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Untitled Article
what is technically called power . The best description extant of the early state of the woollen trade , is given by Dyer in his beau - tiful poem * The Fleece . ' It was in his day that the first accelerating machine was applied to spinning . In the year 1757 he published his work , from which the following is extracted :
What simple nature yields , And nature does her part , are only rude Materials , cumbers on the thorny ground ; 'Tis toil that makes them wealth ; that makes the fleece ( Yet useless , rising in unshapen heaps ) Anon , in curious woofs of beauteous hue ,
A vesture usefully succinct and warm , Or trailing in the length * of graceful folds , A royal mantle . Come , ye village nymphs ; The scatter ed mists reveal the dusky hills ; Grey dawn appears ; the golden morn ascends ,
And paints the glitt'ring rocks , and purple woods , And flaming spires ; arise , begin your toils ; Behold the fleece beneath the spiky comb Drop its long locks , or from the mingling card , Spread in soft flakes , and swell the whiten'd floor .
Come , village nymphs , ye matrons and ye maids , Receive the soft material , with light step Whether ye turn around the spacious wheel , Or patient sitting , that revolve which forms A narrower circle . On the brittle work Point your quick eye , and let the hand assist To guide and stretch the gently less ' ning thread Even ; unknotted twine will praise your skill .
A diff ' rent spinning every different web Asks from your glowing fingers ; some require The more compact , and some the looser wreath ; The last for softness , to delight the touch Of chamber'd delicacy ; scarce a cirque Need turn around , or twine the lengthening flake
There are , to speed their labour , who prefer Wheels double-spord , which yield to either hand A sev ' ral line ; and many yet adhere To th' ancient distaff , at the bosom fix'd , Casting the whirling spindle as they walk :
At home , or in the sheep-fold , or the mart , Alike the work proceeds . This method still Norvicum favours , and the Icenian towns : * It yields the airy stuffs an apter thread . This was of old , in no inglorious days , ? The Icexri were the UOuLbitaatt of Suflblk *
Untitled Article
On the Factory System . 149
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1833, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2610/page/5/
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