18.
Jacquard Loom.
There are two essential processes in all textile manufacture—spinning and weaving. In its simplest form spinning is the making of rope, and weaving is the interlacing of rope in two directions for the purpose of making a mat. When the rope is a delicate thread we call it yarn, and when the mat is a fine cotton or linen fabric we call it cloth. Here we have a linen mill seen from outside, and here a loom for the weaving of the spun flax. A power loom driven by steam can do the work of very many pairs of hands. See the spindles on which the yarn is wound, and the cloth coming from the loom. In a hand loom there would be but a single spindle. So that you can imagine the immense multiplication of power due to machinery. Here is another kind of loom. Note, again, the endless straps and the overhead shafting connected with the engine.
19.
A Bradford Mill.
20.
Wool Spinning.
21.
Cotton Spinning.
Let us glance for just a moment at this larger mill, at this wool-spinning room, and at this cotton-spinning room. They require no further description, for they merely differ in scale from those we have already studied.
22.
Glass Blowing.
23.
Glass Blowing.
And now we will turn from the making of textiles, which employs several millions of the inhabitants of Britain, and gives rise to perhaps the largest single trade of Britain, the cotton trade. Let us turn from that to consider the other great group of the industries, those which are based essentially on the melting of metals by the heat got from coal. One of the simplest and one of the oldest forms of this is the making and blowing of glass. It is true that glass is not a metal, but for industrial purposes it has many properties somewhat similar to those of metals. It can be melted, for instance, and worked while hot. Here we have a man engaged in blowing glass which has been melted by the use of coal. And here, when he has blown the bottle, he is shaping it with tools.
24.
Pottery making.