Cotton and Cotton Fabrics
The elaborate article Cotton (Vol. 7, p. 256) begins by discussing the peculiar twist of the hairs on the cotton seed which by facilitating spinning gives cotton its predominant position as a textile material. The section on cultivation, by W. G. Freeman, deals with the soils, bedding, planting, hoeing and picking, then with ginning and baling. A section on diseases and pests of the cotton plant follows, then a discussion of the improvement of yield by seed selection. The section on marketing and supply is by Prof. Chapman, and his practical study of “futures,” “options,” and “straddles” shows how greatly the movement of prices is affected by speculation and often by artificial manipulation.
Cotton Manufacturing (Vol. 7, p. 281) describes the industry in England, that of the United States, with a special section on the recent developments in the two Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, and also the mills in Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, Italy and in other countries, including India, China and Japan. It is interesting to note (p. 293) that “Americans were making vast strides in industrial efficiency even before the period when American theories and American enterprise were monopolizing in a wonderful degree the attention of the business world” abroad. As far back as 1875 progress in the United States was so rapid that the production for each operative had increased during the ten years 1865–75, by 100% in Massachusetts as against only 23% in England. One explanation of American success is that the American employer “tries to save in labour but not in wages, if a generalization may be ventured. The good workman gets high pay, but he is kept at tasks requiring his powers and is not suffered to waste his time doing the work of unskilled or boy labour.”
Cotton Spinning Machinery (Vol. 7, p. 301) describes all the machines in great detail and contains a number of full-page plates and other illustrations. Mercerizing (Vol. 18, p. 150) is another important article.
Wool, Linen and Silk
Wool, Worsted and Woollen Manufactures (Vol. 28, p. 805) is by Prof. Aldred F. Barker. The development in wool production of various countries is first described and then the wool fibre is studied and microscopic photographs reproduced to show the structure of different varieties. A diagram of a fleece shows the qualities obtained from various parts of the animal, ranging from the shoulders, where the finest is found, to the hind quarters. Lamb, hogg and wether wools are compared and the article discusses shearing, classing, sorting, scouring, drying, teasing, burring, mule spinning, combing, drawing and spinning. The centres of the industry are then compared, with details as to the special products of each. The article contains illustrations of a number of machines. Articles dealing with certain sources of wool or of the wool-like hair used in textiles, and with the finished products, are: Alpaca (Vol. 1, p. 721), the history of its manufacture being “one of the romances of commerce;” Mohair (Vol. 18, p. 647), which deals with the hair of the Angora goat, familiar from discussions of the Underwood Tariff bill, and dealing with its weaving and the imitations of the cloth; Llama (Vol. 16, p. 827); and the articles Guanaco (Vol. 12, p. 649) and Vicugna (Vol. 28, p. 47), on the two wild animals from whose hair high priced materials, extraordinarily warm and light, are woven.
Flax (Vol. 10, p. 484) describes the cultivation of the crops which are harvested by being “pulled,” roots and all, instead of being cut, the process of separating the capsules from the branches, and the subsequent stages of preparation. Linen and Linen Manufactures (Vol. 16, p. 724), by Thomas Woodhouse, takes up the story where the flax fibre is ready for market and carries it to the point where the yarn is delivered for weaving. The winding, warping, dressing and beaming, and the looms employed, are virtually the same processes and machines that are used for cotton. The article states that the finest linen threads used for lace are produced by Belgian hand spinners who can only get the desired results by working in damp cellars, the spinner being guided by touch alone, as the filament is too fine for him to see. This thread is said to have been sold for as much as $72 an ounce.
Jute (Vol. 15, p. 603) deals with the vegetable fibre which ranks, in its industrial importance, next after cotton and flax and with the processes employed in its manufacture.
Silk (Vol. 25, p. 96) contains illustrations of cocoons and worms, microscopic photographs of fibre, and pictures of the moths which produce wild silk. The section on the fibre and its production and preparation is by Frank Warner, president of the Silk Association of Great Britain and Ireland; and that on the silk trade by Arthur Mellor, a well known manufacturer of Macclesfield, the great British center. The degree of fineness to which silk thread can be spun is stated (Vol. 28, p. 906) to be such that 450,000 yards of thread have been produced from one pound of silk, and this is slightly in excess of the fineness of the Dacca cotton thread already mentioned as producing 252 miles for a pound. But at Cambrai the lace maker’s linen thread already described has been made as fine as 272 miles to the pound, and the drawing of platinum wire to the fifty-thousandth part of an inch in thickness (Vol. 28, p. 738) seems hardly more wonderful than this. Spider silk is as valuable as the best qualities of the silkworm product, but spiders are such fierce cannibals that it is necessary to keep each one in a separate cage, and the cost of doing this has prevented the fibre from being generally used (Vol. 25, p. 664). Artificial or “viscose” silk is described in the article Cellulose (Vol. 5, p. 609), and is a textile of which the importance is rapidly increasing.
Felting is an even older textile process than weaving, just as weaving, which no doubt originated in basket making (Vol. 3, p. 481) is older than spinning. The article Felt (Vol. 10, p. 245) deals with asphalted felts used for roofing as well as with the hat felts; and the article Hat (Vol. 13, p. 60) gives further details as to both woollen and fur felts and describes the machinery for hatmaking, which originated in the United States.