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 273 
 
 the spinning -mill, sometimes also the throwing-mill ; 
 though the latter term often includes all the depart- 
 ments of a silk-mill. The section of this apparatus in 
 fig. 52 shows four equal working lines, namely, two 
 on each side of the frame, one tier being over the 
 other. In some spinning-mills there are three tiers. 
 
 Fig. 52. — End view of Fairbairn and Lillie's improved Silk Spinning-Mill. 
 
 n 3 
 
274 
 
 NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF 
 
 but the uppermost is a little troublesome to manage, 
 as it requires the attendant to mount a stool or steps. 
 
 A A are the end frames or uprights, bound with 
 cross bars N N ; and two or more similar uprights are 
 placed intermediately between the ends. They are 
 all connected at their sides by beams B and C, which 
 extend through the whole length of the machine. D D 
 are the spindles, having their top bearings fixed in the 
 bar B, and the bottom or step bearings in the bar C. 
 These two bars together are called by workmen the 
 spindle-box : c c are the wharves, turned by cords pass- 
 ing from the horizontal tin cylinders E, which lie 
 along the middle of the mill, midway between the 
 ranges of spindles. F F are the bobbins with the 
 doubled silk, which are fixed on the tapering spindles 
 by pressing them down : d d are little flyers, or forked 
 arms of wire attached to a disc of wood or washer, 
 which revolves loosely upon the top of the said bob- 
 bins F, F, and round the spindles, one of their arms 
 being sometimes bent upwards to serve as a guide to 
 the thread : e e are pieces of wood pressed on the top 
 of the spindles, to prevent the flyers from being thrown 
 off: h h are the ends of the winding bobbin-shaft, laid 
 in slots near H, as in the former machines. The wind- 
 ing bobbins are driven by toothed wheels, cast on one 
 end of their square iron axes, in the line of h, which 
 wheels are turned by toothed wheels on a bar in the line 
 of the bevel wheel 7. On these bobbins, which are of 
 
 Figs. 53, 54. —Bobbins of spirally-wound Silk. 
 
A SILK FACTORY. 275 
 
 considerable diameter, the silk is wound, and distri- 
 buted diagonally by a peculiar differential mechanism. 
 K K are the guide bars, with the guides i, through 
 which the silk passes, being pulled by the winding 
 bobbins on their horizontal shaft in the line of h, and 
 delivered by the flyers d, d 3 from their vertical twisting 
 bobbins and spindles F. By the revolution of the tin 
 cylinder E, driven by a steam-pulley fixed on its end, 
 motion is communicated immediately through the cords 
 to the wharves c, and their spindles ; and mediately 
 through the plate- wheels 2 and 3, and the bevel- wheels 
 4, 5, 6, 7 3 to the rest of the machine. The toothed 
 wheel at E is called the change-pinion ; because, by 
 changing it for another of a smaller or a larger size, 
 the speed of the plate-wheel 2 and 3 may be changed. 
 The axis of the plate-wheel 2 lies in a curvilinear slot, 
 in which it can be shifted to suit the size of the change- 
 wheel put on at E, and to keep it in proper geering, 
 after which it is fixed by a screw-nut. I regret that 
 the limits of this work will not allow me to make a 
 more extensive use of the fine series of drawings in 
 my possession, illustrative of the exquisite machinery 
 of our modern silk-mills. I trust a fit occasion may, 
 ere long, occur for presenting them to the public. 
 
 Silk undergoes certain preparations. The hanks of 
 the raw silk are soaked in tepid soap-water in a tub ; 
 but the bobbins of the spun silk are steamed by in- 
 closing a basket-full of them within a wooden steam- 
 case for about ten minutes. The bobbins are then 
 removed into a cistern of warm water, from which they 
 are taken to the doubling frame. 
 
 From 100 to 4000 cards may be required for a 
 pattern in a Jacquard-loom. With one containing 
 
276 
 
 NATURE OF A SILK FACTORY. 
 
 816 cards, the cost of the draft, writing, and stamping, 
 will amount to 101. The annual expense for change 
 of patterns in Jacquard-looms may be about 121. each 
 to the English manufacturer. The total cost of a Jac- 
 quard-loom varies from 15Z. to 30/. 
 
 It is probable that Mr. Louis Schwabe, and other 
 enterprising silk manufacturers of Manchester, will, 
 ere long, apply the power-loom to the weaving of fancy, 
 as well as plain goods ; whereby they will give a great 
 impulsion to the silk trade of England. Messrs. 
 Sharp and Roberts will readily furnish, from their 
 boundless stores of mechanical invention, the requisite 
 machinery for producing any wished-for design, how- 
 ever complicated. 
 
 At present, the most skilful weavers of fancy goods 
 at Manchester are natives of Paisley, who combine 
 manual dexterity with moral and intellectual culture. 
 " We had some weavers of silk gauzes who came from 
 Paisley, whom we found very careful at their work, 
 and equal to the French weavers*." 
 
 In silk establishments the machinery can be, and is 
 often employed from three to six hours after the hands 
 have left work, to the advantage of the masters (the 
 number of hours depending on the quality and cost of 
 the silk) ; therefore the imposing of a restriction on 
 the moving power in silk establishments would have 
 the effect of increasing the cost on the quantity of silk 
 turned off. (Evidence from Congleton.) When water- 
 power is used, the portion of the silk-machinery which 
 contains the swifts (fig. 47), generally works all night 
 without being tended. 
 
 * Committee on Silk Trade. 
 
277 
 
 BOOK THE THIRD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 MORAL ECONOMY OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 Condition of our Factory Operatives, as to Personal 
 Comforts, compared to that of other Labouring 
 Classes; or the Quantify and Quality of their 
 Work considered, relatively to the means of Enjoy- 
 ment which it can procure. — History of the Dis- 
 contents, Prejudices, and Legislation on this subject. 
 
 The ancient feeling of contempt entertained by the 
 country gentlemen towards the burghers, which vented 
 itself during the lawless period of the middle ages, in 
 every form of contumely and outrage, seems still to 
 rankle in the breasts of many members of our aristo- 
 cracy, is still fostered by the panegyrists of their order, 
 and displayed itself, not equivocally, in the late par- 
 liamentary crusade against the factories. One of their 
 most eloquent advocates and partisans speaks of the 
 great development of our mechanical industry in the 
 following scornful terms : — ( i It is a wen, a fungous 
 excrescence from the body politic ; the growth might 
 have been checked, if the consequences had been ap- 
 prehended in time; but now it has acquired so great a 
 bulk, its nerves have branched so widely, and the 
 vessels of the tumour are so inosculated into some of 
 
278 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 the principal veins and arteries of the natural system, 
 that to remove it by absorption is impossible, and ex- 
 cision will be fatal 
 
 Could a metaphor have proved anything, a more 
 appropriate one might have been found, in the process 
 of vegetable and animal generation, to illustrate the 
 great truth, that Providence has assigned to man the 
 glorious function of vastly improving the productions 
 of nature by judicious culture, and of working them up 
 into objects of comfort and elegance with the least 
 possible expenditure of human labour — an undeniable 
 position which forms the basis of our Factory System. 
 While its morbid disjtemperature is certainly not so 
 great as that of the agricultural system of England, 
 it is much more accessible to control and ameliora- 
 tion. There is one fact which ought to change Mr. 
 Southey's tone of thought about our manufactures : 
 it is, that literature finds in them its principal patron; 
 — the book-trade of Great Britain flourishes and fades 
 with its manufactures in vital sympathy, while it is 
 nearly indifferent to the good or bad state of its agri- 
 culture. Which, then, is the moral and intellectual 
 population ? 
 
 It has, however, been the fate of this polytechnic, as 
 of the best philanthropic dispensation ever made to 
 man, to be misrepresented and reviled, not only by 
 strangers ignorant of its intrinsic excellence, but by 
 the very objects of its bounty, the children of its care. 
 When the wandering savage becomes a citizen, he re- 
 nounces many of his dangerous pleasures in return 
 for tranquillity and protection. He can no longer 
 
 * Southey's Colloquies, vol. i., p. 171. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 279 
 
 gratify at his will a revengeful spirit upon his foes, nor 
 seize with violence a neighbour's possessions. In like 
 manner, when the handicraftsman exchanges hard work 
 with fluctuating employment and pay, for continuous 
 labour of a lighter kind with steady wages, he must 
 necessarily renounce his old prerogative of stopping 
 when he pleases, because he would thereby throw the 
 whole establishment into disorder. Of the amount of 
 the injury resulting from the violation of the rules of 
 automatic labour, he can hardly ever be a proper 
 judge ; just as mankind at large can never fully esti- 
 mate the evils consequent upon an infraction of God's 
 moral law. Yet the factory operative, little versant in 
 the great operations of political economy, currency, 
 and trade, and actuated too often by an invidious 
 feeling towards the capitalist who animates his other- 
 wise torpid talents, is easily persuaded by artful dema- 
 gogues, that his sacrifice of time and skill is beyond 
 the proportion of his recompense, or that fewer hours 
 of industry would be an ample equivalent for his 
 wages. This notion seems to have taken an early and 
 inveterate hold of the factory mind, and to have been 
 rivetted from time to time by the leaders of those 
 secret combinations, so readily formed among a pecu- 
 liar class of men, concentrated in masses within a 
 narrow range of country. 
 
 Instead of repining as they have done at the pros- 
 perity of their employers, and concerting odious mea- 
 sures to blast it, they should, on every principle of 
 gratitude and self-interest, have rejoiced at the success 
 resulting from their labours, and by regularity and 
 skill have recommended themselves to monied men 
 desirous of engaging in a profitable concern, and of 
 
 m 
 
280 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 procuring qualified hands to conduct it. Thus good 
 workmen would have advanced their condition to that 
 of overlookers, managers, and partners in new mills, 
 and have increased at the same time the demand for 
 their companions" labour in the market. It is only by 
 an undisturbed progression of this kind that the rate 
 of wages can be permanently raised or upheld. Had 
 it not been for the violent collisions and interruptions 
 resulting from erroneous views among the operatives, 
 the factory system would have been developed still 
 more rapidly and beneficially for all concerned than 
 it has been, and would have exhibited still more fre- 
 quently gratifying examples of skilful workmen be- 
 coming opulent proprietors. Every misunderstanding 
 either repels capital altogether, or diverts it from flow- 
 ing, for a time, in the channels of a trade liable to strikes. 
 
 It is therefore deeply to be deplored, for the sake of 
 all parties, as well as for our country's welfare, that the 
 cotton-spinners in particular have been so blinded by 
 prejudice and passion, as never rightly to comprehend 
 the force of this elementary principle. Had their 
 conduct been governed by it, they would have had 
 better wages, and might have appropriated to their 
 own use the whole amount of their earnings, instead of 
 squandering no inconsiderable portion of them upon 
 the fomenters of misrule — the functionaries of their 
 unions. The means which they have all along en- 
 joyed for maintaining themselves and families in com- 
 fort have been, generally speaking, better than those 
 possessed in other parts of the kingdom by the average 
 of those artisans who have expensive tools to pro- 
 vide, and tedious apprenticeships to serve ; for the net 
 wages of a cotton-spinner have been rarely under 30s. 
 
 ft 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 a week all the year round, nay, sometimes considerably 
 more ; constituting an income nearly three times as 
 great as that of the farm-labourer or hand-weaver for 
 as many hours' occupation, and for much severer toil. 
 
 The textile manufactures consist of two distinct de- 
 partments ; one carried on by multitudes of small in- 
 dependent machines belonging to the workmen, another 
 carried on by concatenated systems of machinery, the 
 property of the masters. Of the former, muslin and 
 stocking-weaving are examples ; of the latter, mule- 
 spinning and power-loom w T eaving. The workmen of 
 the first class being scattered over a wide tract of 
 country, and being mutual competitors for work and 
 wages, can seldom conspire with one another, and 
 never with effect against their employers. But sup- 
 posing them to do so in some degree, they would lock 
 up as much of their own capital as of their masters' ; 
 that is, they would lose as much interest of money in 
 their unemployed looms and loom-shops, as he would 
 lose on the capital advanced to them in yarn for 
 weaving. The operatives of the latter class are neces- 
 sarily associated in large bodies, and moreover have 
 no capital sunk in machinery or work-shops. When 
 they choose to strike they can readily join in the blow, 
 and by stopping they suffer merely the loss of wages 
 for the time, while they occasion to their master loss 
 of interest on his sunk capital, his rent, and his taxes, 
 as well as injury to the delicate moving parts of me- 
 tallic mechanisms by inaction in our humid climate. 
 There are several cotton-mills in Manchester, of which 
 the interest on sunk capital amounts to from 5,000/. to 
 10,000Z. per annum. If we add to the loss of this 
 
 0 
 
282 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 interest, that of the profit fairly resulting from the 
 employment of the said capital, we may be able to 
 appreciate in some measure the vast evils which mis- 
 chievous cabals among the operatives may inflict on 
 mill-owners, as well as on the commerce of the country. 
 
 Philosophers, in every age of the world, have con- 
 trasted the supineness of the beneficent principle in 
 man, with the activity of the malevolent ; but, satisfied 
 with stating the fact, they left it as a problem for reve- 
 lation to solve. Proud of the power of malefaction, 
 many of the cotton-spinners, though better paid, as we 
 have shown, than any similar set of artisans in the 
 world, organized the machinery of strikes through all 
 the gradations of their people, terrifying or cajoling 
 the timid or the passive among them to join their vin- 
 dictive union. They boasted of possessing a dark 
 tribunal, by the mandates of which they could para- 
 lyze every mill whose master did not comply with their 
 wishes, and so bring ruin on the man who had given 
 them profitable employment for many a year. By 
 flattery or intimidation, they levied contributions from 
 their associates in the privileged mills, which they 
 suffered to proceed, in order to furnish spare funds for 
 the maintenance of the idle during the decreed sus- 
 pension of labour. In this extraordinary state of 
 things, when the inventive head and the sustaining 
 heart of trade were held in bondage by the unruly 
 lower members, a destructive spirit began to display 
 itself among some partisans of the union. Acts of 
 singular atrocity were committed, sometimes with 
 weapons fit only for demons to wield, such as the cor- 
 rosive oil of vitriol, dashed in the faces of most meri- 
 
 .Y^f H 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 283 
 
 torious individuals, with the effect of disfiguring their 
 persons, and burning their eyes out of the sockets with 
 dreadful agony. 
 
 The true spirit of turn-outs among the spinners is 
 well described in the following statement made on oath 
 to the Factory Commission, by Mr. George Royle 
 Chappel, a manufacturer of Manchester, who employs 
 274 hands, and two steam-engines of sixty-four horse 
 power. 
 
 " I have had several turn-outs, and have heard of 
 many more, but never heard of a turn-out for short time. 
 I will relate the circumstances of the last turn-out, which 
 took place on the 16th October, 1830, and continued 
 till the 17th January, 1831. The whole of our spin- 
 ners, whose average (weekly) wages were 21. 13s. bd.> 
 turned out at the instigation, as they told us at the 
 time, of the delegates of the union. They said they 
 had no fault to find with their wages, their work, or 
 their masters, but the union obliged them to turn out. 
 The same week three delegates from the spinners' 
 union waited upon us at our mill, and dictated certain 
 advances in wages, and other regulations, to which, if 
 we would not adhere, they said neither our own spin- 
 ners nor any other shoujd work for us again ! Of 
 course we declined, believing our wages to be ample, 
 and our regulations such as were necessary for the 
 proper conducting of the establishment. The conse- 
 quences were, they set watches on every avenue to the 
 mill, night and day, to prevent any fresh hands coming 
 into the mill, an object which they effectually attained, 
 by intimidating some, and promising support to 
 others (whom I got into the mill in a caravan), if 
 they would leave their work. Under these circum- 
 
284 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 stances I could not work the mill, and advertised it for 
 sale, without any applications, and I also tried in vain 
 to let it. At the end of twenty-three weeks the hands 
 requested to be taken into the mill again on the terms 
 that they had left it; declaring, as they had done at 
 first, that the union alone had forced them to turn out. 
 The names of the delegates that waited on me were, 
 Jonathan Hodgins, Thomas Foster, and Peter Madox, 
 secretary to the union. 
 
 " What advance of wages did they require? — Ans. 
 It was considerable, but I don't remember the exact 
 sum ; and the regulations required were, that the men 
 should not be fined for bad work, or for not con- 
 forming to the regulations of the mill ! 
 
 u Have you ever had turn-outs before ? — Ans. Yes, 
 two; in a former turn-out of the spinners, we were 
 waited on by a man named Doherty, and Jonathan 
 Hodgins, two leaders of the union, who, after examining 
 our wage book and the machinery on which the men 
 worked, stated that the wages were fair, and the 
 machinery good ; and they ordered them to their work 
 again." 
 
 The increase of the silk trade at Manchester is 
 partly owing to its migration from Macclesfield, which 
 is much depopulated in consequence of the restrictions 
 placed on labour by the unions. Norwich has suffered 
 the same evil. All silk-weavers work by hand ; and 
 earn from 12s. to 20s. per week, according to their 
 skill and diligence. Mr. Brocklehurst, being desirous 
 to make gros-de-Naples at Macclesfield, put out 400 
 or 500 warps, which would have given employment to 
 many more persons; but the weavers would not bring 
 in the webs without an advance on the prices agreed 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 285 
 
 on, and in fact laid such obstructions in the way, that 
 he was obliged to restrict his business, and produced 
 no goods of consequence in that line, because the men 
 would not work at the Manchester prices. In 1833 
 about 6,000Z. were paid weekly in silk-weavers' wages. 
 
 Mr. William Harter, in his evidence on the silk 
 trade, says, " I have seen a great many turn-outs, and 
 have invariably found that the result was the lowering 
 of the wages of the operative ; that was the result in 
 my own case. In the spring of the year, when the 
 looms were full of goods, the weavers thought they 
 could do what they pleased under such circumstances, 
 and struck for higher wages ; but after remaining 
 out of work for three or four months they came to 
 terms. I had meanwhile got hands from the cotton 
 trade */' 
 
 " I was not aware," says a Factory Commissioner f, 
 " until I was engaged in the investigation at Glasgow ,, 
 that the operatives there have so completely organized 
 their association, as not only to prescribe the wages to 
 be paid to the members of the association, but to all 
 other persons, from whatever quarter they may come ; 
 that further, no male worker not entered with them is 
 allowed to work at all, without their consent, and the 
 concurrence of the association, and never without 
 making a payment to them at the beginning, and con- 
 tinuing a weekly payment at the same rate as their 
 own afterwards ; that females, however able, are not 
 allowed to become spinners, or to be engaged as such ; 
 and that it is hardly in the power of a piecer, that is of 
 
 * Factory Commission. — Second Rep. of Central Board, D. 2, p. 38. 
 t James Stuart, Esq., Author of an excellent Tour in the United 
 States.— First Report, A. 1, 126. 
 
286 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 an assistant to a spinner, to learn 1 the business of a 
 spinner, unless he is related to a spinner who will bring 
 him forward ; that, in short, the object of the Glasgow 
 Association is to make their company a close corpora- 
 tion, accessible only to those whom they choose to 
 admit, and not only to prevent all others from becoming 
 spinners by their regulations, but by a system of inti- 
 midation, which they successfully carry into execution 
 absolutely by physical force." 
 
 " The mill-owners in Glasgow," says Mr. Graham, 
 ** did not attempt to bring down the wages of labour, 
 except when they were higher than in Lancashire, 
 but to get the management of their works into their 
 own hands. Nor did they combine with one another 
 to effect their purpose, as their men had done. The 
 labourer not only says — 6 1 will not work for you, un- 
 less for such a price,' but he says — c I will not let any 
 other person do it, however willing ; ' and he sets 
 a w T atch upon the streets, that prevents us from get- 
 ting men in, and will abuse anybody that comes, in 
 the most shocking manner, even to taking their lives, 
 if it were necessary. The consequence is, that we 
 have, once or twice, ourselves attempted to stand out 
 against our men, but we have been obliged to take 
 them in. The practice is illegal, but the law is per- 
 fectly inefficient; we never can get a conviction. 
 Within a week before I left Glasgow, they beat a per- 
 son, and he came back to the work frightened and 
 alarmed, and he w 7 as obliged to go out. Some years 
 ago there were several people almost destroyed, by 
 vitriol being thrown upon them by combined men*." 
 
 * Wm, Graham, Esq., in Committee's Report on Manufactures, 
 p. 335. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 287 
 
 When asked, by the Committee, how it happens 
 that he cannot reduce the price of his spinning as low 
 as his neighbours, Mr. Graham answers, " That the 
 combination of spinners in Glasgow will not allow it, 
 and that he cannot admit a new hand into his mill 
 unless he has joined the combination." 
 
 What a mortifying predicament, for a most respect- 
 able manufacturer to be obliged, by the vindictive 
 spirit of united workmen, to pay from 35s. to 40s. of 
 weekly wages for the same labour which they freely 
 give his neighbour mill-owners for 21s. or 25s. ! 
 
 It was no wonder that a temper so dictatorial and 
 conspiracies leading to such violence, excited the 
 deepest interest in the public mind, and roused the 
 legislature to enact new laws corresponding to the 
 novelty of the crimes. The conspirators, aware of the 
 horror which they had inspired in every well-principled 
 mind, betook themselves to a bold line of defence. 
 They disavowed the outrages, on the one hand, and 
 denounced their own occupation on the other, as irk- 
 some in the highest degree, destructive of all comfort, 
 ruinous to health, and the cause of premature decay of 
 all the faculties of body and mind. 
 
 During a disastrous turn-out in Manchester, in 
 1818, when fifteen thousand of the factory people 
 refused employment for several months, paraded the 
 streets, besieged such cotton-mills as continued to 
 work in defiance of their commands, and threatened 
 to destroy their industrious inmates, the Committee 
 of the Spinners' Union issued the following pro- 
 clamation, — the fountain-head of the torrents of 
 calumny since so profusely discharged on our factory 
 system : — 
 
288 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 " We believe there is no species of labour so fraught 
 with the want of natural comforts as that the spinners 
 have to contend with ; deprived of fresh air, and sub- 
 jected to long confinement in the impure atmosphere 
 of crowded rooms, continually inhaling the particles 
 of metallic or vegetable dust, his physical powers 
 become debilitated, his animal strength dwindles away, 
 and few survive the meridian of life, and the grave is 
 often the welcome asylum of his woes. His children! 
 but let us draw a veil over the scene ! our streets ex- 
 hibit their cadaverous and decrepit forms, and any 
 attempt to describe them would be impossible. Let 
 it not be understood that we attach blame to our 
 employers, as applied to these calamities ; they are 
 perhaps inseparable from the very nature of the 
 employment, and our masters may lament, but cannot 
 redress them." 
 
 We shall presently prove that this picture is dis- 
 torted in every respect, and as to the children in par- 
 ticular, there are no trades in which young persons are 
 engaged in numbers, such as sewing, pin-making, or 
 coal-mining, nearly so salubrious, or so comfortable 
 as a cotton-mill. But let us, meanwhile, pursue for a 
 little the rising tide of defamation. 
 
 In consequence of these turmoils and complaints, 
 Sir Robert Peel's bill for regulating the hours of 
 labour in factories was passed in 1818 : but a similar 
 spirit of discontent continuing to manifest itself, a 
 second bill was passed in 1825, and a third in 1831 — 
 the last under the direction of Sir J. C. Hobhouse. A 
 general meeting of the mill-owners and other inhabit- 
 ants of Manchester took place soon after the passing 
 of the last bill, at which resolutions were made for 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 289 
 
 enforcing the execution of its provisions, under a com- 
 mittee of superintendence. This bill was soon found 
 to be ineffectual towards protecting children from 
 being worked over-hours under greedy operatives and 
 needy parents : for it held out mutual temptations 
 to collusion and perjury with respect to the ages of 
 the children employed by the spinner to mend his 
 broken yarns, and sweep up the stray fibres of cotton 
 from the floor. As the masters paid the spinners the 
 full allowance of wages for these piecers and scavengers, 
 as they are called, he had a strong motive to prohibit 
 their being worked too long, or beyond their strength, 
 for in all such cases he would suffer loss, by the bad 
 quality of his yarn, and the waste of his cotton. 
 
 Every manufacturer is well acquainted with the 
 eagerness of his spinners to earn the highest possible 
 wages by quick work and prolonged hours, and knows 
 that if he stops his mill half an hour sooner than his 
 neighbours, he will certainly lose his most skilful 
 hands. Owners become thus a check on each other, 
 relative both to the time of labour and amount of 
 remuneration. The spinners, being obviously respon- 
 sible for the quality of the yarn, must of course have 
 the selection and hiring of their juvenile assistants ; 
 yet if they introduce those who are too young, un- 
 skilful, or feeble, they would expose themselves to the 
 censure of the overlookers of the rooms, as well as the 
 manager and master of the factory. Hence the ten- 
 dency of the spinners to overwork children relative 
 to their years, is controlled, directly, by the observa- 
 tion of superintendents, and, indirectly, by inspection 
 of the quality of the work, which, if at all defective, 
 occasions deduction of wages, or even the imposition 
 
 vol. i. o 
 
290 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 of a fine. Nearly the whole of the children of four- 
 teen years of age, and under, who are employed in 
 cotton-mills, belong to the mule-spinning department, 
 and are, in forty-nine cases out of fifty, the immediate 
 servants and dependents, often the offspring or near 
 relations of the spinner, being hired and dismissed at 
 his option. In fact, mule-spinning could not go on 
 with any degree of prosperity if the assistants were 
 independent of the operative. He is therefore their 
 sole patron and master, and as such is naturally 
 courted by poor parents, solicitous to get their children 
 profitably employed. We may judge, from these un- 
 doubted facts, of the absurdity and injustice of the 
 clamour so industriously propagated against the pro- 
 prietors of mills for cruelty to children under their 
 charge. The slightest inquiry on the spot, the most 
 superficial ocular inspection, would have satisfied 
 any candid mind, that the owners, from regard to 
 pecuniary interest, as well as to humanity and reputa- 
 tion, always set their faces against every species of 
 oppression within their premises. 
 
 Nothing shows in a clearer point of view the credulity 
 of mankind in general, and of the people of these 
 islands in particular, than the ready faith which was 
 given to the tales of cruelty exercised by proprietors 
 of cotton-mills towards young children. The system 
 of calumny somewhat resembles that brought by the 
 Pagans against the primitive Christians, of enticing 
 children into their meetings in order to murder and 
 devour them. The sentimental fever thus excited by 
 the craft of the Operatives' Union was inflamed into 
 a delirious paroxysm by the partial, distorted,, and 
 fictitious evidence conjured up before the Committee 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 291 
 
 of the House of Commons on factory employment, 
 of which Mr. Sadler was the mover and chairman. It 
 commenced its sittings on the 12th April, 1832, and 
 did not terminate them till the 7th of August follow- 
 ing, when it published a mass of defamation against 
 the cotton- mills, spread over upwards of 600 folio 
 pages. Of this notable report, Mr. Tufnell, a most 
 able and candid observer, makes the following remarks 
 in his Factory Commission Report to the Secretary of 
 State :— 
 
 (e The selection of witnesses to be examined before 
 that body was most extraordinary. Of the eighty- 
 nine who gave evidence, only three came directly 
 from Manchester, though it is the largest manufac- 
 turing town in the kingdom, and being almost w T holly 
 devoted to the cotton-trade, which is as yet the only 
 business subjected to a factory bill, some important 
 information respecting the experience of former fac- 
 tory bills, and the probable effects of the change it 
 was proposed to make, might reasonably be expected 
 from it. Of these three witnesses not one w T as a me- 
 dical man, a manufacturer, or a clergyman. The 
 first was a dresser of yarn, and is now one of the 
 delegates sent by the Lancashire workmen to London 
 to forward the passing of the Ten-Hour Factory Bill, 
 and w 7 hose colleague is a man named Doherty, who 
 (it is right that the character of the leaders in this 
 business should be known) originally came to Man- 
 chester with a forged character, and was subsequently 
 imprisoned for two years for a gross assault upon a 
 woman ; the second is the keeper of a small tavern in 
 the purlieus of the town, and the third is an atheist. 
 
 " The first being in London I could not re-examine, 
 
 o2 
 
292 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 but he refused to corroborate his former evidence be- 
 fore the Central Board of Commissioners when re- 
 quested to do so by them ; to the second, I sent a 
 summons and he refused to attend ; the third did 
 attend, and the following is the commencement of his 
 examination : — 
 
 Have you any objection to take an oath ? Ans. 
 I would rather not. I have no objection to kiss the 
 dirty book. Truth is what I swear by, and wherever 
 I meet her I embrace her. 
 
 "'Do you believe in a God? Ans. Can you tell 
 me what God is ? God is incomprehensible. I am a 
 moral character. When I was in London I lived in 
 Mr. Carlile's shop, Fleet Street. I acted in the 
 capacity of a servant to Mr. Carlile and the Rev. 
 Robert Taylor.' 
 
 "Considerable part of this man's evidence, which 
 fills nine folio pages of the Committee's (Mr. Sadler's) 
 Report, refers to charges thirty and forty years old ; 
 but every specific accusation which he or his two 
 compeers had made against the cotton-mills, I as- 
 certained, from witnesses of the utmost respectability, 
 to be absolutely false 
 
 From this specimen we may judge of the nature of 
 Mr. Sadler's evidence against the textile factories. 
 Yet so violent was the prejudice raised by its means, as 
 well as by the Chairman's rhetorical expositions, and 
 those of his parliamentary partisans, that an influen- 
 tial newspaper, responsive to popular feeling, ex- 
 pressed itself on the subject in the following strong 
 terms on the 28th May, 1833:— 
 
 * Supplementary Report of the Central Board of Factory Commis- 
 sioners, page 209. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 2S3 
 
 " The state of these infants is really, in our eyes, the 
 blackest guilt with which England stands chargeable 
 at the present moment; and we are convinced that 
 the reformed House of Commons will remove it with- 
 out delay, whatever these Commissioners (on factory 
 employment) may report, whatever new device the 
 hard-hearted manufacturers may have recourse to, and 
 however Ministers may countenance other schemes of 
 procrastination, as they have countenanced this scheme 
 of a commission." In the same paper appeared an 
 extract from a protest presented to the gentlemen of 
 the Government Factory Commission on their arrival 
 at Leeds. " You appear," says this modest docu- 
 ment, " to be quite ignorant of the subject of inquiry, 
 which to its due examination demands habits, talents, 
 and experience far different from those requisite for 
 mere legal investigations/' &c. &c. &c. In thus revil- 
 ing the characters and capacities of the Commissioners 
 (who were not all lawyers) Mr. Sadler was singularly 
 out of his reckoning. Their examinations and reports 
 are as remarkable for sagacity and candour, as All 
 are for the opposite qualities. So gloomily meanwhile 
 did the phantoms of factory cruelty haunt the public 
 mind, that the same talented journal published, on 
 the 18th June, the following remarkable animad- 
 versions : — 
 
 " The Government and the Commissioners are 
 now on the right way, and we hope will arrive at 
 the end of their journey, with the same humane dis- 
 positions, and entitled to the same grateful applause, 
 as at the commencement. It w T as high time that 
 something should be done, after the publication of 
 the late report from Mr. Sadler s committee, if not for 
 
294 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 the sake of humanity and religion, if not to check 
 barbarous oppression, or to protect helpless infancy, 
 at least to rescue our moral character from disgrace, 
 and our manufacturing system from abhorrence 
 among other nations. We remember a period, when, 
 actuated by a feeling of horror at the atrocities of the 
 slave-trade, some of the more enthusiastic friends of 
 its abolition, in order to terminate the evil, abstained 
 from the use of sugar produced by slave-labour, and 
 if we may credit the sincerity of one of the speakers 
 in the principality of Darmstadt on a late occasion, 
 the people of Germany might, from the strong repre- 
 sentations of our English white slavery, almost be 
 led to discontinue the use of English manufactures. 
 In a debate which arose in the states of Darmstadt, 
 on a bill for punishing cruelty to animals, Baron 
 Gugern, well known for some political tracts, took 
 occasion to describe the manufacturing system of Eng- 
 land, as more cruel than any thing from which it was 
 proposed to protect the inferior creation in Germany. 
 His picture is not overcharged as limited to our fac- 
 tory population, though he is wrong in applying its 
 features indiscriminately to our whole population. He 
 seems to imagine that England is one huge factory; 
 that all our children and youths are employed in 
 spinning cotton or weaving calicoes for German con- 
 sumption, and that there is a perfect contrast, result- 
 ing from this labour, between an English and a 
 German village. Now r we need not remind our own 
 countrymen, though we may apprise M. Gugern and 
 our German customers, that although a large body of 
 children in our manufacturing towns are subject to 
 the toils and restraints w r hich he so feelingly describes, 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 295 
 
 the blight has not spread over the whole land ; and 
 that our villages are often as happy as those of any 
 nation which wears our broad-cloths or our calicoes." 
 
 When Lord Ashley's ten hours' bill came on for 
 discussion in the House of Commons, on July 5, 
 1833, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Althorp, 
 said, " that on looking into the provisions of the bill, 
 he could not but feel apprehensive, that if it were 
 passed in its present form, it would have a most in- 
 jurious effect upon the manufacturing interests of the 
 country. He need not say, that if the effect of legis- 
 lative interference were to increase the power of 
 foreigners to compete with us, so far from being a 
 benefit to the poor people, whom it was sought to 
 protect, any measure of this kind would be one of the 
 greatest injuries which could be inflicted on the manu- 
 facturing population. He said so, because he need 
 only draw their attention to the state of the manufac- 
 turing districts to show, that if any measure had the 
 effect of diminishing the demand for our goods, the 
 result would be to throw the whole population of 
 these districts out of work, and in consequence to pro- 
 duce the most miserable effects. He was not one to 
 say that nothing ought to be done in this case, as, 
 from the general excitement and feeling throughout 
 the country, Parliament must interfere, and protect 
 unfortunate children from suffering under such cruel 
 oppression and being treated with undue severity. 
 But when the measure of the noble lord, taking the 
 ages of the parties into consideration, went to fix on 
 the short period of ten hours, he thought he shortened 
 the period too much, as regarded adults, more par- 
 ticularly as all the arguments urged in the house 
 
296 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 referred to children of nine, ten, and eleven years old, 
 and did not apply to adults, who had an option to 
 work or not as they thought proper. The house had 
 the opinion of the Factory Commissioners, that the 
 protection heretofore afforded to children was by no 
 means satisfactory; let the house then limit them- 
 selves to this subject, without applying themselves to 
 parties for whom their interference was unnecessary, 
 as they could choose for themselves. With this view, 
 should the house agree with him, he would wish to 
 refer the subject to a select committee, and he should 
 suggest, that children, before the fourteenth year of 
 their age, should not be allowed to work more than 
 eight hours a day." 
 
 u The great object urged by Lord Ashley," added the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, se and one which every 
 man would willingly give his aid to, was to give chil- 
 dren the benefit of education, which it was impossible 
 they could enjoy, while compelled to continual labour 
 throughout every day, and he therefore thought that 
 care should be taken that the children should have 
 this advantage during the intervals which occurred in 
 their labour ; and that inspections of the mills should 
 take place in order to secure the operation of these 
 provisions of the new bill" 
 
 Lord Ashley said, " he had no objection that chil- 
 dren under thirteen years of age should work no more 
 than eight hours ; neither had he the slightest objec- 
 tion to the system of compulsory education mentioned, 
 for it was a deep source of regret to him that there 
 should be so many thousands in this country deprived 
 of this blessing. It was becoming in Lord Althorp, 
 as a minister of the crown, thus to come forward, and if 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 297 
 
 he chose to go farther, he should find in him a zealous 
 supporter ; and should the noble lord extend his 
 bounty in this way, not merely to factory children, but 
 to all who were destitute, he would not only be the 
 best benefactor to this country, but the most glorious 
 minister that ever existed." 
 
 A celebrated Irish member exclaimed, " Then why 
 not legislate at once ? On one side was the number of 
 children slaughtered in a year ; on the other the pos- 
 sibility of the loss of the sale of a certain portion of 
 calico. The protection ought to last till twenty-one, 
 at all events to eighteen assigning as a reason in 
 law, that the Lord Chancellor took especial care of all 
 under twenty-one years, and that the House of Com* 
 mons was bound to act as universal chancellor. 
 
 In the House of Commons, July 18th, Lord Althorp 
 moved an amendment on Lord Ashley's bill, to the 
 effect that protection should be given by the bill only 
 to those who could not protect themselves, and that 
 adults should be left to their own discretion ; — a motion 
 w T hich was carried by 238 votes against 93, or with a 
 majority of 145. 
 
 It will certainly appear surprising to every dispas- 
 sionate mind, that ninety-three members of the British 
 House of Commons could be found capable of voting 
 that any class of grown-up artisans should not be suf- 
 fered to labour more than ten hours a day — an inter- 
 ference with the freedom of the subject which no other 
 legislature in Christendom would have countenanced 
 for a moment. The Gloucestershire manufacturers 
 justly characterized the proposal as "worthy of the 
 darkest ages, when governments took on themselves to 
 control, direct, and punish all handicrafts, trades, and 
 
 o3 
 
298 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 callings for any diversity in their operations. " This, 
 says Mr. Tufnell, is not strongly enough expressed. 
 
 We shall now detail a few more particulars concern- 
 ing t he origin of this torrent of falsehood and defama- 
 tion which lately overflowed the country, and had 
 nearly converted its most productive fields of industry 
 into sloughs of despond. 
 
 We have seen that the union of operative spinners 
 had, at an early date, denounced their own occupa- 
 tions as being irksome, severe, and unwholesome in an 
 unparalleled degree. Their object in making this 
 misrepresentation was obviously to interest the com- 
 munity in their favour at the period of their lawless 
 strike in the year 1818. Subsequently to this crisis, 
 some individuals of their governing committee made 
 the notable discovery, that if the quantity of yarn an- 
 nually spun could by any means be reduced, its 
 scarcity in the market would raise its price, and con- 
 sequently raise the rate of their wages. They accord- 
 ingly suggested the shortening of the time of labour 
 to ten hours, as the grand remedy for low wages and 
 hard work ; though at this time they were receiving 
 at least three times more wages than hand-loom 
 weavers for the same number of hours' employment, 
 and therefore had very little reason to complain of 
 their lot. In fact; it was their high wages which 
 enabled them to maintain a stipendiary committee in 
 affluence, and to pamper themselves into nervous ail- 
 ments by a diet too rich and exciting for their in-door 
 occupations. Had they plainly promulgated their 
 views and claims, they well knew that no attention 
 would have been paid to them, but they artfully intro- 
 duced the tales of cruelty and oppression to children, 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 299 
 
 as resulting from their own protracted labour, and 
 succeeded by this stratagem to gain many well mean- 
 ing proselytes to their cause. The clamour for the 
 ten-hour bill, and the subsidiary lamentation for the 
 children, were confined among the operatives, almost 
 exclusively to the mule-spinners. We have here a 
 remarkable proof of the power of passion to stultify the 
 human understanding. Since the said spinners are 
 the sole employers of the younger children in cotton- 
 mills, who are often their own offspring, and entirely 
 at their disposal to hire or to turn away, they were the 
 only persons capable of abusing them, the sole arbiters 
 of their fate^ and therefore amenable to the parents 
 and the public for their good treatment. The mill- 
 owner,, in fact, could never interfere but beneficially 
 for the children, to protect them against the occasional 
 caprice of these friends to humanity, who alone could 
 exercise tyranny over their dependents. We may 
 judge from these particulars of the effrontery of the 
 Spinner's Union, and of the credulity of their partisans 
 in and out of parliament. If cruelty of any kind 
 existed at any time, the operatives were the only cul- 
 prits, and ought to have been prosecuted for it, or 
 at least for practising gross imposition on the public to 
 serve their own sinister ends. After receiving so much 
 unmerited sympathy from well-meaning philanthro- 
 pists, their impudence knew no bounds. Within a 
 week after the factory commissioners arrived at Man- 
 chester, the Operatives' Union dramatized the miseries 
 of the children in a public procession. They collected 
 about 4000 of the youngest, mustered them in tawdry 
 array, and paraded them through the streets, heading 
 the motley throng by themselves or their agents, bran- 
 
300 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 dishing straps and bludgeons as emblems of their 
 masters tyranny, but really the instruments of their 
 own wickedness, if punishment were ever inflicted by 
 them with such weapons in their moments of ill- 
 humour. 
 
 If it be a maxim of equity in every state that false 
 accusation should recoil on the heads of its authors, 
 what punishment ought to be awarded to those who, 
 after committing unknown severities upon their depen- 
 dent children, should magnify the extent of the evil a 
 thousand-fold, and lay all this load of exaggerated 
 crime on persons not only entirely innocent and uncon- 
 scious of its existence, but avowed enemies to its com- 
 mission in any degree. 
 
 The following short extract of evidence given on 
 oath by respectable witnesses will confirm the pre- 
 ceding statement. " Who is it that beats the chil- 
 dren? — The spinner." " Not the master ? — No; the 
 masters have nothing to do with the children — they 
 don't employ them." " Do you (a spinner) pay and 
 employ your own piecers ? — Yes ; it is the general 
 rule in Manchester; but our master is very strict over 
 us, that we don't employ them under age." u Are the 
 children ever beaten ? — Sometimes they get beat, but 
 not severely; for sometimes they make the stuff to 
 waste, and then correction is needful ; but that is un- 
 known to the master — he does not allow beating at all*. 5 ' 
 
 No master would wish to have any wayward children 
 to work within the walls of his factory, who do not 
 mind their business without beating, and he thereore 
 usually fines or turns away any spinners who are 
 known to maltreat their assistants. Hence, ill-usage 
 
 * Supplementary Factory Commission Report, p, 193. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 301 
 
 of any kind is a very rare occurrence. I have visited 
 many factories, both in Manchester and in the sur- 
 rounding districts, during a period of several months, 
 entering the spinning rooms, unexpectedly, and often 
 alone, at different times of the day, and I never saw a 
 single instance of corporal chastisement inflicted on a 
 child, nor indeed did I ever see children in ill-humour- 
 They seemed to be always cheerful and alert, taking 
 pleasure in the light play of their muscles, — enjoying 
 the mobility natural to their age. The scene of indus- 
 try, so far from exciting sad emotions in my mind, was 
 always exhilarating. It was delightful to observe the 
 nimbleness with which they pieced the broken ends, 
 as the mule-carriage began to recede from the fixed 
 roller beam, and to see them at leisure, after a few 
 seconds' exercise of their tiny fingers, to amuse them- 
 selves in any attitude they chose, till the stretch and 
 winding-on w r ere once more completed. The work of 
 these lively elves seemed to resemble a sport, in which 
 habit gave them a pleasing dexterity. Conscious of 
 their skill, they were delighted to show it off to any 
 stranger. As to exhaustion by the day's work, they 
 evinced no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the 
 evening; for they immediately began to skip about 
 any neighbouring play-ground, and to commence their 
 little amusements with the same alacrity as boys 
 issuing from a school. It is moreover my firm con- 
 viction, that if children are not ill-used by bad parents 
 or guardians, but receive in food and raiment the full 
 benefit of what they earn, they would thrive better 
 when employed in our modern factories, than if left at 
 home in apartments too often ill-aired, damp, and 
 cold. 
 
302 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 The most curious circumstance in the whole con- 
 troversy was the different grounds on which the ten* 
 hour bill was advocated by the leaders of the philan- 
 thropic crusade, and by the operatives themselves in 
 the factory districts. In London, and the agricultural 
 counties, the Spinners' Union succeeded perfectly in 
 mystifying their dupes by romantic representations of 
 ivhile slavery, and of the hecatombs of infants sacri- 
 ficed annually on the calico- crowned altar of Mammon ; 
 but they durst not utter such barefaced falsehoods in 
 Lancashire, because they knew in the first place that 
 they would become laughing-stocks to the other classes 
 of w r ork-people, and in the next, that they would be 
 immediately charged by the superior ranks with either 
 secret cruelty or dow T nright imposture. They would 
 have been told by one and all, u if the children are ill- 
 used, you alone are the criminals." In fact, not a 
 single witness who appeared before Mr. Tufnell to 
 give evidence in favour of the ten-hour bill (and he 
 made it a rule never to turn away any of its advocates, 
 but to summon many of them who would not otherwise 
 have come forward), not one of them, of whatever 
 trade or station he might have been, supported it out 
 of sympathy for the children. That motives of huma- 
 nity had not the smallest concern in the business, is 
 a fact made out by the clearest demonstration which 
 human testimony can give. We select one or two 
 from a multitude of proofs. "What is the motive 
 with the operatives in general for advocating the ten- 
 hour bill ? — They imagine their wages will not be 
 pulled down ; that there will be so much less yarn in 
 the market ; that the price will rise ; and that will 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 303 
 
 cause their wages to rise. That I am certain is their 
 general opinion. 
 
 " Do you think, if they were assured that such a rise 
 of wages would not take place, they would still advo- 
 cate it ? — No ; they would never advocate it. 
 
 " Has a desire to lessen the labour of young chil- 
 dren no influence in making them advocate it ? — Not 
 in the least. 
 
 Can you explain why the operatives make this 
 outcry about the cruelty of employing too young chil- 
 dren in mills, when in every case of such employment 
 it appears that they are themselves to blame ? — As 
 far as I am able to judge, they think that, if the hours 
 of labour were reduced, their income would be the same 
 as at present; that is the notion among our men; 
 many of the spinners with whom I have spoke on it, 
 have told me that. 
 
 (c Then you think that a desire to decrease the labour 
 of children is not the real reason for advocating the 
 ten-hour bill ? — No ; I never met one that had that 
 feeling about the children ; they all say it would be 
 pleasant to work ten hours, and have the same wages. 
 
 " Do you think, that if they thought their wages 
 would be reduced one-sixth (for two hours out of 
 twelve) they would advocate the ten-hour bill ? — No ; 
 not if they were reduced one shilling." 
 
 Nothing can place the folly of the attacks lately 
 made upon the factory system in a stronger light than 
 these documents, which might be multiplied, if neces- 
 sary. The operatives, blinded by envy, and misled by 
 phantoms of gain, need, in fact, defence against their 
 self-defamation. I am certain that the general accu- 
 sation of cruelty is groundless in respect even to this 
 
304 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 class of individuals. They dare not be cruel, from 
 fear of the just resentment of the very masters whom 
 they falsely charge with cruelty. That particular 
 instances of ill-usage to children do occur sometimes 
 in factories, as in families and schools, is undoubtedly 
 true; and they will happen wherever the depraved 
 nature of man is not renovated by the Christian spirit ; 
 but they are exceedingly rare. It would be a gross 
 exaggeration to say they equal in amount, one-tenth of 
 the hardships which children have to endure in pin- 
 manufactories and many agricultural employments. 
 
 Since factory labour does not, as we shall fully 
 prove, essentially impair the comfort of those engaged 
 in it, more than other worse paid avocations, we may 
 ask, why should the workmen wish to clog it with 
 legislative restrictions? It is because they reckon, 
 and with justice, that a law compelling their master to 
 turn away all persons under eighteen years of age 
 after ten hours' work will compel him in fact to stop 
 the mill. But as he will then produce a sixth less yarn, 
 he must of necessity raise its price, or cease to spin any 
 more. Now the work-people having usually found 
 that a rise of prices caused a rise of wages in the 
 natural circumstances of increased demand in the 
 market, they therefore concluded that a rise of prices 
 made by the factitious agency of an act of parliament, in- 
 dependently of any increased demand for goods, would 
 have a similar effect on their wages. Here their poli- 
 tical economy was grievously at fault. They com- 
 mitted the egregious blunder of confounding a rise 
 resulting from increased demand or competition of 
 purchasers, with a rise resulting from increased diffi- 
 culty or cost of production. Whereas the two cases 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 305 
 
 are totally dissimilar : increased consumption would 
 accompany the former condition, and diminished con- 
 sumption the latter. It would be foolish to devote 
 more time to the refutation of so glaring an absurdity, 
 as that ten hours' work can, in the present state of 
 the worlds earn the same wages as twelve hours', the 
 profit on the produce being necessarily reduced in a 
 still greater ratio than that of twelve to ten, on account 
 of the sunk capital being the same as before. 
 
 It is certain, then, that the reason which was so pro- 
 minently put before the public in favour of the ten- 
 hour Bill is altogether groundless — that children in 
 cotton-mills are not injured by their labours, and are 
 not in general overworked. The notion of their being 
 so, is wholly repudiated in the greatest manufacturing 
 district of England. How else can we explain the 
 fact, that persons of the utmost respectability in pri- 
 vate life are in the habit of sending their children to 
 work the usual hours in well-regulated cotton-mills ? 
 Mr. Rowbotham, for example, the superintendent of 
 nearly 400 workmen in Mr. Birley's mills, a man of 
 equal respectability with any London shopkeeper, has 
 brought up all his children in cotton-factories, and 
 three out of four of them in that department which 
 is usually considered the most unhealthy of all — 
 the card-room. Are we to suppose that Mr. Row- 
 botham, and hundreds such as he, are so devoid of 
 parental affection as to wish to deform their children, 
 and to subject them to all the miseries described in 
 Mr. Sadler's factory committee ; or are they so unob- 
 servant, as not to have discovered, if such a discovery 
 can be made, that from eleven to twelve hours' labour 
 in a cotton-mill injures their children ? One of two 
 
306 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 things must be true ; either the tales of the hardships 
 of the factory children are unfounded, or the Lanca- 
 shire people are utterly devoid of understanding, 
 humanity, and parental tenderness. If those persons 
 who are best acquainted with, and constantly reside in 
 the factory districts, do not rest their advocacy for the 
 ten-hour Bill on the plea of humanity, and if by their 
 conduct they show that they disbelieve this plea, what 
 evidence can outweigh or even balance this argument ? 
 It neutralizes, nay, annihilates all other evidence of 
 any kind, that sophistry can adduce. Were it contra- 
 dicted by all the physicians of London, the physicians 
 must be wrong ; if ret urns of sick societies or mortality 
 tables say otherwise, they must be false — all the testi- 
 mony that can be raked together from other sources 
 cannot overlay this evidence, without leading to the 
 absurd conclusion, that the whole population of the 
 said districts are void of sense and feeling *, 
 
 It seems established by a body of incontestable evi- 
 dence, that the wages of our factory work-people, if 
 prudently spent, would enable them to live in a com- 
 fortable manner, and decidedly better than formerly, 
 in consequence of the relative diminution in the price 
 of food, fuel, lodgings, and clothing. But the manu- 
 facturers fear that, from the lower rate of wages, and 
 the less expensive style of living among the work- 
 people on the Continent, and in the United States, 
 their foreign rivals may, ere long, be able to bring for- 
 ward many descriptions of cotton goods more cheaply 
 than they can continue to do, if competition advances 
 in the same ratio as it has done for several years. The 
 average of the wages paid to all the persons employed 
 * Mr. Tufnell's Factory Commission Report. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 307 
 
 in Messrs. Lees's mills at Gorton amounts to 12s. 
 weekly per head,, young and old ; and as the establish- 
 ment includes 711 persons from nine years of age and 
 upwards, the wealth diffused by this factory in its 
 neighbourhood must be very considerable. The aver- 
 age of the men's wages in Mr. Ashlon's mills at Hyde 
 is 21s. per week, while that of the people not in factory 
 employment is only 14s. The following table of the 
 wages paid in forty-three of the principal mills in 
 Manchester gives irresistible proof to the present 
 proposition. 
 
 TABLE 
 
 Of the Number of Persons of various Ages, distinguishing Males and 
 Females, employed in forty-three Cotton-Mills, in Manchester, the 
 average clear weekly earnings of each age and sex, the per centage 
 which each age and sex bears to the whole number employed, and the 
 per centage of the total of such age relatively to the gross total 
 employed. 
 
 AGES. 
 
 Number of 
 Males. 
 
 Average 
 clear wages 
 per week. 
 
 Per centage 
 of Numbers. 
 
 Number of 
 Females. 
 
 Average 
 clear wages 
 per week. 
 
 Per centage 
 of Numbers. 
 
 Number of 
 
 each age. 
 
 Per centage 
 of each age. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 
 
 From 9 to 10 
 
 498 
 
 2 9f 
 
 2| 
 
 290 
 
 2 11* 
 
 11 
 
 788 
 
 4-58 
 
 10 12 
 
 819 
 
 3 8 
 
 4f 
 
 538 
 
 3 9f 
 
 31 
 
 1357 
 
 7-87 
 
 12 14 
 
 1021 
 
 5 0± 
 
 5| 
 
 761 
 
 4 m 
 
 4f 
 
 1782 
 
 10-34 
 
 14 16 
 
 853 
 
 6 5i 
 
 4| 
 
 797 
 
 6 4| 
 
 4i 
 
 1650 
 
 9*57 
 
 16 18 
 
 708 
 
 8 2i 
 
 4£ 
 
 1068 
 
 8 Of 
 
 6i 
 
 1776 
 
 10-30 
 
 18 21 
 
 758 
 
 10 4 
 
 4| 
 
 1582 
 
 8 11 
 
 9t 
 
 2340 
 
 13-58 
 
 21 & upwards. 
 
 3632 
 
 22 5f 
 
 21 
 
 3910 
 
 9 m 
 
 22f 
 
 7542 
 
 43-76 
 
 
 8289 
 
 
 
 8946 
 
 
 
 17235 
 
 
308 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 309 
 
 Of all the common prejudices that exist with regard 
 to factory labour, there is none more unfounded than 
 that, which ascribes to it excessive tedium and irksome- 
 ness above other occupations, owing to its being carried 
 on in conjunction with the iC unceasing motion of the 
 steam-engine." In an establishment for spinning or 
 weaving cotton, all the hard work is performed by the 
 steam-engine, which leaves for the attendant no hard 
 labour at all, and literally nothing to do in general ; 
 but at intervals to perform some delicate operation, 
 such as joining the threads that break, taking the cops 
 off the spindles, &c. And it is so far from being true 
 that the work in a factory is incessant, because the 
 motion of the steam-engine is incessant, that the fact 
 is, that the labour is not incessant on that very ac- 
 count, because it is performed in conjunction with the 
 steam-engine. Of all manufacturing employments, 
 those are by far the most irksome and incessant in 
 which steam-engines are not employed, as in lace- 
 running and stocking-weaving ; and the way to prevent 
 an employment from being incessant, is to introduce a 
 steam-engine into it. These remarks certainly apply 
 more especially to the labour of children in factories. 
 Three-fourths of the children so employed are en- 
 gaged in piecing at the mules. " When the carriages 
 of these have receded a foot and a half or two feet 
 from the rollers," says Mr. Tufnell, (( nothing is to 
 be done, not even attention is required from either 
 spinner or piecer *." Both f of them stand idle for a 
 
 * Supplementary Report of Factory Commissioners, p. 205. 
 
 f The view of mule-spinning inserted at page 211 of Mr. Baines's 
 statistical history of the cotton manufacture, shows how incompetent a 
 general artist is to delineate a system of machinery. He has given pic- 
 
310 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 time, and in fine spinning particularly, for three-quar- 
 ters of a minute, or more. Consequently, if a child 
 remains at this business twelve hours daily, he has 
 nine hours of inaction. And though he attends two 
 mules, he has still six hours of non-exertion. Spinners 
 sometimes dedicate these intervals to the perusal of 
 
 torial effect, regardless of truth and propriety. In the first place, he has 
 located the mules in the attic story, and has illuminated them with 
 sky-light windows, in order to show off the cast-iron framing of a 
 factory-roof. Now, mule-spinning requires horizontal light, and is 
 never carried on in the garrets of modern mills. These are re- 
 served for preparation, winding, warping, doubling, web-dressing, &c. 
 Secondly, the piecers are there figured joining the broken threads, 
 when they are five feet distant from the roving ends, and would 
 therefore need to have arms at least six feet long for the purpose. 
 The moment a thread breaks, the one end curls about the drawing- 
 roller at the fixed beam, and the other round the top of the spindle 
 in the carriage ; so that in the position of the carriage in that pic- 
 ture, there would be an interval of about five feet between the broken 
 ends. Thirdly, the adult spinner is exhibited as busy with the 
 copping-wire of the mule before him, where he has no business to be ; 
 for its carriage is in the act of coming out upon the automatic 
 principle ; while he ought to be then standing close by the headstock 
 of the opposite mule, ready to return its carriage by the operation of 
 the one hand and to guide the faller-rod by the other, in winding the 
 yarn of the finished stretch upon the spindles. 
 
 In fact, the whole train of operations has been curiously travestied 
 in that engraving. Mule-spinning as there shown off, would be the 
 incessant slavery which Mr. Sadler's partisans described it to be, like 
 the labour of the DanaideB, never ending r or suspending. Whereas 
 the spinner has nothing to do, while the carriage is slowly drawing 
 and spinning the thread ; and the piecers have nothing to do, either 
 during the coming out or going in of the carriage, but they should seize 
 the moment of its proximity to the roller-beam to mend the broken 
 ends, and missing this period, they must remain idle till the comple- 
 tion of another act of stretching and winding on. Were the young 
 persons seen in such positions at such times, they would get a sharp 
 rebuke from the spinner, or more probably be dismissed by him for 
 egregious stupidity. See our view of Mule-spinning, p. 308. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 311 
 
 books. The scavengers, who in Mr. Sadler's report 
 have been described as being " constantly in a state of 
 grief, always in terror, and every moment they have to 
 spare stretched all their length upon the floor in a 
 state of perspiration may be observed in cotton-fac- 
 tories idle for four minutes at a time, or moving about 
 in a sportive mood, utterly unconscious of the tragical 
 scenes in which they were dramatized. 
 
 Occupations which are assisted by steam-engines 
 require for the most part a higher, or at least a steadier 
 species of labour, than those which are not ; the exer- 
 cise of the mind being then partially substituted for 
 that of the muscles, constituting skilled labour, which 
 is always paid more highly than unskilled. On this 
 principle we can readily account for the comparatively 
 high wages which the inmates of a factory, whether 
 children or adults, obtain. Batting cotton by hand 
 for fine spinning seems by far the hardest work in a 
 factory ; it is performed wholly by women, without any 
 assistance from the steam-engine, and is somewhat 
 similar in effort to threshing corn; yet it does not 
 bring those who are engaged in it more than 6s. 6d. 
 weekly, while close by is the stretching-frame, which 
 remunerates its tenters or superintendents, women, and 
 even children fourteen years old, with double wages for 
 far lighter labour. In power-loom weaving also, the 
 wages are good, and the muscular effort is trifling, as 
 those who tend it frequently exercise themselves .by fol- 
 lowing the movement of the lay, and leaning on it with 
 their arms. It is reckoned a very healthy mill-occu- 
 pation, as is shown by the appearance of the females 
 
 * Report of Mr. Sadler's Factory Committee, p. 325. 
 
312 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 engaged in it, in every well-regulated establishment 
 in England and Scotland. (See the engraving at the 
 end of the volume.) 
 
 The more refined the labour in factories is, it be- 
 comes generally the lighter and the pleasanter. Thus 
 the fine spinning is the least laborious in Manchester, 
 owing to the slowness with which the machinery moves 
 in forming fine threads. The mule for No. 30 or No. 40, 
 makes in general three stretches in a minute ; but the 
 mule for higher numbers makes only one stretch in the 
 same time. During at least three-fourths of this minute, 
 the four, five, or more piecers, who attend the pair of 
 mules of 460 spindles each, have absolutely nothing 
 to do, but are seen in an easy attitude, till the carriage 
 begins to start for a new stretch, when they proceed 
 immediately to mend the threads, which break, or are 
 purposely broken on account of some unsightly knot. 
 The pieceing is soon over, as the carriage does not stop 
 an instant, at the frame, but forthwith resumes its spin- 
 ning routine, and when it has again come out somewhat 
 less than two feet, it places the rollers and roving 
 beyond the reach of the hands of the piecers, and 
 gives them another interval of repose. There is so 
 little scavenger work required in fine spinning, on ac- 
 count of the small quantity of waste from the long- 
 stapled cotton, that it is usually performed by one of 
 the piecers. From the same cause there is hardly 
 any dust to be seen in the air of the rooms. 
 
 The fine-spinning mills at Manchester, w T hich have 
 been so grossly disparaged by the partisans of the ten- 
 hours' Bill, are, in fact, the triumph of art and the 
 glory of England. In the beauty, delicacy, and in- 
 genuity of the machines, they have no parallel among 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 313 
 
 the works of man ; nor in the orderly arrangement, 
 and the value of the products. When 350 hanks are 
 spun, containing only one pound of cotton, they form 
 an almost incredible length of thread, extending 
 294,000 yards, or 167 miles, and enhancing the price 
 of the material from 3s. 8d. to twenty-five guineas. 
 This department of English industry is quite un- 
 rivalled,, and notwithstanding the most indefatigable 
 efforts of our ingenious neighbours in France, it still 
 lays every foreign weaver of fine muslin and lace under 
 contribution. 
 
 It is in spinning the lower numbers, as 40s., and in 
 weaving, that our manufacturers some time ago were 
 most fearful of being hard-pressed by foreign compe- 
 tition. Switzerland has for the last seven years, not 
 only supplied herself, but her neighbours, to a con- 
 siderable extent with that mean quality which may be 
 reckoned the staple of cotton yarns. It appears that 
 the time of working cotton-mills in Manchester is less, 
 by about one hour daily, than that in any other part of 
 the world, where the cotton manufacture is carried on 
 to any extent ; and if the time be further abridged, it 
 would probably prove most injurious to our commerce. 
 Whether foreigners have or have not machinery equal 
 to our own, forms but one part of the question of 
 foreign competition. As the sale of our goods depends 
 in a great measure on the lowness of their prices, the 
 raising of these would cause a serious decrease of con- 
 sumption — a decrease always much greater than the 
 increased ratio of price. The more remote the market, 
 the more necessary is it to keep the price low, to guard 
 against contingencies, as the goods may otherwise be 
 undersold by the product of the rudest machinery 
 vol. i. p 
 
314 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 cheaply worked. A Madras tanty, or weaver, would 
 live a whole year on a fortnight's wages of a power- 
 loom weaver at Hyde. 
 
 From the evidence of Messrs. Greg, Birley, Hoole, 
 Kirkman Finlay, Mr. Kempton, and many other most 
 eminent and well-informed manufacturers, it appears 
 that the profits in our cotton trade are much narrowed 
 of late years by foreign competition, and are derived, in 
 no small degree, from the abundance of capital and 
 the low rate of interest for money in this country. The 
 profits which attended our early monopoly of cotton- 
 spinning have long since ceased, in consequence of the 
 supply from all quarters being greater than the 
 demand. At present, not a single mill in Manchester 
 w T orks by night, and only one in its immediate neigh- 
 bourhood ; and in that one, thirty-six persons only work 
 at night, out of the 380 who are employed during the 
 day. 
 
 Whether the British cotton-trade is likely to main- 
 tain that progressive development which the well- 
 being of our factory population would require, depends 
 on the question, whether the lower wages and longer 
 hours which prevail in foreign factories may not, in 
 course of time, compensate for their inferiority in ma- 
 chinery and manipulation. That this compensation 
 has already taken place to a certain extent, and may 
 eventually to a much greater, is maintained by many 
 of our manufacturers for foreign markets. Mr. Cowell, 
 however, by a most elaborate analysis of cotton-spin- 
 ning, endeavours to prove in his supplementary report, 
 that the wages in England are virtually lower to the 
 capitalist, though higher to the operative, than on the 
 continent of Europe, in consequence of the amount of 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 315 
 
 work turned out daily by every machine being more 
 than equivalent to the higher price of labour upon it. 
 If his analysis of the labour,, cost, and product of our 
 cotton-mills could be fairly compared with a like 
 analysis of the continental mills, we should have good 
 data for deciding the controversy. But the latter 
 datum is by no means given in a satisfactory manner. 
 Whatever admiration may be justly excited by the 
 fertility of a Manchester mill, should never make us 
 forget the impediments thrown in the way of its pros- 
 perity, by the discontent, intemperance, and strikes of 
 the hands employed to conduct it. From these evils, 
 by which more mischief may be done to our trade in 
 a month of critical competition, than can be repaired 
 in a year, and by which such serious drawbacks exist 
 to the well-being of our manufactures, the foreign 
 cotton-mills, being under the special protection of 
 their respective governments, are entirely exempt. 
 
 " Speaking generally," says Mr. Ashworth, m from 
 my experience of cotton-spinning on the Continent, 
 derived from an examination of twelve mills in France 
 and Switzerland, in comparison with the wages paid 
 at our mill, taking into view quantity, quality, and 
 time of work, the wages of the operative spinner were 
 generally fifty per cent, lower than our own in money, 
 and the wages of women and children were generally 
 thirty per cent, lower. This answer is to apply to all 
 numbers of yarns. Money wages are here calculated 
 by converting the currency of the one country into 
 that of the other by a bill of exchange." 
 
 Mr. Edwin Rose, the foreman of Messrs. Sharp 
 and Roberts' great engineering establishment at Man- 
 
 p2 
 
316 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 Chester, who resided several years among the best 
 cotton factories of France and Switzerland, says, 11 that 
 a man there is satisfied with a deal worse clothing, 
 and is more contented at his work than here. The 
 French appeared a very comfortable set of people; 
 they did not get beastly drunk as working men are 
 inclined to do here. Mr. Roberts uses French screws 
 in his manufactory, finding them even at double price 
 cheaper than English ones, owing to their good shape 
 and exact cut; their spiral is more regular, their 
 thread more even, they taper, which is of great con- 
 sequence, for thus they get tighter in the wood all 
 the way they go. Ours are knocked off so cheap as 
 to be little better than nails*." 
 
 To illustrate the effect which an improvement in 
 machinery produces upon the income and comforts of 
 the operatives, let us take an instance from the spin- 
 ning department, and it will hold good mutatis mutan- 
 dis in every other. 
 
 The spinner is the leading and most important 
 operative in cotton-working. He is the one for whom 
 every preliminary process (called "the preparation/' 
 consisting of batting, carding, roving, &c.) is per- 
 formed. So much weight of prepared cotton is de- 
 livered to him, and he has to return by a certain 
 time in lieu of it a given weight of twist or yarn of a 
 certain degree of fineness, and he is paid so much per 
 pound for all that he so returns. If his work is de- 
 fective in quality, the penalty falls on him ; if less in 
 quantity than the minimum fixed for a given time, he 
 
 * Factory Commission Report, Part I., D. L, p. 123. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 317 
 
 is dismissed and an abler operative procured. The 
 productive power of his spinning-machine is accu- 
 rately measured, and the rate of pay for work done 
 with it decreases with (though not as) the increase 
 of its productive power. Since these machines are in a 
 state of continual improvement, what effect is thereby 
 produced upon the spinners' earnings ? The answer 
 to this question will explain the most important cause 
 of the discrepancies exhibited in the column headed 
 " Average net earnings of each individual calculated 
 for sixty-nine hours," and will show whether the 
 ground on which the operatives affirm their wages are 
 continually falling is sound or unsound*. 
 
 The mule-jenny is a system of spindles — (see wood- 
 cut, page 308.) A spinner manages two of them at the 
 same time. He stands between them ; as one is always 
 advancing while the other is retreating, he turns round 
 from one to the other at regular intervals. The one 
 which is advancing draws out the cotton-roving from 
 the range of bobbins at the back, and moves slowly 
 towards the spinner, spinning the thread the while. 
 The greater the number of spindles, the greater is the 
 number of threads, and the higher the productive 
 power of the machine. Mules vary in the number of 
 spindles they bear, from 250 to 1000 each ; or for the 
 pair of mules, from 500 to 2000. The spinner has 
 from one to ten juvenile assistants, according to the 
 magnitude of his spinning-machine, whom he engages 
 and pays himself without reference to his master, the 
 mill-proprietor. The number of spindles measures 
 the productive power of the machine, and the masters 
 and men agree upon a scale of prices for labour vary- 
 
 * See my Treatise on the Cotton Manufacture. 
 
\ 
 
 318 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 ing according to that number. These scales are 
 printed and accessible to all parties. The following 
 is the one at present in force in Manchester : — 
 
 The first line will explain all the others. It de- 
 notes that a spinner, spinning yarn of the fineness of 
 eighty hanks to the pound, on a mule the productive 
 power of which is represented by 336 spindles, is to 
 be paid at the rate of A\d. the pound of cotton-yarn; 
 that if he spins on a mule bearing 396 spindles and 
 upwards, at the rate of 4d. per pound, and so on ; the 
 rate of pay for work done diminishing as the pro- 
 ductive power of the machine increases, though not 
 exactly in the same proportion. No. signifies 66 num- 
 ber of hanks of yarn to the pound." The figures 
 336, 348, 396 signify mules carrying respectively 
 those numbers of spindles, and consequently yielding 
 by each effort (technically called the " stretch") 336* 
 348, or 396 threads of a given length. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 319 
 
 The Manchester List of Prices for Spinning upon Mules of the follow- 
 ing sizes, as agreed to by Masters and Men, 5th March, 1831, and 
 in force in June, 1833. 
 
 
 Spindles 336 
 and under. 
 
 Spindles 348 
 to 384. 
 
 Spindles 396 
 and above. 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d> 
 
 No. 80 
 
 0 
 
 4 i 
 
 0 
 
 4i 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 85 
 
 0 
 
 4f 
 
 0 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 90 
 
 0 
 
 5 i 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 95 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 
 0 
 
 5£ 
 
 100 
 
 0 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 0 
 
 6 i 
 
 105 
 
 0 
 
 ft* 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 
 110 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 115 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 8j 
 
 0 
 
 
 120 
 
 0 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 9| 
 
 0 
 
 9 i 
 
 125 
 
 0 
 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 0 
 
 10f 
 
 130 
 
 1 
 
 °i- 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 m 
 
 135 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 
 140 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 145 
 
 1 
 
 4 i 
 
 1 
 
 3 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 150 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 I 
 
 4 i 
 
 155 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 160 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 165 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 9 i 
 
 1 
 
 8f 
 
 170 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 175 
 
 2 
 
 2J 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 Of 
 
 180 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 185 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 190 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 
 195 
 
 3 
 
 2* 
 
 3 
 
 ^* 
 
 3 
 
 0i 
 
 200 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 205 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 210 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 215 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 h 
 
 4 
 
 
 220 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 225 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 230 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 235 
 
 6 
 
 n 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 240 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 245 
 
 8 
 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 250 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 If this table be considered, it will be seen that the 
 ratio of the diminution in the payment for work done 
 
320 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 is less than that of the increase of the productive 
 power of the machine. Hence, the improved machine 
 enables the operative to earn more money in a given 
 time than the imperfect machine. The predominant 
 fear among many operatives is, that improvements in 
 machinery would gradually " drive their wages down 
 to nothing." How unfounded this fear is a little in- 
 vestigation of the above list of prices will show. It is 
 there seen that a spinner spinning yarn of the fineness 
 of eighty hanks to the lb. on a machine of the pro- 
 ductive power represented by 336, is paid at the rate 
 of A\d. for every eighty hanks (=1 lb.) that he 
 turns off, while if he spins on one of the superior 
 power of 396, he is paid only at the rate of Ad. for 
 the same quantity. But the second machine turns off 
 thirty-three pounds of yarn in the same time that 
 the other is employed in turning off only twenty- 
 eight lbs. The ratio of inferior production is there- 
 fore as twenty-eight to thirty-three. But twenty-eight 
 lbs. at A\d. the lb. give 126 pence (10s. 6d.) as the 
 earnings made on the first machine during the time in 
 which the operative is enabled to earn on the second 
 132 L* pencil Is.), Thus the operative gains 6d. 9 and 
 the master by this more expensive machine Is. A\d. 
 
 It appears that mules for coarse spinning carrying 
 500 spindles are already introduced with success, and 
 that mules carrying 600 spindles are on the eve of 
 being mounted. By this increase, the productive 
 power of the machine will be augmented one-fifth. 
 When this event happens, the spinner will not be paid 
 at the same rate for work done as he was before ; but 
 as that rate will not be diminished in the ratio of one- 
 fifth, the improvement will augment his money earn- 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 321 
 
 ings for any given number of hours' work. The whole 
 benefit arising from the improvement is divided be- 
 tween the master and the operative. Both the profits 
 of the one, and the earnings of the other are simul- 
 taneously increased by it. 
 
 The foregoing statement requires a certain modi- 
 fication. Though it is manifest that improvements in: 
 machinery of the character just described augment the 
 earnings of the operative, as well as the profits of 
 the capitalist, yet those who dispute the former con- 
 clusion will say that a particular case is selected to 
 illustrate the position, and that an important element 
 is omitted in stating it, that the spinner has to pay 
 something for additional juvenile aid out of his addi- 
 tional sixpence. This deduction deserves to be con- 
 sidered and allowed for. The effect of improvements 
 in machinery, not merely in superseding the necessity 
 for the employment of the same quantity of adult 
 labour as before, in order to produce a given result, 
 but in substituting one description of human labour 
 for another — the less skilled for the more skilled, 
 juvenile for adult, female for male — causes a fresh dis- 
 turbance in the rate of wages. It is said to lower the 
 rate of earnings of adults by displacing a portion of 
 them, and thus rendering their number superabundant 
 as compared with the demand for their labour. It 
 certainly augments the demand for the labour of 
 children, and increases the rate of their wages. 
 
 If any check were given to the cotton manufacture, 
 nay, if its continual expansion shall not prove suffi- 
 ciently great to re-absorb those adults whom it is con- 
 tinually casting out, then the improvements in ma- 
 chinery might be said to have a tendency to *' lower 
 
 p3 
 
322 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 wages but hitherto these improvements have ma- 
 terially benefited the operatives, not only by enabling 
 a greater number of persons to enjoy the advantage 
 of the enormous rate of earnings attainable in this im- 
 portant branch of human industry than would other- 
 wise have been the case, but they have enabled " an 
 operative" (speaking in general) to earn a greater 
 sum of money at the end of the week than he would 
 have earned had the condition of the machinery re- 
 mained stationary. 
 
 Could we suppose that machinery were suddenly to 
 reach a degree of perfection which dispensed alto- 
 gether with adult labour, while no greater number of 
 adolescents and children than are at present employed 
 would be required for turning off the quantity of work 
 now executed, it is clear that the adults would be 
 forced to compete with children in the labour-market, 
 and that their earnings would be regulated by those of 
 children. 
 
 Fortunately for the state of society in the cotton 
 districts of Great Britain, the improvements in ma- 
 chinery are gradual, or at any rate brought very 
 gradually into general use. Hence the fall in the 
 price of the manufactured article is gradual, and the 
 extension in the demand for it, arising from the de- 
 crease of price, bringing it continually within the range 
 of the means of greater numbers of consumers, is like- 
 wise gradual, and keeps up the demand for adult labour, 
 and thus counteracts the effect of the improvements 
 of machinery which operate to displace it. Hence 
 no diminution of earnings for adults has thus far 
 arisen. 
 
 In the year 1834, in two fine spinning-mills at 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES* 
 
 323 
 
 Manchester, a spinner could produce sixteen pounds 
 of yarn, of the fineness of two hundred hanks to the 
 pound, from mules of the productive fertility of three 
 hundred to three hundred and twenty-four spindles,, 
 working them sixty-nine hours : and the quantity that 
 he turned off in sixty-nine hours more frequently 
 exceeded sixteen pounds than fell short of it. These 
 very mules being in the same year replaced by others 
 of double power, let us analyze the result. The 
 spinner had been accustomed to produce sixteeen 
 pounds of No. 200 yarn from mules of the said 
 extent. From the list of prices^ it appears, that in the 
 month of May, he was paid 3s. 6d. per pound ; which 
 being multiplied by sixteen, gives 54s. for his gross 
 receipts, out of which he had to pay (at the highest) 
 136*. for assistants. This leaves him 41s. of net 
 earnings. But soon thereafter his mules have their 
 productive power doubled, being re-mounted with 
 six hundred and forty-eight spindles. He now is 
 paid 2s. 5d. per pound, instead of 3s. 6d. — that is, 
 two-thirds of his former wages per pound; but he 
 turns off double weight of work in the same time, 
 namely, thirty-two pounds, instead of sixteen. His 
 gross receipts are therefore 2s. 5d. multiplied into 
 thirty-two, or 77s. 4d. He now requires however five 
 assistants to help him, to whom, averaging their cost 
 at 5s. a-piece per week, he must pay 25s. j or, to 
 avoid the possibility of cavil, say 27*?. Deducting this 
 sum from his gross receipts, he will retain 50s. 4d. for 
 his net earnings for sixty-nine hours' work, instead of 
 41<y., being an increase of 9s. 4d. per week. This 
 statement of the spinner's benefit is rather under the 
 
324 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 mark than above it, as might be proved by othei* 
 documents, were it necessary.* 
 
 From the whole body of evidence it may be safely 
 concluded that the earnings of the adults are the 
 largest in mills where the ratio of the number of 
 children to the number of adults is the highest; 
 and that as long as the cotton-working continues to 
 extend, the apprehensions entertained by the opera- 
 tives, of a fall in wages, either for adults or children, 
 consequent from improvements in machinery, are 
 groundless. The operatives, availing themselves of 
 the single fact of a fall in the wages of spinning per 
 pound, as the productiveness of the mule is increased, 
 continually assert that the spinner has now to turn 
 out double the work for a tenth less wages than in 
 the year 1804. The matter really stands thus: in 
 1804 a spinner was paid 8s. 6d. for every pound of 
 yarn of the fineness of two hundred hanks to the 
 pound, spinning on a mule of the average productive 
 power at that time. What that productive power was 
 the operatives do not mention. But we know, that 
 in 1829 a spinner was paid at the rate of 4s. Id. for 
 spinning the same quality, on a mule of the productive 
 £ower of three hundred and twelve; in 1831, and 
 1833, at the rates of 2s. 8^d. and 2.5. 5c/., for spinning 
 the same quality on a mule of the productive power 
 of six hundred and forty-eight. These quotations are 
 from the Manchester Price List. 
 
 Thus, in 1829 the spinner turned off three hundred 
 and twelve pounds of yarn in the same time that he 
 now takes to turn off six hundred and forty-eight. 
 
 * Supplem. Fact. Report.— Preface to Tables by J. W. Cowell, Esq. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 325 
 
 He was paid at the rate of 4?. Id. in 1829 ; he is now 
 paid at the rate of 2s. 5c?. But three hundred and 
 twelve pounds at 4s. Id. amount to 1274?.; and six 
 hundred and forty-eight pounds at 2s. 5d., amount to 
 1566s. He receives therefore 292s. more than he 
 did in 1829, for equal times of work. No doubt 
 he turns off u more work, for less wages, than in 
 1829," but this is nothing to the purpose, when the 
 proposition to be proved is, that u his weekly wages 
 are lower than formerly." It is demonstrable to the 
 simplest capacity, that a spinner earns a shilling, a 
 pound, or a hundred pounds, in less time at present 
 than he would have consumed in earning a shilling, a 
 pound, or a hundred pounds, ten years ago, and 
 with the same, or more probably, less labour ; — that 
 this enhancement of his earnings has been owing 
 to improvements in machinery; — that the progress 
 of improvement will progressively advance his earn- 
 ings still higher, and at the same time enable a 
 greater number of individuals to profit by the enhanced 
 rate, than actually profits by the existing rate (pro- 
 vided that nothing occurs to prevent the cotton busi- 
 ness from developing itself for the next thirty years as 
 it has done for the last) ; and that any improvement 
 in the machinery of any one of the numerous depart- 
 ments of cotton-working will operate to enhance the 
 rate of wages in all other branches (as well as in that 
 department in which it takes place), by increasing the 
 actual demand for labour in those other previous 
 branches. Every improvement of cotton machinery, in 
 any department of the trade, has hitherto had the effect 
 of enabling " an operative" (speaking in general of every 
 one in every department whatever) to earn a greater 
 
326 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 net amount of money, in any given time, than he would 
 have done had the improvement never taken place. 
 
 The misconceptions which the operatives entertain 
 as to the real effect of machinery on the price of 
 labour are the main causes of turn-outs and strikes. 
 They produce rankling discontent towards their mas- 
 ters, and deserve a very full exposure. 
 
 It is certainly of great consequence that the opera- 
 tives themselves should be satisfied that improvements 
 in machinery tend to raise the amount of money that 
 they gain, individually and generally, for the same 
 number of hours' work. This fact is demonstrated 
 by the infallible rules of arithmetic, in actual in- 
 stances of several average fine spinning-mills; and 
 it is here also proved that the improvements in 
 machinery specified create a fresh demand for young 
 persons, whose wages are augmented in consequence. 
 And as the price of the article in the market will 
 be lowered, from the improved facility of manufacture, 
 more of it will be consumed ; hence more hands will 
 be required in the several subsidiary departments, and 
 the wages throughout the whole range of cotton- 
 working will be better than before. 
 
 In cotton-spinning it would now be possible to re- 
 duce the wages of labour, because, since the mules 
 have been enlarged, there is always a sufficiency of 
 hands ; but it has never been the policy of the masters 
 to do so, unless when absolutely compelled by the 
 want of profits, knowing that the lower the work- 
 people are reduced in circumstances, the less depend- 
 ence can be placed upon their attention. The operative 
 spinners, aware that a great excess of hands would 
 have the effect of reducing their wages, combine to 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 327 
 
 pay the expenses of sending their unemployed com- 
 rades away to America. Mr. H. Houldsworth, of 
 Glasgow, states that he knows this fact from the indi- 
 viduals themselves, and from their wives, and has 
 occasionally been solicited to aid the families in their 
 emigration, and to forward to them sums contributed 
 by the union for their temporary support. " Within 
 the last three years there have been not less than 
 eighty or one hundred spinners shipped from Glasgow, 
 which is perhaps one-eighth of the whole*." The 
 trade-unions are, in fact, bound by their articles 
 to pay certain sums to their idle members, in order to 
 support them, and to prevent them volunteering to 
 work at under- wages from necessity. The weekly 
 allowance of the union, joined to the fear of incurring 
 its displeasure, takes away this temptation. The cost 
 of transporting a spinner across the Atlantic varies 
 from 151. to 201 
 
 " When I went to Glasgow T , in the year 1799, the 
 spinners did not eat animal food above once in the 
 week : they consume now, at least four times the quan- 
 tity they did then f ." Their diet was, in the first years 
 of this century, herrings, oatmeal, and potatoes. 
 At that period the spinning was extremely limited: 
 the hands were principally Highlanders, of lazy, list- 
 less habits, who could not be persuaded to earn above 
 12s. or 14?. a week, choosing rather to live upon oat- 
 meal and potatoes, till they were stimulated by the 
 example of some Englishmen, brought from Man- 
 chester by Mr. Houldsworth, to set them a pattern of 
 active industry. They worked at that time from six 
 
 * Report on Manufactures, p. 311, H. Houldsworth, Esq. 
 f Ibid. p. 314, ditto. 
 
328 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 in the morning till half-past eight in the evening, but 
 produced far less work than is done now in much fewer 
 hours from improvements in machinery and manipula- 
 tion. But still the Glasgow-mills are, in productive 
 power, much in arrear of the Manchester ones, as 
 is proved by the circumstance of thirty or forty per 
 cent, more being paid for the same produce of yarn in 
 the former than in the latter place*. The Scotch 
 manufacturers have been since endeavouring to raise 
 the standard of their machinery to that of the English, 
 and have made in many cases considerable approxima- 
 tions. 
 
 Under what pretext, or with what face of pretension, 
 operatives, whose labour is assisted by steam or water 
 power, can lay claim to a peculiar privilege of exemp- 
 tion from more than ten hours' daily labour it is hard 
 to conjecture. They compare their toil with that 
 of the small class, comparatively speaking, of artisans, 
 such as carpenters, bricklayers, stone-masons, &c, 
 who, they say, work only from six to six, with two one- 
 hour intervals for meals : a class, however, in this 
 material respect distinguished from most factory 
 operatives, that their work is done entirely by mus- 
 cular effort, and after serving a long apprenticeship 
 with no little outlay. But what do the factory people 
 think of the numerous class of domestic operatives, 
 the stocking or frame-work knitters, the hand-loom 
 weavers, the wool-combers, the lace-manufacturers, 
 and a variety of others, who work, and very hardly 
 too, from twelve to sixteen hours a-day, to earn a bare 
 subsistence ; and this frequently from a very early 
 age, and in a state of confinement irksome to the mind 
 
 * H. Houldsworth, Esq., Committee on Manufactures, p. 318. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 329 
 
 and injurious to the body ? The consideration is also 
 overlooked by these interested reasoners, that by re- 
 ducing the hours of labour, and thereby the amount 
 of subsistence derivable from the less objectionable 
 occupations, they would cause a corresponding increase 
 of competition for employment in the more objection- 
 able ones, and thus inflict an injury on the whole 
 labouring community, by wantonly renouncing the 
 fair advantages of their own. 
 
 On the principles expounded above, the woollen 
 manufacturers in the large mills pay much better 
 wages to their workmen than the domestic manufac- 
 turers do to theirs*. 
 
 The factory system, then, instead of being detri- 
 mental to the comfort of the labouring population, 
 is its grand palladium ; for the more complicated and 
 extensive the machinery required for any manufacture, 
 the less risk is there of its agents being injured by the 
 competition of foreign manufactures, and the greater 
 inducement and ability has the mill-owner to keep up 
 the wages of his work-people. The main reason why 
 they are so high is, that they form a small part of the 
 value of the manufactured article, so that if reduced 
 too low by a sordid master, they would render his 
 operatives less careful, and thereby injure the quality 
 of their work more than could be compensated by his 
 saving in wages. The less proportion wages bear to 
 the value of the goods, the higher, generally speaking, 
 is the recompense of labour. The prudent master of 
 a fine spinning-mill is most reluctant to tamper with 
 the earnings of his spinners, and never consents to 
 reduce them till absolutely forced to it by a want 
 * Mr. John Brooke, in Committee on Manufactures. 
 
330 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 of remuneration for the capital and skill embarked in 
 his business. 
 
 When a well-managed spinning and weaving factory 
 are associated in one concern, the train of operations 
 and adjustments becomes more elaborate, the difficulty 
 of competition, from the augmented capital and skill, 
 is increased, while the profits in consequence become 
 higher, or at least more secure. The complication 
 in the present case is greater than many suppose, 
 and merits particular notice. The cotton must be 
 selected, in price and staple, to suit the intended 
 fabric, or market of sale. It must be willowed, 
 batted, mixed, carded, drawn with suitable doublings > 
 roved, and stretched, in an. appropriate manner, by 
 machines differing in structure and adjustment for 
 different qualities of goods. It must be spun into 
 warp-yarn and weft-yarn, each of peculiar grist; and 
 these yarns must be dressed and woven on a particular 
 power-loom, adjusted both to the yarns and to the 
 style of goods required. If any one member in this 
 long train of operations proves defective, the profit in the 
 product may be much impaired, or become altogether 
 nugatory. The preceding processes are all mechanical, 
 continuous, and mutually dependent. Were they 
 partly mechanical, partly chemical, and also discon- 
 tinuous, there would be a risk of confusion from the 
 multiplicity of operations in one factory, and the work, 
 as in the printing of calicoes, would in most cases be 
 more profitably conducted by a separation of the 
 mechanical and chemical arts into two distinct 
 establishments. 
 
 The power-loom factories now generally weave 
 only their own yarn, spun to suit their peculiar 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 331 
 
 fabric; and hence they generally command a better 
 profit on their capital than establishments in which 
 the same capital is expended in either the mere spin- 
 ning of power-loom yarn,, or the weaving of what 
 is purchased. 
 
 The throstle, on which warp is usually spun, may 
 be considered to be a complete automaton, capable, on 
 good construction, of furnishing a very uniform yarn ; 
 but the mule, on which weft is always spun, has been, 
 till recently, only half automatic, and has partaken, 
 therefore, in a certain degree, of the irregularities of 
 hand-work, varying with the skill and steadiness of 
 the workman. The improved self-actors of Messrs. 
 Sharp, Roberts, and Smith, are likely to remove the 
 above cause of irregularity in calico and fustian wefts, 
 and therefore they place a weaving factory which 
 works in train with them, in a condition to produce 
 fabrics of invariable excellence. This new mechanical 
 union of automatic spinning and weaving promises to 
 have two admirable results. It will, in the first place, 
 put an end, in this large department of factory labour, 
 to the folly of trades', unions, so ruinous to the men, 
 and so vexatious to the masters; and in the second 
 place, it will secure, for a long period to come, the 
 monopoly of coarse cotton fabrics to Great Britain. 
 The continental nations must serve a severe and 
 tedious apprenticeship under the fostering care of 
 tranquillity and capital, before they can fabricate and 
 manage a good system of throstles, self-actors, mules, 
 and power-looms, like those now in vigorous exercise 
 in Stockport. As to the United States, it may be 
 presumed that the Southern part of the Union will 
 prefer getting cheap goods from their great customer, 
 
332 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OP 
 
 England, in exchange for their agricultural produce, 
 to buying dearer goods from their illiberal brethren 
 in the North-east. 
 
 This combination of spinning and weaving in one 
 establishment has lately given a fresh impulsion 
 to our cotton trade, and is likely to render it para- 
 mount over all competition; enabling it to furnish 
 supplies of cheap clothing to many millions of new 
 customers in every region of the globe. New factories 
 will hence arise, requiring multitudes of new hands, 
 presenting prizes in the lottery of life to the skilful 
 and steady operatives, and enabling them to become 
 managers or masters. 
 
 On the other hand, non-factory processes of art 
 which can be condensed into a single frame or machine 
 moveable by hand, come within the reach of operatives 
 in every adjacent country, and will have their profits 
 ere long reduced to the minimum consistent with the 
 employment of capital in it, and their wages brought 
 down to the scale of those in the cheapest or meanest 
 living country. The stocking trade affords a pain- 
 ful illustration of this fact. No manufacturer in this 
 country can afford to make stockings, unless he can 
 get labour at as low a rate as in Germany ; because a 
 German stockinger may easily have as good a stock- 
 ing-frame, and work it as well, as an English frame- 
 knitter. In the market of the world, therefore, Great 
 Britain has here no advantage by its machinery and 
 capital over other countries, where the materials of the 
 fabrics can be purchased at nearly the same price. 
 The same reasoning may be applied to the bobbin-net 
 trade, in so far as it is carried on by hand-machines. 
 The wages now paid for this most ingenious fabric 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 333 
 
 are deplorably low, in consequence of the competition 
 of the continental handicraftsmen, who are content to 
 live in the poorest manner. Thus also the profit on 
 lace made by power-machines has been reduced, for a 
 time at least, even below its natural level, in conse- 
 quence of the possessors of hand-machines continuing 
 to work them, in the vain hope of redeeming their first 
 great cost in some degree, though the wages of their 
 labour meanwhile can hardly keep them alive. 
 
 It deserves to be remarked, moreover, that hand- 
 working is more or less discontinuous from the caprice 
 of the operative, and never gives an average weekly or 
 annual product at all comparable to that of a like 
 machine equably driven by power. For this reason 
 hand-weavers very seldom turn off in a week much 
 more than one-half of what their loom could produce 
 if kept continuously in action for twelve or fourteen 
 hours a day, at the rate which the weaver in his work- 
 ing paroxysms impels it. 
 
 A gentleman in Manchester, one of the greatest 
 warehousemen in the world, told me that 1800 weavers, 
 whom he employed in the surrounding districts, 
 seldom brought him in more than 2000 pieces per 
 week, but he knew that they could fabricate 9000, if 
 they bestowed steady labour on their looms. One 
 young woman in his employment, not long ago, pro- 
 duced by her own industry upon a hand-loom six 
 pieces a week ; for each of which she received 65. 3d. 
 This fact strongly confirms what Mr. Strutt told me 
 concerning the discontinuous industry of handicraft 
 people. Learning that the inhabitants of a village a 
 few miles from Belper, occupied chiefly by stocking 
 weavers^ was in a distressed state from the deprecia- 
 
334 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 tion of their wages, he invited a number of the most 
 necessitous families to participate in the better wages 
 and steadier employment of their great spinning-mills. 
 Accordingly they came with troops of children, and 
 were delighted to get installed into such comfortable 
 quarters. After a few weeks, however, their irregular 
 habits of work began to break out, proving both to 
 their own conviction, and that of their patrons, their 
 unfitness for power-going punctuality. They then 
 renounced all further endeavours at learning the new 
 business, and returned to their listless independence. 
 
 Let any curious observer pay occasional visits to the 
 workshops of stocking or lace weavers, and he will 
 seldom find the men to be steadily occupied with their 
 labour, even during the hours fixed on by themselves. 
 
 In hand- weaving, however, the depreciation of wages 
 has been extraordinary. Annexed are the prices paid 
 at different periods in Manchester for weaving a sixty 
 reed •§- cambric, as taken in the month of March 
 each year; the weaver paying threepence out of each 
 shilling for winding his warp, for brushes, paste, &c. 
 
 In 1795, 39s. 9d. In 1810, 15s. In 1830, 5s. 
 1800,25s. 1820, 8s. 
 
 The following painful statements made to the Fac- 
 tory Commissioners will show in how abject a condi- 
 tion are our so-called independent handicraft labourers, 
 compared with that of those much-lamented labourers 
 who tend the power-driven machines of a factory. The 
 former class needs all the sympathy which Mr. Sad- 
 ler's faction so perniciously expended upon the latter. 
 
 The present net weekly earnings of the cotton hands 
 in the stocking trade are from 4s. to 7s. a week ; but 
 those received by a far greater number are less than 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 335 
 
 the lowest sum. The consequences are truly deplo- 
 rable. The workmen are physically deteriorated, 
 mentally depressed, and too often morally debased*. 
 Ill-fed, ill-lodged, and ill-clothed, with care-worn and 
 anxious countenances, they constitute a peculiar class 
 of misery. It is supposed that the hosier's profits 
 have decreased in at least an equal proportion with 
 the decrease of wages. , A number of instances are 
 adduced by Mr. Felkin as fair specimens of the situa- 
 tion of the plain full-wrought cotton-hose workmen in 
 March, 1833. They are taken indiscriminately from 
 a very large population similarly employed; but all 
 of them are sober and industrious persons. They 
 fully justify the public appeal made at a meeting of 
 frame-work knitters in September, 1832, "that their 
 average earnings are not more than 6s. 6d. a week." 
 On this sum, a man, his wife, and children, have to be 
 maintained. Many among them are therefore ex- 
 tremely wretched and destitute of the necessaries of 
 life ; some have neither blanket nor sheet, and sleep in 
 a little straw. The embroidery of bobbin-net, called 
 lace-running, also a non-factory household work, pain- 
 fully illustrates our position. No less than one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand females, chiefly of very youth- 
 ful ages, get their livelihood from this employment in 
 Great Britain. The work is wholly domestic ; and 
 though requiring more skill and harder labour than 
 any other branch of the lace business, it is the worst 
 paid. 6( Almost the youngest of them," says Mr. 
 Power (and they begin at the age of nine or ten), (C is 
 able to speak with regret of a better state of earnings 
 and a period of less necessity for constant labour. 
 * Felkin: Factory Commission Report. 
 
336 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 They begin early, and work late, and during this long 
 daily period their bodies are constantly bent over the 
 frame upon which the lace is extended, the head 
 being usually kept within five or six inches of the 
 frame, the edge of which presses against the lower part 
 of the chest. One effect universally produced by this 
 habit is short-sightedness, and often general weakness 
 of the eyes ; with consumptive tendency, distortion of 
 the limbs, and general debility from the confinement 
 and the posture*." 
 
 Aversion to the control and continuity of factory 
 labour, and the pride of spurious gentility, or affecta- 
 tion of lady-rank, are among the reasons why young 
 women so frequently sacrifice their comfort and health 
 to lace-embroidery at home. One girl in her exami- 
 nation states, " I like it better than the factory, though 
 we can t get so much. We have our liberty at home, 
 and get our meals comfortable, such as they aref 
 
 In thus exposing some of the evils incident to rustic 
 and handicraft labour, while I desire to lead the bene- 
 volent to devise means for their mitigation, I wish at 
 the same time to remove that unjustifiable prejudice 
 which hinders both of these classes from participating 
 in the better paid and more comfortable factory em- 
 ployments. There are many trades of great extent 
 against which no public odium has been stirred up, 
 which are, however, far more noxious to health and 
 morals than a cotton-mill. Mr. Tufnell, after examin- 
 ing several witnesses in regard to the condition of the 
 boys and girls employed in the Worsley coal-mines, 
 
 * Report by Mr. Power, on Nottingham, p. 17. 
 f Factory Commission, Nottingham, p. 20. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 337 
 
 near Manchester, descended into them to verify the 
 truth of the statements. 
 
 "This mine," says he, <e was very damp, and great 
 part of it wet under foot; the roof in many places was 
 dripping, which was also the case throughout a great 
 portion of the canal, during my passage along it. As 
 this was said to be the best mine in the place, I cannot 
 much err in coming to the conclusion, both from what 
 I saw, and the evidence of the witnesses given on oath 
 above, that it must appear to every impartial judge of 
 the two occupations, that the hardest labour, in the 
 worst room, in the worst conducted factory, is less 
 hard, less cruel, and less demoralizing, than the labour 
 in the best of coal mines*." A brutality of manners 
 is here disclosed, too gross for transcription, and most 
 discreditable to the masters of the mines. 
 
 In Sir David Barry's able report from Glasgow, the 
 state of the non-factory weavers is depicted in the 
 following cases : — 
 
 " John Harrup works in a back damp earthen- 
 floored shop, and sleeps in a miserable dirty garret in 
 the same building ; no bedstead, scarcely any furni- 
 ture. Earns on an average 6s. per w T eek, out of which 
 he pays all his loom expenses, more than Is. per 
 week. He is twenty-five years of age ; his wife twenty- 
 one ; one child ; likely soon to have another. He is 
 thin, pale, hollow-cheeked, and looks half-starved. 
 He works from five in the morning till nine at night 
 now (sixteen hours), and often longer in winter. 
 Solemnly assures me that he never takes thirty minutes 
 to all his meals, during working hours. Would like 
 
 * Factory Commission, Tufnell, p. 82. 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
338 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 exceedingly to become a power-loom dresser, but it 
 requires great interest to get such a birth. " 
 
 " William Britton is now weaving a web of twenty- 
 three hundred fine, at the rate of §\d. per forty-five 
 inches in length. Mr. Rodger, of Mr. Monteith's 
 works, now present, states that he has paid, within the 
 last twenty years, 3s. for the same work." 
 
 ** Thomas Smith. Two elder daughters, now 
 weaving, would go to power-looms if they could get 
 places*." 
 
 After detailing several such sad cases, Sir David 
 makes the following observations : — 
 
 <c It is, I conceive, unnecessary to specify the mise- 
 rable domestic circumstances of each hand-loom wea- 
 ver's family which I have visited. They are all reduced 
 to the most squalid poverty ; compelled by competition 
 to sell their labour so cheaply, that the very utmost 
 quantity which an individual can furnish is barely 
 sufficient to procure for him in exchange the coarsest 
 raiment, the meanest dwelling, and but a stinted 
 allowance of the cheapest food. There is no combi- 
 nation among these poor men. They work in damp 
 detached cellars as long as they can see. Each brings 
 his individual labour to the proprietor of the material, 
 who will of course accept the cheapest offer. 
 
 Not so the spinners and power-loom dressers, who 
 have been all hand-loom weavers, but now prevent any 
 more of their former companions from being employed 
 in their present business. They are united into close 
 exclusive societies, and absolutely possess a monopoly 
 of well-paid cotton labour. They keep up their 
 
 * Factory Commission Report, part 2. Glasgow, p. 42. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 339 
 
 prices and keep down their numbers. They can stop 
 every factory in Glasgow whenever they please, and 
 their means would enable them to hold out some 
 time ; but a strike of a month would starve more than 
 three-fourths of the hand-loom weavers, even suppos- 
 ing that they could bring about a strike, which under 
 their circumstances would be impracticable. The 
 occupation of draw-boys and girls to harness-loom 
 weavers, in their own shops, is by far the lowest and 
 least sought after of any connected with the manufac- 
 ture of cotton. They are poor, neglected, ragged, 
 dirly children. They are seldom taught any thing, 
 and they work as long as the weavers, that is as long 
 as they can see ; standing on the same spot, always 
 barefooted, on an earthen, cold, damp floor, in a close 
 damp cellar, for thirteen or fourteen hours a day. 
 They earn 2s. per week, and eat porridge, if their 
 parents can afford it ; if not, potatoes and salt." 
 
 The steam-engine is, in fact, the controller- general 
 and main-spring of British industry, which urges it 
 onwards at a steady rate, and never suffers it to lag or 
 loiter, till its appointed task be done. It also relieves 
 that irksomeness of exertion, before which the dili- 
 gence of the handicraftsman is seen to give way. 
 
 We have already stated that the labour is not in- 
 cessant in a power-driven factory, just because it is 
 performed in partnership with the workman's never 
 failing friend, the steam-engine. Those factory em- 
 ployments have been shown to be by far the most 
 irksome and exhausting which dispense with power ; 
 so that the way to put the workman comparatively at 
 his ease, is to enlist a steam-engine in his service. 
 Compare the labour of an iron-turner at one of the 
 
 q2 
 
340 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 self-acting lathes so common now in Manchester, and 
 another at one driven by a power-strap as in London, 
 where, however, the cutting-tools are held in the 
 hands and regulated by the power of the arms and 
 dexterity of the fingers. In the former case, the me- 
 chanism being once adjusted leaves the workman ab- 
 solutely nothing to do but look on and study the 
 principles of his trade, as the engine will finish its 
 job in a masterly manner, and immediately thereafter 
 come to repose by throwing itself out of geer. From 
 the preceding details, the world may judge of the un- 
 truth and even absurdity of much of the pretended 
 evidence scraped together and bespattered on the 
 factories. In the famous report of Mr. Sadler's com- 
 mittee, we find Mr. Longston of Stockport saying, 
 that (e double the labour and attendance is now re- 
 quisite that was formerly needed, so that though there 
 may be a great improvement in machinery, there is at 
 the same time a great increase in actual labour, or 
 the labour has increased in intensity since he was a 
 boy in 1810!" 
 
 No statement could better illustrate the power of 
 prejudice to pervert the judgment, and to lead it to a 
 conclusion the reverse of the truth, than the foregoing. 
 The whole structure of the cotton-factories, from the 
 impelling main- wheels and shafts down to the smallest 
 pivots of the spindles and bobbins, has been regularly 
 advancing on the automatic principle in accuracy and 
 facility of performance, with a corresponding diminu- 
 tion in the toil and irksomeness of superintendence. 
 In fact, there is no department of the spinning or 
 weaving processes which calls for nearly the same 
 solicitude in the workman's mind, and the same labour 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 341 
 
 of his arms, as were requisite to earn the same wages 
 twenty years ago. The number of spindles in the 
 mules has been of late years, no doubt, greatly in- 
 creased as well as the speed of their revolution, but 
 there has been a proportional decrease in their friction, 
 with increased facility and certainty of their work. 
 The effect has been, as I have shown, to raise rather 
 than to lower the weekly wages of the workman, in 
 consequence of the improved productiveness of his 
 machine in quantity and quality of yarn. Mules 
 made prior to 1822 seldom carried on an average 
 more than 220 spindles each; those made since 1831, 
 carry 400 and upwards for spinning the coarser num- 
 bers of yarn, and from 700 to 1000 for the finer. The 
 labour for spinning a pound weight of cotton into 
 yarn of forty hanks per lb., cost in 1812, Is.; and 
 in 1830, it cost 7id. In 1812, each spindle turned 
 off two hanks daily; in 1830, two hanks and three- 
 quarters ; whereas, to produce the same amount of 
 wages per lb. at the two periods, it should have 
 turned off, at the latter, three lbs. and one-fifth. We 
 have here an apparent deficiency of T V or nearly \ 
 deducted from 3^; but this deficiency is more than 
 made up by the increased number of spindles — nearly 
 double, which one spinner can manage on the im- 
 proved mule. At present a good mule will turn off daily 
 upwards of three hanks per spindle of the above number, 
 so that all its new spindles bring extra wages. 
 
 Mr. Tufnell, the commissioner, in his masterly re- 
 port on the factories, after acknowledging his former 
 prejudices against factory labour, records the con- 
 viction which his elaborate survey had wrought on his 
 mind in the following strong language : — 
 
342 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 (c It is my firm belief, that there is not a better or 
 more certain mode of benefiting a country village than 
 by establishing a cotton-factory in it." I entirely 
 coincide in this opinion, and shall enforce it by a few 
 specific illustrations. 
 
 It has been justly remarked by one of the first 
 manufacturers in the kingdom, that in large towns, 
 and particularly with so mixed and fluctuating a 
 population as that contained within the precincts of 
 Manchester, with its various occupations, its hastily 
 and imperfectly construtced streets and crowded dwell- 
 ings, and its many incentives to vice — it is no easy 
 task to determine the effect of each particular em- 
 ployment. The pure unmixed effect of factory labour 
 will be best and most easily found in the country — 
 where it affords regular employment during a series 
 of years to the same families — yet even in Manchester 
 evidence enough to satisfy the candid inquirer may 
 be obtained by inspecting the factories and the dwell- 
 ings of the working classes. It may be shown that the 
 children of orderly parents, of both sexes, are taught 
 at home and in schools ; and that though there are 
 too many heads of families who wholly neglect or set 
 a bad example to their children, still, in Manchester, 
 and in all other large towns, the attendance at the 
 Sunday schools of such as are employed in factories, 
 shows that that class of the operatives furnishes its 
 full proportion of scholars. 
 
 Sir David Barry, after completing his medical sur- 
 vey of the factories, writes, " I must state to the Cen- 
 tral Board, and I trust that it will reach his Majesty's 
 government, that no case of cruelty, gross oppression, 
 or of punishment attended with corporal injury, in- 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 343 
 
 flicted by owners of mills upon their workers, has 
 come to my knowledge during my investigations as 
 a Factory Commissioner in Scotland ; whilst on the 
 contrary, many traits of almost parental kindness on 
 the part of the masters, and of corresponding grati- 
 tude on the part of the servants, have been brought 
 before me in the course of my inquiries*." 
 
 I shall now adduce a few examples of the influence of 
 rightly regulated cotton-mills on the well-being of their 
 inmates, derived from my own observations. One of the 
 original emporiums of the cotton manufacture is the 
 establishment of the Messrs. Strutt, situated in the fine 
 valley of the Derwent, a few miles below Cromford, 
 the primitive seat of the water-spinning-frames. The 
 cotton-factories of this eminent family have for half 
 a century furnished steady employment and com- 
 fortable subsistence to a population of many thousand 
 individuals. During this long period, the skill, pru- 
 dence, and capital of the proprietors have maintained 
 their business in a state of progressive improvement, 
 and nearly exempt from those fluctuations which have 
 so often, in that interval, spread seasons of distress 
 among agricultural labourers. So high is the charac- 
 ter of their stocking-yarns and threads for uniform 
 excellence, that the stamp of their firm on the great 
 bale is a passport to their ready sale without examina- 
 tion in every market of the world. Under their 
 auspices the handsome town of Belper has uprisen, 
 built of hewn stone, with streets flagged with the same, 
 in regular houses on the most commodious plans, 
 where the operatives with their families pass the tran- 
 quil tenour of their lives. The mills there, plainly 
 
 * Second Report of Factory Commissioners, p. 1, note. 
 
344 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 elegant, built also of stone, as well as their other mills 
 at Millford, three miles lower down the river, are 
 driven altogether by eighteen magnificent water-wheels, 
 possessing the power of 600 horses. A self-acting 
 governor attached to each wheel adjusts its velocity to 
 the purposes of the factory, and is never in a state of 
 repose, but is seen incessantly tightening or slacken- 
 ing the reins of the mill-geering, so to speak, accord- 
 ing to the number of machines moving within, and the 
 force of the stream acting without. As no steam-en- 
 gines are employed, this manufacturing village has 
 quite the picturesque air of an Italian scene, with its 
 river, overhanging woods, and distant range of hills. A 
 neat refectory is fitted up within the works, where any 
 of the work-people, who choose, may have a comfort- 
 able pint of hot tea or coffee, including sugar and 
 milk, for one halfpenny. The persons who regularly 
 join in this refreshment, become entitled to medical 
 attendance gratis. A dancing-room for the recreation 
 of the young is also provided. 
 
 Several years ago a number of the operatives formed 
 themselves into a society on the co-operative plan, for 
 laying in their provisions and materials of clothing in 
 the wholesale market, in order to benefit by the pro- 
 fits which usually go to the retailer. As the society 
 wore a beneficial aspect it received the concurrence of 
 the proprietors, and was countenanced by one of them 
 becoming a member of the managing committee. For 
 some years the scheme seemed to work well ; the 
 goods were bought for ready money, and ostensibly at 
 the lowest current price, and they were distributed to the 
 members in proper proportions, according to their wishes 
 or their means. The money profits, or balance of the 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 345 
 
 savings at the end of the year, were divided among 
 them, and amounted frequently to as much as well 
 nigh paid their house-rents. Eventually certain evils 
 began to be developed, which were not at first sight 
 foreseen. Travelling dealers, who came in quest of 
 orders for goods, found out that a bonus might be 
 given with advantage to an influential secretary or 
 treasurer, and might secure a preference in the sale of 
 indifferent articles, such as tea or cloth, at a price 
 above their ready-money value. Disputes and suspi- 
 cions began to arise. The committee, though chosen 
 freely by the whole body of the associated work- 
 people, were naturally selected from the more pro- 
 minent among them, such as the mill-overlookers, 
 and were therefore often continued from year to year, 
 whereby some of them had opportunities of becoming 
 adepts in studying their own interests more than those 
 of the society at large. In fact, driving bargains for the 
 society or themselves, began to occupy their thoughts 
 too much to the exclusion of their proper mill duties. 
 The main evil attendant on this plausible plan was its 
 depriving the people of the habit of managing their 
 money wages, which were in fact absorbed by the co- 
 operative shop in consequence of their value being taken 
 in goods, whenever they were due, and in articles not 
 of strict necessity, such as would probably have been 
 let alone, if cash must have been paid for them. Many 
 of the intelligent operatives having become sensible of 
 these evils, and feeling their independence of action 
 nullified, so to speak, signified their wish to break up 
 the concern. Thus after a thirteen years' fair trial, 
 the co-operative society of Belper was voluntarily 
 abandoned by the work-people. The experiment 
 
 q3 
 
346 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 proved, that the open competition of common shop- 
 keepers afforded them the best security for purchasing 
 articles of food and clothing of the best quality, and at 
 the most moderate price. 
 
 What I have myself witnessed at several times, both 
 on Sundays and working-days, has convinced me that, 
 the population of Belper is, in reference to health, 
 domestic comfort, and religious culture, in a truly 
 enviable state, compared with the average of our agri- 
 cultural villages. The factory rooms are well aired, 
 and as clean as any gentleman's parlour. The chil- 
 dren are well-complexioned, and work with cheerful 
 dexterity at their respective occupations. 
 
 At Quarry Bank, near Wilmslow, in Cheshire, is 
 situated the oldest of the five establishments belonging 
 to the great firm of Messrs. Greg and Sons, of Man- 
 chester, who work up the one-hundredth part of all the 
 cotton consumed in Great Britain. It is driven by an 
 elegant w r ater-wheel, 32 feet in diameter, and 24 feet 
 broad, equivalent in power to 120 horses. The country 
 round is beautiful, and presents a succession of pic- 
 turesque wooded dells, interspersed with richly culti- 
 vated fields. At a little distance from the factory, on 
 a sunny slope, stands a handsome house, two stories 
 high, built for the accommodation of the female ap- 
 prentices. Here are well fed, clothed, educated, and 
 lodged, under kind superintendence, sixty young girls, 
 who by their deportment at the mill, as w*ell as in 
 Wilmslow Church on Sunday, where I saw them as- 
 sembled, evince a degree of comfort most creditable to 
 the humane and intelligent proprietors. The Sunday 
 scholars, equally numerous, belonging to the rural 
 population, appeared to great disadvantage alongside 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 347 
 
 of the factory children, the former being worse clad 
 and worselooking than the latter, and worse behaved 
 during divine service. 
 
 Messrs. Greg spin about 60,000 lbs. of cotton per 
 week in their five mills, which amount to the pro- 
 digious quantity of 3,120,000 lbs. per annum, being 
 the largest concern in the kingdom*. One penny per 
 pound on the price of cotton wool makes a difference 
 to them of 3000/. a-year. 
 
 The female apprentices at the Quarry Bank mill 
 come partly from its own parish, partly from Chelsea, 
 but chiefly from the Liverpool poor-house. The pro- 
 prietors have engaged a man and a woman, who take 
 care of them in every way ; also a schoolmaster 
 and schoolmistress, and a medical practitioner. The 
 Messrs. Greg are in the habit of looking after the 
 education of the boys, and their sisters superintend 
 that of the girls, who are taught reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, sewing, and other domestic avocations. 
 The health of these apprentices is unequalled by that 
 of any other class of work-people in any occupation. 
 The medical certificate laid before the Factory Com- 
 missioners proves that the deaths are only one in 150, 
 being no more than one-third of the average of Lan- 
 cashire. Their ages vary from ten to twenty-one 
 years. When they grow up, they almost always marry 
 some of the men belonging to the factory, often con- 
 tinue to work, and receive better wages than the other 
 operatives, as they are obliged to take houses for 
 themselves. Only one or two instances have occurred 
 in the course of forty years, since the system was begun 
 by Mr. Greg, sen., of any of them coming on the 
 parish. The apprentices have milk-porridge for break- 
 
 * 308,602,401 lbs. was the import for home consumption in 1834. 
 
348 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 fast, potatoes and bacon for dinner, and butcher-meat 
 on Sundays. They have bacon every day. About 
 550 young people of this description have passed 
 through that mill in the course of forty years. Mr. 
 W. R. Greg says, that the general state of education 
 among their mill hands is remarkably superior to that 
 of the agricultural people. He has attended some- 
 times a sort of little club established near one of their 
 country mills, to which some of the farmers' people 
 came, and he found an astonishing difference between 
 their intelligence and that of the mill-workers. He 
 has observed, that the children are a great deal more 
 fatigued and less willing to go to school after a holiday, 
 than after the business of an ordinary day. They all 
 attend school with regularity. 
 
 I paid an unexpected visit to Hyde, in order to view 
 the factories of Thomas Ashton, Esq., uncle to the 
 amiable youth who was shot dead some time ago near 
 his father's door, by assassins who had hired them- 
 selves during the ferment of the spinners' strikes, to 
 murder mill-owners at the rate of ten pounds for each. 
 This lamented victim of violence was not a proprietor, 
 was personally unknown to the assassins, and had 
 never given offence to the operatives. It was an un- 
 provoked murder, which impressed every heart with 
 horror, and has cast upon unions a bloody stain which 
 they will never wash away. 
 
 Mr. T. Ashton and four of his brothers possess, in 
 their five independent establishments in the township 
 of Hyde, 4000 power-looms, w T ith all the subsidiary 
 spinning machinery, and expend fully 4000Z. weekly 
 in wages. At the period of my visit, the work-people 
 were paid 1000Z. per diem in these several factories of 
 Hyde, a district which consisted, not many years ago, 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 349 
 
 of cold clay land, ill-cultivated and thinly peopled. 
 Along with the adjoining small townships of Ducken- 
 field and Stayley-bridge, it contains now upwards of 
 60,000 inhabitants, all comfortably employed and fed. 
 
 Mr. T. Ashton's cotton- works are agreeably grouped 
 together on a gentle declivity, which is traversed by a 
 little tributary stream of the Mersey. This supplies 
 the condensing power to his steam-engines, while their 
 expansive force is furnished from rich coal-measures im- 
 mediately under the factory lands. This is the motive- 
 element which pervades and animates the region all 
 around. The houses occupied by his work-people lie 
 in streets, are built of stone, and are commodious ; con- 
 sisting each of at least four apartments in two stories, 
 with a small back-yard and a mews lane. The rent 
 for a good lodging, containing an improved kitchen- 
 grate, with boiler and oven, is only 81. per annum, and 
 good fuel may be had for 9s. a ton. I looked into 
 several of the houses, and found them more richly fur- 
 nished than any common work-people's dwellings which 
 I had ever seen before. In one I saw a couple of sofas, 
 with good chairs, an eight-day clock in a handsome 
 mahogany case, several pictures in oil on the walls, 
 freshly painted for the family, a representation of one 
 of the younger daughters like a smart peasant girl 
 carrying a basket on her arm, one of the Virgin and 
 Child at Bethlehem, and another of Christ crowned 
 with thorns, all creditable to the travelling artist. In 
 another house I observed a neat wheel barometer, with 
 its attached thermometer, suspended against the snow- 
 white wall. In a third there was a piano, with a little 
 girl learning to play upon it. 
 
 My notice was particularly attracted to a handsome 
 
350 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 house and shop, in one of the streets where Mr. T. 
 Ashtons operatives dwell. On asking who occupied 
 it, I learned it was a spinner, who having saved from 
 his earnings 200Z., had embarked this capital in a re- 
 tail business, now managed by his wife, a tidy-looking 
 person, while the husband continued to pursue his 
 profitable avocations in the mill. 
 
 Many of the factory youths of both sexes cultivate 
 their musical tastes. The proprietor having erected a 
 handsome school-house, the workers subscribed spon- 
 taneously among themselves 160/., and bought a good 
 organ, now set up in the gallery of the large hall of 
 the school. It is played upon on the Sundays at divine 
 service, and on certain evenings through the week alter- 
 nately, by certain of the girls employed at the power- 
 looms. One of them, only seventeen years of age, is 
 said to be a tolerable organist. So much nonsense has 
 been uttered about the deformities and diseases of 
 factory children, that I may hardly be credited by 
 some of my readers, when I assert that I have never 
 seen, among a like number of young women of the 
 lower ranks in any country, so many pleasing counte- 
 nances and handsome figures, as I saw in Mr. Ashton's 
 nine power- weaving galleries. Their light labour and 
 erect posture in tending the looms, and the habit which 
 many of them have of exercising their arms and 
 shoulders, as if with dumb-bells, by resting their hands 
 on the lay or shuttle -bearer, as it oscillates alter- 
 nately backwards and forwards with the machinery, 
 opens their chest, and gives them generally a graceful 
 carriage. Many of them have adopted tasteful modes 
 of wearing neat handkerchiefs on their heads, and have 
 altogether not a little of the Grecian style of beauty. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 351 
 
 One of them, whose cheeks had a fine rosy hue, being 
 asked how long she had been at factory work, said 
 nine years, and blushed from bashfulness at being so 
 slightly spoken to. The female figures sketched in 
 the engraving of a loom-shed at the end of this volume, 
 are by no means fancy forms of the painter, but. 
 realities, to be seen every day at Hyde, and in many 
 other factory districts. The specific apartment, de- 
 lineated with equal spirit and fidelity, belongs to Mr. 
 Robinson, of Stockport. The artist, at my particular 
 desire, filled it with looms of Messrs. Sharp and 
 Roberts' construction, instead of those adopted by the 
 proprietor, which are of a slightly different pattern. The 
 former are in my opinion the best, and correspond to 
 the complete analysis of this admirable piece of mecha- 
 nism to be given in our cotton manufacture. 
 
 At the elegant spinning-factory of Egerton, near 
 Bolton, belonging to Messrs. Ashworth, I had an 
 opportunity of judging how far factory labour, through 
 the day, brings on exhaustion and listlessness among 
 the young persons at night The enlightened pro- 
 prietors have encouraged the formation of schools for 
 educating the children, and have set apart for this 
 purpose a very commodious room; adjoining to which 
 are conveniences for washing of hands and faces, 
 before the lessons are begun. Three evenings a week 
 are dedicated to the boys, and three to the girls; 
 when several of the factory adults, competent to the 
 task, attend and give the pupils instruction in reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic. The progress seems to be 
 satisfactory. What peculiarly struck me in the children, 
 were the clearness of eye, and general liveliness, quite 
 equal to what is seen in any ordinary day-school. 
 
352 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 Each child pays a penny a week for education, which 
 defrays the necessary expenses, and serves to inspire 
 a consciousness of the value of knowledge, and of 
 their own independence in acquiring it. 
 
 At the great establishments of Ramsbottom and 
 Nutthall, near Bury,, in Lancashire, formerly the 
 property of Sir R. Peel, but now belonging to Messrs. 
 Grant, similar schools for educating the factory 
 children are conducted on the most liberal principles, 
 and with remarkable success, under the truly maternal 
 administration of Mrs. John Grant. Here the eye 
 of a Scotchman may be delighted with a national 
 church, elegantly designed, and finely situated on 
 a picturesque eminence, a little way from the works. 
 This structure is the pious contribution of William 
 Grant, Esq., to the religion of his forefathers, and the 
 edification of his work-people. It cost him 5000/., be- 
 sides the endowment for the minister. I had the good 
 fortune to join, one Sunday, in its primitive worship. 
 It was pleasing to perceive the deep interest which 
 a numerous congregation took in the service, and the 
 filial reverence with which they regarded their philan- 
 thropic master, at the dismissal of the church. I 
 might easily multiply examples of endowments by 
 individual proprietors, to show their parental concern 
 for the children under their charge. 
 
 The overlooker of Messrs. Ashworth's mills says — 
 u I go round myself every morning, and see that the 
 children wash themselves after their breakfast ; and 
 if it is discovered that they have not done so, we talk 
 to them, and send them out to get washed. We find 
 them in soap and towels, with hot and cold water, as 
 much as they please." 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 353 
 
 In towns, the tie that binds together employers and 
 employed is of course less strong ; but in the country 
 the feelings of attachment are not unfrequently pushed 
 to an extent that could not easily be surpassed. "The 
 population surrounding a country mill, to the number 
 of one or two thousand, are sometimes entirely depen- 
 dent upon its master for work and subsistence ; but the 
 master is equally dependent upon them for the neces- 
 sary services they perform ; and whether it is that this 
 mutual dependence is more apparent, or that the 
 people are more civilized, it certainly seemed to me 
 that there was less assumption of undue importance or 
 manifestation of pride on the part of the master, and 
 more esteem on the part of the workmen, than I ever 
 witnessed in any agricultural district." In this state- 
 ment of Mr. Tufnell I heartily concur. It must be 
 admitted, however, that, in some small factories, 
 chiefly of flax, there are instances in which due re- 
 gard is not shown either to convenience and comfort, 
 or to circumstances which must influence in no slight 
 degree the moral feelings and habits of the young ; 
 but these defects are quickly disappearing. 
 
 Sufficient evidence has been adduced to convince 
 the candid mind, that factories, more especially 
 cotton-mills, are so organized as to afford as easy and 
 comfortable occupation as anywhere can fall to the lot 
 of the labouring classes. 
 
 What a pity it is that the party who lately de- 
 claimed so loudly about the inmates of factories being 
 universally victims of oppression, misery, and vice, 
 did not, from their rural or civic retreats, examine first 
 of all into the relative condition of their own rustic 
 operatives, and dispassionately see how the balance 
 
354 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 stood betwixt them ! Decisive facts lay at their very 
 doors, and pressed rather painfully on their organs of 
 perception. If actuated by a philosophical spirit, they 
 might have ascertained very soon whether Goldsmith's 
 Auburn, or Crabbe's Village, reflected the truest pic- 
 ture of their country's pride; and by inspecting there- 
 after a prosperous factory village, they might have 
 discovered whether the town was staining the country 
 or the country the town. This preliminary analysis, 
 which ought to have been deliberately executed, before 
 the crusade was embattled against the cotton-mills, 
 has, however, been well performed by the Poor Law 
 Commissioners. From the documents published by 
 this unexceptionable tribunal, it appears that, but for 
 the renovating influence of its manufactures, England 
 would have been overrun ere now with the most igno- 
 rant and depraved race of men to be met with in any 
 civilized region of the globe. It is, in fact, in the fac- 
 tory districts alone that the demoralizing agency of 
 pauperism has been effectually resisted, and a noble 
 spirit of industry, enterprise, and intelligence, called 
 forth. What a contrast is there at this day, between 
 the torpor and brutality which pervade very many of 
 the farming parishes, as delineated in the official 
 reports, and the beneficent activity which animates all 
 the cotton factory towns, villages, and hamlets ! 
 
 The regularity required in mills is such as to 
 render persons who are in the habit of getting intoxi- 
 cated unfit to be employed there, and all respectable 
 manufacturers object to employ persons guilty of that 
 vice ; and thus mill-work tends to check drunkenness. 
 Mr. Marshall, M.P. of Leeds, thinks that the health 
 of persons employed in mills is better from the regu- 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 355 
 
 larity of their habits, than of those employed at home 
 in weaving. He considers the money wages of work- 
 people to be as high as they were during the war, 
 consequently the real wages measured in provisions 
 and necessaries to be higher, and that they may of 
 course be productive of more comforts. " Though 
 the prices of linen yarns have fallen forty per cent., 
 the wages have not fallen at all, because, by the im- 
 provements in machinery, the yarns may be spun at 
 less cost. We do not employ any operatives who are 
 guilty of intoxication." 
 
 Contrast the following description of rural life with 
 that (in Chap. III.) given by the humble operative of 
 a cotton-mill. " The duty of supporting children and 
 parents in old age or infirmity is so strongly enforced 
 by our natural feelings, that it is often well performed 
 even among savages, and almost always so in a nation 
 deserving the name of civilized. We believe that 
 England is the only European country in which it is 
 neglected*. 
 
 " Were I to detail the melancholy, degrading, and 
 ruinous system which has been pursued throughout 
 the country, in regard to the unemployed poor, and 
 in the payment of the wages of idleness, I should 
 scarcely be credited beyond its confines. In the gene- 
 rality of parishes, from five to forty labourers have 
 been without employment, loitering about during the 
 day, engaged in idle games, insulting passengers on 
 the road, or else consuming their time in sleep, that 
 they might be more ready and active in the hours of 
 darkness. The weekly allowances cannot supply more 
 than food ; how then are clothing, firing, and rent to 
 
 * Report of Poor Law Commissioners, 8vo. p. 43. 
 
356 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 be provided ? By robbery and plunder ; and those so 
 artfully contrived and effected,, that discovery has been 
 almost impossible. Picklocks have readily opened 
 our barns and granaries ; the lower orders of artificers, 
 and even, in one or two instances, small farmers, have 
 joined the gang, consisting of from ten to twenty men ; 
 and. corn has been sold in the market of such mixed 
 qualities by these small farmers, that competent 
 judges have assured me, it must have been stolen 
 from different barns, and could not have been produced 
 from their occupations. Disgraceful as these facts are 
 to a civilized country, I could enumerate many more, 
 but recital would excite disgust*." 
 
 " Good ploughmen are not to be found. The 
 labourers say they do not care to plough, because that 
 is a kind of work which, if neglected, will subject them 
 to punishment, and if properly done, requires constant 
 attention, and the lads do not even wish to learn. 
 Nine able-bodied young men were in the workhouse 
 last winter; such was their character, that they were 
 not to be trusted with threshing f/' 
 
 " The veracity, the frugality, the industry, and the 
 domestic virtues of the lower classes must be very 
 nearly extinct J . 
 
 " In the parish of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, 
 the peasantry are idle, dissolute, good for nothing, 
 and the real masters of the parish. They won't go 
 even five miles to Cambridge, though offered em- 
 ployment there at twelve shillings a week. One of 
 them being offered an acre of land rent-free, refused ; 
 
 * Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, p. 70. 8vo. edit, 
 f Ibid. 
 
 J Administration of the Poor Laws, p. 77. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 357 
 
 saying he would not give up his privilege in the 
 parish. So that an act, for which in France, Swit- 
 zerland, or Germany, a man would have gained the 
 respect and love of all* the neighbourhood, creates mis- 
 trust, instead of gratitude, in the bosom of the English 
 peasantry." 
 
 Agriculturists give children and youths no more 
 than half the wages paid them by factory proprietors ; 
 while they fill their workhouses with unemployed per- 
 sons. Under the operation of the poor laws, the pea- 
 santry are penned up in close parishes, where they 
 increase beyond the demand for their labour, and 
 allow their children to grow up in sloth and igno- 
 rance, which unfit them from ever becoming indus- 
 trious men. This obstacle to the circulation and 
 reward of labour will, we presume, be ere long removed 
 by the amended administration of the poor laws. In 
 the chief manufacturing districts, the demand for juve- 
 nile labour is so great as to render a large family not 
 a burden, but a source of comfort and independence to 
 poor people. Were the parents, therefore, sober and 
 provident, they might always train up their young 
 ones into valuable members of society. 
 
 In very many rural districts, the mal-administra- 
 tion of the poor laws has banished every right feeling 
 from the female heart; has quenched all the domestic 
 affections; and has generated a race of harpies fami- 
 liar with extortion, perjury, and violence. What can 
 be expected of the children trained up under such 
 mothers, but reckless idleness and profligacy ? With 
 such a monstrous brood, incendiarism becomes a sport, 
 often wantonly perpetrated upon the barns of the 
 industrious farmers who feed them. 
 
358 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS O 
 
 In the elaborate report of Dr. Mitchell, the actuary- 
 em ployed by the factory commissioners, there is a 
 table of the amount expended in support of the poor 
 per head, for every one of the population in several 
 counties of England ; from which it appears, that in 
 Lancashire, for the year 1821, it was only 4s. 8d., and 
 in 1831, 4s. 4d. ; while for the same years it was for 
 other counties of a far less manufacturing character, as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 Counties. 1821. 1831. 
 
 Norfolk 14*. 10d. 15s. 4d. 
 
 Suffolk 17s. 9d. 18s. 3d 
 
 Essex 17s. Id. Ms. 2d. 
 
 Wilts. 14s. 8d. 16s. 6d. 
 
 The genera] reports of the factory commissioners de- 
 monstrated, that in almost all the great cotton-mills 
 cases of cruelty or oppression towards the children 
 were exceedingly rare, that they were the acts of the 
 operatives themselves, and were not traceable to the pro- 
 prietor. In a few of the smaller and older cotton-mills, 
 evidence of over- working children was obtained, in the 
 flax, woollen, and silk factories, which had not, like the 
 cotton-mills, been then made the subjects of legisla- 
 tive regulation, there were unquestionably many in- 
 stances of harsh usage of children; but these also 
 were more the fault of the men than of the masters. 
 
 The new Factories Regulation Act applies to all cot- 
 ton, wool, flax, tow, hemp, or silk-mills, of which the 
 machinery is driven by steam-engines or water-wheels. 
 Where the machinery is moved by animal power, the 
 act does not apply, nor to bobbin- net lace factories. 
 
 No child can be employed at all before it is nine 
 years old. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 359 
 
 No child younger than eleven must work more than 
 forty-eight hours in any one week, or more than nine 
 hours in any one day. 
 
 After the 1st March, 1835, this restriction extends 
 to children under twelve ; and after the 1st March, 
 1836, to children under thirteen. 
 
 To render these restrictions effective, no child must 
 remain on any pretence more than nine hours a day in 
 any working apartment of the factory. 
 
 Persons under eighteen years of age must not work 
 more than sixty-nine hours in a week, or twelve in a 
 day ; nor at all between half-past eight o'clock at 
 night and half-past five o'clock in the morning. 
 
 Children under nine may be employed in silk-mills. 
 
 One hour and a half must be allowed for meals to 
 all young persons, but that time is exclusive of the nine 
 or twelve hours' work. 
 
 Two entire holidays and eight half-holidays are to 
 be allowed to all young persons who are under the 
 restrictions. 
 
 Every child restricted to forty-eight hours' labour in 
 the week must attend a school for at least two hours 
 a day, for six days out of the seven. The mill-owner 
 is not allowed to continue in his employment any 
 child who does not regularly attend school as above 
 stated ; for which purpose he must be certified every 
 week of the child's attendance by the teacher. 
 
 The school may be chosen by the parents or 
 guardians of the child. If there be no parents or 
 guardians, the inspector takes charge of the child, and 
 may order the employer to keep off one penny in every 
 shilling of its weekly wages, to pay for its schooling. 
 Attendance on a Sunday-school may be reckoned as 
 
360 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 one of the six days. Surgeons are appointed to look into 
 the ages of the children ; and inspectors in the several 
 great factory districts, to see that the provisions of the 
 Act are duly observed by all parties. They are em- 
 powered to enter any factory or mill, and any school 
 attached thereto, at all times when such mills are at 
 work ; to examine the children and any persons that 
 are employed therein ; to make inquiry as to their 
 condition, employment, and education ; to call to their 
 aid in such inquiry, such persons as they may choose ; 
 and to require any person on the spot, or elsewhere, to 
 give evidence upon such inquiry, and to administer to 
 such persons an oath. 
 
 Penalties of twenty pounds and under may be im- 
 posed for offences committed against this Act. 
 
 In order to render the present factory bill effectual, 
 medical investigation into the age and condition of the 
 children has been called in, to the aid of the inspectors, 
 as a check on the certificates. Had the preceding 
 bills been simply inoperative, they would have deserved 
 no blame; but they were instrumental in demoralizing 
 both the parents and children, by leading the former 
 to commit perjury, and the latter to become habitual 
 liars. In fact, the perjury of the witnesses placed an 
 effectual barrier against conviction, and compelled the 
 masters in Manchester to abandon all attempts to en- 
 force by law the provisions of Hobhouse's act, with re- 
 gard to the age of the children and the hours of work. 
 These masters had a lively interest in bringing all the 
 factories under its operation, since, working themselves 
 only twelve hours a day, they found the price of their 
 yarn depressed in consequence of country mills working 
 a longer time. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 361 
 
 The operation of Hobhouse's bill at Warrington 
 merits the attention of the humane, as it proves the 
 injury which injudicious legislation, however well- 
 meant, may inflict on society. The advantages to 
 children, of factory, over other employments to which 
 they are often put by needy parents, is made very 
 manifest in the evidence upon that subject. 
 
 There are three considerable trades in that town ; 
 pin-heading, fustian-cutting, and factory work. Mr. 
 Tufnell, as factory commissioner, made a minute in- 
 spection of a great number of cottages in the poorest 
 parts of the town, and entered into conversations with 
 the parents, respecting the labour and comfort of their 
 children engaged in these trades. He found that they 
 considered factory work the best employment for them, 
 then fustian-cutting, and lastly pin-heading — an order 
 of preference reasonable enough. The parents said, 
 that as they were prevented sending the children to 
 the factory till they were eleven or twelve years old, 
 they were compelled to send them to the fustian-cut- 
 ting and pin-heading trades, in which the labour is far 
 harder, worse paid, and apt to deteriorate the eye-sight, 
 as also to injure the general health, by sedentary con- 
 finement in ill-aired rooms. They told the commis- 
 sioner, that factory work, such as that of a scavenger 
 in sweeping up the loose flocks of cotton from the floor, 
 was by no means unhealthy, and that they would send 
 their children to the mills much sooner than they did, 
 but for the law, which obliged them to put them to 
 more laborious employments. One woman, on being 
 asked whether parents would say their children were 
 thirteen or fourteen when they were much younger, 
 
 R 
 
362 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 replied to the commissioner, " Ya, I'm sure 1 would, 
 would'nt you *?" 
 
 Children of a small size, and therefore young, were 
 much more in demand during the earlier periods of 
 the cotton-trade than they are at present, reference 
 being had to the total number of hands employed in it, 
 and to the amount of work done. Arkwright's water- 
 frames were built very low in the spindle-boxes to 
 accommodate children, and consequently sometimes 
 caused deformity, by the frequent act of stooping to 
 the ground. The throstle, which hardly ever requires 
 the operative to deviate from the perpendicular posture, 
 has for a great many years superseded entirely that 
 machine. It is managed by young persons from fifteen 
 years of age and upwards, and does not necessarily in- 
 volve the employment of children. One girl is adequate 
 to superintend a throstle-frame of 220 spindles. From 
 this great factory department, therefore, children are 
 in a great measure excluded. 
 
 Again, in mule-spinning, the number of children 
 is not increased, but rather diminished, in reference to 
 the number of spindles and the quantity of yarn pro- 
 duced, because fewer ends break upon the modern 
 than upon the older machines. The number of mule- 
 spinners at 35^. and 40s. of weekly wages is indeed 
 reduced perhaps one-half, relatively to the number of 
 spindles and of children in action, but all the docile, 
 good hands, have got employment in the new built 
 factories. The self-actor has already dispensed with 
 the services of many young children, and in its further 
 
 * Supplementary Report of Factory Commissioners, p. 226. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES, 
 
 363 
 
 progress will dispense with many more, because a pair 
 of its mules can be conducted by two adolescents of 
 sixteen years and upwards, with the assistance of a 
 younger scavenger to sweep up the waste cotton, — an 
 easy occupation, on account of the height of the frame- 
 work of the machine. 
 
 In an excellent mill at Stockport, mounted entirely 
 with self-actors, six lads of eighteen years and upwards, 
 at 14s. per week, and two young boys, conduct six self- 
 actors, or three pairs of these automatic mules. 
 
 The principal employment of children in cotton- 
 factories will be confined, ere long, to the piecing of 
 the yarns in the fine spinning-mills, a task which 
 allows them to stand or move about at their ease, during 
 at least three-fourths of the time they remain within 
 the walls of the factory. 
 
 Increased demand for goods, the result of extended 
 consumption, can alone benefit the operative classes ; 
 but this result is always more or less counteracted by 
 trades' unions, which embarrass the productive powers, 
 spread distrust among the capitalists, and thus with- 
 draw, so to speak, rain and sunshine from the fields of 
 industry. Were not the efforts of these combinations 
 self-recoiling, like the stone of Sisyphus, they would 
 hurl ruin on the whole system of our manufactures. 
 Beset as it now is in the departments of cotton, wool, 
 silk, linen, iron, and steel, by the industry of rival 
 nations, it can maintain its place in the van of improve- 
 ment only by the hearty co-operation among us of head 
 and hand, of employer and employed. Once thrown 
 out of the market, it would, ere long, be distanced in 
 the race, by the more frugal and docile labour of the 
 Continent and United States. 
 
 r2 
 
364 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 During my late residence among the factories, 
 several facts illustrative of the injuries inflicted on their 
 own body by the unions, pressed themselves on my 
 consideration. The fine spinners in Manchester, who 
 have long enjoyed the highest wages of almost any 
 class of workmen in the world, and are still, as we 
 have shown, liberally paid, were the first who began to 
 exercise control over their masters, and to convert 
 their trade into an exclusive corporation in the rotten 
 borough style*, into which none could be admitted 
 without the permission of the ruling divan. Thus the 
 labourers set themselves in hostile array against capital, 
 boasting their power to constrain it to their will. The 
 masters finding, after many struggles renewed from 
 time to time, that a reduction of wages commensurate 
 with the fall in the price of the goods in the general 
 market f could not be effected, had recourse to an ex- 
 pedient which the workmen could not decently oppose, 
 because its direct tendency was to raise, or uphold at 
 least, the wages of each spinner, but to diminish the 
 numbers necessary for the same quantity of work; so that 
 those employed would prosper, but the combined body 
 would be impoverished. Thus justice has vindicated 
 its lawful sway in raising meritorious individuals to 
 competence, and depressing an obstreperous coalition. 
 As every increase of income enables the operative to 
 gratify more fully his luxurious habits, he never refuses 
 
 * " I recollect a turn-out in 1802, which lasted from fourteen to 
 fifteen weeks ; that was for wages ; and at that time a good mule- 
 spinner could obtain 60*. a week, and the turn-out was among them, 
 as it always has been ; those who get moderate wages never turn out," 
 — Aaron Lees, Esq., in First Factory Commission Report, D. 2, p. 91. 
 
 f On certain kinds of cotton-twist the fall is 50 or 60 per cent. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 365 
 
 to undertake any additional task in the shape of a 
 lengthened mule, for additional remuneration. 
 
 This* necessity of enlarging the spinning-frames, 
 created by the union decrees, has recently given an 
 extraordinary stimulus to mechanical science. It is 
 delightful to see from 800 to 1000 spindles of polished 
 steel, advancing and receding in a mathematical line, 
 each of them whirling all the time upon its axis with 
 equal velocity and truth, and forming threads of sur- 
 prising tenuity, uniformity, and strength. T n doubling 
 the size of his mule, the owner is enabled to get rid of 
 indifferent or restive spinners, and to become once more 
 master of his mill, which is no small advantage. I am 
 well assured, that but for the extravagant pretensions 
 of the ruling committee, this catastrophe would not 
 have befallen the operatives for many a day to come, 
 for two reasons; because, first, the extension of the 
 mule is a very costly affair, and, secondly, it requires 
 the line of spindles to be placed parallel to the length 
 of the apartments, instead of to their breadth — the po- 
 sition originally designed, and the one best suited for 
 throwing light on the yarns. 
 
 By this marvellous elongation, one spinner comes to 
 manage a pair of mules containing from 1 500 to 2000 
 spindles, and to supersede the labour of one or two 
 companion spinners. The men so displaced might 
 easily find employment upon power- looms at 15^. a 
 week, but generally speaking, they will not condescend 
 to this inferior task, but loiter about in idleness, con- 
 suming the funds of their society, and teaching it a 
 lesson of moderation. Meantime mill-owners possess 
 an abundant choice of good hands, and the power of 
 
366 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 ensuring their best service, since they can replace them 
 by others in case of negligence or incapacity. 
 
 The political economist may naturally ask how, 
 with these surplus hands, the wages of the fine spin- 
 ners can be maintained at their present high pitch. 
 To this question one of the best informed manufac- 
 turers made me this reply : " We find a moderate 
 saving in the wages to be of little consequence in com- 
 parison of contentment, and we therefore keep them 
 as high as we can possibly afford, in order to be en- 
 titled to the best quality of work. A spinner reckons 
 the charge of a pair of mules in our factory a fortune 
 for life, he will therefore do his utmost to retain his 
 situation, and to uphold the high character of our yarn/' 
 
 In the factories for spinning coarse yarn for calicoes, 
 fustians, and other heavy goods, the mule- spinners 
 have also abused their powers beyond endurance, 
 domineering in the most arrogant manner, as we have 
 shown, over their masters. High wages, instead of 
 leading to thankfulness of temper and improvement 
 of mind, have, in too many cases, cherished pride and 
 supplied funds for supporting refractory spirits in 
 strikes, wantonly inflicted upon one set of mill-owners 
 after another throughout the several districts of Lan- 
 cashire and Lanarkshire, for the purpose of degrading 
 them into a state of servitude. During a disastrous 
 turmoil of the kind at Hyde, Stayley -bridge, and the 
 adjoining factory townships, several of the capitalists, 
 afraid of their business being driven to France, Bel- 
 gium 5 and the United States, had recourse to the 
 celebrated machinists Messrs. Sharp and Co., of Man- 
 chester, requesting them to direct the inventive talents 
 of their partner, Mr. Roberts, to the construction of a 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 367 
 
 self-acting mule, in order to emancipate the trade 
 from galling slavery and impending ruin. Under 
 assurances of the most liberal encouragement in the 
 adoption of his inventions, Mr. Roberts, who was then 
 little versed in spinning-machines, suspended his pro- 
 fessional pursuits as an engineer, and set his fertile 
 genius to construct a spinning automaton. 
 
 The drawing, stretching, and twisting of the yarn 
 had been rendered in a great measure the result of 
 self-acting mechanism by the labours of Crompton 
 and Kelly, the first inventor and first improver of the 
 mule ; but to back off the spiral-coil from the tip of 
 the spindle, and then wind the thread upon it in a 
 shapely conoid, was the Gordian knot left for Mr. 
 Roberts to untie. The problem did not puzzle him 
 long, for to the delight of the mill-owners who ceased 
 not to stimulate his exertions by frequent visitations, 
 he produced, in the course of a few months, a machine 
 apparently instinct with the thought, feeling, and tact 
 of the experienced workman — which even in its infancy 
 displayed a new principle of regulation, ready in its 
 mature state to fulfil the functions of a finished 
 spinner. Thus, the Iron Man, as the operatives fitly 
 call it, sprung out of the hands of our modern Pro- 
 metheus at the bidding of Minerva — a creation destined 
 to restore order among the industrious classes, and to 
 confirm to Great Britain the empire of art. The news 
 of this Herculean prodigy spread dismay through the 
 Union, and even long before it left its cradle, so to 
 speak, it strangled the Hydra of misrule. It is to be 
 hoped that the manufacturers who received this guar- 
 dian power from mechanical science, will strengthen 
 with grateful patronage the arm which brought them 
 
368 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 deliverance in the day of their distress. I have heard, 
 on good authority, that no less than 12,000Z. sterling 
 were expended by the enterprising partners of Mr. 
 Roberts in bringing the self-actor to its present per- 
 fection. Had the inventor been less ably seconded, he 
 might have shared the sad fate of many a man of 
 genius, have seen the offspring of many toilsome days 
 and sleepless nights carried off by piratical marauders, 
 and disfigured in order to make it pass for their own. 
 
 Several months ago, (December last,) this machine 
 was in operation in upwards of sixty mills working 
 between 300,000 and 400,000 spindles, each one turn- 
 ing off steadily within twelve working hours, four 
 hanks of yarn on an average, of either warp or weft 
 at the pleasure of the proprietor. The yarn is un- 
 questionably superior in quality to that produced by 
 hand, and may be varied in fineness by ready adjust- 
 ments, from sixteen hanks per lb. up to forty hanks, 
 a number fit for weaving excellent calicoes, fustians, 
 and velvets. I have stood by for hours admiring the 
 rapidity and precision with which the self-actor executes 
 its multifarious successions and reversals of move- 
 ment ; and feel myself fortunate in possessing a com- 
 plete series of drawings capable of conveying to any 
 attentive student a clear conception of every lever, 
 pulley, and wheel in this automaton of unparalleled 
 productive power — an instrument which exhibits almost 
 every possible variety of mechanical organization. 
 These details belong to the cotton-manufacture. This 
 invention confirms the great doctrine already pro-' 
 pounded, that when capital enlists science in her 
 service, the refractory hand of labour will always be 
 taught docility. 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 369 
 
 Another illustration of this truth occurs in modern 
 calico printing. This elegant art, which embodies in 
 its operations the most exquisite problems of chemis- 
 try as well as mechanics, had been for a long period 
 the sport of foolish journeymen who turned the liberal 
 means of comfort it furnished them into weapons of 
 warfare against their employers and the trade itself. 
 They were, in fact, by their delirious combinations, 
 plotting to kill the goose which laid the golden eggs 
 of their industry, or to force it to fly off to a foreign 
 land, where it might live without molestation. 
 
 In the spirit of Egyptian task-masters the operative 
 printers dictated to the manufacturer, the number 
 and quality of the apprentices to be admitted into the 
 trade, the hours of their own labour, and the wages to 
 be paid them. At length capitalists sought deliver- 
 ance from this intolerable bondage in the resources 
 of science, and were speedily re-instated in their legi- 
 timate rule, that of the head over the inferior members. 
 The four-colour and five-colour machines, which now 
 render calico printing an unerring and expeditious 
 process, are mounted in all great establishments. I 
 have seen them imparting beautiful designs, in fast 
 colours, without any mixture of tints, to webs of white 
 cloth running through them at the rate of a mile in 
 the hour. Of this curious mechanism, I have also been 
 permitted to take exact drawings, illustrative of its in- 
 timate structure and delicate adjustments, for the in- 
 struction of the public. It was under the high pressure 
 of the same despotic confederacies, that self-acting ap- 
 paratus for executing the dyeing and rinsing operations 
 have been devised. 
 
 One day I observed placards posted throughout Man- 
 
 r3 
 
370 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 Chester, announcing that a considerable number of 
 yarn dressers for power-loom weaving were wanted at 
 a well established factory, and I w T as led to conclude, 
 that some of the best paid set of artisans had become 
 refractory. A short time thereafter, on entering the 
 engineering workshops of Mr. Lillie, I descried the 
 corollary of the strike, in the form of a new apparatus, 
 preparing for the purpose of enabling free labourers 
 to dress warps, as well as the monopolists, and with 
 threefold expedition. Thus the combined mal-con- 
 tents who fancied themselves impregnably intrenched 
 behind the old lines of the division of labour, found 
 their flanks turned and their defences rendered use- 
 less by the new mechanical tactics, and were obliged to 
 surrender at discretion. I have since seen the sizing 
 machine in action, dressing warp at the rate of nearly 
 two miles in length per hour. 
 
 Violent revulsions of this nature display short- 
 sighted man in the contemptible character of a self- 
 tormentor. What a different lot would be his, did he 
 quietly move onwards in the progression of improve- 
 ment designed by Providence to emancipate his animal 
 functions from brute toil, and to leave his intelligent 
 principle leisure to think of its immortal interests! 
 That this consummation is within the workman's reach, 
 may be concluded from many circumstances which 
 occurred to the factory commissioners, as well as to 
 myself. 
 
 A mule- spinner told Mr. Tufnell, that in the in- 
 tervals of labour allowed by his steam-going spindles, 
 he had read through several books. The workmen 
 who superintend the frames in Messrs. Boden and 
 Morley's well regulated lace-factory at Derby, seemed 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 371 
 
 to me so much at their ease, that they might study the 
 circle of the sciences in the course of their business, 
 for the battalions of bobbins, though upwards of 100,000 
 in number, are so much under control, as to march 
 and countermarch, take open and close order, without 
 a moment's pause, at the bidding of the steam-engine, 
 and with a precision never rivalled by the best drilled 
 troops of Frederick the Great. 
 
 The price of provisions, lodgings, clothing, and fire 
 in this country is now so moderate in the factory dis- 
 tricts, as to render competence attainable by every 
 frugal operative, in a superior degree to what may be 
 enjoyed by their fellows on the Continent of Europe. 
 America, with its vast tracts of cultivable land, is not 
 a fair subject of comparison; because it affords in 
 farming, an inexhaustible resource to its unemployed 
 artisans, not to be found in the densely peopled states 
 of the old world. 
 
 I insert the following table merely to show at how 
 low a rate human life may be supported at present in 
 a healthy condition in the great manufacturing em- 
 porium of England. Between that rate and the 
 average wages of workmen, there is and ought to be, 
 a very ample margin, which it is hoped will never be 
 diminished, but rather enlarged, for the comfort of the 
 industrious, by the open competition of labour. 
 
372 
 
 RELATIVE COMFORTS OF 
 
 NEW BAILEY PRISON OF MANCHESTER, FROM JULY 
 UP TO OCTOBER SESSIONS, 1834. 
 
 Cost of maintaining a Male Prisoner per Week in the latter part of the 
 Quarter* 
 
 s. d. 
 
 7 Loaves of Bread, 20 oz. each at 1 Jrf. per lb. . 0 9££ 
 
 31§ oz. of Meal at 27s. 6d. per load 0 
 
 5 lbs. of Potatoes at 5*. 8d. ditto ... 0 
 
 1 pint of Pease at 6s. 6d. per bush. 0 1|| 
 
 3i oz. of Salt at Is. ditto. . 0 0^ 
 
 1 lb. of Beef 0 2M 
 
 1 quart of Stew 0 Off 
 
 Is. 6ftd. 
 
 Cost of maintaining a Female Prisoner per Week in the latter part of 
 the Quarter. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 7 Loaves of Bread, 16 oz. each at ljrf. each . . 0 7§£ 
 
 15foz. of Meal at 27s. 6d. per load 0 If i 
 
 7 lbs. of Potatoes at 5s. Sd. ditto . . 0 lg| 
 
 3± oz. of Salt at 1*. per bushel . 0 0/^ 
 
 2-40 
 
 7 pints of Stew 0 
 
 W. S. RUTTER, Steward. 
 
 Generally speaking, on comparing the wages paid 
 to operatives of the different classes, sexes, and ages, 
 with the prices of provisions and other necessaries,, in 
 the Lancashire markets, it appears that all the con- 
 veniencies, and not a few of what our forefathers would 
 have reckoned the luxuries of life, are attainable by 
 the factory population, and are very generally to be 
 found within their dwellings. The great point to be 
 aimed at now, in order to uphold our pre-eminence in 
 art, is to induce our artisans to live temperately, to 
 husband their earnings, and to place their surplus funds 
 to advantage. With this view, the district Provident 
 
FACTORY OPERATIVES. 
 
 373 
 
 Society of Manchester and Salford was established in 
 March, 1833, under the direction of some genuine 
 philanthropists. Their objects are to encourage in- 
 dustry and frugality, to suppress mendicity and im- 
 posture, and occasionally to relieve sickness and un- 
 avoidable misfortune. Similar societies have since 
 been organized in Preston, Wigan, Bury, and many 
 other of the large manufacturing towns ; and they are 
 all advancing prosperously in their benevolent career. 
 Manchester has been divided into districts, which are 
 delineated in maps on a large scale, indicating every 
 house. Thus the members of the several committees 
 are enabled to explore poverty in its obscurest haunts. 
 
 I cannot better conclude this account of the relative 
 comforts of our factory operatives, than with the an- 
 nexed table — reminding the reader at the same time 
 of the reduced price of provisions in Great Britain : — 
 
 Rates of Wages in the Cotton Factories of England, of the different 
 Countries on the Continent, and in the United States. 
 
 Country. 
 
 Quantity of Raw 
 Cotton consumed. 
 
 Hours worked 
 per Week. 
 
 Average 
 Wages. 
 
 England 
 
 240,000,000 
 
 69 
 
 1 1 
 
 America 
 
 77,000,000 
 
 78 
 
 1 0 
 
 France . 
 
 74,000,000 
 
 72—84 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 Prussia . 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 72—90 
 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 19,000,000 
 
 78—84 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 The Tyrol . . 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 72—80 
 
 4 
 
 Saxony . 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 72 
 
 B" 
 
 Bonn in Prussia 
 
 
 94 
 
 2* 
 6 
 
 * Factory Commission Repoit, Part I., D. 2, p. 44. 
 
374 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Health of Factory Inmates. 
 
 The health of factory people was made the theme 
 of medical mystification by Mr. Sadler, in dialogues 
 which may furnish another comic scene to the Malade 
 Imaginaire of Moliere. Several of the celebrated 
 practitioners of London were summoned by him to 
 expound to the Committee, hypothetical dogmas about 
 the generation of disease under the circumstances 
 of cotton-mill labour — a matter which they had never 
 seen nor studied : and they displayed, of course, in 
 their evidence, amusing specimens of the plasticity of 
 the medical mind. I shall leave it to the ingenious 
 author of Paul Pry, or the Comic Annual, to dramatize 
 the details of the discovery then gravely recorded 
 by the Faculty, " that great fatigue of body and mind, 
 with want of food, air, and sleep, are detrimental to 
 human health," and content myself with noticing their 
 more specific conclusions as to the kind of disease 
 which ought to result from factory employment. 
 
 One ingenious physician, when asked about the effects 
 of night-work on factory children, condemned it " be- 
 cause Dr. Edwards, of Paris, found that if light is 
 excluded from tadpoles, they never become frogs ; " 
 and further, (( because the Caribs, Mexicans, Peru- 
 vians, and other savage individuals, millions in num- 
 ber, are never deformed, in consequence of their being 
 continually exposed to the light " ! The view of 
 mule-spinning, p. 308, will enable the Faculty to guess 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 375 
 
 at the number and brilliancy of the gas-lights in a cot- 
 ton-mill, and will probably satisfy the minds of its most 
 sceptical members that, as far as light is concerned, 
 mill children need not linger in the tadpole state *. 
 
 The maladies likely to result from factory labour 
 are pronounced by some of these London oracles of 
 JEsculaf)ius to be u scrofulous diseases of every descrip- 
 tion." "It would be scarcely possible," says one,, 
 u to present in any brief summary the many dire 
 effects of scrofulous disease, but we may mention, first, 
 that the mesenteric glands are often the seat of disease. 
 Next the absorbent glands about the neck. Then 
 we find that the disease attacks the skin in the form 
 of scaly eruptions, cracks, spots, ulcerations, and 
 slowly suppurating tubercles. Again, that the eyes 
 become affected, in the various forms of scrofulous 
 ophthalmy, that often end in blindness; or the bones, 
 and especially the joints, become diseased, terminat- 
 ing in caries of the spine and white swellings. Then, 
 that the internal viscera are affected with tubercles — 
 as the liver, brain, spleen, &c. And lastly, that the 
 lungs become the seat of this destructive disease, 
 in the form of that incurable complaint of our climate, 
 pulmonary consumption. This is indeed a melan- 
 choly list of maladies (he subjoins), and one which, I 
 am sorry to say, might be greatly augmented, as 
 traceable to the neglect and improper management of 
 those whose tender years demand and lay claim to 
 our sympathy, and kindest care and attention ; and I 
 fear that this country will have much to answer for, 
 in permitting the growth of that system of employing 
 
 * Night-work, however, is scouted by all respectable mill-owners, as 
 being equally unprofitable and demoralizing. See note D. 
 
376 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 children in factories, which tends directly to the crea- 
 tion of all those circumstances which inevitably lead to 
 disease*!" Horresco referens! 
 
 (S I believe the Committee are aware of the fact of 
 the extent to which opium-eating has prevailed in the 
 manufacturing townsf ." 
 
 A great physiologist says, " Such a state as that 
 described would be very injurious to the constitution,, 
 and engender a variety of diseases; — the great dis- 
 ease, emphatically using that word, is scrofula^." 
 And a distinguished surgeon of one of the hospitals is 
 called to prove, ' ' that the circumstances stated must, 
 sooner or later, in many cases, engender scrofula, 
 which, when once engendered, may be considered as 
 the parent of those deformities and vices of growth, 
 and those deteriorations of health, to which young 
 persons, especially, are liable." 
 
 The following letter from Dr. E. Carbutt, Physician 
 to the Royal Manchester Infirmary, &c, to the 
 Factory Commissioners, places the absurdity of the 
 above theoretical twaddle, and the medical reasoning 
 in general, in a ludicrous point of view : — 
 
 ie Gentlemen, — I have answered, to the best of my 
 judgment, the several queries which you have done 
 me the honour to submit to me ; but I wish to be per- 
 mitted to make a few observations upon matters not 
 contained in these queries, more especially as to the 
 gross exaggerations of medical witnesses, particularly 
 those of London, on the subject of the diseases of 
 cotton factories. These gentlemen, hardly any of 
 
 * Committee on Factories Bill, p. 586. 
 
 f Ibidem. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 603. 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 377 
 
 whom have ever had an opportunity of seeing persons 
 employed in cotton factories, do almost universally 
 attribute to factory labour the production of scrofulous 
 .diseases. Now the fact is, that scrofula is almost 
 unknown in cotton factories, although the climate 
 of this town and neighbourhood is particularly cold 
 and humid. In a very extensive examination, which 
 I and some other medical men made a few years ago, 
 we found, to our surprise, that the cotton factories, 
 instead of producing scrofula, are, in some sort, a kind 
 of means of cure. The late Mr. Gavin Hamilton, 
 who was for thirty-six years Surgeon to our Infirmary, 
 and who, previously to that, had been Surgeon in the 
 Queen's Bays, said, in my hearing, after examining 
 a cotton factory, 6 Gad ! we found the factories to be 
 a specific for the scrofula.' In one factory, examined 
 by Dr. Holme, and Mr. Scott surgeon to the Cara- 
 bineers, of four hundred and one persons employed, 
 eight persons only were affected with scrofula, with no 
 case of distortion of the spine or limbs." After instancing 
 the population of several mills remarkably exempt from 
 scrofula, the Doctor adds, "This remarkable absence 
 of scrofula I presume, with perfect deference to the 
 medical gentleman who is one of your number, to 
 attribute to the dryness and warmth of the cotton 
 factories, to the lightness of the work, and to the superior 
 food and clothing which the superior wages of the 
 work-people enable them to* obtain. 
 
 " In addition to the above facts, I may mention 
 that, during the sixteen years I have had the honour 
 of being physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, 
 I have, nearly invariably, at the consultations pre- 
 viously to operation, to which the physicians are 
 
378 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 summoned as well as the surgeons, been in the habit 
 of putting to the patient the question, e What trade are 
 you of?' especially when the case was that of a dis- 
 torted limb or joint. To which question the answer 
 has almost never been, ' Work in a cotton factory/ but 
 almost constantly, e a hand-loom weaver/ or ( a 
 hatter,' or some other trade*. " 
 
 With regard to the charge against the factory 
 people, of being opium-eaters, the following excul- 
 patory document may suffice : — 
 
 (( I cannot discover that this practice at all prevails 
 in Manchester. The medical profession are not aware 
 of its existence ; and Mr. Williams, a druggist, who is 
 much employed by the factory classes, declares that 
 he has some customers, in other classes of life, who 
 purchase large quantities of opium from his shop; but 
 that he has never known an instance in which a 
 factory workman procured that article from him as 
 an article of luxury f." 
 
 During the prevalence of the cholera at Stockport, it 
 was observed that the mill- workers enjoyed a remark- 
 able immunity from the attack; an immunity due 
 to the warm dry air which surrounded them while at 
 w T ork, and to the comforts of their homes. The 
 cholera patients in that town were almost all females 
 employed in private dwellings. 
 
 Not one of Messrs. Strutt's work-people at Belper 
 was attacked with cholera, while the neighbouring 
 handicraft people and farmers were falling victims to 
 this pestilence. 
 
 * Factory Commission; Appendix to Medical Reports, by Dr. 
 Hawkins, p. 281. 
 
 f Dr. Hawkins, ibid., p. 292. 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 379 
 
 The most recent, and perhaps most convincing, 
 evidence regarding the healthiness of factory children 
 is that given in the official report of Mr. Harrison, 
 the Inspecting Surgeon appointed for the mills of 
 Preston and its vicinity. There are 1656 under 18 
 years of age, of whom 952 are employed in spinning- 
 rooms, 468 in carding-rooms, 128 at power-looms, 
 and 108 in winding, skewering cops, &c. " I have 
 made very particular inquiries respecting the health 
 of every child whom I have examined, and I find that 
 the average annual sickness of each child is not more 
 than four days ; at least, that not more than four days 
 on an average are lost by each child in a year, in 
 consequence of sickness. This includes disorders of 
 every kind, for the most part induced by causes 
 w r holly unconnected with factory labour. 1 have been 
 not a little surprised to find so little sickness which 
 can fairly be attributed to mill work. I have met 
 with very few children who have suffered from injuries 
 occasioned by machinery : and the protection, espe- 
 cially in new factories, is now so complete that acci- 
 dents will, I doubt not, speedily become rare. I 
 have not met with a single instance, out the 1656 
 children whom I have examined, of deformity, that 
 is referable to factory labour. It must be admitted, 
 that factory children do not present the same bloom- 
 ing robust appearance, as is witnessed among children 
 who labour in the open air, but I question if they are 
 not more exempt from acute diseases, and do not, on 
 an average, suffer less sickness than those who are 
 regarded as having more healthy employments. The 
 average age at which the children of this district 
 enter the factories is ten years and two months ; and 
 
380 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 the average age of all the young persons together 
 is fourteen years*." 
 
 Our legislators,, when bewailing, not long ago, the 
 fate of their fellow creatures doomed to breathe the 
 polluted air of a factory, were little aware how su- 
 perior the system of ventilation adopted in many 
 cotton-mills was to that employed for their own com- 
 fort in either house of Parliament. The engineers of 
 Manchester do not, like those of the metropolis, trust 
 for a sufficient supply of fresh air into any crowded 
 hall, to currents physically created in the atmosphere 
 by the difference of temperature excited by chimney 
 draughts ; because they know them to be ineffectual 
 to remove with requisite rapidity the dense carbonic 
 acid gas generated by many hundred powerful lungs. 
 The factory plan is to extract the foul air, in mea- 
 surable volumes, by mechanical means of the simplest 
 but most unfailing kind, especially by excentric fans 
 made to revolve with the rapidity of nearly 100 feet 
 per second; and thereby to ensure a constant renewal 
 of the atmosphere in any range of apartments how- 
 ever large or closely pent they may be. The effect of 
 one of Fairbairn and Lillie's four-guinea fans upon a 
 large factory is truly admirable ; it not only sweetens 
 the interior space immediately, but renders the in- 
 gress of odorous nuisance from without altogether im- 
 possible. In a weaving-mill near Manchester, where 
 the ventilation was bad, being dependent on currents 
 of equilibration, as in the House of Lords, the pro- 
 prietor lately caused the fan apparatus to be mounted. 
 The consequence soon became apparent in a curious 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories for 1834 to the Home Secretary, 
 pp. 52, 53. 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 381 
 
 maimer. The work-people, little remarkable for olfac- 
 tory refinement, instead of thanking their master for 
 his humane attention to their comfort and health, 
 made a formal complaint to him, that the ventilator 
 had increased their appetites, and therefore entitled 
 them to a corresponding increase of wages ! The 
 weekly pay of these attendants on steam-going looms, 
 being nearly double of that received by labourers on 
 the breezy plains of Sussex and Kent, could admit of 
 no augmentation under the low rate of profits of trade. 
 But the master made an ingenious compromise with 
 his servants ; by stopping the fan during half the day, 
 he adjusted the ventilation and the voracity of his 
 establishment to a medium standard, after which he 
 heard no complaint either on the score of health or 
 appetite. 
 
 When such a fan, placed at the one end of an apart- 
 ment about 200 feet long, is in full action, it throws 
 the air so powerfully out of it, as to create a draught 
 at the other end of the apartment, capable of keeping 
 a weighted door six inches a -jar. Its operation on 
 some old and ill-ventilated mills which I have ex- 
 amined, is most satisfactory. When connected in the 
 attics, with a horizontal pipe in which the vertical 
 water-closet tunnels terminate at top, it draws out 
 the air so rapidly from them, as to cause a breeze 
 into every seat from the adjoining floors, and thus 
 aerates the apartments, while it prevents any foul air 
 from regurgitating, however careless the people hap- 
 pen to be. The simple and cheap contrivance of per- 
 forated boxes of cast-iron placed on every story in 
 communication with the fan, will soon supersede, in 
 all factories at least, the complex, expensive, and, in 
 
382 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 common hands, easily deranged water-closet of the 
 plumber. 
 
 The preceding ingenious and most effective plan oi 
 ventilation, was first contrived by my excellent friend 
 Henry Houldsworth, Esq. of Manchester, and executed 
 under his direction by Mr. Fairbairn, for the magni- 
 ficent factory of Thomas Houldsworth, Esq. M.P. 
 
 Fig. 56. Fig. 57. 
 
 Fig. 56.— Side View of the Ventilating Fan. 
 Fig. 57.— Front View of Ditto. 
 
 Figs. 56 and 57 represent a side and front view of 
 the simple and economical fan, which has been of late 
 years employed for ventilating factories, by drawing the 
 air out of every apartment; for removing through tun- 
 nels the dust disengaged in cleaning their fibrous ma- 
 terials ; for blowing air into their extensive ranges of 
 forge fires ; and many other similar purposes. 
 
 It consists of two cast-iron end plates A, A, having 
 a central circular opening c, c, c, from the circumference 
 of which the outline of each plate enlarges spirally, 
 the point nearest the centre being near d, and that 
 furthest off being under E, (fig. 56.) This pair of 
 parallel plates is connected by bolts, a, a, a, a mantle of 
 sheet-iron being previously inserted into grooves cast 
 in the edges of the end plates, so as to enclose a 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 383 
 
 cavity with an elongated outlet at B, to which a pipe 
 is attached for carrying off the wafted air in any 
 direction. Within this cavity, a shaft C revolves, in 
 bearings, 6, h, placed centrally in the frame-plates A, A, 
 and cast in the same piece. On this shaft, a boss is 
 wedged fast, bearing five flat arms, c, c, c, to which are 
 riveted five flat plates, or wires of the shape shown 
 between a and a in fig. 57, having a semi-circular 
 piece cut out of them on each side, about the size 
 of the end opening. On one end of the shaft C, be- 
 yond the box bearing, the loose and fast pulleys D are 
 fitted for receiving the driving-band, and for turning 
 the wings in the direction shown by the arrow. Thus 
 the air is driven before them out of the end orifice 
 B, w r hile it enters by the side openings, at c, c, c, fig. 56. 
 By the centrifugal force of the revolving wings, the 
 air is condensed towards their extremities, and 
 makes its escape from the pressure through the orifice 
 B, while it is continually drawn in at the sides by its ten- 
 dency to restore the equilibrium. The fans constructed 
 by some engineers have their mantles made concentric 
 with their central shafts, and though they do good 
 work when turned with sufficient rapidity, they are 
 not adapted to produce pressure by condensation, as 
 the wind issuing from the outlet B consists partly of 
 the air compressed by the extremities of the wings, 
 and of the air rarified on its entrance near their roots. 
 
 In the fan here represented, called the excentric, 
 the air which escapes through the outlet B has un- 
 dergone compression during its whole progress through 
 the spiral space with the revolving wings, and is equal 
 in density to that compressed at their extremities by 
 the centrifugal force. This fan discharges therefore 
 
384 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 considerably more air than that with a chamber con- 
 centric with its wings, because each wing, in passing 
 the point d, acts as a valve to cut off the entrance of 
 the uncondensed air, which would cause an eddy, 
 and retard the proper current by the inertia of its 
 particles. 
 
 The fan produces its greatest effect when the extreme 
 points of its wings percur in revolving about eighty 
 feet per second. 
 
 When the fan is employed to draw air out of a 
 series of independent chambers, it has its circular side 
 openings c, c, c, enclosed within caps, which are connected 
 with pipes communicating with these chambers. Slide 
 or throstle valves may be placed in the exhausting, as 
 well as the condensing pipes, for regulating the distri- 
 bution of the rarefying or blowing power. 
 
 From a most extensive comparison of facts, I am 
 led to conclude, that the rustic population of England 
 is less healthy than its factory population. 
 
 " Acute inflammation so frequent in country districts, 
 w T hich chiefly attacks those of robust and plethoric 
 health, if not speedily suppressed by prompt and 
 vigorous measures, is most generally fatal. Cases of 
 this kind require immediate medical aid, which in the 
 country is seldom to be procured without considerable 
 delay, and often does not arrive till all assistance is 
 unavailing." Many ailments of the rural population 
 are occasioned by cold, damp, marsh miasmata, and 
 low living, which cause their whole lives to be a con- 
 tinued chronic disease. There is hardly one of the 
 rustic poor when questioned as to their health, who 
 will not give some sorrowful details of indisposition. 
 
 Dr. Kay has described Gastralgia, or morbid irri- 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 385 
 
 tability of the stomach, as prevailing much among the 
 operatives of Manchester and the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood. Having had occasion to inquire into the 
 peculiarities of the factory people of that town, I 
 recognised in their style of diet a very sufficient caus 
 for gastralgia without laying the blame on their mill 
 avocations. Bacon enters very largely into their diet, 
 and bacon of very indifferent quality, which I found 
 on the most careful examination to be frequently 
 rusty — that is, more or less advanced in the process 
 of putrefaction — an article which might be swallowed 
 with impunity by a Cheshire ploughman in such 
 quantities as he could afford to buy, but which will 
 certainly produce heartburn and indigestion in per- 
 sons engrossed with indoor occupation of any kind. 
 
 I tested samples of bacon as sold in several 
 respectable shops in Manchester, and found it to be 
 much more rank than the average in the London 
 shops. In this piquant state, it suits vitiated palates 
 accustomed to the fiery impressions of tobacco and gin. 
 These three stimulants are too much used by that 
 order of work-people in Manchester who receive the 
 highest wages, and they are quite adequate to account 
 for many chronic maladies of the stomach, liver, or 
 spleen, without tracing them to mere factory labour or 
 confinement. Were a judicious plan of cookery and 
 diet, combining abundance of vegetable matter with 
 light animal food, introduced among them, as it is 
 among the families of the work-people at Belper, 
 Hyde, New Lanark, Catrine, &c, joined to abstinence 
 from tobacco and alcohol, I am confident that the 
 health of the Manchester spinners would surpass that 
 of any class of operatives in the kingdom : for their in- 
 
 vol. i. s 
 
3S6 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 come is such as to afford them every comfort of life, 
 while their labour is neither so unwholesome nor so 
 severe as that of the hand- weaver and husbandman 
 constantly exposed to damp and cold, and earning only 
 one-third of their wages. Hypochondriasis, from in- 
 dulging too much the corrupt desires of the flesh and 
 the spirit, is in fact the prevalent disease of the highest- 
 paid operatives, a disease which may be aggravated 
 by drugs, but must seek its permanent cure in moral 
 regimen. Nothing strikes the eye of a stranger more in 
 Manchester than the swarms of empirical practitioners 
 of medicine. Nearly a dozen of them may be found 
 clustered together in one of the main streets ; all pre- 
 pared with drastic pills and alterative potions to prey 
 upon the credulous spinners. There is another thing 
 which, as far as my experience goes, is peculiar to 
 Manchester. The most respectable bakers (exclusive 
 of hucksters) occupy one side of their shops with 
 cheese (sometimes also bacon) in every stage of decay, 
 which never fails to impart its odour to the bread ex- 
 posed to the effluvia. Certainly the savour of bakers' 
 shops in London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow is far 
 sweeter. As a stranger who was treated with courteous 
 hospitality, I have no motive or wish to make a single 
 remark in a sarcastic spirit, and I have noted this 
 circumstance merely in confirmation of my statement 
 with regard to the insalubrious dietary of the Man- 
 chester operatives. The viands to be found upon the 
 tables of the middling and higher classes do not yield 
 in excellence of quality or culinary refinement to those 
 of any metropolis in Europe. 
 
 The author of an inquiry into the state of the manu- 
 factory population prescribes as their diet "a suffi- 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 387 
 
 ciency of animal food, wheaten-bread, and malt liquor, 
 and as little liquid of other kinds as possible." He 
 says they may have <( occasionally, though rarely, a 
 small sprinkling of bacon or other meat." Since they 
 can purchase their favourite bacon at four-pence or 
 five-pence a pound, they need not, nor do they actu- 
 ally, content themselves with a sprinkling, for they 
 swallow a substantial rasher. This consequently 
 creates thirst, which must be quenched with tea at 
 bagging-time, qualified with some ardent spirit to aid 
 as they think the digestion of their dinner. I concur 
 with the author above quoted, in deprecating the use 
 of such tea as factory-people often swallow, but can- 
 not agree with him in his recommendation of their 
 using milk as a substitute in Manchester; for the 
 liquid so called there is little worthy of the name. 
 What is carried about for distribution in dwelling- 
 houses by the milkmen is inferior even to the average 
 London milk. The mill-owners of Manchester could, 
 in my humble opinion, do nothing more conducive to 
 the welfare of their operatives than to establish an ex- 
 tensive dairy, under the superintendence of one of their 
 benevolent societies. It might certainly be carried on 
 without loss to the shareholders, and with great benefit 
 to the population. Were the work-people of the fac- 
 tories to adopt also the pot an feu cookery of the French, 
 they might live in the most comfortable manner upon 
 their wages. I know two talented young men now 
 rising into merited estimation at Manchester, who 
 while seeking insight into their business in a great esta- 
 blishment in London, practised the said system of diet 
 for several years, by which small pieces of animal food 
 
 s2 
 
388 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 $re made to impart a relish to a large quantity of es- 
 culent and farinaceous vegetables of various kinds. 
 An oil lamp with a feeble flame supplied them with 
 heat enough to stew the mingled materials in a tin 
 sauce-pan during the interval between the breakfast and 
 the dinner-hour — and to keep it hot for their table. 
 On this plan they ascertained that they could board 
 themselves comfortably for 2^. 6d. each per week. 
 The most savoury and salubrious cookery requires 
 the slowest fire. A sumptuous French dinner could 
 be dressed with one-tenth of the fuel consumed by an 
 English cook in broiling a few beef-steaks or mutton- 
 chops. 
 
 The author above-quoted compares the work of 
 spinners and stretchers in a cotton-factory with that 
 of mowers of hay. I have tried my hand slightly at 
 both occupations, and feel warranted to declare that 
 the comparison is preposterous. The mower, in sweep- 
 ing round his ponderous scythe, must throw every 
 muscle of his arms, body, and legs into a violent nisus, 
 and may therefore soon feel fatigue. But the spinner 
 has to make merely a succession of moderate efforts re- 
 curring at intervals of half a minute or more, when he 
 slowly pushes in the carriage of the mule upon its fric- 
 tion-roller railway, after which he may stand at ease 
 during three-fourths of the current time at least. The 
 standing or sauntering posture of the carders, rovers, 
 piecers, and weavers in a factory are compared by him 
 to the penal walking for twenty-four continuous hours 
 inflicted on English witches in former times. On this 
 absurd similitude I shall merely remark, that the 
 standing or walking upon the spacious floors now 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 389 
 
 allotted to factory work-people seems to agree well 
 with the "fatal sisters" of Lancashire, who "weave 
 the woof of victory" over their country's rivals. 
 
 Mr. Kempton, a respectable manufacturer in New 
 England, assured our central board that factory 
 labour for twelve or fourteen hours is not found to be 
 injurious to the health or growth of the children of 
 ten years of age and upwards in the States, because 
 they are well fed, their board being paid out of their 
 wages by the proprietors, — an excellent practice, 
 which would not, however, be permitted by the pauper 
 parents in this country, who live too much upon their 
 children's earnings. In their manufacturing districts, 
 upwards of 4000 children are employed under twelve 
 years of age. 
 
 The evidence collected by our pains-taking com- 
 missioners proves, that under such a diet as the wages 
 could afford, the young inmates of our factories would 
 thrive equally well with the American. And as to 
 the charge which has been made of the injury done 
 to their constitutions by entering a factory in early 
 life, the following refutation of it is most decisive. 
 " There is one thing I feel convinced of from observa- 
 tion, that young persons, especially females, who have 
 begun mill-work at from ten to twelve, independently 
 of their becoming much more expert artists, preserve 
 their health better, and possess sounder feet and legs 
 at twenty-five, than those who have commenced from 
 thirteen to sixteen and upwards 
 
 " At the Blantyre mills," says the same competent 
 observer, " the spinners are all males. I visited the 
 dwellings of nine of that class without making any 
 
 * Sir David Barry, M.D., Second Factory Commission Report, p. 4. 
 
390 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 selection. Pound that every one of them was married, 
 and that the wife had been in every instance a mill- 
 girl, some of these women having begun factory work 
 so early as at six and a half years of age. The 
 number of children born to these nine couples was 
 fifty-one ; the number now living forty-six. As many 
 of these children as are able to work, and can find 
 vacancies, are employed in the mill. They all live in 
 rooms rented from the owners, and are well lodged. 
 I saw them at breakfast time, and the meal was com- 
 posed of the following ; viz. porridge and milk for the 
 children ; coffee, eggs, bread, oaten cake, and butter 
 for the father. I have the notes taken on the spot 
 beside me, but think it needless to transcribe them at 
 full length. 
 
 " A most extraordinary degree of attention is de- 
 voted in the New Lanark mills to the education of the 
 children of the workers, candidates for admission to 
 employment in the mills. They are taught reading, 
 writing, with the elements of geography, music, danc- 
 ing, natural history, &c. in fine spacious rooms. I 
 witnessed considerable proficiency in some of these 
 branches, and saw eight young persons, from ten to 
 thirteen, dance a quadrille in the very best style, under 
 their dancing-master. Employment in the mill is 
 looked forward to by these children with much ambi- 
 tion, as the reward of diligence in their studies. It is 
 quite clear that Mr. Walker, the managing resident 
 partner, devotes the kindest attention to his people ; 
 he is beloved by them all. About 300 of the oldest 
 pupils pay 4d. a month towards the expenses of their 
 education; and there are 150 of the youngest, from 
 three or four to eleven, who pay nothing. The spin- 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 391 
 
 ners in this mill are all females except nine, who are 
 retained as old and faithful servants. Seven of these 
 are married to factory girls, and have had born to 
 them thirty- five children, twenty-six of which are now 
 living. One spinner is married to a woman who has 
 worked thirty -two years in this mill, who is but 
 thirty-nine years of age, and in excellent health*." 
 The yarn spun is throstle twist. 
 
 Sir David Barry's evidence, relative to the growth 
 and development of females engaged in factory em- 
 ployment, is peculiarly valuable, as being the result of 
 personal inspection. ie Many of the girls were beauti- 
 fully formed, who had been from ten years of age to 
 maturity in the mill. I noticed five sisters, from thir- 
 teen upwards, all employed in the mill from their 
 childhood, every one of whom might be termed a fine- 
 grown girl ; some of them remarkable for symmetry 
 and strength. This day I examined carefully and 
 individually one hundred and eleven girls of the classes 
 stated, with a view to find, if possible, a case in which 
 the plantar arch (the hollow of the sole) had been 
 broken dow T n by continual standing, as is stated in the 
 evidence lately printed (Mr. Sadler's Committee) to 
 occur sometimes in factory workers. Found many 
 beautifully-formed feet in those who had worked the 
 longest. In no case did the plantar arch seem to 
 have been in the slightest degree disturbed. Nothing 
 but the evidence of my own senses could have induced 
 me to believe that girls, indeed any human beings, 
 worked as stated from nine years upwards, could yet 
 possess in maturity the apparent extreme of high 
 
 * Sir David Barry, M.D., Second Factory Commission Report, 
 p. 53, A. 3. 
 
392 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 health and vigour, with finely-proportioned forms. It 
 is quite impossible to give an adequate notion of the 
 quickness and dexterity with which two girls, about 
 thirteen years of age, joined their broken ends of 
 threads, shifted the pirns, screwed and unscrewed the 
 flies, &c. To supply the place of such artists by new 
 hands would be utterly impracticable, and difficult in 
 the extreme to find a relay of hands equally expert 
 under present circumstances. There is no sameness 
 of attitude, no standing still; every muscle is in 
 action, and that in quick succession*." 
 
 "The most remarkable persons in the splendid 
 calico-printing establishment of Mr. H. Monteith, at 
 Barrowfield, Glasgow, are twenty adult females, 
 termed stove girls. They hang up the prepared webs 
 in the stoves to dry, and afterwards take them down. 
 They earn 7s. 6d. per week. I have been in the stove 
 and seen them at work around me, whilst the thermo- 
 meter in my hand marked 140 Q Fahr. I was in- 
 formed by the over-looker that it often stands higher. 
 As the wet cloth is drying, the temperature sinks a 
 few degrees. These girls are constantly passing 
 through the open air from one stove-room to another, 
 but remain only a few minutes in each. Mr. Rodger, 
 the benevolent manager of the works, informs me that 
 candidates for this department are never wanting ; tall 
 girls, and rather thin, are, however, preferred. Each 
 is provided with fine flannel chemises by the pro- 
 prietors, which are constantly worn. Some are very 
 fine-looking girls, and all appear to be in perfect 
 health. They work barefooted, and have often leisure 
 to sit. Mr. R. states that they are as healthy as any 
 * Second Factory Commission Report, p. 3. 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 393 
 
 girls in the establishment, and that when any of them 
 happen to catch cold, they are very soon cured by 
 going into the stove again*/' The high temperature 
 and rapid desiccation are thought to improve, or at 
 least to fix the colour of the Turkey red goods, for 
 the beauty of which Mr. Monteith's house is so justly 
 celebrated all over the world. 
 
 At Anderston, near Glasgow, there is a long building, 
 which was erected many years ago by Mr. H. Houlds- 
 worth, to serve for dwelling-houses to the people 
 employed in his extensive cotton factories. A corridor 
 runs the whole length of the building ; on one side of 
 which the entrance doors to the lodgings are placed. 
 The people crowd, to the number of 500, into these 
 barracks, as they are called, and are so careless of 
 cleanliness and ventilation, in spite of every remon- 
 strance of the proprietor, that they have been fre- 
 quently visited with typhus fevers of the most malig- 
 nant and fatal type. At length science has enabled 
 him to effect a reform, which reason and authority 
 had long attempted in vain. He has led along the 
 ceiling of the corridor a large iron pipe, shut towards 
 the door of the passage, and connected by a valve at 
 its other open extremity, with the great chimney of 
 the mill. From the side of this horizontal pipe, oppo- 
 site to each house, a tin tube 1^ inches in diameter 
 branches off at a right angle, and enters through the 
 wall, so as to present its open end immediately over 
 the bedstead of each apartment. Whenever the 
 steam-engine is stopped, either at meal hours or at 
 
 * James Stuart, Esq., A. 3, p. 39, Supplement Report of Factory 
 Commissioners. I can join my testimony in full confirmation of his, 
 having often witnessed the above drying operations. 
 
 s3 
 
394 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 night, the mechanism which shuts the fire-damper is 
 so constructed as to open at the same instant the valve 
 at the inner end of the corridor pipe ; whereupon a 
 brisk current is established in each tin tube, and a 
 stream of air rushes into it from every apartment. 
 Since the introduction of this self-acting and most 
 powerful system of ventilation, the factory barracks 
 have been not only completely delivered from every 
 appearance of pestilential fever, but have become, in 
 fact, a remarkably healthy habitation. 
 
 Dr. Hunter, the distinguished physician of Leeds, 
 gave the following evidence to the factory commission. 
 " Generally, I consider the adult population in the 
 clothing departments of Yorkshire a strong, robust, 
 and healthy class of men. I have remarked this 
 many years ago. Take 1000 of the native men of 
 Leeds employed in the clothing business, and an equal 
 number, both taken indiscriminately, from the inhabi- 
 tants of any of the adjoining rural towns, say Otley, 
 Ripon, Wetherby, Tadcaster, or even York, I am 
 convinced that the men of Leeds will be found more 
 muscular and fleshy, to cover more ground, and to be 
 rounder over the chest ; and where they are temperate 
 and regular in their habits, they live as long. I have 
 often made this comparison in my mind when visiting 
 these towns ; and I will admit the same comparison 
 between the women and children. The reason is 
 plain ; the Leeds people are better fed. I can point 
 out in the hospital books cases of old men from 
 seventy to eighty-two who have stated that they were 
 clothiers all their lives. I have no reason to think 
 those men engaged in the flax trade are much inferior, 
 where the wages are as good. The paler appearance 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 395 
 
 of the inhabitants of towns, and of those working 
 under cover, proceeds from natural causes, and is by- 
 no means incompatible with good health. I have 
 often been surprised to see grave arguments founded 
 on such appearances, which a moment's reflection 
 might explain. Natural paleness, and that paleness 
 proceeding from bad health, are readily distinguished 
 by the town practitioner. For the same reason I 
 attach no weight to those assertions which mention 
 that the factory children can be easily distinguished 
 from the other children at schools and other meet- 
 ings. Let any given number of the factory children 
 and those of the same class in the town be dressed 
 alike, the most experienced person will not distin- 
 guish them either by their gait or appearance. This 
 fallacy arises from seeing the children in their working 
 dress going and returning from the mills. 
 
 " I do not consider the factory population in this 
 town more immoral than the same class out of the 
 mills. I have always found them, male and female, 
 as modest in demeanour as any other class of working 
 people*." 
 
 Mr. Wildsmithj town surgeon of Leeds, says, that 
 "the present hours of labour are not injurious even to 
 the younger branches, as far as their health is con- 
 cerned. As a proof that the people do not consider 
 factory labour so, even the tenterers, or those who 
 work in rooms heated to 150° Fahr., and the fullers, 
 sizers, and millers, who work constantly amidst water, 
 are admitted into benefit societies upon the same terms 
 as others f. 
 
 * Second Report Factory Commission, C. 3, p. 17. 
 f Second Factory Commission Report, A. 3, p. 53. 
 
396 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 The returns procured by Mr. Thorpe, of Leeds, 
 justify the assertion, that the mortality of that town 
 has diminished since 1801, at which time there were 
 scarcely any manufactories established in it. The 
 population of the township was, in 1801, 30,669 ; and 
 the burials of the three years preceding being 2882, 
 or 941 annually, the resulting rate of mortality is one 
 in thirty-two and a half. In 1831 the population 
 was 71,602, and the burials of the three years pre- 
 ceding were 5153, or 1718 annually, giving a rate of 
 mortality of one in forty-one and a half. Thus, since 
 the comfortable wages of factory labour have begun to 
 be enjoyed, the mortality has diminished in the pro- 
 portion of thirty-two and a half to forty-one and a 
 half ; that is, only three persons die now, where four 
 died in the golden age of precarious rural or domestic 
 employment. The decriers of the factory system who 
 seek to demonstrate the decay and debility of the 
 people of England by statistical tables fallaciously 
 constructed, should be reminded how small a propor- 
 tion of the whole population are actually engaged in 
 factory labour, in those towns which have been in- 
 stanced as exhibiting its fatal effects. The following 
 is an accurate return, obtained through the overseers 
 of the several divisions of the township of Leeds, of 
 the precise number of persons engaged in the manu- 
 facture and finishing of woollen yarn and cloth, 
 worsted, flax, silk, and cotton. 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 397 
 
 Manufacture. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Wool 
 
 4,064 
 
 1,226 
 
 5,290 
 
 Worsted 
 
 oUo 
 
 OifO 
 
 
 Flax 
 
 889 
 
 1,545 
 
 2,434 
 
 Cotton 
 
 17 
 
 63 
 
 80 
 
 Silk 
 
 42 
 
 116 
 
 158 
 
 Total. 
 
 5,318 
 
 3,346 
 
 8,674 
 
 These returns are exclusively from the township of 
 Leeds. The two largest flax-mills, those of Messrs. 
 Marshall and Co., and of Messrs. Benyon and Co., 
 are in Holbeck. For the workers employed in them, 
 2000 may be added. The total population of the two 
 townships was, in 1831, 82,812. The woollen 
 manufacture, as carried on at Leeds, is acknowledged 
 on all hands to be healthy. Mr. Thackrah, of that 
 town, in his book on the effect of trades on human 
 life, says of the carding pieceners, that they are 
 generally the most robust children of the place. The 
 imputation of unhealthiness is attached by Mr. Sadler 
 and his partisans only to the flax, worsted, cotton, 
 and silk ; in the whole of which factories it appears 
 that a number not greater than 5374 persons are 
 employed out of 82,812, about one-fourth of whom 
 are above the age of twenty. Hence, only about 
 4000, or less than one-twentieth part of the population 
 under that age, are at factory labour. The credulity 
 of the public is therefore called upon to believe that 
 the mortality of the whole population of 83,000 per- 
 sons is affected to the dreadful extent blazoned 
 abroad, by an increased mortality, in its tiventieth 
 part! Even supposing the whole 5374 persons to 
 
398 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 be under twenty years, and all engaged in the most 
 deleterious process of factory labour, the proposition 
 is intrinsically absurd. Again, the females employed 
 in the woollen, or wholesome trade, form only of 
 the workers, while in the flax, or unwholesome 
 trade, they form f-f ; and yet their expectation of life, 
 from the Leeds returns, appears to be, by comparison 
 with Mr. Rickman's tables for the whole of England, 
 better than that of male life, by more than the average 
 difference between the two values *. 
 
 One of the most valuable accounts of general sick- 
 ness among the poorer classes is that contained in Mr. 
 Finiaison's Report on Life Annuities, printed in 1829. 
 It does not go below the age of twenty, and yet it 
 shows that seven days in the year is the average dura- 
 tion of sickness among the labouring classes in Lon- 
 don, between the ages of twenty and thirty-five; 
 implying, probably, such sickness as would entitle the 
 invalid to receive sick pay from a benefit society. 
 From the returns of the cotton-mills, it appears that 
 this amount exceeds very far any degree of sickness 
 known in them, even during the fickle health of child- 
 hood. Out of 378 persons employed in Messrs. 
 Greenwood and Whitaker's cotton-mill, the average 
 time lost by sickness is only one -third of a day per 
 annum. 
 
 Mr. Hutton, who has been in practice as a surgeon 
 at Stay ley Bridge upwards of thirty- one years, and, of 
 course, remembers the commencement, and has had 
 occasion to trace the progress and effect, of the factory 
 system, says that the health of the population has 
 much improved since its introduction, and that they 
 
 * See Mr. Drinkwater's excellent observations in First Factory 
 Commission Report. 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 399 
 
 are much superior in point of comfort to what they 
 were formerly. He also says that fever has become 
 less common since the erection of factories, and that 
 the persons employed in them were less attacked by 
 the influenza in 1833, than other classes of work- 
 people. Mr. Bott, a surgeon, who is employed by 
 the operatives in Messrs. Lichfield's mills to attend 
 them in all cases of sickness or accident, at the rate of 
 one halfpenny a-week (a sum which indicates pretty 
 distinctly their small chances of ailment), says that 
 the factory workmen are not so liable to epidemics 
 as other persons ; and that though he has had many 
 cases of typhus fever in the surrounding district, 
 nearly all the mill-hands have escaped, and not one 
 was attacked by the cholera during its prevalence 
 in the neighbourhood*. 
 
 It is perfectly true that the Manchester people have 
 a pallid appearance; but this, for two reasons, is 
 certainly not attributable to factory labour : first, be- 
 cause those who do not work in factories are equally 
 pallid and unhealthy-looking with those that do, and 
 the sick-society returns show that the physical condi- 
 tion of the latter is not inferior : — secondly, because 
 the health of those engaged in country cotton factories, 
 which generally work more hours than town ones, is 
 not injured even in appearance. Many a blooming, 
 cheerful countenance may be seen in Mr. Ashton's 
 mill, at Hyde, among operatives working twelve hours 
 and a-half daily, which is half an hour longer than 
 any mill in Manchester. The apprentices in Mr. 
 Greg's mill at Quarry Bank, near Wilmslow, are 
 equally well-looking. 
 
 * Page 56, Second Factory Commission Report. 
 
400 
 
 Health of factory inmates. 
 
 Mr. Wolstenholme, surgeon, at Bolton, says that 
 " The health of the factory people is much better 
 than their pallid appearance would indicate to any 
 person not intimately acquainted with them. v In 
 Bennet-street Sunday-school a comparison was made 
 of the factory and non-factory children, by separating 
 each at different sides of the school-room ; and, on 
 contrasting in this way more than 1000 children, 
 none of the gentlemen of the Factory Commission 
 could detect the smallest difference in their personal 
 appearance. 
 
 The temperature of the apartments in which the 
 children work has been much talked about, — a cir- 
 cumstance specially urged against fine-spinning mills. 
 Now, in Manchester, whenever the temperature of the 
 external air is genial, no artificial heat is used in the 
 fine-spinning mills, which never require a heat above 
 75 Q Fahr., as several respectable witnesses prove on 
 oath. It is an error to suppose that moderately high 
 temperatures are injurious to health, if a circulation 
 of air be kept up. It is foul air, and not warm air, 
 w T hich is hurtful to life. The stovers, in bleach-works 
 and print-works, hang their cloth in temperatures 
 much above 100° Fahr., and do not appear to suffer 
 inconvenience from it, though they frequently leave 
 the hot room for the open air. Messrs. Binyon and 
 Nield mention (page 45, Second Report) [that they 
 had made inquiry about some boys w r ho had been 
 employed in the drying-room of a calico print-work, 
 heated to 112°, for four years, and they found that 
 they had never had occasion to leave their work from 
 indisposition. 
 
 That the spinning-rooms in a cotton factory can be 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 401 
 
 crowded is utterly impossible, from the nature of 
 the machinery. The mules, in their advancing and 
 retreating locomotion, must have five or six times the 
 space to work in that the actual bulk of the mechanism 
 requires. Now, nine-tenths of the children are em- 
 ployed tending these open-spaced mules. Any one 
 who has once visited a cotton-spinning room must be 
 aware of the impossibility of unduly crowding human 
 beings in a mule apartment. Nor are any of the other 
 rooms crowded with workers, for this plain reason, 
 that no useful purpose could thence result to the 
 manufacturer. "It would be," says Mr. Tufnell, "an 
 outrageous falsehood to assert that any part of a 
 cotton-mill is one-tenth part as crowded, or the air in 
 it one-tenth part as impure, as the House of Com- 
 mons with a moderate attendance of members." 
 
 The only labour in cotton factories that seems to 
 have any tendency to produce deformity is throstle - 
 spinning, at which, however, young children are never 
 employed, but only adolescents of sixteen and up- 
 wards. The action which may inflict injury on the 
 negligent is stopping the spindle — an operation w T hich 
 is often performed by standing firm on one leg, and 
 raising the other on tiptoe, so that the knee is brought 
 in contact with the spindle, and stops it by friction. 
 It may be difficult to conceive how this momentary 
 attitude can occasion deformity, as it is by no means 
 an unnatural one, and is, in fact, often assumed by 
 every iperson unconsciously: but the injurious effect 
 arises from the frequency with which the operation is 
 repeated; namely, whenever a thread breaks. It 
 is, however, altogether the workman's fault if deformity 
 is produced, as he can stop the spindle as easily with 
 
402 
 
 HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 his hand as his knee, or with each knee alternately — 
 expedients which the prudent always use, and thereby 
 protect themselves from every inconvenience. Simple 
 and well-known though the preventive may be, it 
 it difficult to get work-people to practise it, from 
 the well-known influence of listlessness and habit. 
 Thus it was found impossible to get the Sheffield dry- 
 grinders and needle-pointers to use the magnetic 
 mouth-piece as a preventive against the inhaling 
 of the particles of steel, though early decline and death 
 are the infallible consequences of their refusal. One 
 thing is certain, that be the deformities occasioned 
 by throstle-spinning what they may, a factory bill will 
 not remedy the evil, unless it can compel every work- 
 man to stop his spindle at all times with his hand, 
 instead of his knee, or with each knee alternately. 
 All the deformed persons produced before the Factory 
 Commissioners were adults ; — there was no case ad- 
 duced of a child deformed by its work. The reason 
 is, that, many years ago, it was the practice to work 
 much longer hours than at present, in consequence of 
 which several persons who were then injured by over- 
 work and their own carelessness, are now to be met 
 with. But a far better reason for deformity being so 
 much less frequent than formerly is the disuse of the 
 old spinning-frame, which was made so low, for many 
 years after its invention by Arkwright, that many 
 thousand persons were deformed by working at it, 
 before the introduction of the throstle machinery. 
 
 In most mills the dangerous parts of the machinery 
 are so well fenced off that it is almost impossible for 
 an accident to occur; and when one does happen, 
 which is very rarely, it is generally through some 
 
HEALTH OF FACTORY INMATES. 
 
 403 
 
 gross negligence or misconduct in the person injured. 
 Fatal accidents are not one-twentieth part so common 
 in cotton factories as in coal mines. Among the 1100 
 persons employed in Mr. Ashton's mills, only one 
 fatal accident has occurred in fifteen years, and that 
 was owing to a man going into a room which he had no 
 business to enter, getting a ladder, for what purpose 
 nobody knows, and mounting to the top of the room, 
 where he was caught by a horizontal shaft, and 
 instantly killed. 
 
 Upon the subject of this chapter the admirable 
 investigations of Messrs. Cowell, Tufnell, and Drink- 
 water, may be read with advantage. They display a 
 perfect mastery of the inductive method of research, 
 and leave no fallacy unexposed. See the 1st and 2d 
 Factory Commission Reports, and the Supplement. 
 I have drawn freely upon them as a fund of genuine 
 information. 
 
404 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 State of Knowledge and Religion in the Factories. 
 
 In considering our factories in reference to the com- 
 forts and health of their inmates in the two preceding 
 chapters, some illustrations which more properly belong 
 to this chapter have been unavoidably anticipated, 
 since for the physical well-being of man a sound mind 
 must actuate a sound body. 
 
 The most flagrant reproach of this Protestant king- 
 dom is, the uneducated state of the lower orders, and 
 the ill-educated state of the higher. While the former 
 defect is the dark den of incendiarism and misrule in 
 the farming districts, which, if not cleared out, will give 
 birth ere long to disastrous eruptions in every other 
 province ; the latter vice has been the prolific parent 
 of a never-ceasing round of political and legislative 
 blunders, under the consequences of which no people 
 less energetic than the middle classes in Great Britain 
 could have upheld their heads. Grandees, as the 
 spoiled children of the state, may be indulged in their 
 learned play-things, as in the ribbon and the star, to 
 mark their exclusive caste, and they may be allowed 
 freely to waste their early years in the pastime of 
 scanning Greek and Roman metres, provided they do 
 not fancy themselves thereby, albeit ignorant of the prin - 
 ciples of Science, Art, and Trade, qualified to scan the 
 measures and to regulate the affairs of empires at 
 their will. 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 405 
 
 After the reports on the Poor Laws had exposed in 
 noon-daylight, the horrid results of want of education 
 in the agricultural hamlets of England, it was a 
 piece of singular effrontery in the feudal legislators to 
 accuse the manufacturers of being the main authors 
 of the national corruption, and to require them, under 
 heavy penalties, to be responsible for the education of 
 all the juvenile operatives whom they employ. What 
 a tumult would such an enactment make, if applied to 
 the dependent population of the rural members of 
 either house of parliament ! Why w T ere not the terri- 
 torial and ecclesiastical aristocracies summoned, in the 
 same summary way, to shed mental light over their 
 dark domains ? Had due provision for instructing the 
 juvenile poor been made by them in their respective 
 parishes, as in Christian duty bound, the children ten 
 years old, whom agriculture could not beneficially em- 
 ploy, would have been received and supported by the fac- 
 tories, and further nurtured in salutary learning at the 
 excellent evening and Sunday-schools attached to them. 
 The twenty-first clause of the Factories Regulation Bill 
 is an act of despotism towards trade,, and of mock phi- 
 lanthropy towards the work-people who depend on 
 trade for support. It requires every factory child, 
 twelve years of age, to produce every Monday morning 
 a certificate of having attended school for two hours at 
 least, on six days of the preceding week, on pain of 
 dismissal from the mill in which he earns his livelihood. 
 Against this absurd law, strong remonstrances have 
 been made by the real friends of the poor. Few mills, 
 in fact, are situated near schools which are open at 
 hours convenient for these busy children, namely, early 
 in the morning and late in the evening ; and therefore 
 
406 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 to make the requirement practicable, one or more fac- 
 tories should have a school, or schools, subservient to 
 them, open at suitable times of the day. The school 
 clauses exhibit an ingenious sample of legislative 
 wisdom; for they have had the diametrically opposite 
 effect of their avowed purpose. Instead of protecting 
 and improving the condition of the children, the sup- 
 posed victims of the mill-owner's avarice, they have 
 deprived them of the means of subsistence, causing 
 them to be turned adrift to sympathize with the listless 
 progeny of the farm-labourer. 
 
 The mill proprietor, after finding that this factory 
 act, like its predecessors, was the fruitful parent of 
 deceit and perjury to the young operatives and their 
 guardians, and a law-trap to himself, has had no alter- 
 native but to dismiss from his works all children under 
 twelve years of age — an event fraught with wide- 
 spread privation. The children so discharged from 
 their light and profitable labour, instead of receiving 
 the education promised by parliament, get none at all ; 
 they are thrown out of the warm spinning-rooms upon 
 the cold world, to exist by beggary or plunder, in idle- 
 ness and vice, — a life wofully contrasted with their 
 former improving state at the factory and its Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 After the 1st of March, 1836, all children, even up 
 to thirteen, will be in danger of being dismissed from 
 factory employment, by a prospective ordinance which, 
 under the mask of philanthropy, will aggravate still more 
 the hardships of the poor, and extremely embarrass, if 
 not entirely stop the conscientious manufacturer in his 
 useful toil. This law will no doubt be evaded in many 
 ways by the indignant artisans, whose families it tends 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 407 
 
 to starve, and it will thus prove operative only for evil, 
 by perverting their moral principles. A proprietor of 
 a large factory in Manchester lately told me, that on 
 the 1st of March this year, having discharged thirty- 
 five children as being under the proper age, he was 
 surprised to find that within a week or two, the whole 
 of them had resumed their work under the sanction of 
 legal surgical certificates, which the managing partner 
 of the concern had no leisure to investigate, and could 
 not reject. 
 
 The paramount importance to the state of providing 
 good education for the children of the poor, before ten 
 or eleven years of age, in every part of the kingdom, 
 but especially in the factory districts, will appear from 
 the following considerations. 
 
 Manufactures naturally condense a vast population 
 within a narrow circuit ; they afford every facility of 
 secret cabal and co-operative union among the work- 
 people ; they communicate intelligence and energy to 
 the vulgar mind ; they supply in their liberal wages 
 the pecuniary sinews of contention, should a spirit of 
 revolt become general, and the ample means of in- 
 flaming their passions and depraving their appetites by 
 sensual indulgences of the lowest kind. Persons not 
 trained up in moral and religious nurture, necessarily 
 become, from the evil bent of human nature, the slaves 
 of prejudice and vice ; they can see objects only on one 
 side, that which a sinister selfishness presents to their 
 view; they are readily moved to outrage by crafty 
 demagogues, and they are apt to regard their best 
 benefactor, the enterprising and frugal capitalist who 
 employs them, with a jealous and hostile eye. 
 
 The interest excited by the factory operatives be- 
 
408 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 comes greatly more intense, when we consider the vast 
 value and exquisite nature of their workmanship, and 
 the mighty influence which their labours exercise upon 
 the prosperity — nay, the very existence of the kingdom 
 at large. The total value of the exportations of produce 
 of the United Kingdom last year, was 36,541,296/.; 
 of which fully 30,000,000/. consisted in manufactured 
 articles of cotton, wool, linen, and silk — the subjects 
 of this volume. National bankruptcy and beggary, 
 with a dismantled army and navy, would be the result 
 of any great convulsion among our factory population. 
 This catastrophe ought to be deprecated with the most 
 solemn adjuration by every patriot, and counteracted 
 in ovo, so to speak, by a wise and liberal policy. 
 
 I indeed apprehend no such result, because I be- 
 lieve there is an abundant increase of intelligence and 
 moral sentiment springing up among the factories, the 
 fruits of Sunday-schools and other philanthropic esta- 
 blishments — planted and upreared chiefly by the work- 
 people themselves, unaided by opulence, and unpatro- 
 nised by power. It is a sublime spectacle to witness 
 crowds of factory children arranged in a Sunday- 
 school. I would exhort the friends of humanity, who 
 may chance to pass through Cheshire or Lancashire, 
 not to miss a Sunday's visit to the busy town of Stock- 
 port, which joins these two counties. It contains 67 
 factories, in which 21,489 operatives of all ages are 
 employed comfortably for their families. 
 
 The Sunday-school of this place was erected by the 
 voluntary contributions, chiefly of mill-owners, in the 
 year 1805. It is a large, plain, lofty building, which 
 cost 10,000/., having a magnificent hall for general 
 examinations and public worship on the uppermost 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 409 
 
 story, capable of accommodating nearly 3,000 persons, 
 besides upwards of forty comfortable apartments for 
 the male and female schools, committee and library 
 rooms, on the other floors. On the 16th of June in 
 the above year, the committee, teachers, and children 
 of the then existing Sunday-Schools assembled on the 
 elevated site of the new building to celebrate in a 
 solemn manner the commencement of this noble en- 
 terprize, the foundation-stone having been laid the 
 evening before. Many thousand inhabitants of the 
 town and neighbourhood having joined them, the 
 whole multitude raised their voices in a hymn of praise 
 to the Father of Light and Life, in which they were 
 accompanied by a full band of music. The treasurer 
 then pronounced a solemn prayer, dedicating the in- 
 tended edifice to God, and imploring his blessing on 
 its objects. In a concluding address he said, — 
 
 "Our meeting together this day on this spot has 
 nothing in it of parade or show — nothing that can 
 allure the eye by its splendour, or beguile the imagi- 
 nation by its pomp. It is nevertheless of the highest 
 importance, to the rising generation, to the town of 
 Stockport, and as far as its influence extends, to the 
 nation. We meet to erect a perpetual standard 
 against ignorance and vice, to confirm and render 
 permanent an establishment intended to train up the 
 children of this town in knowledge and virtue. 
 
 " We expect thousands of children will here be 
 taught not only the grounds of human science, but 
 the first principles of the Christian religion ; that 
 religion, which is the true source of all sound moral- 
 ity, of all public and private virtue. This building is 
 to be erected and maintained on the principle of pure 
 
 vol. I. T 
 
410 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 and genuine benevolence, and is intended to conse- 
 crate as much of the piety and charity of this town as 
 will supply a succession of gratuitous teachers. I feel 
 happy to declare thus publicly the sentiments of the 
 committee, that this building is not to be confined to 
 any sect or party, nor to be under any exclusive direc- 
 tion or influence. Learning is intended to be put in 
 its proper place, as the handmaid of religion; and 
 whatever human science is taught, is to be rendered 
 subservient to this important purpose." 
 
 In the annual report of this admirable institution 
 for 1833, the committee state, "that, since its com- 
 mencement, the names of 40,850 scholars have been 
 inscribed on our registers, a considerable part of 
 whom have received a moral and religious education 
 within our walls. Part of the fruit of these pious 
 labours is already reaped in a temporal point of view, 
 in the general decorum that pervades this town and 
 neighbourhood, and the regard for the liberties, lives, 
 and properties of others, evinced by the Stockport 
 population at a period of political excitement, in which 
 they were too much disregarded at other places. The 
 well-judged liberality of the public has now made 
 Sunday-schools so numerous in our borders, that it is 
 hardly possible to approach the town of Stockport in 
 any direction without encountering one or more of 
 these quiet fortresses, which a wise benevolence has 
 erected against the encroachments of vice and igno- 
 rance. The advocates of general education hear no 
 more of the danger of educating the lowest classes ; on 
 the contrary, the necessity of doing so is generally 
 insisted upon — the people are extravagantly compli- 
 mented upon the proficiency they have already made, 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 411 
 
 and appear to be in as much danger of suffering from 
 the effects of artful and injudicious flattery, as they have 
 done in times past from the unnatural neglect with 
 which they have been treated." 
 
 When I visited this school a few months ago, there 
 were from 4000 to 5000 young people profiting by the 
 instructions administered by 400 teachers, distributed 
 into proper classes, and arranged in upwards of forty 
 school-rooms, besides the grand hall in the top of the 
 building. I witnessed the very gratifying sight of 
 about 1500 boys, and as many girls, regularly seated 
 upon separate benches, the one set on the right side, 
 and the other on the left. They were becomingly 
 attired, decorous in deportment, and of healthy, even 
 blooming complexions. Their hymn- singing thrilled 
 through the heart like the festival chorus of Westmin- 
 ster. The organ, which was excellent, was well 
 played by a young man who had lately been a piecer 
 in the spinning factory of the gentleman who kindly 
 attended me on the occasion. 
 
 In visiting the several school-rooms, I observed 
 that each subordinate teacher usually concentrated his 
 attention to one bench of children, about ten or twelve 
 in number; whereby he was enabled to place his 
 mind in contact, so to speak, with the mind of each, 
 and thus remarkably to facilitate their acquisition of 
 knowledge. The proficiency made by some of them 
 in learning, from Sunday teaching alone, is truly won- 
 derful, and indicates a zeal in the gratuitous instruc- 
 tors, and a docility in the pupils alike laudable. The 
 Lancasterian school method is in as little credit at 
 Stockport, as in Prussia, where it is established as an 
 axiom in education — as is the teacher, so is the scholar. 
 
 t 2 
 
412 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 The unrivalled growth of the factory establishments 
 of Stockport, which work up now, it is said, as much 
 cotton as those of Manchester, may be fairly ascribed, 
 in no small measure, to the intelligence and probity of 
 the recent race of operatives trained up in the nurture 
 of its Sunday schools. It possesses a population con- 
 siderably exceeding 50,000, quietly engaged in indus- 
 try through the week, and devoted to religious exer- 
 cises on the Lord's day. I have never seen any ma- 
 nufacturing town of such magnitude so exemplary in 
 this respect. The frontispiece, and concluding plate 
 of this volume, represent the exterior and interior of 
 two of its excellent cotton-works. 
 
 Scotland possesses many factories set down on its 
 romantic streams, among a rustic population; and 
 these may therefore be examined with advantage as to 
 the influence of mill employment on education and 
 conduct. The first in date, or at least in consequence, 
 was that erected by Mr. David Dale, near Lanark, 
 upon the falls of the Clyde. Distinguished for his 
 piety, as well as enterprise, this gentleman established 
 a system of discipline for discouraging vice and irre- 
 ligion, which, if every other mill-proprietor had done, 
 the agricultural labourers of England would long ere 
 now have been shamed out of their improvidence and 
 profligacy, and no factory committee or commission 
 would ever have been talked of in the British parlia- 
 ment. His philanthropic plans have been so judi- 
 ciously carried on by his successors, as to secure to 
 New Lanark mills a merited celebrity all over the 
 world; and to afford the clearest evidence that fac- 
 tory labour is not incompatible with contentment and 
 virtue. The school for the instruction of the young, 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 413 
 
 and the apartments attached to it, are magnificent. 
 Medical attendance is afforded to all the workers 
 gratuitously, upon all occasions, at the expense of the 
 company, and every other comfort is provided con- 
 sistent with their condition. Spinning of twist yarn 
 is the sole business of the establishment, and is per- 
 formed mostly by women, whose general aspect is 
 blooming, and as unlike as possible to the pale, lan- 
 guid-looking females who, amid the contagious habits 
 of great cities, pursue a similar avocation. The 
 village in which the workers live belongs to the pro- 
 prietors, and is neatly built. It contains 2000, of 
 whom 930 are actively employed. Three mills, con- 
 taining twenty-four working apartments each, are in 
 action ; and a fourth is in process of being built. 
 From twenty- three to twenty-four tons of cotton are 
 spun in them every week, on 40,000 spindles, partly 
 on throstle and partly on mule machines, impelled by 
 seven great water-wheels of about three hundred horses 
 power. 
 
 Two teachers are salaried by the company for 
 instructing the young persons at the school every 
 evening, except on the Saturdays, in reading, writing, 
 accounts, music, and dancing ; and they find the 
 scholars as diligent now as at any former period. A 
 sick fund has been established by payments from the 
 workers, of a penny out of every five shillings which 
 they earn, from which the sick receive a certain weekly 
 allowance. When there is any deficiency in their 
 funds, the company uniformly make it up, so that 
 work-people absent from indisposition are never des- 
 titute of support. Little strong liquor of any kind is 
 
414 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 taken by the operatives, water being the usual drink 
 at dinner. Many of the females wear silk dresses on 
 Sunday. The wages of a male spinner are from 16s. 
 to 1/. a week ; of a female spinner, from 7 s. to 9s. or 
 perhaps a little more; and of the children, from Is. to 
 6s. 6d. The operatives, male and female, are as well 
 behaved in their moral conduct as any part of the 
 neighbouring population, which not being corrupted 
 by an ill-administered poor-law, is a fair specimen of 
 the Scottish peasantry. 
 
 I may instance also in proof of the compatibility of 
 morality and a cotton-mill, the two great factories of 
 Messrs. James Finlay and Co., the one at Catrine in 
 Ayrshire, and the other at Deanstone in the county of 
 Perth. In the former, there are about 900 opera- 
 tives, all apparently happy and healthy, fully above the 
 common lot of man. They have a chapel, a school, 
 and comfortable dwelling-houses, much superior to 
 those inhabited by the surrounding peasantry. The 
 population of the village of Catrine amounts to 4253 
 persons ; and though one-half of them subsist by fac- 
 tory labour, yet in the last twenty years the landed 
 proprietors of the parish have been called on to pay 
 only 212/. 14s. Id. for the poor, which is little more 
 than 10/. per annum. 
 
 The Deanston cotton-mill near Stirling, belonging 
 to the same company, shows also the standard of 
 health and conduct which may be maintained among 
 factory workers by judicious management. There 
 was no appearance of dirt or of impure air in the pre- 
 paring or roving-rooms, when unexpectedly visited by 
 the Factory Commissioners, Even in the web-dress- 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 415 
 
 ing-room of the power-loom department, a fan is most 
 beneficially employed for drawing out the heat and 
 moisture. 
 
 There are here apartments for the females to dress 
 in, with a water-pipe in each story, and many other 
 conveniences for the persons employed. Houses, with 
 little garden grounds, have been built for such of the 
 work-people as choose to reside near the mills, which 
 are equally remarkable for the neatness of their con- 
 struction and for their order and cleanness. The con- 
 sequence of all these comforts is, that a more cheerful 
 set of industrious men, women, and young people is 
 seldom to be found. There are only forty spinners 
 in an apartment eighty-two feet long and fifty-two 
 broad, so that they have abundant space to move 
 about their operations. The fans, revolving in large 
 tubes, which draw up all the dust with considerable 
 force, and keep the air of the room light, fresh, and 
 agreeable, are worthy of remark, and are now adopted 
 in most factories. See page 382. 
 
 So efficacious is religious discipline, steadily en- 
 forced by an enlightened master, to keep his depen- 
 dents in the paths of virtue, that it may be laid down 
 as a general rule — whenever mill-workers are noted for 
 dissolute manners, the owner or manager will be found 
 to be of licentious life, or at least indifferent to the 
 welfare of the people committed to his care, who are 
 ready to be influenced for good or evil by his precepts, 
 regulations, and example. The following testimony 
 places this position in a clear light : — " Some masters 
 insist on better conduct, better dress, and more respec- 
 tability. The overlookers are steady and suppress 
 any thing bad. There is a great competition for ad- 
 
416 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 mission into their factories. I have known thirty 
 young women on the list at a time." What a tribute 
 to virtue in the proprietor of a mill* ! 
 
 Like master like man, is a proverb no less applicable 
 to public works, than to private families. The mill- 
 owner who has a nice sense of purity in heart and life, 
 a just comprehension of his own interests, and a con- 
 scientious concern for the well-being of his dependents, 
 will adopt every practicable measure to raise the 
 standard of their behaviour. If, on the other hand, he 
 is lax in his own principles, and careless of their con- 
 duct, except as to their punctuality at their task, he 
 will experience the consequences of this unconcern in 
 slovenliness of work and in personal disrespect. Let 
 us figure to ourselves a proprietor of extensive factories, 
 a man of old experience, an unwearied worshipper of 
 Mammon, and of course, a stranger to the self-denying 
 graces of the Gospel. Such a man knows himself to 
 be entitled to nothing but eye-service, and will there- 
 fore exercise the most irksome vigilance, but in vain, 
 to prevent his being overreached by his operatives — 
 the whole of whom, by natural instinct as it were, con- 
 spire against such a master. Whatever pains he may 
 take, he can never command superior workmanship, he 
 will find the character of his goods to be second-rate 
 
 * What a contrast is exhibited between the female character in 
 rural retreats, under the landed aristocracy, as depicted in the Poor 
 Law Reports, and under the manufacturing aristocracy, as to be found 
 on the crowded banks of the Irwell ; the scene where two noble- 
 minded proprietors have, in succession, made trade the handmaid of 
 philanthropy— the late Sir Robert Peel and the present William Grant, 
 Esq. Amongst the great numbers of factory operatives employed 
 under this gentleman at Rumsbottom, only one case of female mis- 
 conduct has occurred in the space of twenty years, and that was a 
 farmer's daughter. 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 417 
 
 in the market, and he will of course get a second-rate 
 price and set of customers. His whole business is 
 blasted as it were by an evil eye. Aware of his un- 
 popularity with his work-people, he strives to regain 
 their favour by conniving at their vices, and views their 
 intemperance on Saturday night and Sunday with in- 
 difference, provided it does not interfere with their 
 labour on Monday morning. 
 
 Such policy may have been compatible with profit 
 in times of narrow competition ; but now it seldom 
 fails, as I could prove by examples, to counteract pros- 
 perity at least, if not to impair the fortunes realized 
 under better auspices. It is, therefore, excessively the 
 interest of every mill-owner, to organize his moral ma- 
 chinery on equally sound principles with his mecha- 
 nical, for otherwise he will never command the steady 
 hands, watchful eyes, and prompt co-operation, essen- 
 tial to excellence of product. Improvident work-people 
 are apt to be reckless, and dissolute ones to be diseased : 
 thus both are ill-qualified to discharge the delicate 
 labours of automatic industry, which is susceptible of 
 many grades of imperfection without becoming so ob- 
 viously defective as to render the work liable to a fine. 
 There is, in fact, no case to which the Gospel truth, 
 " Godliness is great gain," is more applicable than 
 to the administration of an extensive factory. 
 
 The neglect of moral discipline may be readily de- 
 tected in any establishment by a practised eye, in the 
 disorder of the general system, the irregularities of the 
 individual machines, the waste of time and material from 
 the broken and pieced yarns. The master meanwhile 
 may lose his temper on finding that his indulgence of 
 thej vices of his men is requited by indifference to his 
 
418 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 interests ; since he never doubts but that the payment 
 of wages gives him a claim to their zealous services, 
 however indifferent he may show himself to be to their 
 vital interests. It is, therefore, as much for the ad- 
 vantage as it is the duty, of every factory proprietor, 
 to observe, in reference to his operatives, the divine 
 injunction of loving his neighbours as himself; for 
 in so doing he will cause a new life to circulate through 
 every vein of industry. 
 
 It appears that the artisans of the United States 
 are treated on this principle, and they are accordingly 
 declared to be more moral than the agricultural po- 
 pulation. " At our establishment," says our authority, 
 Mr. Kempton, " the proprietors (deeply sensible of 
 the value of religious nurture) paid the greater part 
 of the minister's salary after building a meeting-house; 
 and they frequently officiated themselves at the evening 
 meetings, which were well attended. We would not 
 keep any workers that would drink spirits, nor did 
 they at other establishments. Almost all of them 
 belong to temperance societies. In the New England 
 States, no man will get employment who is known to 
 drink. In America, the employer is viewed rather as 
 a tradesman to whom the work-people dispose of their 
 labour, than as a person having a hostile interest. 
 The manufacturers are always anxious that the children 
 should be well educated, as they find them so much 
 the more useful and trustworthy 
 
 I hope the mother-country will not disdain to take 
 a word of advice from her meritorious daughter, and 
 that the mill-owners of Old England will study to dis- 
 courage, by the effectual means above-mentioned, the 
 
 * Committee on Manufactures, Commerce, and Shipping, p. 149. 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 419 
 
 sin of drunkenness, the peculiar opprobrium of our 
 people both at home and abroad. cc The English 
 workmen in the American factories/' adds Mr. Kemp- 
 ton, " are notorious for drunkenness and discontent. 
 Their ignorant expectations generate ill-will and hos- 
 tility towards the master, whence arise strikes, which 
 grievously interfere with his commercial operations. 
 For these reasons, they do not like to take English 
 workmen in the New England factories. There are 
 no jealousies between the American workmen and 
 their employers, of the nature of those which appear 
 to prevail between the English workman and his 
 master." 
 
 The facilities afforded in a well-regulated factory for 
 promoting the regeneration of human society may be 
 inferred from the following interesting description of 
 the state and dispositions of the operatives. 
 
 John Redman, one of the four visiting overseers of 
 Manchester, superintendent of the Bennet-street Sun- 
 day-school, and for fifteen years treasurer of a sick 
 society belonging to that school, had served during his 
 early years in all the gradations of factory employ- 
 ment, at wages advancing from Is. to 10s. per week. 
 He was recommended to the notice of the Factory 
 Commissioners by an advocate of the Short-time Bill, 
 and may therefore be regarded as an unexceptionable 
 witness, in respect to the moral capabilities of the fac- 
 tories. The following are extracts of his evidence 
 given on oath. 
 
 " What is your opinion of the moral habits which 
 are contracted by the girls and boys in the occupation 
 you have just described ? " 
 
420 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 " I would say first of all, that where they work 
 at home they are shut up all day long with their 
 parents, and have scarcely any acquaintance with 
 others and with the feelings of their neighbours. The 
 whole of the feelings which they thus imbibe may be 
 selfish, and as their mode of working does not throw 
 them out of the circle of their own house, or lead them 
 to form any connexions with their neighbours, what- 
 ever connexions they do form arise from other circum- 
 stances than those of work; but not half an hour 
 passes in the factory, but what children are laying each 
 other under obligations important to them. If one 
 piecer finishes piecing up his ends before another, he 
 runs to his neighbour to help him, and thus may save 
 him a scolding or a blow, and he may be immediately 
 indebted to his neighbour in return. This creates 
 feelings of kindness ; and as spinners are continually 
 changing their piecers, more or less, the latter are con- 
 tinually being brought into contact with strangers, and 
 so these feelings extend wider. This interchange of 
 kind offices is occurring all the day long, whenever the 
 circumstances calling for it arise, and is observable in 
 the assistance they give to one another when they are 
 unwell. A piecer may be a little indisposed, and yet 
 not like to stay away, and so lose a half or a quarter of 
 a day ; then the others will help him in his work, and 
 enable him to get his full wages. This is a common 
 thing." 
 
 When questioned as to the effect of factory employ- 
 ment on young females, he says, " It is fathers or 
 friends who work in factories, and they have all a 
 common interest in checking immorality among the 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 421 
 
 younger assistants, both boys and girls. Suppose 
 a cotton factory contains forty spinners, each of whom 
 employs four piecers, making one hundred and sixty 
 young persons of both sexes, and of ages varying from 
 nine to twenty ; I should say that thirty, at least, out 
 of the forty spinners, were married men, and that 
 many of them had large families. Now even if none 
 of their own children were working with them, yet 
 they have all a common interest, as fathers, in dis- 
 countenancing indecencies of conduct and language. 
 Add to this that Sunday-schools have greatly in- 
 creased during the last twenty years, and I should 
 say, roughly, that there are upwards of 30,000 
 children who frequent Sunday-schools in Manchester 
 alone. The teachers in them are generally adult 
 young men and women, from the age of eighteen 
 to about twenty-four or twenty-five. The female 
 teachers will be working all the week as frame-tenters, 
 stretchers, piecers, reelers, &c. ; and the male teachers 
 also, as card-room hands, piecers, and, in some in- 
 stances, spinners. Habits of decency, of order, of 
 respect for religious observances, which they contract 
 in their capacity as teachers, they naturally com- 
 municate, by precept and example, to their classes. 
 I could give several instances of this. I wish to men- 
 tion one which made an impression upon my mind. 
 
 (i One day, after the teaching was over at Bennet-street 
 school, and there was, as there generally is, conversa- 
 tion among the teachers about the objects of the 
 school, we were chatting together, and saying how 
 desirable it was that young people should regulate 
 their conduct out of the school in the same manner 
 as they did in it, when one of the female teachers, 
 
422 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 a young unmarried female of about twenty-four, who 
 worked as- a spinner at Mr. IVPConnelFs mill, said she 
 had experienced much benefit from this, instancing it 
 by saying that in the mill where she worked there 
 were several young men who w r ere known to be wild and 
 rough, that they spoke improperly towards other young 
 women, yet, knowing her situation in this school, and 
 that she would not put up with it, they never spoke so 
 to her ; and that, besides, whenever she spoke to them 
 about the impropriety of their conduct to others, it 
 always produced the desired effect. I consider that 
 such instances are not uncommon, and that they 
 are extending among all the children that are 
 educated at Sunday-schools, slowly perhaps, yet still 
 going on." 
 
 The good effects of educating and training the 
 infant poor are well exemplified in some of the factory 
 villages. In the township of Turton, two miles from 
 Egerton, already mentioned, there is a charity school 
 in which ten or twelve boys are boarded and educated. 
 This privilege has been enjoyed for nearly a century 
 and a half. Henry Ashworth, Esq., proprietor of the 
 cotton-mills of Turton and Egerton, states that he has 
 heard it remarked, that during the recollection of the 
 oldest officers and residents of the township, only two 
 instances were known where the persons who had been 
 educated under this privilege had received parochial 
 relief. One of these never could learn his alphabet, 
 and was, in fact, a kind of half idiot. In the other 
 case relief was claimed only in extreme old age, and 
 when the family of the pauper had deserted him. The 
 children were all of the labouring classes, and were 
 annually selected by the guardians of the poor. The 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 423 
 
 Messrs. Ashworth, deeply impressed with the above 
 results, of training up children in the way they should 
 go, have introduced into their establishments infant 
 schools, under the care of young females of superior 
 habits. In such seminaries they are sure that the 
 children learn to be obedient and orderly, and to 
 restrain their passions ; and they are equally sure that, 
 in a large proportion of cases, it is not so at their own 
 homes. At two schools connected with their two 
 works, and at another school supported by Messrs. 
 Ashworth and others jointly, one hundred and fifty 
 children, from three to nine years of age, have had for 
 many years the benefits of education, with the happiest 
 consequences. The mule-spinners, even the most rude 
 and uneducated, and who do not make very nice distinc- 
 tions, always prefer children who have been educated 
 at an infant school, as they are most obedient and 
 docile. Such children are bespoke beforehand by the 
 workmen, who engage their own piecers. This is the 
 most pointed way in which the effects of these infant- 
 schools have appeared ; and it is a most unequivocal 
 proof of their usefulness, equally pleasing to the 
 parents and the patrons. Other characteristics will 
 doubtless be manifested as the children grow up. 
 
 It appears to me that those educational philanthro- 
 pists who disdain to study the science of human nature, 
 as it is expounded in the Gospel, have been running 
 at fault, and spending their substance for a shadow. 
 The fiist and great lesson — one inculcated equally by 
 philosophy and religion — is that man must expect his 
 chief happiness, not in the present, but in a future 
 state of existence. He alone who acts on this principle 
 will possess his mind in peace under every sublunary 
 
424 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 vicissitude, and will not care to scramble with feverish 
 envy or angry contention for the idol phantoms 
 which the dupes of pleasure and ambition pursue. 
 How speedily would the tumults which now agitate 
 almost every class of society, in the several states 
 of Christendom, subside, were that sublime doctrine 
 cordially embraced as it ought to be ! Without its 
 powerful influence, the political economist may offer 
 • the clearest demonstrations of profit and loss, and the 
 moralist may discourse most eloquently on the 
 beauty, dignity, fitness, and utility of virtue, without 
 furnishing restraints powerful enough to stem the tor- 
 rents of passion and appetite which roll over the 
 nations. The theologist also, who derives his know- 
 ledge of the Supreme mind from the deductions of 
 physical or metaphysical science alone, may sermonize 
 most ingeniously, but his voice will be impotent, like 
 that of one crying in the wilderness. The beau ideal 
 of religion, symbolized by the mitre and the crown, 
 may be a grateful object of worship to the patrician ; 
 but it is too gaudy a pageant for fallen man, too 
 replete with pride, to be compatible with a contrite 
 devotional spirit. Vague notions, like the three just 
 mentioned, cannot give birth to the heroism of faith, 
 or to self-immolation, for the good of others. Pure 
 acts of virtue must be inspired by the love of a 
 transcendent Being, operating, through his counsels 
 and example, on our will and affections. Sentimental 
 theism has no moral force : it appears in the circles of 
 fashion even as the companion and apologist of vice. 
 Where then shall mankind find this transforming 
 power? — in the cross of Christ. It is the sacrifice 
 which removes the guilt of sin : it is the motive which 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 425 
 
 removes the love of sin : it mortifies sin by showing its 
 turpitude to be indelible except by such an awful 
 expiation; it atones for disobedience; it excites to 
 obedience; it purchases strength for obedience; it 
 makes obedience practicable ; it makes it acceptable ; 
 it makes it in a manner unavoidable, for it constrains 
 to it ; it is, finally, not only the motive to obedience, 
 but the pattern of it. 
 
 To these eternal truths what a triumphant testimony 
 is borne in the history of the Prussian schools, as 
 officially detailed by M. Cousin, a French philosopher, 
 against whom neither credulity nor fanaticism can be 
 alleged to weaken the impression of his statements. 
 
 i( I know Europe pretty well, but I have never seen 
 good schools for the people where Christian zeal was 
 lacking. Elementary instruction flourishes in three 
 countries ; Holland, Germany, and Scotland, and in 
 the whole of these it is essentially religious. The 
 same holds true of the United States. In fact, there 
 can be no truly popular education without morals — no 
 morals for the people without religion ; no religion 
 without public worship. Christianity must form the 
 basis of popular instruction, a truth which we must 
 not hesitate to proclaim boldly to the French nation, 
 for it is as sound in principle, as it is expedient for the 
 state. Let our schools for the people be Christian 
 in sincerity and zeal. 
 
 " Such silent self-devotion, as that of their masters*, 
 can be inspired and sustained by religion alone. When 
 persons devote themselves to the service of their fellow 
 men, without being known or appreciated, they must 
 have their eyes fixed on Divine Providence. In these 
 modest institutions every thing breathes a Christian 
 
 * Masters of the obscure village schools in Prussia. 
 
426 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 spirit, the love of one's neighbour, and regard to the 
 poor. Under such a benign influence, minute regula- 
 tions may be dispensed with ; for the constant aim of 
 the directors is to improve the heart and entertain the 
 mind simultaneously. Let true Christian spirit per- 
 vade similar establishments in France ; and it will 
 excite masters and scholars to consecrate their 
 labours to the children of the poor, out of love to their 
 Saviour." 
 
 Here is poverty, to which the condition of our fac- 
 tory operatives is opulence ; and the poverty is hope- 
 less, for no idea is entertained of advancement or change. 
 Yet if ever poverty appeared in man, serene, con- 
 tented, lofty, graceful — it is here. Here we see in- 
 dividuals in the very spring time of life, so far from 
 being made, as we are told men must be made, — rest- 
 less, and envious, and discontented by instruction, 
 taking indigence and obscurity to their hearts for 
 life ; raised above their poor neighbours in education 
 only that they may become the servants of all, and 
 that they may train the lowliest children in a keen 
 sense of the high destination of man, of the beauty of 
 creation, and in the love and worship of the all-good 
 Creator. 
 
 Mrs. Austin, the able translator of M. Cousins work, 
 has introduced it to the English reader with a pre- 
 face replete with eloquence rivalling that of the 
 original. ic I confess myself," says she, <tf almost hope- 
 less of the transplantation of such sentiments hither. 
 Religion is made the theme of the fiercest and most 
 implacable contention ; mixed up with newspaper 
 squabbles, and with legal discussions ; her bright and 
 holy garments are seized and soiled by every angry 
 and ambitious hand. 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 427 
 
 " It seems to me that we are guilty of great incon- 
 sistency as to the ends and objects of education. How 
 industriously have not its most able and zealous cham- 
 pions been continually instilling into the minds of 
 the people, that education is the way to advancement, 
 that 'knowledge is power,' that a man cannot 6 better 
 himself without some learning ! And then we com- 
 plain or fear that education will set them above their 
 station, disgust them with labour, make them am- 
 bitious, envious, dissatisfied ! We must reap as we 
 sow ; we set before their eyes objects the most tempt- 
 ing to the desires of uncultivated men, we urge them 
 on to the acquirement of knowledge by holding out 
 the hope that knowledge will enable them to grasp 
 these objects : — if their minds are corrupted by the 
 nature of the aim, and embittered by the failure which 
 must be the lot of the mass, who is to blame ?" 
 
 This thorough education of the people is not con- 
 fined to the Protestant state of Prussia. It exists in 
 remarkable vigour also in the Catholic dominions of 
 Austria. Mr. Peter Kennedy, proprietor of a cotton- 
 mill at Feldkirch, in the Tyrol, declares in his exami- 
 nation by the Factory Commissioners, that the Aus- 
 trian law requires all children to attend school till 
 they can read and write to the satisfaction of the 
 parish priest. If he discovered that a child was not 
 sent to school, but sent to the factory to work for its 
 parents, as happens daily in Manchester and Glasgow, 
 he would remonstrate with the parents, and in case of 
 contumacy w r ould cite them before the judge, who 
 would compel obedience by imprisonment or other 
 means. (c I do not know T /' adds he, (i that we have 
 any workmen who cannot read and write." 
 
428 
 
 STATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND 
 
 The proud spirit of the English people would render 
 any attempt at compulsory education among them abor- 
 tive. But social benevolence is now busy endeavour- 
 ing to make up for the defective instruction provided 
 by the state. 
 
 The ministers of the gospel of every denomination 
 in the factory districts seem thoroughly a#ve to a 
 sense of their sacred responsibilities, display a mission- 
 ary spirit worthy of the first ages of Christianity, and 
 exercise their regenerating functions with zeal, not 
 only in the pulpit, but in the recesses of sin and suffer- 
 ing. It has been alleged, that the long denial of 
 political rights to the factory metropolis, and the in- 
 dependence of its established clergy on public opinion, 
 had alienated many of its most influential citizens from 
 the church, and had even to a certain extent chilled 
 the ardour of their faith. However this may be, I be- 
 lieve, from what I have witnessed there, that religious 
 sentiment lingers no more in the frigid aphelion of 
 neologism, but is advancing towards the true source 
 of moral light and heat — the Sun of Righteousness, 
 never again, it is hoped, to fly off in that excentric 
 orbit. This happy change must be ascribed, under 
 the blessing of Providence, to the vast circulation of 
 the Scriptures, and increase of Sunday-schools, the 
 two most glorious features of our times. 
 
 Animated with a moral population, our factories 
 will flourish in expanding fruitfulness; for they possess 
 deeper and more extensive roots than is commonly 
 conceived, even by many of the manufacturers them- 
 selves ; a fact which, if well considered, should pre- 
 vent all despondent misgivings. Indeed, I met with 
 only a few individuals who feared foreign competition, 
 
RELIGION IN THE FACTORIES. 
 
 429 
 
 and these were gentlemen little versant in mechanical 
 science, and of narrow views in political economy. 
 The more intelligent were ready to confide in their in- 
 trinsic superiority, provided they were not again in- 
 vaded by an inquisitorial crusade, an event not at all 
 likely after the results of the late able government 
 commission become generally known. 
 
BOOK THE FOURTH. 
 
 Commercial Economy of the Factory System. 
 
 Several of the observations originally written for this 
 section of the volume having, in its progress through 
 the press, been incorporated with the descriptive por- 
 tion of Book II. and Chap. I. of Book III., for the 
 purpose of illustrating certain details of the cotton, 
 wool, and silk manufactures, I shall now confine my- 
 self to a few general remarks on the present condition 
 of commerce, capital, and credit ; and on the influence 
 of free and restricted trade on the industry of nations. 
 
 The character of our manufactures has changed 
 much for the better of late years. 
 
 Formerly there were large quantities of merchandise 
 manufactured, and kept on hand to wait the chance of 
 a market ; that is not the case now ; the manufac- 
 turers take orders, and these orders seem to employ 
 them fully. To show the correctness of this remark, 
 one of the greatest houses in the world, that of Messrs. 
 Baring, were not long ago under the necessity of 
 making contracts in April or May, for goods deliver- 
 able next September. Mr. Bates, of that firm, informs 
 us that when he first came to this country twenty 
 years ago, there were in many warehouses in London 
 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, and even 100,000 pieces of 
 Manchester goods for sale; but now, when he receives, 
 in the common course of his business, a commission 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 431 
 
 for a large quantity of goods for the American market, 
 he is obliged to order them a considerable time before. 
 The stuffs, whether woollen, linen, or cotton, have also 
 improved very generally in quality. "The old-hand 
 workmen/' says a woollen manufacturer, " are cer- 
 tainly not well off, for the young ones understand the 
 business so much better, that they are employed in 
 preference; they do their work with much more 
 skill*." 
 
 In proof of this position, Mr. Bates states, that two 
 French gentlemen had recently arrived with very ex- 
 tensive orders for British cloths, which he considers 
 a singular circumstance. They were purchasing for 
 a foreign market, and observed that a much hand- 
 somer cloth was made in England than could be 
 made on the Continent of the same materials, a cir- 
 cumstance which induced them to come here to pur- 
 chase. 
 
 The increased demand for our goods is not partial 
 or temporary. It has proceeded from all parts of the 
 world pretty equally, independently of the augmented 
 home consumption. The advices from the different re- 
 gions of the globe, from the coast of the Pacific, from the 
 Brazils, and from Mexico, indicate the improving con- 
 dition of those countries, and consequently an extended 
 demand for all descriptions of manufactures. A very 
 considerable increase is about to follow the opening of 
 the trade to China. "The United States," adds Mr. 
 Bates, himself a citizen, " will probably in due time 
 get rid entirely of their tariff, except so much as will 
 serve to supply the little revenue they want, and that 
 will open a new demand. Then there are the immense 
 * Committee on Manufactures, 1833, p. 47. 
 
432 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 Colonies which are peopled from this country,, grow- 
 ing into importance every year, furnishing an increased 
 demand, the magnitude of which it is impossible now 
 to measure. One obvious cause of the extension of 
 trade, is the great fall in the price of cotton, owing 
 to the fall in the price of slaves, and the productive- 
 ness of the plantations in the valley of the Mississippi, 
 where cotton-wool can be raised with a profit at 3c?. 
 per lb., and as the prices have been much above that, 
 the cultivation has gone on extending at a rapid rate. 
 
 The linen manufacture has of late years begun to 
 rival the cotton in its rate of development. Mr. Mar- 
 shall of Leeds says, " that our increased facilities of 
 spinning flax in factories should abate the apprehen- 
 sion of foreign rivalship and enable us to compete 
 more effectually abroad in neutral markets." But he 
 subjoins, " our export trade is restricted in conse- 
 quence of the corn laws preventing returns being 
 made in articles which we consume*." On this point, 
 few people are aware of the relative positions in which 
 our manufacturing interest and our landed interest 
 are practically placed towards each other, by reason 
 of the different proportions which the gross quantities 
 of their respective productions bear to the consumption 
 of the country ; and consequently few persons perceive 
 the degree in which this natural inequality of advan- 
 tages is aggravated by the interposition of a law which 
 throws its weight to that side already preponderating. 
 
 If any interference between these t wo interests could 
 be justified, a far better case could be made out in 
 favour of a bounty to increase the importation of corn 
 than of a duty to restrain it; for the agriculturists 
 
 * Committee's Report on Manufactures, &c. 1833. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 433 
 
 have, under any circumstances, the great advantage 
 of always selling their goods at home in a market in- 
 adequately supplied ; whereas the manufacturer, when 
 he sells at home, sells in a glutted market : propositions 
 deducible from the official accounts of our imports and 
 exports. 
 
 The average annual quantity of foreign corn, chiefly 
 wheat, imported into England during the last seven 
 years, was very nearly two million quarters ; besides 
 large quantities of seeds, butter, and cheese. One- 
 third, at least, of all the tallow we use comes from 
 abroad ; and oils are largely imported as a substitute 
 for tallow in making soap; as also fish oils, to be 
 used for lamps instead of candles. This list of agricul- 
 tural produce, or its substitutes, might be considerably 
 extended, without including any thing which is not 
 suitable to our soil and climate ; but it is sufficient 
 for the purpose of showing that the landholder has, 
 for the product of his fields, the advantage of a home- 
 market in which the demand is much greater than 
 the supply. 
 
 The amount in real (not official) value of British 
 manufactures exported in each of the two last years 
 was rather more than 36,000,000/. and nearly the 
 whole of this sum is constituted of labour. Cotton, 
 fine sheep's wool, flax, and dyeing drugs are the chief 
 of those raw materials of our exports which we do not 
 produce ; the metals and the coals are in our mines 
 till labour extracts them. Making, therefore, ample 
 abatement for foreign materials, the quantity of 
 surplus labour in the country, that which must 
 seek a foreign market, may be roundly estimated at 
 30,000,000Z. sterling a year, (see page 440). The 
 
 VOL. X. U 
 
434 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 home-market of the manufacturer, therefore, is always 
 a glutted market. 
 
 For the sake of perspicuity, let us personify the ar- 
 gument. A landowner has 100 quarters of wheat to 
 sell, the whole of which and more are wanted by the 
 manufacturer. The manufacturer has 200 pieces of 
 cotton goods to sell, half only of which is wanted by 
 the landowner. As the quantity of the one is deficient, 
 and the quantity of the other is excessive, in their 
 common home-market, the prices of both must be 
 governed by the foreign market, the influence of which 
 upon them will be manifested by inverse consequences ; 
 the o&e being in the reverse predicament of the other. 
 The question between them can be fairly tried only 
 under the assumption of a state of perfect freedom of 
 trade to both. 
 
 When the landlord is seller, he is enabled, in fixing 
 the price on his wheat, to add to the amount of the 
 foreign price, all the expense which must be incurred 
 in bringing wheat from abroad. He stands firm in the 
 market, and says to the manufacturer, " Reject my 
 wheat if you please, and go a thousand miles by water 
 and by land to fetch the cheap wheat you speak of." 
 
 But when the landlord, changing his position, be- 
 comes the buyer of his neighbour the manufacturer's 
 cottons, he reverses his arithmetical formula, and he 
 deducts from the price they would fetch in the foreign 
 market the whole expenses of sending them thither. 
 Nor is his language less changed, though it is equally 
 peremptory. He now says to the manufacturer, " There 
 is my offer, leave it if you like, and carry your goods 
 half round the world, in quest of that better price 
 which you flatter yourself to receive in other countries." 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 435 
 
 Whether as buyer of the wheat-, or as seller of the 
 cottons, the manufacturer submits to the dictation of 
 the landowner; for it is he, and not the landowner, 
 who is in both cases subject to the control of the 
 foreign prices ; and the result is, that he gives ] 00 
 pieces of cottons for fifty quarters of wheat. But this 
 is only half the story, and affords a very inadequate 
 representation of the natural advantage which the 
 landowner has over the manufacturer, and of the con- 
 sequent injustice of increasing that advantage by arti- 
 ficial means. 
 
 We have seen that the first use which the land- 
 owner makes of his power over the manufacturer, is to 
 supply himself with home commodities to his heart's 
 content, in exchange for a moderate quantity of his 
 corn. He has got, for instance, 100 pieces of the 
 cottons for fifty of his 100 quarters of wheat ; and now 
 feeling himself still rich with fifty quarters more at 
 his command, a desire comes over him for the enjoy- 
 ment of foreign luxuries, along with his home-grown 
 comforts, and he studies to make his remaining stock 
 of wheat available for procuring them at the easiest 
 rate. But when he contemplates sending this wheat to 
 the foreign market, the reflection immediately occurs 
 that he must submit not only to take the foreign price 
 for it, but to deduct from that price the charges of 
 exportation, instead of being able to add the charges 
 of importation, as he had done in his hard bargain 
 with the manufacturer, on the first fifty quarters which 
 he sold him. Now, therefore, he says to himself, I 
 remember that the manufacturer of whom I bought 
 my 100 pieces of cotton had another 100 lying heavy 
 on his hand, and I well knew that he was sorely in 
 
 u 2 
 
436 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 want of more wheat than the fifty quarters which I 
 sold him. I will carry to him the residue of my 
 wheat, and offer it for the residue of his cottons. In 
 his double distress, with glut on the one side, and 
 deficiency on the other, he will gladly come into my 
 terms ; and then I shall get a description of goods 
 which I can make use of, as an advantageous medium 
 for the acquirement of the foreign commodities, silk, 
 teas, pictures, &c. which I am so desirous of obtaining. 
 
 This is the true working of sale and purchase in 
 a home-market, where different staple commodities 
 are produced in very unequal quantities ; and it should 
 satisfy the fortunate party with his natural advan- 
 tages. But the English agriculturists have, un- 
 luckily for themselves and their country, the power 
 of regulating their own corn laws, and have sought to 
 increase these advantages by imposing duties and 
 restraints on the importation of foreign corn. And 
 although the scheme has signally failed to assure to 
 them the prices they expected, or even the prices they 
 w 7 ould have had, if they had wisely suffered commerce 
 to follow its own lead, it has, nevertheless, enabled 
 them to exchange quantities of their corn for large 
 quantities of home manufactures, which they employ 
 partly for their immediate consumption, and partly to 
 exchange again for foreign commodities, in the man- 
 ner above described. 
 
 A rightly-intentioned land proprietor, if he could 
 be brought to perceive the relative positions in which 
 the agricultural and manufacturing interests are 
 placed, would be anxious to denounce the system as 
 one of subtle and severe oppression. For it does not 
 permit the manufacturer to send his goods to the 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 437 
 
 destined foreign market on his own account, nor to 
 receive in return for them the description of foreign 
 goods, namely corn, which he wants for himself. The 
 land-owner is thus virtually both exporter and impor- 
 ter ; for by the operation of the corn act,, he has a 
 right of pre-emption of his neighbour's wares at a 
 maximum price of his own fixing. The magnitude of 
 the exports proves that their influence over the whole 
 industry of the country must be overpowering. While 
 the corn act lasts, the landed interest have, in fact, 
 the power of dictating prices both as seller and buyer. 
 But justice requires that all buyers and all sellers be 
 placed on an equal footing*. 
 
 This expiring act of feudal despotism enables the 
 landlord not only to extort the products of his neigh- 
 bour's industry, for much less corn than they are 
 worth in the market of the world, but to mulct him 
 severely in the process of manufacture. Mr. W. Gra- 
 ham states, that in his own establishment at Glasgow, 
 in which from eighty to ninety bags of cotton of 300 lbs. 
 weight each are worked up weekly, he pays in duty on 
 flour nearly 700^. per annum. Into each piece of 
 his white calicoes about twenty pounds of cotton wool 
 enter, and three pounds of flour for dressing the warp. 
 
 We may estimate that every power-loom causes a 
 weekly consumption of three pounds of fine flour. 
 Now as there are at present not less than 100,000 
 power-looms in operation, the total flour consumed by 
 them per annum will be 3 X 52 X 100,000= 15,600,000 
 pounds, which divided by 280 will give 55,714 loads. 
 This quotient multiplied by two guineas will show the 
 
 * See this subject fully expounded in H. B. T.'s Letters on the 
 Corn Laws. 
 
438 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 cost of that weight to be 117,000/. Now suppose the 
 corn laws raise the price of flour 10,9. per load, the 
 power-loom manufacturers pay an annual tribute to 
 the landowners of 27,857/. ; or a tax of 5s. 6^d. upon 
 each of their looms. In what respect does this exaction 
 differ from feudal villenage except in the polite, or rather 
 oblique, manner of levying the service? The fortiter 
 in re remains, under an apparent suaviter in modo. 
 The industrious villains are now fortunately released 
 from the precariousness of employment under their 
 ancient lords, thus quaintly expressed by the chronicler 
 Braton : sciri non poterit vespere quale servitium fieri 
 debet mane*. 
 
 A fair evidence of commercial prosperity, in spite 
 of the corn act, is afforded by remarkably few failures, 
 a very great number of bills of exchange, rather small 
 in their character, yet the aggregate well kept up, 
 coupled at the same time with great supplies of money 
 from almost every part of the kingdom, by the great 
 regularity with which bills are paid, and by the manu- 
 facturer in credit readily getting accommodation. If 
 a man has the character of a good tradesman, is con- 
 ducting his business well and with prudence, he has 
 no difficulty in finding the requisite means upon his 
 own credit. The capital of the commercial world is 
 more diffused than it was formerly ; and every branch 
 of trade is now carried on by persons possessed of 
 capital of their own. Formerly it was extremely dif- 
 ficult to get capital to carry on any business, whether 
 trading, commercial, or manufacturing, but at this 
 time there is no difficulty, provided the parties have a 
 
 * He never knows at night what service will be required of him 
 in the morning. t 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 439 
 
 good concern to render that advance prudent. There 
 is now a reduction of profit indeed, but there is also 
 a reduction of risk; such reduction of profit arises 
 from the great mass of individuals possessing trading 
 intelligence and moderate capitals 3 and is the result 
 of the health and general well doing of the country. 
 The years 1824 and 1825 gave much salutary expe- 
 rience. 
 
 But capital alone is not worthy of credit, unless 
 associated with moral qualities in the tradesman; for 
 a prudent man of great industry, integrity, and know- 
 ledge in his business is more worthy of credit without 
 capital, than a rich man ignorant of his business. 
 Population has increased one-third in the last twenty 
 years, and the home trade fully in proportion, though 
 it is now carried on with much less expense than for- 
 merly. Persons who begin with large capitals do not 
 succeed, generally speaking, so well as those who 
 begin with small ones cautiously administered. 
 
 The manufacturer himself now supersedes almost 
 every middle man, and goes directly to the importer ; 
 that is, he studies to lay in his materials at the cheapest 
 possible rate, in order that he may make his trade 
 answer with the present smallness of profit. 
 
 The first symptom of an unprosperous trade is the ir- 
 regularity of the payments of the persons in it, a symp- 
 tom not much observed by the bankers for some years 
 back. The quantity of business has been increased to 
 make up for the decrease of profits ; but the same trade 
 may be now carried on with half the amount of capital*. 
 
 From 1820 to 1823 the average annual value of 
 the imports of foreign merchandize into the United 
 * Committee on Commerce, Manufactures, and Shipping, 1833. 
 
440 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 Kingdom was .... £32,381,000 
 in 1831 it was . . . 49,713,000 
 
 being an increase of more than fifty per cent. Of 
 that increase about seven millions were materials of 
 our manufactures, and little more than half a million 
 w 7 ere manufactured articles, being chiefly silk goods. 
 
 The exports for the first of the above three years 
 were annually worth . . # £42,950,000 
 and for the last year . . . 60,912,000 
 being an increase of nearly eighteen millions, or full 
 forty per cent. : 
 
 Consisting of Cotton Goods . £14,536,000 
 Linen . . 0,864,000 
 Woollen . . 0,208,000 
 Metal . . 1,600,000 
 Sundry Manufactures 0,784,000 
 
 £17,992,000 
 
 Under the improved system of trade introduced by 
 Mr. Huskisson, and since extended by his successors 
 in office, a progressively increasing quantity of the pro- 
 duce of British industry has been exported to foreign 
 countries. Thus in 
 
 1833. 1334. 
 
 Cotton Manufactures ;1 £13}782}377 £15,306,922 
 
 declared value J 
 
 Cotton Yam . . 4,704,024 5,205,501 
 
 Linen Manufactures . 2,239,030 2,605,837 
 
 Silk Manufactures . 0,737,404 636,419 
 
 Woollen Manufactures 6,540,636 5,975,657 
 
 £28,003,471 £29,730,336 
 
 Total exports of ninel £34489384 £36j5 41,926 
 Principal Articles J 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 441 
 
 Hence we see that the textile manufactures constitute 
 at present about ten-twelfths of the whole exports 
 of the United Kingdom ; and of these, seven-twelfths 
 are cotton goods. 
 
 The soundness as well as the elastic spirit of our 
 manufactures may be inferred from the following 
 statement of Mrr K. Finlay to a Committee of the 
 House of Commons, in May, 1833 : — (t I think that 
 if 50,000/. had been laid out well by judicious 
 parties who manage their business properly, ten years 
 ago, it would, long since, have returned that 50,000/ , 
 and perhaps another 50,000/. also; and that, therefore, 
 if the persons had exercised due economy, they would 
 now be in possession of their cotton-mill for nothing. 
 I consider that for the last two years there is a great 
 diminution in the profit, and I trust it is a temporary 
 diminution. I have seen a great many overthrows 
 in the cotton manufacture : in 1788 I thought it was 
 never to recover; in 1793 it got another blow; in 
 1799 it got a severe blow ; and in 1803 again, and in 
 1810. At particular periods, one would have thought 
 that it was never to extend again ; but at every time 
 that it received a blow, the rebound was quite won- 
 derful." 
 
 Mr. Marshall, of Leeds, states, in his evidence 
 to the Committee on Manufactures, that the linen 
 trade of England has been doubled, and that of Scot- 
 land trebled, since he was first connected with the 
 business, forty-five years ago. The flax-spinning, his 
 particular branch, has been very prosperous of late 
 years, owing to the great improvements in spinning 
 machinery; prior to which the French and Belgian 
 hand-spinners were so much more expert than those of 
 
 u3 
 
442 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 the United Kingdom, as to secure to Flanders, and 
 the north of Europe, the chief manufacture and source 
 of supply of superior linens. Mr. Marshall, in 1833, 
 employed twelve hundred and twenty-nine hands in 
 spinning, and from seventy to eighty mechanics, in bis 
 establishment — all at average good wages. He spins 
 about one- fourth of the whole quantity spun in Leeds. 
 He has re-constructed his machinery twice since he 
 has been in business. 
 
 The fall in the price of the raw material, joined 
 to the improvements in machinery, is the cause of the 
 lowered price of the manufactured article. 
 
 There has been, at the same time, no falling off in 
 the quantity of linens manufactured in Ireland ; but, 
 on the contrary, an increase, from the introduction of 
 mill-spun yarn, which has given the Irish linen a pre- 
 ference over the continental linens. 
 
 The women spinners, thrown out of work, have got 
 employment in the weaving department. 
 
 The proprietor of a small mill cannot manufacture 
 as cheaply as the proprietor of a large one, because he 
 has not the same means of making arrangements on a 
 proper scale. 
 
 The rate of profit is often in proportion to the mag- 
 nitude of a business. A partner of a great silk house 
 in London mentions the case of a friend who, after 
 starting in trade, on an advance of 20,000/., found that 
 on that scale he could make only six per cent. ; but 
 saw clearly that if his means were doubled he could 
 introduce such savings in his business as would yield 
 him a profit of nine per cent. It is these savings that 
 induce the cotton manufacturer to operate on the 
 large scale, and to make occasional sacrifices on small 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 443 
 
 parts of his stock, in order to carry or to secure a pro- 
 fitable result on the whole. It is to this circumstance 
 England owes her superiority : it is because her 
 capital is larger than the capital of any other country, 
 that she is able to introduce greater savings; and 
 occasional over-production is one of the evils conse- 
 quent upon it. Thus it is the practice of many ma- 
 nufacturers, in consequence of the advantage of operat- 
 ing on a large scale, to manufacture beyond the 
 amount of the orders they have received, and to export 
 the surplus, at a price which keeps down foreign com- 
 petition. The profits on the greater proportion in- 
 demnify them for the losses on the smaller. This 
 cannot be called an act of speculation, but of necessity. 
 The excess must be exported, or the system of operat- 
 ing on the great scale must be abandoned. 
 
 It is for the permanent interest of manufacturers to 
 sell for a small profit, and it is, on the other hand, a 
 short-sighted policy to seek for a large one; the know- 
 ledge, or even the rumour of which never fails to 
 bring a great many persons into the trade, with 
 the effect of entailing a ruinous depreciation of the 
 goods. The smallness of a profit stimulates to 
 diligence, economy, and discretion ; for a factory well 
 conducted may be very lucrative with a moderate 
 capital frequently turned. 
 
 When the wisdom of our ancestors was in the habit 
 of interfering with the business of individuals, Parlia- 
 ments had passed various restrictions on the linen 
 trade of Scotland. An act of the 13th of George I. 
 affords a remarkable instance of the folly of such legis- 
 lation. It contained no fewer than forty sections, 
 regulating not only the bulk of the thread to be used, 
 but the length, breadth, and shape of the cloth to 
 
444 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 be manufactured. Table linen, for example, was 
 to be made square, and to contain so many threads, 
 and no more, in a specified width. How this absurd 
 regulation came to be made we cannot easily imagine. 
 We may understand why cloth should not be allowed 
 to be too narrow, but why good cloth should be 
 restricted to a certain width, when a broader article 
 might be often wanted, is a secret buried with the 
 sapient fathers of the law. A great many other 
 statutes upon the same subject had been passed, 
 issuing out of the confusion and inconvenience arising 
 from the first. Mr. Huskisson had the merit of 
 doing away with them altogether by his bill on the 
 Scotch linen manufacture, passed in April, 1823. 
 Since this business has had its fetters struck off, it 
 has grown to a magnitude almost without a parallel in 
 any branch of trade. 
 
 Till 1830, no less a sum than 300,000^ was ex- 
 pended annually, in bounties, ou making and export- 
 ing Irish linens, being one -seventh of their total value, 
 — a monstrous abuse, which made the manufacturers 
 careless about improving their fabrics, or even about the 
 management and economy of their trade, and therefore 
 not generally prosperous, but occupied solely in sup- 
 plying foreigners with cheaper linens than could 
 be honestly made, and all for the vain glory, as it was 
 at the expense, of the British revenue. No wonder 
 that the nations of the Continent believed the English 
 to labour under a pecuniary plethora, and that they 
 played every species of extravagance to get rid of it. 
 
 During the year 1825, 35,993,038 yards of British 
 linen, worth 1,309,616/,, and 16,087,176 yards of Irish 
 linen, worth 918,385/. were exported from the United 
 Kingdom; amounting together to 52,080,184 yards, 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 445 
 
 worth 2,280,001 /. The bounties paid during the same 
 year on these two quantities of linen, were 209,516/.+ 
 84,549/. =297,065/. It appears that the bounty formed 
 no less than one-tenth of the price of these Irish ex- 
 ports ; and as the imports of linen into Great Britain 
 from Ireland were nearly of equal value with the total 
 exports from the United Kingdom, it further appears 
 that the total bounty was a bonus paid by this island 
 to her dear sister. 
 
 Scotland manufactured and stamped for exporta- 
 tion, in the year 1820, 36,268,530 yards of linen, 
 worth 1,396,295/. The linen intended for home con- 
 sumption was not stamped, and must be added to 
 the above. Dundee, by the adoption of improved 
 machinery, has increased its linen manufactures in a 
 wonderful manner — from a consumption of 3000 tons 
 in 1814, to 15,000 tons in 1830. In the year 1831 it 
 shipped off 50,000,000 yards of linen, about 3,500,000 
 yards of sail-cloth, and nearly 4,000,000 yards of 
 bagging; being about 57,000,000 yards in all. 
 These shipments had increased about one-sixth in the 
 year 1833, amounting, in value, to 1,600,000/.; and 
 being as great, from this single Scotish port, as from 
 the whole of Ireland. 
 
 The linen manufacture of the kingdom may be now 
 valued at eight millions sterling, of which it distributes 
 fully three millions in wages, employing about 180,000 
 hands, young and old. The consumption of foreign 
 linens in this country is inconsiderable, being, pro- 
 bably, under 20,000/. In 1833 there were retained, 
 for home consumption, 1,127,736 cwt. of flax and 
 tow, or codilla of hemp and flax; and 537,890 cwt. of 
 undressed hemp. The value of imports of raw 
 materials would be about two millions and a half 
 
446 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 of pounds sterling ; and of exports of linen, nearly as 
 much, besides the export of linen yarn. 
 
 It has been well observed, that the progress of 
 improvement in manufactures and the fine arts is the 
 same in principle *. An inferior sculptor, who had got 
 possession of the English market, would regret to see 
 the works of Canova, or of his expert Italian scholars, * 
 come into competition with his own ; but in this regret 
 the people of this country could not sympathize. 
 Every one desirous of promoting the diffusion of 
 a better taste in England would be glad to encourage 
 the importation of the productions of the Roman and 
 Florentine chisel. Now there is no distinction in 
 reality between the measures to be taken for the cul- 
 tivation of one species of industry more than another. 
 Present, in all cases, the best models for imitative 
 emulation, and you ensure the progress of improve- 
 ment. In every country there is more or less dormant 
 labour and faculty of invention. The great object 
 of all commercial legislation should be to call these 
 means of wealth and comfort into action by every 
 reasonable excitement ; and, above all, by admitting 
 the raw materials of the arts from their indigenous 
 countries exempt from duty, or impediment of any 
 kind. Even manufactures should not be excluded 
 by a high tax, but subjected simply to such a 
 moderate duty as may merely balance the particular 
 facilities of the district where they are made, and 
 furnish a custom-house revenue to the state. In fact, 
 foreign competition should always be permitted to 
 urge on, like an impelling spring, the movements of 
 our own industry, but not to press too suddenly on 
 the more delicate parts of the machinery, till its 
 * Dr. Bowring, M.P., in Silk Trade Report of 1832. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 447 
 
 adjustments have been allowed a moderate time to 
 settle themselves. It may be laid down as an axiom, 
 however, that the trade which cannot learn soon to 
 stand on its own legs at home, will never be able 
 to go abroad into the world, with all the patronage 
 of the state. 
 
 Free trade consists in the entire absence of restric- 
 tions of any kind on the export and import of mer- 
 chandize. Constrained trade has, for one of its prin- 
 ciples, to encourage the productions and manufactures 
 of our own country, by imposing taxes or prohibitions 
 on those of other countries ; and for another principle, 
 to prohibit the exportation of such of our native pro- 
 ductions as might be beneficial or essential to a rival 
 foreign manufacture. Besides removing as much as 
 possible all competition from native industry, legis- 
 latures, on many occasions, undertook to cherish it by 
 bounties on exportation, in order to enable the manu- 
 facturer or shipper to sell his goods at a cheap rate. 
 This system was necessarily very complex, being en- 
 tangled with numberless springs and counterchecks. 
 Its working was well illustrated in the case of wool, 
 the exportation of which, especially the long stapled 
 kind, was not permitted, because it would raise the 
 price to the home artisan, and supply the foreigner 
 with an indispensable material ; and all this in oppo- 
 sition to the interest of the grower, whose gains would 
 rise with the extent of his market. Moreover, the 
 encouragement of one manufacture was thought to 
 be injurious to others: that of wool, for example, to 
 the cotton, silk, and linen trades. The muslin manu- 
 facturer deprecates the exportation of cotton twist, and 
 solicits a restrictive duty upon it ; which the spinner 
 
448 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 declares to be absurd and iniquitous. The silk 
 weaver wishes to import thrown silk only, but he 
 is resisted by the silk throwster, who, in his turn, 
 claims a protective duty on the importation of thrown 
 silk, however injurious to the weaver. No arrange- 
 ment of human sagacity, separately or collectively 
 exercised, could adjust all the interests placed in 
 collision by that false principle. Individual, as well 
 as public justice, requires that trade be left free and 
 unembarrassed, unless special reasons can be given for 
 putting it in bondage ; just as it requires that every 
 man should enjoy perfect liberty of person, till his 
 liberty be proved to be dangerous to others. Every 
 man should be allowed to buy, to sell, and to manu- 
 facture in any way, and whatsoever articles he chooses, 
 and to transport them whithersoever he shall desire ; 
 and any law which interferes, either by prohibition or 
 regulation, with his business, is, until shown to be 
 necessary for some legitimate purpose of public 
 revenue, an act of oppression. When a duty is im- 
 posed on an article of native production, as spirits, for 
 the purpose of revenue, a corresponding duty must, in 
 justice, be laid on the same article imported from 
 abroad; but this is merely a fiscal compensation, 
 independent of the principles of free trade *. 
 
 The general principle of trade is, to sell, in order to 
 buy. We may open our ports to the silks and wines 
 of France, to the corn of Germany and Russia, to the 
 drugs of Asia and of India, but we cannot get a pound's 
 worth of any commodity without giving in return a 
 pound's worth of our own productions. Our manu- 
 facturers will give away nothing ; they will not send 
 their goods to foreign parts without getting an equiva- 
 * See Speeches of the Right Hon. W. Huskisson. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 449 
 
 lent in return ; and the producers of foreign commo- 
 dities, French, Germans, Russians, are as little likely 
 to make a present to the British consumer of their 
 hardly-earned produce without taking in return the 
 well-earned produce of this country. If foreign nations 
 meet our liberal policy by tightening still more their 
 restrictive system, they will merely limit their own ex- 
 port trade, and curtail their own commerce to the 
 injury of their people. If, by some potent spell, the 
 nations of the continent could surround their dominions 
 with the wall of brass imagined by Bishop Berkeley, if 
 they could effectually exclude every article of British 
 produce, whilst they opened their ports to give free 
 egress to their ow r n, they would not be able to intro- 
 duce a single vessel into our ports, or if they did, they 
 must make us a present of its cargo. They would de- 
 prive their own subjects of the benefit of mutual inter- 
 change — they would deprive us likewise of it, but they 
 could do no more ; they would impoverish and ruin 
 their own country; they would injure us in a less 
 degree ; they w^ould reduce us, no doubt, to an un- 
 happy condition, the necessity of producing all w r e want 
 within ourselves, the Utopia of the restrictive theorists. 
 
 Fortunately, no government has the power of carrying 
 into effect so pernicious a principle. There is in eco- 
 nomical as in physical compression, a point of resistance 
 endowed with irresistible energy, where legislation 
 becomes powerless. Governments may, indeed, enact 
 absurd laws, but they cannot compel mankind to obey 
 them. In the present case, the smuggler becomes the 
 corrector of faulty legislation, and the vindicator of 
 human rights. Through his agency acts of parliament 
 are nullified, and the vigilance of custom-houses is 
 
450 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 eluded. What a striking proof of this equating prin- 
 ciple has Europe lately seen ! The man whose com- 
 manding influence was never surpassed in modern, 
 and seldom equalled in ancient times, even Napoleon, 
 when in the zenith of his power, fulminated his decrees 
 from Milan and Berlin against international com- 
 merce in vain. The mighty chief whose armies en- 
 thralled in succession every capital of continental 
 Europe, who raised up and threw down kings with a 
 breath of his mouth, was set at nought by the feeblest 
 of his subjects. The smuggler triumphed over him 
 in the heart of his empire, and defeated his myrmidons 
 of gendarmes and douaniers. The goods against 
 w T hich he erected stupendous dams found their way 
 through innumerable channels to the palace of his 
 pride. It is well known that an uninterrupted line of 
 communication was established between Archangel 
 in the Frozen Ocean, and the capital of France, by 
 which the bulkiest articles of commerce, cotton goods, 
 sugars, coffees, were conveyed with as much certainty, 
 under a stipulated per centage, as from London to 
 Dover. Insurances upon their safe delivery at the 
 destined goal were easily effected at Brody and Leipsic, 
 in contempt of the tyrant's denunciations *. 
 
 But the silk trade now exhibits the best illustration 
 of the compensating principle. Italy, which furnishes 
 us annually with raw and thrown silk to the value of 
 upwards of two millions sterling, refuses to open her 
 ports to our manufactures in return. How do we then 
 repay her, since her custom-houses reject the equiva- 
 lent debt in barter? Upon a careful examination, it 
 appears that the bills which are drawn from Italy for 
 
 * Right Hon. C. P. Thompson. Speech on the Silk Trade, 14th 
 April, 1829. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 451 
 
 payment of this silk, by several houses in the trade, are, 
 to the amount of at least three-fourths, remittances 
 from the Austrian and other German states made to 
 Manchester and Glasgow for their cotton manufactures. 
 Thus we see how impossible it is for any government 
 to resist the desires which their own people have, to 
 possess reciprocally the productions of another nation. 
 It may injure its own subjects by enhancing the price 
 of the commodities they need, but it cannot deprive 
 them of their enjoyment. 
 
 The advantage of the country which is the first to 
 adopt free trade is not merely conditional, but abso- 
 lute. Under our old system of restriction, other 
 nations could arrange and maintain equivalent restric- 
 tions ; but under a sy tern of free intercourse, they 
 may indeed apply shackles to trade, but they cannot 
 bind them fast. They may strive for a time to humour 
 the wishes of the interested producers, and their dupes 
 in their own country, but they cannot carry on the 
 delusion long. The ruin of their own manufactures, 
 the impoverishment of all those not directly enriched 
 by the monopoly, and the remonstrances of the great 
 mass of consumers will, ere long, compel their govern- 
 ment to adopt a wiser and a juster course. If we 
 w r ait till a foreign state grant reciprocity, we are the 
 slaves of their prejudices ; if we give free admission 
 to their produce, we become in so much their masters. 
 What is the mercantile condition of France at the 
 present moment ? What profit does it derive from the 
 illiberal policy which now guides, and will probably 
 continue for some time to guide the councils of that 
 kingdom ? She manufactures cotton goods and raises 
 iron at a far greater cost than she could get them from 
 
452 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 us ; and in doing so, she plumes herself on her pa- 
 triotism. But what effect has that system of forced 
 production on the national well-being ? What do 
 those classes of producers think of this system, when 
 they find that there is no longer an adequate demand 
 for their own goods ? Are they, or should they be 
 satisfied ? No, truly; for they have discovered to their 
 cost, that other nations will not and cannot buy their 
 produce, when they, by means of their fiscal laws, 
 refuse to take barter in return. Multitudes of the 
 suffering wine-growers and others, having had their 
 eyes now painfully opened, call upon the Chambers in 
 the strongest language to renounce the restrictive 
 system, and to adopt another more propitious to their 
 interests. These wine-growers involve an interest five 
 times greater than any other class within the French 
 territories, employing three millions of people, and a 
 capital ten times the amount of what is embarked in 
 any other business of the country. " What," say they, 
 V is the basis of the prohibitive system ? It is the 
 chimera of selling without buying. A mystery still to 
 be unfolded. If we shut our ports to the productions 
 of other nations, it is good for us at least to be aware 
 that their ports must be sealed against our industry ; 
 for this reciprocity is inevitable in the nature of things, 
 and what are its results ? The destruction of the 
 means of interchange, the suppression of all emulation 
 for improvement, and the obtaining a worse article at 
 a dearer cost." This sound doctrine is supported by 
 infallible proofs ; by official documents, showing that 
 the decrease in the exportation of wines from Bordeaux 
 and other places has amounted to from 100,000 to 
 300,000 hogsheads. In fact, the French must sooner 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 453 
 
 or later follow our footsteps in the career of free trade. 
 A restrictive sytem cannot, in this age of the world, be 
 upheld by the pow T er of governments, nor be suffered 
 by the interests of their people. 
 
 In pursuing a gradually progressive but steady ap- 
 proach to a liberal system, we must tamper as little as 
 possible with manufacturing or commercial industry 
 by legislative regulation. Like love, its workings must 
 be free as air ; for at sight of human ties, it will spread 
 the light wings of capital and fly away from bondage. 
 By loosening the bands in which the unwise tenderness 
 of our old legislators had sw T addled the trade of great 
 Britain, by letting it run wherever it may list, by ex- 
 posing it freely to the breezes of competition, we have 
 within a few years aiyen it fresh vigour and a new life. 
 National industry has the same principle of vigorous 
 growth as the mountain pine. Self-sown in the clefts 
 of the rocks, it creates a soil for its roots, shoots up a 
 hardy stem, is invigorated by the gale which would 
 blast the nursery plant, eventually rears its head on 
 high, and forms a mast for some (( tali ammiral." 
 Planted in the rich compost of a parterre, having its 
 infant shoots nursed in the close atmosphere of a 
 forcing ^lass, protected from extremes of heat, mois- 
 ture, and drought by a watchful gardener, it remains 
 feeble, dwarfish, and sickly, and never can become a 
 mass of timber profitable to its owner, or useful to 
 the state. The elements of industry may be ex- 
 pressed in one w 7 ord — competition *. Never was a 
 better advice given to a monarch too ambitious of the 
 glory of patronage, when he asked what he could do 
 to promote trade. " Let it take its own course/' 
 
 * Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, kt si/pra. 
 
454 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 was the memorable reply. This adage ought to be 
 engraved on the portals of every legislative assembly 
 of the old world and the new. 
 
 Since liberal principles have begun to prevail in 
 the councils of Britain, they have given a wonderful 
 development to the talent, the genius, the enterprize, 
 the capital, the industry of the nation ; they have 
 pushed on its manufactures with an accelerated im- 
 pulse among those of rival states, and have placed 
 them on such a vantage-ground, as nothing but moral 
 disorders from want of right education among the 
 people can subvert. 
 
 It was in 1824 that Mr. Huskisson introduced the 
 principle of free trade into our silk manufacture. He 
 reduced the duty on thrown silk from 14s. 7\d. to 
 7 s. 6d., and the duty on raw silks from 3s. to Id. per 
 lib. In 1825 the duty on thrown silk was reduced 
 from 7s. 6d. to 5s. per lib., the last change being 
 effected by a Treasury order ; as it was the intention of 
 Mr. H. to impose an ad valorem duty of 30 per cent, 
 on foreign goods imported into this country. In 1826 
 the new President of the Board of Trade substituted 
 for the latter plan a graduated scale of duties regu- 
 lated by weight, by pieces, &c, the basis of which was 
 30 per cent. In April 14, 1829, during a period of 
 depression in business, a motion was made in the 
 House of Commons for enquiring into the state of the 
 silk trade. Mr. Huskisson and Mr. C. P. Thomson 
 argued that the law on the subject was not in fault, 
 and endeavoured to show that the weavers themselves 
 were to blame. Although their " book price," as it 
 was called, had been repealed, some parts of that 
 system were still retained. A London manufacturer 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 455 
 
 sent for two operatives to Spitalfields when the dis- 
 tress was most talked of, and offered them 7d. a yard 
 for weaving a quantity of serge. The proposal being 
 laid before their union-committee was rejected. The 
 manufacturer got the work forthwith done in Essex 
 for 5d. a yard. As to the throwster, the operation of 
 the new law had been to extend greatly his business. 
 
 In 1821 the proportion of Italian thrown silk to Ita- 
 lian raw silk was 56^ per cent.; in 1822 it was 59 
 per cent.; in 1823, 55 per cent; in 1827, two years 
 after the operation of the law, it was 35 per cent. ; 
 and in 1828, when the law had become active, it was 
 only 25 per cent. Improvements in machinery, which 
 had rendered the old mills of little value, had a con- 
 siderable share in the present distress. Another cause 
 was the smallness of capital among the throwsters, 
 which incapacitated them from supplying themselves 
 with the raw material on good terms, and rendered 
 them the jobbers of the brokers. No throwster who 
 had adopted improved machinery appeared to have 
 suffered ; but many of them, on the contrary, had 
 been very prosperous. Even if all duty were removed 
 from thrown silk, the weaver to whom it served as a 
 raw material would be benefitted. It has been said 
 that the fine silk of Italy could be thrown to the best 
 advantage only in that country, owing to the pecu- 
 liarity of its climate ; and that the coarser silks were 
 better suited to the throwsters of Great Britain *. 
 
 From 1823 to 1828 there was an increase in raw and 
 thrown silk amounting to 90 per cent. Under the re- 
 strictive system, the weavers of Spitalfields were exposed 
 every three years to a season of distress. In the year 1817 
 40,000Z. were subscribed for their relief ; and 40,000 
 * See this subject discussed, p. 248, 
 
456 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 persons were said to be in want. The absurd act of 
 parliament which regulated wages, had driven capital 
 from Spitalfields, and yet it was sought to be restored 
 by the deluded operatives of that district. Were such 
 an act extended throughout the kingdom, it would 
 drive every manufacturer out of it. > 
 
 If it were possible, says a great master of commer- 
 cial economy, to make a calculation of the quantity of 
 labour that is wasted — positively thrown away — in 
 consequence of different provinces and countries striv- 
 ing to produce commodities for which they have not 
 the best facilities, the mind of men would turn with 
 disgust from the protective system, so tenaciously 
 clung to by the Spitalfield weavers, and so absurdly 
 lauded by their parliamentary patrons *. 
 
 The existence of a profitable foreign trade in any 
 article is wholly incompatible with the existence of a 
 protecting system for it. Protection implies the ne- 
 cessity of a price beyond the average price in the 
 market, of the world ; for were it otherwise, protection 
 would neither be wanted nor could with decency be 
 sought. With regard to France, eleven-fourteenths 
 of her silk trade is for exportation, leaving only three- 
 fourteenths for her home consumption, affording there- 
 fore a considerable portion of reward to industry. On 
 the protection system Great Britain must have confined 
 her silk manufacture to her home consumption, and 
 remained deprived of participation with France and 
 Switzerland in the custom of the world at large. 
 
 There can be no trade with foreigners in fact, but 
 what involves some superiority in those who carry it 
 on ; and unless a nation possesses some peculiar ad- 
 vantage in reference to another nation, commercial 
 * J. D. Hume,. Esq., Secretary to the Board of Trade. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 457 
 
 interchange could not take place between them. Equa- 
 lity would cause an equilibrium or stagnation as to 
 export and import, that is, a destruction of all barter, 
 so that each would be compelled to do every thing 
 within itself, and to subsist on its own scanty range of 
 productions. The peculiar faculties of a country can- 
 not be duly developed under restraint of any kind, as 
 is well shown by the French law, which prohibits the 
 exportation of their first quality of silk. Were this 
 law repealed, it would greatly encourage the silk 
 growers, who enjoy uncommon facilities, and by lower- 
 ing the price of the raw material, their silk manufac- 
 ture would be encouraged. The same argument applies 
 to the cotton and worsted manufactures of France. 
 This branch of business is in great distress from the 
 false direction given to industry by the government. 
 Foreign manufactures may be fairly made to pay a 
 moderate duty as the best way of providing revenue 
 supplies to the state ; but not such a tax as the manu- 
 facturer of the importing country can put into his 
 pocket to reward his unprofitable industry. So applied, 
 it becomes a legalized embezzlement of national re- 
 sources for private and injurious ends : it is, in fact, the 
 worst form of sinecure. 
 
 Since the opening of the English ports to French 
 silks, the looms at Lyons for weaving fancy goods have 
 greatly increased in number ; while those for plain 
 goods have considerably decreased, a line in which 
 they possess no peculiar facilities over England. The 
 best security against distress among the operatives of 
 any country, is to apply their labour to the natural 
 and most improved field of production. The relative 
 situations and aptitudes of nations can be best judged 
 
 vol. i. X 
 
458 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 of by the emulation which exists between their opera- 
 tives in the open, unprotected area of trade. 
 
 The complicated problem of wages in two or more 
 countries cannot be solved by the analysis of a single 
 class of productions : there may be in it peculiarities 
 which tend to reduce wages below the average standard, 
 though, when applied to the whole industry of nations, 
 there is always in the market a quantity of labour 
 whose excess or deficiency regulates its price. In 
 making goods for a foreign market, their price, and 
 of course that of the labour involved in them, must fall, 
 if the admission of the foreign articles to be returned 
 in exchange be prohibited. Close up any channel to 
 the export of English labour, by the prohibition of 
 your neighbour's peculiar articles of barter, and you 
 diminish the demand proportionally for British labour. 
 Thus new restrictions would very soon (namely, the 
 moment the equilibrium of trade can take place 
 between countries) aggravate the evil and distress ; 
 the inevitable result of prohibition. In most countries, 
 but particularly in France and the United States, 
 there is a great deal of misdirected labour, or a dis- 
 turbed equilibrium of industry, which makes its level 
 too low in one district, and too high in another. 
 Nothing can give permanent relief on the great scale 
 of the civilized world, but the entire suppression of the 
 prohibitory system. A particular place possessing a 
 monopoly may indeed gain by the prohibitory system 
 for a time, but in the long run it would lose, and at 
 any rate could never prosper but at the expense of the 
 rest of the community. 
 
 To repair as far as possible the ruinous condition of 
 the French manufactures, resulting from the revoca- 
 tion of the edict of Nantes, and at the same time to 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 459 
 
 flatter the pride of its profligate author Louis XIV., 
 his celebrated minister Colbert established, two years 
 after that event, an exclusive commercial system, and 
 pushed with fresh spirit his favourite project of aggran- 
 dizing the productive arts by royal patronage ; a policy 
 pursued by his country ever since with extraordinary 
 infatuation. Colbert's avowed purpose was to render 
 France as much the mistress of the civilized world in 
 manufacturing as he thought her to be in military 
 glory ; and to render her independent of the inter- 
 change of commodities with other kingdoms. On this 
 occasion he extended the public grants of funds, 
 honours, and immunities, to all adventurers who 
 volunteered to advance his schemes ; and he thus 
 forced many branches of industry into a precocious 
 development, which w T as mistaken for sound growth, 
 until the vicissitudes of trade caused them in succes- 
 sion to wither and die. His was indeed the vainest 
 of projects, for it aimed at nothing less than controlling 
 and turning the wayward streams of industry, flowing 
 from the wants, tastes, and caprices of millions of 
 individuals, into a few artificial channels scooped out 
 by the state. Conceiving that he was qualified to 
 determine what was every man's interest better than 
 he could himself, he framed a code of laws to regulate 
 the processes of art in certain favourite manufactures. 
 This presumptuous interference with private industry 
 was not new. It had been attempted several years 
 before, by the official publication of a book of instruc- 
 tions on dyeing, remarkable alike for the minuteness and 
 the absurdity of its details. Entertaining a prejudice 
 against indigo, Colbert forbade the dyers of blue cloth 
 to put more than a certain proportion of that drug in 
 
 x2 
 
460 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 their woad vats. He enacted that the dyers of black 
 should begin their process in the grand tint, and finish 
 it in the little tint ; permitting the dyers of the former 
 style to have a certain number of ingredients in their 
 possession, and those of the latter to have a smaller 
 number; but allowing neither of ihem to have Brazil 
 wood and some other specified articles in his dye-works. 
 
 How small an amount of manufacturing prosperity 
 the exclusive policy of Colbert has produced ; and how 
 much agricultural, commercial/ and manufacturing 
 wealth has been either destroyed or checked in its 
 natural progress, is very apparent in the history of 
 France during the century and a half which have 
 elapsed since his time. The immense resources of the 
 country, and active intelligence of its people, have been 
 spell-bound by the evil genius of their grand monarque, 
 without their being aware of their cataleptic condition. 
 A competent judge has asserted that the whole of the 
 bounties which have induced adventurers to enter into 
 remote speculations, as well as the excessive duties 
 imposed on foreign articles cheaper than their own 
 pet productions, have been sacrifices of national wealth 
 without almost any compensation. The French system 
 is a vain attempt to force capital into new directions 
 independently of the genius and capabilities of the 
 people.* 
 
 The high prices which are created by the protective 
 system are wholly incompatible with an extended 
 foreign trade ; for though they may be extorted by the 
 influence of government from its dependents, for an 
 inferior article, they cannot be obtained from foreign 
 independent nations. A protective system necessarily 
 
 * Dr. Bowring, M.P., in the Report on the Commercial Relations 
 between Great Britain and France. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 461 
 
 renounces the markets of the world for the home 
 market, or if it seeks a foreign sale, it must bribe the 
 purchaser by premiums, under the title of drawbacks 
 on . exportation. The commerce of France, which 
 amounted in 1787, with less than 25 millions of 
 people, to 25 millions sterling, amounted in 1830, 
 with 33 millions of people, to only 25J millions, not- 
 withstanding the immense increase of population in the 
 civilized parts of the world, and the extent of country 
 opened by political events to commercial enterprize. 
 
 The external commerce of England, in 1787, was, 
 for 9 millions of people, only 18 millions sterling, 
 being 7 millions less than that of France, at the same 
 period; and in 1830 it amounted to nearly 70 millions 
 sterling. The shipping of France is little greater at 
 the second period than it was at the first, while that 
 of England has been doubled with her quadrupled 
 commerce. Comparative statements furnished by the 
 French-Custom House to our commercial commis- 
 sioners, Messrs. Villiers and Bowring, of the exports 
 and imports between England and France, and France 
 and the Netherlands, throw much light upon the man- 
 ner in which the balance of trade is adjusted between 
 the three countries. 
 
 The official value of our imports from 
 
 France in 1831, was . . . .£.3,055,616 
 
 That of the imports of France from 
 
 this country was .. .. 897,179 
 
 From the above statements it will be seqn that the 
 excess of French exports to Great Britain over her 
 imports from it, is to a great extent paid in barter 
 through the Netherlands. Indigo, an article exported to 
 the value of from three to five millions of francs from the 
 
462 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 Netherlands into France, is imported by the former 
 country from England merely in transit, because being 
 one of our colonial productions, it cannot be directly 
 admitted by the French laws. Again, it is from the 
 Netherlands chiefly that the clandestine introduction 
 of British goods into France takes place to an amount 
 far greater than is necessary to explain the apparent 
 incongruity between the value of what France takes 
 officially from us, and what we take from France. 
 
 Thus a government suffers no less than its people 
 from the prohibitory system. The difference of price 
 between the foreign and the home made article might 
 be made, very conveniently, a source of revenue, and 
 so far diminish internal taxation ; instead of which it 
 is given to the protected fabrics at the expense of the 
 treasury, and causes an increasing quantity of articles 
 to be withdrawn by contraband from the revenue. As 
 goods are raised in price in compliance with the 
 clamorous manufacturers, they draw a larger sum 
 directly out of the consumers' pockets, and indirectly 
 compel him to make up by a tax for the deficiencies 
 thereby created in the customs. Nor does the evil 
 stop here : for the interests which had been protected 
 by government look to government for relief, when 
 that pressure, which inevitably impends, comes upon 
 them : thus the government first produces sickliness 
 by pampering its offspring, and is then properly 
 enough called upon to remedy the consequences. 
 French prohibition presents an instructive history of 
 the effects of violating the laws by which capital and 
 labour should be governed : it is a vain struggle to 
 attain what is unattainable ; and it rejects the natural 
 advantages which are at the command of industry, in 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 463 
 
 pursuit of objects beyond its reach. The wines of 
 France, for example, afford unbounded means of ex- 
 change, but they have been sacrificed to iron and 
 cotton goods ; articles produced at an extravagant cost, 
 and when produced, of no value in foreign trade,, on 
 account of the price of their production. The only 
 article of French manufacture upon which foreign 
 competition is allowed to act with tolerably fair play 
 is silk : it is the least protected, and though not in so 
 satisfactory a state as it might be, it has the best pro- 
 spects ; though the silk trade, like every other, shares in 
 the suffering caused by the prohibitory system, since one 
 prohibition entails another. The foreign raw material 
 is taxed for the benefit of the silk grower ; the manu- 
 facturer complains of the evil, and he persuades an 
 inconsistent legislation to prohibit the export of silk of 
 native growth, so that each is content to be juggled in 
 his turn, in the name of patriotism. 
 
 The heavy taxes on foreign iron and foreign wood 
 justify the French machinist in demanding and obtain- 
 ing the exclusion of machines made abroad, and in 
 requiring from manufacturers a monopoly price for 
 those made by himself. But in shutting out the 
 mechanisms of other countries, he has no choice of 
 patterns to lay before his workmen, or for himself to 
 improve upon. He has to begin the solution of many 
 intricate, mechanical problems at the elementary prin- 
 ciples, and proceeds, through a train of expensive 
 constructions, to an equivocal conclusion, while he 
 might at once have arrived at a certain one, by seeing 
 the results of successful experiments already made in 
 other countries. 
 
 The French consume iron in agriculture and the 
 
464 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 arts, to the amount of 160 thousand tons annually, 
 and as they pay at least 10/. per ton more to their 
 iron masters for it than they could get it from Eng- 
 land, they thereby sacrifice a sum of one million six 
 hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum to that 
 part of their protective system ; or in 22 years of their 
 present iron laws, they have wasted 30 millions sterling 
 of the national wealth in direct sacrifice, and double that 
 sum indirectly. And to what purpose ? Have their 
 iron masters prospered, or have they improved their 
 manufacture ? On the contrary, they require now a 
 higher price for their iron, relative to the English 
 price, than when they first obtained their monopoly, 
 and the largest of their companies has become bank- 
 rupt, while other adventurers have sustained ruinous 
 losses.* 
 
 In few of the protected articles of manufacture can 
 France now sustain a competition with other coun- 
 tries, nor can she hope for much improvement as long 
 as she deprives her artisans of the discipline and know- 
 ledge produced by that competition, which is no less 
 valuable to the manufacturer than to the consumer. 
 Meanwhile the fairest blossoms of her industry are 
 devoured by the canker-worm of smuggling. It was 
 estimated that 2,100,000 kilogrammes of goods were 
 introduced clandestinely into France by bands of 
 dogs, trained to the business, and called chiens frau- 
 deurs. Tobacco, colonial produce, cotton-twist, and 
 fabrics, are generally the objects of this illicit trade. 
 The dogs carry from twenty to twenty-five pounds 
 a-piece, amounting sometimes in value to from 20/. 
 to 451. sterling. The temptation to smuggle some 
 * Dr. Bo wring, M.P. ut supra. 
 
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 
 
 465 
 
 articles is very great ; cotton yarn of the French num- 
 ber, 180 for example, which may be had in England 
 for eighteen francs a pound, fetches in France forty 
 francs. Of late there has been a considerable contra- 
 band, in our dyed woollen yarns, which brings as much 
 as seventy per cent, of profit to the smuggler. 
 
 It has been estimated by the French Custom-House 
 that about one-twelfth of the contraband articles are 
 seized ; calculating from which datum and the value 
 of the seizures, it would appear that British manufac- 
 tures, to the amount of 230,000/., are illicitly intro- 
 duced by the Belgian frontiers alone. But as the 
 goods realize a small part of their true value from the 
 difficulties of exportation, and as one of the articles 
 most extensively introduced, namely, cotton-twist, is 
 protected from seizure after being deposited with the 
 manufacturer, there is great reason to believe that the 
 value of the contraband goods is ten times greater 
 than the sum above stated, being probably somewhat 
 more than tw T o millions sterling. 
 
 Some data for estimating the amount of smuggling 
 of English goods into France may be found in the 
 facts known with regard to the smuggling of French 
 goods into England. It appears that French silks, to 
 the value of 350,000/., are fraudulently introduced into 
 this country every year ; of which those seized amount 
 to no more than 9000/., being only one thirty-ninth 
 part, or about two and a half per cent., which repre- 
 sents the risk run, independent of the cost of packing, 
 freight, &c. The risk incurred in France on account 
 of its triple cordon of custom-houses, may be safely 
 estimated at five per cent, greater than in England ; 
 hence, leaving out the article of cotton-twist, which is 
 
 x3 
 
466 
 
 COMMERCIAL ECONOMY OF 
 
 excluded only under a certain fineness, the introduc- 
 tion through the northern frontier of the Atlantic ports 
 would be found to be enormous. 
 
 A state of things so offensive to the national ho- 
 nour, so ruinous to the finances, and so subversive of 
 its morals, cannot but excite the strongest solicitude 
 for a radical change in the system which first created 
 and now fosters it. 
 
 The prohibitions at present in force by the custom- 
 house legislation of Great Britain are very inconsi- 
 derable. The total amount of duties evaded by the 
 clandestine import of French silks, brandies, &c. into 
 this country does not exceed 800,000Z. per annum, 
 exclusive of tobacco-cargoes occasionally smuggled 
 from the French bonding warehouses into Ireland. 
 
 The expenditure of the French treasury in premiums 
 or bounties, and drawbacks to their manufacturers, has 
 gone on of late years in a rapidly increasing ratio. In 
 1817, the whole amount so disbursed was only 3500Z. 
 but in 1830 it had mounted to nearly 600,000Z. or 
 one-fifth part of the whole Custom-House revenues of 
 France ; and if the system be continued it may eventu- 
 ally absorb all the resources of the state. 
 
 In cotton-wool, where the French customs received 
 in the year 1830 only 380,000 francs from the impor- 
 tation, it expended in drawbacks and bounties 850,000 
 francs to the exporters. At this rate, had the whole 
 cotton-wool imported been manufactured for export, it 
 would have robbed the treasury of 8,000,000 of francs 
 over and above the 6,000,000 paid to the Custom-House 
 on its importation. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note A. — p, 88. 
 
 The influence of the air and other refractive media, on the 
 appearances of minute bodies viewed through a microscope, 
 may be very conveniently studied on particles of starch ; — 
 those of arrow-root, for example. This, like all the 
 varieties of fecula, consists of a transparent substance in- 
 closed in a membranous bag of a spheroidal shape, which 
 protects it from the solvent action of water, but which 
 bursts by exposure to an elevated temperature, and allows 
 the matter to show its soluble gummy nature. When a 
 little arrow-root is dusted upon a slip of glass, and placed 
 in the focus of a good achromatic microscope, it appears to 
 consist of a congeries of black elliptic rings of considerable 
 breadths, with very luminous centres (see a, Fig. 58). 
 
 00 
 
468 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 If the dust be now moistened with water, the particles will 
 assume somewhat of their proper form of clear spheroidal 
 lenses (or rather irregular ovoids), with darkish edges 
 (see b) ; if it be imbued with oil of turpentine instead of 
 water, they will be seen under the same form, but with 
 clearer and sharper outlines, though altogether dimmer 
 under the same light, and with black dots towards their 
 centres (see c). In this case, the more refractive medium 
 surrounding the particles lessens the deviation of light at 
 their edges, and at the same time acts round them like a 
 concave lens, so as to disperse outwardly the light which 
 would be otherwise concentrated into their substance. If 
 the particles be viewed after a little, when the oil has eva- 
 porated and left a solid film, they will appear like shadowy 
 pearls (see d). In Canada balsam, thinned with oil of 
 turpentine, they will no longer appear as spheroidal lenses 
 brightest in the middle, but as filmy scales with a very 
 black dot in the centre of their convexity (see e). After a 
 few minutes, when the balsam gets inspissated by the eva- 
 poration of the volatile oil, the particles look as if they 
 were concave or dished out in the middle part, with thick- 
 ened up-turned borders, and more strongly marked with 
 the black dots. When the balsam eventually becomes a 
 concrete resin, they lose all distinctness of outline, most of 
 them totally disappear, and the rest are recognizable only 
 by gleaming spots of pearly white (see f). 
 
 These interesting metamorphoses were sketched for the 
 wood-cut in the progress of their development by Mr. Sly, 
 an artist familiar with the details of natural history, and 
 skilful in representing them. 
 
 I had the pleasure lately of showing these phenomena 
 to the distinguished entomologist W. Spence, Esq.,F.R.S., 
 and several other gentlemen who can bear witness to the 
 fidelity of my observations. They lead to the conclusion, 
 that in order to view any spheroidal or cylindrical object 
 with advantage in the microscope, we should plunge it in 
 
NOTES. 
 
 469 
 
 a medium of a refractive power a little, and but a little, 
 different from its own. When the difference in this re- 
 spect is very great, as between air and wool, for example, 
 the interior structure of the fibres is not distinguishable, 
 while the warty excrescences so common on certain coarse 
 fleeces are well seen; but when that difference is very 
 small, as between balsam and wool, the imbricated texture 
 of the fibres is clearly developed, while the warts disappear ; 
 because being spongy they assimilate in optical quality 
 with the varnish. Cotton filaments, however, are of such 
 a form and constitution as to cause little deviation in the 
 rays of light transmitted through them, and they may 
 therefore be viewed with more propriety in air or water 
 than in balsam ; for this affects their edges, as it does those 
 of starchy particles. Thin scales or parallel sections of 
 any kind cause no deviation in the light falling per- 
 pendicularly on their surfaces, and are therefore, as far as 
 their outline is concerned, correctly seen in air. The 
 following liquids furnish a good gradation of refractive 
 densities : — 
 
 Index of Refraction. 
 
 Water . . .1*336 
 
 Albumen (white of egg) . 1 • 360 
 
 Solution of common salt . 1 '375 
 
 sal ammoniac . 1 * 382 
 
 Oil of lavender . . 1*467 
 
 turpentine . . 1*476 
 
 Canada balsam . 1 * 528 
 
 Oil of cloves . . . 1 * 535 
 
 Carburet of sulphur . 1 * 680 
 
 Mixtures of oil of turpentine and Canada balsam furnish 
 media of refractive powers, intermediate between 1*476 
 and 1*528. 
 
410 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Note B.— p. 125. 
 
 For the following interesting observations I am indebted 
 to William Ogilby, Esq., Member of the Zoological 
 Society of London, &c, &c, &c. : — 
 
 Great as are the changes which domestication has pro- 
 duced in the form and habits of the sheep, and innumerable 
 as are the varieties resulting from the operation of this 
 principle, there is perhaps none of our domestic animals 
 whose original stock has been ascertained with greater 
 precision, or is subject to less difference of opinion. Indeed 
 we are acquainted with only two wild species of the sheep 
 genus, from which this useful animal could possibly derive 
 its origin : one the Argali (Ovis Ammon), which inhabits 
 the loftiest mountain chains of Asia and North America ; 
 andlthe other, the Moufflon (Ovis Aries), called Musmon 
 and Ophion by Pliny, which still abounds on the moun- 
 tains of Asia Minor, Greece, Barbary, Corsica, and Sar- 
 dinia, and which in the time of the Roman Republic 
 appears to have been not less common in Spain and Por- 
 tugal. It has been agreed on all hands, as well by ancient 
 as by modern authors, that the latter species furnished the 
 original stock of our domestic sheep ; and the opinion is 
 confirmed, not only by the perfect similarity which exists 
 in the external and internal structure of the two animals, 
 but by the facility with which they breed together, and 
 even by localities inhabited by the Moufflon, surrounding 
 as they do the very cradle of human civilization. The 
 ancients, indeed, as Columella informs us, occasionally 
 endeavoured to improve the domestic breed by crossing it 
 with the wild animal, and in modern times some of our 
 English breeds have been crossed in the same manner, by 
 means of a wild ram introduced into this country by the 
 celebrated General Paoli. The wool of the Moufflon is 
 very short and coarse ; the fleece, in fact, resembles that 
 of the domestic sheep of tropical countries, being more 
 
NOTES. 
 
 similar to hair than wool, but it improves rapidly by a 
 little care and attention. In a state of nature, the wild 
 sheep inhabits only the loftiest summits of the mountain 
 ranges, living in flocks more or less numerous, and de- 
 scending to the lower hills and valleys only when forced 
 by the severity of the season. It is a bold, active, and in- 
 telligent animal, and exhibits nothing of the helpless or 
 stupid character often ascribed to its domestic represen- 
 tative ; but those who have seen the half-wild flocks of 
 Wales and other mountainous countries are well aware 
 that their apparent stupidity and dependence are the result 
 of circumstances, and form no part of the animal's original 
 character. 
 
 Note C— p. 253. 
 
 There are some records so tortuous as to put a tolerably 
 clear intellect at fault. The evidence published by the 
 Committee of 1832 upon the silk trade, though replete 
 with valuable information, is of that mazy kind, and will 
 create a vertigo in the brains of most readers ; for autho- 
 rities of apparently equal force are there exhibited acting 
 upon the contested point at every angle of inclination or 
 obliquity, and presenting to the political economist a pro- 
 blem, not unlike the famous dynamical one of the three 
 bodies. I fear much that some parts of my chapter upon 
 silk, notwithstanding much pains bestowed upon equilibra- 
 tion, will betray symptoms of the vortices out of which 
 they have been extricated. 
 
 The account given in that parliamentary report of the 
 method used at Lyons for estimating the fineness of silk, is 
 as curious a mystification of a plain matter as a commenta- 
 tor could desire, and however unchallenged it might pass 
 among the members at the time, it is calculated to ' puzzle 
 posterity.' We read there, c The weight is taken in 
 grammes, 24 of which constitute 1 denier; 24 deniers 
 
472 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 make 1 ounce; and 15 ounces 1 pound, poids de marc, 
 which is the Lyons mode of selling silk. The weight of 
 one thread of 400 ells is about 2\ grammes, when five 
 threads are reeled together.' 
 
 Now, since 1 gramme weighs 18*82715 Paris grains*, 
 2 f weigh 42*3 grains, which represent by the above 
 document the weight of 400 ells of such silk thread, being 
 nearly twenty times greater than the reality. And 18 * 8275 
 grains ( = 1 gramme) X 24 x 24 X 15 = 162,666*576 
 grains, represent by the same document 1 pound, poids de 
 marc, being from seventeen to eighteen times more than 
 the real number, 9216 grainsf. 
 
 My experimental inquiry into the weight of the denier, 
 by which the value of silk per 400 ells (French) is esti- 
 mated, has led to a very simple unravelling of this arith- 
 metical skein. An ounce poids de marc of Lyons, and an 
 ounce troy, are identical weights ; but the former is divided 
 into 576 parts r= 24 drams X 24 deniers = 576 deniers ; 
 and the latter into 480 parts = 24 pennyweights X 20 
 grains = 480 grains. Hence the Lyons denier is to the 
 
 English grain as 1 to : or as 0 ■ 8333 to T 0000, 
 B 5 576 480' 
 
 that is, 100 deniers are equivalent to 83 3 grains of our 
 apothecaries and goldsmiths. Sixteen (not fifteen) Lyons 
 ounces make one pound, poids de marc; 16 x 576 = 
 9216 French deniers, or grains. 
 
 Note D.— p. 375. 
 
 How any grave son of Esculapius could so masquerade 
 his learning on the public stage of a parliamentary com- 
 mittee, as to make a comparison between young persons 
 working in a mill by night, and tadpoles shut up in a 
 dusky pool, is beyond my comprehension. Did he not 
 
 * Traite de Physique, par M. Biot, tome i. Supplement ; Tables 
 Usuelles. 
 -j- Ibidem. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 473 
 
 know that vast multitudes of children are employed in 
 mines, where day-light never penetrates, and that they 
 grow up into as healthy and intelligent a race of men as 
 may be found ? The miners of Cornwall, Northumberland, 
 Cumberland, and Leadhills, are not the abortive frogs 
 which lack of sunshine should produce, according to this 
 physiological sage. Excess of light is, I believe, less 
 favourable to the due development of the human faculties, 
 than its defect ; a circumstance verified in the experience 
 of the crews of whalers, who lose their vigour of mind and 
 body under the long summer days of the Arctic Circle. 
 Had Mr. Sadler got up his medical witnesses to prove 
 that the factory evils were a matter of moonshine , he would 
 ave been pretty near the mark. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The relative numbers of the two sexes engaged in the dif- 
 ferent manufactures form a curious subject of comparison. 
 The following are some of these proportions: — 
 
 Male. Female. 
 
 Cotton factories in Lancashire and 
 
 Cheshire - - - - 100 103 
 
 Cotton factories in Scotland - - 100 209 
 
 Flax factories of Leeds - - 100 147 
 Flax factories of Dundee and East 
 
 Coast of Scotland - - - 100 280 
 
 It deserves to be considered how different the proportion 
 of Scotland is from that of England; and how well that dif- 
 ference confirms Sir David Barry's report on the superior 
 
474 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 physical condition, hardihood, and strength of the Scottish 
 women over the English. 
 
 The silk factories throughout the kingdom make little or 
 no demand on muscular effort, and therefore employ a very 
 small proportion of males. The wool factories, however, call 
 frequently for exertion of bodily strength, and therefore 
 employ a greater number of males than females. Here 
 again the superiority of the Scottish women seems to be 
 manifested, for a much greater proportion of them are em- 
 ployed in the woollen manufactories of Scotland than there 
 are of Englishwomen in those of England. Worsteds, how- 
 ever, constitute the chief part of the woollen trade of Scot- 
 land, and they may, to a great extent, be worked by women, 
 whereas the clothing trade requires the labour of men. 
 
 Relative to age, fully two -sixths of the English cotton- 
 mill operatives, and more than three-sixths of the Scottish, 
 are under twenty-one. 
 
 In the cotton factories of Lancashire, the wages of the 
 males during the period when there is the greatest number 
 employed, — from eleven to sixteen are on the average 
 4s. lOf d. a-week; but in the next period of five years, from 
 sixteen to twenty-one, the average rises to 10s. % 2\d. a- week; 
 and of course the manufacturer will have as few at that 
 price as he can, and certainly not for any description of 
 work which may be done by persons working at 4s. lOfcZ. 
 In the next period of five years, from twenty-one to twenty- 
 six, the average weekly wages are 17s. 2^d. Here is a still 
 stronger motive to discontinue employing males as far as it 
 can practically be done. In the subsequent two periods the 
 average rises still higher, to 20s. 4Jd, and to 22s. S^d. At 
 such wages, only those men will be employed who are neces- 
 sary to do work requiring great bodily strength, or great 
 skill, in some art, craft, or mystery in which they are 
 engaged, or persons employed in offices of trust and con- 
 fidence. Again, as to the females there is no diminution of 
 numbers between the period from eleven to sixteen, and the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 period from sixteen to twenty-one ; and for this obvious 
 reason the wages do not rise in the case of females to more 
 than an average of 7s. 3^d. in throstle spinning ; and never 
 much exceed this amount except in power weaving, where they 
 may earn double the sum. The greater number of females 
 is in the period of from sixteen to twenty-one ; but there is 
 a prodigious diminution immediately after ; and none can 
 be at a loss to tell the cause — it is the period when they 
 marry. It is known by the returns, and the factory com- 
 mission inquiries, that very few women work in the factories 
 after marriage. It appears that the greatest number of the 
 marriages of factory women take place before they reach their 
 twenty-sixth year. They disappear about that time in the 
 returns of the cotton mills ; but an inspection of the tables 
 will show, that if we are to search in the registers for the 
 names of these females, it must be in the marriage registers, 
 and not in the registers of the dead*. 
 
 Wages. The small amount of the wages of the very 
 young children employed in factories deserves notice, but 
 should constitute a subject of satisfaction rather than of 
 regret, because there will be less loss to the parents in 
 withdrawing the youngest from the factories, and sending 
 them to school. 
 
 Factory females have also in general much lower wages 
 than males, and they have been pitied on this account, with 
 perhaps an injudicious sympathy, since the low price of 
 their labour here tends to make household duties their most 
 profitable as well as agreeable occupation, and prevents them 
 from being tempted by the mill to abandon the care of their 
 offspring at home. Thus Providence effects its purposes 
 with a wisdom and efficacy which should repress the short- 
 sighted presumption of human devices. 
 
 The different rates of wages paid for the same work in 
 the different districts of the United Kingdom is a subject 
 deserving of the most serious consideration. 
 
 * Dr. Mitchell's Statistical Report, Supplement to Factory Com- 
 mission Report, p. 38. 
 
o 
 
 C/5 
 
 o 
 
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 o rtXCO 
 
 Ph^ S- 1 
 
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 1 
 
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 ^ r- O CO CM 
 
 H r-< CO «0 CM CM 
 
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 co o co to 
 
 to tQ tO MS S3 
 
 
 
 
 WOOL.— Wages of Females. 
 
 
 
 
 >4 mi* He He rW 
 
 53 o o cm 
 
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 CM 1— 1 r-l 1— 1 r-H 
 
 H-h. «5H- He 
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 tO © CO TT 1 
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 | Districts. 
 
 Leeds, &c. 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Wilts 
 
 Aberdeen 
 
 Leeds 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Wilts 
 
 Aberdeen 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The wool being the old staple manufacture, and that 
 most extensively distributed in the kingdom, affords the 
 best means of comparing rates of wages. 
 
 Amount expended in support of the Poor per head for every one of the 
 Population in the Counties of Lancaster, York (West Riding), 
 Derby, Stafford, Leicester, Nottingham, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, 
 Gloucester, Somerset, and Wilts ; being the Counties in which the 
 Factories are situated from which Returns have been obtained, in the 
 Years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831. 
 
 Counties. 
 
 1801. 
 
 1811. 
 
 1821. 
 
 1831. 
 
 
 £. 
 
 
 d. 
 
 £. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £. 
 
 
 d. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Lancaster - - - 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 0 7 
 
 4 
 
 0* 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 0 4 4 
 
 York( West Riding) 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 0 10 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 0 5 7 
 
 Derby - - - - 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 0 10 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 
 0 6 7 
 
 Stafford - - - 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 0 8 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 0 6 5 
 
 Leicester - - - 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 0 14 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 0 11 6 
 
 Nottingham - - 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 0 10 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 0 6 5 
 
 Norfolk - - - 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 0 19 11 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 0 15 4 
 
 Suffolk - - - 
 
 0 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 0 19 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 0 18 3 
 
 Essex - - - - 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 1 4 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 0 17 2 
 
 Gloucester - - 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 0 11 
 
 7 
 
 c 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 0 8 8 
 
 Somerset - - - 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 0 12 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 0 8 9 
 
 Wilts - - - - 
 
 0 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 1 4 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 0 16 6 
 
 
 In regard to Aberdeen and the east coast of Scotland, a 
 compulsory poor's rate is unknown ; and at Paisley and the 
 south-west of Scotland the amount raised by a rate for the 
 
418 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 relief of the poor is very much lower than it is in any part 
 of England. In respect of the wool manufacture, it will he 
 seen that in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where the poor's 
 rate is lower than in any of the other districts of England 
 where wool is manufactured, the wages are the highest ; and 
 that in Somersetshire, where the poor's rate is higher than 
 in the West Riding of York, the wages are lower ; but they 
 are there much higher than in the neighbouring county of 
 Wiltshire, where the poor's rate is extremely high. The 
 wages of Wiltshire, when contrasted with the wages of 
 Aberdeen, where there is no compulsory relief, are in pecu- 
 niary amount lower ; and when we take into account the 
 great difference in the command of the necessaries of life 
 which these wages afford in so cheap a country as the 
 North of Scotland, we see that the condition of the Aber- 
 deen operative is indeed much superior. 
 
 A similar result is observable in the silk manufacture, for 
 at Derby, where the poor's rate is comparatively low, the 
 wages are the highest ; in Somersetshire, where the poor's 
 rate is higher than in Derby, the wages are lower ; and in 
 Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, where the poor's rate is ex- 
 tremely high, the wages are far lower than in Somerset, 
 and are indeed so low, that, but for such unquestionable 
 evidence as these returns afford, we could scarcely have 
 believed it possible. The contrast with Paisley, in Scot- 
 land, where the poor's rate, as compared with any part of 
 England, is exceedingly small, will lead to the same opinion. 
 
479 
 
 FACTORY EDUCATION TABLE. 
 
 "FNfiT AND 
 
 Numbers taken from the 
 Returns. 
 
 1 Proportion in the 
 hundred. 
 
 Read. 
 
 Cannot 
 read. 
 
 Write. 
 
 Cannot 
 write. 
 
 c3 
 
 m 
 
 Cannot 
 read. 
 
 Write. 
 
 Cannot 
 write. 
 
 Lancashire - — 
 
 11 
 
 ,393 
 
 2,344 
 
 5 
 
 ,184 
 
 8 
 
 ,553 
 
 I 83 
 
 17 
 
 38 
 
 62 
 
 Cheshire 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 0U9 
 
 jVJi 
 
 344 
 
 ] 
 
 fi^o 
 
 i 
 j 
 
 ,806' 90 
 
 A U 
 
 zI7 
 
 £Q 
 DO 
 
 Yorkshire - - - - 
 
 9 
 
 087 
 
 1,616 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 ,509 
 
 | 85 
 
 1 ^ 
 ID 
 
 J8 
 
 *;9 
 Dl 
 
 Derbyshire - - - 
 
 2 
 
 , 'IJU 
 
 314 
 
 
 200 
 
 I 
 
 ,604 
 
 11 
 
 1 9 
 1 4 
 
 It) 
 
 0/ 
 
 Staffordshire - - 
 
 q 
 o 
 
 , 0-3 (J 
 
 71 & 
 
 o 
 _ 
 
 fin 3 
 
 , DUG 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 ,645 
 
 83 
 
 1 7 
 J / 
 
 fi 1 
 O 1 
 
 ov 
 
 Leicestershire — 
 
 
 ^ l 
 
 92 
 
 
 1 7 A 
 
 
 269 
 
 80 
 
 90 
 
 40 
 
 fiO 
 
 Nottinghamshire 
 
 
 948 
 
 127 
 
 
 455 
 
 
 616 
 
 88 
 
 12 
 
 43 
 
 o/ 
 
 Norfolk, Suffolk, 1 
 
 1 
 
 ,914 
 
 433 
 
 
 608 
 
 1 
 
 73Q 
 
 O 1 
 
 19 
 
 26 
 
 74 
 
 Essex - - - - J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wiltshire 
 
 3 
 
 OA ^ 
 
 527 
 
 } 
 
 364 
 
 o 
 
 L 
 
 ,208 
 
 85 
 
 i ^ 
 
 1 o 
 
 oo 
 
 fi9 
 0,6 
 
 Somersetshire - - 
 
 o 
 L 
 
 
 99Q 
 
 
 DJ 1 
 
 1 
 
 ,678 
 
 89 
 
 
 9fi 
 
 7/1 
 / 4 
 
 Devonshire 
 
 
 755 
 
 34 
 
 
 401 
 
 
 386 
 
 96 
 
 4 
 
 51 
 
 49 
 
 Gloucestershire - 
 
 4 
 
 ,556 
 
 379 
 
 1 
 
 ,983 
 
 2 
 
 , JDL 
 
 Q9 
 
 8 
 
 40 
 
 60 
 
 Worcestershire - 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 5 
 
 100 
 
 
 77 
 
 23 
 
 Warwickshire - - 
 
 
 105 
 
 15 
 
 
 81 
 
 
 39 
 
 88 
 
 12 
 
 68 
 
 32 
 
 Total - - 
 
 43 
 
 ,327 
 
 7,170 
 
 21 
 
 ,488 
 
 29 
 
 ,009 
 
 86 
 
 14 
 
 43 
 
 57 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Aberdeenshire - 
 
 4 
 
 ,336 
 
 305 
 
 2 
 
 ,133 
 
 2 
 
 508 
 
 93 
 
 7 
 
 46 
 
 54 
 
 Forfarshire - - - 
 
 4 
 
 879 
 
 237 
 
 2 
 
 ,425 
 
 2 
 
 691] 
 
 95 
 
 5 
 
 47 
 
 53 
 
 Perthshire 
 
 1 
 
 601 
 
 96 
 
 1 
 
 ,054 
 
 
 643, 
 
 94 
 
 6 
 
 62 
 
 38 
 
 Fife shire - - - - 
 
 1 
 
 558 
 
 38 
 
 
 862 
 
 
 734 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 57 
 
 43 
 
 Clackmannanshire 
 
 
 213 
 
 6 
 
 
 754 
 
 
 65 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 Stirlingshire — 
 
 
 795 
 
 23 
 
 
 547 
 
 
 27lj 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 66 
 
 34 
 
 Lanarkshire - - 
 
 7 
 
 815 
 
 317 
 
 4 
 
 454 
 
 3 
 
 678, 
 
 96 
 
 4 
 
 54 
 
 46 
 
 Renfrewshire — 
 
 5 
 
 664 
 
 199 
 
 3 
 
 ,165 
 
 2 
 
 698* 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 54 
 
 46 
 
 Ayrshire - - - - 
 
 
 867 
 
 2 
 
 
 594 
 
 
 275' 
 
 100 
 
 
 68 
 
 32 
 
 Bute 
 
 
 430 
 
 4 
 
 
 310 
 
 
 124 
 
 99 
 
 1 
 
 71 
 
 39 
 
 Mid Lothian - - 
 
 
 98 
 
 3 
 
 
 96 
 
 
 5 
 
 97 
 
 3 
 
 95 
 
 5 
 
 Total - - 
 
 28 
 
 256 
 
 1,230 
 
 15 
 
 794 
 
 13 
 
 692 
 
 96 
 
 4 
 
 53 
 
 47 
 
480 appendix. 
 
 In Scotland, in which, ever since the Reformation, edu- 
 cation has been a subject of national interest, and where, 
 for a long period, there has been a school establishment co- 
 extensive with the church establishment, there is a greater 
 proportion able to read and write. There is, however, still 
 much room for improvement in that part of the kingdom. 
 The returns from factories in rural districts are quite as 
 favourable as those from the towns, which is attributable to 
 the parochial schools. 
 
 Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - •