GLOVE, a covering for the hand either for warmth or protection, or for dress. Its use dates back to remote antiquity. Laertes, the farmer-king, wore gloves to protect his hands from the thorns. Xenophon sneered at the Persians for wearing gloves to keep their hands warm. In their more robust days the Greeks and Romans scorned the use of gloves; in later times they were used in Rome. The glove appears to have become a well-known article of dress in England about the 14th cen tury, and corporations of gloves were in exist ence in the 15th century. In the days of Queen Elizabeth gloves were made with gauntlets upon which much rich and elaborate embroidery was worked.
Modern gloves are of two distinct classes, woven and knitted gloves, and those made of leather; and the making of these constitute entirely separate branches of manufacture. The manufacture of knitted or woven gloves is an industry allied to the hosiery trade, and the materials comprise all the ordinary fibres, the most important being silk and wool. In some cases these gloves are entirely made and finished by knitting; but in others, the pieces are separately fashioned and sewed together as in leather gloves. The manufacture is widespread, but the headquarters of the thread and cloth glove trade are now Berlin and Saxony. The materials used for making leather gloves are principally the skin of deer, sheep and lambs, goats and kids, the latter be ing the most important, though far more °kid' gloves are made of sheep than of kid leather. The skins for military and other heavy gloves —doe or buck leather — are prepared by the ordinary process of tanning, or are a fine kind of chamois leather. Those for what are called dressed kid gloves are subjected to a special method of tanning, by which, under the in fluence of heat, and treatment with a mixture of flour, yellow of egg and alum, the material is rendered peculiarly soft and flexible. After the leather has been properly prepared it is cut into pieces of the required size, then folded over somewhat unequally, as the back should be larger than the front Three cuts are then made through the doubled piece to produce the four fingers; an oblong hole is cut at the bend ing of the fold for the insertion of the thumb piece; the cutting of this of the exact shape and size is usually done' with dies. The first and fourth fingers are completed by gussets or strips sewed only on their inner sides, while the second and third fingers require gussets on each side to complete them. Besides these, small pieces of a diamond shape are sewed in at the base of the fingers toward the palm of the hand.
A kind of vice or clamp, with minute teeth to regulate the stitches, is used in the making of hand-sewn gloves, by which method all the finest gloves are stitched. Sewing-machines
are applied for the ornamental or embroidery stitching on the backs of fine gloves, and for almost the entire sewing of the cheaper and heavier gloves. The superiority of the French and the best English groves depends chiefly on the adaptation of their shape to the structure of the hand by giving additional size where the flexure of the hand requires it.
Kid gloves are of two principal kinds, glace and suede, according to the manner of dress ing and finishing the leather used. Glace gloves are those which are dressed, dyed and polished on the hair or outer side of the skin, while suede gloves are carefully pared, smoothed and dyed on the inner side of the skin for their pur pose, and thus have the appearance of fine cha mois. Paris and Grenoble are the chief seats of the French kid glove trade. Military gloves are made at Niort and Vendome. Brussels and Copenhagen are also important glove-making centres. In England, Worcester is the prin cipal seat of the glove industry; and in a specialty, the so-called English dogskin gloves made from tan skins of Cape sheep, the Eng lish manufacturers are without rivals. Rubber gloves are now made in both Europe and America and are largely used in operations de manding careful asepsis, particularly when the surgeon is forced to operate on a clean case after a septic wound. Gloves with roughened surfaces are made to facilitate the handling of instruments and ligatures. See Gum MANU FACTURE IN AMERICA.
The United States census of manufactures for 1914 recorded 352 establish ments in the United States engaged in the manufacture of leather gloves. The output for that year, including gloves, mittens and gauntlets, numbered 3,082;376 dozen pairs, valued at $20,296,558. As compared with the figureS for 1909 the number of factories in this trade has decreased by 6.6 per cent, the out put by 8.5 per cent, and the value by 9.9 per cent. Of the total production, men's gloves were in much the largest proportion, amount ing to 2,367,263 dozen pairs. Of women's and children's gloves there were made 425,501 pairs; and of boys' gloves, 289,612 dozen pairs. Of the 352 establishments reported, 216 were located in New York, 28 in Illinois, 24 each in California and Wisconsin, 8 in Iowa, 7 in Pennsylvania, 6 each in Ohio and Wash ington, 5 each in Massachusetts and Minnesota, 4 in Indiana, 3 each in Michigan, New Hamp shire and Virginia, 2 each in Colorado, Con necticut, Maryland and Missouri and 1 each in New Jersey and Oregon.
Knitted gloves and mittens are made in the hosiery mills of the country. The production in 1914 was 2,470,183 dozen pairs, valued at $10,519,613.