21. Dressing.—Cotton fabrics, when the webs are taken from the loom, are covered with an irregular nap, or down, formed by the protruding ends of the fibres. From the finest cottons, this is removed, by drawing them rapidly over an iron cylinder, kept red-hot by a fire within. The flame of coal-gas has recently been applied, to effect the same object.
22. Common domestic fabrics are taken from the loom, and, without further preparation, are folded up into pieces for sale. Finer articles are usually whitened and calendered, before they pass from the hand of the manufacturer. Stuffs of all kinds, made of vegetable fibres, are now whitened by immersing them in a solution of oxymuriate of lime. Cotton and linen goods, with a view of making them smooth and glossy, are calendered, or pressed, between steel rollers.
23. Many of the fine cottons are converted into calicoes, by transferring to them various colors. The process by which this is done, is called calico-printing, which will be described in a separate article.
24. The texture of the fabrics made of worsted, or long wool, is completed, when issued from the loom. The pieces are subsequently dyed, and then pressed between heated metallic plates, to communicate to them the required gloss. But weaving does not always complete the texture of the stuffs made of the short wools. When taken from the loom, the web is too loose and open, to answer the purposes to which such cloths are usually applied. It is, therefore, submitted to another process, called fulling.
25. Fulling, in common with almost every other operation pertaining to the manufacture of cloth, constitutes a separate trade. The art is only applied to stuffs composed of wool, or hair, as these only possess the properties which render it applicable. The practicability of fulling cloth depends on a certain roughness of the fibres, which admits of motion in one way, and retards it in another. This may be more fully understood by consulting the article on making hats.
26. The cloth, having been prepared by a proper cleansing, is deposited in a strong box, with a quantity of water and fuller's earth or soap, and submitted to the action of the pestles, or stampers, which are moved in a horizontal direction, backwards and forwards, by means of appropriate machinery. This operation reduces the dimensions of the cloth, and greatly improves the beauty and stability of the texture. The cloth is afterwards dried in the open air on frames prepared for the purpose.
27. After the cloth has been dyed, a nap is raised on one side of it by means of the common teazle. The nap is next cut off to an even surface. This was formerly done with a huge pair of shears; but, within a few years, it has most commonly been effected by a machine, the essential part of which is a spiral blade, that revolves in contact with another blade, while the cloth is stretched over a bed, or support, just near enough for the projecting filaments to be cut off at a uniform length, without injuring the main texture. Pressing and folding the cloth complete the whole process.
28. A great proportion of the woollen fabrics worn in the United States, are manufactured in families, part of which is sent to the clothiers to be dressed. Much cotton yarn, spun at the manufactories, is purchased for domestic use. Formerly, the raw material was procured, and spun into yarn on the big wheel. Coarse linens are also extensively manufactured in families, especially among the German population.
29. The manufacture of cloth from wool was introduced into Britain by the Romans, some time in the Augustan age. At Winchester, they conducted the business on a scale sufficiently large to supply their army. After the Romans withdrew from the island, in the fifth century, the art was comparatively neglected, and gradually declined, until the reign of Edward III. This monarch invited into his dominions workmen from Flanders, in which country the manufacture had, for a long time, been in a flourishing condition.
30. Shortly after the first immigration of the Flemish manufacturers into England, an act was passed prohibiting the wearing of cloths made in any other country; and, in the time of Elizabeth, the manufacture had become so extensive, that the exportation of the raw material was forbidden by law.