of the warp than those of the weft. What is the kind of work which these machines have to perform will be seen by the annexed cuts ; in Fig. 4 shows the essential parts of the bobbin-net machine, affording notion of its extreme complexity of action.
The activity to which the invention of the bobbin-net machine rise was (pito extraordinary, and the profit. accruing to the various inventors were at first very Luge. The productions of the machine sop eneeded the older fabrics by the extraordinary cheapness at which they ware made; an that bobbin-net, resembling that for which, in 1aff9, five guinea. a yard were given, is furnished in 1860 for eixpence. [Corms Ilaseracrrsr..] From eartain statistical details which Mr. Felkln, of Nottingham, the lesil:ng authority on this subject, furnished to the Factory Com missioners about the year 1833, it that at that time the quantity of cotton need annually in England for bobbin-net was about 2,387,000 lbs., value about 200,0001.; that this WWI made into thirty minims yard. of net, value nearly two millions sterling ; that 160,000 pergolas were employed in spinning, doubling, weaving, mending, pearling, finishing, and embroidering the net ; that the fixed and floating capital invested in the bobbin-net manufacture reached as high as two millions sterling; and that there were from four to five thousand bobbin-net machines then in England. Some of these machines pro duced net twenty quarters or five yards in width. Many of them now have as many as 4500 cards with the Jacquard apparatus [Jacquanti Arra/WITS]; and it may with truth be said, that such a machine, with its three or four thousand delicately-constructed brass bobbins, and provided with a Jacquard apparatus, is one of the most exquisite pieces of mechanism which our manufacturers can exhibit.
The hand-workers of the Midland Counties rose in violence against Mr. I leathcoat and his machines; and he went to live at Tiverton, in Devonshire, to be free from interruption. Tiverton, with off-shoots at Baruataple and Chard, has become the head-quarters for a particular kind of machine-made silk-net ; while machines on Heathcoat's principle have borne down all opposition at Nottingham and elsewhere. They did not, however, drive out the warp machines, which are found to be suitable for a particular class of goods,—blond, edging, net, and lace of silk : tattings, pearl trimmings, net, and lace, of cotton ; D'Oyleys, anti=macassars, and other articles of a cheap and durable kind. Mr. Felkin, in 1843, estimated that there were at that time 300
of these machines at work upon silk, 500 upon cotton, 5000 hands employed, and 350,000/. worth of goods annually produced, of which 290,000/. was available as wages, interest, and profit.
In a later estimate, in relation to the whole trade, Mr. Felkin stated that in 1856 there were 3500 machines making net, many as much as five yards in width, and all averaging three yards. More than half were engaged on fancy net or lace ; and of the other half 1300 were rotary circular machines, making plain goods. Many fine large factories had been built at Nottingham since 1850, to work these machines. The returns he set down at about 3,000,000/. annually, of which 2,200,0001. was divided among the masters and workmen for interest, profit, and wages, leaving the rest for the purchase of raw material. There were 115 wholesale firms in Nottingham alone, engaged in this trade. The cotton-yarn used for net varies from No. 20 to No. 100, the latter of which is so fine that 100 miles of it would barely weigh a pound. We may remark that quilling, tatting, and pearl lace or net are all made in narrow strips.
In the processes of lace-running' and "tarabouring,' largely carried on in and near Nottingham, the operation approaches more nearly to a kind of weaving ; for the bobbin-net, which forms the ground, is stretched horizontally on a frame, and the lace-runner works a series of ornaments in the net by a needle threaded with coarse cotton, the pattern being previously marked on the net. In the process of ' tam bouring' net, the cotton thread is carried to and fro between the meshes of the net by means of a very fine and small hook, which gives to the decorative figure thus produced much more the appearance of chain-work than the instance above noticed. Figs. 5 and 6 show the difference between machine-lace and run-lace—that in which the device is worked by the machine, and that wherein the device is wrought by a needle on plain net.
Lace-making and net making machines have been introduced into France and Belgium, mostly from England ; but Nottingham still continues to be the head-quarters of the trade.