" Trimmings " constitute a large proportion of the smallwares of dress, and include " gymps," " fringes," " ornaments," " tassels," and fancy buttons, covered and plaiu. The first axe usually made from the cords already referred to. These are wrought up into numerous tasteful forms, and sometimes ornamented Nvith beads. The widths vary from very narrow t,o several inches wide. They are made up on cards of various lengths. " Ornaments " are a kindred trimming, consisting of single objects or sets ; they vary greatly in price, according to the quantity of work in them and the value of material. They are made by the same manufacturers as gymps. In England, these are chiefly found in London, Coventry, and Nottingham, but great quantities are imported from France and Germany, when fashion is in their favour. "Fringes" are of various materials, widths, forms, and colours, plain, knotted, and otherwise ornamented. These are usually carded like gymps, in varying lengths. Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Macclesfield, and other places in this country produce them when in demand, along with several districts on the Continent. " Trimming buttons," when covered with silk or other materials, are generally made by the manufacturers of gymps and ornaments. Plain, that is uncovered, buttons, in ivory, bone, glass, rnetal, vegetable ivory, or composition, are put up on cards and boxed ; Birmingham is a great seat of manufacture, and has numerous competitors in several centres in France and Germany (see Buttons, pp. 557-571).
Yarns in silk, wool, worsted, merino, and cotton, form a considerable division of smallwares. They include knitting, mending, netting, crochet, and a large number of fancy yarns. The first named material, being costly, is not in extensive use compared with the others. Wool yarns are produced in great variety, from common coarse knittings to fine Saxony and Berlin wools of a very superior quality, which are fabricated into articles of comparative luxury. An almost endless variety of colours, shades, mixtures, and variegated yarns are produced to meet public demand. Worsted, save for knitting purposes, is not in much request. " Mendings " are adjuncts of the hosiery trade, and their character depends upon what is in vogue fur the fabrication of the medium and lower classes of hosiery. As a rule, there is always a considerable production in worsted, wool, and merino, and occasionally in cotton yarns, for the smallware section of the trade. Leicester, Wakefield, Halifax, Bradford, and other places of less note in the different woollen manufacturing districts, aro the chief centres of production. A fair quantity is also imported from the Continent, chiefly from Germany ; but thi; ia likely to diminiali, owing to tha superiority of the home productions, from tha impmved methods of dyeing and finishing that have of late been adopted.
"Sowings " are chiefly composed of silk, including " patent ailk," cotton, and linen threads. Theae embrace every variety of eolour, and count or degree of fineness, to suit the multifarious pur poses in which they are consumed. Silk thread was formerly more extensively used, relatively eonsidered, than at present. It was then composed of net silk, and was mostly sold in small skeins by weight, colours commanding a higher price than blacks and whites. Derby, Leek, Congleton,
Macclesfield, and Coventry, had almost a monopoly of its production at that time. During the past 15 years, however, it has to a great extent been superseded in public favonr by the greater cheapness and excellence of " patent ailk " sowings, produced from ailk waste (see p. 1755). The article obtained from the latter is more uniform in thickness, and better adapted for use in the sewing-machine now so extenaively employed. Bradford, Leicester, and Derby, are the chief places of produetion, though several isolated mills are to be found in other parts of the country. The production of sewing-cottons has become a large and very important bmnch of trade, and the high degree of excellence to which it has bean carried in this country has secured for our roanufacturers a practieal monopoly of the trade. The yarns from which these threads are made are chiefly spun in Bolton and Manchester, from the best classes of cotton, e.nd which are nearly always combed, not carded, thereby securing an equality in the length of fibre, which yields a thoroughly level and uniformly strong yarn, highly essential for the production of good sewing-cottona. The machinery from which they are produced is mainly that of the series used in the manufacture of twines (see Rope, pp. 1595-1610), modified in size ; the operations are nearly identical, consisting in doubling, twisting, cabling, gasing, and polishing. The last process of filling the reels is effected in a very ingenious machine, which automatically performs all operations necessary for supplying, filling, measuring, and discharging the reels ready for packing. Various qualities are produced, depending chiefly upon the class of cotton from which the single yarn is made ; they ars generally three-, six or nine-fold, the loweat fuld being the commonest quality, and rising in proportion. The numbers run from 4'a to 200'a, which latter is almost as fine aa human hnir. The langtha upon the reela vary from 200 to 1000 , or even more ; as a rule, medium lengths are found tha most useful, the amall reels requiring to be replaced too often when used in the sewing-machine, tha largo ones being too heavy for the proper tension necessary for good work. The reels are made up in packages of one dozen each, and sold by the groas. The chief centres of production are Paisley, Manchester, Bolton, Leicester, and a few other plaaea. In tha firat-named district there ara some very largo firma, who have also branch establishments in the United Statea. The produce of the English establishments is exported to all parts of the world, in spite of, in some cases. almost prohibitory tariffa. Linen threads are now but little used in the production or manufacture of articles of clothing, but retain their place for upholstery, cordwainers', and saddlery uses, where great strength is required. Formerly this thread was made up for consumption in mall skeins, and sold by weight ; but it is now chiefly put on reela, eaoh reel eontaining a given weight of thread by which it is sold, the length varying with the count or degree of finenasa. Belfast and district produces the greatest portion of linen thread, though soma is manufactured in Glasgow, in several towns in Yorkshire, aud in a few other places.