A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER III.

CAL­ICO, COT­TON, CLOTH, WOOL, BAIZE, LINEN, FLAX, HEMP, DI­APER, HOL­LAND, CAN­VAS, AND FLAN­NEL.

What is Cal­ico?

A kind of print­ed cot­ton cloth, of dif­fer­ent col­ors.

From what place did it take its name?

From Cali­cut, a city on the coast of Mal­abar, where it was first made; much is now man­ufac­tured in the Unit­ed States, Eng­land, and many oth­er coun­tries.

What is Cot­ton?

A downy or wool­ly sub­stance, en­closed in the pod, or seed-​ves­sel, of the cot­ton-​plant. The com­mer­cial clas­si­fi­ca­tion of cot­ton is de­ter­mined--1, by clean­li­ness or free­dom from sand, dry leaf, and oth­er im­pu­ri­ties; 2, by ab­sence of col­or; both sub­ject al­so to char­ac­ter of sta­ple, length, and strength and fine­ness of fi­bre. These to­geth­er de­ter­mine rel­ative val­ue. There are two gen­er­al clas­si­fi­ca­tions, long-​sta­pled and short-​sta­pled. Of the for­mer the best is the sea is­land cot­ton of the Unit­ed States. The _short sta­ple cot­ton_, grows in the mid­dle and up­per coun­try; the long sta­ple is cul­ti­vat­ed in the low­er coun­try near the sea, and on the is­lands near the coasts.

How is it cul­ti­vat­ed?

The seeds are sown in ridges made with the plough or hoe; when the plants are ma­ture, the pods open, and the cot­ton is picked from them.

Where did Cot­ton an­cient­ly grow, and for what was it used?

In Egypt, where it was used by the priests and sac­ri­fi­cers, for a very sin­gu­lar kind of gar­ment worn by them alone.

In what man­ufac­ture is it now used?

It is wo­ven in­to muslins, dim­ities, cloths, cal­icoes, &c.; and is al­so joined with silks and flax, in the com­po­si­tion of oth­er stuffs, and in work­ing with the nee­dle.

How is the Cot­ton sep­arat­ed from the seed?

By ma­chines called _cot­ton gins_, of which there are two kinds; the _roller-​gin_, and the _saw-​gin_. In the for­mer, the cot­ton, just as gath­ered from the plant, is drawn be­tween two rollers, placed so close­ly to­geth­er as to per­mit the pas­sage of the cot­ton, but not of the seeds, which are con­se­quent­ly left be­hind. In the _saw-​gin_, the cot­ton is placed in a re­ceiv­er, one side of which con­sists of a grat­ing of par­al­lel wires, about an eighth of an inch apart; cir­cu­lar saws, re­volv­ing on a com­mon ax­is be­tween these wires, en­tan­gle in their teeth the cot­ton, and draw it from the seeds, which are too large to pass be­tween the wires.

How is it made in­to Cal­ico, &c.?

The cot­ton hav­ing been sep­arat­ed from the seed, is spun by a ma­chine for the pur­pose. It is next wo­ven, then dressed, and print­ed.

What is Cloth?

The word, in its gen­er­al sense, in­cludes all kinds of stuffs wo­ven in the loom, whether the threads be of wool, cot­ton, hemp, or flax.

To what is it more par­tic­ular­ly ap­plied?

To a web or tis­sue of woollen threads.

_Web_, any thing wo­ven.

What is Wool?

The cov­er­ing or hair of sheep. To pre­pare it for the weaver, it is first shorn, washed, and dried, then card­ed or combed by ma­chin­ery in­to fi­bres or threads: for­mer­ly this was al­ways per­formed by the hand, by means of an in­stru­ment, called a comb, with sev­er­al rows of point­ed teeth; this, though not much used now, is still oc­ca­sion­al­ly em­ployed, ex­cept in large fac­to­ries. This comb­ing is re­peat­ed two or three times, till it is suf­fi­cient­ly smooth and even for spin­ning. Spin­ning or con­vert­ing wool, or cot­ton, silk, &c. in­to thread, was an­cient­ly per­formed by the distaff and spin­dle: these we find men­tioned in sa­cred his­to­ry, and they have been used in all ages, and in all coun­tries yet dis­cov­ered. The na­tives of In­dia, and of some oth­er parts of the world, still em­ploy this sim­ple in­ven­tion.

What was the next im­prove­ment?

The in­ven­tion of the hand-​wheel. In 1767, a ma­chine called the spin­ning-​jen­ny was in­vent­ed by a weaver named Har­greaves; but the great­est im­prove­ment in the art of spin­ning was ef­fect­ed by Mr. Ark­wright, in 1768: these two in­ven­tions were com­bined, and again im­proved up­on in 1776; so that by the new plan, the ma­te­ri­al can be con­vert­ed in­to thread in a con­sid­er­ably short­er space of time than in the an­cient mode; leav­ing to man mere­ly to feed the ma­chine, and join the threads when they break. The sheep, whose wool forms the ma­te­ri­al for near­ly all woollen cloth­ing, came orig­inal­ly from Africa.

Does weav­ing dif­fer ac­cord­ing to the ma­te­ri­al used?

The prin­ci­ple of weav­ing is the same in ev­ery kind of fab­ric, and con­sists in form­ing any kind of thread in­to a flat web, or cloth, by in­ter­lac­ing one thread with an­oth­er; the var­ious ap­pear­ances of the man­ufac­ture arise as much from the modes in which the threads are in­ter­wo­ven, as from the dif­fer­ence of ma­te­ri­al.

Is not the em­ploy­ment of Wool in the man­ufac­ture of Cloth­ing of great an­tiq­ui­ty?

In the ear­li­est records we pos­sess of the arts of mankind, wool is men­tioned as form­ing a chief ar­ti­cle in the man­ufac­ture of cloth­ing; it is spo­ken of in the Bible, as a com­mon ma­te­ri­al for cloth, as ear­ly as the time of Moses. The an­cient Greeks and Ro­mans are well known to have pos­sessed this art. At the be­gin­ning of the thir­teenth cen­tu­ry, the man­ufac­ture was es­tab­lished in many parts of Eu­rope, par­tic­ular­ly in Spain, from which coun­try it ex­tend­ed it­self to France and Italy. There is no doubt that it was in­tro­duced in­to Eng­land by its con­querors the Ro­mans, a man­ufac­to­ry be­ing es­tab­lished at Winch­ester, suf­fi­cient­ly large to sup­ply the Ro­man army.

_Man­ufac­to­ry_, a place where things are made or man­ufac­tured; de­rived from the Latin _manus_, a hand, and the verb _fa­cio_, to do or make.

What cir­cum­stance con­tribut­ed to the progress of this man­ufac­ture among the En­glish?

In 1330, the En­glish, be­ing de­sirous of im­prov­ing their woollen man­ufac­ture, in­vit­ed over the Flem­ings, by the of­fer of var­ious priv­ileges, to es­tab­lish man­ufac­to­ries there. The skill of these peo­ple soon ef­fect­ed a great im­prove­ment in the En­glish fab­rics, so that there no longer re­mained any oc­ca­sion for the ex­por­ta­tion of En­glish wool in­to Flan­ders, to be man­ufac­tured in­to fine cloth; and a law was passed by the gov­ern­ment to for­bid it. Both the cot­ton and woollen man­ufac­tures have, of late years, arisen to great im­por­tance in the Unit­ed States.

What coun­try af­fords the best Wool?

The wool of Ger­many is most es­teemed at the present day: that of Spain was for­mer­ly the most valu­able, but the Span­ish breed of sheep, hav­ing been in­tro­duced in­to Ger­many, suc­ceed­ed bet­ter there than in Spain, and in­creased so rapid­ly, that the Span­ish wool trade has great­ly di­min­ished. Aus­tralia is one of the prin­ci­pal wool-​grow­ing coun­tries in the world, for the breed of sheep sent out to that coun­try and Tas­ma­nia has suc­ceed­ed re­mark­ably well.

What part of the world is meant by Aus­tralia?

A British Is­land in the South Pa­cif­ic Ocean, com­pris­ing the Colonies of Queens­land, New South Wales, Vic­to­ria, South Aus­tralia, and West­ern Aus­tralia. It is the prin­ci­pal of the group of large is­lands, in the Ori­en­tal Archipela­go. Tas­ma­nia is an­oth­er of the same group, sep­arat­ed from New South Wales by a chan­nel called Bass's Strait, and al­so be­longs to Great Britain.

What is meant by an Archipela­go?

A part of a sea stud­ded with nu­mer­ous is­lands; but the term is more par­tic­ular­ly ap­plied to that ly­ing be­tween Eu­rope and Asia, which con­tains the Greek Is­lands. The word is a cor­rup­tion from the Greek, sig­ni­fy­ing the AEgean Sea.

Is the Wool of the sheep all of one qual­ity?

No; it varies ac­cord­ing to the species of sheep, the soil on which they are fed, and the part of the an­imal from which it is tak­en: the chief dis­tinc­tion is be­tween the long and the short wool; the long wool is em­ployed in the man­ufac­ture of car­pets, crapes, blan­kets, &c.; and the fin­er and short­er sorts for hosiery, broad­cloths &c.

Where were Car­pets orig­inal­ly made?

Car­pets are of ori­en­tal ori­gin, and are made of dif­fer­ent sorts of stuffs; they are wo­ven in a va­ri­ety of ways. Per­sian and Turkey car­pets are most es­teemed; they are wo­ven in a piece, in looms of a very sim­ple con­struc­tion. For­mer­ly the man­ufac­ture of these car­pets was con­fined to Per­sia and Turkey; but they are now suc­cess­ful­ly made, both in Eu­rope and the Unit­ed States, &c. Great Britain is the prin­ci­pal seat of the car­pet man­ufac­ture of the world. Brus­sels, Wilton, and Kid­der­min­ster car­pets de­rive their names from the places where they were in­vent­ed.

Is not the art of weav­ing very an­cient?

It ap­pears to have been known from a pe­ri­od as ear­ly as the time of Abra­ham and Ja­cob; its in­ven­tor is not known, but it is pos­si­ble that men took a les­son from the in­ge­nious spi­der, which weaves its web af­ter the same man­ner. The an­cient Egyp­tians ap­pear to have brought it to great per­fec­tion, and were even ac­quaint­ed with the art of in­ter­weav­ing col­ors af­ter the man­ner of the Scot­tish plaid.

What is Baize?

A coarse, open, woollen stuff, with a long nap. It is chiefly made in the Unit­ed States, Eng­land, France, &c.

What is Linen?

There are var­ious kinds of linen, made from cot­ton, flax, and hemp; but the term is chiefly ap­plied to that wo­ven with the two last men­tioned. Linen means cloth of flax; hence its deriva­tion from the Latin word _linum_, flax.

What is Flax?

An an­nu­al plant, the fi­bres of which are beat­en in­to threads, spun, and af­ter­wards wo­ven in­to linen; it is ex­ten­sive­ly cul­ti­vat­ed in the Unit­ed States, Rus­sia, and some oth­er coun­tries of Eu­rope. Hemp is a plant of a sim­ilar na­ture, equal­ly used with flax, in the man­ufac­ture of linens. Rus­sian hemp is cul­ti­vat­ed to a larg­er ex­tent than that of any oth­er coun­try, and is con­sid­ered the best that is grown.

How long has the use of Hemp and Flax been known?

Those plants are said to be na­tives of Per­sia, and in­tro­duced from some parts of the East in­to Eu­rope, over which it is now wide­ly dis­tribut­ed: it ex­ist­ed both in a wild and cul­ti­vat­ed state, in some parts of Rus­sia, as ear­ly as five cen­turies be­fore Christ These prod­ucts form a con­sid­er­able ar­ti­cle of ex­por­ta­tion, be­sides the quan­ti­ty used in Rus­sia it­self; a con­sid­er­able part is wrought in­to linens, di­apers, can­vas, and oth­er man­ufac­tures; and even the seeds are ex­port­ed, both in their nat­ural state and as oil. In var­ious parts of Rus­sia, hemp-​seed oil and flax-​seed (or lin­seed) oil are pre­pared in very large quan­ti­ties.

What is Di­aper?

A sort of linen cloth, wo­ven in flow­ers, and oth­er fig­ures; it is said to have re­ceived its name from d'Iper, now Ypres, a town of Bel­gium, sit­uat­ed on a riv­er of the same name, where it was first made.

What is Hol­land?

A fine, close, even, linen cloth, used for sheets, &c. It ob­tained its name from be­ing prin­ci­pal­ly made in Hol­land.

What is Can­vas?

A hempen cloth, so loose­ly wo­ven as to leave in­ter­stices be­tween the threads, in lit­tle squares. It is used for work­ing in pat­terns up­on it with wools, &c.; by painters for a ground work on which they draw their pic­tures; for tents, sails, and many oth­er pur­pos­es. There are sev­er­al sorts, vary­ing in the fine­ness of their tex­ture.

What is Damask?

A sort of silken stuff, hav­ing some parts raised on its sur­face to rep­re­sent flow­ers or fig­ures. It took its name from Dam­as­cus, in Syr­ia, whence it was first brought.

Is there not an­oth­er sort of Damask?

Yes, made from linen; and so called be­cause its large flow­ers re­sem­ble those of damask ros­es. It was first made in Flan­ders, and is used for ta­ble linen, &c.

What is Flan­nel?

A slight, loose, woollen stuff, used for warm cloth­ing; it was orig­inal­ly made in Wales, where it still con­tin­ues to be man­ufac­tured in great per­fec­tion.