Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN AND WORSTED. 133 are woven and subsequently dyed as “ plains,” though the design may vary widely. But whether plain or fancy, light or heavy, wide or narrow, all cloth must after weaving be subjected to a variety of operations all com- prehended in the useful term “ finishing.” It must be cleansed from all impurities, it will be steamed, scoured, milled, shrunk, stretched, raised, cropped, singed, pressed, and finally rolled into the perfect web ready for the merchant’s warehouse or the draper’s counter. The “ finish ” which it is desired to impart determines the way in which the cloth shall be treated after it leaves the loom of the manufacturer, and no two kinds of material are dealt with in exactly the same way. Technical education, the improved taste of the people, and the development of invention have brought about an immense improvement in the variety and beauty of wool textiles ; and the Education laws, by raising the age at which children may work in factories, are silently working an economic revolution which is regarded with some apprehension. For the spinning mill child labour is held to be essential, very much of the weaving is done by women, and in both these departments there is of late a marked decline in the numbers employed, while there is no compen- sating increase in the employment of adult hands. There is consequently a fair field for the ingenuity of the inventor who will aim at making the spinning machinery and the loom automatic in their action. Arthur R. Byles. The illustrations accompanying this article are from photographs specially taken for the purpose at Messrs. John Foster and Son's manufactory, Bradford. WARPING.