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&SKSS « B 2 E'&Sf 3 &-3 £ 3313 & 25 *( DQ 22 i £ 22 < DS ? q TEXTILE FABRICS—WOOLLENS AND WORSTEDS . Accobdino ^ the systeoi of classification adopted by the Imperial Commission , Class 20 of Group VI . is subdivided into 1-4 Sections : — . 1 . Articles used in the Wo alien Manufacture . 2 . Raw Wools , Furs , and Hair . " $ . Prepared and dyed Wools , Fnrs , and Hair . 4 . Yarn , single or twisted ; raw or bleached ; with or without mixture of cotton , silk , or floss silk . 5 . Fabrics made of carded Wool , fulled . ' 36 . Fabrics made of carded Wool , not fulled , or very slightly . 7 . ' Fabrics made of combed Wool . ¦ 8 . Fabrics of combed or carded Wool , mixed with cotton or flax . ' *) . Fabrics of combed or carded Wool , mixed with silk or floss silk . 10 . Printed Fabrics of combed or carded Wool , pure or mixed . J ' Fur Fabrics , pure or mixed . 12 . 'Woollen Shawls .
< 13 . ' Gachemire Shawls . 1 * 4 . Hair Fabrics . According to the first edition of the Catalogue , this branch of industry is represented at the Exposition by 1026 exhibitors ; of whom France and her provinces supply 519 , Prussia 157 , Austria 147 , Great Britain and Ireland , 92 , Belgium 30 , Spain 24 , Saxony 24 , and Wurtemburg , Baden , Bavaria , Switzerland , Denmark , Greece , the Hanseatic Towns , Mexico , the j ^ Tetherlanda , the Papal States , and the Duchies of Tuscany , Saxe-Weimar , Hesse , and IiUiembourg , the remainder . At the Great Exhibition of 1851 not more than 600 exhibitors illustrated this branch ; but then England supplied 476 exhibitors , instead of tlie comparatively small number of 92 . it should also be observed that the number of exhibitors belonging to this class exceeds that of the Cottoii-nianufacturers by more than one-half , and the disproportion was still greater at the Great Exhibition of 1851 . The cause of this is obvious . Woollen manufactures are of wider extent than cotton . As a rule , the cotton manufacture is restricted to a few centres of
industry , where all the operations can be carried on within a knitted space . Capital , cheap land , and building , machinery , cheap labour , an easy transit for the raw material from the cotton-growing countries , and of the manufactured article to a good market—such are the circumstances which must exist together before the cotton manufacture can be carried on to any i » reat extent ; and when these are found , all the operations may be , and Generally are , collected within a few large factories or working phalansteries . But with the woollen trade this is not so . Wool grows every where ( at least everywhere where there are sheep ) , and although spinning and the j ) relimiijary operations are now generally performed wholesale in factories , yet weaving , fulling , and the delicate processes of manufacture into first-rate cloth are , and probably ever will be , executed separately , and in small quantities at a time , in the cottages or ateliers of the workpeople . Another reason may possibly be thSfc cotton is , after all , but a very modern material ; but wool and ilax have been in use from the most remote antiquity
-France has enjoyed a long celebrity for the excellence of both its woollen and -worsted fabrics . It is important that the distinction between these Ahould be understood . Worsted stuff ' s arc made from combed wool , and contain therefore only the long staple : icoollen stuff * axe made of carded wool , contain only the short staple , and are fulled . In certain processes , as Bellas in certain sorts of stud , the French manufacturers have established ^ decided superiority over the rest of the world . The scieutiiic researches Of Berthollet , Chaptal , and Chevreul have given them the best dyes , and in pruning and designing they are uot to be surpassed . The softness , durability , and lustre of their double-twilled merinos arc the wonder and envy ofiBradford . France oan , indeed , boast of men among its woollen manufacturers whose labours have influenced the world , just as Crompton and Hargreaves revolutionised the cotton trade . The celebrated chemist
Oberkampf founded a factory at Jouy , near Versailles , in 17 ay , where he made immense strides in the art of dyeing in madder colours . That factory iaiiow in existence . It was at Amiens , later on , that Bonvalet first printed woollens in relief , and there are Bon valets in the trade at Amiens now . It IIW , * M . Collier , of Paris , who first invented the \ vool-combii » g machine , which was patented afterwards in England about 1827 , under the name of John JJlatt , of Salford ; and we believe we are right in u ^ eitiug that m France first was mule-spun yarn used in the manufacture ol' the linest uuttlin-do-laines—an improvement which the Yorkshire manufacturers generally arrogate to themselves . Lastly , to give some idea of tliti extent Of the woollen manufacture in France , it is an undoubted fact , despite the great extent of the silk trade , that more hands are employed upon woollen fWu upon any other branch of textiles . m * In France , as elsewhere , each auunilacturing town has its speciality , ami
WiUw Exposition it has evidently been the aim of each exhibitor to support tite credit of his town for the fabrics upon which it prides itself . Illieim * is Roted : for . every variety of worsted fabrics , und about thirty exhibitors have « ontorlved to uiaJkc a magnificent display of choice Ununels , merinos , shawls , waieueius , bolivars , tartans , and uilxed fabrics . Sedan ( in the Ardennes ) is Celebrated for fine broadcloth *; indeed , some of the best black cloth made JOomedfrom thia district . The » U « plny from hence , although contributed by Only woven teen exhibitors , is the finest cloth series in the Exposition . Sedan produces also capital beavers , ct hoc genus omnc , strong cloth for the troops anifl'the marine , und mixed fabrics . , $ Mue ' south of France , Carcassonne , Mnzannct , Custres , Lodbve , BOda-# e « W , SaintJPout and Clermont , tire famous for common cloth , and here it MthaJMthjeJFronoh army is clothed ,, and that the coarse stufla inquired for * ka gWdftt . export trwlo to , the L-ownt are manufactured . Xkeae fabrics , are
not so _ celebrated for their fineness as for their cheapness and relative durability . At Lodeve ( in the Herault ) alone , more than four thousand hands are employed almost exclusively upon military cloth . This speciality of the place has grown out of the circumstance that the mountains in the neighbourhood give a hardy pasturage to the sheep , and the wool therefore becomes short and strong . Another happy accident for Lodeve is that the waters are peculiarly favourable in producing a good and durable blue dye . Of military cloth the-display of Vitalis freres of Lodeve is of the first excellence . At Bedarieux , where , however , the woollen manufactures are-very varied , the specialities are cloth for ladies' habits ( called drops d ' amazone ) and for those caps ( casquettes ) which are the national head-gear of the French ouvriers . It is said that to make these caps no less than 250 , 000 pieces of eloth are annually required . Here also are made vast quantities of goods for the Levant , as the names of the fabrics ( JDraps Stamboul , mahout i et serail ) import .
The great industrial district of the north of France sends about ninety exhibitors . Tourcoing , Lille , and Roubaix are the capitals of this French Lancashire . The general nature of the trade here resembles that of Bradford and Halifax : at Tourcoing especially there is an immense consumption of English , Belgian , and Australian wool , goats' hair , silk , and alpaca . Flannels , woollen damasks , and merinos of high excellence , are also made here . The department of tlie Upper Rhine is well represented by Mulhouse and Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines . Dyed woollens , damasks , and brocatelles form
the staple of the trade . Bischwiller , on the Lower Rhine , sends an ample and splendid * collection of fine cloth . Elbeuf ( Seine-Inferieure ) sends an immense and varied collection . Indeed , it would be difficult to say what woollen fabric is not made at Elbeuf . Louviers supplies it with yarn . Paris itself has more than seventy exhibitors , who make up a large and varied collection . If Paris have a speciality in the woollen trade , it is those beautiful cachemires , which vie with the richest products of the Indian loom . Some of the specimens exhibited are of rare magnificence , and if it were not invidious to select from so much excellence , we should be inclined
to give the palm to the display of Bietry et fils , of Paris and Vdlepreux . The case exhibited by these manufacturers contains a pattern for a shawl , which was selected by the Empress Eugenie out of a competitive collection submitted to her critical eye . With commendable generosity , Messrs . Bietry . g ive the name of the designers ( Berrus frferes ) , and are contented simply to call themselves the manufacturers . Vienne ( Isere ) has some choice dyed woollen yarns for tapestry . Vire ( Calvados ) sends choice broadcloths , beavers , &c . Romorantih ( Loir-et-Cher ) , good eloth , especially some very choice covering for billiard-tables . From St . Quentin are exhibited very fine alpacas and bareges ; from Orleans , specimens of excellent furniture stuffs ; and from Aubusson and Beauvais , carpets , the beauty and excellence of which are too noted to need comment here . Such are the broad outlines of the French collection . From the province of Oran eight Algerine manufacturers send a very creditable display of haiek and burnous cloth , shawls , stuffs for tents and for the clothing of the hprse . From Constantine ( another province of Algeria ) sixteen manufacturers send a similar collection .
The Prussian collection , though ranking second for the number of exhibitors , is rather remarkable for its variety than for any hig h , excellence in manufacture . The kingdom of Saxony * not being classed with it under the general head of the Zollrerein ( as at the Great Exhibition of 1851 ) , the most remarkable feature is the cheapness of its goods for the export trade to America . There are , indeed , some good blacks from Rhenish-Prussia , of which Aix-la-Chapelle , Elberiield , and Cologne are the industrial capitals ; also buckskins , and a great variety of mixed fabrics for overcoats , trousers , &o . From Silesia ( Sagan , Grunberg , andGoerlitz , principal towns ) , some fine cloths of delicate texture , technically called zephyrs , appear ; and Brandebourg has a varied and useful collection . Berlin sends some good furniture damasks , and also some very strong and excellent shawls . The Prussian manufacturers ' make a sort of duffel , or frieze , of undyed wool , much liked for overcoats and hunting costumes . It is called natur-grau , and combines with great durability a singular power of throwing off stains . Many manufacturers exhibit good specimens of this fabric .
More than one-third of the exhibitors who make up this Austrian collection are from Moravia , of which Brunn is the industrial capital . Here , as in Prussia , the fabrics are of a middling class , and the processes of manufacture are mostly those which have long become antiquated m England and France . The consequence is , that tho Austrian cloth , although durable and made of <* ood wool , lacks that surface and finish which characterise the fabrics of Sedan , Yorkshire , and the Wes * of England . A large and good collection of various staffs comes from Reieheuberg , in Bohemia , and also from Silesia , of which tfielitz and . Taegerndorf are the industrial centres . Vienna sends some excellent shawls of pui-e wool , and wool mixed with silk . Some of these have the appearance of great durability , and their dyes are excellent , though the designs mig ht be considerably improved . Great Britain and Ireland are next in the list , though why the number of
exhibitors should be less than either Austria or Prussia it is not easy to understand . So far as the English fabrics are illustrated , the specimens are satisfactory in the highest degree ; but it is to be regretted that national amour-propre , if not tho expectation of advantage , have not prompted our woollen and worsted manufacturers to do themselves greater credit before the eves of the world at this ujroat national concourse , lo represent all tno world-lamed West of England , noted for producing the best bromlcIo . j niaik ' , only six exhibitors appear ; four of those , are lrom irowbndge , u their collections consist of mixed goods , trouserings , fce . M < f »» ; ? f J * "" Co ., « , f Devizes , send some fine cloth , made of Southdown wool , " ¦^ JJaJ An tk > , of Stroud , are the only exponents of the h ^^ r' ° l £ ^ jT * town is * o justly celebrated , jkustington , Stonehouse and Min Junto ^ " , Chippenham , Melksham , Frome , and Twer ton ( all » otod •«• £ ^«* o * JCnglmd manufacture ) , are entirely unrepresented . J he ^ ^ fo ^ nS onW been more enterprising , and are fairly representec I « Sflndford _ haaorily Mr XUus . Saltto illustrate its immense iiuioy tmdo otnwmios v UStta&ergs ,
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JuiiY 14 , 1855 . ] THE LEABER , # 79
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W " e should do ourutmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the UssfuL encouragea v itselfT—Goethe .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1855, page 679, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2099/page/19/
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