The original frame upon which cloth is stretched to undergo the operation of the hook, which forms the chainwork upon its surface, consists of two circular hoops ; the outer ring being coated round with lists of cloth, or any other soft and compressible substance. The cloth being stretched over the inner ring, the outer is applied, and the friction of the two gives the whole means of tension. These frames, or hoops, in their most simple form, are merely held between the knee and the chin of the operator, while working. As this is a clum sy and inconvenient posture, the first improvement seems to have been confined to the addition of a pedestal, upon which the hoops might rest, and the female, who per formed the work, might sit in a more easy posture while at her employment, or leave it with ease and s.,curity for the purpose of attending to any other domestic occu pation.
Such has been, and probably still is, the state of this art upon the continent, excepting in Switzerland, where it has been long a source of marketable profit, rather than domestic ornament.
As an ornamental branch of what is termed ladies' work, it has been lung known and practised in Britain ; but its introduction, as an article of general manufacture, is much more recent than the first practice. The intro duction of it into the western part of Scotland, where it is chiefly exercised, hardly exceeds the period of thirty years; and in the early instances, it was chiefly under the direction of foreigners. As the art, which is very simple in its principle, but requires a great degree of manual dexterity and practice, became more extensively used, means to obviate two inconveniences attending the tambour, or drum tent, were first employ-ed.
It was found convenient, where a piece of cloth was broad, and a pattern close and tedious, to employ a num ber of hands upon the same piece, in order that it might be quickly finished and brought to market. Hence the invention of the common tambour frame, now universally used in those districts of Britain where the manufacture s practised, took its rise. This tent, or frame, is ex •essively simple, consisting merely of two parallel roll ers placed horizontally in a wooden standard, and fur nished with ratchet-Ns heels and catches, to preserve or augment, when necessary, the tension of the cloth. \Viten the cloth is y or 54 inches broad, six girls may be em ployed upon the same piece without impeding each other while at work, and by dividing the cloth, which is stretched between the rollers, at one time, either into equal portions, or according to the capability of the re spective workers, it must be evident that a very power Cul spirit of emulation will be excited, which will %cry far overbalance any disadvantage arising from delay, in any of them detaining the others while finishing her par ' icular portion.
The operation consists in drawing the loon of a thread successively through the other loop, so long as the work is continued ; and as all those loops would be undia,e, in a moment, merely by piffling the end of the thread which has been used, it necessary to make the end fast, either when a thread is exhawted, or a figure fi nished. The appearance of the chain xsill he found by inspecting- Fig. 5, Plate CX X XVII.
To apply tambouring to ornaim ntal purposes, the s a riegation of these chains is all that is necessary ; but II judicious application of this to actual practice, is tin great excellence of those who arc esteemed most dex trous at their business. From this the Nr hole tut may evidently reduce itself to two heads, viz. chaining, and directing the chain. The first of these is that property which brings the art of tambouring within the general scope of this article. The second is that particular ap plication of chaining, which fits it for the special purpose to which it is to be peculiarly applied. The chaining part of the operation is in every particular analogous to the principle of the stocking manufacture, excepting that we may fairly consider hosiery as a superficies, and tambouring as a succession of lines, drawn in such di rections as to constitute a superficies of that form which we require, and that this latter superficies only partially curers another, which forms the plane upon which it is placed, for the purpose of ornament.
As an article of manufacture, considered as a soure.• of national or individual wealth, the tambour manufac ture may he regarded in three points of view.
1,1, As it becomes a source of employment to the poor and laborious classes of the community, and how f•r either general or individual comfort may be promoted by the cultivation of the art ; and, consequently, how far, in a moral point of view, it may have been tither or injurious to society.
2d1y, If considered merely as an article of innocer,' luxury, what proportion of the population of Britain may be fairly directed to it, without prejudice to the ex ercise of relative duties innre important and indispensiblt It has been computed that the tambouring of inuslin. when at its greatest extension, employed at least 20,00}) females, either wholly or partially. Of these females. many lived in the vicinity of Glasgow, the chief scat of the manufacture, and others were scattered through al most every part of Scotland, and supplied with work and money by agents employed by those manufacturers, w found it their interest to embark extensively in the bu siness. Whether the diversion of even tl:e occasional industry of 20,000 females from all the common duties of life, for the purpose of ornamt taint; a few rags, which would hardly bear the alkaline deterioration produced by half a dozen of was a proper direction of the energies of a country, may be very fairly questioned. Even in the most remote pails of Scotland, while the business was general, the elf( cts were prejudicial both to the murals and the comforts of the people. In Glas gow, they were to the last degree deplorable ; a tam bourer of ordinal) dexterity could, in general, earn five or six shillings a week, by constant application. By those vicissitudes of price which the almost constant fluctuations of the mercantile system produce, a great deal more could sometimes be obtained. To the lab_ artizan, who could with difficulty procure the ne cessaries, and but seldom the comforts, of life, the pos session of a few daughters became really a source of wealth; every thing therefore was, in most instances, sacrificed to the tambou ring. At five years of age, when it was found that a child could handle a needle, and per haps earn a shilling or two in a week, every idea of edu cation was instantly abandoned. A female child was rendered incompetent to the performance of any one so cial duty, that she might bring a shilling or two more home Saturday. The children finding their pecu niary value, soon began to think that the application, as well as the earning, of money, came immediately within their proper cognizance. The consequence was natural; theft and prostitution followed so closely upon the heels of misdirected industry, that many never saw the age of 20 years! The picture could be much more highly co loured, but it would become nauseous and disgusting. The outline is faithfullly drawn from long observation, and could be confirmed by viewing the untimely graves of many thousands ! Were the picture coloured, it would be unfit for human view ! It would be a ridiculous affectation of morality, which could hardly gain credit, to say, that these were the chief objects which directed the attention of the author of this article to the invention of the machinery, by which this direction, or misdirection, of human labour might be at least in a great degree superseded. But although this might have, in some degree, resulted, or may still perhaps result, from the use of the machinery, if the demand for tambour work continues, the immediate sti mulus, as in all commercial pursuits, was directed by personal interest. By restoring a number of efficient be ings to the exercise of fair industry, in objects which promised to be of great benefit, both to themselves and to the public in general, he might indeed have clone some good to society. The immediate use of the ma chine, it is his present object to describe, and this may perhaps prove more likely to attract the attention of his reader.