1. Men, in the primitive ages, were clad with the skins of animals,
until they had acquired sufficient skill to employ a better material.
It cannot be determined from history, at what time cloth began to be
manufactured from animal or vegetable fibre; but it is evident, that
it was done at a very early period, even long before the flood.
2. The fibres of the vegetable kind, most commonly applied to this
purpose, are the bark of several kinds of trees, together with hemp,
flax, and cotton; and those of the animal kingdom are, silk, the wool
of the sheep and lama, and the hair, or wool, of the goat and camel.
3. That the general process of manufacturing cloth may be perfectly
understood, the manner of performing several operations must be
separately described. For the purpose of illustration, cotton, wool,
and flax, will be selected; because these are the materials of which
our clothing is principally fabricated. The operations of making
cloth, may be comprised under _carding_ and _combing_, _spinning_,
_weaving_, and _dressing_.
4. _Carding and Combing._--Wool and cotton are carded, with the view
of disentangling the fibres, and arranging them longitudinally in
small rolls. This is done by means of the teeth of two instruments,
called cards, used by hand on the knee, or by the carding machine,
which acts on the same principle, although far more expeditiously.
5. Machines for carding wool are to be found in every district of
country in the United States, in which the people manufacture much of
their woollen cloths in their own families. On account of the
roughness of the fibres of wool, it is necessary to cover them well
with grease or oil, that they may move freely on each other during the
carding and spinning.
6. Long, coarse, or hard wools, used in the manufacture of camlets,
bombazines, circassians, and other worsted fabrics, are not carded,
but combed. In England, and in other countries where much of this kind
of wool is used, wool-combing forms a distinct trade. The operation
consists, chiefly, in drawing the locks through steel combs, the teeth
of which are similar to our common flax-hatchel. The comb is heated to
a certain temperature, to cause the fibres to straighten, and to
remove from them the roughness which might otherwise cause the cloth
made of them to thicken in washing, like flannel.
7. The old method of combing wool, however, has been in part
superseded by the application of machines, the first of which was
invented by Edmund Cartwright, of England, about the year 1790. The
fibres of flax are arranged in a parallel direction, and freed from
tow, by drawing them through a hatchel.
8. _Spinning._--The process of spinning consists in twisting the
fibres into threads. The most simple method by which this is effected,
is that by the common spinning-wheel. Of this well-known machine there
are two kinds; one of which is applied to spinning wool, cotton, and
tow, and the other, to spinning flax.
9. This operation is, in most cases, performed by females in the
following manner. The roll of cotton or wool is attached to the
spindle, which is put in rapid motion by a band passing over it from
the rim, or periphery of the wheel. While the spinster is turning the
wheel with the right hand, she brings back from the spindle her left,
with which she has laid hold of the roll a few inches from the upper
end. When the yarn thus produced has been sufficiently twisted, she
turns it upon the spindle, and repeats the same operation, until it is
full. This yarn is formed into skeins by winding it upon a reel.
10. The mode of spinning tow is a little different. The material
having been formed into _bats_ by hand-cards, the fibres are drawn out
from between the fingers and thumb by the twisted thread, while the
spinster gradually moves backward. Worsted is spun from combed wool
nearly in the same manner.
11. The _flax_ or _little wheel_ is moved by the foot, so that both
hands of the spinster are used in supplying, disposing, and
occasionally wetting the fibres, as they are drawn from the distaff.
Two bands pass from the periphery of the wheel, each of which performs
a distinct office: the one keeps in motion the spindle, which twists
the thread; the other moves the fliers, which wind the thread upon a
spool, as fast as it is produced.
12. Spinning was almost exclusively performed in the modes just
described, until the year 1767, when Richard Heargreaves, of England,
invented a machine for spinning cotton, which he called a _jenny_.
This consisted, at first, of eight spindles, moved by a common wheel,
or cylinder, which was turned by hand. The number of spindles was
afterwards increased to eighty-four.
13. In 1769, Richard Arkwright, also an Englishman, invented the
_water-spinning-frame_. The essential and most important feature of
this invention, consists in drawing out the cotton, by causing it to
pass between successive pairs of rollers, which revolve with different
velocities, and which act as substitutes for the thumb and fingers, as
applied in common spinning. These rollers are combined with the
spindle and fliers of the common flax-wheel.
14. Another machine was invented by Samuel Crompton, in 1779. It is
called a _mule_, because it combines the principles of the two
preceding machines. It produces finer yarn than either of them, and
has nearly superseded the jenny. Before the cotton is submitted to the
spinning machine, it is prepared by several others, by which it is
carded, extended, and partially twisted.
15. In the manufactories, the fine, short wools, used in the
fabrication of broadcloths, flannels, and a variety of other cloths,
are carded by machinery, and spun on a _slubbing_ or _roving-machine_,
or on a _jenny_ or _mule_, in each of which the spindles are mounted
on a carriage, which is moved backwards in stretching and twisting the
material, and forwards in winding the thread upon the spindle.
16. Worsted still continues to be spun, in most cases, on the common
spinning-wheel, as it can be done more perfectly in this way, than by
any other machine which has hitherto been invented. Several machines
have been constructed, which spin coarse threads of flax very well,
and with great rapidity; but the materials for fine linen fabrics are
still spun on the ancient flax-wheel.
17. _Weaving._--The first step preparatory to weaving, is to form a
warp, consisting of a number of threads, which extend through the
whole piece. To produce this parallel arrangement, the yarn is wound
upon spools, which are afterwards placed in a frame perpendicularly by
means of rods, on which they move as upon an axle. From these spools,
the yarns are stretched upon pegs to the length of the proposed web,
and are carried round or doubled a sufficient number of times to make
it the proper width. The same object is more expeditiously effected,
by winding the yarn spirally on a revolving frame.
18. The next step consists in winding the warp on a cylindrical beam,
which is usually about ten inches in diameter. The threads, having
been put through a harness, composed of moveable parts, called
_heddles_, and also through a sley, or reed, are fastened on the other
side to a large rod, from which three ropes extend to another
cylinder, on which the cloth is wound, as fast as it is woven.
19. The heddles are suspended from cross-pieces, on the top of the
loom, by means of cords and pulleys, and, during the operation of
weaving, are moved up and down alternately by the aid of _treadles_.
This reciprocal motion causes the web to open; and, while in this
position, a shuttle, containing the _woof_, _weft_, or _filling_ on a
quill or bobbin, is passed through from right to left, or from left to
right, as often as the position of the warp is changed. The threads of
the filling are beaten up by the reed, or sley, which is placed in the
_lay_.
20. Weaving is a business extensive in its application, being divided
into almost as many branches as there are woven fabrics. Plain cotton,
linen, woollen, and twilled cloths, silks, satins, carpets, &c., are
all woven in looms of some kind, constructed on the same general
principles. Power-looms, driven by water or steam, are now generally
introduced into the cotton and woollen manufactories, both in Europe
and in this country. One person can attend to two of these looms at
the same time, and each one will weave between twenty and forty yards
in a day.
21. _Dressing._--Cotton fabrics, when the webs are taken from the
loom, are covered with an irregular nap, or down, formed by the
protruding ends of the fibres. From the finest cottons, this is
removed, by drawing them rapidly over an iron cylinder, kept red-hot
by a fire within. The flame of coal-gas has recently been applied, to
effect the same object.
22. Common domestic fabrics are taken from the loom, and, without
further preparation, are folded up into pieces for sale. Finer
articles are usually whitened and calendered, before they pass from
the hand of the manufacturer. Stuffs of all kinds, made of vegetable
fibres, are now whitened by immersing them in a solution of oxymuriate
of lime. Cotton and linen goods, with a view of making them smooth and
glossy, are calendered, or pressed, between steel rollers.
23. Many of the fine cottons are converted into calicoes, by
transferring to them various colors. The process by which this is
done, is called calico-printing, which will be described in a separate
article.
24. The texture of the fabrics made of worsted, or long wool, is
completed, when issued from the loom. The pieces are subsequently
dyed, and then pressed between heated metallic plates, to communicate
to them the required gloss. But weaving does not always complete the
texture of the stuffs made of the short wools. When taken from the
loom, the web is too loose and open, to answer the purposes to which
such cloths are usually applied. It is, therefore, submitted to
another process, called _fulling_.
25. _Fulling_, in common with almost every other operation pertaining
to the manufacture of cloth, constitutes a separate trade. The art is
only applied to stuffs composed of wool, or hair, as these only
possess the properties which render it applicable. The practicability
of fulling cloth depends on a certain roughness of the fibres, which
admits of motion in one way, and retards it in another. This may be
more fully understood by consulting the article on making hats.
26. The cloth, having been prepared by a proper cleansing, is
deposited in a strong box, with a quantity of water and fuller's earth
or soap, and submitted to the action of the _pestles_, or _stampers_,
which are moved in a horizontal direction, backwards and forwards, by
means of appropriate machinery. This operation reduces the dimensions
of the cloth, and greatly improves the beauty and stability of the
texture. The cloth is afterwards dried in the open air on frames
prepared for the purpose.
27. After the cloth has been dyed, a nap is raised on one side of it
by means of the common teazle. The nap is next cut off to an even
surface. This was formerly done with a huge pair of shears; but,
within a few years, it has most commonly been effected by a machine,
the essential part of which is a spiral blade, that revolves in
contact with another blade, while the cloth is stretched over a bed,
or support, just near enough for the projecting filaments to be cut
off at a uniform length, without injuring the main texture. Pressing
and folding the cloth complete the whole process.
28. A great proportion of the woollen fabrics worn in the United
States, are manufactured in families, part of which is sent to the
clothiers to be dressed. Much cotton yarn, spun at the manufactories,
is purchased for domestic use. Formerly, the raw material was
procured, and spun into yarn on the _big wheel_. Coarse linens are
also extensively manufactured in families, especially among the German
population.
29. The manufacture of cloth from wool was introduced into Britain by
the Romans, some time in the Augustan age. At Winchester, they
conducted the business on a scale sufficiently large to supply their
army. After the Romans withdrew from the island, in the fifth century,
the art was comparatively neglected, and gradually declined, until the
reign of Edward III. This monarch invited into his dominions workmen
from Flanders, in which country the manufacture had, for a long time,
been in a flourishing condition.
30. Shortly after the first immigration of the Flemish manufacturers
into England, an act was passed prohibiting the wearing of cloths made
in any other country; and, in the time of Elizabeth, the manufacture
had become so extensive, that the exportation of the raw material was
forbidden by law.
31. It is supposed that there are now, in Great Britain, thirty
millions of sheep; whose annual produce of wool is worth, on an
average, about seven millions of pounds sterling; to this may be added
five millions of pounds weight from foreign countries. This amount is
increased in value, by manufacturing skill, to twenty or thirty
millions of pounds. Not less than three millions of persons are
supposed to be employed in this branch of British industry.
32. Both the woollen and cotton manufactures have arisen to great
importance, of late years, in the United States; and, from the
mechanical skill of our countrymen, the abundance of the raw material,
and the vast amount of water-power, there is every reason to
anticipate a rapid and continual increase in these divisions of
American enterprise.