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cylinders coated with coarse cards (the wire for forming which is now cut and bent by a machine,) on the surface of which the wool being regularly transferred, at last comes out in one uniformly continued and coherent layer.

4. Carding and Spinning. It is now brought to the carding machine, which is like the scribbling machine, only composed of finer cards, except that to the last cylinder of cards a fluted wooden cylinder is adapted, which scrapes off the wool in thin rolls. The wool is spun for woof by a machine named a Jack, cousisting of from sixty to eighty spindles, worked by one person; the warp is slooped, or spun by a machine called a Billy, containing from sixty to eighty spindles worked by one person, and afterwards drawn finer by a machine termed a Jenny, containing from eighty to a hundred spindles, and also worked by one person; the yarn is then reeled and fit for the

weaver.

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5. Sizing. When warped it is stiffened with size, made of shreds of parchment; and when dry, is given to the weaver, who mounts it on the loom.

6. Weaving is now performed by a new-invented spring loom, worked by one person; the spring throws the shuttle backwards and forwards, and the weaver strikes the frame, in which is fastened the comb or reed, between whose teeth the threads of the warp are passed, repeating the stroke as often as is necessary; cloths in general only require two or three strokes, but some require a greater number. The weaver having continued his work till the whole warp is filled with woof, the cloth is finished. It is taken off the loom, by unrolling it from the beam, on which it had been rolled, in proportion as it was woven.

7. Sigging. When the cloth is taken out of the loom it is sigged, or washed in the stock, which consists of pig's dung dissolved in urine and water.

8. Burling. The cloth is now dried and burled; that is, the straw, knots, threads, and other filth are picked out with a picker, or pair of small iron nippers; this occasions a considerable number of apertures, which are all closed by the next process.

9. Milling. The cloth is now milled, or scoured with, soap till it acquires a proper consistency, it is then passed again through the stock to clear it from the soap.

10. Rowing or Dressing. The teazle is used, in this process (in Gloucestershire), by a machine called a gig-mill, which smooths the cloth and raises the nap; but in some countries it is still done by the hand.

11. Shearing is performed by a machine. The shearman passes it over the cloth sometimes more than once; even five or six times, if the nap be not sufficiently cut, according to the substance of the cloth.

12. Dyeing. See that article.

13. Streaming. After the process of dyeing, the cloth is washed in a running stream. Black, blue, and green cloths are often sheared again, after they are taken off the tenters, but not scarlet and white, as those colours are apt to soil. The shearman now hangs it on the tenters; where it is stretched both in length and breadth enough to smooth it, and bring it to its proper dimensions, without straining it too much; observing to brush it the way of the hair, while yet a little moist on the tenter.

14. Pressing. When quite dry, the cloth is taken from the tenter and brushed with a machine called a brusher,* to finish the laying of the nap, it is then folded and laid under a press, to make it perfectly smooth and even, and to give it a little gloss. The gloss is given by laying a leaf of vellum or cap-paper in each plait of the piece, and over the whole a square plank of wood, on which, by means of a lever, the screw of a press is brought down with the degree of force which is judged necessary. The cloth is now fit for sale.

The processes of making cloth may differ somewhat in different counties. Within the last fifteen years machinery has been substituted for manual labour, and is now generally adopted. The processes we have described are those used at the manufactory of PAUL WATHEN, and Co. at Woodchester, in Gloucestershire. This is one of the largest in the county, and is styled the Royal Manufactory, it having been visited by his Majesty and the Royal Family in the year 1788. All the new machinery is used, and the finest cloths in England are made, at this manufactory. The shearing machine was introduced into this county from Yorkshire. About ten years since very considerable

Fine cloths are never brushed.

disturbances were excited by the introduction of this machine, and various acts of violence were committed by the shearmen. One of these infatuated people (aided, no, doubt, by accomplices) having destroyed, in one night, nine pieces of cloth, by cutting them in the tenter-ground, a reward of six hundred guineas was offered for his apprehension; and he was soon afterwards taken, tried, and executed. Such an act of summary justice completely established the exercise of machinery in Gloucestershire. The number of persons employed in the manufactory at Woodchester, is generally from 1500 to 2000, including men, women, and children.

The principal clothing counties in England are Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and Yorkshire. The first is chiefly celebrated for blacks, scarlets, and kerseymeres. The second and third for blues and medleys, or mixtures, principally for home consumption. Yorkshire is remarkable chiefly for coarse cloths for exportation. These cloths are brought in the rough to Huddersfield, Leeds, &c. and are sold to the clothiers, or merchants, as they are called, who dye and finish them according to order. Cloths may be had in this county from the lowest to the highest prices.

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PART VI.-Fine Arts.

CHAP. I.-WRITING. See Part I., Chap II.

CHAP. II.-PRINTING.

SECT. I. STEREOTYPE PRINTING.

1. THE first ideas of this art were certainly anterior to those of printing by moveable types. The method of printing linen and paper for hangings, has, from time immemorial, been known in the East. Printing from wooden blocks has been practised in China by the Jesuits for more than 1600 years. When a work is to be printed, according to this plan, it is fairly transcribed upon a thin, transparent paper. Each leaf is then reversed, and fastened upon a smooth block of hard wood, upon which the characters are engraven in relief;-there being a separate block for each page. The Italians, Germans, Flemings, and Dutch, began to engrave on wood and copper, at the end of the fourteenth, and the beginning of the fifteenth century. The inscriptions in relief upon monuments and altars, in the cloisters, and over church porches, served as models for block-printing. The letters upon painted windows bear a strong resemblance to those in the books of images.

2. The invention of cards in France, about the year 1376, was an intermediate step. They were soon introduced into Spain, Italy, Germany, and England. At first the cards were painted-about the year 1400, a method was devised of printing them from blocks. To this may directly be traced the art of printing. The books of images formed the next step;-they were printed from

wooden blocks, oue side of the leaf only being impressed, and the corresponding text placed below, beside, or issuing from the mouth of the figure. It is, therefore, quite clear, from the cotton and silk printing of the Indians, the Chinese block-printing, and these books of images, that the idea of stereotype printing is, by no means, of modern origin.

3. The art of stereotype printing was practised in Holland towards the close of the seventeenth century, by J. Vander Mey, father of the well-known painter of that name. Messrs. S. and J. Luchtmans, of Leyden, had in 1798, in their possession the forms, or solid pages, of a quarto bible, constructed in this ingenious manner. The art of preparing solid blocks was lost at his death; or, at least, was not afterwards employed.

4. The first use of this art in England, was by Mr. William Ged, of Edinburgh. In the year 1725 he printed, among other books, a very neat edition of Sallust, in his new method. Owing, however, either to some defect in the plan, or to the want of skill in the execution of his specimen, Mr. Ged's invention seems to have attracted but little notice.

5. In 1782, Mr. Alexander Tilloch, the present ingenious editor of the Philosophical Magazine, revived, or. rather re-discovered this art; for he is said to have been ignorant of Ged's contrivance long after he had announced his own. In the subsequent year, he took out a patent for it, in conjunction with Mr. Andrew Foulis, printer to the University of Glasgow. Mr. Tilloch, however, removing to London, the concern was dropped altogether: not, however, until several small volumes had been stereotyped and printed, under the direction of these gentlemen.

6. About the year 1789, M. Didot, of Paris, applied the stereotype art to logarithmic tables, and afterwards to several of the Latin classics, and to various French publications; he introduced several important improvements, which render his mode more convenient and useful than that of any of his predecessors. The French, as usual, claim the merit of the invention, but our readers must soon perceive to whom this honour properly belongs. The name stereotype seems first to have been employed by

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