A UTSTORY OF THE HOSIERY AND LACE MANUFACTURES.*
THE author of the volume before us has to deal with a subject which, while of great commercial importance, is not without elements of general literary interest. We are bound, however, to confess that we do not think the greater portion of his work will possess much attraction for the general reader. He certainly does not treat his subject after the manner of Mr. Smiles. The literary ability he displays is, indeed, of a very mediocre and inartistic character. His style, if not altogether bad, is too often clumsy, confused, and prolix. His notions of ancient general history are hardly such as we are accustomed to expect in the present day, especially from a man dealing with a scientific subject. In his first chapter he discusses the question as to the origin of the useful arts in general, and appears inclined to believe that they were in part divinely suggested to our first parents in Eden. The old hand-weaving loom, he is strongly disposed to think, was not only known to the " antidiluvian [sic] world," but was also possibly of divine origin. On the other hand, our author observes that " to what extent soever knowledge of material objects with their powers and uses was imparted to man, it would be only so far as to stimulate him to improve them [?] and lead to the acquisition of more. God does for man, ordinarily, only that which he cannot do for him- self. So, on the very first occasion for the exercise of ingenuity, our first parents sewed fig leaves together,"—that is, without divine assistance. We may remark, par parenthese, that Mr. Felkin intimates his preference for the reading " joined" instead of " sewed,"—we suppose because all difficulties with regard to the knowledge of needle and thread in Eden, as implied by the latter term, are thereby avoided. With this reference to his style of criticism and speculation, we dismiss what the author has further to say concerning the history of textile fabrics before the Flood, and in the ancient world, without further comment. He is only able to deal with authorities at second-hand, and even with the best second-hand authorities he appears often to be unacquainted.
If we have appeared somewhat hard on Mr. Felkin in the pre- ceding remarks, we have now something to say in his favour. No sooner does he proceed to handle the subject to which his work is specially devoted, than he shows himself to be thoroughly familiar with all its complicated details. To a perfect acquaintance with his subject he joins enthusiasm for his work and a perseverance and industry that are by no means common. Of these things the present ponderous and exhaustive volume, which the author tells us he wrote in the seventy-second year of his life, is sufficient evidence. On its own special subject, Mr. Felkin's volume will long remain the standard work, as it is the only complete account ever published. Beyond a few scattered notices in the county his- torians of Nottingham and Leicester, and cursory outlines in the Encyclopaedias and the works of Beckmann and Dr. Ure, the only detailed work on the subject is that of Mr. Gravener Henson, which only brings the history down to the year 1780, and remains a fragment. Most of Mr. Felkin's book, however, appeals only to a very narrow circle of readers, chiefly to mechanicians and those specially engaged in the manufactures here dealt with. More than half of the volume, for instance, consists of descriptions * A History of the Machine-Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures. By W. Yellin, F.L.S., F.G.S. London: Longmans. 1857.
of the structure and peculiarities of every variety of the stocking frame, and of that still more delicate and complicated piece of mechanism developed from it, the lace machine. These descrip- tions, as we learn from the author, who spent a great amount of labour and nearly a year of time in compiling them, are principally condensations of more than 700 specifications of patents. To show the abundance of the materials of this kind which he had to work upon, the author observes that the brief notices of the specifications of inventions and improvements in the hosiery and lace machines, just issued by the Patent Office, fill a volume of no less than 1,070 pages. In fact, as there is, perhaps, no class of machines more complicated than those under discussion, so their specifications are amongst the most voluminous in existence. To this branch of manufacture belongs in fact the so-called " monster patent," of which the following particulars are given by our author :—
"In 1835, Crofts took out what is called his 'monster' patent, No. 6,854, fiom its enormous length of specification (filling 149 pages, and requiring 49 sheets of drawings, many of them of no little intricacy), as well as from the significant fact that it claimed and described nine pro- fessed inventions and improvements in the manufacture of spotted goods
and cloth works The cost to Mr. Fisher of taking the patent for these machines was said to have been from 4,0001. to 5,0001
The cost to the Patent Office of their 250 published copies (of the speci- fication) has been 2501." (p. 324.)
The considerable portion of the volume devoted to the explanation of the multitudinous variety of intricate machines, the prolific progeny of the simple stocking frame invented in the year 1589 by a Nottinghamshire clergyman, does not, however, come under the head of literature, and possesses a purely technical interest. It is different with those sections of the work which treat of the manufacture as affecting society at large and the fortunes of the principal individuals connected with it in parti- cular. In regard to the latter, it is sad to read the numerous instances adduced in the present work of important inventive achievements left unrewarded. If inventive skill is one of the most important of civilizing forces, it follows that when civilization abandons the inventor to neglect and starvation, as she has too often done, and nowhere more than in connection with the hosiery and lace manufactures, she is really sapping part of her own founda- tions. The well known story of Lee himself, who was refused a patent for his invention by Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards by King James I., and who subsequently quitted his ungrateful country for France, where, being equally unsuccessful, he was left to die in neglect, is but the first of a too numerous catalogue of similar misfortunes endured by inventors in connec- tion with the branch of industry of which he is the founder.
Mr. Felkin's account of the invention of the stocking frame by the Rev. William Lee, and of the subsequent life of that unfor- tunate inventor, is accurate, but dry. Much of the romance with which the origin of this invention has been invested is, it is almost needless to say, pure invention itself. The account of Lee's expul- sion from the University, for marrying contrary to the statutes of his College, and then,—when the only source of subsistence for himself and his wife consisted of the stockings she knitted, —his constructing a machine to relieve his lady of her long and monoton- ous labours, has both poetry and verisimilitude to recommend it. It has accordingly been eagerly repeated and believed.
It has formed the subject of Royal Academy paintings, of popular novels, and we believe even of poems. But then, unfortunately for the poets, painters, and novelists, it is not true. Lee, who graduated M.A. of St. John's College, Cambridge, was never expelled from his alma mater, and appears never to have been married at all. He settled as incumbent of Calverton, near Nottingham, where the invention was designed and perfected by him. He afterwards gave up his clerical duties in order to bring his machine before the world. The unfortunate results to himself personally and, on the other hand, the benefits to society at large it is unnecessary here to repeat. We may mention, for the sake of those curious in such matters, that a por- trait of Lee, by Balderston, hung on the walls of the Hall of the Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters of London at least till the middle of the last century. Some time ago it was inquired for with a view to its being placed in the gallery of portraits of eminent men in the South Kensington Museum, but the search for it has proved fruitless ; and we fear that this, the only representation of him ever known to have existed, has been irretrievably lost. In this connection Mr. Felkin, paraphrasing what was said of another eminent man, very appropriately says :—
" Is a monument to the memory of William Lee sought after? Let the inquirer visit Nottingham, Leicester, Chemnitz, Appolda, Troyes, and Nismes. The teeming populations of those cities, with the districts
around them, and the vast manufactures in which they are profitably employed, silently and unintentionally, but eloquently, perpetuate his fame. For the foundations of the trade which has grown into such magnificent proportions and made them rich and great were laid by him."
The origin of hand knitting, which preceded the invention of the stocking frame, cannot be determined. Though there are no certain references to it in history till about a century before Lee's invention, it is by no means clear that it was not practised early enough to exonerate the poet Chatterton from the charge made against him by some of his critics, of having anticipated its invention in a reference to it in one of his Rowley poems. The invention of pillow lace, on the other hand, can be pretty clearly traced to Barbara Uttmann, the wife of Christopher Uttmann, who resided at the castle of Annaberg, in Saxony. The year 1561 is assigned as the date of the invention. Pillow lace itself, how- ever, was preceded by various other species of fabrics serving the same purpose,—by network and needlework, lace and embroidery, which may be traced in some form or other up to the remotest nations of antiquity. After the invention of pillow lace in 1561, its manufacture rapidly spread over Europe, and was particularly cultivated in the Netherlands, France, and England. Two centuries afterwards, about 1760, the manufacture of lace by machinery was first commenced at Nottingham, the machines being a modification of the stocking frame. Nottingham now produces machine-made lace to the annual value of 5,000,0001. We have no apace here to enter into a detailed description of the machines on which this beautiful fabric is made ; suffice it to say that in the whole field of practical mechanism there is nothing to surpass the astonishing ingenuity displayed in the construction of the numerous varieties of the lace machine- Severely as the manufacture of pillow lace was affected by the Introduction of machinery, it has, nevertheless, never been alto- gether superseded. " Both here [in England] and on the Con- tinent a reaction has steadily set in, so that there are at present more persons employed in making pillow lace than at any former period of its history." The whole of the lace manufacture is liable to constant fluctuations between extreme adversity and prosperity, owing to sudden and fickle changes of fashion. At present, as our author informs us, the rage is for old hand-made lace of every kind. The demand for rare old lace has led to a somewhat re- markable result. In some of the countries bordering on the Medi- terranean it was the practice in past ages for brides to lay aside the rich lace robes and veils in which they appeared at the marriage ceremony, and never to wear them again during life. On the decease of a married lady, however, the bridal lace was once more brought to light, and she who had worn it but once before at her wedding feast was now carried in it to the tomb. Of late years the vaults containing these precious and often magnificent robes have been systematically rifled, and the articles thus plundered now find their way to the markets of Paris, Brussels, and London, where they command enormous prices.
There are numerous points of interest into which we regret that we have not space to follow the author. His accounts of the state of the hosiery manufacture in Saxony, in France, and in the United States are very interesting. On the whole, England maintains the lead among her rivals notwithstanding the fact that, except in the United States, labour is considerably cheaper abroad than in England. Yet perhaps there is no branch of industry where the average wages of English artizans have been lower than in that of hosiery. Omitting the past year or two, the" average earnings of framework knitters for the last forty years have not exceeded six shillings per week. Of late the trade has revived. The value of the English hosiery manufacture in 1866 was 8,000,0001. sterling, and it gave employment in all to 150,000 hands, who were engaged in manufacturing no less than 5,000 different kinds of articles included under the general name of hosiery. In parting with Mr. Felkin's work, we can only repeat that whatever its defects of style or arrangement, it is the com- pletest condensed collection of facts on its special subject in. existence.
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