About this period a Mr. Brotherton, of Leith, seems to have made a discovery which was but a prelude to the bobbin net. It is thus described in the Weekly Magazine of 1772:—"A new invention has lately been discovered by Mr. Brotherton, in Leith, for working black silk lace or white thread lace on a loom, to imitate any pattern whatever, and the lace done in this way looks fully as well as if sewed, and comes much cheaper. It is done any breadth, from three inches to three-quarters of a yard wide."
In 1775 Dallas, Barclay & Co., advertise a selling off of fine point, Brussels thread, blond, and black laces of all kinds, silver double edged lace, etc.—Edinburgh Advertiser.
1775. "Black blonde and thread laces, catguts of all sorts, just arrived from the India House in London in the Canongate."—Caledonian Mercury.
"Fashions for January; dresses trimmed with Brussels point or Mignonette."—Ibid. Same year.
"Madame Puteau carries on a lace manufacture after the manner of Mechlin and Brussels. She had lately twenty-two apprentices from the Glasgow Hospital.... Mrs. Puteau has as much merit in this branch as has her husband in the making of fine thread. This he manufactures of such a fineness as to be valued at £10 the pound weight."—Essays on the Trade, Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, etc., of Scotland. David Loch. 1778.
"If you look at the wardrobes of your grandmother, you will perceive what revolutions have happened in taste of mankind for laces and other fineries of that sort. How many suits of this kind do you meet with that cost amazing sums, which are now, and have long since been, entirely useless. In our own day did we not see that in one year Brussels laces are most in fashion and purchased at any price, while the next perhaps they are entirely laid aside, and French or other thread laces, or fine sewings, the names of which I know not, highly prized."—Observations on the National Industry of Scotland. Anderson. 1778.