Chapter II

SPINNING AND WEAVING--MARVELLOUS SKILL DISPLAYED IN THESE ARTS.

Unrivalled excellence of India muslins--Testimony of the two Arabian travellers--Marco Polo, and Odoardo Barbosa’s accounts of the beautiful Cotton textures of Bengal--Cæsar Frederick, Tavernier, and Forbes’s testimony--Extraordinary fineness and transparency of Decca muslins--Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins; compared with English muslins--Sir Joseph Banks’s experiments--Extraordinary fineness of Cotton yarn spun by machinery in England--Fineness of India Cotton yarn--Cotton textures of Soonergong--Testimony of R. Fitch--Hamilton’s account--Decline of the manufactures of Dacca accounted for--Orme’s testimony of the universal diffusion of the Cotton manufacture in India--Processes of the manufacture--Rude implements--Roller gin--Bowing. (Eli Whitney inventor of the cotton gin--Tribute of respect paid to his memory--Immense value of Mr. Whitney’s invention to growers and manufacturers of Cotton throughout the world.) Spinning wheel--Spinning without a wheel--Loom--Mode of weaving--Forbes’s description--Habits and remuneration of Spinners, Weavers, &c.--Factories of the East India Company--Marvellous skill of the Indian workman accounted for--Mills’s testimony--Principal Cotton fabrics of India, and where made--Indian commerce in Cotton goods--Alarm created in the woollen and silk manufacturing districts of Great Britain--Extracts from publications of the day--Testimony of Daniel De Foe (Author of _Robinson Crusoe_.)--Indian fabrics prohibited in England, and most other countries of Europe--Petition from Calcutta merchants--Present condition of the City of Dacca--Mode of spinning fine yarns--Tables showing the comparative prices of Dacca and British manufactured goods of the same quality 333

PART FOURTH.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE LINEN MANUFACTURE.

CHAPTER I.

FLAX.

CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF FLAX BY THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

Earliest mention of Flax--Linen manufactures of the Egyptians--Linen worn by the priests of Isis--Flax grown extensively in Egypt--Flax gathering--Envelopes of Linen found on Egyptian mummies--Examination of mummy-cloth--Proved to be Linen--Flax still grown in Egypt--Explanation of terms--Byssus--Reply to J. R. Forster--Hebrew and Egyptian terms--Flax in North Africa, Colchis, Babylonia--Flax cultivated in Palestine--Terms for flax and tow--Cultivation of Flax in Palestine and Asia Minor--In Elis, Etruria, Cisalpine Gaul, Campania, Spain--Flax of Germany, of the Atrebates, and of the Franks--Progressive use of linen among the Greeks and Romans 358

CHAPTER II.

HEMP.

Cultivation and Uses of Hemp by the Ancients--Its use limited--Thrace Colchis--Caria--Etymology of Hemp 387

CHAPTER III.

ASBESTOS.

Uses of Asbestos--Carpasian flax--Still found in Cyprus--Used in funerals--Asbestine-cloth--How manufactured--Asbestos used for fraud and superstition by the Romish monks--Relic at Monte Casino 390

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

ON PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY.

Sheep and wool Price of wool in Pliny’s time--Varieties of wool and where produced--Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets--Woollen cloth of Egypt--Embroidery--Felting--Manner of cleansing--Distaff of Tanaquil--Varro--Tunic--Toga--Undulate or waved cloth--Nature of this fabric--Figured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.)--Cloth of gold--Figured cloths of Babylon--Damask first woven at Alexandria--Plaided textures first woven in Gaul--$150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet--Dyeing of wool in the fleece--Observations on sheep and goats--Dioscurias a city of the Colchians--Manner of transacting business 401

APPENDIX B.

ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER.

THE INVENTION OF LINEN PAPER PROVEN TO BE OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN--COTTON PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE BUCHARIANS AND ARABIANS, A. D. 704.

Wehrs gives the invention of Linen paper to Germany--Schönemann to Italy--Opinion of various writers, ancient and modern--Linen paper produced in Egypt from mummy-cloth, A. D. 1200--Testimony of Abdollatiph--Europe indebted to Egypt for linen paper until the eleventh century--Cotton paper--The knowledge of manufacturing, how procured, and by whom--Advantages of Egyptian paper manufacturer’s--Clugny’s testimony--Egyptian manuscript of linen paper bearing date A. D. 1100--Ancient water-marks on linen paper--Linen paper first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain. (The Wasp a paper-maker--Manufacture of paper from shavings of wood, and from the stalks or leaves of Indian-corn.) 404

APPENDIX C.

ON FELT.

MANUFACTURE AND USE OF FELTING BY THE ANCIENTS.

Felting more ancient than weaving--Felt used in the East--Use of it by the Tartars--Felt made of goats’-hair by the Circassians--Use of felt in Italy and Greece--Cap worn by the Cynics, Fishermen, Mariners, Artificers, &c.--Cleanthes compares the moon to a skull-cap--Desultores--Vulcan--Ulysses--Phrygian bonnet--Cap worn by the Asiatics--Phrygian felt of Camels’-hair--Its great stiffness--Scarlet and purple felt used by Babylonish decorators--Mode of manufacturing--Felt Northern nations of Europe--Cap of liberty--Petasus--Statue of Endymion--Petasus in works of ancient art--Hats of Thessaly and Macedonia--Laconian or Arcadian hats--The Greeks manufacture Felt 900 B. C.--Mercury with the pileus and petasus--Miscellaneous uses of Felt 414