The apparatus described is now in ge neral use, in most other manufactures, and is found to be particularly advanta geous in weaving broad cloths, • carpets, and other goods of great breadth, which formerly required two men to each loom, merely to throw the shuttle.
In places where it is not yet introduced, it evidently would be an object of huma to induce the weavers to use it, on account of the beneficial effects it has on their health.
Burning. When the webs are taken from the looms, they are covered with an irregular down or leap, from the projec tion of the short fibres of the cotton wool, which is removed by passing- the webs over a red-hot iron plate, that burns it off.
The apparatus for this operation con sists of an iron semi-cylinder, set hori zontally in brick-work, having a fire-place under it, with an iron door, through which fuel may be introduced ; at each side of this is placed a light wooden roll er of rail-work, turning freely on an iron .axis by a winch ; from the same uprights which support these rollers, are suspend ed light frames at each side, which turn on pivots in their centres, by depressing the further ends of which, the cords next the stove raise up a rail, which rims across near the iron semi-cylinder, and which mostly consists of a slight iron rod.
After the fire placed beneath the iron burner has made it red hot, the web, whose surface is to be burned, is rolled up on one of these cylinders, and the end of it is passed over the lifters and hot iron, to the other cylinder ; a man stands at each cylinder, and the instant the one at the empty cylinder begins to turn, the lifters are lowered, so as to let the web come in contact with the red-hot iron ; by which means its whole surface is drawn over the iron, with that degree of velocity which is just sufficient to burn off the loose filaments, without injuring its fabric. The very finest 'unsling un dergo this operation, and though they are so thin, that the least deviation from the proper velocity, in passing them over the Aron, causes them to be burned through, yet there very seldom happens any acci &nt to them, which shows that this pro cess is more hazardous in appearance than reality.
After burning, the webs are all bleach ed, to remove the dark colour given them by the fire ; and when of a proper white ness, those which are designed for dye ing or printing are sent to the respective artists in those lines, and the rest are made up for sale as they are.
The operation of printing has arrived• to great perfection, and the process of bleaching is well worthy of attention ; but for these we must refer to their pro per heads.
In concluding the account of the cotton manufacture, it may not be unacceptable to give some short relation of the manner in Which it is carried on in India, where it existed, and produced an extensive commerce, for ages before it was thought of in Europe.
The manner of manufacturing cotton in India forms a remarkable contrast to the European method. In Europe, a vast apparatus of machinery is used in every part of the process, while in India the simplest instruments are made to pro duce fabrics of that exquisite which it is the boast of our manufactur ers to imitate, and which as yet they can scarcely equal. The cotton wool in India is prepared for the spinner without cards, is spun for the weaver without wheels, and is woven in looms without any frame work, which the weaver can move from one place to another, with as much faci lity as the web itself.
The operation which our manufacturers perform by carding engines, is executed by the Indian with nothing more than a bow; the percussions of whose string snapped over the cotton wool in repeated vibra tions, raises it to a fine downy fleece ; in this same way our hatters prepare their furs for felting, an operation which may be seen in most towns.
The fine thread, or yarn, from which the choicest muslins are made, are spun from cotton thus prepared, by the distaff and spindle, a mode which it is evident was practised by the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians; from their history, their fables, and their sculptures, and than which nothing can be more simple ; this yarn is then wove on the following loom, the account of which is abridged from that of an eminent writer on Indian af fairs.
Indian Loam The Indian loom consists merely of two bamboo-rollers, one for the warp, and the other for the web, and a pair of gees; the shuttle performs the double office at' shuttle and batton, and for fins purpose is made like a large net ting needle, and of a length somewhat exceeding the breadth of the piece.
This apparatus the weaver carries to whatever tree affords a shade most grate. ful to him, under which he digs a hole large enough to contain his legs, and the lower part of the gecr; he then stretches his warp by fastening his bamboo rollers at a due distance from each other on the turf by wooden pins ; the balances of the geer he fastensto some convenient branch of the tree over his head ; two loops un derneath the Beer, in which he inserts his great toes, serve instead of treadles; and his long shuttle, which performs also the office of a Batton, draws the weft, throws the warp, and afterwards strikes it up close to the web : in such looms as this are made those admirable nmslins, whose delicate texture the European could ne ver equal with all his complicated ma chinery.