Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

IRELAND’S CHIEF INDUSTRY. 19 what this means is to realise a gigantic ball of yarn, which, unwound to its single thread, would encircle the world 25,000 threads. In a three-ply cord the same yarn would reach from the earth to the sun and back again; or, should we desire to pay a visit to the man in the moon, our big ball of yarn would give us a network road having 380 threads extending the full length between our planet and his. And what of the cloth which a year’s output of yarn might be woven into? It represents a web containing about 156,000,000 yards. We might unroll this Gargantuan web and make a path three feet wide, and on its snowy whiteness, laid flat, we would be able to make a triumphal tour completely around old Mother Earth at the equator. We might make a tent of the big web manu- factured in the Belfast Linen district, and what a wonderful tent it would be!—such as would amaze even Haroun al Raschid. With the dome of St. Paul’s for its centre support, this glorious linen canopy would cover 500 acres and stretch as far out over London as twelve-and-a-half miles on all sides. To spin the yarn necessary for this gigantic white expanse of linen 838,582 spindles were work- ing, while its further conversion, by weaving, into fabric necessitated 32,245 looms. In connection with its varied processes nearly 70,000 people find occupation in the Belfast district. Nor must one forget the gigantic financial equivalent represented by this space which a penny piece covers on the map, for in the numerous mills and warehouses in Belfast district no less than Z" 13,000,000 sterling are invested. And not without return either, since the total value of yarn—piece linen and other varieties of linen goods—produced is estimated roughly to amount to over £8,000,000 sterling during an average year. So far we have dealt merely with the important place the industry occupies in industrial economy. But we have not come any closer to solving the mystery of the production of the linen which has made Belfast a household word in the African jungle depths as in the frost - beleaguered Klondyke- in the Far-East joss-house as in the polished Court of St. James’s. To explain the various processes by which a handkerchief, or for that matter a damask tablecloth, is produced, we must begin in the manner the crab progresses, by moving backwards. In this way we shall find ourselves, in imagination, in the TOWEL AND DIAPER WEAVING.