(10.) Spinning hardens the thread.
(11.) Weaving is done by hand or by power-loom. The power-looms are becoming
more common. After weaving, it is washed in soap-water and clean water by
machinery,--then stretched on tenterhooks and allowed to dry in a smooth
extended state:
(l2) then examined for all hair and impurities to be picked off by "burlers."
After this follows
(13) fulling, or felting, which gives woollen goods that substance which
distinguishes them. Every hair of wool is saw-edged, and this by beating
will mass together. Superfine cloth with a thick solution of soap spread
between each layer, and, folded into many piles, is exposed to the long
continued action of revolving wooden hammers on wheels, three separate times,
for four hours each time. This process diminishes both breadth and length
nearly one half.
After "fulling" cloth is woolly and rough; to improve the appearance it is
first
(14) teazled--that is, raked with cylinders covered with the round prickly
heads of the teazle plant. Many attempts have been made to invent wire and
other brushes for the same purpose, but hitherto nothing has been found more
effective and economical than the teazle.
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