" . . . "In no description of manufacture
connected with the woollen trade has machinery been more fertile in
improvements than in what may be termed the worsted stuff trade."
"The power-looms employed, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the worsted
stuff trade, increased from 2,763 in 1836, to 19,121 in 1845 (and are
probably not far from 28,000 at the present time). Worsted goods formerly
consisted chiefly of bombazets, shalloons, calamancoes, lastings for ladies'
boots, and taminies. Now the articles in the fancy trade may be said to be
numberless, and to display great artistic beauty. These articles, made with
alpaca, Saxony, fine English and Colonial wools, and of goats' hair for weft,
with fine cotton for warp, consist of merinoes, Orleans, plain and figured
Parisians, Paramattas, and alpaca figures, checks, etc."
The machines for combing and carding, of the most improved make, will work
wool of one and a half inch in the staple, while for the old process of hand-
combing four inches was the minimum.
But we must not enter further into these details, as it is our purpose rather
to indicate the interest and importance of certain manufactures than to
describe the process minutely.
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