STATISTICS. According to the Twelfth Census of the United States there were in 1900 2653 es tablishments in the country devoted to various branches of wool manufacture. which put forth an annual product of $392.473.050. Of the 2653 establishments, 1035 were woolen mills, 186 worsted mills, 133 carpet factories, 36 felt goods factories. 24 wool hat mills, 921 hosiery and knit goods factories. 171 fur hat factories, 105 shoddy mills. 25 wool-scouring plants, also 17 penal or other institutions whose inmates are engaged in some branch of wool manufacture. Deducting the last named class and also factories for hosiery and knit goods, shoddy mills, and wool scouring establishments, the number of woolen mills in 1900 was 1414, as against 1675 in 1850. These figures. however, simply show to what ex tent the industry has been concentrated in large establishments, for the capital invested in 1900 was $310,179,749, and in 1850 only $31,971,031, and the value of products in 1900 was 596.990,
484 and in 1830 only 548,608.779. During 1900 48 new woolen mills were constructed, as against 40 in 1599, 25 in 189S, 53 in 1897, and 31 in 1596.
The unit of calculation for the productive ca pacity of a woolen mill is the set of carding machines necessary to prepare the wool for spin ning. The corresponding unit for a worsted mill is the combing machine, which, in its productive capacity, is taken to be equivalent to sets of cards for the same fineness and quality of work.
Consult : Beaumont, Wooten and. Wm.sted Cloth Manufacto re I London, 1 S90) ; Posselt, Textile Fibrcs and F'obrirs (Philadelphia, 1891) ; Lost ers, IThaufuctore of Wool and Worsted (London, 1900) ; Sadtler, Industrial Organic Chemistry ( Philadelphia, 1900) ; Vickerman, Woolen Spin ning (London, .