In all hand-lace making districts, the industry is mainly of a domestic nature, hence there is not that close and continuous devotion to the labour that exists in other occupations more highly organized, and conducted on the factory system. In most cases, the females have charge of house hold duties, and take up their lacework in the intervals of domestic occupation. This can be done without detriment if they are careful not to injure their hands. Their earnings are very small. Where it is more persistently engaged in, the remuneration is better ; lint in the best circum stances, it is an ill-paid industry, requiring a long apprenticeship and close devotion to attain pro ficiency. It frequently takes several months, and often a year, to complete a short length of 3 yd.; and in these cases, the employer is compelled to make advances to the lace-maker, besides supplying the costly yarn for the manufacture. Ten years ago, the number of persons following the occupa tion in Valenciennes, was reduced to three, who were earning only lfr. 30c.-lfr. 50c. for 12 hours' work. In the Belgian towns where the lace of this name is made, the wages are rather better, though not to an important extent. The price of a lace-maker's cushion is 8-10fr., and the patterns cost 75c.-lfr.; the worker provides her pins and spindles, which number often 1500 pins and 250-500 spindles employed in the production of one piece of Valenciennes lace only 3 yd. in length.
Lace-making in Italy has become almost extinct, the method of making some of the most prized descriptions having been lost. One sort formerly of high repute was known as Burano lace, and about 12 years ago, an attempt, attended with some degree of success, was made to revive the industry. An old woman was found who was stated to be the last of her craft who still remembered the method of making this lace, and under the auspices of Princess Giovanelli and Countess Marcell°, she was engaged to instruct a number of girls in the almost forgotten art. The first specimens produced sold very freely. The cost of the fabric was about 100fr. a metre of 12 cm. wide, and this was regarded amongst connoisseurs as beneath its proper value. The time required to produce this length is 150 days of 5 hours each, for which the workwoman receives 50c. per diem. Dr. Fambii, an Italian deputy, made the following estimate of the labour and cost involved in making one metre of this lace, of a kind and quality never surpassed in ancient times : (1) 3 months' wages of one hand for the net work ; (2) one month's wages of one hand for the pattern or flowers ; (3) one month's wages for the ornamental border. He also suggested that the industry should be carefully cherished and developed, not only in order to preserve the secret of the art, hut also as offering an employment capable of affording maintenance to thousands of people on a merely nominal capital.
111.aonatis LACE MANIIFACTIIRE.—The era of mechanical invention, which commenced in the textile trades in the middle of last century, has had a vast influence on every industry. Naturally, however, this influence has been most conspicuously exerted in the spheres in which it first made itself apparent. This will be admitted, when the fact is reflected on that the cotton trade, as it exists to day, has entirely sprung from its development, that the woollen industry has been completely revolutionized, and similarly the manufacture of flax. The silk trade has perhaps hardly undergone quite so much change, but this is more owing to the nature of the fibre dealt with, than to the incapacity of inventors to meet its requirements. But in no section of the textile industries, have
the latter been more successful than in the one under consideration—the manufacture of lace.
The wide area in this and other countries over which lace-making was spread, the slowness of its processes, and the high prices obtained for the product, soon attracted the attention of men anxious to emulate the meccas of Strntt, Hargreaves, Arkwright, and other pioneer inventors in the cotton trade. But it was some time before the vague notions entertained began to assume definite shape. The stocking-machine of Lee, as improved by Strutt, was the instrument generally regarded as most likely to yield satisfactory returns for careful study and development. Strutt's success led to the hope that the more intricate patterns of the hand knitter might be successfully imitated mechanically, and amongst these were the various lace patterns that had been introduced into hand-made hosiery. This anticipation, as the result has shown, was not baseless, for the machine lace industry is entirely a development arising out of the Calverley curate's invention.
The addition of tickler-points to Strutt's improved machine, by which the loop formed upon one needle was removed to the next adjacent one on either side, was the first step in this direction. By the arrangement adopted, the loops on the needles were transferred to the tickler-points, and whilst they were upon these, the tickler-bar was " shogged " or moved in a lateral direction, by which the loops were carried to and placed upon the required needles. This ingenious arrangement was the invention of a stocking-maker named Butterworth, living near Mansfield. Butterworth had to entrust the details of his plan to a smith named Betts, whom be employed to make the necessary parts ; but conjointly they were unable to proceed to secure it by a patent, or even to perfect the plan, so a third person was induced to join them, a man called Shaw. Betts appears to have been an un scrupulous man : he eliminated the inventor from the party, and introduced a more able capitalist than Shaw in John Morris, a Nottingham hosier. Betts, Shaw, and Morris went to London and secured a patent, in the names of John and Thomas Morris, and John and William Betts, leaving out of the instrument all mention of both the inventor and Shaw. In the absence of the latter, Betts transferred the whole property of the invention to Morris, and thus defrauded both of his former partners of their share. This particular invention is interesting, because the specification states that the invention was "for making by a machine, to be fixed to a stocking-frame, eyelet-holes or Shaw, feeling disappointed and injured, subsequently went upon the Continent, where he saw a better method of making open work than any with which he was acquainted, and which he intro duced into England on his return. Iu the meantime, the machine, which had become Morris' patent, was further improved by Else, who dispensed with one eyo in the form, and with the ticklers. This was used in England for some time, but subsequently was superseded and almost forgotten. Iu the days when it was penal to export machinery, it was smuggled over to France, and the Convention liberally rewarded the person who succeeded in getting it across the Channel. Im proved and developed, it is the machine which at Lyons is used to this day for the production of single and double silk net.