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334 FEMALE INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. ^P Withik The Last Ten Years A Vast Ch...
lost , no effort spared , to open schools for this purpose . In one instance , where no house could be obtained ( this was in a sinall
country town ) and no suitable room was to be had , the large room in the court housewas kindly given up for a time , by the
magis-, trates , until tlie committee of ladies , "who were forming the working class , found a suitable place for the girls to assemble in . The plan
adopted "was this , the manufacturer sent a mistress from the north who was fully competent to instruct in all the branches of sewed
muslin embroidery work . The ladies' committee guaranteed to her the sum of one pound per week , for such time as it -was necessary
she should teach and superintend the work of the girls employed , and in some instancesthe mistresses thus sent , were about a year
, teaching in one school . The manufacturer sent the unbleached niuslin stamped for "working , also the cotton , so much being allowed
for each strip , the calculation being generally exactly correct * The work completedthe muslin was returned to him , unwashed and just
, as itcame from the workers' hands , the process of bleaching , finishing , and making up being performed in the north .
This commencement of sewed muslin embroidery in the south of Irelandwas in the year 1850 , and on looking back , it does seem
, strange that it took so many years to travel from Ulster to Munster _* for it was first known in the former province in the year 1780 ; and
in 1806 it was first introduced as a manufacture , in a small village in the County Downbut then , as now , the spinning of linen yarn
, being the staple manufacture of Ulster , the new style of work gained little favorbeing confined to two or three small villages . The
, amount of wages received by the workers , averaging annually no more than _£ 5000 .
In consequence however of the adoption of machinery for the spinning of linen yamthe hand-spinners were deprived of their
, accustomed employment , and the various articles of the recently introduced manufacture becoming in increased favor and demand _*
not only at home but abroad , this style of work at once extended and developed in a manner almost incredible : _spreading
not alone through Ulster , but creeping also into other provinces . An important impetus and stimulus was also given to the
work , by the mode of printing the patterns upon the muslin being changed ; the lithographic press being employed , instead of the
tedious and expensive mode of block printing , hitherto made use of for the purposewhich was in vogue until the year 1830 .
, At the present time the demand for sewed muslin embroidery , —not alone in Great Britain , but in the United States , Canada ,
Australia , India , and indeed every country which opens its markets to British industry—is so great , that in Ireland alone , it is estimated ,
, there are annually 200 , 000 females employed , and the yearly amount of wages received by those several parties connected with the work
is _£ 400 , 000 , and upwards . So that this manufacture is of deep
and vital importance to the females of Ireland , at least to those of
334 Female Industrial Employments
334 FEMALE _INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/46/
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