Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

1HE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN AND WORSTED. females. This return, of course, takes no account of the immense number of persons engaged in the handling and transport of the raw material, in the collection, packing, and distribution of the manufactured article, or in catering for the manifold wants of the workers themselves. Altogether the population dependent upon wool for a liveli- hood cannot be far short of three millions. It is estimated that the value of the wool worked up in one year is not less than ^23,000,000, and that in the course of its progress to the shelves of the tailor and draper it is increased in value between three and four fold. Whence comes this vast mass of material ? A hundred years ago we were dependent almost entirely upon our own sheep. There are nearly 27 million sheep in Great Britain, and the weight of one year’s clip of their wool is about 140,000,000 lb., of which one-sixth is sent away in the raw state. We import, in addition, for consumption here some 400,000,000 lb. of wool, mohair, alpaca, camel’s hair, and goat’s hair. The great bulk of it comes from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa ; but a considerable portion, perhaps 20 per cent., comes from the River Plate, Asia Minor, the hill country of North India, and even Tibet. The great marts for imported wool are London and Liverpool, and periodical auction sales are held in both places, which are attended by buyers not only from Yorkshire, but from France, Germany, Belgium, and even the United States. Of late years some of the largest users send out their own buyers to purchase at sales in the colonies. The sale room in the Wool Ex- change, in Coleman Street, London, during the progress of one of the six series of sales held there annually, presents an interesting and exciting scene. As many as twelve thousand bales of wool, averaging 400 lb. in weight each, and worth from ten to twenty pounds a bale, are disposed of by auction at one sitting of two or three hours, and the sales go on clay after day, sometimes for three weeks at a stretch. The mei chants who deal in ths home-grown wool are called woolstaplers, and they either go round to the farmers and haggle with them about the price, or attend the annual wool fairs in the wool-growing counties of England and Scotland. Most of the Irish wool is collected by dealers, and finds its way either to Dublin, for sale there, or direct to Bradford WASHING WOOL. and Halifax, where the whole business, so far as this country is concerned, is finally focussed. A generation ago the spinner bought the wool and combed or carded it himself, and in what is called the woollen branch of the trade this is still a common practice, but the tendency of late years has been to specialise the various processes. Very much of the wool which comes to us is, in the first instance, bought by top-makers. On arriving at the top-maker’s warehouse the bales are cut open. The wool, which has been tightly compressed perhaps for six or nine months,