Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

'"-‘xr V'f£2r ■ 35? i ■ - . t-s J , Sg'j BRITAIN AT WORK. 214 GIRLS FILLING PENNY TINS OF MUSTARD. Photo ; Cassell & Co., Ltd. J used in the arts. Thus potato starch, under the name of farina, is largely employed as a medium for the stiffening of calicoes, and as an admixture with the dye-stuffs which are employed in calico printing. By a simple process of torrefaction it is converted into “ British gum,” and in that form is applied to the backs of postage stamps and the flaps of envelopes. But it is of starch as a laundry preparation that this article is designed to treat, and the substances turned to account for that purpose are almost as varied. Thus Belfast has specialised in the production of wheaten starch, Paisley in that of maize starch, and Norwich in that of rice starch. Germany, however, pins its faith to the potato, and there is in France a considerable manufacture of starch from the chestnut, which reaches this country from that in- genious land in the more toothsome form of the mxrron glacé. 1 he invention of starch as a dressing for o fine linen seems to belong of right to a Conti- nental genius. Its origin goes back to the misty clays of the Plantagenets, and it was not until Mary came to the throne that a Flemish lady crossed the Channel in order to show the good dames of London town how ruffs ought to be starched. In those days the starch was of a yellowish hue, and the profes- sion of starching flourished exceedingly in the spacious days of Elizabeth, whose ruffs cost a fortune to laundry. Then it fell on a day that one Mistress Anne Turner, who was concerned in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, went to the scaffold in all the bravado of a huge ruff. On this account, in 1615, the women of England turned their backs for ever upon an article of attire with such unpleasant associations, and the days of ruffs were over. But throughout the Puritan period the art of the Starcher con- tinued, the Roundheads being very partial to blue starch for their dainty collarets, and ever since, while fashions have come and gone, the demand for starch has grown with the years, until to-day its manufacture gives employment to a larger number of people than ever before. Fhe earlier stages in the preparation of starch are those through which all food-grains pass, and comprise the winnowing of the grain, and the removal of the epidermis by means of decorticating mills. Much of this work is now clone at the port of shipment, especially in the case of East Indian rice, the employment of which for the production of laundry starch is increasing relatively by